#its incredibly crucial 2 the plot

[thewiglesswonder]

Oooh what are your thoughts about toh finale 👀 bring on the salt 😤

Alright everybody, buckle your fucking seatbelts.

First thing's first, I think that this show was suffering from major story-related issues that started as far back as mid-season 2. My problems start officially with Elsewhere and Elsewhen, because this is where I feel the show dropped the ball on one of the most important elements of any piece of media: its villain.

I firmly believe that a story is only as good as its villain, and up until this point, The Owl House had been doing an amazing job with Belos. The audience was kept in the dark about the true nature of his backstory, but, crucially, with enough material and hints provided to extrapolate the nature of it before it was revealed.

And many, many people came to the same conclusions. Luz, our lovable protagonist since day one, has had to come to her own grips with her weirdo-hood, the fact that she's not a Chosen One, that this world doesn't operate by the laws of her fantasy books. What better way for our villain to be than to have him directly foil this? Prior to Elsewhere and Elsewhen, this was the main thought about Philip Wittebane. Someone just like Luz, ostracized from his community in a much more visceral and potentially violent way, who also found sanctuary and some kind of acceptance on the Boiling Isles, before something causes him to become the Emperor we know today.

Elsewhere and Elsewhen and Hollow Mind essentially took this idea and spat in its face. The villain they gave us had absolutely zero depth, and was outright stated in the finale to be just that: only evil and deluded.

Even with the look into Philip and Caleb's life provided in Thanks to Them, the finale still took this and did what? Absolutely nothing with it. I just have no idea why they would put that much effort into giving Philip a backstory that's as potentially sympathetic as what we see, only to write him off as evil and only evil.

I've seen other people lauding this choice, because "good for them for showing us that not everybody has to be redeemed!" I am not saying that Belos could have or should have been redeemed, in fact, I had been rooting for him to die since the early seasons, a good death befitting of a good villain. Actually examining his backstory and fleshing him out as a character does not mean he would have been redeemed! If the Owl House's moral is that "people are complex", this would have aided in the delivery of that message!

Instead, what we got was three specials full of nothing but hot air, a gigantic amount of screentime devoted to a character that always felt like a shoehorn-in at best with the Collector, and the most disappointing, anticlimactic villain defeat I've ever seen in my life. And yes, I know there are people who loved it and think that this series can do no wrong. I acknowledge that this show is incredibly important culturally and that it was unfortunately limited by its cancellation. But this does not protect it from any and all criticism, especially when said criticism has to do with the integrity of the plot and the overall message of the show.

#tldr: why the fuck did they give belos such an involved backstory if they were going to handwave it away #why did they give the collector so much screentime when he really didn't do shit #why did they have the perfect opportunity to foil their villain with their protagonist and just NOT #AND WHY DID THE FINALE UNDERMINE EVERYTHING THEY'D BEEN BUILDING UP OVER THE SEASONS #feel free to talk to me about this. like I said #bottomless well of salt #asks #the owl house #toh #the owl house critical #toh critical

[semi-imaginary-place]

FFXVI Rewrite

Read this in one long post

Read this in parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 .

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FFXVI Rewrite Part 1: Introduction, Prologue, and Return to Phoenix Gate

I decided to rewrite FFXIV and point out some of the game’s more glaring flaws, play with some ideas. In addition to plot changes and overhauling the lore, some of the general changes that should be made include tighter more efficient writing, fixing the pacing, and cutting most of the filler and fetch quests and focusing in on the main plot. There are a lot of words used to say a whole lot of nothing and it sounds nice because the voice actors do a good job but the dialogue lacks substance. At the same time players aren't given crucial story information in the main story leaving many important plot points under-explained to the point of audience confusion. I also want to improve character writing and develop inter-character relationships. For Jill as a character, It feels like the writers just forget about her. Not that Clive gets much good development either, he gets some in the first arc with Cid and then stagnates afterwards. And then the writers had the bad idea of starting a half assed character arc about Clive trying to do everything on his own at the same moment they take away Jill's agency and sideline her for the rest of the game.

FFXIV's prologue also acts as its demo, as such it is not only the first chapter to the story but also a piece of advertisement, and it is incredibly successful in being an advertisement. The FFXIV prologue is a hypebeast, it's a spectacle and one of the most exciting things I have seen in a long long time. However this strategy of front loading the game and making the best demo comes at the cost of later story and pacing. We don't get to see much of how 13 years of military slavery has affected Clive. The end confrontation between Ifrit and Phoenix means that Joshua re-entrance to the plot and his reunion with Clive must be pushed further back in the story. With the prologue FFXIV wrote itself into a corner and the story only continued to fall apart more the further the game progressed.

Such is the difference in medium between short form stories like the prologue, movies, OVAs, animated shorts, and so on, and long form stories like JRPGs, books, tv shows. That different format of stories makes different characteristics more successful in one over the other. Short form by nature must be compact and efficient, it is structured to be quickly complete both in story arc and emotional payoff. Long form is about the build, slowly weaving many things together, setting things up early to pay them off later. When you apply the strategy and mindset of one form of story to another, it tends to fail. Take BBC's Sherlock which attempted to use short form format for a longer series, this is why the first few episodes are quite good but as the series goes off the story falls apart, you all these teasing plot threads that go nowhere because the whole show is written like it’s a one off. The problem with FFXVI is that it tried to have its one shot and then attach a full game to it, and that can work but in XVI's case it made a lot of the story beats in the first half of the game clunky. A common problem with the buildup strategy is that instead the beginning of a story can end up slow and boring, the anime Tatami Galaxy is an example in that when it all comes together at the end its great but the beginning is real slow. So I started thinking about how to fix these problem and rewrite FFXIV and sadly I cannot think of a solution that does not cause additional problems.

Starting the game with Phoenix vs. Ifrit in the Fallen ruins is fine but have the first chapter of the game follow Clive's day to day life as a slave to the imperial army. Make it dull, strip him of dignity, make it bleak, make it miserable. Interspersed with the bleak reality of his life are snippets of the joy and liveliness color of Clive and Joshua's childhood telling the events leading up to Phoenix Gate. Through these two stories establish the setting, the nations, the politics, the balance of powers of Valisthea. The game already does a good job of establishing Joshua and Clive's relationship so all that is added here is the contrast between the lively teenager Clive was with the worn-down man he is now. At the end of Chapter 1 Phoenix Gate happens, and Clive wakes up still an assassin, still a Branded, still fighting a war with a knife at his throat, still not having achieved his revenge.

The game handles timeskips poorly, neither the 13 year nor the 5 year timeskips feel that long, time doesn't feel like it is passing during those times. Very little changes during the 5 year timeskip from the relationships to the politics to the characters as people. I'm shortening the timeskip from 13 years to 10 years which makes Clive 25, Joshua 20, and Jill likely somewhere in between. I'm doing this because it never felt like 13 years to begin with and to better explain Joshua's lack of involvement in those years. Joshua probably took a year or two to become a functional person again after his mother betrayed his nation, killed his father, and his dear older brother tried to kill him. Afterwards he's still just a kid what can he do and I think it takes him years of introspection and research into eikon and Ultima to come to reconcile a berserk Ifrit mauling him with his loving brother Clive. At 20 Joshua is only now capable enough, knowledgeable enough, powerful enough, and mature enough, to try and save Clive. To make it more interesting Joshua on some level still fears Clive and Joshua feels immense guilt over this and that he hasn't saved Clive earlier. This nicely ties into the themes of guilt and justice present in other characters often over those they could not save, like Clive, Dion, Harpocrates, Jill, Otto, Theodore, Isabelle, Quinten, etc.

I'm cutting out most of that mysterious hooded figure in Clive's head, it’s just confusing and it adds nothing Just have like a shadowy figure with glowing blue eyes and keep the glowing blue eyes be a consistent part of Ultima's every character design or something.

Beginning of Chapter 2 is where the original game starts with Clive on a mission to assassinate Shiva. Now because of a different Chapter 1 the round table scene actually makes sense because the player knows who these factions are. In my rewrite however not only is Cid looking to interfere, Joshua is using this as an opportunity to free Clive as well from afar. Throughout Chapter 1 build up Clive's discontentment as he remembers his past, so that in Chapter 2 Clive isn't just committing mutiny because he maybe saw his childhood friend, he was already planning on leaving and that he's not killing a single person more for Sanbreque and Jill is the last straw. Also have Jill represent an act of free will and also all his yet unfinished business. The drawn-out Chapter 1 also allows Clive's assassination unit to be humanized to drive home the brutality of his life and the injustice of the Branded system. If he's going to fight Clive is going to fight because he chooses to not because he's part of the same war machine that occupied his home and branded him. Instead of Cid it is Joshua that saves Clive and secures his retreat although Joshua keeps himself hidden from both Clive and the audience not ready to face Clive and using a nondescript flame. It is as Clive is running and encountering more Ironblood that he runs into Cid.

One thing that should have been explained better was Clive's status as a Bearer. During the prologue and during his childhood we see no hint of Clive being a Bearer, it is only after being enslaved by the Sabrequois army that he receives a Brand. It is strongly established and mentioned many times that one is born a Bearer. Which raises the question, was Clive ever a Bearer? I also wonder what the mechanics/magical physics difference there is between a Dominant and a Bearer, it seems to be that there is little objective difference as both are magic users without a need of crystals. Instead "Bearer" is a class term as Dominants are too militarily/culturally important to be branded. This also implies that Rosaria is a holdover of the older magocracy that used to rule Valisthea. I suspect that although he was a hidden Dominant Clive would never have been considered a Bearer especially since the Active Time Lore states that it’s common practice in Valisthea to test babies at birth for being Bearers. Rosaria and Archduke Elwin seemed more tolerant so maybe he wasn’t tested but I think it is more likely he just wasn’t born a Bearer. This would help to explain Clive's behavior in the game, he might have been branded but he never really acts like he sees himself as a Bearer. If the Bearer test just tested for magic Clive’s Dominant status might have caught him, but it is even more likely that either Anabella had him branded just to make his life even more miserable or that the imperial army didn't care that his fire magic was from The Blessing of the Phoenix as the First Shield of Rosaria, Clive could use magic thus he was a Bearer, they certainly didn't care. I wish the game had added a line or two about this to clarify the situation.

Which brings us to the next question I had about the game, how eikons and transfers of eikonic power worked. The game establishes that both eikonic power can be shared (Joshua and Clive, Barnabas and Sleipnir) but also that power shared means the Dominant will die or go berserk if they prime (Jill, Hugo, Dion (although he didn't go berserk either)). The game is wildly inconsistent about the mechanics so I'm going to overhaul this all so that there's some internal logic. First change is that sharing eikon power is not a death sentence for the Dominant but it does weaken them. Honestly this was just done as an excuse to take away Jill's ability to fight and be an active character and I will always resent this (doesn't even make sense since Dion does it anyways), and Torgal could absorb eikonic aether just fine. Dominants can usually share their power with one person though many choose not to for various reasons, I'm going to call these people who share power with Dominants "Vassals". A line should be added in-game about how it is Rosarian tradition for the First Shield to receive the Phoenix's fire and be their Vassal because that's a little detail we were missing and players only learn about this by reading the Active Time Lore. Although this is complicated by Clive being Ifirt's Dominant and Phoenix's other half so Clive isn't quite actually Phoenix's Vassal it's more complicated than that. Leviathan doesn't have a Vassal because their Dominant went rogue. Jill does not share her power until after she has come to terms with her past and realized that she does not have to shoulder her burdens alone that she shares her power with Clive. Cid wants humanity to be independent of magic so I can understand why he didn't share Ramuh's power (if it was anyone it'd probably be Dorys except that the cursebreakers seem to have formed because of the destruction of the original Hideaway). Due to changes in Waloed's writing Barnabas inspires actual loyalty in his soldiers and Sleipnir is his vassal. Another change I am making is that Terrance is Dion's Vassal in this rewrite. Benedrikta and Hugo both love their own power so they aren't sharing with anyone.

As per an overhaul to the Waloed section later, Benedrikta's characterization is altered so that power is her primary motivation. Her desire for Cid's love remains and it is tied to her desire for power but Cid is no longer her primary motivation. I'm not sure what to do with her. I think her having a breakdown and going berserk could still happen even with the lore changesjust because of the emotional stress. Benedrikta staked a lot of her identity and self-worth on her power and Clive defeating her ripped that all away from her. In addition, this is the first time Clive unknowingly absorbs an eikon so that could have affected her ability to summon Garuda, add to this the threat of being raped by bandits and sold as a slave and I’d say that’s enough for most people to go berserk. Another idea is that the Garuda fight happens because Benedrikta decides to hunt Clive down because she cannot live with the dishonor of losing to some no name Branded and she would rather die giving it her all than lived and lost.

Clive's fights against Benedrikta and his traversal of the Fallen ruins of Phoenix Gate happen mostly the same. This part of the game of pretty good so I see little reason to change it, Clive struggles with the realization and crushing guilt that he is the Dominant of Ifrit, he was the one that killed Joshua and all the people of Phoenix Gate, and how in his quest for vengeance he has been unknowingly chasing his own shadow the entire time. In the dungeon scene Clive can keep his underwear, and afterwards Cid, Jill, and Clive and discuss eikons, how odd it is more Ifrit to exist, the other mysterious Dominant of Fire that they are chasing.

With Clive's acceptance we are switching PoV to a Joshua playable section as he seeks to stop the end of the world, setting up Ultima as well as the worldbuilding and mechanics of aether and eikons. This part is optional I like the idea of it but I don't know if I like the idea so much as to include it. These will be a series of short playable segments as Joshua explores ruins and tries to piece together, aether, eikons, history, Ultima, Mothercrystals, Bearers, Dominants, and why the world is hurtling towards disaster. This is also to set up the red herring of how the Mothercrystals might be feeding Ultima so that when Joshua rejoins the party he will corroborate Cid's hypothesis.

FFXVI Rewrite Part 2: Jill, Clive, and Joshua, Changing the Timeline

I want to continue Jill's established character as someone who gave up everything from her dignity to her morals to protect the women of Rosaria. She too is being crushed under the weight of her guilt of what she did under the Ironblood but she would still be determined to protect the people she had sworn to protect. While Clive is running around chasing Joshua and coming to terms with himself, Jill is plotting a rescue effort to Iron. This then comes to an intersection with Cid's plans to destroy the Mothercrystals. For Clive, he has just seen first hand what a decade under imperial rule has done to Rosaria, he sees its people standing up for their nation, and so him contacting his uncle Byron isn't only reconnecting with the only family he has left, it’s not only about stopping the Blights, it's about Rosaria and reclaiming for Rosarians the lives and freedom they had lost. I also do want to add to this section a quest where Cid tests and confirms that crystals are leeching aether from the land and causing Blight. Clive and Jill can also open up and bond over their shared crushing guilt. Both of them have killed large amounts of people with their eikons (though more deliberately in Jill's case), both of them of have been exploited as tools of war by their conquerors/captors. So while Clive is running around, at some parts Jill is pursuing her own agenda.

The next chapter is the assault on Iron and emancipation of the Rosarian women at Drake’s Breath. Clive is still the player character; it is plot important that Joshua and Clive are the only playable characters because Ifrit and Phoenix were once one eikon. However, while Clive might be the player and perspective character, Jill is the main character for this section, her actions drive the plot here. The party splits with Jill securing an escape route for the women with Torgal while Cid and Clive cut a path for the Mothercrystal and cause a distraction for Jill. They meet back up at the Drake’s Breath and Jill kills the priests like she deserves. During the boss fight Clive has to run around stabilizing the area and escape route while fighting off minor enemies while Jill fights the boss in the background. Additionally, Jill is the one to strike and break the Mothercrystal. Iron makes better sense at a first assault because the main power struggle in the game is between Dhalmek and Sanbreque, with Waloed waiting for a hint of weakness in Storm. Meanwhile Iron is more of a side player and so their weakening does not affect Valisthea's power balance as much as going after any of the other Mother Crystals. Jill reminds me of one of those bulls that been raised in iron shackles, the adult bull is more than strong enough to break free but because it was too weak to do so when it was younger, it stopped trying. Likewise, Jill's shackles are not of iron but they bind her all the tighter and this arc is about her breaking free and remembering that she is powerful both literally and metaphorically.

I'm changing the Mothercrystal lore in the game. Ultima came into conflict with the dragons in ancient times. In a last bid to stop Ultima, the Eldest Dragon shattered their body into the Mothercrystals to act as a seal on Ultima. The Mothercrystals drain aether from the land in order to power the seal on Ultima, but as the land is running out of aether the seals are weakening. The Blight was an unforeseen side effect of the seals. When Ultima breaks free, they then repurpose the accumulated aether from the crystals to power to their world creation spell. There used to be 8 Mothercrystals total. Now there are just 5: Drake's Breath in the Iron, Drake's Head in Sanbreque, Drake's Fang in Dhalmek, Drake's Tail in Crystalline, Drake's Spine in Waloed. Even on the map on the official FFXVI website other unknown structures can be seen in central Ash for example, 3 Mothercrystals have been lost to time. The Ten Thousand Tomes confirms Dzemekys Falls is the former location of a Mothercrystal, Drake’s Eye in the Northern Territories, Drake’s Horn in Southern Ash. The relatively recent fall of Drake’s Eye in addition to the spread of the Blight is what drove the Northern incursions into Rosaria, resource scarcity driven conflict, the exact same conditions that Elwin used to justify his proposed invasion. For Dzemekys I’m keeping that humanity angered Ultima and were smote but I’m changing that it was a Mothercrystal and changing the location of the last Mothercrystal (Drake's Wing? Drake's Claw?) to perhaps eastern Ash, islands off the coast of Ash, or central Storm near where the original Hideaway was.

When Drake's Breath is destroyed the first of the seals on Ultima is released and the beginning of the doomsday apocalyptic phenomena start happening although slightly differently in this rewrite. First is the activation of Fallen ruins, second the activation of the robots, third the wraiths, fourth more and stronger fallen and aether creatures as well as the beginning of aetherfloods. Then finally when the 5th and final Mothercrystal is destroyed and the final seal broken, all hell breaks loose and the apocalypse is unleashed upon Valisthea, aetheric storms cloud the skies and aetherfloods spread across the lands. Unlike in the game where the sky changes and the aetherfloods appear after the 4th Mothercrystal (Twinside), here the changes happen after the 5th (Waloed).

Like in the actual game when the First Mothercrystal's heart is destroyed, a portal opens with a partial Ultima that the party fights. As the party is overpowered but before Cid can go sacrifice himself, Joshua intervenes saving them but is unable to kill Ultima. I am dropping Joshua sealing part of Ultima inside himself because that had no effect on the story, that plot thread went no where in the end. Joshua as well as the Rosarian women are returned to Rosaria where they are reunited with their families, Joshua and Byron included though Joshua hides from the other Rosarians. This furthers the Rosaria subplot we seen in the game with Martha and Eastpool and the Guardians of the Flame.

A change I am contemplating is reinstating a party system into this story. This game doesn't feel JRPG enough, where's my party system? These would be AI controlled characters but players would be able to choose how many characters besides Clive are active at once with a maximum of 3. Some characters will be unavailable for certain parts of the game like Jote would not be available for eikon fights. Clive is your classic JRPG sword boy the main damage dealer. Jill is the true all-rounder with physical and magic attacks. Joshua is the healer and he's like wet tissue, he has decent magic. Jote is the tank with some support abilities but little offense. Cid is another damage dealer with big hits. Torgal is the only character that can't be incapacitated, he attacks, he heals, but most importantly he's a good boy (unlocks magic later in the game). I never said the party was balanced. Or maybe not, implementing this would be a pain as FFXVI isn't character focused so explaining why party members aren't there sounds annoying.

In this story the brothers are reunited much earlier so that their relationship can develop. Clive and Joshua's relationship is the core of the game The game starts and ends with them. Their relationship is what kicks off the plot of the game from Ifrit berserking to Clive seeking revenge unknowingly against himself. They are plot critical with plot critical powers, that Ifrit and Phoenix are the eikon of Fire split into two beings and the intended vessel to cast Ultima. And yet despite the relationship being at the center of the game, so little is done with them. Joshua is away for most of the game with Clive not knowing he survived and after they are reunited nothing is done with them. The earlier reunion gives time for Joshua and Clive to reacquaint themselves with each other. The last time Clive saw Joshua he was a 10 year old boy, the Joshua before him now is a man and in many ways a stranger. Clive never got to be there as Joshua grew from boy to man, he will have forever missed that part of his brother's life. And not only did Clive think he has lost Joshua, he thought that he was the one who killed him. The same murder against whom his quest for vengeance has been his sole reason for living for the last decade.

Another reason for the added time before the timeskip is to develop Jill and her relationships. Jill is also weighed down by massive guilt over the things she has done for Iron. Before Drake's Breath she is much more closed off and her arc with Clive is mostly about lost childhood friends because just like Joshua she and Clive are now very different and very traumatized. So pre-Drake's Breath it is about stumbling when this didn't before because they don't fit together like they used to and learning to reacquaint themselves with each other. After Iron, Jill finds closure in dealing a massive blow to Iron, killing the zealot who tortured her and enslaved the Rosarians, and freeing the enslaved Rosarians. She begins to open up after this and bonds with Clive over their shared experiences. In many ways during the missing years Jill and Clive's experiences have been similar though Jill's have been worse. Both were kidnapped as children and enslaved as weapons of war, forced to fight for the very people who enacted violence against them. To both their masters Jill and Clive were expendable tools to be exploited until no more use could be squeezed out of them and they died of overwork. Both of them see themselves as monsters over the many deaths they have caused as Dominants. The difference being that Clive fought to stay alive so that he could complete his revenge against Ifrit while Jill fought in what was probably a futile effort to protect the Rosarian women and children she had sworn to take under her wing. Jill also killed on a much larger scale in eikon battles and was likely treated worse given she was given no armor or equipment and her clothes were in tatters. Clive and Jill were also treated as subhuman by their oppressors. For a decade Jill shouldered the role of protector and champion all on her own, but through Clive and Joshua and most importantly Cid she comes to terms that she need not fight on her own, and with that realization she makes Clive her Vassal because together they can do more than each would have done alone. So before the timeskip Clive gets Phoenix as a teenager, Ifrit when he returns to Phoenix Gate, Garuda after defeating Benedrikta, Leviathan after proving himself worthy to its Dominant, and Ramuh at Drake’s Head as Cid’s dying wish. One place to put Shiva would be at the end of the first part of Jill’s arc here during the lead up to Leviathan, but there’s another place I am considering.

The next arc I am completely making up because not having Leviathan in the game throws off the elemental balance on a meta level and having all 8 would be significant in Gnosticism. Joshua is following a lead on someone who might know of Ultima, the Dominant of Leviathan and semi-rogue champion of the Crystalline Dominion. I am making this arc for several reasons. The unexplained absence of Leviathan/Dominant of Water while also establishing 8 eikons and elements was always strange, why bothering establishing 8 elements and corresponding eikons if its never explained what happened to Leviathan, and Leviathan is a classic Final Fantasy staple so it's strange that it is missing. I also always found the Crystal Dominion's neutral zone reasoning to be a bit weak, for example in real life Switzerland has a reputation of neutrality because of its difficult geography and history of shooting down all aircraft regardless of affiliation, there has to be something to back up the Crystaline Dominion because just crystal export. Giving them a Dominant gives them the military power to back up their sovereignty, and their Dominant flying the coop also significantly weakens their position and further explains Sanbreque's later invasion. Leviathan's Dominant of Water is hanging out in the Southern Isles fighting sea monsters for fun and so this offers the opportunity to introduce Cid as a master engineer as well as introduce Mid and the Enterprise. The game never establishes Cid as an engineer, we only hear about it after he's dead from Mid and that is such awkward storytelling as well as a missed opportunity. The build up to Leviathan is Joshua tracking down the precise location while Cid and Mid build the Enterprsie together. We only meet Mid after the timeskip in the actual game and we don't know how old she is. Aso, she's adopted so getting the ages just right isn't that important, and kid genius is already an established character archetype so what's one more. This would necessitate a younger model for Mid but I think it is worth it. In this story Mid builds the seaship the Enterprise here with Cid to create a callback in the final arc when she builds an airship of the same name this time without her dad. Leviathan's Dominant couldn't stand the Crystalline Dominion but is the opposite of cooperative and things escalate to a fight with Clive at severe disadvantage since priming puts the ship in danger of burning and sinking. I'm not a fight choreographer I don't know maybe they evaporate all the water in a shallow sea and then beat up Leviathan. However, she would rather die than stand down, but as she dies she spits they are fools if they think getting rid of crystals will solve all their problems. With Leviathan’s fall, Twinsides’ position weakens as they can no longer pretend to have the protection of an eikon.

Next is Oriflamme and Drake's Head, things happen similarly to in the game with Sanbreque breaking treaty to invade the Crystalline Dominion and abandon Oriflamme. This is Ultima's second appearance as another of their seals is released and they grow in power. Stronger now Ultima makes a bid to take possession of Clive and Ultima, once again he is stopped but this time at the expense of Cid. Cid dies later in this story than in the actual game because he's a great character and I wanted more time with him, to build his relationship with Mid, to show his engineering prowess instead of just being told. Since Joshua joins earlier in this story the more time allows Cid to help mentor Joshua too, in reckoning with his father's dream and legacy and how despite Rosaria falling, Joshua can honor his father's work by helping the Hideaway and Bearers. This extra time before the timeskip has also allowed Clive and Joshua to reconcile with each other. They have each lived 10 years apart from each other with only their memories, they are both changed men and it would have taken time to reconcile the old and the new and form a new relationship. The sovereignty of Rosaria is no more, both of them are nameless outlaws out against the world, and they have both seen much of the world. The children they were no longer exist and now they have to stumble through all that together.

In the game, the 5 year timeskip was mostly pointless, it had very little effect on anything, so little changed that a lot of things felt frozen in time. Thus, I am greatly reducing the timeskip to about 6-12 months. The expansion of the pre-timeskip period was partly to establish Clive's major relationships like Jill and Joshua so then when the timeskip happened change could be seen. In this story whereas before the timeskip those relationships were just starting and we see the first few steps of development, after the timeskip they have solidified, Clive has settled into the new Jill and the new Joshua. Removing the 5 year timeskip also removes Joshua's inexplicable avoidance of Clive which happens in the original game. So sorry no dilf 30 something Clive, or at least not in the main story. Clive is about 26 by this point. Despite aging the characters down especially after the timeskip I think the story still works partly because most of the characters are adults already but primarily because the amount of trauma and hardship these characters have gone through would have aged them.

FFXVI Rewrite Part 3: Rosalith, Dhalmek, and Twinsides

Hugo Kupka's destruction of Rosalith happens mostly the same as in the actual game. It is the parts before that have slight changes as the Rosalith storyline was developed a further by this point in story. The original game never goes all the way to do anything with the Rosalith situation. The game establishes that despite the many long years, people still hold Elwin's reign as a golden age and have rallied around the symbol of the Rosfield Archduke as a symbol for all they have lost. The subplot I want continues what is already in the game with Rosarians rallying with this attack and then later with the further erosion of the Empire of Sanbreque. They take Elwin as the symbol not that Rosaria is the Phoenix or Archduke but take his philosophy to heart that it is Rosarians that make up Rosaria. So as Sanbreque falls apart after the destruction of Drake's Tail, Rosaria revolts and takes control of its own borders, setting up its own defenses against Akasha in the absence of imperial soldiers. Of the nations shown in the game Rosaria seems like the most receptive to Cid's ideologies so in the game I would have like to see a closer working relationship between the Hideaway and Rosarians, like real progress being made, especially after the timeskip and Hugo's death. There was also a real missed opportunity in the actual game with Clive here in not making something of the fact that the invasion of Rosalith is the first time in over 18 years that Clive has been back to his hometown (that we know of). Does he feel guilty or responsible for their suffering under Sanbreque and now Kupka? In this rewrite, this moment means something to Clive, Joshua, and Jill. For Clive and Joshua this is the moment they can no longer look away from Rosaria, they cannot out run their pasts or its people, even if it’s from the shadows they will fight for Rosaria's people.

Having Jill be inexplicably unable to resist Kupka who she fought on equal grounds with during the start of the original game, was extremely contrived and a terrible blow to her agency as a character, it was done for the sole reason of making it a plot point that she needed to be saved. I don't see why they couldn't have fought there and skipped the whole dungeon and rescue the damsel section. Even better since Kupka's goal is to have Clive watch his loved ones die, have Kupka ambush and capture Clive first since Clive is the bigger threat and it works for Jill's character since it is established that she will surrender to save another even when she is strong enough to save herself just like she did with Iron. Really the original scene would have been fine if they're framed it differently as a well coordinated surprise attack immediately putting eikon suppressors on Jill or had her prime only to be outnumbered by a unwearied Kupka and battalion. I haven't quite decided what to do with Joshua here, I think he would stay with Clive so perhaps as bad as his health is he did less fighting, stayed to the sidelines, and slipped away with Gav. I do like the idea that Clive doesn't fight Kupka alone and that Jill beats Kupka up too. In the original game it should have been Jill since Joshua hadn't joined yet but here Joshua got to know Cid too. With everyone exhausted from the battle Sleipnir can fend off a tired Jill.

I also think the Invasion of Rosalith is a good place for the conclusion of the next piece of Jill's established character, that she was taken as a child from her family and kept as a political prisoner in Rosaria with the possibility of being shoved into a marriage alliance with a Rosfield. In the original game no one would ever know that she isn't originally Rosarian because the game never does anything with this aspect of her backstory. Really except for one line in a end game quest with a lot of requirements, there is no hint of greater complexity to her childhood. Jill was wasted on FFXVI. Jill should be allowed to resent Rosaria and Elwin who took from her the sovereignty of her nation, her family, her people, her future, her political power. So how to reconcile what Rosaria did to Jill with the Jill willing to give up everything to protect Rosarians? One way to revolve this is for Jill and us to not treat this as a problem of factions and retribution but of justice and protection. Jill sided with the Rosarians because even if they had invaded others they did not deserve to be invaded and enslaved, no one deserved to be invaded and enslaved. This is a question of universal justice not of nations or politics. This poses Jill as somewhat as a savior which complements her in game actions, Jill's goals are to stand against injustice, protect the weak, and fight for those who cannot. This also aligns Jill's goals with Cid's ideology and provides reasoning for why she's committed to Cid's and the Bearer's cause. This also sets up Jill and Clive as foils in that both are pursuing ideals of justice but Clive is focused on revenge and punishment and Jill is focused on protection of the weak. These themes of justice are developed as early as the Rosaria sections of the game but are brought together here. While justice played a part, Jill protecting the Rosarian women was also probably a coping mechanism, doing so gave her a role and a reason to live. Seeing Kupka's invasion reminds her on the Ironblood invasion of Rosalith 11 years ago and of Rosaria's invasion of her homeland though she was too young to understand it. And in seeing the violence, her belief is cemented in the commonality of humanity, that all people are deserving of justice, and that no one should be invaded or enslaved.

Jill seeking universal human rights and justice regardless of faction also puts her at an interesting contrast to much of Valisthea which widely xenophobic. In the actual game Clive got absurdly lucky pre-timeskip that he met Cid and his network, friends of friends of friends who all want to help him and let him into the network. He’s out here collecting pokemon badges and those badges really do make the difference between night and day. Clive would have gotten nowhere without Cid and his network or network of favors. Part of it is the widespread and open bigotry against bearers but a lot of the towns just hate anyone who isn't a local in general. I find it interesting how local politics and the favor of local leaders (the tokens) are more powerful than many townspeople's bigotry against bearers. And then Jill through her character arc here begins seeing beyond all this to the greater picture.

I’ll be honest I forgot that in the actual game there was a section where Clive couldn’t summon Ifrit because he could still use the Ifrit abilities in gameplay so this really only affected cutscenes and really this had little plot impact since the writers didn’t want to ever portray Clive as weak or helpless so I only remembered that this happened at all when I read through my notes. That would be one change I’d make to the game, during the Ifrit-less section don’t allow Clive to use any of Ifrit’s abilities or maybe not any of the eikon abilities so that the players can experience what it means to live on stripped of a power you once had. Let’s say that Ultima’s possession attempt partially succeeded at the confrontation at Drake’s Head, taking away Clive’s ability to prime and leaving him helpless and Clive being powerless was why Cid felt the need to step up and defend him even if it cost him his life. This also better explains the power dynamics in the Rosalith invasion rewrite since Jill is the actual powerhouse during this confrontation because Clive can’t prime. Here Clive really is once again playing back up to Jill while she fights and he would love that.

In the actual game Clive gets a mini character arc later on about how he’s been pushing himself too hard, sacrificing himself too much, and been trying to do too much by himself and its poorly done and comes off as cheap especially since this is the same point in the plot where Jill gets permanently sidelined and Clive immediately goes off to continue doing things on his own. If there was any place to do that it would be here in the Dhalmek arc, about accepting that weakness isn’t failure, that relying on others isn’t weakness, that no one can no it alone, and that we are all stronger together. If Clive is going to regain Ifrit here it is only going to be through Jill, Joshua, and all the friends he has made along the way. This is the other point at which I was consider having Clive gain Shiva’s power in a literal case of regaining his power through his friends to parallel his emotional growth, in that the addition of Shiva and maybe a little help from Phoenix is what jumpstarts Ifrit and allows Clive to once again prime. It is only through Clive accepting his own helplessness and the help of others that he regains his power, the power to help them in turn.

The next arc is the Dhalmekian infiltration to kill Hugo Kupka which turns into also destroying Drake's Head. Aiming for Dhalmek's Mothercrystal instead of Waloed's is a terrible political decision as it radically changes the power balance of the region, making Sanbreque the only major player left on Storm. In this rewrite this is a purposeful mistake to contrast the more calculated, wiser, and more strategic choices my Cid to Clive's more thoughtless choices. This is Clive's first Mothercrystal without Cid. Jill will also be priming and fighting Titan Lost because she deserves more action time, having her be in recovery after would explain her absence in the next eikon fight, and because Jill has as much a bone to pick with Kupka as Clive does. Ultima doesn’t show up here since they’ve figured out the party is destroying the Mothercrystals and that only helps them.

In the lead up to Twinsides there is still a bit of Mid's ship adventures though less than before since her arc will be concluded at Origin. I like the idea of the Mid section but its execution was slow and painful. the idea was to characterize Mid and give her closure over the death of her father after all she has had to lose her father not once but twice in her short life. However, in this rewrite Mid was introduced before the timeskip and the Enterprise already built with Cid, so here Mid is struggling with what to do now and through the efforts of Clive and the rest of the Hideaway they inspire her to seriously look into a pipedream she had daydreamed about with her father, that of airships. Mid comes to realize that Cid's legacy isn't one concrete thing, it isn't the Enterprise, its all the people of the Hideaway, its every Bearer they've helped, Mid realizes that Cid's legacy is also her and so she shouldn't be afraid of changing the Enterprise because using the Enterprise as a platform for new technological innovation is exactly what Cid would have wanted.

A major lore change is that the Fallen weren’t modern humans like the party created by ultima and gained sentience after ultima went to sleep, in this story the Fallen were the society ultima was a part of. The lead up will also include more Ultima archeology and history with Joshua as the party seeks to understand why the Fallen ruins have awoken and become aggressive with aether wraiths. They find writings that tie Greagor to Ultima as well as research into transforming draconic aether into eikons.

I rather like the Twinside arc, it helps that the lead up includes the most political intrigue in the game which I think the game could use more of, and that this section focuses on Dion arguably the best written character of the game. Maybe some earlier scenes in the game with Terrance and Dion discussing the geopolitics of Valisthea, Terrance badly need any characterization. The Bahamut fight is also my favorite fight in the game so I would mostly like to keep it the same. The only thing I’d change here would be changing Zettaflare to like Exaflare or something, keep the attack the same but change the name, Bahamut isn’t even the final boss it doesn’t deserve something that should be as plot central as Zettaflare. The first major change is that since Joshua will be a party member through the Twinside section, it will be made to shown how Clive and Joshua's relationship has changed. Joshua is also the one to know Dion, in the game Clive was ready to leave him for dead, so Joshua will play a prominent role is this arc between Dion and the Mothercrystal being central plot elements here. The brothers are in need of some more heart to hearts. So far their relationship development has been about them reacquainting themselves with each other after a decade apart but now they can move towards true friendship and brotherhood. And so, this emotional connection strengthened here parallels the fusion of Phoenix and Ifrit into Ifrit Prime in the Bahamut fight, the emotional narrative and plot enhance each other. I would like Clive and Joshua to begin confiding in each other and understanding the guilt and burdens the other carries.

Clive and Joshua have such an interesting dynamic and it’s a shame the game sets up something so interesting only to do nothing with it. Clive and Joshua are both very similar and very different and act as character foils to each other. Their personalities are wildly different but their goals and burdens are very similar. Even from childhood the two brothers are tied together by strong mutual admiration and jealousy. Joshua thinks the world of his older brother, that Clive is the coolest, Clive is strong and brave and everything Joshua is not. He thinks Clive is more deserving of Phoenix and Dukedom because everything Clive has he earned of his own merit. Joshua has the open affection and love of both their parents, Joshua is the one that is doted on and cared for. Clive loves Joshua, but Joshua is also a reminder that he's been passed over as firstborn because he does not have Phoenix. Clive loves his brother but their relationship is not only that. Joshua is the lord his has sworn his life to serve and protect so their bond is not only that of brothers but of lord and knight, and this is one of Clive's core motivations throughout the game. In the actual game too, we see that Joshua has thar exact same core motivation as Clive, throughout the game his main goal is to protect Clive from Ultima's machinations.

In this rewrite as a furthering of the themes of guilt I am adding a further parallel. We see in the actual game that Clive is crushed under the weight of his guilt because he thinks Ifrit killed Phoenix at Phoenix Gate, in the dungeon cell he begs Cid to kill him because he cannot live with it, the whole story arc leading up to Clive gaining control over Ifrit deals with this. I do like how through the game Clive learns of even more people he's killed like Lord Commander Murdoch trained him and taught Clive what it meant to be a Shield of Rosaria, he might even think he killed his father since they separated before that point and everything was incinerated. Unlike in the game, here Clive isn't magically over it even after he comes to terms with being Ifrit's dominant and going berserk. To parallel Joshua is weighed by a lot of guil. Joshua on some level still carries the trauma of Phoenix Gate which included the beheading of his father as he tried to protect Joshua, the betrayal of the nation to be his responsibility at the hands of his mother, and his brother going berserk and almost killing him. Joshua feels responsible for his father's death. Joshua feels responsible for Phoenix gate. Joshua feels guilt over his abandonment of Rosaria in favor of pursuing Ultima and protecting Clive. Lastly without the the special regenerative abilities of Phoenix anyone else Dominant or no would have died, and that first death experience never left Joshua, on some level he is still afraid of Clive and Joshua hates that part of himself and feels immense guilt over it, blaming himself for not saving Clive from the Sanbreque army sooner. In this new timeline Joshua is about 20 here so most of this really is just in his head because what was some kid going to do against the Sanbreque Empire.

As mentioned previously, in this version of events the apocalypse with the eternal dark sky and the aetherfloods do not begin with the fall of Drake’s Tail, the 4th Mothercrystal, instead the fall of Drake’s Tail has a lesser effect with an increased number and appearance of stronger Fallen enemies and aetheric enemies (wraiths, etc.) as well as more recorded aetheric instability. Like in the original game Twinsides wipes Joshua out for like a month, that fight likely did permanent damage to him and his health suffers for it.

FFXVI Rewrite Part 4: Overhauling Waloed and Barnabas

I was dissatisfied with Anabella's character in the original game. She's built up as this greater antagonist on par with Barnabas and implied to have a connection to Ultima and the greater working of the plot and then all this comes to nothing as Ultima has possessed Olivier and is the actual mastermind. Additionally, Anabella highly parallels Ultima as they are both the demiurges of Gnosticism, evil and controlling creator figures that see their creations as wholly belonging to and existing for their sake. To Ultima and Anabella their creations are not independent of them, their creations/children should have no independent will, they are the ones who make decisions and their creations obey. This like all the themes in FFXVI is underdeveloped and I intend to change that by deepening the themes of free will, creation and creator, master and slave, existence before essence, and the weight of choice.

In this rewrite I'm going to keep Anabella just as reprehensible and classist as she is in the actual game but I'm going to give her more agency as a character and this is where things really change. Here Olivier has not been possessed, Anabella think him Greagor a god incarnate and convinces the Emperor but he's really just a spoiled dependent boy. In the scene where Dion goes berserk it is Anabella that triggers it not Ultima. Anabella goads him and Olivier not really knowing or caring what is going on but of course his mother is always right joins in and goes a step further. Dion kills his father just like Anabella plans and as she plays victim screaming that he's a kinslayer she hurls an Ultima imbued shard of the Mothercrystal at Dion. The crystal connects Dion with the Mothercrystal and floods him with aether with combined with his instability causes him to go berserk. As the city burns there's a scene of Anabella riding off in a carriage holding Olivier and smirking. Then Phoenix flies overhead locked in battle and we see Anabella falter as she stares up at Phoenix.

During the first week of the game’s release, I was speculating whether Anabella was Clive's biological mother at all (or if Elwin was Joshua’s father) given the strange and tense family dynamics of the Rosfields as well as how dissimilar Clive and Anabella look. However, since finishing the game and coming to understand that Anabella was designed as a foil character to Ultima, it does make more sense that Clive is her biological son. For both Ultima and Anabella Clive is their failed creation, the one that went astray. They are both interpretations of the Demiurge which in Gnosticism is the creator of the material world, the material world being fake and an evil prison to keep people from the true holy spiritual world, so the Demiurge is the evil controlling god trying to keep humans from true existence. In this rewrite I want to enhance the existing themes in the game from its Gnostic symbolism, to that of the relationships between creator and creator, master and slave. Making clear that Clive is Anabella’s son enhances these themes. Anabella doesn’t hate Clive because Elwin cheated on her and is forcing her see proof of their unequal status and powerlessness every day, Anabella hates Clive because she feels she owns him as his mother and that he has failed her arbitrary and impossible expectations by daring first to not manifest the Phoenix and then to dare have positive attributes and overshadow her younger son who did manifest the Phoenix. Anabella hates Clive for incredibly stupid, self-centered, and petty reasons.

Now comes the hard part where I break the original FFXVI’s plot across my knee and throw the whole thing out the window because the Waloed section through to the end of the game was a mess. First let me discuss what the writers tried to do and how they failed. King Barnabas was intended as Ultima’s successful creation to foil Clive as the failed creation. Clive asserts his independent will, his desire to live on his own terms, and that he will throw down all shackles forces upon him. Barnabas has forfeited his will and individuality for a life of religious devotion as Ultima’s puppet. Conceptually this isn't bad, the problem is in execution. Barnabas ended up being incredibly disappointing and boring as a character. For all Ultima and Barnabas' discussions of severing the ties of consciousness between Clive and his companions, they don't do anything or pose any sort of narrative threat. There are no stakes to this arc beyond a distant feeling that the world might end. Ultima shows up and has pointless conversations with Clive that go nowhere, establish nothing, and do nothing to progress the plot or stakes. From a character motivation standpoint at this point of the game Clive is doing exactly what Ultima wants so there’s no reason for Ultima to keep talking to Clive either. FFXVI tries to portray religious extremism and fails miserably. The game does little to establish religion and belief as a main theme in the game despite it being present in the background, the says nothing meaningful about religion and the only thing mildly interesting to happen, happens in an easily missed sidequest for the Undying.

Originally, I did consider trying to build off of this foiling of the slave to religion vs. the free man but to make it work actually involves changing more of the plot than the alternative and it just kept writing itself into a corner. A lot more would have needed to be done with religion earlier in the game, perhaps exploring how the different culture’s in Valisthea had different belief systems and interacting with how their various beliefs, theologies, and philosophies play out. They also could have had a story arc about how religion is used to subjugate, indoctrinate, and control people. More could have been done tying Ultima to the major religions of Valisthea like how Greagor is actually Ultima. Ultima and Barnabas should have followed through with those threats to sever the bounds of consciousness and started killing off the entire cast. The Hideaway should have been invaded and destroyed and the hub area lost. Otto, Mid, Vivian, Harpocrates, and eventually Gav, Jill, and Joshua. This would all have had massive gameplay and story implications and at that point I thought this was too much work for something I’m doing for fun, it’s not like Squeenix is paying me to fix their writing problems.

The solution I decided on completely flips Barnabas’ character and ideology, and ironically that changes less of the story than trying to stay true to the writers’ intentions. In this rewrite Barnabas still foils Clive but in the completely opposite way he does in the actual game. Here Barnabas is also a proponent of free will but in contrast with Clive’s more community minded approach to raising people up, Barnabas’ meaning of free will is the ability for him to impose his will over other people. Cid and Clive respect the rights and wills of all people while new Barnabas only respects his own will. Because Waloed no longer serves Ultima, the invasions of Dhalmek and Kanver here are due to Tharmr’s global conquest ambitions and to a lesser degree him shoring up resources to take on Ultima.

Barnabas here is in some ways a Übermensch, he is someone who has transcended all measure of human morality to create his own values to live by, someone who commands, creates and strikes his own path instead of obeying or following, someone powerful who’s power comes from them and not society. This new version of Barnabas has ironically cast aside religion and gods much like an Übermensch who Nietzche’s speculated would rise in the void of faith after the fall of Christian morality, to rise above humanity and gods both as a new being. As a critique of the concept, this Barnabas is also a self-centered and violent tyrant with no care for others, delusions of grandeur, and dreams of conquest and subjugation to bend lesser men to his will in a might equals right world. Benedrikta found Barnabas’ veneer of power alluring as she too desired power while Cid initially optimistic of the new world order Barnabas was trying to forge eventually grew disillusioned and bitter at his disregard for other people. Of note is that Barnabas does not have Ultima’s magic anti-aging serum in this version of events, the similar lack of aging was why I suspected Anabella to be similarly involved early on but that just ended up being a plot hole in the original game. There are two options to deal with this, first that Barnabas is an old man in his 60’s adding a layer of desperation to his conquests though that would not explain the lull in activity in recent years in in the actual game is explained by his contact with Ultima. The other option is that the timeline is changed so that the conquest of Ash is more recent.

Similar strongman archetypes to this new version of Barnabas can be found in the Chaos Heroes of the Shin Megami Tensei main games especially the early games, and in Walhart from Fire Emblem: Awakening. I want to discuss Walhart further because this Barnabas has ended up being a very similar character. Both are ruthless dictators seeking to take over the world who will destroy all opposition with force, they see themselves as the strongest, both refuse to bow to or worship anything. They would both unite the armies of the world to destroy the evil gods who would seek to end the world and the party defeating them ironically makes it easier for the evil god characters to destroy the world as the party just removed one of their obstacles for them. This focus on power and individual merit while deemphasizing position and background likewise justifies Waloed as the only nation accepting of beastmen into its military ranks. Barnabas doesn’t care who you are he care what you can do, it’s how outlanders like himself, Cid, or Benedrikta rose so high in the ranks.

The next arc will be Waloed and the destruction of the 5th and final Mothercrystal, Drakes Spine. With the nations of Storm in shambles, the war machine of Waloed rumbles and they prepare a full-scale invasion of Storm. The party must scramble to unite factions that were just at war with each other to prepare for the full-on invasion. They aim to strike the heart of Waloed before the war ships launch hoping to throw Waloed into disarray. The plan is to split the party with one group rallying around Kanver to make a stand while another infiltrates and destroys Drake’s Spine. By this point Clive and Ifrit have gotten famous or perhaps infamous as the most powerful man on Storm and Barnabas is coming to challenge him directly as such Clive will be at the front of the defense hoping to kill Barnabas and dissolve his empire. Joshua will be leading a small party into Waloed and the one with the most experience with Mothercrystals. Joshua will then become the main playable character during this section with cutscenes showing Clive organizing the people of Storm and forming a rapport with Dion as another man who’s eikon went berserk and destroyed the people he’d sworn to protect they are both knights who failed. The rest of the party hasn’t quite been set in stone but I think Gav and Jote would go with Joshua and that Clive would send Torgal to look after Joshua. Ash isn’t quite as desolate as it is in the actual game but between the conscriptions, the heavy taxes, the blight, and the increased monster activity (Fallen, spectres and wraith type enemies) it is still pretty bad in Ash. As such getting to Drake’s Spine will involve a lot more stealth than it does in the real game but they get there as its garrisons have emptied for war and make their way to the heart of the Mothercrystal. This section of the game introduces the Circle of Malius which worships Ultima and part of exploring Ash is Joshua going to those ruins and learning how their teachings say that Ultima created humanity and that humanity should serve because it is their destiny and purpose. During the Waloed section there’s a brief cutscene of a pan shot of Anabella and an escort party walking through Fallen architecture.

While Joshua makes his way through the fortress to the Mothercrystal, the fight for Kanver begins and at the climax of both events Clive faces off against Barnabas at the same time that Joshua meets Sleipnir in Drake’s Spine who was ordered to stay behind because Waloed suspected something like this might happen. Gameplay then switches between the two battles with eikonic titans Ifrit and Odin clashing and splitting the sea, while contrasted to Joshua and Sleipnir dueling with rapiers across the crystal floor. As the Vassal of Odin Sleipnir is more than enough to hold off Joshua and Joshua is forced to semi-prime to stand a chance, further risking his health. Sleipnir here is not an egi and extension of Odin, instead he is a normal human man who believes in new Barnabas’ ideals and is loyal to him. Eventually both Joshua and Clive manage to kill their opponents, on screen it should be a split perspective for the final blow with both Joshua and Clive striking down their opponents at the same time.

The Barnabas and Clive fight is a battle of ideals. Both characters are proponents of free will and that people should be able to live on their own terms but they have wildly different interpretations as to what this looks like implemented in the real world. Inevitably some person’s terms will clash with another person’s terms. Barnabas sees this as a matter of individual strength, that one must be strong to be able to decide their own life, to rise beyond the masses and take life by the reins. The rule of the jungle where the strong have the power to do whatever they want, and if the weak want change than all they have to do is become stronger. Clive is more cooperation and community minded; it is about everyone lifting each other up to a better life. There’s the paradox of tolerance in that if a community tolerates intolerance for certain people that community will become as intolerant and bigoted as possible, so to maintain tolerance and equal rights intolerance must not be tolerated. To ensure the rights of all, some times limits need to be put on people, especially limits on the rich and powerful. I do wish the actual game had engaged with Clive’s life experiences more because he’s seen first hand the social determinants of health and how society treats those it doesn’t care about, the least protected. Another change is that I would make the Barnabas Clive fight much more exciting. Anticlimactic fights are fine but they have to be done with purpose (as I intend to do later), a fight is anticlimactic to contrast it with other fights or to drive home an emotional point in the narrative, but the lack of excitement in the original fight serves no purpose, its just boring. Some ideas I have are for the fight to be over the water with Odin cleaving the ocean into several parts and Ifrit hoping between and boiling away parts of the ocean to clear a path. I’m not a fight choreographer but this fight needs to be big and as flashy and impressive as the others in the game.

FFXVI Rewrite Part 5: Origin, Ultima, and the Ending

With the last Mothercrystal destroyed and the final seal on Ultima broken, the apocalypse begins. The sky breaks apart into dark roiling aetheric stormclouds casting the world into eternal gloom. Aetherfloods spill across the lands poisoning all life and turning it akashic, the remaining crystals fail. There is no nation left standing in Valisthea. The one force that would have fought against Ulima’s rule Waloed is in disarray. The greatest champion fighting for free will was Banabas who is now dead. Congrats on making things worse! Isn’t free will and making choices great? The party much now scramble to figure out what is going on, all the while the realization of how badly they messed up slowly dawns upon them. Like in the actual game’s post Twinside section, the party scrambles to recover from the Waloed attack while also fending off compounding problems of starved beasts, Fallen machines, akasha, and wraiths. Now though Origin has also risen into the sky destroying all hopes of salvaging Twinside. The party travels around Valisthea piecing together the deteriorating situation with the destruction of the Mothercrystals and wonders if this is what Ultima wanted since they stopped bothering them several Mothercrystals back. Doomsday cultists start popping up. In particular will be the savior cult the Circle of Malius who are much the same as the are in the actual game striving to make all people akashic as they see it as the ultimate pure state free of mortal burdens. This formerly suppressed underground faction now runs free now that Barnabas is gone.

I really do like most of the sidequest storylines especially Dion and Harpocrates’ quest, however a complaint I had was that their placement right before the final boss dropped the pacing off a cliff. In this rewrite the last section is being expanded so there is time added here for Clive to rally people and finish their storylines so that the finale can be uninterrupted. This includes the final part of Jill’s character arc where she reckons that for all that she has talked big and tried to help people, she herself still does not quite know what it means to live on her own terms, but she thinks she is finally starting to understand. Jill wants to travel the world, to help the people out there who don’t know how to fight for themselves yet and to find herself. In the actual game the Jill-Clive romance is primarily hindered by Jill’s poor writing having tried to fix her writing here I have no objections to the romance anymore. However, I was never a fan of romances and am of the mentality of that if it isn’t needed it shouldn’t be included. For example, in Tales of Arise the relationship between Alphen and Shionne is the center point around which the rest of the story revolves and while it could have been a friendship instead of a romantic one, there is no Tales of Arise without Shionne and Alphen’s relationship. This is not the case for FFXVI, even in this rewrite Jill is not the deuteragonist (if anyone it’d be Joshua), as such Jill and Clive’s relationship is not central to the story and really while I’m not opposed, I feel a romance just gets in the way of the story, if there’s to be any romance I would rather it just be implied or optional. Dion and Terrance should still kiss because that is bold and revolutionary in a way the portrayal of any straight couple isn’t, also they’re side characters so it doesn’t matter this story isn’t about them. Before the final dungeon is also the time to show how life without magic sucks. FFXVI sort of glosses over this very briefly but I think this point should be integrated into all the final storylines, without magic people have no safe drinking water or fire, disease begins running rampant, industry grinds to a halt, and food production halts so people begin starving in the streets in mass, and Clive has to see all this knowing this is what he’s done to people.

The party eventually learns of Ultima’s plans to destroy the world and enslave humanity by flooding them with aether and turning every living thing akashic. At the same time, they record increased aether concentrations gathering around Origin, as the Blights worsen as Ultima repurposes the same draining mechanisms as the Mothercrystals, He turns the very chains that bound them into his servants. Instead of loredumping via a ten minute monologue at the end of the game, now would be a good place to drop bits of lore and worldbuilding like how in this version dragons, frostwolves, and such were the original inhabitants of the world. Ultima is the last surviving active member of the Fallen whose ancient civilization made all the ruins encountered across the game. Ultima and the Fallen brought humans to Valisthea and created eikons by enslaving the power of the land’s original inhabitants. Eikons are a phenomena of the recent centuries and a sign that the seals were weakening.

As a lover of JRPGs I found it immensely disappointing that Origin was just some cutscenes and not a full dungeon so I’m making it a full dungeon in this rewrite. Ultima is trying to draw in Clive and possess him anyways (as well as the combined Ifit-Phoenix fire eikon) so they would try and cut off the rest of the party. Dion is able to break a hole in Origin that Clive enters into with Joshua, however Jill is cutoff, and under constant assault she seals the hole after them to stop pursuit. In addition, the Fallen forces are marching from Origin to turn every person akashic and Dion and Jill are needed to hold them back. As such Dion and Jill as the two that can fly stay outside to stop pursuit of Joshua and Clive, as well as to try and contain Ultima’s forces from murdering and or turning everyone on the continent into akasha. This would be a nice scene to show all the factions of Valisthea that Clive has met and negotiated with coming together to ward off extermination. Like the Trinity Accord can actually be something meaningful as a defense accord rallying humanity’s last remnants. Origin will be a classic final dungeon boss gauntlet with no way to exit until the player beats the game. Every set of floors (5? 10?) will be a boss as Ultima seeks to weaken Clive.

During the ascent to the top or Origin the final secrets of the game are revealed and the lore scattered throughout the game brought together. To reiterate, the Fallen drained the resources of their homeland and turned it into a wasteland, their civilization collapsed and the survivors fled upon the mothership Origin to a new world. Coming to Valisthea, they came into contact with the native lifeforms such as the dragons and began a war of conquest for control over Valisthea. The Fallen made eikons out of draconic aether to use as war weapons against the dragons themselves thus why eikons are elemental themed. Eventually the Fallen with their eikons and advanced technology kill most of the dragons but not before most of them were killed as well. As a last resort the last remaining dragons sacrificed themselves to seal the last Fallen away the Eldest Wyrm’s body fragments, becoming the Mothercrystals. The Mothercrystals much like dragons themselves have a strong connection to the aether of the land and while not ideal, a side effect of the Mothercrystals is that they feed off of the land’s aether to power their seals. Because this was a last ditch effort it’s full of problems including that the seals take an unsustainable amount of aether and after the land is drained of aether the seals begin to fail. Mining and using crystals sped up the breaking of the seals as well as the spread of the deadlands as the Mothercrystals drained the lands to fuel the seals. Ultima is the last active Fallen who awakened as the seals weakened. The reawakening did not go as he hoped as the other Fallen only remained as aether. Ultima seeks to flood all of humanity with Fallen aether made of his people’s souls to truly reincarnate them, replacing the original aether of the world with Fallen aether. Origin now acts as the focal point amassing aether and releasing Ultima’s forces.

At the top floor of Origin Clive and Joshua find not only Ultima but Anabella and Olivier. Anabella and Olivier transport to Ultima’s eden space ship which is revealed to be the red star Metia; Origin acts as the connecting point between Valisthea and Metia. Ultima reveals that the Fallen are the true humans of this setting. The original humans created soulless shell or dolls for them to later fill with their own aether, reincarnate, and thus save their civilization. All the characters the player has met were these husks created by the true humans, the people of Valisthea were never meant to be people on their own with wills and thoughts. Similarly, Mythos like in the actual game was the chosen vessel for Ultima to fill with the eikons, ascend to godhood, and power the casting. But like most plans, things have gone wrong and now created fights Creator. Ultima tells Clive and Joshua that they and their brethren were only ever imposters wrongfully claiming the title of humanity their masters: the true humans. As creations of humans, they belong to humans, their wills exist only as an extension of the true humans’ wills. “In Ultima's eyes, mankind's greatest sin is the awakening of free will—his servants straying from the path their creator laid out for them and forging one of their own. However, Clive contends that this is a sin by which Ultima is equally stained—and indeed, if humanity is indeed Ultima's creation, does not their every action, every emotion stem from him?” (Mysteries of the Realm: Sin).

Clive and Joshua face Ultima in his Ultimalius form as in actual FFXVI for stage 1 of the final boss fight. After beating Ultimalius, Ultima transforms Stage 2 is a giant kaiju eikon battle is space. Like in the Bahamut fight, Ifrit and Phoenix combine, however where Ifrit Prime was an incomplete fusion, this time the fusion is in full and the true Eikon of Fire emerges: Adonaios v2.11 (other possible names are Sabaoth and Belias). Ultima uses the beta testing version Adonaios v1.8; 1.8 comes from the incorporation of all 8 elements plus Ultima, 2.11 comes from Adonaios having to be split into two but left unfinished by Ultima for Clive to collect the remaining eikons. In game Ifrit Prime just looked like the Ifrit model with 2 feathers glued on, Adonaios v2.11meanwhile looks like a 50:50 fusion a molten red eikon with wings, horns, a feathered tail, and a jagged beak. Adonaios is slimmer than Ifrit but overall bigger with the feathers. Adonaios v1.8 meanwhile looks like the figure on the murals, a fusion of all 8 eikons and elements however it is falling apart at the seams even as Ultima fights with it because it’s an abandoned draft version. Late in the stage 2 fight Clive and Joshua are losing and draw upon the remaining power of the eikons of whom only Bahamut and Shiva are left. This drains the remaining eikonic power from Jill and Dion, grounding them and making the Valisthea fight hopeless, the Ultima fight now all or nothing. Stage 3 of the final boss fight takes place aboard Metia. Metia was an alien spaceship all along, but more accurately it is a control satellite from which to coordinate the revival of humanity. Clive, Joshua, and Ultima have all mostly used up all their power in the previous stage. In this final stage of the fight Ultima transcends and returns to his original appearance that of a human, Clive and Joshua are no longer fighting some strange monster but someone they would recognize as human. In stage 3 Clive cannot semi-prime. In the end Ultima is killed and his species is now extinct.

Joshua and Clive are exhausted from climbing Origin as well as the consecutive boss fights but begin to relax with Ultima dead, and then Anabella steps out. Anabella thought she could outplay Ultima by siding with him and then taking over, and now she sees her chance. She steals all the power that Ultima had been siphoning into himself to cast the spell, and redirects it all into Olivier to turn Olivier into a god and who will rule the world, doing what Ultima failed to do. It fails because playing god is a bad idea, Olivier’s body cannot handle the power and it begins mutating him into a deformed humanoid abomination with multiple arms and eyes, bodies seemingly trying to grow out of him. So, the true final boss is mercy killing a child who is falling apart and turning into an abomination but doesn't know it, as he cries that it hurts and begs you to stop. Olivier cannot be allowed to live as they will destroy the world. and the aether is warping his mind and he becomes less coherent as the fight goes on, regressing from full sentences to just screams. Ascended Olivier doesn’t really fight back, he flails around and lashes out when attacked but attacks aren’t particularly aimed at the player and he’s mostly crying and shaking on the ground in pain. Ascended Olivier has a very large health bar and the story will not progress until he is killed, the last save point is before reaching the top floor or Origin. In a game full of epic boss battle, the last is anticlimactic by design, there is no epic music just silence, there is no challenging gameplay, only attacking a child. The gameplay is boring, its grueling, and that’s the point. Clive kills Olivier and then there’s just Anabella.

Much like the Fallen were the creators of modern humans who sought to control their creations and saw them as an extension of themselves, creations that deviated and refused to submit to their will and thus were failures. So too is Anabella a controlling creator who deemed her children failures for not advancing her goals, hating and discarding them to try again with a new child. Olivier was supposed to be her ultimate creation, perfect and subservient to her with no will of his own. The parallels between Anabella and Ultima exist in the actual game so it was disappointing her role ended so early and nothing was done with this parallel. Here is this rewrite, the large-scale destruction of the world by Ultima is paralleled with the destroyed Rosfield family and this final confrontation with Anabella. Anabella is not a warrior, without her soldiers and pawns she doesn’t have and martial power, she is more or less powerless to her fate at this point having discarded all her cards and bet everything Olivier. Clive (and the player) are then given the choice to “do nothing”, “kill”, or “spare” Anabella, Clive after all was the one who suffered the most from her. If “kill” is chosen, then Clive kills Anabella. If “spare” is chosen, Clive walks away but not before Joshua steps in and kills Anabella because even if Clive can forgive her Joshua can’t. If “do nothing” is chosen Anabella kills herself unable to reconcile with a reality in which she has lost.

Clive and Joshua use the last embers of the eikonic power remaining to shut down Primogenesis and Ultima’s plans, landing the Metia at the base of the crumbling Origin. The closing shot is of gang standing together overseeing a ruined Valisthea as the camera pans showing the aether storm clearing, wraiths evaporating, and fallen machines deactivating permanently. The deadlands are still around but a new sprout is seen growing. The credits sequence plays over a scene of Mid yelling to hurry it up she wants to see stoves and water purifiers in every village by the end of the month, shots of people is Valisthea figuring out how to live without magic using technology and innovation, the main characters are seen helping repair efforts. The end card says 4 years, meaning FFXVI takes place over a total of 16 years, from the beginning of the game and Phoenix Gate to the end of the game and Origin. Sun light is streaming through a window as Clive writes in a book which he closes to the title “Final Fantasy XVI by Joshua and Clive Rosfield”. As the timeline is changed here so that Clive is younger for the duration of the game than he is in the real game, his older model can be used here. Clive is using his non-dominant hand here as his dominant hand has been partially petrified from his fight with Ultima. On the desk is a photo of Clive and a bedridden Joshua.

The game’s themes could have been better integrated into the final section of the game. If FFXIV wanted to tell a story about choice, then they should have made Clives’ choices have weight and consequence. If he wants a society free of the Mothercrystals then the game should have showed how he ruined the lives of many many people by destroying them. FFXVI would have benefited greatly from more moral dilemmas like that. There should have also been exploration of the concepts of creation, ownership, makers, what makes someone human. One missed opportunity was not bringing up the relationship between art and artist, is art an extension of the artist or its own thing. The references to Gnosticism were fine but the concepts could have been clearer. There are also just a truckload of small problems and inconsistencies in the game like how Charon is said at one point to have a wide variety of customers across the continent while at another point is said on exclusively trade to the Hideaway. There’s a sidequest about how Murdoch’s nephew joins the Hideaway because he admires Clive and then the game forgets about him (just like they forget about Jill) and only remembers him again to put him on a bus, thus having no interaction with Clive. A lot of worldbuilding is just badly done. I love mysteries but making things misleading and obscure for no reason is not how to do it. So much of it was unclear or convoluted or just pointless even after reading the completed The Thousand Tomes that I just threw the whole thing out and wrote new lore for this reimaging of FFXVI. If a change is not specified than it is the same as in the actual game. I wrote 85% of this in Jun-Jul of 2023, then stopped for lack of motivation. I only finished this for the sake of finishing it because I don’t care anymore. I’m done with FFXVI and it’s poor writing.

It says something that it ended up being easier to throw out the later 1/3 of the game. In earlier drafts I did originally try to make canon work like Barnabas being one of Ultima’s devout and purifying Waloed by turning it all akashic, or Joshua’s probable death at the end of the game. Like it would have made more sense for Barnabas and Ultima as they are portrayed in the actual game to methodically hunt down and kill every person or named NPC Clive has ever talked to, slowly isolating him from his humanity by breaking every connection he’s ever tried to make. But of course, this removes the cast from having a role in the rest of the game and makes it impossible to keep the rest of the game the same. This rewrite ended up being pretty happy and optimistic because that’s the spirit of the original game. FFXVI in the end is pretty optimistic, which I have mixed feelings about. FFXVI tries have an upbeat uplifting ending and message while also wanting to be a dark, gritty, edgy Game of Thrones knockoff, and while this is very possible for a work to do, FFXVI did not succeed in meshing these aspects into a consistent whole, XVI ends up feeling inconsistent or disjointed. So while I did eventually decide to uphold XVI’s optimistic spirit I did consider another possibility leaning into more of the darker ambience. With the rising of Origin and fight to climb the tower, every major character either is killed or sacrifices themselves for Clive to reach the summit. The Cursebreakers buy time of the ground with their lives, Dion finally gets the absolution of death he has been seeking for Sanbreque, Jill joins Clive and Joshua in the tower but sacrifices herself to hold back the tower bosses and all of Ultima’s forces chasing them up the tower. During the second stage of the final Ultima fight to turn Ifrit Prime into Adonaios v2.11 and truly fuse Phoenix and Ifrit, Joshua who is already dying burns himself away allowing Clive to have all of Phoenix’s power. Clive thus kills Olivier alone, and faces Anabella alone, his fate left ambiguous.

#ffxvi #ff16 #final fantasy xvi #clive rosfield #jill warrick #joshua rosfield #barnabas tharmr #anabella rosfield

[nish-bean]

~ why the umbrella academy season 3 was actually good despite what some reviews say ~

!!!spoilers ahead!!!

so a lot of people (including some of my friends) have been saying that season three of tua was bad and they ‘expected more’ from it and it didn’t really give them anything. i’m going to explain here why i think season 3 was a really good season and definitely worth the hype.

the first point, would be the character development. we’ll start with the character that went through the most development; allison. allison, from the beginning in season 1 is shown selfish and inconsiderate. while a lot of people liked her character, i didn’t. in s1, she wanted viktor to forgive her despite bullying him several times and even contributing to his past traumas and declining mental health. in s3, we see her unwilling to forgive viktor for protecting harlan and for creating harlan, the very reason their mothers died and claire doesn’t exist. she also lost ray, which broke her entirely, but did not justify her cruel actions toward her family. this built up her selfish personality to its peak. while she wasn’t genuine when she apologized to her siblings, she did care for the family. in the end, we see her making a deal with reginald, the details of which we were never told. while she might’ve had selfish intentions in mind, i think the deal was made to benefit the family. at the end of the last episode, we see allison run home to claire and ray, which makes me think one of two things happened; she either died and is in the afterlife, or reset the universe to benefit herself in the same way reginald did. this arc definitely adds layers to the character, while also villainizing her. it gave the story flavor and added to its final plot. every character, from lila who we met in s2 to ben and the sparrows, had tremendous character development and became versions of themselves that suit the story better. like even luther, being the macho guy he was, became calmer and took a step back, giving the reigns to someone else for once. the character development, while it was disappointing to some, was very apt to the storyline. i think it did better than s1 in this aspect.

the second thing that makes this season so incredible is the deeper plot. earlier, in both s1 and 2, the hargreeves siblings had only one goal; to save the world. now, in s2, they introduced us to the ‘reggie is an alien’ element, but never really built on it. in this season, they dug through that to realize that everything might’ve been planned. now, saving the world was a more complicated task than we thought. it wasn’t just saving the world anymore, it was who the hell is reginald hargreeves. this season was crucial in building up to the answer, which we’ll get more of in s4 i hope. this added tremendous building to the repetitive ‘saving the world’ storyline. it thickens the plot and leaves us craving more.

the third and final thing (out of the million points i wanted to make lmao), is the cliff-hanger ending. the ending was, i think, my favorite part. it’s frustrating, but leaves you coming back for more. in the ending, we see them ‘reset’ the universe, or rather, walk out in a completely different place—one where reginald is alive, and seems to have a considerable amount of power. on top of that, the hargreeves siblings (and lila) have all ‘lost’ their powers. the reason i’ve put lost in quotes, is because they’ll definitely, at some point, get their powers back. this adds to the suspense, because a lot of their defense relies on their powers and thats how they survive. living without their powers, is not only going to be a challenge, but might be dangerous considering the problems they could face (especially with reginald’s unknown plans). coming to the last part of this ending; the song. the song that plays when the scene shows the eight of them part ways, is short change hero by the heavy. the lyrics of this song (as attached above) are “this ain’t no place for no hero, this ain’t no place for no better man, this ain’t no place for no hero, to call home.” i think the choice of this song was intentional for its lyrics. the writers might be implying (in my opinion) that the reset universe is a sort of dystopia—one where reginald might have more power than the last one. it opens up a world of theories (aside from the comic relations) that we don’t know. despite not liking the season, it will keep you coming back. we even get a glimpse of reginald’s bride/spouse/lover, who we’d just barely seen in the previous seasons. it heightens the suspense and builds it up. when the next season comes out, we’ll be impatient and seeking answers. season 3 was much, much, much better in terms of the suspense because it’s not predictable like the last two. it’s not just saving the world, it’s figuring out their past and their future. figuring out who their father really is and what he is or may be planning for them. one thing is for sure, they won’t be left alone (poor five—man wanted to retire.)

sorry this post is so long, but i just wanted to explain my pov on this season, as a lot of people have stopped watching the umbrella academy because they felt like it wasn’t up to their expectations or a lot of characters changed for the worse. this is my take and i hope it either convinces you to watch s4 or maybe not hate s3 as much. anyway i rewatched the season (whole series too honestly) about eight times like maniac lmao :)))

#the umbrella academy #tua season three #tua season 3 #tua klaus #five hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #umbrella academy luther #tua sloane #the sparrow academy #ben hargreeves #tua ben #tua lila #lila x diego #diego hargreeves #tua diego #viktor hargreeves #tua viktor #allison hargreeves #netflix #tua spoilers #tua netflix #Spotify

[realestaters]

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#Purva Aerocity #Purva Aerocity Bangalore #Purva Aerocity Price #Puravankara Upcoming Plots Chikkajala #Puravankara New Launch Plots in Chikkajala #Purva Plots Chikkajala #Purva Aerocity Location Map #realestate #bangalore

[themovieblogonline]

The Future of Foundation with David Goyer

Thank you for checking out our Foundation Season 2 Interview with showrunner David Goyer! In this exclusive interview, we sit down with the incredibly talented writer, director, and showrunner for his work on The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and more. Dive into the future of "Foundation" with our exclusive interview featuring the series' brilliant showrunner, David Goyer! In this in-depth conversation, Goyer unveils tantalizing hints and secrets about what lies ahead in the next seasons of the show. Get ready for a captivating journey as we explore the visionary mind behind this epic adaptation of Isaac Asimov's novels. Join us as we decode the mysteries of the series and gain unique insights into the grand narrative that's set to shape the galactic future. But that's not all! In this interview, Goyer goes beyond the screen! He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process and the intricate world-building that makes "Foundation". From character development to the blending of science fiction and philosophy, this conversation delves deep into the making of the series. Whether you're a die-hard fan or new to the "Foundation" universe, this interview promises to be an enlightening and thrilling exploration of the series' past, present, and the exciting path it's forging ahead. Don't miss out on this exclusive peek into the world of "Foundation" and its exciting journey to come! Synopsis: More than a century after the season one finale, tension mounts throughout the galaxy in “Foundation” season two. As the Cleons unravel, a vengeful queen plots to destroy Empire from within. Hari, Gaal, and Salvor discover a colony of Mentalics with psionic abilities that threaten to alter psychohistory itself. The Foundation has entered its religious phase, promulgating the Church of Seldon throughout the Outer Reach and inciting the Second Crisis: war with Empire. The monumental adaptation of “Foundation” chronicles the stories of four crucial individuals transcending space and time as they overcome deadly crises, shifting loyalties, and complicated relationships that will ultimately determine the fate of humanity. Read the full article

[thetoxicgamer]

Pokémon Pro Snags a ‘Salty’ Victory With Underrated Pick to Take Home Regional Scarlet and Violet Championship

Jiseok Lee, a Pokémon VGC prodigy from South Korea, travelled to the San Diego Regional Championships over the weekend and won everything with an 8-2 victory to become the 2023 San Diego Regional Champion for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Taking home 3,000 dollars in prize money and 200 CP for the 2023 Pokémon VGC circuit is an amazing feat in itself for Jiseok Lee, but even more so when you consider the fact that he pulled it off with some pretty unique picks and builds. A couple of notable Pokémon were his three-attacks Loaded Dice Baxcalibur, Life Orb Mimikyu without Trick Room, and Garganacl whose offensive presence only comes from Salt Cure, a move we’ve seen Lee utilize brilliantly throughout his battles that were on stream. That wasn’t the only unusual part of Lee’s Garganacl, however, since it also donned the Poison Tera typing, something not usually seen in the sparse usage Garganacl has gotten in the recent past. And it wasn’t like Lee could pull any surprises onto his opponents since every official tournament going forward is going to be open team sheet, including this regional. Below is Jiseok Lee’s team sheet, which was also visible to his opponents. - Garganacl @ Leftovers - Ability: Purifying Salt - Tera Type: Poison - – Salt Cure - – Recover - – Wide Guard - – Protect - Baxcalibur @ Loaded Dice - Ability: Thermal Exchange - Tera Type: Water - – Glaive Rush - – Icicle Spear - – Ice Shard - – Protect - Mimikyu @ Life Orb - Ability: Disguise - Tera Type: Ghost - – Play Rough - – Shadow Claw - – Shadow Sneak - – Protect - Tauros-Paldea-Water @ Safety Goggles - Ability: Intimidate - Tera Type: Water - – Close Combat - – Wave Crash - – Aqua Jet - – Protect - Meowscarada @ Focus Sash - Ability: Overgrow - Tera Type: Grass - – Flower Trick - – Knock Off - – Sucker Punch - – Protect - Gholdengo @ Choice Specs - Ability: Good as Gold - Tera Type: Steel - – Make It Rain - – Shadow Ball - – Power Gem - – Focus Blast One thing that immediately stands out after analyzing Lee’s team for a bit is the extreme lack of Speed control. No Tailwind, no Trick Room, not even something like Icy Wind or Thunder Wave, but Lee still managed to make this work incredibly well, and one of the major components on his team to thank for that is the abundance of priority moves he had on his Pokémon. Four of the picks on his team were rocking some form of priority attack, being his Baxcalibur with Ice Shard, Mimikyu with Shadow Sneak, Paldean Tauros: Aqua breed with Aqua Jet, and Meowscarada with Sucker Punch. Who cares if your opponents are faster than you when you can move first anyway? The way this choice of utilizing priority moves as an unorthodox form of speed control meshed incredibly well with the rest of his team is mainly due to his unique Garganacl set.  Since Garganacl could only click Salt Cure when it went on the offensive, all it needed to do was use Recover and Protect to keep itself alive while the residual damage of Salt Cure whittled its opponents’ HP down to the point where its teammates could take advantage of their strong priority moves to finish off their opponents regardless of the fact that they had the Speed advantage. Mimikyu is probably the next most surprisingly built Pokémon on this team. With a Life Orb and three attacks, it was just seen firing off strong STAB and priority attacks rather than being a support or hybrid ‘mon with the crucial option of Trick Room. It didn’t even use other common options like Will-O-Wisp or Curse, the latter of which saw quite some usage on Mimikyu throughout the teams in the tournament. Speaking of unusual builds compared to the rest of the tournament, we see Lee’s Gholdengo sporting a Choice Specs set which, even though was the premier set earlier in the meta, saw quite a drop in usage, with plenty of the Gholdengos in the tournament rather opting to run a bulky Nasty Plot set. This just shows that thinking out of the box and not being afraid to innovate can lead to amazing outcomes, with Jiseok Lee taking his first big win since his victory at the 2016 Korean National Championship. Lee has often gotten top-cut results in the tournaments he’s played in since then, making sure players acknowledged his presence, but this win at the San Diego regionals should cement his place as one of the big fish that other pros would be foolish not to respect. Read the full article

[wednesdaysaddamsworld]

Pros and Cons of Wednesday 

While I enjoyed watching the new Netflix show Wednesday, I couldn't help but notice certain things that I both really liked, and really disliked.

PROS:

The Modernization of the Addams Family. I've been a big fan of the Addams family since I was little. Its dark, gothic aesthetic is something that I really enjoyed and within every rendition of the Addams family, it is something crucial to who they are. As a lot of people have pointed out, the Addams family was created to mock modern day tv families in that, while they are "weird" and out of place, they have a very healthy family dynamic that other tv families lack.

The Writing. I loved each episode of season 1 and I think the writers understand who Wednesday is at her core, while still being able to write a "new" version of Wednesday that hasn't been dug into yet.

The Representation. Being a Latina myself, I loved that a beloved series of mine took the chance on making Wednesday and Gomez (and arguably Pugsly) Latinos. Growing up with the movies and cartoons, I always imagined myself in Wednesday's place, and I'm so happy that other goth Latinas will be able to identify with her.

The Casting of the Addams Family. I absolutely loved the chemistry between Luis Guzman and Katherine Zeta-Jones, they were incredible as Gomez and Morticia and I hope to see more of them in season 2. I also loved the casting of the young versions of them from episode 5.

CONS:

Tim Burton. While I thought the show was really good, its very clear what aspects of the show were influenced by him. Throughout the show, we never once see a black character that isn't considered to be "evil". Despite the show only having 3 black characters, every single one of them is considered to be an antagonist, with little to no character development or personality outside of the main character's goal.

The Love Triangle. I mean really? I think this one is self explanatory. The side plot of the love triangle between Wednesday, Tyler, and Xavier was boring, and not at all convincing. The boys go on and on about Wednesday's "mixed signals," despite there being NO romantic signals at all. It felt very forced and inorganic. Especially considering Jenna Ortega opposed the love triangle herself.

Overall, the show was entertaining and kept me on the edge of my seat, when I wasn't rolling my eyes at how delusional Xavier and Tyler were. I hope the next season addresses the characters outside of the main cast, especially Bianca.

#wednesday #netflix wednesday #the addams family #tim burton #jenna ortega

[roblesnorth29]

I am a huge fan of TV shows that feature excellent sound tracks.

My latest obsession and interest is Dark TV Series. I am in the middle of the third season and I can't be satisfied with the show. This isn't the greatest show in the world, I've seen better, however, there are two things I absolutely love about this show that I haven't observed elsewhere. They are inextricably linked. It's the skillful work of casting agents. When they show 2 or 3 different versions of the same individual by age of 33 year increments, they truly prove my point.. These people appear to be like they've just grown into the more mature one.. Definitely props for the most amazing casting job I've seen on TV in recent times.

The second thing I noticed that stands out about the show is its music. Yes, it's important to discuss the story and Dark certainly ranks first on this list. We won't be talking about the plot, the twists, or even the shocking twists and turns in the TV show. However, I would prefer to concentrate on the music. The soundtrack is composed of music and background making moody sound effects. The group in charge of music selection has performed a a remarkable job. They seek out songs that can create or destroy moods during the crucial moments of the show's episodes, and they discover them. I can't even imagine, cannot believe that this show exists and have the kind of waves it has without the music it has..

This weird lullaby might be the oddest or most memorable song I hear at the moment. I'm not sure if any TV shows require that the music be cited at the end of the song. Perhaps they're capable of finding music in the public domain that doesn't need to be credited. However, I do remember having to find this song using the lyrics rather than title simply because the title wasn't to be located. Then I found the Youtube page for the song. It's Bonaparte. Check out the video I posted.. Are you sure? This is one of the most bizarre songs I've ever heard, but it's just so captivating.

I'm fascinated by the music and show. So much so that I decided to make my own mixtape. I searched for the entire lyrics online and realized that it would take two CDs in order to hold the songs for the 2 hours. I used convert to MP3 to save all my music, and then burn both CDs to my car. Usually, I download videos from Youtube. But this time, I was looking to make my music portable and put it on CDs. Are you old school? Are I an older person? Don't fall for my spiel. I have an incredible audio system in my car. Even though the music downloaded from Youtube doesn't produce good sound, and definitely isn't very bass-y.. It's all about MP3 Encoding. It blocks out frequencies barely audible by the human ears. However, it removes lots of almost useless sound, making the mp3 file smaller and easier to handle.

#mp3juices

[voxxphantasma]

dogboy hades ..

#snail trail #this is a very serious campaign :) #thats why hades is a dog boy #its incredibly crucial 2 the plot #it is IMPERATIVE that he is a dogboy #theomancy

[hunxi-after-hours]

Omg Hunxi! You’ve read SVSSS?! What did you think of it? What’s your opinion on Luo Binghe? It’s often looked down upon among the 3 novels, but I personally love it and it’s chaotic energy.

I mean, I've only read 2/3 of MXTX's novels, but I have a suspicion that SVSSS might be my favorite because the book is batshit insane and also so much fun

there's this manic energy to it that generates a heady mix of irreverence and intensity, slingshotting you from startled laughter to stunned silence and right back with the maximum amount of emotional whiplash possible

incidentally, this novel taught me more Chinese internet slang in <100 chapters than I've learned in my entire life

the best analogy I think I could make might be that... SVSSS kind of has the same energy as Bo Burnham's Inside? in that it is simultaneously a satire, a love letter, a deconstruction, and a reimagining of a genre (for Inside, Netflix comedy specials; for SVSSS, transmigration and stallion webnovels), while doing a really damn good job of its most direct purpose (being a rollicking good ride all the way down)

but sdlkfjsdlfkj Luo Binghe. oh man what a character

I feel like, no matter what long paragraphs or thematic complexity I can tease out of Luo Binghe and his characterization, his character arc and journey, no amount of words I write can beat @blackelement7's one-sentence summation of his character, which is: it's hard to be Luo Binghe

and really, much of SVSSS revolves around the deconstruction of narrative and character tropes--like, literally. (Shen Yuan as) Shen Qingqiu dismantles the ludicrously hackneyed and exaggerated plot of PIDW and accidentally puts it back together in a different shape just by, y'know, existing and being -- get ready for this -- a decent person

so Luo Binghe fits into this whole agenda by deconstructing a familiar archetype of the masculine, heroic protagonist--virile, undefeatable, hopelessly attractive, naturally talented, beloved of fate/happenstance/coincidence, unique and unlikely inheritor of multiple legacies, gifted with unrealistic sexual prowess. he has the tragic orphan origin story, the bitterly cruel and traumatic youth, then the vengeful return, the eventual violent triumph over those who had wronged him, his """happy""" ending of supreme power and supreme sexual satisfaction and supreme unbeatability

or at least, that's the original Luo Binghe

MXTX takes this larger-than-life legendary figure and shows us his hidden shadows, his deep insecurities, the flaws that have been expunged by the demands of readers and narrative (and oh boy does this book have things to say about the relationship between the author and the consumer). she takes the original Luo Binghe (and by extension, the entire stallion genre) gently by the hand and asks, have you found love?

I have a harem of hundreds of beautiful women, the original Luo Binghe replies.

have you found satisfaction? MXTX asks.

I rule the entire world, both human and demonic realms, he replies.

are you happy? MXTX asks, and cruelly, crucially--the original Luo Binghe cannot answer yes, and have that be true

MXTX takes every aspect of the original Luo Binghe and systematically subverts it: his virility is undercut by the fact that the person of his affections prefers Luo Binghe's younger, innocent self, not the virile, manly man that maidens ostensibly swoon over. Luo Binghe's undefeatability and ridiculous talents are undercut by the fact that no amount of strength, or power, or influence, will get him what he truly wants -- Shen Qingqiu's genuine love and affection. in the original PIDW, the goddamn trauma congo line that Luo Binghe gets put through only makes him stronger, laying the foundation of his eventual, triumphant, vengeful return. but in SVSSS, we see all the ways that Luo Binghe's trauma doesn't make him stronger -- in fact, leads him to incredible levels of insecurity and self-sabotage and self-hatred

or, in short:

PIDW: I've done it, I've crafted the perfect stallion novel protagonist

MXTX, busily typing: no you haven't, you've fucked up a perfectly nice young man is what you've done. look at him, he's got enough trauma to cause the apocalypse

a lot of our understanding of Luo Binghe is filtered through the lens of Shen Qingqiu, who is one of the most unreliable narrators I've ever had the privilege of laughing at. much of Shen Qingqiu's character arc in the novel is coming to realize that the people around him -- Luo Binghe, yes, but also Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, all the women previously dismissed as love interests, and even, eventually, Shen Jiu -- are actually people too, not just flat fictional characters, but individuals with agendas and feelings and unwritten histories of their own. Shen Qingqiu is so preoccupied (and rightfully so!) with his fate and foreknowledge of the plot that he fails to notice for a comically long time that the plot has changed on him while he was busy jumping to conclusions about what certain people must be thinking

but back to Luo Binghe. the novel takes Luo Binghe's intense traumas and fears -- abandonment, self-loathing, rejection and very real hurt -- and makes them matter. past suffering doesn't just build character to make you stronger in the future -- you have to come to terms with it first, gain closure, let the wound heal over before you can safely build upon it. and despite having loyal subordinates, despite having more love interests than he can shake a evil sword at, Luo Binghe has no one to truly, emotionally support him

all those people flocking around him, all those women (allegedly) trying to sleep with him, and Luo Binghe doesn't have a single friend

the original PIDW would have you believe that's indicative of his strength and independence, his ability to stand alone. a Man (TM). MXTX takes one look at that and calls bullshit

or, in other words:

PIDW: I've done it, I've crafted the ultimate male fantasy

MXTX, typing faster: no you haven't, you've subscribed to toxic masculinity is what you've done. you created a lonely, overpowered young man who only knows how to deal with his problems through violence. look at him, he's got abandonment issues and unhealthy masochistic tendencies

(masochism is fine! but someone needs to gently pull Luo Binghe back into the realm of kink rather than deliberate self-harm, and while we're at it someone please give this man a hug without also detonating at the same time)

SVSSS takes the unrealistic, overperfected model of an archetypal male protagonist and shows us all the ways this person (and this model) is broken. the text constantly cracks jokes about 'the protagonist halo,' but for much of the book, Luo Binghe is never allowed to be a person--he is always The Protagonist, the half-demon spawn, the existential threat to the human cultivation world, and Luo Binghe’s continual dehumanization breaks him. and guess what? the eventual resolution of the conflict comes from nothing more and nothing less than Shen Qingqiu showing kindness. was it messy and fraught as hell? you fucking bet it was. but was the underlying message of the entire story also as simple as "but the villain needs love too!" you fucking bet it was.

this is a running theme in MXTX’s writing--we see it prominently in both SVSSS and TGCF: the colossal, literally world-saving power of empathy, and kindness, and love, and forgiveness, and that, I think, is crucial for understanding and appreciating Luo Binghe as a character

#all things considered Luo Binghe has a legitimately terrifying amount of character development to work through post-canon #wheeeee #hunxi thinks about SVSSS

[omegas-spaghettios]

No Way Home Spoilers!

I have seen people complaining that Matt was only in one scene. Daredevil and Spider-Man are my two favorite superheroes, and as a major fan of both, Matt did not need more than one scene.

For one thing, Matt already plays a major role in the film in this one scene, he is able to get Peter's charges dropped. Like that's huge for Peter. He makes a big impact on Peter's life and was only in one scene. It would have been cool to see him in court but he already made a huge impact.

But a bit more importantly, this is THE Spider-Man film. This film is paying tribute to two huge Spider-Man franchises as well as finishing its own trilogy. It has 5 old villains that are iconic and need ample attention, 2 old Spider-Men that require the utmost care and attention, Doctor Strange is crucial to the plot of this film, they needed to get Eddie Brock in there, JJJ also had a fairly large role, the supporting characters of the trilogy needed attention especially May, Ned, MJ, and Happy, AND this film aimed to develop Holland's Peter more than he ever has before. That's a lot.

This is a film about the legacy of Spider-Man, both in and out of universe. Matt's cameo is incredibly awesome, but making him any larger takes away from all of the major characters that are crucial to this film already.

I love Matt Murdock and I ADORE Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock. This film showed us a glimpse of the future with him, and seeing how this film is THE Spider-Man film, that is more than enough for me.

#spider man no way home spoilers #no way home spoilers #spider man no way home #no way home #nwh #daredevil #matt murdock #charlie cox #matthew murdock

[boldbrash-fandertrash]

Ignore me, unless I’m right in which case I fucking called it

So I was rewatching the episode for the fourth time and one I realized that Remus is much much smarter than we give him credit for and two I can generally predict how the rest of the story is gonna go.

We’re gonna have another aside video with Patton and Janus before the big season finale, and that aside is going to be one of the most important videos to the general progression of the plot.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the pattern so far, two sides who diametrically oppose each other being forced to work together on a problem they vastly disagree about, usually turning the small issue into something much messier than it ever would be and them learning something about themselves in the process.

Each pairing exists to point out to the viewer exactly what issues exist with each side that need some form of resolving, and the big unifying theme amongst them is “you’re not listening to me”. Roman and Virgil dragging Thomas across the cafeteria in favor of or agains him talking to Nico, Logan and Remus deliberately ignoring and working to undo the others work in an attempt to break Thomas out of the depressive funk he found himself in. Nobody is working together here. The only side to even remotely cooperate with the group was Virgil body checking Thomas into Nico, and it took him and Roman bullying each other and Thomas for an entire video to even get to that point.

Watching Logan and Remus interact, one, brought me immense joy and I will be chasing that high for weeks to come, and two, after an ounce of critical thinking was frankly painful to watch. Any critiques Logan offered to Remus were immediately discarded with absurdity and any critiques Remus offered to Logan were discounted as absurd.

During the obvious scene at the end with the Eyes™️, Logan claimed he wasn’t pretending Remus didn’t exist, but honestly, he kinda was.

The Dunce Cap Scene really accentuates this point. Logan pulls a holier than thou, why won’t you learn I’m always right, bullshit passive aggressive remark, Remus does his dramatic repenting student shtick, starts singing directly into Logan’s ear, and makes a kink joke. Literally the words Remus sings are “can’t fix this guy, all by yourself”. Remus is saying this inches from Logan’s personal face and even still the logical side ignores him outright, because of all the fluff around the message. Hell, in Remus’s introduction video, Logan likens him to a screaming baby on a plane, essentially saying “well eventually he’ll stop screaming so just bear with it for a while and you’ll be fine”. He’s ignoring Remus outright due to a preconceived notion and missing out on valuable information because of it.

The dunce cap scene indirectly calls back to learning new things about ourselves, where Logan is completely unreceptive to the puppet bit because of its perceived absurdity and absolutely refuses to acknowledge any potential the medium might have for learning until he physically cannot anymore.

Remus is capable of, and does often, make valid points and offers genuine critiques of shit happening in their lives. In Forbidden Fruit, almost every single line harkens back to some idea the other sides had been trying, and failing, to communicate to Thomas. “Good and bad is all made up nonsense”, “if you shared those musings with your friends i doubt they would forgive you”, “why deny yourself knowledge, say, knowledge of yourself” “people don’t like me much, Thomas, but that only just cause I’m honest”, “these sorts of things are only thought in the mind of a man who’s soul is truly rotten.”

Despite all of this, he is ignored outright because of his medium. Just like Logan is ignored due to his monotone cadence and large volume of content, just like Roman is due to his flair for the dramatic and artistic display of ideas, just like Patton is due to his playful and childlike nature, just like Janus is due to his perceived role as the Villain, just like Virgil /was/ due to his perceived role as the villain.

They all have become accustomed to being stepped on by the other sides because of who they are and how they communicate, and have in turn learned some less than ideal methods of being heard again. Logan yells and gets passive aggressive, Remus ups the fear factor for everyone around him, Roman shuts down anyone who tries to talk through bullying and raising his voice, Patton manipulates the others into feeling guilt and covers it up with a smile, Virgil whips out the tempest tongue and incites fear in Thomas, and Janus physically silences anyone in his way.

And here’s why I say the next asides episode is going to be the most important one developmentally. Patton and Janus are going to be forced to work together. Patton, who is in the midst of an identity crisis, and willing to listen to any new ideas provided they offer a valid solution to the shit he’s found himself in, and Janus, who knows a lot more than he’s willing to let on, who concerns himself exclusively with Thomas’s self preservation, and loves to talk when given the opportunity. Janus is gonna have a thing or two to say to Patton when they’re inevitably faced with their moral dilemma, and Patton is going to be in just the right mindset that he’s willing to listen. And Janus is going to end up being right, and the small issue they’re facing will be resolved, which will therefore strengthen Patton’s trust, and his openness to changing for the better.

Patton is goofy, and childish, and kinda ditzy sometimes, and because of that we as a fandom tend to overlook any of his moments that are anything but that, but we are not giving this man enough credit. When Patton sets his heart on something, he throws his whole self into it, and is willing to stand up for his beliefs in the face of extreme opposition, and would gladly do anything in his power to defend his family. Once Patton decides that he’s willing to grow, and if he believes that this growth will help put his family back together, nothing can stop him, and that will be absolutely crucial for the growth of all the other sides around him.

Whatever him and Janus discuss during their aside will absolutely give Patton the information he needs to help stitch together the rift between everyone.

I predict the next official Sanders Sides video is going to be the longest one yet, possibly over an hour long, because there’s a LOT of work that is going to need to be done, and Everyone is going to be in it. The big issue of “you’re not listening to me” won’t be resolved, but it will be acknowledged in a serious light by everyone. We won’t be getting any appearances from the Orange Side I don’t think, that would end up just complicating matters even more when each character is already incredibly shaky in their own identity.

Something less than ideal is gonna happen between Thomas and Nico, he’s gonna summon the initial three to deal with the matter but the other lads are gonna worm their way into the discussion, everyone’s gonna start screaming at each other, and Pattons gonna do something that stuns everyone else into silence (I’m guessing he’ll start crying, considering the start of season two was all about him repressing negative emotions and what better way to show character growth than to sob openly on camera).

Once everyone just fucking stops for ten seconds that’s when the apologies start. None of the sides are ever the first to apologize, we’ve seen that time and time again. Their desire to be in the right as well as their pride will always get in the way, however if someone starts the apology train everyone will eventually follow suit. We see that in Alone On Valentines Day, My Negative Thinking, Growing Up, Accepting Anxiety, Fitting In, Moving On, actually in pretty much every video where an apology actually takes place, once one person apologizes the other will immediately follow suit.

Patton is gonna be a goddamn mess, he’s gonna apologize to everyone in the room for anything he thinks he may have done to wrong them, and that’s gonna be what gets everyone to acknowledge all the shit they’ve put each other through, and the others are going to jump between trying to console him and trying to apologize to each other. They’re going to come to the unified decision that they need to work together more on future issues, the group is all going to offer up a solution and decide together on a remedy to whatever happened together between Thomas and Nico, and that will be that. Season three will be about them finding the balance between stepping on toes and being stepped over, while also working out how the orange side fits into everything.

Thus marking the end of my rant.

I started writing this at 2 and it’s now 4. I have to be up in three hours. I have an essay due at 3pm tomorrow that I haven’t started, but instead I typed up all this bullshit. I hope any of this made any sense, and I hope this is a suitable replacement for my emotions essay that’s completely untouched because chances are this is what I’m presenting to my therapist tomorrow. Wish me luck.

#sorry for no page break I’m on mobile #I’ll be fixing that in the morning after some well deserved rest #thomas sanders #sanders sides #ts sanders sides #ts spoilers #ts patton #ts Logan #ts roman #ts Virgil #ts Janus #ts Remus #ts theory

[tossawary]

Because my brain does NOT stop even when I’m grounded, today my brain told me, “Hey, I figured out how to make a Hobbit Fusion AU work.” And I was like, “Great! We’re working, though.” And my brain was like, “I’ve figured out how to make it a Pre-Canon Canon Divergence AU for Moshang.”

And I was like, “...I’m listening.”

The Hobbit is another one of my Comfort Media and it got brought up when I was asking about that, but I was feeling kind of “eh” about mixing Tolkien mythology with SVSSS. I mean, the mental picture of Dwarf Mobei-Jun is extremely funny and Shang Qinghua would make a great hobbit! But that interpretation felt a little too direct for my AU tastes.

So, hm, now I have another potential Big Bang contender. My love for The Hobbit is very, VERY strong and looking at my current outline, I have to be like, “Yeah, this could be 50,000 words, no problem.”

It’s a very good outline!

-

After saving Mobei-Jun, Shang Qinghua bailed A.S.A.P. because he honestly thought Mobei-Jun was going to kill him. He psyched himself out of sticking around before Mobei-Jun woke up. Mobei-Jun didn’t get enough information to track Shang Qinghua down.

Shang Qinghua (who isn’t SQH because he isn’t the Peak Lord) decides that he can’t fucking take it anymore and bails from Cang Qiong Mountain Sect too. The System objects, but also falls into line when Airplane shrieks at it. Airplane is going to go become a humble merchant and inventor and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop him!

It turns out that Shang Qinghua’s presence or help was actually crucial to stop some Emperor of the Abyss from taking over the Ice Palace and the Northern Desert. Airplane is like, “Oh, yeah, I remember… offhandedly writing something about that happening in the past off-screen?” It was one of those things that he just threw in there because it sounded really cool, and it gave Mobei-Jun another reason to “owe” Shang Qinghua and not kill him immediately, but he never got to elaborate on it because he was too busy writing stallion novel bullshit.

So, borrowing the lore from my “Horns” one-shot, an extremely powerful Emperor of the Abyss escaped the Eternal Abyss. This is some devouring horror being from the depths of the abyss, which ate everything in its vicinity in the abyss itself and crawled into the Demon Realm to eat more things. The Emperor of the Abyss was attracted to Mobei-Jun’s father. They fought. Mobei-Jun’s father should have won, but didn’t, because he was too fucked up (thanks to his own hedonism or something) to fight properly. What an asshole.

Mobei-Jun’s father was killed and devoured by the Emperor of the Abyss, which has made it… exponentially powerful. It’s now… basically a calamity. The desolation that it leaves in its wake across the Northern Desert is unspeakable. Mobei-Jun and his family, their allied clans, and pretty much all demons in the Northern Desert have had to flee.

Mobei-Jun is currently essentially a “guest” of the Sha Clan. He’s homeless. He’s lost the power of his ancestors. He’s a “king” without a kingdom. It’s humiliating. He needs to kill the abyssal creature to retrieve: his title, his ancestors’ power, and his kingdom.

While working for other demon clans to support his family and people, Mobei-Jun crosses paths with Airplane. Airplane has become a relatively successful merchant and inventor, and he calls himself Shang Houhua. He lives a very comfortable life and does his best to ignore anything resembling the plot. He’s pretty successful at ignoring the plot.

Mobei-Jun is never in a good mood these days, but he’s especially pissed off to see that human who abandoned him all those years ago. Airplane tries to argue that Mobei-Jun told him to fuck off, but Mobei-Jun is too angry. Airplane makes lots of offers in an effort to get Mobei-Jun to spare his life, one of which ends up being a claim that he can help Mobei-Jun kill the Emperor of the Abyss and make him a king again. Mobei-Jun pauses, now even more pissed off than before, and Airplane just starts babbling desperately to save his own skin.

Mobei-Jun was already forming a company to take on a Quest for the Northern Desert - in the hopes of slaying the Emperor of the Abyss and retaking his homeland. Part of the issue has been that forming the company is difficult. Mobei-Jun wants people who are loyal to HIM and ONLY to him. He won’t owe anyone else anything or promise them pieces of his homeland.

(Airplane is like, “Bro, I don’t know if you can afford to be so picky, but okay.”)

So Mobei-Jun is like… “I still want to kill you, but fine, you can come on our quest and help us.”

So Airplane ends up on the Quest for the Northern Desert, led by his very angry future murderer the “king without a kingdom” Mobei-Jun, to fight the calamitous Emperor of the Abyss who killed Mobei-Jun’s father. Fuck.

Some details beyond this opening premise:

Airplane and Mobei-Jun fall in love over the course of the quest, obviously. They have their own hijinks like each chapter of The Hobbit (equivalents to the trolls, to Rivendell, to Goblintown, to Beorn, to Mirkwood, and to Laketown, etc.). 

Oh, damn, I just realized that making a pre-fall Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang the Beorn equivalents would be so fucking funny.

The Emperor of the Abyss is a horrifying Smaug equivalent. It can totally talk because Airplane having a conversation with a draconian horror sounds incredible. I would love to have Airplane outwit the Emperor of the Abyss in some fashion.

Mobei-Jun and Airplane somehow manage to successfully kill the Emperor of the Abyss together. Like, together. Probably using some plot device whipped up or some clever plan devised by Airplane on his feet. Mobei-Jun trusts Airplane at a crucial moment and it all works out. Airplane actually gets Mobei-Jun his kingdom back.

I’m tempted to just skip over the Ring and not having a Ring equivalent. BUT if I made this into a longfic instead of a one-shot, I would have a Ring equivalent (if it was a one-shot, I would ditch the Ring equivalent). I think I would make Xin Mo the One Ring equivalent. During the Goblintown equivalent event, Airplane falls either into the Eternal Abyss or into Bing-Ge’s dimension, where he proceeds to successfully take up Xin Mo because he knows the trick and portal himself out of the Eternal Abyss, or he proceeds to outwit Bing-Ge in some fashion and uses the Xin Mo sword to portal himself back to the right dimension.

So then Airplane is stuck with this super powerful sword that he doesn’t want to use again because he KNOWS that it will fuck him up. He KNOWS that it will FUCK HIM UP. So Airplane has to go through the rest of the quest ignoring the temptation of the Xin Mo sword that he is absolutely not supposed to have and can’t possibly let anyone else have.

(Oh, man, imagining the influence of Xin Mo giving Airplane extra horny thoughts about Mobei-Jun on the rest of the quest is very funny. Like, Airplane was already hot for Mobei-Jun, but now it’s worse and he might never have a normal thought ever again.)

Bagginshield Movie Hug when Airplane turns up again, for sure. Mobei-Jun thought he was dead. Mobei-Jun smiles and everything, until he remembers to frown again.

I’m feeling like I don’t want Airplane to use Xin Mo to help defeat the Emperor of the Abyss, but it makes sense if he does. Him not using it doesn’t make much sense. I do like the idea of Airplane dealing the killing blow and Mobei-Jun’s pride being hurt by Airplane being the one to kill it. I also like the idea of Mobei-Jun being a little smitten by Airplane just… loyally handing him his kingdom and restoring the power of his ancestors. I also really like the idea of Airplane just… not having some super powerful plot device up his sleeve on the quest.

Like, instead of Airplane’s Author God knowledge totally setting him up to deal with this thing no problem, Airplane had NO FUCKING PLAN when he set out with Mobei-Jun. He was talking completely out of his ass when he said he knew how to help Mobei-Jun. That this all worked out at all is almost completely due to luck and improvisation.

That feels MUCH more true to both Shang Qinghua and to Bilbo Baggins. Lucky lads of fast-talking, complaining, lying, not knowing what the fuck is really going on, thirsting after kings with tragic backstories, and somehow not dying despite winging it all the time.

Instead of goldsickness, Mobei-Jun is forced to deal with some side-effects of consuming the Emperor of the Abyss to regain the power of his ancestors. (Demon cannibalism rituals. Yeah.) He starts acting really scary and out-of-character and forceful, until Airplane loses his nerve and runs away. Maybe under the influence of the late Emperor of the Abyss, Mobei-Jun actually tries to kill him? I could see Mobei-Jun trying to kill Airplane for the Xin Mo sword which dealt the finishing blow on the Emperor of the Abyss.

(I need a better name for this thing. If I can’t come up with something that actually sounds good, I might just call it “The Calamity”, but that’s giving me BOTW vibes so I don’t like it. Maybe I’d call it “The Desolation” or something? Ehhhh, I don’t really like that either.)

I want to have a Battle of the Five Armies equivalent, if only so Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang can swoop in as benevolent helpers as the Beorn equivalents. Currently, I’m seeing three options. 1) The orc army equivalent are neighboring demon lords who want to strike while the new Mobei-Jun is getting established. 2) The orc army equivalent is Linguang-Jun trying to kill his nephew and take power at the last minute. 3) The orc army equivalent is Bing-Ge here with an army and he’s pissed off and wants his sword back.

On one hand, 1 and 2 would be SO MUCH EASIER to pull off. I could be really lazy about the whole thing. On the other hand, 3 would be much fresher (more surprising and links back to the Xin Mo element), more challenging and the idea of pre-fall Tianlang-Jun facing off with Bing-Ge delights me. Kick his ass, Tianlang-Jun!

(Su Xiyan gets involved? My brain says YES. Kick his ass, Su Xiyan!)

Also, I was sad about there being no Fili and Kili equivalents, because Mobei-Jun has no friends, and I’ll have to make up a company pretty much from scratch. (Sha Hualing is too young and Luo Binghe hasn’t been born yet.) BUT then I was like, “Where’s Linguang-Jun in all this?” And I would absolutely have Linguang-Jun be a part of Mobei-Jun’s Company. Instead of nephews, Mobei-Jun has a sketchy uncle who might be trying to kill him. Keeping Linguang-Jun out of it might be easier, but actually doing some character-building with him sounds fun and challenging, and I’d rather limit the number of OCs if possible.

Mobei-Jun manages to shake off the goldsickness equivalent somehow, probably through “the power of love” (and/or straight-up “dual cultivation” with Airplane?). Moshang makes up while Mobei-Jun is apparently mortally wounded from fighting Bing-Ge and Airplane thinks this is all his fault. But Mobei-Jun doesn’t die! It’s all good!  

It’d be pretty funny if there was a “Returning to the Shire” equivalent where Airplane leaves because he thinks Mobei-Jun hates him now and never wants to see him again. So then Mobei-Jun has to track his man down like, “Get back here and marry me. (Also I am so sorry for trying to kill you. Please forgive me. I hate myself so much for that.)”

And they all live happily ever after!

Holy shit, this wasn’t in Proud Immortal Demon Way.

#svsss hobbit fusion au #tossawary updates #tossawary svsss #moshang #mobei jun #shang qinghua #comfort media fusion aus #fic ideas

[itsclydebitches]

Something I notice about the giant Grimm is that they never seem to do anything. The Wyvern in V3 awakens from it's mountain and just sits on Beacon, the Leviathan only wades through the ocean and destroys a bell-tower and Monstro only spews out smaller Grimm. Whatever happened to Team RWBY strategizing to take down a Nevermore? These giant Grimm are just showpieces now.

I honestly think part of the problem remains the show's unwillingness to attach lasting consequences—and responsibility—to the group's choices. Because what does a giant grimm do? Destroy things and kill people, to a (presumably) larger extent than the normal grimm would. The Wyvern I give a total pass to because 1. Beacon was already overrun and being destroyed (a giant grimm was kinda overkill at that point) and 2. Since it's not needed for additional destruction/death, it serves the separate purpose of helping to introduce Ruby's eyes. Which I like. We've got to remember that back in Volume 3, no one in the fanbase knew what silver eye powers were, so having Cinder flinch in pain isn't going to explain what that power actually does—her connection to grimm via the weird bug is both unique and forgettable. So you've gotta include an actual grimm in that scene for Ruby to freeze, introducing the primary mechanic of "Silver eyes are a grimm specific weapon." Making the grimm a giant and presumably powerful Wyvern both explains why the group couldn't team up to take it down normally—which, again, was never that grimm's purpose in the first place. Some grimm exist for cool fights, others for forwarding the plot—and, frankly, it's just more entertaining to get a giant grimm for a Volume finale. Freezing it at the top of the tower likewise explains why the school isn't immediately rebuilt. We answer the, "Why are the characters going on a dangerous quest when they could just go back to school?" question by keeping the Wyvern there. So all in all, I think it functions rather well, demonstrating some of the logic threads RWBY now lacks.

The other two though... that's when we run into problems. Because unlike the Wyvern, they're not serving those specific functions of introducing a new power/explaining why Beacon isn't rebuilt. For them, yeah, we absolutely expect the group to have a cool fight and take them out in some epic, strategic, GIF—worthy manner. This is a fighting show! Problem is, in order to have a cool fight with a giant grimm, you need to include the inevitable consequence that things will be destroyed and, likely, people will be killed. These giant grimm aren't appearing in the middle of a forest like the Nevermore did (or even like the first geist did), they're turning up in populated areas. Fighting them will lead to casualties... and the problem there is that responsibility for these situations goes back to the heroes. Their choice to fight Cordovin brought the Leviathan. Their choice to run with Penny kept everyone in Atlas trapped. So if an epic battle wages and people in Argus die, or Salem's army breaks through and everyone in Atlas—including the Mantle evacuees—are overrun... that tragedy is partially on the group. And, notably, the story doesn't want the group to sit with any major consequences of their choices. So nothing bad happens. And nothing bad happens by virtue of there barely being a fight. Ruby just freezes time and sets off her eyes so they don't have to deal with the Leviathan ever reaching shore where the people are. Ironwood's army holds the line until Oscar saves the day so they don't have to deal with the grimm overrunning half the Kingdom. RWBY introduces very high stakes—here's this mega powerful super big ultra evil monster!!—and then pulls back on the follow through because to do otherwise would introduce consequences the story just doesn't want its heroes to face. Anyone remember during the Volume 7 hiatus how we were saying that Salem should absolutely decimate the Kingdom? Yeah, look at all the ways the story bent over backwards to avoid that. Salem randomly waits around to start the fight, the grimm soup only attacks the shields, the whale only spews smaller grimm, the line is never broken, her subordinates turn on her... the plot (flimsily) goes out of its way to ensure nothing horrific happens, as logic dictates it should, because the heroes were the ones to prevent most of the people from escaping. You can't have the mass murder of a Kingdom after that! So it doesn't happen. Even though it should. And when the horrific, permanent things do occur—the destruction of the Kingdom itself—it's fine now because the heroes chose it.

I 100% believe that in a story where the heroes were allowed to own up to their mistakes and grow from them, the fights would likewise have more room to play with the action in creative ways. If you're willing to really put Argus in danger and have the group own up to the choices that led to that, you can choregraph that epic fight on shore. However, all of this isn't to say that RWBY doesn't also have a problem with abandoning the strategic teamwork we started out with. The Hound is the most recent example of this. There, the story's moral stance isn't hindering the action: the Hound attacks in an empty street and then in the mansion with only three non-combat characters nearby. They heroes also haven't done anything wrong in these situations where having a destructive fight would reflect badly on them. Free rein for action! Yet Team JYR still just stands there while Oscar is captured, or take turns launching single attacks rather than trying to defeat it together (though this gets much better during their chase scene). Weiss comes out to help Blake and Ruby, only to be sent right back inside. Ruby is knocked out and Blake can't defeat the acid grimm alone, but Ruby one-shots it from behind rather than the two of them working together. Then Ruby waltzes up and also one-shots the Hound with her eyes, Whitley and Willow's contribution feeling like it hardly matters. If a suit of armor falling on it is enough to finish the Hound off, any punch from any of the fighters would have done the same job. Ruby's eyes already did all the work. Even when the story has all the space it wants for those cool fights against giant and abnormal grimm... it's holding back.

The fights have really gone downhill in the last couple of Volumes and no, it's not because the current animators aren't as talented with choreography as Monty was. It's because the fights are bending in illogical ways to serve the story, rather than the story evolving naturally out of the fights. Why can't Blake take on this grimm? Because the story wants to emphasize how crucial Ruby is to the team's spirits. Why don't we get cool combos to take out the Hound? Because the story wants to reveal the faunus' silver eyes in a shocking manner. Why was Yang taken out from a single hit by Neo? Because the story wanted to quickly established that the main group would "die" in this finale. Why did JYR just stand there and attack in useless ways? Because the story needed Oscar to get kidnapped. Why wasn't the whale established as something to fight, either with traditional combat techniques or with something the group had to come up with? Because the story wanted to introduce the shocking surprise of Ozpin's cane. Etc. etc. All of these fights fail on one level or another because they're just trying to get the viewer to the next plot point, never-mind whether the fight itself makes sense or is entertaining to watch. It's the same logic as the Wyvern—this serves a purpose other than to be a cool fight for the series—but RWBY is no longer putting in the work to get all these pieces to fit together. The Wyvern keeps to the internal logic of RWBY's world, whereas something like Yang's knock out does not. Doing that with the mega grimm that promise incredible challenges and likely destruction just makes that failure to deliver all the more noticeable.

Since the Volume 4 days, the last fight I can remember really liking—that got me super hyped and eager to re-watch it on Youtube—was Ironwood vs. Watts. Looking back, it doesn't at all surprise me that this fight a) didn't require any teamwork, b) didn't have any grimm involved, c) was between a villain and a soon to be villain in an empty space (eliminating those ethics entirely), and d) existed almost solely to just be a Cool Fight (with the minor, plot forwarding details of capturing Watts and Ironwood losing his arm). Ironwood vs. Watts had the freedom to be one of the old school RWBY fights, unencumbered by the questions that now keep tripping the writers up like, "If Team RWBY won with teamwork, why didn't you animate them working as a team?" or "Why did Ruby use her eyes when we wanted to see action and didn't use her eyes to save her own life against Cinder?" or "Why did you introduce this giant grimm, promising an epic fight, only to give the group a mostly non-combat solution? Oh, because that kind of epic fight is going to introduce a lot of other questions you don't want to tackle... Jinn randomly letting Ruby stop time, it is."

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

[themovieblogonline]

Foundation Season 2 Episode 10

Thank you FANdation, We are back with another recap of our favorite “I'm not Crying” show Foundation Season 2 Episode 10. I’m your host, Anthony, and I will do my best to be your guide in this far-out show as we’re actually picking up where Episode 9 ended and we saw Gaal, Salvor, and Hari White overcome the threat of Tellem Bond as well as the unfathomable destruction of Terminus as space Homelander… err I mean Brother Day does the unthinkable and orders the destruction of the planet and all its inhabitants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4SC7Sxm1SU This episode is titled “Creation Myths” which is a very intriguing title as it relates to the work of Isaac Asimov. In Asimov's novels, the concept of creation myths could be linked to the formation of the Galactic Empire and its earthly origins, which in itself is a monumental event that serves as something of a backdrop in the series. The rise of the Foundation, which itself is an organization dedicated to preserving knowledge in a time of impending galactic collapse, can be seen as a kind of modern-day creation myth. It chronicles the emergence of a new order, akin to the birth of a civilization, and the myths, legends, and ideologies that surround this transition especially when you take into consideration the religion of the great Hari Seldon. Additionally, Asimov often delves into the idea of predicting the future through mathematical models, akin to the creation myths of ancient cultures that sought to explain the world's origins and purpose. In "Foundation," the theme of creation myths may be a lens through which the show explores how beliefs, legends, and historical narratives shape the course of history in a futuristic setting. This episode has the potential to delve deep into the philosophical and sociological aspects of Asimov's work, examining how myths and stories can be as influential as any scientific discovery or technological advancement. Overall, it’s a very intriguing title for an extremely satisfying end to an incredible season and I can’t wait to start talking to you all about the finale.  Synopsis: More than a century after the season one finale, tension mounts throughout the galaxy in “Foundation” season two. As the Cleons unravel, a vengeful queen plots to destroy Empire from within. Hari, Gaal, and Salvor discover a colony of Mentalics with psionic abilities that threaten to alter psychohistory itself. The Foundation has entered its religious phase, promulgating the Church of Seldon throughout the Outer Reach and inciting the Second Crisis: war with Empire. The monumental adaptation of “Foundation” chronicles the stories of four crucial individuals transcending space and time as they overcome deadly crises, shifting loyalties and complicated relationships that will ultimately determine the fate of humanity. Read the full article

[pair-annoyed]

Anime I Watched This Fall

My first semester of college is officially over and the December holidays are upon us! I hoped to make one of these posts sooner, but I have been incredibly busy with schoolwork. Now that things have slowed down, let’s take sometime to reflect on things I’ve watched. 

These anime are listed in chronological order and encompass everything I’ve watched from 9/1/2020 - 12/15/2020

Like always, they will be rated on a 1-10 scale; 1 meaning complete garbage, 10 meaning masterpiece. I will offer my thoughts on what I did/didn’t like about each show!

1. The God of High School - 6/10 

Despite the stellar animation from MAPPA and my high expectations, I was really disappointed by how this series was treated. Most of the story’s crucial elements were handled poorly. I finished this series feeling more confused about the plot than when I first began. The power system is really cool, but poorly explained. More time should have been spent on exposition and world building for this series, instead the fights were given the most screen time. 

2.  Doukyuusei - 7/10 

I really liked the style of Doukyuusei. Granted, this was another movie I chose to watch primarily because of the hype surrounding it. The dynamic between Kusakabe and Sajou is an interesting one, and I also enjoy how the movies different acts were separated by the seasons. However, there's nothing that really sets Doukyuusei apart from other romance movies, its a little generic. Still, I enjoyed it nonetheless. 

3.  Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season - 8/10 

My opinions on Re:Zero’s second season are biased. This was, by far, the sequel I was most hyped for during the summer/fall anime season. I was so happy to see the story’s continuation and I’m looking forward to the season’s second part coming sometime in January. Re:Zero is one of my all time favorite series because of the way it handles it characters and power dynamics. I also really enjoy the show’s psychological aspects. If you haven’t already, give Re:Zero a try! 

4. Saint☆Oniisan (Movie + OVA) - 8/10

This was a wonderful comedy. I wasn’t sure how the subject of Jesus and Buddha living together would be tackled, but it was handled wonderfully. I was laughing for pretty much the entire movie. I love the art style and little references to both Buddhism and Christianity, plus the incorporation of Japanese culture. Saint Oniisan is a bright comedy, with two eccentric main characters. If you like a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and need a good laugh, I can’t recommend this more.

5. Clannad: After Story - 10/10 

Never, while watching anime, did I cry as much as I did while watching Clannad: After Story. I didn’t realize how much I related to Okazaki until I saw him grow up in After Story. I was left sobbing, especially after episode 18. I still, to this day, cannot listen to the Dango song without tearing up. The original Clannad is nothing special, but the continuation of its story its something heartfelt, emotional, and down-to-earth. I love Kyoto Animation with all my heart, and Clannad made me appreciate everything the studio has done just a little bit more. Thank you Clannad, for reminding me about the kind of person I strive to be. 

6. Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu - 5.5/10

The art in A Whisker Away was beautiful. The story itself, however, is nothing too enjoyable. I found it difficult to like our protagonist or her love interest. Nothing about this movie is inherently memorable. The emotional climax came far too early which made the second half of the film seem long and drawn out.  All in all, the movie has a wonderful concept, I just believe it could have been so much more emotional than it was. When I watch a move, I like to empathize with the characters. It’s difficult to do when the characters aren’t given the proper exposition to be empathized with. 

7.  Shikioriori - 6/10

This is less of a movie and more of a collection of short stories. Flavors of Youth is something you shouldn’t watch on an empty stomach, all of the food looks incredible. The same cannot beside for the rest of this feature. The stories themselves seems heavily clichéd. Much like A Whisker Away, the initial premise is intriguing, but the execution results in something that comes across as trying too hard and carries no emotional weight with the viewer. If you plan on watching, pay more attention to the artwork and animation than the actual plot. You won’t be missing anything. 

8. Vinland Saga - 7/10

Vinland Saga helped me get out of the rut that Clannad: After Story. Not only does this show have a great story, its action packed with lots of interesting fights. I especially enjoyed all the Nordic history embedded within the show. Its really unlike any of the other historical anime I’ve watched. I will say, it’s gory. But, compared to all the other things I watched this time around, I finished this series the quickest. Its good, its graphic, its fast paced! 

9.  Mononoke Hime - 7/10

It’s ironic considering how much anime I’ve watched that I have yet to watch all of the most classic Studio Ghibli films. Princess Mononoke is grittier than most other Ghibli films I’ve seen, but it’s message is positive and its characters are wonderful. I can’t really speak ill towards classics like these. I guess maybe my one complaint is that this movie could’ve been a faster pace. Other than that... I really enjoyed everything Princess Mononoke offered! I understand why it’s so popular.  

10. Howl no Ugoku Shiro - 8.5/10 

Can you believe it took me this long to finally watch Howl’s Moving Castle? Me neither!! This movie is so endearingly beautiful. I loved every second of it, from the characters to the soundtrack. So many iconic things come from just this one movie. I would like to take this time to thank my best friend for reminding me that Studio Ghibli films are wonderful! Thank you for watching this with me, I loved it! All in all, I regret not watching this sooner! 

11. Toradora! - 6.5/10 

Toradora took me a while to finish, just because I lost interest about halfway through. But, I powered through it, and ended up really enjoying the show! I’m not the biggest fan of the ending, but that’s just a personal preference. Somehow, this show also made me cry? I’m not entirely sure why because Toradora! is probably the thing farthest from sad. Apart from the show’s dull slice of life moments, it was super cute! A much needed light-hearted romance. 

12. New Initial D Movie: Legend 1 - 5/10 

Full disclosure, this is the only thing related to Initial D that I’ve ever watched. My band and I watched this expecting to hear some of that iconic Initial D music, itself all we got was a mildly confusing story about different types of cars. It was cliché and frankly a little boring. Although, I am still considering watching the original Initial D just so I can hear the music in the way it was original intended. I’ve got no other opinions on this movie. It’s best not to watch these movies without the context from the rest of the franchise.  

13.  Uchuu Patrol Luluco - 7.5/10

I didn’t really understand why people enjoy studio Trigger so much until I watched Space Patrol Luluco. I loved all the fun references to other studio Trigger works. I loved the humor, and I loved all the bright colors. The animation was extremely high energy, and the art style fits the show’s premise. Each episode was only 12 minutes long so it was a super quick binge. If you’re looking for something quick, light-hearted and comical, this is the perfect show to watch.

14. Orange - 7/10 

I owe a big thanks to a tumblr mutual for recommending this show to me! This holds the honor of making me cry by episode 3! I honestly did not expect the subject matter of this show to be as dark as it was. Usually when I see the genre ‘shoujo’ I do not associate it with a love story like that of Orange. The heavy subject matter made it a little too close to home for me, but I still really enjoyed this series. It reminds me off all the good times I had with my friends in high school, and of all the regrets I carry with myself to this day. 

15. 3-gatsu no Lion - 7.5/10 

March Comes in Like a Lion is another show that was a bit of a slow burn for me. Each episode left me feeling emotionally drained, so I had to take a lot of breaks while I was working on watching this series. Shaft, the studio behind this anime, holds a special place in my heart because I loved their work on the Monogatari Series. March Comes in Like a Lion is a little different. It’s driving force it is characters, and it was cathartic to watch our main character transform through the entire duration of the first season. I know the show’s second season is much better, so I’ll be starting that soon! 

16. Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei - 8/10 

I loved how artsy and smart The Tatami Galaxy is, but honestly I couldn’t watch too much at once cause it would hurt my head. I also couldn’t watch this show while I was tired because the speaking rate is much faster than typical anime. The Tatami Galaxy is so unique for its medium. I loved the different time loops and the crazy animation. The characters were fascinating. The dialogue, although very fast, it also fantastic. There’s an element of humor to this unique story telling, and I enjoyed ever minute of it! 

Currently Watching:

Hunter x Hunter - 6.5/10 (As of Episode 30)

I pride myself in having watched a lot of shounen anime, but I was reluctant to start Hunter x Hunter for years because I thought I would find it boring. I was oh so very wrong. Considering great shows like Naruto and Fairy Tail that fall under the same category, I expected Hunter x Hunter to be subpar in comparison. It gets a low score for two reasons. One, the power system was introduced a little too late and now I’m wondering if all the fights post episode 30 will involved nen in some way, shape, or form. Two, its still on hiatus. 

Two Cursed Additions For This List

Please to do not let these be representative of my anime taste. 

1.  Yarichin☆B*tch-bu - 4/10

I am a CLOWN for not knowing this was 18+. The only reason I watched this was to see why everyone was talking about the pink-haired boy with the glasses and tongue piecing. I know why now, and I regret it. This was a massive mistake on my part. But hey, at the least the art and ending song kinda slap? 

2. Euphoria (Dropped After 1 Episode) - 2/10

If you know what I’m talking about when I say Euphoria, I am so sorry. And no, I am not talking about the HBO series. Seriously, don’t google this. Don’t watch this. Don’t interact with anything related to this. You’re probably wondering, “Then why did you watch it?” I did not watch this willingly. You see, I have a very bad habit of starting anime and then taking months to finish them. I made an ultimatum with a friend, lost, and then was forced to watch this a punishment. Not a fun experience. I’m very glad there are no GIFs of this on tumblr...

#the god of high school #goh #god of high school #anime recommendation #doukyuusei #classmates #rezero #re:zero #rezero season 2 #saint oniisan #saint young men #Clannad Afterstory #clannad #nakitai watashi wa neko wo kaburu #a whisker away #shikioriori #flavors of youth #vinland saga #mononoke hime #princess mononoke #Studio Mappa #studio ghibli #howl no ugoku shiro #howls moving castle #toradora #initial d #uchuu patrol luluco #space patrol luluco #orange #orange anime