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emerald-cloud23 · 4 months

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Trying to figure out how much time passes in canon between seasons – according to the show itself (and then making rough guesses)

This is so long– also, doesn't include Dragons Rising

Pre-Pilots & Pilots: I don't remember them saying anything about that, though I imagine that it has been less than a year as they (Cole, Jay, Zane) obviously aren't as close as they'll become later in the show, maybe not even 6 months. I'll settle on 4 months for now

Pilots & Season 1: Once again, I don't remember them stating anything in particular so, once again, it's been less than a year. Maybe even just two or three months. The core four ninja have become closer but we can immediately see how distant they still are with that first mailman scene where it's apparently the first time ever the other three find out that Zane is practically an orphan as well as Cole hiding his true relationship with his father from them. Between the Pilots & S1 I imagine the ninja have encountered Lloyd before (according to their reactions they know him but the viewer doesn't), even telling Wu about him and he decided "No, I'm not gonna look after my brother's son"– sorry, going off-track. I'll go with like 3 months

Season 1 & Season 2: Looking at the end of S1 it has probably only been a few hours or like a day as everyone is fixing Ninjago City from the damage that the finale caused

Season 2 & Season 3: Canon mentions that it has only been a few months since the finale of S2. With Lloyd traveling around the island and accepting awards and stuff as well as Wu & the ninja taking over a school (most likely Darkley's), I'd say it's less than 6 months but I can't exactly decide on anything

Season 3 & Season 4: I don't think anything had been said in the show but with the statue from the finale becoming so dirty, the ninja no longer staying together and Jay apparently recording a 70+ episode tv show with a holiday special??? Another few months– only because I don't know how else Jay would've been able to make his own tv show and much less one with so many episodes and even a contestand that had previously participated. Oh, also it needs time for his fans to, well, start being his fans and viewers. I don't know how much time something like this would take but seeing as even Wu being unaware of why the other three aren't training with Lloyd I'd say they gradually left the team in the span of, probably, 4-6 months. If I didn't take Jay's show into consideration I'd say 1-2 months because that seems more logical with the 'skipping training'-bit

Season 4 & Season 5: Canon doesn't say anything. Buuut I feel like Morro wouldn't have waited much longer than necessary to start his search for the realm crystal. He'd find out what happened to Wu, find out about Lloyd & the others as well as that no one knows where the FSM's tomb is. He seems pretty smart so that would probably take barely any time at all, less than a week probably. However,, Wu has to buy a piece of land (most likely already with the buildings on it because construction can take monthssss), register his store, buy his shop's inventory and new uniforms (both the deepstone suits and the advertisement shirts & hats), also he needs to get the flyers designed, printed and delivered to him. This, unfortunately, takes time, and probably a lot more than just a few days. Despite hating the thought that Morro waited so long since escaping the cursed realm, I'll say that it's probably been a month

Season 5 & Season 6: There's a few things that I need to take into consideration as canon, once again, says nothing. The S5 finale takes place on new years so this is a good starting point. I only know new years as the last day of the year so that's where I'm going with this. S5 ends at the end of december. S6 needs to happen months later for a multitude of reasons: the people of Stiix being pissed at the ninja and rebuilding their city over water with Strangleweed (which S5 mentions not really anyone wanting to do), the ninja becoming famous for the destruction of the cursed realm, the ninja recording a tv show for kids and going on tv shows, being interviewed, getting fans & Nya training her elemental powers and Spinjitzu. So, if I view S5 at the end of the year then S6 feels like it takes place (or would take place if it hadn't been undone) in spring, so like march or april

Season 6 & Day Of The Departed: I remember that DOTD canonically is on like october 30th or 31st (I can't remember this for the life of me) so there's a good time period for the ninja to get their fame under control. Otherwise I don't have much to say

Day Of The Departed & Season 7: I believe canon said it's been a week since Cole became human again, so there you have it. That'd be early november

Season 7 & Season 8: Canon says it's been exactly a year since Wu disappeared in the time stream. There you go, a crystal clear answer to how much time passed since the previous season's finale. Thank you canon

Season 8 & Season 9: It is said that Garmadon ruled over Ninjago City for a week now, that means for 7 days Lloyd, Nya, Pixal, Dareth and Misako thought that Wu and the core four were dead (god, I always forget just how depressing this was for them)

Season 9 & Season 10: And we're back to nothing being said in canon, great. Well, there's the monastery that needs to be rebuild (as well as all of Ninjago City) and the murals being designed and needing to be painted, also there's some shorts on Lego's YouTube channel that still have the murals being painted, so they happen before S10. But all this takes time. But because I don't want Garmadon's warning about the Oni to appear so weak, I'd say a minimum of 6 months needed to pass. Most likely a lot more but, again, I want to keep his warning as something rather fresh and recent to Lloyd so he'd remember it when visiting his father in Kryptarium

Season 10 & Season 11: Canon (or rather Wu) says that it's been some months since their last big victory. In order for Cole going from super ripped in S2 to giving me almost an entire breakdown over being the exact opposite (no, genuinely. My first time seeing him without his super muscular body made me so, so frustrated and I don't even know how to put it into words but mAN–)… Uh, another 6 months? They all became incredibly lazy to the point where Wu eventually had enough, so half a year is the maximum time period I'd give them. Also, as we saw (and as they said) they haven't been in tune with each other as a team when fighting/fleeing. So, if you've spent years with people doing nothing but that I can't imagine you'd become so uncoordinated in a short period of time (but that's just me, a loner)

Aaand now we're entering the time period where it is difficult to make guesses–

Season 11 & Season 12: I would've assumed it's been a few days but because of S13's comment on it having been weeks since the ninja were at the monastery... I'd still like to say S12 happens just days after S11–

Season 12 & Season 13: I just mentioned the comment, sOO– Maybe Prime Empire took weeks in the actual world. I don't know. I can't make sense of this sentence. Like, ily Lloyd, but man. You're not making the time periods of this show easy. Especially because Wu and Pixal were both still at the monastery in S11 and S12 and I can't imagine the two not having taken care of it in that time when the others were gone. I just can't. So, somehow between the start of S11 and the start of S13 it has been weeks in which no one took care of the monastery. Even if they had been on an unmentioned vacation between S12 and S13, I feel like they would've taken care of the trash around the monastery. Though, something like this would explain the amount of leaves in the courtyard and Lloyd trying to urge Cole to stop relaxing on his free day to help with laundry and stuff (their gaming session is adorable btw, they need to interact more in canon pls)

Season 13 & Season 14 (The Island): I don't think anything is mentioned about S13, though they say that last month a bunch of criminals broke out of Kryptarium. So, unless that happened while the ninja were in Shintaro, it's been at least a month. Also, Misako, Wu and Clutch Powers went missing on an expedition they went on. When Cecil from the Explorers Club comes to visit them he mentions that when a member is 'presumed dead or lost at sea' they remove their belongings from the club. Soo, for them to be presumed lost at sea I'd say it would take like 1 week but "just to be safe" the club waits a total of 2 weeks after members set out on expeditions before deciding that it's been too long without hearing from them so they must be dead. But, seeing as Wu was also in Shintaro and he went on this expedition the ninja must've been back a few days before they went on this expedition, which I just assumed they started 2 weeks ago, so it's been maybe like 2.5 weeks to a month between these seasons

Season 14 (The Island) & Season 15 (Seabound): Canon doesn't say anything but I see S14 as setup for S15 so it would probably be like a few days between them

Season 15 (Seabound) & Season 16 (Crystalized): Canon says it's been a year since Nya's sacrifice. Another crystal clear (no pun intended) answer by the show

oKAY, GREAT. THAT'S ALL. If anyone wants to chime in for my rough time period estimations and calculate this whole thing, feel free because I'm not doing it! Like Cole says in Crystalized: "I'm not much of a math guy".

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crayolacolor · 1 year

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One thing thats debated alot in the Infinity Train fandom is Simon initial's seeming willingness to trust Amelia after finding out she was working for One-One, because she had a high number, do you think things would've gone differently if the Cat didn't warn him against Amelia?

It is interesting that he initially seems to prioritize her having such a high number over the fact she's working for One-One. And I also find it very funny that it was Samantha of all people that talked him into distrusting her. Can't trust her (Samantha) until you can, I guess. You know, because she never lies when she's telling the truth.

I haven't put a lot of thought into what his thought process might've been regarding Amelia working for One-One and why that didn't seem to matter to him as much as her number at first. That's something I'll have to come up with a headcanon about for sure.

I do have a lot of thoughts about how he seems to have very mixed feelings about Samantha and still seeks her out for advice, but that's not your question.

I think how much things change would depend on why Simon wasn't warned about Amelia by The Cat. Did he just not go to Samantha at all? Or did it just not come up in their conversation?

Because the first option would avoid a whole lot of things, including him finding out that Grace had been hiding Hazel being a denizen from him via the tape extractor. But!! So much tension had already built up between them at that point that it'd be pretty much inevitable they would have a major argument at some point. Which would,, probably lead to Hazel transforming out of distress just like she does when Simon fights with Amelia in canon.

As for whether or not Simon would find out somehow that Grace knew, that gets more into a grey area where it could go in multiple different directions. I think if anything this option might delay him and Grace completely falling out, but I don't think it would be possible to avoid that entirely in a scenario where Tuba still died.

Meanwhile the second option would only make Simon possibly a little less hostile towards Amelia, which I think is more what you were going for rather than avoiding the interaction with Samantha entirely. The thing is, while their interactions might not start out quite as hostile in a scenario like this, she's inevitably going to start calling their belief system into question when she finds out about it. And realistically, that's going to make Simon angry even if he didn't distrust her before.

But even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and say that this scenario avoids their fight, and in turn avoids Hazel transforming into a denizen in front of Simon (and Amelia!), and avoids Grace just blatantly lying by pretending she didn't know, Simon would still find out via the tape extractor that Hazel was a denizen and Grace had been hiding it from him. And I don't think he would react to that any better just because she didn't actually straight-up lie to his face about it. Because she was still hiding something important from him, and from his point of view, prioritizing a "null" over him.

So I think what might happen here is him confronting Grace about it in front of Amelia and Hazel, which would in turn probably cause Hazel to transform and thus reveal to Amelia that she's one of her creations. And that would probably put a pause on their fight temporarily (with Simon just kind of. Brooding in the background like he does at the beginning of ep 9 anyway) while that gets sorted out and Hazel decides to go with Amelia.

Buuut that would only last until Amelia and Hazel are gone, then they fight again and Simon ends up trapping Grace in her tape just like canon. Obviously there'd be some differences in dialogue / how parts of the tape scene go down because Grace already knows that Simon found out about her secret, but it'd ultimately end the same way.

I hope that answers your question okay! I ended up having a lot to say about this one hsmdkjfg. I enjoy delving into "what if" scenarios. Feel free to follow up on anything I said if you'd like to!

#color's ever-revolving interests | fandom stuff #asks #anonymous #infinity train

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theheightofdishonor · 2 years

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Get To Know Your BL Mutuals

tagged by @telomeke-bbs (thanks for the tag btw!)

Simple, answer the questions. @ some people. Include the tag 'g2ky BL mutuals 2022' on your post so we can find everyone's answers!

What has been the BL that took you by surprise this year?

Disclaimer, I only started watching BL a couple months back and had to scrounging through my history and make a google doc just to figure out what I watched and which ones were from 2022.

Based on the stuff that was produced this year, I'd say Kinnporsche which I watched sometime during the middle portion of my hyperfixation and again, i wasn't well versed or versed at all in bl before and has only watched a couple bl leading up to it so yeah, it did take me by surprise. Especially because most of what i'd watched until that point were low heat GMMTV offerings and censored chinese bromances.

But Kinnporsche is a delight to watch and super easy to get swept up in, even if in hindsight, the plot doesn't stand up to scrutiny and I wish it had been tonally darker. Overall though, it's a really good show and the pairings have great chemistry. Most importantly, it's a fun watch.

What has been the BL that you felt a bit disappointed with this year

Vice Versa, The Eclipse, Big Dragon

Vice versa's first couple episodes were so good. I loved the concept, I loved the whole 'each episode is a different colour' thing, I liked jimmy and sea, obviously ohm and nanon were in it but around like episode 3/4, it started to falter because I cared more about potential implications and consequences of the whole body/universe swap thing than the show did. And that was frustrating and dissapointing and I kept watching every episode hoping it'd go back to that magic it had in the first couple eps but it did not. Would still rewatch ep 2 again though, nanon was such a gem.

I put off watching the eclipse until it was complete but I had really high expectations for it based off of tumblr and the concept. Like enemies to lovers, opposite sides, rebelling against authority, high school setting, possibly supernatural elements, all stuff that's right up my alley. I thought it was a given that i'd love this show.

buuut I did not. I watched the whole thing but idk i wasn't all that into it? not terrible enough that i couldn't finish the show but it wasn't all that fun and i wanted it to be so.

And then, Big Dragon. This is another one I expected to like because toxic relationships are interesting to me but Big Dragon just fell flat. It's all the toxicity of tharntype but far less compelling. I ended up skipping a lot it and definitely would not rewatch.

What has been your favourite BL this year?

Semantic Error or Old Fashion Cupcake.

I didn't think a KBL would be on here because Korean BLs are my least favourite type of BL but i'm a sucker for a well done trope and Semantic Error has flawless execution. I'd even rewatch.

Old Fashioned Cupcake, I didn't think i'd like. I thought it'd be too slow paced and sweet but it was great- largely because i really liked the themes of the show. It was a kinda like a less cavity inducing Cherry Magic - ironic considering the amount of sweets in this show. I can't think of much to say about this show atm actually but know it was good and def worth watching and i'd even rewatch.

Favourite BL couples (not just of 2022)?

Patpran. They say save the best for last but I started watching bl with Bad Buddy and nothing has ever come close to this show and to patpran. I dare say they're unmatched.

Thai bls, in my experience, have an issue with chemistry where I have a really hard time believing they're in love. Like, 2gether. Bright's good but I could never convince myself that Win's character was in love with him.

singtokrist and early offgun both have this issue too though to be fair, Off gets more believable the longer he's been paired with Gun.

But Ohm and Nanon?? There's not a single moment in Bad Buddy. where you don't believe that they're in love. They match each other's energy and have more chemistry in one longing glance than a lot of couples do in an entire show. (They've got range too, their dynamic in vice versa in totally different to bb and yet still believable and interesting and im so mad there wasn't more of them and they're able to turn it off and on, you'd never believe they could go from blacklist to bb until you actually saw it) I hope someone convinces them to do another bl together.

Moving on,

Gao Shi Di and Zhou Shu Yi from We Best Love.I think i've talked this show well into a grave already but WBL is that girl and it deserves to be talked about. The chemistry between these two is perfect and their acting is really good and their kiss scenes are believable and they just deliver in every single scene they're in and play off each other so well. Oh, and top notch confessions too. You're the lucky one??????? And then the highway scene?? Gah, perfection.

Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu from Word of Honor. I grew up in tumblr fandoms so censorship doesn't bother me and their romance is beautifully executed and they've got good chemistry and most of all, the writing is great fun to analyze.

I also liked ohm and singto in that ghost show they did, billkin and pp in i told sunset about you and all the kinnporsche couples.

Oh and the something in my room boys even if i haven't finished that drama yet.

If you had to suggest a BL for someone what would it be?

Bad Buddy all the wayyy. It's not too cliche but the tropes it uses are well done, good acting, good writing, emotional, not too sweet. What more can you possibly want?

If they're into romance, A Tale of a Thousand Stars. It's pretty much the most classic romance novel you can think of but on screen and with beautiful cinematography. Personally, that's not my thing but a lot of people eat that stuff up.

What's your non-BL favourite for this year?

I just got myself into that bl mindset. Pivoting genres is so hard, especially when I watch so many things. Um, I liked The Batman more than I ever thought I would. Pattinson catapulted to the top of my list as favourite live action Batman.

K.G.F. 2 babyyyyyyy. Literally who does it like South Indian movies. The soundtrack is spectacular. The costume design? Peerless. Like fine, the writing's still too melodramatic even by my taste and the love story somehow got worse (#let reena be unhinged 2022) and the misogyny jumped to a new high which shouldn't have been possible but atleast the theme song's a bop.

And i'm currently obsessed with May I Help You? which is still airing and has 10 episodes so far. The plot's starting to falter but I still have hope. Hyeri is also a captivating actress and i'm still not really a kdrama person but I might end up watching her entire filmography anyway because she's that good, y'all.

As for tagging, I genuinely am too new to bl tumblr to know anyone so i'm just not going to.

#g2ky BL mutuals 2022 #tag games #i forgot about it while typing this up but omitb s2 aired this year and it was great

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houdinicorbini · 2 years

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Birthday Relationship headcanons/scenario for Ardyn!

I wanted to do something special for the birthday wine uncle! Tw: none

✧ Now birthdays aren't really something Ardyn cares to celebrate. To him it's just a reminder that he can never get old. Buuut, when he got into a serious relationship with you, that changed. He began to enjoy it because it meant spending the entire day with someone he loves more than anything. It did take some time to get him to be comfortable with idea of enjoying his birthday. That was something you had to suggest once the two of had been in a relationship for a bit. To him it's just another day, but he finds it both adorable and amusing seeing you try your best to make him happy. So he just goes along with it.

✧ The activities of the day would include you waking up early, (if you can get out of his grasp in time) making his favorite breakfast and then serving it to him in bed, just an entire day's worth of plans. You'd even go as far as to drive so he can relax the entire day, but that one might be a hit or miss. You have him choose whatever activities he wants and one of them would be chess (Which he will kick your ass in), because it reminds him of simpler days.

✧ When it begins to hit dinner time, you lead Ardyn to his favorite restaurant. It's a tad bit pricey but you offer pay, which is where he insists that the payment should come from his wallet, and he refuses to let up on that. After the two of you finish eating, Ardyn took you to a place that he goes to whenever he needs to a relax. It's a cliff that overlooks a giant lake. A perfect place to watch the sun go down. That's pretty much when the outside activities are done, once the two of you get home, you guys just spend the rest of the night talking and cuddling. A pretty good way to end a nice birthday if you ask me. Now, onto the scenario!

The time was 5:43 in the morning. After having escaped Ardyn's grasp, you were finally in the kitchen making his favorite breakfast. You wanted to start this special day off right, and you knew exactly how to do that.

You made sure to not make too much noise in the process since you didn't want to wake him before it was actually time to get up. It would ruin the surprise if you woke him up too soon.

Once everything was ready and the food was on the tray, you entered your shared bedroom and woke him up in the gentlest way you could. "Happy birthday, sleeping beauty." You greeted him in a kind tone.

Setting the tray down on the bedside table, you leant down to kiss his forehead, but made sure to move back quickly since he almost dragged you back into bed with him.

The smell of food finally hit him, causing him to sit up to see what it was. Seeing it that it was his favorite caused him to smile. Ardyn had nearly forgotten that today was his birthday.

"Darling, you didn't need to do all this."

"Yes I did! Now eat up! This is only the first part of your big day, it's only fair that it needed to start right!"

He only chuckled before grabbing the tray and sitting it on his lap. He did admire your determination to make this a good day. He might as well enjoy it.

Ardyn took his time with his food. One of the reasons was because he was still waking up. The other is that he wanted to take his time since he could tell you put a lot of hard work into this.

After everything was eaten, he got dressed for the day. Once he put on his usual outfit and hat, he grabbed the tray and left the room.

Ardyn saw that you were already dressed and ready for the day. When he noticed he was out, you grabbed the tray from him and put it away.

"You won't need to lift a finger today while I'm around!" You say with a confident smile, obviously intent on keeping your word.

Once the two of the you left the house, you tried to convince Ardyn to let you drive so he could spend more time relaxing. It took a few minutes, but you were able to succeed.

He was going to let you the first time you asked, just wanted to draw it out for the fun of it. He can be a rather smug bastard when he wants to be. You both love and hate it.

Now being the one in charge of driving, you ask him where the two of you are going since he it is his birthday.

"You begged for the car without having a place in mind?"

"Pick the place."

"Being rather rude to the one with a birthday."

After the both of you had a laugh at the little exchange, Ardyn gave the directions of where to go.

This continued though out the day. He'd tell you where to go and hot to get there and you'd take him. You guys even went to a park that was absolutely gorgeous.

There was even a table with chess on top of it. Ardyn seemed interested so you offered to play. You quickly regretted that when he kept kicking your ass. But that bright smile on his face definitely made up for it.

When it hit dinner time, you told Ardyn that you knew exactly where to go. He was rather curious when he saw that sparkle in your eyes. So, he knew to just trust in your judgement.

He was pleasantly surprised to that you chose one of his favorite restaurants, but then he remembered how much it costs to eat here.

"You're letting me pay."

"No! It's your birthday."

"And I will happily let me present be making sure you don't go poor."

You knew there was no talking him out of it, so you decided to just go with it. He did make a lot more than you did so it wouldn't be affecting his wallet as much.

The two of you had a rather filling dinner, everything was cooked to perfection, and you guys talked throughout the meal. Ardyn kept cracking jokes that had you nearly dying at some points.

After everything was paid for, you grabbed a box that contained some leftovers and left the building hand in hand with Ardyn. He had one more place he wanted to go to while there was still a little bit of sun left in the sky.

But this time he was going to drive, you were wanting to protest, but dinner made you so tired that maybe it was best that Ardyn took the wheel this time. He did reward you with a few pecks on the cheek when you gave him his keys back.

The drive there was rather peaceful, so peaceful that you nearly fell asleep. You knew Ardyn would have poked fun if you did end up dozing off.

When the car came to a stop, you noticed you on a cliff, and how it was beautiful. It overlooked an enormous lake. Walking around, Ardyn opened up your door to help you step out. He is a gentleman after all.

"Ardyn, what is this place? it's beautiful!" You were looking around in awe. The place was gorgeous!

"It's somewhere I tend to retreat to when I need some fresh air." He answered before grabbing your hand so he could lead you to a giant oak tree.

When the two of you sat down, it gave you the perfect view of the lake and the sunset. It looked like the inside of a painting, one that should be put up on display for the world to see.

"I can see why, it's very relaxing and peaceful. Feels like I can leave all of my worries behind here." You let you head fall onto his shoulder as you admired the view.

Ardyn was admiring the view that was sitting right next to him. He couldn't have asked for a more better way to spend the last bit of daylight on.

You both stayed like that until the sun had completely disappeared, which was a bit risky, but you never had a problem with daemons, at least whatever problem you had stopped not long after you met the love of your life.

The day wasn't over just yet, you still had one mor surprise waiting for Ardyn at home. He could see that you were excited about something in the car ride back home, but he kept that to himself because he was sure you'd reveal the reason as to why very soon.

When the two of you were at home and settled, you had your lover sit on the couch while you ran into the bedroom so you could grab something.

A few minutes later you walk out with a neatly wrapped box. "I wanted to wait until tonight to give this to you!" You hand it over and quickly sit down next to him, clearly excited to see him open it up.

"Dear, you know you didn't have to-"

"I'm aware, but I wanted to and there's not changing it now!"

He was touched by the gesture, and by the fact that you went out of your way to get him something.

Now, he just was debating on whether he should open it quickly or open it slowly and torture you in the process. Ardyn decided to quickly open it since you seemed so excited. He was also curious to see what it was.

After having removed the paper, he opened the box to see a very neatly and well-done handmade scarf. It was a dark purple with black rose patterns on it.

"Sweetheart, did you make this?" He was still staring at the scarf, ghosting his fingers over each individual rose.

"I've been taking classes for a while now, so I wanted to put all that work into something special for you! Do you like it?"

You were watching his features for any reaction, you noticed how he seemed shocked by this, which worried you a tad bit

Ardyn looked at you while wearing a rather sweet smile. "Thank you, I'll be sure to wear this from now on." He says right as he takes off his old one and replaces it with his lovely brand new scarf.

"Let me get this box out of your way, dea-" You went to grab the box, but the birthday bastard grabbed your arm instead. In one fluent motion, he was able to push off the box and place you in his lap instead.

"Now, let us rest after all of this excitement, yes?" He had already laid himself down on the couch, switching up the position so you were laying on him. Didn't feel like you had much say in the matter but you went along with it.

Leaning up, you place one soft and long kiss upon his lips, which he gladly returned.

"I couldn't think of a better way to end this wonderful day."

#ardyn x reader #x reader #ardyn izunia #ardyn lucis caelum #ff15 ardyn #ffxv ardyn #ardyn #headcanon #episode ardyn #ffxv #ff15 #happybirthdayardyn

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lazzledazzler · 3 years

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Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

#rune factory 5 #rf5 spoilers #rune factory #rf5 #spoilers #review #rune factory 5 spoilers

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elizabethrobertajones · 6 years

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you ever think about how they hired twins to play the triplets that dean and crowley have sex with. I feel like that right there is proof that they're not queerbaiting, because no one could possibly be baited by that because 99 percent of everyone didn't even notice it. They just put it in there cause dean's bi and they write him as bi.

It’s funny, for whatever reason I was thinking last night about how my own personal definition of the way the show may or may not queerbait has changed over the seasons, and it’s not just to do with personal growth but the way the show is written and the way they are handling things.

My impression of how it all felt in the start of season 10 was utter disbelief that they were so on the nose about Dean and Crowley, and I know not everyone wants to/does think that they hooked up, but there’s some stuff the show pushed there that in some ways it would have no other excuse to do and I went cold on Drowley several times after feeling like the handling was sweeping it under the rug, writing it off as villainous queerness or other ways to distance Dean from it like suggesting he wasn’t in control or roofied by being a demon, that thankfully at least was not how Crowley died on the show, with 12x15 giving us the last example of how that dynamic had matured, and it WAS matured, and at least in terms of respecting that Dean n Crowley had once eloped, was about as good as it could get. And I think owning that the dynamic wasn’t a sense of that time being abusive was important given how much Dean and Crowley interacted and behaved towards each other AFTER, as well as exactly how we were supposed to read whether Dean should feel violated or smug or nostalgic about it all (and he did flash between them depending on the season or episode in the time after). But at the start of season 10 this whole journey was really only just beginning.

Obviously people had written about the queercoding and Crowley’s seduction before then, but in very careful metaphorical terms, and as much as it was suggestive in season 9, the fact is that without season 10 it could easily remain a metaphorical ~seduction to evil~ where this was written in terms of romantic seduction - except for where it was fatherly or brotherly - but 10x01 smashed that and made it really really clear that you could read that Dean and Crowley had been hooking up, even independent of the twins/triplets subtext. Specifically when Crowley is annoyed Dean and Ann-Marie hooked up in his bed, and Ann-Marie tells him and Dean to get a room, and he’s like, we had one. Of course you can pretend that not everything Crowley says is innuendo (and room = specifically the bed), but that exchange had a lot of jealousy and a lot about his and Dean’s *personal* relationship, as much as the other stuff was about the more wild stuff they shared with others while howling at the moon. Which was part of the longer term emotional game Crowley was playing about their business relationship and Dean being his scary consort and them sort of going exclusive >.>

And in that context, Crowley mentions they’d done some memorable stuff to triplets together, and on rewatching you catch they’re hanging out with twins in the bar before that, but the wider context was this absolute explosion of queer subtext and borderline text and a dynamic that needed concentrated work to not come to the conclusion they’d been fucking all summer, with and without buddies of whatever gender with them. Focusing on the male twins in the background as a hint that Dean had had sex with men is ignoring where Crowley directly implies they’d been hooking up and now he wanted to go exclusive with Dean as the hugest neon sign that, yes, Dean has been having sex with at least one man, regardless of the gender of the triplets. Like, I know people were like hurr blurr the triplets could have been women, #no homo, sometimes men sleep with triplets together like bros. Which traps us into hyperfocusing on what the triplets were and using them as the definitive proof, when in fact the reason triplets were being banged in the first place was because Dean and Crowley were banging all the time everywhere up and down seedy bars in America, and Dean didn’t want the good times to end, while Crowley wanted the d all for himself now pls.

And considering that’s the thing under the paper thin surface that you can remotely pretend that Dean only slept with women and he and Crowley were just hanging out the entire time, regardless of no matter how much more subtext the show piled on later, less close to the surface but with more confidence that everyone knew Dean had banged Crowley and the only way any of this worked any more was that that had happened, even just when we only had 10x01 to work with, the whole Dean n Crowley thing was so enormous that you can’t just speculate on what the twins were to approach to what degree was this queerbaiting or not. The twins are a detail that you can pick up on and speculate on if you look deeper, as they know we sometimes do. I’m not saying they’re NOT an aspect of this, but they’re a relatively buried easter egg of subtext compared to, say, Crowley sobbing over his flickr albums in the next episode :P

To what degree Drowley was queerbaiting is the real question, and since Crowley is now consigned to the show’s history books, we have the full story in a way. In the context of what we have now, I don’t think overall, all comments included, the show ever pretended, even when distancing Dean from it, even when painting it as abusive or Dean having diminished responsibility, that Dean and Crowley did *not* bang. I think there are multiple comments which as long as you are permissive that Dean would have could have probably did, that in seasons 11 and 12 pretty clearly indicate a memory of having slept together one point or another, especially 11x23 and 12x15 with overt references to sexual things from Crowley to Dean, or 11x07 and the implication that over a year later Dean still has Crowley’s answerphone messages from howling at the moon, and knows and remembers details of his personal life fondly. (I don’t think that’s the only time Bobo wrote them like that but that’s the one that springs to mind :P)

Buuut they never showed them on screen in such a way that could be seen from the moon as them together, like actually showing them IN a sexual relationship while Dean was a demon, or having Dean confirm Crowley’s innuendo with more than the usual reactions where he gets plausible deniability to any gay stuff going on. And SOME of that I think MAY be to do with the problems with the villainous queerness slant, and the way it was at times framed as abusive/Dean lacking control. Because they would not commit to exploring the aftermath of that relationship SERIOUSLY, i.e. making it clear they had slept together when Dean was a demon, and him on-screen dealing with how that made him feel and how he felt about Crowley, and even, god forbid, his own sexuality, the best they could do to resolve it was to establish eventually a sort of civil exes dynamic, both aware of their history, but not harping on it, even if Crowley remained somewhat to entirely besotted by Dean for the rest of his time on the show. The lack of handling it seriously means it stays as a somewhat jokey subtext later on, and they can play it off as no harm no foul by the end of season 11 and through season 12.

I think in that vein it also eventually contributed to Crowley being sidelined and eventual downfall, because he was trapped in the subtext of being Dean’s ex and all the enormous complications that made between them and for his personal life, again without being able to explore it or leave a lasting, openly discussed impact on him. He no longer directly antagonised them, but he couldn’t cross any lines which made him human or part of the team for more than passing moments because the longer he was around Dean the more awkward it got and the more it would beg them to explore what, exactly, were Dean and Crowley now, and the obvious issues that would have/could have arisen if we discussed this like adults and we were allowed to just textually state in a frank and open way that Dean had been seduced by Crowley that one time.

And I think in terms of where that puts us, it means that Drowley was very much a stifled relationship, officially over and no chance of getting it back, which in some ways is as large as or larger then Destiel in the weight it puts on the show when it comes to answering queerbaiting charges, because it could never be addressed openly while Crowley was alive, still ISN’T acknowledged, and Dean is as closeted as he was before, despite in his actual living human memory, knowing what it’s like to bang Crowley on the side for 3 months of his life with no direct personal growth (that is: now banging Cas, happily, or even banging other random guys, no angst, just for fun hook ups, equivalent to the textual times he picks up women) to show for this wild college experimentation metaphor phase of his life.

At this point you really can only change the final judgement on it by making Dean canonically bi and then giving him the character growth, acknowledging the role Crowley had played in it, and allowing him to live what had just been subtext as a textual part of his character. In all other respects, I think the fact that Dean subtextually has hooked up with Crowley, and presumably other men probably other than the male implied triplets we saw on screen as well, but it’s relegated to this one particular part of his story and locked up in the subtext box, is going to look absolutely like one of the show’s worst sins of queerbaiting if we get to the end and that box is never opened again. And not to say it all looks rosy while we wait until the hypothetical what if of textualising Dean’s bisexuality and trying to live a positive life of hoping that will happen. As it stands, the handling in the text is depressing, and speaks of how far the show will currently allow any queer relationship for Dean to go. Meaning a worst case scenario is that his borderline subtextual marriage to Cas may never move beyond a similar point if this remains the high water mark of the show’s willingness to show Dean in a genuine, sexual relationship with a man. And that’s something you have to at least think about, in terms of how it looks now, and how it might look one day, no matter how positive you are about the endgame of the show, when it comes to being realistic about the show’s queerbaiting, or at least perceived queerbaiting if you don’t believe they are. That’s what other people are seeing, both with Drowley and Destiel.

I mean, that deleted scene in 10x14 says it best: Cas and Crowley trapped together, frustrated and living in angry despair in their competition over Dean, where he is busy not picking either of them, while they vie for his attention and consider each other his boyfriend in all but name, and yet he will not commit to either of them in the way they desire. And this is the same frustrated wall that Cas is still stuck bouncing up against, even when his romantic rival is *utterly* vanquished and removed from the narrative, and hadn’t even really been competing for Dean for like 2 seasons before that.

#Asks #10x01 #dean x crowley for ts #this isn't meant wankily at all because I love the show and I'm forgiving and permissive of all this as anything #but still #I have to see this and call it when I do #regardless of how I feel in general about the show #so I am writing from as neutral a point of view as I can here #dean is bi #and you know I personally celebrated each and every nugget of Drowley subtext they gave us :P

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weeklyfangirl · 7 years

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Hi E and surprisingly your followers who are invested in my so called love life! I get it tho, I am a sucker for everyone else's love life!! After New Years, I got a kiss at midnight (honestly I never thought it would happen, ever) Eli, some of his friends (including my sister) and I went for breakfast the next day, okay it was more of a late brunch, but whatever. And my sister apparently didn't know Eli invited me so when I turned up there she was surprised and asked "What are you doing here?"

and it wasn't in a rude way or anything, I guess she just expected me to say that I was meeting someone else there, but I just stated the obvious and said I was planning to eat something, evasive as always, she just gave me a weird look. When we were seated and I sat down next to her, Eli wasn't there by the way, but one of his friends so I knew where to sit, she just had this expression on her face, like she knew something was up. I was part of their group, but more in an occasional way I guess she started to suspect something was going on when I went to more of their get togethers and parties than usual, but at the same time it was the holiday season so it wasn't that weird...

A few minutes after we sat down Eli and another one of his friends walked in and he checked me out, quite obviously in a playful way, his best friend and his girlfriend, they knew we are a thing (?) we haven't really talked about what we are, but they knew we enjoy each others company, the others didn't bother, but my sister said "Eli don't look at my sister like that she's a baby!" and I just blushed, because it was obviously awkward for me, I just prayed that she didn't notice. Our table was filling itself and after everyone sat down only Eli had yet to sit, he was standing while taking to my sister about her promotion (seriously she's way too successful, I'm like the weird worse version, but some say I'm funny) okay back to what happened, so he sat down next to me, everything was good until the food came and everyone was chatting and eating and I started to relax more and stupidly forgot my sister was there, I didn't forget I just forgot that she didn't know how close Eli and I had gotten.

So I ate some of his food and he playfully nudged me and my sister freaked and said something along the lines of "what the hell is going on here" or something like that. And I wished it happened later in the 'relationship' because not even I could tell her what was going on. I was just embarrassed and scared of how she'd react, but Eli took hold of my hand under the table and squeezed it lightly, which actually helped me calm down a bit and he told her that we were kinda seeing each other. It was also news for two other people at the table and I was happy af actually because he said in front of his friends that we are seeing each other ASDFGHJKL !!! BUUUT at the same time my sister hadn't said anything she just gave me a look of disappointment and said "oh great" sarcasticallyI was just so uncomfortable and made up some lame excuse of having to be somewhere, honestly everyone knew I just wanted to leave.

I left and back at my apartment I had like a breakdown, I knew she wouldn't like it, but it was such a weird reaction. Later Eli texted and asked if I was all right and all, but I wasn't which I told him, he insisted she'd come around. Then the next day my sister called, we never went so long without talking to each other, and she wanted to meet up, so I went to her place and brought muffins for amends, it usually solved every issue we had. But she wasn't having any of it and I asked her what was going on, because I knew it wasn't like she still liked him, but she just said "I told you not to fall for him. He's one of my best friends what if you break up?" and I took a deep breath, I am usually pretty confident in situations like these, but not with my sister "Then we'll break up and behave like adults" I was satisfied with my answer and thought it solved the problem, but she wasn't, she just started being mean and said "Sure he will, but will you? Don't be ridiculous you have hardly any experience and it will crush you when he breaks up, and of course I will cheer you up, but he's my best friend and I will have to choose your side!"

I had to bite back my tears, it actually hurt, that my own sister judged my maturity based on my experience with men/boys, like seriously she grew up with me, she knows me. I wouldn't let her say those things so I told her "If it comes to that" and she actually had the nerve to interrupt me just to say "when", and I just continued, I never saw her like that before "don't choose my side, honestly from how you are acting I don't even know if I want you on my side" and straight up left. I have never been in a fight like this with her. Sure we fought, but never has she said such nasty things to me. Honestly I don't know why! I texted her that night that she was still my sister and I loved her and she answeredthat she loved me back, but we haven't talked since and I told Eli and he's meeting her tomorrow and I just hope this resolves soon. I feel like shit, because I hate fighting with her, but that my own sister said these things to me gets to me. I know it wasn't like awful insults, but the way she said them and what she meant by it hurts, because I've been trying for years to put thoughts like these behind me.

ARRGHH! I am just so frustrated. This was less love life than mess of a life. but yeah that's it. How are you tho? How's life? How's writing frat boy, which I hope won't destroy me🙏🏼 if you ever wanna talk my darling Wendy (see you get both nicknames ❤️) you know where to find me. All the love, as alwaysxxx PS: I'm sorry I'm such a mess and you have to put up with my shit. My life is so weird. Like on the one side it's this movie like love story and on the other a messy tragedy😔 Love you tho

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MY DARLING :( I’m so sorry this has happened to you, honest. That was very rude of your sister, but family is always like that. We’re the cruelest to those closest to us because at the end of the day you’ll still love them, and they, you. I’m sure she’s just a little bitter and retaliating a little immaturely, but she’ll come around after she sees how happy you are with him. Otherwise, that’s on her. I’m still proud of you for being with him and OH MY GOSH HE SAID YOU’RE GOING OUT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE I’M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!! At least Eli reacted well, and he’ll be strong about it all. How did it end up getting resolved??? I hope you’re feeling better about it all and I’m sorry for my late reply love, I’ve been busy out in life these past couple of days.

As for my love life, I got tipsy on a boat with my brother and his friends (and their families) and apparently I wouldn’t stop talking to this one cute friend of his (whoops). BUT THEN MY BROTHER’S BEST FRIEND’S MOM WAS TIPSY TOO AND LIKE TRYING TO SET ME UP WITH HER SON AND SHE WANTS ME AS A DAUGHTER IN LAW HAHAHA i was like I’m sorry but if I say ANYTHING about your son being cute, my brother will literally shoot me in the face and ban me from being his sister because that is his best friend LOL. He is cute too though... ANYWAYS sending you lots of love as always. Super random, but how old are you? I have a number in my head but I’m not sure if it’s correct haha hope your day is swell darling xx

#neverland-city #talk #love life

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