#CALAMITY IS MY FAVORITE THING THEY'VE DONE

[aparticularbandit]

WAIT TRAVIS WILLINGHAM INTERVIEW WHAT DO YOU MEAN CALAMITY IS COMING INTO PLAY IN VOX MACHINA WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE GOING TO SEE CHARACTERS PLURAL WHY ARE YOU BRING UP LUIS ARE WE GOING TO SEE ZERXUS

[noirandchocolate]

my best wishes to the birthday boy. that one dlc mission says sooga usually takes over kohga's training sessions should he get stuck at the procrastination station. but what is kohga like as a teacher without these fallbacks, does he have difficulty teaching skills that come more naturally to him?

my 2nd question: he's honestly kinda chill even when committing felonies. is there something, barring the obvious like the royal family and having his plans foiled, that would *genuinely* piss him off? an action and/or a sensitive topic.

Helloooo, thank you! =D These are really good ones!

Kohga does do training, as part of his Master role, and it's mostly magic stuff. He leaves most of the weapons things to Sooga (and other high-ranking Yiga) 'cause like I said in this post, the arcane is more of his forté.

Kohga as a teacher does better when he's dealing with kids than with adults, in no small part because he's just fond of kids and finds them entertaining and so having a 'class' with a group of them feels a lot less like Work. He's got more patience for little ones not getting things immediately (again because watching them mess up in harmless ways is funny) and doesn't expect them to 'just know' basic concepts. Kohga himself learned a lot of advanced/exclusive techniques very early in life and he remembers how his Nana instructed him. Of course, Nana Kohga was much more no-nonsense. But like, the way she explained things like how to visualize your energy. How to breathe. The hand gestures. What doing a technique should feel like. In simple, child-friendly ways.

With kids, Kohga turns his lil' training classes into games that work out so that even if someone isn't getting the hang of something they could still have fun. One of his favorites is breaking in on the 6-9-year-olds' teleportation trainings, after they've been taught the basics of how to do the technique and most of them have figured out how to do it in a controlled setting (ie just standing still and 'porting from one spot to another). He'll have a room set up covered in soft things and pillows, and then. It's games time! He'll toss kids. 'Try to teleport away before you hit the pillows!' Tell them to play cucco. 'Run at the wall! Whoever teleports away the closest to it without touching, wins!' And so on. Kids love this sort of silliness. If they fall there's no harm done. If they manage to teleport they'll have learned to do it while moving!

With adults, the Master is a bit more prone to frustration if people aren't getting it, because--like you said--things came pretty naturally to him. So he'll start off a session on how to wield a Demon Carver (the one weapon he will still train people in) feeling pretty good, optimistic, explaining a grip or going over how to get your slashes angled correctly to disembowel or whatever, and all is good. But if someone isn't doing it right after a bunch of tries he can get huffy and foot-tappy and critical. He told you. Sheesh! You're gonna make him look bad, with that sloppy technique! Ultimately he'll end up slapping the person on the back and telling them to just keep trying, but still. It's harder for him to think of other ways to explain things, than the ways he learned with. He'll leave that to Sooga and Chisao and some other lead underlings to worry about.

And for the second question... Well! My headcanon universe is post-Age of Calamity, right? Where the Yiga have assisted in the defeat of Calamity Ganon? As time goes on, the Clan does have more of a Known presence in Hyrule, and one of the ways they're more visible is that there are now Yiga working as tech researchers along with the Sheikah at the Royal Lab. My Kohga himself is a big participant in that. He's tech-minded, the Yiga have tons of ancient (and copied-from-ancient) records in Karusa Valley, and Clan members are as a group vastly more in tune with the magic that makes ancient Sheikah tech run than contemporary Sheikah themselves are. The folks at the Lab have been trying to get more investment funding from sources other than the Royal Treasury, lately, by presenting their research and intended projects--stuff like magitech lighting, vehicles, etc. that will benefit everyday Hyrule.

And a thing that Pisses. Kohga. Off. Is when snotty Hylian nobles get RACIST when they hear that there's YIGA behind and working on these innovations. And refuse to back them or pull their funding. Are these bozos KIDDING? The Clan put their NECKS on the line to SAVE this stupid kingdom, and some guy with a big farm who hid in his basement the whole time is gonna act like he's BETTER than MASTER KOHGA??? Too GOOD for YIGA TECH? Screw that guy! He's banned from ever buying anything any Yiga ever worked on! If he ends up with his throat slit don't look at Sooga! Oh man Kohga was about to climb over the table at that meeting.

Yeah in general a thing that Kohga is acutely sensitive about is ignorant Hylians (and others, but it's mostly Hylians who do this) acting either like the Clan is 'still bad' and can't be trusted and are all marauding evildoers or like they're 'good now.' He hates comments like that. 'Oh they're good now.' Or worse, 'They're good citizens of Hyrule now.' Uuuuugggggghhh he gets so pissy and offended at this complete lack of nuance and understanding. Understandably, I think!

Thank you for asking these!!

[athenas-only-daughter]

I just want to recommend Calamity to everyone I know and it’s like “hey it’s one of critical role’s short series!” but it’s still so long, for the average person and I always forget that until they balk at the run time but no, really, please watch it, it is so good.

[hanniejji]

I have brought forth an angst idea!!

Phoenix's mother strikes me as being "perfect." There was no additional explanation of what she had done to earn the admiration and adoration of everyone in Mondstadt, leading Diluc to believe that the winds had been kind to him in finding his wife.

It was a time of calamity when the news first arrived. No matter how wonderful the relationship, a slight tone of resentment may be felt against Phoenix especially when they had sensed it from Kaeya, their father figure and Adelinde along with the other house and company staff that had raised them. They encountered fake smiles from the locals everywhere they went, frowns from the townspeople, taunting from the men their mother had turned down, and sympathy from the cathedral sisters when Phoenix entered to pray with a tear-stained face after “killing”:their mother. Not only had they taken the love of Diluc's life, but they had also taken the person who had been adored and beloved by everyone in the city of freedom.

Prayers for the Anemo Archon pursuing the Archon himself, and if only Diluc could grasp what the breeze had already been trying to tell him all these years: that his poor baby was also suffering as a result of losing their mother and his negligence as a parent.

call me the “🤯 anon” and I hope YOU are doing well, my favorite writer 💗

SHEEEEESHA Y'ALL HAVE NO MERCY ON THE ANGST PROMPTS HUH? ALSO UEUEUEUE THANK YOU BUBS HHNHNHNH 🥺 "my favorite writing" im going to burst, anon :'> also um is 🤯 anon alright? my android ass phone can't decipher the other emoji :')

phoenix can never get a goddamn rest, can they? everywhere they look, people are always expecting the best and only the best from them. they don't have to be obvious for phoenix to know that they're judging every move they make. evaluating them. comparing them to their "perfect" mother. comparing them to their "perfect" wine tycoon father. expecting only good things from them. surely they're as perfect as their parents, right?

it's tiring, draining, yet wavering will only cause a domino of insignificant reactions from these unwelcomed audiences. insignificant, but very taxing to deal with.

phoenix, at such a young age, knows how to distinguish a sincere smile from a mask. they know when to wear a mask of their own when facing these fake people who preach about freedom, yet judges someone's capabilities because they were raised in luxury. they learned how to charm others, to protect the image that their parents had built way before they had them. yet phoenix's only a child.

at times like these, kaeya is the only one they can lean on.

kaeya, who can see through the person that phoenix wants others to see. he can see the ghost of exhaustion behind their eyes and how they always seem to take deep breaths every few minutes, as if to compose themselves before turning to give a smile.

and when phoenix turns to give him a smile—one that seems to wobble in the tiniest way that only he seems to notice—he knows that it's time to intervene. he knows when to stir them away from the public's eyes in the guise of stealing his favorite (only) nephew/niece. he knows when to hold them in his arms, keeping them from breaking apart and whispering reassurances in their ear. things that they've never heard from diluc.

kaeya, who knows that enough is enough and desires to punch the truth on diluc's face. and we love to see that, go bitch slay >:D

[gaydiation-poisoning]

Revali from BoTW for the character opinion bingo!

Ohhhh you're gonna get me killed by the fandom for this one, that there is a character I have some BAGGAGE with

Okay here's my thing

I kinda despise Revali And it sucks because I really REALLY don't want to

Story time

I grew up playing Wind Waker, it was my first video game ever, and from that game the Rito were my favorite race, and they remained my favorite all these years. You probably wouldn't be able to find someone more hyped than me for the return of these beautiful birds.

So. April 2017. When I got my hands on BOTW I decided I'd save the Rito zone for last, I'd kept myself blind so I could go in and experience everything purely.

So imagine my surprise when I unlock the champion I'd been most excited for, the Rito, the champion of my favorite Zelda race from my earliest childhood memories.

And he was a complete fucking douchebag

At first I was like oh :( well okay maybe we'll be given some more information on him and it'll be better!! After all characters with huge egos can be extremely fun!!!

So I maintained hope that maybe the upcoming DLC would give us something

December 2017

We got something!! A teeny tiny fragment that suggested maybe Revali's ego was just a coverup for a deeply troubled bird, it was hardly anything at all but it was something.

But then his journal made him like 10 times worse in such a way that the DLC honestly didn't do much but make him more insufferable

So I was deeply saddened, they'd given us something but simultaneously made him more unlikeable. I thought that would be the end of it. But then!! Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity was announced. And I was THRILLED. FINALLY. we were going to get AN ENTIRE game alongside the champions, I was gonna get more content for Best Girl Mipha, and FINALLY AN ENTIRE GAME'S WORTH OF CHANCES TO GIVE REVALI SOME CHARACTERIZATION. YES!!!!

November 2020. AOC comes out. Holy. Fucking. Shit. Revali what did they do to you? To my shock he'd graduated from a little unlikeable to downright unpleasant to watch. Even my best friend, a diehard Revali fan through and through, could not STAND what they'd done with him. We got a whole game with this guy and they basically spent the whole thing trashing this guy's character. He was arrogant to the point of annoying, horribly rude to characters who had done nothing to earn it, and overall was just kinda a ballache. And not even in the 'fun annoying character' way.

But hey!! AOC was getting DLC as well!!! That is meant to flesh out the characters more!!! We'll definitely get something there!!

October 2021. Guardian of Remembrance comes out. Yeah this DLC gave us fuck all really. That goes for all the champions, but I think Revali suffered pretty bad in this regard. Some of the scenes with Tulin were cute but they didn't do much in terms of Revali's character.

And....that's where we are now. Tears of the Kingdom is on the horizon, and I highly doubt we're gonna get much on the Champions in this game but...well I've maintained hope for six years already, why stop now?

So yeah my feelings on Revali are...complicated to say the least. There's so much I love about him, his design is probably my favorite of the Champions (next to Mipha), he easily has like...the best voice in the whole fucking game, and the character POTENTIAL is absolutely incredible. But all in all it feels like they've done nothing with that potential, for what is supposed to be the most Character driven era of Zelda to date, it truly feels like they've let his character stagnate, if not actively regress in a way that I REALLY do not vibe with.

I can see what people can love about him, god knows I've done more when provided with less in a character. It's not the ego that gets me, I love cocky characters, ffs my favorite BOTW character is Master Kohga for crying out loud, and that man has a damn near god complex. (Kohga, incidentally, has LEGITIMATELY EXPERIENCED MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAN REVALI. WHAT.)

Like I'm not saying I want his character to do a full 180, just a couple more scenes like what we got in Champion's Ballad, just a couple more cracks in the facade would have done wonders. But instead they just kept him rather one note. Feels bad man.

Ultimately it feels like they're just going in circles with this character, arguably the Champion with the most potential to be interesting and they're doing fuck all with it. I can see why people love him, but idk, I've dealt with a few people irl with egos like that and that's probably not helped.

Idk, I guess this character managed to regress perfectly into a niche I cannot stand, and it sucks because it feels like such a personal loss to me.

I guess to put it very shortly

Revali is a bully. And I'll take a full blown villain over a bully any day.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Hello!!!! I’ve been following you for ages and I know that you’re a big CritRole fan. I’ve never really been able to get into it, cuz the thought of going back and watching it all from scratch is supremely intimidating. However. I finished all of EXU Calamity in a weekend (and lost my entire fucking mind) and I’m really enjoying TLOVM show. Do you have any tips for watching any parts of C1, C2, or C3 in addition to that? Or would it be smarter to wait for C4 to start and go fresh from there?

Hello dear, lovely to hear from you. I hope you're doing well.

Critical Role is very intimidating to get into. I was fortunate that I got into it early on, roughly a year after they started filming, so it didn't take me as long to catch up. Anyone trying to get into it now is going to feel daunted, that's for sure. Unfortunately, D&D sessions do tend to run long, I know my group's average is 4 hours and we used to run for up to six when we had more open schedules.

Calamity is a fantastic place for any newbie to start. There are other oneshots and mini-campaigns they've done too, like Taliesin's eldtrich horror mini campaign, the Undeadwood campaign, and Marisha's Honey Heist and its sequel. Calamity introduces you to the world and is just. brilliant improv storytelling from all the players. but it's only six episodes for the complete story. So if anyone reading this ask wants to bite into a good tragedy and wants to know what the whole TTRPG craze is about, Calamity is a great one.

When it comes to the full campaigns... you kind of have to resign yourself to the fact that it'll take a while. Campaign four won't start for another year or two, and so you can wait until then, but that is a bit of time to hold out.

I would personally recommend you listen to campaign one. Campaign two seems to be the favorite for the majority of fans, but since you've already watched TLOVM, which is based on campaign one, that'll give you some background info and a baseline to help you get into the swing of things. The first few episodes will be a bit rough, since the cast is getting used to being filmed in a studio rather than hanging in a living room, but you'll be surprised by how fast you latch onto the characters.

Additionally, I think it's just fun to watch the cast journey from being in a spare room at the Geek & Sundry studios, to their own studio, slowly decorating that studio, then moving to a bigger studio, which is where they'll stay for campaign two. it's just nice, in my opinion, to see those little details as the show grows in real-time.

My friend recommends listening at 1.25 speed, and sometimes she speeds up the combat to 1.5 speed. You can also listen rather than watch, as some of my friends have done, so you can listen (either just put the video on and don't look, or they have created podcast versions of the episodes - nothing changed in content, just made it into an audio file to download) while doing other things like folding laundry. I prefer watching, to see facial expressions and nonverbal reactions, but given that this is a popular option among my friends, I don't think you'll miss anything too vital. And you can always supplement with YouTube compilation videos of reactions and favorite moments!

I can also say that it'll go faster than you think it will. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can blow through a few episodes.

So, yes, either wait a year or two, or resign yourself for a commitment, unfortunately that's kinda how it goes. You can't really skip episodes or only do "highlight" episodes since so much happens in each one, you can miss a lot of context. If that still intimidates you I'd really recommend diving into the other mini campaigns and oneshots they've done like Honey Heist, Undeadwood, etc.

Also, if you liked Calamity, then I recommend Dimension 20. Brennan Lee Mulligan is the game master for that crew, just as he was in Calamity, and their campaigns are a lot shorter. So that can also help you get into the TTRPG show groove. Their campaigns tend to run 15-20 episodes and the mini campaigns are around 6.

Again if you are going to dive into a full CR campaign I recommend the first campaign with Vox Machina since you already know the characters and a lot of the plot arcs - and it's fun to watch TLOVM when you've seen campaign one, since you can see how it's a truncated "this is the legend" version while the CR campaign is "now here's what really happened with these dumbasses." But campaign two is the more popular campaign so there's nothing wrong with starting there.

I hope that all this has been helpful! Good luck on your CR/TTRPG show journey!

[spookyrus-writes-sometimes]

Amphibia was incredible.

I wasn't going to give it a chance at first. The premise was silly to me, and the few season 1 episodes I caught now and then didn't do anything for me. But I heard talk and saw fan art, saw that so many people loved these characters dearly, and that pushed me to see the show through. And I am so glad that I did.

The story of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy's relationship is so real and so near and dear to my heart. The tragedy of their imperfect love for each other is beautiful, and that alone made me fall in love with this show. That all three would do anything for each other, whether it's make terrible mistakes or change for the better, is the true love that I so desperately long to experience. They're cartoon characters, but they're written so real. They're so, so important to me.

Of course there are things that I would have done differently, and things that I wish could have been explored more. I feel that a number of the slice of life episodes drag, especially in season 1, and it hurts the show's pacing. I vehemently loathe season 3's aversion to addressing Sasha and Marcy until it's their time to show up for the plot. I feel that Darcy was severely underutilized. I wish we could have seen more of Sasha and Marcy's calamity powers. I wish we had seen more of Andrias's relationship with Leif and Barrel. I really don't like that the day was saved by a plot device only introduced in the final episode.

And I never, EVER would have written an ending as tragic as the one we got. I'm afraid of unhappy endings, of leaving things unresolved or on an unidealistic note. Of course we all wish that the worlds hadn't been cut off. It hurts to know that Anne will never get to see Sprig and Polly grow up, that Grime will never get to see just how far Sasha has come, that Marcy will never get to have the familial relationship with Olivia and Yunan that they deserved. It's especially hard to know that even after everything they've been through together, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy still drifted apart. It's so, so hard to say goodbye. So hard to accept that not everything gets a perfect, happy ending, wrapped up in a neat little bow. That sometimes things change, not always for the better, and all you can do is remember and move on.

It's not a perfect ending. But in a lot of ways, I feel it's the perfect ending for Amphibia.

Amphibia is not and was never an escapist fantasy. It's clearly a story very personal to its creator, one that aims to share some of the hard truths he's learned in his life. Amphibia is a story about love and loss and how those things change you, how you improve and become stronger for those you love, and what you'll give for them. But it doesn't try to convince us that love can conquer anything, because it can't. Sometimes, no matter how hard it is, you have to say goodbye. I think that's a really important lesson, not just for the audience, but for the characters.

Anne will never forget Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop, and they'll never forget her. They changed each other for the better, and their lives are better for it, even if they can't be together anymore. Maybe Anne, Sasha, and Marcy didn't get to be together forever, maybe life led them in different directions, but their love for each other still made them better people. And maybe it's enough to know that despite everything, no matter how far apart they are, their love will always find each other.

And if that isn't enough, well, we'll always have fan fiction.

I know that my passion for this show will fade, just like it did for all the shows before it. But I will never forget the feelings Amphibia made me feel, and I truly believe that Reunion, (especially) True Colors, and The Hardest Thing will go down as some of my all-time favorite episodes of television. I know that the story of Amphibia is one that will change my approach to storytelling, and hopefully me as a person, for the better.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, to both Matt Braly and the crew and all the fan creators who got me invested, for Anne, Sasha, and Marcy. And to Sprig, Polly, Hop Pop, Grime, Olivia, Yunan, and Andrias, goodbye, and thank you for all the awesome adventures.

[semperbucky]

HEWWO you gotta tell me this, and it's more important than the ACTUAL questions: but does the following make a good fruit salad?

favorite character(s)- 🍋

favorite quote(s) from a fandom- 🍐

favorite costume/outfit: 🍇

favorite finale episode: 🍓

aaa tysm!!!!

first & foremost (the most important question): i think these would make a p good fruit salad! maybe have the lemon be included as lemon juice instead of slices & that fruit salad would be tasty af

(full disclosure i have so many blorbos rotating around in my head at any given moment these are less 'favorites' & more 'the ones that are in my head the most' but i guess that's kind of what favorites are? but i digress) (also apologies for any formatting weirdness - i'm on mobile & never get asks so i have no idea what i'm doing lol)

🍋 favorite character(s): bucky barnes has my whole entire heart (hence the blog name) but i also adore geralt & jaskier from the witcher, entrapta & scorpia from she-ra, basically every character from m*a*s*h (except frank) especially radar, jack (& bitty) from omgcp, & cullen, alistair, dorian, fenris, & josephine from dragon age. i've also been watching a stupid amount of cr recently (trying to catch up on campaign 1 so the references in campaign 3 make more sense - got up to ep72 so far) so i could go through my favorite character from each campaign? it'd probably have to be keyleth (is she endearingly awkward? yes. could she kill me with one look? also yes), caleb (liam o'brien tears my heart out once again), & imogen (we stan a horse girl w terrifying moon powers & a fun scary girlfriend). there's approximately a million more & i've definitely left some out but those are the ones that are popping into my head rn.

🍐 favorite quote(s) from a fandom: the funny thing is that for someone who prides themselves on their brain consisting mostly of quotes/references, i'm drawing an absolute blank. maybe it's a contextual thing? like you have to say the right words in the right order before the quote part of my brain kicks in or something. "'til the end of the line" comes to mind bc of what it represents & everything they've been through together (we gleefully ignore the last bit of endgame). or "it's love that makes people." (alternatively: "life needs things to live.") if you want something even cheesier, i met hayley atwell in london a few years ago & asked her to write "have courage & be kind" on a piece of paper & i plan on getting it tattooed on me somewhere when i finally get the courage to spend money on non-essential things lol

🍇 favorite costume/outfit: it's so basic but i very distinctly remember being entranced by arthur's everyday look from bbc merlin?? like just the simple red shirt & leather pants w the boots & a jacket sometimes. looked so comfy. maybe it was just thinly veiled gender envy disguised as appreciation for the outfit lol. & any time they put morgana in green or her witchy outfit i just 😍

🍓 favorite finale episode: idk if this refers to a season finale or a series finale, so we're gonna pick series finale. i don't usually like finale episodes of any variety bc they mean something is ending, but there are a few that end with just the right amount of closure to make it satisfying. the one that comes to mind rn is the finale of exandria unlimited: calamity (yeah it's not a tv show but it's still a "series" so it counts). brennan lee mulligan is a godsdamned fantastic dm & the whole cast knocked it out of the fuckin park. it hurt like a motherfucker but it was so beautifully done & it was the best tragic but hopeful ending to a series i've seen in a while, possibly ever.

thank you again! hope u are having a lovely day 😊

[karaloza]

Breath of the Wild DLC Ideas (That Won't Happen, But I Wish They Did)

Okay, so.

I played Breath of the Wild last year, some 4-1/2 years late to the party. I loved pretty much everything about it. Big shocker, right? But I didn't go for any of the DLC, and I'm probably not going to--it's a borrowed game and a borrowed console, which would make it weird for me to order more content even if I got permission first and paid my friend right back. On top of that, I'm not all that interested in playing More of the Same But Harder, which is what the DLC seems to be. No, not even with the promise of a magic motorcycle.

What I wish is that they had come up with DLC to take place after the main game is concluded. Most Zelda games have a Happily Ever After sort of ending--the great grand evil is defeated, the kingdom is saved, roll credits. That's not the case in BotW. The kingdom isn't "saved," we've just prevented Calamity 2: Malice Boogaloo. There's still a lot of work to be done restoring civilization. I would love to have DLC that offered just that.

First a "main quest." Link is still a fighty swordy guy, so there would still be a lot of combat focus. Let's say that with Calamity Ganon defeated, there are no more Blood Moons, and we can finally Get Rid of All the Monsters. It must be very hard to rebuild civilization when Leekah can't even go for a walk without getting Bokoblin-clobbered. So your main quest is, just go through Hyrule and perma-kill all those monsters.

Now if the monsters no longer regenerate neither do their weapons, but weapons still break because it's not like the good metallurgists are going to suddenly come back to life. So, sidequest: Establish Some New Smithies. This would be an elaboration of some content that already exists--there's the grouchy Goron blacksmith, though you can't buy anything from him. What I have in mind here is that you help aspiring smiths--say one in each major settlement--acquire the resources to set up a forge (maybe introducing a new ore type that drops metal), and then bring them existing weapons that they can copy from. Show the Gerudo smith some Gerudo weapons, the Rito smith some Rito weapons, etc. And once they've learned how to make weapons, they can sell them to you. Breakage problem solved! The Hylian smith would have the most intricate branch of this sidequest because Hylian weapons come in multiple different "grades" (Traveler's->Soldier's->Knight's->Royal->Royal Guard) and it would be cool if they have to master the entire set of each grade (sword, greatsword, bow, polearm, shield) before they can start to learn the next one.

The next sidequest I call Hylian Homesteader, and it is an extension of that Hylian Homeowner quest that is just pure wish fulfillment for Millennials and is also similar in some ways to the smithy one. During my playthrough, I kept wishing that I could grow a garden on my land and stock my pond with fish, and have a few favorite ingredients always available. So for this sidequest, you would do just that. You'd need to dig the garden plots (let's say up to three) and you'd need seedlings or other cultivars to plant. For the first...well, Bolson isn't doing anything anymore, that could be added to his list. For the second...how about Zelda? She's a scientist, we know she has at least some interest in cultivating wild plants based on that one cutscene about the Silent Princess flowers, and she needs a presence in this hypothetical sequel DLC. So you give Zelda samples of the ingredients you've collected, and she figures out how to propagate them in your garden patch.

That's all I've imagined in detail, though in practice I would include more stuff like expanding Tarrey Town and/or building additional towns, re-establishing hallmarks of a developed society like a postal service and a school, recovering books from the castle library, and all sorts of fun things. It would be a different sort of game from BotW itself (though not too different, since your main quest is still about hitting monsters with swords), but I think it would do a lot to fulfill the implied promise of BotW, which at its heart is a game about healing from severe loss.

[autumnslance]

There were a lot of "hurry" and "breather" moments in EW; Garlemald is a long slow build until Everything happens all at once at level 83, and then it's followed by the long slow time on the moon. Elpis, too, is a long, slow build to a climactic moment. And then we spend a lot of prep time, despite the energetic music in Labyrinthos.

So it's not as distinct in its episodic nature as each zone of Shadowbringers, but there's very much a sense to me of "this belongs to this Act, this belongs to this Act for the play."

Not to mention the actual breather moments with the Scions built into the story, little bits of friendship and characterization to see where they are now after ten years and also build up to Ultima Thule.

Overall, the structure of EW is a very interesting one in terms of ebb and flow, in how to balance hard narrative moments with softer ones.

The other issue I think is the backwards compatibility. It's a 10 year story...that was inherited from the original FF14 team in 1.0. There were ideas and rough outlines, but no real detailed plans yet. And then they decided to run the Bahamut/7th Umbral Calamity storyline as the way to rework the world (it was apparently always part of those rough plans/outlines, but when Yoshida took over he decided it was a good way to move the revamp forward; after all, it worked for WoW: Cataclysm). And then the Ascian motivations and backstory got reworked in Stormblood, while the Scions are dealing with liberation and the meta plot took a breather. Garlemald/Ilsabard was also considered for a whole expansion at some point? And how many folks wish Doma and Ala Mhigo had gotten split for better focus?

And that backwards compatibility and compressing originally outlined expacs together shows. They've done a decent job, especially in the ARR slim down and the dungeons revamps to try to adjust some unvoiced dialogue and information, but part of the issue with the late-coming developments like the Ancient world, Meteion, and Akasa/Dynamis are filling in the gaps of "how did this happen and why do these characters fight for all of this? Who/what are Hydaelyn & Zodiark beyond the primals everyone long guessed they are and why are they different and why does that matter?"

Personally I really enjoyed EW; it suited my WoL well for one thing, but also I thought the narrative work was good, and the spackling they did to make it all work together over many different writers and teams over 12 years was decent work.

I'm not sure those originally outlined ideas for Ala Mhigo/Doma/Garlemald would have worked on their own, and in the meantime the Ascian and Zodiark/Hydaelyn stories would grow stale in the background. I can see them wanting to move on to their own new stories less beholden to the inherited narrative.

Do agree though, much as I love Ishikawa's writing and guidance to the rest of the team, she definitely has her favorites, and it shows, though I can forgive in part giving her killed off characters their dues, too. I was just glad we got more reminiscing on why many people were important, not just 1 dude.

Maybe I’ll take Helisent through Endwalker when the new year hits. Normally I have all of my girls caught up by the first major patch, but I just haven’t been feeling it.

It isn’t that Endwalker disappointed me, far from it, more like… I had more fun with each individual part rather than the story as a whole, I suppose. There were sequences that remain some of my favorite throughout the whole of xiv, but as an expansion it felt a little lacking in ways I can’t articulate.

[noirandchocolate]

What is Master Kohga's most favorite thing to do with his friends, when he's taking a break from leading a clan and signing papers and such busywork?

Hello my loooove, thank you for sending me a question about our guy! <3

Kohga! Loves! Going up to Spectacle Rock and setting up a campfire and just hanging out shooting the breeze with his buddies while somebody cooks something. It reminds him of old times, when he was a teen/in his early 20s and out on little missions and trips as everyone learned how to be full adult members of the Clan. More carefree times, for him, because he wasn't Master yet and his responsibilities as Heir and as a Footsoldier were important but not...well, Master-level important.

He hasn't done this as much since the Calamity was vanquished, because he's an even busier guy than usual and his time and attention are even more divided, but...

He really loves getting as much of his friend-crew together as possible and just hanging out, talking about old times and teasing each other and getting updates on people's kids, and families, etcetera. He brings his shamisen along to twang away while the gossip and tales and sake flow. The group always ends up tipsy and hanging on each other and singing or pointing out stars in the sky or joke-sparring or reminiscing about those who aren't with them anymore and it's just very...warm.

Kohga loves his friends, and loves that on such occasions, while they of course always remember he is Master Kohga, they treat him like he's still their old friend they've known since they were all little veiled kiddos running around the Complex getting in trouble. <3

[shayberri789]

Here are some of my favorite Linked Universe fics OP!

Forgotten - TallyAce

Wild joins the group three years before he's destined to fight the calamity the first time. The other heroes sense he has yet to complete his journey, and worry for him when he leaves.

Timeverse - 0_Lucy_0:

Time has existed in five states: Child, Teenager, Transmuted in time and world, Adult, and Shade. The groups meet Time in each stage of his life (barring child and Shade link, I think)

Patterns - HelKat:

The first meeting between the group and Wild don't get off to the best start, and Wild finds himself regressing back to Mute. Lots of angst while everyone desperately try to make Wild feel at home, but fucking up because of miscommunication, followed by apologies and family bonding fluff (plus Spirit!Champions)

Later, they also meet Linkle

Dimensional Links - ChangelingRin

This is a similar premise to LU but it's its own separate thing and I think it was actually started before LU? It has every single hero as their own hero (barring a few) and it's just. Pure crack. (Bc it's a separate thing, all the Links' names are different and they have different dynamics/ages, it's great fun)

"Centuries after Demise was sealed in the Master Sword, he reforms himself to find that his Hatred Incarnations have been utterly useless. He decides to take things into his own hands-and in the process tears holes in reality itself. To save the Universe, the Goddesses turn to their last hope and send the Hero, as they've done so many times before...

Except this time, they're not just sending one.

This time, they're sending all of them."

(Cross-posted from FF . net but Ao3 is edited more for plotholes and just edited/better quality. FF . net is much further ahead and posted under same name and title)

Also bonus:

Three of my favorite fics:

Roots - ClaraAeri:

(Botw pre-canon novelization) A work exploring the events that took place before the calamity- detailing Link's chaotic ascendance into the royal guard, his first meetings with each of the champions, Zelda, and the people who raised him.

"Link tossed the sword down. It stayed upright, embedded into the dirt and mud. He wanted to tell her just how desperately he’d wanted to reject it and put it back into its pedestal. The way he ran and lied, and was still lying. King Rhoam was the one who insisted the truth be buried, but Link didn’t utter a word of protest. He may have come clean, but he had no intention of coming clean to all of Hyrule. He felt he didn’t owe Hyrule anything.

But the question remained, just how much did he owe Zelda?"

The Destiny Collection - webcomix:

Another zelink pre-canon novelization, though more canon-compliant, filling in the memories, + a side story from Link's dad's eyes and an epilogue post-final ganon fight

Alone With You - DeiliaMedlini:

A modern AU Zelink fic. It doesn't follow any game plot and uses characters from across the games, but since there's only one link and Zelda with pretty unique personalities, I wouldn't consider it a fic of any particular game nor LU. It is. SO FLUFFY. Like tooth-rotting fluff and mega cute

so I was craving some good ol' legend of Zelda today, but I had no way to play any of the games because my DS has no battery and my Wii U was being used, so I went to where I always go when I'm craving a piece of media I can't see the original of at that second

ao3

and, I have to say, legend of Zelda fanfic has no right to slap like it does, aparently there's this whole underground fandom that has all of the links travelling together and getting into hyjinks, they've even all got nicknames that corelate to which hero they are (ocorina of time link is called time, skyward sword link is called sky, etc) I have only read two fics so far and I've already bookmarked one of them, like wtf

despite the fact that the characters are pulled from games and have no built in personality theyre all unique and detailed, seriously, go check this shit out, it's fucking good