stelladess

[stelladess]

if you're in Europe PLEASE consider signing the Stop Destroying Games initiative. the deadline is July 31st 2025. i've posted about it before; it aims to create legislation for publishers to stop killing the games you pay for and to provide an end-of-life plan for live-service products. thank you!!!

[stelladess]

I HAVE ENCYCLOPEDIC KNOWLEDGE OF YUGIOH MEMES FROM THREE LANGUAGES I WILL ALWAYS BE A YUGIOH FAN ACCOUNT BEFORE I AM ANYTHING ELSE

[stelladess]

You know this art actually makes me happy to see

They suffered so much in the storyline but they made it. It is rare for a yugioh card storyline to have a happy ending, but they made it.

A bit messy of an ending, but it was a really fun ride.

[stelladess]

Place your bets on the pre IS6 event operator:

Poll up for 3 days.

[stelladess]

Evil mommy needs you to lock in.

[stelladess]

Don't worry about sharing your thoughts, I like talking to people about mutual interests. Even if it is a slight tangent it is still interesting and I also think this was pretty connected to the point.

While I do feel like a lot of people simplify Ayre and view her as more morally pure than she actually is, I also think any read of her that has her not care about Raven or just be manipulative is just... not paying attention to the story. Especially the story of Alea Iacta Est. I think if you only do the first two endings I can get why someone could speculate that about Ayre, but with that one she is clearly very uncertain about siding with Allmind all the way up to the O'Keefe mission. She wants Raven to make the choice because she does not know if it is right to do but she trusts Raven.

So often I feel like the take that Ayre is "manipulative" just boils down to, Ayre feels emotions and expresses them. I also think we should remember that Raven is not a total blank slate with zero character traits. It is made clear they have some things they care about like Walter, Ayre, Carla, Chatty. And achieving symbiosis is a thing they choose to pursue over and over and over despite having the choice to back out so many times on the Alea Iacta Est route. Ayre even keeps bringing up that if they commit to it Allmind wont let them back out later. She brings that up. So the reading that she is manipulating Raven to achieve coral release is pretty weird. Especially since Ayre clearly did not even know about it until about the same time Raven did (which is a bit before Allmind approaches them about it to be clear, so it is not just Allmind either).

The game also very heavily frames Alea Iacta Est as the one where Raven does follow their own will throughout. Both the other two endings ends with Walter or Ayre respectively expressing support for Raven to choose what they want. Now that means what they want aligns with what Ayre wants, which supports the "our shared dream!" line in fires of raven I think. On Fires Raven just decided their loyalty to Walter outweighed everything else (which is why they are still a "dog" as Freud suggests during the fight instead of a "scavenger bird"). Whereas liberator has Raven become a symbol for freedom, and I do think that route is more in line with what Raven believes is right (since you are so often given the choice of siding with the RLF despite that being less pragmatic than siding with the corps) but that is also not really Raven pursuing their own goals. That is putting that on hold to protect the coral because they care about Ayre.

Both those routes a choice is still made, but it is only on Alea Iacta Est where Raven has a clear goal that they are pursuing that was not given to them by someone else (Allmind only approaches about coral release after Raven and Ayre have already began looking into how to achieve symbiosis).

Anyway back to how Ayre gets judged unfairly.

Other characters do worse things and do worse things to Raven specifically that they do not get judged much for. Rusty tries to murder Raven despite Flatwell telling him not to for rather flimsy reasoning, he tries it regardless of earlier choices by Raven. Even if Raven has always sided with the RLF Rusty tries to kill them. Yet not a single person judges Rusty for this (out of universe, in universe Flatwell seems pretty annoyed by it but he chooses to fight alongside Rusty). While Ayre turning on Raven in the route where they try to destroy her entire species means Ayre is a backstabber who never cared in the first place apparently. I think this one really stands out to me because of just how much literally nobody judges Rusty for that. He realises Snail was trying to get him and Raven killed, his cover is totally blown probably. So he has no real reason why he has to fight Raven beyond "they might be a threat". Which depending on earlier choices is an insane position to take. I think it makes sense for Rusty to do this and the story would be less interesting if he did not, but it is him being kind of bone headed.

I would also like to point out how characters consistently has zero respect for Raven's agency or choices and will assume the worst of them regardless of player choice a lot of the time. With Walter and Ayre being the main exceptions to this.

[stelladess]

So. That was an ending.

There are a lot of things in this episode that I really like. Machu and Nyaan friendship was *good* but I wish we had gotten more of that in the show. Shuji is an actual character now but it came so late and out of nowhere that it feels kind of jarring. Challia and Xavier continues being really good. I like the final scene at the beach. I love the tag battle against Shuji until Shuji makes his gundam grow and squishes the GFreD. I feel now that Zeon was reforming under new leadership they should have used the other Zeon flag (the green one) but that is a nitpick. It feels like this episode is missing like 10 episodes of context.

Thoughts on the show as a whole is that it has a great start but about episode 7 and onwards it is a complete mess. It had problems before that point too of course but they really caught up by then. Had this been 25 episodes with largely the same plot, just some minor changes (such as involving the federation more) it would have been really great. I am glad it exists and I had enough fun watching that I do not regret doing so, but I cannot recommend this show to anyone. Go and watch mobile suit gundam (1979) if you want to watch gundam. There are other good gundam series but I really do think that one is the best one I have seen.

Witch from mercury is another good one for new fans if you have zero tolerance for old animation, but it is a lot more flawed in the story imo. IBO is one that I like but I know plenty of others do not for reasons that I can totally understand why so might depend on your taste. I have heard gundam 00 is good but I have not watched it yet so I do not know.

As for this show... most wasted character is probably Deux. Best character is Nyaan. Best mobile suit was the Gundam Fred. Best episode was... idk probably episode 8 but only the "current day" parts. Maybe episode 5 if not since that has some great characterisation for Nyaan and Machu.

Maybe, Gundam is not for me. Maybe I just like Mobile Suit Gundam 1979 and some individual later stuff.

And a lot of the stuff inspired by it.

[stelladess]

...arrived

[stelladess]

If anything happens to Yoyo then I am destroying everyone in Hod and then detonating.

I actually do really appreciate the doll's relationship to Yoyo. She comes across generally as kind of an aloof murderous weirdo but she clearly cares for Yoyo and is nice to her, worries for her wellbeing, etc.

I mean of course she has other positive relationships like Hati (don't spoil if anything happens here later) or the corpse collector tank lady but really Yoyo is one of her healthier relationships.

I was joking to a friend that the doll has been alive for like an afternoon when already becoming a big sister, I know Yoyo is probably actually older then the doll but the vibe is very aloof big sis and excitable little sis.

[stelladess]

Mechposting cause I really like my builds in all three of these games

I expect the builds to change for Dolls Nest and Machine Clad though since I am still early game on both and am bound to find stuff I enjoy using more over time.

[stelladess]

Machine Clad is a pretty neat game. Out of the games I decided to try due to AC6 withdrawal I think I like Dolls Nest more overall due to the story and strange setting (and really enjoying the general gameplay loop of exploring each region and going back for resupplies and trying to map the whole place out and find shortcuts) but Machine Clad is very fun to play. The combat is incredible. If you want to play more armored core but lack a playstation for the older games I highly recommend it.

I am still unsure what to name my clad, so for now it is just Stargazer like my AC.

Midweight with double missiles, rifle and a sword.

It works in AC, it works in MC, it works in Dolls Nest.

And also I am too poor to get any other weapons right now.

[stelladess]

Ayre

[stelladess]

At first I thought maybe they remade stuff because of feedback on the sky striker stuff but I feel like the production is too high quality to have been made that quickly. This discrepancy must have existed long before we got the first sky striker episode uploaded.

And sky striker being so botched is so weird when like, not only did they have a manga to use as a blueprint for it but also it is a pretty straightforward lore in the first place.

I saw someone suggest that maybe because Albaz lore is much more set in stone and conveyed scene to scene via the card arts and also the artist notes on the concept art they had less room to screw up but idk. Either way I am happy this was pretty good since the albaz card lore is literally what got me back into the game after I quit it around later parts of arc-v anime airing.

(art by the uncredited artist behind the albaz lore card artworks because konami NDAs suck)

I love these silly kids. I love the horrors they end up having to face and it is all rendered in such gorgeous artworks.

Anyway hoping we get card game chronicles for world legacy and sinful spoils eventually too, because yeah this recent episode was such a step up. Not perfect or anything but it did what it should do and it did it well. Be a neat little introduction to the card lore and make someone want to learn more while looking and sounding great doing that.

So like What happened with the sky strikers episodes because the first of the abyss storyline episodes was really good. Like this is exactly what I hoped the series would be if a bit shorter than what I hoped.

A nice little characterization thing and showing the start of the story to get people invested in the card lore. A whole anime or manga would be ideal but even just this is such a huge improvement on the Sky Striker animation.

I did not check who the VAs were ahead really, I had heard Maximus was gonna be Dio's VA which is pretty clear just listening. Ecclesia got same as Gray from case files I am pretty sure and Fleur de Lis same as Mei and her counterparts from hoyo games I think.

I am excited for episode 2 for this lore and still hope they make an actual full length anime for it. Huge improvement here and this has salvaged all my hopes for Card Game Chronicles.

[stelladess]

Firefly's sailor fuku outfit confuses me. I do really like how it alters SAM design, a nice sidegrade. But the actual outfit itself on her untransformed self is... I do not know why they made this.

Her original outfit also evokes a school uniform already. Not as blatantly when seen from behind as March but even moreso from the front than March's fit does.

So why give her a generic school uniform? She already had a very unique outfit already evoking one somewhat.

Yeah no, compared to the other in game outfit we have (which I believe is only March) this one is a pretty major disappointment to me. March getting a princess like dress is perfect for her despite being totally different from her usual outfit. This was too similar in vibes to her normal outfit and just less visually interesting. Good side grade on SAM though.

To be clear I am only comparing her to March because they both have alternate costumes and have a similar "pseudo school uniform" look to their original outfits. I am not pitting two queens against each other.

I know that this is also a nod to Firefly saying she wishes she could have gone to school and had a normal life... but I also think that is more reason not to do this. She did not get that. And she even says at the end of Penacony that she thinks the outcome of her life has given her the things she wanted from going to school and having a normal life (friends she get to just enjoy spending time with) so by now she would not want to change that.

[stelladess]

So like What happened with the sky strikers episodes because the first of the abyss storyline episodes was really good. Like this is exactly what I hoped the series would be if a bit shorter than what I hoped.

A nice little characterization thing and showing the start of the story to get people invested in the card lore. A whole anime or manga would be ideal but even just this is such a huge improvement on the Sky Striker animation.

I did not check who the VAs were ahead really, I had heard Maximus was gonna be Dio's VA which is pretty clear just listening. Ecclesia got same as Gray from case files I am pretty sure and Fleur de Lis same as Mei and her counterparts from hoyo games I think.

I am excited for episode 2 for this lore and still hope they make an actual full length anime for it. Huge improvement here and this has salvaged all my hopes for Card Game Chronicles.

[stelladess]

plush

[stelladess]

While I do feel like a lot of people simplify Ayre and view her as more morally pure than she actually is, I also think any read of her that has her not care about Raven or just be manipulative is just... not paying attention to the story. Especially the story of Alea Iacta Est. I think if you only do the first two endings I can get why someone could speculate that about Ayre, but with that one she is clearly very uncertain about siding with Allmind all the way up to the O'Keefe mission. She wants Raven to make the choice because she does not know if it is right to do but she trusts Raven.

So often I feel like the take that Ayre is "manipulative" just boils down to, Ayre feels emotions and expresses them. I also think we should remember that Raven is not a total blank slate with zero character traits. It is made clear they have some things they care about like Walter, Ayre, Carla, Chatty. And achieving symbiosis is a thing they choose to pursue over and over and over despite having the choice to back out so many times on the Alea Iacta Est route. Ayre even keeps bringing up that if they commit to it Allmind wont let them back out later. She brings that up. So the reading that she is manipulating Raven to achieve coral release is pretty weird. Especially since Ayre clearly did not even know about it until about the same time Raven did (which is a bit before Allmind approaches them about it to be clear, so it is not just Allmind either).

The game also very heavily frames Alea Iacta Est as the one where Raven does follow their own will throughout. Both the other two endings ends with Walter or Ayre respectively expressing support for Raven to choose what they want. Now that means what they want aligns with what Ayre wants, which supports the "our shared dream!" line in fires of raven I think. On Fires Raven just decided their loyalty to Walter outweighed everything else (which is why they are still a "dog" as Freud suggests during the fight instead of a "scavenger bird"). Whereas liberator has Raven become a symbol for freedom, and I do think that route is more in line with what Raven believes is right (since you are so often given the choice of siding with the RLF despite that being less pragmatic than siding with the corps) but that is also not really Raven pursuing their own goals. That is putting that on hold to protect the coral because they care about Ayre.

Both those routes a choice is still made, but it is only on Alea Iacta Est where Raven has a clear goal that they are pursuing that was not given to them by someone else (Allmind only approaches about coral release after Raven and Ayre have already began looking into how to achieve symbiosis).

Anyway back to how Ayre gets judged unfairly.

Other characters do worse things and do worse things to Raven specifically that they do not get judged much for. Rusty tries to murder Raven despite Flatwell telling him not to for rather flimsy reasoning, he tries it regardless of earlier choices by Raven. Even if Raven has always sided with the RLF Rusty tries to kill them. Yet not a single person judges Rusty for this (out of universe, in universe Flatwell seems pretty annoyed by it but he chooses to fight alongside Rusty). While Ayre turning on Raven in the route where they try to destroy her entire species means Ayre is a backstabber who never cared in the first place apparently. I think this one really stands out to me because of just how much literally nobody judges Rusty for that. He realises Snail was trying to get him and Raven killed, his cover is totally blown probably. So he has no real reason why he has to fight Raven beyond "they might be a threat". Which depending on earlier choices is an insane position to take. I think it makes sense for Rusty to do this and the story would be less interesting if he did not, but it is him being kind of bone headed.

I would also like to point out how characters consistently has zero respect for Raven's agency or choices and will assume the worst of them regardless of player choice a lot of the time. With Walter and Ayre being the main exceptions to this.