#[ like raphael’s outfit is interesting to me for example ]

[feretra]

I kind of hate that, as a historian, my knowledge bank is composed of two very contrasting things:

genocide/ethnic cleansing

historical textiles and fashion

like great, I can tell you about when x tried to kill a bunch of people or you can have me look at your favorite dumbass’ outfit and i can tell you all about a bunch of crazy little details you probably have no clue even existed

[hopeforkitten]

that's an unexpected lot of letters. Here Tav and Raphael go to the Astarion ball, dance there. They talk about the past, the present, and everything ends with a kiss by the pool in the house of hope.

__________________________

- It smells unusual, - Tav said, pointing to a beautiful vessel made of steel and glass, like a rock, in ice from the winds of Cania. - what is it?

- It's blood from the River Styx. A souvenir for your old vampire friend.

- After your probation period, I forgot about everything in the world. How is Astarion doing?

- Great, you did him an incredibly kind service in conducting the ritual. He was born to be a vampire lord. I plan to send him a souvenir before the next ball in his palace.

- Can we go to this ball? - Tav was inspired by this idea

- If you want a little mouse, of course. The devil always has clients at these parties.

It's not like the devil to enter through the main doors, but no one goes unnoticed in the castle of Astarion, especially on such an evening.

- My wonderful infernal friends! Why didn't you let my servants announce your presence?

Astarion met them on the balcony, the light pouring from the ballroom through the windows and the same winding doors of glass and iron. He is really glad to see them, even allowed his "kind regime" to be replaced by real courtesy.

- People usually rejoice in unexpected encounters with the devil, our dear friend.

Astarion continued on his way to meet the guests. He was about to kiss Tav's wrist, but he took a closer look at the interesting burn in time, and moved the kiss to the knuckles.

- A wise decision, - Raphael noted his actions

- What a charming way to tag your favorite pets in hell, - Astarion straightened up and looked at him somewhat irritably.

They were standing close enough to the hall for attentive viewers to notice the new guests.

Some aristocrat of declining years successfully passed near the balcony, he straightened up and was surprised to see the devil.

- Mr. Raphael, what a good meeting, - he rather unceremoniously distracted him, but his face showed the urgency of the matter.

- As I said, I have to bow out, friends, - Rafael said goodbye and took this old man deep into the hall.

Tav and Astarion were left alone in the evening coolness on the balcony.

- You're not looking very kindly at my companion, - Tav remarked

Astarion leaned impressively on the stone railing, with someone else he clearly would not have allowed himself such manners.

- Your new master. To be more precise.

- I remember then in the Moon Towers we swore to be friends and not lovers.

- It feels like it was only yesterday, doesn't it?

- It's been a little longer for me than for you.

- He won the race for your soul, not me, so I can still admire you. Your boss has great taste, lady.- He said, looking at Tav's dress, definitely  Astarion likes Raphael's style, and his colors are red, black, gold, all this was in her outfit.

- Thank you, your outfit and palace also surpasses any expectations.

- I know, thanks for the courtesy.

He had obviously heard enough of these praises from the guests.

- How do you like the blood from Styx?

- It's a great souvenir, as well... It's like beer among human drinks. I guess no vampire would be able to move away from its shore... But I didn't like beer. The experience is interesting, but I like more refined blood, for example from such visionary people like you.

- I'm afraid this train has left.

- Of course, I don't dare ask you to do that. However, many beauties at this evening dream of dancing with the host of the ball, and they will not notice that they accidentally hurt themselves.

- If you hide your teeth, I'll dance with you a little

- I will be more restrained than ever

Astarion takes Tav by the hand and hurriedly drags her from the balcony into the ballroom. It seems that he immediately goes at the pace of a waltz, and she needs to try to keep up with him. They skillfully seep between the couples to the center of the hall, all of them certainly make way for the host of the evening and at the same time do not take their eyes off him, and of course with his mysterious companion.

Astarion delicately takes Tav into a dance position and immediately begins to move. Astarion does not snuggle, he keeps his distance and persistently pulls Tav after him. They dance smoothly, but too fast. Maybe he thinks if he does more laps around the hall, it will last longer? Astarion looks more at his path and guests, it is kind of him not to embarrass his companion with his gaze. Tav nervously looks around, not knowing if this strange carousel is working properly and where it can take her. Candles and bright shiny outfits, mirrors all mix into a wonderful kaleidoscope pattern and some kind of growing noise begins to drown out the waltz music.

Suddenly, the carousel ends, Astarion pulls Tav out of her thoughts by releasing her waist and forcing her to scroll sharply on her axis while his hand holds her above her head. The kaleidoscope changes with an extremely satisfied face of Astarion (like a cat who has eaten sour cream). He bows and she curtsies in return

- Did you want me to feel sick so much? - Tav had to pull his arm to keep from falling

- Of course not, I didn't expect the worst coordination from a resident of hell.- He came over and became more serious. - I will be glad to every visitor from the House of Hope. And I would have kissed your fingers again if your companion hadn't been watching us so keenly.

- So in the dance you tried to hide from his gaze?

- Who knows. Now I have to take my leave, the guests feel terribly deprived while I'm with you.

- I'm letting you go, friend.

Astarion left her. He was immediately surrounded by guests. Tav stayed for a few seconds to observe his habits. Astarion is desperately trying to be above others, when talking, he does not bow his head at all, as he did in conversation with her. He smiles slyly and not really, and his eyes are flooded with courtesy.

Tav gets tired of this and she goes to look for Raphael with her eyes. Fortunately, it was easy to find the dark red robe of her master in the golden hall. Raphael continued to talk reluctantly with the old man there.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tav approaching and tried to end the meaningless conversation.

Raphael turned to her and felt relieved. This evening he wanted to be with her, and circumstances finally allowed him to.

He came up as if for a close dance to start a conversation.

- The host of the evening has given you a wonderful adventure, lady. Everyone was looking only at you.

He took her hand and pulled it to his lips for a kiss.

- Will you give the same adventure to a more modest guest of the ball?

- Don't be so modest. No one at this party will give me such a dance that you can give.

Raphael takes Tav's hand in his, and puts the other on her waist. At the beginning of the beat, he begins to move, at first slower and in shorter steps. He makes sure that Tav keeps up with him. This is quite an intimate dance, Raphael snuggles up to Tav. He looks right into eyes, and it seems impossible for Tav herself to break away from him. This look is a privilege, but Tav is used to seeing such kindness in it. It seems that if he had the opportunity, He would turn into a cambion and cover you with his wings from prying eyes.(he will definitely do it later, when you return to the house of hope) in the meantime, we will be content with what we have. The hall is stuffy, and next to Raphael the air is even hotter, but Tav is used to this heat.

This pleasant intimacy, she can let go of the situation and enjoy the evening.

(oh gods, at the time of the relevance of corsets, I heard that husbands laced corsets to their ladies in a special unique way so that no one else could repeat it. and in the evening they unlaced the carset, checking the correctness of their cord.

so, this is perfectly combined with the possessiveness of all my favorites Raphael-Astarion-Gortash.)

Already in the house of hope, Raphael helps Tav get rid of the dress.

- You've been doing great this evening, little mouse, - He put his hands on Tav's tired shoulders, - You can take a bath yourself.

- And if I want to be helped? - Tav was flirting. the champagne he had drunk made itself felt.

- I'm boring you enough today

Tav sat down on the steps of the pool, the water pleasantly relieved the fatigue of her legs and returned her a little reason

- It will be difficult for the new Astarion to find a companion

Raphael stood in front of the mirror and carefully undid the buttons of his coat.

- You're absolutely right, little mouse. He had a unique experience of trust with you, but now with his strength and position, he can no longer trust anyone.

He threw his coat on the sofa against the wall and began to carefully untie the intricate collar of his shirt.

- Judging by the way he talked about beautiful aristocrats, he is not deprived of female attention.

Said Tav and having collected water in the palm of her hand, she began to wash off the powder from her face and neck.

Raphael held out his hand to Tav as she left the pool. He pressed her to him, to his dry clothes, causing her a whole storm of emotions and a playful smile.

- It's good that my companion is with me. There was a lot of talk about this little vampire today, it seems there are enough of them.

Tav didn't want to answer him, just reached out to him for a long kiss

[soulofamy]

for the 'send me a character' ask: Amy :D

Send Me a Character & I'll Tell You✨️

My first impression my introduction to amy was through raphaels soulcalibur ii bio, and i already loved raphael so i was like "!!!! HE HAS A DAUGHTER?!?!"

My impression now i truly dont think there is a character in all of media who i love more than i love amy tbh. i will say that where sc6 does a lot to actually give her a story, it also takes away in terms of characterization lol. sc6 is probably the corniest shes ever sounded, and i really hope sc7 does a better job with that

Favorite thing about that character i LOVE jaded characters who have to learn to let people love them, who then would do anything to protect their new found loved ones

Least favorite thing i just dont think a teenager needs to have so much skin showing tbh. its fine on viola because shes an adult but amys outfits have so many unneccesary openings, not to mention the fact that her openings do too much to get upskirt shots. not a fan

Favorite line/scene unfortunately there are not that many to choose from lol but its probably a tossup between her soulcalibur 4 cutscene where she pushes raphael off a ledge, or in soulcalibur 6 when maelys told her raphael only wanted to be disturbed if there was a problem, and amy took out a knife and held it up to her own hand and said "how many fingers do i need to lose before it becomes a problem?"

Favorite interaction that character has with another look i know raphael is her person, i love their relationship, but they just dont have anything interesting going on when they actually interact with each other. if you are allowing me to include viola in the mix, it would have to be when zwei saved viola from the angry towns people. but if its JUST amy, then its the noncanon scene from soulcalibur 3 where kilik is being very gentle in caring for amy while curing her of malfestation

A character that I wish that character would interact with more literally any of them. make kilik wanting to cure her canon. let her be friends with talim. LET ME SEE THE SCHWARZWIND FOUND FAMILY I BEG!!

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character reptile/syzoth from mortal kombat 1 specifically has so many parallels with amy its actually quite funny. both were largely alone, and it was them against the world. both eventually found someone who loved them, who they in turn loved (raphael for amy, his wife for syzoth), both were then exploited by a mad scientist (azwel for amy, shang tsung for syzoth) who dangled their loved ones fate above their head, and if amys story is going in the direction i think its going, both her and syzoth are going to be unwilling participants in their respective mad scientist's depravity

A headcanon about that character despite the fact that viola lacks memories of her time as amy, there are still echoes of amy that unwittingly present themselves and would stand out to anyone who knew amy personally before she lost her memories. for example, viola loves the taste of chocolate. it makes her feel warm and safe for reasons she cant explain.

A song that reminds of that character overwhelmed by royal and the serpent

An unpopular opinion about that character it was actually an interesting idea to have her lose her memories and there is quite the bit of potential in allowing that arc to play out again while still being true to who amy is. amy does not have to stay a pigtail wearing daddy issues having child forever, contrary to popular belief

Favorite picture i dont want to repost other peoples art so i will instead link to the tweet my favorite art came from

thank you for the ask!

[lady-griffin]

I Entered a Dangerous Dungeon

Acchan’s Story

Acchan’s story was very touching and sad. I thought the anime did a great job adapting her POV chapters concisely into this episode.

I love the scene of Acchan reading Past Katarina’s last text message and breaking down crying.

That got me right in the feels.

One slight criticism, is that in the Light Novel we learn that because of Past Katarina, Acchan has made many friends and is able to live on without her best friend. Because of the positive impact Past Katarina had on her life and how much she changed it for the better. 

So, while in the anime, Acchan does say she will live on without her best-friend, I feel like it doesn’t come across as strongly as it did in the Light Novel.

That being said. I thought Acchan’s story went really well with the flow of the episode.

In LN Vol.2 her POV honestly felt disruptive and broke the flow of the story for me. So definite kudos to the anime for fixing that.

The text message scene got me, but so did Past Katarina’s funeral.

It’s easy to forget, with Katarina’s silliness, density and antics, that she died tragically young in her former life. 

So well done on the anime’s part for hitting me right in the heart with that reminder.

--

Sadness and friendship aside. I like how Fortune Lover appears in Katarina’s Past Life.

The poster on Acchan’s wall gives the impression that Prince Geordo and Prince Alan are the two main love interests or the more primary capture-targets. 

As they are more front and center than Keith and Nicol.

But since this is Katarina’s story, Keith takes precedent over Alan because of his closer proximity and relationship to Katarina.

There’s also something I really like about Past Katarina struggling to succeed in the Prince Geordo route in the game and technically dying because of it. 

It feels like her new life is good karma or the universe trying to make it up to her…so to speak

As in Katarina’s new life she easily wins over Prince Geordo without even trying and by being herself. Hell, she doesn’t even notice that he’s in love with her or that anyone else is. 

I’m probably looking way more into that detail than is actually needed, but I just like that small detail to Katarina and Geordo’s relationship.

The Exam Plot

Sophia want to see Katarina after her sad dream (memories) was very sweet and touching. I just love their friendship and how it has cross time, worlds and lives. It’s beautiful.  

I don’t think the Exam Plot is from the Light Novels (6-9) and it wasn’t in the manga or Light Novels (1-5). 

So, kudos to the Anime for introducing this exam plot and exploring more of the academic life for Katarina and her friends.

I loved their school uniforms for the exam.

It was nice seeing them in the same outfits and they all look pretty damn good in them. 

I don’t know why I really like their uniforms so much, but I really do. I just really do.

As much as I love their day-to-day outfits, I would not be mad if this was their school uniform and what we saw them in for the majority of the time. 

But that’s probably just me. 

Katarina is 100% right about the insanity of this exam.

--

But thanks to this crazy exam we got to see more magic and it was great.

I’ve always felt like the Light Novels and the Manga didn’t elaborate or explore on this being a magical world and the fact that all of our main characters have magic (at least in the First Year/Game Arc). The later novels (3-5) do elaborate a bit further. 

In Fortune Lover, it’s clear that magic was just a mechanic in the game to explain why all these characters were in the same school and a slight twist to making Maria different and special, as well as make Fortune Lover different from other Otome games.

And if I’m not mistakes Katarina even says the same thing about Fortune Lover. 

Fortune Lover gave a limited view of this world. Even when it came to Maria Campbell’s life and background, but the actual Hamefura story explores the world to a much greater extent.

So, it always seemed liked a wasted opportunity not to do the same with magic.

As it never really felt that magic matters for certain characters at all. 

For example in the Light Novels’ Character Profiles -- Sophia is said to have Earth magic and Raphael is said to have Light Magic…

But clearly that doesn’t really matter, because the anime (and maybe manga) can easily change their original types of magic to Wind Magic (I’m assuming it was Raphael who used that wind-tunnel to save Sophia and Katarina). 

HOWEVERE, there does seem to be a mistake in Sophia’s profile as it’s just Katarina’s in regards to her likes, dislikes, etc. 

Sophia’s Profile in Vol.5 (english-translation) is more than likely wrong in regards to her magic. Which might mean Raphael’s magic in his profile is also wrong. 

So, we should take that into consideration. 

My point being that I’m very happy that the anime is taking different route with how it handles magic in comparison to the LN/Manga. 

It’s been a huge improvement.

--

Katarina is so fucking dumb (I love her). 

Not only does she push the red button on the floor without even thinking about it for even a second, but in addition, her contributing to the group with her earth-bump was hilarious and adorable. 

Plus, her picking the most poisonous mushrooms that ever existed was just so stupid and so amazing.  

I also love how both Mary and Sophia are pretty fucking dumb when it comes to Katarina (and really only when it comes to her).

Mary is fully prepared to eat deadly mushrooms as long as Katarina is the one who prepares them and Sophia just hops right on board.

And Sophia was really the only who was genuinely complimenting Katarina for her earth-bump move in the exam. Which is just so sweet and also so dumb.

I love the three of them so goddamn much + Maria being the only one of the girls not willing to the deadly mushrooms. 

While I am a bit disappointed that Katarina’s videogame knowledge wasn’t of any use to her in the exam, I did genuinely love Geordo pushing her towards the the path they decided to take. 

I also enjoyed Alan saving Mary and her slighty blushing and him looking slighty embarassed as well. 

I will say I was disappointed that we only really saw the boys be capable during the exam, not any of the girls. Except for when Sophia helped Nicol locate Katarina…but still.

And of course, Katarina found the magic-stone because she needed a tool to help her gather mushrooms. That’s 100% Katarina. Though, a part of would have prefer it if Katarina was very knowledgable about plants in general and knew that those mushrooms were deadly. (either way it works for me)

And the one councilmember in her head (happy) seeing a lizard as food was fucking fantastic. 

I love the noble girls being jealous of Katarina and talking about her. 

It’s nice seeing them before the big accusation scene happens. Just by showing the noble girls being mad and jealous of Katarina feels more organic to the story.

Plus, Maria noticing the Dark Magic behind Katarina. 

I’m very happy with the past two ‘filler’ episodes building up to the two big climatic scenes and events.

--

The main problem I had with this episode is that - 

The Exam Makes No Sense…

I know that not unusual for anime or plenty of other stories, but the exam really makes no sense.

Aside from one group, basically everyone else is basically set up to fail. Right?

If you find the magic stone than you pass. If you don’t find the (one) magic stone, then you fail. 

The exam isn’t really testing what they’ve learned or improved upon. 

It’s more based on luck and the amount of magical power one has. 

Which seems unfair, as we know that a good portion of the magic population is closer to Katarina’s level of power than Keith’s, at least in LN, but maybe it’s different in the anime (or maybe I read the LN wrong).

I guess it’s possible that even though the team that finds the magic stone automatically passes, the other teams can pass based on how they navigated through the ruins...maybe. That would make more sense.

Though, it’s very possible that Alan, Mary, and Maria didn’t pass the practical exam because they weren’t on Katarina’s team.

And while I doubt that will be addressed later in the anime - If Alan, Mary and Maria actually failed the practical exam then that would be a great reason for why they arrived late during the accusation scene.

They weren’t there because they had to retake the practical exam or do another one.

So, even if the anime doesn’t say that’s the reason, that’s going to be my headcanon for right now.

ALSO

The teachers literally split the top students of the entire grade into two separate groups…

I’m not exaggerating. 

The students who get picked to be on the Student Council (the harem) are the ones who ranked the highest in the evaluation exam at the beginning of the school year.

First Year Rankings

1. Geordo Stuart (Canon) 2. Maria Campbell (Canon) 3. Alan Stuart (Canon) 4. Keith Claes (non-canon) 5. Mary Hunt (non-canon) 6. Sophia Ascart (non-canon)

We don’t actually know the rankings of Keith, Mary and Sophia but since they’re also on the student council, we know that they must be ranked 4-6. We just don’t know the exact order. .

Having the highest ranked students in two groups, basically feels like setting up all the other students for failure.

Then you have Katarina who is right smack in the middle of the rankings (#80) as part of one of the two groups.

That gives me the impression that Geordo and Keith basically demanded that Katarina be on the same team they are on, not realizing the other was doing the same.

Which is par for the course.

As all the members of the harem (minus Maria), threatened the teachers that if Katarina didn’t get permanent permission to be allowed in the Student Council chambers, then they would all resign from the student council (Manga/LN).

I know I’m thinking about this too much. 

And that of course the main characters are going to be together, because they’re the main characters. But still...

Really with just one or two lines from the teacher would have at least solved one of the illogical problems here.  

Teacher – “We have place several of these stones in the labyrinth, your goal is to find one of them. If your team leaves the dungeon without finding a stone, your team fails.”

Or something to that affect...

As much as I love Geordo and Keith being exasperated by Katarina and protecting her.

This also could’ve have been a nice opportunity to introduce Katarina’s non-council friends. Rather than us just seeing them right before she gets accused of bullying. 

But again, it does make more sense to have the main characters to be teamed up together...because they are the main characters. I just can’t help but point out the logistical problems for this exam.

Though maybe the anime will build off what’s been established in this episode...maybe.

--

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. 

I was hit in the feels right away, laughed so hard, and it was just a lot of fun.

And of course, I was very happy to see the anime is adding its own stuff to the story and elaborating beyond the Light Novels and Manga.

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Yamato “Matt” Ishida & Sora Takenouchi

Thoughts on the new Digimon reboot series, Yamato, Sora, and the potential for Sorato . . . before it airs on 5 April 2020.

Which . . . is actually today in Japan. Yeah, I’m cutting it really close! But I wanted to write a post about it before it airs. The new Digimon Adventure: series will broadcast several hours from now in Japan -- and then be released online via Crunchyroll “worldwide” (select countries) a few hours after that. Which is great!

I’m going to refer to the series as Digimon Adventure: 2020 just to make it more obvious I’m talking about the reboot. Toei, please fire the person who suggested simply adding a colon to the original title was OK. Thanks.

So, when I first heard about the reboot, I did sigh and think, CAN DIGIMON PLEASE JUST DIE ALREADY?

I was thinking primarily of my wallet, because I have this irresistible urge to purchase almost every single Digimon merchandise with Yamato’s face on it (and usually Sora’s face, too -- as well as Taichi’s, to a lesser extent). So the fact that Digimon was still going? Well . . . yes, my wallet has continued to bleed.

I also thought Toei Animation were being really tired and greedy to reboot Adventure. No new ideas? Really?

But that was when the last Digimon series I watched was Digimon Adventure tri. in 2018 -- which I wasn’t particularly impressed with (save for Chapter 3: Confession).

Now?

I’m actually pretty excited about the reboot -- thanks largely due to having seen Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna a month ago. It even fuelled me to rewatch tri.! Which is quite a feat, because it was such a slog for me to get through the first time (. . . and still a slog on a rewatch). But Kizuna made me hungry for more Digimon!

So Digimon Adventure: 2020 has turned out to be a godsend (so far . . . that could change after it airs). I haven’t thought so much about Digimon in well over a year -- and Kizuna has made me think about it quite a bit this month.

My first thought about the first Digimon Adventure: 2020 key image was that, from the little we can see of it, Yamato’s purple top looked awful (I focus on Yamato a lot, if you couldn’t tell). Thankfully, it does look a lot better now that we can see it properly! In fact, I quite like Yamato’s reboot outfit.

But it really feels like this conversation happened in the Toei Animation offices:

Staff A: “Let’s modernise Digimon Adventure for a 2020 audience.” Staff B: “How about, instead of Yamato wearing a green turtleneck . . . he wears a purple turtleneck?” Staff A: “BRILLIANT!”

I’m sure they came up with the title for the series in the same meeting. *cough*

So I guess “modernising” the kids means tweaking their outfits a bit. I think Taichi, Jou, Koushirou and Mimi look fine, because their new outfits most resemble their old outfits. I also like Yamato’s, as I said. Sora’s took me back a little at first, because there’s just too much pink, but I’ve since gotten used to it and thinks she looks cute. Takeru and Hikari’s outfits are the worst, I think.

But I like that Yamato’s purple turtleneck “matches” quite nicely with Sora’s pink everything. And that they’re both wearing wristbands on opposite wrists! Sora’s appears to be a normal red sports wristband, and Yamato’s is a green handkerchief (obviously a throwback to his green turtleneck). Cute!

I also like that Sora is being “motherly” over Takeru in the first key image . . . because that was part of the Sorato foreshadowing in the original continuity. ;)

We can assume that the reboot is targeting two different audiences: the primary audience being adolescent boys (and girls, to a lesser extent) in 2020, and the secondary audience being the generation of children who grew up with the first series -- and are now adults.

Us.

So they want to sell more Digimon toys to a new generation of kids, because kids buy (or force their parents to buy) the most merchandise and generate the most money. Simple.

But they’re also betting on the old generation to be interested in it as well, and generate even more money on merchandise sales (as has been the case for tri. and Kizuna). That’s why they’re using the original Adventure characters, instead of just creating an entirely new Digimon series from scratch.

So while they’re going to aim to introduce a new generation to Digimon with an updated world, I think they’ll be aiming to “please” us old fans, too -- so I don’t think they’ll stray too far with the characterisations.

From what little information we have so far, it looks like it’s pretty much the same characters, placed into a modern 2020 world. It’s an entirely new story (canon), and there are modern updates to their clothes and accessories (tablets, smartphones).

But Yamato and Takeru still live apart due to their parents being divorced, and Taichi and Sora are still childhood friends . . . so it looks like their character backgrounds are still the same in the reboot.

Even so, a different staff can reinterpret their characters completely differently to the original staff. So even if the aim is to keep the characters the same, I think they’re going to end up being at least a little bit different, just because different people are involved in their creation this time around.

Is it possible Yamato won’t even be my favourite character in the reboot?

Yes.

It’s highly unlikely, because of my sheer 20-year attachment to him (HOLY FUCK I’M OLD T_T), but the possibility exists.

This has actually happened to me once before. Yamato has been my favourite fictional character of all time since I was introduced to him in, I think, 2000? It might have been late 1999.

But before Digimon aired on Western shores, my favourite fictional character was Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ‘90s movies (and the cartoon series, to a lesser extent). As a kid, I was completely obsessed with the very first TMNT ‘90s movie.

However, in Nickelodeon’s 2012 reboot of the TMNT series, my favourite character was Leonardo (best fictional leader of all time, people). He’s my favourite in the most recent reboot movies, too. But Raphael is still my favourite in the ‘90s movies -- I wish they hadn’t changed his character to that of a super typical brute in the reboots (which is what tri. almost did with Yamato, too. SIGH. MY EMO BOYS ARE NOT BRUTES).

It’s such a fine line between someone who pretends to be brutish to hide their emotions, and someone who is an actual brute -- because just having deep emotions doesn’t cancel out a character being a brute, if they’re just being a complete brute with their actions . . . it’s a really fine line! The TMNT ‘90s movie and original Digimon Adventure series got it right, but the TMNT reboots this past decade and tri. got it wrong.

But I don’t “force” myself to like things. If Toei screws with Yamato’s characterisation too much, he might not be my favourite character in the reboot. Tri. Yamato came close to making me dislike him in a few scenes in the first two tri. movies -- but thank god he got a lot better as the series went on, otherwise I might’ve dropped him, lol.

Just going off the official Toei Animation profiles, the 2020 characters appear to be pretty much the same with the same backgrounds. But there is an entirely new cast of voice actors for all of the kids (the digimon cast are the same from the original series, except Tailmon’s VA).

I think the reason the original voice cast for the kids didn’t return is because Taichi and Sora’s original VAs, Toshiko Fujita and Yuuko Mizutani, have unfortunately passed away (RIP), so it was an “all or nothing” thing. It would’ve been nice to have Yuuto Kazama back as Yamato, though.

Reboot Yamato will be voiced by Daisuke Namikawa (Daigo in Digimon Adventure tri.), and reboot Sora will be voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi (Akari in Digimon Xros Wars). I haven’t seen Xros Wars, so I have no thoughts on Sora’s new voice, but . . . Daigo as Yamato? Really?

I rewatched a scene where Daigo and Yamato converse in tri., and Yamato definitely has a lower voice than Daigo (who has a low voice himself), so I guess it makes sense for Daigo to be younger 11-year-old Yamato. (Although . . . Yamato has always had a too-low voice for a kid, lol.) But I’m really looking forward to hearing the entire new cast!

But if it’s possible that I might not like reboot Yamato, is it also possible I won’t even ship Sorato in the reboot?

Yes.

I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but the very first time I watched tri. (Chapter 1: Reunion), I thought to myself: If Yamato is going to act this way, Sora should just ditch him for Taichi.

Yep.

And this was because Yamato and Taichi switched roles in tri. (especially in the first two movies). I just don’t see Sora being attracted to guys like Yamato in Reunion (who was acting like Taichi in Adventure), but I do see her being attracted to guys like Taichi in Reunion (. . . who was acting like Yamato in Adventure). Thankfully, Yamato and Taichi go back to their usual roles/characterisations by the end of tri., so I still shipped Sorato in tri. and all is well in the world. ^_^

But if the reboot characterises Yamato and/or Sora a bit too differently that I just don’t like them together . . . I’m out. Again, I’m not going to “force” myself to like Sorato if I don’t think their personalities are compatible, or if there is zero connection shown between them in the reboot. There’s no point to me, personally, to ship what’s not there. For example, I actually like Mimato -- but I don’t “ship” it simply because it’s completely non-existent in Adventure.

But I guess, if there really are zero connections shown between Yamato and Sora in the reboot, I might still “like” them together anyway (casually) just from the fact that I have an attachment to them from the original continuity. But I hope there’s an actual connection shown in the reboot so I can ship Sorato harder, lol.

Hiroyuki Kakudou, the original series director of Digimon Adventure, told Misato Mitsuka, the new series director of Digimon Adventure: 2020, to do whatever he likes because it’s an entirely different canon. So Kakudou doesn’t feel “protective” of his old series from the new series, because he knows it’s not touching his canon.

(FACT: Yamato and Sora got married and had two adorable babies together in Digimon Adventure. The reboot can’t change that.)

At the moment, I think it’s likely that Digimon Adventure: 2020 will just be one season -- but who knows how greedy Toei will get? Maybe there could actually be a 02 where the original cast are the main characters!? (I personally would have wanted that, instead of the 02 we got with the 02 cast. :P)

Can you imagine if this reboot got a new season 15 years later a la tri.? Poor reboot Yamato will be forced into purple tops for the next 20 years, lol.

The reboot isn’t being narrated by a man this time (at least, a woman was hired to do the narration . . .), so Takeru is definitely not telling the story this time. I also don’t think they’ll do an epilogue, simply because it was done last time -- and they wouldn’t want to “restrict” themselves to staying true to it, like the original continuity did. But . . . what if the reboot wants to follow and frame the series with a similar narrative, and there is a reboot epilogue?

If that’s the case, I think it’s highly unlikely they would go with “another” canon couple/s, because it would be odd and disrespectful to the old continuity.

Can you imagine if Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask never hooked up? But Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mercury were canon instead?

Yeah, insane.

Let me be blunt: I don’t think Taiora has a chance in hell of becoming canon in the reboot.

Will Taichi and Sora be portrayed as close childhood friends? Yes.

Will they have shippable moments? Probably.

But will they date and end up together? Nope.

As I said, I think it would be really weird (and even disrespectful) for there to be an original canon where Sorato is official, and a reboot canon where Taiora is official instead of Sorato. I just really don’t see it happening.

But, having said that . . . I could end up shipping Taiora in the reboot, and hoping like all Taiora fans that it does become canon, lol. The irony would be amazing. XD;

I think the reboot was/is being worked on as a one season idea. So even if they choose to do a second season for it later, that shouldn’t affect their plans for this first season (until towards the end, anyway, when the possibility of a second season can come to fruition). So let’s accept that the staff have worked on it as a one season concept for now.

It won’t have “romance” because it’s a shounen anime aimed primarily at prepubescent boys and the characters are 8 to 12. I think we’re going to get exactly the same treatment as the first Adventure -- and people worldwide will just naturally ship all the friendships between the kids.

Since the reboot is not the brainchild of Kakudou, I doubt they’ll be foreshadowing anything. But they could?

But if they don’t foreshadow Sorato, it does open up the possibility that they might make Sorato more overt instead? Even with no romance, they could make them better friends . . . because, remember, they do have knowledge of the original continuity. And I just don’t see them swaying from it (or against it) -- but that doesn’t mean they need to make it “official”. Especially as they’re just 11-year-old kids and there’s probably no epilogue. (But it would still be really amazing if the reboot made this a reality.)

But Sorato or no Sorato: I hope Digimon Adventure: 2020 is a good children’s anime, even if I’m way too old to be watching it. I hope they don’t just rehash all the old growth of the kids shown in the original continuity . . . I can’t handle another tri..

I guess I’ll make another post with my first impressions of the first Digimon Adventure: 2020 episode a day later. Maybe. It’s only 20 minutes, right!? But I don’t think I’ll be writing about it every week . . . that’s too much Tumblr for me (especially after I ignored Tumblr for a year). ^^;

Or maybe I will write a weekly post . . . because the world has gone crazy with the coronavirus pandemic. Stay safe, everyone!

[crackimagines]

Everyday Sunshine (FE: Three Houses Short Fic)

Child!Byleth Professor AU

After working hard for several months straight, the tiny professor and the Golden Deer class goes to enjoy some time off from the Monastery life, the beach.

Child!Byleth Post Masterlist here!

--------

Byleth stared out at the calm waters of the beach, feeling the cool wind blow gently across his face, blowing a little bit of his hair back.

(Byleth) “So, this is-”

(Hilda, Raphael, Dorothea, Sylvain) “THE BEACH!”

The four ran to the water and started frolicking, feeling how cold it was and laughing at their reactions.

Byleth saw the classmates he had recruited dash into the waters as well.

First was Sylvain and Dorothea, with Ingrid being dragged by the two against her will.

Caspar and Ashe tried going into the water and were not ready for how cold it was.

Bernadetta and Ignatz started painting the waters as the other classmates rushed in.

Felix simply decided to train for the moment with the wind feeling nice out in the distance.

(Hilda) “Come on, slowpoke!”

(Marianne) “A-Ah, it’s s-so cold!”

(Leonie) “You get used to it! I gotta train up while we’re here!”

(Raphael) “You said it, let’s go!”

(Ingrid) “How does the water get colder and colder?!”

(Dorothea) “Need me to warm you up, Ingrid?~”

(Ingrid) “BACK OFF-”

(Ignatz) “What lovely scenery!”

(Bernadetta) “I know, right? I can feel my art juices flowing!”

One by one, the other students started to jump in.

(Sothis) “What a beautiful location for a moment of respite, child! You really know how to pick them!”

(Byleth) Wasn’t me who picked this place.

(Catherine) “So kid, how’s the place?”

(Shamir) “I was the one who found it, thanks.”

(Catherine) “We found it together, details, details! Anyways, you not going in?”

Byleth was in a casual outfit, but it didn’t seem like he was going to swim with the others.

(Byleth) “No thanks. I never understood why everyone just splashed around. Swimming as a training exercise I could understand but...-”

(Lysithea) “I agree.”

Everyone turned to Lysithea who was in a full swimming suit that covered her entire body, one wouldn’t be faulted for thinking it was some weird form of a onsie. (a diving suit).

(Lysithea) “It’s so childish...”

(Catherine) “You say that, but I saw you eyeing the others enviously.”

(Lysithea) “I-I was not!”

(Byleth) “You don’t have to hold back on our account. We brought you here to have fun.”

(Annette) “Yeah, come on! You always work so hard, we won’t tease!”

Annette and Mercedes were in swimsuits, looking excited to go into the waters.

(Mercedes) “Please, join us!”

(Lysithea) “I...I won’t be made fun of?”

(Claude) “Hey, we all came here to act like kids, didn’t we? If it means you’ll enjoy yourself for once, I promise that I’ll act as childish as you will.”

Lysithea then smiled and looked to Annette.

(Lysithea) “Very well! Let’s go ahead!”

She joined Annette and Mercedes, and met up with the rest of the girls.

Meanwhile, Caspar, Raphael, and Sylvain were carrying Lorenz and Ferdinand to the water.

(Lorenz) “U-UNHAND ME AT ONCE! I MAY BE IN MY SWIMSUIT BUT I CANNOT GET WET-”

(Sylvain) “Oh ho, you aren’t getting away with that!”

(Byleth) “Hah...everyone’s having fun.”

(Flayn) “Ah, Byleth, there you are!”

Flayn ran up to his side and had a bright smile on her face, looking at Byleth with anticipation.

(Flayn) “Come on, the water looks amazing!”

(Claude) “You said it yourself teach, we all came here to have fun! Don’t disappoint the lovely lady now-”

(Byleth) “Ugh, shut it. Besides, I’m not even dressed for the water-”

(Catherine) “Eh, who cares! If you don’t go in, I’ll throw you in!”

(Claude) “...On second thought, stay put! I wanna see the great Catherine toss you like a ball!”

(Shamir) “Heh, that’d be interesting to see-”

(Byleth) “L-LET’S GO, FLAYN!”

He grabbed her by the hand and walked quickly over to the waters.

Claude laughed as he watched his classmates enjoy their day at the beach.

(Catherine) “How about you, kiddo? You joining them?”

(Claude) “I will in a second, I’m just...admiring the view.”

(Shamir) “Sure that’s a topic you wanna be discussing with only girls around?”

(Claude) “Well, I can’t deny that aspect of the view is nice but...that’s not what I meant. I don’t think I saw the Professor engage with the class this much.”

(Catherine) “Now that you mention it, the kid wasn’t exactly what you’d call sociable at the beginning phases of your class.”

(Claude) “It’s crazy to see how much he’s changed. He’s acting more like...well, a kid his age.”

(Shamir) “Here I thought I wouldn’t find anyone who had less emotions than me. I don’t think I ever saw him smile until just now.”

(Catherine) “Think the kid’ll actually thank you for these emotions?”

(Claude) “Doubt it. Well, at least in public. In private, he’s a like a little brother, funny one at that too. At first, I was really skeptical that a kid would be teaching our class but now? I think he fits right in with us misfits.”

(Shamir) “Hmph...Speaking of emotions, his seems to flare up around Flayn, huh?”

(Claude) “Her and Lysithea I seem to notice, though its different from what he usually has with us. Me and Leonie for example, piss him off. Raphael confuses him to no end, I’m pretty sure he’s exploded with anger around Lorenz, and for Marianne, his gentle side comes out.”

(Catherine) “What, he has a crush?”

(Claude) “Probably, but doubt either the teach or Lysithea would ever confirm that. As for Flayn, I’m pretty sure she’s been dropping hints.”

(Shamir) “...Good luck to her with that...”

(Catherine) “Well, we’ve been lazily staring for too long! Come on Shamir, let’s get wet!”

(Shamir) “Ugh, check your phrasing please-”

(Claude) “Hah, she’s right ya know. HEEEEY, HILDA!”

Claude, Hilda and Marianne enjoyed splashing each other, and began terrorizing the other students by splashing the freezing waters on everyone else.

Felix eventually joined Sylvain, Dorothea and Ingrid in the waters.

Caspar, Leonie, Raphael, and Ashe all had a contest of who could swim the fastest from rock to rock.

Bernadetta and Ignatz continued painting a beautiful portrait of the scene before them.

Lorenz and Ferdinand enjoyed chatting with each other while calmly enjoying the water instead of being thrown in.

Mercedes was trying to help Lysithea and Annette to swim considering how short they were, which led to very amusing lines from both of them.

Flayn and Byleth walked alongside the beach line together, casually chatting about how nice the weather felt and eventually went shell hunting.

BONUS: Nighttime Event (Flayn, Lysithea, Claude)

Flayn

Byleth heard rustling from the sleeping beds and saw Flayn get up.

(Flayn) “Oh, did I wake you up?”

They decided to walk alongside the beach’s waters since neither of them could fall asleep. After a silent walk, Flayn and Byleth sat together, watching the moonlight shine upon the waves.

(Byleth) “You know, it’s my first time actually enjoying my time at a beach.”

(Flayn) “But, you’ve been to beaches before, right?”

He shrugged.

(Byleth) “Sure, but I never got to take in the scenery. I was always there for missions. Frankly I hated beaches before because of so much problems preventing our cavalry moving faster, like sand.”

(Flayn) “Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it now! The beach is truly a wonderful thing.”

(Byleth) “You went to beaches with Seteth and your mother, right?”

(Flayn) “Yes. Father, mother and I loved to fish at the oceans, there were so many peculiar types of fish to see!”

She had a sad smile as she reminisced about those days she spent.

(Flayn) “I miss it quite so but...thanks to you, I’m able to make new memories like this one!”

Byleth smiled back, nodding.

(Byleth) “I’m glad to help out, Flayn. I’m glad you’re in the class as well.”

They both stared out again before Byleth cleared his throat.

It wasn’t unusual to Flayn to see the professor’s true emotions, but this time it surprised her. It seemed like he was...blushing?

(Byleth) “If...If it helps I’d...like to go fishing with you since you miss it, and Seteth doesn’t have much time due to his work but...-”

(Flayn) “I’d love to fish with you, professor!”

(Byleth) “...Good. It’s a promise, okay?”

(Flayn) “Promise!”

Lysithea

Lysithea made sure to not wake anyone as she went to the nearby cliff and watched the stars above.

This was the most fun she’s had in a while, and she was going to cherish this memory. After all, she was going to die soon.

(Byleth) “Can’t sleep either?”

Lysithea turned around and saw Byleth walk to her.

(Byleth) “Mind if I join in?”

(Lysithea) “Be my guest.”

He sat down, and they looked at the skies together.

(Byleth) “It felt good to be ourselves and not have anyone call us out on it, doesn’t it?”

(Lysithea) “For me, sure. I didn’t know you were capable of showing emotions, professor!”

She said it in a slightly mocking tone, but at the same time she was also a bit serious.

In response, Byleth chuckled.

(Byleth) “Neither was I. So, is there anything on your mind? It’s not like you to be up this late unless you were studying.”

She faintly blushed due to the amount of he detail he paid attention to her, but it quickly faded away when her thoughts were brought back up.

(Lysithea) “...You already know about how the crests have shortened my lifespan right? I was just...making sure I enjoy today. I don’t exactly have much time left-”

(Byleth) “Don’t speak like that.”

(Lysithea) “Huh?”

(Byleth) “As long as I’m here, you’re going to live. I don’t know what I have to do, but I promise you that. I am not going to outlive any of my students...”

(Lysithea) “...Thank you, Byleth.”

Byleth nodded, and they both continued to quietly watch the stars above.

Lysithea felt her blush come back.

Claude

Byleth was on a hill nearby, overlooking all of his students.

Even though he didn’t hear anything in particular to set him off, he still said something.

(Byleth) “Hey, Claude.”

(Claude) “Ah, I see you were able to see right through me! Dang, was going to give you a good scare too!”

(Byleth) “Heh, course you were...come on, best seat in the house.”

Claude sat down next to him. Byleth was right. This little hill looked over the ocean’s waves, the stars in the sky, and the students.

(Claude) “So, whatcha thinking about, teach?”

(Byleth) “Nothing in particular. I’m just looking over at all the kids...”

Everyone was sleeping so soundly. Byleth was starting to wish that everyday could be like this.

(Claude) “So, how’s it feel being a parent?”

Byleth laughed, turning to Claude.

(Byleth) “If these are my kids, then these are the most idiotic and insane kids I’ve ever seen.”

(Claude) “Don’t deny it, you still love us!”

(Byleth) “That I do, Claude...that I do...Ya know, I’m going to miss you guys when the classes have to leave. All of you will be off in your own territories, doing adult things. And I’ll still be here, teaching for the next 5 years until you all come back.”

(Claude) “...Ya know teach I’m...quite proud of you.”

(Byleth) “How’s this punchline going to end?”

(Claude) “Nope, no joking here. It’s coming straight from the heart this time. Are you aware of how much you changed from when you first came into the monastery to the way you are now? The fact you’re saying you’d miss us is proof!”

(Byleth) “Hm...I suppose I didn’t show much emotion back then.”

(Claude) “That’s putting it lightly. I didn’t see as much as a brow furrow whenever I tried to get ya to react!”

(Byleth) “That I wish did stay. But...you know, it was thanks to you and the rest of the class that got me to where I am.”

(Claude) “Hah, that’s true. But at the same time, we wouldn’t be the people we are today without you too. Marianne probably would’ve never spoken to any of us, Ignatz would be too scared to talk to people, Lysithea never getting her head out of the books, the list goes on! This class needs you, just as much as you need us.”

(Byleth) “Hm...I gotta say, it feels good to hear that, considering it’s you, Claude.”

(Claude) “Yeesh, I’m not allowed to have my moments, teach?”

They both laughed and noticed that the stars were shining brightly all of a sudden.

Streaks of light flew across the skies and they both went back to being quiet. 

The two didn’t have to say anything at that point, they could guess what they were going to say.

(Sothis) “They’re so beautiful!”

While Claude was distracted, Byleth looked at Claude, then to the students as they continued to sleep soundly, shooting stars flying across the skies.

(Byleth) Yes...Yes they are.

[historyoftheemblem]

Three Houses Feb. Direct analysis

Admin Zebra here, with some of my observations from the new footage from the latest Nintendo Direct. I wrote some stuff about the first trailer, like commentary on Byleth’s sleeve inspiration from medieval fashion and the (maybe) symbolism behind the Japanese title, but this time I’ll be going all the way through.

First things first: We got an official logo. I kinda like the typeface on the old one (pictured below) more, to be honest.

Obviously this was a rough working title, given they didn’t even have the classic Fire Emblem logo on it, but the new logo’s typeface for Three Houses feels a bit too much. The capitalized T and H, sure, but having the everything like that, and with that kerning? Not feeling it.

Well, I got a degree in design so it’s my sworn duty to nitpick about these things, but this isn’t analysis, so let’s move on.

Lore

We’re introduced to the continent’s major powers and how they convene at the Monastery in Garreg Mach: the Adrestian Empire (Red Black Eagles, Edelgard), Faerghus (Blue Lions, Dimitri), and the Leicester Alliance (Golden Deer, Claude).

Each country has its own house at the monastery a la Harry Potter, and those houses are led by each country’s first-in-line for succession, whom we were introduced to in the first trailer.

Edelgard, as seen by the above picture, is the first-in-line for succession in the Adrestian Empire. Interestingly, they seem to use “Emperor” as a gender-neutral term for the ruler, as the narration calls her the future emperor rather than the future empress.

In the background, we can make out a few characters seen elsewhere in the video (from left-to-right): Dorothea, Ferdinand, Linhardt, Caspar, and Petra. (Edelgard’s the one with the red magic glyph.) Bernadetta is seen hiding under a book a few seconds later, so she’s in the Black Eagles as well.

We unfortunately don’t get a group shot of the Blue Lions, so the members of this house are largely unknown. I don’t think we see anyone aside from Dimitri in the background video in any other scene, either. There are a few kids whose affiliation we don’t see, like Annette, Mercedes (whom Annette calls Mercie), and Sylvain, so they might be in his group.

Lastly, Claude’s group. Pink-haired Hilda, who was seen as one of Byleth’s opponents in the first trailer, is in his group. Later in the video, we get the names for the large blonde man and the orange-haired girl: Raphael and Leonie.

The Church of Seiros is also headquartered in Garreg Mach as the predominant religion on the continent, and it has its own military force, the Knights of Seiros. The seem to be led by this woman, whom we get a better shot of towards the end of the trailer.

She resembles the woman depicted throughout the first trailer, but it’s hard to tell whether she got an updated look over the past few months, is another character entirely, or changed into another outfit.

We also get to meet the probably-manakete girl seen at the end of the first trailer and get a name for her: Sothis.

A cursory search on her name brings me to the Egyptian goddess/constellation name Sopdet, which translated into Greek as Sothis. (More info on that in the link.) Here, Sothis can communicate with Byleth, the main character, through their mind. How or why this happens won’t be clear until we see the game proper, but the narration suggests that it’s tied to the “unexpected incident” that revealed a “hidden power within” that leads to Byleth traveling to Garreg at the start of the story.

Speaking of which...

Assuming that the first image, with Byleth traveling with the three house leaders and his father Jeralt, takes place at the beginning, it seems that the two images in a scene towards the end of the trailer are set before that -- the aforementioned unexpected incident.

In the second image, that clearly would’ve been a fatal blow on Byleth; his back is turned to the bandit, but then it rewinds to the point where the bandit lunges. Instead of having his back towards the bandit to shield Edelgard, Byleth knocks the axe out of the bandit’s hand with the power of weapon triangle advantage.

This likely indicates two things: 1) a return of the Mila’s Turnwheel function from SoV, and 2) Byleth has some sort of power to either see a bit into the future, or rewind time.

Gameplay

Byleth seems to be something of an avatar unit, which was already known from the first trailer when all the official material called them “Your character” instead of the name shown in the trailer. You get to pick between a male and female form, with no known option for further customization -- fair in that there seem to be quite a number of rendered cutscenes a la SoV (and the cutscene animations are by the same team), which would make customizations tough.

I'm more or less neutral about F!Byleth’s design, simply because I disagree with the avatar option to begin with. I prefer set-in-stone characters, and having an avatar whom we don’t have control over personality-wise makes me wonder why they’re even an avatar to begin with. (For example, I love Dragalia’s MC Euden, but I do not at all understand why we label him with a name of our choosing. I respect his personality and his reasoning, but he is not an avatar of me.)

Three Houses boasts greater interaction between not only the player characters, but as well as between characters as well. As depicted in the first trailer, there’s a semi open-world function that allows you to explore Garreg Mach and interact with characters there. I’m looking forward to it, though I do have my reservations depending on how it plays out.

Combat, First Trailer:

Combat, Second Trailer:

The action select screen seems to have changed, but aside from Attack to Atk, it’s hard to tell whether these are complete changes, or simply caused by having different functions unlocked, having different classes, or because Edelgard is a main character where Bernadetta is not (i.e. Formation and Equip). Combat Arts are now also selected on the attack screen, as seen a few seconds later.

Comparing the weapon selection screens, it seems to have been restructured to show values more clearly. Bernadetta also has the three green triangles next to her HP, which is shown throughout several battle screens in this trailer, but I’m not quite sure what that’s for yet.

The new level-up screen. As will be analyzed later, class options in Three Houses seems to be much freer than previous titles, hence the Class Mastery section in the level-up screen. Professor Level seems to be related to Training, which will be covered later. Battalion is, naturally, the troops following each character’s lead; it seems that battalions can be switched out.

Given the Withdraw and Confirm selections at the bottom-right corner, this seems to be an alternative to the Arena. I assume units can’t die here, because that would be pretty difficult to explain to parents. “Hey uhh your son died during a sparring session, whoops.”

Ah, studying. I’m so glad I’m out of school now. You can tutor students individually, as a batch (I assume that’s what Auto-Tutor and Group Task are), or change an individual student’s studying goals.

We get a look at Dorothea’s tutoring as an example. People have gotten fidgety about that heart on the completion screen as a sign of some sort of affection system with the main character, BUT.

Immediately afterwards, we see Linhardt’s goals screen. Looking at that top-right gauge, we see the >w< meter on Linhardt’s has 4 (full) gauges. Meanwhile, Dorothea had 3 maximum gauges, and the 1 gauge left is consumed during training. IF my deductions are correct (pleasebecorrectpleasebecorrect), the heart gauge may build up the training meter when you get good results from training.

Also notable from this screen is that Linhardt’s class is Noble, the same as Bernadetta’s earlier. (Edelgard’s class shown in the first trailer is Aristocrat, which is... similar?) It seems that most students will start off with a similar class and then progress through different ones based on player preference and their own particular strengths. As seen with Dorothea, it seems that Swords and Reason are two of her strengths, while Faith is a weakness.

We are also shown various skills that can be trained:

Weapons: Swords, Lances, Axes, Bows, and Fighting(?)

Character (unofficial term): Reason, Faith, Authority

Unit: Heavy Armor, Riding (Cavalry), Flying

I assume Fighting is a weapon-type skill because Caspar is shown using claws right afterwards.

If you look closely throughout the video, you’ll see female generic soldiers, which is a nice touch, personally. While this is more story-related, it’s interesting that the enemy is labeled “Western Church”. This either suggests that there are different branches of the Church of Seiros, or that this is a split faction (perhaps the “rebellions” the narrator speaks about earlier in the video as one of the enemies you must fight).

This is the customized class screen mentioned earlier. As is apparently from the side list, it seems that characters can access all of those classes, and aren’t limited to just a few. Obviously, characters will probably lean towards certain classes, but it opens a lot of possibilities. Also, Edelgard can now lawfully pillage villages now with the Brigand certification exam. All this time we thought they were just brutes, but apparently it’s a meritorious profession!

This seems to be how supports will play out in Three Houses, which is fine by me. Having stronger bonds between characters provides a so-called “Gambit Boost”, which seems to provide a boost to combat arts. (Edelgard, in some unknown class, uses Coordinated Gambit.)

The rest of the trailer is mostly just cutscenes, one part which I already addressed earlier. The other shots are too vague to really comment on. If there’s one thing I didn’t really like about the trailer, it’s that it didn’t really give us a sense of an overarching conflict. All we know is that there’s a delicate balance between the three nations, it’s probably getting broken, goddesses/dragons are involved, and the crests are to blame.

[ninallthatjazz]

Review - Tanz der Vampire Wien, 26.05.2018

And here we are again – I returned from my short weekend trip to Vienna, where I finally had the pleasure to see Tanz at the Ronacher.

Since it’s been only a few days since I saw the German production, I thought I’d write another little review, maybe talk about some differences I have noticed between the shows.

Overall impression and theatre:

First big difference is of course the size and type of building.

While the musical dome in Köln is a huge hall, the Ronacher is a cute little theatre with beautiful balconies. I’m not sure if that was the reason, but the next thing I noticed was that the sound was much better here than in Köln. It was not as loud and it was well balanced with the vocals, so you could hear every word they sang perfectly.

I also quite liked the fact that the theatre was decorated on the outside with huge banners and the almost famous huge fangs, as well as the tiny bats on the ceiling of the foyer.

What really impressed me from the get-go was, apart from the music, the stunning visuals during the Overture. The whole animated part of the show was much more detailed and instead of playing the same clip of the castle back and forth, there was a pretty landscape and a cool 3-dimensional effect.

The only thing I could criticise is the microphone malfunction of Drew’s mic during Tanzsaal – seems gluing a maxi pad under his wig is not enough to stop his sweat from defeating the technicians XD

But since that’s no one’s fault (except global warming), it’s not something I blame on the production team.

Another huge plus is the fact that they had English subtitles playing for non-german speaking audience members!

The ensemble was just as incredible as the one in Köln was, their performances were energetic and you could tell they were really happy acting, singing and dancing their way through Transylvania.

I paid a bit more attention to them than to the ensemble in Köln because I knew some of them from Instagram, and it was fun to recognize some familiar faces. Filippo Strocchi and Abla Alaoui really stood out for me, and the former singing the nightmare solo was really incredible!

I also quite enjoyed the slightly altered ending, the reappearance of the Graf and the modern city background tied up some lose ends and make the finale more powerful and polished.

The costumes:

As predicted in the last Tanz review, I definitely prefer the Vienna costumes to the German ones. The intricate details on them, the sparkly stones on the Krolock cape and Sarah’s dress, but most of all the authenticity. Especially with the Ewigkeit costumes, they looked like real, century old dresses that people ascending from their graves might wear. There is one outfit I prefer in the German production though, and that is Herbert’s bathroom outfit. I love the big shirt with the huge sleeves that are perfect for dramatic gestures!

The Vienna outfit is still gorgeous of course, but it looks more like a modern-day silk pyjama.

The main cast:

Drew Sarich – Graf von Krolock

Ever since I discovered Tanz back in January, I have seen gifs and videos of Drewlock all over tumblr, and he was one of the main reasons I wanted to see the Vienna production live.

And damn, I was not disappointed.

From the aforementioned videos I knew that Drew was very good at the grafly holy trinity: walking, hands and cape swishing. He is a master of all three disciplines and it was so much fun seeing him in his element. He has an enormous presence, stalking through the aisle with a stone cold facial expression. I was having a dopey grin on my face when he walked by and felt like a mouse entranced by a snake – he could’ve bitten me and I would’ve let him 😉

His voice is almost as captive, from the first lines of Gott Ist Tot I was his. He has a way of making each line sound natural and unrehearsed, you can tell he is really trying to tell a story with all the resources he’s got. For example I love how in the moment before Sarah ‘interrupts’ him with her line “ich hör’ eine Stimme, die mich ruft” he inhales and almost starts to speak, only to be ‘startled’ by her voice and turning his head, as you would when hearing an unexpected sound. It’s details like this that make him my absolute favourite Krolock.

He also has a great comedic talent, the few moments where he interacts with the Professor and is supposed to relieve some tension were hilarious and full of funny details that are too many to list them all (a few of them made it to the memorable moments section further down though! 😉).

And of course, one of the most important aspect of the role (at least for me), is his ability to seduce not only Sarah (and Alfred), but also the audience. The Graf has to pull you in and ignite your desire to follow him into the darkness after all. And that is Drews specialty. His tone of voice, his elegant movements and his soft gestures all seem to be designed for this purpose alone. Until he is alone at the graveyard of course, then the mask crumbles and reveals deep longing and despair. We get small moments of that in ToFi as well, and it is incredible how layered Drews performance is. Add to that his inner battle against his vampiric nature and urges (like him baring his fangs every now and then only to try and get back the control, or his fast and aggressive movements only to slow down as if trying to calm his inner beast) and you have the perfect Graf.

Charles Kreische – Herbert von Krolock

Charles is an incredible Herbert. Herbert is one of my favourite roles in this show, and he fits it perfectly. He is playful and flirty with Alfred from the second he sees him, sends him interested looks from the first moment and obviously enjoys the attention unwillingly given by Alfred and very willingly given by the audience. Charles has an amazing voice, and while I loved his softer singing during Wenn Liebe In Dir Ist, I was blown away by his powerful vocals during Carpe Noctem. And what I also quite liked was the fact that even in the nightmare scene he had a few sassy moves that I have never seen any other Herbert do, which was a nice touch. (don’t get me started on what that means since the scene plays in Alfreds head, or we’ll still be here tomorrow :P).

The only thing that was a little bit disappointing was the fact that, due to Charles’ and Raphael’s non-existent height-difference, the dancing didn’t look as smooth and effortless as it did with Christian and Tom in the German production and it seemed much more rehearsed because of that.

But that’s no one’s fault and not due to a lack of talent on their part.

Raphael Groß – Alfred

I am completely in love with Raphi’s portrayal of Alfred. He is such a sweet, loveable guy which makes him a perfect contrast to the dangerous vampire Graf.

He is also very good at putting a lot of details into his performance, for example: he was breathing heavily and chattering with his teeth during He Ho He.

He had great chemistry with Charles as well as Diana, and normally I am not a huge fan of Für Sarah, but he made me aww 😊.

Diana Schnierer – Sarah Chagal

This was another perfectly cast role – Diana is a sweet girl and a great actress. She was very good at playing the naïve girl at first, then being torn between choosing the Graf and doing ‘the right thing’, only to succumb to his charm at the end of ToFi. You could tell that the feelings she had for Alfred during Nie Gesehn’ were pretty much gone in the bathroom scene after Bücher.

I loved her voice, it was beautiful and clear, just a tad frail at times during the belting parts of Die Roten Stiefel. But I can imagine that’s due to her youth and that her voice will only get stronger. She also has a light accent, which is very cute.

Sebastian Brandmeir – Professor Abronsius

Sebastian is a great Professor, there is not much to say about his solid performance.

After playing this role in multiple productions, Sebastian is definitely a pro and matches Victor Petersens talent. The only difference I noticed was that Victor managed to sing the fast parts of Wahrheit and Bücher with even more ease than Sebastian. But Sebastian’s comedic talent is just as great as Victors.

Nicolas Tenerani – Yoine Chagal

What I loved about Nicolas as Chagal was his little gestures and quirks – he made me laugh out loud with silly faces and movements a few times. Also a very good singer!

Memorable moments:

Alfred going in for the kiss when him and Sarah are picking up the sponge

The Graf putting his leg next to Sarah’s shoulder and taking her by the hand, lifting her from the bathtub during Einladung

Drewlock being farsighted and holding the Professors business card at arms length to read it

Graf smelling the sponge during Vor Dem Schloss and later taking in Sarahs scent during ToFi

While entrancing Alfred, Krolock puts his finger underneath his chin to lift his head and look into his eyes *swoon*

Drewlock holding Sarahs head at the end of ToFi and laying it on his chest/under his chin at first, only to then press his cheek against hers (I died)

Nightmare!Graf biting Sarah hanging upside down from the bed

The Graf picking his teeth after biting Sarah, before confronting Alfred and the Professor

Him being ‘scared’ when Alfred attacks him with the candelabra

After this show I also managed to wait at the stage door for a bit – I met a few lovely people, including Drew Sarich, Charles Kreische and Abla Alaoui. They were all super nice and it was lovely to talk to them!

That’s all for now, if you guys want I can do another review for the next Vienna show, just let me know if you are interested! <3

[lwbluedice]

Masterpost for my Stories and Ocs!!!

A spoilerfree list of most of my Ocs and stories (reuploaded here on my main blog)

Includes:

- Name of the story and state it’s in

- short summary/facts

- Character names

If you want more information abt any of them(like a description or a pic) or abt the stories, just message me/ ask me!  Also feel free to ask me to draw them ( for example in the color scheme thing or sth)!

Note: The stories are all written in german so if you don’t speak that language i can’t send you the original documents but i can try summing them up for you!

I bet this is not everything and i will add stuff but yeah!!!!

Hotaru (first draft is finished)

- Abt two men that are linked through a surgery called “synchronisation”, which basically connects their minds and bodies, so they are forced to work as a team. Ea is an ex-soldier and Cain was a hacker, but due to the fact that they can’t stand each other, they also didn’t share their pasts with each other. To pay someone to unlink them, they become bounty hunters and kidnap the girl Ai and her robot Subaru, which is one of the old military robots, called Hotarus (high technologised, operating, transforming, artificial intelligence, ranger units). They are connected to a human ranger and can transform into what the ranger wants them to transform into.

The Hotaru headquarters exploded 10 years ago and since then the Hotarus are super rare on the black market.

The two men plan on selling both the girl and her robot and let’s just say it all doesn’t work out that well.

Ai Hoshino

Ea

Cain Bishop

Subaru

Dr. Chandra Natarajan

10 A

10 B

and other synced pairs

George Watton

Asha Watton

Elaine Bishop

Christopher Bishop

Haruto Hoshino

Shiori Hoshino

The Pleiades. A Hotaru Unit.

Atlas/ Emmett Hunter

Maia/ Ilya Neverwinter

Elektra/ Hailey Gray

Taygete/ Daiyu Ghou

Alcyone/ Charlotte Gryffith)

Caelano/ Sora Aurora River

Merope/ Imogen Harrington

Sterope/ Elizabeth Bresley

Additional Characters for the (maybe Sequel) in which the grown up Ai will try to find out who attacked the Hotaru Headquarters

- Skya

The day the world turned white ( first draft is finished, working on it)

To stop global warming some scientists basically caused a new ice age. On the long run this might be very effective but the former countries, now sectors, are hit by strong ice storms, called snow white. To stay safe huge bunkers, the Safe Cities, were built and the local fauna and flora were stored in Arks, to preserve them.

Usually an alarm sounds before all citizens are brought into the SCs, but this time Reese and her best friend Yuki dont manage to get to the vehicles on time and are left behind. They seek shelter in a private bunker outside of town that Yuki found out about recently. Suddenly a group of boys their age knocks on the door, because they were also left behind and followed the girls.

Al, the brothers Eli and Isaac, Gil and Henry become the new bunker-mates and the group has to survive one year in the bunker, until the storm is over.

( I have a blog for this story, just search for The day the world turned white! There are pics and some posts for example abt which patronus/spirit animal the charas have!)

Reese/ Therese Wells

Al/ Alexander Glover

Yuki Sarah Brooke

Eli Green

Isaac Green

Gil de Santos

Henry Summers

The Sun will always rise (The sequel, probably forever unfinished)

About a group of rebels, the Sun Children, that are sworn enemies to the government and its ways to cope with Snow White.

Takes place abt one/two years after Tdtwtw.

Lucy and Aidan are kicked out of an underground organisation that stays in the cities underground system during the storm phases and the two wander around in the snow until Michael and Rin pick them up and bring them to the Sun Children. From looking into the snow directly to maneuver, Lucy has turned snowblind.

Yeah the plot is… not 100% existent.

Characters:

Lucy

Aidan

Michael

Kate

Gil

Bo

Finya

Rin

The XII Games ( First book is finished, i started the second one, unfinished)

A story abt spaceships that let slaves fight in games, if they win a certain number they are “free”. Cassidy makes it and is sold to a women, Trisha, that takes her home onto her home planet, where Cassidy lives a nice life and learns abt her heritage. One year later she meets Tobias again and she and Trisha are brought to a planet that is basically the universes capital. Cassidy has to take a more important role in the uproar of a war, than she ever imagined.( The cast members are mostly human looking but are other, non human, races)

Cass (Cassidy ) E’ Alandril

Tobias

On the slave ship:

Neala

Sam ( Samuel)

On Anterra:

Trisha  Willowrish

Max ( Maxwell)  E’ Alyndral

Lukas

Tori

Khorr

Keri

Wil

Quinna

On the Space sparrow:

Zach ( Zacharyas) Gryaan

Benj ( Benjamin) Bottledom

Rashka Hyrelian

Oreadh Urunna'ur

Butcher

Kagrim

Kyluur

Irian Ashcott

On Capital Estellar:

Galea ( Galeandrih Fiyur’ Ihal)

Iyal

Wren Fawell

Luasia  

Luminor the Shining

Fallen Angels ( A trilogy, one and a half books were finished, reconcepted)

We don’t talk abt this but it was one of my first stories i truly wrote.

Abt fallen angels saving the world or sth. It’s super clichee and just ugh.

The newer version would cancel some charas and make it abt rebalancing Darkness and Light in the worlds. With a more diverse cast and also different magical races. And a way less creepy Adam.

Eve/Evelyn White

Adam

Peregrine/Perry

Ray/Raven

Sera

Colin

Robin

Raphael

Ky/ Kyron

Gabe/Gabriel Frost

Bree/ Gabriella Frost

Indigo ( haven’t written it yet and i don’t know if i ever will, but have drawn stuff. I lowkey wanna see this as a comic)

A story abt a clan of shapeshifters, called Indigos. They are basically human that can shift into dolphins and their clan lives on an island near Australia. Its a modern story and the gang consisting of our local gay dolphin girl Keerie, her cousins Akash and Arjuun (younger brother, older sis), and Ky ( adopted as a child, japanese heritage, a different breed of dolphin idk) lives their “normal lives” with lots of shenenigans and drama.

Some day Keerie falls in love with Navy, the daughter of the owner of the local Aquapark (that the clan suspect also does illegal stuff like snatching wild animals).

Keerie

Arjuun

Akash

Ky

Navy

“Neo Alcatraz” ( reworks of a very old story)

To put it simply, there is a pack of scientists that bionically enhance children and send them off to different countries to basically be local superheroes. Our gang was kinda left behind bc the countries rather took the newer, better versions and here they are now, a bunch of supernatural teens facing the (not so) everyday struggles of life.

Atalanta

Chi

Callie

Lee

Victor/Konrad

Gemsona (just art)

Larimar

- has water powers and her backstory bases on my private/old Squads life story and a lot of me thinking of drawing music videos for her but never doing it

Anthea (art and headcanons)

- my Dnd Oc

The Bender Girls ( art and headcanons)

- basically some Avatar the last Airbender Ocs i made once

Daiyu

Hotaru

Yura

Sündenfall / Sinfall (short story)

A short story i wrote for a competition which is basically every crime series but magic.

Harvey is immortal, he dies and is revived, and solves crimes through it. Paige is basically his assistant and the case they are on is abt a person that kills magical beings and “arranges” the victims fitting to the seven sins.

Ilya Winter

Harvey

Paige

Delphi

Sphinx

The concept charas, that had a different storyline ( they were basically a team of magical beings that would solve cases… rather unconventional.) I considered reworking them into the new Fallen Angels concept:

Ilya

Harvey

Timothy

Worth mentioning:

Project Alpha (script, some art):

The script for a shortfilm i once made with my friends. A school class has a plane crash and only a few students survive, they all embody a different character archetype (the sunshine, the soziopath, the smart one etc.) They try to survive and are put through weird psychological mind experiments like the trolley problem.

To be honest, the concept had and still has a lot of potential and we just hadn’t the opportunities to rly set it the way we anticipated. The shooting day was super fun, though! Still laughing about the outtakes

Astral Chronicles (some art and a few chapters, unfinished)

A story Idea i still like but probably wont write like this because of copyright problems. Its basically a giant Crossover.

Its abt people who have an Astral( mostly a literature figure) they embody when they are dreaming. Their body stays in bed and is vulnerable but the Astral can basivally run around and has special powers. If the Astral dies, the person wakes up but i think when the body dies the person dies too? idk.

The Protagonist embodies Alice and there are also the White Rabbit, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell usw.

There was also some kind of conflict? I dont remember.

If i would ever rewrite it the Astrals would be embodiments of the Zodiac signs.

(does this even fit?)

The Fanfiction thing i wrote abt Peter Pan/ Jack Frost

- like i have tons of short drabbles and the start of a fanfiction and honestly i liked the ideas i had a lot

The ones we better not talk abt:

Part Hunter

Basically there was a being named eternity/aeterna that was shattered into oarts (like in TRC)

and chosen ones have to reclaim them.

The ones that basically die are turned into guardians, like Time and Space ( they had animal companions they were fused with i guess)

Melody is the current part hunter and has a tragic love story, her animal is a tiny horse thing??????

Idk

basically a long story in which i used my dreams as base for the episodes

The nameless story

Actually super interesting but too many charas and a too tiny will to draw action scenes or write them.

Like its based around a super popular game in huge spheres/buildings and the teams wear some anti gravity outfits and shoes and can walk on the walls and shit and can basically attack using elements/illusion/ conjure monsters idk.

And the main team had an opponent team that basically specialized in the 25272 other elements and some day they just fused teams idk.

There also was some prophecy shit abt the anchors, ppl that can control all elements the same???? Idk

Element guardians

- basically four teens that control the elements and do shit together

- at some point i gave all of them dragons

- still thinking abt this sometimes

- The originals:

Luna: the shameless self insert , earth, pony girl, bland blonde i think

Katy: Air, best friend, bubbly

Dan: The jock. Fire

Nick: The emo. Water

At some point Katy became Skye and Dan and Nick got other names but yeah-

Talent Academy

The story thats basically a ripoff of Alice academy. Like a school with hierachie between the students and ranks and shit and different houses and the students have powers IDK

If you read through all of this, bless you for showing interest in my stories ;) And hey, if you want me to rant about any of them, just send me an ask or a message!!!

[macomico]

Zohar Deshmukh-Akua // 16, non-binary ♂ ↪ chubby model // Department of Fashion

- AYYY HERE’S MY THIRD BABY I LOVE HIM - he was inspired by this song that I listened to at three in the morning - he is malaysian-japanese and was adopted by two women - his moms are freakishly pretty and also in the fashion industry - one is a famous indian model and the other an African photographer who also owns a fashion magazine - they live in NYC - zo (short for zohar) has poliosis and vitiligo, and also heterochromia - so he’s a very special boy - he has an insane amount of knowledge about marine biology - has no problems with studying at all, straight A student and enjoys it (what a nerd) - he has a weakness for neha, karol threatens to cut his fingers if he hurts her - otherwise he and karol are pretty chill - has a cat called Ser Mittens that helped him recover - “but korny, recover? From what?” - LEMME TELL YOU SON - my baby boy was bullied (ah, yes, that trope). He tried to cope with it, but in the end he couldn’t. He started drinking, at first it was very little but with time it became an addiction. It didn't take long and he did drugs too. He felt miserable and decided to quit whatever was going in with him. - so he went to his mothers, confessed everything and after lots of crying and cuddles, he volunteered to go to a clinic. He stayed 6 to 7 months there to recover completely - no drugs, no alcohol, no depressions. And it really helped him out to get back on the right track of life. - that’s when he got ser mittens. she is black n white but with lots of small dots like this fella here. - while he was away, his mothers found pictures in his room Zohar did of himself and his outfits, like a blogger for example. They were so amazed by them, that his mothers pulled some strings and published some of his photos, gaining some contracts and whatnot. Arlington was interested and offered him a scholarship when he came back from the clinic - excuse me, I needed some angst after raphael & natasha, those kids did everything good in their life jfc - his fashion taste is simply everything. Ranges from punk rock to sweet boy next door - he will question axel’s hair choice every god damn time he sees him. “y would u do dis to urself axel, neha babe how did u allow dis” - he’s demisexual - currently he is 1,75m (5’9”), but when he’s 18 he’ll be 1,89m (6’2”). Big boy - that’s it I guess