#also you can play them all in pokemon unite

[humano205]

i realized something

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 4D, MATCH 1 OUT OF 2!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Snorlax:

he be snorin'. he be lax.

big sleeby... <3 he just like me fr fr

i mean it's snorlax cmon

Always sleeping. Always blocking the way of everyone. Will not move for anyone, must sleep.

This pokémon is the embodiment of sleeping (or hibernation more precisely). In the games, they block you path by sleeping in the middle of the road and you have to wake them up with a flute. In battles, they often use the attack "rest".

eepy. snoozle. his name is “snore lax” i dont think you get much more restful than that

Snorlax propaganda! - the og sleeper seen in gen 1. has longevity and we respect that - literally called the sleeping pokemon in the pokedex - blocks your path by sleeping in no less than three generations and three remakes, requiring you to wake it up - also does this in pokemon ranger - based on game freak employee kōji nishino, which is a subtweet if i've ever seen one - has a practically 100% usage in gen 1 and 2 ou competitive, and always runs rest - one of the few pokemon to learn rest, snore, and sleep talk by level up, no tms, breeding, or tutors required - the mascot of pokemon sleep, and your goal is to feed it so it can get a good night's sleep with you. literally can't get more sleepy than that. - an event snorlax can be caught in pokemon go where he wears a little sleeping cap awwww baby - also has an adorable sleepwear skin in pokemon unite - is able to have the ability deep sleep in pokemon conquest, allowing it to recover hp if it falls asleep - gigantamax snorlax is described as "the size of a mountain—and moves about as much as one as well" - you can get tons of officially licensed pjs with snorlax on them, perfectly fitting its sleepiness - you can also get these delightfully cute bookends where snorlax is sleeping? - also snorlax appears in the music video for celestial by ed sheeran. not necessarily sleepy but i think it's funny like how many other contenders are in ed sheeran lore - i like it

SNORLAX PROPAGANDA PART TWO?!?! last march, pokemon launched a "project snorlax" campaign meant to promote snorlax specifically and it came with a bunch of neat material, i'll put it under a cut lmao [Click link to view material "under the cut" in original propaganda post]

Kirby:

Kirby looove napping and sleeping and is too cute when he is :3

They the littlest guy ever, all that they like to do is eat, play with their friends, and sleep. There’s a copy ability called sleep that literally just makes them tired, and in forgotten land there’s a more powerful sleep ability that give them a little blanket and bed. An eepy little guy.

kirby starts off a lot of his games napping & in forgotten land you can even take a nap with elfilin to restore health and it's ADORABLE. and of course, he has his sleep ability, which just makes him take a nap right after inhaling certain enemies.

He's a ball who likes to eat, sleep, and play with his friends, and just so happens to be a godslaying entity that may or may not be an incarnation of a deity. Also just look at his nap animations in Kirby and the Forgotten Land

kirby has canonically slept through at least one hostile invasion

[abyss-ice]

Food fantasy diversity issue

Gotta put the word. I'm mad.

Food fantasy isn't the worst game about diversity and skin color... I know but.

It isn't the game with the best rep AT ALL.

You know, I love this game, I love the lore. But this doesn't mean I should be boot licking everything. I have the right to criticize and ask for improvement.

Let's start with the first issue. Skin color. The game of course has more east Asian and European food so it's natural that white skinned characters are the majority. However I noticed that more than half the design of the supposedly more tan or melanined characters are pale or ashey asf. I swear I know they are darker than the white white, but damn I'm as tan as them but I'm actually not tan and I'm white skinned. Artists, please stop being scared to color your character's skin with actual COLOR. Also almost all of them are white haired for some reason. I won't lie about the design some white haired were peak ( Ganache, Reuben, Tomahawk) but a lot of them only have white hair to make their skin appear darker. Also btw the excuse "yeah but you know that not all people of this country are dark skinned" is invalid. Ganache and Reuben are respectively French and United-Statizen. Both these countries are mainly white. So heh.

Ganache and Reuben

Second issue, the orientalism. When I see the dark skinned characters and especially the Middle East food souls, they are often portrayed wearing revealing clothes. If you do some research, it's very weird with their culture. "Yeah but the white characters also wear revealing clothes" Que Neni. If you compare the ratio, obviously dark skinned or just the tan ones are a lot more "fetishized". Always revealing their belly and for what ? Nothing because their outfits are based on fantasm and stereotyped views (belly dancer) about what the middle east looks like not the real traditional clothes which is a shame for a game about food diversity. Food eaten in Muslim countries for Ramadan wearing these ....

Knafeh and Shawarma the worst of them all

And third issue. A lot of them just don't have ethnic physical features. I can understand that this clashes with the artist's art style but I swear it's not that difficult to draw curly and kinky hair. You know it's not that hard to download brush on CSP. Brushes that help you to draw afro hair style.

This food IS FROM ZAMBIA but man looks like a Middle East/American native. Not African from Zambia.

And this is the end of my rant.

"the game company is Asian that's why they don't add a lot of diversity." First research, second, Dislyte, Pokemon both are Asian companies with rad black and poc design. Excuse refused. Don't try to justify culture erasure even if it's not done with a malicious intent. ( And Hoyoverse is NOT a role model. Being better than hoyo at skin diversity isn't a feat. It's the bare minimum)

And yes maybe I'm just a hater "You should just go play another game if you are just gonna hate", man. The bar is so low that I can't even wish for improvement for a game that was my first Gacha Game and a part of my teenage years ?? If you thought like everything I wrote between the quotation marks, I urge you to broaden your horizon and learn about these often misrepresented cultures.

Bye

[should-have-been-at-the-club]

Round 1 Match 17: They Should Have Been At The Club Tournament

Propaganda below the cut.

Propaganda for Delia Ketchum:

Okay, timeline wise, she must have had Ash when she was pretty young. Still an adult, but going off of her son being eternally 10, she must have been 19 based off what the Pokemon wiki says. Her husband went off to go be a trainer sometime, so she was also a single mom. I think she absolutely deserves to have been at the club just for that, since she didn't really get to experience adulthood for more than a year before she had a child to raise. Also based on more scattered lore for her she also had some big dreams of her own that she put aside both to run a restaurant she inherited and to raise her son. She should have been pursuing those dreams AND at the club.

Propaganda for Lewis Smith:

(Spoilers for Bang Brave Bang Bravern)

One: He's just been through so much. He's so young (tumblr would tell you that 24 is old but that's a lie). He needs a break, he can't keep going through all this without some time off to have fun. He deserves to relax and flirt. I'm removing him from the battlefield and putting him in a club where he can drink Kona beer and dance badly and flirt with other men before realizing that the only man he wants to flirt with is the one he's been pining for since the beginning of the show. That's it, that's what the explosion did, it just brought him to a normal club without homicidal giant robots. He's fine.

Two: Big spoilers ahead! Also this is still an ongoing story!

First of all he's 24, prime club age. Second of all he just cannot get a break: during a normal military exercise he was part of, the Earth was attacked by aliens and a big part of his unit just died. Then the super robot that showed up to save the rest of them rejected him (Lewis is a big fan of super robot shows and tried to pilot the robot instead of the guy who was having a panic attack trying *not* to pilot the robot again). Then he gets his ass kicked by a comatose girl. Then he gets rejected by another super robot (he tried to play the role of the rival since he couldn't be the protagonist) and almost dies in the process. Then he realizes that the only way to save his friends from an evil super robot is to blow it up, and blows *himself* up at the same time. He might not be really dead, we don't know, there's some time travel bs going on. We're all still very sad. Also he apparently had a rough childhood (strongly hinted at by staff, should be shown in the series in a few episodes at most). Third of all he's very gay, I've rarely seen a character yearn so much for another man. We all think he'll end up being the love interest.

[starrook]

anniversary munday

celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. repost, don't reblog. only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! happy anniversary, TOA! here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Bren

Pronouns: they

Birthday (no year): Nov 6th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? NJ, EST

How long is your roleplay experience? 10+ years

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Warrior cats official forums back when they were around! Stumbled into fanclans first and then went into human OCs with PJO. FERP was my first time playing canon characters.

How were you introduced to TOA? Heh.

Do you have any pets? I currently have Klein, 7 month old Standard Manchester Terrier. Recently said goodbye to Frisky, 15 year old terrier mix and my childhood dog.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Right about now, late summer-early fall when the weather is starting to get reasonable.

What is your IRL occupation? Office admin/events coordinator.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I try to keep up with my art! I also like to listen to financial podcasts.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? HSR and Sudoku

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: If I had to pick a type, maybe normal? As for Pokemon I have a soft spot for all dog pokemon but Dachsbun and Mabosstiff knocked it out of the park for me.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! I am allergic to raw apples. My favorite childhood snack was cut apple with salt and lime and I miss it so much. Apple juice hits but it's not the same. I also wrote a couple of supports for the Gay Fates hack way back when! Though I wouldn't want to read them now tbh hahah old writing....

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I was... maybe 14? I saw Awakening, thought it was interesting and picked it up only to rage quit at chapter 9 (was too focused on marrying Frederick asap that the rest of my army was behind). Then I got interested in Fates and the rest is history.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've played Awakening, Conquest, Shadows of Valentia, Sacred Stones, Three Houses (GD Route) and Engage. ...The only games I played through the end were Sacred Stones and Three Houses—

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First was Awakening! I have a soft spot for Fates gameplay.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! I don't play favorites :weary: Alcryst grabbed me like no one else has tho tbh I'll give him that.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Volug/Nailah. I know I said I got into FE through awakening but my actual first introduction to Fire Emblem was through a youtube video that was showing off the laguz transformation and attack animations. Please understand this was in the midst of my middle school werewolf phase.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Not a crush per se but (slaps noise cancelling headphones on Alcryst before dunking his head into a toilet bowl) Diamant is neat :)

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: First Frederick, now Lucina - Fates: First Silas, now still Silas - Three Houses: First Claude, now probably still Claude - Engage: I didn't get that far. My first choice was Diamant but I fucked up and he's too far behind to support now, so I'd go with Pandreo

Favorite Fire Emblem class? A good armor knight is worth their weight in gold. Donnel!Kjelle, Louise, and Effie were beasts in my playthroughs.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? If I was a Fire Emblem character I would be dead <3 But if I had to be playable I would be an early game cleric/support unit type.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Regular civilian! But if I had to pick a house, absolutely Golden Deer

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Faith, Heavy Armor Banes: Literally everything else. Maybe Authority budding talent?

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Firene, they have good weather

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) Tee-Oh-Ay

Current TOA muses: Alcryst and Claude

Past TOA muses? Nanna, Lukas, Arval, Niles, Silas, Lyon

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Claude!

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? The fact that I wrote three moon-associated archers is completely coincidental!!!!!! I like grounded characters that can be both amicable and absolutely vicious when the situation calls for it.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Tiki is one of those characters that I think I could RP well but I'm not confident I would be able to keep up with the Archaneans. Rhea is similar, but where I trip up with her is that bc she is such an important central character esp to Fodlan's history I'm intimidated by the idea.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Emotional scenes... anything where there's love and family involved gets me crying

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? FELL XENOLOGUE ALCRYST!!!! Alcryst in situations basically

Favorite TOA-related memories? Claude surviving Ree's Hundred Hand Snake bitch double boss from Unlocked Hell.

Present or past tense? Present.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Normal, formatting is a pain

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 F!Shez! I'd like to play female characters actually.

[nevassan]

happy anniversary and munday, toa! credits to neffi for the munday form - thank you for all your hard work and love!

Name: harrow

Pronouns: he/she/it

Birthday (no year): 8/25

Where are you from? What is your time zone? US | CST

How long is your roleplay experience? 10+ years

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? roleplaying warriors on fanfic.net as any good soldier of the time did. i did it on my 3ds because i didn't have a laptop yet.

How were you introduced to TOA? i messaged leo in december and went "i missed tellius" and leo went "hey i rp tellius on tumblr" and the rest is, as they say, history.

Do you have any pets? four cats - hubert von vestra (black), odessa silverberg (calico), anakin (gray), and kaoru hakaze (tabby).

What is your favorite time of year and why? i love autumn so much i'm about to be thriving

What is your IRL occupation? math tutor & pizza delivery driver!

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? i like competitive games, drawing, old english literature, and really obscure jrpgs.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? obscure ass jrpgs - fragile dreams, eternal sonata, magical vacation, etc. i also play a lot of fighting games. catch me in guilty gear strive 10x streak.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: favorite pokemon type is fairy or normal, but my favorite pokemon is dhelmise!

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! one time when i was 6 a playdate i was having ended so me and the person i was hanging out with (i barely knew her and did not consider her a friend) decided our only course of action was to run away from home and i think it's really funny. we did get decently far.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? my ex in 2016 went "hey dude you should play this tellius stuff" and the rest is history

What Fire Emblem games have you played? every one except gaiden. I'm sorry n

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: first - awakening, favorite - radiant dawn

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! HUBERT VON VESTRA!!!!!!!!!!, Micaiah, Arthur (FE4), Olwen, Takumi

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! probably Sephiran. iyky

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 hubert von vestra i am free. i am free whenever. Please

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: i don't...remember? if i got the gay awakening mod now i'd probably do henry. - Fates: niles / still niles - Three Houses: i don't think i s supported anyone on my first playthrough, as weird as that is. nowadays i pick girleth so i can kiss hubie and seteth - Engage: i didn't ever beat the game on my own (thanks youtube) but i would like to marry pandreo or nel.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? i love mages. i love mage emblem. i like trickster a lot too.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? i would be a green unit and if you don't rescue me i die. like regardless of if the enemy units kill me i get executed in a cutscene after the chapter or something. i'm just a villager.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles forever baby!!!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? boons - faith & dark; banes - axes & heavy armor; budding - authority.

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? firene realistically but i want to go to elusw

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔TO-AH

Current TOA muses: Diarmuid, Sothe

Past TOA muses? Hortensia, F!Morgan, Shez, Lukas

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Sothe, soooo...

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I need you to not look at my muselist and look at this answer. I love silly girls. I love whimsical little girly girls so much.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? I want to be able to write really villainous characters/ Smart characters, but I'm not good at writing manipulative stuff and im too embarrassed to dm another mun like hey can you pretend i gaslit gatekept girlbossed your muse

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? i like battle and high-emotion scenes. stuff i can use prose for.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? i want diarmuid to break :thumbsup: make this guy cry

Favorite TOA-related memories? i've honestly just been really happy the whole time i've been here. even when my muse wanes i enjoy being in toa so much it overcomes the feeling of writer's block because i just want to be here with this group i've come to love.

Present or past tense? present

Normal size text, small text, no preference? no preference

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 monica and hortensia are playing tug of war w my last braincell that needs to be doing homework

[revelale]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together. Credits to Neffi.

Name: lilly!

Pronouns: they/them.

Birthday (no year): april 4th.

Where are you from? What is your time zone? pst (gmt-8).

How long is your roleplay experience? well, i started when i was eight, so twenty? years now? embarrassing for me.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? neopets, LMFAO.

How were you introduced to TOA? i'd just finished up the gd route for 3h when chuu, an old member, posted about a fe group on twitter. so, i dmed her and then asked about it and then delusionally manifested a blog and url in like roughly 8 hours. fun fact: prior to that, i'd only ever played one canon, lol!

Do you have any pets? yes, my awful little dog.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) wiiiiinter. it rains the most and i can just get jackets to be warm if it's too cold.

What is your IRL occupation? used to be a journalist, now i'm? in product development for stationery, lol.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? mostly handicraft stuff? i like building lego sets, assembling dioramas, doing puzzles. i started learning how to crochet yesterday! i'm very bad at it!

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? mostly jrpgs, but lots of puzzle-y indie games. i started playing sea of stars reeeecently, but haven't gotten very far on it. a metric ton of otomes, lmao.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: dragon, and dragonite! close runners up are bewear and ludicolo, lmfao.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! i jokingly mumble "i'm thinking miku miku oo ee oo" when i'm struggling, but so my brother took that as "i really like hatsune miku" and now i have four figurines of miku just spread out in my room. i fear every time he goes to round one because i will just have another one.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? an old friend of mine told me to give awakening a try because she thought i'd like that i could date people, lmfao. it worked. NJKLRENGJKLRGR.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? eeeeverything post-awakening, short of three hopes. i also gave sacred stones a try and then got intensely mad when tana kept dying, so i stopped.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: awakening, then rrrr. i haven't touched one in a while, so i actually couldn't really say.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! inigo, fogado, hubert (toa pilled)—this is where i admit i don't actually have any favorites in game, but i do in toa, lmao.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! sobbing, i don't have any. I'M A SHAM.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 naur, but i one day wish to experience chasing the high everyone else does.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: chrom by curse, but olivia. - Fates: inigo. PARDON ME, LAZZY. tttheeen, idk. kaze. lmao. - Three Houses: claude...... and sylvain now. i love a man that's all red flags. it's a parade, not a warning! - Engage: pandreo................. still pandreo.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? PEGAKNIGHT SUPREMACY.

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? in my greatest delusions, i'd be an armored tank unit, but the reality is i'm probably the villager hiding in their house after you swung by to let me know something was coming to murk me/us.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? golden deer, lmao. i just like their vibe.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? wwww, i actually started doing archery recently and i'm not bad at it, so i think probably something in that vein for a boon ....... i'm also weirdly strong, so maybe gauntlets? lmfao. everything else is what i'd be bad at, rifp. an athletic creature i am not.

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? probably firene. it'd make sense for my name to be lilly, eh.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔t-o-a, lmao.

Current TOA muses: shiro & pandreo!

Past TOA muses? cynthia, shigure, lon-qu, constance, bylad, kiragi, kinu—i forget all the other ones if any, oops.

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? cynthia! and maybe? lmao, she's evolved so much past her baseline in my head that i think it'd actually be quite difficult to pick her up again, but she also has such incredible capacity for interesting relationships.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? clown, usually with depression.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? oooof, really calculating and intellectual types! i'm not very good at it and my style of writing doesn't super lend itself to that because i tend to spell out their every thought, lmao. the only reason i could write constance is because she was simultaneously the smartest and stupidest person in the room at any given time.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? oh, i'm a comedy relief writer first and foremost. any situation where i can put people into a yes-and context is fun for me. but, i am realizing i do really enjoy dramatic scenes too for character study and exploration.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? nnnnnot right now. i find that most of the spiciest moments i recall are ones that just happen by circumstance instead of planning.

Favorite TOA-related memories? on chapril, i got the mods and everyone else to change to chad icons when a new member abruptly showed up and i died laughing.

Present or past tense? present! past? i do both. king of tense changes that make no sense.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? no preference. i just use small text because i like lookin' at it.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 if i entertain it for even a second, i will have to make the blog right now and i don't have time for that but god i want to.

[verseandrhyme]

TOA Anniversary Munday

Thanks Neffi!

Name: Vivi

Pronouns: They/Them

Birthday (no year): December 22nd

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Canada, TOA Standard Time.

How long is your roleplay experience? I've been roleplaying on Tumblr specifically for about 9 years now, but on the internet as a whole since I was first let on here unsupervised so who knows. If I had friends to play with as a kid, probably a lot sooner irl too.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? I think it was first through Gaia Online roleplay forums for Kingdom Hearts, then later I moved to Quizilla where I was actually kinda semi-popular.

How were you introduced to TOA? Ree showed up in my dms and said "quit modding FERP. Join my new server." and then later that month I was there.

Do you have any pets? No, but I have two cats back home with my parents.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Fall and early Spring, because most of my wardrobe is geared towards then.

What is your IRL occupation? Customer Support Specialist for a video game company, but I just transferred out of Quality Assurance.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? Video games in general, musical theatre, mythology, fairy tales.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Suikoden, Persona, Planet Zoo/Zoo Tycoon, Eiyuden Chronicles, In Stars and Time, I can go on forever.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Fire and Vulpix.

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! (Optional bonus challenge: if you filled this out last year, try not to repeat what you said back then!)

I trained in theatre and studied sword fighting/stage combat.

I'm allergic to peanuts.

The doctor told my mom to avoid all nuts as a result, and aside from the Nutella they made me eat during my latest test, I have yet to eat any nuts willingly.

I have multiple scars on my right knee.

My mom lost me on a cruise ship when I was 4.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? My friend was playing Awakening and would let me try it, but not let me make any save files, so I played the first few maps over and over until I was able to eventually get my own copy and make it past the first three chapters.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Tellius games, Awakening, Fates games, Shadows of Valentia, Warriors Games, Three Houses/Hopes, and Engage.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First: Awakening! Favorite: Fates!

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Setsuna, Mitama, Saber, Reyson, Yunaka.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Gaius! It was on sight I completely abandoned my plans to S-rank Frederick for him. It's the VA, he keeps getting me like this.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Crushes, no.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Gaius / probably still Gaius - Fates: Kaden/Laslow/Silas / Ryoma/Kaze/Setsuna - Three Houses: Ferdinand/Seteth/Sylvain(?)/Claude / idk probably the same - Engage: Pandreo / Still Pandreo but also Yunaka, Gregory, Diamant, Rafal, [...]

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Thief!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I want to be one of those incredibly stupid villager units that you have to keep alive but keep running towards the enemy.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) Black Eagles.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Swords, Gauntlets. Bane: Heavy Armor, Flying.

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) uuuuh Firene.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) Separate letters.

Current TOA muses: Mitama, Yunaka.

Past TOA muses? Bernadetta, Saber, Setsuna, Charlotte, Sylvain. I'm probably forgetting someone.

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Bernadetta! I think I'm satisfied with what I did with her, she can rest.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) People who say one thing but mean another and won't communicate their feelings clearly. This doesn't say anything about me as a person.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? I want to try an antagonist at some point but I lack the emotional willpower to go up to three muses for long. I also don't think I could handle writing a lord or someone important, I like my guys who don't matter.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) I don't know how to explain this because it's v vibe base. I like when there's emotional tension. I like seeing interactions between other characters weave together. I like building towards something bigger. Scenes where someone breaks and finally talks about something they've been holding back.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? I want to force Yunaka to talk about her past with people I want that shit to get dragged out to the open I want that shell cracked open to the meat baby.

Favorite TOA-related memories? Happyland2024 was a lot of fun and I'm glad that was my first lore event back, I had a great time with everyone. Team Justice will always be dear to me, as that was the moment that really got me hooked on TOA. Getting Nat's Innes' name in babe hunt just to beat Lilly's Cynthia and Lilly's reaction always makes me laugh.

Present or past tense? Lately I've been doing present more but the thing about me is that if I stop thinking for two seconds I change tense without noticing.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Normal text, but lately I've just been matching whatever other people cook.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 Saber quieted back down, sorry guys. I still think about trying Peri one day, and I would like to try and see if Setsuna vibes again because I miss her. I thought about Louis out of nowhere the other day, that was weird.

[rafent]

TOA Anniversary Monday

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Soji

Pronouns: She/her

Birthday (no year): October 14th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? United States and EST timezone. I was born in California, I lived in Pennsylvania for 15 years, and now I'm living in—(it's a secret)

How long is your roleplay experience? 14 years, phew

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Wolfquest Online

How were you introduced to TOA? The TOA blog spamming the Fire Emblem RP tags which I can't even blame because it works

Do you have any pets? Soji Man my lovely chinchilla. There's a Bichon Frise puppy in my household right now but I consider him more my mom's dog

What is your favorite time of year and why? Maybe Thanksgiving for the food. Autumn is the best

What is your IRL occupation? I'm a medical scribe in the meanwhile but I'll be going back to school. Occupation...soon to be student :littleantbitch:

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? Sleeping and also curating my pride and joy Fire Emblem shrine

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? FFXIV, Lethal Company, and Stardew Valley with friends when the mood strikes

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: My favorite Pokemon is Scizor and I like bug type Pokemon

Tell us some fun facts and trivia about yourself! 1) My favorite food is shaved ice with condensed milk. When I last went to Korea that's what I ate every day so I understand Rafal's sweet tooth 2) I have very strong, dexterous toes from years of picking up laundry and throwing it in the bin with my feet

How did you get into Fire Emblem? SSB Brawl and Marth (soft smile)

What Fire Emblem games have you played? FE1, FE3, FE7, FE9, FE11, FE12, Awakening, SOV, 3H, Engage

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: Awakening was my first game. My favorite games are Shadow Dragon, FE3, and Engage

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Marth, Rafal, Rath, Xane, Alear

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Marf

Any Fire Emblem crushes? None

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays?

- Awakening: First was Stahl, then Chrom. I'd still S support Stahl now - Fates: Have not played, but Leo or Takumi - Three Houses: Dimitri was my first S support. I'd support Yuri now - Engage: Alfred at first. I would S support Rafal or Gregory now

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Manakete

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Archer or mage I feel it in my gut. Good skill, okay speed, and okay attack. Shitty defenses. I would be playable

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue lions

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons in archery and faith. Bane in axe. Potential budding talent in sword

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Solm, my original bias nation in Engage

How do you pronounce TOA? Toe-uh

Current TOA muses: Rafal

Past TOA muses? Marth and Xane * blows them a kiss *

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Marth! I could see myself writing him again but not for a long, long time. He and I need a break

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I joke about it all the time in DMs, but yeah...sighs..."The Little Brother"

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Soft, girly girl type characters. I've written female muses before but I'm usually very picky. I like my women chaotic and cray cray

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like writing scenes with complicated emotions. Feelings are funky, this is true for reality, but I like putting that to words in roleplay as well. I think characters most come to life through these moments and it gives them a 'human' edge so to speak

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? I don't really have a wish list. I find value in every interaction that Rafal has because he's a bit of a blank slate. The perks of starting over as a new person and turning over a new leaf

Favorite TOA-related memories? The first month of joining when everything was fresh and new

Present or past tense? I can do either, it just depends on the muse for me, but I've definitely written in present tense more

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Small text! I think it looks nicer for myself. No preference for partners though

Got any potential muse delusions to share? Not right now. When I consider possible muses, I am very focused on their potential for longevity because I tend to be extremely loyal to what muses I DO have. Call me an oshi with how I give them 100%

[bluerosesburnblue]

@oveliagirlhaditright I'm putting my Missing Link thoughts in another post because it would be too long, and honestly I have SO MANY thoughts about why the basic premise of KHML was a bad idea (completely separate from my own distaste for the "Ephemer is Xehanort's ancestor" stuff that might be in it)

Because you're right to mention Pokemon Go and it really, REALLY feels to me like it's just trying to ride the hype from the mobile ARG boom that started with Pokemon Go a whole eight years ago. Because KHML as a concept doesn't even seem to be utilizing any of the unique features of an ARG that make them appealing

There's two real franchise-based mobile ARGs that I ever remember hearing about: Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite*. These two projects do make sense to me, as opposed to KHML because of the way that both franchises make use of the central concept of the augmented reality feature. They're additions to reality, which both series already played around with. HP takes place in our reality, but with a "what if magic was real and just hidden" premise, so it's insanely easy to make an ARG that's just "yeah, you're one of the people in on the secret magical society that always existed in the real world." Pokemon takes place in an alternate version of our world; every location in Pokemon is based on a real-world location. So that's also a natural progression for it, and it's easy to pretend that the "reality" you see in the ARG is just the Pokemon world. Other than location names and the presence of Pokemon, the Pokemon world is practically identical to reality

That is literally the central concept of an ARG. To make the game part of reality. And that just doesn't work with KH, a game about flying through space to reach Disney worlds. Sure, some of us might have wanted to pretend to be Keyblade wielders as kids, but did we want to be wielders in our small backyards? Not even imagining that they were another location, but the yards as they were? No! We wanted to be in the Disney worlds! Or Traverse Town! The central facet of ARG gameplay doesn't mesh with the functionality of a story-based canonical title. And so what do they do to force it to work? Complicate the lore with the Astral Planes, which completely take the "reality" out of Augmented Reality aside from... a map? Like, it might have worked with Quadratum depending on how much of "our reality" that ends up being, but that's not at all what they're doing

Additionally, ARGs are not conducive to story-heavy games! You're supposed to play them while walking around town, maybe stopping for a few minutes to take a break. Or you play them on work/school breaks. You need to be able to pick them up, play a bit for 10 minutes, and put them down. The typical gameplay cycle for most ARG players does not include 20 minutes just to watch cutscenes to get the Exclusive Lore before being able to do anything, and the people who like KH for the story aren't going to want to wait all the time for their mobile game energy to recharge before they can get their cutscenes (a thing that even KHUx did away with for story chapters after some time!)

The entire decision to make KHML an ARG, to me, feels like corporate checking off a box of "style of game that got popular in recent memory" and trying to copy it rather than thinking of the gameplay as a medium in and of itself to tell a story. Nothing about the ARG concept works with what KH is at its core, and I honestly feel like they unintentionally admitted that when it was announced that you'd be able to play it without leaving home. What is the point of making it an ARG at all if you're going to remove literally the only benefit that it has as a medium, as opposed to something that could benefit the story you're trying to tell? We are a long way from the days of TWEWY making revolutionary use of the DS technology to have its gameplay tell a significant part of its story

In an ideal world, I think that KHML should have been an MMO like we thought KHx was going to be back when it was announced. They wouldn't have to mess with the lore to make it work, other players running around would help to "populate" Scala ad Caelum in a natural way, people could form "families" with their friends to further the bloodlines narrative, and MMOs can function on the drip-fed narrative style that they wanted. It doesn't even have to be a big-budget MMO like FF14, because I actually do like KH3's artstyle and KHML's simpler usage of it (it manages to be distinctive and colorful, working in hallmarks of Nomura's hand-drawn style while still being more detailed than the PS2-era). It could just be... basically what it is now, but they add in new Disney worlds every couple of months to keep the story going

And now here we are, with a game that was supposed to be out by the end of 2023 still missing (lol) and only having had two betas by the near-midpoint of 2024 because they're having developmental issues that I would personally guess have to do with the game's self-defeating nature. I find it very frustrating

*Adding in, Wizards Unite literally ran for less than three years (June 2019 - Jan 2022) before shutting down so even being tied to a big-name franchise couldn't save it. I have a strong hunch that the Covid-19 lockdowns played a huge part in killing the ARG boom so it's doubly insane to me why Square Enix thought trying to bring it back was a good idea

[jadeazora]

I don't play Unite or Cafe Remix, so I can't really speak for them, but I do know that Cafe Remix has leaned a bit more heavily towards Premium/paywalled content as of late, with several newly added Pokemon being ones you need to get the monthly pass for.

Masters is a gacha game and does have all the problems that come with it (hard to beat stages without the featured pairs, too many limited Pairs nowadays), but imo, a lot of the writing for the more character-focused events is pretty solid and the Devs have definitely made the game more streamlined over the years, and have done away with a number of the more unpopular features. (Except stamina.) They're also pretty decently generous with gems, you can earn nearly one free Scout per month if you complete the stages.

Niantic tends to be making a ton of really, really unpopular decisions lately, from the Raid Pass fiasco to them making all this hype that Larvesta would be in the game except good fucking luck getting one (they only clarified they were super rare in Eggs later), etc.

[falciesystemessays]

Can I make a confession?

I hate thinking about my future.

(I promise this is related to video games.)

It could just be something in my brain.

It could be that, the way school has always led to more school, I'd always felt like my life was being decided for me.

It could be that, as a suicidal trans kid living on a dying rock, I never felt like I had a future.

But I had never in my life considered I would get this far, and at this point I have to grapple with the fact that I'm only getting older.

I need to move out eventually. I need to make a living. And I need to keep myself alive and healthy.

But something in me just hates thinking about that.

Of course, I notice this in the games I play too. I love tactics games like Fire Emblem, but the superficially similar Advance Wars could never grip me. While Fire Emblem gives me all of my chess pieces and makes me use them accordingly, Advance Wars makes me think several turns ahead and choose which units to create. Advance Wars is a much more long-term game, and I can't help but hate that.

I've been thinking for years about the prospect of using games to teach me what I don't know. Surely, if a game can finally make me understand long-term thinking, then I will be fixed. And I hate that framing, "fixed." These issues are very likely caused by ADHD, and the brain is just more complicated than any platitude can solve. But I also know that I do have to start thinking long-term, or I will suffer.

I've always hated brushing my teeth. When I was a kid, I would pretend to brush them to make my mom happy, but I just don't like having to put some stick of goo in my mouth, and even now that I do it regularly it doesn't feel good. I thought things would be okay forever, until I started having dental problems. Any individual day where I don't brush my teeth honestly doesn't make that big of a difference. But these choices in aggregate across years can have disastrous effects.

I started thinking about this as I replayed FTL recently. FTL: Faster Than Light is the first game released by Subset Games. Their second game, Into the Breach, is one of my favorite video games of all time. But crucially, everything I like about Into the Breach was an explicit response to something I didn't like about FTL. FTL has too much randomness, so ITB removes a bunch of randomness. FTL has too much hidden information, so ITB shows you exactly what enemies are going to do next. And in a game of Into the Breach, everything you need to think about is right in front of you. In FTL, you have to think ahead.

There's a few design choices in FTL I chafe against. Upgrading your ship is pretty expensive, and I never know how much it's worth saving up until it's too late. Your ship taking damage is unavoidable, and that damage sticks around between battles. Nearly every action costs some kind of resource that I don't know if I'll get back. It's a game that demands you think about it on a large scale, and after years of trying and failing, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get good at this game.

Do I just not have the brain for it?

But you know, it's not just lack of understanding that makes me put the short-term first. I've gotten into feuds with my parents about dieting before, as their legitimate concerns about health combined with unchecked fatphobia to leave me feeling like they just wanted control over my body. And while I recognize it's immature, these days I'll often eat something unhealthy on purpose out of spite. Making myself some dumplings, using all the salt and butter I could ever want, feels good, and tastes good too. But it was only today when, at a checkup about hormones, I agreed to weigh myself, and didn't like what I saw.

There are some games that provide delayed gratification. Games like Animal Crossing and Pokemon that use real-world time for game mechanics. In Animal Crossing, it's not enough to simply grow a tree, you have to plant it, and then water it for days. In Pokemon Shining Pearl, you have to wait until Friday to catch a Drifloon. These games treat the passage of time as a game mechanic in itself.

...Or at least, they do in theory. In practice, these games are awash with time travelers, changing the system clock to skip the wait.

I wish I had the answers, but I don't. I don't know how to teach myself this vital skill, and I'm searching still for a game that can help with that. Maybe I'll be the one to make it.

But I guess what I do want to say is that, if you also hate thinking about the future, whether that's in games or in life...

I understand.

[self-loving-vampire]

related to that YGO post, one of my favourite competitive mindgames is in pokemon before the battle even gets started. thanks to team viewer, you have this whole bit where you and your opponent stare at each other's team and go "oh, he has a counter to my guy... so i should play my counter to that counter... but he'll expect me to play that counter-counter" and it just goes on. it's a very simple mindgame but it's still so fun.

That one seems to come up in lots of things, like Age of Empires 2. It has led to some really fun moments when someone does something really unexpected, such as this video I have posted before.

For those who don't know, Spain in Age of Empires 2 has an extremely open tech tree that can do most things decently well, getting full upgrades on things like cavalry, infantry, and monks while also having decent enough options elsewhere. They're also stronger later in the game when their monks, heavy cavalry, and gunpowder units can come out.

But if there is one thing Spain does not do, it is going all in on rushing archers right from the start. They have some of the worst foot archers in the whole game, not even able to upgrade into crossbows.

So what happens when the enemy is playing a civilization that can effectively counter all of your standard and predictable late-game options? You deliberately and covertly break the expected pattern, make them build strategies based on misleading information, and completely break their ability to predict your moves.

All without saying a word.

[the-new-pokespe-futures]

Hey what are pechrunt’s generals? You mentioned them in my previous ask and are they chained humans/pokemon? What about okidogi, fezandipiti, and munkidori?

And with an out of context image, What does toxic revolutions Kieran look like?

Ok, to answer your question, short answer: they’re chained Pokémon

Long answer: They are a specific set of chained Pokémon who work under Pecharunt’s military division and are basically the strongest among the rest of the other units. While I said that they’re over 20 of them, in actuality, only 5 are generals and the rest are lieutenants under each general, said lieutenants have their own troops. Now, the military division has 5 factions, one with their own general as a leader. The troops are both possessed and toxic chained humans and Pokémon. If a certain number of troops are strong and experienced enough, they break off into a task force. Mainly to deal with situations that are out of hand and if the lieutenants or generals aren’t available or to save time. They’re way too many task forces to count but if you want to know, then I shall deliver. I really want to draw them out, but I can’t draw well and I’ve no money for commissions, but I have the concepts in my head :,). Also the lousy 3 aren’t part of it.

Speaking of the Lousy 3, after stuff that happened in the Teal Mask, Pecharunt found them and send all back to his headquarters. Considering how underpowered they all are compared to the rest of his troops, he decided to do a brutal training regime to help them increase in power level and to focus on their strengths and overcoming weaknesses. Pecharunt can just strengthen the power of the toxins, but he feels like it’s not going to help the 3 learn about putting in effort. So, here are the training regimes:

Okidogi: Practice endurance and number of punches he can do in a minute. As well as working on how fast his reflexes are.

Munkidori: Practice being able to see multiple outcomes at once so his abilities are not too rigid in thinking. Plays chess with Pecharunt to exercise his thinking skills, solves puzzles and riddles (and sometimes ARGs) that are given to him by Pecharunt for the same reason.

Fezandipiti: Practice aerial maneuvers, as well as endurance in how long he can stay airborne. Also trains in how far he can release his pheromones, to cover a wider range.

As for Kieran, I’d say he starts out normal. Until he meets Pecharunt, where he does get his desire granted via shaking Pecharunt’s hand (or in this case, a toxic chain that is like a hand). When a desire is granted, a sigil will be shown on his wrist which is the symbol of the toxic chain ⛓️‍💥 . Think of it like the sigils from The Owl House. His design in The Indigo Disk is virtually the same as his original counterpart but also having the symbol on his left wrist.

Throughout the story that I have for the AU, he slowly and subtly becomes more and more animalistic without him knowing, not full-on becoming a Pokémon or a hybrid, just some traits. Having sharper teeth, keener sense, enhanced strength, enhanced speed, enhanced agility, enhanced intelligence and so on. However, competitive Pokémon, this is desire that he wanted to Pecharunt grant and since Pecharunt is a man of his word, he agrees to the deal with no backstabbing. He does sort of become a puppet for Pecharunt during the story of the Indigo Disk and the third story. He only has a drastic design change once we hit the arc where Pecharunt truly makes his appearance and presence as an antagonist. Since, he’s been here the entire time, just waiting for the right time to strike.

But no spoilers as of now (and also, I don’t have to anything to think for his design so I kinda winged it, but I also am working on my main fic “Battlin’ on a Friday Night on AO3. And studies).

I hope this answers your question and sorry for taking so long. But for now, see you next time!

Also the AU name is ‘Shackled Revelations’ not ‘Toxic Revolutions’ btw

[slugdragoon]

RPG Role Analysis Series #1 - Dragon Quest

As an exercise for myself, I've been breaking down RPG characters and classes down to understand their gameplay roles and niches. Because my game is inspired by games like Shin Megami Tensei and Pokemon where you recruit and build your team from a large pool of characters, I want to have them represent many different niches, while allowing for emergent combinations and eliminating redundancies between characters.

As I have been playing Dragon Quest 6, and as my own mini tribute to Toriyama, I thought I'd start by working through some from Dragon Quest.

Dragon Quest 1's Hero is the archetypical magic knight, and it's a common archetype for JRPG primary protagonists, due to the main character usually having high all-around stats, and needing utility to compensate for story beats where more specialized characters may be absent. Fans may argue whether FF7's Cloud feels more like a red mage or a mystic knight FF5-style, or you could call it a spellsword, but the concept is similar. I always imagine the image of Gandalf holding a sword in one hand and a staff in the other.

This is an interesting one because there is only one playable character in DQ1. There's a lot to learn from a jack-of-all trades, if I want to design to allow solo runs of my game, which is more party-based, or if I want to avoid making versatile units too powerful so they do not overshadow specialized units. The design of the Hero feels very intentional in that you have a lot of utility with the limited number of spells in the game.

Key spells are Heal/Midheal and Sizz/Sizzle (a damaging Fireball), the only spells with multiple tiers, and notably no relevance to elemental damage. Secondary spells are Snooze for single-target sleep and Fizzle for disabling spell-casting, both crowd control suitable to restrict enemies because they outnumber the solo player character in DQ1. 

He also has utility spells like Glow (cave illumination), Holy Protection (low level enemy repellant), Evac (dungeon escape), and Zoom (overworld teleportation). Hero plays like a versatile dungeoneer that can delve on his own because that's what he had to be. I think it's interesting how much of this carries over to other JRPG protagonists partly due to sensible design, partly due to tradition. For example, it's extremely common for their class identity to be "swing around a big sword, but be able to cast single-target healing, at minimum", despite not needing necessarily to self-heal like you do in DQ1.

I have thoughts on how the party design of Dragon Quest II exists in conversation with the first game, but I'll follow up in my next post.

[silent-partner-412]

ok i need to vent about a trope in video games (mostly rpgs and visual novels) that i really don’t like, and want to talk about why a lot of games fail at it and give a few examples of how it succeeds. however to do so im going to spoil a shitton of games. so if you plan on playing any of the social sim persona games, the xenoblade trilogy, sea of stars, 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors, pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky, chrono trigger, the great ace attorney, or danganronpa 2 and 3 (the anime not the game), do not read this post. i will be spoiling all of them.

so what’s up with characters dying But Not Actually so much?? it’s gotten to the point where whenever a main character dies, i’m almost certain that there’s going to be some funny business to justify bringing them back. it kind of drives me nuts, and i wanna talk about why this plot point fails in so many games (and also a few where it works in my opinion because it CAN work).

to start, the xenoblade games, specifically 1 and 3. i think fiora’s death in xenoblade 1 was my first exposure to this trope and honestly i think it’s done alright. there’s a LOT of foreshadowing about the nature of the face units in the early game, and having her be turned into one makes complete sense. also she’s not the only character who’s presumed dead that ends up in a face unit, so the concept feels more complete than just an excuse to bring back a main character. the main problem with fiora is more that her character pre-death is so much better than post-death, but that’s less to do with the resurrection and more just me disagreeing with the direction they take her character. overall this game gets a pass from me, not a bad use of the trope.

xenoblade 3 however i will not be so kind to. mio’s fakeout death fucking sucks and it ruined one of my favorite characters up to that point. they build up the fact that mio is dying all game, it’s a huge part of her character. the existentialism of it all was so compelling to me, i was excited to see where it was going to go. but the body swap with m during the prison sequence was so underwhelming it hurts. it is mildly foreshadowed in the fight against m, but it still felt like they sidestepped the conflict entirely because they didn’t have the guts to actually follow through on what they had set up. which, to be fair, this would be fine if they actually explored how she felt about living when she was supposed to die, but they don’t. this is pretty much the last major character moment for mio all game, and it was so disappointing to me. not a good use of the trope at all.

persona 3 (portable) and 4 use this trope too and it’s also pretty rough. shinjiro’s death is a big moment in persona 3, and saving him in portable feels super underdeveloped and feels like it was just used for fanservice at the end of the day. nanako’s death in persona 4 is almost insultingly underdeveloped too, it feels like it only happens because they needed to add extra tension during the climax of the game, when it would’ve worked perfectly fine if she was just severely injured in my opinion. having her die and come back just feels cheap and unearned.

persona 5 does it much better with akechi in my opinion but that’s also because him coming back is pretty much a mirage. the only reason he comes back in the third semester is because maruki thought him being back would be part of joker’s ideal reality, and once maruki is defeated akechi goes away too. it’s all pretty fantastic, and the way they explore akechi’s feelings about the whole situation is great too. of course, there is the moment at the ending where you seem him through the window but that’s left purposefully ambiguous and i choose to believe it’s just joker’s imagination lol.

chrono trigger is probably one of the oldest examples of this trope and it didn’t really bother me, but that’s mostly because i wasn’t super attached to crono in the first place cuz he doesn’t have much going for him in terms of characterization lol. i also think that because there are multiple endings including one where he doesn’t come back (and you really have to go out of your way to bring him back) makes it feel a bit less cheap? i don’t know, i don’t really have a strong opinion one way or the other for this case.

now sea of stars i’ve gone on record saying i adore, but i still don’t love how they handle garl’s resurrection. it feels almost identical to crono’s, and feels a bit too fanservicey for my liking especially since i thought garl’s death was so extremely well done. it’s cute, and i do love garl, but i prefer the regular ending where he doesn’t come back.

so… remember how all the characters in danganronpa 2 didn’t actually die? cuz they were in a simulation the whole time and it wasn’t a “you die in the game you die in real life” situation like they implied in the game? yeah that was weird. i don’t remember this bugging me a ton back in my danganronpa phase but like… the deaths in that game in particular were really well done for the series (let’s forget about chapter 3 for now) and having none of them matter in the end kind of sucks. it also doesn’t feel like that was the original vision since this reveal only happens in the danganronpa 3 anime and not in dr2, so it feels like it was probably done for fanservice more than anything.

these next two are ones i don’t think were too bad and that’s because they both happen and you kinda just know they’re not gone for good. kazuma from great ace attorney and snake from zero escape (999) both die so early and so suddenly after being set up to be seemingly important that you sort of just know they’re not gone for good, and if they were you’d probably be disappointed. also they both slap when they come back and their characters would probably feel incomplete without their reveal that they didn’t actually die. if you’re going to kill characters and bring them back, this is one of the better ways to do it in my opinion.

finally, this isn’t really a death but it still really bothered me. i really don’t like the ending of pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky’s final special episode. for years i thought that once grovyle and dusknoir returned to the future and you and your partner save the world, they’re gone. that’s how the game sets it up. i’ve thought that’s how it was for years since i didn’t play sky until last year. learning that no, they save the world and all the pokemon from the future are fine actually was so… it just felt wrong. i feel like they didn’t want a sequence that grim to end the episode in a game made for children, but i was like 9 when i beat explorers of time/darkness the first time and i understood the implications of what happened. learning that wasn’t actually the case now that i’m an adult bothered me and i wish they had stuck to their guns.

so what’s the common thread here? well, the times where it doesn’t work are usually because it feels like fanservice or like the story didn’t justify it well enough. it feels like you’re being coddled almost, like don’t worry your blorbo is fine!! they’re still alive!!! and i hate that so much. stick to your guns!!! if you don’t have a damn good reason to bring back characters after they supposedly die, don’t bring them back. it usually feels wrong and hollow. look, in real life, people die (i know big shocker), and there’s nothing you can do about it. i’ve had people very close to me die, and while i would do anything to bring them back, that’s just not how it works. i know games are supposed to be escapism where you suspend your disbelief, but i don’t usually feel happy when characters i love die and come back. it just feels like mildly condescending wish fulfillment. i just wish authors would be more thoughtful about this kind of thing.