#and stuff!

[mistbow]

スタン「ディムロス……」 ディムロス「最後に一つだけ言っておく」 ディムロス「私は嘘をついていた。おまえは選ばれた存在などではないのだ」 スタン「…………！」 ディムロス「元々、人間にはお互いに意志疎通を行う力があった」 ディムロス「だが、長い時間の中で、天地戦争が始まった頃には、人間はそれを忘れていた」 ディムロス「おまえは私と出会う前から、その資質を目覚めさせていた」 ディムロス「それは非常に希有な事ではあったが、特別な事ではない」 ディムロス「その資質は誰の中にも、眠っているものなのだからな」 スタン「なんだ、そういうことか……　気にするなよ、俺は別に気にしてないからな」

STAHN: Dymlos.... DYMLOS: I want to say one final word to you. DYMLOS: I lied to you. You were not chosen. STAHN: .........! DYMLOS: In the beginning, people were blessed with the power to truly understand one another. DYMLOS: However, this power was lost by the time of Aeth’er Wars. DYMLOS: But you found that quality within yourself even before you met me. DYMLOS: It was very unusual to find someone like you, but your abilities are not extraordinary. DYMLOS: This is because this power, this ability lies dormant within everyone. STAHN: Is that all? Hey, don’t worry, it doesn’t bother me at all.

When people (usually English-speaking people, because Japanese fans of Destiny often have this attachment to the original game because of nostalgia) ask me if I seriously prefer the original version to the PS2 remake of the game in terms of overall narrative and characters, I really mean it unironically.

I feel like in the bigger picture, the message of the original game (like why it was even called Tales of Destiny, for instance) had truly been lost when it was remade, and I lament for this loss more than anything else. In terms of gameplay, yes, it’s more polished and I’d argue they had turned one of the most horribly-aged games to something that’s so damn fun to play, and I know that’s what matters the most when it comes to videogames in general, but I wish it had retained what made the original game so special to the people who have played it, despite of all of its faults. (As a disclaimer: I started with this game, however, I don’t have nostalgic attachment to it like a lot of people do; that nostalgia is for D2 in my case, as it was the first one that wholly captured the magic of Tales to me. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate D for what it was at the time.)

Sure, you can say more details are fleshed out (debatable for the characters, as I feel they have become more of flanderized or even outright contradictory versions of themselves at worst, and ‘softened’ at best, not allowed to act truly like humans at times, compared to their original counterpart with all their 人間臭い qualities), but is it worth it in place of muddying or even distorting the message it was meant to convey in the first place? I’ve said before that in my opinion, overcomplicated worldbuilding just for the sake of it is overrated. In trying to explain how the Swordians work in the remake, they changed the setting, but then the above doesn’t work anymore in this context. It’s gone. Just like that.

Making the characters more ‘palatable’ beats the purpose. I deliberately used the word 人間臭い because you know what? Yes, they stink, but you can feel the humanity exactly because of the stink. Humans are good, but humans are also bad. If you’re gonna say Stahn (or anyone for that matter) is not that special, then show it to me, show how human he can get. I’m not saying the original version of the characters are that well-written either, because honestly, they could’ve been fleshed out more... just not in the way how the remake does it, if you can call that fleshing out the characters. There are so many ways you could’ve expanded on them without truly erasing what made them charming in the first place. As well as, again, I want to believe the characters were created and written that way for a reason, and getting hung up in the details of these characters make a lot of people miss the point.

(There’s a beauty in Stahn having done all the things he did in the game because he believed he was destined to do so, but deep inside, even if he wanted to tell himself that, he was still doing all of these because he believed in what he had already believed, long before even meeting Dymlos. That’s an admirable character.)

(By the way, I know a lot of these issues also stemmed from how D2 tried to expand on the world of D though they can't even be consistent with D2 despite coming after it; for the record, I’m not absolving D2 for these problems either. However, at the same time, if you let my bias speak for just a moment, D2 is there to tell its own story. It doesn’t try to override D. The remake of D’s raison d’être is to be the definitive version of D. That’s the biggest problem there.)

These details don’t matter much to me, what matters is if these details truly serve their purpose, which in my opinion is the themes along with the messages. For me, everything has to begin with an intent, with a broad idea, as well as end with that intent, that idea. And I’m not sure if the remake manages to expand on the idea the original game represents... it just seems like they were confused about what D was really about in the first place. Applied to things like world and characters, it might make it seem like I don’t really care about the individuals, that it might make me seem so detached, but on the contrary, I want to appreciate something as a whole, and to appreciate that whole, I need to appreciate every individual element that is there, that is needed to build it. Because the individuals, when divorced from their contextual whole, mean almost nothing to me. They shine more because they work together to make up something that is whole.

[artistformerlyknownasbutttrumpet]

no i don't want to use your ai assistant. no i don't want your ai search results. no i don't want your ai summary of reviews. no i don't want your ai feature in my social media search bar (???). no i don't want ai to do my work for me in adobe. no i don't want ai to write my paper. no i don't want ai to make my art. no i don't want ai to edit my pictures. no i don't want ai to learn my shopping habits. no i don't want ai to analyze my data. i don't want it i don't want it i don't want it i don't fucking want it i am going to go feral and eat my own teeth stop itttt

[alleesaur]

doodling a bunny vs doodling a hare

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[pespillo]

the pipeline of fixating over some thingy

[vilea777]

sorry i cant hang out i forgot how to mimic human like behaviour

[fly-the-pattern]

The dino benches are super cute. The angle is a little weird, though. And there's other seating if you're scared of dinosaurs. Looks like there's non-dino flat benches in the back on the right and a raised stone bench / retaining wall area on the left with grass and trees. I'm a little worried that there's no arm rests on any of the seating areas, though. It might be difficult for people with mobility issues to stand back up. Super cute for in front of a dino museum, though! And I totally want one.

[anexperimentallife]

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[freackthejester]

I had a dream that a bunch of people were making jokes about how the economy was so bad that gay people couldn't afford closets and were just "in the corner"

[hilarioushitshq]

Not Karl..

[demonboyhalo]

collection of useful things tumblr has taught me:

even if you can't fall asleep, laying down with your eyes closed will still rest your body

you don't have to brush your teeth standing up

you don't have to do any chore standing up, from dishes to showering

you don't have to shower with the lights on

if you can't brush your teeth, flossing and a tongue scraper gets rid of plaque and bad breath

if you can't do that, mouthwash kills a lot of bacteria

eating "unhealthy" food is better than eating no food

you can make the same meal everyday for however long you still want it

some pills come in syrups or chewables if you can't swallow them

kids nutritional shakes can be a quick way to get fuel if you can't eat/don't have time

if walking hurts/exhausts you on a regular basis, canes and rollers are for you, no matter how young you are

we have free will—if doing something "out of the ordinary" makes life easier for you, do it

if you have even a dollar to spare, please consider donating to Alaikum's family.

they're a large family at only 10% of their goal to evacuate, and could use any help you can give!!

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[montymollusk]

please please please remember that no matter what your manager says, it is never that serious. unless you are literally performing surgery or defusing a bomb, it simply is not that serious

[spider-artdump]

[puppyeared]

filipina miku!! my mom helped me with her outfit ^_^