#beyond the bet dlc when

[tsurenity]

I want him, your honor.

[twoandahalfstudios]

🌻 Kickstarter Page Live! 🌻

The Kickstater for Beyond the Bet, A Date with Death's new DLC which adds five additional days, new endings, and optional spicy scenes will be going live in mid-May!

You can follow the page now to get notified when it launches!! ⤵️

[pumpkin-patch-cat]

New Job, Who Dis?!

(Grim x Gender Neutral Reader)

Warnings:(DLC ending spoilers. Suggestive themes)

Grim is now living rent free in my brain.

After completing the DLC ending of A Date with Death, I have decided it is my favorite ending and conjured up a little dialog. This oneshot hints to the endings outcome, so spoiler warning ⚠️. This was written quickly, so pardon any grammatical errors! Enjoy!

“Hold up, start from the top. What's my job description again?”

“Your job will be to give life back to those who aren't supposed to die. Sometimes, innocent people are caught up in things where losing their life was NOT part of the original plan. Because your soul harbors the essence of life itself, with you at my side, you'll be able to attempt to save those people who are at the presepist of dying too early.”

“Attempt?” You eye him quizzically from your place at your desk. Casper is sat at the foot of your bed, long legs outstretched, hands in his lap. He nods and continues.

“Basically, when a mortal is on the verge of death, their soul has become tainted with what we call a ‘blight’ or ‘blight of death’. Similar to ‘the taint’ for reapers, though much much harder to bounce back from when the soul or a mortals very existence is overtaken or ‘infected’ if you will. Some people can bounce back on their own, while others succumb and meet their unfortunate end. I say attempt because sometimes a mortal is beyond cleansing. The blight is too far gone, and no amount of divine intervention will save their existence....so naturally, when we, no, you receive cases like this, time is of the essence.

“I see...wow, that's heavy. No pressure or anything. Sheesh.”

“Yes. The job will be difficult at times. Y/n, there will be times when a person will be beyond help. You'll want to save them desperately. Times where no matter how much effort is placed into saving them, it may not work, and you will be angry. I can't tell you how many times I've witnessed an innocent person parish entirely too early at the hands of a twisted version of fate. Those moments are out of my hands, and I have to ferry them away regardless. But that's where you'll come in.” 

“Sooo I'm basically an angel??”

“No, they're grotesque creatures. They instill fear in humans and sugar coat their acts with pretty words. You'll actually give hope. Plus, you're much prettier than they are. Who really needs that many eyes and wings, honestly??? But anyways…”

You fall silent in deep thought.

“Y/n? Why are you screwing up your face like that?”

“Can I really do this, Casper? What if I mess up??”

“My sweetest, little nightmare. I'll be there with you every step of the way.” Casper smiles reassuringly.

“Thank God. OH! Do I get a cool ass scythe of my own, too?” You perk up almost immediately, wistfully looking at his impressive weapon that is currently leaning against your wall nearest the door.

“I...I'll never get used to the way you can flip subjects so easily. But yes, I guess. Once you're settled, we will get you fitted with a 'cool ass scythe'. Or at least a decent weapon you'll use to channel your soul energy. I know a guy.”

“You know a guy? That doesn't sound shady at all, but fuck yea!”

He chuckles softly at your enthusiasm.

“I'm glad you're okay with this decision. I really couldn't think of a better way for this to work out for both of us but-”

“But you have a big, sexy brain that was able to figure it out, now you're stuck with me foreeevvver.” You beam, triumphantly.

“I suppose I am, and quite frankly, I would have it no other way.” With a smile on his face, Casper stands, reaches for your hands, and pulls you to your feet.

“Awww, little reaper. Since when did you get so mushy? It makes me want to violate yo- I mean...I could really go for some food right about now. Yea, food. That's what I meant."

“...You really are something else. We will grab something on the way to my place.”

“Bet. Finally making good on us moving in together?”

“Obviously. I can't escape you.”

“It was inevitable, Casper”

“Seems so…and by the way…”

Casper slips his arm around your waist gently, leaning into your ear.

“I'll take you up on that offer of 'violating' me later, my little nightmare.”

“You just want to be stepped on.”

“S-stepped on? What..uh...I”

“The blush on your cheeks says you do. Can't take it back now. Your fate is sealed. I hope you're ready.” you wink.

“Haaa....fuck.”

[adobe-outdesign]

I feel like everyone overlooks the way crystals are forming on the AI professors during the final battle. It seems unlikely that they took the time to program that animation and visual just for this one scene where it really doesn't have any reason it has to be there, especially when the devs were on such a time crunch.

I would be willing to bet that some more crystalized people might show up in the part 2 DLC. There's that weird pool that revives the dead in the first part, so maybe we'll get some dead people coming back (Heath? Arven's parents? who knows) that are coated in crystals like this. Or maybe Briar's attempts at spreading terastalization beyond Paldea will start to effect people like this or something.

[azureasterart]

the gimace

↓ this game is so special and silly and also makes me a wittle sad please give them money when the kickstarter for the dlc launches

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gabmag/a-date-with-death-beyond-the-bet

[loquaciousquark]

Got spoiled twice in casual browsing this afternoon, so decided to go ahead and play through the epilogue on my original Tavish save set so I'd at least get the comfort of seeing the big stuff for the first time on my own. (Thanks to @eponymous-rose for keeping me company despite spoilers!)

I am honestly SO HAPPY with 99% of the epilogue! Everything with Wyll, Karlach, Jaheira, Halsin....if I keep going I'm just going to name all the characters but ESPECIALLY WYLL AND KARLACH. Oh my gosh, the hints towards finding a forge in the Hells! Wyll's eye! His armor looks so unbelievably dumb but I guess when you're living hand to mouth in Avernus you make what you can get. I bet it's not as good as that Helldusk armor I had him in, but oh well.

Tara was there! We got to talk to Tara! And tell everyone Astarion & Tavish were dating! And so many people wanted to talk about what we were doing and what we were up to--ahh, I loved it. I will say I cackled like a loon at the idea of Tav giving a lecture at Blackstar Academy or whatever it is and Astarion sitting at Gale's desk kicking up his feet and knocking over all his desk decorations.

Scratch got new animations! Throwing the astral prism as a fetch object was absolutely inspired, and the little animation set where he just sits down and gnaws on it and throw it around--so unbelievably cute. And he sleeps! He sleeps on its side and it's so STINKIN cute! And the owlbear going to live with Shadowheart--I'm cryyyyying, I'm so happy for her and her cottage and her hoard of animals and her million flowers I'm sure are there.

And even the little QoL things like having a chest full of clothes and dye! So thoughtful and nice! I would have killed that halfling for a potion of animal speaking, though - I'll drink one before the Netherbrain next time to make sure it carries over.

The only teensy weensy tiny itty bitty complaint I have is that I wanted to be able to kiss Astarion at this party. Just once! And I wanted him to go out and be merry with everybody! I'll accept that he's feeling skulky and be satisfied immensely with my hugs, but Tavish on the new run hasn't gotten to Moonrise yet, so I'm starving for a lack of kisses here, augh.

I loved every word Withers said. I loved every second/third/fourth round of dialogue for all the companions. Jergal is such a dang bro and he seemed so enthusiastic to get to hang with the fam. Bless!

I do wonder if it's possible to try to kill people at this party - there were certainly enough death-causing implements and scrolls floating around!

And then the END CREDITS?????????????? Raphael ranting about THE CROWN OF KARSUS?????????????? This does explain why Gale made a point of saying it had gone back to Mystra when we most deffo left that sucker in the river, but HELLS-RELATED DLC???? I THOUGHT KARLACH AND WYLL WERE JUST LEAVING THEIR FATES OPEN-ENDED AND THEN ACTUALLY JK WE MIGHT BE GOING THERE??????????????????

Surely this is a promise of upcoming DLC, surely. I have no idea if they intend this to be paid or free (honestly I think it should be paid) but either way I'll throw every dollar I have at them if and when it comes out. How is Raphael alive. How is Mystra going to keep the crown from him. How are we going to get the gang back together. What does Zariel's area look like!! Will we get to go past level 12!! How is Raphael ALIVE!!

I honestly just had the biggest grin on my face the entire time. Every conversation, every hug, every gesture. What a complete delight, and I can't believe we get it for free.

(Sidenote: I was also beyond overjoyed that this patch also fixed the Astarion epilogue, the broken scars cutscene, and apparently the kisses. Again, Tavish hasn't gotten to at-will kisses yet, and I'm DYING.)

(Sidesidenote: I couldn't get any of my first game saves to load after a certain point [turned out to be due to an old mod I'd uninstalled] and troubleshooting that to get the saves to work again was honestly really fun, ahh.)

[kozykricket]

some terapagos-centric speculation

alright well back into pokemon brainrot perhaps since the actually interesting to me part of SV dlc (the silly turtle) is very soon um so. i got spoiled by a leaker on a story beat i think? but i wont mention that anywhere here. however i WILL be speculating (without any leaks involved in speculation) about the lore of catching all of the series' past legendaries, using information on the official site. if you havent beaten SV and found out some terapagos lore, or if you dont want to look at the official information on the website then dont read ahead!

Let me first just... put what they have on the page for catching old legendaries "In order to encounter these Legendary Pokémon, first talk to Snacksworth at Blueberry Academy. If you’ve met certain conditions, you’ll be able to get snacks from Snacksworth that let you encounter specific Legendary Pokémon back in the Paldea region. Snacksworth will share his extensive knowledge of these Legendary Pokémon with you, as well as tales of his heroic encounters with them. Why not listen to what he has to say?"

To receive snacks that allow you to encounter these Legendary Pokémon, you must complete Blueberry Quests (BBQs) and report back to Snacksworth.

I think you can read a lot into this. First of all, BBQs is brilliant. but second of all Let's recall what everyone generally concludes paradox pokemon to be, in relation to terapagos. I'm a bit rusty on my SV lore, but as I recall, the general theory is that the paradox pokemon are all created by desire / powered by imagination. From the drawings in the books that aren't fully accurate, to heath waking up having written what I see as designs for the """time machine""" (what I believe to just be a helpful power source for terapagos) to arven literally questioning (especially notable in violet) how his father would have been inspired to bring pokemon from the future... by a book recounting pokemon from the future. from the past. I mean, heck, tera crystals even... somehow power AI sada / turo, and they say that what humanity is capable of isnt really... well, they're beyond our technology. yet they also cannot leave area zero. Theres more to it than that, I think. and I haven't even seen what lil baby terapagos does with liko in the anime... but I think its pretty safe to say this is some sort of wish-maker pokemon, that gives you tangible results, if you just think powerfully enough about something. One might even say... if you practically felt like you were there.

Heck I bet heath was so bored about seeing nothing interesting that he just... IMAGINED some weird freaky not-quite-pokemon. and terapagos thus made them real. but only a bit. Note that the only paradox mons we see outside the crater are the paradox donphan, which is the only one in the book... and the paradox of cyclizar, which was very close to heath. Powerful memories with cyclizar would create a powerful creature I imagine So, back to snacksworth. They're vague about the "certain requirements" for catching past legendary pokemon. I think this honestly just means we need terapagos, or... terapagos' blessing. or whatever. whether we catch it, whether theres only one, i dont even know.

I think he's just a nerd who happens to be giving us exactly what we need to manifest these legendaries into existence (he probably doesnt even know lol). Why would the SV protags know about all these legendaries, what they were like? Well, they dont. but he has extensive knowledge... to clearly give us an idea of what they're like. And he has "heroic tales" of him having met them before. I imagine that'll be essentially the fuel for like- "take this snack and when you eat it, it'll be as if you're about to have an encounter with them just like the story I told you!"

it'll make you feel like you were there because of associating the food with his Legendary Encounter Story (whether hes lying or not lol) and using that, combined with our newfound knowledge on what these legendaries are... terapagos will summon it into existence!

Essentially: Snack = reminds us of a heroic encounter with a legendary thus Idea of a legendary encounter + clear knowledge about said legendary pokemon + funny turtle = legendary

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Best of 2022

This current year I say was a better current year than the one before, I mean the Queen died and that was funnier than Elon Musk's whole existence beyond the fact he sucks at Twitter. Never mind the chaotic reality we have, I'm celebrating the 10 best animations to come out this year. The only rule being they had to debut this year so while these two were banger entries, Amphibia and Owl House have to be exempt because I want to be fair. Otherwise, ANYTHING GOES so let's go...

Number 10: Batwheels

This reached the list for the sheer fact that it feels like a joke but has a better punchline than it has any right to. It looks colorful with great animation, and even if it's a preschool series it's thankfully one that's just about the adventures of both the titular bat vehicles and the actual Batman characters. This isn't like Cars where there aren't any humans around and they're cleverly able to make everyone coexist in a way that never feels out of place. It works as a good morning cartoon and a kiddo's introduction to the Batman universe besides the comics or the 90s animated series.

Number 9: We Baby Bears

I feel like we all need that one shows that's just for cute vibes to curb the stress and mental instability that intrudes on you when you get home from work or school. Being the spin-off prequel to We Bare Bears, while it can be pretty plain in terms of premises it's cute and whimsical on its own merits. It reminds me of Klonoa where we're hopping from world to world, sometimes there are familiar faces but otherwise, it's just about having fun with the different environments with characters I bet most gen ziggas will be familiar with. I say it was a good series to start off the year and while Cartoon Network's future feels too uncertain, I don't think a show like this is such a front on their MO. Plus, bears are awesome.

Number 8: Sonic Prime

The fact that Sonic the Hedgehog basically gave us its take on Robot Pirate Island was enough for me to like this, but Sonic Prime works well as a new series. Low on the list because for eight episodes, it wasn't as fulfilling especially when it felt like the SatAM show but not as tight since it's a multiverse story. Not that it isn't fun, this has more jovial energy to this that feels like a mesh between SatAM and The Adventures of Sonic. The animation I say is peak for a Sonic cartoon, imperfect but it looks like they're let loose with movement and expression. Plus again, we got the battle of Robot Pirate Island ending with a funny abrupt bodying from Shadow. Overall, hopeful part 2 ups the momentum because this and the Mario Movie really look like we might be eating well next year.

Number 7: The Cuphead Show!

Cuphead changed the way we game. With the DLC released this year as well, we seriously got a franchise that earned its keep. It felt natural that we'd get a cartoon, running alongside the recent Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse short series as a great resurgence of the rubber-hose animation style. I'll say though that the episodes are great for this show, gets really going when Ms. Chalice joins for real, but it's scattershot in terms of actual banger episodes especially when the Devil makes for the best episodes with or without the porcelain trio. They at least end the 3rd season on a high note so whether we get more or not, this was overall satisfying and worth the wait.

Number 6: ONI, Thunder God's Tale

Really sucks this was talked about by nobody beyond the Goomba Got Back dude, whose video on it was cool. This was an incredibly made miniseries created by the same studios behind DOMO, Rilakkuma and Kaoru, and the cutscenes of most modern Sonic games. I love the plush and clay look of the characters and the environments are insanely beautiful. Storywise it's one where it starts strong and gets stronger with every part like episode two's ending was a gut punch and the blows kept coming after that. I loved this world of yokai and kami and it was an emotionally warm tale of family and self-actualization. Seriously recommend watching this at least once, subbed or dubbed since both are pretty good. So yeah, everybody that proclaims "animation is cinema", where the fuck were you?

Number 5: Scrat Tales

Would've been wrong to not put this on the list since it was the last thing Blue Sky made before Bob Chapek took the studio out back. Even if Blue Sky never closed, these shorts were great, taking me back to when Scrat was at his best in the earlier Ice Age films. The animation is especially great and it just makes me wish Blue Sky got to do more because this really showed they were good with slapstick comedy and improved after two decades. Needless to say, this miniseries and their final short was them going out on a high note, giving the best middle finger to Disney after they tried to revive the Ice Age franchise with the Buck Wild movie. If there was anything to credit about this year, it was taking the bad with the good.

Number 4: The Bob's Burgers Movie

This was surprisingly the year when I watched a lot of movies. Thankfully I'm not a filmbro (yet...) but I've really appreciated the time I made in actually going to the theaters more than once, so yeah Bobby's Bunger. I say it works on its own but it's definitely more for fans of the TV series and even then you probably have to see the season that came before this to have better context. Besides that, you're just enjoying the good vibes that come from the characters, the humor, the animation, and the pinch of musical numbers we get; Sunny Side Up Summer was legit an earworm banger. It overall works when you know the Belcher family because they carry this film.

Number 4 (2): Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Mate, when it reached a certain scene involving a poem, I was practically choking back my tears. You'll know there's a later stop-motion higher ranked, but this was the 2022 film that personally cut deep. I didn't think a film about talking shells would resonate with me this well, but this existed as more than just Youtube short films extended into a movie. There is a story here about grief, comfort, being internet famous, and community that I feel wouldn't have worked without it being like this. It had that cold but good reminder of how small you can feel with a world you can only wish to grasp in increments; that change is inescapable but that doesn't mean you should take that negatively. It's hard being fearless, risque as you can be with your opinions and ideas, especially with uncertainty. This I say is a great Autumn movie, wonderful in making the seasonal vibe feel more comforting.

Number 3: Smiling Friends

Yeah, it's high on the list. If it wasn't, that means Egoraptor probably made it. To me, Smiling Friends has the enjoyable chaos of Superjail and Aqua Teen with the thematic sincerity of Venture Bros or King of the Hill. It's the most easy-going adult cartoon that yeah, is funny as shit and is funnier the more you know behind the scenes. I gotta appreciate that this is the one time when people from the internet hit the big time and it doesn't feel like forgettable compromised trash. I'll say the Brazil episode was not good, but this was the consistently best show Adult Swim provided in a long while.

Number 2: Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

Del Toro never gave up on this and what we got was better than expected. There are a couple story problems but it's more than made up by being an amazing retelling of the Pinocchio tale. I never grew up with Pinocchio mind you, I only got familiar with the story this year since it was everywhere, but I wanna say this was as strong an interpretation as one could make. Better than Disney's take I say where it's purposefully not squeaky clean in appearance or atmosphere making its poignant emotional moments hit a little harder. Being Del Toro's first fully animated movie, it's up there with Fantastic Mr. Fox as a film I'd consider a masterpiece on the dedication craft alone.

Honorable Mentions: Entergalactic, Hamster & Gretel, Minions 2, The Amazing Maurice, Chickenhare, League of Super Pets, Super Giant Robot Brothers, Cars on the Road, Little Demon, Pantheon, Baymax!, Turning Red, and Zootopia+

Number 1: The Bad Guys/Puss in Boots, Last Wish

I'll say it, Dreamworks truly owned the W this year. The fact that two-for-two Dreamworks gave us the best vibes in terms of films like it was nothing has to be appreciated. I was already a fan of Puss in Boots, the film and cartoon series worked as the Zorro franchise we could've got. The Last Wish enhances that with not only literal stellar and dynamic action, no bad characters, but an actual reflective story for Puss, like if the 1st film and series were about him being responsible this sequel was about him being humble, especially in regard to his own mortality and pride. This isn't just a regular adventure like before, there is genuine emotional weight behind what happens to the characters. Just saying, we didn't just get a fierce red-eyed wolf for furry-lusting sake, but an actually intimidating force that owns every scene he's in. Feels like this film truly marks the twilight of where the studio wants to go with its projects and I'm worried but faithful. Oh yeah, and The Bad Guys?

I didn't grow up with the OG books like I did with Captain Underpants, but this film both blew my mind and made me go back to see that the books were good too. Objectively, Puss in Boots was the better film but this was my personal year-round favorite. The VIBES this had with basically every other scene had me just as happy as when I saw the Captain Underpants movie. The animation, the banter, Diane who is everything, and the banging tunes like Good Tonight and the opening with Kitchen Clean were the cleanest scenes I loved all year. If Puss in Boots 2 was the modern Zorro movie I always wanted, this was the American Lupin the 3rd movie I never knew I would get.

All in all, Dreamworks put its best foot forward, far more than expected especially compared to last year or Disney this year. If anything, I'm definitely noticing a slow shift where more animated projects are... footloose and yards away from trying to look realistic or copy-pasted. Not saying it'll all work (remember when theOdd1sOut made a cartoon?) but it has me as faithful as before in seeing worthwhile stuff come to fruition. Then again nothing this year truly stacked up to the

ACTUAL NUMBER 1: SLIPPIN' JIMMY

I'm talking about the Breaking Bad masterpiece that earned a Slipjimmillion dollars in ratings and views, baby! The streaming service superstar of 2022 nothing could top it. Not Bluey, not Better Call Saul, not The Simpsons, not your dad, nothing came close! Slippin' Jimmy is the future!

WITH ALL THAT SAID, HAVE A GOOD NEW YEAR!

[arkus-rhapsode]

FE Engage and staying power

This is probably nothing, but I’ve heard some people talk about how FE Engage feels like its been forgotten super quickly and that people are just going back to 3H. This got stuck in my craw for a bit and I kinda wanted to talk about “staying power” relating to Engage.

I kinda think there’s at least three points on why this isn’t exactly the case

First point, I just want to say that Engage has only been on the market for three months. Its hard for me to really say people have forgotten about it when there are still people playing it. 3H was the FE game for four years. Of course it has a bunch of people still going back to it and making content for it, its been a jumping on point for longer. We still have people making Fates content and talking about that.

Point number two, 3H had been pretty spread out in its hype machine. We got Byleth in smash, a dlc chapter that took longer than a month to come out, and a completely original spin off game all about 3H. Again, this sheer prominence through its lifetime clearly made it the Fire Emblem for a lot of people. FE Engage got its DLC done in month or so and hasn’t had any big cross promotion beyond FEH. Though I am betting we’re gonna get an FE Warriors based on it. After all, a warriors spin off of 3H sold a million copies, be crazy to not have some sort of trade off system of mainline FE game than Warriors game  during the dry period.

And finally number 3, 3H was divisive. Like it was practically designed to be. There’s three unique routes all in one game with easy to identify “teams” and dealing with a not particularly black and white subject. Like these are factors that generate discourse both positive and negative. And its a conversation some people hyper fixate on even to this day. Regardless how you feel about 3H, there’s no denying, it managed to make people talk. Engage meanwhile really is just focused more on experience while giving us a pretty straight forward FE plot. 

So yeah, I think its a bit early to call Engage forgotten or dusted. I actually do think it’ll sell less than 3H because I think its lifetime between now and the next FE title will be much shorter than 3H and Engage’s gap. But yeah, I don’t think people still liking and making content of a previous entry is a failure on the part of the current entry. Heck we’re getting content made about Awakening to this day, and that Game is 10 years old!

[francostrider]

Prince Marth and the Multiverse of Gacha

Fire Emblem is a series that had grown on me rather late in its existence. When the first western released game came out, I didn’t really appreciate it for what it was, not really into turn based gameplay. Then Awakening came along and I couldn’t put it down. I even went back to the rest of the western released games, and I fell in love with most of the series. Even Shadow Dragon, when stripped down to its fundamentals, was a lot of fun, if only to finally explain who that strange man was in Super Smash Bros. Melee. So, when there’s an announcement trailer, you can bet your falchion that I will rush to it as soon as physically possible.

Today, Nintendo released the trailer for Fire Emblem Engage, to be released in 2023. By the end of it, I decided that I was going to skip this one. Oh, I’m sure it will be a competent game (this is Nintendo we’re talking about), and maybe even fun here and there. But the gawdy presentation did nothing to make me overlook tropes that I have only felt more and more antipathy for.

I guess we can talk about the lead character, as it didn’t take long for photoshop experts to have fun with them. They look like the worst aspects of anime character design, with its bizarre use of colors and over stylization. I already got sick of this with Fates, one of the worst games I have ever played.

Now, I try to be fairer handed about calling games bad or good. Most of this is subjective and not fact. My (or anyone else’s) opinion is not the final word. But Fates was bad. It was a money sink product, costing $100 dollars (or $120 if you skipped a deal) to see the three paths and the “whole” story, and the way it was written made only one of those paths valid. And that was before we get into the DLC. It copied mechanics exclusive to Awakening where it didn’t make sense. That’s all before my opinion, that the story is poorly written, and the characters are ill-conceived piles of anime mush. And it also makes the utterly irresponsible notion that your army is somehow not killing anyone on the other side, despite generations of animosity. That last detail, to me, destroys the relatively grounded nature of the series.

Yet, the very worst part of both Fates and Engage is a trend that Marvel has helped get going: Multiverses. Now, maybe I’m in the minority, but I feel that multiverses tend to suck the stakes out of the ground like a tornado. I get the appeal: Your isekais, your “what if X met y”. Yet, in practice, they end up taking more than adding to a work. I did not enjoy No Way Home. The MCU was fine on its own and it made me decide that Endgame was the true end to the whole series. And what I did like from the previous Spiderman movies felt like hollow imitations in No Way Home.

And this hollowness looms over Engage. While it’s never been 100%, Fire Emblem has given us some great characters and even subtle writing. Eliwood, Lyn and Hector are very human, very relatable. And they didn’t do this with usual anime kookiness. Blazing Sword is a well written story that transcended beyond usual, tired tropes. Genealogy of the Holy War is a brutal deconstruction of the series up to that point (back on the Super Famicom). Sigurd is a tragic figure with flaws, dying because he was stabbed in the back at the end of his journey. Path of Radiance stars a mercenary who must climb his way to leadership, and it deals with subjects like genocide. All these characters have homes, have futures they are fighting for, have friends waiting for them. They are very much a part of their own world.

And despite what little on screen blood there is, I believe these characters bleed. They feel pain, they are horrified, and they are vulnerable. This is all due to the fact that they take war seriously. When characters go down in battle, hero or villain, they die. There are exceptions, but it is lamp shaded when that happens. It makes you feel the danger of open war. And the overarching stories make no delusions over the cost of warfare.

When you start to “collect” them like a bunch of pokemon cards, all of their identity, all that vulnerability is gone. And all the multiverse stuff does is render their own world, their own lives insignificant. To summon Sigurd to as this paragon of combat for an assist just blows over his tragic story. They cease to be characters and become a bunch of action figures thrown at each other.

Am I the only one sick of this? I don’t want multiverses with “all my favorite characters”. I want my characters in their proper context. I don’t want the growth of these characters traded away for a mass-produced sticker. They’re great because of the other characters they work off of. They’re great for how they exist in their own worlds. Marth is not going to travel across dimensions to fight evil like a badly written superhero comic. He’s going to remain king and try to restore a world ravaged by two long bloody wars.

Between the multiverses and the horrible trend of gacha games, I feel the damage it’s doing needs to be called out. I thought Nintendo learned its lesson. I loved Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses fixed a lot of the narrative and cost problems that Fates suffered from. But here we are with what seems like a console version of a cheap mobile game, and it’s not a trend worth prolonging.

And will you please release a translation Sword of Seals already!?

[shreedle]

For the ship ask game: M, U, R, Y

(For this ask game here.)

Thank you so much for the Ask, Kim. <3 I had fun with these!

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Oh, this is an easy pick. X from Mega Man for sure (specifically the X series incarnation). He's seen as a genuinely friendly character no matter what species you are, and honestly, would easily keep me in check if for some stupid reason I did something dumb.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Ooh, a multi-fandom question! The funny thing is all three of these characters are involved in time travel shenanigans and are very tragic characters. Nope, no pattern there, nope.

Quint (Mega Man Classic): I bet no one is surprised by this, given that a ZX version of him is technically my Tumblr avatar. My OG favorite, Quint was actually the first character of any fandom that I completely fell in love with, and a lot of my early Mega Man fanfics were about him. There are still Mega Man fans that, to this day, recognize my old username of RandyPandy and think, "Oh, the Quint fan!" The games didn't explore him much, but the moment that I found out about his backstory, all I could think of was "Wow, that's an incredibly tragic character that can be interpreted in so many different ways."

Inigo (Fire Emblem): I actually played Fates first, so that means I fell in love with Inigo's older self, Laslow, first (my Corrin married him because I liked him the most out of the possible candidates). Then I played the Hidden Fates DLC and Awakening, and learned his backstory. His policy of "Smile so that no one knows you're hurting and so you can make others happy" really struck with me during a time where I tended to hide how I felt about a lot of things (I was in an abusive job when I discovered FE), and it really endeared me to him even more than his Fates self had.

Bruno (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds): This pick I had to think about, given that my two main fandoms are Mega Man and Fire Emblem, and every other fandom that I'm into, I tend to rotate around in my head (thanks, ADHD). But Bruno was my wallpaper on my old Windows 7 desktop until it died. Beyond that, he really brings up the question of what personhood is given that he's an android mimicking a dead human, and was probably one of the most interesting characters in the season that he was in -- he was a full-on mystery (and if you only watched the dub, he remained a mystery), though there were plenty of clues that he wasn't quite what he appeared to be (he really demonstrates the trope "Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass", and really, after he got his memories back, it's a question of "How much of his dumbassery was just an act so the others didn't get suspicious, and how much of it was his true personality, without the stressors of having to make sure the world survives?")

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Ooh, a question about platonic relationships, there definitely aren't enough of those. If we're going with a canon friendship, then I'm going to have to go with the Doctor and Wilfred Mott from Doctor Who (though X and Zero from Mega Man were a close second, I went with these two because I absolutely adore them AND in honor of Bernard Cribbins). I've enjoyed every single interaction with Wilf and the Doctor in every episode that they've been in together (especially the ones in The End of Time), and their relationship really did strike me as very parent/child, and honestly? The Doctor needs that parent/grandparent-like figure that he can just go and hide from the world with.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Oh boy, where to even begin with this. XD Well, for one, I've seen enough Jujutsu Kaisen, Twisted Wonderland, and Danganronpa from you that I see that and my first thought is, "Oh, Kim's fandom!" Other fandoms that I've noticed that several of my friends/mutuals follow are My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Terraria, Final Fantasy XIV, and more. XD

Kirby used to be on that list, but that changed when I did research, watched the anime, played a few games, and then wrote Lucid Dreaming.

[twoandahalfstudios]

📚 Storyteller's Fest Announcement 1 🪄

Over seven days, you've laughed, cried, and fallen in love… but mysteries still remain.

We're working on A Date with Death: Beyond the Bet, a DLC filled with domesticity, mystery-solving, and more teasing ❤️

Wishlist it right now! ⤵️

When something goes amiss with your bet and it needs to be extended, you'll spend a brand new day 6 & 7 leading up to day 10 with Grim.

Learn about his past, your connection, and maybe tease him about making soul babies a few more times.

[cosmicmakos]

playing the Citadel dlc has gotten me thinking about Logan and i doing various things on the Silversun Strip together pre-Citadel getting taken by the baddies and post-war during the me3 timeline and beyond

one afternoon she convinces me to go to the arcade and we see if we can beat one another's high scores at the various machines. she loves showing off her skills by beating the program at its own game and i often hear her asking me if I saw her win a round at the game she's playing currently. if we decide to face each other on a round of Shattered Eezo her competitive side often wins out on letting me have a chance at a win for once, i just tell her she's an ass for absolutely destroying me. i'm not even on the same level as her and just love watching her get a higher score than those on the leaderboard. after showing off her skills she likes to go to the claw machine and test her luck (i assume based on how Shepard wins every round no matter what they just have god-like skills when it comes to the damn things) and wins me something out of it. i've gotten so many things won for me by her that i have almost an entire shelf worth of random knickknacks from the machine all from her.

Logan absolutely loves having me watch her matches at the Armax Arsenal Arena whenever she decides to participate. i'll even get texts on my omnitool from her asking me to come see her "kick some virtual ass" and that she'd love to hear me cheering for her in the crowd. unless i can't make it due to work i'll always be there cheering for my lover, if i have to miss it i watch it after it's uploaded on the extranet and try to call her so we can talk about the match (otherwise it's a lengthy text chain all night). i thought when she brought me to the arcade that would be the extent of her love of showing off in front of me - when she knows i'm there in the crowd she picks the hardest enemies on the hardest difficulties just to show me what she can do. i would be there when she encountered the deadly bug in the system that one match and even if i was mad at her for getting herself into a match that could have killed her, it was the best performance i've ever seen from her. after every match i wait by the contender area for her to come up from it to tell her how much i enjoyed the match while she pulls me closer to hold me; always wanting to kiss me before i can talk to her about her performance that day. once the pda is done we walk back to her apartment holding hands and talking about the match still or how our days were.

if we decide to go to the casino/bar i enjoy watching her play the various machines and watching her have an even win/loss ratio (most days she breaks even on them). i like to poke fun at the fact that she can get high scores on arcade games but can't win on betting games, she'd playfully tell me to shut up and then ask me to kiss her to help her feel better about not winning. when we go upstairs to where the dancefloor is she'll happily dance with me even if neither of us can dance and look like idiots. if we gravitate to the bar Logan knows i'm not much of a drinker and buys me anything non-alcoholic i wanted unless i decided to get a fruity drink. we'd find some area that isn't as crowded and just enjoy talking while standing close to each other. we'd most likely end up dancing more before going home.

maybe we'd just stay at her apartment and enjoy some time together, doing whatever comes to mind. plenty of cuddling and other activities ensue when staying inside. the two of us watching movies and shows in our downtime - Logan even convinces me to watch biotiball matches with her even though i'm not much of a sports person. she always explains things to me whenever i don't understand what's going on during games. we cook meals together all the time post-war when the famous Commander Shepard isn't needed to stop some galaxy-ending entity as much anymore. once the rebuilding is done galaxy-wide we try to invite our extended Normandy family for dinners or just to hang out in our shared apartment.

[danses-with-dogmeat]

Sorry to send so many asks well not a ask as I'm not asking for like a story-also I guess not a request, so I guess sorry for asking so many questions?

Anyway one thing again not a request, but the institute says that coursers are to serve the director yes? Then they can't be mad at a sole who has sex with x6(romantic) becuase he's doing his assigned job, serving her need XD I love the idea of the doctors at the insutue finding out and sole being like "well, he is technically serving me, so it's not wrong" because I just love the look I bet they have on their faces XD sorry I had to share

Secondly do you write mason? (Wolf pack leader in dlc) sorry to be such a pain

Omgggg this is one of my favorite things about an X6 x Sole romance 😍. Just the smug ass look I imagine X6 giving the doctor as Sole matter-of-factly says he's been providing them a service in their off duty time when they all know full well what's going on 😂

And X6 totally getting into that role and making jokes the way he does, when Sole comes back into their quarters after a stressful meeting and all they want to do is unwind, X6 is all, "here, let me do my job" or "do you require my services, ma'am/sir?" 😏 like, just X6. I love him.

Why you can't romance him is just utterly beyond me. It's a crime, really.

Plus I think Father would just straight up faint if he found out 😂

Anyway, thank you for sharing! And I love hearing from you guys, so please feel free to chat about stuff like this any time, I live for it ❤

And lastly, yes! I can write for Mason!

I've never actually met him in-game cuz I still haven't played any of the DLCs yet, whoops, but I know of him, and his character is super intriguing to me :)

[juminhandfs]

Hantober Day 10

Choir Practice: Favorite song that reminds you of Jumin.

I made a playlist actually 👀

I went overboard and tried to include songs fitting of every significant moment of his life in chronological order, including the bad endings and even when he crashed Seven's car... ending with the Good Ending.

If you are going to listen to this I have to warn you, it has 2 songs that touch on the bad ending 2 and can be triggering for some people: Lullaby from The Cure which is more metaphorical and Prison Sex by Tool whose lyrics are very graphic. Listen at your own risk and take care.

But here I want to talk about the first song on the playlist that sorts of encapsulates Jumin's life and what meeting MC means to him.

The song I'm talking about is Lateralus, also from Tool, which has the particularity of relying heavily on the Fibonacci sequence both in the metric of the syllables and in the meaning of the song. This is a song about grow.

If you have never heard about the Fibonacci sequence, also known as The Golden Ratio, I recommend to you to watch all these videos on YouTube talking about it because is something super interesting!

Basically The Fibonacci sequence is the mathematic that you can find in the nature, which goes like this:

0+1 =

1+1= 2

2+1= 3

3+2= 5

5+3= 8

8+5= 13 and so on...

Theses numbers when put on a graphic look like this: a spiral

A grad student made a video about the Fibonacci in Lateralus for a project and there it's infinitely better explained of what can I do here, but sadly the video was taken down, what I could find is this same video from someone who reposted it.

I want to encourage you to watch it so you can understand better how the lyrics match with Jumin's life:

Black/ 0+ 1 =

then /+1 =

white are/ 2 + 1 =

all I see/ 3 +  2 =

in my infancy/ 5 + 3 = 8

This is like a perfect description of Jumin's life growing up and raised like a businessman, with no place to emotions and creativity

Red and yellow then came to be/ 8 - 3=

reaching out to me/ 5  - 2 =

Lets me see/ 3

Red and yellow could stand for V and Rika. They showed him another way for things to be: these are the colors more vibrant in the rainbow. Trough them Jumin got to experience friendship and love. And they "came came to him, reaching out to him" he didn't went looking out for them.

As below, so above and beyond, I imagine/ 13 - 5 =

Drawn beyond the lines of reason/ 8 - 3=

Push the envelope/ 5 -2 = 

Watch it bend 3

Below, above, beyond: the lyrics are describing the dimensions of a box, that's the envelope to push made by "the lines of reason". Also note how the number of syllables were in crescendo, but now they are descending, why? What is stopping the spiral from growing? What is stopping Jumin? The answer is in the following chorus: 

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind

Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must

Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines

Then we have the repetition of the same verses and the chorus + the following verses

There is (2)

so (1)

much (1)

more and (2)

beckons me (3)

to look through to these (5)

infinite possibilities (8)

The next verse marks the moment the song changes, it stops counting syllables and with it both the song and the lyrics go in an endless crescendo...

Feed my will to feel this moment 

Urging me to cross the line

Reaching out to embrace the random

Reaching out to embrace whatever may come

A thing I haven't noticed, but I do now as I'm writing this is that the voice and the style of the singing also changes here. Up to this point was kinda robotic but here is really soft, in awe, you can feel the sincerity of the singer in his voice. If I had to parallel this moment in the song to one in Jumin's route it definitely would be when he tells you about his threads at 2 am. It's my favourite moment in the whole song, as I imagine Jumin saying those words:

I embrace my desire to

I embrace my desire to

Feel the rhythm, to feel connected

Enough to step aside and weep like a widow

To feel inspired

To fathom the power

To witness the beauty

To bathe in the fountain

To swing on the spiral

Swing on the spiral

Of our divinity 

And still be a human

With my feet upon the ground I lose myself

Between the sounds and open wide to suck it in

(He complained about the noise, remember the standing alone in an empty field? The noise is no longer noise, is "sounds" , "words have a meaning once they reach you"

I feel it move across my skin

(He didn't liked to be touched)

I'm reaching up and reaching out

(He is out of the box, or the cage?)

I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me

What ever will bewilder me

And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been

We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been

Spiral out, keep going

Translation of all of this? Why I put it at the beginning of the playlist?

Well...

Because of the heavy trauma he received in his early years, Jumin had to rely on rationality and logic to conduct his life (V called him "scientist" and Rika said she wanted for him to find the perfect balance between emotions and logic). Thus ignoring emotions but also his inner intuition, his gut feeling. (Update after the dlc: Now we know the big part his mother also played in this)

Because Jumin's trauma is in direct relation to his body, Jumin tried to distance as far as he could from it and treating it as a machine ("separating the body from the mind"). He mentions how loose clothes make him uncomfortable "because he needs a constant restraint all the time" (if corsets for men were an item you can bet Jumin would wear one)   which leads to his body speaking to him in the way of symptoms: this symptoms are the headaches, the numbness he says he feels in the dlc, the feeling of drowning, etc...

Basically, his body (wether by his emotions, gut feelings or directly through his headaches and mild-amnesia) is desperately trying to talk to him and Jumin is doing everything he can to not listen to it, because he isn't ready for it yet, because these are years and years of unspoken trauma trying to hit him  at once (this is why therapy is important! Guys!) .

So Jumin rationalizes things: he must be having headaches because he ate something bad, or the temperature in the room is below 2 grades, and V must be distant because he is still grieving, not because he is hiding something, not for what Yoosung is telling everyone. And Yoosung is also grieving, so that's why he's acting like this.

And Rika was V's fiance, so he couldn't have feelings for her

All of this changes when he meets MC: first she doesn't treat him as a robot like everybody else, but as person with feelings and with a right to feel and express those feelings, and second and (maybe) more importantly: she doesn't allow him to project his own emotions onto her (as he did with Elizabeth) thus Jumin doesn't have any other option that confront his own emotions, to recognize those feelings as his own… and this scares him to death, but he has to do it if he wants to be with her.

And this, that this battle is for her and for a future with her, is what gives him strength.

Now, onto the song again, Jumin has to listen to his body to do this, he has to decipher what is trying to tell him "Why im feeling like this?" "Why I acted this way". There's another song, also from Tool ("Forty Six & 2") that goes deeper in this process Jumin has to do "I want to know what I've been hiding in my shadow (...) Listen to my muscle memory"

It can't be only raw emotion because that's the bad ending 2 (or he stealing Seven's car), both mind and body had to work together (or to say it in the words of the song, the body can't be keep separated from the mind) for the well being of the person. And if it's in the natural design of things to tend to expansion and growth, why we'll be different? This is to live riding the spiral: self awareness.

"Swing on the spiral

Of our divinity 

And still be a human"

And the best part of all of these? Once this big rock is out the way? 

Now he can allow himself to feel everything! Both the good and the bad, his love for MC, his friendship for the RFA, and by him now being better, he can also be a better, more honest friend to those he loves. And by being more honest, he can now help them to get on their feet again just as MC helped him, and accept help from them . Without fear.

"We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been"

And that's why I love this song and Jumin Han.

.

.

.

.

Note: So this didn't came out as I wanted :/ (that's why I couldn't post it like 1 month ago), but that's kinda of the point of the song I guess? 😅 Certain things can not be explained, only experienced and when you try to dissect them (overanalyzing) they lost something very important in the process. Even the same phenomenon doesn't guarantee the same experience for different individuals... But that's the good thing in the end 😅

How boring life would be if we all experienced the world in the same way...

[alethiometry]

Character simping breakdown for our man Brasidas,,, GO 👀

(sorry for the delay, was watching blaseball while gathering my thoughts) *cracks my knuckles* HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

How I feel about this character

SEXY BOIIIIII

in all seriousness, i think brasidas is one of the coolest characters in odyssey not just because of his absolutely fucking legendary intro scene, but also because he’s... not actually that well-developed of a character? all we really know about him is that he’s your friend, and he’s also spartan, and also he’s not as bloodthirsty or warmongering as other spartans you encounter. but beyond that, and despite him being more involved in the latter half of the main storyline than other characters, we don’t really see that much more of his motivations or character development until we see him again in the underworld. there’s a distinct difference between game-brasidas and fanon-brasidas, and it’s hard to talk about one completely divorced from the other. especially as someone who writes a lot of fic from his pov—which, honestly, is 99% just shit i made up because ubisoft basically said “here’s this badass dude, here is why you should like him, fill in the rest of the blanks yourself” and boy....... We As A Fandom Did Just That.

basically what i’m trying to say is, brasidas is basically everyone’s collective-yet-distinct OC at this point.

also, i’m putting this here because i don’t know where else i would say it but it needs to be said: at the end of the arkadia questline, if you successfully spare lagos, brasidas gets SO smug and passive-aggressive when he thanks you, IN FRONT OF MYRRINE, for seeing things his way. and honestly?!?!? FUNNIEST SHIT. LOVE THAT FOR HIM.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

KASSANDRA!!! although that’s a given. also lagos and anthousa and, honestly, myrrine. i was only reminded of the latter by @winedark which i completely forgot about until just this morning, which is why i didn’t list brasidas in that post i did yesterday about myrrine. oops.

also thucydides definitely had a big fat crush on the guy.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

also lagos! i just like their relationship in any form, honestly.

i also have a headcanon that brasidas is buddies with kalibos (the dude from the sidequest where you do a bunch of shrooms) and together they form the Chill Spartans Coalition. actually they may be the only chill dudes in all of sparta, now that thaletas has (in my game, at least) more or less defected to go live on mykonos, and lagos no longer actually lives in sparta.

My unpopular opinion about this character

okay soooooo i have a few hot takes, here we go:

1. as much as i like to joke about ubisoft being cowards, i... actually don’t mind that we can’t romance him in the game. not because i don’t ship him with kassandra/alexios (i think we all know where i stand on that), but because i simply do not trust ubisoft to write their romance well. my stance is pretty much: leave it non-canon, because fans write it better. and because it gives us less restrictions on how the relationship develops.

2. i don’t really mind that he got killed off in amphipolis. by that point in the game i couldn’t care less about hIsToRiCaL aCcUrAcY (esp given how perikles went out) so that’s not why i don’t mind... i think by this point i’ve read so many fix-it fics that it has, effectively, fixed it for me. (it being watching deimos skewer him like a fucking kebab.) basically, having him die at amphipolis gives fandom more opportunity for both happily-ever-after fix-its that are frankly better than whatever ubisoft could have written, AND tragic angsty sad fics that are my ultimate guilty pleasure.

3. i loved his character development in the hades dlc. this might be the only instance i don’t dunk on ubisoft’s writing in this entire post, but i don’t feel as if they did him dirty at all; frankly i’m extremely impressed that they threw in a bit of nuance to his character and his spartan upbringing, considering how the main game is basically pro-sparta propaganda that erases or masks actual wartime atrocities. like, if they’re going to talk about war crimes in a way that engages the player, then yeah, it should be with the dude who you actually spent time developing a meaningful friendship with over the course of the game. and boy does that dlc looooooooove to hammer home how good friends you are!!! god. also: if you tell him to stay in the underworld, he has a job! good for him! i bet he plays poker with charon on fridays.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

obviously it would have been great if brasidas were a romanceable character, if only because then we’d have more material to make gifsets of. still, at the end of the day, i still stand by what i said above. but that also doesn’t mean i’ll ever shut up about ubisoft’s cowardice in denying us the opportunity to peg him halfway to mount olympus.

anyway, back to the question/prompt at hand: i... actually don’t know? like i said in response to the first question, it’s really fun to have such a loosely-characterized npc to the point where we can pretty much write/interpret him in any way we want, and it’s hard for me to want more canon material that may restrict that.

name a character and watch me ramble my way into simping for them