#given out sidequests or smth

[shootingcookielover]

I think the legend of zelda: tears of the kingdom should have played out like:

U get the ganondorf cutscene, the mastersword breaks, link looses his arm.

The ground rumbles and breaks, earth starts rising - but only link falls off the chunk. Zelda reaches for him, their hands just miss and Link disappears into the darkness below.

Now, Zelda does not inexplicably timetravel into the past.

Instead she wakes up on a sky island as a playable character.

She meets Rauru's ghost and with his help, plus help from some constructs, she manages to repurpose the sheikah slate to have basically the same abilities as the zonai arm in totk.

At some point during this, maybe after a particularly harrowing temple or something, I dont know, we find a campfire. Rauru's sat there, like, meditating or smth, and tells zelda to take a break and wait, since that is really the best option they right now - wait for a rito to fly high enough that they see zelda. Or something, idk, point is we need a reason for zelda to chill at a campfire.

Because this introduces the switching mechanic - aka, not only can u forward time at a campfire, but u can also change perspectives. In this case, to Link.

Link who is just. Not having a good time lol.

He wakes up in the depths, alone, no weapons, the malice eating his arm draining away the lives that players painstakingly built up in breath of the wild.

Everythkng's dark. Monsters are seemingly everywhere, pools of malice are threatening to kill you even faster than your broken arm already does.

All you have for a glimmer of hope is faint turquoise light somewhere ahead. So that's where ur heading.

This is where u find rauru's arm, fallen with some other debris, around a non-actjve light root.

Link somehow manages to attach the arm to the one still eaten by malice - idk maybe u pick up the arm, there's a fade to black, and when it returns it's to link bending his new and improved blue-glowing fingers experimentally.

You activate the lightroot and it restores some of ur hearts, but not the entirety of what u once had - a symptom of the malice-eating arm, or smth, surely.

And now u have two different story lines going at once - zelda tryjng to find link/figure out what's going on/stop ganondorf by exploring the sky islands, maybe having access to hyrule below with the help of some rito that u can find scattered across the sky islands. Maybe there's even a skysard sword-type skybird element there, where u get to steer the rito or smth, idk.

Meanwhile in the depths u have link, building up a shelter/hq/base with people that somehow fell into the chasms as they opened up, nobody quite able to reach the top again - not even the few rito that fell down. They just can't make it through the thick miasma of malice hanging above everything like storm clouds.

And, of course, link is also trying to get back to zelda/figure out what's going on/stop ganondorf.

Like idk, i feel like going with an approach like this would have made totk feel less like just a re-packaged botw with some DLC content, you know?

But hey, what do i know, i'm just some guy lol

[marshmallsy]

Some things from Prey (2017) that make me go absolutely insane (based off my recent twt ramblings)

the fact that the player character is asian. it’s not a choice. the default isn’t a white guy. you literally are a mixed-race asian person & that’s IT.

(and also like yeah, smth smth hints of yellow peril whenever the only asian rep we get also comes with scifi futuristic evil unethical-experimenting tech corporations, but WHATEVER, it still made me extremely happy to see so much diversity & representation in a cool rpg)

the fact that mikhaila’s gender doesn’t change so i, a queer half-asian woman, found myself playing a canonically queer half-asian woman. the joy was real.

the WORK put in by devs to make TALOS I genuinely feel like a place people worked and lived in. the ttrpg sessions in the rec room. the whiteboards scrawled with both scifi mumbo-jumbo & dumb jokes from bored scientists goofing around. reminders of garbage days & food in the fridge. mr. glooey mcglooface. the entire existence of the huntress boltcaster being mostly used to annoy coworkers & play silly games.

on the subject of the people, how utterly BATSHIT it is that every single corpse has a name & you can theoretically track every single person down. that they all have full names, their own personalities, that you can read emails or listen to audiologs of them interacting w/ each other, asking each other out on dates, arguing, sharing secrets, making plans with friends. and with very few exceptions, you find them all already dead or brainwashed or turned into phantoms. the premise makes me go feral every single time and I can’t get enough of it.

the fact that this game in general really rewards you for exploration & also requires it on some level, given that by exploring you can find notes/clues to get into safes or locked computers, or keycards to access other areas of the map.

danielle sho and abigail foy. danielle’s last actions being to help you find her lover’s killer before she suffocates out in space. need i say more.

ok, this one really makes me go wild. emmanuel mendez. a single audiolog, a single email, in a dangerous room you technically don’t even have to go in. 

“let’s say you discovered something dangerous. something everyone ought to know about.”

“i’d go out to that billboard and flash it big as vegas on the screen.”

again. this is optional. it’s not even technically a sidequest. you don’t EVER have to do this.

but you can. you can go out into space and fly yourself out to the giant billboards that orbit the station. you can find emmanuel’s corpse and the half-finished data he risked his life trying to transfer. you can choose to finish the upload.

ESCAPE PODS ARE FAKE

and for the rest of the game you see that flashing on the billboards every time you look out a window.

a top-of-the-line space station. conducting secret unethical experiments on human prisoners and aliens. and they sabotaged the escape pods.

god this game is good.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Good morning/night/afternoon/evening/day/time hello!

So after seeing how many friends mc have, like wait let me count-----

26! in the friendlist not including, the unofficial friend like Corey,...

With how many friends there are, are there any friends that you would delete in favor of flashing out the other characters or would you like to keep it that way?

I have some ideas on who to delete in favor of flashing out the more main characters, but i fear that this might be a bit... yikess.. I understand that people like this characters and me saying that they "should not exist" might get people mad, i hope this does not give you to much problem.

1. Tulip to Penny ( thks one is still debateable)

I know we have too much Penny especially at year 5/6, sidequest and all tht, but I feel like Tulip doesn't have to exist because her existance can be taken by Penny which flashes her character more.

Hear me out, Tulip is great. But after year 3 or maybe 4 her existence is uneeded anymore. In year 3 we can instead use Penny, Penny is a popular person with many friends. It wouldn't be out of character for her to try to understand Merula maybe try to befriend her ( i mean she did befriended Talbot, who isn't exactly the nicest or the most approachable ) but later, on something happend and now there is more substance in Penny hating on Merula rather than yeah, she such a bully or smth.

2. Barnaby to Ben

Ben is really untouched at the early years ( 1 to 3) I feel like the whole ark of Barnaby can be dealt with Ben. Like imagine Ben was Merulas lab dog, but because of Jacob's sibling kindness and all that, he finally have the courage to stand up to Merula proving his Gryffindor side. This could also explain Rowan sudden suspicions of Ben in Year 4, (its quite mean of Rowan tbh) I mean like after year 3 aside from the dating tlsq, Barnaby doesnt really do much does he? I mean you can argue that he have some influence on the last curse vaults but nah-

3. Badeea Ali to Rowan

Simple, we need more Rowan! I think the thing Badeea did in year 5 can easily be done with Rowan, i mean she just disappears later on anyways.

4. Instead of Bea, Rowan should be in the potrait.

5. Talbot as Ben? I'm not so sure about this one but yeah, they could put aside Talbot so we can flash out Ben. The flying solo quest can be switch into Ben losing his Bear again but we get more background to what the Bear meant to him ( maybe about his muggle life?? ) the tlsq could be at around year 5 or 6 to help Jacob's Sibling understand more about whats going through Ben's mind.

6. Diego = Ben

Ben is told to be good at charms we never really get to see it until around year 4 with the red cloak shenanigans. I would like to see JC explore more of his charms ability by teaching mc.

Anyways im not here to bash on your favorite characters im just saying that a lot of the characters are wasted pottential. To much characters can kill a story, rather than adding more characters jc should focus on the current one.

Sadly, they never did

Year0 Rowan

Year 1 Ben, Penny, Merula, (Chiara)

Year 2 Bill, (Chiara)

Year 3 Barnaby, Ismelda, Tulip, Andre Tonks, Talbott. Year 3 is definitely the worse case of it.

Year 4 Charlie

Year 5 Bea, Jae, Badeea, Liz, Diego

Year 6 Alanza

Year 7 Corey

The problem is, the more jc adds the characters the more they just stack up in the background, clogging the story. Imagine the characters as dept and the currency is good writing.

Anyways love your content, keep it up!

Personally, I couldn't begin to imagine doing this.

Not that I'm saying it's a heartless idea, mind you. I've worked with this line of thinking before. I work in children's theatre, and when we adapt scripts for different sized casts, we have to often cut characters or absorb them into others. So this isn't unheard of, and I get it. Still, having grown emotionally attached to each and every one of these little misfits, and feeling like they all have potential in different ways...cutting them is not what I would do at this stage. I believe the TLSQ system should be completely overhauled, and in doing so, used to give screen-time to characters that don't always get a lot. Imagine if each character had a TLSQ that starred them at maybe LV 5, and then a sequel quest at LV 10. Might seem excessive, like too many quests...but again, this goes back to the idea of a revamp. Allow players to hit pause, and put a TLSQ on a "waiting list" so to speak. Allow them to reroll so they can skip one if they want to for whatever reason. Stop having TLSQs disappear forever if they're failed twice.

As far as your first suggestion...I realize that my status as a Tulip fan might be affecting my reaction, but absolutely not. I have no issue with Penny, but if it comes down to omitting one of these two...well, Penny does come with Beatrice, and that whole emotional arc during Years 5 and 6. But I'm not sure if keeping that is worth losing Tulip. Because her storyline with Merula is quite compelling, and it adds to the backstory of one of the mainstay characters. Plus...Tulip is kind of way more interesting than Penny, if I'm being honest. Actually, if I was to have anyone be "absorbed" into anyone else...I feel like Tulip could have easily been the "detention" character in Year 5? And that would have been a way to keep her relevant? Again though, I love Jae so much that I couldn't imagine doing this. But it's one example of how this idea could be done give more focus to fewer characters. You know who could be absorbed into Penny, though? Andre. Just, so long as we're actually thinking about this.

Barnaby is a character who sadly has not done much since his arc ended in Year 3, you're right about that. However, I feel like Ben is just too complicated and too tied to the main story for him to be shuffled with anyone. We still have unanswered questions about the gaps in his memory from Year 2. Did he cross paths with R? With Merula? Then there is the question of his time as the Red Cloak in Year 4. His transformation into "New" Ben, after going into the Portrait Vault with MC. I suppose these things could be transferred over to Barnaby, but that would leave the Year 2 stuff up in the air. And as for transferring it the opposite way, cutting Barnaby to give Ben more prominence...I mean, it could be done, but Ben already has plenty, if you ask me. And I don't see him being able to take on the role of Merula's lapdog, given their history from Year 1.

I'll never say no to getting more of Rowan, and this is something I could actually see working. The idea of Badeea being absorbed into Rowan and that screen time being given to them. I love Badeea, but it's definitely tempting. By in large, the Year 5 characters did feel at least a little gimmicky. They're all wonderful, but the fact that there were four of them, one for each House, and they all had a specific interest that was central to their character? The fact that all things considered, they didn't really matter to the story apart from perhaps Jae? Yeah, I would never want to lose any of them, but I can see why that might work. As for Rowan taking the place of Beatrice...well, that's an idea. For sure. It could give MC the same kind of immediate emotional context. Allow Rowan to be heavily relevant without them actually needing to have any lines. But their entire character would have to shift after that point. If they're absorbing Beatrice' character arc...I mean, the Forbidden Forest comes to mind. Does that still happen? Does Rowan's personality change? What becomes of them after Year 5?

I still believe Ben is doing just fine in terms of his relevance, but I'll admit there's definitely something to the idea of Diego being absorbed into him. And I've grown to truly like Diego. Ben having talent at dueling could show how far he's come. If they depicted it prior to the end of Year 4, it could be foreshadowing of him being the Red Cloak. If he still helps MC prepare to challenge Rakepick in Year 5, it could play into his fear of her. And I like what you're doing with the idea of Talbott being absorbed into Ben....but no, I can't endorse that one. It's just not needed for Ben's story, and Talbott is already so fascinating on his own. I dig the Ravenclaw representation, I dig the Animagus representation.

Either way, it's an interesting topic to think about. Not to worry, I don't take offense at all. I get that people have different opinions and there are certainly valid critiques of this game's writing. I still enjoy it though, and I think the characters are the strongest suit. Their placement in the game, perhaps not quite so much. But it's because of this that I wish for all of them to be handled better, without having to lose any of them. Thank you for the kind words and I hope to hear from you again!

[gem-quest]

[ SIDEQUEST 02. — INFERNA ]

in which inferna plans her “wedding” to jack ;DDD

--

FROM inferna’s ‘standard notebook’ (h-rank, given to all players upon spawning in-game for the first time; simply a place to keep notes):

PLACE; idk bro, I’d do Finvarra’s Gardens/Level 10 except for the fact that I can’t stand that Finvarra piece of shit sooooooooooooooo............but if neddy thinks level 10 will be fine & finvarra will leave us alone, then i don’t see why not?

TIME; uh not before 12 pm do i look like a morning person??

GUESTS; anyone???¿¿??¿? could just copy paste an invite into obsidian food + koreaboo + other gcs i have tbh...how much will people kill me if i make a copy pasta w all the emojis like the cringey cancerous ones ppl spam into my fb messenger ?? lmfao

OUTFITS; maybe ill wear a dress lol. ok that’s a lie BUT who gives a shit; ppl can do what they want. i bet neddy could cop some flower crowns for us tho so at least we will be matching!! 

OTHER LOGISTICS; neddy can be both me & jack’s maid of honor, haters back off & go fuck yourselves bc there are no wedding rules in this game >:(. since ace is the closet person i know to an official dev or w/e for gq & she left, maybe we could just get some rando to dress up all Official Like (TM) & officiate the ceremony lol

RECEPTION; wildflower meadows?

APPETIZERS; yue city’s fruit markets are pretty good but if i can find someone willing to hop into level 42 summer villa for me, we could get those oranges & lemons & whatever else they’re supposed to be growing there? also i hear 35 (enchanted forest & tatiania/titania lady whatever person) has some pretty rad berries but some of them are poisonous so......oops. but also! valley of monsters has some berry-like things too. will have to investigate further. [to be expanded]

SIDES; goddamn i really miss french fries & onion rings (maybe ophelia knows how to make smth similar?), & ofc i’ll need ketchup if we go w those. city of magic has this place that sells some pretty good bbq gryphon drumsticks & other skewers (the rat ones taste just like chicken!) so i’ll also hit that up. will need to make a lot of sauce & sriracha bc nothing in this fucking game has seasoning. will also have shish kabobs of all sorts hopefully. maybe a veggie platter for ppl who’re into that stuff? [to be expanded]

DRINKS; i mean, the usual honey wine/mead/ale that’s p cheap in yue city stores. could try to get morningstar to make me more ‘burnett’s potions’ again - or maybe something more bougie like grey goose??? but also not sure what she’d want in return, hmm. must think on it. for chasers, just fruit juice & cider & shit? kinda wish they had soda in this game. also, BOBA & starbucks fraps, i miss that so much! must try to find a substitute.

MAIN DISHES; i’m going to make a hotpot out of cauldrons and teapots and shit bc god fucking damn i miss that. i wonder if ophelia will know anything about where i can get, like cilantro + scallions + peanut sauce + other hotpot spices? then, need the stuff to go into the hotpot too ofc, im thinking all the raw meat strips (beef, lamb, whatever), all the usual veggies (do they have bokchoy in this game???), i dont think there’s any tofu which is a shame but i can def. get some mushrooms and sprouts and stuff. hmmm i might be able to hunt down a wyvern in one of the valley of monsters side-quests & have that roasting there too. kinda also want peking duck w/ that special sauce ngl. gotta ask around & try to see if other ppl have in-game substitutions for like, dumplings/potstickers & pho & kimbap & fried rice & pad thai & stuff, but if not then all the usual fantasy game food is fine - chicken potpies, stew, roasted swan, etc are all good no matter what. is there anyone who knows how to make tacos/mexican food/chipotle in this game??? [to be expanded]

DESSERTS; um, everything, basically. need to go stock up on sugar cubes for jack + order one of those fancy four-tiered cakes at the tearoom! is there a way to make those pies that have birds fly out of them when u cut it open? [to be expanded]

MUSIC; anyone, as long as they can play blackpink songs & the cha-cha slide & whatever else neddy wants. some other good songs to have will be: poker face by lady gaga, tik tok by kesha, party in the u.s.a, eminem (lose yourself AKA mom’s spaghetti song, real slim shady, rap god), god’s plan & sicko mode would be extra bonuses

PHOTOGRAPHER; literally anyone who’s willing to send me all the pics lmfao. if they’re at murias pass & not obsidian, maybe i can convince the ppl holing up over there to let this person thru when they get to it?

[will add more as i think of stuff!]

[selphiahaven]

Rune Factory 4 is my favorite game ever. The only thing I'd change is to have more interactions with Venti before she goes comatose. Like I'm supposed to give my life for her when I'm barely at 2 hearts? Really takes away from the story to me.

LET’S! TALK! ABOUT! VENTI!!

Dude I love this game like 5,000 percent but it does definitely have its flaws. I especially think there’s a l o t of lot potential that was lost with Ven and her relationship with the plot, but let’s focus on the issue you’re addressing: her going comatose without much a relationship with her. I totally agree. Let’s talk about it. LET’S A L L TALK ABOUT IT.

I’ll start with my long-ass opinion, but I wanna hear how y’all think about this. Because anon’s criticism is juicy. I wonder if other people would have ideas on how this could be better handled / if it even could be better handled than it is now.

Spoilers down below, so… Yeah, be warned about that.

I could make the argument that RF4’s plot is inherently flawed in design for the emotional weight that it’s trying to convey. Rune Factory 4 has an interesting dynamic where the “filler” is pushed into town events, where we can learn about all the different characters and their interactions before, after, or even during important scenes of the plot. Hell, you can participate in a festival and then decide to kick Ethelberd’s ass just to pass some time.

For some, this might be a good thing. On the other hand, you can clear through the game pretty quickly if you’re not dedicated to witnessing all the town events and hearing all the dialogue and participating in all the activities. Keep this in mind: the game expects us to believe that Frey/Lest would friggen sacrifice their life so that Leon can escape the Forest of Beginnings at the end of the first arc. This is how deep our relationship with Venti is supposed to go. Venti, however, remains comatose at the end of Obsidian Mansion until that moment. So given that, our relationship with Venti is supposed to be deep enough that we would sacrifice ourselves by the end of Obsidian Mansion; as we cannot converse with her after this point up until Leon is rescued. Frey/Lest refers to Venti personally after they have sacrificed themselves too, so it should be assumed that Frey/Lest did this act primarily for Ven’s sake, not necessarily for any other specific person in Selphia.

This immensely strong relationship doesn’t really seem warranted with such a quick plot in place. Keep this in mind: the first few playthroughs on Youtube finished Obsidian Mansion on the dates of Summer 4, Spring 29, and Spring 15. You COULD try and just mill around or experience the town to avoid the plot, but there are barriers: 1) At first, you’re only allowed one request a day, so you can’t occupy much time with that 2) Town events actually take a long time to trigger; you could wait uneventful day after day and not trigger anything at all. 3) Things like crafting and forging need objects that you can only find in dungeons as you progress the game, so you can’t bide your time trying to level up / get cool new armour/weapons either. At the same time, this game really, really shouldn’t push us to slow down by making some of these “extracurriculars” mandatory (Imagine the frustration if you could only progress the plot via way of “Memories” again and again).

So here’s the difficult question: How do we make Ven interact with the player more, earlier on in the story, without making the plot too long or too boring?

I was super interested in trying to think up with potential ways to fix a problem like this, so they are listed below. They may come with their own set of problems, but hey, it was fun to think about what could have been. These are all just casual suggestions, not meant to be taken seriously at all.

1) Trigger a town event with Venti early on. Like, within the first few days of playing. Remember “Shiny Memories”? Funnily enough, that was one of my first events triggered in my very first playthrough of this game. Seeing Ven save Doug from being a fukkin dork and falling off that roof really made me feel closer to Ven early on in game. It was definitely confusing later on though, when Doug got all pissy about Ven killing his village or something. I couldn’t believe Doug for a second because Ven had already shown kindness to him without need of recognition, so… Maybe making different, very casual, town events that don’t make me doubt the plot would be a plus.

2) Make a sidequest or two. What if Amber’s dungeon wasn’t the first dungeon you could go to? Or, even better, what if there was some kind of dungeon / area / plotpoint in the first arc that hints at what’s to come in the second arc? (Another big complaint of mine about this game is that Ethelberd seems to come right the fuck outta nowhere. But that’s a complaint for another time.) I’m just spitballing here, but having a few dungeons that are “just for fun” or even just to slow down the plot a bit could be a benefit; as long as they aren’t used in excess. Benefits could include rare crafting materials, or strong pets to use in plot battles. This might give players a few more days of interacting with Venven, thus, getting closer to her over time.

3) Swap the “Freeing Guardians” plotline with the “Finding Rune Spheres” plotline. In the first arc, we seem mostly concerned with saving the guardians, and then finding the rune spheres, and then saving Leon and finishing the first arc. What if you searched for the Rune Spheres first (Perhaps with a, hint hint, few more dungeons instead of using the ones the guardians are in?)? Picture this: Frey/Lest finds a sphere, and feels that it’s…very familiar, and very important, for some reason. But…What’s that? The sphere looks as if it’s kind of broken! As if there are other pieces missing… Aha! Maybe if you find the missing pieces, you could remember something! You go a-searchin’, and by exploring new dungeons, you have more time with Ven, and eventually stumble upon Amber by mistake.

4) Be risky with Ven’s relationship to the town. What if Venti resting on her ass and deciding not to be involved with the town’s affairs causes some unrest in Selphia? Not suggesting blatant fighting or anything, but basically like… People wondering why she can’t use her powers to help out people and make her town prosper? Maybe not having everyone like “Omg Ven!!! We love Ven, Ven’s so nice and loooove her 1000%” in the beginning. It’s cute and all like this, but like… What if Doug used her “laziness” to form a basis to his flawed logic? What if Venti was rumoured to have the power to, I don’t know, cure Blossom? Ven knows she totally can’t cure Blossom. If she was more powerful, maybe the runes in the Earth would make Selphia a healthier living space for Blossom?? I don’t know. But like. What if. What if Venti used to do all this shit to help the town, but slowly stopped. What if people think she’s just lazy. What if people don’t think she’s an angel 24/7. I mean, I get it. She’s a god. Before she was revealed to have a “cute side” to her, everyone thought she was this hard-ass or smth. But I mean. You can view your bosses or your teachers or your parents as people to admire, but still have complaints with them. You can love someone and still not understand some of their quirks. Ven could be a mysterious figure early on. Generate some interest about who she is or why she is. Then, when we actually are told “oh ye lol I was getting weaker all this time” it’s not completely out-of-the-blue because we WANTED to know more about her, because so many things already seemed strange about her.

5) Add some drama. Speaking of Blossom, why don’t Venti and Blossom have a tragic relationship? A heartbreaking relationship where only time will tell which one of them lives longer than the other? Make. Venti. Weak. Why CAN’T Venti show signs of weakness even before Amber is released? Picture this: In the beginning scenes, Ven shows off some of her power to Frey/Lest. Could be something fukkin basic; I dunno. Let’s use what’s shown in Shiny Memories as an example: Ven can use the wind to make people float a lil bit. Cool. That’s established. Few days pass, and the event Shiny Memories triggers. Ven DOES NOT help Doug, and he gets hurt. Frey/Lest confronts Ven, and wonders why she didn’t help him?? Ven tries to make up a lie, to show off that she isn’t as weak as she seems. When, in reality, she’s losing power and couldn’t help him at that time. Don’t want Doug getting hurt? What about an event where Frey/Lest just simply asks Ven to use her powers to help them reach a cup or smth from a high shelf. Ven grows weak, starts breathing heavily and struggling to maintain herself just by trying to use that simple magic, even though she claims to you that she’s fine. Here, Frey/Lest makes a promise to help Ven with whatever they are suffering with, but then Ven admits there’s nothing in Selphia that can help them recover. Frey/Lest acknowledges that this means that there must be something outside Selphia’s walls that could help Ven, and THAT’S when they decide to go to Amber’s dungeon.

6) Slightly change some of Ven’s dialogue. Venti has always seemed like a best-friend type of character to Frey/Lest. This would make sense if she was a goddamn marriage candidate (which she isn’t, ugh, I might get over this, one day), but since she isn’t, why not change her dialogue to be more motherly? “Frey/Lest, you’re doing such good work on the farm! I’m so proud of you!” or “Are you sure you’re eating enough? Please, take this.” or even like “I know this is a lot of work for you, please take some days to rest.” These are really cliche lines, but like, I hope you get the point I’m trying to make. A lot of Ven’s dialogue is really playful, which kinda makes sense since Frey/Lest is the only one to see the “real her”. But…at the same time, I can imagine us getting way more protective over someone who actively has been telling us to take care of ourselves over and over again. Ven kinda tells you to take care of yourself, sometimes, but there are times when she seems to be a bit… I dunno. A tsundere type, for lack of a better term? I mean, I think tsunderes are cute and all, Dylas’s dialogue is some of the funniest in game, but it’d be hard to convince someone to sacrifice their life for Dylas and only give them a month to get to know him, you feel? Meanwhile, I would murder ten people for Clorica. That’s not really on topic but it’s definitely a fact.

Who knows. Maybe the developers thought of these options and decided on this route because the other directions this plot could’ve taken had their own issues that couldn’t be solved. It’s fun to think of what could have been though. Highly recommend trying it.

[ernmark]

we've already got a million glaring parallels between juno and andromeda, except for one big one; that juno's so deeply tied to hyperion city, and that andromeda's the hero without a home. do you think juno's story will end up mirroring hers in that ramses does/did smth to hyperion city that takes away juno's home? or will ramses try, and juno will prevent it, diverging from andromeda's story?

I think Hyperion is Juno’s city, but I don’t think he really thinks of it as his home, per se. In a lot of ways, it’s like all of Andromeda’s sidequests, where she saves random people on her way to get back to the thing she was doing before. 

I think it’s entirely possible that Juno could leave Hyperion City permanently at the end of this season, especially if Khan and Alessandra are offworld and if he’s planning on taking Rita with him. But I don’t think that’ll make him homeless. 

I’ve gone into it before, but I don’t think that Home is a literal place in this season. It’s not the place where Andromeda lived or spent time during her story-- in fact, narrative goes out of its way to avoid showing Polaris.

To find home, Andromeda always looks backwards. Polaris. Nostalgia. The paradise left behind. And this works in our stories, when we only show the shining city for a few seconds at a time... but in life no such place exists. (Long Way Home)

Home is that thing that you strive toward. The goal that you orient yourself by but won’t ever actually reach.

I think that to Sarah, Home was the idealized life that she would have had as the showrunner for the Andromeda stories. 

SARAH: But this one’s… important to Mommy. Okay? I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and… (VERY TIRED) It’s gonna bring us home, my little monsters. We’re finally gonna go— (Monster’s Reflection)

To Erin Marshall D’Arc, Home was the utopia of the Free Dome.

And you haveto believe that, given a chance? People will use today to make a bettertomorrow. If you give them a fair chance, an honest chance… people will make ahome worth living in.  

You have tobelieve that. I believe that.

So open the door, neighbors.And welcome home. (Promised Land)

To Ramses, Home was his own utopian City Of The Future, and the Good he could do there.

FAIRBANKS ACTOR: I told him, ‘Jack, the tagline can’t be ‘Welcome home.’People are going to think they can live there.’ And he just looked at me like a kicked puppy and said, ‘Why can’t they?’ (Long Way Home)

And I think to Juno, it was an idealized version of himself where he got to be The Hero. 

MICK: I get it. You don’t like to work with other people because you want all the glory when you win and you don’t want to be able to blame anyone but yourself when you don’t. You’ve always been like that. When we were kids I’d come up with a stupid idea and when we got in trouble for it it’d be all about you – how you messed it up, how you should take the hit. Even though they were all my dumb ideas!

JUNO: I’m not some selfless hero, Mick. (Day That Wouldn’t Die)

JUNO: I didn’t feelgood, but that didn’t matter. Feeling good isn’t the point. Doing good… that’s what I’m for. That’sall that matters. (Kitty-Cat Caper)

JUNO: Tell me, then.What do I get out of this? What the hell could you possibly give me that’sworth trusting you? 

RAMSES: The only thingyou care about, Detective. The power to do good again. (Kitty-Cat Caper)

It brings to mind a quote unrelated to the Penumbra Podcast:

“But remember, there are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them, and by idolizing them.” ― David Wong 

I think that for much of this season, with all those bodies on his conscience, Juno’s been clinging more desperately than ever to that idealized Heroic self, but feeling so far away from it. If being a Hero is his home, then he has been Homeless for a long, long time.

And I think that the last few episodes have been about shattering that paradigm and giving him something else. 

JUNO: For a fewmonths now I’ve felt… good. Not, like, good-good,but…Like maybe I wason the right track, I guess. And then, in that desert, looking back on thosemonths and realizing, damn, I really didn’t help anyone, did I? Maybe I meantto, but… I just wantedto see if I even could help you. Okay? Cuz I… I…

BUDDY: Goon.

JUNO: I just… wanted to see if I could. Anymore.Help… people. (Time Gone By)

Because when your world’s black-and-white, split clean down the middle into monsters and superheroes, when you spend all your time running away from your own blood or running towards some vague “Good” nobody ever stopped to define, well… “how you see fit” never really comes up, does it? It’s all reactions, reflexes. Mom would do this, so I can’t; a good guy would do that, so I have to. 

So, Steel. What do you want to do next? (Monster’s Reflection)

JUNO: Because if you try to save every sorry soul who hops into your life… that might make you a hero. And right now I'm not sure there's anything worse. (Long Way Home)

JUNO: Protecting her made me feel useful, and loved, and... it was hard to put that away. (Long Way Home)

JUNO (NARRATOR): A few months ago I might’ve let him, too. That’s what a hero’s for, right — taking all the hits so the innocent don’t have to? While the ones causing all the pain sit in the stands and watch, blood and popcorn butter sticky on their fingertips. (Long Way Home)

He doesn’t have to be a Hero.

And I think we got this message from Domer 3 a long time ago:

This big dooris going to close automatically in two minutes and this whole place is gonnashut down, and go away, and it and its promise can never hurt anyone again.

I hope nobodyever hears this. If I could have anything… it’d be that.

But if youare… please go home. Please. Because home’s not here. And it never was. (Promised Land)

(If you want to see some more of the Juno/Sarah/Andromeda parallels attached to some otherwise debunked meta, you can find some here:

Ramses as Chief Leo the Lion

Sarah as Andromeda)

[fandom-geek]

i finished episode prompto earlier and sooo here’s my non-spoilery thoughts on it above the cut

the story was p good, although it didn’t cover everything i thought it would, and some of the choices (both the player ones and the story ones) were definitely interesting

and turns out me getting an ff7 vibe from the trailer wasn’t entirely wrong - verstael reminded me a ton of hojo (from what i know of him from cc and doc). also That One Episode of Brotherhood kinda made an appearance, and while i was expecting it to be mentioned or referenced, i certainly wasn’t expecting what they did with it. but in a good way.

also this just made me want to hug prompto even more, tho he was one helluva badass, and also the after-credits scene was soooo good. can’t say more without spoiling it, but it was a nice little convo i think a lot of ppl will both like and kinda be surprised by.

so. now the spoilers.

if you’ve seen the trailer, you know ardyn makes an appearance, and oh my god. he only appeared two or three times in it (although my playthrough w/o sidequests was 1hr 40) and he does his thing being creepy and also creepy and funny. he sings the goddamn victory song in his final appearance. which, yknow, is both really creepy and completely unexpected. it may have made me laugh.

it also didn’t cover (as i mentioned above the cut) how prompto actually gets captured, which i’m a bit... ‘hmmm’ on. it goes from him defeating the final boss and speeding away on his way to gralea, to panning out to mr fuckface izunia, and then in the credits it cuts to him already tied up in the keep. which... yeah. i did like it showed the chocobros finding him from prompto’s perspective (also, like, this dlc is fucking gold for any noct/prompto shippers, and there’s some good bits for general ot4 shippers like myself) and the aftercredits was noct and prom talking in one of the barracks. altho that was heartbreaking, but only (only) bc of the game’s ending. that killed me more than a little bit.

also the credits reallly heavily imply prompto gets tortured. that’s a thing. ardyn can go rot.

aranea as a companion was good, esp in the cutscenes (she walks in on prompto about to self-harm, which u don’t realise at the time bc you’re choosing whether to or not, which was a big ‘UH NOPE’ for me) altho some of her battle lines were... dodgy. one of them is something like “you’re not worthless after all” or smth, and i just really really cringed whenever i heard it. not bc the voice acting was bad, and i’m sure it’s in character, it was just a really really dodgy thing for her to say given the state prompto’s in at the time.

ALSO!!!! bby prompto from the Brotherhood episode got a character model and multiple appearances, and just. kill me now. they even got him his own VA. he was simultaneously adorable and heartbreaking.

but then again that feeling is like 20% of the dlc, with a good 60% tearjerking and the other 20% prompto being a badass. didn’t help the opening loading screen literally says “Prompto suppresses feelings of sadness [in response to Noct knocking him off the train]”. 

and like [slight detour], given when i originally played the game i was shocked that no one even tried to like hug prompto or anything after they found him (which like, if it had been bc he was implied to be tortured, fair enough, but that scene just feels real closed off to me), but now i just want there to be a giant group hug for those fuckers. esp given the episode ignis teaser. goddamnit. when i watched that last night on youtube i didn’t feel at all ready, and when i saw it again at the end of the dlc i felt even less prepared.

going back to episode prompto - 8/10 (only bc i am really not used to the floaty ps4 gun controls since i’m usually a pc gamer), absolutely ripped my heart out, someone give them all a hug (except ardyn, he still needs to go rot).