#hopefully i'd be able to develop their lore....

[faeryton]

me rubbing my hands together evily as i realize the poly ship name for my ocs could be spaceberry EHEHEHE

[doodler16]

This might be a long ramble, lol.

I think Lucifer could've worked as a non-bad guy if he still displayed more... nuanced traits and development.

Depending on if you go by the Bible, Demonology, or anything else, you get different origins of the fallen angels. In the Bible, it's because the Devil wanted to essentially be God because he felt as though he deserved the glory and worship God was receiving.

In Demonology, there's various versions, but the one I see most tends to be that Lucifer and the other entities were either deities or angels that fought against Yahweh for freedom or something similar.

Meanwhile... in Hazbin, Lucifer (and ONLY Lucifer, implied by the introduction story) falls because... he gives the fruit of knowledge to Eve and Adam? Which, okay, if you wanted to completely subvert the Garden, that could be cool. But it does beg the question of how he's connected to Pride? Did he think he was the one deserving of giving the humans knowledge of what's right and wrong?

Seriously, aside from a few lines or whatever in 'Hell's Greatest Dad', he doesn't really display traits of Pride. At least not strong vibes. Which I don't need him to be a "Oh, I'm the best and everyone should bow down to meeee" for 25 minutes straight for me to be convinced, but, I'd like a hint of it?

Like, I'm fine with some of the Sins not being completely like their designated Sin (it'd be a bit better if they were all fallen angels because that'd make more sense on why they don't fully embody their sins), like Asmodeus being for consent and whatnot.

But Lucifer is just... not it. You could've done so much with him. I mean, I don't hate Lucifer, he's not my least favorite character, but man.

Also, his 'demonic' form is so underwhelming... it could've been a corrupted angelic form or something... more intimidating. I also would've been more fine if he GREW a few feet too, lol.

Keyword: nuance. Lucifer has the potential to be that too. I rather wait and see, he was only like what 2 episodes in season 1. He didn’t really do too much worth noting (besides his perspective on Heaven).

I’m sure season 2 and the further seasons will be lore heavy so we could see Lucifer at his peak. Plus, he’s permanently staying the hotel so hopefully we see more of him being prideful.

Yeah, his demonic form is booty cheeks. I know many (including me) criticize their demon forms but like another anon mentioned at least the other seven deadly sins were able to be big and monstrous (even if some of their designs are goofy).

Meanwhile, Lucifer gained longer horns, multiple eyes, I guess his outfit looks more like a ringleader, has a extreme deeper voice when he’s mad (that’s when you know things get serious anon), and extra red. Along with his snake higher up.

[monstersflashlight]

So you've mentioned a lot about lore stuff with orcs and humans, but what about minotaurs and humans? Haritz from Helping Neighbors comes to mind since that's the first one we can safely assume is in the same universe with the family tree on Patreon.

Are orcs and minotaurs generally the same height?

Do monsters who find human mates develop anxiety about how they'll fit inside of their human mates, especially if they have a more fragile or maybe smaller human as their mate?

Were there any instances of those concerns within any of your stories from their universe, and how did they quell those worries?

Did they talk to someone or do research or is there like a doctor they can see to ask questions if a particularly large type of monster discovers they have a human mate?

I'd like to ask for more minotaur lore!

Do minotaurs and orcs have adjustments that can be made to their larger houses if they find a human mate, so that their mate can live more comfortably in such a big house?

Are minotaurs and bigger monsters scared to hurt humans since they're so much bigger and stronger or do they subconsciously know how to adjust their strength to others since it's a mixed society they live in?

For larger monsters that crossbred with humans, are their children smaller than the rest of their species and come out more human or do they come out purely monster? For example, if a minotaur had a kid with a human, would that kid be a smaller more humanesque minotaur or would it be a regular minotaur maybe with the humans hair color or eye color, or does it depend on the monster that bred with the human for the results of that child to be able to be either purely that monster parentage type or mixed?

Maybe something like an orc and human would mix for a half orc child, but a minotaur and a human would produce a minotaur child, basically.

Hi anon! First of all... wow. That's a lot to unpack. For everyone not on on Patreon, this answer is going to contain lots of comments on exclusive content, so be aware of that. I like to remind y'all that you can access pretty much all the lore exclusive of Patreon for only 2$/month!

Okay, now the answers, little by little:

(The family tree they mention is this one) I mentioned a lot about orcs and humans bc that's what I've been working on further developing bc I'm preparing GymSlut to become a full book in the next months (hopefully). As per minotaurs, I do have a ton of lore relating mintoaurs, too bc my brain never stops moving. Helping Neighbors, Gym Slut, Set up by the baby orc, Out of jealousy, Don't go baking my heart and pretty much all my longer stories (minus Alien Inspector) happen in the same world. They are all interconnected, that's why the female character in Set up by a baby orc talks to the female character in Helping neighbors (they are best friends, highly encourage ppl to suscribe to Patreon to read that one).

About height, they are the same height more or less if you don't count the horns. I imagine most orcs and minotaurs to be around 1.9m to 2.2m, so bigger than a general human but still possible, yk? If you add the horns, count about 20cm more for minotaurs. (I will try to add some kind of height graph at some point on Patreon, I think that'll be fun).

They DEF get anxious about it, and there's special toys to further stretch the humans before the act. If they are mates they are always a perfect fit at the end, but some humans need a bit of help to get there.

There weren't any instances of it YET. I think I will probably have those concers in my Dragon Fire Station story because I feel dragon x human would be the biggest size difference. But maybe further down the line of the world, we'll see some problems with that. I'd like to add some character with vaginismus bc I think that's not talked enough in books.

In the world I created I think there's been enough interaction between species to have some anatomy courses aviable for interspecies couples, and probably there's specialized areas in family planning, too. Especially because not all species can mix to have sex or babies.

I'm working on the minotaur lore for sure, the family tree is halfway there but I haven't had time yet, but it will come!

I mean, as somebody who is not that big, I think humans can adapt to bigger houses using stuff like stools to reach higher places, but also, I think monster partners would be more than happy to help them in any way they can.

The worry to hurt humans or other "weaker" species is always there, but I think that (again), they've been living among each other for so long that they just learn it as they go. There's always accidents, but not too frequent.

I think monster genetics is a very interesting topic, and I think for minotaurs in specific, kids would be born pretty much human, maybe with a few characteristics such as a tiny tail and hooves, and probably some super tiny horns. But size wise, I think minotaru-human babies would be the same as a big human baby (around 4-5kg), and once they are out, there would be differences in the way they grow, being hybrids bigger than normal humans. But there would be def variations depending on the species and genetics in general. (Wouldn't it be fun to do a monster's genetic guide? Having thoughts...)

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Script progress + Updates💙

Hello and welcome new followers, long time no see! I was very busy most of this month, but I am back and ready to continue from where I left off on the game! This game development post might be a bit long but I tried to condense everything! :]

"How are things going so far?":

It's going slow and steady! I haven't been able to do too much these past few weeks, however, I wrote a few parts out before I got too busy and couldn't do anything else.

I want to be very careful when it comes to spoilers but, based on your choices, some of these areas will give off immersive cozy/homelike vibes that really express Noah and the player(Y/N)'s view towards each other. In the old 2023 script I was very new to writing so the small semi-hints of romance weren't the entire focus compared to the horror aspect but there's a better balance between both genres now and I'm still aiming for a meaningful slow burn versus it just being all over the place. :] I liked writing them a whole bunch which lead to a lot of these taking place in the mid/end of Day 4+, they just need to be placed in specific areas that call for it. With that being said, it felt really comfy adding key details about Noah and creating meaningful sections in the game. I was even going to draw out some of the unseen script/scenes but I believe the best thing to do is give deeper lore from the [Extended Demo] first. Even though my writing style has improved I still have to fix the multiple pacing issues I wrote last year.

"Playtester's advice":

I wanted to continue working through Noah's backstory but I kept having moments where I'd get sidetracked into wanting to fix up the start of the game again. Eventually, I talked to my play testers about it and they gave me a few encouraging pointers.

To help keep my process at ease, I will fix the beginning of the game when I take breaks from writing up Noah's backstory. :]

I talked about this during early 2024 but the start of the game that leads up to the cabin is still getting reworked. I was able to get some of it fixed for the [Extended Demo] but I wasn't done. Things are still up in the air but, I will say that I have a better view of everything than I did before. :] Another priority that needs fixing are the backgrounds! I've improved a lot on drawing and they need to be optimized. When you first start up the game, you wake up in a holed out tree in the swamp with the choice to leave this area and possibly end up in the forest. I was going for a very immersive form of symbolism that only a few noticed but, I believe I can do a better job about this. Unfortunately I don't have any new backgrounds to show right now but maybe next week I'll have some finished up! :]

"Art process/Noah's sprite sheets":

As far as Noah sprite sheet goes, it's still in sketch mode.

I didn't draw anything since I was gone so I need to do a few warm ups before I get to them. There are some old drawing prompts I wrote down and old sketches that I never got a chance to doodle so hopefully I can get to them at some point with some attached lore. :,]

My Q&A / Ask box has been reset!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks in the past, unfortunately they all disappeared except for 1 while I was gone. I have no idea what happened but I can only guess it just got reset.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask or resend them in here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have to share so far, Thank you to everyone for the continued support and patience while I was gone! I was ready to accept the interest for this game to fade out and coming back to see that it didn't happen makes me happy, I really appreciate it. :,]

[forter-from-meteos]

Could I get more info on the Makers (I think you called them) please? I love their designs sm

you can! to recap and elaborate on what i said (or implied) about them in tags:

they’re the organic natives of Grannest, who fled when the planet became uninhabitable due to pollution (this is going off the wars lore for Grannest)

they’re the creators of the current, robotic Grannestians

they have the unfortunate combination of being both a social species and being very territorial, meaning that while they require a certain amount of social interaction to be happy, being in the presence of others (of their species) for too long can greatly irritate them

the Grannestian robots were created as companions before anything else, to combat this problem. even the biggest or tiniest workbots have basic personality and socializing capabilities. that's the biggest reason why the bots were able to maintain a society after the Makers left.

their current living situation (in space) isn’t particularly pleasant, with basic survival taking up too much time and resources for them to improve their conditions by much (constant close quarters with their own kind, no robots, very few members of other species, also the whole “fleeing the planet” thing was very slipshod so their infrastructure isn’t great)

their current location is quite far away from any planet or major space station, which contributes to the above problems

they'd probably be called Grannestians because i doubt the robots would change the name of the planet, but if i was gonna give them a proper, seperate name, i'd go with not-so-subtle meteos naming tradition and call them Solotons (sah-lah-tahns, like solitude and also it has solo in it). i imagine the robot Grannestians would near solely refer to them as Makers or some other title

they're typically about a dozen meters tall, not quite Suburbionite size but close

speaking of them, there are parallels with the Suburbionites, but the Suburbionites had well established habitation stations prior to their planet's destruction (and that destruction also killed off or massively weakened most of the warring parties but this post ain't about that)

another difference is that compared to the Solotons/Makers and their setup, the Suburbionite stations are ancient. given enough time and progress, the collection of Soloton/Maker stations/ships (the Soloton Swarm as I like to call it) could become an assembly stable enough to be given planet status similar to Suburbion or other artificial planets. perhaps one day they could develop tech that could allow them to recolonize Grannest. hopefully, since the Grannestians are still waiting for them.

also since it's been decades since i posted about them here's some art i've posted before

[malka-lisitsa]

questions for the mun: what are your first steps when you want to write a new muse? how do you prepare for it? how do you develop your own details when it's a canon one?

In honor of Munday, here is your chance to ask the mun anything you’ve been wondering!!

Great question!

When it comes to writing a new muse, especially a canon one my main priority is "do i understand this character completely?"

Not necessarily relate because there are things my muses would do that I wouldn't obviously. But do I understand the motivations, the trauma, the psychological thought processes that drive their actions.

If you've been on this blog for more than 5 minutes its not a secret that portrayal is very important to me. I'd rather not write a muse than write them poorly.

It's not enough for me to just like them, I want to be able to understand them so completely that the character really gets to shine through as the character not what I want them to be instead.

Most of the time this starts off by me watching the source material, looking at all the little details, micro expressions, history and truama and then testing them out on discord to find my feet with the characters voice.

Once im satisfied, hopefully with a little feed back bc i actually do want to know how im doing with new characters, I'll take them to tumblr. The only one I didnt follow this process with is actually Bonnie and I dont write her often because im not the most confident in her lmfao.

As for Oc's. A lot of them are imported from my book lore that ive been working on for 4ish years now. They follow the same steps as above but instead of watching canon material to test a voice- i write them on discord to make sure I have a complete person out of the oc before I toss something half baked onto the dash.

And that's pretty much it! My whole process is just making sure i do right by my muses. If I cant capture their voice, if I cant do them justice as they are and not how i decided I wanted them to be then I just don't write them.

[stand-infected-jotaro]

((Err, life update? I guess? A bit of a long post, hope you read it tho! It's kinda important but I remembered I can add a read-more. The TL:DR is that I will be back soon and plan on reworking and retconning a few things too soon, so feel free to ask a few questions before then. There is nothing to post yet, mainly just a life update right now. ))

(( Tho, there is way more to it than JUST that, so I'd appreciate if you read the whole thing. Thanks! ))

(( So... I dunno who is here still, but I am here to say some things! It's been years since I got to pilot this blog because life realistically kept getting in my way. It's all a bit private for the most part, but the main thing is I would like to come back to this blog soon. I CAN, however, talk about it a little though! )) (( I would say I absolutely have gotten my life sorted out a whole lot more since y'all last saw me. I've done a lot for myself to not be feeling so bad, and been taking it as easily as possible until I've felt better. It's been helping, but I am sad I haven't spoken here or interacted in a while here in such a long time. I'm thankful to those of you that have stuck around, and even sent some asks my way in the meantime. It means a lot! I'm sorry I didn't answer in so long, though. I seriously mean it when I say it means a lot to me, like, you've no idea since I don't know how to convey that idea adequately. Thanks! ))

(( And I think that my own relationship with this blog, even though you all haven't gotten to see it, has improved and changed and in retrospect has given me a lot to think about, as I have gone from a teenager running this blog and kind of putting a bit of vent art into the lore, now to an adult that may do that a bit less venting into my art in order to make more interesting and be more of... well, the AU itself, I guess? More character development???? More... more... I dunno, designs and ideas? ))

(( Another thing was... I was afraid of misrepresenting some things regarding disassociative disorders. It had been something in the back of my mind for a while, so as I became more aware of that as a concept as a teen I worried that, well, I was bastardizing it in some way. So at some point, I decided to research them to check a few things, and uh... Turns out I HAVE one. To be honest, I don't really know how to say this well, but this blog, I realized, gave me a way to explore it in a relatively safe and fun manner when I was running it. I was actually way more accepting and understanding of my alters than I would've been without this blog, actually. Turns out how Stand Infection worked ended up working kind of mirrored my own experiences, so... I appreciate it! ))

(( Of course, there is the whole thing of Stand Infection having wayyyy more fantasy elements than real life, and everyone has a different relationship with being a system, so I truly hope that I don't ever end up bastardizing anything anyone experiences regarding being a system, and I hope you all, as my audience, treat systems in your life with as much respect as I try to too! I may rework some of the stuff here now that I have more information about being a system as well! And I really appreciate getting the chance to even explore these concepts in the first place. So I do hope my own earnestness shines through later down the line. ))

(( I do REALLY REALLY want to continue telling stories that mean a lot more to me now than they did before, now that I am at least aware of more of myself. I'm excited to rewatch JoJo soon (hopefully!), rework a few ideas that I think I could convey so much better now and even tell a few stories that mirror my own experiences a bit more clearly. I do hope that once I am able to do so, you all join me for that part. ))

(( Also, if you're curious about my system, just know there are about 3 of us? I feel that some of you may not know too much about how it works to be a system or are just curious about my own personal experiences, so, I don't mind some questions about what I myself know or experienced. It's up to the others, though, how much they wanna put themselves into the blog other than just brainstorming things with me. Like I dunno if they are gonna make their own little mod-sonas or whatever like I did yet. Up to them though. ))

(( So for now? I will slowly work on preparing to set up the blog again. I will work on a post of things I am reworking and/or retconning for when I'm ready to start this all back up, and if there are any questions you have right now that I can try to answer about it all, feel free to drop them in my inbox here. If possible, if anyone sees this, I'd at least like a few things to consider as I'm trying to pick this back up, and before I start answering asks that I've had floating around in here. ))

(( And if you read all that? Thank you! I hope you stick around for when I get going more. I missed this blog, I missed all of you, and thank you for supporting me for so long. ))

[pyro-madder]

50 for the ask game pls!! As I remember, you have Morgana and Nicholas, they were both very funny and cool in your drawings!

yeeesss morganico !! unleashed............

nico looks so damn lost without his mask it cracks me up everytime

first things first, they were both pre-existing OCs that i decided to play as, rather than come up with a new guy on the spot. this is a disclaimer of sorts -- any similarities in design and naming between nicolas and a certain canon character are coincidental, i swear ! although, as i've come to joke : "the line is thin, between the nicc, and the micc"...

So, Nicolas, my blind first run - he's an alchemist, so I picked "professional" regardless of what stats it would give me, ending up with a skill + strength build in the long run. He uses the saw spear and pistol, and wears the student robes above the hunter set.

Being my first run in my first fromsoft, he's a fairly basic, generalist build, so now that I'm acquainted with the game i would like to experiment with beasthood gameplay - because lore-wise nicolas is supposed to be the "beast" to morgana's "arcane". I'd also like to play around with fire and electricity, being an alchemist and all. That will be for when i pick up his NG+ ...

Nicolas is quiet and mild-mannered, and unfuriatingly unreadable at times. Being a scholar, he's able to push on through The Horrors for the sake of his own curiosity ; I felt so validated when Simon told him that the Byrgenwerth spirit lived on within him...

Now Morgana. She's a witch, so naturally I took the class "cruel fate" for the arcane boost, though this would end up fitting for reasons I'll discuss further down. She uses the threaded cane and the blunderbuss - I know that when it comes to arcane the moonlight greatsword is right here, but in a game that introduced trick weapons, I am not interested in swishing Basic Big Fantasy Sword around X) her gear is completed by the Eye + Augur, with the Call and the Shell if I need extra firepower. Her default outfit is the doll shawl worn over the Yharnam hunter set.

As an OC, Morgana was heavily, unsubtly inspired by Bayonetta : she's skilled and confident, doing as she pleases in extravagant fashion ; so as I've mentionned before it's extremely fitting that, as my second run, she went through the game with far less trouble than Nicolas did ! (with some exceptions...)

Both foreigners, Morgana and Nicolas hunt as an elusive pair. The latter originally came to Yharnam to enroll in Byrgenwerth, but with the college shut down shortly after, together they pursued their own research on beasthood and arcane, independently from the Healing Church, thus branding them with heresy. They don't have sworn enemies, but don't aim to join any organization either. Just a power couple that mostly keeps to each other sdfghj

If I wanted to incorporate their (loose) original storyline in the game, Morgana would get the "Honoring Wishes" ending (not out of respect for the MP, merely didn't have what it takes to resist her) then bestow the "Yharnam Sunrise" ending upon Nicolas. The latter would awaken, keeping his memories at the cost of his humanity, to seek a hunter that would find the missing piece and succeed where they didn't. And if I pushed that crossover to the end, that hunter would be their daughter Amy, aka my main OC, haha !

-

A small addentum regarding Nicolas - as an OC he was less developed than Morgana when I started playing, so I ended up building him directly from his experiences as a hunter, and in turn, based my general headcanons for the Paleblood Hunter from him ! I wanted to mention it because it gets confusing in my early fanarts, but now they are distinct characters, even if I depict them with the same face/hairstyle and a similar personality. Here's a chart for better understanding :')

and phew, hopefully i didn't forget anything ! thank you for asking about them (heart hands)

[thequiver]

1, 3 and 10 for the ask game!

How many words have you written this year?

uh too many? lmao uh - according to ao3 my word count for this year is 117,806 (so far, I'm hopefully publishing the last chapter of In the Lost Myth of True Love before the year is out)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

oh man this is so hard, I wrote a lot of fics I'm really proud of for different reasons this year

I'm obviously pretty fucking obsessed with In the Lost Myth of True Love, and I'm so proud of how I've been handling all of the different plot points and the character developments that are happening off page, and I am SO EXCITED to post the big ending because I know I've wrapped it up perfectly for all the themes I wanted to address. I'm also really pleased with how I've adapted certain aspects of X-Men lore to fit the medieval mythological landscape of the AU.

And the Past was Present is still incomplete but I'm SO proud of all of the historical research I've done for it and how I'm adapting that research to fit a silly X-Men fic about a Victorian Era lesbian. Irene is such a fascinating character to explore, and I love being able to use my specialties in history of medicine and German studies to be able to more solidly bring her early (pre-Raven) years to life

Schmactend Nach Dir is another favorite- it's possibly the first real DaKurt fic I've written but has kind of kickstarted a few other WIPs that are also based on my love of German literature. This one is also special to me because it was inspired by my boyfriend (a non-German speaker) buying me a copy of Goethe's Faust auf Deutsch.

If I'd Loved Him was SO HARD TO WRITE. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a DEEPLY complicated relationship with the character of Moira MacTaggert. I did a lot of work with Moira as a character in this fic, and specifically in focusing on how she came to do the horrible things that she did and why she'd still be seen as and consider herself a victim in all of it.

I'm Sorry, My Love was super fun to write not just because I spend my days praying that Ruth Aldine breaks up with David Haller on page, but because it's been a while since I practiced rewriting a scene from another character's POV and it was also the first Ruth POV I'd ever written which felt insane because I'm obsessed with her.

10. What work was the quickest to write?

"I only see her as a friend" (the biggest lie I ever said) for sure, it's not only the shortest one but I remember sitting down to write the whole thing in one sitting lol

[lunawoona11]

I would eat up as much as you’re willing to share about the Rose Twins, honestly. I’ve been a bit obsessed with the Lindworm story since seeing the OSP video on it, and another comic by someone (and I also love that Edel is a girl like the white rose was meant to give the Queen).

Thank you so much! the story is still in the early development stage but i'd be more than happy to share more(And i know what you mean, the OSP video is what inspired me to create the rose twins)

before i go on another tangent. The Rose twins now have Profiles on toyhouse! which goes into detail about their personalities and backstories.

With that out of the way. Lets get into the (disjointed) lore.

in the setting of rose twins every landmass(Island, Continent, islet,etc) has a soul, known as an earth spirit, with the earth spirit of the Island Decerith sits on being called Eversyl.In some cases nations will be named after the Earth spirit of the landmass on which they stand, though not always especially in the cases of nations that span across multiple islands and thus multiple earth spirits. Though normally incorporeal, it is has been said that earth spirits will take form in times of great crisis.

Legend tells of the lost Continent and the mageocracy of Ivapherus that once stood there alongside many other countries. They speak of how the high mage council sought to harness the power of their earth spirit for their own by trapping it, but instead ended up destroying it causing the entire continent to sink into the sea.

Magic in this setting in a volatile force, though anyone has the potential to wield it it is extremely rare to find someone who will take the risk to do so and even rarer to find someone who succeeds. Magic is extremely difficult to control and requires near perfect execution and concentration and failing in either can result in dire consequences, inflicting curses on the caster and often the surrounding area, a wound that never heals.The curse that affects both of the rose twins and their mother was a result of the queen botching up a magic ritual by eating both roses instead of just one,and comparatively to how other curses in the past have gone, they were relatively lucky. People Like Zeris Firamain are known as Mage scholars, they study the history and mechanisms of magic but do not dare attempt actually casting a spell(Considering that wielding magic is the equivalent of wielding a nuclear bomb)

Lindworms are rare creatures, though documentation of their existence is substantial enough that only a few still think of them as being mythical, much about them remains a mystery even to the most learned of scholars.(To the point Edelweiss has never even seen another Lindworm)

The Hardships and Tragedies brought on by the perpetual winter have led to desperate measures being taken by Decerith's citizens in order to survive. This includes some resorting to banditry just to be able to put food on the table and even some who poach rare creatures (Like Lindworms) to sell their sought after parts.

The losses caused by the perpetual winter and the kingdom being ill-prepared to deal with it's sudden appearance have also bred some resentment for the royal family, leading to the formation of groups acting out on this blame, the most notorious and prolific of these being Wulfrost.Wulfrost seeks to assassinate the crown prince in order to deprive the queen and king of their only child, just as so many of them have lost loved ones to the winter(And they very nearly succeeded when Rowan was younger)

That's all i'll be able to share for now without diving into spoiler territory. But hopefully sometime in the future i'll be able to share some writing snippets. Thank you again for the ask anon!

[sky-of-fantasy-stars]

My Pokémon Day 2025 Thoughts

Now that Pokémon Day is almost over, I thought it would be a good idea for me to address my reactions and thoughts from Pokémon Presents!

If you missed my predictions, you can view them here.

Without further ado, let's dive in!

Predictions:

I figured I'd start by addressing my predictions, which, if you saw the post, were pretty much just wrong. While we did get some Z-A news, and there was a new pack announced for Pokémon TCG Pocket, I didn't really hit the nail on the head with anything else. I thought there would be a lot more announcements or details that would be included, when in reality, we got no information regarding many of my thoughts or curiosities.

What I liked:

I was really excited to see the new Pokémon TCG Pocket pack! While I did think it would feature Reshiram and Zekrom, being able to see a pack about Arceus really excites me, especially since Pocket does an absolutely incredible job with the art on their cards. Furthermore, being able to see more about the Unova event in Pokémon GO was so much fun, even if I won't be able to attend anything in person. I already knew this event was taking place, but it was still so interesting to see all of the different things they offered for the event, and I hope they do more similar ones in the future!

I was also quite intrigued by the Pokémon Champions games, especially since it's available on a mobile device and not just the Switch. However, this looked like basically another straight battle game, such as Pokémon Showdown (which was not released by the Company) or something of the sort, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Then again, this was very clearly just a tease, so hopefully we'll get a lot more intel and information about features in the future.

What surprised me:

I was very shocked by the trailer we got for Legends Z-A, if I'm being completely honest. To be fair, I didn't really know what I was expecting, especially since I don't own a Switch and haven't played any of the games that take place there. However, I was a bit shocked by the graphics, as I didn't expect them to continue with the ones from Scarlet and Violet. I can't quite explain it, but I don't really care for the ones that they use for SV. This is not me trying to say that they're bad in any way - I actually think they're really detailed. However, to me they just don't fit the vibe of Pokémon, and I think that's why I'm not a fan of them, but with a bit of cleaning up or slight change in animation, I think they can be truly wonderful.

Next up are the starters. I was very surprised to see that we ended up with two Johto starters for this game, with the exception being Tepig. I was honestly quite shocked that the company chose to not include a starter from three different regions like they did in Legends Arceus. However, I'm very excited to see what they do with the evolutions, and if they'll get either regional variants or megas. Personally, I'm hoping for a Mega Evolution of each, but I'd be happy to watch either come to light!

Finally, the battle style of this game seems so incredibly interesting, and I'm very curious to see how it works out. This battle style definitely seems like it'll match the anime one more, and I wonder if they'll use this format for future games, such as Gen X. I think there's a lot that we can expect from this game in new developments or lore, but we just need to give it grace and time.

What I didn't like:

There wasn't really anything that I "didn't like" from this Pokémon Presents, but there are things that I didn't really care for. For example, the new set of the Pokémon TCG was announced, known as EX. As someone who doesn't really collect the cards for their value in play (although I'm hoping to learn to play at some point), but rather for the art or Pokémon/Trainers that I like, I didn't see anything that particularly interested me in this set. Then again, we've seen very few cards, so I'll wait until more information is released until I make a final judgement. For now, I'll be looking forward to the Black Bolt and White Flare sets (scalpers, stay back!).

I also didn't really care for many of the other updates, such as Pokémon Sleep or Pokémon Unite, but that's also because I don't play those games, so it had no connection to me. I hope those who play those games are excited, as I'm excited for you all to enjoy them!

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I felt like this Pokémon Presents was a bit underwhelming, but then again I think that's completely fair, considering there were a lot of big announcements last year. It's safe to say that I'd much rather Game Freak takes their time and works on making quality games rather than rushing and pumping out new content just to satisfy us. Pokémon should be a game that's enjoyed for all of it's aspects, such as the story, creatures, and game play, rather than being a set of hundred of games that are mediocre year after year.

With their 30th anniversary next year, I think we can expect a lot of big announcements that we didn't get this year, but that'll be a conversation for a later date. I'm very excited to see what the Pokémon Company has in store for us, and what we can look forward to!

Let me know what your thoughts on this year's Presents were. Happy Pokémon Day, trainers!

[chiiinglebells]

💍 It was Aubreigh & Yoshiro's fourth anniversary last April! 💍

Lore, rambling, and (fun?) facts of them beneath the cut:

- To celebrate, I wanted to draw a little something for myself and my best friend who lovingly Aubreigh.

- This illustration is set in a homebrew they were made for but had long since been far removed.

- They weren't made to be lovers in mind eventually, but something with them and what they are just clicked. (It didn't help that we were in our JJBA phase so we... made Aubreigh and Yoshiro with Bruno and Abbachio in mind respectively without telling the other lol.)

- However, that didn't mean it was smooth sailing for them. In most AUs they would always start out as rivals, to reluctant acquaintances, to friends, and finally lovers.

- We've made a ton of AUs for them to cope during the pandemic lol but hopefully one day I'd be able to share about them here and there one day.

- They had most of their characterization when we put them in FFXIV, which, in our defense we knew nothing about, but when the story got serious? We got serious too. They've spent most of their time being as tangible as possible in Eorzea and had their fair share of hurts and needed character development in there. However, after Endwalker, the pair will be on a long vacation until further notice :) This is another facet of them that I wish to yap about one day too, because after that MMO I don't think we were ever the same.

- ANYWAY, I will probably talk more about them after I go through WIP limbo.

- Important is that I'd like everyone to know, anyone who has reached this point in my spewing, that these two mean so much to us. Pulled us through some dark times during the pandemic. Love them sm.

(Oh, at this point they do have kids now though, and quite a few other oc friends made by my close friends too. Maybe be seeing them soon? Maybe? Hopefully?)

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

February 2024 Reading Wrap Up

The Calendar

Unfortunately I sadly had to break my 405 reading streak as I have been terribly ill with presumably the 100 day cough. I was just too tired and ill to do anything. I'm on the mend but unfortunately February's reading ended on a low because of this.

Finally finished Will which was such a relief. I was worried it was gonna clog up February but thanks to a unexpected a + e trip I luckily got to finish it quicker. Its a very good memoir but it tried to balance being a self help and account of Will Smiths life and as a result made it very overwhelming. Might Reread this again in the future but we shall see.

Still as of this post Reading through Black Spire but I hope I'll be able to finish it in March, we shall see. Its not a perfect story and really confusing without reading Phasma but still pretty decent especially on the world building. Fazbear Frights 4 is easily the best novel out of the bunch I have read. It focuses on the themes of Family and Fixing Past Mistakes but still expands and keeps to the og lore. Coming Home is the best out of the three short stories.

Man so far I'm loving the 8th Doctor Adventures and agree it was absolutely necessary to jump into Big Finish through this series due to the similar style to New Who. I hope the 2 hour stories are as good. Just purchased Dark Eyes 1 and Out Of Time 1 this month and excited to build up an exciting Big Finish catalogue to listen too. Horror Of Glamrock was a very unique and interesting story as well as incoperating rock music in a fun way. It makes me excited to see what other fun new ideas Big Finish have done with their stories. Miss Bernard Cribbins and it was nice to hear him on audio again. Immortal Beloved used Greek Mythology in a fun way and is definitely one of the best Big Finish audios I have listened to so far. It debated the ethics of cloning and appealed to older Whovians in a brilliant way. Paul MacGann was excellent in this and I feel like this audio allowed him to really develop the complexity of his character. No matter the audio length I vow to devour Big Finish in one day.

I think that this month was so crammed full of books due to how many shorter 200+ books I read. It took about 7 days too read the incredible Doctor Who novel, The Way Through The Woods and Different Not Less, 12. Both absolutely fantastic like I mentioned. I knew Different Not Less would hit hard but I didn't realise just how hard.

Overall a good reading calender that will hopefully improve in March now that I'm feeling a lot better.

February's Stats

Looks so much better than my January Stats layout that I did. Credits to LeeBee Reads as her templates are so much better for showing off Storygraph Stats. Wish I'd shrunk things down a bit but apart from that all good. With that being said let's break down the Stats from left to right.

So in February I read and listened to in total 6 books. 4 Books and Two Audio Dramas. Pages wise I managed to read 1,123 which is 168 pages up from February 2023. An absolute huge improvement which I'm proud of myself for. Then I listened to 2.27 hours between both Big Finish Stories I delved into. Nevermind 2023, February compared to January this year was alot better despite falling off at the end. I'm excited to see what March will bring me in terms of pages and listening hours.

In terms of Genre, Science Fiction absolutely devoured once again but that can be expected considering how much Big Finish I've been listening too. Whilst Young Adult dominated last year, I definitely think Science Fiction is gonna be the winning genre of 2024. In second place was of course Memoir as I managed to finish Will and Different Not Less. Two very informative and life changing memoirs. But with Science Fiction, Memoir, Video Games, Young Adult, Self Help And Horror. February sure was an interesting month when it came to genres.

My profile has not changed much at all. As much as I have started to branch out and look at more Non-Fiction Recs unfortunately my profile will remain mainly reads Fiction. Like I've tracked and compared to Fiction I only have 80 Non-Fiction on it so yeah. My most popular moods are Adventurous, Dark and Mysterious which is again definitely not changing anytime soon but we shall see. I definitely need to balance my Dark and Lighthearted moods better as much as I would love to claw into exclusively dark books. And again I will try to get myself into longer and more faster paced or slow paced books but unlikely to change.

Onto moods, no second place this time as three moods impressively decided to tie. Those moods were as followed; Mysterious, Informative And Funny. Not suprised there as literally most of my reading in February was mutiple genres and types. Ignoring my audio listens it was literally half and half between fiction and nonfiction material so I'm not shocked at their being no winning mood this time round. Will definitely not be the case in March though I'm sure of it.

Finally we have Star Ratings. Thankfully no books went below 3 stars as wether it due to enjoyment or of a good quality nothing this month had mostly slaps. Three Five Stars in one month is very impressive, than again Last Year was the same when I got to experience the wonderful Loveless and Leia Princess Of Alderaan back to back. February tends to be a good month for me which is a huge trend I've noticed. A 4.58 average rating is really good and makes me excited for what March might bring.

Good stats and a fabulous template to use.

Finished February Reads/Listens

Again I can't help find myself smirking at the fact that the month with more books read and listened to is the shortest month of the year.

February was really good and I'm hoping it only gets better from here. Will was a really good memoir and whilst I don't agree with his political views 🍉, I do recommend borrowing this from the library as it has a lot of valuable life lessons and lots of Will Smiths character. Probably gonna borrow it off my brother again in the far future. Just to see how I feel about it with a reread.

I'll include them together but I'm absolutely in love with what Big Finish has to offer and have a future wishlist ready for when my wallet can afford it. Horror Of Glamrock and Immortal Beloved were very entertaining and creative stories that I've never really seen Doctor Who do before. I'm very much going to dive more into the format and might even try some of the BBC audio novels. I've also gone to really care about the 8th Doctor and Paul MacGanns portyal. Gonna try get some reviews out soon and highlight more of the ones that are avaliable for free on Spotify.

From Audio to Physical. I finally managed to pick up my first 11th Doctor adventure and it was absolutely fabulous. The Way Through The Woods is such a well built up mystery that pays off super well and doesn't go too out there. Una McCormack knows how to write Amy, Rory And The Doctor and they all get their moments to shine. It was also super fun and wild and the location was perfectly eerie. Absolutely worthy of five stars and one novel I'd highly recommend to other whovians. Up next for Doctor Who books I'll be re-reading Prisoner Of The Daleks and exploring the 9th Doctor adventure The Deviant Strain.

Different Not Less is another amazing memoir that hugely hit hard and deep. As a newly diagnosed Autistic person back in March 2023, I knew that this was absolutely one of the first books that I had to pick up. Hearing Chloés story really gave me a lot of comfort and hope I didn't know I need. She also perfectly balances out her two reader audiences of Neurotypical readers wanting to learn and Neurodivergent people wanting to understand there self. Fabulous book that I will be rereading without a doubt in the future. Completely recommend this wether Neurotypical or Neurodivergent.

Fazbear Frights: Step Closer, was absolutely the best out of the four books I read. It still had a lot of faults don't get me wrong but it was so much better than the other three. If the Epilogues didn't exist this is the one I'd recommend out of all of them. Coming Home was the best out of the three stories in the book, it made me super emotional and I almost cried. It had a twist I was not expecting and incoperated some of the og lore in such a brilliant way. I'm honestly happy to end there as I am not willing to force myself through all Twelve of these when not all the stories are good. Eventually I plan to read the first few Tales books and we'll have to see what they are like in comparisant.

Conclusion

Overall a very fun reading month jam-packed with absolutely fabulous content that I'd recommend. I'm excited to see how March will compare and what it will bring.

If you want to check out my full reviews of all of these books mentioned you can find me on Storygraph and Good Reads.

Storygraph: melsage1823

Good Reads: Melody Soundy

That's it for now, I'll pop back in April for an update about March.

-Melody-

They/Them

[literallysatanofficial]

Alright, I'm going to attempt to hopefully clear up a few misconceptions and assuage some worries about this Disco Elysium sequel and the general situation at za/um right now.

I see the shitshow that is unfolding on social media, and as someone who has known about this whole disaster for over half a year now I'd like to weigh in on it and provide some context for everyone who may not know the full story.

First off, Robert Kurvitz was fired at the end of last year. December 2021. As is strongly implied on Martin Luiga's twitter, the reason for this is greed (calling them "money men" and "crooks" and other similar statements for like, months now), and the executive producers, Tõnis Haavel (who has previously been tried for fraud) and Kaur Kender (who has previously been tried for... other things.) screwed everyone over. Kender provided funding for the game, as the majority of the original za/um cultural association did not have the financial means to.

The original za/um cultural association consisted of Robert Kurvitz, Jüri Saks, Martin Luiga, and Aleksander Rostov, originally founded in in 2009. The group, along with Argo Tuulik, played many different ttrpg campaigns over the years, several of them set in Revachol (centred around Precinct 41), and slowly built the world up from there. Kurvitz released the book The Sacred and Terrible Air, set 20 years after Disco Elysium, back in 2013* but the novel flopped, and it was decided that they would make a video game. Rostov has always been more than just an artist for Disco Elysium, as you can see from the dev threads he frequently updated promoting the game, as well as on his personal instagram, tumblr sketch blog, and several other accounts he used while the game was first gaining traction.

*The most notable credits for TSaTA are as follows:

Author: Robert Kurvitz, Editor: Martin Luiga, Cover Design: Aleksander Rostov, Worldbuilding: Robert Kurvitz, Martin Luiga, Kaspar Kalvet, Argo Tuulik. Helen Hindpere and Kaur Kender also appear in the credits.

I say this because some of the staff at za/um are now accusing fans of being unable to overcome the "auteur theory" of it all (ie. seeing Kurvitz as the singular creative mind behind it all) but the fact is that they have now lost not only the original ttrpg campaign's game master, The Sacred and Terrible Air's author, and Disco Elysium's lead writer/director (Kurvitz) but also their lead writer for the Final Cut's political vision quests (Hindpere) as well as their "co-founder" and art director/designer (Rostov). They are all CREATIVE LEADS, and not just well known only for their reputations/titles.

Luiga himself (who originally broke the news) was an Elysium world builder and provided much of the pale and innocence-related lore. He was also a part of the original tabletop campaigns (Chester McLaine is his player character!), but left midway through Disco Elysium's development due to creative differences (or as he says, "bad vibes" at the company). He is credited as an editor, but claims to have written a good chunk of the text in the game, including much of Joyce's dialogue about the pale. I have seen people discredit him due to his early departure, but Rostov also tweeted out confirming that he, along with Hindpere and Kurvitz were no longer at the company, with no additional comments. Rostov also posted a drawing on his twitter several months back depicting a man jerking off over an NDA, so take that as you will.

So what does this mean for the future?

Luiga has said that he has hope for the sequel, which could either mean that the script was finished or nearing completion before Kurvitz was fired (likely, and fits a pattern in the industry) and it's just a matter of finishing the actual game development aspect, or it may be that he has hope for the original za/um creatives to be able to re-acquire the IP.

I think it's worth pointing out that the original pitch for "Disco Elysium" was actually "The Return", and Disco Elysium was meant to be the smaller-scale prequel to introduce players to the world. Considering that the team was planning on this sequel all along, I think it's possible that a large amount of the "original" game was written years ago, so it's not all that far fetched to believe that the basic outline may be finished, or even that a large portion of the script already exists. Keep in mind that there are a large number of writers for both Disco Elysium and The Final Cut, and it may still be possible to work with a base that the others provided. We have no idea how far into development the sequel may be. Of course, proceeding without three key members of the original team is kind of a kick in the balls, and imo really quite disgusting, especially with how long the company has been keeping their departures secret (dishonesty is not a good look lmao), but it may still be canon, true to the authors' vision, and genuinely a good game in the end.

Argo Tuulik, original Elysium world builder and part of the old ttrpg campaigns, as well as a main writer on Disco Elysium, is still working at za/um. Justin Keenan, former writer on The Final Cut who wrote the political vision quests alongside Helen Hindpere, still works at za/um (and has been promoted to lead writer, according to his LinkedIn), as does Kaspar Tamsalu, who painted several character portraits, (René and Gaston) and worked as a concept artist on the original game. Plenty of the original creatives still remain. The sequel could very well still be in good hands at the development level, even if the higher ups are "crooked".

So, in conclusion... If this game comes out and they still haven't worked things out with Kurvitz, Rostov and Hindpere? Honestly... fuckin' pirate it. But it is very likely it could still be a great game that plays out as it was meant to! All that being said, FUCK za/um as a company, don't support them through Atelier or their merch store. I wish everyone luck if they do attempt to get the IP back, and I sincerely hope this fan pressure will help get things moving for them.

[alongtidesoflight]

for the mod you are making: would I be able to start a new game in Skyrim without doing anything else so I can play the mod and the mod only? I beat the game but never could get into it as much as I would have technically wanted to, given the lore and everything, because finding the roleplay kind of hollow. Which, again with the lore, I love the lore of the elder scrolls series so getting disappointed by the roleplaying really bugged me.

But from the look of what you are developing, you definitely are making something that looks really great and fleshed out. Especially with the companions and interactions you are showing, as so far the only good companion in the elder scrolls that I have found so far that feels more alive is just Serena. Who is from a DLC.

Would I be able to just head right away to start the mod, or would I have to likely wait until a specific level or any other condition to start?

in theory you can start the mod immediately after you've left helgen or skipped the tutorial there with an alternate start mod. you're not going to miss out on much mod content until you go to whiterun to warn jarl balgruuf about the dragon that has attacked helgen.

there's a small knapsack at the guardian stones that sort of works as a setup for the mod, as in you have to pick one of the tes: iv oblivion classes/professions you want to roleplay as (they unlock some dialogue options and quest shortcuts) and once that's done, you can venture deeper into skyrim (and beyond) and go recruit the companions.

now, you can play their recruitment quests at any time without having progressed through any of skyrim's main/dlc/side quests. the thing is that you're gonna have to do at least some questing in between recruitment and personal quests in order to get their approval up enough for them to confide in you.

the progression looks a little something like:

recruitment -> reach a certain approval threshold - > personal quest 1 -> reach a certain approval threshold -> personal quest 2

independent of that, their romances depend on approval and how much you flirt with them as they open up to you.

right now, i can think of one location that's unlocked with a recruitment quest and you can do a bit of questing there that's unrelated to skyrim's quests, and it'd probably be a good way to net some approval. but without looking right now, i'm not sure if it's enough approval to trigger any of the personal quests.

so yes, you can play some of the quests as soon as you initiate the mod, but there's approval thresholds that keep you from progressing through all of the mod's content immediately.

on top of that you're going to want to progress through skyrim's quests a little (at least until you're declared dragonborn) because it opens up more dialogue branches, at least one personal quest, and unlocks the quest to obtain the player home (and its garrison of unique guards).

the mod's been made with skyrim being very hollow in mind. it's here to enhance and immerse you in the game a little, with the companions commenting on your game progression almost each time you've finished one of the many main or dlc quests in order to make it feel, well, more alive.

so the tl;dr is, you can play some of the mod's content immediately after the mod's been set up, but you'll miss out on a lot of content if you don't want to focus on skyrim's plot and i don't want to make any promises and say you'll be able to get their approval up enough for them to want to let you in on their backstories without you having done at least a bit of questing in bethesda-land.

i'd say at the very least, progress the game until you're declared dragonborn and make sure to talk to the companions after any main quests or dlc quests you do in order to gain more approval. the overall mod (and hopefully game) experience will be better if you do. also, since the companions have history relating to game events, for example the civil war, guilds, daedric princes, and factions, you might stumble into one surprise interaction or another here and there.

if anyone would like me to write up quick approval guides/mod progression tips and tricks and offer that as an additional download when i release the whole thing, like this or comment below. (trust me i know just how frustrating it can be to miss out on content because you didn't get a companion's approval up in time and now the chance to interact with them has come and gone. no shame in wanting to look things up/plan a playthrough in advance.)

[iaintyourbro]

The Unknown Journey Continues

Part 1

I know it's been a while... but I've been going down a rabbit hole with @starlight-samurai regarding time loops, Jenova, Minerva, and more fun. So I figured I'd try to put it into one post to get the insanity out of my head. Everything in here is based on things we've found by either going through more obscure Ultimanias, learning more about Dirge of Cerberus and trying to decipher what the hell Jenova is by putting together various sources - including other Square Enix games - and how they handled freakishly similar scenarios.

Did you know there is a companion mobile game for it that was out on the good old flip phones? Did you know there was an online mode in Dirge of Cerberus only available in Japan, but had story elements that were not in the main game?

The sad part is, there's still so much to go through...

(I've also had various discussions with @ourfinalheaven, Manu, who doesn't have Tumblr, so here is her Twitter. and Somebody's Nightmare (here is her Twitter). So I wanted to tag them here, as it's much more fun to discuss these ideas as a group, since it'll only help you build on and strengthen your own ideas.)

Please be aware, there will be Spoilers for FFVII - Almost all Compilation titles, Xenogears, and NieR Automata throughout this.

So let's go on a journey where we explore what actually already exists in the compilation - including the idea of the whispers and timeloops - how Minerva may play into everything, and what exactly Jenova is capable of doing.

I asked Sesi if he'd ever played any of the NieR games, because he'd said something that made me wonder if they were going to take a similar approach. As a very, very quick high level summary: NieR Automata deals with a time loop type of idea. The androids will be rebooted and repeat the same things over and over again. This is broken when 2B is killed by A2 because she becomes infected with a virus. That being said, you have the option after Ending E to either erase all of your data and end the cycle OR you can try again. The Pods have a discussion, and one asks, "But won't they just do the same thing again?" and the other replies with "Maybe. But it could also be different this time."

Here's Sesi's message back to me when I asked him about this (cleaned up a bit since we were having a casual conversation over Discord):

Maybe I could just guess based comparatively on the Dirge storyline, because that was sort of SE's first flirtation with “robots and androids” since they’re all programmed and locked behind like task managers and shit that can shut them down. The story of the online mode for DoC that came out in Japan, we never got to see it, you’re basically an Android OC and you have to get to “the end of the level” and then essentially die, and a new one takes its place. This keeps happening until Weiss is essentially freed from being able to be task managed by the guys who are suppose to be able to control them and I know from tons of years with Square games that they’re verrrrry bad at differentiating their narratives they tend to just keep “ripping themselves off” so is it anything close to that?

Cuz if so I think I kinda know what you’re saying and yeah, I agree, I think with CC bringing in its poetic symbolism and LOVELESS, and DoC bringing back the cyclic nature of the lore, whispers, premonitions and future visions, proto-Materia and the perversion of this next cycle since the planet can no longer cleanse and protect itself and its will is weakening lesser and lesser to the point where it’s fate is “in a true sense of jeopardy This time essentially it’s all tied in together and sort of played as though it's a fated track; a cycle of events and something has hitched it, thus the whispers manifesting and Sephiroth's higher implied control over his destiny. Of course, even all that is just their new red herring game, but it’s definitely a part of the lore they want to play with, in order to go back and reMAKE the OG with the comp inserted from inception. Also gut punch a lot.

Time Loops

I was somewhat surprised to find out that this concept is NOT new to FFVII's universe. It's discussed in Dirge of Cerberus... probably one of the least played and least understood of the compilation. (Trying to sell a third person shooter with terrible controls to a market of mostly people used to turn-based combat wasn't going to go well.)

On top of it, we didn't even get all of it, since online mode was never released outside of Japan, and the Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode was on Amp'd Mobile and Verizon flip phones back in 2006. Were you around for the cell phones in 2006? I had the ones on the list, and how somebody could play a game on those blows my mind.

Square has a tendency to reuse themes from their other titles. Probably one of the most blatant is the similarities between Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII. They were both being developed at the same time and a lot of ideas that didn't make it into FFVII ended up in Xenogears.

NieR

So how does this work? In NieR (both Replicant and Automata), you play the same path multiple times. Each time, it's slightly different depending on what side quests you did your first and second playthrough, but there's also other subtle differences throughout the story. In Automata, you get to play as 2B your first playthrough and 9S for your second. They follow the same path, but you get it from his perspective the second time and it reveals a bit more of what is going on. However, even with some slight differences, the main plot points stay the same and the ending result it also the same.

Then on your third playthrough, you wake up in the Bunker, and you're getting ready to go on a new mission. This time, though, 2B is killed and shit hits the fan. Things get crazy, you play as a new character: A2. In the end, pretty much everyone "dies", but you can choose to "reboot" and try again. You also can say you are done and let them all rest and delete your save data (the game gives you the option for both Automata and Replicant, and with Replicant, it actually leads to a new ending).

The striking thing for me is... There are certain events that will always happen, no matter what.

Fixed Points in Time

It's been years since I've watched Doctor Who, but there was something that stuck with me, and that was the fixed points in time. You can read about all of them here, but here's the basics:

Now, of course Doctor Who goes into this with much more detail and it's a recurring theme. However, as you read through that page, you'll probably find many aspects that have been used in various JRPGs that you've played. And Doctor Who most likely pulled some of the idea from classic Science Fiction novels. Each story puts its own spin on it.

How does this relate to FFVII Remake? Well, when they say that the major plot points will stay the same, it reminds me of this. No matter what, Cloud must fall into the Sector 5 Church, the Sector 7 Plate must be dropped, Aerith and Zack both must die, and Meteor has to be summoned, to name a few. So, with a time loop, those things would still have to take place in order to prevent a complete collapse of reality (at least in how Doctor Who uses it).

Therefore, the Whispers are ensuring that the Will of the Planet is followed.

One of the major themes in FFVII is that of loss. People die and they do not come back. Yes, other FF games do allow this to happen (FFX, FFXIII, FFXV), but VII is not those games. It was written with that idea in mind, that once a person dies, they, just like in real life, are dead and cannot be brought back.

I've previously written that I think they'll make us believe we are able to change fate, but we will eventually be slammed with the reality that we can't. That is because the planet has determined that certain events are fixed points.

Xenogears

Xenogears takes a bit of a different approach to the loop idea. Instead of repeating the same time period over and over, it has the characters reincarnated, and the same outcome happens each time: Elly dies. However, each time it's different. After all, they're in various time periods, in some cases thousands of years apart.

In all of the lives of Fei (who will have a different name in each time period) and Elly (who is always Elly/Elhaym), Elly will end up dying trying to protect Fei and the others. In one life, she is a religious figure at a totally not Catholic church, in another she's the wife of a scientist who was working to create children from nanomachines due to mass infertility issues. But she is ALWAYS with Fei, even if his name changes.

In her Mother Elhaym time, this is when Lacan (Fei) finally snaps. Though he's not fully aware of his past lives, he becomes aware, the anger consumes him, and he becomes Grahf. Fei is then reborn into the time period you play the game in.

There's a lot to unpack with this, so I won't go into it. Grahf wants to destroy God (Deus) because he thinks if he does, then it'll stop the suffering (his suffering).

If you do want to read more about Grahf, you can do so here, but it probably won't make much sense unless you've played Xenogears up to that point... Since it's much later in the game that this is all explained.

Lacan's desire was to stop the cycle of Elly always sacrificing herself for his sake. Though Grahf is not a perfect existence - he's not fully "The Contact", he sacrifices himself in order to let Fei move forward, and hopefully stop the cycle, by destroying the Deus system. (Elly also tries to sacrifice herself here, but Fei goes after her and stops her.)

Now, some people may think I'm saying that Cloud or somebody is going to do this in order to save Aerith or Zack (or his village or mom), but in FFVII if they do the loop method, I don't think Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and the others are aware of it. Most likely, it's only 'Sephiroth' and Aerith who are aware of it.

How this Could Be used for Final Fantasy VII

I'm stressing could because there's so many different possibilities on how they use this (if they are using this), so please, don't take this as fact. This is based on speculation based on what we know.

A time loop is a great way to explain away the differences in the story that we've seen: Biggs being alive, Wedge living for longer than he should have, etc. Since these are not major plot changes, they can simply say that this time it'll be slightly different... but your fixed points (major plot points) will remain the same.

It's a way to pull in some of the more obscure themes from Dirge of Cerberus and also play with the LOVELESS lore.

It could all simply be a big red herring and it's really just a remake of OG, but with the compilation tied together nicely... since it works much better when it's combined and not in 50 different games, books, movies, etc.

I don't think it's a "sequel" per say, not in the way I generally perceive a sequel. It's more of a loop of the same thing. The question is, when is the loop started and what will cause it to end? When will the planet (if it even is the planet) determine that it's good enough to begin moving forward?

JENOVA, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Minerva - Oh My!

Let's be real... Genesis isn't exactly the most popular character in the FFVII Compilation... but what if they make him one of the most important to the story? //Ducks as various fruits and vegetable are thrown in my direction//

I think what Genesis is probably most known for is his love of LOVELESS. He has the entire thing memorized and randomly says lines from it throughout Crisis Core. LOVELESS lore is still something I'm trying to grasp, so I am not going to comment much on it. Once I understand it more, I'll update this.

...And then this happens. The secret ending for Dirge of Cerberus, where Genesis picks up Weiss. Weiss, who has now been introduced along with Nero in FFVII INTERmission and is an optional ridiculously hard boss in the Shinra battle simulator in chapter 17 of the main story. There is some lore associated with the battle sim - so if you don't plan on beating it or you just can't, you can look up the pre-battle and post-battle cut scenes on YouTube. They're very short, but interesting. (I beat this asshole last night - it's a hell of a fight.)

....To Be Continued because apparently Tumblr won't allow more than 10 images per post now.... Next will be more on JENOVA and Sephiroth along with Minerva.