#i dont even care if shes playable anymore

[fioreofthemarch]

If Zelda is stuck underground for the entirety of TOTK, I’m just going to be incandescent with rage. Like, if so, what was it all for?

Zelda is an explorer too. She was studying the tech in BOTW, studying potions. She travelled around alone right up until it was no longer safe to do so. In Champion’s Ballad she takes it upon herself to seek out and lead the Champions. It’s her idea to check on Vah Ruta in the BOTW epilogue. In the first TOTK trailer, she’s the one with torch (she’s leading their expedition!)

If after all she’s been through, she just gets locked up and relegated to being a tutorial voice and a speedrun goal, again, while Link gets to explore a bunch of ancient relics and history without her? I dunno. The kingdom isn’t gonna be the only thing in tears is all I’m saying

[karolinevassalor]

Anything for you. Pantalone x Reader

Warning: Mention of cheating, false accusation, theft, imprisoment, starvation,preg!reader, cheater! Kaeya,

Ie: for the people who love Kaeya. I also love him, one of my favorite playable char, but i want to try him this kind of situation.

It was a rainy night in Liyue. Everyone is either their home or one of the city inns. Just  a few, mostly homeless people who remained outside in the cold weather. One of them, a young woman silently cried and gently patted her stomach.

-I know love you hungry…so i…but don't worry…mother will get you food somehow…somehow…- her tears became in one with the raindrops what fell from the little rag what she managed to get from the back alleys. She collected a little water to drink in her free hand, but it just make her stomach grumble more.

-Im sorry baby…im sorry…- She sobbed and slowly stand up, stumbled over the road , but a moment later someone caught her and shortly after a heavy dark jacket landed on her back. She heard a  calm male voice. 

-Oh my…It's too cold out here darling. You’ll catch a cold if you…- She looked up to where the voice and the jacket came from. By the archons. It was a handsome man with luscious long black hair and glasses.

-I-im sorry sir. I did not want…- she tried to move away, but he gently grabbed her shoulder and with another hand he moved her face to front of his.

-My, you look really weak darlin’. You eat something today?- Maybe she just imagined but his voice was surprisingly concerned just as his eyes. After his question she started to cry even more. The young woman's trembling lips are not open for answer. He quickly pulled his hand from her face and lifted her in bridal style. 

You need to go to a doctor. Lets go.

Later, in the clinic.

“This cant be real. Why he helped me?” She thought as she slowly gulped the warm soup what the nurse gave her earlier.

The doctor and a man who brought her there  talked not far from her.

Thank you kind sir for bringing her in time. She was seriously malnourished and her fever almost get worse. It was deadly to both her and the baby.

…Understand. Thank you doctor. - The raven haired man looked at the woman. - May I ask for some minutes of privacy with her after you finish the necessary checks?

Of course. I just finished the papers.  Take your time. - And then he left the room. The other man grabbed a chair and sit next to bed.

I'm sorry for the vulgarity, i'm not even introduced myself to you. Name is Pantalone. May i ask yours? - She just put the empty bowl on the counter and bowed her head. She weakly told her name. Pantalone let out a worried sigh.

Beautiful name. So, you’re not from Liyue?

I'm from Mondstadt. I was from there.

And may i ask what happened to you in this condition?

…I did not know either. - She muttered and grabbed the  bedsheet. Pantalone raised a brow, but before he opened his mouth, she continued- Just one month ago I was in the middle of the preparation of my wedding with my fiance and the next moment i was accused for stealing relic from the temple.

You did that?

Of course not! - she cried out. - I would never do such a thing! And turn out…that said relic was not even stolen from.

Hooh? Then what happened? - She gripped the sheets with more force, he put his hand on hers to ease her a little bit.

My own fiance, who is one the knight of Favonius, came to arrest me. They put me in the jail without a trial.

Thats kinda suspicious.

At first i dod not understand either, but later i found out.

??

The two guards who  was on night patrol talked about how Kaeya already moved another woman in our house and tomorrow they will get me out of the town to ‘put another place’. They don't even cared about i heard them.

Now you safe darlin’.- Pantalone gently moved his hand toward hers.- They dont hurt you anymore.

But why? - she cried. - Why did he did this to me?! I was his fiance! With his child! He told me to get married earlier! 

He did not think about it seriously. He did not care about you and the baby at all. - He said the with a cold tone. She froze from his words. Then she let out a sigh and a weak smile toward Pantalone.

Thank you, for saying this…Maybe i …i just want to hear what i tought. - His face are softened after her sudden comment and start to caress her hands with this tumb.

Tomorrow i need to travel to Inazuma. Would you mind to accompany to me on this journey?

…Why did you care about me, Mr Pantalone? - She asked weakly.

Because i know the feeling when you been left all alone without any hope. I don't want you to feel that anymore.

…Thank you.

6 Years later, Mondstadt

Around noon, a big fancy carriage arrived to the town. Folks gathered around it, and when the door opened 3 young children jump out from it, all boys. After them a tall male with an expensive looking dress came out and reached his hand toward a woman, who also wore a beautiful dress but also covered her face with a silvery colored vail.

Boys, dont run so far. Wait for me and your mother.- He hold her hand and they start to go after the children. Everyone looked at confusion the faces, the knight, the restaurant owner and even Mondstadt  most wealthies man, Diluc came into their view. And he did not like what he saw at all. As they make a stroll over the stairs, one of the guard stop their way upstairs.

Im sorry sir, but this is way is restricted. Military personel only.

Oh, dont mind good sir - Pantalone smiled as the boys hid behind him and their mother. - I was just here to talk with lady Jean.

And may i know what interest?

It really nothing..- Now he slightly opened his eyes, showed a more menacing side of his - i wanted to talk about her how much this city cost? I want to buy it.

To be continue…

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[empyreasheart]

QUESTION ATTACK!!!! as a fellow kairi stan what are some of your personal hcs for her or what you wanna see for her in future games or just like. general kairi thoughts because you are so based for the rightful kairi appreciation

HEHE HIIII I want 1) playable kairi and 2) i want the destiny trio's dynamic to be flipped and for kairi to save sora and riku for once. emphasis on riku because i feel like a lot of fans & even the games forget that riku and kairi genuinely care for one another.

my ideal kh4 would have kairi basically go "idc if you dont think im strong enough yet im tired of just standing here while u guys need my help" and basically decide to go to quadratum despite rikus wishes and she saves riku from getting plummeted by heartless (or whatever enemies are in kh4) or smth and shes like haiii ^__^ and riku apologizes for considering her too weak in melody of memory (im sorry that scene made me mad because i dont think riku would say that hes literally the one who gave her her keyblade in kh2!! but i digress) and they go off to find sora together. but i dont think itll happen this way sadly :(

i loveee kairi so much shes my sweetie. shes so kind and i want to be like her honestly, i dont really kin as much anymore but if there was any character from kh i would want people to associate with me personality wise itd be kairi!!! i feel like i judge most kh fans based on how they feel about kairi because im like if ur not a kairi supporter im not rocking with u... idk... shes definitely in my top 3 kh characters i think, soras #1!!! (i love axel/lea but sora is literally my baby thats my son sora kingdomhearts)

headcanons?! i think she and lea become besties and siblingpilled because once she meets him and gets over the Scary she realizes. hes just a loser lol. And honestly i think she already knew that during kh2 he was kind of a pathetic kidnapper. I think she xion and naminé do fun girly stuff and force lea to tag along and he has to carry all of their bags when theyre shopping and pay for their fun little treats

That also reminds me since lea and kairi are both from radiant garden i keep thinking about making up some sort of au where they end up being adopted siblings which im not sure how itd work out i just want to imagine baby kairi and teenage lea growing up together :,)

[breadedsinner]

i do believe og da2 writers could have made something cool with envy demon and sebastian and the whole thing about not possessing but replacing the victim. but Everything Is About Demons is certainly getting old you are right and fandom reaction just never disappoints lol. Lol. lmao. sooo sorry yall dont have taste

gonna start saying that the exalted march version of anders returning to wardens is the only way to make him interesting just to feel something

Well said. Again, I don't think the concept is wholly unsalvageable, and it was just a tweet, but it could be read at face value like the character--a playable character and a love interest--might have just been done away with. She didn't expand on it and it didn't come to pass anyway, I would HOPE there would have been an alternate scenario where we free him from Envy.

Still a little perplexed by Envy. It makes SOME sense but if you told one "one of the new demons was originally created with Sebastian in mind" I think I would have sooner guessed the Sorrow Demon.

And I don't agree that it's "poetic", I suppose there's some tragedy in that all this grief and trauma simply begets more and becomes a cycle... but she didn't really word it that way. It was hard not to read it as a punishment. Obviously I am biased, but I previously covered all the ways Sebastian expressed his concerns before the Chantry Boom, so for him to constantly be put in the wringer this way is unsatisfying. There's no catharsis, no release, it's just constant misery.

And then yknow... Fenris gets to escape that cycle. Cullen does, Blackwall does, Leliana does... I don't like the idea that Sebastian doesn't because he cared about someone and didn't handle the loss well.. When people talk about how he SHOULD have acted, it always sounds like someone who has never experienced loss, quite frankly.

That said, there are a LOT of companions, including those listed above, who can befall a terrible fate. We've even seen early concept Inquisition art of what shows a ragged Anders in a cave. And I believe there was talk of Varric dying in the Exalted March DLC. It's very possible this DLC could have included some brutal paths for all the companions, who knows.

I guess I just wish it had been made clear that Sebastian could also escape this future as well. Him being unpopular doesn't mean he doesn't deserve closure.

Pfft I have no feelings about Anders going back... it'd be funny if the HoF was just like "I don't want him anymore" or "Welcome Home Cheater".

[foxships]

sorry if you dont like spoilers this is about genshin so ignore pls if you dont like!!! ok so theres leaks like voice lines and plot info and the leaks rlly seem (NOT CONFIRMED BUT HIGHLY SPECULATED) that lisa might die/sacrifice herself and if that happens can i just say im dropping genshin for… lets see.. killing a bunch of females (literally the majority of characters who have died are females)

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE I do not care about genshin spoilers, so don't worry about that

ANYWAY. I knew Lisa had a shortened lifespan, but like??? she's a playable character so if she does die??? you just can't play as her anymore??? what about all that time invested in her???

REGARDLESS of whether this true or not... I just... do I even want to get back into genshin at this point? it's a fun game but.... idk maybe I'm just still jaded after Signora's death.

there are SO many pretty women in genshin and I just... don't wanna get attached to any of them. at first I was just feeling anxious because some mutuals ship with characters I could potentially see myself shipping with and I don't wanna make anyone uncomfy, but now it's also "i bet mhy will kill her off as soon as i get too attached"

[zephyr-paladyn]

masculaxi character analysis/appreciation

it's been over a year since gala masculaxi's release and i'm still not over it

(heavy dragalia lost spoilers ahead)

(gala mascula does not exist btw) i just love how mascula and laxi are designed as two parts of a whole, basically one half of the same ideal/same person. you can't have one without the other. if you heavily favor one over the other i dont trust you... only half joking. when laxi went berserk and mascula had to save her by giving her his heart in their debut ch11, that was just... such a moment... it shows them at their most "separate" (laxi in berserk/annihilation mode, and mascula stopping at nothing to disengage combat.) which sets us up for their development as two hearts in one body. in masculaxi (flame blade)'s story, they're still at odds but they begin to learn to cooperate in the same body, and this is the beginning of their "convergence." in ch14 of the main story is when we see the beginnings of eden mode. when all the androids sacrifice themselves for euden and co to advance, mascula realizes it his empathetic heart that influenced them and led them to their painful deaths. he then shuts down his ego circuit out of guilt. when the team is in a tight spot, and only masculaxi can save the day (since their body is unaffected due to the miasma only affecting organic lifeforms,) laxi goes into their heart to search for mascula and plead him to help her. all this time, laxi had envied mascula's heart for being "more human," but realized that maestro had written the fear of death in all of the android's hearts, and as such, laxi understood the weight of their yearning for peace, with the act of their self-sacrifice for euden. (later we do learn with gala masculaxi that mascula had been influencing laxi more. here we see laxi's influence on mascula to urge him to fight.) laxi gets mascula out of the gay baby jail zone, releases her limiters, and activates annihilation mode hastily. mascula then guides her attacks to the correct targets, which is the first instance we see of mascula engaging in any sort of fighting. in this state of laxi's annihilation mode combined with mascula's guided assault, a new mode beyond annihilation mode becomes available to them: eden mode, when their hearts become one. this mode concentrates all the mana around them inside their body's mana kiln, and gives them even more power. mascula still dislikes fighting and does not want to do it as much, but has a newfound conviction and will not run away when he is needed. an interesting line here is mascula saying this: ▷It's as if he knew our hearts would one day become one. But how...?◁ indicating that from the start, they were truly two halves of a whole ideal. shortly after the release of ch14, we get the release of the flame dagger gala masculaxi unit, which contains eden mode in their gameplay, and expands upon the "two hearts acting as one" deal they have going on. laxi, mascula, and luca head to the ruins of maestro's lab in order to gain more clues on how eden mode works. laxi equips a new armament meant to accommodate eden mode (and demands praise of how good she looks, lol. also laxi is much more snarky in this story which is a treat. she's so funny. but also this shows mascula's emotional influence on her!!!!!) laxi learns of how eden mode works, and essentially it's a release of all limiters and rerouting all circuits to their internal mana kiln, but elimination protocol is activated automatically as well which does not make any distinction between friend and foe. it enhances laxi's combat ability, but mascula has to take care of elimination protocol since he has access and control of it. hence, in eden mode, laxi goes all out in attacking, while mascula controls the body's movements and targets. however this is only possible if their hearts act as one. the two are attacked by dyrenell forces and activate eden mode against them, but mascula temporarily loses the will to fight in the middle of the battle, destabilizing and deactivating eden mode. luca is captured and a villager shields them from an oncoming attack, believing in mascula's peaceful ideals. laxi engages tactical retreat and they escape. they engage in a plan to save luca but are attacked by imperials again. they try to go into eden mode but mascula once again disengages eden mode. mascula tells laxi of his regrets and frustrations that he keeps holding her back, but laxi tells him that she found herself synchronizing with him. with the villager (that mascula had saved before and in turn protected masculaxi earlier,) laxi found the value in mercy for enemies. by having laxi bend towards mascula's will, they're able to take on the imperials who chased after them with a truly synchronized eden mode. ▷Laxi, give me the strength to fight!◁ Granted. Now give me the kindness required to temper my actions. ▷Heh. Take all you need!◁ their system strain falls, and they're able to defeat the imperials. laxi, mascula, luca, and euden talk together after all is done. laxi takes interest in a cat, while mascula teaches her how to interact with it. Euden: Laxi and Mascula say the maestro who made them was a peace-loving man, but... Luca: No, I getcha. Why would some peacenik give something THIS much power? ch14 and their gala story really shows how the two embodied different sides of the same ideal -- "fighting for peace," and how they begin to converge upon that ideal. initially laxi only focused on "fighting" and mascula only focused on "peace," but A compassionate heart. ▷The courage to fight.◁ -Eden Mode, activate!- their character development after this is a bit wonky at times because it sets up for gala mascula who is really poorly written and doesn't necessarily align with the ideals established within ch14 and gala masculaxi, or even the development directly before it either. with ageless artifice and ch18 (when the team first enters the faerie kingdom and gets lost,) we get teasers of mascula with his own body. in ageless artifice, eirene steals mascula's body and intends to use it against masculaxi, but mascula takes control of his body and proclaims that his body isn't necessarily him, but what IS him is his resolve to fight for peace alongside his friends. (stays in line with gala masculaxi, right?) in ch18 we also see mascula having a "nightmare/illusion" in which he gains his body back but at the cost of laxi going berserk once more, showing that they truly cannot function at their "fullest ideal" without each other in the same body. laxi asks mascula if he wants his own body back, and mascula says he sometimes misses it but overall he wants to continue fighting with her the way they are. this is echoed in ch19, take this exchange for example: Mascula, I know you were thinking of your own body while lost in the mountain's illusions. You gave up your body to save me, and I owe you an apology for that. ▷Don't apologize—I wanted to do it. Plus, being with you makes me happy.◁ I want to see a peaceful world just as we are in this body now—together. ▷I feel the exact same way.◁ ▷No more hesitation. You and I are going to fight with Maestro as a team.◁ And together... ▷...we will bring peace.◁ reaffirming their ideals together and keeping in line with their development, right? mascula doesn't WANT his own body back. he wants to keep fighting with laxi, that's THE WHOLE POINT OF THEIR CHARACTERS. which does not make sense when we get the remote control BS IN THE SAME CHAPTER??? (teased from the ending of ageless artifice with chelle) and mascula has his own body again as a remote control system. now the portrayal in the main story wasn't AS bad but... the real problem comes to gala mascula as an adventurer with his stories and voice lines. this "mascula" proclaims of how much he loves/misses his body and how he "doesn't need laxi dragging him around anymore." like sure he sometimes feels being in laxi's body with her is bothersome but overall, at his heart, he wouldn't really say something like that??? mascula your voice lines are so contradictory to what just happened in the main story and what you said in ageless artifice what happened!!!!!!! his adventurer story lacks the cooperative laxi-mascula dynamic we knew and loved, and instead pushes mascula front and center to try to push him to do things himself. we didn't really need mascula getting his own body back anyways, but you COULD'VE AT LEAST written it so that they have more emphasis on cooperation with each other?? god im sorry i just. AUGH he's so OBVIOUSLY hastily pushed into their development arc and he loses his characterization. it's obvious gala mascula wasn't intended to be a thing in the initial plan for masculaxi... i am not forgiving every single one of you who sent in feedback for playable mascula. once again only half joking... maybe only a quarter joking. 1/8ths joking. radioactive decay graph joking. (also just a tiny nitpick: you can apparently run gala mascula and laxi/gala laxi on the same team. lore compliancy who? eden mode can't be activated while the remote control unit is active. but whatever) though another interesting plot point is brought up in his story though? maestro's origins, the writing of "seek peace" on mascula and laxi's bodies being in a language that only the sky city ark people would know.. with such an elaborate plan for such a complex android duo, and everything else mysterious about this man, just who is he? his master plan of masculaxi was really amazing to see come to fruition... maestro fought on the side of dyrenell, against dragons -- against elysium you could say. although ex machina seeks the destruction of terrestrial life because they "allied with the dragons" (a misconception,) on the contrary maybe maestro aimed to create an ultimate weapon for terrestrials to defend themselves against the dragons. however this weapon had to also understand the value of what it was fighting for -- learning for itself how to go about "fighting for peace." thus, the creation of the twins mascula and laxi; two halves of a whole. by having a compassionate and adaptable heart, they can change with the times, understand the people around them, and decide on their own what the best course of action is in various situations. i love love LOVE masculaxi and how they're written!! (for the most part.) two of my faves in the game and i love them and their characterization so much, i just wish more people could see the intricacies of their relationship and how they're literally like. 1/2 of the same thing. it's such a beautifully written dynamic and development, and i want others to appreciate it too.

a little bonus, in this character art, you can see the "star tetrahedron" shapes. in sacred geometry symbolism, the "star tetrahedron" is the sixth shape enclosed within "metatron's cube." these shapes, and this cube, are said to maintain the balance of the world itself and its flows/processes. as for the "star tetrahedron" itself, it represents duality: physical body and spiritual self; male and female; and heaven and earth. this ties into mascula and laxi's characters: mascula controlling the "mind" in eden mode while laxi focuses on the attacking "body;" and mascula and laxi being of different genders. as for "heaven" and "earth," this could represent maestro coming from the sky city ark, and masculaxi being technology intended to aid humans. alternatively for "heaven" and "earth," the fact that the star tetrahedron is enclosed within "metatron's cube" may be a pointer to metatron in-universe. the archangels all have white hair, a trait shared by masculaxi. additionally, sandalphon is somewhat mechanical/technological herself. masculaxi being man-made (of the earth,) versus their potential connection to the angels (of the heavens.)

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

I brought up hanyang type 88 here and i said i’d explain, so here I am!!

okay so first off here’s a bunch of likely useful context about girls frontline. There is this feature in the game called digimind upgrade, or mod 3, where certain t-dolls can be upgraded past the normal maximum levels and stats, and at the same time gaining whole new abilities and also a new design. Basically a reinvention. There are like hundreds of playable characters in the game, and only a fraction will get mod 3s, typically the ‘main characters’ who are relevant to the major ongoing plot.

two things about getting a doll who has the ability to do digimind upgrade, to actually do that. One, is that it can be very costly in terms of in-game materials. like, maybe i just played the game wrong but I would have to grind for weeks in order to amass the materials to upgrade just one doll to mod 3. So even though by now there are dozens upon dozens of dolls who are capable of this feature, i’ve only actually done so with like, less than one dozen. A normal player probably has to be picky.

secondly, and this is the big one, every t-doll’s mod 3 comes with story cutscenes that become available for you to view upon upgrading them. Personally, i think most of the only worthwhile mod 3 stories are the ones that are associated with the actual major characters of the main story, especially since their upgrades actually happen in-canon and their mod 3 stories fill in blanks or otherwise expand upon the regular story chapters.

for the t-dolls who aren’t major characters that get digimind upgrades, their associated stories tend to follow a very basic pattern. They’re feeling like they are falling behind other T-Dolls in abilities or are otherwise experiencing a drop in confidence in their abilities, but then find the resolve in them to either change themselves or stand by an aspect of themselves, and this leads them to heading to the lab to get upgraded. obviously theres some nuances here and there depending on the character, but a lot of them, from what i saw, follow this basic pattern.

hanyang type 88 has a mod 3 but i certainly never wanted to see it. Firstly, using the feature at all takes up resources are kinda precious so i wasn’t just gonna use it on anyone. Secondly, she is just one of many one-off t-dolls that basically dont ever show up in any actual main story cutscenes or even funny events. Thirdly... you saw what she looked like in the linked post, i was in no rush to make use of her.

That being said, even if you don’t ever upgrade a t-doll, simply having them in your possession allows you to at least view the first of four parts of their mod 3 story, which nets you a small amount of those materials needed to see the rest (its a pretty fiendish system, huh o_O). I was lacking in some materials to upgrade a doll i cared about, so i just mucked around, eventually happened upon type88 again and decided that instead of just immediately feeding her to the furnace, I’d watch the first chapter of her mod 3 story. I watched it, it made me just curious enough to look further, and well. ...I got into it. Exactly what I got into, i shall now just elaborate and summarise the whole thing in my own way! Warning, it’s long!

(disclosure: my summary will bias towards my own preferred interpretation whenever any aspect is somewhat vague.)

The story starts with type 88, or as she is called by others in griffin base, Ai, working her shift in the base’s cafe, because what else would she be doing.

i hate looking at her! Anyway, its just a pleasant peaceful day and Ai is taking the logistic person, kalina’s order when suddenly in the middle of a conversation, Ai freezes in place and starts making worrying sounds.

kalina here and the t-dolls present in the cafe are concerned, and talk about how Type88 has actually been crashing like this more and more frequently lately, yet has not reported any of this to the maintenance crew despite the advice of her friends. They try rebooting her on the spot, but it has an even more concerning effect, because she starts erratically acting like she doesn’t recognise the others, and talks about how she is a maid in “Jiangcheng Cafe”. Afraid that her neural cloud (her mind) has been scrambled, they put her to sleep and bring her to the repair bay.

Its in the repair bay where they explain exactly what is wrong with type88. She is a fairly old doll, and her processing capacity has been severally clogged up for a long time. Her internal memory is overflowing because many large sections of her mind is filled with very large encrypted files (memories that she stored away). she is likely to keep crashing and possibly even cease functioning entirely one day if those encrypted files are not deleted, but nobody is really keen on just deleting parts of her mind without her consent. For now, kalina just opts to try and decrypt the files and see what they are.

And from here, we watch type88 memories from her perspective. Sort of. Kind of. It gets complicated later but for now, we view the first memory of her life, not as a combat t-doll type88, but...

...as 59898, a doll designed to be what is basically a ‘crash test dummy’ for testing artillery technology in a research station. With a purpose like this, 59898 has an (ostensibly) rudimentary AI. Her learning ability is intended to be used to better aid the results of their testing, but she also knows how to understand and even imitate specific human gestures in order to better respond to instructions or conversation, even though she herself has no voice module to speak with. She is assigned to assist one specific person.

first off, i was pretty shocked right off the bat that this story above so many others actually has unique assets to it. The above two sprites don’t show up anywhere else in the game, i don’t think. Secondly, this woman’s name is only ever spelled with those white squares, so I’m stuck with having to just calling her ‘the pilot’, as dry as that sounds... I just don’t want to type out weird characters every time, or call her ‘triple cube’...

Anyway, so 59898 is assigned to help this woman in testing artillery tech (stuff like mechs and tanks). I should mention really quick that in the game’s story, during this point of time is when world war iii is happening, but that’s just a backdrop for robots to eventually gain more prominence. Anyway, we move on to the second memory, where some time has already passed. At the beginning of this memory, the pilot is visibly depressed, which 59898 takes note of.

Her ‘comfort mode’ consists of patting the pilot on the head, who while surprised, actually is grateful. She feels comfortable enough to talk about her worries aloud to the doll, mentioning how she is a war refugee and has to make a living in the research base because she can’t go back to her home in china, at least not before making enough money for a very expensive and exclusive train ticket. She continues to talk at length to the doll...

...not that the test doll is capable of responding to anything she says. The pilot insists that she’s happy just to have someone listen to her though, since she feels like she can’t really express her feelings to any other person on the base. Despite that-

That aside, the pilot says that referring to 59898 by her serial number all the time feels a bit weird, so she decides to give the doll a name. (I sure wish the story would give this woman a name too, other than ‘three white squares’ but oh well...)

She talks more with Jiangcheng Ai, or just Ai, after that, asking her if she’d like a change of clothes sometime, like some casual clothes, or an old maid outfit from an old cafe job she used to have (I guess they had to throw in any explanation for that outfit somehow) Point is, more and more time passes.

As time passes though, and we go into the third memory, the pilot brings up complaints to her superiors about how the more recent testings, becoming more increasingly intense and frequent, are putting a great strain on Ai, and even repairs can only help maintain her chassis so much. She insists on wanting to take Ai’s place in the testing, but they refuse because, well, Ai’s entire purpose is to take the strain of these tests so that the human pilot doesn’t have to, and the doll is just a tool there to pave the way for the pilot to eventually take over the mech in action

The next time Ai wakes up from her most recent repairs, the pilot is there to greet her, and Ai can tell straight away that she’s unhappy and tries to comfort her again. The pilot is not surprised at this and talks about how this is how Ai has been since they first met. She goes on to say how all the other people on the base don’t know her half as well as Ai does. Ai tries to understand and determine what the pilot’s intentions with saying all this is, but she cannot do so and can only listen while offering ‘executing - affirmative nod’.

The pilot talks about how once the war is over, she’d like to take Ai back home with her, where they could go to all sorts of gatherings, and the pilot would introduce Ai to her friends.

Ai reviews her personal data, confirming that she has no owners or obligations other than the pilot, so she executes another affirmative nod, and the pilot says this:

As Ai tries and fails to further determine this, something bad happens! if you’ve read this far, i’m sure you’ve already guess what happens next...

At that exact moment, a warning goes out and the research base is being attacked by nebulous enemy forces. With no time to talk anymore, both the pilot and Ai head out into their first real fight.

They spend a good long while repelling enemy forces, working well together and apparently using all sorts of wacky anime weaponry like beam blades and whatever ‘retrograde evasion’ is!

obviously though, you already know this isn’t going to end well for them... When the pilot takes a breather, Ai moves to protect her, but at a critical moment, a sudden high-speed projectile comes her way. In the next instance there’s a crash, and we move onto another memory. Where its all fire and debris, and Ai can’t move.

^ this text box actually repeats several times, indicating that she is repeating her scan for life signs over and over. She gets an internal warning from her systems (differentiated with red text) that she has insufficient power and it warns her to immediately cease ineffective operations. [Unable to detect owner life signs] repeats again.

At this point, uuuuh, its a little stupid actually? because two humans show up, reusing generic ‘bad guy’ sprites from other events that don’t match the current environment and situation at all (one is in a suit and the other is in casual clothes). but the reason they’re here is to provide exposition out loud about what happened. It looked like the human’s mech took a hit for the doll and was blown to bits, though they talk about how that doesn’t make any sense.

Ai at this point tries to execute a bunch of different actions like hugging [target not found] and screaming [no relevant module] but they all fail, and her internal systems tell her that her power is running out and she will cease to function in 30 seconds.

So in those last 30 seconds, Ai decides to quickly review her internal files. the damage she took has corrupted her memories and she doesn’t have the time to properly go through them, so she executes a ‘simulated processed records’, which basically mean she’s just filling the blanks of those memories herself with simulations.

And I have to say. I was decently into and enjoying this little story so far, but its this part that’s the reason i became forced to make this stupid giant post. the first ‘memory’ loads up, and we see the pilot.

Different ‘memories’ of the days spent with the pilot are loaded back to back, each are very short and only last a few lines. Across these files, the two of them talk comfortably with each other, Ai is invited to go get coffee with her, the pilot talks about how going alone is boring and would rather spend time with Ai, Ai saying back with her own words that she always likes spending time with her, etc etc etc.

And then finally, she loads one last ‘memory’, from earlier that same day, before the explosion and the fighting.

and she shuts down.

i passed by this scene the first time all calm, but an hour or so later when I was in the bathroom replacing shampoo bottles, i started thinking about it and I literally started sobbing. And then again later that night when i was in bed. I hate this game!!

so that’s the ‘end’ of that, and the next scene opens, once again in griffin base’s cafe, except...

Ai is sporting a brand new (ugly) look. She says she’d like to take kalina’s order but she was just leaving on other business, as she likes keeping herself busy with all sorts of work around the base ever since she got upgraded into a gundam gajinka. and after she leaves, kalina talks with the other dolls about how Ai used to have some cache issues because her neutral cloud was too full, but upgrading into this new chassis easily fixed that and even allowed her to make use of her old locked away abilities.

Because of the way this scene in the cafe opens up exactly like the very first one at the beginning, it makes me believe that this final scene is also a simulated ‘memory’, that is, Ai filling in the blanks of her corrupted memories with what she wishes to be reality. And i feel confident in believing that because after the scene fades to black, we see more of her internal system monologue.

She (the system) says that the priority execution is to preserve those encrypted memory logs. She does so, and the neural cloud upgrade is complete with confirmation of no loss files. With no risk of deletion in this new form, she executes the command to unlock the encrypted memories. And finally...

[spiderbread dies]

i still wouldn’t use her in gameplay because i can’t stand looking at her design but  i told you all i eat up robot with feelings stuff and this is like prime example of exactly that... and if i didn’t make this post, i think my own neutral cloud’s cache would be at risk of overflowing x_X!

[kenzrocks47]

WHY I THINK THE LAST OF US PART TWO WAS AN AMAZING GAME BOTH STORY WISE AND PLAY WISE

I know a lot of people hated the game and felt like it wasn’t executed the way that it should but I disagree. It might be because I wasn’t waiting for 7 years for the game to come out, I only played the first one less than a year ago so i didn’t have the same expectations.

I think that people see Joels death as poorly executed and some felt like they threw him away, as well as being angry he wasn’t a bigger part of the story. Joel was a huge part of the story on the contrary, i get that he wasn’t a playable character and didn’t accopany the Ellie on her quest for vengance but i think its actually better that way. I love Joel as much as everyone but having him as a compainion would have taken away from her story, her struggles. I’ve heard that people think that the way he died was unlike Joel, and that he wouldn’t be as naïve as they thought he was. Which honestly makes me kinda mad. Joel litterally had no choice, he had just saved a stranger from a horde of infected and she had a place that they could escape from the horde. He didn’t expect to be shot in the knee with a shotgun and beat to death by a girl who he didn’t know prior to him saving her. Even if he did, it wasn’t a situation he could likely get out of alive anyway. Unlike the first game, this group wasn’t spread out and somewhat unaware he was there, they all knew who he was, and were all in the same room, him and Tommy were outnumbered and taken by suprise. Joel would have died either way.

The next thing i know people absolutely hate about the game is the ending, Ellie and Dina are settled down in a farmhouse with their son JJ and are happy, and then Tommy comes to tell Ellie he knows where Abby is. Ellie leaves, knowing she’d lose Dina and JJ if she went after her, and still decided to go. Only to not kill Abby, so she lost her family to go after someone she didnt kill in the end. People understandably were outraged by this and thought Naughty Dog did this for no reason, but there was reason.

Throughout the game if you were really paying attention and thinking about whats going on in the story, you can draw a lot of parallels between Ellie amd Joel. Even though she only knew Joel for around four years, they had a very deep bond and he affected her more than anyone. She experienced his ruthlessness and actions first hand and learned from him, as she never really had much experience with violence beforehand. At first in Part 2 she seems ok with killing and is pretty good at it as well, but unlike Joel, she hasn’t ever really killed for her own reasons outside of survival, shes killing people out of vengance and rage because of Joels death at the hands of the WLF and it starts to affect her. She tortures Nora, which as far as we know shes never had to do before, and it affects her, makes her afraid of herself in a way that she wasnt before, it makes her realize how ruthless shes become. So it would make sense in my mind that after all this killing at Ellies hand that when she finally gets to the end of her mission, she finally gets to Abby, that suddenly its not what she wants anymore. She killed so many people and now while she knows why she did it, she cant find the will to end another life for her own desires. We dont know how we would react in her shoes, how it would affect us or if we would be able to live with it and kill the one person you killed hundereds of people to get to. I dont know about you but i think id be tired of it, still angry and still vengeful, but tired most of all.

To be honest, i understand why they went after Joel. I love him and i cried when he died but their anger at him was understandable. He took away the only people that had a chance at making a vaccine/cure and killed numerous fireflies in the process. We are biased because we watched and played through his story, we loved him, but he wasnt a good person, in this kind of world no one would be.

One of the biggest things on my mind about the story is that while its based around vengance, its also about the consequences of our actions on ourselves and others. The consequences of Joels actions being some of the biggest. By saving Ellie, he doomed humanity and later himself. His actions led to his death years later. But it also strongly affected Ellie obviously. His actions led to her becoming very much like him, killing dozens of people for her own agenda being hard and ruthless and not caring much for others outside of the Jackson community. It led her down a path of violence and death and self destruction. And it continued to when she lost Dina and JJ when she went to kill Abby. She had to learn and lost her everything in the process.

(Sorry im not very good about expressing my thoughts clearly in a way that say exactly what im trying to cause i think more in picture and scenes)

I dont think i really have to go to much into why the gameplay was amazing but i will a little. It still amazes me how natural the character interactions are, and how the relationships weren’t awkward or forced. I also liked how when they had you play Abby, they added little things to make her more human, like her recklessness, fear of hights and her relationships with her group, even that little bit of conflict you can see when she realizes that the person who saved her life was the person she hated the most.

Ok can we TALK about the newer functions tho??? Going prone, UNLIMITED SHIV, and fucking being able to craft motherfucking silencers??? Dont even get me started on how much i love love love the ability to break glass because it made me want to cry i was so happy. Plus how much more open the world was in Part two! Still not really that open but way more than before and was really fun, plus Ellie can finally swim!

As much as i hate Stalkers (those fuckers freak me out) i love how they were more used in a way, not commonly like Runners and Clickers thank god but still a little more used.

Oh! And how machetes and axes and shit have longer use now! I always thought they would be realistically less breakable than wood planks so this made me really happy!

I love the crafting, how you can make more shit now and the upgrade sections for different skills (stealth being my favorites). I also really like the animations when you upgrade your weapons, i think its really cool honestly even tho its such a small part of the game. Another small part i liked was the guitar functions, i think its really awesome and shows a part of Joel she kept with her.

I also really like what the flashbacks added to the story, seeing Ellie and Joels realtionship over the four years and how close they were and how they changed.

I could probably say more but if you read this far i think I probably said enough. These are all my opinions and i know not everyone will agree with them which is totally fine! There is more i most likely forgot and some things i dont know how to phrase right but thanks for suffering through my paragraphs if you’re reading this! :))

[blodie02]

SPOILERS ALERT !!!!!!

Okay. I saw a lot of people criticizing The Last Of Us 2 because of lgbt contents which " is too much represented on the game" and because Naughty Dog wanted "girl power" because it's "trendy" today.

Hum, wtf????

Fuck you lol.

You pissed of because your boy Joel isn't the main character anymore? Playable characters are only a gay and a trans woman and nobody wants that? (which I don't remember being confirmed, if not that's rude, just because she got muscles? Morons...). No more masculinity? How is it possible? Girls are so weak, they don't deserve to be the center of the game!

Well guess what? We're all equals, so women deserves as much spotlights as men, in real life, in game, in movies, in tv shows.

Women can be soldiers, martial expert, or just strong physically just like men, so don't tell me it's "unrealistic" for one to beat Joel. You're just being sexist here.

Also, lgbt representation is always positive, just like representation of people of color.

Straight white relationships were represented in games for years, so don't tell me lgbt are "too much present".

You considers TLOU like an apocalyptic game were love shouldn't be the main focus, I don't agree : love is the only good left in a world like this. TLOU 1 painted a beautiful daughter/father blossoming relationship between Ellie and Joel, thats a big part of why I love this game so much. Now, they want to focus on a love story, is it that bad? Knowing how graffic and cruel the part2 is going to be thanks to the spoilers, how can you complain about a little love in this brutal world? You're still going to kills many people and many undeads, its not like Naughty Dog planned on making you do dinner, buy flowers and kiss Dinah lol. Its not the gameplay. You're going to torture, to kill and to survive. Thats still the game you're gonna play.

TLOU is a good game mainly because of the relationships and the dialogues, dont forget it.

Now, why I'm more offended of?

Making me play as a woman I don't know and I don't care, while I planned to only play as the only two characters I care about : Ellie and Joel.

Making me play as her, listening to her describing as villains my favorite characters and hunting them down. Me.

Making me watch Ellie actually losing it AND becoming possibly a villain because the stupid story forces her to be one.

Making me KILL THE ONLY CHARACTERS I CARE ABOUT, because of some stupid revenge for a man I don't give a shit (because he was going to KILL Ellie in the par1, remember), because I'm FORCED to play as his daughter who I also DONT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT AND I DONT CARE ABOUT HER REASONS.

I can understand Joel's death in a story point of view even if it angers me.

But Ellie's fate? Bullshit.

I would have felt better if I played her until the end and that she died after a final battle against this Abby. At least I wouldn't be the one killing her....

How much of a sadist Naughty Dog is for letting their players kills their own favorite characters?

"Wait, it will be worth it" do you think we were gonna actually be satisfied and okay with this????

Also the way they apparently treats the staff. They should be ashamed.

THAT is what you should be pissed about.

[extradan]

I finished Before The Storm

I really enjoyed the episodes and I really felt things during the third episode

But I feel kinda disappointed, the third episode was,,,,, really really short

And figuring out that the entire game just lead to telling Rachel the true or not as the final decision was kind of... a really big bummer, there wasnt really much to it, if i knew that these what the gmae was trying to lore me into, I’d feel like playing the game would be the waste of my time, understanding that my progress would be nearly as useless to come up with whats in the end.

I dont know, the end just left me empty, nothing to carry from, I didnt feel anything, I wasnt excited, wasnt sad, wasnt happy, wasnt intrigued or thrilled 

It felt like all the cut scene that came after the final decision could have been playable, but instead they just skipped a huge portion of what the game could have been and wrapped it in a video

I dont even feel like any of my inmportant relationships within all the characters in the game mattered in any way, the game didnt spesify them at the end

I was mean to my mom at the very first episode, and I dindt get to see how my relationship with my mom resulted at the end of the game, neither my relationship with David, the game in episode 3 tried to strike fear into me while making me to decide between taking his card or not, which i did allthough I really disliked him and didnt let him control me throughout the entire game, and I did keep the post card because i agreed to have a good relationship with david as long as hes willing to put effort into it, I didnt get to see him put his trust into me and I didnt get to see the result of my decision, it was just him engaging Chloe's mom, which im convinced it will be like that no matter what you choose

The only relationship between me and the characters that I got to see in the end scenes was Eliot, I dont even care about eliot! eliot meant nothing to the story or to me throughout the entire game, I didnt even recognize him at episode 3 and his only final approach to me was extremely toxic and god awful, why sohlud i care if he ripped a picture of me and himself?? why was it so important to skip everything else but the relationship between Eliot and Chloe??

The only minor relationship that isnt even with me that I was at least happy about is Ethan and the girl being friendly and happy together, which I was trying to help ethan to get in a better place throughout the game and prevent him from becoming a monster by giving him a happier life and someone to support him and help him

I feel like I could still help Rachel forgive her father after telling her the truth, but it just wasnt there 

the thing I was expecting about the ending the most was to link itself to the present of where the first Life Is Strage is occurring at 

The entire game i was like “no way they are not gonna make the final cutscene of Before The Storm about Chloe entering the school bathroom and being threatened by Ethan and getting shot, which was the most important highlight of how the original game started off, the biggest part of the game that determined the end of the original game

It doesnt tell why Rachel has gone missing from the city which I assume they will put it in the bonus episode “farewell”

it has so many plot holes and so many things that you did throughout the game that just meant nothing after all, Rachel wasnt even shown to get to see her mom which she was looking for the most

I thought the game was more about explaining how the storm formed, and not the adventures of Rachel seeking her mom who only got relevant in the third episode and gone away with a bitter to no potential to existing in there but to lead to choosing the relationship between Rachel and her father, James

The ending didint feel satisfying at all, it had nothing to it, I feel like being pulled by my hair and spitted in my mouth

Niether Damon gets what he deserves 

Its just so incomplete

Honestly, saying out all these stuff, the ending was just garbage

Im truly disappointed since the series are all about choice making, which all of your progress, all what you do in the game is to find out what happens in result to your actions, and its just nothing, there nothing there, its just nothing! you did all this, for nothing! why even be worried about your playthrough! 

I must admit that I did have a lot of fun playing the game and I could be playing the game non stop until I get a severe headache because it was interesting, but knowing that it was all for nothing, really ruins the experience, like eating your most dream like favorite food but instead just spitting it out after every bite

probably the worst part of it for me is that its in no way made a complete link to how the storm was formed, It;d be so much interesting if the entire game was about befriending with someone so perfect that they are the storm, that THey are the flauge, I felt like the entire game was trying to lead to the big twist that Rachel only manipulated you and created the catastrophic storm she caused, hell itd be cool if she had abilities like max, liek controlling the weather, and have her emotions control the atmosphere and causing the entire storm, making you realize that you helped that storm and put you through the shocking reveal

Its just so easy to make ends really great, im sure its extremely common for the basic human being to think through a great satisfying ending, if thats not true that I must be some kind of a super human, I feel like I could write the game myself and make it amazing 

I feel like no care or love or thought went into the last episode and the ending besides the very beginning

I just dont understand how people just give up so easily on things like that

I would understand if they just got tired at the very end of creating the game so they just didnt want to think through the ending anymore, but if you came up with the idea to create a sequal to a game, you probably must have thought of the biggest highlights and the shocking ending right before development 

idk man

the end really ruined it for me 

it sucks 

neither the symbol of the crow meant anything, I thought itd mean something since Chloe’s dad was explaining that the fire is attractive but the fire in its real form is jealous and it devours if you get close to it, and I thought the crow would be the symbol because crows are attracted to shiny things, which I assumed that Chloe is the crow in the story, and Rachel is the attractive fire that only at the end it destroys all

but no

whatever man  

[cielospeaks]

f-h opinionions and negative? stuff?

-tbh one of the stupidest things abt the fans is the implication that all the annas are the same (ie. wakes anna being an “alt” of heroes). theyre really not, canonically theyre all sisters/relatives but their personalities are different. past wakes theyre interested in money/money making schemes to my knowledge, but for instance wakes is very caring towards ppl in need whereas heroes is just an apologizing babysitter to the royal siblings who constantly excuses their nasty behavior and makes terrible strategic decisions that endanger innocent people. theyre not the same character a t a l l.

-the game modes are all.. passable. even ones that arent interesting or fun at all have at least one redeeming quality. forms is bullshit but at least it gives a lot of orbs. rokkr is annoying and tedious but also has feather/orb rewards. imo the best/my favorite are the longer ones (gc and tempest/fb) and the rhythm game bc at least theyre fun to play. ll is fine too, its just like a background expedition thing.

-honestly im apathetic towards duo. im prolly most ok w hecc, followed by marth, but thats prolly just bc i like their characters/the concept more. hecc makes the most sense imo, lili is a literal 6 yr old and hecc is a protective dad, whereas everyone else is there w another adult ish person. it seems its just an excuse to give more “fresh and new” variants to each game’s main lord(s) which is. whatever. i dont care, im not gonna roll for them. ig its a little disappointing bc i was hoping for something like dorcas/natalie or merlinus and someone (the latter could happen w roy or eliwood?) as a way to include ppl who wouldnt be in combat at all. leif would be awesome w august or dorias imo, i might try for him if thats the case..

-the new story is infinitely better than b3, but im still cautious bc of the shit in b3. my guess.. ig is that both fairies are actually peony’s sisters (since she just says “older sister”, its never specified how many). ideally itd be a story like there’s no “bad guy” but solely a long misunderstanding/conflict of views that eventually is conciled. but seeing as its the main characters who have to be the “heroes killing all the evil bad guys” i dont have high hopes necessarily. i hope they dont make the player playable, that would be stupid imo.

-at best case i end up liking them just fine and wanting to eventually roll them (not big priority but mild, like my feeling towards laevy/helbindi). i kinda doubt there’ll be any big faves, esp since hrid and laegy set the bar so high.

-resort needs a big update. times of day, expanding to maybe two pages? thatd be cool. its a little crowded as of now and they dont even raise the place limit anymore