#i'd like to say he's summoned sword shaped

[myrlin]

merlin cannot use ANY weapon to save himself. swords? nah. lances? nah. guns? nah. he relied on his magic & after the fall of camelot ... he didn't want to fight nor be trained by anyone else other than a.rthur.

[cologona]

If you won some sort of lottery contest and DC allowed you to write a comic run for any character, any topic, no limits, what would your comic be like?

What kinda plot and characters would you want to etch into official DC canon? (Or would you prefer to write an elseworlds kinda thing?)

-redhoodinternaldialectical from the "main" blog

Sorry it took a while to answer this, I got pretty carried away! Jason is my favorite character and the character I know most about, so of course I'd write about him. This is going to be pretty long winded and fanfic-y, hope you don’t mind!

First things first I’m making both UTRH and Lost Days mostly canon again. Jason was a crime lord who did Mean Crime Lord Things for a while and that’s what I’ve decided everyone is referring to when they gesture vaguely to his villainous past.

I’m also bringing back the original “big boob” backstory where Jason makes Bruce laugh on the anniversary of his parents’ death. Catherine was an opioid addict due to illness, Willis was the person who taught Jason about cars (and thus how to jack tires) and Faye Gunn is no longer Jason’s grandma. (I really disliked Ma Gunn’s “redemption” in RHATO.) Just in case, I’m also reiterating Sheila’s role in Jason’s death.

Here’s a few lines I came up with for the Todds:

Jason keeps the letters Willis sent him from prison - the ones Ma Gunn hid- in the same picture frame that holds his Robin graduation photo with Bruce. He loved and resented Willis in equal parts, but mostly he regrets not having gotten more time. It’s all the same with fathers.

Catherine is curled up in bed, her expression is half a grimace. She asks Jason, who is reading a picture-book by her side, to get her ‘medicine’ for her. Jason doesn’t know how else to help her feel better so… that’s exactly what he does. In a moment, he returns with a small heart shaped box and a cup of microwaved soup.

If I can imply in some way that Catherine is in denial about the possibility of her dying I’d like to do that too.

I’m also doing a total overhaul of the All-Caste.

Essence is getting proper Tibetan braids, Ducra is going to wear a khampa chuba instead of her current old coat, and the Acres-of-All are getting reimagined as a towering Ziggurat with all the murals, pillars, curtains, and ornate trim befitting a monastery! The All-caste of memory will be bright and fantastical, but the ruins of the present will be dark and spooky.

Some references for what I'm talking about.

I’m also reframing the “Absolute Evil” part of the All-blades’ description to be an epithet for the Untitled. The sword is not literally judging Goodness and Evilness anymore; now they cut through negative psychic energy Jujutsu Kaisen style. I don’t think I need to spell out a justification for Jason being able to summon them whenever, but for any sticklers I’ll just say it’s because Jason- like the Untitled- has a lot of bad feelings and trace amounts of Dionesium in his system (among assorted other chemicals.)

Since Lost Days is being brought back that means instead of spending an entire 3 years with the All-Caste, Jason only spent a few weeks with them during his world-wide training arc. Ostensibly because a little magic would give him an edge over Batman. Ducra wouldn’t normally just give away powerful magic weapons to any chump with a free weekend, and she knew Jason was dangerous, but since the All-Blades are so specific and the ritual to attain them nigh-unsurvivable she saw an opportunity to use Jason. Sure she's one of the Good Guys, but she's not called a conniving old witch for nothing hoohoo!

Now a few plot ideas for a vague overall mini-arc.

First, Jason goes to ugly lengths to protect or prevent consequences from finding one of his family. Maybe someone threatens their secret identity…? The ‘opponent’ should be someone innocent and/or noble but not easily bought or fought. Maybe Vicki Vale, another Hero, or some kind of wealthy heir. The point is to cast doubt on if Jason’s return to the Bats is really so unquestionably redeeming. Jason has pretty much chosen to betray his morals for them after all.

Then, Jason chooses not to kill a villain who shortly afterwards victimizes more people and skips town before he can get caught. Basically a rehash of Diplomat’s Son except the Garzonas figure gets away. It’s technically a win for Batman- his presence kept Gotham safe after all. But it doesn’t feel like a win, especially not to Jason.

And finally, Jason frames himself for various murders committed by victims against their abusers. Maybe kick the story off with one of Ma Gunn’s boys killing her and telling the cops it was Red Hood in a desperate bid to avoid jail.

Obviously Jason can’t be allowed to do this long-term. It’s a bad precedent to set, an obstruction of justice, etc… Jason hasn’t broken The Big Rule though, and Bruce can only act so sanctimonious when those same complaints could be are made about him as well. There’s no way this ends any other way than Batman running Red Hood out of Gotham again and they both know it, but neither deviates from the path set before them.

One or two “monster of the week” issues where Jason fights various assassins and bounty hunters sent by his more influential enemies might be good- one should occur right after the above story. A consequence for his “return to form” so to speak. Batfamily fans may appreciate a scene where Bruce says something indicating that he ran Jason out for his own safety as well as Gotham’s. Batman may be able to hide in Bruce Wayne’s skin during the day but Jason’s only identity is that of Red Hood, and at times that makes him vulnerable in a way other heroes aren’t. This + some panels contrasting the generic mercenary look of Jason’s guns and equipment with the Bats’ spandex future-tech will be great for showing how separate Jason is from the Bats.

Now while Jason’s out of Gotham again there’s this detail in one of RHATO’s flashbacks that I want to expand on- that being how he used to be able to summon a lot more All-blades.

Red Hood Outlaw 34

“I had a lot of soul back then” - implying that he has a lot less soul now…!?

Jason’s been through a lot, in life sure but also more recently. Fight scenes where the All-blades take the form of daggers would not only be cool and evocative of the wavy dagger Talia gifted him way back when, they’d be good visual sign of his declining emotional state.

Later on as his soul ‘shrinks’ further, I’d give him a pair of mystical guns through which he can channel his All-blades into bullets. If it’s another gift from Talia I’m thinking dark brass revolvers with paisley filigree and a red Endless Knot charm hanging from each handle. If they’re from Essence or S’aru I’m thinking black lacquer and silver cloud-patterned ornamentation, with red coral embedded on either side of the gun. Beautiful Bayonetta-style guns with glowing red veins and a cowboy flair!

antique guns which inspired me

As for what he’s using the All-blades (All-bullets?) for, I think it’d be fun to have Jason exorcising some ghosts. He can solve various murder mysteries, figure out why this place or that person is haunted, and get into fights with horrific otherworldly creatures. Jason is an interesting character to do this premise with because he might just determine that some some spirits should get their revenge, and act on behalf of a ghost rather than erasing it.

I’m not sure whether I’d want to have Essence join him or not… On one hand it only makes sense that Jason would help Isabel and Essence find a way to free themselves from the Blood Blade, and that goal would provide his character with some direction. Then again, Essence/Isabel could be cool as antagonists. Jason might see some ghosts as valid but Essence probably wouldn’t see any merit in appeasing manifestations of lingering resentment. She’s similar to him in that she also turned her back on her family, but she’s different in that she did it because she believed so wholeheartedly in their cause. She’s old and sort of a Jedi, but she’s hot-blooded and she’ll never not be Ducra’s daughter in the same way it seems Jason can never escape Batman’s shadow. I bet she has some real juicy sunk-cost fallacy type thinking too, that’d be fun to dig into.

Anyways I think this is a pretty good set-up to explore the politics/morality of forgiveness. What makes the difference between an injustice and a hatchet that ought to be buried? When is forgiveness empowering and when is it coerced? Who is it that must forgive? Justice vs Revenge, that whole kind of thing.

Other than the supernatural stuff I want Jason working with Talia, and I’m reintroducing Sasha to the post-52 continuity. Duela is getting nixed.

I don’t really have any specific plot ideas for Talia, but I would like to establish Jason as one of her associates. With Lost Days back they have basis for an actual relationship again. They’re not always on the same side but Jason can sometimes do tasks for Talia (outside the purview of Ra’s and the LOA), and Talia can occasionally support Jason with various social power-play type moves.

An instance of Jason getting into a fight with one of the Bats because he’s doing a favor for Talia would be great! I wouldn't write Talia as an evil evil bad horrible dragon lady, so it shouldn’t be a huge blow to Jason’s status as a Good Guy. Also I like the idea of Jason and Talia’s relationship mostly being inferred through their actions supporting one another, rather than directly showing much ‘on-screen’ interaction between them.

Also it’ll be interesting to go into Bruce, Dick, and Damian’s reaction to finding out that they’re not the only ones Jason is loyal to. Bruce thinking Talia was a bad influence on Jason (like fanon), silently frustrated because what he really wants is for Jason to be a full Bat-Believer (like the good old days…). Dick being fine with Jason never falling fully in-line with Bruce, provided that at the end of the day his loyalty belonged to his family.

-brief topical detour to talk about Sasha-

The new timeline of events is that Jason and Sasha met as fellow patients while Jason was in his Vague Villain era. They escaped the hospital building together (Sasha in her bloody dress, and Jason naked save for his skimpy hospital gown dhoti) and having no one else they stuck together. They got close but at some point Sasha lost her memories, giving her a chance at a fresh start. This was around the same time Jason “redeemed” himself and so just like Max Dawkins, ‘Numbers’, and Gabby Christiensen -Sasha became another person from Jason’s past that he didn’t let himself have a relationship with.

Sasha was just old enough that she didn’t have to be sent into foster care, so with some help from Wayne Foundations she got her GED and her feet underneath her. Now… she goes to work, goes to her physical therapy appointments, fights with her mother over the phone, and yes- sometimes she goes to the club.

The new Sasha still has spiky red hair but her face looks entirely normal save for a subtle scar tracing around her jawline and chin- the edges of where her mask used to sit. She wears dark makeup and even darker clothes. She’s prone to false memories and dissociation. She’s lost most of her ability to feel pain. She can’t watch certain shows she used to love anymore because they trigger her. She never returned to Russia. She doesn’t have many friends.

Since this is comics, her reintroduction will come by way of a dramatic fight. Sasha will regain her memories one day and show up out of the blue to fight Jason, angry and heartbroken that he abandoned her. He tries to explain himself but she just says look what they did to my face, referring to the facial reconstructive surgery she was given while amnesiac. She’ll be difficult to fight, not only because being a partial Dollotron gives her enhanced strength but also because she’s being reckless and the longer they fight the more strain and damage her body accrues.

After Jason apologizes and they reconcile (they will both cry) Sasha can become a recurring side character that Jason visits, keeping him grounded and up to date with Gotham. I think it'd be cute for her to bid him farewell by saying she’ll hold the city hostage until he comes back. (Is Sasha going to become Jason’s love interest? No. If I give Jason a love interest it’s going to be Numbers.)

--Going back to the previous topic, I want Sasha’s return to be part of this greater arc of Jason addressing his "shrinking soul" problem. My brain is a little fried now so I’m not exactly sure how but she is related. I think she ought to be.

Jason wants Bruce to be right. He would like for his problem to be fixed by going home and saying sorry. But at the end of my run I want him to face the reality that it’s not about that.

...Perhaps it should be about Jason 'abandoning' Gotham? I don’t really want the final thesis of my run to imply that Jason’s soul would just be fixed if he killed Rogues though, and Jason always came back whenever a big disaster was happening so it doesn't quite fit anyways… Jason does believe in the value of “pure” heroes it’s just not what he’s supposed to be. Whatever his problem's “about” , it ought to prompt Jason to stop taking Bruce’s shit. I'm saying the man is literally breaking Jason's spirit.

I’m sympathetic to Bruce but I wouldn’t write him as a nice father. I would also have scene where a younger Bat accuses Jason of being overdramatic despite 'not even having it the worst’. I don't know who 'has it the worst' but I want to make a statement that you don't need to win the pain-race to be fed up.

Ah anyways, now my brain is really fried. I hope this post was coherent all the way through, I neglected to edit and organize my thoughts as much towards the end. Thank you for asking me such a great question, I had a lot of fun thinking about it! :D

[twstunes]

looking at the Mirror Chamber very intently. come with me for a sec. Take My Hand.

First thing catching my eye are the windowpanes. They're pretty busy in general, but those thorny curls…suspicious. As is how the overall flow of the panes seems to resemble an inverted form of the design Draconimom's appearance is built around (which is itself based on Maleficent's general character design).

But u know what really gets me? These aren't the only windows with distinctly thorn-like windowpanes. For some reason, the uppermost windows in the normal classrooms (like in Trein's magic history lessons) have a thorny design too. NO clue if there's any relation there, but it feels too overt to brush off, y'know?

Next up: the rose arches over the windows. If you look closely at Draconimom's lace cape-thing, you'll notice the roses worked into its pattern (sorta in the 'ear' area of the pattern)– and one of masquerade Malleus' home screen lines has him saying how fond he is of the rose embellishments on his outfit. It's a bit of a stretch, but considering the extreme similarities between Draconimom and our dear buddy Hornton, I'd be willing to bet that roses are A Specific Thing for them. (Plus there's the obvious thorns –> roses connection, and how Draconimom's staff is a giant flower, AND it provides a convenient visual tie-in to the first dorm/major boss we encounter in the main story…)

Now for the chandelier. Pretty messy-looking for such a fancy chamber, yeah? But with such a distinctive floral pattern to it…and to the lace it seems to be wrapped in. The main focus of the lace seems to be that sorta three-leaf pattern in it, the shape of which is reflected in the bud-like decoration dangling down from the center.

I know I'm making the lace of Draconimom's cape-thing do some heavy lifting in this analysis, but that sorta three-leaf/bud-like shape does appear in it. More noticeable, though, would be how the dangling bud seems to resemble the central decor of Draconimom's heavy belt– just without the sword.

Less relevant, but the presence of chains on the chandelier give me pause. Symbolically, chains are used to represent containment or (a negative sense of) security. I've joked about Draconimom being in the Dark Mirror, but that chains would be placed so nearby…it makes me wonder. Is the person in the mirror being actively restrained or otherwise held by force, as opposed to passively being trapped?

Also, if you look closely…at the top of the chandelier's lace, nearly hidden in the gloom, appears to be the image of a rose.

Moving along, the bottom of the chandelier looks quite similar to the construction of the botanical garden, just inverted. The four large beams visible in our view of the botanical garden also have a very…pointy quality about them, thanks to the spear pillars acting at their supports. You could say they look almost like thorned vines.

Looking from the campus map view shows that those large beams fully encircle the building, just as the decorative lines on the chandelier presumably encircle it. In addition, we can also see that the Hall of Mirrors has a somewhat similar construction. (Not using the outer view of the HoM from the official manga bc idk how much artistic leeway the manga artists are allowed.)

The circles on the coffin lids alternate between being bright green or glowing cyan, depending on whether or not you're summoning cards. It could be that the green is their default "inactive" state, and the cyan glow is caused by them being "active" during the summoning sequence? Seven ("active") coffins appear during the summoning cutscene, which is all but assuredly in reference to the fact you can usually only summon from the 7 available dorms. (The 12 "inactive" coffins seen during the normal view of the Mirror Chamber don't appear to correlate to anything in specific.)

The lamps lining the Mirror Chamber each have seven lights on them, which could also be a subtle nod at the 7 dorms – it's a bit of an odd design for a lamp, otherwise. All of them together gives me the impression of a grove of saplings.

last but not least, this is slightly off-topic but WHAT is up with that fountain. why's it got the nastiest lookin water known to man. when was that thing last cleaned. looks bad looks rancid. still feel compelled to take a lil sip tho

[renaisguy]

July activity check (+Heroes)

Passed!

Monthly skill point +1 Lance C (1/2) -> C+

So, Forde got into Heroes last month. This is very exciting, so I've decided to make a post just looking at his lines...

Is what I thought, but when I went to the wiki I found they hadn't been updated yet. So I spent the next hour or so typing out his (and Kyle's, and Amelia's, and Glen's).

Forde mentions Kyle 4 times, Ephraim 3 times and Franz once. Most of his lines are references to his supports. I'm not gonna quote everything, but here's some assorted thoughts I had:

Charcoal

"I'm sketching this hall. See, I use charcoal to draw and shade… Really just my way of recording memories." (Home)

"This? Oh- it's a sketch. I use this piece of charcoal to draw and shape like this." (Info screen)

He uses charcoal (as mentioned once in the Kyle C-support). I should uh, keep that in mind. Is a painting a painting if there's no paint?

Baby Kyle

"Oh, Kyle? He's been stuck-up since his plan to take over the nursery as a baby. Still… the ladies sure liked him." (Home)

I think this one undersells Kyle tbh. He made more than one plan:

Forde: When you were a baby, you were planning out strategies to take over the nursery. You were stuck up then, and you're stuck up now. And STILL the ladies liked you! (Kyle B-support)

"Kyle was so cool when we were children. I still remember how impressed I was." (Info screen)

This one's just cute.

VANESSA!

A couple of references to his A-support with Vanessa.

""I felt this warmth engulfing me, blowing across me like a summer wind. It must have been your energy." (Info screen)

"Feel my energy." (Critical quote)

Forde: Everyone has a different type of energy. Some energies can heal hearts, others spread courage. When you first saw me sleeping, I was dreaming of running across a field. I felt this warm energy engulfing me, blowing across my face like a summer wind. It must have been your energy that made me feel that way. Vanessa: My…energy? Forde: Would you like to feel my energy, too? (Vanessa A-support)

I have always loved this moment in his supports just for how out-of-pocket it is. Forde would be an astrology girlie. And let us be clear, Forde is flirting with Vanessa in this moment. This is his idea of a pick-up line. I'm obsessed.

Anyway let's just take a second to acknowledge that by association, Forde is not only flirting with the summoner, but every enemy he fights. Also the summoner has the same energy as Vanessa.

(One time I asked my brother to compare me to a fire emblem character he said Vanessa, so I'll take it I guess)

Franz

"When we lost our parents… well I don't know where I'd be now if I hadn't had Franz's help back then." (Info screen)

This is actually a reference to his supports with Ephraim.

Forde: When we lost our parents, I was shattered. Franz helped me get back on my feet. If I didn't have his help then, I don't know where I'd be today…

I don't talk about Franz enough. Let's get into this.

Forde and Franz's father died ten years before the events of FE8, and their mother died before then. Franz was too young to really remember them (Seth&Franz A-support, Amelia&Franz A-support, Kyle&Forde A-support).

Even before he died, their father was rarely at home, as he served in the army. Forde was sad, but Franz was constantly crying about it. To try to cheer him up, Forde drew a picture of their parents. (Seth&Franz A-support, Ephraim&Forde A-support)

In addition, a portrait of their mother hangs in their house, that Forde painted after he won a sword tournament. (We'll get back to this) (Kyle&Forde A-support)

You might notice here, that none of this is learnt in their supports with each other. The most they say about their parents is in their A-support:

Forde: …… …The last portrait I ever painted was of Mother… Franz: Mother? Forde: Never mind. Not important. (A-support)

Oh, and this only comes up because Forde is trying to make himself seem less cool than Franz thinks he is (sorry for the long wall of text it's all important I swear):

Franz: You are my role model. Forde: Franz, what's with you? All of a sudden, you-- Franz: No, it's not sudden at all. Come to think of it, I became a soldier so I could be like you. And now, I'm going to work harder, so I can be a great knight like you. Forde: That… That doesn't make any sense. Have you seen how lazy I am? Seriously. There are MUCH better role models out there for you to hero-worship. Franz: No, no. You like to act lazy. It's part of your charm, isn't it? But once the battle starts, everyone sees how sharp a warrior you are. Forde: Is that so? Franz: Yes, it is. And I also know that you like to play the part of the fool for no other reason than to give these weary soldiers a reason to smile. Forde: … Franz: And your sword and spear skills surpass those of any knight in the service of Renais, Frelia, or any other kingdom. Forde: Wow. Your flattery is far more than I deserve… Franz: The only reason you paint is to acquire a better understanding of geography, so that you can use that knowledge in battle… Forde: Nah… It's just a hobby. Don't give me too much credit. Franz: I'm not. Think about it. You only paint landscapes, isn't that true? Forde: …… …The last portrait I ever painted was of Mother… Franz: Mother? Forde: Never mind. Not important. Anyway, I'm shocked. SHOCKED. Yeah, if you need a role model, look to General Seth. Franz: Of course I admire General Seth. But that's just admiration. You're still my role model.

Right so the only reason their mother is brought up is because Forde's denying that his paintings are useful in battle. Which is interesting because...

Ephraim: …What is that? Is that a painting? Forde: This? No, no… No, it's a topographic map! Yes. For strategy. We need to plot out our strategy, don't we? During battles, I like to look at this map and analyze enemy lines… Ephraim: But…that's clearly a landscape painting. Forde: … (Ephraim C-support)

It's an excuse he's used before. With this, it's clear that he doesn't want Prince Ephraim to think badly of him, but isn't comfortable with Franz thinking so highly of him.

But even so, there's one thing Franz says that he doesn't try to refute:

Franz: Yes, it is. And I also know that you like to play the part of the fool for no other reason than to give these weary soldiers a reason to smile. Forde: ...

Hypothesis: Franz is correct. Interpretation: Forde remains positive so that those around him can stay positive. Extrapolation: Forde's been doing the same since their parents died. Conclusion: Forde will heavily downplay his emotional state for the sake of not worrying others. When he says Franz helped him get on his feet when their parents died (bear in mind Franz would be at most 8 at this point), he partially means that if he realised that if he let himself succumb to despair, Franz would do the same.

Got back to Heroes eventually.

Portraits

I'm not getting into the Forging Bonds that deeply, but they touched on a lot of the same things his level 40 convo does, just with 100% more Rosado (hell yeah).

"You wanna know why I don't paint portraits? I gotta say, I'm impressed you noticed. You see… When I was a kid, I beat Kyle in a tournament for swordsman trainees. It was pretty remarkable. But my mother was more pleased about a portrait I drew of her than my victory in the tournament. I didn't understand at the time, but now I get why she wanted me to wield a brush over a sword. My last portrait was of her. Maybe one day I'll want to do more, if I can put down my sword for a bit. Yeesh! Not like me to get so introspective. Something about you… I can talk for ages. Come on, let's go." (Upon reaching level 40)

This is basically the Forde&Kyle A-support. Which I'm very happy about as it includes my favourite line from all of Forde's supports:

Forde: She rejoiced more in my skill with the brush than in my skill with the sword. I never understood why… Not until recently, at any rate.

Though the detail that his mother was the last portrait he drew is only found in Franz's A-support.

Right, so Forde doesn't do portraits. He'll never, ever paint another portrait...

Eirika: Would you ever consider… doing a portrait of me? Forde: I'm sorry? Eirika: Is that distasteful to you? Forde: No! No… It's just that I so rarely do portraits. Eirika: So, it would be a bother? Forde: Not at all! A bother? Really. This request comes from my princess. I'd be more than happy to. (Eirika B-support)

Forde: It is because of you that we can go on. You and the prince are here, risking your lives for the cause. Your guidance, your leadership… It gives us a reason to live as well. Eirika: A reason…to live? Forde: Yes… To restore that radiant smile to your own lovely face. Eirika: Oh! Forde: I fight to see you smile again, to drive the worry from your face. If I can do that, then I will be more than happy to paint your portrait. (Eirika A-support)

I really love the Forde and Eirika supports. It's really sweet that despite everything, he's able to find someone he wants to paint again. It's also the support conversation where he becomes the most dedicated to being a good night. (well, good as he can be without too much effort).

Yeah

Overall, I'm very happy with how Forde's been portrayed in Heroes. There's only one problem I have... which comes from some of Kyle's lines...

"Kyle, of the knights of Renais." (Info screen)

"My life has been in service of Renais since the moment I took my chivalric vows." (Info screen)

"We ride for Renais!" (Critical quote)

One thing you might notice... all of the above lines are voiced...

This entire time, I've been pronouncing Renais as "Ren-eye", to rhyme with "Guy". But Kyle pronounces it as "Ren-ay", which rhymes with... no, I shan't say it...

[kazoosandfannypacks]

okay, so I know it's been half a year, but back in September I participated in the Swordtember drawing challenge, and I figured I'd post my swords here!

descriptions of each sword under the cut!

I. Witch: This sword actually only a hilt and a crossguard with an enchanted jewel attached to it. The blade of the sword is created by the witch channeling their magic through the gemstone.

II. Wizard: A regular steel sword, enchanted by light magic using the blue gemstone.

III. Rogue: This is a simple dagger that fits into a sheath in the rogue's boot. The loop makes it easier to pull out of your shoe.

IV. Dragon Slayer: This sword has slightly curved crossguard to account for the curve of the body of the dragons he fights. The spikes on the sword are the horns of the dragons he's slayed.

V. Spymaster: This sword extends out like a deadlier form of a plastic lightsaber. The canister it exists in contains a memory-loss spray, which partly serves to camouflage the sword among his spy-equipment.

VI. Knight Errant This flashy sword has inlaid gems and bright red feathers, to attract the attention of the damsels in distress he's out to save!

VII. Oracle: Nothing fancy, just. sword.

VIII. Jester: a simple dagger, small enough to fit with all his comical props.

IX. Royal Hunt Leader: This sword is more ceremonious than practical. It's decorative and used to signify the start of a hunt

X. Healer: This sword is enchanted with healing magic and made out of a healing tree

XI. Queen's: This sword has a fancy handle and has gems!

King:: This one matches the queen sword. If you put them next to each other, it makes a heart shape

XIII. Royal Heir: This sword is lowkey based on princess peach.

XIV: Royal Guard: Nothing too fancy!

XV. Enchanter: has a magic orb in the back!

XVI: Water Spirit: Has a blue gem and water enchantment

XVII. Forest Spirit: Has a green gem and forest enchantment, and is made of an enchanted tree.

XVIII. Bard: It's just really extra!

XIX. Alchemist: Has chambers in the back to include alchemical potions that enchant the sword.

XX. Summoner: To use this sword, just hold it in the air and say "[animal,] I choose you!"

XXI. Mermaid: This sword is enchanted so it doesn't rust, and the hilt is made of a shell. The pearls in the blade help enchant it!

XXII. Vampire: The vampire's blade is enchanted with a black magic that automatically cauterizes the wound- so that none of the precious blood is wasted, and its smell doesn't distract the vampire mid-fight.

XXIII. Vampire Hunter: The blade is made of pure silver. The hilt is a cross that's also a wooden stake.

XXIV. Barbarian: A wooden sword with spikes that doubles as a club!

XXV. Inquisitor: Just a regular sword- ¡Apuesto a que no esperabas eso!

XXVI. Artificer: The hilt has an interchangable tool- currently it has a magnifying glass attachment. The hilt also contains a secret chamber.

XXVII. Assassin: This blade is small but deadly and menacing!

XXVIII. Druid: This large sword contains a series of magic blue gems.

XXIX: Paladin sword: This sword isn't anything out of the ordinary, but it's made of some of the nicest materials.

XXX: Necromancer: This is an enchanted, two-handed sword!

[tokiro07]

What is the law of ueki?

Early 2000s shonen manga/anime from Shonen Sunday that I used to see ads for in various anime magazines. One day I gave it a try and I fell in love with it

I don't know if I'd say it's like an all-timer or anything, but I had a lot of fun with it since it had a really amusing and creative power system

God has decided to retire, so to select the next God from among the Celestials, he had 100 candidates grant a single power to a child of their choosing. Pretty much every power is something to the effect of "the power to turn A into B", with some exceptions

The most notable example would naturally be the main character Ueki's power to turn trash into trees. As long as he can cup it between his hands and he considers it to be trash (even if it's just the leaves that fall off of his trees), he can create pretty much any tree he wants in any shape he wants, though the size of the tree is dependent on the size of the trash

It's later revealed that powers have a Level 2 that can be unlocked upon full mastery of their Level 1, which is usually directly related to the Level 1, but again, there are exceptions. Ueki's Level 2, because his power is themed around recycling, is "the power to turn B back into A," basically canceling out the opponent's powers. Not everyone finds their Level 2, but with the number of power users who are taken out before the final rounds, it's not too surprising that so few get the opportunity to master their powers

The reason that the power users are willing to fight for the Celestials is because the winning power user will be granted the Talent of Blank, essentially a blank check to gain a talent of their choosing. Talents serve as a sort of secondary power system, with each participant taking a talent away from their defeated opponents. Striking a non-combatant with one's powers causes the user to lose one of their talents; very early on, Ueki loses a number of talents beating up people who were being cruel to others or animals, not concerned that he was going to be losing his talents. This cost him his talent for popularity with girls and talent for studying, making him repulsive to girls and pretty stupid. If a contestant loses all of their talents, they simply vanish, but this is really only likely to be an issue if they use up their talents picking fights with non-combatants

We also learn pretty quickly that some of the Celestials sent their children to Earth to sneak them into the competition to give themselves a leg up, and naturally, it turns out that Ueki was one of those children. This introduces a THIRD aspect to the power system, though it's only relevant to the Celestials: the Sacred Treasures. Each Celestial has 10 weapons that they can use in conjunction with their powers to be unlocked at various stages of their development, including an arm cannon, a giant sword, skates that give superspeed but disallow jumping, giant gauntlets that shield the user, etc. Ueki for example can only summon his weapons by using pieces of trash

There's one Celestial whose power is to turn objects into animals (which really just gives them a face and makes them able to operate independently) which he uses to bring his Sacred Treasures to life. They get surprisingly creative with it considering that all of the Sacred Treasures are otherwise the exact same between users, but it's definitely the aspect of the power system that contributes the least to how fun the battles can be

I haven't seen it in over a decade, but I still think about it from time to time and look back on it really fondly. There's a lot of really memorable powers, like "power to turn electricity into sugar" being used to cover a target in sugar and then turning the sugar back into electricity and shocking them, "voices into ice" combining with "voices into portraits" to lay traps that would freeze opponents when they triggered them, "1 second into 10" being represented as a slow motion ability, "the past into the present" replaying the user's actions with a temporary clone, etc.

I found out a few years ago that there was a short-lived epilogue/sequel, which I never got around to reading, so sooner or later I'm going to read the manga (I've previously only seen the anime) and finish it up with Law of Ueki Plus

If that power system sounds fun to you at all, I definitely recommend it, though I will caution that the art style is a bit rough

[gust-jar-simulator]

I decided to have the heroes from Tool Gods do a little meet-cute (read: scare the crap out of eachother). I may or may not continue this one, depends.

First victim is Wake.

Characters: Wake (TG, Hero of Winds), Smithy (TG, Hero of the Minish)

Prompt: Ghost summoning

°🌚🌊🪙🌊🌚°

Link had never exactly tried calling a ghost, but there was a first time for everything.

See, he had a plan. Where did ghosts go? The sea, obviously, with all the rest of the dead. Any ghosts from before the flood would definitely be under the sea. Probably. So that's a location settled.

Everyone knew that if you were waiting for someone to come home, you left a light on or put a candle in the window to guide them back. And when it came to gods and spirits, people usually left out food. It's just rude to invite someone over and not offer refreshments. So he'd grabbed his favorite ship's lantern and a bottle of soup off the hearth, because obviously for the best luck with this sort of thing the offerings had to be the best quality. No way could it not work with Grandma's soup involved, he could probably summon Hylia Herself with this stuff.

Then, to really get the point across, he'd need something that belonged to the ghost. Considering his heirloom shield and the Master Sword were both carried by the hero before him, he had that covered.

He'd never paid a lot of attention at festivals, and it wasn't like any of the temples he'd seen were actual temple temples, with priests and such, so he really was winging it here. But all real magic he'd known involved music, something strong and calling that would reach out and shape the wind. So. A song, then, to round it all out. Something for the sea to carry and the ghost to follow home.

Link took a deep breath, shoved the lantern a little more securely into a sand bank, and gave the soup bottle a pat. The full moon cast a silver path over the inky expanse of the sea, phantom stepping-stones shimmering all the way to the dark horizon. Salt, sand, the chill off the waves. Nothing for it but to start, really.

He ran a finger over the Wind Waker's bleached-bone wood, cleared his throat, and tried.

"Uh..." No, no, be confident. "Hi. My name's Link."

The night wind curled lightly through the sand, teased at his hair, and he huffed a laugh.

"I dunno the fancy shit for calling ghosts, so I'll say it like it is: for an long as anyone can remember, kids have worn green when they come of age to look like the Hero before me. And now the hero's me. Nobody gets it, and nobody's going to, so I want to talk to the guy who came before me. Just... ask him what it was like. If he gets it. If he was excited, or scared, if he had a sister, what he did after all the..." He shoved a hand roughly through his hair, flailed the Wind Waker in a hopeless little gesture at the silver path to the moon. "What do you do, after saving the fucking world? Get married? I don't want to do that yet. Sleep with one eye open forever? Pretend birds don't scare the fuck out of you? I don't know what I'm doing. So... if you could show up and tell me where the fuck you went, since it was more important than sticking around, I'd like that. I'll be here all night." A pause. "Please."

That settled, he put his sword and shield down in a sort of pretty, mostly symmetrical way, nudged the lantern and soup a little closer to them, and then took a deep breath.

The Ballad of the Goddess was an old song, older than modern Hylian, and he'd never heard it in the original language. But he knew the tune the same way he knew salt on his skin and Aryll tugging at his pant leg, begging for a story. The really old stories were always songs, and this was supposed to be about the first Hero ever, he'd heard. Maybe his voice was salt-rough and better for shanties, but hey. Singing was singing, and he wasn't begging for a god's attention here.

After the first few notes the tune started to snowball, something picking up in his chest and straightening his spine like a mainsail catching a good wind, something that tasted like sunlight and clouds and cliff-diving into the sea, until for a moment he couldn't even see the star-scattered night, just an ocean of clouds tossing in curls of white edged with gold.

And then it was over, snapped shut like Tetra hoarding her logbook, and Link was left blinking light-blind in the dark for a long moment, the ozone taste of magic crackling at the back of his tongue like old blood.

"Fuck," he muttered, slightly dizzy.

"Fuck," someone else nodded agreeably, bent over his shield with an interested look. "Where'd you get this from, anyway?"

"Fuck!"

Scrambling back, Link made a grab for a sword he wasn't carrying and tripped flat on his ass into the sand, pulse all frantic thunder. The other guy, for his part, raised a vaguely transparent brow at him.

He had curly hair pulled back in a short ponytail, as best as it could be pulled back at least. The moonlight left him washed-out, and even with the lantern light on him it was hard to pick out colors- boots that might have been purple with strange iridescent feather-charms, blue gauntlets edged in fur, green tunic, a strange red cloak like layered leaves or really large feathers.

There was a bright gold hilt at his hip that didn't match the Master Sword with a jet-black pommelstone, and elaborate eyeliner curled around foggy blue eyes with sharp runic intent laced into the careful design. He smiled, rough and fun and a little sly, and capped it all off with a wave. "Boo."

"Boo your fucking self, shit." Pressing a hand to his chest like he could stop his heart from trying to jump out of it, Link stared at the ghost squatting next to his shield and tried to reconcile the slightly wild edge to him with the cold, carved hero in the sunken castle. "Are you him, then? The hero before me, who fought Ganondorf?"

The ghost didn't react to the name, and after a lingering look completely lost interest, peering at the shield again and attempting to run transparent fingers over it. On one of them, a red-gold ring glinted, and he could see the flash of bracelets under the wrist-lacing of the gauntlets. "Doesn't ring a bell, sorry. Was Ganondorf a demon?"

"No. Maybe he would've been later, I dunno." Link shrugged, uncomfortable, and pulled himself into a tailor's seat to watch the ghost attempting to look at his shield. He had a sneaking, horrible suspicion he'd been right, somewhere down the line. The shield might not have belonged to a hero at all. He wasn't even looking at the Master Sword. "Did you ever use the Master Sword?"

"Nope!" He popped it, idle and irreverent, before patting the gold hilt at his hip possessively. "I made my own. Sometimes you've gotta say fuck the gods and make your own demon-killing sword." His eyes lifted, locked on Link. "Nobody knows who made the Master Sword, and she wasn't there when I needed her, so why trust hearsay? I'm a blacksmith. If something's important enough for me to kill, I'm not trusting anyone else's work."

Despite his own better judgement, Link could feel his estimation of the strange blond ghost rising. This might be an alright ancestor. No bullshit, at least. He cocked his head like a seagull. "Then who are you? I'm Link of Outset, Hero of the Winds."

The ghost's grin went sharp, predatory in a way he recognized, like Tetra when the seas got choppy. "Oh that's funny. Really? Hero of Winds? I know that's my hair on your head. Wind?"

Link just drew the Wind Waker with a challenging glare. "Yeah, what about it? Hyrule's an ocean now, the wind is the most powerful thing out there. I control it. What're you, hero of bad fashion choices?"

"A blacksmith," the ghost nearly purred out, something sparkling like fairy lights in his eyes, "First and foremost, the best blacksmith Hyrule's ever seen. Second, I'm the Hero of the Minish, what Hylians call the Picori." He grinned. "And apparently I kicked the ass of Vaati the Wind Demon so hard that my great-whatever-grandson stole his schtick. This is the best day of my life. Unlife. You get it."

[ask-paradox-and-friends]

Chapter 10 heroes duel pt2 (again thx @hazawatsugu)

_______________________________________

*Right as the round started Tsugu held up a sword claiming it was her weapon. And after spinning it around like she was a Belmont then….ran. she ran away from her foe.*

Herc:Huh? HEY! *he started running after her. But as soon as he got there, Tsugu was humming eating a crepe and drinking a small cup of tea.*

Tsugu:hello sir. I'd invite you to have a snack but I don't believe you'd like one now…

*herc not caring got a awakening in the form of several ice and iron swords flying at him. He of course had them all break on his skin he ripped them all off him and crushed them all in his hand.*

Hercules:human weapons are USELESS on a god!

Tsugu:uh oh…those were magic….

*she immediately turned into a bat and flew away as the god charged at her she of course got away and saw the confusion on his face and nods so she could suprise him.*

*as she got higher Hercules jumped up at high speed and swung his club breaking her sword which of course knocked both them down to the ground. Of course Heimdall yelled about how easy this was for the hero of the gods only for Tsugu to jump back and pulled out a small handful of sharpened collapsible daggers. She remembered how one of her lives was close enough to Vulcan/Hephaestus that he'd make weapons for her. And it seems these were good she of course smiled and threw the handful at the god who was about to talk about how he'd not be hurt only for them to pierce his body as she smiles wobbling.*

Tsugu:I'm sorry I lied but… see my true weapon is my little bag of tricks that is in fact my collection of my weapons here… now please stand down. I'll be willing to let you keep your honor.

*a little miffed at being tricked the god repeatedly swung his club as Tsugu kept back throwing daggers and whatever weapons she could make with ice and iron dragon slayer magic. Of course she was ignoring the features slowly growing across her body.

Hercules:NEMEAN LION DEVOUR ME WHOLE!

Tsugu:a..what lion?...OH CRUD!!!!!

*a large blast shaped like a lion flew right at her as she tried to move only for the blast to hit her and send her flying into a wall and through a door causing several desks to go flying everywhere making her sigh.*

Tsugu:ah…my old school…this takes me back…

*She soon got up and using her wings started flying and trying for the best option she had she threw several things at Hercules with the manipulated metals to fly at him to wish he broke all the metals she made and soon she clearly picked up the sign of the school and threw it right at him.*

Tsugu:rrr…..RAGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Hercules:I told you that won't work!

*as he lifted his arm to block it his arm was sheared right off of his body and suddenly everyone was shocked as Loki soon caught on.*

Loki:oh I see she's been playing a prank. And he fell for it. How cute. I must say I'm impressed.

*Hercules soon caught on that anything she touched was now a Devine treasure that could hurt him and soon several more attacks came at him only for him to yell.*

Hercules:I SUMMON THE GUST CREATOR!

*with a string blast of wind his swing blew all the weapons back to sender with one even cutting her as she stumbled back holding a magic gun in her hand as she fell recalling her long love filled lives and the ups and downs.*

Tsugu:mother….father…Mocca….everyone…I'm doing this for you…I hope it's enough….

[canislupus-13]

I made my gift for the summoner secret Santa. I can't say it's particularly good but you know. oh and my partner was @lucryl-u

Sorry about the fact I was 2 hrs too late.

anyways the gift is under the cut

„Leagjarn is that a sword?” Gunthra asked looking at her present which was indeed a sword wrapped in colorful paper with pictures of evergreen trees and Christmas ornaments on it.

„Yes.” Leagjarn answered “It's quite a thoughtfull gift, Don't you think? She'll be able to use it to defend herself and it's Beautifully crafted as well.”

“How do I tell you this... Swords aren't considered to be appropriate Christmas gifts.” Gunthra said, “At least not anywhere I've heard of.”

“Back in Muspell giving someone a sword for their birthday or any other occasion wasn't anything out of the ordinary.” Leagjarn Explained. “It was like wishing someone Good luck here.”

“I'd still consider a sword to be a better gift than an unmeltable Ice sculpture of Feh” Bruno chimed in. “It's certainly a more practical gift.”

“How did... I mean that's not what I got Adelaide.” Gunthra said. “What did you Get her Anyways?

“Sure and the Giant Feh-shaped package behind you is just a hallucination,” Bruno replied. “And I'm not telling you that. You'll have to wait and see when the presents are opened. I bet it's better than your gift though”

“You know what? Let's just settle this by asking her once she opens all our gifts!” Gunthra said.”On that topic: What did you get for her Eir?”

“Oh, it's nothing special it's just something I thought would be useful” Eir answered but before she could explain what the gift was Adelaide Called all of them because it was time for the Christmas dinner.

---

After dinner came time for the presents. The Four convinced Adelaide to open her gifts first so they could learn her opinion on them. The first one was a sword with some beautiful carvings, despite its beauty, it was quite functional. The next one was a statue of Feh the owl, the order's mascot made out of unmelting ice. Bruno laughed when he saw it. The third gift was a Coat with beautiful embroidery that was too thick for the rather mild Askr weather. And the last gift was a pair of sunglasses?

“So? Which gift was the best?” Gunthra asked.

“Hm... I'd say it would be the sunglasses. They'll be rather useful in the summer.” Adelaide replied. “But I liked the other gifts a lot too so don't feel bad!”

“Well... congratulation Eir you've won,” Bruno said in a deadpan voice. “Your gift was the best”

“I... What?” Eir asked confused.

[skullndaisy]

Wanted to make a mini comic on my predictions for BOTW2.

Aka what if Ganon was revitalized, and how would a cut scene of Link's reunion work? I did some sketches in my sketchbook, and there were supposed to be a lot more panels, but I lost interest rather quickly since I didn't know where I was going with it.

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy.

If you want to read the original plans, you can below! I based the dialogue off of the Lich's "Fall" monologue towards Finn in adventure time.

Be mindful though: it's extremely messy, I didn't proofread, and honestly isn't something I'm proud of.

Though, I wanted to post it anyways, just so I can feel more confident in posting my work in general.

💀💀💀

Ganon's revived corpse vs Link PLANS/OUTLINE:

Link gets up after collapsing, a bloody mess and clinging to his sword in an inky darkness. A vague green/blue glow shapes a massive corpse-like silhouette, one that stomps around and slugs. Link's eyes narrow and he forces himself to his feet, holding his sword towards the silhouette.

**NOTE: (Link is cut up from his cheek, and has a bloody nose- which he will wipe away. His left leg is also injured and it causes him to stagger/portray limply.)

The corpse's eye glows blue, much like a guardian's eye, as he turns his head towards Link, his jaw unhinging as he speaks: "You don't talk much... I noticed that about you, long ago... No worries, talking for you won't be necessary."

He turns towards Link fully, lumbering closer towards the Hero, his veins and flesh glowing red as his shape begins to fully form. Link doesn't lose his nerve, gripping his sword and holding it into a fighters stance, forcing himself not to crumble (emphasis on exhaustion, much like that one memory. Refusal to die.)

The corpse carefully watches, a rumble of a laugh in his chest, and he remove his hands from his back to his sides. "While the Princess was watching you, so was I. For much longer than you can possibly perceive. Longer than your ancestors can perceive."

The corpse, Ganon, stands before Link, a gap of distance between them. The two stand before each other. A silence before the inevitable duel. Link huffs.

"I know how much all of this means to you. I find some semblance of respect in your diligence, even if it's shrouded with childish ignorance," The corpse moves his large talon-like paw towards Link's skull, placing a friendly/fatherly hand atop his head as a gentle gesture. Link's pupils dilate, and he freezes, his sword's tip digging into the corpse's wrist as it inches closer, the glowing blood dripping down to the handle and over Link's hands.

"I'm so sorry," Ganon utters, not bothered by the gash in forming wrist, muscles and tendons growing into something more alive, appearing more as himself than a corpse, "but this torture has gone on for too long."

He remains unmoving as the temperature drops to a chill, his breath becoming vapor. Link is somehow entranced, stuck frozen- but he seemingly continues to appear determined. The corpse scoffs as Link desperately fights off his control, the mounds of vile flesh that grew off of the corpse now enveloped at Link's boots, climbing up his legs and wrapping around his face/cheek where the corpse keeps his hold.

Link keeps his glare, sneering, but he does not move.

"Unfortunately, for this to all end, one of us has to die. I'd say, we're both tremendously terrible at that." The corpse continues gently, his other hand summoning an ancient glowing sword from behind his back. The sword moves towards Link slowly, nudging towards the side of Link's throat, sizzling at the contact of his flesh.

"Time and time again, endlessly, I've lost and you've won. We're fated to fight, bleed, and suffer— and yet, not once do things change. All under the guise that you're our destined hero... We're stuck in this loop, with each of your victories. It's about time I break this chain."

Link's expression wavers, taking in the look of grief and pain Ganon now exhibits as his face forms into palpable flesh. He appears defeated, more so than he has ever been. No more arrogant than he was merely desperate.

"Don't you wish to rest, boy?" Link breathes, closing his eyes for a moment, "yes, that's right. Fall. You've earned it."

Then suddenly, Link opens his eyes again- pupils shrinking as he sinks the sword straight into the corpse's wrist, cutting it clean off. Ganon bellows and shrieks as he retreats his bleeding stump of an arm. Ganon then transforms into a beast, his arm becoming a laser canon, and Link prepares for their battle. Link backflips and readies himself, Ganon's form now mutating in his agony— the malice that enveloped his body becoming more aggressive and spider/beast like.

💀💀💀

Ok thats all thank u bye

[drazavonia]

Kairi’s MEMORIA FORMS

ATLA

For the majority of Avatar the Last Airbender, Aang "accessed" the Avatar State in moments of immediate and genuine danger.

The Avatar State is the pure cosmic power of Raava that greatly enhances Bending Capabilities.

However, as the reincarnation cycle went on the spirit of each Avatar became tethered to Ravaa, giving them their connection to each succeeding Avatar.

During Aang's time as the Avatar, when the Avatar State activated, the previous Avatar spirits took control of his body. They use the current host as an "Avatar" to exercise their power and control acting as a defense mechanism for the Avatar.

The best example of this would be in Book 1 Episode 8. After learning of his goal from Roku inside his chamber, Aang was about to be assaulted by a firestorm waiting outside so Aang/Roku activated the Avatar State. 

Once shot with fire, the spirit of Roku blocked it and returned fire. Roku used Aang as his Avatar to protect him from mortal danger.

In Final Fantasy VII, Mako crystallizes into Materia. “The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the planet calling up magic... or so they say.” -Sephiroth

“Materia is crystallized Mako. Metaphysically, Materia calls upon the wisdom of the Lifestream to manipulate nature manifesting as the phenomenon of magic for most Materia, although other Materia enhance the user's abilities.” 

In Final Fantasy IX, a Crystal is the progenitor of every world. An entire world’s existence begins with the crystal and its’ entire lifespan is recorded within the crystal until its’ death. This includes the individual lives and memories of all living things inhabiting said world.

**In Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII, after Bhunivelze is defeated, all of the souls Lightning collected and used as a sword, had traveled to “The Void” and culminated into a crystal. **Once Lightning, as the Savior, touched the crystal of souls, all of the memories of the XIII trilogy played through her mind. The original world’s history or memories were recorded and preserved in the Crystal through the rescued souls. The Progenitor Crystal then bursts heavenward, sending the souls contained within to the new world to be created.

*In Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, the warriors called upon by Materia and Spiritus left behind their memories in a crystal by touching it. Spiritus was able to give shape to these memories in the forms of the characters. In cutscenes that take place after their creation, these “doppelgangers” act no different from their true counterparts. They also talk about themselves and the events of their games as if they were participants. In other words, these memories were all that was necessary for creating completely new replicas of the main protagonists, minus a heart/soul. After Spiritus gave these “vessels” containing previous memories form, Materia gave them souls in order for them to “exist”.

KH MOM

This theory may only make sense for now if Nomura is using similar thematics and lore of the crystals from Final Fantasy.

In KH3R, it was revealed Xehanort had crystallized Kairi’s heart in a similar fashion to Serah in XIII. When Sora gathered all seven of Kairi’s crystal heart fragments, to assemble them, all of the guardians were needed. Using their keyblades, the hearts of the guardians transferred their light to each of the heart pieces, forging Kairi’s heart anew. 

I think this may be the equivalent of the guardians touching Kairi’s crystallized heart, and immortalizing themselves as a part of Kairi’s heart.This includes the memories and experiences of their entire lives.

Sokai’s joint situation command is called One Heart. The name implies Sora and Kairi’s hearts are intertwining to become two halves of a whole or literally becoming one heart that they share when they are together, like melding.

The wings and feathers of One Heart consist of memories. The memories that are the main focus of the attack are those consisting of Sora and Kairi. However, 13th Vessel found that within the code of ReMind, the wings consisted of memories and experiences from the other guardians who helped put Kairi back together.

This would explain how Melody of Memory could take place from Kairi’s perspective, from within her heart. Kairi traversed her heart to find a clue about Sora and that heart contained the memories of all the Guardians of Light.

When Kairi got to the end, her final heart fragment took the form of Xehanort as a response to Kairi’s desire for information. When Xehanort  overwhelms Kairi, he initiates the final blow only for the Kingdom Key to appear in Kairi’s hand followed by her transforming into Sora. 

I don't believe this to be the heart of Sora, because right after that scene Xehanort states, “Your voice can’t reach us here. Now I’m certain of where your heart is.” And it was essentially confirmed by the end.

The figments that appeared within Kairi’s dream were, The Memory of Sora and Xehanort. 

Similar to how Aang was the Avatar for Roku’s spirit to come through and protect him in episode 8 of Book 1, Kairi became the Avatar for Sora memories to come through and protect her in the Final World.

Kairi is a princess of heart, being one of the only seven remaining hearts consisting of pure light. This is a lot like Raava, the spirit of pure light and all good in the world.  

Artist: GeorgePg

In KH3 it was even confirmed that the pure lights of the princesses can be passed on to new pure hearts, just like the Avatar reincarnation cycle.

KAIRI’S AVATAR STATE

Aang couldn’t go into the Avatar State willingly, each time the previous incarnations of the Avatar would take over Aang’s body when the Avatar State activated in response to whatever mortal danger Aang was currently in.

Aang eventually opened his seven chakras, proceeding to let go of his romantic feelings for Katara, allowing him to enter the Avatar State by will (only once before Azula killed him). Aang gained control of the Avatar State by the end of the series, and revealed he could enter or exit at his behest.

Kairi’s memories of Sora manifested as his Keyblade first, then her form changed to Sora. 

So, here are some of the ways this new Memoria power could be shown:

Projections

All of the abilities Riku gained while traversing the sleeping worlds were still his to use. Sora and Riku were able to use the Dualism Blade from the sleeping worlds as well.

Kairi’s princess powers pretty much break a lot of the conventional rules concerning darkness. She was able to restore Sora’s true form as well as project her light from within the Heartless Storm to guide him through.

This makes me think that she can either project her memory powers the same way keyblades are simply materialized, as formchanges or as links from KH3.

Essentially form changes for Kairi. However I would compare the way these could possibly work to Drive Forms.

Kairi’s usd Sora’s fighting stance as a base for developing her own fighting style. 

From the fights we’ve seen her against with Xemnas and Xehanort, Kairi is a very close quarters fighter. Much like Terra, melee is her main focus, but unlike Terra if you pay close attention to her, she kinda just attempts to wail on her enemies, forgoing a lot of defensive maneuvers. Kairi doesn't have a refined fighting style.

Through training with Aqua, I’m sure she’ll be able to iron out her base combat, but if she does go on a world tour, similar to the Dark Road Mark of Mastery Exam, she would have to gain new skills and use them repeatedly on her journey to refine them. (Like us, the player.)

In MoM, Sora’s Kingdom Key materialized first. This could mean that like Xion originally, Kairi can either produce copies of the guardians’ keyblades or she can transmute keychains out of them. Either way aside from maybe enhancement abilities or shotlocks, they’re essentially just basic keyblades for her. No transformations or forms from the keyblades themselves.

Memory Links

The new Memory Links could start as Rage Form* situation commands. When her HP dips into red, she can call upon the memories of the guardians to take over for her. This would unfortunately mean that we’re not necessarily playing as Kairi, but all of the other guardians. 

Alternatively, they could mechanically work as Links/D-Links. Kairi channels these memories, summoning them as the guardians to aid her in combat.

As she grows into her own, instead of having to rely on the guardians to bail her out of trouble, just like Aang she can learn to gain control of these Memory Links to use as she wants. Kairi could gain experience in the different fighting styles of the guardians, kind of like the bending forms (preferably cutscenes, but I couldn't see them taking it that far).

MEMORIA FORMS

Artist: GeorgePg

The Memoria Forms would be the final evolution of her memory powers. Instead of summoning the guardians to fight by her side or take her over completely, Kairi could weave the Memories of the Guardians into form changes or drive form like power-ups blended with her light powers. 

M-Form (Sora): Second/Limit Form

M-Form (Riku): Dark Form

M-Form (Aqua): Spellweaver/Water based form

M-Form (Ventus): Wingblade/Wind based form

M-Form (Terra): Rockbreaker/Earth based form 

M-Form (Axel): Firestorm/Blaze based form

M-Form (Roxas): Dual Wielding(I'd imagine having a heart that literally cannot be defeated darkness would make it capable of wielding two keyblades. The Duel Attack Reaction Command/Generates OKP & OBV keyblade projections.

M-Form (Xion): HOLY?

M-Form (Mickey)?: ULTIMA?

SYMPHONIA FORM

Artist: GeorgePg

Essentially, The Final Form equivalent for Kairi. I stated the concept in another theory, but it would be the Namine Fusion Concept from Dead Fantasy.

If Kairi can use or project the keyblades of the guardians, then perhaps by the end of her training, she can materialize all of them at the same time.

There’s also The Nameless Star and the power/memory she could pass on to Kairi if she chose to reside in her heart.

It’s entirely possible that this power is limited to her dreams. It’s also possible that this could’ve been a one time thing with no further significance. But apparently none of that stopped me from putting way too much thought into this theory. 

[shi-daisy]

Black Moon Rising Pt. 2

Welcome back everyone! Here's part 2 of this lil' AU fic. It was gonna be longer but I already went pass the deadline for like 40 min. So I'll just continue it in the final prompt it the week. Hope you like!

@ulquihimeweek

Ulquihime Week- Day 6- Sacrifice/Possession

Black Moon Rising (Pt.2)

"Inoue, what have you done?!" Ichigo asked in disbelief.

"I did what I had to. Ulquiorra was going to die, and I saved him. That's all that matters."

"All that matters?! Have you looked at yourself?! You're a hollow now!"

"And so were you."

Ichigo looked hurt, but she didn't care. Back at Karakura, she had the same expression whenever they pushed her out of the fight. This time the tables were turned.

"That's not the same, and you know it."

"Is it now? Because if I recall correctly you brutalized Ulquiorra in ways far more horrifying than any of us could imagine, you tried to desecrate his body, you stabbed Ishida-kun when he stopped you, and you were about to kill me before Ulquiorra broke your mask and redirected the cero onto himself.

That's quite different from holding a conversation like we are doing now." She smiled venomously. This change seemed to be bringing out all of the negative emotions that she kept hidden for years. It was relishing.

"I went into that form to protect you! You called for help, I couldn't do anything so my hollow took over."

Orihime rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, you're everyone's hero!" she sarcastically imitated her old self. "Spare me Ichigo, you didn't go into your hollow form to protect us, you did it because you lost, and you can't endure a loss!"

That got a rise out of the redhead, Uryu held him back. "Inoue, we all came here to save you! What happened wasn't ideal, but Kurosaki was just trying to help."

"Funny how you defend him after almost getting cut open, Ishida-kun.

I didn't ask anyone to come for me, the sole reason I came to Hueco Mundo was to protect everyone! But you couldn't understand that, could you? Inoue's the defenseless princess in the tower, so she must be rescued! We need to step into enemy territory without a plan, and fight everything in a ten-mile radius to save Inoue!

Well, that's done. We've all had our fights and your brushes with death, but I am finally safe. I won't return to Karakura, this form is now permanent, and I have no doubts that the shinigami will have me executed. The Orihime Inoue you knew is gone forever. Leave, tell the others I am dead, and don't return to Hueco Mundo. I won't ask nicely again."

Ichigo's anger was redirected at Ulquiorra. "You! You did this to Inoue!"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken Kurosaki. This transformation was the woman's choice, not mine. Unlike you, I believe she's wise enough to choose what's best for herself."

The shinigami prepared to attack him, but instead of clashing his blade with Ulquiorra's he was stopped by Orihime.

Upon transforming, she'd also gained a zanpakuto, her Rikka's powers had been transferred into it, and the shape of the hilt matched that of her hairpins.

“Don’t you dare touch him!” she growled.

“I’m not going to let darkness take you, Orihime. I’ll defeat whatever took possession of you and we’ll all go back home together.”

“You don’t get to decide for me. Not anymore.” From the moment she woke up, Orihime felt a shift taking place within her. Her body and soul had both changed, and this final disregard for her desires was the final nail in the coffin.’ All anyone ever saw me as was the damsel in distress, not even capable of choosing my own fate. Those days are now over.’

“Woman, do you require my assistance?”Ulquiorra asked her.

She smiled at him. “I shall fight alone, If it’s not too much trouble, could you please take Ishida-kun somewhere safe? I don’t intend to hold back.”

“Understood.”

She teleported both herself and Ichigo away from the scene. The shinigami looked ready to fight, but the moment she attacked he restored to blocking. Ichigo didn’t attack her.

‘The moron still thinks I can’t fight.’

Her eyes darkened, now gold over onyx, Orihime charged a cero into her sword. One strike of her blade all it took to break Ichigo’s zanpakuto.

“You’re out of weapons Kurosaki. I’ll let you go if you swear to leave me be.”

Instead of retreating Ichigo stood his ground. “I won’t leave you.I swore to bring you back home safe, and that’s what I’ll do!"

“You really can’t take a fucking hint, can you?!"

She raised her palm towards him, firing a golden cero. Ichigo tried to evade it, but without his Bankai, he was not fast enough. Ichigo kneeled, half of his body was bloody and mangled due to the blast, but he could survive those injuries.

“Last warning. Surrender or I will detach your head from your body.”

“I won’t! I won’t let Ulquiorra get away with what he did to you! I will save you even if I have to kill him again!"

Orihime would have just rendered him unconscious, had it not been for the threat he made against Ulquiorra, Orihime looked him in the eye directly, her gaze was steel and it seemed like in his final moments Ichigo finally understood she did this out of her own accord. Sadly, it was too late, A delicate strike of her blade cut through him, his eyes remained opened, full of realization, but also lifeless.

Orihime cleaned the blood off her sword with one stroke. ‘At long last, It’s over.’

***

There were many outcomes he had expected from the battle, seeing Orihime return to las Noches with the head of Kurosaki Ichigo was not one of them. Soon after arriving she had fainted and he took her to his room and had one of the medics look at her.

As predicted, Orihime woke up a day later. Her wounds were fully healed, and she was happy to see him as well. 

“What happened after the battle?” she asked.

"Lord Aizen has won. He's the new Soul King, but I'm afraid your old town has been destroyed."

She looked sad, but didn't weep. "I see."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. This was bound to happen."

"If you feel rested enough, we were summoned to the throne room. It's urgent."

"Okay. Let's go."

The walk to the throne room was silent, yet pleasant. Orihime held his hand, and he returned the gesture. It seemed she was fond of the gesture.

Before coming into the throne room he ran into the medic that examined Orihime.

"Hello Cuarta, I see Inoue-sama is healthy." The blue haired woman extended her hand to Orihime. "Nice to meet you, my name's Jeanne Dae, I was your medic."

"Nice to meet you too, Jeanne-san. Thanks for taking care of me."

"My pleasure, I must warn you both, Lady Anna has asked for you specifically and she's slightly stressed. Best not to piss her off."

"Um, I hate to come of as ignorant but who is Anna?"

"Lord Aizen's wife. She's his second in command now and also Soul Queen. Just be polite and you'll be fine. Best of luck!"

Once the medic Arrancar left, they stepped into the throne room. He was surprised to see Halibel and her fracción there resting. Nnoitra was also there talking to Anna. She looked to be angry.

"Nnoitra, I swear, if keep pestering me I shall rip out your remaining eyeball and make you eat it!"

That made the whole room grow silent.

Orihime was slightly intimidated. Anna was six feet tall, with pale skin, black curly hair, and cold blue eyes. Those worries subsided when the woman spotted both her and Ulquiorra.

"Cuarta! You're still as handsome as ever! And you must be Orihime Inoue. I'm Anna María, it's nice to finally meet ya."

"Hello Lady Anna, it's nice to meet you too."

"I'll be quick since I'm sure you both want to rest. Now that Sosuke has finally achieved his goals we won't be returning to Las Noches. I want the both of you to rule over Hueco Mundo."

They were both surprised. Ulquiorra spoke first. "With all due respect, why would you chose us out of the remaining Arrancar?"

"Simple. You and Inoue-san were the ones who finally took down Kurosaki. He was Soul Society's triumph card and I'm certain that if he had lived the outcome of our plans would've changed. The two of you are the most powerful among our ranks and took down our greatest foe. It's only natural to have you take over. What do you say?"

Orihime felt a little uncertain, she had never taken a leadership role before, but the offer was tempting.

Ulquiorra was indifferent to the offer, still he would accept if only to keep order in Las Noches. Without Aizen some of the Arrancar might go unhinged again.

"I'm willing to accept the offer, but I'd like insurance that you, or Lord Aizen will provide us with assistance if necessary."

"You have my word, Cuarta. Inoue-san, what about you?"

"I never considered myself a leader, yet this is an opportunity I don't want to waste. I'll give it my all."

"Excellent! I knew I could count on you both. Now, there's a slightly more personal matter I must address.

Some of your friends for Karakura survived, I can relocate then to Naruki City and give them fake memories of a nuclear explosion occuring in Karakura. This way they'll safe and fully taken care of. Is that alright."

Anna handed her a tablet with pictures. She recognized Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Chizuru, Michiru, Ryuuken, and Don Kannonji. Those were the only survivors.

"Yes. Please make sure they're taken care of, just...don't let them know I am alive. I'd prefer it if they all thought of me as dead."

"Consider it done. Finally, Yasutora Sado and Uryu Ishida are locked up in the dungeons, if you authorize it, I shall free them and get them the aforementioned services in Naruki City."

"Yes please do so."

"Alrighty then, I think that's everything. I'll be returning to my other duties, you're dismissed."

With that the tall woman left them and went back to her duties. Ulquiorra noticed she was holding her zanpakuto. 'No doubt she's been ordered to carry out executions.'

"Next on the list it's that Kuchiki Captain...Hmm maybe I'll choke him with that dumb scarf of his." Anna was walking away towards the cells. A reckless idea crossed Orihime's mind.

"Wait Anna-san! May I be granted permission to visit Ishida and Sado?"

Anna was skeptical but allowed it anyway. "Yes, of course. I'll escort you."

***

Ulquiorra waited in the entrance to the dungeons. He knew Inoue was capable of handling herself yet he felt uneasy.

"You're jealous the princesa wants to visit those other men."

Grimmjow appeared from the shadows, it seemed Anna had him as a guard.

"What do you want Sexta?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just heard you and Orihime are the new rulers of Hueco Mundo. I'd congratulate ya but I don't think you find that new role appealing."

"That's unimportant. I took the task because it clear that the others wouldn't be able to properly carry it out."

Grimmjow grinned. "Uh-huh, and what about your mate? She probably did it so that Anna wouldn't chop her human friends to pieces."

Those words bothered him. "The woman isn't my mate."

"She turned into a hollow to save ya, and even ripped Kurosaki to pieces. That screams protective mate to me.

Yer' right though, it's not my business what you two do. Just pray she doesn't change her mind. The girl is too far gone to go back."

***

Orihime let them rage and yell before saying a single thing. After their anger faded she spoke.

"I need you both to stay calm. Ishida-kun your father is alive and will be given proper housing and employment in Naruki City as will most of your friends and as will you. Just let Anna escort you there and do not tell the others of my real fate. For all they know, Kurosaki and I were victims of the fake accident."

"...I don't believe this! You expect us to keep quiet?! Tatsuki was a wreck over losing you, she won't accept it, she'll know it's a lie!"

"Then make her believe it! You're a smart guy Uryu, she will listen to you, the memories are better than..."

"Than knowing what you turned into and what you did to Kurosaki?" Chad asked.

Orihime hit the wall in frustration, it almost fell apart. "He threatened to kill Ulquiorra!" she yelled. "I wasn't going to kill him, I was going to leave him slightly messed up and let him go home when the war ended, but he threatened Ulquiorra. I couldn't let him kill him again. I just... couldn't."

Her friends demeanor changed to a more sympathetic one. "You love him, don't you?"

She couldn't answer. That possibility didn't cross her mind until now. Her silence was all the answer they needed.

"Kurosaki is doing alright. His soul went to the Soul Society and is reunited with his family, Anna made sure of it. She also brought Masaki to them, the Kurosaki's be living in the Shiba house."

"It's true. She came to tell us that before bringing you here."

"I see." In a way she felt freed. While there was no guilt for what she did, knowing Ichigo was well off somehow helped her close that cycle.

"I know you won't forgive me, I won't ask for that, but I will ask you, to have a good life. Take care of the others, follow your dreams and live long and happy. I will do the same, even if we are in separate world's. Just do that in the memory of the Inoue you once loved."

"I promise."

"I promise too"

Both Chad and Uryu gave her a tight hug. This would be the last time they saw eachother.

"Goodbye."

***

He didn't say anything. Not on their way back to the room, and not when he locked himself in the washroom.

Orihime knew something was amiss. Ulquiorra looked tense, angry even. She decided to speak with him.

'What am I doing? This isn't right. I'm acting just like Kurosaki did.'

Ulquiorra had ran himself a hot bath in an effort to calm down. As much as he dreaded to admit it he was enraged by Grimmjow's words. When Orihime returned from her talk with the humans, she had tears running down her face and a faint sad smile.

'She's regretting it. She regrets giving up her life for me. That was a sacrifice that should've never taken place.'

Still, it was wrong of him to act so cold towards her. Instead he should offer her solace. 'I'm all she had left.'

Before he could get out of the marble pool and go back into his room, he saw her standing in the doorway. "Can I join you?" she asked shyly.

Ulquiorra swallowed hard. Orihime had nothing but a towel on, and her pretty face was adorned with a faint pink blush.

"Yes, you may join me." He finally answered with a raspy voice.

He turned away as she uncovered herself, only facing her once she was covered up to her chest by water. Even so, her curves didn't leave anything to the imagination.

"Ulquiorra. We need to talk."

"What do you wish to talk about?"

"What happened down at the dungeons."

He braced himself, and spoke as calmly as possible. "You wish to return to you original form. It's understandable as your sacrifice shouldn't have happened so I shall do what's in my power to help you-"

Orihime placed her fingers on his lips, silencing him. It was then when he felt tears forming in his eyes

Orihime chuckled. "No, you're mistaken. I don't want to go back and I don't regret what I did.

Ulquiorra, I didn't hesitate to sacrifice my humanity for you. I knew what the consequences would be and didn't care. You matter more to me than anything or anyone else, and I don't ever want you to doubt that. I want to be with you forever, Ulquiorra Schiffer."

He felt the tears spilling. Never in his life did he think he could find anyone that would truly love him, yet here she was. From the moment they met he felt drawn. It was as if an otherworldly force took possession of him, and urged him to keep her at his side. Yet when Kurosaki almost killed her, he didn't hesitate to sacrifice himself for her. Now she had done the same for him, and they could be together for all eternity.

"Forgive me for my embarrassing behavior. I shouldn't have doubted you.

I shall confess that I didn't care for much before meeting you, my life was nothing but a dark endless void, until you filled it with light. Your optimistic nature, your melodic voice, your bravery, it is all very enticing. I thought our story would end when Kurosaki turned me into ash, yet it didn't.

You wouldn't let us have a bitter end, regardless of the cost. And I vow to prove your sacrifice to be worth it, every single day."

Orihime smiled wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close. "It's a promise, my dear Ulquiorra."

She crashed their lips together into a lustful kiss. Ulquiorra had never considered himself to be a lustful man, until that moment. He wanted nothing more than to ravish Orihime until they were both exhausted.

"Let's go back to our room, darling. There's a lot I want to do with you."

[championfrita]

Pokémon Sword and Shield Review

So...I've taken some time to fully play Pokémon Shield. Now, I know this is pretty delayed, and I got the double pack so I wanted to play Sword first to see if how I felt was really accurate or if I was being too harsh. That said, let's talk about my experience with the Galar Region.

Initial Impressions

Overall, I was excited to play Shield at first. Everything was bright and exciting and the characters were easy to recognize and not overly generic.

The first few hours of this game, well it's a slow burn. And I do mean SLOW. Even with the text set to Fast and me taking things at my own pace it took me at least a good couple hours to reach the Wild Area. Furthermore, this game has an infernal amount of handholding, even when given the option to say "I know all this already" it still gives a brief explaination for almost anything and STILL makes you sit ALL THE WAY THROUGH the catch tutorial.

It's 2019 and older players still don't get the option to skip this. Come on GameFreak.

That said, the longer I played the more I began to notice...how should I put this? Blatant laziness?

The Wild Area

Now, the CONCEPT of the Wild Area in theory is amazing. It's still not too bad as is, but there are definitely flaws. For starters, the same tree has been copy pasted all over the place to make up 90% of the foliage.

More than that, though, despite the Wild Area having a good selection of Pokémon and a fairly varietied environment (desert, lakes, forest) it feels oddly...empty. There are no real secrets to speak of, no hidden areas, no easily missed items. Everything is all right out there to see and spread pretty far apart. I don't know if it's a lack of Trainers or the fact that I don't have an Online membership so I played alone, but the Wild Area feels like it just needs something MORE.

Dynamax Raid Battles, even when done alone, are fairly fun and sometimes challenging with the turn limit. Radiant AI Trainers spawn in to assist you if you're playing alone so there's no worries about having to take one on with just one Pokémon.

Camping, which can be done anywhere but is introduced to the player here, is an absolute treat. Have YOU played fetch with a unicorn? I have, and I love it. The wide variety of curries you can make with different ingredients is nice, and your Pokémon even get EXP boosts if you play with and feed them while camping.

The Pokémon

Honestly, I'm really not impressed. The Galar Dex of new Pokémon feels painfully small, so much so that playing Pokémon GO and catching a few Unova Pokémon made me yearn for the days when we used to get regions completely FULL of new Pokémon. Remember when you had to wait until AFTER the main game to start catching Pokémon from past gens? I...well, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I LIKED that.

That said, using a sparse selection of Galar Pokémon and Galar Regional Variants on my team definitely made the Gym Challenge more difficult. I picked Scorbunny, because Fire Types, and honestly didn't really care for it or its evolutions at first. Cinderace has really grown on me though and I like Pyro Ball as a move. It's flashy and powerful and that suits me just fine. Most of the new Pokémon's DESIGNS were good and I liked them, there just really weren't ENOUGH of them.

I'm fairly pleased with the regional variants as well. It was difficult to adjust to Ponyta and Rapidash being Psychic Type, but I really liked having them on my team. At the same time...Meowth not evolving into a Persian doesn't really sit right with me.

I'm all for branch evolutions, but Perrserker honestly just looks more like a giant Galar Meowth than anything. I played this with only the info given in the few scattered trailers I'd seen, so I was genuinely excited to see what a Galarian Persian would look like only to end up with Perrserker. The Typing is phenominal, and I think it's great to see a Steel Type Meowth for a change, but I just don't like where they went with it. Eh. Ces't la vie, moving on.

The Story

It's weak. Straight up, the story in this game is poor. There were so many directions they could have gone. I really liked the idea of Rose being this charismatic chairman hype man for the League and being the bad guy. I saw it coming, but it was a nice change to see just based on his personality. Still, it feels rushed. His motivations are really one dimensional and glossed over. Like, "Oh, here's the bad guy. Go get him." It worked in Gen 1 because Giovanni was a MOBSTER. He was MEANT to be a bad guy straight to the core in general, but Rose just doesn't have that vibe.

Not only that, but the "Bad League Members" are kinda meh. That feels REALLY lazy. They didn't even really get a decent uniform change when they started taking on the name Macro Cosmos in Rose Tower. They got black glasses. That's it. Just that. The fight with Eternatus feels painfully rushed and shoehorned in too, almost like they thought "Oh no, we need to give them a big nasty boss to fight! Let's just throw a random monster at them and say Rose summoned it. Seems like a solid plan."

I DID like the after story with Piers though. It really solidifies that older brother sort of nature with him, even if he tries to hide it most of the time.

The Characters

I liked Hop. As a character he's really fun and I like how they gave him this over excited very grand gestured sort of personality. He's really just happy to be ANYWHERE as long as it's with his Pokémon and you. His admiration for his big bro might come off strong and make him seem a little flat at first, but he's overall portrayed as a good kid and I like him.

Leon on the other hand...well I hated him for most of the game. His design is great and he looks fabulous, but he just has the most cocky, obnoxious, pandering personality 90% of the time. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize that he IS actually a multifaceted character. He showboats not just because he's too confident but also to give the crowd a show and put people at ease in times of danger. Not only that, but his recognition of his little brother's accomplishments and his graceful acceptance of defeat when you beat him reveals a really well written character.

I don't DISlike Sonia, and I have no problem with Prof. Magnolia sitting on the sidelines, but she can be a little...irritating at times with the way she speaks about and to people. The Gym Leaders, aside from Piers, feel a little...light.

I mean, most Gym Leaders don't have detailed backstories, but these ones feel paper thin personality wise as well. I had to look at the official GUIDE just to be sure what the relationship between Melony and Gordie even WAS because you only seem him in her Special League Card in Shield and that tells you nothing about him. The only real leaders that stood out to me were Piers and Raihan, and while I was iffy about his design at first I LOVE Raihan. He has so much more personality and ferocity than any of the other leaders. And the social commentary about him needing to constantly take and post a selfie, even after losing, is a nice touch.

The Galar Region

Is very linear. Like, VERY linear. Even when you take a branching path it either loops back around or gives you a free ride to wherever you have to backtrack to. I hope you like Hammerlocke, cuz you're gonna be visiting there several times.

I know that the region is based off the UK, and maybe my Americanized idea of cities is different (idk, I've never been to the UK), but a lot of the towns in this game feel really small. Like, almost smaller than some of the towns in Hoenn small. Maybe it's a lack of significant interactable buildings, but despite many of them having multiple floors you typically can only access one and that's kind of a disappointment. The hotel in Wyndon won't even let you get in the elevator, and while I get that Alola also did that, it's kind of jarring when the hotel in Motostoke WILL let you see other floors.

That said, I kind of expected more than ONE Wild Area. The one we DID get is fine, and I appreciate what it is and lets us do, but I honestly thought there would be multiple places to really explore outside the standard straight lines. Pokémon has never been a franchise to shy away from puzzles before so I expected this to not be any different. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Moreover, many of the environment pieces are just UGLY. A lot of the ground textures are reused 3DS assets, and those copy pasted trees I mentioned earlier? Also 3DS assets. How do I know? They're pentagonal instead of round. In other words, they have five sides. Why? Because the 3DS hardware couldn't handle complex environmental shapes that well so they could get away with it, but now that we have nice round berry trees the contrast becomes painful. The Wild Area is so ugly the first time you see it is at NIGHT. They were so aware of what they did they hoped making it darker would hide the lazy flop instead of showing off how bad it was.

It isn't like they COULDN'T fix it either. Look at Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle. They're absolutely beautiful and very well done. The modeling with them is fantastic and I love the glowing effects. They absolutely could've made the poorly done areas look amazing, but for some reason they didn't and the game suffers some as a result.

Other Thoughts

The Gym Challenges...they were not fun. Like, honestly some were ok. Herding Wooloo was easy, but they really didn't feel like anything I would expect from a Gym. The water puzzle in Nessa's Gym was fine, and I personally liked the spinning cup ride, but the rest just felt like agonizingly long padding because they couldn't come up with anything. Look at Circhester's challenge. It's a dowsing rod gauntlet where you have to avoid falling in pits in an artificial blizzard. It. is. SO. SLOW. That said, Spikemuth having just a Trainer gauntlet instead was kind of awkward. I reached the end and asked myself "Was that it? Is this it? Is this all there is to Spikemuth? Just one giant alleyway and a Pokémon Center?"

Raihan's three trials of worthiness challenge? It was more difficult than the battle AGAINST RAIHAN. Speaking of, I beat Hop, Marnie, Bede, all the Gym Leaders, Rose, Oleana, and Leon on my first try every time. While it was more difficult with my specific Pokémon choices, it really wasn't much. And can I just say that the Gym Badges are kinda lame? I get what they were going for, but the designs of each piece could've been really unique and intricate and instead we got glorified stamps.

I liked a lot of the general features of the game. Camping, clothing shops, League Cards. I love designing League Cards, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see em. That said, the clothing choices were really narrow based on what we got in Sun and Moon. The variety of different items was pretty small, though I loved all the punk leather stuff but WOW IS IT EXPENSIVE. Like Lumiose Boutique expensive. AND WHY IS THERE NEVER A REDHEAD HAIR COLOR THAT ISN'T JUST AUBURN RED? There are actually A LOT of redheads with LIGHT RED hair (that's more a personal gripe than anything, I know).

A lot of the music felt almost like rehashes of older BGMs. Like, Postwick, Route 1, and Wedgehurst all sound like they have remixed Hoenn music. A lot of the other music tracks just don't feel fitting for the areas or for Pokémon games in general. I like parts of the Slumbering Weald music and I like the Gym Music, but the opening of Slumbering Weald feels awkward and like it doesn't fit a mysterious forest we're not allowed to be in.

I know I've complained a lot, but there were some things I genuinely liked. A lot of the Pokémon designs, place names, and other radiant decor and parts of the region are actually subtle and not so subtle references to cultural points of the UK. Skwovet and its evolution for example are a gray and red squirrel respectively and are a nod to invasive species, which is neat.

In Conclusion

Is Pokémon Sword and Shield amazing? No. Is it bad? No. Sword and Shield fall into that mediocre middle ground of being ok but nothing to write home about. Could I have done without them? Sure, they aren't some world ending imperitive must play. They're ok, and they make for a fine jumping on point and a fine little adventure if you have spare time. Have other mainline games done it better? Heck yeah, but that doesn't mean Sword and Shield haven't done a few good things too.

Overall, it sort of feels like GameFreak bit off more than they could chew, or were afraid to make changes because of unfamiliarity with the Switch's hardware and software limitations. Pokémon Let's Go had a lot more effort, but it also was much safer and had a much easier to work with art style to everything. Chibi proportions are a lot easier to fake than a more realistic counterpart. Things can be not perfect and it's less noticable than with more realistic proportions, and I think they were afraid to push back the deadline any further for the inevitable backlash despite that being what they likely needed. The DLC may change my mind, but as it stands, just the fact that they feel they can JUSTIFY their laziness with DLC packs really upsets me.

I give Pokémon Sword and Shield a 5/10.

It's just, OK.

[kaiyeti]

Ruby: So this guy is going to help me learn how to use my silver eye powers?

Qrow: Yep.

Yang: And Show me how to use my new spring maiden powers?

Qrow: That's right.

Oscar: And show me how to use Ozpin's powers?

Qrow: ...

Oscar: ... Wait. Never mind Ozpin just answered then.

Qrow: Good to know.

Ruby: Okay but why did we have to travel all the way out here to this island? Couldn't he have come to us?

Yang: And why did Blake and Weiss have to stay behind? I'm sure this guy could train them too?

Oscar: I'm kinda wondering that myself. Huh?

Qrow: Look kids. You three are now on the top of Salem's hit list and luckily she doesn't know about this island and we need to keep it that way. As for why your girlfriend couldn't come along you need to focus on the training and not getting frisky with your kitty. *Qrow said making Yang cheeks turn bright red.*

Ruby: And why Weiss couldn't come?

Qrow: Same reason... With the addition that he's not a big fan of the Schnee's since your girlfriend's dad took over.

Yang: Is there any other reason why our team couldn't come?

Qrow: Actually there is one other re-

Oscar: WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S A GRIMM MAGNET!? *Oscar, clearly was talking with Ozpin, shouted out in fear causing Yang and Ruby to jump.*

Qrow: That would be the reason.

Ruby: WAIT WHAT!?

Yang: I thought you speak you wanted to avoid having Salem know where we are!? Can't see like see through Grimm or something!?

Qrow: Only through a certain type of Grimm. But no worries None of those Grimms are on this island.

Ruby: Then what kind of grimm... live...here... *Ruby began to question before trailing off.*

Yang: Whooooooooooa. *Yang said as she stood next to her sister as she, Ruby, and Oscar looked up at a colossal size armored beast similar to that of a dinosaur. It's massive whip like tail ending with a scythe like spike, two pincer claw arms like that of wing coming from its back, it's belly and chest covered with tentacle, and lastly it's armored head which forehead came to a point like that of a shovel and shark like fang filled mouth hanging open, seemingly trying to close.*

Qrow: Those kind of Grimm. The kind that make that Dragon at Beacon look like a baby.

Oscar: In what possible way is it "SAFE" being here than!? LOOK AT THAT THING!? IT'S HUGE! IT'S TERRIFYING! IT'S-

Ruby: Got something in it's mouth. *Ruby interrupted, pointing up towards that massive Grimm as it thrashes it's head even with its claws starts striking what is inside. Right up until one of the claws is suddenly ripped from its body and sent flying through the air, over the four hunters, and landing in the ocean.*

Oscar/Yang: Holy shit. *Yang and Oscar both said when Yang noticed the giant claw instead of turning into black smoke like Grimms normally does, the black flesh and red marked bone slowly began to turn into a dark blue aura liquid almost rag and blade like.*

Yang: What the? Where have I seen that before? *Yang thought to herself as the rest of the claw transform into the blue edged flame when suddenly it clicks in her mind.* Uncle Qrow? This guy who is going to train us... Does he have a blue arm?

Qrow: *Qrow raises an eyebrow.* Yeah. How did you know? *He asked as the the Blue aura shoots up from the ocean into the sky and back toward the Grimm, the plasma aura condensing, hardening, and taking shape of a massive katana shaped sword. The four then watched, Ruby in aw at the newly formed weapon, as the sword is caught by whatever is in the Grimm's mouth and with one swing decapitates the colossal beast. After that as the Grimm began to fall turning into the same blue liquid aura as its limb, the Katana blade launched towards the four landing a few feet in front of the as gray skinned man stands on top of it.* Nicely done.

Ruby: Whooooooa. Now that is a katana. *Ruby said stepping close to look at the blade.*

Oscar: So this is the guy who is going to be teaching us? *Oscar asked Ozpin looking up and the man as she wear a old hunters hat and long kama around his waist similar to Yang's, noticing his upper right arm covered what looked like dark blueish black liquid flames as both his forearms and hands were covered with the blue aura which forms blades running past his elbows down the side of his hand while his fingers are razer shape knife like claws.* Actually forget that question. Is this guy even human?

Qrow: Everyone. I'd like you to meet- *Qrow Began until Yang walked pasted him as the man hopped down from the sword, his hands turning to normal human hands with the exception of his right's fingers being claws.* Huh?

Yang: *At that Moment Yang draw back her cybernetic arm, clenching her hand into s fist and launched it as the man did the same, causing a small shock wave when the two fist connected. Qrow Oscar, and Ruby with confusion and concern as the two's fist stayed connected until they pulled apart and lightly fist bumped each other again, smiling.* Wassup, Kai?

Kai: No much. Just dealt with a hat thief. *Kai said pointing his thumb at the Dead grimm.* Which reminds me. * He then turned half way and held out his right hand summoning the his aura symbiot to him as it comes like a tsunami just before it condenses and merges with his arm until it all goes into him leaving a newly formed spear looking much like that grimm he had slain.* So What bring the new spring maiden, your uncle, my great to the hundredth power grandniece, and Oz in his new partner is my humble home?

Qrow: We need your help.

Oscar: Uh, Ozpin says we wouldn't ask if we had a choice.

Ruby: *Meanwhile Ruby stopped marveling over the katana and turned to look at Kai in shock along with Yang.* Wait... Your grandniece?... I'm your... Your my...

Ruby/Yang: WE'RE RELATED!? *The sisters shouted.*

Kai: Uuuuuuuuh yeah... I guess I owe you two like what nineteen, seventeen years of birthday gifts? *Looks to Qrow and back to the sister as they both fell to the ground.*

Oscar: RUBY!! YANG!!

Qrow: ... How did you know Ruby was related to you but not Yang?

Kai: Come on. Ruby looks just like my niece and Yang isn't Summer's blood. Easy to not know... Though I was a bit worried when I smelled Raven's blood in her since- *Qrow Holds his sword in gun form up to Kai's head.* Really Qrow? You know that won't kill me. *Qrow lifts it slight to aim at his hat.* Shutting up.