#if this is how I act after the dlc I don’t want to find out how I’ll be after finishing the whole trilogy god help me

[overlordneptune]

Guess who just finished rise from the ashes…

*distant sobbing*

[geminialchemist]

I made this originally as a comment on a post on Reddit, but it seemed well liked, so I thought I’d expand on it a little and make it a post here on Tumblr.

Spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree abound, don’t read any farther if you don’t want the ending spoiled.

I really loved a lot of the lore about Miquella up until the big reveal that he Miquellested Mohg, and was bringing back Radahn as his consort. I remember finding the crosses across the land, and then finding the one in the fissure, and seeing that he abandoned his love there, and man, that was so good, so chilling to see that Miquella, known for his compassion and kindness, had thrown that away. We were going from cross to cross, learning just how much he was willing to mutilate and change himself for godhood… only for him to cling to a childhood crush he had on his older brother. That’s lame. Like, really lame. And gross!

And Mohg. I know we joke about how he beat the allegations, but remember that he needed to wed an Empyrean for his plans to work out with the Formless Mother. These plans he already had in place before Miquella charmed him, since Sir Ansbach was already a Pureblood Knight working under Mohg before Mohg was charmed, meaning Mohg had already established the foundations of his dynasty. That means Mohg was going to go after either Miquella or Malenia, since they were the only Empyreans left, and tell me, which one sounds like the easier target, the small child, or the undefeated champion? Miquella was always going to be taken by Mohg, the retcon just exists to make Miquella look more morally questionable while stripping Mohg of a bit of his agency and villainous identity. The entire Mohg portion feels like a rewrite when the entire reason he was charmed by Miquella is because he had some unspecified way into the Shadow Lands, and it’s never really talked about ever again. Mohg’s entire purpose in this plan comes off as an afterthought, with no specifications as to why he was needed, other than a vague “he was needed.” Even the use of his body to resurrect Radahn is unexplained as far as I know, though I headcanon that it’s due to Radahn’s body being too rotted after the centuries of Scarlet Rot infecting it, and they needed a demigod’s body, so Mohg was the only one to use available, but it would have been nice if that had been explained.

Godwyn would have been better as a final boss, and it didn’t even need to be actually Godwyn to work, since I know some people don’t think that would work from a lore perspective since his souls is gone, and his full return would wreck the Duskborn ending. Of course, “gone” is weird way to put it, since his soul isn’t destroyed, it’s in whatever afterlife exists in Elden Ring and just not being reincarnated like everyone else who dies after the rune of Death was removed, so Miquella could maybe work a way to get him back. The DLC is in the Shadow Lands, where all things that die pass through, after all. Get rid of Mohg being brainwashed, but keep his body being used so that Sir Ansbach, one of the best NPCs, still has a quest to follow in putting Mohg’s body to a proper rest. It also makes sense, Godwyn’s body is really messed up, bloated, and multiplying all over the Lands Between like a cancer, and can’t be used for ressurection.

Still, I think a failed Godwyn would be better. Maybe we skip the whole Promised Consort part, and just have it be the first act of Godhood Miquella does, because ew, am I tired of the incest surrounding Miqella’s character. Godwyn The Golden starts the fight off back in his prime, doing loads of attacks infused with Holy damage, coming off as the perfect and powerful Demi-god he’s always stated as being in the lore. Then he starts falling apart at phase 2, his phase 1 attacks being switched to being ghostflame infused rather than holy, Miquella now on his back and any new attacks added to phase 2 take on the holy affinity due to his presence. Then phase 3 hits, no holy infinity at all, all attacks do ghostflame or deathblight buildup. Deathblight is already so underused, so it would be great here. Godwyn is falling apart faster the more we fight, and Miquella, holding on, is getting hurt by the ghostflame and deathblight while desperately trying to keep his beloved brother together.

Have the fight set during an eclipse, too, sorta like the final boss of Dark Souls 3, the Soul of Cinder. Really tie it into the lore of Miquella trying to bring Godwyn back, like we find out at Castle Sol, where he had hoped to use an eclispe. I’d even say to make the light from behind the eclipse change color as the fight rages on, starting off bright and holy, and change it to the horrid dark grey and sickly yellow that deathblight has by the third phase, so rather than the arena getting brighter than a flash bang like it is in canon, have it get darker and gloomier. And of course, after the fight, the eclipse has faded entirely.

Instead of a cutscene that is nothing but information we already know(Seriously, what was even the point of the cutscene we got? It gave us not a single piece of new information), Miquella is lying on the floor, mostly dead, much like Morgott after we beat him in Leyndell. He isn’t dying because of us(honestly, I don’t even know why he died in the DLC, he’s so high up on Radahn’s back we never really get a chance to hit him directly, but he dies when Radahn does for whatever reason), instead he’s dying from clinging so tightly to Godwyn and trying to hold him together, burned by ghostflame and deathblight. He laments that even as a god, he wasn’t able to fix anything. Not his sister, not his brother, not the Haligtree, none of his plans ever work. No matter the sacrifices, personal or otherwise. He’s a failure in every way, and the knowledge breaks him as he sobs and dies.

However, if you visited every cross before the boss fight, you can absorb the essence of Miquella’s discarded body, and if you beat him then, you’ll get the option to return his discarded flesh and emotions after the fight. Doing so heals him, and gives him back everything he discarded, like his love, his fears and doubts. He fades away into light particles, and if you sit at the grace in the arena, he’ll appear like Melina does, sitting across from you and with a healed character model. This gets a few bits more dialogue, some exposition, yadda yadda. He’s a god without a consort, you’re a lord without a throne. He’s unsure, and not confident it will work, but maybe if you work together, something good can come of this tragedy? Giving up now would just be spiting in the faces of everyone he’s hurt. You’re strong enough to stop him if he loses his way again. (I think the reason he chose Radahn in canon was because of his strength and kindness? He trusted Radahn to do what was right after he threw away his love and compassion, entrusting Radahn to lead him down the right path when he lacked those things, and to be strong enough to resist his charm. That’s again entirely headcanon due to our lack of knowledge about their vow, but I’m adding it here because this is MY fanfiction and I can do whatever I like!)

(This part is more of a personal bit I’d have liked added because I find it amusing, rather than because I think it would make it better. Remember when you go through all that trouble to find Fia, and she asks if you’ve come all this way to kill her, and you can just say “No, I want to be held,” and it’s the funniest chunk of text you get in game? I really wanted something like that with Miquella. He wants to know why you came all this way, entered the Shadow Lands, a sealed off region of the world where only death awaits, where you fought against insurmountable odds, all to get to Miquella, presumably to stop him, only to heal him at the last moment, in which you can straight up tell him to his face you want to be his consort, and he’s just as confused and amused as Fia was. He knows you aren’t under his charm, but still he questions if it’s possible you are if you went this far just for that.)

This unlocks a new ending for the base game, the Age of Compassion. You summon Miquella like you would Ranni after beating Elden Beast, and together you usher in a kinder world, this time without the brainwashing. Or maybe with the brainwashing. Or perhaps it’s vague about the brainwashing, and if this is a good or bad ending in classic Fromsoft fashion. I’d prefer no brainwashing, and Miquella still unsure if things will work out, with it ending ambiguous if the Age of Compassion lasts, or fumbles and falls to a world blind to it. All you and Miquella can do is hope it will be better.

That might be a lot to ask, but look, it’s the only way I’ll ever get to live out my fantasy of being fought over by a cold, goth witch gf and a soft femboy twink with hair longer than I am tall, okay?

[cassafra5]

besides the anti-feral drug (which is theorized to be something else), what are your thoughts on how the Fallout tv show Buffed the Ghouls?

Sorry for the delay! I wanted to take a bit of time on this. I’m not sure if the ghouls are necessarily buffed. They seem to be for the most part the same, albeit there’s the dependence on the drug and there seems to be more of a chance of ghouls to decay/breakdown overtime if they can’t get proper care. For example, Roger has a full chunk of his skull showing. Without the drug, overtime, it seems like they start to lose themselves like Roger and Martha who needed to remind themselves of who they are. Pretty heartbreaking not gonna lie :/.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FO4/FALLOUT ON PRIME

Roger brings up that Cooper has outlasted everyone to which Cooper responds that he’s just always been good with money so there was, at one point, a community and overtime they became feral. Cooper does look healthier than the other ghouls who seem much paler and have their skin pulling away. When we finally see Lucy’s mother in the final episode, she is mostly skeletal and missing an arm and has probably been that way for years. I know a decent bit of damage would have come from the attack on Shady Sands but it’s also been many years as well and there could have been ongoing deterioration despite Moldaver’s best efforts. She could have gone feral soon after and may have been unable to be further treated.

How the ghouls turn feral reminds me of Rachel and Oswald the Outrageous from the Nukaworld DLC. After the Great War, they were turned into ghouls by the radiation and, overtime, some of their friends began to deteriorate and become feral. They describe it as a type of “affliction” and Rachel heads out to find a cure but ultimately concludes that ghouls are doomed to go feral eventually and takes her own life when she, too, begins to deteriorate. Maybe the cure she was looking for would have been something like the drug in the show.

I don’t think we’ve seen as of yet whether radiation cures or promotes healing in ghouls in the show. In regards to Thaddeus, I’m not sure if he is necessarily becoming a ghoul since the serum the snake-oil salesman gave him immediately healed his foot without the use of radiation and he also healed after being shot with an arrow. The salesman mentions that he has “serums that will make you grow an entire new foot.” Once Thaddeus takes the drug, the salesman is in a hurry to leave and even remarks that radiation “isn’t a thing to worry about” anymore. Some people have been saying it could possibly be the healing factor serum and that he now has that mutation, which is a possibility but I’m a bit skeptical of the salesman acting the way he did if that was the case. I actually like Thaddeus so I am a bit worried though with what clues we do have, it may be more likely that he could be turning into a super mutant of some type. FEV can have some regenerative properties depending on the strain and it could be that it’s taking a while to work…but we’re going to have to see what ends up happening in Season 2. I hope he’s okay though :(

[oddlylovingaddiction]

SFW YANDERE ALPHABET WITH COVE HOLDEN!

(Yandere) Cove Holden x (Gender neutral) Reader / Cove might be out of character? / Probably some spelling mistakes or confusing sentences sorry!!

A = Affection! (How affectionate are they towards their darling?)

So affectionate! I mean in the game he’s always affectionate so it’s basically the norm for him. He’s a bit shy when being affectionate but he enjoys making you happy nonetheless. He loves surprising you with gifts and if you give him permission, touch. Things like little shells he found at the beach or some food he got from the store that you like are some things he normally gives you. He enjoys standing close to you to the point he feels your skin against his although he tries hard not to break your personal space. Obviously he gets embarrassed by his own damn actions especially if he’s giving you a hug in front of yours or his family.

B = Baggage! (Do they have any trauma that makes them act as a yandere? and How will they handle the other person they love’s trauma?)

I think definitely he’d be a yandere due to the fact you arrived in his life at such a bad time and helped him through it he just naturally developed it.

As for if you have any trauma, we already know he’s incredibly supportive of you and he’s always there if you need him so I definitely feel like he’d just naturally be good with a person who has PTSD or any form of trauma. He knows what it’s like to feel alone and scared so he would do everything he can to make sure you, his darling are as happy as you can be even through hardships.

C = Careful! (How careful are they not to get caught by their darling?)

I don’t think he does anything violent or worthy of getting caught, I just think in general his love towards you is just obvious. So if you know what yanderes are you just instantly know what he is. The only thing I think he’d get caught on is the whole entering through your window, I feel like even if he’s just wanting to make sure you’re safe in bed his ass would get caught immediately. He’d also get caught occasionally glaring at people who made you uncomfortable or he feels like are taking you away from him.

D = Dreams! (What’s their dream life with the person they’re a Yandere for?)

He’s happy with any life he and you have as long as he is in your life and you’re in his. However I think he’d definitely want some sort of commitment, like officially dating or marriage. He likes being your friend don’t get me wrong but I feel like in general he’d just want an ultra special relationship/place in your life. After that, he doesn’t care what happens! He’s fine just living in a nice home with you and being able to snuggle up to you in the mornings.

If you choose to want kids with him (through pregnancy, adoption, surrogacy etc.) I feel like he’d get flustered same as if you choose to bring it up in the wedding DLC. Of course he has thought of it but only in passing no goals or anything. Obviously he’s over the moon happy?! I mean he’s panicked at first cause he has no clue he’s just happy to be the father of your kids.

E = Embarrassment! (Do they ever get embarrassed by the person they’re a Yandere for? and Do they get embarrassed by their yandere actions?)

YES. Doesn’t matter if it’s his actions or yours if he feels like it’s too much he will go red. Basically the same as him in game. Teasing about his love for you is always going to make him embarrassed.

F = Found! (What happens if the person they’re a Yandere for finds out they’re a yandere? and What if someone who isn’t the person they’re a Yandere for caught them?)

I don’t think he’s aware that he’s a yandere. This whole obsessive love with you just feels natural like, why wouldn’t he love you?! YOURE YOU. However if he does get called out for his deep love for you, he’s just embarrassed LOL. Like imagine his dad, cliff, going “I never expected you to love this passionately but hey, at least I know now to never get between you and your lover, huh buddy?” And he just goes bright red because he can’t really deny it but he also is just so embarrassed.

Now if you catch him in it I don’t think he really minds it just means he can skip the awkwardness and confess to you already!

G = Grieving! (What happens if the person they’re a Yandere for dies?)

Bro is not recovering period. 😭 no matter if it’s years, days, weeks or eternity he’ll always be grieving the loss of you.

H = Happiness! (How happy are they if the reader confesses to them?)

Bro is so fucking happy HE LOVES YOU!! YOU LOVE HIM!! He will celebrate this day every year it will go in a calendar.

I = Intelligence! (How crafty are they around the person they’re a Yandere for?)

Bro is not fucking sneaky. I think if he tries really hard he can be but I feel like in general he’s just easy to catch loving you LOL. Although how deep it goes might be a different story, that would be insanely hard to catch. I feel like he’s the type to wish you both were combined so he could never part with you but he’s also happy you and him aren’t combined cause how else will he hug you??? He mainly keeps thoughts like that though just in his head. He always forgets to write them down…

J = Jail! (Have they ever done something illegal?)

I mean the whole window thing is probably illegal and the fact he has canonically just been outside in just his underwear (although in the dead of night) is probably illegal as well. But he’s not going to jail because he’s too nice the judge would feel bad and instantly let him go.

K = Kindheartedness! (How kind are they towards the person they’re a Yandere for?)

HES SO KIND TO YOU, he wants you to be as happy as you can so if there’s any he can do (within some of the law and his power) he’ll do his best to bring that wish of yours to life.

L = Love! (How much love do they have for the person they’re a Yandere for?)

He loves you A LOT. like im talking the way mentally ill teens (aka me.) talk about their fave character, “ID DIE FOR THEM AHAGDGHSHS” or “I AM NOT WORTHY OF THE AIR THEY BREATHE” type beat but in his own Cove way.

M = Mean! (How mean are they willing to be towards others who express fondness/love towards the person they’re a Yandere for?)

Unless it’s someone he approves of like your family, his family or mutual friends he’s willing to be mean. Although he will feel bad about it afterwards. I think the worst he can do is glare tbh.

N = No’s! (What are some lines they refuse to cross?)

Anything involving hurting you, his and your families and friends. In general I don’t think he’d hurt anyone psychically unless they hurt or threatened you first. He also doesn’t want to make you unhappy so anything that is abusive is just a hard no for him.

O = Obstacles! (What are some challenges they have to face?)

Actually confessing his love to you or proposing to you. I feel like it would take him awhile. Not cause he doesn’t want to but because he’s so nervous even if he knows you’ll say yes lol.

P = Presents! (relaxed are they if their darling receives gifts from someone who isn’t them?)

Depends. Birthday gifts? Fine! Platonic gifts? Also cool. But anything he feels is like romantic he is PISSED. I think he’d snap and just hide it away from you or have you open the gift while you’re in his lap just so you know that you’re his partner and no one else’s.

Q = Quarrels! (What happens in a fight with the person they’re a Yandere for? and How argumentative are they?)

He handles it BADLY. VERY BADLY. He doesn’t want to argue with you. He’d feel so bad he’s apologize first and does everything he can to make it up to you.

He’s also not very argumentative. It’s extremely hard and rare for him to argue with you.

R = Raising! (Are they open to raising a pet or plant with their darling? and Are they open to starting a family with their darling?)

YES. Yes to all of them. He’s happy to have a family of pets, plants or kids with you.

S = Safety! (Do they prioritize the person they’re a Yandere for’s safety?)

Yes! He wants you to be as safe as possible, he doesn’t want to risk you getting hurt. Of course he still allows you to do what you want and doesn’t coddle you but safety is Important.

T = Transform! (Are they likely to stop becoming a Yandere?)

Unlikely but generally he’d never be extreme for you, he’s a ‘you-first-me-second’ guy. So unless you request him to stop being obsessive he won’t.

U = Unfaithful! (Are they a Yandere for more than one person?)

No just you! Of course he loves others platonically but he loves you romantically only.

W = Weakness! (How weak are they towards the person they’re a Yandere for?)

Extremely weak… he loves you so much if you so much as cry because of him he’ll die LOL.

X = X-ray! (What are some things in they keep in their pockets?)

His wallet with pictures of you in it (and in the future if you choose to, pictures of your family of pets/plants/kids too!) he likes to keep his pockets clear from unimportant items in case you need him to put something in his pockets.

Z = Zzz…! (How well do they sleep at night?)

Meh good enough. He sleeps amazing next to you though.

[microwave-core]

DLC Girlie Headcanons

Happy Valentine’s day. Happy early birthday to me. Happy late first anniversary of this blog. Don’t expect this to be as profound or long as the first scarvio post, but it is a post, so have fun with it.

Also, I didn’t include Briar here because I wasn’t satisfied with what I wrote for her and just ended up scrapping it. Might come back to her one day. And yes I know the Carmine gif is big but I liked it and couldn't find one I liked more.

Carmine, my love. I know I already made a whole post for her not too long ago, but I can still add more (and there are also only three others on the list sooo). This time, though, things can take place post Kieran joker arc.

Of course, she’s still Carmine. She’s a bit overprotective and jealous and kind of a bitch, especially when at the academy because a certain Drayton will lazily and jokingly flirt with you just to get on her nerves. Don’t play into his flirtations, or else she’ll be mad at both of you (temporarily at you, permanently at toothpaste hair). She won’t stop you from hanging out with other people, though. That is, of course, unless it’s Drayton, who she will literally drag you away from.

 She doesn’t really boss you around like she does her brother, but she will often ask you to help her with whatever she’s working on. It’s totally because she needs you to lend a hand and not because she likes having you plastered to her side. Sometimes she’ll ask you to come help her with a task and the task in question is just hanging out with Amarys.

Carmine does actually take her studies fairly seriously, especially when she’s helping Briar. Spends a good deal of time studying, and might pressure you to join her if you are falling behind. Surprisingly, she’s a pretty good study-buddy. If you’re really struggling with a subject, she can probably explain it in pretty understandable terms, as long as you can brush aside her occasional insults, of course. Might reward you with a kiss or two if you do really well.

You’re allowed to be a little mean to Kieran, as a treat, but know your place. She loves you, yeah, but she’d probably side with her baby brother over you if push comes to shove. You can tease him a bit and slide in some snide comments here and there, but if you take things too far she will be upset. I know I said you could be a little mean, but don’t be, like, mean mean to him. He’s been through enough.

Speaking of, Kieran thinks you’re pretty cool. Little guy doesn’t really have friends, and being a recovering joker acr victim doesn’t help that fact. He knows you, you’ve been in his life’s peripheral vision for a good deal of time, being attached to Carmine and whatnot, and he thinks you’re wicked cool. No matter how much time passes, he will always watch on with stars in his eyes when you are showing off your skills. He’d love nothing more than to have a match with you sometime.

I wouldn’t say Kieran’s like Hop is for Sonia, where he would go out of his way to play matchmaker, but he does silently lay in hope that you two stay together, and their grandparents feel the same. They might partake in some light teasing whenever they see you together, which is often, but they aren’t really pushy with it. Not the kind of people to press Carmine about when you’ll get married or give them great grandchildren or anything.

When Kieran is in his villain arc, Carmine will ask you to help keep an eye on him. She’s worried out of her mind with how odd he was acting, and really wanted to find the root cause. Once the whole Terapagos ordeal blows over, expect the two to come find you and tackle you into a group hug, both blabbering on about how they almost died and how much they care for you. A similar thing probably happens after the Pecharunt situation ends, as well.

You know… a lot of scarvio characters could totally be melded into yanderes if you just exaggerated their traits a wee bit. Not saying that any of them are, we’re not doing the whole “Nemona’s a yandere” bit, but Carmine could easily fit the bill. She’s bitchy, a bit overprotective, and can easily become violent. Nothing more to add here, it's just a passing thought.

Following my original scarvio post, I am morally obligated to include a point of slander for each girl. Carmine has said at least a few slurs in her life. In, like, a Lana del Rey way, specifically with that one kid who was in Stranger Things (why did she do that it was just completely unprompted). Would casually drop a slur in someone’s general direction for literally no reason. Hater energy.

Perrin’s pretty cool. I don’t like her as much as her supposed great great great grandmother, but I’m not here to pin two bad bitches against each other. Regardless of her ancestors, she’s still cute and artsy, and we love that for her.

She’s kind of funny to me more than anything. She would just go up to you one day, saying shit like “Hey babe, I’m feeling really unmotivated right now :{ so I’m gonna take a trip to a small, distant island to take pictures of a fucked up beast”. Don’t try to talk her out of it, she’ll already be on the plane.

When she’s feeling low, she likes to take pictures of you. They aren’t used for anything, not making their way into her portfolio, just her little personal collection to look back on and smile at gently. She’ll start by mopily taking half-assed pictures with her phone, but steadily gets more and more into things, setting up her shots and having you pose, eventually pulling out her camera.

Although, it is a bit embarrassing for her after the fact. When she gets really into her shots, she gets super enthusiastic and constantly makes cheesy remarks. Please don’t point this out while she’s working, she’ll get super flustered and totally thrown off her game. She might be able to recover, laughing her comments off sheepishly, or she might be too far gone to continue, dramatically laying down her camera in defeat, hoping you'll give her some affection and out of pity.

However, her love for you, and love for looking at you, isn’t always enough to get her out of a slump, hence why she goes to Kitakami to look for a fucked up beast in hopes of finding her spark again. Getting out and searching for something interesting can help her get back into her groove, and she’ll keep you posted the entire time if you aren’t by her side.

Speaking of, she loves to send you pictures. Constantly. She’ll send breathtaking scenery shots, gorgeous skylines, diverse and adorable wildlife, and Growlithe. It’s mostly just Growlithe if we're being honest. Usually paired with a caption like “he misses you” or “stinky little bastard man has committed a heinous crime (he rolled in the mud).”Particularly loves to send glamor shots of him.

And said stinky little bastard man loves you so much. He likes to follow you around when nearby, trotting on your heels, curious as to where you’re both going. He’ll sit patiently at your feet whenever you have food, and curl up in your lap when you’re sitting down. Perrin’s his favorite still, but you’re a close second. But if you pass him enough scraps under the table and give him good enough scratches, you might be able to sway his opinion.

I don’t remember if the game ever states where Perrin is specifically from, but she gives off country girl energy to me. Maybe it’s just the song that plays when you talk to her, now that I think about it. I don’t know. I think in general she’s also pretty laid back, the kind to go with the flow. Unless she’s in a rut, where it seems like her entire world is falling apart.

She’s not super into PDA, but she doesn’t really get embarrassed with excessive affection, either. She’d prefer to just hold your hand when around other people, maybe rest her arm over your shoulder, but she wouldn’t argue if you wanted more affection than that. Not to say that she doesn’t have any limits, she’s just pretty lax.

However, I also think she’s suave. Not afraid to surprise you by pressing a sudden kiss to somewhere on your face-forehead, cheek, lips-when you lean in close, like if you lean over her shoulder or something along those lines. She does like to see you flustered, but she doesn’t do it too often. After all, if she does this all the time, you would expect it, and then you wouldn’t get flustered at all.

Slander devil emoji. Perrin feels like she’d own a shit ton of shoes. Mainly tennis shoes, methinks. Most of her funds are funneled into her camera and lenses, since she’s a photographer obviously, but her second biggest money sink is her shoe collection. Is kind of protective of them, too, because Growlithe will chew on them if given the opportunity.

Lacey’s just cute. Which makes sense, because being cute is, like, her whole thing. To her, most everything has some cuteness in it. Nothing can be spared from her cute-detecting gaze.

What more should I really say for her? She’s just a super sweet and kind person and I would kill for her. Actually, I wouldn’t do that, because if I did she would look at me sadly and tell me what I did just wasn’t right. She might be incredibly nice, but she ain’t a pushover. Daddy didn’t raise no bitch.

She’s super touchy feely. Always touching you in some way. Prefers to drape herself over you whenever possible, usually by wrapping herself around one of your arms to lean in close. If she can’t, then she’ll gladly link pinkies with you, as she believes that’s way cuter than just holding hands.

Massive cuddlebug. Whenever you are sitting or laying down, she’ll immediately jump into the spot next to you and hold you close. She’s practically nodding off by the time she gets comfortable, too warm and comfy to want to get up. Her pokemon, especially her Granbull, tend to pile up around you as well. Will complain and beg you to stay if you try to get up before she’s ready (she will never be ready). She’s also guilty of baby talk. Take that as you will.

Her pokemon in general are pretty cuddly, as well, but some are better snugglers than others. Like, Excadrill is a real sweetheart, but she’s also got massive claws and hard noggin made of steel, which aren’t the most um pleasant. And Slowbro is a little bit toxic, so be careful. Omg I forgot she had a Primarina. I love Primarina, that's my favorite starter. I’m gonna end this point here before I ramble into infinity, sorry.

Feels very into arts and crafts. She’d break out the macaroni and Elmer's glue unprompted in the league club room and everyone flocks to her, watching her and her art supplies like impoverished children about to receive their daily rations. Everyone joins in, even if they don’t want to or don’t see the point in it. Drayton loves the crafts more than anyone else, barring Lacey herself, but he usually tries to get other people to do the work for him.

I also feel like she would try to turn the league club into a band at least twice. Imagine Lemonade Mouth (aka the best disney channel original movie), but with the BB elite four. No matter how hard she tries, it always devolves into absolute chaos. Maybe one day she will get to live her band kid dreams to their fullest.

ASMR Clay kills you via excruciatingly intense eye contact because you’re dating his baby girl.mp4. He is prime overprotective dad material, and he is so stubborn at first. He acts all big and tough in front of you when you first meet, mainly because that’s just how he is, but eventually warms up to you. Don’t expect to be too close, though. “Warming up” just means that he tolerates you.

Anyways, thinking of Clay makes me think of “Heartwarming: Watch this dad totally accept his gay daughter coming out then eat 12 tacos”. He’s very accepting of anything she does, even if he’s hard on her when it comes to actually dating. He’s just hesitant to let her grow up, is all. Also, he radiates massive divorced single-dad energy.

Lacey doesn’t like to complain that much, but she does on occasion. In particular, she tends to complain when a certain school director dumps his duties onto her. It’s usually not very heated, just a brief vent about how it totally wasn’t right, hand gestures and all. 

When venting, she usually prefaces that what she says might be a little mean or too much, but then she says something very reasonable and tame. Also seems like the type to apologize when she rambles on about something or other, no matter how many times you tell her that she’s fine.

Lacey slander is that she absolutely uses Texan slang. What in tarnation is the one she uses the most, but do not doubt her ability to spout country slang out of nowhere. Also owns at least one cowboy hat. And a pair of cowboy boots. She’s got the whole cowboy ensemble, actually.

Amarys, while not outwardly emotional, is also a very sweet and caring person. Facial emoting just isn’t her thing. I’m struggling to put my thoughts into words with her, because my mind is just automatically defaulting to “Amarys my beloved” instead of forming actual, tangible ideas.

I don’t think Amarys is terrible with emotions, she just isn’t good at showing them. Particularly on her face. She prefers to express her feelings through words and actions, even if they come off as robotic and stringent. They’re coming from the heart, honest. She does like to make fun little gestures with her hands, as well, like making hearts.

Despite being relatively fine at navigating her own emotions, there are certain concepts that stump her, mainly concepts that are more abstract, one’s that lack clearly defined definitions. For instance, she asks Lacey in the league room what constitutes being cute. Sometimes, she’ll approach you and ask questions about these concepts, just to gauge your expert opinion on such topics.

I feel like she has a hefty pocket watch collection. I don’t have much more to add, mainly because I don’t know much about pocket watches outside of them existing. I don’t think she’s an avid collector per say, I feel like she’s just accumulated them over time, mainly from getting them as gifts over the years.

She comes off as someone who’s a little hard to shop for, so most people tend to just get her a watch when gift giving because it’s something useful and she clearly likes them. She doesn’t mind receiving them, even if many of them don’t get used because she just has too many. At the very least, she has plenty of backup replacements if the one she uses breaks, and is also willing to share if you ever wanted to borrow one.

Lowkey a worrywart. If you mention feeling wrong or down or just have issues in general, she’ll keep checking in with you until she’s certain you are doing better. Not in, like, an overbearing way, though. She’s not hounding you constantly, just bringing it up when she sees you, or texting if you haven’t seen each other in a bit. It’s a good way to see how much she cares for you. It’s part of her love language, if you will.

Amarys is a very good person to confide in, regardless if you’re dating her or not. She’s a great listener and is always level-headed. She doesn’t have advice for every given situation, but her calm nature can help keep you grounded when venting, which really helps on top of the effect that venting generally has.

I’m split between thinking Amarys spends at least an hour in the morning styling her hair or believing that’s just how she always looks. I would assume that she takes her hair down every night, because her hairstyle doesn’t seem very comfortable to sleep in, and also seems like it would be messed up pretty easily. But the idea that she just always exists with this very specific hairstyle is kind of funny to me.

On that note, she is pretty good at styling hair in general. You don’t get that hair without having dexterous and skillful hands. Show her a picture of the style you want and she can probably get pretty damn close. Also good with hair dye jobs, as I assume she dyes some of her hair gray. Actually, maybe she doesn’t, because her eyebrows are gray. I don’t know what to believe anymore.

Gets dragged into Carmine’s antics a lot. She usually plays the straight man in comparison to Carmine’s… Carmine-ness. She can talk her friend out of her more ludicrous ideas, but she joins in on Carmine’s antics every now and then. Has had to talk Carmine out of chopping off Drayton’s massive hair tuft on multiple occasions.

While writing this I came across the idea of Amarys being the child of Lenora, the black and white normal gym leader, which I like. Mainly because I like Lenora a lot and she does canonically have a husband, so it would check out pretty well. I have nothing else to add to this, just wanted to mention it because why not.

Amarys slander? Amarys slander tonight queen? I’d say she’s the type of person to correct people’s grammar whenever they make a mistake, in both writing and conversation. This does include using it to “win” pointless arguments online, although she’s also the type to write lengthy responses in those types of arguments, so she already has all of her bases covered, but that doesn’t change her grammar correcting ways.

[subzeroparade]

*chant* New fic! New fic! New fic!

So excited you’ve posted a new ER fic, and with a teaser for more to come! 🎉🎉🎉

Since it’s been awhile, maybe I poke your brain on what your thoughts on the DLC are (game play, lord, sceneries, anything you’d like to share with us really)? Has it changed your headcanon on any of the characters, or did you find ways to incorporate the new lores into your interpretations? Most importantly, did you have fun?

*tagged for spoilers but just in case - spoilers •‿•*

Did I enjoy it? YES. Did I have qualms with some gameplay bits? YES but I’m a filthy casual on NG+2 or something and generally Not Good at Game. But I beat it. 

As for lore, it’s really a mixed bag. There’s a ton of stuff I’m delighted to have new or expanded lore for - Marika’s origins, Belurat and the entirety of Hornsent culture, Godwyn’s Death Knights, BAYLE???? VILE BAYLE!!!! etc etc (sometimes I listen to Igon’s voice lines just to psych myself up for real life). There are things I need to adjust my headcanon for a little, as well - St Trina, for example, has always been a facet of Miquella himself to me, a sort of alter ego he willingly takes on, which is how I enjoyed writing her in fic. To have her elaborated here as a separate person means taking that a little further if I write him/her/them again, but I think the parallel it draws between Marika/Radagon is hugely interesting as well.  

iirc there are a couple of instances in the base game where lore almost contradicts itself, but I think in some cases the DLC got a little sloppy. The timeline is also way foggier to me now than it was previously. I was a big fan of the idea that Messmer was entirely unknown to his siblings, written out of history after the Crusade (predating Marika ushering in the Golden Age of the Erdtree), but that contradicts the lore we get on Gaius and Radahn as they’re both personally acquainted with Messmer, and makes me wonder which of the other demigods might’ve been aware of him, and under what pretences might they have met. It makes for a lot of fic ideation, but I’m of the opinion that if you’re writing fic, sticking too closely to (the sometimes unhelpful) lore will stultify the work; so I’m trying to pluck little instances of new lore that interest me to bolster the story I want to tell.  

Like most of the fandom I have a huge beef with Promised Consort Radahn, and I’m still struggling with how to work that into my headcanon. To me, there is simply no reason for it. There are no indications of it in the base game, and you have to tie yourself into continuity knots for it to make any sense - and that’s just bad writing. I’m not against retconning things if they serve a purpose, but this was neither useful nor necessary (nor well done), and that’s fundamentally disappointing for a Fromsoft game. The more people aggressively try and justify it, the more I feel like the potential explanations unravel. If we’re going along with the assumption that Miquella *needs* a lord to ascend, we’ve had Candidate #1 since the base game: Godwyn. Half of what we know about base-game Miquella is that he spent time and resources trying to grant Godwyn some form of peace, while his hideous fate hangs over the narrative in perpetuity. And we give Radahn closure literally in the first act of the game. I’m a firm believer in Miquella knowing 100% what he’s about, but in this singular instance blinded by love for Godwyn and an all-consuming desire to *fix this* by resurrecting some nightmarish, malformed version of him. There’s so much juicy story to be told in Miquella refusing to acknowledge the thing he brought back is not his brother, and for all that godhood and remaking the world into utter passivity can do, it can’t retrieve Godwyn’s irretrievable soul. All that to say, I’d even take Malenia as his promised consort - it would made more sense than Radahn, too.

Anyway tldr I don’t have to think about how disappointing that is now, because the fic I’m working on is around Marika’s ascension, and more specifically Messmer and Melina’s upbringing. There’s another on the backburner but I’m on the fence about it since it hasn’t reached an outline stage yet, and I don’t start anything unless I am 100% sure I know how to finish it, and finish it well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Ty for the ask! As is the case with me, the rest of my musings on the lore come through in fic writing, because those are the texts dumps I’m good at. Here’s a little (young) Melina and Messmer wip as thanks. 

[katyspersonal]

I actually had the same thing happen with Miquella himself briefly! I even wrote this silly post about it (ignore the addition skdjfhd).

Because even though I still wouldn’t say, like I mentioned to you the other day, that I consider myself part of the Elden Ring fandom (yet), I was still surrounded by this tension over whether he was “good or evil.” I personally just wanted to see what the DLC decided because I was unsure from the base game alone if Miquella was going to still be the welcoming Haligtree ruler that we saw remnants of. I was wondering if he would be different or change!

But the toxicity of the two warring sides that took different stances on his morality started to get to my head and I even briefly was annoyed with poor Miquella ajshdjs. Starting to not like him because of fandom!

I can this happening with you and Leda, which now you see, I can’t even judge! I also used to not like Alfred briefly because he was worshipped as a “chad” by gamerbros for beating an “evil” but totally defenseless woman to death ;-;

But I DO think this curse of psychological association can be broken since I see the appeal of both Miquella and Alfred now! I had to separate them from fandom like one would separate art from artist.

I don’t want to fall prey to this curse either, but I don’t think it’s an unreasonable thing to feel either xD

Our best bet for these types of characters is that fandom calms down eventually and it becomes easier to appreciate them for how Miyazaki and his team wrote them! I do actually love Alfred and Miquella both now.

(These damn FromSoftware blonds tho istg akdhdhs)

Yeah, I remember the post (also absolutely awful addition, thanks everyone sdfhfhds)

The problem is... Miquella, Maria and Malenia and so on are the characters who might feel "ruined" for anyone with basic compassion or different takes or both because of how their obnoxious, fanatical toxic 'mean girl' simps act about them! They draw association with behaviour so revolting that people dislike them for the type of fans they attract! Radahn (and apparently Alfred?!) turn out to be the same problem from Reddittube side of the fandom instead, where people dislike the guy because of association with the fans who act all arrogant and even misogynistic!

Needle Knight Leda, on the other hand, is not a character who had the bad luck of attracting abhorrent kind of fans that will shun and insult """unworthy""" fans for the awful sins of different takes, different ships and god knows what else. Leda IS this kind fans! And, again: Alfred, Lautrec, Adella and Queelign are the same type of a person. The one who is cleansing the world from "unworthy" people, in the name of their idol/religion/both! However, she does not like just some big religious figure and is insane about them... She happens to like the EXACT character who DOES attract awful fans! Miquella HAS this effect on the fans! People with unflattering takes on him are chill and are just doing stuff that makes them happy without being passive-aggressive or toxic to anyone. But it is the people who idolise him and insist that he is kind who feel entitled to separate "right" kind of fans from "wrong".

Miquella, Maria and Malenia are one problem: attracting the worst kind of fans, thus being associated with those fans. Alfred, Lautrec, Adella and Queelign are another problem: unlikeable (save for sexual, appeal but that's it) character who "cleanses" the world from "impure" people for whatever idol dared to tarnish their light with their existence. I can deal with one of these problems as you could tell.. LEDA IS SOMEHOW UNPRECEDENTED CASE OF BOTH OF THESE THINGS AT ONCE.

I really don't want to find my first Soulsborne character I'd be unable to tolerate, especially after I've survived literal nervous attacks down to nausea after learning about Dung Eater and stuff like that fghfds Everyone deserves a chance at examination and interest because they're characters, they're not real!! It is just hard because my monkey brain automatically translates as much as fans liking Leda into 'hey btw I approve of Miq fanatics behavior in the fandom :)))'. Knowing something is not a rational reaction doesn't necessarily make it go away. But yeah...... eventually I'll separate her from the people we all see and hate.

[actualbird]

pardon me! I wanted to try the game tears of thermos, but I’m a little nervous since I don’t play these type of games. Do you have any advice on how to best enjoy myself and invest in its world/characters?

hi anon!!! im so glad you wanna try out tot!!! i do have some tips, but before i go there i must inform you that autocorrect mustve done something to your message because you said tears of thermos and i cldnt rest until i edited a meme of that

sjfhavkkHJVKJHJKSD OKAY ANYWAY, TIPS!!!!

im particularly interested in how you worded this ask!! ive had a lot of people ask me tips on how to start tot (and the relevant ones, i'll link in this ask too) but never on a narrative investment/immersion angle. so my tips for this will be a bit different

but before that, here are my past tips from my tot tips tag

general tips for a newbie (gameplay tips and story tips)

how to "predict" upcoming events

tot stories in chronological order (only updated til july 2022)

now for your question i guess my biggest tip would really just be to treat tears of themis like a visual novel that just so happens to update with more stories.

idk how much of a newbie you are to this genre, but when i got into this game i had NEVER played any other otome before in my life. so it was all new to me!! and i basically treated it like an updating visual novel, this is My Method, and that got me quite invested (as is obvious from my entire blog). so when i say "treat it like a visual novel" i mean:

im personally not particularly a card completionist or a gacha enthusiast. which, hell yeah, this game wont bankrupt me LOL. but also, since cards are the main way where new nxx boy stories are released through, for any card i dont have, i just watch it on youtube. because basically every card, event plot, minigame, etc gets uploaded by someone a little bit after its release. so if youre bummed you missed an event card but you dont really Want the card, you just want its story, just search it on youtube!! search [card name/event name] + [whichever language dub you prefer] + tears of themis and voila! new story for you to read!!!

if you want plot = read Main Story. this is where all the heavy main plot happens and it is SO GRIPPING AND RIVETING.

if you want character development and relationship development between mc and each boy = read Personal Story Bloom Chapter, and then the respective nxx boy's Anniversary 1 card, Personal Story Sweet Chapter 1 and 2, and then the respective nxx boy's Anniversary 2 card. the personal story routes (aka the routes where mc eventually ends up with the boy romantically) are where a BULK of characterization and character development happens, imo

if you want romance and oneshot dates = explore the available cards!!! the tot wiki has an archive of all the available cards per boy on each of the characters' main pages. for example, here's luke's page. scroll down to the cards section and Behold. Luke Stories As Far As The Eye Can See

these pages dont have the story transcribed in them, but theyre great to use as a directory or a map of cards. so if any of the cards catch your eye, then take urself to youtube to find the card and voila (again)! new story for u to experience!

(note: SSRs always have a full 6 act story. SRs either have a 6 act story that is unvoiced, OR 2 voice messages. MRs always have 2 voice messages. R cards have no story and no voice messages)

if you want nxx team dynamics = read and/or play the events!!!! this is my favorite thing, the tot events are a treasure trove of fun cases and awesome team dynamics. in the game itself, some of the big events are available as DLC for anybody to play themselves at any time. to get there, X-NOTE Story -> lower and rightmost button Event -> upper and rightmost button Past.

if theres anything i would reccommend the MOST, itd be to download and pllay the event Mysteries of the Lost Gold. it's so good. it's my favorite event story. trust me on this

i hope these tips can help!!! happy playing :DDD

[skyward-floored]

Fic idea: the Chain meets Warriors but it’s an AU of Hyrule Warriors.

They end up in this weirdly empty palace on the other side of the portal that’s filled with statues of what looks like themselves. After wandering around they are greeted by Cia, who of course recognizes them and gives them a big enthusiastic welcome.

They’re like, “you know who we are?”

And she’s like “of course! My husband is one of you! Come, Link dear!”

And Warriors comes out, dressed up like a Ken doll, all prim and perfectly doting and smiling but with bags under his eyes that does not escape the notice of the heroes.

So yeah, Cia has Link and he’s her “husband” but he’s more of a prized prisoner, and he’s doing whatever to keep her happy to keep the kingdom safe.

He acts all lovey dovey with her in front of the Chain and the two of them play the part of perfect hosts, but Warriors is internally screaming because he knows she’s not gonna want them to leave and he has to find a way to warn them without her finding out. This is not easy to do because she is a sorceress and they’re in her domain. But eventually the Chain figured out/learns what’s really going on and are able to defeat Cia and free Warriors.

(The DLCs don’t exist so Time and Wind did not meet Warriors before.)

Oh YIKES that would be so rough on poor Wars 😬 I can only imagine what state he would be in once the chain beat Cia and got him out, especially depending on how long he’d been there... oof.

I read a fic with a bit of a similar premise once, but it wasn’t lu at all (I think it might’ve been deleted... either way idk where it is. It was rough though).

[leofrith]

A Critique of ACV: The Last Chapter (SPOILERS!)

I wanted to hold off on sharing my thoughts about the new content until I’d given The Last Chapter time to breathe, because I was honestly hoping that maybe if I gave it some time, I wouldn’t dislike it so much. But the more I think about it, the more I find things to dislike about it. Which is why what started out as a quick write-up of my thoughts immediately after playing The Last Chapter has now spiraled into this very long critique that got so long I needed to add subheadings to break it up. 

Sorryyyyy. 

I’m basically spoiling everything from The Last Chapter here, along with Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and parts of its expansions. I also briefly mention a few other Assassin’s Creed games, mainly Odyssey and one of its DLCs. My point being, if you don’t want to know anything then please look away now. Or don’t. But I know I would have appreciated a warning before diving into this mess. 💀

As a disclaimer: this essay is not meant to be an attack, nor is it meant to place blame squarely at the feet of Darby Mcdevitt, or any of the other writers or developers involved with the game. There are so many moving parts in a game as expansive and with as much add-on content as Valhalla, and I can only guess what happened behind the scenes that brought us to this point. I don’t know who wrote what, who made what creative decisions, and I therefore don’t feel comfortable placing blame on anyone in particular. I have never worked for Ubisoft and I can therefore only speculate about their internal culture based on what has been leaked from the company over the years. Furthermore, this is not an invitation to personally attack anyone involved in the development of this game on Twitter or wherever else. This is purely an attempt on my part to articulate why me and so many other fans of Valhalla and of Eivor feel so profoundly emotionally betrayed by this ending, as well as outline some factors that I believe contributed to the way the game was mishandled. 

So. I think I had already accepted when the trailer released back in September that something like this was going to happen. I had already done my mourning for the fact that Eivor would never get the send-off she deserved, which is why I think I’m a lot less upset than I would have been otherwise… but that doesn't make this suck any less. The Last Chapter was completely underwhelming, it was emotionally unsatisfying, it completely butchered Eivor's character, it felt incomplete, and rushed, and it felt more like a teaser for Mirage than anything close to the conclusion Eivor’s story deserved.

The (Character) Assassination of Eivor Varinsdottir

When we first meet Eivor as an adult, she is overconfident, brash, and she has just gotten in over her head and gotten both herself and her crew captured by the enemy. She is in the 17th year of a quest for revenge she has been in pursuit of since she was nine years old. She has spent more than half of her life hunting Kjotve, the man who stole her parents, her clan, and her childhood from her, and is fully prepared to die if need be to kill him. She is an orphan who was taken in by the Raven Clan after the slaughter of her own people, and she considers these people to be her new family. Her love for her family and community are central to Eivor’s character right from the beginning. While she learns and grows past some of her flaws throughout the game, her love for her community and her loyalty to them is what sticks with her. 

Eivor also starts the game carrying an immense amount of shame for how her father died, laying down his axe in the hope that the rest of his clan would be spared, only for he and most of his people to be slaughtered anyway. Through her time spent acting as a leader to the Raven Clan–first as a warrior and later as their Jarlskona–Eivor finally understands by the end of the game why Varin did what he did, because she realizes that she would make the exact same choice to protect her people. Eivor, too, would choose to die in “dishonor” if it offered even the smallest chance to save her loved ones. 

Eivor is the reincarnation of Odin; she carries his memories and his thoughts, unbeknownst to her. She has visions and prophetic dreams and hears his voice in her head, but spends much of the game not understanding the meaning of it all. The part of her that is Odin pushes her toward chasing personal glory, toward the pursuit of knowledge, toward selfishness. But she chooses to abandon all that in favor of the people she loves, even as Odin rages and screams insults into her ear and calls her a coward–the one thing she has always been most fearful of becoming. Odin is a representation of everything she has been told to value in life, and she is (literally) pulled in the opposite direction by Sigurd, Randvi, Hytham, Valka, Gunnar, Soma… everything else. 

Eivor never truly seems to grasp the meaning of her connection to Odin, Sigurd’s connection to Tyr, Basim’s connection to Loki, or anything about the sages or the Isu at all. Not in the base game or in any of the DLCs. She never really acknowledges it explicitly until The Last Chapter. 

Put a pin in that.

Family and community are central to Eivor’s character. Loyalty is central to Eivor’s character. Honor is central to Eivor’s character. That’s why it makes absolutely no sense for Eivor to drop everything, seemingly out of nowhere, to go back to Vinland alone and live out the rest of her days learning from Odin, the part of her that she explicitly rejected at the end of the main game. And it certainly doesn’t justify Eivor deciding to leave Ravensthorpe in the middle of the night without a farewell, regardless of who she supposedly said goodbye to offscreen. It doesn’t justify her completely sudden and out of character decision to walk away from her clan, her family without a true goodbye. Eivor spends the entire base game acting as Jarl in Sigurd’s stead in everything but title, because Sigurd has all but completely abandoned the clan in order to chase his own ambitions, only for Eivor to supposedly do the very same thing? No. It’s completely incongruent with her character and actively contradicts facts that were established in the main game.

There are so many other inconsistencies, including the fact that I highly doubt Valka–the same Valka who we saw warn Eivor against digging too deeply in her visions in the intro to The Forgotten Saga–would simply accept Eivor departing for another continent to delve deeper into her visions. But the way they miswrote Eivor’s character was particularly glaring. There could have been a version of the last chapter in which Eivor's motivations actually made sense, but that version needed so much more evidence for it to be believable. Reading between the lines is one thing, but expecting players to accept the conclusions you’re feeding them without planting any seeds beforehand is just lazy writing. [insert “HE WOULDN’T FUCKING SAY THAT” meme]

The RPG structure is the root of all evil (I know just… hear me out on this)

I think applying an RPG structure to Assassin’s Creed was a mistake, and have thought so for a while, but not really for the reason you’re probably thinking of. The “but we’re reliving another person’s memories in the animus, so how can it possibly make sense to allow us to make choices that affect the narrative?” reason. My criticism of the addition of choices is mainly this: I think that by trying to “expand” the story by adding RPG elements and dialogue options, they instead ended up severely limiting themselves. Because the problem with adding dialogue options to Assassin’s Creed is they can never take those choices to their conclusion. They can never truly have consequences.

Trying to tell a linear story with a non-linear structure like this doesn’t work, or at the very least, it hasn’t worked in Assassin’s Creed thus far. Odyssey came closer, I think, because it had multiple distinct outcomes and player choices actually had an affect on the trajectory of the plot (Mostly. Hi, Legacy of the First Blade. I’m coming for you in a minute.). Odyssey's multiple endings present a different problem entirely in the context of Assassin’s Creed because despite the input of choice, there is still a canon version of the story and a canon ending. It leaves those players that arrived at a different outcome feeling alienated, and like their choices were incorrect or simply didn't matter. 

But in Valhalla, all roads lead to more or less the same destination and most decisions have no impact on the trajectory of the story. The problem that arises from this is that players will make their choices and expect some sort of payoff, as they should. But they won’t really get it. As per Darby McDevitt, for example, Sigurd always goes back to Norway at some point, regardless of whether a player ends up with the “good” or the “bad” ending. Sigurd returning to Norway is a fixed point and the timeline will always course correct, so to speak, to reach that end. 

(Thank you @/vikingnerd793 for the screenshot!)

Everyone gets more or less the same version of The Last Chapter, with the siblings’ interactions only varying slightly after the “bad” ending to reflect the fact that Eivor and Sigurd haven’t seen each other in a while. But even with the tiny variations in dialogue that exist, a few changed lines in a scene that doesn't last any longer than two minutes still fail to make Eivor and Sigurd's supposed off-screen reconciliation feel even remotely earned. Ubisoft wanted to offer “choice” while not following through with emotional payoff for those choices because they only wanted a single ending. Even if a player ends the main game with Sigurd deciding to stay in Norway as a result of Eivor’s “betrayal,” the consequences of that to their relationship are never truly explored.

Having only one ending with no variations in an RPG means that they couldn’t address any of the plot points that could have been affected by player choices. Interpersonal conflicts are watered down or only vaguely referenced. They couldn’t truly address the state of Eivor and Sigurd’s relationship because that would depend on what endgame the player reached. They couldn’t give Randvi an actual goodbye because some people didn’t romance her and therefore it might feel “forced” to those people, despite her being a major character. Vili–despite apparently being Eivor’s best friend–can’t appear because for some people, he’s busy being the Jarl of Snotinghamscire. There is no true emotional follow through for any of the choices made throughout the game. The end result is a goodbye tour consisting of Aelfred, Guthrum, and Harald, three people who Eivor has little to no emotional attachment to, but whose roles in the game are fixed no matter what choices the player makes, which means they’re safe to use. To be clear, Hytham’s role in the narrative is also fixed, but the reason I separate him from the other three is because he is actually emotionally significant to Eivor. His goodbye, unlike the other three, feels earned. 

To be clear, I don’t place the blame entirely on the writers for this because, as I’ve said, they were given a franchise that revolves around linear stories, told to put dialogue options into it, and make sure all those choices still lead to the same conclusion. As an extension of that, they brought back people who worked on the base game two years after its release to tie up loose ends that should have been dealt with years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if those same creators have all since moved on from this story and its characters, both creatively and emotionally. It's been two years. Even longer than that since they actually worked on the game. I wouldn't fault them for not having the same enthusiasm they once did. But the end result is a last chapter that feels almost completely devoid of emotion, and ties up absolutely none of the loose ends that most people would expect from a permanent “goodbye.” It fails to reach the emotional highs and lows that a conclusion with two years of build up should have. 

Which now brings me to Randvi. 

Oh, Randvi, now and forever shackled to her map table. 

I know this will be a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people, but I always suspected that they would never actually follow through on making Randvi and Eivor's relationship canon despite the fact that it is indisputably the most fleshed out romance in the game. They are hinted at right from the beginning, in the form of Randvi’s clear dissatisfaction with her marriage to Sigurd and in Eivor’s lingering gazes. It is the only romance option in the game that has any effect on one of Eivor’s core internal conflicts: remaining loyal to her brother. “The wind calls [her] back to Randvi” after almost every single regional arc, whether players choose to pursue a romance or not.

But Darby McDevitt Official Headcanon or no, I never thought Ubisoft would "force" another romance after the backlash from Odyssey's Legacy of the First Blade (I told you I’d come back to it). I truly believe the company will and has happily suffered criticism from the Queer community for forcing a relationship on gamers who played Kassandra as a lesbian. Kassandra who, prior to the DLC, also never shows any interest in starting a family, or becoming a mother, or “continuing the family line”, as would become Ubisoft’s flimsy correction to the storyline after the criticisms started rolling in. But I highly doubt they would be okay with alienating the bigots who seem to form the loudest portion of their player base. That would be too much of a risk to their bottom line. 

To me, the romance plotline in Legacy of the First Blade was the inevitable result of Ubisoft wanting to tell a linear story with a non-linear structure. I think they did so without thinking through the implications of letting players choose their character's sexuality, only to then backtrack on it later because they needed Kassandra to have a baby. And what they seemed to take away from that was only that all forced romance is bad, without grasping the nuance of why that particular forced romance was so bad. This isn’t to say there should be any forced romance at all but that it should have served as a lesson of why one shouldn’t make a game with so much emphasis on player choice, only to take that choice away and even retroactively nullify those choices when it suits the needs of the plot. But that wasn't Ubisoft's takeaway. So in Valhalla, they pulled back. They made all player choices matter just a little bit less.

Eivor and Randvi’s relationship is inarguably handled with more care than any of the other romances in the game. It is inextricable from the narrative, whether it is a romantic relationship or a friendship. But despite any amount of blatantly obvious subtext that exists, Valhalla is still an RPG and the creators cannot confirm or deny any of the choices as correct or incorrect. And because they have to cater to all possible endings, they cannot address Eivor and Randvi’s relationship in any capacity because it might be misconstrued as being forced. Despite every overt piece of evidence that exists, Valhalla is still technically an RPG and at the end of the day, plenty of people did not choose Randvi. No amount of narrative director headcanons or heavy subtext will change the fact that Randvi is a seemingly meaningless choice in a sea of meaningless choices, and has now remained so permanently.

Ubisoft just really sucks as a company, actually

Everything that I am about to say in this section (and honestly, most of the next one as well) is conjecture because again, I don't know how certain creative decisions were reached behind the scenes. This isn't just about Randvi, or about Eivor's sexuality. It’s also about Ubisoft’s long and storied history of internal misconduct and suppression of marginalized voices. It's about Ubisoft's history of employee abuse in general. It's about the fact that Ubisoft suddenly decided to let players choose their gender, but only once they finally got around to making mainline titles starring women. Syndicate’s Jacob and Evie share the role of protagonist, and would have also shared equal screen time if Evie’s role hadn’t been significantly minimized throughout production in favour of her brother. Aya was originally meant to replace Bayek as the main playable character early on in Origins, but was later reduced to a side character who is only playable in a few missions throughout the game. Aya, the founder of the Hidden Ones. The order that would later evolve into the Assassins. The order that is the namesake of the entire franchise, just to be clear. Odyssey was originally conceived as Kassandra’s game, before the developers were made to allow players the choice to play as Alexios. Every female protagonist in the franchise thus far has been minimized in some way, and Eivor is unfortunately no different. 

Assassin's Creed is a huge enough brand at this point that they could have easily released Odyssey with only Kassandra, and Valhalla with only Eivor. But instead of taking a "risk" and doing just that, they added the male options to cater to a small but vocal minority of misogynistic piss babies who don't want women to exist in their video games, period. At least, certainly not as fully realized characters with personalities and thoughts and feelings of their own. That would require acknowledging women as people, rather than as identical playthings that mostly exist as a social stealth mechanic for them to hide behind when they need a cover. 

It’s especially funny because it was such a futile effort. That very same group of people was never not going to complain about Assassin’s Creed going “woke” for having female protagonists, even if they were optional. Those people were going to complain no matter what, and they absolutely have as evidenced by the fact that they've been having a conniption on Twitter for the past few months now that Eivor is suddenly getting even half of the attention from the marketing team that Havi has gotten for two years. The comments section on every official social media post featuring Eivor is a sea of people complaining about how “female” Eivor being canon makes no sense, how her voice sucks, how she is just the result of Ubisoft pandering to a “woke” demographic. The “fan” response could not be more blatantly misogynistic. What’s more, Ubisoft bases the trajectory of their games at least partially on fan responses. It’s a toxic feedback loop of them making creative decisions built on sexism and the fans responding in turn. 

Ubisoft deciding to implement gender choice as a mechanic didn't happen because they suddenly had a change of heart after happily ignoring their female players for years. It happened because they got busted for the "women don't sell" comments and the company's history of burying sexual assault allegations, and because they finally caught on to the fact that catering to gamers that aren't cishet men might actually be profitable. And it wasn't for lack of trying from the devs within the company because again, Origins was originally conceived as being Aya's game, Evie and Jacob were at the very least supposed to have equal screen time when development on Syndicate was in the early stages, Elise's role in Unity was also reduced... you get the idea.

Letting people choose to play as a woman or letting people choose to play as a Queer person is great. But it's an obvious cop out when your company also has a history of suppressing those very same voices, has done next to nothing to remedy the toxic company culture that encourages that behaviour in the first place, and when you've been dragging your feet as a developer about making your games even just a bit more inclusive for years. It’s an empty gesture when those female characters need to be watered down just enough for their male counterparts to make some amount of sense in the story, and when the marketing for the game hides them away like some kind of shameful secret. 

Suddenly making games starring female protagonists because you’ve realized that it might be profitable, while also making it optional anyway, isn’t exactly the win for representation they seem to think it is. Especially when the marketing favours the non-canon, male protagonists so totally that most people would assume Eivor and Kassandra are skins of their male counterparts. Because heaven forbid the poor baby boys have their escapist fantasy shaken if they have to play as a woman who’s better at getting girls than they are. Making your representation optional makes your representation look half-assed and while I absolutely adore Eivor and Kassandra, I mourn what they could have been if their stories were allowed to be fully theirs. 

Perhaps I’m being overly harsh and Ubisoft simply decided to implement gender choice in Valhalla in good faith. I honestly wouldn’t care if I thought it had, or if AC games had always allowed players to choose their gender. But considering the company’s history, and considering the game’s marketing, I somehow doubt that. Especially when, in their first game featuring a canon male protagonist since before AC pivoted to RPGs, they are not giving players the option to choose their gender. 

Hi Basim. 

Now don’t get me wrong. I obviously understand why Mirage doesn’t allow players to choose their gender; Basim is a pre-existing character, and it really wouldn’t make sense. But it is so transparent that they are willing to jump through narrative hoops to explain why Alexios is playable as the Eagle Bearer, but the same thing can’t be done for Basim. I suppose the importance of coming up with convoluted reasons as to why your protagonist’s gender is so easily changeable fades away when you’re not trying to replace a woman. 

But what’s this? By God it’s–it’s Mirage with a steel chair!

The final content update for Valhalla feels like a teaser for Mirage. Full stop. If you think I'm being too harsh or unfair, then that's your prerogative. But in The Last Chapter, in the long-awaited conclusion to Eivor’s story, we don't even get to play as Eivor. The entire questline (if it can even be considered that much) consists almost entirely of cutscenes, which we view through Basim's perspective while Eivor is relegated to a side character. It’s a collection of Eivor’s memories that are supposedly filtered by emotional intensity, as Basim puts it. Grief, longing, sadness: all emotions that I fail to see being presented in the memories they gave us, at least for the most part. For the first time in Valhalla, we are voyeurs to Eivor’s memories rather than experiencing her life through her own eyes. The role of the animus user in past Assassin’s Creed games has always been pretty unobtrusive, but The Last Chapter constantly reminds us that Basim is there and watching. "Animus magic," as Basim calls it, was less of a necessity to the plot and felt a lot more like Ubisoft's marketing department gone awry. 

I'm thinking about what Basim says at the end of the base game, when he is in the modern day and speaking to Eivor's remains. When he says, "I can take from you anything I want... your memories, your skills, your secrets. They're all mine." It's so ironic because he really stole Eivor's ending right out from under her, and I would have to laugh if it didn’t suck so much. It's all I could think about while I was watching Basim flippantly scrub through some of Eivor's most "emotional" memories which for some reason include… saying goodbye to Guthrum, a character we spend very little time with in the grand scheme of things, and who Eivor has next to no emotional attachment to. I understand the desire to tie up loose ends in terms of the historical events that were happening around this time, and they absolutely should have done all that because Assassin’s Creed has always been, in part, an exploration of history. But it should not have happened at the cost of providing closure for characters who were such significant figures in Eivor’s life.

I thought the Roshan quest was fun and I loved her and Eivor’s dynamic, even if we only got a small glimpse of it. But it was development time that could have been spent on wrapping up Eivor’s narrative instead of making another timeline agnostic add-on stealth mission in a game that has always had notoriously janky stealth mechanics. I look forward to seeing more of Roshan in Mirage and can now rest easy knowing that she is going to survive to the end of that game (although I cannot fathom why they decided to spoil that so early on). But they used what was apparently very limited time to give us a quest, very clearly a nod to Mirage, that does more to promote their next AAA title than serve the narrative of Valhalla.

Using the ending of a game to lead into the next is fine and is to be expected. But that transition should not come at the cost of a resolution for the story you're leaving behind. And really, it seems there was far more thought put into Basim and William Miles' first meeting than how Eivor came to the decision to leave for Vinland. 

I think Basim is an incredibly rich, complex character, and it will be interesting to see what direction they take his prequel. But as someone who has actually been really excited for Mirage, the way they've dealt with this transition between games has left me feeling so conflicted, not least of all because of how quickly Ubisoft dropped the ball on Valhalla as soon as Mirage was announced. I’m not sure I’ll be able to look at everything we will be gaining with Basim in the next game without also feeling bitter about everything we lost with Eivor. It’s not terribly surprising, since Ubisoft has never treated Eivor’s character with any amount of respect; not in the marketing, and not in most of the post-launch content that has come out in the past year. 

The post-launch that launched absolutely nothing

Darby has now said that The Last Chapter is meant as more of a direct follow up to the epilogue of the main campaign, to be played right after Gunnar's wedding. This is why they didn't feel the need to show a goodbye between Eivor and her people; the wedding functions as a sufficient goodbye to the Raven Clan.

But even if that was even remotely satisfying, it doesn't explain when Eivor came to accept her role as a sage, a role that she has yet to understand by the end of the base game, even if she is perhaps beginning to question it at the very least. It doesn't explain why it was never truly addressed in any of the some 100 plus hours of content that have been released for this game since then. It doesn't explain why Eivor and Randvi might finally pursue a relationship, only for Eivor to suddenly pick up and leave for Vinland, alone and permanently. It doesn’t explain why Eivor would leave for distant shores without saying goodbye to Ljufvina, or Vili, or Stowe and Erke, or Broder, or Oswald and Valdis, or Swanburrow, or any of the many other people whose relationships Eivor cherishes throughout the game. 

If anything, The Last Chapter being played immediately after Gunnar's wedding and the rest of the Hamtunscire epilogue makes it even more important for Eivor to say goodbye to her people, because that whole arc only cements Eivor’s devotion to her people, as well as how much her “encounters” with Odin have shaken her faith. Even then, that doesn't even touch on when or why she came to the decision to leave in the first place. 

Due to a “play anytime” approach that Ubisoft–for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom–decided to take with all the post-launch content for this game, all DLCs for Valhalla are exactly that: they can be played at any time. They go to great pains to avoid spoiling story points from the base game, they rarely make references to events from the base game and, perhaps most critically here, they don’t build on any of the plotlines of the base game. 

Remember that pin we stuck in Odin earlier? Hi. He's back.

None of the DLCs released in post-launch–from Wrath of the Druids to The Siege of Paris, to smaller, free additions such as the River Raids–touch on Eivor’s connection to Odin or her understanding of it, or any of the other potential threads left behind by the base game. Other more mythologically inclined entries like the Mastery Challenges, Dawn of Ragnarok, and The Forgotten Saga scratch the surface of it, but never dig deep enough for Eivor to put two and two together. Even in the Odyssey crossover with Kassandra, who has intimate knowledge of the Isu and their artifacts, Eivor remains completely clueless about her role as a sage despite it being the perfect opportunity for her to learn more. 

At no point is Eivor shown to make any wild revelations about her Isu heritage that could justify her decision to leave. There is a gaping hole in the narrative where that development should be, and therefore the jump from “everything else” to “I’m older now, and I want to learn from the god who lives in my head,” is unearned and comes from completely out of nowhere. The DLCs could have remedied this easily by giving us deeper insight into how Eivor interprets her visions, specifically how she interprets her relationship to Odin. They could have dug into how and when she comes to terms with that connection, and the same could be said for how she comes to know about all the other sages, including Harald, who Eivor and Sigurd suddenly seem to know about being the reincarnation of Freyr despite not seeing him in more than a decade and never mentioning it before. But they can’t, because the DLCs are playable at any time, and therefore cannot discuss things the player may not yet understand.

The brevity of this DLC was especially jarring, even as someone who went into this with low expectations. Because after two years worth of updates, including some sizable free ones, I thought that surely Eivor’s conclusion would be considered important enough to receive the time and attention it deserved. After all, Kassandra got her own surprise ending in the form of the Crossover Stories, announced completely out of nowhere two years after the last DLC for Odyssey was released. After all the time and effort and love that clearly went into that crossover, it seemed reasonable enough that the ending for Valhalla, a game that was still being supported, would have the same amount of effort put into it, if not more. Instead we got a barely there wrap-up that lasts maybe 45 minutes at most, if you’re being generous, and fails spectacularly at offering the catharsis that should be a no-brainer in a story where the main character’s death has been a mystery to be unraveled, right from the beginning. 

Eivor is dead. She has been dead for centuries, buried across an ocean from everyone and everything she knew in life. The how and why of Eivor’s burial site is a question that follows us through her entire journey and throughout the entire game. One that was never resolved… until now, with some vague notion about leaving everything she has worked for and everyone she holds dear behind in an attempt to find herself, all with the help of an entity with whom her relationship has been tenuous at best. Eivor decides to banish the part of her that is Odin because she doesn’t like that part of herself. That second soul, the part of her that values personal glory above all else. Even in The Last Chapter, she describes Odin’s memories as “malicious.” So why backtrack so completely? 

I have no idea.

It’s possible the developers weren’t given enough time to give this final chapter the breathing room it needed to make sense. It’s possible they had lost enthusiasm, and just wanted to rip the band-aid off and get this thing over with. It’s possible Ubisoft wanted to cobble together the scraps of a potentially satisfying ending so they could say they did it, before turning all of their attention to their next title. As it stands, I wish they had just left Valhalla alone, with an open ending, instead of providing a non-answer that feels like an afterthought. An incomplete conclusion to a story and a cast of characters that many of us still care so much about, but Ubisoft seemingly gave up on long ago. 

Eivor deserved better. 

The Raven Clan deserved better. 

Valhalla deserved better. 

We, the fans, deserved better.

If you actually read this far then there is a good chance that you also need therapy

This whole affair really reminds me of the last time I felt this profoundly disappointed by a piece of media I loved. It reminds me of how I felt after watching the second season finale of The Mandalorian, when it hit me that the whole season had just been a series of various cameos and fan service moments that only made sense to the plot at a stretch. It hit me that I had just spent the previous eight weeks watching the show runners completely sideline their main characters–Din Djarin and Grogu–and lose the plot in favour of promoting future Star Wars projects. When it seemed like all the good writing in the show previously had been entirely accidental. But the major difference between The Mandalorian and the ending of Valhalla is that I knew there would be another season of The Mandalorian to potentially patch things up and pick up on some of the plot threads that were dropped. For Valhalla, this is it. There is no more content upcoming that will patch this up and, in hindsight, there are plenty of other things added to this game in post launch that I think would have also made me feel the same way I feel right now if I knew they were the last piece of content we’d ever see. 

Am I overthinking this? Perhaps. Am I being melodramatic? Probably. But to me, this ending for Eivor feels like yet another perfect example of what happens when corporate interests are allowed to dictate creative decisions. 

I say all this as someone who has and will continue to defend a lot of Valhalla’s faults, because if writing this whole thing has done anything, it has served to remind me how good the core narrative of the base game really is. It has depth, it has heart, and I hope that other people who enjoyed it as much as I did–and are as disappointed by The Last Chapter as I am–are able to reconcile the beauty of Eivor’s character arc in the main game with the way it was seemingly undone in The Last Chapter. 

I’m trying my very best to not let this ending retroactively take away all the joy I’ve found in this game for the past year. And in spite of how negative this critique has been, writing it has actually really helped me do just that. Because in writing this critique, I was also looking back on Valhalla’s narrative, its highs and lows, its major plot points, and I was re-watching clips. A speed run of Eivor’s greatest hits, if you will. 

I was reminded of why I connected so strongly with Eivor in the first place. I was reminded of her strength, her kindheartedness, her love of children, her wit, the poetry of her dialogue, her sense of duty. I was reminded of her rage, her single mindedness, her sense of loyalty that is often to her own detriment when she offers it to those who don’t deserve it. I was reminded of her character arc from someone who spends so much of her life on a single minded quest for revenge, to someone who becomes a beloved leader to her people. 

I was reminded of the Valhalla sequence at the end of the game, a sequence that still makes me cry just as much now as it did the first time I played it, if not more. When Eivor, who has spent most of her life feeling nothing but resentment and shame toward her dead father, finally learns to understand why he did what he did. When she understands why he laid down his axe, the very same axe she holds now, in the futile hope that his daughter, his wife, and the rest of his people would be spared, only for most of his people to be slaughtered anyway. When Eivor has finally realized, through years of acting as a leader to her people, why Varin did what he did, even in opposition to everything she has ever been taught to value. When she has grown enough to realize that she too would make the exact same choice her father did, her cowardly father, because she too would die in dishonour if it offered even the slightest chance to save her loved ones. When Eivor, who has spent her life trying to justify her existence by being useful, finally accepts that her parents died because they loved her and not because she didn't do enough. When Eivor is holding the very same axe now that her father held then and the High One himself is offering her wisdom and glory and power and she, like her father before her, drops her axe and turns her back and chooses love instead.

That is the version of Eivor I will remember. Not the hastily cobbled together ghost of her that we saw in The Last Chapter.

[lord-of-the-harvest]

I wonder who’s pet would have it worse/better off

Minors DNI

I’m on my second round of playing through The Price Of Flesh (thank you sacrifice achievement) and I got wondering-

In Celia’s route, when you’re low enough on sanity, she mutilates you and keeps you in a cage indefinitely. Over time you’re isolated and start missing her even when she’s coming to torturing you. She’s the only one where we actually get a glimpse of what life being her pet would be like. Throughout the game she seems to want a pet/victim/friend? She often confides in you and finds comfort in your presence. It makes me think there would be equally good and bad times being her pet, but even the good times are soured by your mutilation and confinement. It also all depends on how you act as her pet.

In Derek’s route, again with low sanity, you save him and he takes you home. He hates you so much he wants to take you home to continue the torture. I can only imagine the lengthy torture sessions he’d want to inflict on you while fueled by so much rage. But gato herself even said after a while, and after he calms down, he might get attached. This makes me think after a while, and after lots of compliance and lowering your sanity even more, he’ll start treating you better and nicer. (Maybe another game/DLC for the future gato?👀) Ultimately it seems to me he’ll settle out and find comfort in you, and upgrade you from torture victim/punching bag to a real pet. He might even spoil you from time to time!

Fox we see the absolute least of on a personal basis, but there are hints here and there on how he might treat you. Now we ALSO have BTD 1&2, which lets us look at him on a more personal level. Throughout the gameplay, he’ll really only hurt you if/when chat requests. If you go down the route to survive, he puts your life above that of chat’s demands. He’ll even give you tips on how to survive them, “Chat adores the feisty ones”. In moments where it’s the two of you he also seems to WANT to comfort you, with petting your hair and telling you he’ll have a professional look at your eye. This also makes me think he’d be nicer to you than the others, as long as you play by his rules. It’s also canon in BTD2 he’d enjoy things like spoiling, praise, aftercare, and even love from his partner. There’s also the fact most men in high positions of power desire dominance in their personal bedrooms, which is something I could see in Ren, as he is a switch.

Mason never expressed any interest in holding you as a pet, which considering what he did to Sandy, doesn’t surprise me. It’s really hard for me to imagine him wanting to keep you, but if he DID want a pet, I imagine it’d be for a different purpose than the rest. I don’t think he’d want to hunt and catch you on an endless loop, or keep you in his cabin. If he wanted you he’d want you as a camping/hunting buddy. You’d both likely have to be like-minded, and similarly skilled for that to work out though. It’d be more of a mutual respect thing rather than a pet/owner dynamic, which would be near impossible if he bought you. A scenario I could see working out is if you stumbled upon his cabin on mistake and proved your worth. Maybe if you let it out that you were on a similar “hunting” trip, so you two could bond over it.

So I’m not sure who’d be the most intense owner! Idk who’s pet would have an easier time, as they’re all kinda…awful scenarios even if you are a masochist

[dragonologist-phd]

Owlcatober Day 5 - ruins

Cleo’s new companion reminds her of home. She does the same for him.

(Some timeline notes- due to the intersection of Cleo's playthrough and the release of the dlc, Cleo recruited Ulbrig and went through his quest all in Act 5. So while this takes place during one of the first parts of his quest, it also takes place while she is on the Legend Path and already multiclassed as a druid)

also on ao3

A change settles over Ulbrig as the party ventures deeper into Currantglen.

He’s a strange man to begin with; archaic and hard-headed, but full of a rugged friendliness that reminds Cleo of home. There’s a lot about him that reminds Cleo of home. Hells, if his wild story turns out to be true, there’s a chance he’s her great-great-great-grandfather, or some rot like that.

Cleo wasn’t sure how she felt about that at first, but she’d admired the guts it took to barge into her citadel the way he had. With nerve like that…well, even if he isn’t true Sakorian like he claims, he’s sure as shit some kind of Kellish.

But even the Kellids aren’t made of stone, and with every crumbling ruin and abandoned landmark they come across, Ulbrig’s nerves edge closer to failing.

It’s the Stone of Voices that breaks him. He beams when they find the thing, tells Cleo that it will call any and all remaining Sakorians to them immediately. He sounds it, and he waits.

And waits.

And waits.

The sun is sinking lower now, but still…he waits. He sits with his back against the stone, his eyes dull and distant as Cleo watches with growing uncertainty. There’s an itch under her skin that says she should comfort him, but...damn if she knows how to do that.

Finally, when the sun has almost sunken below the horizon, Cleo decides enough is enough. Ulbrig needs support, and she needs to send in the cavalry.

This is a job for Kitty.

As soon as the thought enters her head, the smilodon responds. Cleo is still getting used to that kind of connection, and it’s a little strange to see the animal move in time with her thoughts, uncurling from her place at Cleo’s feet to approach the sullen man. The whole thing reminds her of home all over again in a way she can’t shake off.

But Ulbrig seems to appreciate it. He snaps back to attention as Kitty rubs her head against his shoulder, and after a moment he lifts his hand to scratch her head. She nudges his arm out of the way and plops down to place her head in his lap, purring contentedly. He shifts to avoid the cut of her long, curved teeth, and he does so he lifts his gaze to Cleo’s.

“She listens to you well.”

“Nah. She does what she wants.” Cleo moves to sit down on the other side of Kitty, and the smilodon thwacks Cleo’s leg with her tail. Cleo rolls her eyes. “See? She’s a tyrant.”

Ulbrig gives a chuckle, but the humor is short-lived. His dark gloom soon returns, and Cleo groans.

“Okay, I know this sucks, but I have to ask: are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” Ulbrig repeats, his voice flat. “How can I be? My country is gone. My clan is dead. My god does not speak to me. Where am I supposed to go, when everything I know has disappeared?”

Cleo is quiet a moment. She runs her hands through Kitty’s fur, trying to think. Her record’s not when it comes to this whole encouragement thing, but…Ulbrig’s is a language she knows how to speak.

“You defend the land, yeah?,” she says. “That’s what I’m doing, and we’re close to chasing the demons out. I can’t help with the rest of it. I haven’t seen my own clan in…shit, I don’t even know how long. And all I’ve ever known about gods is how to piss them off. But I know you want to kick the Worldwound’s ass, and that? That, I can help with.”

A grim smile crosses Ulbrig’s face. “That much is true. I’ve seen it; you’re a decent leader.”

“Me?” Cleo snorts. “Not even close. I’ve been making a mess of things since I woke up here. But I’m trying. That’s the rough part, isn’t it? Even when everything’s fucked, you gotta keep trying.”

Ulbrig takes in her words. He looks down at Kitty’s head in his lap as she yawns, showing off her impressive set of jaws. The sight brings another smile to his face, and he nods. “All right, then. I stick with you for now.”

Cleo claps him on the back. “Welcome to the clan.” She glances at Ulbrig’s fancy boulder and adds, “We can keep trying here, too. Could be something more to find. Things more impossible than that have happened in just the last week.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Ulbrig says. He rises to his feet- much to Kitty’s offense- and turns to face the Stone.

“And you,” he scolds, “should know that I mean it when I say I’ll back. And you’d better prepared, because if you fail me a second time, I’ll you pummel you into rubble with my bare hands!”

Cleo grins viciously, and she gives the rock a kick. “He won’t be alone, either, you hear? Little pebble like you doesn’t stand a chance.”

Ulbrig bellows out a laugh. “Yes! So you think about that while we’re gone. Think long and hard.” He gives the stone one last look, humor and grief warring in his eyes, but he finally manages to tear himself away. “We’re done here. The little miscreant can stew for a few days. I bet when we get back, it’ll be singing like a bird.”

“Damn right,” Cleo agrees. And for Ulbrig’s sake, she decides to actually believe it.

[vigilskeep]

Did you like mota? How do you feel about Tallis? Do you have any thoughts on her?

I personally love this dlc. I really enjoy playing it, it's interesting and fun but has serious and even dramatic moments at the same time. And it's different from the main game (in a good way). Like, I love da2 but this dlc succeeded in making us feel like we really are out of Kirkwall and having an adventure that's a bit separate from the rest of the game. And I do like Tallis as a character. I appreciate her role in the story and I like that she provides us with another point of view on the qun. But I also feel very sorry for her. She just can't break free. For me, her character theme is doubt. Idk if you know her backstory but she's an elf from Tevinter who was sold into slavery by her own parents and then captured by the qunari who deemed her an unsuitable convert because she was too "headstrong". Apparently she didn't want to be qunari at first and they wanted to use qamek on her. But Salit took her under his wing to make her a tallis so she escaped that fate. And as we see, with time Tallis changed her mind on the qun. I think it happened because of the qunari propaganda and because she had nothing and no one but also because she genuinely started to see good things in the qun. After all, among the qunari Tallis felt like her life meant something to other people, probably for the first time in her life. And she wants to believe that there is a society and ideology where people are valued and everybody has their own place and purpose. (Her line "most qunari don't even understant humans, why you act like you do. But I grew up among you. I understand perfectly well" makes me loose my mind). But she still has too much free will for a qunari so she doesn't really fit in. So she doubts. Tallis does feel that something's wrong but she just can't let the qun go. She doubts herself and the qun for years but still can't find the answers. And that's just tragic. I can't imagine what it's like, to live in doubts for so long. I'd like her to finally realize that she in fact wants to be free of the qun but at this point I'd be happy if she just found peace as a qunari. That's better than being in the state of constant inner turmoil imo.

Also the whole dialogue between Tallis and Hawke and the way they can mirror each other is super interesting like. "Just tell me: can you honestly say there's nothing to improve, nothing to strive for?" My pro mage Anders romancing Hawke may think that qun is horrible but she can't disagree with that. My Hawke and Tallis share this dedication to their believes and inablility to ignore injustices and that's where they find common ground, that is why they respect each other. Tallis' motivation in this dlc is literally saving innocent people so yeah.

Um. Sorry for such a long ask. Hope reading this isn't too boring lmao.

it was a fun dlc!!! you’re right it rlly felt like a breath of fresh air. it was nice to see what hawke and the gang are like outside of kirkwall for once just having a good time out (aside from all the deadly danger etc)

tallis was super interesting, i do like her. it was interesting to spend a lot of time with someone who was clearly on the track of her own story rather than a companion whose fate it’s up to me to decide. and i liked exploring the idea of elves joining the qun with an actual character rather than just vaguely suggesting that it happens. i don’t have any super exciting thoughts yet mostly bc i find the qunari difficult to approach conceptually but also just because i only got to know her like yesterday, i didnt rlly know much abt her beforehand except that she was qunari

my experience with her so far is obviously filtered through keir, who... did not like her at all agshsjsksk. she was incompetent and a liar, and she was picking up a blade for a belief system it was obvious she couldn’t even commit to herself. the qunari talking points didn’t help either, keir isn’t overfond of religion no matter which one it is; all he sees is the damage it does. he did grudgingly fight beside her at the end, mostly because he believed her that innocents were in danger and thought she clearly wasn’t up to the job herself, but he was happy enough to be rid of her and part ways at the end. it might have been just as in character to leave her, though, and i plan to do a second run through with other companions at some point so i might see how that turns out

[glapplebloom]

You would think I would have similar opinions...

As you have seen with my Pony Comic Reviews, I don't seem to favor a lot of the decisions IDW made for the My Little Pony comics. While there were ones I do enjoy, it's their long going plots that I have issues with. But if you have been following my thoughts, you see I don't have that problem with IDW's Sonic comics. So that got me thinking, why is it that I enjoy Sonic's IDW stuff more than I do IDW's My Little Pony stuff? Thinking it over, I think I came up with a few reasons...

1 - Better Use of Underused Characters

If you played Sonic games recently, you may notice a lack of things for others not Sonic to do. Like the last playable thing that isn't Sonic was Forces with Shadow DLC and Sonic 06. So there are a lot of characters that are in desperate need of stuff to do and this comic provides it. We got Amy being a leader and motherly figure, Knuckles and Blaze talking to each other, Omega and Gemel fighting, Rouge being Rouge. It's nice to see these characters interact with each other. It's what made Sega's April Fools game so fun. Meanwhile, IDW Ponies tends to focus on the usual characters the show does. Sometimes doing similar stories we would see on the show. Yet there are so many characters they could use and when they do they're a lot of fun. Like IDW did a better job building up a potential Diamond Tiara face turn than the show did. Shame it came out after she turned good. Like wouldn't you like to see more stories with Gilda or Lyra and Bon Bon's relationship?

2 - Better Exclusive Characters

So far from reading, there has been no comic exclusive character in MLP that stays around beyond their one story. Mina the Dragon, great dragon to hang around with Spike. Gone. Princess Eris, cousin of Discord and just as powe... Gone. Cosmos, evil ex who was REALLY responsible for all the chaos Discord's reign di... GONE! Like the ones who stay around is the old pony who keeps the Princesses on track and Luna's Pet Opossum. Meanwhile IDW's Exclusive Sonic characters get to stay around for more than one story and explore things the main cast couldn't. Belle the Tinkerer finding out her father is gone and replaced by Eggman. Whisper having to get used to having a crew again. Tangle trying to curb her enthusiasm. Surge and Terrance basically doing the Android Saga without Cell. They fit so well, they could fit into the games with no issue. Speaking of which...

3 - Better connection with the Main Series

This is more about how tight of a control Hasbro and Sega has over the comics. Hasbro was more loose, only vetoing stories that they would likely explore on the show. So the IDW Crew could do whatever they want since nobody has to worry about missing something important in the comics since it's not necessary reading. Even the Season 10 comics are not required to enjoy the TV series, since they did a time skip and showed what would happen in the future and the Season 10 comics barely explored things leading to that ending (just a few times with Pinkie/Cheese). Sega was like this back in the days of Archie, which is why you hear some weird stories that probably wouldn't fly today. Then one of the writers decided to fight for the rights of his characters he made for the series. Because of the incompetence of Archie, Sega demanded stricter guidelines in future Archie works and eventually IDW. So they're more hands on at keeping the characters act like how they want. Though recently they are losing their grip with IDW... That's because the head writer for IDW Sonic is now writing the games for Sonic. Which allowed him to explore the main cast in the games like he would do for the comics. And the Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog showed so much personality among the crew. As far as I know, there was never a case where a Pony Writer for the comics worked on the show or vice versa.

So that's why I enjoy IDW's Sonic works more than their pony works. But I would definitely be open for a Crossover with the two. Ian Flynn did write the Pony/Transformers crossover and he is what made Frontiers good.

[dastardlyobnoxious]

My time with Pathfinder: Kingmaker (P.1)

Full disclosure: I'm spoiling major stuff about Pathfinder: Kingmaker in this post, this is a recollection of my experience with Kingmaker. Both runs of mine were on easy and effortless difficulty and this will be my attempt at recounting the details of my playthroughs.  This wasn't initially written with three parts in mind, so apologies for any confusion. (Text Dump below)

In the initial run-up to my buying Kingmaker, I’d just beaten Skyrim for the first time and I was in need of a new fantasy/RPG experience. I considered quite a few games, from mass effect to Oblivion when MandaloreGamings review of Kingmaker came out. I’m a big fan of his reviews, with them often offering a window into games I’ve never heard of or never played. So, it didn’t take much convincing to dive into a game that sounded like just what I was looking for. For context though, beyond my time with Skyrim and the Fable series I had little outside experience in RPGs let alone ones with turn-based or management mechanics. Leading into my unprepared self forgetting key details of that initial review and eventually grinding my playtime in Kingmaker to a halt.   

The Start.

I want to clarify that Kingmaker is very beginner friendly, from its customizability to its encyclopedia explaining key details of the Pathfinder lore. Both of these systems kept me afloat throughout my playthroughs from my lack of knowledge of basic terms like Armor Class to stat distribution. The story especially roped me in with how engaging and fun it was to learn about this world and my companions, even the smaller things like resting dialogue gave the game this charm you don’t see often. That said, Kingmakers' gameplay was a struggle, from my avoidance of the turn-based system opting to run the game in real-time. To my complete lack of awareness when it came to enemies casting ailments like blindness, fear, or sickness. When I’d finally beaten the Stag Lord and moved on to kingdom management that was an even bigger hurdle. It felt like a system I had to appease rather than enjoy with its constant deadlines and success rates being debilitatingly low. On my first playthrough, I was consistently frustrated with myself past the Stag Lord, alongside having missed both Jubliost and Ekundayo initially. Only finding out you could miss companions when I was in desperate need of a treasurer after already having sent off the only other non-dlc/non-mercenary option. All this built-up frustration snowballed into me taking a long break and eventually giving up on my first playthrough.  

Act 1

Upon returning to the game, in October of 2022, I realized anything less than a full restart would’ve been a disservice to Kingmaker. From my memory of the story being blurry to my less-than-stellar kingdom management, I needed to sit down and commit to learning pathfinders systems within Kingmaker. And it did help, knowing the weakness and strengths of the initial enemies and being at least a bit more competent in running my kingdom led to a better overall experience. I’d only made it to the start of Season of Bloom in my first playthrough, and it led to a deeper appreciation of both the story and the initial dungeons in Troll Trouble and The Stolen Land. I’ve already name-dropped him a couple of times but the Stag Lord is iconic, he’s this faceless threat up until his confrontation, and for him to be revealed as this nut acting like someone out of the WWE is perfect. My character's alignment started as chaotic good and eventually shifted to neutral good due to my choices here, but these encounters with people like Kressle eventually siding with you against the Stag Lord or the Kobold an Mite feud in the Old Sycamore make strong first impressions. It’s very low stakes in comparison to the rest of the game but that’s what sets it apart, from my pursuit of Tartuccio to the recruitment of Jaethal. Amusement can be found almost anywhere here from the clearing of high Kobolds and Mites chilling to fighting that Worg and his gang hungry for Kobolds. 

Act 2

I wasn’t the hugest fan of Troll Trouble either time I went through it, just because of the initial difficulty spike in the form of the Swamp Witches Hut. The dreary colors and muggy feeling of the location on top of poisonous clouds and tough encounters made this into an area I always try to rush through. The same can be said for Candlemere Island, it’s a nasty ambush of electric wisps instantly downing/wounding your companions if you aren’t primed to counter their element. So, while I’m not the biggest fan of the aforementioned dungeons, the story still holds up, in both its side and main story. Candlemere Island's story of three explorers visiting the island only to find their corpses as we go up is chilling, and to have to fight the last remaining member transfixed on the location? It’s hinting at a greater curse here. That and the overarching threat of the troll and kobold king all build up this unknown puppet master. When it was revealed that the Guardian of the Bloom was the real threat, it was genuinely intimidating walking into an ambush instead of a gift. It’s an encounter that would’ve been rough with a full party let alone my physically weak player character who died multiple times before escaping. Aside from establishing the central villain, defeating Tartuk the kobold king and the beast that was Hargulkain was no easy feat. And while it would’ve been easy to dismiss or execute the former Tartuccio here and there it only made sense to me that they became a vassal of my kingdom. The trolls on the other hand were not nearly as lucky, between the general danger they posed alongside a majority of them eating humans, they were promptly kicked out of the region. Ekundayo's backstory is that his family was slaughtered by Trolls and he’s on a never-ending revenge trip. Watching his inner turmoil when faced with killing those troll children was such a profound scene for such a stoic character.

(the Lizard Folk are my favorite of the “non-civilized races” in the game, wasn’t really sure where to put this but if there's other good Pathfinder content focusing on them do tell.)  Act 3

Unlike the prior acts I had little forewarning on what was to come, Season of Bloom made a name for itself through its epidemic of animals bursting out of people. The mystery of the infection was a constant source of entertainment for me, from Tristain’s scene with Jhod debating if the disease could be extracted or not to having to appease a populace shaken up. Underlying this mad dash to find a cure was the cult of Lamashtu and the potential threat they or any other Lamashtu follower brought with people dying by the second. When I finally arrived at the cabin chasing one such follower, I wasn’t expecting a Whodunnit situation and was left pretty clueless on who exactly the Lamashtu follower was. After finally tracking and cornering their cult leader I’d spare the fools, even if I heavily questioned their practices it didn’t feel right in interfering with their chosen religion. Around then the tip-off that goblins had been interfering was revealed and it didn’t quite hit my expectations. The goblins had their moments of chaos but as genuine threats like Hargulkain they were grunts in a bigger game, their few friendly encounters at the windmill or through the goblin shopkeepers were hilarious but otherwise unremarkable the same cannot be said for Nok-Nok. His defeat of the goblin king and general quirky nature just made him super fun to be around even if I barely used him. The other companions' disgruntlement of him was honestly surprising because I never seemed to have trouble with him. While the Goblin Fort isn’t bad, it doesn’t match up to the Old Sycamore in terms of enjoyment, Nok-Nok’s moment may be strong but beyond him, this dungeon doesn’t have much going for it. After stomping the Goblin King out and finding the potential source of the bloom I was left with two choices, go back to support Jhod in the capital or support Kesten in his attempt at cutting the source of the bloom. This hurt, going into it I couldn’t have known Kesten was bound to die if I didn’t have a lawful alignment. I don’t regret going to the capital over aiding him just because of how chaotic it was on top of the Primal Owlbear being double the size of almost every other enemy in-game. And while I’d later honor Kesten by undergoing the project Jhod put in his name, it was a relief being able to stop the Guardian of the Bloom’s scheme and making that owlbear into a tavern rug. 

Act 4

I wasn’t sure how the story could one-up itself after Season of Blooms raid on the capital when the mystery of the Varnhold Vanishing began. I’d visited Varnhold a few times before the start of Act 4 and during those encounters I was often let down, without the Varnhold DLC this might as well have been a barren grassland with a shopkeep or two. So, upon receiving the message from the Swordlords about the area I didn’t expect much, maybe another power-crazed bandit lord? But no, with the guardian of the bloom confirming her lack of involvement I had no clue what I was walking into. A fog of silence lay over the town, it truly had no inhabitants, and it was a very eerie feeling pushing further and further in. A singular Raven was following me, as I came upon the band of Spriggan squatting on the corpse of Varnhold. Clearing the place wasn’t difficult and gave more questions than answers, it had been easy to assume they were behind the disappearance at first but now after defeating and letting their leader go that wasn’t the case. Only getting some answers when the Raven screamed hypocrite and openly announced it had some sort of involvement in the disappearance. Following this, I was left searching for clues with Barbarians pouring into the region on the whim of their leader and a group of Defaced sisters. Dugath was our only connection to Barbarian leadership at this point and while his gruffness might’ve put certain people off he didn’t like being dragged so far out of their homelands. After receiving the quest to find the other defaced sisters, I’d slowly come to find out what happened to the Defaced sisters and the barbarians who followed them alongside Vordaki the Cyclops necromancer. Areas like the Sepulcher of Forgotten Heroes while interesting were trap and puzzle hells for me, and while the City of Hollow Eyes would make up for this rough patch it was clearly illustrated how the Barbarians were being used as meat shields by the defaced sisters. Even going so far as to have the barbarians thrown at traps or left for dead before the Defaced sister would flee. I’d end up sparing both surviving sisters on the assumption they’d cease their violence, only to find their betrayal when I got back to Dugath’s camp. Unfortunately for them, Dugath was no fan of the sisters and their farces and turned on them instead. All this led me to the Valley of the Dead and Vordaki’s tomb, two extremely important areas I was unprepared for. First of all, I’d felt it necessary to bring Tristian along for his companion quest even if I had barely used him up to this point. He alongside Jaethal, Jubliost, Nok-Nok, Regongar, and eventually Harrim all became expert seat cushions as I stuck to my main five. With one last warning from the Raven, we entered and I could’ve made it so much easier on myself if I knew of ONE button. Using rations to heal, not just wait/skip time, as up to this point I’d never been thrown in a dungeon where I couldn’t leave. It made everything so much more intense because I didn’t know of healing/rationing in dungeons so as my main spells dried up I leaned more and more on potions and scrolls only barely making it to Vordaki in one piece. Speaking of Vordaki, he’s hands down my favorite of the villains in Kingmaker, from his appearance to his personality and his goal of invading the surrounding region. He’s the only villain in-game that isn’t a puppet of the Guardian of the Bloom and between his menacing appearance and Tristian’s last-minute betrayal, it left me dumbstruck and very intimidated, nearly losing when he finally went down. From here, freeing the souls of Varnhold was a breeze and it led to me feeling very accomplished. This was my favorite dungeon of the entire game with it being both challenging but never tedious in its encounters alongside my assumed lack of safety nets. 

Act 5

The Twice Born Warlord is mostly spent wrapping up the loose ends of Varnhold vanishing, from the role that the Defaced sisters hold in relation to the guardian of the bloom or “Nyrissa” as we come to find out. To what’ll become of Armag the barbarian leader and the traitor named Tristian. It does have interesting moments, but to me, act 5 is a stop-gap between the introduction of the kingdom of Pitax and the defeat of Vordaki. From Amiri sneaking into Armag’s camp and attempting to kill a defaced sister only to be faced with fighting Armag in a one-to-one duel (that is insanely in his favor). To the fun but rather short-lived raid on Armag’s camp with the Aldori Swordlords. Having to chase Armag into his tomb is interesting as well, between each of the trials via story books to the eventual realization that the Armag we’ve been chasing isn’t the true Armag but instead, a plant brought up by the defaced sisters and Nyrissa. I’d end up killing the fool and taking Ovinrbaane alongside the Warpainted Skull of Duthica, two items that’d make Amiri into a beast of a fighter. I’d end up helping appoint Dugath as the new chieftain as he was rather level-headed and knew it was best to return to his homeland. Finding out Tristian had been used by Nyrissa wasn’t a shock considering how much puppeteering had been done by her. What had been shocking was the fact he was a fallen angel of Sarenrae and after fighting a defaced sister the confusion that captured him seemed to break. He knew what he’d done was wrong, and now I was left to decide to banish, kill, or let him remain in my kingdom. And while he’d done a lot wrong I pitied his plight and wished for him to redeem himself in the eyes of his goddess. So, I let the fool remain even if he was now blind, I knew he’d try and make up for what he’d done. The last major thing that happens in Twice Born Warlord is the coronation, and it felt like a major accomplishment after all the fighting and working through dungeons to finally have proof that I’d made it deep into Kingmaker. And with one last confrontation at the bald hilltop the Twice Born Warlord comes to an end. 

Act Six.

The War of the River Kings is in an odd spot for me, after what’s arguably the best stretch in the game before the start of Act Six you're left with a huge countdown until the Ancient Curse attacks again. I get this sorta time is meant to be used for kingdom management but as someone who had combed the map for new spots, companion quests, etc it really was just me and the kingdom management tab for a couple of hours. Which isn’t bad, but when you are even remotely like me and failed to keep up with the leveling/training grind of kingdom management, balancing the 0% success rate advisors while trying to get them above 20% was a challenge in its own right. Only bailed out by the amount of gold I had and me realizing I could buy build points to counterbalance my own failures. When the Rushlight Tournament finally started it's the easy highlight of this chapter, it’s a cocktail of skill checks, betting on AI fights, and prizes! King Irovetti is just a jerk, and he’s probably the weakest of the antagonists in Kingmaker. Wishing to expand and grow his kingdom with an iron fist while keeping up appearances as he juggles all sorts of petty backhand behavior to discredit you. A lot of the quests here aren’t bad but not amazing, the stolen throne is probably my highlight in its absurdity, bartering with a goblin, and even as you discredit Irovetti’s attempts to bring down your kingdom it kind of bounces back to Nyrissa more than Irovetti here. From her selling him out via the Whiterose Abby and Evindra, to Linzi and the Storyteller using Nyrissa’s dreams to discover the truth about her and her plans. Irovetti is quickly left to hide in his castle after my party shows up to his capital, and embarrassingly this would mark the first time I’d used the turn/round base fighting mechanic that streamlines so much stuff and allows for SO much more experimentation. It doubles the time spent in combat, sure, but when you're fighting hordes of enemies alongside the Zottenropple twins you desperately need that buff. Speaking of the twins, they were the first of many lucky breaks for me as after loads of save scumming one of the twins had ended up polymorphing the other they’re so much worse than the fight with Irovetti. Killing Irovetti was nothing too difficult, finding clues and hints that he, like a certain wizard experimenting with trolls, had instead used an artifact he was keeping under wraps from Nyrissa. 

(Ivoretti reminds me of a taller Lord Farquad and it was so hard not seeing the parallels in his appearance and his eventual demise.) Part Two: https://www.tumblr.com/dastardlyobnoxious/718622705272913920/my-time-with-pathfinder-kingmaker-p2?source=share Part Three: https://www.tumblr.com/dastardlyobnoxious/718899022820261888/my-time-with-pathfinder-kingmaker-p3?source=share

[kynimdraws]

When you claim to be the biggest Claude von Riegan stan but then your opponent in Godfrey von Riegan, Claude's uncle

I thought it would be great to have a GW-specific AU where Godfrey is found to be alive, a bit more details under the cut if you are interested! GW story/support stuff are mentioned so don’t read if you don’t want to get spoiled.

Instead of dying in an accident that involed monsters attacking him and his party (which included Raphael's parents), he was just fatally injured and assumed dead by the mercenaries that set the monsters loose. Godfrey's body is moved away from the area and tossed in a nearby mountainside forest. At some point he is eventually rescued and brought to a remote mountain village (depending on 3Hopes DLC, this may be the childhood village where Shez grew up in).

The injuries looked super bad but Godfrey having the major Riegan crest (hc from 2019) allowed him to heal a majority of it off...albeit slowly. He also had severe head trauma causing him amnesia, and went by the name "Lir" in the village. The one thing that didn't quite heal right was his right arm, and later finds out he no longer can draw bows well. Thankfully Lir could still wield a sword  and changes from sniper (job/class during his Duke days) to swordmaster.

He stayed in the village between 1177 and 1182 as a hunter. Godfrey/Lir eventually gains his memories back (extremely slowly) but even when he gains enough to know he is Godfrey, he still goes by Lir to avoid bringing attention to himself. Towards the end of his stay, Godfrey started to hear news about this new "Leicester Federation" lead by a Riegan king, but he doesn't recognize the name bc the last time he checked Oswald was leading Leicester. Realizing he should probably try to see what is happening in the nation he formerly ruled, Godfrey leaves the village. He is able to join the Leicester army under the Lir identity and is given the oppurtunity to observe this new King named "Claude" who is apparently the Riegan he heard so much about.

In the army, Godfrey/Lir never brings attention to himself (and makes a BIG effort to hide his crest), and observes Claude from afar. He is perplexed on how the king looks a bit like his missing sister Tiana and wonders if he is her son...and if he is now an uncle. This revelation (at the moment unconfirmed) is terrifying for Godfrey, so he avoids the confrontation for a while.

This period of observation/avoidance ends around when Godfrey sees his nephew in danger and saves him after the battle in Ailell. When Claude is having his crisis about letting the Empire forces get the brunt of the damage, a surviving Kingdom assassin attacks him while Shez and Judith are not around. This moment is where Claude also is able to see Godfrey/Lir up close and he realizes that this man's facial features and everything...is almost the same as the portraits of Godfrey seen back at the capital. Claude is shocked to silence but it allows Godfrey to introduce himself properly. I wanted it more focused on how Claude and Judith has tothe fact that the former Duke is suddenly back in their lives. Shez had known about Lir briefly back in their village, and assumed he was just another soldier and no one super important. The aftermath of aillel, instead of an excessive yelling session from Shez and Judith, is a more of a heated (still civilized) conversation on what went wrong and what the Federation can do going forward. Plus it is a good way to introduce Claude’s uncle into the army formally and establishing his role as a mentor. From that point on he is playable and acts as an advisor to Claude in the war like Lorenz and Judith.

Some chars Godfrey would have support with in this au would be Shez, Claude, Lorenz, Raphael, Balthus, Shamir, and Holst. Links to the support convos I have written are below (WIP)!

Claude+Godfrey (C-A): [link]

Godfrey+Shamir (C-B): [link]