#it was just based on the trailer and fan speculation

[ofpd]

its so funny that kate bush wrote wuthering heights before reading wuthering heights and weird al wrote the saga begins before watching the phantom menace

[mangosyringe]

ok but what if... hospital gown armor set. 

[bernadettavonaegir]

not to combine my two most favorite series/hyperfixations together (madoka magica & twin peaks) as if it makes any semblance of sense to anyone other than me, but reading all the theories about the multiple homuras in walpurgis no kaiten gives me twin peaks the return vibes for real. mostly regarding agent cooper and his doppelganger(s).

[bemusedlybespectacled]

Thoughts on Steddyhands because I’m at full Pepe Silvia levels of conspiracy thinking right now:

I’m more willing to believe in Steddyhands becoming canon than I think I ever have been before because of the comments both Rhys and Con made at various cons PLUS the teaser

HEAR ME OUT

This is a cast with IMO an unusually high awareness of fan theories/shipping (that goes double for Con “my instagram is just fanart” O’Neill), so Stizzy/Steddyhands has to be something they’re aware of.

Moreover, while cons are less edited/monitored than a magazine article or something, there is still usually a certain amount of prep that goes into them. And while Con is willing to spread shipping chaos, I don’t get the sense that Rhys is.

So for both Con AND Rhys to make Stizzy-bait comments (“he looked good at the end of my sword”/“hunky”) HAS to have had, obviously not scripting, but forethought attached to it. Like, Rhys could have very easily said “Stede only has eyes for Ed” or similar and it would be perfectly fine. That he DIDN’T makes me SUSPICIOUS, especially in light of the teaser.

Then comes the Vanity Fair first look, which IS going to be edited in a way that a con isn’t. And let’s look at what it says:

Izzy “goes on a remarkable journey” this season, says O’Neill. “He understands what love is and whom he’s in love with.’’

By the end of season one many fans speculated that Izzy was driven by something at the intersection of love and obsession. This season, according to O’Neill, Izzy gets even deeper into that dynamic. “Physically it’s been quite demanding, and also emotionally it’s been quite demanding to be playing a man enraged by unrequited love, who’s basically a hopeless romantic, and to be able to play all that and also remember that this is fundamentally a comedy.’’

“What I love about this show is it does allow itself to swing between the two,” O’Neill says. “We’re almost operatic in our darkness at times, and then we swing back to the sweetness of the simplicity of the love of our two guys. It’s been challenging just to get the tone right.”

“We’ve gone further this season than we did last season with those tones,” he continues. “So sometimes it’s quite interesting to remind yourself that you have to take your foot out of the tragedy—literally, your foot—and put it back into the comedy.”

on set there’s been “a lot more spontaneity and script revisions based on what’s happening day-to-day,” says Douaihy. “The cast are so comfortable with one another and their characters, that they move through it naturally.’’

In the trailer, we see:

Stede getting in a fight with someone not Izzy, then getting excited and telling Izzy he threw a punch (which to me only makes sense if Izzy taught him to do it)

Stede just hanging out while Izzy practices swordplay shirtless COME ON

Now, let’s play some matchup.

Both Rhys and Con have an awareness of their characters that lets them just get spontaneous while still in character

Both Rhys and Con have, while speaking from what their characters would say/think, said they both thought the other was hot

Con does not specify “whom [Izzy’s] in love with” even though Vanity Fair literally makes a comment about Izzy’s love for Ed, so it’s not like he’s hiding anything important by not specifying Ed if he means Ed

Izzy’s a “hopeless romantic” “enraged by unrequited love” this season

SO, connecting the dots (I’M CONNECTING THEM), here’s my prediction:

Izzy is going to find Stede and try to get him to Ed. This is the “journey” Con is referencing.

During this time he’s going to be training Stede in stuff like throwing a punch. I think this is actually the emotional journey, not simply him hanging out on Ed’s ship and realizing he loves Ed: he leaves Ed and finds Stede and emotionally grows while spending time with him. (I think this also means Izzy is going to spend more time with Stede, plot-wise, than with Ed, because he’s not going to grow there)

“I just need to find the love of his life and it’ll fix him” is a very hopeless romantic thing to think JSYK

Izzy is standing on one foot in the candles scene, which to me means that “taking your literal foot out of the tragedy and into the comedy” is referencing his toe and sword fighting while disabled… which Stede is present for. So Stede has to know what Ed did to Izzy and almost certainly is going to have feelings about it.

All of that is great fodder for improv while in character.

I can think of nothing more emotionally swinging, more romantic, more enraging, and more funny than Izzy training his rival to be a pirate in pursuit of Ed’s love and then falling for Stede himself in the process, knowing that if they get together he has neither of them.

I will note that this doesn’t mean Steddyhands has to be endgame in a canonical sense (even though I want it with all my soul). I do think that Steddyhands will be referenced/built on in an emotional sense, even if it’s only through Stede and Izzy’s bitch4bitch interactions. I WANT TO BELIEVE.

[mazzystar24]

Okay this might be kinda a long ask but BEAR WITH ME!!!

Okay so 7x07 is titled “Ghost of a Second Chance”

Buck’s big gesture at the end of 7x05 was asking Tommy for a second chance.

I have seen some speculation that we are going to have some sort of major vehicle accident at some point this season based on bts photos and makeup trailer photos— so i have a working theory starting from the Madney wedding onto the end of the season.

Okay so 7x06: We will see Chimney’s bachelor party- personally im a big fan of the accidental marriage trope in fanfiction, but im trying to be realistic here. My theory is that when Buck and Eddie get plastered, Eddie starts to look at him weird, but is like “nahh no, that’s my best friend. he’s with tommy. he’s a guy. but im looking respectfully 👀👀.” They wake up the next day, and Chim is gone. They all immediately launch into “we gotta find him mode” and eddie stick with buck for most of the episode. As it goes on, Eddie starts thinking about all of his little thoughts about Buck from the night before and he keeps trying to explain them away in his mind- but his brain keeps popping back to the marisol of it all and he’s like “but what does it all mean??” anyway, they get chimney back, and things go well, but then the Buckley’s find out that evan is dating a man. They say some not-nice things (as they do everytime they’re around their son) and it’s not maddie who sticks up for buck, it’s not tommy, it’s not bobby or athena or hen or anyone because they’re all off having a grand old time— no, it’s Eddie. Eddie who will not even think about hearing anyone speak ill of Buck. He tells them about how wonderful snd deserving of love their son is and that if that’s from a man so be it as long as he’s happy— cue eddie’s epiphany as he mulls over his own words, glances up to the dance floor, and he sees buck dancing with tommy. But in that moment he sees buck. It suddenly clicks, and he realizes that he is screwed.

Now we have 7x07: Eddie is struggling to come to terms with what he has realized at the wedding. He’s shooketh ™️ and scared out of his mind over the fact that his best friend- who literally just came out to him- may be the person he’s been waiting for to settle down with. the other parentsl figure for Chris. someone Chris would want around. someone Eddie would want around. He spirals as he and Marisol begin to completely fall apart. At some point, they get a call- a helicopter crash. There is an immediate sinking feeling from everyone. They get to the scene and Bobby gives out instructions- Eddie and Buck make their way to the crash site, Buck terrified of what might be waiting for them. Eddie sees Tommy first- still alive but hanging on by a thread. This is where we get a delicious parallel to Shannon’s death. Eddie immediately is on the defensive, trying to keep Buck from seeing, but Buck is distraught. They get Tommy out and into an ambulance, but he’s been watching this whole time- he sees how Eddie so ferociously tried to protect Buck, and he realizes. As Tommy and Buck are in the back of the ambulance. Tommy tells Buck that he will move on, and maybe say something along the lines of “you don’t find it, you make it” (👀👀👀) and that Buck has Eddie. And THAT is when it clicks for Buck. Buck realizes as the first man he ever consciously considered in a romantic light dies in front of him, that what he has been looking for, he already has because he’s built it with Eddie (“you never know what you need until a light is shined on it” - oliver stark). But it can’t be because eddie is straight right? right??

Then from 7x08-7x10: we get the two of them dancing around each other. we get avoidance, we get longing glances missed by both of them. we see eddie have a multi-episode arc where he fully comes to terms with what he’s feeling, and he gets an emotional scene with Chris about Chris loving his Buck, and how Buck is kind of like his second dad since he doesn’t have Shannon as his mom anymore. On Buck’s end, we get a Buckley sibling moment where Maddie tells Buck that she’s always thought he had a thing for Eddie, but that she thought he needed to discover that himself. Buck is conflicted over telling Eddie because he just got what he wanted, even if it’s just in his head, he doesn’t want to lose it, especially not after just losing tommy. He is going to ignore it, but then we get another Loft Scene ™️. Eddie tells Buck that he is tired if avoiding Buck, and that he can’t lose someone else. He tells Buck that he knows Buck doesn’t feel the same, but that he would much rather be Buck’s best friend and have that be all he can be, than to not have him because he was too scared and pushed Buck away. He tells Buck that he’s Chris’s second dad, and that neither he or Chris can lose him, and Buck finally feels so wanted by his family- the family he made with Eddie. And he tells Eddie he loves him too. Then we get Eddie stepping in close, asking if Buck is okay with him kissing him before (something that has never happened for Buck, even with Tommy) and Buck tells him yes, and season 7 closes with them kissing in the same spot in Buck’s kitchen where all those years ago, Eddie told him there was no one her trusted his son with more than Buck.

Cue Season 8 finally bringing us the domestic fluff and tooth-rotting romance that we desperately need from the two of them and have been waiting for for SO long. Plus a few stumbles, maybe some doubts along the way, but nothing that can’t be fixed without some good ol’ “i love you to the core”

and you know what, because im feeling nice after my little spec sesh, when they go visit shannon’s grave to place flowers, they visit tommy’s too because he is who brought them together in the end.

I fully recognize how delulu i probably sound, but at the same time @ Tim Minear and ABC, i will be awaiting my writer’s credit on IMDb, and my check in the mail, thanks. 🙏

(also again SO sorry for the long ask I just needed to put this out in your orbit)

💳💥💳💥💳💥💳💥💳💥

Take my money like a lot of this I’d definitely love to read a fanfic of🫡🫡

I think the only part I personally don’t LOVE is the Tommy dying bit, like that’s just down to personal preference tbh because I love a more amicable breakup and they all are friends now type of thing ( most of greys anatomy couples style)

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family movie CODE: White plot chronology predictions

Now that we've gotten both a teaser trailer and a full trailer for the SxF movie, I thought it would be fun to theorize about what the exact order of events would be for the movie's plot, based on the trailers and short synopsis we've gotten so far. Then, when the movie is finally released, I'm curious to see how accurate my predictions were or if they were way off! 😅

(Just note that anything in this post that's not mentioned in the official synopsis is my personal speculation, so please take it with a grain of salt!)

My first guess is that the scenes of Loid and Yor doing their spy/assassin work will happen at the very beginning of the movie, as it makes sense to introduce the audience to the basics of the characters for all the non-fans who are watching.

The first part of the movie's synopsis describes how WISE wants to replace Twilight with another man as the head of Operation Strix...a man who is apparently "incompetent." Now we haven't seen any other new character in the movie promotion besides the villains, so I don't know who this person is. However, I would assume this means we get scenes of Twilight talking to Sylvia. OR! There's this below scene of Twilight catching a rolled up message from the sky. Since he's still dressed in his usual outfit, this takes place before they leave on the trip. So maybe this message is a cipher or something from WISE about how he's getting replaced and he doesn't actually meet with Sylvia (the scenes of Sylvia/WISE from the trailer would occur later).

Next, the synopsis describes the cooking competition at Eden where a stella is rumored to be the reward. This is probably where we get the scenes of the Eden kids and Henderson. I doubt they'll have bigger parts in the movie besides cameos at the beginning and maybe the end.

The synopsis continues with Loid suggesting that Anya make the "Melemele," a traditional pastry from the Frejis region and a favorite of the principal, who is also the head of the judging panel for the cooking competition. Since Anya getting a stella would help him show progress with Operation Strix, and possibly prevent him from being replaced, Loid decides that they should take a family trip to Frejis. That would be the below scene from the first trailer.

The synopsis then mentions how Yor "witnesses an exchange between Loid and a mysterious woman before their departure, resulting in some uneasiness about their temporary relationship during the trip." (Yor's expression when Loid mentions the trip in the scene above does look a tad "uneasy" to me). As for who this woman is, I think it's either Fiona in disguise or possibly Loid himself in disguise as a woman, since the disguise he's seen wearing at the beginning of the teaser trailer appears to have blonde curly locks.

The below scene of Loid putting on his movie jacket probably occurs right before they leave on the trip. The scenery in front of him looks like it could be either at home or at his workplace. In this scene he's probably thinking about how he has to make the Frejis trip worthwhile for Operation Strix.

Next from the synopsis is how Anya finds a trunk case on the train with chocolate inside. We see in the teaser trailer that she gets a hold of a key to the trunk (it looks like the key is lying on a sink perhaps, since there's water near it?) She then accidentally eats the chocolate before the trunk's owner comes back.

At first I thought she ate the chocolate later, in front of the villains, which made them immediately kidnap her, but the synopsis specifically says she found the trunk on the train. You can also see in the background of the two above screenshots that it very much looks like a dark, luggage compartment of a train. I doubt they take another train ride after this, so my guess is that she ate the chocolate on the train without anyone seeing her eat it, but one of the bad guys witnessed her sneaking around or acting suspicious in the general area. However, he didn't check the contents of the trunk until later and, when he realizes the chocolate is gone, he immediately tries to track her down.

The synopsis stops with Anya eating the chocolate, but there's still a lot to piece together from just the trailers! Next would be the scenes of the Forgers spending family time upon arriving at Frejis. Loid takes Anya around the booths at what appears to be some kind of fair/festival, Anya and Bond play in the snow, and Loid buys Yor lipstick, perhaps because he senses her uneasiness about the mysterious woman (she's shown to be wearing the lipstick in later scenes).

I also think that Loid buys Anya the toy gun here, which she's seen brandishing later.

After this, the Forgers eat some delicious Frejis cuisine. Just a note that Loid has taken off his scarf and coat, and Yor and Anya took off their coats and hats.

It looks like they're staying at a fancy hotel of some sort? Assuming the below big ballroom is part of where they're staying. I wonder if they're staying in the same room with one bed? Or separate rooms?

Maybe Yor and Anya are sharing a room, since we have the below sweet scene of Yor putting a blanket over sleeping Anya.

By now the villains have realized that the chocolate has been taken/eaten, so the next day they track down the little pink-haired girl who was seen loitering around the train luggage compartment! Somehow they find Anya and succeed in kidnaping her. How exactly they succeed, I'm still not sure, but let's see what we can piece together...

What stands out the most is obviously that they grab her in front of Bond and he attacks.

The question is of course, are Loid and Yor present for this? It's possible Anya sneaks away for some reason with only Bond, and they find out later that she was kidnapped. One of the trailers has dialogue from Loid saying "Anya got caught up in the military?" The way he says this gives the impression that he finds out about it later. However, I also see evidence for him and Yor being present as well. We have the below scene of Loid looking very cautious as the military guys surround him. My guess for this scene is that they're telling him what Anya did and they have to take her away, that he shouldn't resist, etc.

There's also the below scene of Yor seemingly attacking someone. The background looks like a similar location to the aforementioned scenes of Loid and Anya/Bond, though it's not an exact match. At first I thought it was a scene from the train where Anya eats the chocolate, since it looks like she's standing in a narrow train compartment...except for the fact that she's wearing the lipstick, so it must take place after they arrive in Frejis. So I'm placing it in relation to Anya's kidnapping, though I'm still iffy about it.

But if Loid and Yor did witness Anya getting kidnapped, were they unable to prevent it? What happens between the point of Anya getting kidnapped and the end of the movie is still very unclear, but again, I think we have enough info to speculate. Obviously this opens up potential for a TON of Twiyor goodness...like, the two of them trying to comfort each other about failing to protect Anya and trying not to think about what terrible things the villains might do to her. They could even come up with a plan to work together to stop the villains. BUT! It's also possible that they go after her on their own, like, Yor is able to keep following the villains to the airship or wherever their HQ is while Twilight is left behind to gather information with help from WISE and/or Franky.

Speaking of Franky, I think he either appears at this point in the story, to give intel to Twilight that could help with finding Anya, or earlier before they arrive at Frejis. However, I'm still not sure where Yuri fits in. I doubt he'll be part of the main action during the movie's third act, so maybe he'll have a quick cameo at the beginning like the Eden kids.

Anyway, I believe this is the point where Sylvia and WISE make an appearance. Maybe after Twilight contacts them and tells them what happened to Anya, we get the scene from the trailer of Sylvia mentioning the importance of the microfilm. HOWEVER! I also think this scene could have occurred way earlier, maybe even before they arrived at Frejis, so during the trip Twilight is on the lookout for this microfilm. But for now I'm saying we get this WISE scene around the time of Anya's kidnapping.

Then there's the above scene of Fiona arriving in Frejis to possibly help Loid with stopping the villains. At first I thought this scene may have happened before they got to Frejis (and was the scene that made Yor jealous). However, there's snow falling during this scene, so it must take place after they arrived. But again, if Sylvia informed the WISE agents about the microfilm earlier in the story, Fiona may have come to Frejis earlier as well to let Twilight know to look out for it.

We know that Bond managed to tear off one of the guy's military insignia. So Twilight uses this to help make disguises for himself and Fiona to infiltrate the military airship/base (though makes me wonder why he needs to wear their uniforms since a bunch of them already saw his face...maybe to fool the ones who haven't? Was he unable to get one of his face masks?) If Fiona is indeed helping Twilight infiltrate the military airship, that's another reason to believe that Twilight and Yor are working separately to save Anya.

There's a plane present in one of the trailers as well as the original movie visual, so maybe that's what they use to reach the airship?

As for the final battle with the villains, I'm pretty sure Yor will fight Type-F, the robot guy. The fiery hue in the below screenshots makes it look like they're from the same scene.

However, there's also the below scene of Yor seemingly standing on top of the airship (with her coat still on). This scene probably happens before they send in Type-F to stop her.

As for Twilight, seems like he fights Snyder, the military colonel. The animation style for this scene is an interesting choice...I feel like they'll put some kind of epic song/music over it.

And, probably towards the end of the final battle, Twilight has to steer the damaged airship to safety (some point before then he gets rid of his military disguise).

I wonder where Bond is during all this. Did they leave him behind at the hotel? Did he come with Twilight? I also wonder what exactly was the villains' plan with Anya. If they want a microfilm from a chocolate that she ate, how can they get it back once she's eaten it? Any answer I can think of is extremely violent/disgusting, too much for a series like SxF, lol. Also, what made them change their minds from kidnaping her, to killing her, to holding her hostage? (since there's the scene of her bound and gagged)

And lastly, two scenes that I have no idea about are the below screenshots of someone readying guns. The clothes they're wearing don't match anyone from the movie as of now. So all I can speculate is that they could be random thugs from Twilight's and/or Yor's introduction missions from the very beginning of the movie.

And that's pretty much it! After the big battle in the movie's climax, everyone's reunited and Anya definitely will not earn a stella 😂 (since I'm sure the movie isn't allowed to affect the canon that much).

I spent way too long on this to most likely be proven more wrong than right later 🤣 There's also the chance that some scenes in the trailer won't even be in the final cut of the movie, lol. But it was fun speculating anyway! If we get another trailer or significant info that sheds more light on the movie's plot, I may update this post later.

[bedlamsbard]

Hey, big fan, I loved your AU Star Wars fics, by far some of the best stories I've read. So when I saw the trailer for the new Disney show and saw Barriss as an inquisitor I was shocked, was this always the canon? I wondered if you were inspired by some SW novels or is this just a weird coincidence?

Thanks for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed the fic!

Barriss Offee has not appeared in any Star Wars media set after TCW S5 since "The Wrong Jedi" aired in 2013. On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone was written between May 2015 (began posting in July 2015) and October 2018, when the only media that existed that dealt with the Inquisitors was Star Wars Rebels, which introduced the Inquisitor (not yet called the Grand Inquisitor) in 2014 -- you'll note that in Backbone it's the Inquisition rather than the Inquisitorius, which is a name that canon didn't use until much later. Backbone was written so early that canon wasn't even using the Brother/Sister naming conventions that appeared in Rebels S2, which the first few chapters of Backbone predates (it started posting in the summer of 2015). That is the reason that Backbone Inquisitors use naming conventions that the canon Inquisitors do not: because it predates the canon naming conventions.

Back in 2015, there was speculation that the Seventh Sister who appeared in the S2 trailer that aired at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim was Barriss, thus leading to a brief period of time when the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother were known as "Barriss and Clyde" within the fandom, and for a long time afterwards people still called the Fifth Brother Clyde. The Seventh Sister when introduced in the original trailer only appeared helmeted, leading to the speculation that she might be Barriss Offee. When her VA was announced, there was widespread dismay that Sarah Michelle Geller might have replaced Meredith Salenger as Barriss, and at one point Freddie Prinze Jr had to deny that SMG had been recast as Barriss: that was how predominant that theory was. My use of Barriss as an Inquisitor came out of the original "there are more Inquisitors!" reveal from the Rebels S2 trailer but I made the decision back then not to make her the character that would later be known as the Seventh Sister since I was pretty sure canon wasn't going to do that. That decision was not based on anything that was actually in canon and certainly not on any of the novels at the time, because back in 2015 when I started working on Backbone there were only, I think, four new canon books out.

Backbone was, in fact, so early that when I wrote it, Cham Syndulla had not been re-introduced in Rebels -- the episode "Homecoming" aired in February 2016. (He was not actually revealed as Hera Syndulla's father until the April 2015 novel Lords of the Sith; it had previously been speculated he was Hera's uncle, not her father.) It was written years before Jedi: Fallen Order came out and revealed more information about the Inquisitorius, their recruiting patterns, or their headquarters; it also predates the appearance of the Inquisitorius in the 2017 Darth Vader comics.

All that said, it's not really a weird coincidence -- TBB also made Hera's mother green, for example, the same way I made Alecto Syndulla green. (This was more than a year before we saw that portrait in Rebels S3 (October 2016) and even more years before she was actually given a name in TBB.) That Barriss had become an Inquisitor was speculated as soon as the Rebels S2 trailer revealed that the Inquisitor was not the only Inquisitor. (He was not called the Grand Inquisitor in canon until the episode introducing the Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother aired in late October 2015, which by the way Backbone predates. He was introduced in 2014 only as "the Inquisitor," which is why and some older fans will still call him Quizzy.)

Backbone is nine years old. I started working on it in May 2015, even before "The Siege of Lothal" aired. Even though it wasn't finished until 2018, it was fully plotted by the end of summer 2015 and it predates most current Star Wars canon, because the new canon only started in fall of 2014, with the novel Star Wars: A New Dawn and soon afterwards Rebels. There was not much canon then! The Inquisitors were introduced for Rebels! At the time, there was nothing else! All of that stuff we now know about the Inquisitors? It came out well after Backbone started posting. (Hell, Jedi: Fallen Order not only postdates the beginning of Backbone, it postdates the end of Backbone, which was October 2018.)

[bitchfitch]

I'm not a big like. Fandom content creator, ignore my AO3 word count, like. I've literally only made stuff for 3 fandoms and do so extremely infrequently but like.

Ok. My problem is that when new content is announced for one of the fandoms I write for, it just. Kills my desire to keep going. it makes me so anxious about what I've gotten wrong and what's going to need to change and what predictions I've just Flubbed. and that's Really not fun.

Like. I haven't written or read anything BOTW since TOTK came out because it's just. A Bad Vibe and so intimidating because it feels like I'm starting over and having to drag my old stuff that wasn't finished before TOTK into this new era and make it Fit.

And that's not fun. but what's worse is Shadow of the Erdtree. I fuckin Love writing my boy miqy. My horrible awful lil brat. but the thing is. Miquella fuckin, isn't in Elden Ring. Like. his comatose body is in the blood swamp, you can go kill Mohg and poke it with a stick, and people talk about him from time to time. But he's not in that game. Everything in all 50k ish words worth of fic I've written about that lil blond cunt is Entirely speculation. Half of it is based on a cut npc and the fucking. Collectable Crafting Supplies Flower Placements.

Shadow of the Erdtree is about him. it's His dlc. it's why so much shit around him Mohg and Malenia got last minute rewrites.

and it sucks! it's not a Fun Vibe and I don't know how to like. Handle it bc I'm so inexperienced with like. making fan works. I can't even watch the damn trailer without getting overwhelmed.

[daisybell17]

Loki S2 Finale Prediction

With all the news and announcements coming out, i decided to make a prediction for what the finale will be. tbh This is based on what I have seen in the trailer and other stuff

——————————————————————————

The episode would pick up back where it all started in episode 1, where the TVA is in shambles and Loki would be time slipping (or not)

Now from episode 1, it's understood that Loki HAD the ability to go from the past, present and future of the TVA with a part of that future being seen towards the end of episode 1, with the phone ringing, Sylvie struggling to get the elevator door open and present Loki being pruned by someone (which many have believed to be future Loki) but I beg to differ.

I don’t think it was future Loki pruning past (or our current) Loki, and the only reason why I believe this is because, TO ME it doesn’t make sense how FUTURE LOKI would prune his past self, how could 2 versions of Loki be in the same timeline of the TVA? Especially since Loki has been time slipping back and forth that entire episode.

NOT TO MENTION that Sylvie calls him out “There you are!” As if she’s been searching for him for AGES or is relieved to find him, but before anything could happen, Loki is pruned and sent back to the present (to where EP1 left off)

Why would “FUTURE” Loki prune himself? Because he knew that “it's what needed to be done?”, to me it doesn’t make sense nor do I think it’s plausible that it was him….so who pruned Loki?

My 2 guesses are Ravonna Renslayer or Victor Timely, with my bet being Victor Timely, which leads me to believe that Loki had to sacrifice himself (as seen by 2 shots in the trailer of Sylvie and Mobius with mortified faces and Loki simply smiling back)

Now why would he prune Loki? Because by sending him back to the past, Victor Timely has full control and power to start the TVA all over again or at least re-claim control of it in the future, and basically reset everything once again (as explained by He Who Remains in the S1 Finale)

So by the time we the audience and present Loki reach the future (or S2 finale) it would have been too late.

I don’t think Marvel would kill Loki off, honestly, in the position Marvel is in right now, it is NOT a good business decision, ALTHOUGH from a story point position…ending the Loki arc with a banger Season 2 would not only seal Loki’s entire history in the franchise, giving him a good or bad ending, is up to debate, but PERSONALLY a bitter-sweet ending would fit well for a character like Loki

I think the finale would involve Loki sacrificing himself to save the TVA, Sylvie, Mobius, and essentially…everyone. The future we saw in S1 was a future too late, it was bound to happen and this sacrifice, where I am pretty sure he would be back in the temporal loom could possibly kill him…or maybe spit him into a different timeline…or maybe…he wakes up, and he’s in Valhalla

——————————————————————————

I love fan theories and predictions, literally speculation of what could happen is just so fun so if y’all have ur own theories or predictions, go ahead and comment/reblog it, i love love love reading them!!

[astromechas]

Okay YES this is great, but as a stupid FeMC fan, I have some things to say:

*assuming the leaks and rumors are true, and based on how they got “ReLOAD” correct, let’s just roll with it.

This was Atlus’ opportunity to create a definitive version of Persona 3. Like THIS IS THE ONE TO PLAY, not FES, not P3P, THIS. Fresh with all the content, not a story beat missing, everything.

Visual upgrade? Of course. Everything looks stunning, on par with Persona 5, which was exactly what everyone was hoping for as far as the visual fidelity of the game goes.

So why, Atlus? Why would you choose not to include FeMC? (or are they?) ( potentially delusional rant incoming but tldr; it would be stupid of them to cut her )

Atlus admitted years ago during the pre-release period of Q2 that the inclusion of FeMC provided their biggest boom for pre-orders in that game. The devs openly stated in an interview that they did not expect her trailer to create so much hype around the game, which ultimately resulted in their sales marking at a higher number than anticipated.

Then there was Atlus’ decision to port P3P over FES to the next console generation. Some people speculated that such a decision was indicative of Atlus’ intentions not to include her in the remake, thus P3P being players’ only chance to play as her. Which I call BS. Why would Atlus make the dumb ass decision to tell on themselves and say "Hey, see this content here? Yeah fuck you, we’re cutting it from the remake!”

It’s especially suspect considering for some people, that port of P3P might’ve been their first EVER experience with P3. I know a lot of us have been fans for a long time, but for some people, that slew of ports was their first opportunity to dip their toes into the franchise. Imagine how shocked those people will be with they play the remake only to find a whole route of content cut.

And lastly, Atlus’ constant promotion of FeMC during the 25th anniversary, following their decision to wholly cut her from the 20th anniversary five years prior.

All of this feels like Atlus’ desperate attempt to remind people that FeMC exists (not that we needed their help) when they could’ve just as easily ported FES to next gen consoles, excluded her from the 25th anniversary, and focused fully on making sure the usual MC remained at the forefront of people’s minds.

Finally, I think its important to remember two points: Atlus hasn’t officially announced this game, and it’s slated release period is Q1 2024, leaving plenty of marketing time before the game comes out.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable for Atlus to throw all of their marketing into the original MC, showing him off, giving him all the bells and whistles to kick start the hype, and then reveal FeMC at a later date. Other ‘anime-esque’ game devs do exactly the same: Caligula, Honkai: Star Rail, etc.

Just because this initial trailer doesn’t include her doesn’t mean she’s been cut entirely. I truly think Atlus knows all too well how much she means to some fans (and how much money they could potentially lose by not including her) for them to completely exclude her from the remake.

With that being said, if all’s said and done and she still isn’t there, believe me, I won’t be playing ReLOAD on day one. Partially because I’m bitter, but also because I don’t have $60-70 USD to be spending on a game that excludes one of my most precious video game characters.

[pnf-lover98]

Some thoughts on the Good Omens 2 trailer

As many of us may already know, an official trailer for Good Omens season 2 dropped yesterday on Youtube.

I loved loved loved the first season, and the original book it was adapted from, and I spent a fairly long time making fanarts of the show. I’ve been impatiently waiting for this second season to come out ever since it was announced, and yesterday’s trailer only fueled up my hype even further. I would like to take a moment to make some speculations about what we were shown, and about what I would want to see in this new season.

1) May I just say I really like the angel cop girl? She looks like she’s going to be a very nice character!

2) Another thing I loved was seeing Crowly dressed up as an angel, with his white suit, golden tie and the snake tattoo on his cheek turning from back to golden. Demons dressing up as angels is something we didn’t see in the first season (when Michael visited hell she was still dressed in her normal angel clothes, and the same goes the other way around for demons), and I like the fact that they can change their outfit to ‘blend in’ with the other faction.

3) Now, let’s talk about what, at least to me, was the biggest elephant in the room of the trailer: the mystery revolving around Gabriel - who, apparently, has vanished from heaven to go to Earth. That sentence of his, that “You only know that everything would be better if you were by a particular person’s side”... Did he mean it in the sense that he’s in love with someone?! 👀 Well, based on how Aziraphale immediately thinks of him and Crowley dining together, it surely seems so! But who could Gabe ever be in love with? And what has he done to have both Heaven and Hell after him (we see the demons demanding that Azira surrender him, in one clip)? How could have Gabe manage to wrong two sides at once? What if he messed up big time by falling for someone on the wrong side?

Well, my little heart of the Ineffable Bureaucracy fan would surely hope in something of this sort!  And then we have this:

A little purple-blueish feather, presumably falling from above. Not a white feather, nor a black one. But one of a color we’ve never seen before.

Now, I’m well aware of the fact that Gaiman once said that angels and demons can wear their wings however they want to, not necessarily white or black, but in the actual show (maybe for the sake of keeping things visually simple) Zira has them white like you would expect from an angel and Crowley black like you would expect from a demon. So coming back to this one little purple-ish feather… Does it still belong to an angel, or to a demon?

Or perhaps, it belongs to someone who is neither of the two? An entirely brand new creature, with an entirely new wing color! Now, considering that Good Omens only revolved around church figures (Adam and Eve, angels, demons, Satan…), I have a very hard time believing that this ‘entirely new creature’ will turn out to be a cryptid or a pagan mithical creature (like, say, an harpy or a winged horse). So what can it be?

What if this new creature is both an angel and a demon, being born by parents that belong to different factions?  A.k.a, to tie it to my previous theory, what if Gabe messed up big time by falling in love with the wrong person and their affair resulted in a child? 👀

[felassan]

Do you think were going to see a Dreadwolf reveal trailer at Dragon Age Day or at the Game Awards?

hello!

I'm not sure, and I'm also hopeful/excited (so.. a regular felassan state of affairs hh..). if it's in a place where they feel ready to show it to the world more then that'd be neat, it'd be cool to see what's being worked on. and ofc anything said here is only speculation.

it's been at TGA before (2018 trailer, 2020 trailer), the last time being 3 years ago in 2020. if the 2024 internal currently-aimed release window mentioned in error on a dev profile recently is indeed still current (I'd guess that the change to "TBD" won't have been because the aim changed since the dev put that there btw, it'll have been because there isn't supposed to be any public info about the currently aimed release window yet but the games press noticed it on the profile, prompting BW/EA to ask the dev to change it. separate note: this being the case doesn't mean that there's no possibility that the window will slip more though), appearing at TGA 2023 wouldn't be a shock. maybe it depends on whether the possible 2024 release window is in early (but still after April 1st 2024 because of the fiscal quarter & FY24 slate stuff) 2024 or late 2024? as if it's later in 2024 (like say November) I could see a world where it isn't at TGA23 but is somewhere in the summer video game event/news expo period instead, because of the recent trend that's been observable in the industry generally and commented on by a former bioware dev re: an industry move towards shorter marketing periods (like more in the realm of a few months-6 months than a year). it's been said that the policy for this for a lot of AAA games has become a lot shorter, tending towards a lot shorter and louder marketing campaigns.

jeff grubb recently said on DA:D, "The Game Awards 2023 sounds right to me, they’ve done stuff at The Game Awards before. I’m expecting them to be there. If they’re not, it better be soon after, because Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, was, you know, there was a chance Dragon Age: Dreadwolf could’ve came out this year. Obviously it did keep moving internally, as I’ve reported before. It’s now, they’re looking at, you know, by the mid of next year, something like that.” and "The reality is, we very well could get Dragon Age: Dreadwolf content at The Game Awards. They’ve had teasers there before, it would make all the sense in the world for something to show up there." [link] this is interesting bc i'm pretty sure I remember a tweet from him last year about TGA22 where he straight up said "no it won't be there" or something basically when he was asked about it.

what I would say is that if it's gonna happen in a substantial way (as in not a codex entry and a blog post) in early December 2023, it'd likely be at TGA, not on DADay. this is based on how it was done previously and also on what's been said about DADay (an unofficial fan holiday event that just happens to occur very close to when TGA is held, thereby being overshadowed by it in terms of scale) vs TGA (a massive industry-wide high publicity event). DADay has seemed to have been more of a community-focused thing, a place to announce something smaller in scale like a tv show or a new book or to have something smaller highlighted like short stories or a codex. it's more of a 'today we are announcing we will be at TGA' with a new trailer-type [hypothetically] context rather than a 'here is a new trailer that isnt an ingame cinematic' type context, if that makes sense. saying that if it isnt going to be a 'big' trailer at TGA23, maybe there's something at DAday like last year where they showed an ingame sequence, which is smaller than a 'big substantial trailer' but still a video.

(idk if this post/ramble made sense but there you go). guess we'll find out in < 3 weeks. (❁´◡`❁)

[moltz23]

Did a Potential Overhaul in the Post-Timeskip Cutscenes mess up with 3H's Development? - Development Mystery/Theory

Back in 2021, Nintendo released a video called Fire Emblem : Vol 1 to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary. And around 30:35, the video shows the 3H Movie "Rematch", used for Chapter 17 of the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes.

With a catch.

It's not the same one that ended up on the final game:

A glimpse into an alternate reality?

People went wild back when they noticed Edelgard and Claude in this version are using the outfits of their Emperor & Barbsrossa classes rather than the Armored Lord and Wyvern Master ones seen in the game we got, leading to much speculation surrounding what this meant for Three Houses. And it goes without saying that, while unseen, fans suspect that Dimitri uses his Great Lord outfit rather than the High Lord's in this version. So... The heck is up with this movie???

Well, as uncovered by VincentASM from sereneforest.net, it's highly likely this take of the movie shown in the promotional Nintendo/FE video is from an early build of the game. A build so early, that Edelgard skin and eyes were more saturated, and characters still didn't use unique palettes when using generic classes (which was incidentally used in February's JP Nintendo Direct of 2019).

Your call as for which version looks better.

It doesn't just end there though; if Three Houses' datamine is anything to go by - namely, the internal order the classes have in the code - we can find evidence that can answer why the endgame lord classes were used in this variation rather than the "middle ones" early on: simply put, Armored Lord, High Lord, and Wyvern Master did not exist during most of 3H' development. In turn, this explains why the Flame Emperor Class - Edelgard's enemy-only class for Part 1 - is internally, a model swap of her Emperor class rather than Armored Lord's: the latter didn't exist during development of Part 1, so Emperor was used as a base instead.

With this evidence uncovered and the answer giving resolution to the promotional footage shown, hopes waned down for the future of 3H, and everyone moved on.

This raises two questions I haven’t seen anyone point out before, though.

How much (if any) did this change mess up the post-timeskip movies? Is it the reason why the Silver Snow Theorem happened?

To explain these inquiries further, I'll go into greater detail about each one:

1. Two Types of Animated Movies.

Corporate needs you to find the differences between these two pictures.

Three Houses uses 2 types of animated movies for important scenes. The first one (see the one on the left), was done in-house by KT through pre-rendering shenanigans with the 3H engine. Meanwhile, the second one (on the right) was outsourced to SANZIGEN.

The distinction between both is relevant because the movie showcased in the FE Castle Conversations video - as well its final version - belong to the former category. Meaning that, should the character designs get tweaked during development, in the best case scenario, as far IS & KT were concerned, swapping models should be enough to keep things up to date, which might as well be what happened with the "Rematch" movie once the House Leader's main post-timeskip designs were swapped.

But what about tweaking the other type of movies, though? The ones commissioned to the animation studio? I can't imagine the whole process being cheap in their case, more so given that 8 out of the 11 movies commissioned to SANZIGEN feature the 3H lords post-timeskip:

What's important here is that ☆ = Doesn't feature any 3H lord in any capacity.

Granted, the smartest course of action in this instance would've been to simply commission the post-timeskip movies near the end of development to avoid consistency/revision issues, for which there is a plausible chance that’s the case. After all, in the E3 2018 trailer for the game - which was the first instance we ever saw footage of it - the only animated movie outsourced seen was the one from the intro.

But... What if that’s not the case?

Call me paranoid if you want, but I raise this worry for a reason-

2. "The Theorem of What?????"

Love this banner so much.

A few months ago I did a breakdown on how 3H distributes it's movies across routes, and if there's anything that stood up a ton besides the predictable stuff, is that the game followed a clear pattern which determined which routes would get the most movies, versus which ones would get screwed instead. In my breakdown, I coined this pattern "The Silver Snow Theorem" which proposes the following:

"The amount of movies and fullscreen CGs present in a route’s main story by Part 2, is directly and inversely proportional respectively, to how much the narrative follows Silver Snow’s story beats."

And as a refresher, Silver Snow matters to the development of Three Houses because: A. That's the first route the developers worked on; and B. was used as the basis for the other 3:

Which route specifically did you create in the beginning to establish the world-building? Kusakihara: It was one of the two paths in the Empire route—the one fans refer to as the “church route”: “Silver Snow” [...] afterwards, we had Koei Tecmo’s scripting team start work on the nitty-gritty of the other house leaders and the story of their respective routes.

While Silver Snow having this much influence over the Part 2 movies is noticeable in hindsight, truth be told, I did initially brush it off as just a side effect of being used as a template for development. Looking back now though, a part of me now wonders if the Part 2 movies were first commissioned once Silver Snow was late into development and AM and VW had been already decided to borrow a ton from the route’s first half. Because if that’s the case, then there might have been cutscenes outsourced to SANZIGEN that did feature Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude with their second post-timeskip lord classes rather than one ones fans are most familiar with.

But then, it was decided during development that the house leaders would rather use different outfits instead. And this might have caused problems with budget since changing those outsourced cutscenes ain’t an easy task compared to the ones KT made in-house.

Like, seriously.

Goes without saying that all this is merely conjecture. But I feel it’s worth making the question because, to reiterate, the Silver Snow Theorem highlights that the more a route follows Silver Snow’s story beats to a tee, the more animated cutscenes (and less CGs) it gets. And given evidence points out the lord’s main post-timeskip classes fans are familiar with were a late addition… I guess y’all know where I’m going by now.

I usually don’t make threads focusing on fan theories and stuff, but this has been in my mind for a long while so I wanted to see what you guys think about it. Do you think more movies with the lord’s 2nd classes got made before the outfit swap was made? Or perhaps the issue the devs ran with that caused the Silver Snow Threorem might be due to something else entirely…? Also, what's y'all's opinion on SANZIGEN's movies compared to the ones done by KT?

[hamsteriffic]

Miraculous Fandom Stats

Miraculous Paris Special

I was wondering if the Miraculous Paris Special has generated more excitement than the other specials or is it just me connecting with my past punky girl?

I also wondered if this was measurable - and possibly translate to more fanfics on Ao3.

I’ve definitely seen a lot of art and have also gone on an art binge myself @hamsterdraws (but I don’t know how to quantitate posts on Tumblr). So here is my attempt to quantitate my obsession with these emo kids!

Reblog don’t repost!

📈 The data presented here is a snapshot of the Ao3 database as of December 17, 2023.

🖤 Fics Posted to Ao3

It’s only been since October 15, 2023 [1], but the preview was shown straight after the Season 5 finale in July. So overall there has been almost 6 months of speculation and hype surrounding the TV Special.

Fig 1. Total number of fics posted that has been tagged with the Miraculous Paris Special (sample size of 80) [2].

🖤 How does it compare against the other specials?

From my own opinion, I was way more excited about seeing the evil counterparts of my blorbos than seeing them do the same Lovesquare dance again. So is is just me?

Fig 2. Total number of fanfics for each Miraculous special or movie.

I think the numbers reflect the positive uptake of the Paris Special. In the first two months alone there are twice as many fics as Miraculous Shanghai.

Fig 3. Time-adjusted number of fics posted to Ao3 per month since aired. The lighter shaded bar takes into account the public release date and not the trailer date.

For a better comparison, I included the movie because it was released at roughly the same time the teaser trailer. Even though the characters were roughly the same in the movie as the TV show, they had slightly different personality traits.

Fig 4. Number of fics written about them per month in the first six months following their release dates.

The arrow indicates when the Paris Special was televised and the preceding months were based on the teaser trailer. At the time of posting, we are only halfway through December and more fics may be posted by the end of the year.

🖤 What did I learn?

On all appearances, Miraculous World: New York - United HeroeZ had more fanfics, but keep in mind that this was released in September 26, 2020 [3].

There appears to be an initial flurry of fanfics posted on Ao3 using tags for the Miraculous Special: New York, however this excitement has petered out gradually. While the Miraculous Paris Special has yet to reach that initial number, only two months has elapsed since it was publicly aired.

The Miraculous Movie on the other hand was released a few months before the Miraculous Special aired and it had generated much less fanfiction - or at least were not tagged [4-5].

In conclusion, it appears that the Miraculous Paris Special has been received well by the fans. I would be interested to see if this trend continues or if like the New York special, the fics will fizzle out.

🖤 Total Number of Fics Tagged

Miraculous Paris Special (80 Fics)

Miraculous Shanghai (33 fics)

Miraculous New York (177 fics)

Miraculous Movie (40 fics)

Miraculous Christmas Special (9 fics)

Miraculous Origins (31 fics)

Miraculous s05e28 Action (0 fics)

More numbers for the other Miraculous World specials and references below the cut.

🖤 Number of fics tagged with New Characters

Miraculous World: Paris

Shadybug | Toxinelle (32 fics)

Claw Noir | Griffe Noire (42 fics)

Betterfly | Hesperia (20 fics)

Miraculous World: New York

Number of fics tagged for:

Jessica Keynes | Sparrow | Eagle (103)

Aeon | Uncanny Valley (108)

Olympia Hill | Majestia (11)

Barbara Keynes | Knightowl (32)

Dean Gate | Doorman (4)

Mike Rochip | Technopirate (4)

Hot Dog Dan (8)

Miraculous World: Shanghai

Number of fics tagged for:

Fei Wu | Ladydragon (132)

Cash | King Cash (5)

References

[1] Miraculous Paris Special (Club-Canal+ Preview Screening pre-release date: Oct 15, 2023) ( https://miraculousladybug.fandom.com/wiki/Miraculous_Paris)

[2] Looked up terms such as Miraculous Paris Special on the Tag Search tool in Ao3 and found disambiguation and collated the freeform tags that were not found under the main Ao3 tag.

[3] Miraculous World: New York - United HeroeZ (https://miraculousladybug.fandom.com/wiki/Miraculous_New_York)

[4] Miraculous World: Shanghai, The Legend of Ladydragon (French release: April 4, 2021) (https://miraculousladybug.fandom.com/wiki/Miraculous_Shanghai)

[5] Ladybug & Chat Noir: The Movie (French Release Date: July 05, 2023) (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt10364034/)

[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.

[stingrayloveblog]

Whee side order

My thoughts on it! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!! Youve been warned.

So, here are my honest thoughts. Let me just start by warning further that this is mostly negative.

Took me about two hours and one attempt to beat all 30 floors. Was pretty fun. I used splattershot though because i suck at dualies.

But... it felt very quick. Felt like there was a whole lotta nothing plotwise, too. It was fun, but the plot is pretty weak. Its just another rogue-ai-tries-to-assimilate-everyone plot. Which has already been done. For some reason they keep trying to do octo expansion but again and they keep failing to do that.

Taking everything into consideration, acht really had no reason to be there. You could remove acht entirely and have the same results. And im not just saying that because i dont like dedf1sh. They dont add anything to anything.

I havent unlocked all marinas dev notes but so far theres been her motive of saving the sanitized octarians which......... i have my own personal issues with that. They seem to not be able to decide how they want sanitization to work.

Doing the pallets, i assumed they would give you some memory thing related to the associated character, but you just get a stupid little comment from the post-final boss that doesnt really add anything to the plot or the characters. Also murch is on luna blaster for some reason. I was speculating a lot on who luna blaster and octobrush could be assigned to, but seems like theyre just doing anyone. Murch is very irrelevant to everything as a whole so its kinda just like whatever.

That being said, i feel extremely bad for agent 4 fans. Those humanoid red eyed things with one of them looking like 4 and then them not doing anything with that at all was a huge fake out.

From what i saw, a lot of people were theorizing and expecting things based on all the evidence we got that we never did end up getting because they went an entirely different route. No agent 4 being possessed or whatever (unless thats still true and just unlocked much later, which im hoping because it would make everything a lot more interesting), no implied body swapping, no copybots.

And most of all, nothing from the first trailer we got. With all the concept art. I know it was just CONCEPT art for a reason, but surely you cant just show off all these things and then have the final result be absolutely nothing like it? Then again, splatoon 3 has had more than enough false advertising already, so i guess it was wrong to expect things to be as shown. I just really really liked the giant hostile architecture black spikes picture. And theres none of that at all.

Basically, everything that was expected was significantly cooler than what we got, and to be completely honest, i dont think it was worth splatoon 3 being in really bad shape for such a long time. I dont think it really justified the amount of dumb things that happened over the past few seasons.

I do still think its fun, and i absolutely am going to try to collect everything, but it was significantly less interesting overall than i anticipated.

I do think the final boss attacks syncing with the rhythm was cool. But other than that the level design is extremely repetitive and there really is no variation. Im only enjoying it now because ive used weapons that i like/dont mind using, but once i have to start using weapons im bad at i just know itll be insufferable.

Overall, i am unfortunately disappointed but i still have hope that maybe there is something more, because surely that couldnt have been it.

Also just because it doesnt go along with any of my oc stories at all and i am absolutely not changing anything on my end because frankly im sick of doing that