#its become a complicated kind of dislike mixed with the shock and realization of who Blade USED to be and past memories coming back

[artheresy]

My dynamic for Dan Feng & Yingxing

Hi hello, I said I would finally post this after long debating over if I show it here first or in my fic first, but fuck it. That’s a long ways away and I need to rant about them because they take up too much space in my brain.

So this post, isn’t me claiming that this is the canon dynamic between Dan Feng and Yingxing or that this is the only right one or whatever. This is purely my own view of what I think their dynamic would be based upon how I see their individual characters with the little bits and crumbs we’ve been given so far in HSR. I can’t go over every single aspect of them here because I just purely can’t think of every single thing so this is primarily going to be talking about the fundamental key parts of my interpretation of their dynamic! If that makes sense, I’ll hop right in

Be warned, this is pretty fucking long, I think so much about them it actually hurts me physically, like it’s painful. This is me just letting my autism run while talking about two of my favorites, so be cautious… sorry in advance if some areas turn into tangents, again I think about them so much its actually too much I think about them too much

AGAIN, THIS IS MY VIEW OF THEM!! Based on the characterization we have so far which isn’t a whole bunch, this is my interpretation of their relationship based on how I view the bits of characterization we have and what we know about them

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Okay so one of the biggest and most fundamental parts that influences how I view their dynamic and the course of their relationship is looking at how exactly and why exactly I think they became close. Jingliu in her companion quest says:

I think this statement she makes “to see someone so arrogant get along with someone so proud” is actually the foundation of why they get close and their dynamic works rather than an obstacle that they somehow overcome. Specifically, I think that it was Yingxing’s arrogance (partially genuine and partially a habit born for the sake of his own survival) that allowed the two of them to get close. When we see lines from Yingxing via Dan Heng’s memories or via the Mirage Echo, though he uses Dan Feng’s proper title, he seems to talk rather casually to him. Even in a tense situation as secretly being in Scalegorge Waterscape for research would seem, Yingxing still is very lighthearted and in some languages, even laughs a little as he banters with Dan Feng. I have my own headcanons for why he has this casualness to him, but either way it’s a genuine part of him and a part of his canon characterization. I think that casualness, a product of his confidence/arrogance and maybe a little of his obliviousness as well, allows for them to get close. It evens the playing field, Yingxing sees Dan Feng as his equal, as a person, as Dan Feng rather than as his position of Imbibitor Lunae High Elder of the Vidyadhara. I could speculate all day whether or not other people had treated him similarly before and he shot it down (there’s a lot of the actual evolution of the dynamic that I will write I swear), but I think there was something very unique in that casualness that Dan Feng might not have experienced before, not from anyone else, not from the other members of the HCQ he had met before. Perhaps even Yingxing’s background would play a part in how shocked by his behavior DF is. Either way, it is that casualness, that equalness unlike he had ever experienced before, mixed with all of Yingxing’s other characteristics such as his cheeky nature that manages to quickly break down Dan Feng’s walls and make him feel compelled to grow closer to YX. Whether their first meeting was via Baiheng and Jingliu or a chance encounter before they eventually join the HCQ, Dan Feng is coming away from that shell shocked by the sheer audacity of this short life species, feelings he first interprets as offense before he realizes he’s actually amused/interest in him, and Yingxing walking away like “Huh? That was the High Elder I guess. Seems nice, a bit stiff tho!” There is no worship of Dan Feng from his side for any reason, not for his skills, not for his position, not even as an unattainable ethereal beauty situation. He views him as just another person, an equal, and no part of him views DF in this cocky “he’s not unattainable bc I already have him” kind of way because…

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Another fundamental in my personal interpretation of their relationship is that Yingxing doesn’t truly seek anything from Dan Feng nor does he ever necessarily try to pursue him. And all of this isn’t in an insecure “We’d never work” kind of product of overthinking way of choosing not to pursue him. Rather, it’s primarily because Yingxing doesn’t feel the need to. He doesn’t need his romantic feelinhs to be satisfied or fulfilled especially with the difference in their lifespans. As long as he can be by his side and stay close with him until his time comes to an end, Yingxing is truly perfectly content with that. A lot of this additionally stems from a certain place. That being that after he gets to know Dan Feng better and learns of the sheer pressure he endures due to his position, the choices he feels he’s forced into, the level of restriction, even with all of the influence Dan Feng still has, he doesn’t want to be an added source of pressuring or discomfort. To sum it up, Yingxing leaves the ball in Dan Feng’s court so he can act as he sees fit when he feels like it. There’s an added layer to this also of Yingxing not wanting to ruin the current state of their dynamic (a topic I’ll get into more). In the end, this is just yet another part of Yingxing that utterly pulls Dan Feng in. He is very used to being distrusting of others and refusing to get close to many people, primarily out of wariness of the potential ulterior motives people may have when befriending him. Contrastly, Yingxing doesn’t expect or even want anything from Dan Feng even the closer they get. Dan Feng can see that, and it makes him trust in Yingxing. Makes him trust to the point that he feels comfortable enough to make attempts pursuing Yingxing himself rather than meeting at a stalemate, refusing to go after a man Dan Feng knows won’t chase him as to not risk pressuring him and bc he’s fine with how things are. That isn’t to say though that Yingxing won’t respond to any attempts Dan Feng makes first though, because he absolutely will. Well… that is if he can recognize any attempts from Dan Feng at all because he can be rather oblivious in the face of people making advances at him-

An added part to all of this is that Yingxing with the way he acts, both in general and in this specific regard, ends up being part of what helps influence and encourage Dan Feng to do more to take what he wants, actually follow his desires in certain aspects rather than keeping up his stiff outer image and denying himself of everything for that sake of his position. The HCQ in general all have influence helping Dan Feng open up more like this, seizing things instead of either waiting for things on a platter or never having them. However, Yingxing's bold nature is definitely the strongest factor as he ends up helping Dan Feng learn to identify what he wants for himself. Whether that want is something as complex as moving forward in a relationship when not only has Dan Feng had very little experience with close connections to others, but also is so accustomed to the stillness of long life, or something as simple as taking breaks and time to himself to live and breathe and experience life moving around him. It's through Yingxing (and the rest of the HCQ) that Dan Feng learns to be more selfish. It's through all of their care and kindness and love that Dan Feng learns that he too is not merely a pillar to stand tall for his people. That he is a person with needs and wants, and it is perfectly fine to be selfish and prioritize yourself at times.

—

So that previous section got into a little bit of Dan Feng’s trust in Yingxing, but what about Yingxing’s side of things? What about his trust in Dan Feng? I dunno what it is about him, but I feel like Dan Feng is the kind of person who can hear some of the deepest confessions and see the barest parts of the heart of someone he cares about and not treat them any differently like as if they are fragile y’know. Like Dan Feng is the person who Yingxing, out of all the HCQ, can truly confide in because he knows he won’t be seen different or treated in a drastically different way. Ultimately, Jingliu isn’t someone he feels he can go to for super emotional things which she likely herself knows she wouldn’t be able to help much with, Jing Yuan and him have a very light hearted joking dynamic that makes changing the tone and breaking the mood for a deep heart to heart much harder so he doesn’t often do it, and Baiheng… well, deep down Baiheng still sees Yingxing as that disheartened little boy, who had lost everything and was being told that there’s nothing he could do about it given his lifespan, that he couldn’t avenge what he had lost. If Yingxing were to tell her how he honestly truly feels about everything in his life, the traumas he still hadn’t overcome or the thoughts that plague him every day, he knows she would end up fretting over him, mother hen style. Being overly cautious as if his mind is made of glass, and as much as he loves her, he hates the idea of her changing how she treats him because of just how much she cares for him in turn.

(It’s a trait I see Baiheng having as to it being an obstacle in her other relationships like with Yingxing but works well in her relationship with Jingliu, caring for her and treating her softly, not underestimating her, in a way that others are too afraid to treat the unwavering, ice cold Sword champion! Matching DF and YX’s whole situation with his arrogance and casualness)

In the end, Yingxing feels like Dan Feng is the only one he can truly trust with the deepest corners of his heart and mind without worrying of Dan Feng either judging him or suddenly treating him like a fragile piece of porcelain. Even if he were to take note of something Yingxing told him and do something in response perhaps to ease his worries or heart ache, it would never be something out of pity or thinking Yingxing to be unable to take care of himself. Because ultimately, that’s where this all stems for Yingxing. He has lived so much of his life underestimated, whether having his skills and abilities questioned for being a short life species or sometimes intentionally sometimes unintentionally having his ability to take care of himself questioned like he needs a caretaker. Something that again is partially due to again to being a short life species. What Yingxing likes about Dan Feng is from the moment he met him, he doesn’t feel as if he is being questioned or underestimated. Dan Feng makes him feel as if he is truly seen as an equal, even with their distinct difference in power. It’s a treatment from Dan Feng that serves as a response to Yingxing’s own treatment of Dan Feng, his casualness to the other man making it clear he sees him as an equal as well.

And that? Well that is perhaps the most important part of the dynamic. In canon, they both have struggles with how they are seen and treated by others based on preconceived notions about their status. Dan Feng being in a way dehumanized as he is put up on a pedestal for being an incarnation of Imbibitor Lunae, for being the High Elder of the Vidyadhara, a position that he wants to escape because of the sheer loss of identity just a role brings. Yingxing being underestimated from the moment he stepped onto the Xianzhou because he wasn’t a long life species to the point that the other celestial masters on the Zhuming borderline bullied him into doubting himself, thinking a lot about his own death, and as a young boy (not even a teen yet), literally saying “Maybe I’ll never live to see the day my parents are avenged.” In my view of them, for them to truly be as close as they are established in canon, I think that from the start of their dynamic they make it very clear they see the other as a genuine and true equal in a way that other people haven’t or perhaps, can’t fully.

—

I said this before my in Aurizzm Yingxing post, but yeah, I don’t think Dan Feng or Yingxing would have come into a romantic relationship with each other with any experience at all. I know Dan Feng with no experience is a very accepted idea, and I agree with it very much given his isolated position and his proud attitude and that 100% plays into my view of their dynamic. I also however, firmly believe Yingxing came in without any romantic relationship experience too. The difference here ends up being in how inexperienced each of them are. Yingxing has had a lot more friendship experience, and he’s experienced crushes before which is how he can identify his own romantic feelings better than Dan Feng. But he’s never actually been in any relationship. He’s never had the time, he’s got his own goals in mind while being painfully aware he’s on a time limit, and let’s be real like I said before, This Man is married to his Forge. Meanwhile, Dan Feng truly hasn’t had any friendships prior to the HCQ. Knowing him and her too, I firmly believe Dan Feng and Jingliu’s relationship for example, was for maybe a few decades, maybe a literal century, just them sparring without words from time to time. So Dan Feng not only going in with no friendship experience, but I think that man also is having to recognize some new emotions and feelings he’s never experienced nor can put words to. So Dan Feng’s disaster comes in being painful aware of the presence and intensity of his own feelings… he just doesn’t have the words nor experience to recognize exactly what those feelings are. It’s an absolute disaster on all fronts, somebody pray for the HCQ who unfortunately have to experience all of this.

There’s an added layer I want to go more into looking back at the first part of why their relationship works and the thing I said about the Baiheng trait. As we saw with Jingliu admitting to her feelings towards his attitude as a child, she wasn’t… she wasn’t really a fan so to say of his arrogance. And given y’know, what we see of the people of the Luofu, I don’t doubt many people have similar reactions. Part of Yingxing’s limited experience comes not only from his own decision to not pursue anything, I think part of it comes from being for whatever reason feeling distaste for him. Whether it’s their own prejudices against Outworlders, or his bold attitude and lack of formality that makes any interest they had in him end up flying away. Which ugh, makes it even more special that this attitude of his, born out of necessity for his own survival on the Xianzhou and for his ability to move forward in his craftsmanship after all he went through, which has pushed so many people away, ends up being the exact thing that allows him to get close to Dan Feng. IT’s UGGGHHH Sorry, but I just need to scream. I NEED TO SCREAM ABOUT THEM OKAY?? THEY TAKE UP TOO MUCH SPACE IN MY BRAIN, I CAN’T HAVE A SINGLE MOMENT OF REST BECAUSE OF THEM

—

Again, this is my view of them and their dynamic based upon what we have been given in game so far, the crumbs of characterization we have. God I hope we get more. This isn’t me saying this view of them is canon or anything, this is just how I view them. This is the dynamic and thoughts that have grown like mold in my head from thinking about them WAY too much.

I have so much more I could talk about, certain specific things or things that don’t even immediately come to mind right now. If you want to ask more about how I view them or have some topic or aspect of them in mind, please hit me up. Either send something to my inbox or bust your way into my dms to talk about them. I love them so much. They mean the world to me.

And honestly? I could just make two whole separate posts also just about how I specifically characterize each of them, but I think I need to let my brain rest a bit.

And don’t think about this dynamic specifically in reference to how it could reflect on their current selves because you might just end up hurting yourself like I have. GOD I HATE THEM

[swshadowcouncil]

“Predictable” Is Not A Four-Letter Word

Well, looks like it’s that time again. That’s right: it’s time to talk about our good friend, Subverted Expectations™.(WARNING: Game of Thrones spoilers below the jump)

Hey, who’s super excited for the upcoming Benioff and Weiss Star Wars trilogy now?

I’m alluding, of course, to the latest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, in which, after an 8-season-long journey learning to own her own power, master her fate, lead armies, free slaves, and reclaim her family’s place on the Iron Throne, Daenerys Targaryen evidently got just a wee bit too much girl power and decided to become…bad? I guess? Boy, who could have foretold such a stunning subversion of expectations?

(I mean, a woman gaining power, being gradually resented by the men around her for her ascent, and eventually being viewed as a megalomaniacal villainess who needs to be taken down a peg is kind of the opposite of a subversion, it’s actually pretty much what happens to most women in power, fictional, or non-fictional, but I digress)

Fan response, needless to say, has been…mixed. Generally, folks seem to be unhappy with this course of events, given that, aside from some allusions to “Targaryen Madness” throughout the series, the buildup to Dany’s heel turn has been widely seen as rushed and somewhat arbitrary. True, she’s suffered a lot in the past few episodes, but the series has also put quite a lot of effort into making Dany a sympathetic character. Complicated, yes, and flawed, as most GoT protagonists are, but still heroic and generally good. Even as a conqueror, she holds her armies to a code of conduct, shows sympathy to the downtrodden, and overall seems to want to be a good, ethical ruler even after she’s taken the Iron Throne. So, uh….what gives?

Those of us who were Star Wars fans during the release and aftermath of The Last Jedi will recognize this feeling all too well. And, much like with TLJ, the backlash itself spawned a backlash. “Actually,” declared the internet masses, “It’s good that Rian Johnson subverted our expectations. To follow through on what Abrams set up would have been obvious and boring. The whole point of storytelling is to be unexpected!” But if this is the case, why did so many people walk away from TLJ, or this past episode of GoT, feeling so unsatisfied? And why, for god’s sake, do we find ourselves constantly having this argument any time a new piece of media comes to an end?

The internet certainly provides many examples of the attitude that objection to an incongruous shock ending is somehow weak, entitled, emotional, and juvenile. There’s a sense that true fans of a franchise are tough enough to absorb an unsatisfying ending, that they actually find satisfaction from the dissatisfaction, and that to want an ending that ties up loose ends and closes character arcs (dare I say, even happily, at times) is to want one’s hand held, or to be incapable of handling nuance or bittersweetness. “Life isn’t always happy!” the internet masses cry. “Life doesn’t always make sense! Life is disappointing too! Deal with it!” But stories aren’t vegetables we’re supposed to choke down before we can leave the dinner table. The purpose of storytelling, for adults, at least, is not just to condescendingly remind the viewer that bad things happen sometimes, and force them to suck it up. Which, of course, isn’t to say that all endings have to be neat and happy, either–there are stories with dark endings that are deeply satisfying (Breaking Bad) and ones with happy endings that are deeply unsatisfying (How I Met Your Mother). There are even stories with subtle, unclear endings that still feel logical and satisfying to many viewers, albeit not all. The ending of The Sopranos, for instance was famously controversial for its ambiguity, but even this ending was tied to themes and concepts planted earlier in the series, and several perfectly cogent arguments have been written to explain this quite persuasively.

But what satisfying endings tend to have in common, that unsatisfying ones don’t, is a feeling of appropriateness and completeness. Most fans who hated the finale of How I Met Your Mother did so not because they resented that it was “happy,” but because they felt it was a 180-degree turn from the arcs of all the characters and storylines up until the last few minutes of the last episode. Conversely, people didn’t love Breaking Bad’s ending because it was “difficult” or “dark,” they loved it because it was a believable, complete, fitting ending to the story that had come before (funny enough, I would wager that more people guessed the ending of Breaking Bad than guessed the ending of How I Met Your Mother, though that’s neither here nor there). But in the current cultural environment, a person can gain quite a bit of attention for boasting that unlike those blubbering fake fans, they LIKED that this ending didn’t conclude the arcs that had built for years, didn’t pick up dropped plot threads, didn’t allow protagonists to learn anything or achieve their goals, and so on and so forth. That they, by virtue of some unspecified quality, didn’t NEED an ending like that in order to enjoy what they were watching. Do I believe people who say this? Well, maybe. Human opinions are varied, and I don’t allege some conspiracy where everyone secretly hates the same things I hate. Nonetheless, I often find a degree of disingenuousness in these statements. A good ending can be obvious, unexpected, happy, sad, or even ambiguous–but more often than not, what makes it good is that it is satisfying. And loving an ending because it is unsatisfying, because it gives the audience nothing it wants, runs counter to this instinct, like it or not.

To use one example of a satisfying ending (albeit not a true ending, since it comes in the middle installment of a trilogy), Darth Vader’s revelation that he is Luke Skywalker’s father has gone down as one of the greatest plot twists in cinema history. Indeed, if you didn’t know that a mystery like this was building, you’d never think to put the pieces together–the ominous references to Luke having “too much of his father in him” or having “much anger…like his father,” the Chekhov’s gun of Anakin’s murder that goes unaddressed throughout A New Hope, and so on. But this twist is somewhat unique in that much of the buildup to it was done retroactively. During the writing of A New Hope, there was no plan for Vader to be Luke’s father–instead, the decision was the result of looking back at what the story had built, and following it to a coherent, unexpected, yet somehow totally natural conclusion that set up compelling stakes for the subsequent chapter. That is why the Vader twist works–it wasn’t chosen purely so the audience couldn’t guess the ending of the film, it was chosen because that was a compelling direction for the story to go, because it complicated and heightened the stakes, and because it deepened the existing text through unexpected means. In other words, arguably the greatest movie twist in history wasn’t great just because it was hard to guess, it was great because of the emotional impact of looking backwards and realizing how well it fit into the framework that was already in place despite the twist being unexpected. The surprise on its own is only a surprise; the surprise filling in the blanks of the story so effectively is what makes it sublime.

So why, then, do we find ourselves sucked into a maelstrom of hot takes every time we say we dislike a shock-value ending? And why does this trend seem to have gotten so much worse in recent years?

Well, it should come as a surprise to nobody that fandom culture to begin with is notorious for the ways in which elitism, gatekeeping, and all-around dick-measuring feature in its social interactions. Anybody who’s spent time in a major fandom has undoubtedly encountered this bizarre form of competitiveness, whether it’s being quizzed by strangers on their knowledge of canon or listening to boasts of “I was into it before it was cool” that would make a Brooklyn vinyl store owner blush. What has changed in recent years is the increased integration of the larger internet into these fandoms, shifting fan discussions from the confines of in-person hangouts or small online chat rooms, into massive public forums such as Tumblr and Reddit. Suddenly, said dick-measuring is not only happening for a far larger audience (including the general public, not just hardcore fans), but likes, reblogs, gold, and upvotes actually give fans a metric by which they can “win” or “lose” these competitions, further incentivizing them as a go-to mode of interaction among fans.

Now, with longform franchises, such as Star Wars, Marvel, and Game of Thrones, this who-is-the-nerdiest-of-them-all dynamic runs headlong into another common form of fan interaction; that is, speculation. When fans of a certain TV show or film series gather together, it’s only logical that one of the main topics of discussion is what they think might happen to their favorite characters next. These two dynamics in conjunction with one another form a fertile breeding ground for the almost gladiatorial style of fan speculation we see in most major forums nowadays. One person theorizes about a certain future plot line and receives a shower of upvotes, likes, favorites, and so on. Another comes back with a biting critique, and is given even more praise. Eventually, what might otherwise be a simple discussion becomes an outright competition, complete with points and ranking systems to keep track of who is “winning.”

This paradigm, in turn, incentivizes a very specific style of speculation. If I begin telling you a story about a girl named Cinderella who lives with her wicked stepmother and two wicked stepsisters, who asks to go to the prince’s ball, and leaves a shoe behind on the steps of the palace, your inevitable prediction that the story will end with a shoe fitting and a royal wedding may be correct, but it’s hardly cause for bragging. Of course you could predict how the story would end, because the ending was obvious. However, if I gave subtle clues in my story that the ending would go a different way, and you were the only one to predict that in this version, Cinderella was actually a vampire the whole time, and the story would end with her turning all the other characters into vampires, you could get praise for your attention to detail and ability to pick up on clues others had missed in this (absolutely bonkers) adaptation of Cinderella. Those of us who have followed the Star Wars online fandom since the release of The Force Awakens will recognize this pattern of behavior, especially in the areas of Snoke’s identity and Rey’s parentage. Though most agreed immediately on the heels of TFA that Rey was heavily implied to be Luke Skywalker’s daughter (or possibly Han and Leia’s), it only took a few weeks for the tide to shift to increasingly fantastical theories. First, the relatively mundane theories that she was a Palpatine or a Kenobi, then the slightly more perplexing suggestions that she was a Lars or Naberrie, and eventually theories that she was an immaculately conceived Force baby, or a clone, or a reincarnation of Padme Amidala.

The simplest explanation for this progression is just that people get bored of talking about obvious theories and want to mix things up with more unusual “what if” scenarios. But it’s hard to ignore the way that the competitive nature of social media fandom fosters this paradigm as well. Like someone betting on horse races, the lower the odds, the higher the reward and the sweeter the victory. Guessing that Rey is Luke Skywalker’s daughter, immediately after The Force Awakens, would be like guessing that the story of Cinderella ends with a wedding–yes, you’re likely right, but so is any schlub off the street who watched the movie once and made an idle guess. However, if you guess that Rey is the reincarnation of Padme Amidala, conceived through the Force, and you’re right, you may well be treated as some sort of prophet. Cue the showers of fake internet points.

I should be clear here–I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to guess the right answer to a mystery, or come up with a particularly clever solution to a problem that nobody else has thought of before. To the contrary, these are very normal human desires, ones that anyone who follows my writing knows that I myself engage in. The problem is, again, that this incentive to up the stakes of speculation with increasingly nonsensical, out-of-left-field proposals, purely to outdo others, makes it so that cohesive storytelling without shock value is stigmatized in fandom discussions. Which, of course, makes it harder to call content out for being unsatisfying without being accused of being childish, unsophisticated, or foolish. And so, we wind up in a self-perpetuating cycle. When we set up a paradigm where guessing the plot of a story is a competition, any predictable, reasonable, ho-hum answer becomes “too easy.” We expect content creators to structure their stories to make our guessing games harder, because after all, what’s the point of consuming media if the sweetness of “victory” is undercut by a simple, obvious answer? And if setting up these unexpected endings comes at the expense of a satisfying story, the response from many fans is “so be it.”

Which brings us to an even more pressing issue: the actual impact this discourse has on media itself. Content creators are praised by this subset of fans for creating endings that viewers didn’t expect, because, as established, this style of writing enriches the “game” that they play with one another in various forums. Consequently, fans begin to assume it is in longform media writers’ best interest to structure stories this way–to build a story that seems as though it will go one way, only to pull a U-turn at the last minute just to ensure nobody guessed the ending. Fan discourse, in other words, is normalizing bait-and-switching as a core pillar of storytelling, rather than one of many techniques writers can use to build a compelling story. And, as more people who came of age in the internet era grow up to become content creators themselves, I fear that this recent spate of shock-value media is going to become more of a trend than an aberration. Much has been said about the internet creating political echo chambers, but so too can it create artistic ones–and without dissenting opinions at the table, those reverberations will only get stronger.

So, am I advocating that people fearlessly defend “predictable” storytelling in its common connotation of “boring” and “unoriginal?” Of course not. But even if a story isn’t predictable, an audience member with a keen eye, a good instinct, and some time and attention, should in theory be able to predict it. It shows that the writer has put thought into foreshadowing, thematic congruence, consistency of character and motivation, and overall cohesion. Great, surprising endings are not created by building false decoys of these things. Instead, they’re created by rendering them subtly, slipping them in under the audience’s nose so they’re not aware of a surprise building; or sprinkling in deceptively contradicting information so the audience has to struggle to reconcile these conflicts in their minds. To expand upon a metaphor from our own HypersonicHarpist, a good storyteller–like a good magician–may disguise what they are doing with sleight of hand and misdirection, but ultimately they don’t stop mid-act, set down the hat and wand, and then pull a rabbit out of a nearby air duct vent instead. Put quite simply, we are hard-wired to want stories that leave us feeling satisfied. And the beauty is, we all have different ideas of what that looks like–that’s where good, productive discussion comes in.

But when we let disingenuous, performative internet groupthink make us doubt our instincts that something is amiss, for fear of appearing uncultured or childish, we do ourselves and our media a disservice. Bad-faith criticisms of “predictable” story arcs have poisoned fan discourse to the point where even genuine appreciation for certain shocking endings are drowned out in the cacophony of hot takes. And until more people begin to honestly admit it when they don’t see the Emperor’s new clothes, discussions on media will remain that way. As fans in the age of the internet, we have unprecedented voice and access to content creators, and more tools at our disposal to create content ourselves than any generation before us. Now more than ever, the way we talk about media guides media. It’s up to each of us to make sure we have a voice in that conversation.

[monasatlantis]

Review of Trails of Cold Steel 3!

As you probably know… I am a fan and a player of Falcoms “Trails of Cold Steel” – Series and now, after what felt like ages, we here in Europe finally got the 3. Part of that series and there was no way that I would not buy this game XD Granted, I already spoiled the actual ending of the whole Series and everything in-between but as usual that only made me want to finish the series myself. So here I am, reviewing a game whos shocking ending made me cry long before I actually understood a damn word that was said in said ending XD

1. So how was the Prolog? I am not sure if Falcom found it funny to do the same thing they already did in the first Trails of Cold Steel game, despite the fact that it wasn’t a good start for that game, or if they just found it to nostalgic to not do it. But let me say this, I only will speak from the perspective of a player who played the previous two games here, because if I would speak out of the perspective of a new player who accidentally ended up playing Trails of Cold Steel 3 first, I would be screaming about that prolog because basically you pressed random Buttons with Characters you did not just simply don’t know, but also with names like “Blond-Haired-Boy” and so on, because they weren’t willing to reveal their names. So, with said unnamed characters I ran through a (fairly easy, I have to admit that) dungeon, fought random monster while pressing random buttons and had no idea why? Not to mention what they were talking about. Anyway… thanks to my knowledge and also the knowledge most players who have at least read the description of the game should have had, plus the experiences from the previous games, made it of course relatively easy to get a hang on the controls and know at least somehow what was going on. So instead of being confused I could enjoy them talking about my Rean-Bean who was not there for most part of the prolog. I laughed my ass of while they said he is a “glory-hunt” and that he is an “oblivious player” because this is so damn on point and is so amusing coming from his own students. Not to mention, when Rean finally did show up, he really once again stole the glory-moment XD I mean… okay… his kids would have died without him, but come one, the timing was perfect to claim all the glory.

Anyway… I definitely liked this prolog better than the one from the first Cold Steel Game. Less characters. More things that already made sense. Shorter. Just a nice “What the hell is going on and were the hell are we?” – Moment that might come in handy later. No deceiving you this time either. While in the first game, Millium and Crowe were purposefully left out of the prolog even tho when you finally reach that point, they are there – to hide that they will in fact later become part of your team – this time they didn’t hide Ashe and Musse even tho in the Introduction-Chapter, those two were not sorted into Reans new class 7. Pluspoints for this. Although they did hide Angelica and the Principal… but… uh… I think I let that slide. They are not that important.

 2. What was your favorite Chapter?

 My absolute favorite chapter was chapter 2. The pacing was great, the plot was interesting, the monsters not too strong and the maps not too big, the dungeons not too complicated and all in all did it provide a good mix of the old and new in the way it presented the new characters and included the old ones in the story without completely ignoring the new class 7 characters. Tio was (although unknown to most players do to the fact that this game has yet to come out in western countrys…) a nice addition and as a shipper, I couldn’t be happier about the Rean x Alisa reunion and how it was handled. All in all I really liked the Mix of Rean, Alisa, Machias and Emma together in a team. And I was also more than Happy when “Olivier” joined our team. It was also great to see Alfin again and also Vita. And Sharon of course. Crossbell as the place where we had our mission was great and I really loved the scene on the rooftop of that super tall building, when everyone was sad because of Junas understandable devastation while that asshole Rufus just walked away without a care in the world. This scene said a lot about every character that was present at that time. I would say chapter two was the best out of all of them. (The final chapter not included as it was too different to compare it with chapter 1 – 4.)

 3. What was your least favorite chapter?

 Definitely chapter 3. Although chapter 4 had its downsides as well, all in all it was still better than chapter 3. In chapter 3 the difficulty of the game suddenly rose a lot. The monsters became harder, the maps bigger and more complicated, do to that the very good pace of the game slowed down and the plot was a bit… too long and yet unsatisfying. While Kurts character-arc was in chapter 1 and Junas character-arc in chapter 2 (while Altina seemed to be having a huge background-arc over the whole game that didn’t really end yet) Musse and Ash had to share the spotlight in chapter 3 and that did the plot and the pacing no good. Musses story is obviously even bigger than it seemed at first, but even the bit we got than would have deserved its own arc, even tho Ashs arc was also just scratched on but it was still too much to put both of it in the same chapter. I also personally feel that the older characters all in all got the shorter end of the stick in this chapter. While in all other chapters the mix of old and new Class 7 was done really well, in this chapter it was done poorly. I love Jusis and it felt extremely wrong that he wasn’t there when we were searching for Millium. Not to mention that the map of that island was too freaking huge and when we finally found Millium she wasn’t even able to join us for the fights. The plot was really slow in the beginning and then got hectic at the end. While most of the time the chapter was rather boring, at the end all of the sudden hell broke lose and made us run through that fucking maze of a damn castle. And here, once again, the old members of class 7 did not get as much attention and “alone-time” as the others did, do to the “splitting the groups” – thing. (Tho the idea of that was not bad and worked very well in the 4. Chapter. It did just not fit in chapter 3.) So of all the chapters this was definitely the one I disliked the most.

 4. What can you say about the final chapter and the ending of ToCS3?

 Oh boy… after we had that semi-final dungeon in chapter 4 and fought that semi-final-boss there as well I was worried at first that they would threw us into yet another labyrinth with puzzles and such bullshit. Thankfully, they didn’t do that. And that makes a lot of a difference for me, I can tell you that. The plot of the final chapter was amazing from the beginning to the end. A bit shocking at times but really good. It started with a lot of lore but it was interesting enough to not make the game boring. Especially with who explained the lore and with us and the characters putting every given piece of the puzzle together so it would make more sense. I kind of also really liked how on both sides everyone was working together for their goals. The dungeon, as I said before, was good and it was also looking really good. For a final dungeon it was rather pretty… I liked how in the beginning, you could put together your dreamteam no matter if it included the new class 7 characters or not, but slowly but surely took those older classmates away from you but still gave them an important reason. No “We have too much characters so these what feels like 20 characters will only stand on the sidelines and watch you all get killed” – bullshit. Instead the members of the old class seven got their own important jobs and with them, they tried to solve their own personal problems. I really like that. Although fighting with the (in my case) weaker new class 7 against a dark holy beast was not that easy at first. But all in all I really liked how they managed those many characters in the final chapter. It was also funny how they slowly but surely took your dreamteam apart and forced you to go back to the routes of ToCS3…

Now… the ending. Boy… the ending… When I saw it the first time on Japanese I was crying my eyes out and I was shocked and speechless. So when I saw it a second time, this time with a language I understood I cried my eyes out once more, internally screaming and sobbing and despite the knowledge I had already I was still in shock. The ending was so good, spoilers didn’t do it justice. Literally going through the whole game on your own terms by playing it yourself makes it even worse (in a good way) than it is when you just watch the scene on YouTube (and in a language you don’t understand no less) and I also kind of already had tears in my eyes a few moments before shit got down because I knew what was coming and that it would break everyones heart – mine included – in a matter of seconds. And then when it happened, here I was, crying my eyes out. And without saying Milliums sacrifice and Reans reaction were bad, I still think what happened with the crimson wings was a tad bit sadder in a way. Because when the ship showed up, it gave everyone hope again and then, just a few moments later, that hope was crushed when the ship exploded. Of course, as I said before, Milliums sacrifice was nothing short of sad or dramatic, especially with the way Jusis feeling had been slowly but surely building up in the background. Reans reaction was nothing else but shocking. Here we are, after 4 hard chapters, an enormous amount of hard battles, betrayals, and lies and secrets and when we reach the point where we SHOULD be saving the world once again, everything goes down and we… fail? Rean going berserk was the moment everyone had to realize that we fucking lost that battle. We lost Millium, the Courageous, my beloved Olivert, Lauras father, Toval and now our last ray of hope, our dearly beloved boy Rean had gone into berserker-mood when we would need him standing strong and tall the most. What an ending… At that moment, all hope was lost.

So let me say this loud and clear, if this ending would have been the ending of the cold Steel-Saga then it would have been a bad, rushed and very unsatisfying ending. But knowing there is a part four, this ending was one of the best cliff-hanger-endings I have ever seen in a game. It was shocking, emotional and devastating. And yet… after we lost everything, after the credits gave us time to dry our tears the game itself tells us to rest, because there is still that light of hope and we will find it. It was great.

 5. Shippings!

 Oh boy! When I started Trails of Cold Steel I was shipping Rean and Alisa and that was all the game had to offer me. Now I enjoyed Agathe and Tita from Trails in the Sky and also had Millium and Jusis suddenly at my disposal and it was… great! I had so much fun with all the teasing for Tita and Agathe and also for Rean and Alisa and I enjoyed the rather subtle way how things had gone on Jusis and Milliums side of the story. It was wonderful to watch all those very different ships develop in their own way.

Nothing can compete (yet again) with the Rean and Alisa Reunion-scene. Or their final bonding-event at the summer-festival, while we are at it. I think Falcom did go all out once again in this game with their love for Alisa and Rean as a pairing. As you will notice that, even tho yes, Laura also got a hug, her hug was very different from Alisas, starting by the length of it and the palpable intimacy between Rean and Alisa that Laura and Rean couldn’t match. Also notice how Reans voice automatically drops to a more gentle tone when he talks with Alisa in their reunion-scenes. What is also worth noticing is that when Sharon made that command that  Rean couldn’t help the embrace because of Alisas beauty, he actually admits to it after a rather questionable attempt to deny it at first. This is the only time Rean openly admits to be drawn towards any girl, besides the scene with Claire were he thinks he is dreaming after she gave him a kiss on his cheek were it admittedly also could be more meant as a “I am a lucky bastard that such an amazing woman likes someone like me” and didn’t have to mean that he is also drawn to her, especially since you can not officially dater her. There is also worth mentioning, that Alisa is the only girl of the old class 7 that he danced with at the ball, and once again the game seemed to pay special attention to them in that scene. Not to mention how their first-bonding-event is extremely romantic without you as a player having any chance to choose if you want it to be romantic or not. There is also the thing that Alisas gift is a ring for the pinky-finger… Agathe and Tita managed to made me smile so often. After liking that ship already in Trails in the Sky, I was happy I could enjoy it in Cold Steel 3 as well, not to mention how much I laughed about all the times they got teased because of their close relationship. There are also two changes that you have to take note of. First off all, Tita is by now much more conscious of her feelings for Agathe then in Trails in the sky, were she didn’t get a thing when everyone was teasing him about not doubting that that bizarre world he was in was real because of her embrace. She was subconsciously drawn to him without giving it much thought as to why or what it could mean or lead to. Now she is aware of her own feelings, blushing and doing things like trying to keep in mind how to approach a stubborn man after the principal told the girls. While Agathe on the other hand, very clearly stated Infront of Rean and the other that he sees her as a little sister and is more concerned about her safety because of a promise he made to her parents… while later in the game he stops denying anything and was even able to tell Tita in the light of all the bad events of the ending that she will be save as long as they are together which was – by all means, not a moment between a brother and a sister, but between to people deeply in love with each other. I will be eternally grateful that they gave me that moment, because in all my sadness and despair, in the middle of sobbing, they made a smile show up on my face.

I won’t go into more details when it comes to Millium and Jusis, because as I said, that was a little more subtle and gets its greater and more clear moments in the next Trails of Cold Steel game.

 6. All in all, how many points are you giving this game?

 I give this game a great 9 out of 10 points.

 I really enjoyed playing it. The plot was very good, pacing was very good, so was the music, the beloved characters were mostly handled really well and so were the newcomers. The characters from the older Trails games were a great addition to the game. And extra plus points for being allowed to play this game on the difficulty “very easy”. Minus-Points are for the NPCs as they didn’t bother to try to at least use different looking NPCS for different missions. I don’t know how often that guy that looked a bit like Machias with the lilac hair and the glasses was part of a mission, despite being a different character every time. In a crowd they had 3 people and copied them over and over again instead of trying to put all the few different NPCs they had together. They even got as far as to make the mother of a child in saids childs-picture that a girl has drawn for her father in one mission, to look like Towas aunt, same Haircolor, same clothing and all. Girl also looked like that one girl-child-NPC that runs around in every town. They literally have drawn two characters in what looked like a picture from a child, that were never shown in the game as they were from a different far away country, look like all the other damn NPC-Characters. WTF?! All in all seemed it was too expensive to make all the character-models they would have needed. Because it was mentioned that along Agathe there was another A-Rank-bracer from Liberl but even after it got finally revealed that it was Oliverts Girlfriend Shera, she didn’t show up. Not even in the final fight. Same goes for Mueller. I am sorry but I have to take points away for that. I get that a game like Trails, which is not half as popular as Final Fantasy for example, has a lot more money-issues then the guys from Sqaure Enix have with their Masterpiece, but seeing that in Trails of  Cold Steel 4, all those characters from the previous two games, including Shera and Mueller, are there and it is on the same console with hardly different graphics I don’t see why they didn’t just do the models for part 3 if they had to make them for part 4 anyway.

 Besides a few minor  things, that was all the bad stuff I find worth mentioning. The rest was really good. I have to especially mention the pacing one more time, because that was something I had a huge problem with in a lot of the JRPGs I played in the last 3 years. And I am talking about big games like Final Fantasy 15 or Kingdom Hearts 3, were you would expect that they did their homework and wouldn’t struggle with the pacing. In Trails of Cold Steel 3 the pacing was splendid. It was a bit hard in chapter 3, but just because they spoiled us in the previous chapters. So I just had to make it clear that the pacing of the whole game was really, really good in Trails of Cold Steel 3. In the end I would say this is by far the best game of the series (for now).

 7. What else? Were the hell did Towas “I think Angelica and George have feelings for each other” – thing come from? Girl! You yourself have been fallen victim to Angis totally crazy love for Girls and Woman more often than not, why on gods earth would you think a woman who likes cute girls would fall for George of all people?

I get that Alisa as the main girl of the previous games and Falcoms chosen Girlfriend for Rean has to show that she is pretty as fuck and all, but they had to put her into that machine where she had to sit with her legs spread apart, so why did they gave her that extremely short skirt AND gave her damn dark red panties? Seriously?

There was a huge ass-problem for everyone who hasn’t played Trails in the Sky in this game. It might be okay to not know much about Joshua and Estelle or Agathe and Tita or even the whole Hamel-Incident as they tried to explain at least the basics of it all… BUT if you haven’t played Trails in the Sky 3 you have no fucking idea about the Grahlsritter. You don’t know who they are, what they are doing or how their Stigma actually works and with not just Thomas Lysander and Rosi being part of this messy story, but also Gaius becoming one of the more powerful people of that group it would have been better to give us a more intense summary about all that stuff in case people haven’t played Trails in the Sky 2 and 3 yet.

Abendtime! I was laughing so hard when basically every character in this game was happy Abendtime was back, despite the circumstances around Vita aka Misty. Lector, while explaining that they try to use Abendtime to find Vita, who is part of Ouraboros, casually mentioning that he is also a fan of the show… XD I could so relate to that. Well partly. I always loved Vita, so I didn’t really mind her being part of that society. But I definitely missed Abendtime so much. I loved how she gave us small clues to what would happen on our next fieldtrip. “Watch out for changes in the weather” she said and then, one day on your fieldtrip you leave a building and suddenly the sky is all cloudy and you are like: “Uh-Oh…”

Do to Rean being the oblivious glory-hunt player that he actually really is, he is of course part of a lot of flirting and teasing and I mostly enjoy it, even if it has nothing to do with Alisa, but Musse has gone too far with her trying to put Rean under a magic spell to actually trick him into kissing her. Musse per se is not a bad character (although also not one of my favorites) but she got a whole lot of minus-points for that trick from me. Tho I liked that when Rean pulled out of the spell last second he was all like “Puh, that was a close one…“ XD

I love how after in the first two Trails of Cold Steel games, we actually only had to deal with Olivert, the Prince of Erobonia, we finally get to meet Oliver again, the traveling bard who helped save Liberl in Trails in the Sky. He jumped back into his old clothes and just nailed it. Teasing Tita and Agathe on the way too XD Boy did I miss this guy through most of the game, no matter if Oliviert or Oliver, he is THE BEST Character in this game. I can’t even imagine playing any other game of Trails without him being part of it in some way.

Poor Claire. She had it rough from the start. As an Ironblood she is having trouble doing what Osbourn asks her to do and still kind of don’t get in Reans way, as she has been in love with him from the start – and don’t give me that “little brother” – excuse bullshit. It didn’t work with Agathe and it certainly won’t work with Claire. I love how she is also connected to Juna. She might be an Ironblood, but she is a person that does the right thing if she gets the chance to do it and that is why it is so hard to see her suffer through most of the game.

I am torn between liking and disliking the fact that in this game, there are rarely any “normal” familys. Like, per se I like it that we have kids who have been adopted, raised by just one parent, or grandparent or aunt or something like that. It gives us a great variety and with that in some way, there will always be a character you can relate to somehow. It also gives those characters more depth. But sometimes it’s a little bit too much. I get that this is a game that plays after a great war and in a world where many dangerous things have happened for many, many years and I understand that it makes sense that they have lost people in the war and though accidents. I really get that. But there is hardly a person with a normal family in this game. And this doesn’t even just start with Cold Steel. Its not very different in Trails in the Sky either. And it starts to… you know… get boring in a way. I mean, look at Musse, who obviously is more then just a dukes niece. She is basically playing the role of Kloe from Trails in the sky, although her character is mostly different from Kloe, she still is the “hidden princess” somehow, with the fake name AND who also lost her parents do to a sinking ship. Its like they wanted to copy Kloes story as much as possible. I find this is a bit unnecessary. But its not the only “copy” of complicated and hard family-circumstances in this game. Although I have to say that I am proud that Trails barely uses the “Bad stepmother” – trope at all. On the contrary. In Olivierts case his stepmother helped him get better after his real mothers dead.

Speaking of which. The emperor of Erobonia got a Girl pregnant while he was still in Thors. Rean was 17 or so when he entered Thors and so  was almost everyone else. And they leave after not much more then two years. So… WTF kind of rolemodel is that Emperor? And why the hell did it take Rean almost until he was 21 before he slept with Alisa? That feels totally wrong now! XD

They could have answered at least a FEW of all those Questions we got so far in the Trails of Cold Steel – Series in this game, if you ask me.

Campanella saying “Was that really necessary?” when the Crimson Wings with Olivert on Bord exploded while Cedric (Oliverts little brother) basically saw it as a necessary price to archive their goals? Campanella got good points for that one. Like… the bad guys (not just him) standing there in shock and wondering if that was really something that had to be done to their enemies while Oliverts own brother just stands there and shrugs it off. Hell, do we have great villains. They do shit for their crazy goals, but at the end of the day, they are still humans… mostly.  Anyway, I found this scene really great.