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meeeeeeese · 1 year

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Moose's Guide to Quick and Easy Gold

So I get the vibes in the community here that a bunch of people don't really know all the tips and tricks to making easy money, so I thought I'd do a writeup on some of the small ways I make gold in Guild wars 2

Trick 1: You have wealth you don't know about

An inportant thing about Gw2 is that a lot of the wealth it gives out isn't in actual gold but in materials that you can then sell for gold. For a lot of people I think its easy to just click 'deposit all materials' and then forget about it. For me personally I have only 100 gold in my wallet but If I were to empty out my material storage I'd gain an additional 300 or so gold. The site GW2 efficiency is really helpful for telling you what high value items you might be holding on to, though It takes a bit of setting up.

Trick 2: Sell Orders!

Admittedly this is something I'm bad about, but if you can delay your gratification, but when you sell something don't fulfill someone elses buy order and instead, set up a sell order. I'll give you up to 10% more gold out of everything you sell

Ok now onto the acutal wealth generation methods

Trick 3: Send your least favorite character to the New Kaineng Jumping Puzzle

Jumping Puzzles in EoD reward jade runestones from their final chest, which go for 80 silver on the trading post.

Find the wiki page to get you through the jumping puzzle here, though there are often commanders on the New Kaineng lfg offering teleport to friend transport to the end of the puzzle. Basically you get a character to the end chest and every reset log in on that character and get your free! runestone, almost a gold for ~30 seconds of work

(as a note you only get the runestone once per day per account so don't send multiple characters there)

Trick 4: Leivas Hands out Gold, make sure to collect it

Ok not actually but he may as well. So this guy who hangs out in Arborstone, once you've gotten the Globalization mastery, will sell you 5 antique summoning stones every week for a grand total of 10 green prophet shards, 10 unusual coins, 100 imperial favours, 7000 karma and 1 gold. The summoning stones can then be sold on for ~3 gold each, netting you a profit of 14 gold for going up to an npc and pressing 'f' (or whatever your interact key is)

Trick 5: fast and profitable metas you should be doing daily

Let me introduce you to my favorite wiki page:

the event timers list

This lists out every meta event and world boss that'll be happening soon and all of them will give you at least something, and the meta's from HoT onwards awards you a hero's choice chest that'll contain at least one of these valuable materials to choose from: amalgamated gemstone (60 silver), jade runestone (80 silver), ancient ambergris (1 gold 70 silver) or an antique summoning stone (3 gold). It should be noted the last 3 only appear in the EoD meta's, for all other times choose the amalgamated gemstone.

With that aside there are 3 events in particular that you should try to get done that'll take 10 minutes or less

first up is the Legendary Ley-Line Anomaly, the naked man. The timer's page tells you which zone it'll spawn in and when it does you have to seek it out and murder it. Mounts are very recommended because this thing dies fast. Anyway when you kill it, it drops 2 things: a mystic coin (1 gold 20 silver) and some vendor trash worth 50 silver, pretty gold for 5 minutes of work

next is Dragonstorm. It happens once every 2 hours starting from the eye of the north and affords you the opportunity to beat up Ryland. If you join the public option you join a crowd of up to 50 other people and its easy enough that you could even afk if you wanted (though that would be very rude). Anyway once you murder the champions and blast the dragons you get to watch them share a passionate kiss as the die and you then get 2 gold straight up, 6 memories of aurene (worth 1.5 gold in total) as well as a chance to win the lottery and get ascended weapons or, even rarer, the very expensive eye infusions

Finally is Tequatl the Sunless, a world boss in Sparkfly Fen that awards you 1 gold straight up as well as a chance at an ascended weapon as well as a bunch of materials and unidentified gear

speaking of which all the other events give unidentified gear too and they aren't actually terrible rewards, you can get a pretty penny from selling them.

Trick 6: Daily Rewards

Firstly, just logging in every day gives you a sadly decent amount of income, mostly in laurels and mystic coins. Coins can just be sold if you're after cold, laurels can be spent on a variety of stuff. And if you're looking to turn a profit, HERE are the best ways to do so.

Also, do your daily achievements people, sometimes they're a pain but the daily completionist gives 2 gold as well as 15 achievement points, more than most other achievements in the game. Also they drive you towards content you wouldn't do otherwise (the daily achievements are the reason why I've done most of the jumping puzzles). Also If you're bad at any of the dailies on offer, usually a bunch of other people are also trying to do dailies and they're often willing to help. I see mesmers porting people through the daily JPs all the time.

Trick 7: Spirit shards can be converted to Gold???

I admit, this isn't something I do myself but if you're accumulating spirit shards like I am there are methods to turn them into gold

They're listed HERE

(again, this isn't something I've tried myself, I can't vouch for how well it works and all the methods require a starting amount of gold. But if you're desperate it might be something to consider

But I want more Gold, how do I get it?

If your looking for serious gold farming there are probably better guides than this but here are a few pointers to start raking in the money

1: As far as I understand, Drizzlewood Coast is the most profitable activity in the game, gold per hour wise. Runs take a while and you kind of have to pay attention to maximise gains but, if gold's what you want this is a good option.

2: Look for meta trains, I notice them happening a lot around reset, basically its a group that goes from meta to meta doing them in sequence. There are a few guilds that do them every day so if you see a train, chances are its on at the same time every day. I find them to be pretty chill, offer some nice variety in content and offer good rewards as well.

3: Fractals. Yeah I know this is getting into endgame content but doing T4 fractal dailies every day gives you around 20 gold straight up, a bunch of materials worth even more gold and a decent chance at ascended armor and weapons (and so many ascended trinkets, seriously at this point they get auto-salvaged if they drop)

Apart from that, pretty much everything in this game gives you some amount of rewards, even if they aren't entirely obvious, so don't stress too much, provided you aren't roleplaying in the serrated blade or whatever (Though good on you for having fun!) you're likely earning some amount of income. Even if it's only in materials

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #gw2 gold farming #There are better guides scattered throughout the internet #searching up 'Gw2 best ways to make gold' will probably yield results #though make sure to choose recent results to avoid outdated guides #but dammit I wanted to write something down myself #so I did. Enjoy #If you have any other tricks feel free to let me know

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ncrosha · 1 month

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i'll probably do a big ole meta post down the line, but suffice to say josh has some... complicated feelings about the older x-men.

the problem is he learned the hard way that they are not parents. they're really barely even teachers. they're more veterans trying to give the next generation some vague sense of comfort and normalcy. they don't really possess the nurturing needed to help their students through trauma, and really, every day their students are still alive is a enormous win for them.

but josh was a teenager. and josh was often the only healer, which meant he was essentially a wartime medic before he could even drive. they hauled him out of bed and into the infirmary and put people's lives in his hands, which gave him a huge complex. especially when he either could not save someone, or was put into a position where he was also injured and had to mend himself just enough to survive but heal the other party fully so they could keep fighting.

it's a fucked up situation for a teenager to be in.

worse still, his powers then develop into something more useful to them just when their backs are against the wall. and josh doesn't get a say in what happens next, he's not a student he's a soldier and that means there's even less nuturing. less comfort. less guidance. just orders, orders that heap on more trauma.

the worst part is he understands the necessity of it... but that doesn't stop the resentment. his childhood, his innocence, his choice to just be a healer was ripped away from him. and then his healing powers were too, and he ran away. no one came looking for him. seeming to cement to him that his worth was in whether he was gold or not.

josh admits later on that he developed a pretty severe complex about his use to people and his healing powers. one that he seems to have overcome with his time with xorn, but still one that haunted him badly enough to send him into hiding when he encountered something he couldn't fix. and being buried was really the final straw for him.

he doesn't trust the x-men. he's seen too much of their dark side to ever allow himself to trust them, but he understands that dark side needs to exist. he just resents that he was pulled into it, time and time again, and then was left with no one to talk to about these feelings. he said over and over he didn't want to kill people or use his powers to cause harm and he was anyway.

but what right does he have to be angry when he knows full well that krakoa wouldn't be here if he didn't do what he did?

( granted, logan stabbing marrow in front of him and giving him 'hey better move quick or she's gonna die / i'm gonna murder your boss so you gotta pick' gave him extra 'why the fuck are you like this' feelings like imagine this scuttling towards you with murder in his eyes. traumatizing )

its hard to realize your heroes are fallible and human. and its harder still when you know they can be more than that, you just saw their worst side over and over and over again. there's no easy reset that fixes that.

but he's not a student anymore. they're not his teachers. so there's the chance to know them when there's no power imbalance happening. he's also under no obligation to follow their orders if he doesn't want to, because he - well he knows they sure as shit can't hurt him more than he can hurt them.

he's also just really desperate to have connections, to have someone at his back because he's been alone for so damn long. josh keeps drifting from team to team, knowing it will end badly for him but staying all the same. he's a people person, he gets lonely, and he's dealing with so fucking much and no one in his peer group understands because they have not done half of the shit that he has.

tl;dr in any thread with an older xman, josh will have his back up and will be wary as hell. but he's also just as run down and cynical as they are now, so he'd just really like a drinking buddy.

#ooc.

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whoaskedgottem · 3 years

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toby fox is a coward

so i've never really formalized this (and i probably never will) but i've always bounced the idea that the sans fight should've ended just a little differently in my head.

2 AM analysis of the game's themes and characters (flowey and sans) below the cut.

i think my interpretation of sans' fight-- and him as a character-- is that he is a metaphor (or the reflection) of the game, in the same way that flowey is the same for the player.

flowey's behaviours and actions are supposed to match those of a player, and tell us our mentality through the lens of someone else who did the same thing as us; another player.

sans saying the exact same words rings differently, because unlike flowey and the player, sans can't do anything about the resets and game mechanics. he's not the player.

sans is more like the flipside of the same coin-- there's the player, and there's the game. he holds no control over the resets, he understands how meaningless everything is and how it's all just a toy to be experimented with; but he's not the one playing it. he's part of the game. in a way, he's the game personified. he knows the rules inside out, can read people's stats, knows about the resets and how they work, keeps tallies of deaths and pictures of previous endings and characters, follows the same script over and over despite knowing he's already been there, and done that...

and in his fight, he turns the game's systems and rules against you. he cheats, because while he may not be the player (and thus can't reset himself or do any of your determination fuckery,) his domain as "the game" lets him turn the very thing you're playing against you.

as "the game" incarnate, sans stands at the end of a run in which you explicitly go out of your way to do everything it really doesn't want you to do. you kill off every single character against the game's narrative's themes, and you try to destroy it. sans-- and the game-- know that after the last corridor, chara waits to destroy the universe and delete everything in it.

and the following fight is the game's last attempt at stopping you from breaking it.

of course he's not. you might be playing a game, but the game has rules you follow. and the game's not going to let you break it without changing some of those rules up.

for what it's worth, i do think the fight is amazing at showing this conflict and idea for most of its duration. it's you versus the game. a battle where everything is stacked against you as the game itself tries to cheat you out of a win. if it knows you'll reset until you win, it'll give you something that's rigged so that you'll just keep on trying until you give up at how unfair and frustrating it is.

and here is why i think toby fox is a coward:

why not go the whole way?

why not make the fight actually unbeatable?

it already is, technically. sans' special move works, and the way you kill him is by "cheating" yourself and attacking twice in a row, catching him off guard. but that is out of your hands. it's visual, more than anything; and the metaphor of "you cheated to beat the cheater" is lost in translation, to the point where most people think you just get him because he was asleep.

the TRUE way to beat sans should be to go into the game files-- and set up a pseudo-code, or fake filetree method in which you delete a file or edit a value that unlocks, or breaks, sans' special attack (or whatever alternate battle we decide in this hypothetical change) so that you beat him through a really hacky way that plays with the meta aspect. (think of deleting character files in Doki Doki, or editing files and looking for secrets in OneShot)

this also has the consequence of wrapping up the concept of Determination as well. you, as the player, will do anything and everything to see your will manifest. from trying over and over to beat a boss battle, to editing the game files and hacking in a fight to beat a battle the game establishes as unbeatable.

an unbeatable sans fight makes him seem far more compelling, emphasizes his role in a more defined way, fits nicely in to the overarching themes of determination and how the player interacts with the game, and most importantly, it reinforces the idea that the genocide run "breaks" the game and its universe.

once you go into the game files and fuck with them to kill sans; you broke the game. for real this time. you crossed a boundary that you can't go back from. all that waits for you after this is a black screen in which chara swindles you out of a soul, and leaves you with no bitches and no game. shouldn't have deleted system32. even if you get your stuff back, the game is irreversibly (ideally. we know you can fix this too, but that's beyond the scope of what the game's trying to do...) broken, and you will never get a good ending again.

thank u for coming to my ted talk

#undertale #sans #chara #sans fight #theory #analysis #alternate ending

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theres-an-impulstor-among-us · 3 years

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Friday Night Stabby best quotes part 25 (02/07/21)

Skizz is missing from this session so he was replaced by PearlescentMoon.

…

*Etho and Tango are accusing each other of murdering Impulse* Brody: I’m voting for Endless. Endless: That seems legit.

...

Brody, dead: Remember when we were alive? Joker, dead: Yeah… Tango, dead: Good times.

...

Pearl: I happen to have killed Impulse twice in a row now. Impulse: Yeah, she’s so mad about Timmy. Pearl: Yeah, poor Timmy fell into the void- Tango: What?! Impulse: Nothing nothing nothing nothing starting! Don’t worry about it! STARTING!!! Evil, to Tango: You really should watch the other Hermit videos. Impulse: I forgot he was still here.

...

*the game has bugged and made Astro slow without being giant* Brody: Mrs Tango and Astro, do you guys feel bad at all? Cuz we were just talking about Astro being a giant and I’m pretty sure Tango just like died right there and I didn’t see anyone come in here. Astro: There were more important things to worry about than Tango. Evil: Wow… Astro: I took all of the steroids and everything, and all I got was up to normal size. I’m very offended by this game right now.

...

Evil: *calls emergency meeting* Evil: Hi! Brody: What’s up? Evil: I just wanted to say that I was done with my tasks and, you know, use the meta of resetting the cooldown by calling a meeting and telling you all I love you. Impulse: Smart. Etho and Mrs Tango: Aww! Brody, whispering: I hate you. *pause* Evil: Except that Brody guy. He’s kind of a jerk. Brody: I hate you!

...

Impulse: *calls emergency meeting* Impulse: Announcement! Announcement! Impulse, with the announcer voice modifier: I have an announcement to make! I am done with my tasks! *they proceed to vote Impulse out*

...

*some people start chanting “MVP! MVP!” at Joker for finishing his tasks* Endless: B-L-T! B-L-T! Evil: Look what Timmy [the pig] turned into. Impulse: Uh oh. Ouch. Too soon, Evil! Too soon! Don’t tell Tango, I don’t think he knows! Tango, deadpan: Yeah I don’t know anything about anything like that.

...

Impulse: So last round I got thrown out for hitting the button. This round, I’m Button Barry. THAT’s not good…

...

*after Impulse gets kicked and Astro automatically becomes host* Impulse: This is Astro’s lobby, everybody listen to Astro’s rules or ejection into space. Astro: Um… no making fun of people for being short. Impulse: Alright shorty, that’s enough rules for me.

...

Impulse: Watch me scan. *hops on the scanner* Alright, got it? Now watch me nae nae. Joker: Oh GOD. I’m outta here. Shut up. Impulse: *laughs* Joker: If I could kill you right now, I would.

...

Astro: Impulse, I have to know. What was the joke that I killed you for? Impulse: Oh, I said “watch me scan”, then I got on and I said “now watch me nae nae”. Astro: Yeah, you deserved to die.

...

Tango: Hey guys, I’m going up to O2 here. Just letting you know. *pause* Joker: Did you hear something? Impulse: I dunno, Tango-. He always talks. I dunno what that was about.

...

Joker: Yeaaah, but you are kind of weird, though. Endless: Just for that, I’m not gonna do any more tasks. Joker, laughing: Yes you are. *long pause* Endless: You’re right. Joker: I know. Endless: I’ll see you later. Joker: See you, buddy.

...

*Pearl wins as jester because nobody believed Impulse when he said it was Evil* Impulse, with the announcer voice modifier: Attention attention! I am playing with a shipful of idiots!

...

*after dying early* Impulse: I was looking forward to being Brody’s lover :( *pause* Impulse: That sounds bad.

...

Impulse: They’re just mad cuz I’m fast, that’s all. They jelly. They all jelly cuz I can get my tasks done like a boss. Joker: Who ARE you?! Impulse: *laughs* Joker: I’m hip with what the new kids say. Astro: I’m… going over here now. Joker: What the new kids say nowadays. Impulse: Oh dude! Got my wires straight right away, poggers! Joker: Poggers?! Impulse: That was lit. Joker: Shut up!

...

Astro: All I’m gonna say, judging by the level of tasks that are completing, people are not killing very well, and I’m actually done with my tasks before the first meeting even got called. Endless: You’re awfully judgy, Astro. Tango: Wooow, look at you. Joker: That’s harsh. Evil: Okay, Judgy McJudgerson. Impulse: Way to make the imposters cry themselves to sleep tonight. Jeez. Astro: There’s only two people I’m judging here and that’s the imposters. Step up your game.

...

Evil: Mrs T, I love you. You’re amazing, you know that? Mrs Tango: Aww…! I love you too. Evil: Obviously, you follow me on twitter.

...

*Impulse caught Etho dancing around a body* Etho, giggling: So here’s what happened. Impulse came out of O2 and he was like “Etho, don’t go in there”. Impulse: *bursts out laughing* Etho: And I was like- I’m gonna go in there, right? And he’s like “no, Etho, don’t go in there”. Tango: I- Okay. Etho: And then he closes the door on me. Tango: I think we can establish that Etho is the jester now, right? Okay. Etho: And I open the door, and then I go and I check and there’s a dead Joker. Tango: This is- Etho, stick to solving crimes, man.

...

(the same round) *Etho caught Tango and Endless killing* Etho, laughing: So Endless- He was like “Etho, don’t go in there”. *everyone laughs* Etho: And I was like “make me”. And he couldn’t, he couldn’t stop me. Endless: 100% not Etho. Etho: And then I caught Tango, and Tango was also like “Etho, don’t go in there”. Tango: Alright. Etho: So they’re the double killers; it wasn’t me. Tango: I am so confused right now!

...

*that same meeting, votes are revealed as being tied between Impulse and skipping* Impulse: WHAT?! Evil: What the-?! How did it land on Impulse?! Impulse, with the announcer voice modifier: Four of you are idiots.

...

(the same round) Etho: *calls emergency meeting* Endless: For god’s sake, Etho! Etho: Hey everybody :D *pause* Etho: Okay, so, Impulse and Pearl just went to specimen together and Impulse killed Pearl without any hesitation. Pearl: What do you mean? Endless: Pearl’s not dead! Pearl: I’m still alive! Tango: Oh my gosh. Evil: Etho! Why are you doing this?! Etho: Vote Impulse. Tango: Has he been drinking?!

...

*the same meeting, the votes are tied between Tango and Impulse* Tango: OH my GOSH! Evil: Oh my god! Impulse, with the announcer voice modifier: Three of you are idiots. Endless: Well, you convinced one of them, Impulse. Brody: Pearl, aren’t you happy you joined us for this nonsense?

...

(that same round) *Etho’s body is reported* Evil: The Endless had had enough of Etho’s… stuff and cut him in half right in front of me. Endless: Let’s discuss this, Evil. *pause* Endless: We both know it was Impulse.

...

(later in the same meeting) Impulse: Let me explain, Endless. The better play would’ve been to say you were sheriff and you picked up on the fact that Etho was trying to overplay jester but he was actually covering up for the fact that he was imposter. But now that you haven’t done that- Endless: Don’t tell me how to play this game, Impulse. Astro was clearly morphed as me. Impulse: Oooookay. Astro: Where did I come into this conversation?!

...

(after the round) Astro: So Impulse, you kept saying there were four idiots. There wasn’t, there was just one idiot. Evil: *laughs* Astro: An idiot who voted for you every round. Impulse: What?! Astro: I used my mayor votes on you and I was committed at that point.

#friday night stabby quotes #friday night stabby #impulsesv #tangotek #pearlescentmoon #etho #astrozoan #evilnotion #brodyman #theendless #mrstango #misterjoker

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gay-jesus-probably · 3 years

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Hey, as awesome as the final boss battles were for the Pacifist and Genocide routes in Undertale, I gotta say my favourite final boss experience was probably the neutral route? Because Omega Flowey was a fucking sick fight, I think that was the best integration of the meta storyline with game mechanics. Yeah, Asriel absorbed every single soul in the Underground, and Sans is a terrifying overpowered asshole who also knows about your reset fuckery, but there's something extra unnerving about a final boss that kicks off its battle by forcing the game to crash, and then does it again every time he kills you. Asriel and Sans are freaky, but they're very much in-game problems, y'know? Omega Flowey repeatedly kicking you back to your desktop has that particular flavour of 'oh fuck'.

...Also there's that extra element of public humiliation, because your entire Steam friends list will get spammed with notifications about you repeatedly starting up Undertale, so anyone who's familiar with the game will know if you're getting your ass kicked lmaoooo

#undertale

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zydrateacademy · 4 years

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Current Activities in Gaming #222 (and life in general)

Do I even have anyone left to read my stuff? Alright, I’m gonna be real here. There’s a few variables that led to my inactivity on Tumblr. Let’s break down a few. 1) It’s not as fun. And not just because nudity was removed, though let’s be honest that’s certainly a variable. Ever since the Tumblr company shuffling of leadership there’s been a few choice updates that just don’t lend well towards the community. My activity feed is mostly just memes at this point. Also, I love blogging but I’ve yet to find a different platform to do so on, but I’ll be sure to google some alternatives soon enough.

2) I’d rather just be playing. These bigger CA posts typically take an hour or two to write up. I don’t plan them, I just open the post up and let my thoughts just get dumped. An hour or two is a lot of time, and that’s plenty of time to make some headway in certain games. Maybe pausing during an MMO during a dungeon queue or a raid party reset, but I don’t think I’ve touched an MMO in a couple of years so that window has closed. As a 2a, you could also just say I just very simply haven’t been in the mood to dedicate an hour or two every couple of days.

3) Schedule switchup and fatigue. A few months ago I transferred out of front end at the grocery store I work at, and into the produce department. There was more than one chance. For one, I no longer work morning shifts (often was 7am to 1pm or noonish). That’s 5-6 hour shifts and that gives me my day to play around with. However the produce department needed a closer, so now I’m up to 8.5 hour shifts, typically 1:30 to 10pm (EST, in case that matters). I was getting 40 hours a week but I asked my boss to downgrade me to 32 instead, which is still a few more than what I was getting on front end in addition to a raise, because front end is typically the “bottom” of the retail totem pole for some reason, despite them being pretty damn important to customer experience. Regardless, at the end of almost 9 hours, I typically just come home, turn on an ASMR video on my second monitor and basically shut my brain and body down as I mindlessly plug away at whatever game I’m playing. And yes, apparently I’m ‘essential’. So I’m still working during the pandemic.

Now then. Let’s get to what I’ve been up to, and none of this is in any particular order since I’ve last posted. I must have hopped to two or three different Conan Exiles servers while ultimately settling on Oasis of Pleasure, a very ERP driven place. I spend a good month or two being active and then I just gotta wait for the next server reset and let my personal CE batteries recharge.

I’ve gotten back into Skyrim, and I really should do some scrolling to find my last CA number for that. I’ve more than doubled my hours on the special edition, and apparently it’s been just under four years since I touched it last. Right now I’m playing a sort of nonlethal thief. The Ordinator perk overhaul (which is a must have, honestly) gives the light armor tree some big bonuses to hand to hand and makes it incredibly viable even in higher difficulties. She keeps a bow and knife around for “monsters” but ultimately uses her fists against most humanoids. I’ve been trying something different during the thieves guild questline: Actually sneaking by everyone and not murdering the fuck out of every humanoid you run into. Which is an option, fun enough. You can fail the radiant quests by murdering the homeowners but most of the questline is filled with mercenaries and you can’t really ‘fail’ the main missions (though I wonder what happens if you kill that argonian?) otherwise players could block a shit load of content from themselves.

I’ve also played a hot barbarian werewolf girl, some kind of Nazgul looking woman, and some other stuff.

Hilariously I’ve yet to get a decent screenshot of my current nonlethal thief. Her kit is pretty damn basic, wearing a custom set of the guildmaster armor with the black bandoleers. Honestly she looks pretty unassuming, which is kind of the purpose. Maybe I’ll go take her hood off and get a screenshot. Some day.

After that, I will say I’ve done some preorders. I still await Bloodlines 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. Delays notwithstanding, last time I checked they’re being released at roughly the same timeframe. I also preordered Horizon Zero Dawn which I am enjoying but must admit that some elements of it are a tad underwhelming. Maybe it’s because I played a good chunk of AC:Odyssey again recently, but I grow tired of the random garbage pickup game for basic crafting. Games just can’t really stand on their own two legs anymore, and open world games seem to be stuck on a few trends they can’t shake. Running around mining for ore and picking at tree branches is not fun. It’s a side effect of HZD indeed being four years old already, but I’ll still probably get a good few dozen hours on it. Not sure if I’ll bother beating it, but I do like Aloy and her story, though I’ve been treated with some spoilers since its release so I kind of know where it’s headed. After that... Let’s check my ‘recent’ list on Steam.

So we got some Town of Salem, which has become my go-to night closer before bed most nights. Last time I made a post on it I probably only had 10-20 hours played, of which I now have over 200. I’m sure as hell a lot better than I used to be, but the All Any gamemodes still manage to make my headspin, but they lead to some hilarious moments. All other modes makes it very difficult because of the “no claim space” meta, so I like hitting AA so I can claim whatever the hell I want. I’ve wanted to get back into Dying Light but it does something dirty to my computer that always demands a hard restart. You basically can’t tab away at all, even in borderless mode. And when I try exiting, I can no longer click any tabs. So hard power button it is. It’s such a good game and it feels really good to play, but I just can’t let it force me to do hard restarts anymore. I’ve dabbled into many others and some aren’t worth mentioning too much. We got Star Wars Battlefront 2, which I was approaching with some level of skill. I like the Co-Op modes but it feels like there’s only like three maps for that. Was fun with my brother for a while but that mode needs like ten new maps. But I believe development has stopped (a while ago, too), as the team is probably working on the next thing. I’ve already posted my dealings with the likes of Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord and Generation Zero. I never got around to beating GZ’s Alpine expansion. I got my 40 hours of it and frankly... that was enough. Good game, just lacks some depth. Some reviewers mentioned that the loop became too shallow and I can kind of agree, even though it took me 40 hours to get to that point. As for MNB, I’m sort of waiting on the more final phases of its early access. It’s basically getting patched every since week and I had trouble keeping up with all the mod downloads. So I’m thinking of doing a full uninstall (mods and all) and waiting longer down the development line. Maybe with workshop support, playing and updating will be more stable. That’s about the last I have within the last few months. I’ll probably get around to finding my last Skyrim post and pick up from where I left off.

#Gaming #PC Gaming

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weia-yo · 6 years

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it’s time to give another undertale meta semi-analysis. i already gave one for asgore about how he’s literally a video game villain/boss akin to ganon or bowser so it doesn’t make much sense to hate him for what he did Or to completely excuse his actions, so here’s one for Toriel.

now i've gone on multiple tangents defending toriel and now that both visible toriel hate and my salt for the entire situation seem to have died down a bit i have had time to really look at the whole thing objectively and realize that toriel is literally a tutorial... which is not a new revelation, we’ve all seen the ‘two-toriels’ jokes, bits about toriel literally holding your hand and guiding you through puzzles, this tea isn’t just cold it’s completely evaporated. but i never see anyone bringing this fact up when defending or criticizing her actions and again, it’s perfectly fine to not want to be super meta when talking about undertale’s story but the meta is integral to understanding undertale’s themes, including the motivations of it’s various characters. asgore can be faulted for killing 6 children but it’s understandable why he felt resigned to that role and the meta fact that he’s a videogame boss helps us further understand that. so what does toriel being a tutorial have to do with her various actions?

the primary character flaws she’s seen as having are that she abandoned her kingdom and that she let the fallen humans go off to their demise without trying to save them, and as an extension of that how she hated asgore for his action/inaction when she just sat back and let everything happen. now, we could speculate forever about her actual motivations or how much she tried to stop the humans, why she didn’t leave, how much she resented asgore etc, all we know is that; toriel left the kingdom following asgore’s re-opening the war against humans, taking the corpse of her human child with her, becoming the guardian of the ruins and effectively becomes the tutorial-giver to any fallen human.

within the meta of the game, every fallen human is a player, which is how they’re able to ‘persist after death’ and ‘rewrite fate’ (reset). in a good game, the tutorial doesn’t play the game for you. the player is expected to be able to stand on their own two feet by the end of the tutorial. toriel also functions as the first boss of the game/final boss of the tutorial before beginning the real game; she’s the first enemy to truly test your ability to kill or your ability to spare. whether toriel lives or dies at the end of her battle, she’s given all she can to the player and, gameplay-wise, wouldn’t make a lot of sense to accompany the player or help them throughout the game. that is, until the very end when she ceases to be a tutorial at the same time all the other characters stop being their predetermined roles (including asgore) and step in to help in the end. toriel’s stated reason is that an unfair choice would have to be made; the player would have to kill or the player would have to die.

my personal interpretation for how this extends to toriel’s actual characterization is, she initially started out being motivated by anger and betrayal. her people all rallied behind her husband as he declared war in response to their son getting killed, even though their other child was human. if they were going to so easily toss aside the legacy of her human child, so willing to go to war against her child’s entire race, then she wouldn’t call them her people anymore. however, just like asgore eventually cooled off and realized he didn’t want to kill anyone, toriel probably realized she didn’t actually want to abandon her people and maybe even understood why asgore did what he did. But, they had made a choice. they chose to go to war against the people who hurt them so much, then who was she to stop them? and so she stayed in the ruins, vowing to protect any human who falls. and then the humans leave. once more, a choice has been made. and even though toriel sees herself as these children’s mom and wants to protect them from the rest of the underground, her overarching role is not that of a protector but of a teacher. so who is she to stop the human from leaving? they’ve decided they’re ready to face the underground, her role is done. if asgore dies (while toriel is alive), she sees that the role of ruler is now vacant. somebody needs to fill that role and she takes it upon herself to do so. she then fully accepts responsibility as ruler and fully and openly de-escalates the war, and the people go along with it. however, if undyne or an anarchic conglomerate decide she wouldn’t be the best ruler and steps into that role instead, she respects this and goes back to the ruins.

going back to the top, how toriel hates asgore for his inaction while she sat back and did nothing, it’s established that even though she doesn’t condone killing humans she’s moreso disappointed that he didn’t commit to either going full-force into the war or actively try to de-escalate it, instead opting for the middle road of letting the people believe he was doing everything he could for the war while he quietly commissioned the royal scientist(s) to find other ways to break the barrier. toriel actually chastises herself several times vs the one time she chastises asgore; leaving the human alone in the ruins, trying to keep the human from leaving the ruins, letting the human face asgore when there is no way to spare him with the only options being kill or die. it doesn’t matter to her if she had good reasons, to her in these moments she had not performed properly in the role she had taken. to her, even if asgore had good reasons, he was ultimately ducking out of responsibility for both the war and peace efforts.

so no, toriel isn’t a hypocrite. no, toriel isn’t portrayed as flawless and faultless, nor does she think so. And no, toriel doesn’t just blindly hate asgore for what he did.

#toriel #undertale #asgore #long post

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cerastes · 6 years

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Rest in pedazos, Triple Thief, I went as far as I could with you, but when every boss has 260K~ HP minimum and 300K~ HP average, it’s a bit too difficult to turn things into a reckless DPS Formula 1 race, as immensely fun as that has been. You will always remain as one of the most important memories archived under the mighty “Fuck The Meta” files.

My new strategy is “I Literally Cannot Die”, or “Perpetual Motion Machine”. The strategy, as attentive ace detectives among you lovely readers have no doubt realized by now, is based on being absolutely unable to die thanks to team synergy:

Ravi frontline with Atk/Crit sets and Sigurd Scythe: I intend to change this to a very Attack-optimized Lifedrain/Crit sets, but this makes do for now. Frontlining means she gets hit most of the time, which increases her Fighting Spirit and Combat Readiness, meaning stronger attacks and more turns all the while healing thanks to her natural Lifedrain on S1. Sigurd Scythe, for the uninitiated, grants Attack +25% and 35% Lifedrain on all attacks when the wielder is under 50% HP, meaning that even if something hits harder than what Ravi can self-sustain, as soon as she hits 50% HP, she becomes even stronger and drains more, shooting her HP up considerably, usually full healing or leaving her in 90% or so. Soul Burned S1 when under 50% is truly devastating. If need be, S3 can be used without much net loss of DPS as being the frontline means she’ll replenish the missing Fighting Spirit quickly on virtue of being hit. A perpetual motion machine.

Blood Blade Karin with Attack-optimized Lifedrain/Crit sets and Dust Devil: I changed Rhianna & Luciella for Dust Devil because BBK is very S1-centric, meaning Dust Devil suits her much better with its higher proc rate and ability to proc on Dual Attacks. Same ol’, otherwise. BBK provides an Attack% bonus to the party due to me giving in and feeding her regular Karin. As she’s not frontline anymore, her damage in general has gone down in the sense that she doesn’t get the power boost from Cursed Blade on virtue of not taking as much damage anymore, but that’s fine, as my focus has gone from explosive, instant firepower to dealing constant damage behind ten thousand layers of HP. If she gets hit, that’s fine, she’ll heal due to the immense Lifedrain from her set plus her native S1 Lifedrain. A very reliable Thief notably not affected by the usual frail nature of Thieves, while still being able to deliver big damage and benefit from the excellent Artifacts Thieves have access to.

Krau with full HP sets and Aurius: AURIUS BABEY. For the uninitiated, Aurius increases the whole party’s Defense by 10% and additionally makes it so 15% the damage received by any Hero to be redirected to the Aurius wielder instead. In other words, that’s a fat damage reduction just for existing. Notably, I’m having Krau subtank and not frontline tank because I need Ravi to get hit, with Krau helping me control and reduce this damage thanks to Aurius, all the while still offering all of what his excellent kit has for me: Provoke on S1, CR Down and party Defense Up on Skill 2 and the panic button nuke on S3. Due to his immense HP pool, he can hang in there for days while reducing and redirecting damage. Provoke is always useful when fighting mobs or adds, especially when you can land it when their charge is full to push it back a turn, perhaps the turn you need to kill them before they can fire it.

Lots with Speed/HP sets and Wondrous Potion Vial: Lots is an excellent PvE healer with a ton of presence. Wondrous Potion Vial covers something missing in Lots’ kit: Debuff clearing. With a high chance to cleanse every time his turn starts and his 166 Speed, he is an unrelenting Cleansing Machine. Initially, Rin was to use this spot, but I opted for Lots in the end after surprise rolling him in order to truly go ham on the immortal aspect of this composition. S1 has a 50% chance of inflicting Attack Down on the enemy, which, when coupled with Krau’s party Defense Up, well, I think that needs no further elaboration (reminder: buffs and debuffs are strong in Epic Seven). S2 is a single target heal that also gives them 80% (!?) Combat Readiness, effectively giving them a turn alongside the heal, and finally, S3 grants 3 turns of HP Regen to the whole party, 5 if Soul Burned, on a 4 turn cooldown, 3 turn cooldown if upgraded. In case that flew over your head, this guy can practically keep your party topped at all times with that absolutely ridiculous S3. And hey, remember what S2 does? Why, it gives you another turn! So if someone is in grave need of healing, he can pop that S2 on them to heal them for the S2 amount and then immediately again for the S3 as their turn kicks in and regen does its work. He can also S2 himself if need be in order to practically take another turn in a row, which can be useful if you need emergency Cleansing or are one turn away from your S3 cooldown. Synergies with the rest of the team:

Ravi: Makes her unkillable on virtue of his constant regen healing her as she heals herself with S1s, not to mention Sigurd Scythe. Can S2 her in a pinch to give her another turn for further healing or if there’s one or more mobs or adds with specials ready to go in order to use her S3 and stun them and CR down them.

Blood Blade Karin: Also makes her unkillable on virtue of constant regen and her own Lifedrain. Can S2 her in a pinch as well, but also if there’s a mob or add about to die so she can use her S3 to deliver AoE damage and get yet another turn thanks to the S3′s special “get another turn instantly if this kills an enemy” effect.

Krau: Keeps his HP topped so he can keep Aurius redirecting damage from the rest of the party. Ideally, if no one else needs it, Lots’ S2s go to Krau so he can take far more turns than his low Speed would usually allow for, allowing him to quickly reset cooldown on his S2 so he can keep the party Defense Up active as often as possible.

All of this in conjunction makes me absolutely unkillable, my range is absolute, and I am now God.

#took a while to build this comp properly and there's still things to optimize and finalize but I am very happy with it :)))))

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displacer-beasts · 6 years

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The new Undertale release is making me think about my first play through and just... how good it was

- i got true pacifist my first run through. all i knew about the game was that u didnt have to kill anyone and that idea really appealed to me

-then i got to the toriel fight and just... could not figure out what to do. like at all. talking wasnt helping and i didnt realize you could spare to just chose not to fight. so i got frustrated and killed her and immediately felt horrible so i reloaded without even leaving the room

- i was so fucking shook when the dialogue changed and my character remembered killing toriel. i actually walked away from my computer and was legit freaking out when flowey told me he knew what i had done, especially bc i think his line was something like "how long until you get frustrated again and turn to killing" and i was like fuck how did u know thats what i was thinking what the fuuuuuuuuck

-i was convinced the game had all this secret hidden stuff so i would backtrack and talk to monsters again after every boss bc i wanted to see if the dialogue would change again

-i kept regularly trying to call toriel bc i kept hoping maybe she would pick up at some point

-the hardest fight for me (in terms of just beating it) was undyne's fight

-befriending undyne was the most joyous part and i remember laughing and grinning so hard my face hurt

-when i got to the Asgore fight and he was like "are you ready" i wasnt so i said no and walked back and tried to call toriel again. when she didnt pick up i walked all the way back to the entrance where the door was locked and then (in real life) started crying bc the door was still locked and toriel wasnt answering the phone

-i almost failed the pacifist run because it was legitimately hard for me to spare Flowey when he threatened to kill my friends and everyone i loved

-i didnt fully understand the stuff in the True Lab until reading meta about it. I got the whole Asriel=Flowey thing, but i didn't get how my character really fit into it until later

-i cried throughout the entire final fight against Asriel. I get emotional about games pretty easily, but i hadn't sobbed that hard over a video game since playing FF7 for the first time when i was like... 7

Bonus

- i tried to do a genocide run once and got up to papyrus and couldn't do it so i reset and instead watched a lets play

#undertale

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bluerosesburnblue · 6 years

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Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Final Thoughts

Alright, as promised, let’s take a deep dive into my experience with Bravely Second. I’ve done the postgame, not really much to talk about. All it really is is unused dungeons that appeared in Default, but not Second, repurposed to hold missing enemies with a set encounter rate. Game’s been 100% completed besides some of the Ba’al bestiary entries, which I’m working on. (And by 100% I mean all Bestiary entries completed, all item/equipment journal entries completed, all character levels and job levels maxed out, all songs unlocked in Chompcraft, and all Titles collected.) So, now that there’s nothing left to do but hope for the best at Fort-Lune, I’ve taken some time to organize my thoughts and gone back through the liveblog to see if any of my opinions have changed

Speaking of the liveblog, I saved it in a word document when the Tumblr purge happened, just in case, and that thing ended up being 98 pages/53823 words long. So wow. That’s more than the entirety my college thesis paper. Kinda nuts how much I can write when I’m motivated. So now I’m gonna write EVEN MORE

Major spoilers for Bravely Default, Bravely Second, and also Undertale follow below

I suppose I should start this post by talking briefly about my history with the series, since I only liveblogged Bravely Second and don’t think I’ve said much about Default before

I beat Bravely Default about three years ago (shortly before November 8, 2015 if the email I sent to my best pal anheiressofasoldier, who I will not tag as she’s avoiding Bravely Second spoilers, is any indication). I binged the game while at college, because I wanted to be able to play Bravely Second when it came out (...whoops). Around the time I really started getting into the game, indie darling Undertale came out, and I spent a lot of my time bouncing between playing Bravely Default and having Undertale playthroughs going in the background while doing schoolwork/grinding in BD. I learned one thing about my tastes during that time: I really love meta plots in games and the way that they both utilize the system’s capabilities to mess with the player and integrate the player into the story, expanding the lore and fostering the sense that you, behind the screen, really are a part of this story and a member of the world of the game, just like all of the other characters. It is a fascinating story mechanism, and it’s a surefire way to get me invested in the narrative

Makes it kind of funny that the Undertale spiritual sequel/AU, Deltarune, came out just as I was finishing Bravely Second. I guess the two series will always be tied together for me

For those unaware and who also don’t care about spoilers, Bravely Default and Undertale are both RPGs with similar twists at the end. Namely that you, the Player, are a full-blown character and active participant in the world of the story. And also that saving the game is an in-universe thing. Bravely Default reveals during its final boss battle that another realm exists, the Celestial Realm, and when it’s depicted the game uses the 3DS camera to show the player’s face, creating the narrative that the villain, Ouroboros, is attempting to break out of the “game” into the “real world,” and the entire plot of the game has been revolving around this fact. It is also revealed that “The Celestial” has been keeping Tiz alive and guiding him, and when he severs the bond between himself and the Celestial, he collapses and the game ends. You, the player, lose control of the character because he breaks your bond, which means you can’t play anymore

The first hint that there may be more to Undertale’s story of a human falling into the Underground land of monsters is during the final boss of a Neutral run (necessary to get the Pacifist ending and the first ending most people see), where the main villain, Flowey, abruptly crashes the game. Booting it up again causes the intro to glitch out and the save file to show what appears to be Flowey’s own save file. When accessed, the player is loaded into a black void with nothing but a save point. Accessing that causes Flowey to delete your save file (not unlike what Providence tries in Bravely Second), which begins the final fight against him. During the fight, he makes use of Save States to reload you back into the way of his attacks. This messing around with the player’s save data is only the first part of the game’s meta twist. Another reveal happens at the end of its Genocide route, where the player actively guides their character into eradicating every last monster in the Underground. You have to actively stay in each area of the game and kill everything you see until every enemy encounter becomes a blank screen with the message “But nobody came...” There’s no way to just accidentally end up on this route. Like, I cannot stress that enough. Very few people actually see the Genocide route, but its reveal is integral to understanding the overarching story

The final boss of the Genocide route is designed to actively screw with the UI (which is what I referenced when fighting Providence). His attacks change the shape of your action box, where you’re intended to dodge attacks in bullet hell segments, around. Some of his attacks are in the menu, hitting your icon in the text box and the buttons to select your action for each turn, constantly damaging you. There’s no downtime in this fight. You have to always be moving, because now he’s attacking your safe zones, just like Providence’s Bravely Second attack. There is no safe place from damage against these bosses. The trick to beating Undertale’s Genocide boss is to wait him out and dodge his attacks until he’s tired, and then use the time he’s asleep to move the action box into the menu to access your commands. Then, at the very end, you’re taken to a void and speak to a child you’ve never seen before, who informs you that you’ve both been controlling the main character of the game, Frisk. In a Neutral or Pacifist run of the game, this child is content to let you take control, and in fact may not even awaken as an entity possessing Frisk at all. In a Genocide run, however, they get so gung-ho about killing that they take control from you at various points. Noticeably, in the Genocide route, “Frisk” seems to act on their own a lot in cutscenes, something that they only do occasionally in other routes. The Mysterious Child informs you that they are the Fallen Child that the player named in the beginning, and that they also believe that they are some manifestation of... I don’t know how to phrase this. Game addiction? Completionist tendencies? They call themself “the feeling you get when your stats go up” or something along those lines. They ask you to destroy the world of Undertale with them and move on to the next game, where you’ll do the process over again together, killing all enemies and the “beating the game,” over and over until there’s nothing left. Accept their offer and the games ends there, the game’s world is erased. Refuse, and the Fallen Human informs you that you were never in control and attacks the player directly, causing damage numbers to be displayed across the screen and the game to crash instantly after. Booting it up again in either situation leaves you with nothing but a black screen with wind noises. 10 minutes after booting up that screen, the Fallen Human will offer to reset things so long as you sell them your soul. Accept, and every time you play a Pacifist route again the happy ending will play, before showing Frisk abruptly becoming possessed by the Fallen Human

I’d hazard a guess that what takes Undertale from being a goofy, lighthearted game with fun jokes and a lot of emotional moments into a ridiculously fascinating game to analyze is that reveal. The realization that the Player is a character takes that game’s story from good to great in a very short amount of time. Everything changes. And that’s exactly what happened to me with Bravely Default, which suddenly went from a cute throwback game to nostalgic RPGs (of which I have played none so there really isn’t any nostalgia there for me) that I genuinely enjoyed both the story and gameplay of to a brilliant game that I couldn’t get enough of. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that seeing that plot thread in Undertale is what made me appreciate its appearance in Default and hope that the lore there would be taken up a notch in Second. And honestly, I’d say it did. Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t go nearly as hard into it as Undertale does, but I don’t think it really has to. It’s not the same game, it just draws on similar themes, and I think it does that really well with the 3DS hardware. And to the Bravely Series’s credit, its integration of the Player into the narrative is done very well

So with all that said, what do I think of Bravely Second as a product? I had expectations, obviously. I expected to get more lore about the Celestial and the Celestial realm and was not disappointed. I went in spoiled on quite a few things, namely:

Anne is Airy’s sister, and is evil and works for a purple-ish pyramid named Providence

Ringabel is in it. Or at the very least, Alternis takes his helmet off. But it was probably Ringabel

The Kaiser’s real name is Denys Geneolgia

Obviously I knew who the asterisk holders were, since I had a list, so that spoiled Yōko as an antagonist to an extent, as well as a few tricky methods to beat bosses, namely Rev

A general overview of some sidequests, mostly Profiteur vs. Holly, Barras vs. Einheria, and Khamer vs. Alternis. You know, the controversial ones

Tiz/Agnès, Ringabel/Edea, and Yew/Magnolia are endgame ships

There is one time loop in the game. Not a world change, but a genuine time loop

I didn’t even pay much attention to pre-release info for Bravely Second, but try as I might, I can’t ever seem to completely avoid spoilers 😓. Oh well. The good news is that none of them really ruined the experience for me

Bravely Second is something that I haven’t seen in a long time: a good sequel. Good GOD have I seen games ruined by their sequels. Maybe I’m just bitter about the sequel hook in TWEWY Final Remix, which makes it seem like the writers have no idea what to do with a sequel, despite having a rich world to set it in. SO MANY sequels just rehash the first game, contradict its ending to get rid of everyone’s happy endings, or else try to explain things that didn’t need explanation (and explain them poorly at that). Bravely Second completely destroyed any of those worries for me. Everything feels like an expansion of the world and characters, done tastefully and with nothing but love for the first game that it’s expanding the lore of. I really felt the heart that went into making it while playing the game, and I have so much respect for the people who made it

Now, it does hit some similar plot beats, like the betrayer fairy who turns out to be working for an extradimensional being looking to mess with both the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc, but I love the twists it made to the formula. Bravely Default was a deconstruction of nostalgic JRPGs, where the helpful guide turns out to be working for the villain and tricked you into doing their dirty work, and instead of saving the world you were dooming it. Bravely Second then takes that plot and flips the perspective on it. They make the person being led by the fairy to open the Holy Pillar the villain, and he believes that he’s saving the world just as vehemently as the party did last game. Which almost makes him the perfect sympathetic villain, since he serves as a counterpoint to the main party who can understand exactly how he got into that position once the full extent of it has been revealed

At no point did I feel that Bravely Second’s added lore hampered the game, or ruined what I knew from the first game (I can easily ignore how silly it is that “oh all of the asterisk holders you killed last game were actually alive!” because I understand how much extra effort it would have been to design all new holders for old asterisks just to justify their inclusion in the game. It also might backfire for fans of the original characters who’d want to see their old favorites included.) Bravely Second’s lore expansions are only ever beneficial to its narrative. The expansion of the Celestial lore and the Plague, largely footnotes in Default, are turned into driving parts of the narrative in ways that only seem to make the world feel larger and older. Lived in. I can only hope that Bravely Third, or whatever it end up being called, keeps up the trend

And Bravely Default didn’t have the happiest of endings, with Ringabel getting a second shot to save his version of the party, but at the cost of abandoning the friends he’s made on this journey. Tiz is comatose, Til and Olivia are still dead, Edea is alone, and Agnès is left to reform her entire religion while fully believing that one of her friends is gone forever and the love of her life may never wake up. I am extremely grateful for being able to take that bittersweet ending and make it a happy one

On top of the amazing graphical upgrades, which stay true to the feel of BD while making everything feel grander, and the tweaks to the battle system to allow for minor enemy variation and the Another Round feature, which gives some incentive to carefully managing BP consumption, and some really fun new jobs, and I’d say I like Bravely Second even more than Bravely Default! (And browsing the internet, it seems like that’s an unpopular opinion. Dunno why, might be the fact that Second is goofier in its first half than the overall tone of Default and relies less on nostalgia for old RPGs). Bravely Second is where I feel the series went from a neat homage with some interesting gameplay innovations to a real adventure with its own unique world and story to tell

So what about the main characters, then? I’m gonna consider the main characters Yew, Magnolia, Edea, Tiz, Altair, Denys, and Anne, as they’re the ones who arguably drive most of the plot

Yew Geneolgia is the character that I was most worried about when I started playing this game. I was really expecting him to just be “Tiz but Younger” and I was happily surprised by what I got. If the liveblog didn’t make it clear, I LOVE YEW. He is such a genuinely sweet boy, who’s chipper and nerdy and so dedicated to his loved ones and I can’t help but relate to him. He’s like the perfect little brother I always wanted (I love my actual younger brothers but they ain’t perfect). His growth is incredible. He goes from a scared kid singing off-key to himself in the woods to keep calm to staring down the god of the realm of people that act as gods to him and telling him to get lost, all without ever losing his kind and dorky nature. He learns the importance of taking your mistakes and growing with them. His sense of familial duty is so wonderful to see, and he serves as an excellent foil to last game’s lead character, Tiz. We went from a low-class farmer and dutiful older brother to a high-class noble and dutiful younger brother, and the flip in perspective with the lead characters only serves to highlight the flip in perspective on the story as a whole. Yew is a Good Boy™ and I couldn’t ask for a better lead character in the game, especially since he’s not even on the cover of any version of the game? Bravely Second is Yew’s story and it’s a damn good one

Magnolia Arch is... honestly kind of underwhelming? She was marketed as the big female lead of the game, she’s the star of the teaser at the end of the international version of Bravely Default, she’s on the cover of some versions of the game! And I... uh... I like her just fine, but I don’t feel like she really served much purpose. She’s got a nice design, I like how sweet she is and her sense of curiosity as a newcomer to Luxendarc, but I don’t feel like she had much... point? She really feels like she was just there to introduce the major plot point of the Ba’als and be a love interest for Yew. I just can’t think of anything she really contributed to the game besides that. I don’t hate her by any means, I just wish there was a bit more to her than minor worldbuilding, especially with all of the buildup she got

Edea Lee is the person I would call the actual female lead of the game, just a different part of the game than Yew is. She’s the protagonist of the sidequests (sans the Yōkai quest, where she gets slightly lesser billing than Yew, but is still a major focal character.) Also, like Yew, she had little marketing. I really respect what they did with Edea. She was one of the most developed characters last game, having her whole arc where she learned to see the shades of gray in morality. So where do you go from there? How do you keep the character interesting without contradicting or repeating their character development from the last game? And my god did they do it with Edea. I love how she legitimately seems to have grown up in Second. She’s learned to see the complexities of situations and acts as a mentor figure to Yew, while still retaining her spitfire qualities... in the main story at least. Her development is actually about taking what she learned in the last game and applying it to a leadership role (which is what the sidequests are supposed to do, but really fail at in execution. More below.) She gets a different arc that complements her arc from last game, where she takes what she learned and now has to figure out how to apply it to a new role. The focus is less on learning to be a decent leader and mediator. It’s a continuation of her character, and it works really well. Ultimately, I’m happy with what we got of Edea (in the main story not... not necessarily Sidequest Edea, who may as well be a different character impersonating the real Edea for how much they have in common)

Tiz Arrior has a similar dilemma to Edea, and a different solution. What do we do with a character who’s already had a full game to be developed? Edea got a new arc that extends off of her first one, taking it in a new and mature direction. With Tiz, however, they decided that he would remain flat in Second, since he got the development in Default and seems content with where he is, personality wise. Like Edea, he’s placed in a mentor role, which I do really enjoy, but Tiz’s real strength in this game is how they used him for worldbuilding. He’s the perfect avenue to explore more of the lore surrounding Celestials, being the closest character to them thanks to his bond with one in the last game. So what does Bravely Second do? What it does best. It takes plot beats from the original and flips the perspective to give the player a new and better understanding of its world and characters. In this case, they take Tiz’s Celestial bond from the first game and give him a new Celestial to bond with, who is more than happy to exposit on his world and the world of Luxendarc. Like Magnolia, I feel like Tiz is much more of a worldbuilding device than a character in Bravely Second, though unlike Magnolia I can excuse this since Tiz already had a whole game that he was the main character of to be developed. We already like Tiz, so he has nothing to prove to us, and it feels good to see him get his delayed happy ending. Weird, though, how the two characters shown on box art for this game have the least impact as characters, though I suppose you could argue that they’re both tied to the main plot though other means. Other means such as...

Altair. Oh, Altair. You weird vegetable-loving alien man. He really grew on me, actually. I find it really interesting that despite constantly stating that the player is a Celestial and implying that the real world is the Celestial Realm, Altair comes in and almost seems to contradict that. Through him, we learn more about the Celestial Realm and, by extension, who and what kind of entity the Player is in this story. Is he aware of who we are? Who knows! He’s a good avenue of lore that I’m fond of. And if Yew is the emotional heart of the main story, then Altair is the emotional heart of the climax. His bond with Vega is what drives a lot of the overarching plot, and it’s a sweet romance. I dunno, I like Altair. I wish he was a little more meta-involved, and gave a little more info about the Celestial Realm, but he did good for what he needed to be. Team Dad’s good

Denys Geneolgia is tied for my favorite character with Yew and I’d talk about him but I already did and nothing’s really changed about my opinions since then, though the rewritten talk with Anne might need to be changed since she apparently doesn’t even know the player exists on the second loop, somehow. Oh well. I wouldn’t be upset if he was a party member in Bravely Third though *wink* *wink*

Anne is cool. Anne is a good foil to Airy, and my rage at realizing that she’s been playing the player since the beginning of Bravely Default is definitely a highlight. She’s a good foil to her sister from the last game. I mean she’s basically Airy taken up to 11 and without the pretense of being a good guy in this game. No, she got that out of her system last game and is in full blown Manipulative Bitch mode this game. She’s a fun villain to have on screen. Very punchable. I’m not sure if there’s much more to say about her, though. I would have loved to see her interact with the player more than the one scene where she taunts us. Just really rub it in that even though we’re a god in Luxendarc, she still managed to deceive us. Maybe expand on her relationship with Airy a little more, focus a bit more on her status as a foil to Denys. She’s a good antagonist, I just would’ve done more with her

We’ve covered the good, so what’s the bad? The sidequests. I’ve gone on a lot about the sidequests but I cannot stress enough how much I disliked all but the Chapter 6 sidequests. They are so formulaic, and that formula actually hampers the story they’re trying to tell with them. The sidequests are Edea’s spot to shine, and I can so clearly see what they were trying to do with them. They’re training Edea for her role as the Grand Marshal of Eternia, where she will end up facing two forces that oppose each other and have to make a decision about her nation’s involvement, which becomes evident during the Templar quest, which all of these seem to be leading up to. The problem, though, is that they’re trying to set up Edea as a mediator and then outright contradict that by having her just choose a side with no thought of compromise, desperately try to validate her choice as the only correct one, frequently claim that the other side’s argument has no merit, and then beats them down to make them agree with her. I mean, what!? That’s not mediating! That’s not my Edea!

By forcing us to make a binary choice, they completely gloss over any moral ambiguity in the situation, and the epilogues always focus more on how Edea feels about her choice, and not the impact that the choice has on the world as a whole. I can somewhat understand why they wanted to implement a choice system into the sidequests to make use of the second loop, but good gracious does it NOT WORK. And it doesn’t help that at least half of, if not 2/3 of, the sidequests try to make a situation morally ambiguous that really shouldn’t be? Or that has a clear correct answer? And all the rest are just really petty disagreements and none of them expand upon the world or characters in any meaningful way. Edea’s sidequest story of becoming a great mediator to make her father proud and grow into the role of Grand Marshal could have gone somewhere if that was a consistent thread between them and not a concept that solely exists in the Templar quest that tries to make the rest look good with hindsight. They really were the worst part of the game. The narratives weren’t enjoyable and the gameplay was just repetitive. Meet two bosses from the last game, listen to grievances, go through old dungeon from last game, pick a boss to fight, meaningless resolution. Rinse. Repeat. But in all honesty, the poorly written sidequests are my only big criticism of the game, and they’re entirely skippable to the average player. (I don’t recommend that you skip them because they offer useful jobs, but you certainly could if you wanted to)

Overall, I’d give Bravely Second a solid A. It is, unquestionably, one of the best games I’ve played in a while. Which is almost word-for-word what my final verdict for Bravely Default was in the email mentioned at the beginning of this post. This series consistently manages to suck me in and keep me invested in its world and characters. I adore it. I love the Bravely series so much and I’d happily buy whatever they come out with next so long as they never try that sidequest stuff ever again. Ever. (Though playing the game is probably gonna mean buying a Switch. Mmmm.)

Moving forward, what are my hopes for the hinted at Bravely Third? Ringabel’s certainly been teased a bit, so I’d hope to see him make a return. Especially as a playable character. I’d love to see his role with the Planeswardens expanded on and what their impact on the lore is. I could easily see Magnolia returning as a playable character, too, just for that little bit of extra development that she desperately needs and her implied relationship with the Planeswardens. I’d really love it if they brought Denys back and made him a playable character, finally giving him an actual, well-crafted character arc. Not to mention that his ties to both the Sword of the Brave and the Eye of Foundar make him an excellent candidate for the plot that the end of Bravely Second teased (also gives me more Geneolgia brothers content).

Story-wise, Bravely Default was centered around parallel worlds (or space), and Bravely Second explored the concept of time, so perhaps we could see alternate Realms/dimensions in Bravely Third. It would be interesting to see them expand upon the lore of the Celestial Realm, especially now that there are characters aware of the Player’s existence, such as Denys and Magnolia. Having Deneb around could also be an interesting choice, as she’d certainly know what the cataclysm in the Celestial Realm was and the capabilities of the Celestial Beings, since she is one. I’ve seen the idea of Deneb as a party member thrown around, and I wouldn’t be against it. Maybe if the whole party was made up of people aware of the Player’s existence, we could have more Player-party interactions. Dialogue choices in cutscenes for us, maybe, where we can talk directly to the party

I wouldn’t be against a Ringabel-Magnolia-Denys-Deneb party. I think that could work really well. Just a team composed of blond boys and silver-haired girls

I love Yew Geneolgia to death, but I think I’d keep him as a side character. He’s already had his story, though a look into what he did after Bravely Second would be much appreciated. Show me my son who reformed the Crystalguard and became the most well-loved member of House Geneolgia in history! At least give me a good sibling reunion! Give me the hug between Denys and Yew that I was robbed of in Bravely Second!

Don’t undo any of the happy endings everyone got. Tiz and Agnès are happily married and retired, and Ringabel and Magnolia make it back home safe to their significant others post-Bravely Third

I guess I’d also kinda like to see a good Cryst-Fairy around at some point. I like the idea I’ve seen around of the Player having their own fairy servant. That could be fun to play with. Maybe with those Party-Player chats I mentioned our dialogue choices could be telling our fairy what to tell the party. Speaking through our own, personal Cryst-Fairy, if you will. Though again, if we’re still expanding the lore, maybe they could go into the state of being of Cryst-Fairies more. Anne gave us a bit to work with, so I suppose I just want more elaboration on how they’re all siblings, how they feel about being siblings, etc. Maybe there’s a good fairy and a bad fairy in the same game and they bicker like real siblings

Also, can they give us confirmation as to whether Yōko was a Luxendarc native or not? And if not, can we see her home realm? That’d be cool. I’d like to see the Yōkai world please

I guess that’s really it, though. For now, that’s all I have to say on the Bravely series! Again, I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who’s read through the liveblog and/or commented on any of the parts of it. Seriously, you guys rock and I don’t know if the liveblog would’ve gotten as big as it did if it wasn’t for you guys and the support you provided. If any of you guys want to chat, don’t be afraid to hit me up. My ask box is always open

So! I’ve been Liz, this has been Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second, and I hope to see you all again if/when Bravely Third drops so we can all get lost in the world of Luxendarc together one more time!

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second #*fingers crossed for bravely third*

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syzygyzip · 6 years

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His Cage pt. 2: Wheel of Fortune

This essay may be read on its own, but it is a follow-up to another essay which psychoanalyzes the figure of Holy Knight Hodrick, a character from Dark Souls 3. In this section, the method and purpose of Dark Souls analysis comes under investigation, catalyzed by other images from Hodrick’s environment.

Hodrick as meta-critique of Freudian psycho-interpretation

Dark Souls 3 is known for its skillful, self-reflexive commentary; this game is keenly aware of the subculture that surrounds it. That in mind, what are we to make of the relatively blatant symbolic suggestiveness of Hodrick and the Greatwood? Perhaps their on-the-nose imagery is a reaction to analysis of previous Dark Souls games: the castration narrative is often cited in symbolic interpretation of Dark Souls 1, and the birth canal-esque passage of Dark Souls 2’s tutorial area is a classic introduction for people that play around with interpreting Dark Souls psychologically. And surely those myths and images are semi-intentional, relevant, and illuminating, but they are by no means the place to stop. This lore video points out how the vertebrae shackles collected by Mound-Makers resemble inkblots, the old psychoanalytic tool etched into the cultural memory as an image of Freudianism. One “reads out” of the inkblot the contents of their own unconscious. The understanding of projection, and the compensatory nature of the unconscious was one of the most significant discoveries at the dawn of psychology. Dark Souls could symbolize the principle of this discovery in a number of ways, but it is very intentional with its images, so when it decides to show us an inkblot in particular, the historical context is helpful. It’s an old and simple technique, which traces only the broad strokes of the analysand’s complexes. Likewise, Hodrick, the Greatwood, and Mound-Makers provide the interpreter with the rudiments for symbolic exploration of Dark Soul environments.

Though this area is introductory, it is – like any part of the unconscious – inexhaustible in its depth and generous in its mutability. Consider the amorality of the Mound-Makers. Are they good or evil? Vicious or tender? Sustainers of maya or karmic accelerationists? There is so much room for the player to read into this allegiance a preferred moral perspective, at least partially determined by the general attitude the player keeps in regards to the slaughter of enemies. For the totally “unimmersed,” Dark Souls is a game and a game only, to be played, poked, prodded, to be mastered and speedran, and in that case of course any covenant is merely functional, there to surround and present a mechanic. For that player, the Mound-Makers are truly amoral. But for those who roleplay, who make at least some of their choices based on the imagined ethics of their avatar (despite extremely scarce moral responses from the game itself!), the issue is a little more complicated. Those who are simply in the habit of asking themselves, “Do I want to ally myself with this person’s values?” will not find an easy answer. On the surface, the covenant is abhorrently nihilistic, but a seasoned player may come away with a different take. So in this way the Mound-Makers, like the inkblot, are a measure of a player(/-character)’s feeling-involvement, which is itself born out of the player’s interpretational attitude.

When analyzing an object in a video game, always take into account the method by which it is encountered! Though the route to all this Freudian material in the Undead Settlement is a little arcane, it needs to be. The cryptic riddle about “Nana”, the obscure side-streets: these are there to make the player feel as though they are uncovering something secret. The obscurity is baked-in to make obvious that this material is repressed.

Though the riddle is strange, it is spoken aloud to the player, which is actually quite a telegraph by Dark Souls standards. The handiness of this secret is also metaphorically descriptive of this level of interpretation. If one stops at the purely Freudian: the mother, the father, the phallus, then they will project that schematic onto every available target. They will see reality as nothing more than a circus of oral fixations and castration dramas. If this stage of psychoanalysis is not passed through, it is nothing more than another cage to be carried around. It is the most rudimentary place to get stuck in the engagement with the unconscious.

The Armory of Symbols

What are we to make of the fact that the treasure of this area is the transposing kiln? This round thing, this simple, Arthurian symbol of the Self? It is both representative of the totality, and a totally profane and reductive simplification. I’ll explain what I mean by that.

On the one hand it is a true grail, because it has the capacity to turn the game’s hardest challenges into new tools. This is a fantastic life lesson, fundamental and perennially true. It is the pure gift of interpretation. It is said that the Buddha, in his realization that there is nothing outside of Nirvana, thereby saw that even the most torturous experiences of life, and the most unforgiving realms of Hell, were not apart from Nirvana, and that seeing them in this way thereby rectified this subjective experience of being in Hell. Once it was rephrased as Nirvana, it was always Nirvana, because all the suffering was born out of false views. Anyway, that is a very lofty height of interpretation, but one can see the boundlessness of the tool. That when the true cosmic appropriateness of an instance of suffering is groked, it is changed. On the other hand, transposition is a cheap parlor trick. It changes the essence of a boss into a weapon. It really only does one thing. Some of these weapons are useful, and most are flashy. It is almost mandatory for these weapons and spells to have a unique gimmick. So most of the time they convey to the wielder some unique flavor, some specific characteristic to consider, but even collecting such interpretations as these is merely a “building a collection.” Pinning down butterflies into a glass case. It is really no different than stockpiling corpses as Hodrick does. This device encourages the player to keep fighting, collecting, stacking bodies, finding new and interesting ways to kill people.

And ultimately, the same is true of collecting symbolism. Stockpiling a collection of unused weapons is no more or less a perversion that keeping a catalogue of archetypes for its own sake. The psychological interpretation of Hodrick, the Greatwood, and their unsightly tableau is relatively simple and straight-forward because it is meant to provide the player-interpreter with an introduction to the technique. The “game” of symbolic analysis is pointless if you spend your time taking potshots.

Wheel of Fate

Understanding the symbolism of the Mother through the eyes of Hodrick may be relatively simple, but the Undead Settlement also provides us with a more complex and transpersonal variation of the birth motif, localized at the far edge of town, hidden in a valley below. There we find catacombs tunneled into the rock, reminding us of the community of villagers who labor all day burying their dead. The Great Mother is thereby invoked, in her role which deteriorates form, which composts. The bodies decay, return to the Earth, and nourish new life. We see the skeletons sprouting branches in this dank place.

Also in the catacombs there are the dual figures of Irina the saint and a statue of Velka, goddess of sin, both of whom sit abandoned. The juxtaposition of these two sacred feminine figures is symbolically dense and deserves its own essay, but I mention it here as an echo of Kristeva’s philosophy that we passed by earlier: that of the child’s necessary bifurcation of the Mother into sublime and abject.

Velka alone is highly useful here, amplifying the Great Mother motif to a vast and cosmic context. Velka is a notoriously elusive figure in Dark Souls: she is never seen, rarely spoken of, her motivations are unknown, her ontological status unconfirmed, her objects and attributes seem to contradict each other. Nevertheless she is a crucial if not essential force in the world, and her presence can be inferred for those with eyes to see.

The main Velkan element that should be addressed here is her association with Karma, which is perhaps her principle attribute. From the beginning of DS1, she is introduced as governess of ethics, law, and equity. She explicitly oversees sin, guilt, and retribution. What practices are promoted through this governance? Mechanically, there are primarily two: keeping track of invasion penalties (in DS1) and resetting the world. If you incur penalty as an invader, the Blades of the Dark Moon will find you and punish you. So Velka prolongs and complicates PvP dynamics.

Resetting the world is an effect Velka provides that suggests forgiveness. If you aggro an NPC, and wish to get on good terms with them again, Velka allows that condition. In this way too, Velka is prolonging interpersonal relationships, but it is the relief of debt rather than the accruing of debt. Velka keeps the cycle going, she is like a keeper of the wheel that turns the age. In Dark Souls 1 a statue associated with Velka turns with the cranking of a wheel, in a room full of bonewheel skeletons. In Dark Souls 3, a similar statue turns with the cranking of a wheel in a room full of flies. In both cases, the wheel is hidden in a wet chamber behind an illusory wall. This suggests that behind the façade of the world, there is a primal place from which time is manipulated (though in this case it is but a single “tick” of the clock, an off-to-on switch which causes a fixed rotation).

Does Karma cause the rise and fall of the great ages? Is the distribution of karma the grease that turns the wheel of the world? It does seem to be that desire is what sustains the age of fire. Consider the enemies in the place where the wheel turns: bonewheels, who cling to their instruments of torture, to their suffering; flies, who bury themselves in a mountain of rotted food, a symbol of greed.

The skeletons who throw themselves into combat, and the flies which gorge on their rotting piles: either is a handy metaphor for Hodrick. His lust for the battlefield is another way of keeping himself stuck on the wheel of Samsara, collecting those shackles, representing the Velkan attachments of karma. Velka’s totem, the Raven, is found in flocks on a ravaged cliff in the settlement, among a wealth of corpses to be looted. The Raven is “associated with the fall of Spirit into that which is impure and enjoys carnage […] To raven is to plunder. This is what the word means. To have a ravenous appetite suggests greed and lust and insatiable desires.”(Valborg) Ravens keep the circus of suffering going!

Grist for the Mill

Velka is a bleak goddess, associated with “lifehunt”, the capacity to drain the essence of life, dreaded even by the gods. For this reason one of her attributes is the scythe, so she is something of a reaper figure. But we have seen she is also life-giver and sustainer, through her arbitrage of karma. This ambivalent nature is expressed by the Raven, which is a solar bird yet dyed deep black, who is cruel and enjoys carnage, yet in many myths is associated with the bringing of light and the creation of a new world.

The raven flies to and fro between the solar orb of eternal life and the dying eyes of man in time. He mercilessly pecks away at the delusions formed like veils over the cornea's shield until he penetrates to the darkness of the pupil's cavity and releases the invisible light within. (Valborg)

If the goal of Dark Souls is the realization of the Dark Soul -- the unique potential of the human being -- then perhaps Velka and her karmic processes are meant to midwife that birth as well. Could all the weight of karma, the pain of enduring a body, the cruelty of life’s entropic march … could it all be in service of birthing the Anthropos? It would explain why the Lords of Dark Souls are so antagonist to the Ashen One -- in Gnosticism and Buddhism the makers, the deities, are said to envy the actualized human being. And to be fair, the theme of surviving hardship and loss is central in Dark Souls’ reputation, and something to which countless players can attest, on practical or psychological levels (eg: “Dark Souls Helped Me Overcome Depression”).

Identity Riddles

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one. Give heed to my poverty and my wealth. Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth, and you will find me in those that are to come. And do not look upon me on the dung-heap nor go and leave me cast out, and you will find me in the kingdoms. And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who are disgraced and in the least places, nor laugh at me. And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.

But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel. Be on your guard!

Do not hate my obedience and do not love my self-control. In my weakness, do not forsake me, and do not be afraid of my power.

-- excerpt from The Thunder, Perfect Intellect ca. 100-230

The abject Mother sits at the edge of the symbolic order, in fact it is her abjection that positions the boundaries of that order, yet it itself does not accept boundary. “Abjection preserves what existed in the archaism of pre-objectal relationship, in the immemorial violence with which a body becomes separated from another body in order to be” (Kristeva 10), referring to birth and symbolized by the Hodrick and Greatwood scene, but beyond that it also refers to the Dark Souls creation myth: the archaism in that case being the undifferentiated fog of arch-trees and everlasting dragons in the Age of Ancients. For there to be matter and objects, psyche (dragons etc) must be born into time. Once psyche has materialized itself upon the wheel of time, it cannot exist in immediate, gestalt totality – it moves and changes, expressing its fullness over aeons through its becomings. But everything must be accounted for; Karma only brings what is due. The mystery of how psyche is refined by its extension into matter will likely stay with us until the “end” of time. But with common sense we can suppose that the condition of duration allows things to be taken apart and put back together, and that at least in our mundane lives that process frequently brings about some freshness in the object. But neither the meaning nor mechanics of the larger karmic process can be groked, just as Velka and the Mother are archetypes who inherently escape the fixidity of signification. The ultimate force of taking things apart, entropy – symbolized again by the raven and its desecration of corpses – is something that has been deeply culturally villainized, and it usually takes a second to stop and consider how the diffusion of matter engenders the condition for new forms to grow.

[Ravens] tell of the renewal of the world in terms of the past which is yet to be. The unwanted Truth is told and its insatiable desire to express itself may produce terror and loathing in one who is not prepared to give up all to its insistent glare.

This is keeping with Kristeva’s view of the abject as the eruption of the Real into consciousness. Aside from their role in pecking open an aperture of light, crows have another specific job in the renewal of the world, as described in a number of myths: measuring the size and extent of that world, flying in “progressively longer intervals in order to estimate and report on the increasing size of the emerging earth.” The extremes of incarnation, the edges beyond which dwells the abject, are scoped out in order to create the blueprint; the raven brings knowledge of the schematics.

Interpreting by Attention

And what about our own schematics? We’ve thrown away our tools – the colorful cast of characters transposed into weapons of interpretation – but perhaps it’s time to pick them up again. We cast them off because we didn’t want to fix the Dark Souls myth through explanation. Archetypes cannot be superimposed, prefab, onto a tableaux of psychological symbols. Interpretation is rather the act of elaboration: flying, as the raven does, around and around a widening and changing arena, reporting back continually new understandings of what is appropriate.

The meaning of a game is determined by what a player thinks and feels while they play it. What decisions they make, what their attention lingers on. The game is the inkblot. There are special times when the game insists upon a subject, like a film: for instance, when the crank is turned and the Velka statue rotates. But such a sequence has a different meaning in games than it does in film, because of its context: it anchors a player to a single necessary and unchanging action in the context of a world that is typically responding to their decisions with nigh-unrepeatable novelty. The fixedness of the cinematic exposes the malleability of the rest of the game. “Velka” is an approximation, an aggregate; she is not the same goddess in each playthrough, the scope and the flavor of her influence is always changing – but it is always reflecting the actions of the player.

So how then, can we arrive at a judgment regarding Hodrick? We can’t, because again, each player’s experience of him is different. Earlier I implied that Hodrick is clinging to the world, out of horror and alienation in regards to the Mother figure, and that his killing spree is only building his attachments, keeping him fixed to the wheel of incarnation. So what is the difference between his wild manslaughter, and Velka’s own penchant for carnage and lifedrain? Only the intent:

The transformation of relationship can come about through a genuine understanding of the difference between murder and sacrifice. Both kill or suppress energy, but the motives behind them are quite different. Murder is rooted in ego needs for power and domination. Sacrifice is rooted in the ego’s surrender to the guidance of the Self in order to transform destructive, although perhaps comfortable, energy patterns into the creative flow of life. (Woodman 33)

But see, it is only the inner experience of the act that has authority. In my view, Hodrick’s actions are clearly ego-driven, but another player with different exposure to this character could come away with a different impression. And the archetype speaks through the individual encounter itself, not through lore videos, essays, or any other metatext. This is a crucial function of video games that bears repeating and is rarely addressed. Games commonly use the act of killing as a metaphor for the transformation of relationship (the very notion of EXP hinges on that). The unconscious is receptive to these mutations regardless, but the nature of the effect is dependent on the conscious attitude of the player.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror. Columbia University Press, 1980.

Layton, Bentley, ed. The Gnostic Scriptures. Yale University Press, 1995.

Valborg, Helen. The Raven. Theosophy Trust, 2013.

Woodman, Marion. The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women. Inner City Books, 1990.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Marvel’s Loki Theories: What’s the Deal With the Time-Keepers?

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This article contains Loki spoilers.

With its second episode, Loki’s meta-narrative became a bit clearer, as did its title character’s goal. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki wants to change his story, and to do that, he needs to either trick or force the Time-Keepers into allowing that to happen. So we see him start to wheedle Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius about getting face time with the bosses, and we see Mobius blow him off.

But we also see Mobius trying to score a meeting with the Time-Keepers, and Ravonna gives him a similar brush off. And that, more than Loki getting negged to death by Mobius, was what set the internet speculation machine a’runnin.

Why be sketchy with Mobius? What do the Time-Keepers have to hide? What’s really going on with the TVA?

And the biggest one of all: do the Time-Keepers even exist?

There are several plausible theories about what’s going on that are worth assessing.

Theory #1: Do the Time Keepers Do Exist? (Yes)

The first and most obvious guess is that the Time-Keepers do, in fact, exist and most of what Miss Minutes showed us in Loki’s TVA orientation video in episode 1 is true. This isn’t an especially fun theory, but we can’t really discount it after the secret big bad behind WandaVision turned out to be nobody, and the big twist in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was that we were supposed to kinda like US Agent.

This theory sucks! Let’s move on.

Theory #2: The Time-Keepers are Dead, Long Live the Multiverse!

This theory centers around Sasha Lane’s Agent C20, last seen broken and captured by Lady Loki (?) in the future Amazon Roxxon warehouse. She was found muttering “It’s real. It’s real. It’s real,” by her TVA colleagues.

So…what exactly is real? (nothing, according to John Lennon, but that’s another story entirely)

According to this theoretical framework, the multiverse is real and already exists, despite all of the TVA’s efforts to the contrary.

We don’t know all the rules about how time travel and the Sacred Timeline work, but we’ve already been brushing up against its limits in the first two episodes. Why were the Avengers allowed to go back in time in Avengers: Endgame but Loki can’t do so himself? Ravonna’s answer, which amounts to “because I said so” is pretty thin. The same goes for the existence of the Time Stone and its apparent insignificance: what was Doctor Strange looking at in Avengers: Infinity War if none of those thousands of potential futures could exist?

This theory postulates that the Time-Keepers are dead or otherwise incapacitated, that the multiverse exists, and that the TVA’s job is to protect the Sacred Timeline by keeping people from bopping around the various alternate Earths, which could raise all kinds of problems if allowed to happen.

This theory would fill in a lot of possible plot holes people are starting to poke in the show.

Theory #3: Kang the Conqueror

The third theory is that the Time-Keepers have been forcibly displaced by the Master of Time himself, upcoming MCU baddie Kang the Conqueror.

We’ve gone into extensive detail about Kang’s history and almost certain deep involvement with the various MCU time travel shenanigans. To briefly reiterate: the Time-Keepers hired a future, older version of Kang (Immortus) to manage the Nexus Beings in the comics version of the Sacred Timeline. Immortus decided to try and usurp their power and got Wanda and Vision together to make super powerful kids, lost anyway, kept working for them, and eventually came into conflict with his younger self as the Time-Keepers were trying to prevent humanity from growing too powerful and controlling the universe. Kang and Immortus were eventually…split into two different beings (Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s Avengers Forever is like a diamond tipped retcon drill), and a very pissed off Kang killed the Time-Keepers.

So…yeah. Killing the omniscient beings who prune unwanted timelines from the time stream sure feels a lot like Conquering to me, right? Add to this Judge (Ravonna) Renslayer’s past as comics Kang’s one true love, and the fact that one of the Time-Keepers statues looks suspiciously like Jonathan Majors, and we’ve got ourselves a pretty live theory here.

That said, the Time-Keeper in Ravonna’s office also looked a lot like it had some kind of facial armor on it…

Theory #4: Doctor Doom

The least plausible and most outrageous theory is that the multiverse war Miss Minutes recounts to Loki in the first episode was actually the collapse of the multiverse seen in the pages of Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars. To refresh your memory, the Marvel Comics multiverse collapsed in 2015, a result of the all powerful Beyonders attempting to hit a cosmic reset button by detonating all of the Molecule Men on every world.

But someone discovered their plan, detonated a bunch of Molecule Men early, and captured the rest, taped them together, and flung them into the Beyonders, both middle fingers high in the air:

That someone, of course, was Doctor Doom.

Doctor Doom then used the powers of Molecule Man to salvage bits and pieces of various alternate realities and smush them together into Battleworld, where he ruled justly and fairly, so long as nobody looked too deep at how their universe functioned. He also built bureaucracy wherever he went – first with the Black Swans, the religious order he seeded throughout the multiverse to hunt Molecule Men, and later with the various kingdoms on Battleworld.

Like I said, this theory is EXTREMELY unlikely. If we’re grading these in order of plausibility, I’d say that 1 is the most likely, with 2 a bit more likely than 3, and 4 being a long shot. The fourth theory would almost certainly couch the creation and non-existence of both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a result of Doctor Doom’s pettiness and anti-mutant bigotry, respectively.

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But damn wouldn’t it be fun?

The post Marvel’s Loki Theories: What’s the Deal With the Time-Keepers? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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