#sormik...i adore...

[fiannalover]

I'll always have at least a bit of oversensitivity towards yaoi typical characterization crimes for many reasons, but the one I choose to highlight today is that I actually got my first taste of Sormik through contexts that would probably cancel me and thought "man. Mikleo kinda sucks idk if I'll care for him" then when I finally watched a Zestiria let's play I adored them and their dynamic so insanely it permanently carved an effect in how I write my M/M OCs and the slander can't be forgiven

[lildoodlecat]

YESS I LOVE THAT DETAIL!! and your drawing is absolutely adorable oml,, I love tiny sormik sm

Also a good time to bring up the complementary detail that Mikleo doesn't let Sorey cut his hair bc of The Incident™ when they were younger. How bad did he mess up I wonder,,

QUICK what's your favorite thing and/or headcanon abt Mikleo?

One of my fav headcanons is he made himself pretty on purpose, since seraphim's looks are based on how they perceive themselves (I have a whole sormik post abt this somewhere sjxk)

Thank you for the ask! The idea of him knowing he's pretty and becoming more pretty as a result is really cute!!😭 It's cool to think of the other seraphim with this headcanon, like Edna looking young since she sees herself as a little sister!

So my favorite Mikleo headcanon comes from the in-game description of Sorey's hairstyle

I saw it and decided he probably trimmed Sorey's hair this since they were kids! It's so rare to have a friend who would trim your hair, so maybe he's done it for years

Had to doodle this

[lnkedmyheart]

I have a zesty au idea where Alisha is a princess in love with this Robin Hood-esque con artist Rose but she is forced into marrying Sorey, the knight that brought his nation victory in a recent war but HE is into this Oracle in training Mikleo who must remain free from any worldly desires and the rest of the story is just Sorey helping Rose sneak into their bed chamber to meet Alisha while Rose smuggles Sorey into the temple (with all his horrific acting nearly giving them away) to meet Mikleo.

Yes I'm sleep deprived, high on coffee and in the mood for crack fics.

[applegelstore]

Sormik week day 4 – clouds!

Okay but hear me out: Rescuers Down Under AU in which little Sorey and little Mikleo share the part of Cody, but all the animals are mystical creatures (that includes the mice). Marahute’s part goes to Seres and she’s a hugeass phoenix except phoenixes can obviously reproduce here. Because once little Mao-Mao hatches he will be the most adorable pocket sized phoenix chick you’ve ever laid your eyes on.

All the other Seraphim are random cuddly mystical creature friends

[lildoodlecat]

Okay so this thought has been tumbling around in my head for ages but my last rb got me thinking abt it again even tho it's like not related at all

So!! Seraphim basically look how they believe they should right?? Like. Edna probably sees herself as "Eizen's little sister" which is why she looks the way she does despite being one of the oldest seraphim in the group

So consider!!!!! *Puts my sormik tinted glasses on which if you look close are just an empty frame*

I'm sure it's been said before but like the reason Mikleo grew at the rate he did as a child was likely bc he believed he would—that he and Sorey would grow at the same rate since they were both children and not only is Sorey his only frame of reference for that they're literally lifetime best friends so of course

Which brings me to my brainworms. Mikleo is so goddamn pretty. Like!! Not all seraphim are super pretty but Mikleo must in some way believe that's how he should look so he does and who won't stfu abt that?? Have you seen the light novel excerpts?????

Sorey!!! My god does Sorey not only love Mikleo's personality but that extremely good looking everything. Have you looked at Mikleo!? Sorey has many times and he's certifiably beautiful and elegant apparently

Back to my brainworms but hey. Hey. Who is Mikleo looking that pretty for? He believes he should be that pretty even if he doesn't realize it and for WHAT

Which!!!!! Brings me to the original thought but how goddamn adorable and sappy would it be if all this boils down to something like Mikleo believing that he's perfect with/for Sorey y'know? Like like he is small enough to be held and so pretty and!!!!

I don't wanna tie his whole existence to Sorey bc he's his own person so I'm sure part of it is just him wanting to look good lol but at the same time they are literally!! Two peas in a pod!!!! Soulmates!!!!! What the fuck you two!!!!!!!!

Is this a headcanon?? Is that how I should consider my brainworms??? Hmm,,

But yeah I think about them on the daily and they give me Many Feelings

[d4rk-x-w0lf-17]

You've been posting about your OTPs and I was wondering, would you make a top 10 list of your all time favorite ships? Not ones from fandoms you're currently in, but ones that have stuck with you ever since you first shipped them?

Oh this is an....interesting question. I’ve love to do a top 10 list though. Hmmm....let’s see....of ships that have stuck with me....I’ll go with ones that I easily get emotional over just thinking about them. Ones that make me all warm and fuzzy, but also make me sad whenever something happens to them.

10) KilluGon - Hunter x Hunter

These two have such a cute relationship. They’re honestly so pure, I love their dynamic so much. Killua absolutely adores Gon and would do anything for him. Gon treasures Killua dearly as well. After all they’ve went through, I hope they’re happy and I anticipate the day that they’re able to reunite.

9) SorMik - Tales of Zestiria

It’s been a while since I went through this series, but I really loved their relationship. I love how they’re technically canon since Sorey knowing Mikleo’s true name has romantic connotation. Plus who doesn’t a good Friends to Lovers? These two care deeply for each other and it’s honestly adorable seeing them interact.

8) AshEiji - Banana Fish

I went into Banana Fish completely blind and didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t expect to find a beautiful love story between these two. They genuinely care for each other. Ash is able to be open without fear of being take advantage of or expecting to give or take anything. Eiji is just so patient and gentle with Ash, it’s beautiful yet heartbreaking.

Also, can we pretend that Ash went with Eiji to Japan? Yeah? Yeah.

7) NorEmma - The Promised Neverland

I’ll never get over these two. Norman’s love for Emma is both sweet and heartbreaking. We don’t know if Emma actually returns his feelings, but if she does...Let’s hope Norman will be able to survive Emma smushing his face with kisses.

6) GerIta - Hetalia

I wanted to put HRE/Chibitalia, but this is basically the same thing, right? I firmly believe the HRE = Germany theory, which is really depressing if you think about it. This would make Germany Italy’s first love, but he never remembered him. But it doesn’t matter, because he falls back in love with Italy anyway. Italy definitely never forgot Holy Rome, he definitely still thinks about him from time to time. I can only imagine how Italy would feel if he fell for Germany. He would probably feels like he’s betraying Holy Rome. But can you imagine Italy if he found out if Germany really was Holy Rome? Lots of hugs, crying and kissing, that’s for sure.

5) Usagi/Misaki - Junjou Romantica

I rewatched this series a year ago and I fell back in love with these two very quickly. Usagi treasures and adores Misaki so much and despite Misaki’s insistence, he loves him too. As someone who has a very hard time admitting my feelings, I feel Misaki’s pain in not being able to yell out his love for Usagi. He wants to, but he can’t.

4) NaLu - Fairy Tail

I really loved these two when I first watched Fairy Tail. I loved their dynamic and how fiercely protective Natsu got over Lucy. I truly fell for this ship when Lucy first got kidnapped and the Guild went to save her, but it was Natsu who was the most aggressive when it came to looking for her. I would watch episode 22 over and over again, just watching Lucy putting her absolute trust in Natsu in him catching her. These two share a bond that I love.

3) TodoDeku/BakuDeku - My Hero Academia

Y’all expected me to choose just ONE from MHA? Literally impossible. I remember not knowing who to ship when I first ventured into this series, but when I saw people talking about TodoDeku (I first joined the fandom when the manga was around the....Stain Arc I believe) and I got curious. I looked it up and it was too cute to pass up. I remember feeling apprehensive when wanting to ship BakuDeku, but I fell in love with it. Bakugou is slowly redeeming himself in my eyes and he’s starting to open up to Izuku, which I greatly appreciate.

2) Soul x Maka - Soul Eater

These two....I love them dearly. I treasure their bond. They bicker and fight, but they still care so much for each other. I remember going absolutely nuts when Soul threw himself in front of Maka to protect her from Crona when they first met. He dedicated his life to her, swearing to always protect her and I just....found that so endearing.

1) HanaNene - Toilet Bound Hanako-kun

I don’t care that I recently got into this fandom. These two cause me so many emotions after I read the manga. You can’t tell me that they’re not deeply in love with each other. The Little Mermaid Arc and the Picture Perfect Arc are perfect examples of why these two are meant for each other. Hanako quickly fell for her when he met her at that festival all those years ago and never forgot her, even until his death. Yashiro slowly fell for him over time, seeing Hanako for who he really is and how deeply he cares for her.

[jcmorrigan]

001 - Tales of Zestiria?

Favorite character: It's a tough call between Maltran and Symonne, and Lunarre is trailing right behind both. I tend to call them the "Heldalf Squad," but make no mistake, Heldalf himself isn't part of it. I just like his swagalicious minions. The dry and sarcastic political manipulator, the sadistic and wordy theater nerd, and the flamboyant cannibal who hates everything. Yes. LOVE. But I have to give a shout to my boy Dezel on the hero side! Angsty/stoic characters are very hit-or-miss with me, but Dezel is the flavor I love - obvious soft spots and quirks, and slowly he builds from being antisocial to showing how big his heart is. When he stops the woman from leaping off the Guinevere tower...that's one of my favorite scenes in the entire game, because you can see when the switch flips, when he realizes that he CANNOT stay aloof any longer when there's a stranger's life on the line. He's still a grump about it but a compassionate grump.

Least Favorite character: Heldalf. His backstory is really clever, and I like the curse on him. But he himself just feels like Ganondorf but more boring. I kinda hate that he's so vanilla when his three lieutenants are in my arsenal of pet villains from the vastness of fiction. Also shout-out to Chancellor BART in the opening Ladylake act, because I distinctly remember liveblogging this to a friend, and I played Zestiria *after* Berseria (I'd loved Berseria and that's why I eventually sought out Zestiria) so here I am just comparing up the corrupt church in Ladylake to the Abbey's suave rogues gallery like "Yeah no BART has nothing on Lady Teresa Linares." Thankfully BART was never seen again.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): DezeRose, SorMik, Symonne x Coco Atarashi (The World Ends With You), Alisha Diphda x Sergei Strelka, and...I swear you have to bear with me here...Zaveid x Anna (Frozen). I also kinda wanna note a couple ships I'm on the fence about for my other favies - those being Maltran x Ebony Maw (Marvel Cinematic Universe or Marvel Ultimate Alliance) and Lunarre x Arkham (Devil May Cry).

Character I find most attractive: Dezel. It is a scientific fact that guys with pointy teeth are just hotter.

Character I would marry: Maybe Dezel, maybe Sergei. I wouldn't want to take them from those I see as their wifeys, but at the same time, they are husband goals, both of them.

Character I would be best friends with: Catch me clinging to Maltran's train and she drags me along annoyedly as I yell "PLEEEEAAASE LET ME HANG OUT WITH YOU GUYS" and Lunarre is losing it laughing while Symonne rolls her eyes

a random thought: So I toyed around with basically every accessory I picked up, and I decided to put the sideburns on Rose because fuck gender roles. Well then I just got used to seeing her with facial hair in every cutscene where her 3D model was used, and now I headcanon that she does get it. Maybe nonclassical CAH intersex? Like, I don't necessarily see her as trans (but I support everyone who hc's her as such) but moreso "a cis woman, but I grow this stupid damn facial hair like a dude and I don't get why." And this is why you shouldn't let me play with customizable accessories on RPG characters because I can and will abuse my privilege to headcanon.

An unpopular opinion: That this is actually a very good game. Listen, I think I get it - the initial marketing promised something far different. And that's disappointing. But coming back to it several years after its release, after the release of its PREQUEL, when I never had that hype building up...it actually exceeded my expectations. I held off from it for a while because I thought Eizen's fate would make me too sad, but that didn't end up the case at all. I actually had just come off playing a more recently-released triple-A game that was hyped up for years, and I completed it to my satisfaction in 20 hours. $80 for 20 hours. Zestiria gave me my money's worth in comparison; it took me about 60, and I loved just how MUCH story it had to offer me. I honestly like Rose better than Alisha anyway (Rose was one of the biggest aspects that interested me about playing it in the first place). I've also seen complaints that the characters weren't well-developed enough? Which I just kinda take to mean "They didn't angst enough." Listen. There are PLENTY of games out there if you want angst and sad stories. I don't really like sad stories in my games. I like adventures where the party is a goofy foundfam that jokes around with each other and helps each other work through shitty situations, and that's EXACTLY what I got. (And Berseria really worked on me too because it kinda started at the bottom of the angst barrel, then worked its way up through "The edgy and tortured protag has gained a party of idiots and oh noooooo she's learning friendship and happiness.") Dezel's death is one of the few game deaths that just made me SATISFIED to watch instead of depressed because of the closure he got and the themes tied into his final moments and sacrifice. I loved going on this adventure, I loved the idiots who I went on it with, and I loved seeing what Glenwood had to offer me in world design the further I explored.

my canon OTP: There's not much for canon romance in this game, come to think of it. Just subtext and some flirting. So I'm blanking on if there actually were any canon couples at all.

Non-canon OTP: DezeRose! Which maybe can be considered almost-canon based on the amount of subtext, but still. It's adorable. (And it's the exact same dynamic as EiRoku except M/F and a thousand years later. I need these four to double date...the dual-wielding goofs with their edgy, grumpy Reapers...)

most badass character: Rose! Not only able to wield the Shepherd's Armatization powers, but also to be a dang good assassin on her own, able to hold her own against Heldalf before she even had her eyes opened to seraphim! Though a shout-out goes to Edna because her armatization was my favorite to play with. There's something just satisfying about bashing the enemy in front of you with a pair of GIANT FISTS

pairing I am not a fan of: RoseAli. To be honest, it was at one point something I kinda enjoyed as a third-tier ship for Rose (Dezel first, then Lailah in second). But then...Alisha's Story. I didn't actually purchase it, thank goodness, just watched it on YouTube, and it was the most grating addition that anyone could've made to this game. First of all, I can sum up the issues with Alisha's Story by reminding everyone that it canonized a secret entrance to Camlann that was much easier to get to and wasn't protected by Muse's sacrifice. But the real thing that hurt to watch was how far down they had to knock Rose and Alisha's friendship to get them to rebuild from scratch. Rose claiming she was never Alisha's friend because she's grieving Sorey? The two of them getting into a PHYSICAL FISTFIGHT over it? Nope nope nope. That's not my Rose. Even less my Rose is that whole scene where she...you know...pounces on Alisha to dress her in the silly noblewoman's dress, and it's framed like...let's just say it's really uncomfortable to watch if you don't know the punchline is just a silly outfit. Even though Alisha's Story isn't canon in my head, it still really killed any buzz I had for RoseAli. I will also say I'm not a big fan of Eizavie - first of all, EiRoku or bust in this house, and second, I have a little bit of a hard time seeing Zaveid as mlm due to how much he goes on and on about The Ladies(TM). (Though I could see Eizen as having a tiny crush on him, though. Just like "Oh no he's hot but he's connected to Aifread's disappearance help")

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Mostly just in Alisha's Story. I was mad about the aforementioned Rose stuff, but also...like...they undid Lunarre's original cathartic death, they did so to team him back up with Symonne and then do a whole fakeout that they had Maltran with them too, but Maltran is just an illusion and immediately after this, Lunarre and Symonne just decide "Yeah, we're not gonna work together anymore, have a nice life." Why does Maltran need to stay dead if LUNARRE somehow survived EXPLODING? And just...look to next question for more clarification:

favourite friendship: I just want to imagine that Maltran, Lunarre, and Symonne were weird evil friends. The kind who'd take artistic selfies and caption them "Murder and mayhem with my besties!". Maybe they even had a sibling dynamic. They were all pretty dang jaded, so I like to think they sat around sometimes talking about the things in this world that did them wrong. The reasons they were drawn to Heldalf. Heldalf himself wouldn't have cared, he would've kicked them around like disposable tools, but the three of them were too entrenched in his dogma to see it. Maybe if they met up again after he was off the board...then they'd sing a different tune. Realize they're all three better than this, and now they're gonna do things THEIR way, because remember when they made a three-point attack on Glenwood and Sorey was barely able to keep up with them wrecking Lastonbell AND Pendrago AND Glaivend? Remember when Lunarre and Symonne had each other's backs the night Dezel died? Now they can do what they want on their terms! And I just - I have many MANY feelings about these three.

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: Okay silly self-insert time but the thing is, Archibald Snatcher (The Boxtrolls) and Roman Torchwick (RWBY) are my two favorite parental f/o's (and also my OTP to end all OTPs), and I have this thing about how they'd be PERFECT crime dads to Symonne in particular because she's like a little, more theatrical Neopolitan. So there's a universe in my head where Symonne is basically already my little sister, and I look out for her - well, okay, she's a seraph with powerful Artes and I am a powerless mortal so really she looks out for me because "I suppose SOMEONE has to make sure you don't die" and I am grateful to her for it.

[starlight-phantom]

Mikleo from Tales of Zestiria for the character aso meme!

Do I like them - I. Adore. Mikleo.

5 good qualities - His design is just so pretty, water powers? Sign me up, I love his relationship with Edna, his backstory, his nerdiness over ancient ruins

3 bad qualities - People seem to care more about Mikleo dating Sorey than Mikleo by himself sometimes, this is very minor but I got very sick of him saying "This aroma..." While I was walking around the world map, we never really learnt about his relationships with anyone else in Elysia...

Favourite episode/etc: Probably the scene where he resolves to become a sublord. Mostly because it shows how stubborn and determines he can be.

OTP: SorMik

BROTP: Edna, they're just so funny

OT3: Don't really have one

NOTP: Don't really have one

Best quote: Ngl, it's been a while since I last played the game so I don't really remember any lines of his other than "This aroma..." Because it's been engraved into my mind along with "Look, a monolith!"

Headcannon: Mikleo carefully watches his teammates to figure out what their favourite flavours for sorbet would be.

[8bittheatrics]

You know any time I see art of my precious pure sons spooning I'm like aw, and then I'm like, that doesn't last. As such: 11 pm: Sorey and Mikleo are sleeping peacefully, Mikleo snuggled back against Sorey's chest and whatnot. 1 am: Sorey is now completely spreadeagled, snoring, arms every which way. Mikleo has adjusted himself to laying on Sorey's shoulder as it provides both maximum contact as well as protection from flying limbs. 3 am: Sorey is starting to slide off the bed. Mikleo grabs his shirt and pulls him back, now in a somewhat grumbling reversal of their initial position, nose presses to Sorey's neck as it also is one of the safer places to avoid limbs. 7 am: Mikleo good morning it's time to get up why are you so grumpy I slept great what's for breakfast why are you looking at me like that did you want to cuddle more wait put that book down don't throw that at me geez fine I'll make breakfast mister I'm not a morning person.

[purplerose244]

Sometimes I just come across old ships thinking I'm over it, but as soon as I see them again I just? Can't help it?

SORMIK IS ONE OF THEM 🧡💙🧡💙

AND THEY ARE BOTH SO BEAUTIFUL AND PURE AND ADORABLE AND I WOULD DIE FOR BOTH OF THEM AND I SOB EVERYTIME I SEE THEM AND AAAAAAHHHHHH 😍🤩😍🤩

... so yeah 😅 I guess there's a reason why it's called OTP 😚

At least they didn't obliterate my heart like... other ships... 😭😭😭 You gotta suffer for things that matter 💪💪💪

[kouhii]

I’m not kidding with you when I say I just spent 5 minutes giggling when I got this one.

I’m just here trying to picture Mikleo trying to explain how in love he is with Sorey and coming up with “peas in a pod” because he is still too embarassed to use the word “lover”.

Where is my “husband” title I want to marry this perfect dorky man

[managician]

001 and Tales of Zestiria? :D

Favorite character: MIKLEO!!!! BABY BOY BABY

Least Favorite character: As cool as I think the idea was, Rose’s role in the overall story and addition to the party is very... Very very wacky... And I don’t like how Sorey had to train his ass off from the beginning to get to where he is, and then Rose was just like “hi I can do everything you do but probably better and cooler for no reason!”, it’s just :///. So yeah, I’ll go with Rose for this one.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Sorey/Mikleo, Sorey/Alisha, Alisha/Rose, Alisha/Mikleo (I think their friendship was cute don’t sue me) andd I can’t think of a fourth one... Maybe Edna/Mikleo? Their bantering is also adorable!

Character I find most attractive: Mikleo or Alisha... They’re both so pretty gosh... But Lailah too!! UGH ITS HARD TO PICK

Character I would marry: Mikleo definitely...... Prime BF material.

Character I would be best friends with: I think Lailah or Edna! We both have the same kinda weird/random humour :’)

A random thought: Sorey is a kind and cute protag y’all are just mean.

An unpopular opinion: Apparently Zestiria is one of the most hated games in all of the Tales of Series...? I don’t know about y’all but as a newcomer to the franchise I love it! The gameplay is fun and the character skits are all adorable and really give off that cute family group feel. Plus all the female characters have good designs and there’s not any cringy fanservice... I just don’t really get all the hate it gets tbh.

My canon OTP: sormik is probably as canon as we can get~

Non-canon OTP: alirose.. idk their ship name but i love them

Most badass character: ZAVEID... his moveset and battle style is so so cool!!

Pairing I am not a fan of: um. apparently sorey/rose is a thing? I... I really don’t dig it at all...

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Alisha. Rose was beyond salvation from the first moment for me, but Alisha... Alisha could’ve been so much more... Not that I don’t love her already and I understand the events of the game called for it, but... :(

Favourite friendship: Early Sorey + Mikleo + Lailah interactions are super fun! 

[lnkedmyheart]

How do I always fall back onto my TozX salt train? Oh I know, because you can't enjoy the content on any other platform than this without running into tozx supremacists. Anyway, the problem with me not liking the anime isn't that I am a sormik shipper.

The problem I had with the anime is multifold and a lot of it can unfortunately be boiled down to Alisha. Again, this doesn't mean people hate her, people seem to have very warm or neutral feelings for game Alisha and legitimately missed her when she left, but the problem with anime Alisha is that she's like a black hole in the center of the story just stretching and bending reality till it dissolves and disappears into her existence to never be seen again. Like we WANTED her to leave at some point because we missed the remaining 6/8 of the cast.

The writing is screwed because Alisha is now the mc and everyone is suddenly a minor or side character that barely contributes anything outside of being cardboard cutouts occasionally rattling off info dumps.

The narrative is screwed because Alisha's story is more important than the core aspect and message of the story is secondary to Alisha's personal life.

The characters are screwed because, well, they are no longer characters. They are utterly replaceable and honestly you could just turn them into a bunch of rocks cause all they really do (outside of bait people with dry sormik) is turn into pretty magical outfits for Sorey, Alisha and Rose. Why? Because Alisha was far more important to explore by shoving her into every situation with Sorey in season 1 and Rose in season 2.

Seriously, what's the real value of each of the seraphs to any of them in the anime? What's Dezel's real value to Rose? What's Mikleo and Lailah's to Sorey? Nothing. You know why? Because they have no value to Alisha, they mean nothing to her so you couldn't explore any other bond they could share with Rose or Sorey because that would reduce the focus on Alisha.

No I'm not calling Alisha a callous character, I'm saying that anime Alisha can rarely be bothered to really interact with or acknowledge the seraphs properly in most scenes.

How is it that Alisha armatizes but somehow still doesn't have conversations with the seraphim? Wasn't her dream in the anime the exact same as Sorey's? Why is she so unbothered about the fact that the seraphim are sitting all along watching humans eat while she Sorey and Rose have conversations?

Also the fact that Sorey is also not interacting with any of the seraphim whatsoever as though they were afraid that it would diminish Sorey's weird ooc obsessiveness with Alisha. "Hi I'm Sorey, my dream is to create a world where Seraphim and humans can live together in harmony, excuse me while I focus solely on humans and ignore the existence of my best friend who I supposedly love deeply and all the other seraphs who can't even talk to or interact with anyone else".

Like anime Alisha doesn't have any relationships. She is adored by everyone, but she barely does anything to actually help them, runs away to go off on adventures and makes the shepherd her personal PA with a clear bias (yea anime Sorey has a clear bias towards Hyland, shocker!!!)

Even Alisha's relationships aren't developed, she has conflict with a few people, her conflict with Rose (which was done...okay but they kind if destroyed Rose's entire character anyway) and conflict with her dad apparently but like...I don't really give a shit about this random ass dragon(really now?!?!?!).

Anime Alisha is pretty trash overall as a character because she is the definition of a black hole sue. This is the official description. 👇. Its a sign of really poor f tier writing.

Game Alisha was flawed and sweet and went out of her way to make seraphim feel accepted. She was saddened at the losing her position as the squire because she could no longer see the seraphim and go on adventures and learnt that she has duties and a role that she couldn't run from. The manga did her more justice and clarified things far better but it stayed true to who she was.

Like people insisted Rose was a Mary Sue in the game when she was just gifted and acclimated to being armatized via certain events. She wasn't ever OP tbh but nobody would have cared if Rose was a dude with the same storyline. But then you have anime Alisha who is literally bending the world to her will and thats good characterisation.

I think my biggest problem with the anime only fans is that some of them will make snide remarks about why SorMik is popular and call it blatant fujo bait because that was all it was in the anime, bland meaningless over sensual moments that ultimately meant nothing. They don't hold a fraction of the connection these two share. Hell half the game sormik shippers were convinced they were married or something with how they acted like a couple that's settled into that years long casually intimate relationship. The anime only fans also often claim that Alisha was the best character and deserves more love and everyone else is bland and boring. And you know what? I can see why, because like I said, everyone else was cardboard. "I don't get the hype around Mikleo" well of course you don't, that was barely even Mikleo. All Mikleo was in the anime was a pretty white haired anime boy sensually screaming out to the het dark haired protagonist every ten minutes. But you tell them that canon source material is different and they use it as an excuse that "well I only know the anime" and then there's others insisting that people skip the game and only bother with the anime.

Like...anime Alisha was the biggest problem of tozx. Not Alisha. Anime Alisha specifically. Its like they watched the game's op and the ova once, liked the blonde in tiny short shorts, read a summary and made the anime.

[codeadleaf]

My @zinestiria copy arrived yesterday yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay~

Everything is sooooo pretty, I’m almost afraid to touch :’) Now, I won’t be able to read it right away but here are some quick comments on those wonderful looking merchs:

@gogoberu So cute, there will never be enough Sorey/Mikleo charms out there, never! @queencanis I’ve been waiting so long for some tiny miss Creep Girl merchs, thank you!! @cdrart I wanna carry the pin everywhere but I’m afraid to lose it ;___; @saji-tan There’s cute armless normins, and then there’s Phoenix, raising from dark matter/ashes looking all glorious xD @sennel Cute waiters in cute aprons @applegelstore All hail the lesbian Shepherd and her lesbian Squire! @piripika NEVER ENOUGH ADORABLE TINY SORMIK!! (btw I love the continuity of the pregame sormik and postgame rosali prints) @z04 It looks like the world’s fate depends on that cake, maybe it was the true way to save Heldalf all along…

Everything is just fucking pretty and I shall find a nice spot to expose it!

Thanks to all the contributors for their hard work, I’m sorry I couldn’t join the discord to talk with you guys, but I promise to give all of you some feedback once I read the zine!

Thanks to everyone for supporting us and ordering the zine!

And last but not least, I would like to thank and congratulate our dear mods Cray and Lou for making this zine happens, for staying strong despite all the harships and always doing everything they could to keep us informed and make things work. You guys did great and deserves lot of love and hugs!

This was my first time participating in such amazing project and I will forever be grateful and treasure this experience.

Thank you for everything <3

[tenebriism]

I'm so glad my Sorey finally has a Mikleo again! I adore talking to and writing with you and I'm super excited to get to hang out with you at Katsucon! My Sorey cosplay sadly doesn't fit me anymore but I'll still be giving you a huge hug either way!

2022 is coming to an end! Is there anything you want to tell the mun before the year ends?

// Ahhh, SARAH!! The Sor to my Mik. As someone who greatly loves Tales of Zestiria and Mikleo, thank you for giving me the opportunity to expand on him more and just... scream about him and the game itself. AND EVERYTHING ELSE. I dunno, I'm just rambling at this point, but you're super kind and patient, and I'm so glad to have met you. I can't wait to OFFICIALLY meet you at Katsu! ; _ ; I will definitely bring you a Sormik gift. <3

Happy New Year to my Sorey. ^_^ Here's to many more cute and happy Sormik moments, because these boys deserve the world and MORE, as do you, Sarah.

[applegelstore]

talesofgay

God I still adore and love seeing the wonderful art you provide for these AUs and in general Sormik >w<

THANK YOU I’m glad my self-indulgence doesn’t drive everyone else off X,D