#that game was so special to me it was what got me into ff

[sunsetzer]

Torn between wanting to finish opera omnia before it shuts down and feeling too sad to open the game at all :')

[squoxle]

“Fuck Him, Let’s Play” ~ Felix ff 18+

👾pairing: Lee Felix!bf x Reader!gf | 👾wc: 1.7k | 👾summary: All you wanted to do was spend some time with your boyfriend, Felix. But when your little "Netflix and Chill" session is interrupted by his best friend, Chan, you must find another way to get what you came here for. No matter what. |👾cw: profanity, swearing, alcohol consumption, drunk sex, oral m. receiving, fingering f., creampie, facial, voyeurism, exhibitionism (basically porn with a plot: read at your own discretion)

link to part 2

You were over at your boyfriend Felix's house to spend some time with him. What you didn't expect was for him to be whisked away by his best friend Chan for an all night gaming session.

You sat idly on Felix’s bed as the two of the tapped away. You watched for a little while before you couldn’t take it anymore. You tried entertaining yourself on your phone but it was useless. You came over for your boyfriend not your phone.

“Felix~” you whined.

“Yeah, babe. What’s up?” He said with his eyes still fixed on the screen.

“How much longer are you gonna play the game?” You pouted.

“Uhhh…this’ll be the last game okay,” he said before getting back into the game.

You only sighed in response this was the third time he said that. He and Chan had been gaming for almost 3 hours straight now without a break. Unless you count pausing to laugh or change the game.

You were so annoyed by Chan right now. Most of the time you didn’t mind him being around, but he literally barged in.

Before he came over, you and Felix were laying on the couch together getting ready to watch a movie. You both knew that the movie was gonna end up watching itself after a while. But all sexy, freaky, horny thoughts went straight out the window as soon as you heard that knock on the door.

Chan had a special little knock. You immediately knew it was him before your boyfriend even got up to open the door.

“Hey bro!” Chan smiled as he walked in, dapping Felix up.

“Hey, what are you doing here? I told you to come over tomorrow,” Felix said as he ruffled his hair.

“Yeah, I know. But I need to take my mind off of a situation,” Chan raised an eyebrow.

“Situation?”

“Yeah. Remember that girl I was telling you about?”

“Yeah. What about her?”

“Well, today I met her boyfriend.”

“No way…” Felix’s jaw dropped.

“Way. And then she was all like ‘Why are you getting so upset bro? We’re just friends.’ I felt like such an idiot standing there. I couldn’t even hang around anymore. So I cooled off and came over here.”

“Damn. That’s insane. I’m surprised she never mentioned anything about him.”

“Exactly! I mean she could’ve at least told me that. Then I wouldn’t gotten myself so hung up on her y’know.”

“Yeah, bro. I get it,” Felix said placing a hand on Chan’s shoulder. "I think I know exactly what you need right now," Felix smiled.

"To get completely wasted and game till I pass out?" Chan tilted his head.

"You got it," Felix chuckled before walking over to you.

You were still sitting on the couch wrapped up in Sonic the Hedgehog blanket. Before he said a single word, you already knew what was coming next.

"Raincheck?" He smiled nervously. "I'm really sorry, babe, but this is kind of an emergency. I promise I'll make it up to you," he said before placing a kiss on your forehead. "Just a few games, okay. And then we can spend the whole night together."

"Go ahead," you sighed before following him to his bedroom and plopping yourself on the bed. And that's exactly where you've been this whole time.

Since talking to him wasn't working, you needed to try something else. You were desperate, and at this point, you were willing to do whatever to get what you wanted.

You climbed out of bed and walked over to sit on Felix's lap while he played the game. As expected, he happily allowed you to sit between his legs.

His chin rested on your shoulder as he continued gaming, ignoring you as if you didn't even exist.

It was time for the second part of your plan, casually turn him on to get him in the mood. "God, I hope this works," you thought to yourself as you began to slowly move your ass around on his lap.

He sat back at bit, assuming you were trying to get comfortable. That was until you started to do an up and down movement. Almost bouncing, but not quite. Chan was still sitting next to him and you didn't want to divert too much attention to yourself.

"Ngh," Felix grunted as you reached between your legs to graze his dick through his sweatpants with your fingers. "What are you doing?" he whispered to which you only mischievously smiled in response.

Felix wasn't pissy drunk yet, but he was getting there. And you knew once that happened, you could do almost anything to him. Chan on the other hand was a lot drunker than Felix.

Chan reached for the beer bottle that sat on the dresser before tipping his head back to catch the last drop on his tongue.

"Damn...I'm all out," he said looking at the empty bottle. "Did you want me to get you another?" Chan asked as he stood up.

"Ummm, sure. But they're none left in the fridge. You'll have to go out to my car and get the other case," Felix hiccuped as he guided you off of his lap. "Wait. Lemme get the keys for you," His words were slightly slurred together.

You watched as he staggered over to the closet to grab his car keys out of his jacket pocket. "Here ya go, mate," he said placing the keys in Chan's hands.

Felix plopped back down in the chair as Chan left the room. You were standing up near the TV, but instead of sitting back down on his lap, you crawled between his legs.

You took both of your hands and pressed them up against Felix's semi-hard-on. He was staring at the ceiling until you did that. "Woah, babe. What are you doing?" he said as his eyes widened.

"I'm doing exactly what I came over here to do. Have a little fun with my boyfriend," you smirked as you reached into his pants and pulled out his dick.

"Babe, we can't do this right now. Chan's still here. Can you please wait just a little bit longer?" he pleaded.

"Uh uh. I've waited long enough. I want it right now," you pouted before spitting on his tip and wrapping your lips around him.

He threw his head back as you began sucking on his tip. You bobbed your head up and down as your boyfriend gripped onto the arm rests.

"Mmm," he moaned softly as you looked up to meet his eyes. You knew that nothing turned your boyfriend on more than the lustful way you looked at him while sucking his dick.

"Hey, I got the drinks--" Chan stopped in the door frame as he came in to see you sucking his friend off.

"Oh shit!" Felix immediately snapped out of the seductive trance you had put him in and tried to cover himself.

"Umm...should I go?" Chan asked as both of you looked at him standing there in shock.

"Uhhh...I...umm" Felix stammered as his eyes darted back and forth between you and Chan.

"You guys can keep playing the game. I don't mind," you shrugged.

"What? Are you sure?" Chan asked while Felix sat speechless in the chair.

"Yeah. You two can play the game while I have fun down here," you smiled.

"Seriously?" Felix gasped.

"Yeah," you giggled.

"Umm...okay," Felix stuttered as Chan came over to sit next to him while you got back to sucking his dick.

You stroked up and down on his dick as he tried to stay focused on the game in front of him. However, you felt another set of eyes on you. It was Chan, he was almost drolling while he watched you suck his friend off. You looked down to see the growing bulge in his pants.

"Dude! What the fuck? This is my girlfriend," Felix spat as he caught Chan getting turned on by you. "Look, babe. We're gonna have to do this later. I don't wanna see my friend drooling over you right in front of me."

"Sorry, man it's just--"

"Fuck him, let's play," you said cutting Chan off as you started sucking your boyfriend's throbbing dick again. Before he could even argue with you, you moaned with his cock in your mouth. The vibrations from your throat were just what you needed to distract him.

You pushed your head down trying to fit as much of him in your mouth as possible.

"It's okay just this one time baby," you cooed as Felix nodded in response.

You caught Chan palming himself in your peripheral vision. Noticing that you were also getting him turned on, you really began performing. You started to suck harder and faster as you reached your hand between your legs to finger yourself.

Chan pulled out his dick and began stroking it up and down as he watched you sucking dick while moaning and fingering yourself.

You sat back to suck the wetness from your fingers before wrapping your lips around Felix's dick again. You could feel him getting more turned on as he pushed your head down and grunted loudly while he fucked your throat.

You could feel every inch pumping in and out of your throat. Every so often he would pull back to allow you to get some air, but at this point, he was using your throat like his own personal fleshlight.

"Keep playing with that perfect little pussy of yours," Felix groaned as your head bobbed up and down. Your body quivered as you were nearly about to cum.

Felix watched as your face contorted and pulled his dick out of your mouth as you came all over your finger. Your moans were so sexy that Chan nearly got off at that very moment.

Felix aggressively grabbed your head and forced it down as he filled your throat with his cum. He noticed that Chan was getting close too and motioned him to move closer to you.

It wasn't long before Chan came all over your face, streams of white fluids ran down your neck as he finished.

❀ Thank you all so much for reading! Make sure to check out other works on my masterlist!

❀ 𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝: @chlorinecake @nikisdubblchococake @addictedtohobi @parkjonseongswife @hynjinnn1 @hoyeonheeseung @cas104 @doseoflily @skzenhalove @neoteez01 @fics-jillian-liked @skzfelixlove @hyunjinswifeee @urfavberry @ihrtlix @emily1310universe-blog @tiddiesbruhposts @stay-berry @cherry8183 @hyunjinslovebott @ta3baee @skz-lover21 @skztalkersworld @hyunjinnie2000 @hyunjinswifeyy @luvyblossom @th3-g1rl-y0u-10v3 @bratty-tingz @hyunhoeee @xxstrayland @linovely @tinynana26 @skzblogworld @queenmea604 @yuknows @s-h-y-a @lixiebokie @straykids-is-love @felixs-voice-makes-me-wanna @yoongis-suga-bear

[dutchdread]

Why do you think SE celebrated other ff couples like Zidane and Garnet on ,for example, their website, but not Cloud and Tifa. In fact other ff couples have been confirmed as exactly that but not Cloud and Tifa. Why do you think that is?

Well, there are a bunch of ways to answer this since the question is very vague to me, so first I gotta ask: What makes you think Cloud and Tifa aren't celebrated?

Not pictured: Cloud and Tifa getting celebrated apparently.

FFIX is my favorite game of all time but I can't think of a single time where Garnet and Zidane got "celebrated". I'm sure you can find times if you go out and look, but the same goes for Cloud and Tifa. When I think about them I can remember countless times they got "celebrated" in a multitude of ways. For instance, we have SE consistently liking Cloti posts:

Or bringing up things like "words aren't the only thing that tell people what you're thinking".

Or giving them matching outfits:

Hell, I could argue that the very existence of Advent children is a "celebration" of Cloti, seeing as it was originally envisioned as just a short story about Cloud, Tifa, and the kids.

How is Traces of two pasts talking about how Tifa fell in love with Cloud not a celebration? How is "2,000 Gil Leading to a Hero" talking about Cloud wanting to become Tifas "special existence" not a celebration?

And this is ignoring of course that essentially the entire Remake has felt like a celebration of Cloud and Tifas romance to the point where it has been more central to the story than even the romance of Squall and Rinoa was in FFVIII. So when you say they're not celebrated, what do you mean? Do you mean that they're usually described as childhood friends in relationship charts and descriptions and the like when characters like Zidane and Garnet are not?

Because if so it makes me wonder why Zidane and Garnet are described as "important person" rather than "favors" (the same term often used to describe Tifa btw). It also makes me wonder why Beatrix and Steiner are merely described as "friendly", why Beatrix is described as "loyal to Brahne", and a bunch of different things. Fact is that often times these relationship charts merely describe the predominantly occurring relationship DYNAMIC during the story AS it is essential to the story, rather than exactly describing the nature of the relationships at the conclusion of the story for the sake of shippers. Which is why we have stuff like this:

Even though Wakka and Lulu literally end up raising a baby. This is also why the relationship chart for Advent Children only lists Aerith in relationship to Cloud as "sense of guilt", because while obviously Aerith is more than just an object of guilt, the fact that Cloud feels guilt towards her is what's actually important to understanding the events of the movie.

So when we have stuff like this it doesn't tell us that three girls favor Cloud, but Cloud doesn't favor any of them, or that all three girls are equal, or that the game doesn't confirm anything. It just means that the predominant dynamic we see played out in the story is of them favoring him. The actual objective confirmation of Clouds feelings then come from the myriad of quotes we have where it's stated that in the lifestream it is revealed that Cloud and Tifas feelings....are mutual. So even if it were the case that Garnet and Zidane were described as mutually favoring each other. That would not be something that's to be wondered at. Zidane and Garnets main dynamic right from the start is that of a girl and a boy who has a crush on her. It's neither a reveal not a change of dynamic, but what matters FOR THE STORY is that they're important to each other. With Cloud and Tifa the fact that Cloud has always been in love with her has historically always been presented as a twist, even in Rebirth while it's clear that Cloud is in love with Tifa the notion that this has gone on since childhood, along with the depth and the fact that it's the primary cause of Clouds internal strife, is still something of a reveal, and you generally avoid revealing important twists in books that essentially discus the state of a games story as it is during the game itself. The remake Ultimania doesn't spoil the exact nature of all the different Sephiroths, nor the exact nature of Aeriths knowledge, those are for part 3 to reveal. But even if none of that were true, and Square-enix absolutely refuses to "celebrate cloti", whatever that means, it is still kind of a moot point, because the unwillingness to explicitly confirm a ship is not the same as no ship being canon. As I've discussed at length in the following article: Link

Nomura : “AC is a piece of work made by Japanese people. In Hollywood movies, I think there is a tendency where the meaning of all the scenes have to be expressed clearly but, this isn’t something like that. With our work, the viewer is free to decide how they interpret or enjoy it. The staff has their own answers to all the scenes in the movie such as the angel statue that makes an appearance many times. But, even if someone who has watched it interprets it differently, then that is just another answer. I guess “comparing answers” with friends is one of the ways you can enjoy the movie. I think AC is a movie that makes those who have watched it, want to talk about it with others.“ ~FFVII AC Prologue Book

The reason they might not want to be too explicit about any specific ship might simply be that they don't want to deprive people of the pleasure of having their own interpretations. That doesn't mean that things aren't canon. After all: " The staff has their own answers to all the scenes". A sentiment that is again reflected in the following interview.

A straight forward path has Cloud ending up with Tifa, and there are no branching paths here. The game allows you leeway to project your own feelings onto it, but it doesn't actually change the story. The developers have their own interpretation, and that's the interpretation that's guiding the story. If YOU want to believe Cloud actually loves Barret, you can, there is nothing or no one stopping you......but they'll never get a kiss. Additionally, if we are to agree with the premise that Cloud and Tifa (and by extension Cloud and Aerith) aren't celebrated, then there is a corollary question to yours that should be asked as well. If both ships are valid, then why aren't they just both celebrated? Rather than not celebrating either ship....why not celebrate both? Make it explicit that that his a "choose your own waifu" game and Cloud genuinely loves whichever girl you want. Quintessential quintuplets probably is the most famous anime "love war" of the last few years, and it has 5 women vying for the same man, with one unambiguous winner. And yet, rather than the other 4 not getting any "celebration" the 5 are almost always portrayed as equal, all 5 of them often even wearing bridal gowns.

So why not Cloti and Clerith? Why doesn't Square enix celebrate Cloud and Aerith by putting both Cloud and Tifa, AND Cloud and Aerith on some official Couple page? Or hell, I'll do you one simpler.....why doesn't Square-enix celebrate both Cloti and Clerith by giving BOTH an optional Kissing scene? Answer? Because they're not both valid, because this is not a game with branching paths, it's a game where you end up with Tifa, but has in the past given you leeway to project your own incorrect interpretations onto it. But the interpretations are still incorrect, even if not outright corrected. And when telling the story properly requires those incorrect interpretations to be overruled, they will be, as shown by the following quote by Nojima.

"in FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, there will be much less room for player imagination. This fact will probably change the feel of the story considerably. People who know the original might not know quite how to take it. Such is the fear that I have. But I also have conviction. It should be possible to feel a much deeper connection to Cloud as you join alongside him"

Anyway, I'm too busy (and lazy) to spend too much time going around looking for more times that SE celebrated Cloti, but I think enigmaphenomenon already did that pretty well with the following article, so I'll link that as a nice resource: "Cloti Merchandise by Enigmaphenomenon"

Tl Dr; concerning celebrating Cloti.....Who got a kissing scene again? Oh yeah

[talisidekick]

At some point I let myself slip. I hit my peak before I graduated college. It's been downhill from there. I got an associates degree in computer programming but failed to use it, failed every interview. It's been 8 years since, I think I've forgotten most of it. Yet the 40k CAD loan to get it remains. 40k for a piece of paper that every employer finds useless, and now it doesn't even say my name on it. Worse still, what I was taught doesn't even translate in the industry in my area that well. Employers want C and C++. Two languages I don't know that well because academia didn't teach them.

I was an impressive writer in university before I dropped out. I've read my own papers and my current writing quality has dropped.

I've got no art skill. Not sure why I'm trying.

I was, at one point, a pretty decent gamer. Not now. Once again, my quality of play has dropped.

I was a pretty decent martial artist when I was younger. Not now. My muscle mass has suffered greatly and I'm out of practice.

It kind of feels like everything I prided myself in ... I just couldn't keep up. Now I'm sitting here at 30 wondering where the fuck I went wrong. And I kind of know where. I was hiding in skills, running from the darker things behind me. I wasn't being myself. All I achieved wasn't because they were things I wanted to do. I had to do them. Where I went 'wrong' was I figured myself out.

And now I'm sitting here in a life of half skills. Half skilled at gaming. Half skilled at programming. Half skilled at martial arts. Shit skill at art (only just started). And I don't know where to go. What to do. 30 years to end up at square one on the board of life with the debts and problems of someone half way through. I want to be worth something, have some skill worth noting, and I tried but here I am mediocre at everything. Unremarkable. All my friends have skills they can be proud of: programming, accounting, piloting, artistry. I got ... nothing.

People talk about being neurodivergent and having a special skill or special interest. What's mine? I got ADHD, OCD, Autistic and ... fuck all to show for it. Worse still, I'm unemployed and have been for almost six months. Resume's sent out and silence back.

I'm not doing so great. I have to figure something out. I want to live this life. I have goals: FFS, GCS, look cute, be happy. I'm just stuck not knowing how to start. Where to start. I just know I need to start now.

This blog might go silent for a bit. I ... guess I have a life to rebuild. To make ... mine.

[wsancho]

@Dark Cloud

Happy 33rd anniversary to FF4. This one is special to me, it's up there right under Final Fantasy 6 (some people put FF9 on that spot, but I never played that one).

ProJared called this one the "tropiest" of Final Fantasies, and probably the best entry point for newcomers. I agree, it really is iconic and timeless.

It got a remake and a sequel, but those fell flat in my opinion. This is yet another classic that could really use a proper remake with state-of-the-art graphics. But unlike FF6, I feel that this one could really benefit from some tweaks in the story department. Some events are so poignant, only to be completely obliterated later on... It's still dear to me and got me in the feels many times, even when some plot twists could be seen from miles away (yeah yeah, I have a soft spot for blonde dragoon in blue armor).

The game also punishes the player and gives no rewards for it, and knowing what we know today of human behavior, it's disingenuous for a game to do this.

@RABtoons

So yeah, anyways... Squeenix, where my good FF remakes at?! 😤

[you-have-made-a-fatal-error]

semi-annual tradition of roasting HeR's questionable fucking merch because all their designs are bad again let's goooo ->->->

remember how for a bit there it felt like HeR was putting some effort into making their merch good? desirable? well-designed?

welp it seems pretty clear they're done with that, because i'm sorry but this just looks awful. the font? bad! the horse/lasso clipart? bad! the layout? very, very bad!

"I left my at Shadow 💛 Ranch" are you serious rn? bad! i don't think you tried at all!

actual Mystery of the Seven Keys merch ffs why isn't it called Case of the Seven Keys that sounds so much better has dropped - and while it's nothing special (though some of it is weird - hey do you want an 8x10 metal print of the game 'cover' awkwardly centred on a blurred, indistinct background? 'cause HeR made 'em!) it seems like they can't decide what nancy silhouette to use? because while most of it uses the new exorcist-head-turn pants-y drew silhouette, they've also got a couple pieces with the classic silhouette - the one they haven't used since Stay Tuned for Danger. because who needs brand consistency.

(the nancy silhouette use from mhm to sea - aka for nearly 90% of the games - has not resurfaced.)

the presence of actual KEY merch raises the spectre of who they think is gonna buy all the merch they made during the lead-up to the game - seriously is there any reason someone would buy this now?

i would also argue there was no need for anyone to buy any of these before, but now? $60 for a hoodie with your fucking launch date?? really???

does anyone know what separates the 'classic' icons on the left from the 'deep cut' icons on the right? also wow they're really just never going to acknowledge ran at all anymore huh.

ah yes. noted 'deep cut' references. like henrick. and ethel. and hotchkiss.

these next designs are clearly not the worst things in the store and while I guess they're not awful though I don't like the font they are blatant Bess and George erasure and thus I hate them on principle.

Bess + George > Deirdre. Also, Bess + George > FrankenJoe. hope that clears things up.

the 25 year anniversary merch is a whole load of bad - the 'and all i got was this lousy _____' trend is lame, and has been for 10,000 years, but there are worse crimes. the mug is just boring in a way that looks unfinished rather than minimalistic. font crimes from the magnifying glass - every time i see it i think it says 'snoopers' not 'snooping'. i actually thought the teal callback designs were kind of neat in a nostalgia-bait kind of way until i realized the necklaces were the only option without all the text under the magnifying glass? maybe folks who were more active on the boards get a nostalgia kick from that last one but i'll be honest, it does nothing for me.

i don't mean to be an exhausting pedant but. no sassy detective until trt, no koko kringles until ssh, no easter eggs until dog, no horse shirt until ddi, can't call carson until clk, no lost luggage until dan. also the placement of the text is just. weird. doesn't look right.

and jenna's whale t-shirt still isn't available in green. bye.

[shaakyhaands]

CODVN but (some of) the princes play DND:

How they start playing, idk. Maybe it’s a dare. Maybe it’s a genuine, honest to god attempt from one of the princes to learn more about MC and her habits/hobbies/culture. Imo, Fenn probably did something and of course, the other princes got dragged into it.

Mc: DM

• is the one who introduced the game.

• Teaches the princes how to play

• tortures them when possible.

Toa and Guy:

• Wizards, because MC punked them.

• Convinced them they were the most powerful class at higher levels, neglected to inform them that they start with fuck all health.

• “Here’s this: if you’re so smart, why don’t you play a mundane who has to study magic? Humans play this class all the time, I bet you can’t handle it…”

• “You bet??? YOu BET?? Very well, speak less” *gets hit once, almost dies from 7 points of damage*

• Guy demands the opportunity to change his class, MC responds: “Okay! I’ll let you change your class— and everyone else will get the chance to multi class :)”

Toa: “multi… class?”

MC: “Oh, it’s when you get to reap the benefits of your character occupying two classes at once :)”

Guy grumbles, and falls into a stony silence.

• the two *barely* survive levels 1-3, but somehow they pull through. And suddenly, outside of game, they’ve started acting with a little more respect for those not magically gifted…

Fenn: Paladin.

• Still charisma based, so can still rizz and charm like Fenn is used to.

• But playing as a Paladin also serves as wish fulfillment, because that’s what DND is all about.

• You might be thinking, “A paladin?? But Fenn should be a Bard, it’s so clearly the best fit”. And I get you! But that’s exactly it— Fenn is already a Bard in his real life. Playing as one in game does nothing special for him. There’s no escapism, no fantasy. Here, he can be a knight in shining armor, upstanding and righteous, and all the other things not typically associated with Fenn. All the other things people don’t let him be, that his reputation prevent him from ever really achieving. Here, he can basically role play as Greyson. And honestly, who wouldn’t?

• is the first prince MC introduced the game to

• lowkey gets into it, and eventually does some of his own campaigns :)

Roy: Bard.

• Again, the name of the game is DND Wish Fulfillment. Roy looks up to Guy, who’s attribute is charisma. What class is based on that stat again? BARD. And now, Roy doesn’t have to be morally upstanding and perfect and unsoiled. He gets to be a little shit and enjoy it.

Lynt: I have no idea, NGL, but I’m thinking warlock.

• This is basically a DND joke— if you don’t know, warlocks have like, two spell slots. So if they want to cast more spells, they need to recharge, which is basically some form of rest.

• Don’t let this fool you, warlocks can be fucking BUSTED. Those two/three spell slots, they put them to fucking WORK. But they gotta get their rest in, dawg.

• in this way, they remind me of our sleepy boy. Quietly powerful as hell, but really only fuck around if they HAVE to. Otherwise, they kind of just mind their business.

Rio: Barbarian

• one of the easier classes to start with— and I know they’re ALL just starting, and I love Rio, but he can use the training wheels. Ain’t no shame in that.

• he approaches life in a way that’s very similar to barbarians: in a story, when Toa was telling him he was trying to put too much magic through too small an opening, Rio’s response was “oh, I know what to do! That just means I need to use EVEN MORE magic!” Like, shit, go off king.

• unlike some of the other princes, I don’t think he would be adverse to using melee over magic.

Lance: Rogue/Druid RANGER

• Lance gets to multi class because 1. I’m biased, and 2. I can see arguments for both classes.

• you may be thinking, “but shaaky, he’s the prince of wrath! His kingdom’s main export is mercenaries, ffs. Shouldn’t HE be a barbarian, or at least a fighter?” And again, I hear you! But, you gotta remember the magic words! Say em with me: “DND is wish fulfillment”. Lance fucking HATES how his kingdom is ran. That’s like, 80% of his story. He wouldn’t WANT to play a character built like that. Unless… it was for the people.

• correct me if I’m wrong, but Lance is the only prince who knows what it’s like to be poor. Not just a commoner, like actually destitute. He’s probably the prince with the most street smarts. And lowkey, he’s probably had to steal shit to survive at some point. He 1000% would ace the rogue class, and would probably stun the princes while he did it.

• Lance: “I loot the body”

Toa: “pardon?”

Lance: “I slit the guards throat, he fell over prone. I loot the body, for whatever valuables are on his person.”

MC: “make an investigation check”

Lynt: “…😨”

• Druid is there if he wanted to just fuck around and hang with animals.

• RANGER, oh my GOD ranger is RIGHT THERE, how did I miss that—

• Ranger is basically the flavor you get when you mix rogue and druid together, so it makes sense that it would fit Lance

• the man fucks off to the forest first chance he gets, everytime.

• just give him a bow already— he probably knows how to use it given his Ira background

• it’s the final battle, the other princes are up against the BBEG: Toa and Guy are on the brink of death, Roy and Rio are down, Fenn and Lynt are barely hanging in there— and then out of nowhere, a hissing noise rings out above everybody, followed by a sickening thwa-CHUNK. An arrow has lodged itself smack dab between the BBEG’s eyes, he falls over, dead. From 600 yards away, Lance’s character stands up, says “finally”, and leaves.

Other silly little head canons:

• instead of maps, MC uses magic to generate basically holograms of bosses and character minis.

The holograms move. So when the giant beast bellows, I mean it literally bellows, claws out and spittle flying and everything. More than once have the princes jumped back in their seats, genuinely scared by the images she generated.

Toa, traumatized: “Remember when I said you had no imagination?… I take it back. I take it all back…”

Guy, thinking to himself: if she ever did go evil on us, we’d be fucked…

• MC will call them on it if the princes lapse out of character.

MC will remind them their characters are, in some way very starkly, different from themselves, and for the story, those differences matter.

Guy: “what do you mean, he said he wouldn’t let us past?”

Mc shakes her head, does an accent: “gainst the rules, boy. Can’t be doing that”.

“Against the—?! You will LET ME PAST, you insolent mongrel—”

Mc: “roll to intimidate.”

Guy: “roll?”

Mc: “I’m sure, being a huffy prince of a powerful kingdom and all, demanding stuff usually works for you. But might I remind you, your highness— that you are playing a game. and in this game, your character is a scrawny, bookish sapling of a man who weighs about a third as much as the guard you’re talking to, and is around half his height. Tell me, what’s your charisma modifier?”

Guy frowns, but looks through his character sheet.

Guy: “… negative one?”

MC smiles: “Your character has the charisma of dragon piss filled boot. Which means you need a 16 or higher, otherwise this guard is going to laugh in your face and pat you on the head.”

Guy stares at MC, but says nothing.

Mc: “Now, your wisdom modifier?”

Guy: “what?”

Mc: “your wisdom modifier, what is it?”

He checks his sheet again.

Guy: “… it’s a positive 4.”

Mc: “you’re right, it is. Which is a hell of a lot better than a negative one. So, while it may not be intuitive, you’re going to be much more likely to convince this man to let you through if you utilize a wisdom based approach, as opposed to relying on charisma.”

Toa snorts: “what would you know of wisdom?”

Mc: “might I remind you that being an asshole is not listed as one of your character’s traits? Also, your character is currently otherwised engaged, trying not to die from missing the last step on the staircase. As such, you can’t hear this exchange.”

• Eventually, after getting familiar with the games mechanics, the princes do a campaign where they get isakied to Earth.

MC throws a lot of mundane shit at them, and they absolutely flounder trying to make any sense of it.

Guy: “Peanut butter?? What do you mean he’s allergic to peanut butter, what the devil is that??? Epipen??!”

Lynt, confused: “Almond milk?… how do they…?”

Toa: “I assure the woman that I am not, in fact, “tripping”, as she so claims. The floor is clear and level, and there are no staircases in sight.”

Fenn: “what do you mean he’s 63??? Good Creator, how long are humans lives again? Wasn’t it at least a 1000 years?…”

[doomed-era]

also. i was going to ask this before but i didnt know how to word it: any zelda tropes you like/dislike? stuff like fairies being guides for link or the concept of sages/Legendary Sword or how link and zelda are always depicted or reoccurring characters like impa or beedle or epona. though theres probably not. a lot of tropes considering most games are vastly different from each other. uhh yeah if youve got nothing . things that were done from a zelda game that you liked?

OOH. tbh I had to think about this a bit (my gripes are usually with the fandom and how they depict the tropes as a Strict Narrative Rule) but! I do have some

UH ONES I HATE. this is gonna be long no matter what so it's going under a cut

Number one has got to be making link into a super special boy for basically no reason!!! being from a special type of knights is. so irrelevant to everything else about alttp link that I think a lot of people legitimately forget this. it barely ever comes up and it's honestly not that important to the story except as an excuse for why link's the only one that can grab the pendants and pull the master sword, which. why not just have him be the one to do this because he's just really determined? Ocarina of Time...tried this, sort of? almost completely irrelevant AGAIN. in twilight princess and wind waker they are just some guy basically and this is the best direction they could have gone with his character. except they ruined it in botw and ss and I will neverrrr forgive them for this. botw link beats up grown men at five years old he's like superbaby instant knight and I HATE it. it's just stupid. I don't even care that it applies pressure to him as a character and seems to affect him; they could have just made it an in-universe lie and it would have had the exact same effect so genuinely screw that trope

number two is calling random soldiers knights stop fucking doing this. i dont care that its fictional fantasyland it annoys me

number three! the 3D games' great fairies! I hate almost all of them the oot/mm great fairies are freaks, botw ones are so pretty but they're creepy as hell, and twilight princess is just a naked lady and it's stupid I hate her. wind waker minish cap and alttp fairies are gongeous though

number four. everyone thinking link is cool and or hot. I hate this in universe and in the fandom. I don't care that the devs wanted to make him """"cool"""" he's 100% always a LOSER!!!!

number five I hate the hijacked by ganon trope in zelda games so much. STOP ffs please let ganon/ganondorf take the spotlight we all love him. or let another villain be the main baddie

ok now for ones I like :)

nunberone...SENTIENT MONSTERS SENTIENT MONSTERS BABEY SENTIENT MOSNTERS ILVOE SRENTIERHSDJKFHSFHAAAAA

GRRAAA ITS A SECRET TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOE THE MOBLIN!!! KING BULBLIN SAYING HE FOLLOWS THE STRONGEST SIDE!!! THE ENTIRE DARK WORLD ITS SO

two. npc companions...rips off my shirt to reveal another shirt that says I LOVE MIDNA AND TATL AND EZLO AND KING OF RED LIONS AND GHOSTIE ZELDA AND MEDLI AND MAKAR AND TETRA AND SIDON AND YUNOBO AND

number three...I love random gods and spirits that are just hanging out because. keaton malanya zephos satori light spirits what have you. theyre great I need more of that.

number four incredibly weird npcs. need i say more

number five soldiers being extremely incompetent and dumb or getting possessed. soldiers as enemies or easily corruptible people

number six that one character that doesn't like link. you know what i mean (revali. groose. mido. iirc ralph? maybe? I haven't played much of the oracle games)

number seven hyrule with a dark and bloody past. and not only that but a fairly simple presentation of it that's clearly hiding a more complex underbelly. its just neat to see simple, clear-cut writing tell you so much with so little. it's a big reason I love alttp; it's simple but there's so much grief in it

number eight uh. clawshot/hookshot :] good stuff

[mostmagical]

nicole my love will you rank your top three or top five or top ten video games… whichever number you wish to gush about… i love you…

hi sunny..... oughh I have a tough time picking favorites.... I looked at this question like a homework assignment.. I did a top 10 and I put reasoning even though you did not ask for that but I'm putting it under this read more in case you want it... you don't have to read more though... but you can... i love you...

Top 10

Kingdom Hearts - Obviously of course. I don’t always even rank KH1 as my favorite KH game but basically this was my “oh games can be like that?” game. Until I played this, I mostly played simulator games and movie tie-ins and Barbie games, and I loved those but this one had a STORY I could bury myself in. I forced the friend I played this game with to sit and wait while I read through every journal entry and character file looking for MORE, because I was so immediately hooked on everything.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - This one always ranks high not just because of the story, which I love, but because this was the first game I ever beat entirely by myself. A lot of people skip or can’t stand this game so I’m extra proud of myself tbh. But this is the game where one of my favorite characters became one of my favorite characters, so it’ll always have a special place.

Ōkami - I love this game so much… It’s so visually stunning, I love the unique game play, and Amaterasu is such an amazing protagonist despite the fact that she does talk outside of barking and howling and also she is literally a dog. But she’s so good. There’s a dedicated bark button, which is important. AND THERE’S FISHING!

Final Fantasy X - I’ve literally never sobbed more over a piece of media in my entire life. The game wasn’t even over yet. I had to fight a boss with tears in my eyes. This was my first FF game and oh my god. Oh my god. I can say no more.

Horizon Zero Dawn - I got so sucked into this game. It was all I could think about for months. I love the environmental storytelling and the world-building and Aloy is a female protagonist WITHOUT a love interest in this game and it’s so huge to me and ugh. UGH.,

Hades - This game is so fun… I usually don’t like games that make me feel like I’m struggling but they somehow made it such a joy to die over and over again and see what’s up in the house. The sheer amount of unique dialogue makes it impossible to get annoyed. And it’s just FUN. Full of complicated family dynamics and Greek mythology… Collectibles… WOO (also has fishing)

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - This is a really sentimental add, but it’s genuinely one of my favorites. I have so many memories of me and my childhood best friend staying up until the wee hours of the morning playing this game, only to go to bed and set an alarm to get up and play it again. AWL has some of the best NPCs of all HM/SOS games, and also the cutest cows. Ever.

Final Fantasy XV - FISHING. And also stories about bonds we build… friendship… ough.. I love sitting in the back of the car and letting Ignis drive and feeling like we’re all on a friendship road trip together. Random stops for pictures and bathroom breaks included. Luna deserved better but the hours I spent fishing made up for that.

Persona 5 Strikers - It probably seems silly to put this here and not Persona 5, but I really loved Strikers so much. It had such satisfying gameplay, completely different from the source material, yet still somehow felt like such an homage to the classic movesets. It was a really good adaptation to a new genre. I loved the story and the new characters, who MADE ME CRY! and I think it’s such a shame, because a lot of Persona players skipped this one!!! Ryuji gets to say fuck. Come on, people.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - I love the characters in this game so much… I miss them… I love the original AA trilogy, but this one was so much fun for me. I love Herlock Sholmes… I love him so much I forgot that his real name is not Herlock Sholmes. All the characters are so dynamic and the cases are so fun… That was a game I wished never had to end.

Special mention to Animal Crossing: Wild World, Barbie Horse Adventures Mystery Ride, Secret Agent Barbie, Ni No Kuni, God of War (2018), Gris... I love video games. Damn.

[anewstartrekfan]

Finished Star Trek TAS today and I got contemplative about the science fiction genre in movies and tv

For the record, tas was fine overall. You know it’s fun to laugh at the animation errors I did plenty of that. But it’s decent 70s kids fair. I wouldn’t put it on for kids today mind you, I’d just show Star Trek prodigy, but still. It very much is a product of its time. However at the same time it demonstrates the biggest hurdle sci fi has faced throughout the ages. The obsession with scale over characters.

There’s a tendency in sci fi where when the people working on a given story get seemingly unlimited resources to make a thing look as epic and grand of scale as possible, they focus on that over making the characters interesting and worth caring about. Not always, but generally it happens a lot. You see it with the big three, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who. To pick on Doctor who for a minute, they pour buckets of money on explosions and guest stars and having a golem Doctor show up in their season 3 grand finale but the episode that season that’s regarded as peak fiction is the one where the monsters don’t even move on screen. They’re literally just statues.

Star Wars has both the prequel and and sequel trilogies for me to point to as evidence of this. For the prequels it was look at our awesome special effects and fight scenes. Oh shit we forgot make the overarching story understandable and matter to the cast before the third movie. And the case of the sequels also have consistent character development and themes. Oops.”

And lastly Star Trek. While my favorite episode is conscience of the king, my second is the empath. The most cash strapped episode of the show. It was filmed almost entirely on a black stage ffs. And yet I felt more emotion watching Kirk, Spock, and McCoy risk their lives and be willing to die for each other than I did watching agent seven and his cat hack a spaceship in 1968 Florida while Kirk and Spock stalk them.

The reason completing tas brought on this thought process was there were many writers who jumped at the chance to work on this show because of the lack of limitations of live action. Their only limit was their imagination and the 24 minute runtime. And as a result they got so caught up in the spectacle of “look at this cool new alien threat/concept,” that most of the time they forgot or didn’t have time to give the characters anything to do besides solve the problem. Or just rehash old episode ideas. But listen, they could’ve had good character interactions within 24 minutes. Doctor who is the easy one to point at but honestly if we jump forward a couple decades, (and genres) Batman and Superman tas managed to have self contained 20ish minute episodes with heart for the recurring cast. It’s not impossible to do.

Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Star Wars, were not successful just because they had cool sci fi ideas, costumes, and special effects that could be merchandised into eternity. They have endured for so long because people are invested in these characters. And if you cannot convince people to care about the characters outside of pop culture recognizability, then you will not retain an audience through the weaker stories, regardless of how much money you sank into how nice the ship looks. Instead it is doomed to fizzle out. For a contemporary example outside of movies, look at Netflix’s Voltron.

Last example and then I’m done. Netflix’s voltron perfectly displayed how you can get an audience invested in a cast of characters and then squander it because the producers/writers didn’t care about character development. After season 2 stuff stopped being character driven and started going “well the writers wanted to tell a gritty, depressing war story.” And in the end what was once one of the most popular Netflix shows is now only ever discussed in the same vain as game of thrones. Just wasted potential and missed opportunities.

I’ll end this rambling blog by repeating that imo low budget character driven sci fi is better than high budget sci fi focused on worldbuilding and cool shit you can do because of special effects or the fact it’s a cartoon. Limitations help make some of the best stories out there because they force you to think outside the box.

And it pains me that after so long a lot of the people who write this stuff don’t get that.

[iexistforidkwhatreason]

Intro Post

My name is Alberto. Most people call me Al, you can call me whatever you want as long as it's not a really fuckin' bad nickname, both in the sense that it's offensive and in the sense that it's just not a nickname I'm comfortable with.

I'm an adult man with He/Him pronouns, I'm multifandom, and if you for some reason want to know my sexuality, I'm still in questioning.

Special interests

Mario, Paper Mario, Miis, Splatoon, Sonic (Although I'm more interested in the antagonists of the series than Sonic himself, to be completely honest with you), Punch-Out, Skylanders, Kirby, and IDFR what else.

Other stuff

- I'm Puerto Rican. English in not my first language. If you see me speaking spanish, that's why.

- I have a short temper, so if something bad happens and I start getting mad, that's why. I apologize.

- My Wii U ID is "LiterallyMiyu" and my main Mii is a redesigned Miyu. It would've been me with my name or similar to it, but the Wii U I got was japanese, and I was trying so hard to make it play games that weren't from the japanese region.

I kept resetting it so many times, it got to the point where I got tired of making my Mii again and again, so I said "screw it" and made my main Wii U Mii this goofball.

The end result was me modding my Wii U 'cuz I couldn't get anything to work. Thanks, region lock.

- I'm not active all the time. If you DM me and I don't respond in a long while, I'm either busy with something and don't want to be interrupted, sleeping, or just taking a moment off the internet.

- I draw.

- If I draw or post something that makes you uncomfy, just tell me about it or simply ignore it. Simple as that.

- We do not speak of most of the art I have drawn and the shit I have said in my teenage years. I was a massive dumbass and edgelord back then, OK?

- We can be friends, yeah, but for the love of God, do not obsess over me. I have had two people do that, and it has not been good, nor was it close to it.

- You can use my art as inspiration, but FFS, do not steal my art.

- "Can I draw something for you?" Yes, unless what you want to draw falls under the category of stuff that makes me uncomfortable, makes me mad, or makes me remember something from the past that I would prefer not to remember. If so, then no, you cannot.

- Do not talk to me about HoneyStarlightz/Lumii. I don't want anything to do with them as much as they don't want anything to do with me.

With that, I leave you with an image of my Mii.

[desertleviathan]

This is a post about my wild Dawntrail Speculations

Beware: Spoilers all over the damn place.

If you are not caught up on the FFXIV main story, and haven't watched the first couple hours of the Tokyo Fanfest, you need to not be here unless you just don't care about spoilers. I'll try to tag all the specific content blocks discussed, but I may miss something in this kind of sprawling analysis.

If you are caught up on all of that stuff... beware anyway. I've had far more hits than misses with this kind of guessing. I suspect it's because I approach this kind of thing from a standpoint of what kind of story I'd try to compose from the available elements as a writer/game designer, rather than from a standpoint of what kind of story I'd like to experience as a player.

Also, some of the spoilers will be for other games entirely, since FFXIV has a habit of drawing inspiration from other FF titles. There are two games in particular that I'm looking at, so if you've got any main series FF games you still plan to finish, maybe keep your distance.

(And I may of course be 10000% full of crap, and completely miss my mark. But if I don't, I don't want anyone feeling aggrieved that I called it before the opening credits were finished rolling.)

Still here? Ok.

First, the part where we lay out the individual elements that seem to be in play.

A location in Dawntrail has been identified as "Solution Nine", which sounds like it will be the new city where Tomestone gear is for sale.

Solution Nine is a high tech location in stark contrast to the vibe of the rest of Tural. It could be Allagan tech, but it's hard to say, since there's so much variance in designs over the lifespan of the empire. If it is Allagan, it's very late Allagan. It reminds me a little of Esthar in FFVIII, but it also reminds me of parts of Cocoon in FFXIII.

Solution Nine is also the name of one of Zidane's special abilities in FFIX that he can only use under Trance, that game's equivalent of a Limit Break.

The Viper job also strongly resembles Zidane's combat style, and I think it's safe to say that Dawntrail will be drawing on FFIX as a primary source of inspiration in the same way that Shadowbringers gave us both the FFVIII-inspired Gunbreaker job and the Eden raids, or Endwalker used FFX references as bosses for the Telophoroi tower dungeons and cribbed all its MSQ patch content straight from FFIV, or too many other callbacks in prior expansions to list. Every prior expansion has had one or two other FF games serve as a major source, although the degree and nature of integration has varied heavily.

The late-game plot of FFIX was about a dying world, Terra, that existed in a parallel dimension in the same physical space with the living world Gaia. Agents of Terra were trying to invade, conquer, and physically/spiritually absorb Gaia in order to revitalize Terra. It was confusing at the time but it had elements that I think were refined later into the concept of Rejoining in FFXIV. Terra had a more organic look to it than Solution 9 though...

... but one place related to Terra may seem very familiar to FFXIV players. This spooky wall of mechanical masks in Oeilivert was stranded on Gaia after a failed earlier attempt by Garland to merge Terra and Gaia, and told the history of the dying world.

Compare to Emet-Selch fully revealed as Hades in the trial The Dying Gasp.

The Allagan Empire was founded personally by Emet-Selch as a tool for facilitating Rejoinings, and was easily the most fruitful such tool so far, given Allag's direct role in two successful Rejoinings, and indirect role in a third via their legacy of demon summoning experiments giving rise to Mhach. It's entirely possible that some Allagan inner circle was privy to their master's goals, much like how in Garlemald, Emperor Varis and a handful of especially trusted aides knew that Emperor Solus was also Emet-Selch.

One of the enemies we've seen concept art for gives me fal'Cie vibes from FFXIII. The fal'Cie were techno-organic god monsters who wanted to also merge two worlds into each other... in this case by literally having their servants pull the hovering-too-close-to-the-planet-to-call-it-a-moon realm of Cocoon out of the sky and crash it into the surface of the planet Pulse. For reasons. The full story is complicated (and not particularly well-told in game).

Of the Thirteen Reflections that were sundered from the Source, the First (Norvrandt), the Thirteenth (the Void), the Fourth, the Eighth, the Ninth, and the Eleventh all survived. At least, if the order suggested was accurate in the helpful illusion the Crystal Exarch used to explain the whole deal.

The other seven shards were of course lost when the seven Umbral Calamities on the source were matched with a worldwide crisis bearing the appropriate aetheric qualities on the respective shard, which provided the right circumstances for that shard's aether to be merged with that of the Source, annihilating the shard and erasing any evidence that its inhabitants ever existed. Which makes Emet-Selch's admonition to "remember us, remember that we lived" particularly stomach-churning, but this isn't about that. Apologies for the digression. I mention it because all of the attempted Rejoinings that have occurred have granted primacy to the Source, but we've never really had it explained what made that one piece out of fourteen pieces more "real" than the thirteen shards to begin with, or what would happen if some enterprising Calamity Engineer tried to reverse the direction of the Rejoining.

The Allagans were known to have meddled with dimensional travel, mainly in the form of pioneering the summoning of Demons a.k.a. Voidsent from the Thirteenth Shard.

The first time the WoL has a chance to visit another shard, we use an Allagan portal at the top of the Crystal Tower to travel to the Void, a.k.a. the Thirteenth Shard.

Y'shtola's ongoing research into traveling to other shards is drawing primarily on Allagan sources. Notably, she has mentioned Allagan sources by name, rather than pointing to the just as accomplished demon summoners of Mhach when trying to punch a hole through to the Void. (To be fair though, Mhach is mainly elaborated on in optional side content, while Allag has its fingerprints all over the MSQ.)

And here's where I pin all the pieces up on my conspiracy board and try to string together all the links with colored yarn.

What if the cyberpunk city of Solution Nine somehow refers to the Ninth Shard? Possibly even originates there, whether as a part of that shard we visit, or an outpost of that Shard's agents built on the Source, or even some kind of extrusion into the Source from a partial rejoining?

What if the Allagans successfully invaded and conquered the Ninth Shard back at the peak of their power, and those colonies present there survived the downfall of the Empire at large? Although the gates may have been sealed behind them when the Crystal Tower was buried and Allagan magical infrastructure at large collapsed.

What if the these Ninth Allagans have figured out a way to punch back through to the Source and are here to "reclaim" the old Empire? This would allow the game's writers to comment on themes of colonial violence that are difficult to separate from the Americas and a setting inspired by them, but without casting any nation of the Eastern continents as the villain, since pretty much everybody on that side of the ocean is having some kind of positive political reform arc right now.

What if the Ninth Allagans are even trying to merge their shard back into the Source, but in a way that grants primacy to the Ninth rather than sublimating it, which would mirror the attempt by Terra to replace/consume Gaia in FFIX?

If my suspicions about the enemy who looks inspired by FFXIII are right, the tools of the Ninth Allagans may draw more inspiration from FFXIII than from FFIX. The tools of the Terran invasion in FFIX were straight up bioweapons for the most part, including the doll-like Black Mages and a lot of lab-grown monsters. But a type of fal'Cie-like servant that blurs the division between God and Machine would seem very appropriate for an Allagan Empire that was allowed to continue advancing.

In general, Y'shtola's been pouring so much effort into researching travel to the other shards that I think we're due for some kind of startling discovery that's less obvious than linking us back up permanently to the First or the Thirteenth (but opens them both up for future content as well).

I know I'm pretty far out in the weeds here, but a link between Solution 9 and The Ninth Shard is a guess I would bet money on. And the the specific details of that link is more... how I would fill in the gaps on that concept, with the elements that are available.

I would say that the big weakness in this theory is that the Allagans are a little played out as a plot device. But there really aren't any other civilizations we know of that could have discovered and visited another Shard. Not even the Ancients, since there were no Shards during the reign of Amaurot, and the later Ascian innovation of traversing the rift by being dead-but-not-really doesn't seem advisable even if it were replicable.

Anyway. I digress again. I think the Allagans are a marginally better fit for this concept than a totally new civilization, but just barely. Another strong possibility is that the residents of the Ninth Shard developed advanced technology all on their own, figured out that a bunch of Genocide Wraiths from the Source were trying to destroy their whole realm (and had done so successfully to a number of other realms), and decided to strike first. But when they got here, we'd already handled it, so now they've got this whole invasion army and nothing to do with it but threaten Tural.

[anxiousbread]

Thoughts on sizzle season 2024 weapons after getting them to 3 star freshness:

Wellstring V: it took a little to learn how to play it, but once I figured that out, boy, it was fun. It also paints a whole lot, though all the bows do, so it was kind of a given.

Mint Decavitator: it's pretty fun, though I'm still having a bit of trouble with the dash range. I also think the other kit will be better.

Custom Hydra Splatling: Hydra itself is already in a pretty rough spot, and this kit doesn't really help it too much. It's very defensive, so unless your team-mates step up you'll be o defence the whole game. Lucky for me I always got matched with at least one person who died no less than ten times.

Custom Range Blaster: it's very fun, but also VERY hit-or-miss. The highs are mountains, and the lows are trenches.

Bamboozler 14 Mk II: Bamboo is fun. Clam Blitz in Anarchy Open is not.

Custom Douser Dualies FF: I never really cared much for the Dousers, and I can't say these ones strike a chord with me either. I may give them a go during splatfest though, as they paint well.

Recycled Brella 24 Mk II: this weapon is just sad, really. It trades the shield strength for shot strength but it doesn't have enough range to actually fight. I would say this is the better kit for what it needs to do, but it REALLY wanted a bomb over Mist. Maybe if bamboo got torp so this could have fizzy. Oh well. 3rd kit or next game needs to save this weapon.

Custom Wellstring V: I think I can safely say I enjoy this weapon. I do prefer the other kit though, the Bomb is nice and wave can often feel like such a nothing special. All in all, it feels quite similar to explo, which is one of my personal favourites.

Charcoal Decavitator: First two stars were enjoyable, the last was not. I think I just lost my footing, but I really didn't like playing this because of that last stretch.

Heavy Edit Splatling Nouveau: Heavy Edit is insanely fun, I have no idea why I never really gave it a second thought until the end of last season. That said, I'll probably pick this one because it doesn't have the responsibility of cooler.

[allycryz]

Thoughts on the BBEGs of the last three expacs

Anyone following me knows I'm an Emet fan so yeah, obviously I love him! I find him compelling as a character and a villain, I think having him with us for most of the expac was well done and made that betrayal feel really really bad.

It somewhat worked for me in Endwalker. There's a lot of unevenness in the writing but Elpis was a highlight and they do a slow build with seeing how Hermes doesn't fit into this society, how anyone coming for Meteion is absolutely going to break him. It fell flat for me in the Altiascope and thankfully some moments in UT saved it for me but I think there were clearly things to edit

Sphene

Here's the thing

She seems so WILDLY untrustworthy to me when she appears and it only gets worse when we learn the horrifying truth--that her people are stripped of their memories of the dead, in an expac where we repeated again and again that the memory of those we lost is how they live on.

Is her ultimate motive that much different from Hermes and Emet? No! But I chafe against when FF as a game tells me "dont you love and trust this person? We know you do" and I felt like the framing was urging me to agree that Sphene was the kindest, sweetest, best queen ever who everyone loved. So every time we got that messaging I think I dug my heels in more and was so grateful for Alisaie saying "uh we're not gonna trust her right?"

Emet's betrayal hits because you start to believe he really is on your side and that he likes you. Hermes' betrayal hits because you've gotten to know this warm, kind man and then watch what made him special be turned against him in Ancient Society.

Sphene's betrayal doesn't hit for me because I was waiting for the shoe to drop the whole time.

(In terms of good villain though, having an AI made from memories of a beloved monarch tasked with preserving life at ALL COST under the guise of love is great! Seeing her fess up to being part of Zoraal Ja's attack and soul harvesting is a great moment! Having Lamaty'i insist there is good in her after that took the wind out of my sails, but she IS a pure-hearted character so I get it)

[restlessreveries]

choosing violence: 8, 9, 10, 19

Oh boy, alright let's see...

I think I'm gonna have to roll 8 & 10 into the same response MOSTLY because I don't really know what to put on 8 exactly but I also feel like 10 kinda applies to it?

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about/10. worst part of fanon

BUT YEAH, it's the fandom's insistence that Sol is miserable/bored/apathetic and desperate to get out of the time loop (or whatever you call this not-loop arrangement). I swear, if I see another fic that has Sol feeling like shit because of the time loop thing I'm going to... not really do anything. Except maybe scream really loudly internally.

It's not like they're re-watching the same movie a thousand times and we only really see a small sample of the infinite possibilities they have on hand, but people are so fond of the despair over time loop thing and I kinda hate it.

9. worst part of canon

That we don't get a "I was a 20-something exocolonist" Continuation? No? That's cheating? Okay, let's see...

This is actually a tough one 'cause I've got several small annoyances but I think the big one is that no matter what you do, nobody will believe Sol about the visions or aliens (Like FFS even Dys can be the person who triggers Sol getting sent to be lobotomized). And special shoutout to that one event on the ridge where Utopia is more willing to believe that Dys has a secret older brother (SHE SPENT 20 YEARS ON THAT SAME SHIP! D8<) than that Sol is telling the truth about Sym being an alien. And then when you talk to the council at the end they go "Yeah no, lol we knew there was an alien presence out there". I get that Sol probably does a lot of faulty predictions too, but I just wish there was a golden route where people started trusting them if you somehow managed to mysteriously be in the right place at the right time to keep saving people's lives. Or something.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

Vace would be the easy answer here but I'm actually not picking him for this. No, I'm gonna pick the other guy who I don't exactly like as as much as I kind of appreciate in terms of writing and find fascinating.

It's Lum.

It took me many months to actually start thinking about this guy more than writing him off as comically inept space dictator-wannabe. But when you take a step back he's actually kind of interesting. I think I'll put why under a readmore tho, 'cause while my earlier responses has some spoilers this goes into more important events.

Basically, I think Lum is interesting because he looks so dumb and inept and comically evil at first glance. But once you learn about the earth fleet, things start to look a bit differently.

Him being so rough with Utopia isn't just him being over the top evil for the sake of it. He's on a major time limit to get this planet into what the earth fleet considers shape, (with the "or else" option being them glassing the place) and Utopia confronts him in front of the entire colony, questioning his leadership and putting him on the spot. So he thinks and acts fast and brutally to force things back under his control 'cause he really can't risk losing that.

And when you think about it, a lot of his decisions are in the same line. Poorly thought out ways to handle the immense pressure he's under. He's not well suited for this, was probably never taught to handle these kind of decisions. The Helios supposedly got there in about 15 years and Lum is listed at 25 at the start of the game (30 on arrival), so he got onboard of that military ship when he was 15, grew up with a very limited worldview and was suddenly put in command of the entire operation. (he was like, second in command of communications before?) With the earth fleet threat breathing down his neck.

This isn't me excusing his behavior by the way. He did things that range from extremely shitty to horrifying. But part of me can't stop thinking about how much more chill he seems if he gets kicked from the leadership role, and that one Glow attack where he recklessly used himself as bait to lure the two faceless.

Basically, if Vace is the guy I want to put in a hamster ball and kick down the stairs. Lum is the guy I'd like to put by a pool and give a gym membership to in the peace ending, and then come back ten years later to see if he's turned into the himbo I suspect he could potentially be.

[hamletisintown]

Favourite games chart!

I saw everyone doing this fun little thing on bsky and I wanted to join!! (Here's where you can make one if you want: https://topsters.org/ )

It was actually so hard to pick so many "favourite" games without feeling like I was watering down the concept of favourite. I overcame this feeling by sorting these into different little categories.

First row is my current top 5 (in no particular order).

Second row is the artsy kids, the ones that really have beautiful music and/or artistic direction, that I could recommend to basically anyone and they'd at least agree that they're really pretty games even if they didn't like them.

Third row is the nostalgia corner, the ones I played when I was a kid and that really stuck with me.

Fourth row is the fun ones, I don't necessarily have a strong emotional connection to them but I had so much fun playing them I want more.

The last row is the joker row, where I put games that either are unfinished (Ultrakill, Deltarune), I haven't finished yet (Ultrakill, Library of Ruina), or… are just as bad as they're good (Genshin Impact). Seriously don't get me started on Genshin Impact. I love it I truly do but man.

Special mention for Othercide for the 1st boss experience that absolutely blew my mind. I would have put it on the list for this alone, but it gave me anxiety and that made me never finish the game. I'll get back to it one day. Listen to the soundtrack, folks, it's got some bangers.

(I tried not to put 2 games from the same series/franchise, like for ex I only TOTK even though I also played BOTW and I like it about as much, I put 1 Ace Attorney -well it's a duology but whatever- eve though there's many others that i also really love. I did put 2 zeldas but they're different enough imo that's it's fine. I also put 3/4 Supergiant Games ones but is it truly my fault if all their games are so good. And yeah there's 2 FF games too. What do you want me to do. There's so many FFs out there and they're probably all good I've only played these 2 from the main series and they're both in my favs I can't do anything about that.)(Anyways I think that's all.)