#these are getting longer aren't they

[stevetown]

Final Fantasy IV

Playtime: 16h 54m Completed: January 3, 2024

Ah, nothing like the smell of the first completed game of the year.

Or for that matter, the dulcet tones of a re-orchestrated soundtrack that was given way too much power. My god does the Pixel Remaster of this game have a repetitive, grating soundtrack. It's unbelievable that Square-Enix would omit the option to use the much softer-on-the-ole-eardrums original OST on the Steam version of the game. The console players get the option! They can turn off random encounters too!

But I digress. An essay on Square Enix's failures when it comes to ports and game accessibility will have to wait for another day.

Final Fantasy IV is...good! It's perfectly fine! I enjoyed my time with it! It is incredibly funny hearing people talk about how good the story and characters are though. I found them charming, sure, but the game doesn't do anything particularly noteworthy on the narrative front in 2024. I suppose it does introduce the now inevitable Final Fantasy third act twist where they raise the stakes by introducing aliens.

In fact, the game is at its best when you look at it more as a historical work than a game just on its own merits. Everything it did, mechanically and narratively, are table stakes for subsequent games in the series. It's charming though. An early scene that involves a character looking out over a lake before being attacked by a monster while his dead girlfriend cheers him on during the fight must have blown minds back in the day. A game using turn based battle mechanics alongside emotional dialogue to tell you a story about a named character? It's taken so far for granted that it's hard to believe it all started with Final Fantasy IV. No wonder this game was bundled with Chrono Trigger for the PS1 release.

Also present is the deftly handled episodic story telling the series is now known for. It's impressive how the game manages to provide a rotating cast of characters that weave their way in and out of your party because of story circumstances. I suppose it was to avoid you having to actually make up a party of your own, but it provides a forward momentum to the proceedings that Final Fantasy I-III lacked. They were really stretching things with five party members at a time though. Poor Rydia sat on the floor for the entire final fight.

As a time capsule for JRPGS, Final Fantasy IV is clearly a momentous entry. The effort they put into every aspect of the game still comes through when you know to look for it (the ATB system originates here!). I can't say I particularly have a desire to play The After Years, a sequel released seventeen years after the fact, but I admire the respect this game continues to garner.

Just please, Square, please let me change the music. I'm begging you. You ruined a perfectly lovely soundtrack.

[bookshelfdreams]

yk when you see someone share a finished handmade item that they clearly spent a lot of time and money on and it's just. The absolute tackiest thing you have seen in your life. And then you ask yourself why someone would waste all those resources on such an eyesore.

(no, of course you can't relate to that because you're a much nicer person than me)

In any case.

BEHOLD!

A wool coat!

The top fabric is handwoven and handspun, the whole thing is sewn by hand, too.

Leftovers. Barely anything, all things considered, which is very satisfying.

This thing took me well over 3 years to make, on and off. And now I'm done.

Thank you for your attention.

[canisalbus]

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It's very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it's now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

✦ Separation ✦

[hinamie]

please any atla gojo lore. anything please im begging on my knees hands pressed together like im praying to god

I really wish I could anon :'> we tried to think of non-spoiler-y lore we could share but turns out every aspect of his character is either a. major spoilers or b. a near-direct echo of canon but make it atla flavoured (ie. his relationships w/ geto/shoko/nanami/haibara; him being The Strongest(tm) in-universe, etc). I guess there's technically the satosugu betrothal but that's already Public Knowledge given that there's art, plus the details are (surprise!) more spoilers

so ...yeah.... unfortunately you'll just have to wait to learn more about him in the fic :"> please accept this compensatory art as apology even though i am Not sorry in fact the pleas of the commonfolk make me cackle

jjk atla!au with @philosophiums

[copia]

endless ghifs 18/? ⛧ source — "the ancient serpent deceiver..."

[findafight]

Robin chose Steve. Robin made the conscious and deliberate decision that she could and would trust Steve. She already liked him! She had fun working and bantering with him! They were already on their way to being weird little bffs and the torture just expedited the process. Steve chose Robin just the same! He thinks she's fun and cool and likes her so much! He chose to be honest and open with her too, putting himself out there.

Even though their interests on the surface level don't match why wouldn't they share them? Steve clearly caves when Robin wants to watch a movie he doesn't think he'll like, Robin can watch a March madness game or five.

Stop trying to take away their bond oh my god people can be close to more than one person!!! Their best friend doesn't have to be dismissive or mean or whatever in order for a romance to be special to them!

[mongeese]

Very small piece overshadowed by everything else but I full almost cried at Elgin's line here. Service to others and service to a cause you believe in as service to yourself. Not working for anyone else but dedicating yourself to your work and your community because you want to, because it matters to you. So fucking true. Anyway totally unrelated hc that definitely isn't me projecting I think Elgin's butch

[Image ID: A screenshot of The Silt Verses transcript. It reads

"PAIGE stares at her. She's genuinely touched.

PAIGE: Do you do anything for yourself, Elgin?

ELGIN: (Almost surprised by the question) All of this has been for me. You know that Paige, don't you?"

End ID]

[gamebunny-advance]

Rotating her in my mind.

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

I FORGOT TO THROW OUT AFTER THE EPISODE RELEASED NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[front-facing-pokemon]

[sastielsfandom]

So, we have money set aside that we cannot touch for a place to live. We have incomes coming our way. We are simply trying to survive until we can secure housing. But we don't have the funds yet because we're waiting on approvals and such. We're going to try and stay at hotels until then, because sleeping in parking lots is scary with a car full of girls.

Especially when we break down and have to push the car. One of those nights we managed to get to a parking lot and most people kept their distance even with greetings. But while I was getting something out of the trunk, bend over looking for something, someone was trying to talk to me and calling me beautiful and it was gross. Saying things to me and my sister but she didn't notice. The only reason he left us alone was because some other guy shooed him away which I grateful for. But a lot of the times there aren't people willing to do that you know? And that was like at two a.m. or something, not an hour of politeness.

Plus it's been raining and that in itself has made me want to curl up in a ball and stay away from cars. Got too much car trauma for that shit.

Basically, trying to avoid more trauma for myself and my siblings, and my mother. If anyone could please help, whether it's a dollar or five, just whatever you can!! We appreciate it greatly!!

Paypal

Cash.app

Gofund.me

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

Obi-Wan and Yoda have no obligations to the Rebellion. There isn't even a Rebellion to be obligated TO when they go into hiding initially. And Obi-Wan IS doing his duty to the Rebellion by protecting one of Anakin's children (they believe Anakin's children might be the only people ultimately capable of taking down the Sith, but they also know that if Anakin and Palpatine get ahold of Luke and Leia and turn them into Sith, all hope is lost). Obi-Wan also clearly has a direct communication to Bail and Breha that they can utilize in dire need, so he's not completely removed from the Rebellion.

Obi-Wan and Yoda are intended to be last resorts. They're considered public enemy #1 to the Empire and if they were out there more obviously fighting in the Rebellion, they'd be getting constantly hunted down by the Empire's full might and probably wouldn't last very long. They might even, at least in the beginning, be more of a hindrance than a help because they could draw attention to a fledgling Rebellion and end up killing it before it has a chance to grow at all. Obi-Wan and Yoda are people the Rebellion has in their back pocket for if all hope is about to be lost and they need to pull out a miracle.

There aren't enough Jedi left to force the few survivors to keep fighting on the front lines, especially when there's next to zero support to keep them from being immediately hunted down and murdered by the Empire. It helps nobody to do that. Ahsoka fights from the shadows for most of her tenure in the Rebellion, but we see in the Kenobi show how quickly Obi-Wan is discovered when he does leave Tatooine. It's a matter of a few DAYS before the Empire is on his tail and he barely manages to escape with the help of other people.

I do think that the whole purpose of Obi-Wan and Yoda being in hiding has been made a little muddied by all of the Jedi characters who have been shown to be fighting in the Rebellion (Ahsoka, Cal, Kanan and Ezra) and so now people go "well if they could do it, why couldn't Obi-Wan and Yoda?" And I get that, but I feel like it misses the point of why Obi-Wan and Yoda chose to go into hiding in the first place. They're protecting the potential future of the Jedi and the last Force sensitive children they even know are left to protect, as well as protecting themselves as potential future assets to the Rebellion and the fight against the Sith and the Empire.

[bylertruther]

not to be too real but since we're talking about it... we always talk about will feeling lonely which is fair, but... it is such an Ugly, isolating, and genuinely heart-wrenching feeling to be the odd one out in your family, and to watch them treat others who aren't related to you the way you wish they would treat you, to watch them perform their familial roles with them and not you.

nancy's the only person in his family that mike could talk to, the only person that has the same trauma and would understand, and yet... he can't. they don't ever talk unless it's to be snippy and bite. nancy spends more time caring about max and will than she does mike, her own little brother.

holly is too young for him to bond with like that. she's just barely a kid, one that still needs to be cared for.

his mom tries her best, but he doesn't feel comfortable being vulnerable with her. considering the fact that she did everything "right" according to society's standards and married their dad of all people, i doubt he feels comfortable showing her who he really is. he lets her hug him when he's at his lowest, but we don't see them actually connecting.

his dad is just some ghost that haunts his house. he doesn't care about mike or think highly of him at all. the only times we've seen him pay mike any attention are when he belittles his interests, mocks him, punishes him, or shuts him down by telling him to listen to his mother. the only support he gets from him is financial in nature.

meanwhile, everyone else has a family they can turn to. dustin, despite lying to his mother to keep her out of his shenanigans, seems to have a decent relationship with her. even if he doesn't, he still has steve and robin. lucas is shown to have a healthy relationship with his parents and erica. will and el have their family.

max's situation is different, but she has the backing of the party; people that love her and actively try to help her and pull her back into the world of the living. she isn't thrust into a leadership role that doesn't allow for vulnerability. she has nancy who is willing to fight monsters for her, el who literally performed a miracle for her, and lucas who has stood by her since the beginning.

and mike... well. he has will back now, sure, but... things have been different between them for a long time now, even if they're both trying their best to be how they were before. and before then, will obviously was in california, not returning his calls or reaching out, making mike feel like he'd lost him for good.

so... all that being said, it's not that surprising that mike is the way he is: riddled with abandonment issues, wanting to be needed, immediately apologizing whenever he dares to open up, inclined to give others the protection and comfort no one's ever given him, prone to jealousy and possessiveness, unable to be completely and wholly honest about what troubles him, not exactly the most open to new people, and someone with appallingly low self-esteem.

you know how they say people that are drowning don't always look like they're drowning? that's mike.

[wacky-nameless-inventor-24]

HEY HIIIII PICREWS OF ROYALTY BLUE IN DESCENDING ORDER OF HOW ACCURATE THEY ARE <33333

THERES SO MANY I GOT CARRIED AWAY IT WAS SO FUN

[microwave-core]

Every time I sit down to write... he haunts me...

Anyways, today's Leon headcanon is that I think he's scottish rather than british

[ftl-faster-than-life]

Calling Eobard petty and hateful is just an incredible disservice to his complexity as a character. Sorry y'all don't like the idea of a villain whose vulnerabilities are all emotional.