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evelinessa · 2 months

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Response to the hot takes: Phoenix is a better Dad in DD than AJ.

Reason I think this is because in AJ he abandons Trucy to work on the Jurist system for all of case 3, with no warning and apparently this isn't the first time he's done this to her. Sure you could argue he wasn't leaving his 15 yr completely alone cuz he knew Apollo would watch her but, given he doesn't know Apollo very well at this point, nor asks him to babysit his daughter makes the situation worse imo.

Meanwhile in DD he is busy with work yes but to me is much more present in her life and communicates with her regularly even while working as a lawyer, still far from a fantastic Dad in DD but seems to be better. So I'm curious as to why people think he's a better Dad in AJ cuz I just don't see it that way but maybe I'm forgetting some important details?

Also I haven't finished SOJ yet (only finished the first case yesterday and yet to start case 2) but given he risked his life in a foreign country to defend a stranger (who to be fair is 9 but it's still concerning how fast he jumps into accepting the death penalty imo) when he has a 17 daughter doesn't give me much hope for how good of a Dad he's gonna be in SOJ (but please don't spoil the future cases for me)

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

Apologies in advance for this long response. It turns out I feel very strongly about a certain thing in DD, and how it pertains to Phoenix as Trucy's dad.

I won't say anything about SOJ for spoiler reasons, though I do have issue with some things in that game as well (which contributes to my feelings about Phoenix on this topic overall). Also, it's worth mentioning that I haven't played or watched the second trilogy since my first playthrough back in early 2021, so there could be important things I'm forgetting or misremembering.

I do have issues with some things in AJ, as well as things mentioned about the 7yg, but my opinion on Phoenix’s parenting there is still much more favorable than in the following two games.

For DD, Trucy isn't present much, from what I can recall. She's there occasionally at the office and says a few lines, mainly, but her largest role happens in 5-5, which is also the case where my issue lies (despite really enjoying that case overall).

Her role starts well as Phoenix's investigation assistant, but it kinda falls apart once they separate. From what I remember, she suddenly runs into the space center (to go after Apollo, I believe), and I can't remember if there's any sign of potential danger at that point, so I can't definitively say whether Phoenix should be faulted for letting her go/not going in after her.

However, once he finds out about the danger of the hostage situation, I found his reaction to that and attitude towards it for the rest of the case to be extremely underwhelming/inappropriate, to say the least.

He doesn't show nearly enough concern for his daughter's safety and life when he finds out and throughout the case, even when her life is repeatedly threatened. And as much as I love the banter between Phoenix and Miles in that case, it probably makes the relative lightheartedness (despite the high stakes for numerous people involved) stick out even more.

We're also in Phoenix’s POV—we can see his thoughts. So there can't be the excuse that he's putting on a brave face and is struggling more than we can see.

But what makes his reaction stick out the most to me is that we've seen how Phoenix has dealt with a similar situation to this before: in JFA (which I'm assuming you've played, as I'm about to mention major spoilers for it).

The rest is under the cut for 2-4 spoiler reasons, and also because this post got quite long.

Maya gets kidnapped. Her life in exchange for a not guilty verdict. Phoenix was in despair when he found out, nearly passing out, and he worried for her throughout the entire case. He even went to some questionable lengths (at first) to secure her safety.

Now, this is fine by itself. I don't have any issues here, and I think he acted appropriately. 2-4 is actually my favorite case in the series. My problem comes from when we compare the two scenarios and see how 5-5 Phoenix handles it.

Firstly, his concern should be, at the very least, the same level he showed back then. But it isn't anywhere close, when in reality, he should be much more upset at the circumstances in 5-5.

We have Maya, who was only a friend to him, an adult at the time, and also someone he'd only known for a little over a year at that point. Then we have Trucy, his daughter, not even 18 yet and Phoenix is still legally responsible for, and someone he'd raised for the last 8 years (half of her life).

Then the difference in their captors. De Killer is a cold, logical, professional assassin. He doesn't act hastily. His actions are very calculated. Maya is also his only hostage and the only insurance he has to keep Phoenix working with him and trying to defend Engarde. He wouldn't kill Maya unless there's absolutely no way for Phoenix to still defend Engarde. In that situation, Maya is too valuable. There's a certain safety and comfort in that, as Phoenix would have less worry that Maya would be killed, as long as Matt isn't declared guilty.

Let's compare this to Aura, who is acting in the opposite way to De Killer. She's not a professional killer, and the hostage situation was an act of desperation. She's more prone to acting rash and killing hostages because she's acting out of emotion and desperation to save her brother, as well as to avenge Metis.

She isn't able to think carefully and logically in that instance. It's not just business to her like it is for De Killer (his “aftercare” as he would call it). She also has numerous hostages and far more leverage than De Killer had. She could kill Trucy and still have influence over the prosecutor’s office, as they still had other hostages to worry about. Phoenix also had other reasons to take that case and keep defending, considering Athena was the defendant (though, if Trucy actually died, it could be too difficult for him to continue the case).

So, not only should the person who was taken hostage be more important to him in this instance, he should be more concerned as, logically, Trucy was at a higher risk of being killed than Maya was.

Again, I think Phoenix’s reaction in 2-4 was appropriate. The problem is with how he handles the situation in 5-5.

Even though he should be reacting more severely in the 5-5 situation, due to the increased chance of death and due to whose life is in danger—he doesn't. The concern he shows is a sliver of that, and because we have seen how he's reacted in that type of situation before, it makes the incongruity here even more obvious.

How it was handled here in comparison to 2-4 left such a bad taste in my mouth, that it significantly dragged down my opinion of Phoenix as a parent (and that's without getting into the issues I have with SOJ).

Even with that, I don't think he's a bad dad. Especially considering the amount of bad dads in this series. In a lot of ways, he probably did the best he could with the situation he and Trucy were in (during the 7yg), especially as he wasn't planning to become a father at that time and with everything going on. So I think he's good overall. But he isn't the best in the series to me.

See the fandom hot takes ask game here.

#ace attorney #aa #phoenix wright #trucy wright #maya fey #dual destinies #justice for all #ask game #answered asks

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tennybird · 8 months

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I have opinions about TotK. This is your spoiler warning if you haven't played/finished it yet. Also all of this is, once again, just my opinion on it and not a decisive fact! I will probably misremember things!

Anyway.

Okay so basically as someone who got it on release and beat it within a week, I'm a little underwhelmed by the game now that I'm looking back over half a year later.

It's not a terrible game! I'll say that first and foremost. But after waiting so long for it, and trying so hard to not hype myself up for it (failing horribly at that), it feels just a bit... same-y. The story is nice, and it's different. The boss fights and abilities you gain during your travels are nice. Everything else, though...

I like the map having stayed similar, with enough changes that I have to relearn some areas. The Depths are really fucking cool, and figuring out on my own that they're a negative of the overworld was incredible! But the sky islands were a little disappointing, I think. When we were told we'd be in the sky a lot, I thought there'd be more large islands like the tutorial one that you could walk around on. More references to Skyward Sword, too. It feels to me that they put more love into the Depths than the sky, in a way.

I like the main story. Figuring out Zelda was the Light Dragon (but not really believing it until the final Tears), and that she'd essentially spent thousands and thousands of years trapped inside herself, was AWESOME. Every cutscene involving her as the Light Dragon hit me hard, and I felt genuine sorrow everytime I saw her floating around the sky.

...That being said, I DO wish we could have a game where you get to actually travel with her. I WANT her to tell me about the minor lore of the world! I want to know about the various flora and fauna, and I want her to talk about Hyrule's history! Zelda is part of the royal family, and I'd imagine that part of her studies pre-BotW she'd have to learn about the history of her family (especially because of the importance of the Goddess' blood...). With how pre-BotW went between her and her powers, and her and her father, I'd imagine she'd make it a point to learn more about their history that ISN'T just the prophecy.

I, personally, did not like most of the temple boss fights. I can't really explain much of why- except for Queen Gibdo. I HATED Queen Gibdo because of all the smaller Gibdo chasing you, trying to chase down Riju for her power... It was a lot of things stacked on each other, and simply not my thing. Colgera was an absolute favorite however! The boss theme is AWESOME, the mechanics of being in the air and having to watch for projectiles, as well as crashing through the ice sheets to take it down? VERY, VERY FUN. Climbing through the sky just to get to the temple itself was one of my favorite experiences. Going up and up and up, and finally reaching the top where you break out above the storm clouds and see clear skies...

A thing that bothers me about the temples is that the cutscene at the end, where the ancient Sages gifts their powers to the new ones... I feel like they could've spent a little more time making them different, even if that meant more time in development. I would be okay with that! I think games should be in development longer in order to produce a good, finished product! Anyway.

The fight with Ganondorf was fun for me. I get SUPER immersed in it, so it was a fearful moment when I thought I'd beaten him, only to see his health bar fill again... and then go offscreen. And the DEMON DRAGON FIGHT? Holy SHIT.

I just wish there was more... substance to the game, I guess? It feels weird saying that. There are more things to do, but it's missing something I can't name. Something BotW had, but is now gone. I like TotK, like I said. It's clearly had love put into it, and I'm glad the developers spent more time on getting it as close to the perfect image they wanted as they could. Maybe it's just cause I've spent more time with BotW (over 300 hours), but I think I'm a little biased towards it. Maybe I'm just getting older and grumpier about vidya games, too. Who knows!

If you read all this, cool! I will reiterate that this is simply my view on it! If your view is different, good!! I'm happy to know there are people out there who enjoy it more than I did. Or if you hate it more than I do, maybe you have other things you want to point out about it that I missed.

#james speaks #long post #loz #totk #the legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #i love reading people's opinions so please tell them to me if you want somewhere to ramble!!#zelda #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom spoilers

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sablegear0 · 10 months

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Finished TotK Finally

As in, finished the story. End numbers after buying the last boss pictures and completing the Compendium were 87.72% complete. I may go back and do koroks and minigames sporadically when I want to wander around in the world again.

So I suppose people might expect my thoughts or a review. Idk if I have anything unique to say but I may as well so: Plot and BIG ending spoilers under the cut. Also extremely long detailed opinions. Like this one got REALLY long. TL;DR at the very bottom.

The End Bits The Light Dragon In a previous blog I applauded Nintendo for letting their women characters turn into incomprehensible beasties lately (TotK, Dread). For the record, I posted that shortly before being spoiled on the fact that Zelda changes back at the end. Needless to say I was re-disappointed. I get WHY they did it. Permanently removing the title character from the game via 10,000 years of ego death doesn't really seem like a great reward for the player seeking out the plot; BotW/TotK Link and Zelda have gone through more than most of their incarnations to get where they are, so it's nice to give them a happy ending, etc. It just... kinda sucks because that was a really cool move otherwise. But Nintendo will not tell us an intentionally tragic (or even bittersweet) story so we got our girl back.

Also she was fine, by the way. She just woke up fully able to move and speak like she'd just had a bit of a rough nap. She also canonically does not remember her millennia spent as a dragon in any fashion. I know the fan writers are probably having a field day with injury/trauma recovery fics for her and I don't blame them. 10k years of ego death and a monstrous transformation should come with some consequences, shouldn't it?

To be honest the nature of the deus ex machina in question bugs me more than the fact that it happened. "Idk Sonia and Rauru did something" is the actual explanation we get (thanks Mineru, you're a real one tho) and it feels... hollow. Like, if the two dragons had clashed and injured one another, and "dying" knocked Zelda out of the transformation the same way destroying the Secret Stone that Ganondorf had taken destroyed his dragon form, that would make more sense, right? You still get your dramatic ending that's a cinematic reflection of Skyward Sword and a symbolic close (presumably) to Ganon's cycle of reincarnation. The arbitrary "power of love" (and not even the Hero's love, come on) ending just doesn't sit right.

Ganondorf Neither did the actual fight with Ganondorf, to be honest. I prepped some pretty high-value weapons, assuming that like BotW I'd have to break a few swords on him before the fight was over. But they just, again, deus ex machina'd that the Master Sword was indestructible for that fight and at no other time. My big scary weapons did see some good use in the wave fight beforehand, which was kind of neat but also kind of underwhelming. I guess that's the point where the game checks if you can handle that many enemies (ie. did you bring enough friends), similar to how doing the Divine Beasts halves Calamity Ganon's HP in BotW.

The duel-style fight for the first two phases was kind of cool. Made a bit annoying by TotK's tighter timing on parries and dodges. And the fact that the legitimate pressure of having your HP outright destroyed (cool, stressful) was removed by the third phase (annoying, no consequences for doing poorly in that part of the fight).

Third phase was neat. It was cinematic, but with no actual danger. I don't think I took any damage that wasn't just gloom-ticks from standing on the demon dragon to attack it. Didn't even get to use my cool bows in the aerial battle. Additionally I didn't have any need for the cool armour I had worked so hard to upgrade. I spent quite a lot of time and effort upgrading the Ancient Hero's Aspect and a second high-defense set (Champion's Leathers, Soldier's Greaves, Amber Earrings). The latter I did use in the demon dragon phase because it looked cool. The former I completely forgot that I had (despite having had to kill an ungodly amount of King Gleeoks to complete it). I used the Depths set for the first two-thirds of the fight because of the Gloom resistance it offered.

The Mechanics Devices All that said, what TotK set out to do it did decently well. It expanded on the physics-heavy improvisational gameplay of BotW with the addition of the Ultrahand fusion mechanic and Zonai Devices, improving on their base engine to create a system that I have heard other devs consider basically magic. Devices and weapon fusion, however, were clearly balanced with the early-to-mid-game in mind. The devices were tools, not weapons, even the ones that were nominally weapons. They simply did not put out enough raw damage to be used offensively, and were better as deterrents or distractions for enemies.

Weapon Fusion I know people weren't crazy about weapon degradation in BotW and I think TotK managed to make it slightly worse. In BotW, all you had to do was find where a desirable weapon spawned and make note of it so you could come back to pick it up after the Bloodmoon respawned everything. In TotK, you have to do that AND fight a monster with a good fuseable part to improve it. You have to do twice as much farming for about the same amount of gain. And that's not even accounting for the weapons you'd break fighting something big like a Lynel - sure they drop good parts, but you might break 2 or 3 weapons taking one down, even with help from your sages. You're operating at a net loss.

Granted the fused part of a weapon does the bulk of the work, but TotK did the interesting thing of making each flavour of weapon ("Soldier's", "Zonaite", "Gerudo", etc) have its own unique properties. This is very cool, until you find a type you like and struggle to find enough of them. Again, you have to trek around to find them and also hope you have the materials for a good fusion. It has its moments, like sticking a Silver Lynel horn on a Gerudo weapon to get a damage value over 100 (which is absurd, most "good" weapons cap out around 50 on average, barring any extra effects), but again, you're usually operating at a slight loss with respect to weapons.

Armour Upgrades To be frank: It's bad. It's bloated and way too resource-intensive. In BotW there were a limited number of sets you'd actually want to upgrade, as each had its own unique thing and that's it, there's one of each. Even doing all of them for completion's sake was achievable. In TotK they have those basic sets, plus a few more unique sets, plus a few redundant sets, and a frankly absurd number of generic aesthetic sets (which flavour of Link would you like? Ocarina of Time? Twilight Princess? Link's Awakenng Remake?) And in all of this they never thought to rebalance the amount of materials required for upgrading.

And on top of THAT, I think they messed with the item drop-rates too! Most enemies can drop 2 kinds of resources, some potentially have more, some only drop 1. in BotW I don't think (thought I may have to check) each type was a guaranteed drop, but you saw every type fairly frequently. In TotK each enemy now has distinct rare drops. And they can be RARE. And the worst part is you need a LOT of them for some armour upgrades. For example; Lizalfos tails are the Lizalfos rare drop, and the armour sets that need them can need up to 15 of the stupid things from a particular species of Lizalfos. Have fun grinding, because now you're playing Monster Hunter instead of Zelda.

Vehicles and Horses The vehicles both did and didn't trivialize crossing the map; a significant amount of grinding is needed before you have enough batteries to cover any distance, Wings (the bird-shaped gliders) have a limited lifespan to keep you from just flying everywhere, and the overworld is generally complicated enough that any fast wheeled vehicle will not be useful for long, and any all-terrain vehicle moves only at a modest speed. Ironically, just use horses where available. They're faster, more versatile, and can be called to you if they're within earshot. Also horses can spawn with overall higher stats than in BotW, and can be upgraded, though with significant resource investment. (It is worth noting that the "best" horse in base BotW, the royal white horse, is only middling to above-average stat-wise when compared to a good wild-caught horse in TotK. They power-crept the horses!)

The most interesting vehicles/movement devices, to me, were the rockets and hot-air balloons. Both add a lot instant verticality in a game that is all about traversal. Fusing a rocket to a shield gets you a huge boost for little resource expenditure (rockets are a bit rare until you can purchase devices). And once you find the Autobuild schematic for a hot air balloon base, all you need to add is a flame-emitter and you can ascend as far as your batteries allow.

Shrines In my humble opinion, TotK knocked it out of the park with its shrines. The ones that have actual puzzles, anyway. There is an unfortunately large proportion of "blessing" shrines that have no puzzle in them, and not all of them even need to be worked for that hard. The ones that do have puzzles are excellent. There are quite a few that highlight different uses for devices, and a good handful that take the Eventide Island/Master Trials-style challenge of stripping you of all your gear and put some twist on it. (Notably these are most interesting in the mid-game, when you have enough hearts to survive but not to trivialize the no-armour combat difficulty.)

They also did the very classy thing of not locking outfit parts behind hidden chests in Shrines. All the hidden chests were perfectly optional bonus chests that required no frustrating re-visits after finding out where that last piece of armour was hiding. Also the slight variations on the music theme was a nice touch that kept the shrines feeling fresh. No shade to the Sheikah Shrine theme, but the strong synths could get a bit grating at times. TotK's gentle, plinky shrine theme variations were an improvement.

The Map The Overworld Probably(?) the most common complaint about TotK and one I share. It's too damn big. In addition to mostly recycling the map from BotW (which bothered some people more than it bothered me, I think), they added an equivalent-sized map for the Depths. Now, BotW's overworld already felt a bit sparse, but it fit the tone of a literal post-apocalyptic world and encouraged you to poke around looking for koroks and investigating enemy camps. TotK's surface overworld is dotted with far more enemy camps and significantly fewer koroks, so it is about as dense but more dangerous/annoying (depending on your hp and gear) to traverse.

There are some major changes to the surface, beyond adding ruins to some spots; most of Death mountain is now safe to travel on foot (probably to encourage use of vehicles) and is no longer superheated, and there are a few spots where the road network is broken, dividing the map into 2 halves that cannot be crossed between on horseback. (In BotW, by comparison, all the roads were connected and you could auto-pilot a horse from one end of the map to the other, provided you took roads marked on the map.)

The Sky The Sky islands were relatively few, for all the hype they got in the promotional material. However I think their self-contained structure and handful of unique features (the "death star" islands, the dive challenges) helped them not overstay their welcome. Besides, the islands themselves are technically also ruins, 10,000 years old and finally visible to the naked eye from the surface, It's a wonder there's as much left and it's as functional as it is. They are beautiful, though. I did enjoy just loitering around in the sky to take in the view and the relaxed atmosphere, as there are fewer enemies up there.

The Depths The Depths... I think I share the majority gripe with the Depths. They're too big. The Depths are another whole open world that is more hostile with even less in it. It exists to grind for resources and pad the playtime. The challenge of the depths is in initially traversing it, having to light your way through impenetrable darkness and navigate dense enemy encampments and find Light Roots to fill out the map. After that, provided you have enough battery power, it can generally be ignored by flying over it. Which is unfortunate. If I were to fix the Depths, I would make it more akin to the Sky Islands; more self-contained, make it a series of winding, interconnected discrete caves, like one big dungeon crawl, rather than a second open world to ignore. Still have the Light Roots be important to vision and mapping, but have the general landscape be more contained. Maybe even have a few more areas that are inaccessible at first except by dropping into the correct chasms, like they did with the Eventide Island and Tingle Island Chain areas of the Depths.

Everything Else Side Quests and Koroks Honestly I enjoyed the variety of sidequests in TotK, and also enjoyed that some of them were quite involved. TotK had two "Tarrey Town"-equivalent long-form side-quest lines; one being visiting all the stables with Penn (I am counting this as one quest because you get drip-fed armour pieces from a unique set throughout it), and the other being the Mayoral Election / Local Cuisine questline in Hateno Village. There were also side-quests to optionally construct the Champions' weapons, which was neat, and to build a house with crazy Ultrahand powers, which was totally frivolous but fun to do. The one thing that bugged me a bit about the side-quests was running into NPCs that reasonably should have remembered Link but didn't. It felt odd, especially poking around Tarrey Town initially.

The Korok puzzles had some new variety to them, which was nice. The block puzzles were given the extra interest of being able to rotate things with Ultrahand, and the vehicle/towing mechanics were given a chance to shine with the "help me reach my friend" puzzles. Having Hestu appear in some less-than-ideal places to begin with (and the whole Lost Woods thing omg what a pain) kind of sucked, but getting those sweet sweet inventory upgrades is always worth it.

The Characters I love all the Sages, I'm going to say it right now. It was really cool to see some familiar faces from BotW (that actually recognized me) and learn what they'd been up to in the ambiguous time-gap. Teba being the slight exception but honestly - meeting Tulin and realizing this sweet bean bird boy looks just like both his parents hit me right in the heart. Mineru was also very cool and I'm glad we got to hang out with her (and bid her a tearful goodbye... my lovely lanky lady...). I also appreciated that doing the Ancient Writings quest teases Mineru's introduction. That was a nice touch.

Penn and Purah are fun, and the Lucky Clover Gazette and Monster Control Crew quests add some depth and background progression to BotW's Hyrule. You get to see how ordinary people are faring and how things are advancing post-Calamity. Seeing the various peoples of Hyrule gather at Lookout Landing after clearing a regional temple was neat, even if it was really only for show.

I know some people have beef with Rauru and that's maybe a blog for another time, but I don't think I have a strong enough opinion to bother. I didn't mind him, I think his arc was clear enough, I think I would have liked to see more of him and Sonia interacting with Zelda in a more everyday fashion - it seemed like she had a lot of fun in the distant past and something more than just a text log of that and a couple cutscenes might have been nice. Honestly I think I would have liked to see more of Sonia especially, she seems like an interesting lady (again, something more than Chaucerian text as proof would have been nice).

I'm honestly kind of mid on Matt Mercer's Ganondorf? I get that he's a big name and people were excited to hear him in the role but idk if the voice was entirely a good fit. They rocked the hell out of his visual design, though. Very good updated look, borrowing elements from some of his previous incarnations. Again I would have liked to see more elaboration on him though; what was the Gerudo tribe like under his rule? Were there dissenters? Give me more worldbuilding or I'll be forced to do it myself.

Music Mostly the same, actually. Overworld themes were recycled. Shrine themes were different and an upgrade imo. Combat themes were slightly different but I probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart at a listen. The Temple music though, oh boy. I loved these themes; they took the ramping instruments from the Divine Beasts control panel gimmick and mixed the Divine Beast Approach themes with each Sage's unique motif to create some really cool but pleasantly unobtrusive tracks. The Depths ambience was appropriately spooky, and the dynamic theme that kicks in when you high-dive was a nice touch, especially since there are distinct versions for diving to the surface and diving to the Depths.

But the standout tracks for me? First, the intro sequence where you descend with Zelda into the foundations of Hyrule Castle and hear the ever-layering Zonai chanting with the spooky reversed voice clips? MMM. 👌 So spooky, so tasty. Genuinely had me on edge even though I knew nothing would happen because it was the intro. The return sequence by the endgame has it build even more intensely as you descend even further and it's fantastic. Second is the Gloom's Approach / Gloom's Source battle theme. The distinctly electronic drone and beat associated with the Depths/gloom-related stuff gets room to shine when this tense bass-heavy track kicks in.

The Little Things I am actually going to stop this one here because I think this part deserves its own blog. There are a ton of little details in TotK that I absolutely adored and I want to gush about them with proper space allotted.

TL;DR TotK is alright. I know I'll catch flak for saying it's "good", so I won't. Settle down. It's alright. Some things it does extremely well, some things could have been edited for time, and some things remained just kinda mid from the original.

If I have to give it a number, it's a solid 6.5-7/10 . Competently constructed, technically impressive, mostly cut-and-pasted, mildly bloated, narratively kind of boring with no sense of stakes and an ending that undoes some otherwise interesting choices.

#sable has a take #sable talks about games #this one got away from me #long post #totk #loz totk #tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom spoilers #totk spoilers #seriously the first thing i do is talk about the ending in some detail so if you care avoid this one #now with headers for your reading convenience

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vampirecatsw · 8 months

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*CLAPS HANDS AND RUBS THEM TOGETHER* NOW THAT I'M FINISHED ANSWERING YOUR ASK, CYN. (BLESS YOU, BLESS YOU!) PLEASE DO THE CHARACTER OPINION BINGO FOR KAITO, AOKO, SHINICHI, AND RAN. PRETTY PLEASE. MAY YOUR DAY BE SPECTACULAR!

Hi! Here's my ask with drawings (of various quality, you can see as I drew more I got more into the swing HAAHHAH. That's what I get for being so rusty - I don't actually draw that often.) The colours I used are ones I associate with the characters!

ft. my very informal writing style, probably like a thousand typos because I'm typing this at 1am, and many shoutouts to amazing dcmk creators 🥰

Also, please check out Anna's ask! https://akai-anna.tumblr.com/post/739521989281234944/hey-there-my-lovely-mutual-3-3-i-love-when-you

Anna, you're so lovely, fr. I hope this makes you giggle and swing your feet, I had such a fun time thinking about them! I added my own flair with my drawings <3

Feel free to ask me to decipher any handwriting

P.s. That character with the hat you'll see is my sona! I'm calling him Sol because that's another online name I seem to take up often. Feel free to call me Sol as well!

(Shameless plug: Check out my art blog - cyndraws - if you like my art! Also, it has some au ramblings too ^v^. https://cyndraws.tumblr.com/)

KAITO

Bingo count: 4 (well, If I ticked only more more box, I could have extra bingos for almost every extra box I ticked haha...)

The art: I gave up at first and just drew him as a stick figure. Then I added clothes to him, that's why he's so proportionally off,,, My beloved blorbo, I feel like I did you so dirty 😭

Fun challenge: Guess what I was inspired by when I drew Kaito's and Aoko's outfits.

I'm literally in love with him no joke. The love is too intense aughhdfk. What kind of love? Yes. I would do anything for him. I'd be so clingy fr.

Headcanons? Sooo many. Not even a joke. They're too integrated into my brain at this point so yeah haha

His HANDS. Slim and very fast and flexible. They have callouses - screw smooth hands. Callouses as a sign of his hard work throughout his entire life.

Fox? He's a fox. So silly, little trickster. https://www.tumblr.com/cyndraws/739418480470851584/look-me-in-the-eyes-and-tell-me-kaito-isnt-a-fox

Let's just link my simping art here too: https://www.tumblr.com/cyndraws/739224275061456896/im-such-a-simp-help-me-kaito-simps-unite-pls Please let me squish his cheeks please...PLEASE

Bonus: Old character opinion bingo for Kaito: https://cyndraws.tumblr.com/post/739190201679757312/everyone-if-im-going-to-expose-myself-as-a-kaito I got over the fear 👍 It's from a while back, like maybe... 2022? idk

I love unhinged Kaito

Gender? Please. I'll take any masc at this point HAHAH

Canon isn't real - Like it's amazing but also like... underwhelming. *Shakes it vigorously* GIVE ME MORE. MORE EKODA GANG. MORE SUPPORT FOR KAITO. LET KAITO CRY. I WANT MORE WORLD BUILDING ON AKAKO AND TO SEE THE KUROBA FAMILY MORE (+ a billion more requests.) PLEASE GOSHO IM BEGGING

(It's ok, I got the fics for these cravings 👍)

2. AOKO

Bingo count: 0

Wow. I realised just how little brain space I dedicate to her... but she's also so silly. I love her so much. She's a great character to pair up with Kaito (for any relationships, I love when they're having fun together.) She doesn't need more suffering <3

I love sm how in MK1412 they added extra scenes of the Ekoda gang! And Aoko looks so cute in it! (everyone else? ... it varies)

youtube

Snowball fight! ^

Now this is a hella hot take but I personally think KaiAo is much more interesting than ShinRan (for me). And fun too, because I've always been drawn to fun and teasing dynamics like these over the more romantic ones (if you get what I mean by more romantic). KaiAo and Shinran both are such wonderful couples though. *Bangs fists on table* THEY'RE BOTH SO UNBEARABLE CUTEEE

Someone told me I have very similar vibes to Aoko and I've been reevaluating myself XDD. No but I can see it. I think we have a similar energy (in my brain at least, I'm much more tired when I go out) and even preferred fashion.

Would give her a kiss anytime. Definitely. Let's go out on a picnic and have a fun hangout. We would be good friends.

Aolele theory by alizardjae: Please check it out!!! https://alizardjae.tumblr.com/post/134111960564/alright-finally-got-around-to-writing-this-thing Basically it's the summary I wrote up there. I whole heartedly believe in it, because it's a fun theory and I've done it before myself (...ehem annoying relatives) - so it's definitely believable. And I love the idea of Aoko Holmes being carried over from Nonchalant Lupin (<- Prototype of Magic Kaito. It's a fun read!)

3. SHINICHI/CONAN

Bingo count: 4

Drawing was inspired by that scene where Conan gets suspicious of Hanzawa-san (from The Culprit Hanzawa, a spinoff of dcmk.)

Ok, so the thing is, I have a very strange relationship with him.

He's so silly, right? He so fun, he's adorable, so caring and well meaning, but I'm scared of him. I wouldn't want to meet him. I'm terrified even though he's so nice 😭. So I'd rather observe from a distance (hence the drawing ^ but I'd definitely set off his senses a lot.)

(What does it say about me that I'm scared of Shin/Cone but not Kaito? I'm working on overcoming my fear of Conan/Shin, I promise *on my hands and knees* I REALLY AM)

(My irl friend understands why I'm so terrified, I've explained the crazy stunts he's done and his very illegal spy equipment to them... they actually got a nightmare about Conan that night. He's such a law breaking little gremlin (affectionate)) So...no kisses for you, detective... only because I'm too intimidated 😭 But I'll gladly make content dedicated to you and fawn over you <3

If it's not already obvious, Kai > Shin/Cone for me. But he's definitely a close second.

Shin's/Cone's aesthetic? So peak. His detective work and general vibes with the series is so banging. That clean formal attire - I love wearing more formal stuff out. Being judged for it? At this point I don't really care hahaha. His mismatching outfits are so endearing, but I don't really vibe with them.

Canon is kinda frustrating for me. Well, as usual, I love to pick out the pieces I love and keep them dear to my heart. Ugh I want more identity issues and character relationship focuses. And more Shinran, this is literally ridiculous for slowburn lol.

4. RAN

Bingo count: 0

I drew a masterpiece for her. As she deserves 🥰. (Fun fact, this is the first time I've drawn her properly.)

Drawing inspirations:

Sakura Class! It was so adorable. I loved seeing the povs of both Shin and Ran. The Sakura couple,,, 🥺🥺 why are they so cute

LavenderTowne! Her art is amazing and her art tips are always so helpful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD4XIm3ZFhT72WjqhIXMN9w

In particular, I used these two tutorials: Easy Background: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zw5oB-ir5R0 Easy Lighting: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/shWoTarp_Vk

*ehem* Back to our ask now

Ran is so lovely! Such a queen, so adorable, such an icon! Have you seen her puff out her cheeks in chapter 1120? (+ many other instances of her being cute of course.)

(^ well, now you've seen it)

I love her with sass! It's so funny and fitting for her. And paired with her badassness? Wow. She's amazing. She has such a big heart too <3

I can see how Shinichi fell for her at first sight, she really is so pretty and cute. Her smile was such a direct hit to his heart XD

Obligatory shoutouts!:

Amazing Shinran analysis by rabbitsrants: https://www.tumblr.com/rabbitsrants/737479648281329664?source=share

Really REALLY cute Shinran art by detshin: https://www.tumblr.com/detshin/734222664310358016?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/detshin/734913462286909440?source=share Their blog also has really cute Shinran content!

For some reason, I associate the english localised names to the more sarcastic and witty characterisations in the funimation dub. That's why I wrote Rachel.

Maybe it's because of halfpenny_jones's amazing characterisation: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfpenny_jones/pseuds/halfpenny_jones/works?fandom_id=964594 Please check out their works too!

That's the end~ Thanks so much for asking! It was so enjoyable to ponder and draw. And I'll always take opportunities to talk about them.

Feel free to chat again whenever you feel like it <3 And also, feel free to ask about many other things too, like more character bingos or aus if you find them interesting. I hope you also enjoy them if you go through them.

See you next illusion~

#dcmk #kaito kuroba #kuroba kaito #kaito kid #aoko nakamori #nakamori aoko #cyn answers #asks #shinichi kudo #kudo shinichi #ran mouri #mouri ran #cyn talks #cyn speaks #cyn draws #not much in tags cause i think i said what i wanted to in the post

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in-a-bucket · 1 year

Text

Whit character analysis because this dude makes my brain go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Uh spoilers for all of drdt i guess? Idk better safe then sorry

Ok, so it probably wouldn’t take much scrolling through my tumblr blog to figure out who my favorite despair time character is, can you blame me tho? I’ve always had a lot of thoughts about Whit floating around in my brain ever since I’ve gotten into drdt, but the amount of thoughts has exponentially increased since ch 2 part 1 finished a few days ago. I think we can all agree there’s something odd about Whit, The first time I really noticed it was right after Min’s execution. It was super gresome, probably one of the hardest to watch I’ve ever seen both in canon dr and fangans. This execution had Veronika of all people shook to their core, but Whit...

Uh, you are aware she literally got torn apart by wolves, right Whit? Hu even kinda calls him out on his comment immediately after this. Most people when they see a person die in front of them, they usually react with horror, fear, anger, sadness, you get the gist, but here Whit seems, mildly annoyed? I don’t really think that’s the best way to describe his reaction but either way, it’s too underwhelming for watching someone die right in front of you, especially in such a horrible way as Min’s execution was.

Ok then, does this mean Whit is some unfeeling asshole or something, well no, because earlier in this same trial he says this,

I mean this whole entire section shows that Whit isn’t some heartless monster, if he was just doing this for the sake of making sure they didn’t vote for the wrong person he didn’t have to add in stuff like this.

Ok so what’s his deal then, well remember how I said although chapter one got the brainworms started, but chapter 2 increased them exponentially. Well in chapter 2 it starts to become a lot more prevalent how odd Whit acts when it comes to death and the killing game as a whole.

He does this...

Making a joke about Min’s horrific death, having that kind of reaction to seeing Arei’s dead body, it’s not normal, at all if we take into consideration everything we’ve discussed so far, it just doesn’t make sense, especially cause he has moments like this,

Like the way I see this, he just seems to be really understanding of other people, and their feelings and circumstances, so it just seems super odd that he doesn’t really take death or the killing game itself for the matter all that seriously.

So basically, Whit’s a walking contradiction, why exactly is he like this? Well I believe it has to do with his secret.

His secret is worded exactly like this: “Your mother is dead, you always omit that truth”

I always found the way his secret was worded to be interesting, it’s extremely vague. Arturo’s secret also involves a dead family member, but that one specifies that the cause of death was suicide and that Arturo himself was involved somehow, now it’s highly likely this was worded in a way to make Arturo look as bad as possible, so what does this have to do with Whit’s secret? Well it’s a bit odd, his secret doesn’t make any mention of how or when his mom died, and the only way Whit is brought up is that he hides that truth, but it doesn’t imply that he was responsible in any way. It’s interesting that some secrets are more vague than others.

There’s also some other stuff you could analyze from it. Take the first part of Charles’s secret, “your older brother died” vs. “your mother is dead”, when you look at those two statements, don’t they mean the same thing? Why word them differently if they basically mean they same thing. Well Charles’s is worded in the past tense whereas Whit’s is worded in the present tense, why is that? Although this is more my personal opinion, Whit’s feels more like and intense statement, a fact that can not be ignored, this is what’s real here and now, which ties in to the latter part of Whit’s secret. He omits the truth, he denies it, but he can’t run away from it now that’s there written on paper, there for everyone to see.

So what does this all have to do with Whit’s contradictory behavior. Well I think it’s highly likely that Whit witnessed his mom’s death, whether it was an accident, a suicide, a murder or something else, he saw it all and, to put it bluntly, it broke him. He simply couldn’t handle the idea that his mom, someone he clearly loved a lot and cared about, as evidenced by what he said in chapter 1 with Teruko and Charles, was suddenly not there anymore. This was probably the absolute worse case scenario in Whit’s mind, and what do you do with a bad situation, you make it better of course! And that’s exactly what Whit did, even though his mom was dead he convinced himself that everything was completely fine in order to cope. If he remembers all of the good things about her, then she’s basically still here, and that means everything is fine, right?

Now I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and guess that Whit’s mom probably died around time Whit was in middle school (so like 13 or 14 yrs old), I don’t really think she died when he was like elementary school age, and based on the way Whit acts in the prologue it wasn’t like super recent either. Considering he is able to identify his own secret during the ch 2 trial, his mom didn’t die with in the years that got erased from the students. Now middle school up till freshman year of college is plenty of time to develop a terrible coping mechanism, especially because it seems to be implied that was a pretty lonely guy, his dad worked overseas a lot and according to his character page, he doesn’t have any luck with love either, it’s possible he did have friends growing up but maybe his relationship with them fell apart after his mom died. Either way, it’s inevitable something like that would fester without a good support system.

Now several years later, Whit is thrust into this killing game and he is faced with people dying in front of him again, so he does what he knows best, pretends that everything is completely fine and that they’re all gonna get out of this somehow. so he tries to focus on the positives and tries to make a generally more positive atmosphere by cracking jokes every chance he gets, since dealing with the positives is way easier than dealing with the negatives. Thus stuff like this happens,

No it’s not alright Whit there is a dead body in front of you.

His hidden quote fits with this idea too, “We tend to idolize the dead”. It’s an accurate statement in real life, when people die we try to remember the good things about them from when they were alive. This is what Whit does, just to an unhealthy extreme.

There’s even this line from the FTEs which technically aren’t canon, but it still gives you a pretty good idea of Whit’s thinking process

Ya know shove all of your negative emotions down and away and only focus on the positive ones, this will totally not backfire in any way.

It also makes sense why he has the talent he has, to enjoy making other people happy with fulfilling relationships as a way to distract himself from his own pain.

So, where exactly does Whit go from here as a character? Well first of all I’m like 99% sure he’ll survive chapter 2, there’s evidence that shows he’s unlikely to be the killer and from a writing standpoint, if Whit were to be killed off now, then the only purposes he would’ve served in the story was comic relief and to give Charles some character development, so basically it’d be a waste to kill him off in chapter 2. I will say this though, if both Charles and Whit are still alive by chapter 6 that is a huge red flag and that probably means Whit’s the MM, I think the most likely out come is one or the other dies. I used to be super confident on Charles living and Whit dying but honestly, Charles is developing faster than I thought he would, so it could go either way. But I get the feeling the the peak of their arc will happen in chapter 4 (maybe 3, but I feel more confident about 4).

Under the assumption I made previously, chapter 3 happens as normal (whatever that is lol), but once ch 3 ends and ch 4 starts a certain someone has noticed that Whit is the only person who has yet to crack in any way, shape or form. So motive or no, Veronika starts to craft a plan, in order to make this killing game as fun as possible and to finally break her stubborn classmate. I could see this going one of two ways. Either Veronika kills Charles and pins the crime on Whit or she creates an elaborate trap for Whit to accidentally set off killing her or one of the other students. Personally I prefer option (and not just because Whit get’s to live), but because it allows for his character development to be explored in later chapters. Basically once the body is discovered, you can tell Whit is barely holding it together and then like midway through the trial he finally starts to crack. Then in like the aftermath of the trial it asl comes crashing down for him, everything that he forced himself to believe to make life easier he can no longer believe and its just ajkldlkjdljdalkfhlkfahafkkdhfsklfslkhfsakhj.

Anyway I’m probably gonna post this, go to bed, and wake up tomorrow and realize there’s more I want to add but that’s life I guess. I’ll probably end up making more whit posts anyways once the people I talk to discord start get my brain going.

This probably sucks but idc I have so much Whit brainrot you people have no idea.

#drdt #drdt spoilers #danganronpa: despair time #whit young

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yuri-is-online · 5 months

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Just finished Sinostra's chapter myself.... I gotta say though, was a little underwhelming compared to other chapters.... Honestly the entire thing felt like a one-man show by Ritsu + some sexual tension between Taiga and Romeo whenever they interact lol. MC has never felt more like a spectator than she did in this chapter, I was waiting for her to do absolutely *anything* but she really was just... there lmao. Not even hand-holding this time!

Even the Like Dove showed up AFTER mc left, when it was just Taiga and Romeo in the room, and then later again when Romeo barges into Taiga's room - this time mc was there but, just barely lol, the whole focus was on Taiga and Romeo's almost shoot-off, and Taiga's line saying "You really could shoot through my heart"?? And the fact that he sensed Romeo approaching before he even saw him, and so far is the only person who he clearly remembers and freely gives compliments to lol, Lulu is a cute nickname tho.

Regardless, Taiga's strange response to the Like Dove could possibly mean Kaito's explanation about it might not be true after all, since anomalies are still a mystery, wouldn't be strange for false rumors to make the rounds.

And I while I don't hate Ritsu - I appreciate he's a hard worker and tries to make the best of any situation he's put in - I dislike how he really just one-sidedly handled everything in this chapter and only ever explains after they're done lol. The case didn't feel like an investigation at all, Ritsu just pulls some numbers out of the air and acts on them (where is he getting all that data??) and in the end they won against it because it had to prevent a paradox from happening...? lmao idk overall just felt so underwhelming.

Also we never find out what the deal was about the girl in the tower?? Why even mention that detail if they're not gonna do anything with it... An anomaly that was born from the negative emotions gathering in a casino replaces people's memories with a girl in a tower.... My guess is it wanted enough people to "remember" her so she could come into existence? Like Takeru's ghost. I wonder what for though... Will they revisit this or not.....

You could pluck out MC from this chapter and absolutely nothing would change imo because Ritsu was doing everything anyways, only name-dropped mc when mentioning it was an investigation, that's it. While I don't necessarily need her to be the star or a hero, having 0 influence on the chapter is not great writing imo.

Kaito and his silly antics were the highlight for me. And I found it hilarious how him being stripped down and locked up in Romeo's "private office" feels like the setting of any self-indulgent "dark romance" fiction between a rich CEO and helpless debtor who has to cater to the captor's whims lol.

Finally Hotarubi is next, I've been curious about it since I got sorted into it, and want to see more of Haku. I agree he's sus, his dialogue in the prologue if you choose him only highlights the fact. But something about him really compels me

Sorry for the long ask, I have a thousand thoughts twirling around in my mind about TD, it should probably cool down between the entire month that's left before next story update.... but also there's new games coming out next month so hopefully I don't forget about TD completely either lol....

There is no shame in long asks. I'm always impressed at the amount of thoughts my dear anons manage to fit inside the ask box ♡

I also felt like the content was a bit lacking to the point I went and checked Jabberwock's chapter count and was surprised to find it's actually a tad shorter than Sinostra's. I think the main reason it felt so short to me was because I wasn't locked out of progressing this time around, but the case progression also felt much much quicker. If I'm sitting back and evaluating it as a writer, I think that's probably because of the setting being confined to the school and dorm. Sure, a lot happens, but you don't actually go anywhere, unlike in the previous three books.

Our MC has a very laid-back personality, which I don't mind. BUT the game really should allow for the chance for her to work things out on her own, even if she's too afraid of the other characters to verbalize it and keeps them to herself. There are several times in the book when she tries to point out inconsistencies in Ritsu's logic or other evidence she notices, but she's talked over pretty much every single time. It's what made me really hate Ritsu since you did not see that with Ren, Haru, or Towa, but i get that it's sort of tricky when writing more domineering characters to balance not making them overshadow the more laid back ones but still keeping them true to their personalities. I don't think Ritsu would have paid attention to Kaito if MC wasn't there, nor do I think Taiga would have paid attention to Ritsu, but that's just me speculating because the story doesn't clearly communicate it. This book was poorly written, a lot of the problems people have with MC could be fixed with a few additional lines where she's shown wanting to do something but reminding herself she has to play nice with the ghouls otherwise they won't break her curse. Her personality makes sense to me, but her writing does not.

Now. I disagree about the no real moments this chapter but ah. Well. You see. There is something deeply wrong with me so I completely get if this did nothing but disturb you but when Taiga has MC strapped to the torture chair 👉👈

Look I know potentially getting a hicky from a guy that strapped you to a torture chair and just shot you (for the second time) isn't everyone's thing but it is mine I was so well fed this chapter from that alone ( ; ω ; ) AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW HE CALLS HER KITTEN AND EATS THE FUCKING LIKE DOVE??? RAW??? ROMEO ROMEO WHY FOR ART THOU INTERRUPING ROMEO I WANTED TO SEE WHAT HE WAS GONNA DO- forgive me anon I'm afraid I'm most unwell.

Speaking of the Like dove and the memories of the tower. The Tower thing reminds me of rapunzel, especially because she's out alone in the woods, but it feels super out of left field, no? If the anomaly is born from the Casino, which Taiga states "is him," then I wonder if the girl in the tower is representative of something he's forgotten? The chapter places an emphasis on how anomalies can affect memory, so it's not too big of an assumption to make that something must have happened to Taiga to make his memory this bad. As for the like dove... Romeo seems very surprised to see it, almost suggesting he never has before, which can you imagine how funny it would be if it showed up for him and Taiga. They've been friends and business partners for at least two years, I refuse to believe the dove would only just show up now. The image of him just never seeing it because everyone is too polite/afraid of him to point it out is too funny. The dove shows up twice this chapter, both times it sort of read to me like it had been there for a bit before it was noticed and in both cases Taiga reacts to it negatively. Given how paranoid he seems to be, I think it's probably because the idea of him caring/having someone care about him scares him due to the unpredictability of it and the potential for betrayal. He seems to think people only want to use him, so that's probably part of it too. I'm constantly doing way too many lines of copium, so to me the dove seemed triggered by Taiga's interactions with MC but I also see where you're coming with Romeo. Their friendship is much less adversarial than it was implied to be in their little blurbs, and I quite like that a lot. You know even if Taiga seems to think Romeo is always taking away his fun. And what's up with his constant want to eat anomalies, is Romeo not feeding him enough?

Slight correction, Taiga does seem to remember who Haru is, Harry and Lulu are both derivative of their names, so maybe he can only remember people in his year clearly? Or does it also include second years? He sounds very surprised at the concept of a "first year ghoul" in his house so maybe his memories are cutting off everything other than the previous two years...

I also have a bunch more thoughts but I'll cut myself off here ×-× gotta let some of them simmer before I make too much of a fool of myself (I already have)

#<3 asks #tokyo debunker #hotarubi anon #taiga hoshibashi

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thefrogdalorian · 9 months

Text

It's New Year's Eve and I just wanted to share some mushy thoughts about life and Mando and Din and how this year has been overall for me!!

If you don't want to read below the cut I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year!! I hope you have a wonderful time, whatever you do to celebrate. I'm currently on a trip so I may not be terribly active, but if you're struggling and the emotions of the day are a little too much, please do message me. I've been there plenty of times. You're not alone. NYE should really be about looking to the future rather than dwelling on the past, but I know how easy it is to get caught up in that depressive loop of thinking.

But if you do want to keep reading, then strap in for some Oversharing Online and gushing about how much Mando means to me:

I first started watching Mando during the pandemic in 2020, I think the first episode released like 2 days after the UK went into lockdown or something. 2020 was an awful year for me, as I'm sure it was for so many of you. A lot of things happened to me that I'm still trying to process but I hope to start therapy in the new year and go some way to addressing it.

Anyway, The Mandalorian came to me at a time I dearly needed it. It was welcome relief from The Horrors I was experiencing. I was hooked pretty much straight away, who was this mysterious man? What were his intentions? Was he good or bad? OH WOW THAT WALK. THAT VOICE!!! I loved it, but it wasn't until The Believer that everything changed for me. It went from enjoyment to full-blown obsession. I couldn't wait until Season 3 aired, and I think the expectations I had built up in my head could never have lived up to the reality of what I felt upon watching it for the first time. I was pretty disappointed most weeks, but I feel so differently now.

This year has been pretty strange for me. I had some amazing highs (like being able to go to Star Wars Celebration where I got to see so many amazing Din and Mandalorian cosplays which was an INSANE experience and I still kind of haven't properly processed yet??) and also some difficult lows.

In June I finally got my autism diagnosis, something I'd been essentially waiting for for EIGHT YEARS. It was a huge shock but also not shocking at all. As in, I knew I was autistic since being a teenager but I was absolutely not expecting to be told right there and then at my assessment. So when the psychologist looked me in the eye and told me that I was autistic it was somewhat of a gut punch. Processing it was extremely difficult but during that time I found myself drawn back to Mando and particularly to season 3. I rewatched it again and again fell in love with a season that I'd probably felt on the whole underwhelmed with at the time, until the last two episodes, which I loved instantly.

When rewatching it, I noticed things that I'd missed before, which led me to become kind of obsessed with the idea of Din and Bo together. I know not everyone enjoys that but that truly is what I love about media, that we can all watch a similar thing and interpret it differently! I don't think I'm any more correct about the way I view certain interactions than anyone else. Shipping should just be a little fun, not ruin your mental health or dictate how you treat strangers on the internet. And it especially should not lead to any real world harassment of creators and actors.

So in September an idea formed and between then and November a 182,000 word fic landed in my lap. That's the best way I can describe writing it for me, I was so fixated on finishing it and the plot just kept coming the more I wrote. It is by FAR the longest thing I've ever written and probably ever will write, but the routine of writing it and publishing it helped claw me out of a spiral I was in after my diagnosis.

And it was publishing it on AO3 that gave me the confidence to rejoin a fandom space again. It was a big step for me to put myself out there but I'm so glad that I did because that's what led me here, to discover this wonderful community who adore Din and The Mandalorian just as much as I do. I'm so happy that I finally found my way here. It was way less intimidating than I ever thought it would be!

I know that I haven't been here for the longest time, I wish I just got over my nervousness and made a tumblr earlier in the year so I could have joined in with the hype before season 3. But also considering how poorly received the season was overall, maybe it was for the best that I wasn't here.

Despite my relative newness here, I just wanted to say how welcomed I've felt and that is a truly lovely feeling. Thank you so much to everyone who has interacted with any of my posts and especially my writing in any way, big or small. It means a lot to me! I cannot wait to be around for all the buildup to Season 4, honestly. I know it seems so far but after midnight we can say it's (probably) only NEXT YEAR!

I have no idea what 2024 has in store for me. That doesn't scare me, in fact I'm quite excited about not knowing what will happen. I

Of course, I have some goals I'd like to achieve for myself but whatever happens, I know that Mando will be there to endlessly rewatch and whatever comes my way, I'll always have Din Djarin. He's the only man to ever exist! That gorgeous tin can who instantly soothes me every time I get to watch his silly little exploits with his silly little son. Where would we be without him, eh?

Anyway, whatever you're doing tonight to celebrate and even if you aren't, I wish you all the best. Stay safe, enjoy yourself and I'm sending you lots of love and light for the year. May 2024 be a healthy, happy prosperous year for you and your loved ones.

See you in 2024!

Love,

Spud 🥔🐸

#text post #a little oversharing on the internet as a treat #actually autistic #i basically just love din and all of you here THANKS for welcoming me to a space where i can just rant a lot and you all support me djdjdj #just autism things #i wrote this before i went away lol #but i still feel every word!!#almost midnight for me 🥺🥺🥺

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coulsonlives · 7 months

Text

Finished all eight episodes and well, that was underwhelming. Here are my main impressions.

Clothing was too clean and looked like it came out of a cosplayer's closet instead of being actual, lived-in clothes (if there's one thing the failed movie did right, it was the clothes)

Zuko was decent

Sokka had an a+ personality but was missing some nuance

The Sokka and Suki meeting was boring and had typical teen romance cliches galore

Appa and Momo were cute

Not sure how I felt about them starting with 100 years ago, and the cut between that time and the present day was jarring, I feel like the title card should've been there instead to break it up. And just the title card, none of that weirdly glowly, oddly-colored narrative with the bending examples and stuff, it looked so odd

If Katara were a spice, she'd be flour, if she were a book, she'd be two books, where the heck was her fire and spunk and generally just. differentiating traits because I didn't see any and it was so boring to watch her

Like honestly! She didn't have her motherly/parental role thing going on, even in a toned-down way, and she was missing her passion, I just. What else is left

Bumi was scary af man

Lots of the compositing was blurry as shit and it was distracting, probably a lot of newbie, abused comp artists with pay cuts given dneg was working on it

Aang revealing himself all mystically with the intense music, then two seconds later the music stops and he slides down on the ice with a thump made me lol, and I don't think that was the intended reaction

They're in the arctic and you can't see anyone's breath, why is that, tell me

Suki removes her makeup in like 2.4 seconds without missing a single bit of it, teach me your ways gurll

Momo is actually cute and not a demon, praise raava

The fire nation armor is pretty brutal, the shoulder pads are like obvious cardboard that isn't even trying to look like metal (I still can't really tell if it's supposed to be metal? That's not a good thing fam)

Way too much exposition and 'telling, not showing', some of the convos dragged on for wayyy too long

The fox thing was unnecessary, but I liked Yue's added motivation to help Aang as well as her people

What the f did they do to Azula, the foundations of her character are totally different from the og show and she barely even feels like a villain. Some of her lines about being inadequate or 'not good enough' felt really contrived too

Lots of strange cuts and camera work, more than a few times there was a person talking and the camera was looking at their waist or something else for no reason lol, and there wasn't an establishing shot when there needed to be, so things were just disorientating a lot of the time

Lots of things happened but the show just. didn't give any time for them to marinate. Sokka telling Aang he abandoned his people, he knew it, blah blah in one of the early episodes? It's poignant but it lasts like five seconds before the scene totally changes, I got major whiplash, fam

The lion roaring sound effect every time someone firebent, please stop I beg

Azula being defiant was interesting and the lightning scene was cool but I still miss Daddy's Pet Azula

Sokka screaming on Appa was funny

My favourite scene was probably the dude going 'but we're the forty-first!' and Iroh telling them, 'and you're all alive because of his sacrifice'. Like dang that hit hard and I loved it. I liked how they added that

Avatar Roku was like ?? um. I know he and Sozin were goofballs but cmon man

The shots with Koh capturing Sokka and Katara were cheesy as shit especially with the sound effects lmao, it looked like horror movie jumpscares from a b-movie

Some of the acting was hammier than a ham sandwich. Even Zhao gave me that impression at times especially with the dang spirit fish scene

Pippinpaddleopsicopolis the third

I know they had to condense a crap ton of episodes, but it really felt like the show was just checking off boxes at times instead of (like I said earlier) letting anything marinate

The opening scene with the earthbending and firebending was cool, it's a shame the rest of the show didn't live up to that

The bending vfx looked good. The choreography did feel a bit disconnected though, and not as martial arty as I would've liked

I felt like I could blatantly see some of the reasons the og creators left the show

Grumps tbh I'd give it like 4/10.

#i don't think i'll feel like revisiting this anytime soon it was just so middling and meh yknow?#atla #atla spoilers #atla netflix #atla live action

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animezinglife · 4 months

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ACOTAR tag game 💕

Thanks for tagging me, @crazy-ache! Honestly, after reading your responses, I'm convinced we might actually be the same person. XD

Several others actually tagged me in this too, and I'm sorry to everyone for the delay. It's been busy and I've had company.

Answer the questions below & tag whoever you want, or make it an open tag!!

Who's your favourite ACOTAR character?

Lucien Vanserra. Back when I had no intention of continuing the series after the first book, I joked a lot about him having to be tired from carrying all of Prythian on his back.

Who's your least favourite character?

Ianthe. I still hope Stryga used her fingers as toothpicks.

Say something nice about your least favourite character.

She's probably objectively pretty.

Who's your favourite High Lord? (If you picked one for your fav character, then who's your second fav!)

I don't really feel like I know many of them enough to make the most sound decision. I think if I were living in Prythian, I would feel very at ease with Helion or Tarquin as my High Lord even if the latter is still a mere child of eighty and has his moments of naivete. He seems very honest and fair.

Helion I think would be similar, but less naive and more adept at seeing all the angles Tarquin might miss.

To be clear, I love Rhysand. I just think how I would feel about him as High Lord would probably differ depending on where I lived in the Night Court.

Favourite MINOR character?

I love Vassa. I think she has a lot of potential and is so cool. The image of her in her firebird form raining hell down on those Hybern ships was epic.

Jurian's fun, too.

Last but not least, Varian cracks me up. He probably has the most questionable taste and survival skills out of the whole lot of them and doesn't get nearly enough credit for just floating around to wherever his funky little heart desires.

Favourite ship? (Crackships included!)

Elucien has the potential to be my favorite and I'm already down bad for them. Of the ones who already are canon, though, Feysand.

Favourite court and why?

Of the ones we've spent time in, I'm not going to lie: I favor Spring for the way it was portrayed in the first book. Warm weather, green, gardens, pools of starlight, Tamlin playing his fiddle while people dance and celebrate, etc. It's very faerie.

That said, Autumn is the one I'm most intrigued by overall for all the usual and popular reasons. Autumn could very easily overtake spring.

Make up a brand new court RIGHT NOW, NO PREP JUST VIBES.

The Celestial Court. It's more otherworldly than Night or Dawn; more heavenly full of crystals and clouds. Its on its own plane of being entirely. The Fae there are known for their close connections to their gods and the High Lord and Lady are historically considered to be demigods. They would have an otherworldly glow/light to them like Tolkien elves; be a bit more unsettling. There's a lot of mystery around them and their power. I think of a lot of white or light clothing, fair skin, and long, fair hair. Unusual eyes that look like you're gazing into the heavens.

What relationship would you have wanted to see more of in the books?

Elain and Lucien, obviously, but it's not time just yet. So, I'd love to see Elain making her own friends.

I'd also really like to see more of the Lucien and Eris dynamic, because we're definitely not being let in on at least a few things.

What's your unpopular opinion?

Every single ACOTAR book could be cut down about 200 pages and not lose any meaningful or relevant content. They're all entirely too bloated.

If you want a spicier take, I'm forever underwhelmed by Nesta as a character. I understand what the goal was and could still for the most part appreciate the story, but I never did get invested in her and what investment I did develop didn't last after I finished ACOSF.

What's your favourite headcanon/fan canon?

The best way to sum up many of my favorites would simply be Elain finding herself and her confidence in a potential relationship with Lucien. How it would be a healing journey, but also very much one of her coming into her element and power (and him into his, too).

I love the idea of them becoming completely uninhibited out in nature and to have this extremely deep connection that goes beyond other bonds.

If you were swept away to Prythian, what's ONE thing you would want to do?

Lucien (<- keeping @crazy-ache's answer here because I absolutely would if he'd have me)

"I want to experience all the magic. Just frolic through a field and really feel this fae magical world, see the creatures, witness the magic and spells, just be absolutely bewitched by it all." (<- keeping this answer, too, but I would add Helion's libraries to the mix).

If you could have ONE faerie ability seen in the books, which would it be?

I'd want to put a lot of effort into healing magic, but I'd love to be able to winnow or create water wolves. Winnowing would be ideal so I could see the world more easily and see my family whenever I wanted.

Thank you so much for the tag! Anyone who wants to do this, please feel free.

#answered #tag game

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screechthemighty · 6 months

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Hark! The penultimate chapter of this God of War fic is here! Fair warning, some stuff discussed in this chapter isn't going to be resolved in this fic...because that's what the sequel is for. >:3c But I just wanted to let everyone know before I post the final chapter/epilogue (which hopefully won't take too long?? But with me you never know). Anyways, AO3 link in a reblog as always, but enjoy the full text below!

will you greet the daylight looming? part 5/6: winter

cw: vomiting mention, animal death, references to odin being a shitty ableist father

When he opened the door to the first snow of winter, Kratos felt…underwhelmed.

The snowfalls of Fimbulwitner were still fresh in his mind–large, thick flakes covering the ground so quickly that any attempts at digging out of the house were doomed to fail. He’d spent three years struggling through drifts up to his waist, across frozen rivers and lakes and a landscape changed almost beyond recognition.

This, in comparison, was nothing. A light dusting coated the ground. The air was brisk and cold, but not the biting chill of Fimbulwinter. He surveyed the forest, sighed, and went back inside to retrieve Mimir. “Hunting won’t be a problem,” he said.

“Well, thank goodness for that,” Mimir said. “Suspect the young ones will be disappointed they won’t be able to use the snow to get out of practice.”

“They wouldn’t regardless. They need to learn to fight in any conditions.”

“Of course they do.” Kratos stepped back outside and started down the path to Speki and Svanna’s kennel. “Did you have snow in Greece?”

“Mostly in the mountains. Never like here.” Kratos tilted his face back, feeling the snowflakes melt as they touched his skin. “What about your homeland?”

“Oh! Well.” Mimir sounded surprised. He didn’t often speak of his homeland, only that he was from someplace else, and Kratos had never really asked. Perhaps I should start asking. “That depends. It snowed more where I lived when I was a lad, but it was a lot more temperate where my first lord lived. He wasn’t fond of the cold.”

“He could control the weather?”

“Something like that. We had the odd bit of snowfall, more like this, really, but nothing like here. Took some getting used to when I came north. Especially back when I had more bits to worry about keeping warm.”

“...do you miss it?”

Mimir was quiet. He didn’t speak until Kratos had finished hitching the wolves to the sled. “Sometimes,” he admitted. “Not all of it…and I probably only remember the good parts when I do miss it. But sometimes, yeah. Do you?”

Kratos didn’t have to think long. “The same as you,” he said. “Only sometimes. Only when my regrets return.” All the moments he would have done differently. The things he would have changed. But…

“No making things right, eh?” Mimir said quietly.

“Hmm. Only better than they were.”

And with that, he got onto the sled and urged the wolves forward. There was work to be done. Things to be made better.

Even a mild winter would bring its trials.

There was a time when he could have said that he didn’t care. That the various groups setting in Midgard should settle their differences among themselves and leave him out of it.

Kratos could not do that anymore. Freya was right: he trained their children. He went to their village almost every day. He was a part of this now. He could not simply walk away.

That knowledge did not make the conversation less frustrating.

“Did you actually see anyone enter the storehouse?” Kratos said, struggling to keep his tone even. He didn’t think he was successful; if the look on the mortal’s face was any indication, he still sounded angry. Kratos was beginning to think that tone was beyond his control.

“Well…” The man twisted his cloak in his hands. Kratos had already forgotten his name, but he knew the man was more or less in charge of the village half a day away. “...no…sir…”

“Then you cannot prove that anyone from here was responsible for the theft?”

“Well, who else would it be?”

“Thieves. Plenty of raiders never left Midgard. You do understand this, correct?” He had done his best to eradicate them, or at least strongly encourage them to move on, but many had gone deep into hiding as spring and summer returned. Winter and its lack of resources would likely draw them back out. “They will only grow bolder moving forward. I suggest you find more competent guards instead of starting fights.”

“But…”

“If there is a problem, I will handle it. If you require assistance, ask. But now is not the time for us to fight among ourselves. Do I make myself clear?”

The mortal’s face reddened. “Yes…sir?”

Kratos noted the questioning tone, and simply grunted his approval at the title. He still hadn’t given one (still didn’t want to give one), but sir he would allow. “Do your people require assistance?”

“No, sir.”

“Then we are done here.”

The man departed, leaving Kratos with a headache and a roomful of nervous stares. “Do we have any reason to suspect someone might be stealing from other towns?” he asked with a sigh. “Any at all?”

“None that I can think of,” spoke up one man, Leif. From what Kratos remembered, he served as a sort of quartermaster for the town. “We’ve stored up plenty. There isn’t a need, though…I reckon that wouldn’t stop some people, would it?”

It certainly wouldn’t, and that could cause problems in the long term. Another voice spoke up, this time a woman. “Haven’t noticed anyone sneaking out, for what it’s worth,” she said. Helga was her name. She wasn’t one of the Asgard transplants; she and her people had managed to survive in an abandoned mine through the Desolation and Fimbulwinter. Kratos had been the one to suggest them when the town started forming a militia. By all accounts, they were very good at it. “We started a curfew, on account of the wolves and such. Set up patrols. No one’s gone in or out at odd hours that we’ve seen. No one coming in carrying anything, either.”

That was reassuring, at least. “You should increase your numbers, just in case,” Kratos said. “If other places are facing raiders, it is only a matter of time. I have older students who are ready. I will speak to them.”

Helga nodded grimly. Leif sighed. “If you’ll pardon my language, sir,” he said, “I can’t fucking stand winter.”

Kratos grunted in agreement. This winter may not have been as fierce as Fimbulwinter, but he could already tell it was going to be long.

When the first fight finally came, it had nothing to do with raiders. The wolves were growing just as desperate as the mortals, and to them, meat was meat. Goats and small children were just as easy to catch.

He was examining the town’s defenses when he heard the shouting. Kratos ran towards the sound instinctively, drawing Leviathan as he went. A few of his students saw him and joined in the rush, Skjöldr among them. The drills must have been working, because they fell into formation without being instructed. Good, he thought. Well done.

It was over by the time they reached the scuffle–or, more accurately, the ending of it. The animal was dead, a spear deep in its side, having collapsed on top of a smaller form. Kratos ran forward to push the creature aside; Davin was underneath, body trembling, eyes wide, hands still trying to clasp the knife he’d sunk deep into the wolf’s throat. He was covered in blood. It was hard to say how much of it was his. “Are you injured?” Kratos asked.

“...uh…” Davin looked up at him. The closer look showed scrapes across his cheekbone. He must have managed to pull his head back before the teeth could sink in too deeply. “I got it.”

“I can see that.” Kratos looked around. There was a dead goat nearby, and two trembling children nearby. Both looked unharmed, but shaken. “Can you stand?”

Davin could. Kratos carefully examined him for injuries as the others who’d followed him gathered around the wolf. “Shit,” Skjöldr said. “You really got him, Dav!”

“I…” Davin stared at the wolf. “Y-yeah. I…I did have to move to the left. You were right.”

“It is good you remembered.” Davin’s tunic was torn, but there was no sign of injury underneath. The cuts on his cheek seemed the worst of it. They would have to monitor him for infection or illness, but he was very lucky beyond that. “Well done.”

Davin stared at him for a long moment. Then a grin split his face, his teeth vibrant white against his blood and dirt-stained face. “Thank you, sir!”

The boy’s cuts were cleaned and mended. Someone in the town made him a cloak of the wolf’s fur. No further harm came to the boy.

Kratos hoped it would be the most exciting thing to happen all winter. He knew better than to hope too hard.

“So,” Höðr said casually, “how’s Freya doing?”

Kratos knew a leading question when he saw one. He could immediately guess why Höðr was asking; it was an implication he had been trying to avoid, one he did not appreciate hearing from a member of Asgard’s court. Especially not one who seemed so nosy.

“Freya is fine,” Kratos said tersely. He glanced the blind god’s way. Höðr leaned against a nearby building, his cloak pulled tightly around his body. Someone had given him a haircut, making him look somewhat less haggard than before. “Why?”

He expected a smirk, another cryptic comment, or for the god to simply walk away. Instead, Höðr sighed and held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I thought,” he said, “that you two would want to get ahead of things. And I don’t really know how to contact her, so…” He gestured towards Kratos. “...here we are.”

It was difficult to tell if he was being sincere. He sounded sincere, his body language was sincere, and he must have known that Kratos would not be pleased if Höðr tried to deceive him. That didn’t answer one question: “Why do you care?”

Freya’s brother, dead though he was, had been the one to blind Höðr. She was Vanir, his former enemy, an interloper on his court. Kratos was the ultimate interloper, a foreign god from a foreign land who had helped overthrow Odin and was dangerously close to being worshipped here. Yes, they were technically at peace. Kratos knew better than anyone that this peace was not necessarily welcome.

Höðr considered his answer carefully. His fingers drummed slightly against his staff. “I know this might sound hard to believe,” he said, “but I don’t want things to go back to the way they were. Some people might, but I’m not one of them.” He smiled briefly, almost embarrassed. “If nothing else, you can trust that. I wasn’t exactly benefitting from being Aesir in those days.”

“And you’re benefitting now?”

“I can walk around most places without feeling like I’m going to be heckled or have something thrown at me, so…yes, very much so.” There was a harshness to his smile now, as if he were still bracing himself for that treatment. “You don’t have to believe me, but can you at least do a poor blind god the mercy of letting him say his piece?”

Kratos considered the offer before nodding. “Speak, then.” Even if Höðr’s words were lies, those lies could still be valuable.

Höðr’s head tilted slightly, as if he were listening for something before he began speaking. “I would’ve written it off as idle gossip if it hadn’t escalated so quickly. In my experience, you don’t really go from a few people thinking you two would make a handsome couple to everyone being sure you two have some secret romance without someone having a hand in it. No one’s tied it back into what happened with Odin yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried.”

Kratos raised an eyebrow. “She broke it off with him,” he pointed out.

“Yes, true, and I wouldn’t exactly call him a faithful husband,” Höðr conceded, “but none of those facts are going to matter in the face of a good scandal, are they?”

No, they wouldn’t.

“I don’t know if this has spread to Vanaheim yet, but if it were me, I’d be keeping an ear on it,” Höðr finished. “The winter’s only going to get colder, and the lean months can make people believe all sorts of things.” This time, Höðr turned his face to the wind, as if test the temperature, feeling the currents and what they may bring. “I can keep an ear out myself, if you want.”

Kratos wasn’t sure about that. Höðr hadn’t done anything to harm him, but that didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t malicious. “You didn’t ask,” Kratos pointed out.

“Didn’t ask what?”

“If we are together.”

Höðr shrugged. “Not my business. And you’ll want to get out ahead of it either way, so it doesn’t really matter. Congratulations if you managed to win her, though.” A slight smirk tugged at Höðr’s lips as he pulled away. “And good luck.”

Kratos grunted in response, and watched the blind god leave.

He debated if she should speak to Freya or Mimir first. Perhaps both of them at once. She deserved to know about the possibility of rumors, and Mimir’s guidance in the matter would be helpful. Kratos had been in the habit of ignoring rumors about him back on Olympus, but he couldn’t afford to do that this time. This was a problem that had to be addressed.

He may not have been addressing it alone, but the thought still made him feel weary. I never had these problems when I lived alone, he thought.

Despite that, as he walked back to his students, he couldn’t help thinking that he didn’t want to give this up.

Freya took the news about as well as could be expected: by sighing heavily and immediately getting up to pour herself some mead. “I should have seen this coming,” she said. She sounded calm, which Kratos knew likely meant she was furious. “Of course someone would try to undermine me with a connection to a man. No offense meant.”

“None taken.” She had more to lose from this rumor than he did and he knew it. Kratos had no right to be offended. “How do you want to handle this?”

Freya took a long, long drain from her mead. Kratos didn’t interrupt. She was more than capable of considering the question and taking a drink. “For now? Nothing,” she said. “I want to see who’s spreading this around. It might help us narrow things down.” She turned to Mimir. “Do you think we can trust Höðr?”

“Well…I think we can trust that he wasn’t lying about not wanting things to go back the way they were,” Mimir said. “He was Odin’s spy master until he was blinded. After that happened, Odin replaced him with the Raven Keeper and cast him aside. He reckoned Höðr being blinded by the enemy reflected poorly on Asgard. No one treated the poor lad well after that…except Týr, whenever he had time for him.”

Kratos thought back to their conversation at the harvest feast, the way that Höðr introduced himself with his mother’s name and seemed genuinely glad to see Angrboda alive. Perhaps the isolation had given him some time to reflect on where his loyalties were. “We could consult Týr,” he said. “He may know if Höðr has any ulterior motives.”

“Agreed,” Freya said. “Assuming you can find him.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be that simple. “Has he left?”

“I don’t think he’s gone far. He’s just developed the disposition of a barn cat. He comes and goes and you’re never sure when you’re going to see him again. I’ve been trying to get a council together and it’s been a pain trying to find him to discuss things. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I have.” Freya smirked slightly as she sipped her mead. “It takes a hermit of a war god to know one, right?”

Kratos wanted to argue, but was immediately annoyed to find that he couldn’t.

He was even more annoyed when Freya ended up being right. All Kratos had to do was ask himself where he would go if he were Týr and start checking those places. He found the war god at the second spot. “Not a word,” he grumbled to Mimir.

“Wasn’t going to say anything, brother,” Mimir said. “Honestly, I was just enjoying the more temperate weather.”

“Hmm.” It was true; Alfheim was warmer than Midgard at this time of year. Even if the winter at home was temperate compared to Fimbulwinter, and even if the fighting in Alfheim was still irritating to avoid, it was worth coming to the realm on occasion for the temperature change. Týr seemed to think so; he was sitting cross-legged along one of the river banks, staring out at the running water. He didn’t look away as Kratos joined him. “Did Freya send you?” he asked.

Kratos shook his head. “I have my own questions,” he said as he carefully set down Mimir. “About your brother, Höðr.”

Týr frowned slightly. “He’s not bothering you, is he?”

“He passed along some important information. I wanted to know what his intentions might be.”

Týr considered the statement. “I can tell you this much,” he said after some thought, “he’s definitely not on the side of anyone who might want to reinstate Asgard’s old rule. Between how Odin treated him after he lost his sight and…” A note of grief entered the war god’s voice. “…what happened with mother…he has no love for the way things were. I can’t say if he’s on any side but his own, but his desires are more aligned with ours. And any information he has is good. He might be a nosy little brat sometimes, but he only shares what he can verify.” A fond, if exasperated smile replaced the grief. “It’s not gossip if it’s true, he’d always say.”

“Hmm.” So, there were definitely rumors being spread about him and Freya.

That was irritating.

Kratos sighed irately. Týr had the decency not to ask; he only went back to staring at the water. They sat in silence for a time, in the gentle warmth of Alfheim.

“Freya has been looking for you,” Kratos said finally.

Now it was Týr’s turn to sigh. “For the council. I know. You can tell her I’m not avoiding her. I just have…things to consider.”

Kratos understood what Týr meant. The thought of the council had been gnawing at him since Freya mentioned it. She hadn’t brought it up to him again, but…

What do we call you?

…it was possibly only a matter of time before she did.

He did not know what his answer would be.

“…swear, they’re like rats,” Hildisvíni said as they emerged from the gat into a cold Midgard night. “Every time you think you’ve handled the problem, more show up.”

“You still have not located the nests?” Kratos asked.

“Unfortunately, no. We’ve been trying, but…”

Whatever he was about to say next was interrupted by the distant blast of a horn. An alarm. Kratos recognized the sound; he’d only heard it briefly, during a test run of the small town’s alarms, but he knew it. Those were Skjöldr’s people.

Something was wrong.

He took off at a run, not stopping to see if Hildisvíni was responding to the horn call as well. He summoned his spear as he ran. It was instinctive, even more so than drawing his other weapons. It was the first weapon a Spartan used, the one he’d been training them with.

He needed that familiarity now.

Kratos arrived at the town to the sounds of battle. He could make out Skjöldr’s voice above the din, directing his troops. That was the sound he made his way towards. He altered course enough to turn his approach into a flanking maneuver, surveying the battle as he did. His students were holding the line so far, but what the bandits lacked in discipline they made up for in numbers.

But numbers did not always make a battle, and sometimes the surest way to ensure a victory was to convince the other side a fight was not worth it.

Driving an exploding spear through a man’s heart and detonating it was one way to do that.

Almost immediately, the enemy line dissolved into chaos. Kratos heard their call—Sá merkti! Hann er kominn!—and some chose to flee at the sound. Others, too caught up in their desire for a noble end or beserker rage, still tried their luck.

They were dealt with.

This encouraged more of their comrades to flee. Soon, the sound of battle was replaced by the strange unquiet that often settled over a close call. Kratos’s mind turned to his students. When he turned, they were still in formation, still maintaining an admirable shield wall. Skjöldr’s face peered out. “Are they gone?” he asked shakily.

“Yes,” Kratos responded. “It is over.”

Almost immediately, someone started vomiting. Someone else began to weep. The formation slowly fell apart as some of its members turned and ran, calling out for their loved ones. Others lingered, staring at the carnage. Skjöldr was one of them momentarily, before he shook his head and stumbled towards Kratos. “Th-there’s people wounded,” he said. “I, uhm…” He looked around the battlefield. “I don’t know where my spear is.”

Kratos remembered then, very clearly, how Atreus had reacted to killing for the first time. Skjöldr was much older, and there were no tears in his eyes. But some of the same pain lingered in his eyes. Kratos remembered what he had said to his son back then. How he had wished may times since that he had said something different.

This was not quite a second chance, but he took the chance anyway.

“Skjöldr,” Kratos said firmly. His voice softened when he was sure he had the boy’s attention. “They would have killed you, and many more besides. You understand that, yes?” Skjöldr nodded. “It is a horrible choice, but sometimes a necessary one. You led with courage and conducted yourself with honor. That is all anyone could ask of you.”

Again, Skjöldr nodded. “Does it…get any easier?” he asked quietly.

“For some. But you should not let it become too easy. Keep your heart open as you can.” Kratos rested his hand on Skjöldr’s shoulder. “Well done.”

Some tears finally formed in Skjöldr’s eyes as he glanced down. He wiped them away quickly. “Thank you, sir.”

“Hmm.” Kratos nodded. “I will see to the wounded. You should…”

“No, I’ll help. I think I’ll feel worse if I don’t.” Skjöldr took a deep breath before turning back to town. “This way.”

Unfortunately, there were casualties. If the town had lacked a well-trained fighting force, there would have been many more. Kratos tried to comfort himself with the thought as he oversaw the aftermath of the battle. It did not help him much.

It helped more to see that the survivors, that his students, recovered and went to help. Even if their hands still shook, even if some wept, they helped. Skjöldr lead them, moving among his people with an encouraging smile.

Kratos hoped Skjöldr’s father knew what a fine young man his son was becoming.

He hoped that he would see his own son’s growth as well.

Kratos had not spent much time in Jötunheim. He felt as if he would be intruding, like an outsider who had somehow breached their walls and disturbed their peace.

But this place was Faye’s homeland. He still missed her deeply, some days more than others. He did not think anyone could blame him for seeking any connections left to him.

“Where do you think she would have lived?”

“Laufey?” Angrboda scanned the horizon. They were at the edge of the Ironwood, overlooking the rest of Jötunheim. “Did she ever talk about it?”

“She said she grew up near mountains. That her second family raised horses.”

“Hmmm…” Angrboda turned until she was facing the mountain peaks—the same ones they had spread Faye’s ashes from—and pointed in that direction. “That way. Beyond the temple. Some of our most famous horses were bred in the mountain valleys.”

Kratos stared out over the horizon and tried to imagine her there as a young woman. Perhaps her eyes were less tired in those days, her hair a more consistent red, without the small strands of white he noticed even before Atreus was born. She had been far angrier once—he had learned that during his travels in Vanaheim—but he was growing more comfortable with the thought. As much as it pained him to think that she had lived through the same rage he once had, it was an understandable anger. One she had learned to tame.

Many of her words to him made sense now. She had understood him more than he realized.

“The prophecy in Týr’s temple was broken in part,” he said. “Do you think…?”

Angrboda shrugged. “I never knew her. Everything I heard about her before made her more like one of the people from old legends, you know? But…I think she may have been the one to break it.” Angrboda rested her chin on her knees. “I get why she would. I’ve been on the other side of what Atreus would’ve lived through. I had this one moment that would make me important, then…nothing. Forever. And that was already bad, but he would’ve had one moment and then everything forever. That sounds awful.”

“It would have,” he agreed. Prophecies had destroyed his own childhood, and the three years he had spent with the threat of death hanging over him had been exhausting. Atreus knowing had nearly torn them apart. How much worse would it have been if they had known from the start? His life here had been far from perfect, but they had been some of the most peaceful in his long life.

And he had Faye to thank for that.

“You really loved her, huh?” Angrboda said.

Kratos closed his eyes. He imagined Faye walking through the fields towards her old childhood home. He pictured the way the sun would turn her hair gold, and the smile in her eyes as she turned to face him.

He knew, then, that no matter what came, no matter what changes lay ahead, he would still be able to remember her, alive and vibrant and calling him towards something better.

He took comfort in that.

“I still do,” he said.

That much would never change.

#god of war #fic: will you greet the daylight looming

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tatjana-fantasy · 10 months

Text

(Part 6)

I finished my replay of The Quarry! Some thoughts (Chapter 10 + Epilogue):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Max looks freaking great in Emma’s Laura's clothes <3

Also, the game did him so dirty. Not only is his playable segment insultingly short and contains only one linear choice, it may not even occur at all! Because of this, I personally treat him as a prologue character – technically playable, but not someone you would mention when talking about the amount of playable characters.

I miss Dylan :-(

Damn, Jacob turning into a werewolf while being completely alone is so depressing D:

Even though my Kaitlyn is infected, I was a little scared during the lodge showdown because I kept thinking about how she died in my first playthrough (I missed the shot with Caleb T__T)

The lodge finale in itself is pretty good. I like how replayable it is and I especially like how previous choices you made throughout the game can change its outcome :)

Huh, it was surprisingly easy to prevent the car from crashing! In my memory, it was a lot harder, maybe because of how rarely I played this path XD

I always give the vial to Ryan :) The “Ryan appreciates your sacrifice” is just way too heartwarming to be missed ^_^

I’m glad the game tried to humanize Silas at the end, but I really wish there was some way to spare him without killing everyone else :-(

Because I knew what to expect, the montage was not that bad this time, but it’s obviously not a replacement for a satisfying conclusion. It’s useful for Let’s Plays, but not for much else.

I actually like Grace’s and Anton’s dynamic and the fact that the evidence is actually important … but once again, it’s not a satisfying conclusion and it would’ve been much more powerful if we got to see the protagonists reunited/arrested/acquitted/etc. But since we don’t, you kinda wonder what the whole point was :-/

Not to mention, the entire podcast is so long. I always get tired when listening to it, it’s just so hard to pay attention. But I do want to mention one thing: I believe that we, the players, sent the evidence to them. Since it arrives even if every single character is dead, and since we are treated as a real character by Eliza, I think this meta explanation is quite probable :)

So, this is it, my replay of The Quarry! Overall, I did like it more than on my first few playthroughs, where I felt very underwhelmed by it. My biggest issues are the Chapter 7 flashback and the lack of an ending, but this replay thankfully reminded me that the game has plenty of good things, too :)

Thanks to everyone who followed my little journey! Enjoy the montage~ (And yes, of course I plan a replay where I save as many characters as possible :D)

#the quarry #the quarry replay

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sapphosdickandballs · 2 months

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Dear Sapho- her dick, her balls (dont blme me blame amal El-mohtar)

I see you have taken my challenge and engaged me in battle. Now beholth! the arcane edition!

Vi.

Cait

Jayce

Viktor

Mel

Silco

powder (note i did not say Jinx).

I look forward to your reply,

kiekebe

Vi-

How I feel about vi…I do feel like fandom has fucked her over a bit. I think she’s undergone hot and gay syndrome (fatal) when she’s actually a complex character. I’m super excited to watch her spiral into depression. I also think thatttt Caitlyn makes her better and more interesting

CAITLYN KIRAMMAN is there even any other answer

her and jinx

I…don’t think she’s that hot. I wanna look like her, for sure (gender envy like you wouldn’t believe) but like. She’s competing with sevika and mommy abassarda and Mel and jinx and Caitlyn and that’s just counting the women. So like. Also maybe it’s finding out the VA for vi is a Zionist. And I feel like her voice was a main appeal for her (at least to me) so

Canon caitvi. I wanted it in the first season. If it’s not in the second season I will genuinely cry

Caitlyn -

Literally number one cait fan here. She’s never done anything wrong and I love her and I also need her so bad. Girls with blue hair istg

Again. Vi. Best ship

Her and Jayce are actually pretty cute together I fear

She’s one of my favorite characters, which might be uncopular. And I like her more than vi, which is definitely unpopular.

I need angst. I need her to lose her mind. I need to watch her spiral into a terrible mess. Literally a requirement.

Jayce -

😴😴😴. He’s boring. I will give him the benifit of the doubt that he needs another season to cook, but like. Boring man

No one lmao.

Like I said, him and cait or him and viktor are sweet.

Idk. Probably that I don’t like Jayvik. Or that I think he’s silly looking.

Wanted him to smack his head on an open cabinet. The man needs that idk.

Viktor

Uh. He’s okay. I think he has a lot of potential. I think he’s gonna eat in the second season. As it is I thought him a tad bit underwhelming. But I’m strapped in and ready for his arc to finish.

Therapy

Him and Jayce or I feel like him and Jinx would get along

Hes not attractive to me 😭 I’m sorry. He looks malnourished I’ve never been into that

I want him to die

Mel-

Trying very hard not to bark at my screen she’s so arugaidiajkekfn. She’s so fine i swear. Oh she’s done shitty things but who cares.

No one is good enough for her. Especially not Jayce 😭

Her and her mom should patch things up I feel like that’s very sad. And if she dies! If she dies and never gets to make up with her mom!!

That she can do no wrong. She’s the best

Living. I need her to live that’s what I want.

Silco -

Silco’s story I was slurping it up with a spoon. I love sympathetic villains. I love horrible people with soft spots. The character himself was horrid but did I cry at you’re perfect? Yes

Proud Vander and Silco shipper. Those two old men should kiss I fear

Him and Jinx >>>

Ugh idk. Ig that I think he should’ve died. That makes sense. That’s a natural conclusion that’s the only way his story could’ve ended

I wish he would’ve given up jinx bro. For the good of the nation. Or fucked nasty with Vander at least once

Powder (you’re devious for this one)

😭😭😭 She kind of reminds me of my sister so I was in PAIN watching her scenes. I love her and I miss her. RIP in peace queen

Shes. A child??

Her and vi or her and ekko

She was kinda dumb for the monkey bomb thing. Like she threw a whole ass bomb and was like oh yeah this will have a great result. Ik why she did it but girl

🤷‍♀️

#sapphoanswers #arcane #character breakdown

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jasminebutintaiwansojiemin · 2 months

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July 12th, 2024 星期五 - Taipei101 + 饒河街觀光夜市

We met around 10:30 am, then took the brown and red lines on the subway to Taipei 101, where we walked through a huge high-end mall and got to see Taipei from its highest point. To get from the info-desk area to the observatory level, we took an insanely fast elevator that went probably around 80 floors or more in less than 40 seconds. Inside the observatory level, there were a surprising amount of floral photo-op set-ups for visitors to take pictures, however I think the backlight from the floor to ceiling windows did not come out well in the pictures.

The view was pretty amazing. You can see the actual city as well as the lush mountainsides which remind me of the countryside of Jamaica. After taking some pictures in different scene in spots and admiring the view, I went to the gift shop to look at the souvenirs. These days, I try to buy souvenirs or merchandise that I’ll actually use, because I feel like it then carries more meaning to me. After browsing for a bit, I settled for a gold metal bookmark that was cut out in the shape of the Taipei 101 building and a postcard/necklace set. I’m not exactly sure what the necklace is but I thought it was pretty lol. Later, I went to the 90th floor to see the view from the sky deck. It was slightly underwhelming because of the wall/anti-jump gate but it was crazy being that high up and being outside to see the clouds at eye level. After coming back inside, I got the envelope of my postcard stamped with the free ink stamps. At around 12:30, the tour group met back together and we took the stairs to see the massive damper on the 88th floor. After finishing the tour, i went with some of my group-mates to eat at a banquet style restaurant about five minutes away from Taipei 101.

After eating, we took the red line to Taipei Main Station to try to meet some others in the underground mall but it got complicated and we just ended up going to a different above-ground mall. I bought some stationary from one the shops on the 4th floor. I noticed that in this mall, many stores weren’t completely walled off from others. For example, there was a section selling Hurley stuff and quite literally a couple steps to the right a whole other store. At first I figured it was just a giant department store we had wandered into, but now I think that’s just how the mall was. The mall was also connected to a mass bus terminal, which makes sense since it was across the street from the Taipei MRT main station. When one of the other girls went to the bathroom, I noticed there was an option of both western toilets and squat toilets. After shopping, we found another one of the girls in the program and figured out how to ride the red line to the green line transfer. We got help from this Taiwanese lady who spoke perfect English even though she’s Taiwanese. Her American accent was probably better than mine. When we got to the green line transfer platform, we ran into even more of the girls in our group and planned to visit Raohe Night Market after resting for a bit.

I started doing homework when I got in the hotel before decided to attempt to do my laundry. The washing part went fine and I took a nap in the meantime. I woke up to transfer the clothes to the dryer and then went back to sleep. The dryer did not dry much. After trying to figure it out for a while, my roommate came to help but she didn’t have any luck either. We opted to just put it to cold dry in the washer and figure it out later. While it ran, I went to get dressed. I wore pants all day and drowned myself in mosquito spray before because the day before, I got bit up by mosquitos. Before heading out to the night market, I brought my clothes back to the hotel room to finish drying. We took the green line of the MRT to the last stop and spent a few hours walking through the night market. I bought Guava, a brown sugar donut, and some hello kitty playing cards. We headed home closer to 11pm where I showered, FaceTimed by boyfriend, and did more homework.

Academic Reflection

Today’s reading focused on the building of and structural integrity of Taipei 101. It describes the unique damper, structural limits, and safety limits. The reading described how the World Trade Center in New York City went down because of fires, not because of the planes’ impact. It also mentioned that in Hong Kong, every 25 floors of a building must have a refugee floor that is empty and designed to resist smoke accumulation. Reading about safety limits in comparison to the World Trade Center after visiting Taipei 101 made me think a lot about when I went to the 9/11 memorial in New York City. I did notice that when we went down the stairs to the 88th floor, the rest of the stairs were blocked off. Aside from these stairs and the elevators, I didn’t see any other marked and visible exits. Thinking about safety, perhaps it was not the safest. The readings talks about how typhoons and earthquakes are serious concerns in Asia, which makes me think about the lack of clearly marked exits.

Something else I found interesting was the damper on the 88th floor of Taipei 101. The reading describes how the swinging of the internal damper would dissipate wind energy and prevent the building itself from swaying too much and possibly falling over. Our tour guide said that the damper was built to withstand a 10.0 magnitude earthquake. Recently in Taiwan, there were 6.0 and 6.2 magnitude earthquakes on April 23rd, 2024. This made me think about how perhaps being in a building like Taipei 101 would be good as an earthquake shelter. When walking down the street in Zhongshan, I noticed that there were signs showing certain areas to be aerial attack shelters. I have yet to see any signs pointing to earthquake shelters though.

#taiwan #chinese language #travel #taipei

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so-long-soldier-writes · 8 months

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What did you think of them bringing Kai back for a little bit in legacies?

Ooof! I have so many mixed emotions about Kai coming back for legacies. On one hand, I was glad to have him back; on the other, I was scared because I don't have the highest opinion of legacies. Of course, though, I watched his couple of episodes and it was more or less as expected.

So first, I liked the build-up, starting with Penelope learning about the merge. I liked the three second shot of Kai on a video camera that MG needed to use. And, I liked Josie finally learning about her "crazy uncle Kai," while Ric was trying hard to hold back this rather significant information from his daughters.

But then all the build-up went nowhere; there was no crazy reveal, nor outburst of emotion, it just smoothed itself out very gently, and certainly, very un-Gemini like. We saw some sassiness out of Josie towards Ric, but not much at all out of Lizzie. Josie actually meeting Kai was probably the opposite of what was expected. She was calm and teamed up with him over her own father, despite fearing the man for what her father told her about Kai and her biological mother (Jo). Kai, of course, was fully entertained by Josie's decision to trust him, and he toyed with her a lot, which was very in-character. He was less violent, however, and rather underwhelming.

Josie, at this point, had already met Jo, and greatly cherished the short bit of time they had together. So why would she team up with Kai, knowing what he did, as told to her by her father? It was just odd to me.

As for the Jade relationship part, that was also strange. I was already weirded out by Jade and Josie having a thing, despite her being Josie's babysitter. Kai didn't seem to have any attachment to Jade whatsoever; he was bored and curious, she was too, and they had nothing else to do in that prison world. I mean, good on him for finally losing his virginity, but it just seemed like filler detail. The whole hunger games concept was kind of cool; the fact that they hunt each other for sport, for fun. Because what else is there to do in an empty world where you can't die? That part was in-character, which I appreciated. And it's nice to know he's had some entertainment in his eternity of hell.

Shifting the topic, though, to the Malivore plotline... I already think the whole Malivore thing is stupid; Kai jumping into the pit and everyone forgetting who he is (but then somehow remembering again) was so terribly annoying, I didn't even want to finish the episodes. I'm glad he got out of the prison world, I just wish that whole plotline didn't exist, and I think he would've been smart enough to find an alternative method. However, I did like him giving Josie the ultimatum to "go dark" or to forget her options on getting out. I feel like Josie was on the path to darkness already - those two twins are both more like Kai than they'll ever know - and he just gave her a little push. Bitter, tired of being in prison worlds, bored Kai would 100% set his niece (whom he tried to kill twice) up in such a tricky situation and then bail, and I love that for him.

Despite me being stale about the Malivore inclusion in Kai's eps, I continued watching.

His bit of showing up to the Salvatore school was funny. I had really missed his instigating and banter with the people around him. The bits about Ric's wedding and the ascendant having a specific tune made me laugh, as did him taking his father's name to put up the act. Also, the careless beheading of the teddy bear. 😂

The following scene, however, when he fought Hope, was upsetting. Hope is strong, but not coven-leader-heretic strong, so her taking him down with little to no effort bugged me. Granted, it's somewhat untrained tribrid vs unsocialized heretic, so they both have advantages and disadvantages, but seeing how big and bad Kai was in season 6, taking her out should've been no problem. Kai with access to magic plus being undead would've made him stronger than he was just as a siphon witch, but they made him almost incapable in Legacies.

Furthermore, he didn't even seem that vengeful, which is wildly uncharacteristic. Post-1994 and post-1903, he raised absolute hell, but post-2018, he just seemed a little bored. If they were going to keep him as a villain and continue to revoke a redemption, they should've made him a real, fear-worthy villain. Not a less-than-intimidating "crazy uncle" with mismatched socks. (I adore his mismatched socks, but they only contributed to making the scary tvd villain into a watered down version that was appropriate for the younger-aged viewers that Legacies had.)

now, spoilers

At the end, when Ric kills him off for good, it was a hard watch. It was bad enough to watch him die the first time, so this time was even worse. I just felt that it was so uncharacteristic for him to get caught and get killed again. I mean, he's spent years fighting to survive in prison world after prison world, there's no way he'd be that easy to take down after the third escape, and especially now as a heretic. Bonnie getting an advantage on him in season 8, yes, because he had a weakness for her. But his nieces + Jade + Ric? No way.

So, in summary, I was glad to see him, but didn't like what they did to his character. Kai was so much more than the again, "crazy uncle" that Legacies made him out to be. Legacies' viewers, including some of the actors, I feel, don't get to see the side of him that was seen in TVD, where he was a neglected and isolated kid that became driven by a need for revenge (and to prove himself). His backstory isn't really brought up at all, and for someone who studies and adores his character like myself, it's upsetting. It seems like they just wanted him back as another enemy to take down in a day and move on, or to close a plothole that TVD had somewhat left open. It didn't feel like there was any purpose to bring him back other than for entertainment, especially for those who didn't like him or didn't know him at all.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or I'm too attached to him, but I wasn't a fan of it. I liked seeing him, that was it. But TVD itself was much better at crafting its villains and dividing its fans between "the good side" and "the bad side," (i.e. Damon vs Stefan in s1; Katherine vs the Mystic Falls' gang; Klaus, or Silas vs everyone). Legacies, on the other hand, feels like it pushes for [Saltzmans + the student body] vs [a handful of wacky monsters], and Kai got pulled into the mix. I haven't watched any further episodes since Kai's, and I don't plan on continuing the show. It doesn't measure up to TVD or TO at all, in my opinion.

#thank you for the ask!!#sorry this reply is so long #and that i took so long to reply #legacies feels so much like a kids' show tbh or even a very watered down early cw supernatural where they were just fighting monsters #it's kinda like a bad wattpad fanfiction of tvd #i loved seeing my bby kai but i did not like what they did to him #i want him soft & cuddly or absolutely apeshit & vengeful and he was neither #i hope i'm not offending anon or any legacies fans #this is just my opinion #asks #kai parker #legacies

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