#which are DIFFERENT from aa enjoyers

[utterdrip]

a lot of astarion thinkpieces are sooo funny bc almost every one of them forgets that like

this man is constantly making funny little inside jokes with himself about being dead. i repeat: with HIMSELF.

he makes godawful puns with complete glee and without an ounce of irony

his plans are vague and not well thought out (for obvious reasons) but hes just like: fuck it we ball

[bananasfosterparent]

I definitely think there are more AA enjoyers out there (including some Spawn fans who claim otherwise, remember how many of them were salivating over AA's sex scene in the beginning but now they're all saying they actually hate it because he's dissociating in it) but the thing is AA fans have become the fandom's punching bag which makes it really difficult for a lot of people to publicly come out as liking this route without potentially being called delusional, told that you may end up being abused irl and other crap like this because how can you not see his toxic and abusive behavior. It also doesn't help that even one of the writers who worked on his character claimed that players who chose this route only saw him as a sex object lmao

I know there are spawn fans who like AA because every time I see AA romance scene posts in places like OnlyFangs and the Astarion facebook groups I'm in, I ALWAYS see comments like "I can't ascend him but this is so hot!!" or "thank you for posting this! I'd never do this to pookie, but I have to admit this is got me🥵🥵🥵" or panty dropping gifs and things like that. So they can thirst after AA (but we are the only ones sexualizing him, remember!), yet simultaneously talk about how much they hate that version of him. It really makes no sense. Just enjoy all of Astarion! No guilt, excuses, disclaimers, or abuse required!

It's really unfortunate. I understand why some AA fans keep quiet in the fandom. There are a few people in one of the AA discords I'm in, who are only active in that discord and nowhere else in the fandom because theyre just tired/afraid of the negativity. That's ridiculous to me! The fact that people literally can't even comfortably just exist in the fandom without the fear of being bullied for NOTHING.

I have been told I'm "romanticizing abuse" directly and indirectly more times than I can count and it doesn't get better with frequency. And when you factor in that many AA fans ourselves have had experiences with abuse and trauma, it's just such a poor taste statement that literally has 0 ground. I mean, if any romanticizing of abuse were happening, wouldn't it be Larian doing it anyway? Aren't they the ones allowing the romance to continue after ascension with positive dialog choices, and sharing the AA kisses on Valentine's Day posts? Why not come after them instead of fans? If the relationship between AA and his Consort was "written to be abusive" then shouldn't Larian write that so clearly that literally no one can argue about it and there is no doubt in anyone's mind? So why then, is that not shown in the game? And why come after the people interpreting the story differently instead of the company for not making the story's message so airtight, it can't be argued?

Hint: because it's not written to canonly be an abusive relationship, that wasn't Larian's intention and nor should it be. The intention was to create an evil romance route and that's exactly what it is. Anything outside of that is up to YOU.

I think that's where the superiority complex steps in though. That whole "you AA fans just aren't media literate and clever enough to understand the deep, meta meaning of this cautionary abuse tale!" thing.

It also feels like an underlying misogyny thing too. A majority of Astarion fans in general are women and AFAB people. I see spawn fans always calling us "AA girlies" and I never see the reverse. And when it comes to AA fans, it feels a lot like a "let's save/educate the poor naive girls from themselves and their foolishness." When many AA fans aren't even female and certainly aren't naive or young impressionable people looking to have a real life AA.

As for the Co-Writer Who Will Not Be Named... that whole situation is a perfect example of someone abusing their position/influence. They knew players would take their word as law, without actually thinking about it in the context of it being a rolepaying game. So their opinion and agenda is taken as a canon fact when they only did minimal writing AND they can't speak for anyone else's Tav/Durge but their own.

Saying "When Tav ascends Astarion, it means they only see him as a sexual object." is just like saying "Tav keeps Astarion a spawn because they want control over him." Can you roleplay both of those things? ABSOLUTELY. But for most Spawn fans, I'm sure that is NOT why your Tav did it, especially if they're romancing him.

What Welch said is exactly the same type of statement. Their position and professional contribution to the game holds no water in context of their statement being universally applied to all Tavs and Durges that ascend Astarion. It may be how they see it, it may be the impression they tried to get the dialog to convey, but it's all up to each individual player how it's interpreted.

[vintageaurelia]

knitting club (Thomas Thorne x Reader drabble)

note: hi fellas. this is my first time writing something like this and POSTING it. I'm a little nervous ngl! But just bear with me I swear I'll improve 😊. anywho! feel free to shoot some silly little requests my way!

Also! apologies if you don't have any clue about knitting, I personally do and I based this off a singular Thomas quote LOL.

------

The club meetings Alison was hosting in the home proved to be bothersome for some of the ghosts, annoyed at how many people were visiting the house every day. Between the AA meetings and just the most random topics you could ever think of being discussed, it was something not everyone was entirely interested in. Though everyone loved to tune into the AA meeting every once in a while, for some juicy stories. 

You on the other hand? You stuck around for all the art based clubs, it reminded you of when you were alive and could do all this work with your hands.

The knitting club proved to be one that you could watch for hours, it's one of the hobbies you missed a lot. Looking around at all of the cute creations everyone was making and talking about their families and different stories they had from the day filled your soul with a sort of warmth. 

As this week's meeting began, you sat on the old beat up couch, watching all the young, old, women and men fill the seats, excited about what progress they made over the week. Unbeknownst to you though, a certain poet was walking past the room to see you sitting in there alone, with the group that had no idea you were there.

Thomas was never really fond of the knitting club, he felt it was boring and it wasn’t worth his time to sit and watch other people knit while talking about their grandkids or their in-laws. But maybe he could learn to like it? Maybe just for you?

He walked into the room silently as you were enchanted by all the people getting ready to start the meeting. “Good evening dear (Y/N),” Thomas greets you with a slight bow and a polite smile on his face. You light up and wave to him “Hi! Are you here for the knitting club? I thought you didn’t like them?” Thomas freezes up before responding with a quick agreement. “I just thought I might’ve judged them a little too hard at first, so I thought I would give them another chance,” this makes you smile and you go back to watching the group. 

He had to admit it's not as boring as he remembered, but it still wasn’t super enjoyable for him. But boy did it make him gleam seeing you get up and tell him what everyone was making and why.

By the end of the meeting, he learned one of the older women was making a blanket for her new grandson, and a young man was making a hat for his wife as a Christmas gift. Part of him wished he could do something like that for you, just because he realized how excited you get about this stuff.

“Say (Y/N), did you know how to knit when you were living? You seem to know quite a bit.” You nod, “It was a big hobby of mine. I spent a lot of time and money on blankets and hats, which now thinking about it, probably paid off. Because now my family has something handmade to remember me.” You smile, but it hurts to think about sometimes. 

Thomas reads you like a book, he realizes how emotional you are getting. He places a supportive hand on your shoulder. 

You both lock eyes, getting lost with one another. Thomas soon breaks eye contact to glance over at the people knitting mindlessly.

“I know that being stuck here isn’t ideal, and not being able to do the things you love isn’t ideal either. But isn’t it splendid you can still appreciate it? Even if you cannot do it, isn’t the true gift appreciation?” He states, so matter of factly you can’t even begin to argue. “That was actually very poetic.” Both of you smile at each other. 

“I also appreciate you, Thomas.” 

“I feel the same exact way, my dearest.”

-----

I hope you all enjoyed! Probably not the best work ever, but I thought it was cute :)

[nebjamin]

MAJOR APOLLO JUSTICE: ACE ATTORNEY SPOILERS

So, I didn’t like AJ:AA as much as I thought I would.

Keep in mind that my prior experience with Ace Attorney (AA) before this was the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (1-3) and The Great Ace Attorney (TGAA) Chronicles, so I had very high standards. I’m a PC guy, so I just play the games when they get ported over. Also, I haven’t seen much discourse about this game, so I have no idea if my thoughts are a brand new hot take or the same stuff people have been saying for years. That said, here are my very long and drawn-out thoughts about Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

Apollo Justice is (not) doing fine.

Apollo Justice is a new defense attorney and the protagonist of this game, following up Phoenix Wright from the first three AA games. These are major shoes to fill, but moving to a new protagonist made sense - they essentially finished Phoenix’s story in the previous game in the series. Justice is a less experienced attorney than Wright, so of course he’d trip up a bit in court and occasionally fold under the tremendous pressure of prosecutor and air guitar extraordinaire Klavier Gavin (more on him later). However, I’m sure the writers could have handled this in a way that feels less frustrating to the player.

Most of the time, Justice appears helpless in the courtroom. He tries his best, but is ultimately forced into a corner by the prosecution. Ace Attorney cases are typically a constant back-and-forth between the defense and prosecution: the prosecution embarasses the defense, then the defense has a revelation and dominates the prosecution, then the prosecution dismantles the defense’s theory and forces them back into a corner, and the process repeats until a Not Guilty verdict is reached (with few exceptions). However, Justice tends to spend significantly more time crying in the corner than making a case for himself. Apollo certainly has his moments, but they felt far and few between. Half of Apollo’s gimmick is his “Chords of Steel,” or his incredibly loud voice. Even if he has nothing to say, let my man shout. His mentor is THE Phoenix Wright, after all - let Justice bluff a bit, even if it doesn’t always work out at first. 

The other half of his gimmick is his bracelet, which lets him find minute details of a person’s body language, and use that discovery to pull the person into the shadow realm to question them and extract the truth. This is a really creative idea which breathed some new life into the gameplay of the four cases, but I do feel like it could have been executed significantly better. In order to find the details of a person’s body language, Justice’s vision excessively zooms in on a character, and the player is tasked with panning around with Justice’s super-powered eyes as the witness gives their testimony. When you’re that zoomed in, finding a slight twitch of a finger or a bit of moisture in a witness’ armpit can feel like finding a needle in a human haystack, especially when you have absolutely no idea what you’re looking for. It’s a great concept, but in execution, it proves to be more frustrating than enjoyable.

Given how helpless he is in the courtroom, I felt that Justice and his revelations don’t really drive the story as much as they should. More often, he just happens to be there in the courtroom as the story happens to him. This doesn’t change much as the game progresses either - he has some growth over the course of the story, but it isn’t really felt as the cases march onwards. Unfortunately, Justice never really grows the strength and mental fortitude to push the story and the mystery forward himself. Even when he does in Dual Destinies, it feels like borderline character assassination, but that’s a different game that deserves a different rant (coming soon?????). In AJ:AA, there’s another character who really pushes the story forward, constantly leaving Justice in the dust.

Klavier Gavin is ready to rock (a little too hard).

SPOILERS FOR ACE ATTORNEY 1 & 3 IN THIS SECTION

Klavier Gavin is this game’s new prosecutor, and he also has big shoes to fill - but for different reasons. Each Ace Attorney game up to this point has had different prosecutors facing off against the defense, and the standouts were undoubtedly Miles Edgeworth and Godot (my apologies to the Von Karma and Payne families). Edgeworth was Phoenix Wright’s first main prosecutor opponent, and he was formidable for many reasons - he was a very skilled prosecutor, he had much more experience in the courtroom than Wright, and he had never lost a case. Thus, when he experienced his first ever loss to novice defense attorney Phoenix Wright, he was horrified. He came back for revenge and lost again and again, until Wright defended him in court as the defendant against the legendary prosecutor Manfred Von Karma, causing him to re-evaluate. This made Edgeworth an incredibly complex and intriguing character, and a great opponent in the courtroom. Two games later, Godot served as the main prosecutor of AA3, and was also a hugely complex character due in large part to his past association with Mia Fey. Fey was Wright’s late mentor, and Godot’s complicated relationship with both Fey and Wright made him a very interesting opponent, especially in the last case of the game. I still can’t hear the words “the only time a lawyer can cry is when it’s all over” without tearing up just a little bit. These prosecutors all went to war against Wright in the courtroom, and were devastated when facing defeat. Not Klavier Gavin, though. He’s different.

As Justice got his first Not Guilty verdict against Gavin, Gavin simply stood and smiled. He wasn’t banging on his desk or breaking coffee cups like two other prosecutors I know - he just stood and smiled. This created an air of mystery around him - why isn’t he upset? Did he want to lose? What is this guy’s motivation? Although this left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied with the case’s conclusion, I moved on to the next case in the hopes that something would eventually be explained. But it wasn’t. Even as the game came to its conclusion, Klavier Gavin didn’t have a single major breakdown. It was as if every event of the game went exactly as he planned it. If that’s how Gavin’s actions were supposed to be interpreted, then it makes for a very unsatisfying conclusion. Apollo Justice was the protagonist, and yet no victory was truly his - he was just guided along the correct path by the prosecutor on the other side of the courtroom. Gavin would often give Justice hints or lead him into a line of reasoning that Justice would need to win the case, which makes me feel like this was what the writers were trying to do with his character. Yet, with an “antagonist” that predicts your every move and is always one step ahead, you need two things: an overarching goal and a defeat at the hands of the protagonist. In Gavin’s case, these two were in constant conflict.

Klavier Gavin’s main motivation throughout the game appeared to revolve around his older brother, Kristoph Gavin. Kristoph was referred to as “the devil” and was found to be the culprit of both the first and last cases of the game (more on both of those later), and I believe it’s safe to say he was the overall antagonist of the game. Klavier Gavin, being his brother, had complex feelings towards him in theory - he loved Kristoph as a brother, but hated him for who he was and what he’d done. This was also not executed well, as we (the players) were never really given a glimpse into what this relationship was - we were just told that it was there. The interactions between Klavier and Kristoph were very limited in number, and showed nothing more than the surface level of their relationship. Don’t get me wrong - I like it when details like that are just implied, and I don’t need every little thing spelled out for me. Still, I felt like their relationship was shown a little too much to be “just implied,” but not enough to be explored in any meaningful depth. When Kristoph was found guilty at the end of the last case, Klavier seemed happy, proudly declaring to his brother that “Kristoph… it’s over.” It appeared that this was what he wanted, this was his end goal, this was his motivation. He got it - he won. Yet, this made for a very unsatisfying conclusion, as Apollo Justice was the protagonist, and he needed to win too. He won each case, sure, but Klavier never lost. Klavier was always one step ahead of Justice, and he got what he wanted without much difficulty. The protagonist never truly won if we consider Justice to be the protagonist, but what if we consider Klavier to be the protagonist?

In order for Klavier to function as the protagonist, he would need one thing that he doesn’t show nearly enough of: character growth. The first time we see him, he’s already a successful prosecutor AND the lead guitarist, singer, and frontman of a ridiculously successful rock band NAMED AFTER HIM. There isn’t much further to go from there. He shows this success in the courtroom too: he appears cocky and confident, forcing Justice into corner after corner, with a charismatic smile that rarely leaves his face. His only point of weakness seems to be his brother. Supposedly, he’s always lived in the shadow of his brother, and this is his chance at redemption - but is it really? What part of headlining a rock band NAMED AFTER YOU is living in your brother’s shadow? What part of his long, successful career as a prosecutor is in his brother’s shadow? His confidence wavers a little as he faces his brother at the end of the story, but that is the only time he’s shown interacting with his brother. Ultimately, Klavier stares his brother down, watches as Justice corners Kristoph in a cross-examination, and smiles as his brother is taken back to jail for good. His demeanor never changes - he never seems any less cocky, and he always has the same exact smile. It’s as if the story doesn’t affect him. This is frankly frustrating to watch, seeing all his potential as a character go to waste. He has minimal character growth, and the little he has isn’t earned. Klavier is a bad antagonist and a bad protagonist, as if the writers had no idea what to do with him.

If you want my theory on the matter, I think the writers really wanted to create a character that people would like. They saw the people’s love of Edgeworth, of Franziska Von Karma (to some extent), and of Godot, and they wanted to replicate that feeling. In their attempts, though, they forgot what made those prosecutors so loveable. Yeah, they were quirky and charismatic little guys to some extent, but they were also powerful foes who proved to be mountains for Phoenix Wright to conquer. We hated them as enemies at first sight, but as we got to know them better, we came to love them as friendly rivals. Not only that, but they all grew as characters in meaningful ways. With Klavier, they tried to rush the process, and it didn’t work out. They wanted us to love Klavier from the start by making him cool and a bit quirky, but that was all on the surface level. We loved what laid beneath the surface of Wright’s relationships with Edgeworth, Franziska, and Godot - we loved the depth of their characters and of their stories. In order to give Klavier and his relationship with Apollo that kind of depth, they would have needed to build Klavier’s character up much more over time. However, that would mean that Klavier’s character couldn’t already be perfect from the start. The writers assumed that we loved the previous prosecutors because of how cool they were on the surface, but they missed everything beneath the surface level that was truly the foundation for our collective love for our foes of the past. Then again, that’s just my theory - I have no idea what was actually going on in the writer’s room at the time.

I did like Klavier Gavin as a character, I just didn’t love him, and I honestly think he’s my least favorite main prosecutor of the series only because of the high standards set by other prosecutors. Nothing will beat out my love for Godot and the TGAA prosecutors, and unfortunately Gavin didn’t even come close. In fact, my favorite case from the game is actually the only one he isn’t involved in.

Case 1: Turnabout Trump (lives up to its name).

I would like to clarify that the game and I are referring to the verb “trump,” which means “to get the better of” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). I am not referring to the former president of the United States. This game was released in 2007, 9 years before the start of the presidency of Donald Trump. It was released 15 years after Trump played his prolific role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, though. That seems important.

Nonetheless, I genuinely believe this is one of the greatest opening cases in an Ace Attorney game, right up there with AA3 and TGAA 1 & 2. It does a great job of introducing Apollo Justice as an attorney and putting the player into his shoes, while showing that his heart is in the right place but he still has room to grow. Unfortunately, he never wound up growing that much in this game, but that’s a problem to take up with the rest of this game’s cases. This case also functions as the player’s introduction to the overall mystery of AJ:AA, and Justice acts as your eyes into this new world of unsolved mysteries. This game takes place 7 years after the previous game in the series, and the old protagonist, Phoenix Wright, is very different from how we last saw him. AA3’s conclusion saw Wright win his hardest (and best-written) case yet as a successful attorney with a growing history of success, but AJ:AA opens with Wright as a disgraced, disbarred former attorney, working as a pianist that can’t even play the piano. He’s even the suspect of a murder in this opening case. Naturally, the player has to wonder what caused this, which sets them on track to uncover the mysteries that the rest of the game has in store for them. Apollo feels the same way, and thus your motivations align as player and protagonist. This helps the player better connect with the new protagonist, and Apollo Justice already feels at home as the new head of the Ace Attorney series (until Dual Destinies at least). Not only that, but the other new character introduced also proves to be fascinating and intricately connected to the mystery at hand.

This case also functions as the player’s introduction to Kristoph Gavin, a renowned defense attorney that appears to be friends with Wright, and Justice’s mentor. He walks the player through the tutorial, which is not only useful from a gameplay perspective, but also portrays him as a reliable character from a storytelling perspective. This seemingly tiny detail makes the player trust Kristoph more, just like Justice does, and thus puts the player further into Justice’s shoes. Mia Fey gave the same instructions to Phoenix Wright in the first Ace Attorney game and she was very trustworthy, so the player would subconsciously think of Kristoph the same way they thought of Fey, putting them on the same pedestal. Justice trusts Kristoph as his mentor, so once more the player feels better connected with the new protagonist. This isn’t the only way the game tricks the player into trusting Kristoph, though. Typically in the first case of an Ace Attorney game, there will be four or five major characters - the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the defendant, the witness that turns out to be the true culprit, and possibly a mentor or partner for the defense. Thus, when the witness (Ms. Olga Orly) takes the stand, the player would naturally assume that they’re the true culprit - it’s happened in opening cases in games prior, and it would proceed to happen again in future games. Kristoph tries to guide Justice (and the player by extension) to accuse Ms. Orly, which would naturally make sense to the player. They trust Kristoph and they’ve done this song and dance a few times by this point - it must be Orly. However, Wright leads Justice and the player in a different direction, with the knowledge that Orly isn’t the real killer. Instead, it’s actually Kristoph Gavin himself, in a massive betrayal and twist as the writers flip the opening case formula on its head. Wright takes the stand next to you as you prove your formerly trusted mentor’s guilt, sending him off to jail. The writers completely subverted the player’s expectations over the course of one short case.

Additionally, this perfectly clues Justice and the player into the mysteries of the game, without revealing too much. The player knows just enough to wonder, but not enough to have any answers. What happened to Wright? What’s with his pendant? What was Kristoph’s motive? What aren’t they telling us? All of this gets the player (or at least got me) genuinely interested and excited for the events to come, especially after this wonderfully-written case. I was worried that these cases wouldn’t be able to live up to the ridiculously high bar set by their predecessors, but this case proved that the writers were more than capable. At least, I thought it did. You’ve already seen the first two sections of this essay, so you know that this game did not live up to my expectations at all. In addition to the previous games, I blame this first case for setting the bar way too high for the rest of the game. Because of this case, I expected the rest of the game to have superb writing and direction to match this masterpiece of a case, but it didn’t. I felt that the rest of the game’s cases - 2 and 3 - were just okay at best. They certainly had their moments, but ultimately, they were just average. I don’t have much to say about them (although I’ll touch on them a bit in the “other things I want to rant about” section), but after all the mysteries introduced in the first case, there was a lot hinging on the grand finale: case 4. I was still extremely curious to find out the answers, but ultimately, the way they were delivered was nothing more than a letdown for me.

Case 4: The MASON System (has an error).

I have a LOT to complain about for the fourth and final case, so I’m splitting it up into two parts, like how it was in the game. I know I’m skipping over the first half of the case, but my main criticisms really lie in the case’s dramatic and disappointing conclusion. First, I’ll be talking about the portion taking place in the MASON System, which frankly just confused me and took me out of the experience. I can only suspend my disbelief so much, and this weird and unexplained segment pushed me over the top. I’m still not entirely clear on what the MASON System even is, but I’ll do my best to explain what I experienced inside it. As the player, you see what appears to be a loading screen, and then you’re shown a black background covered in moving green binary code, just like something a hacker from of a cheesy 90s movie would see as they hack into the mainframe (as you can see in the image above). In front and facing you is Phoenix Wright, who appears to be talking directly to you. He’s not talking to Justice anymore, because Justice isn’t here, wherever or whatever here is. Wright appears talking directly to you, the player. The player is later revealed to be seeing through the eyes of “Juror No. 6,” but I’ll get more into that in the next section since it isn’t revealed until the end of the case. It also doesn’t explain how the juror got immersed in the MASON System or what it even is, but I digress. Wright then tells you that you can use the system to jump through space and time in order to experience Wright’s memories and to find the “keys” (evidence) to unlocking the truth, which you’ll then use to find the real truth of the mystery.

If you got lost somewhere in that last paragraph, me too. The game doesn’t explain how the MASON System connects to anything else in the game (or in Ace Attorney canon for that matter), how it knows Wright’s memories so intimately that the user can fully re-experience them, and why Justice can only get that game-changing evidence after some random juror experiences Wright’s memories. As far as I’m aware, this is the only time something like this has been done in Ace Attorney, and for good reason: it completely breaks immersion. Even if Wright isn’t actually breaking the fourth wall, it certainly appears like he is, which is not something Ace Attorney has ever done in a serious manner before, outside telling a player to press a certain button in a tutorial. The presence of Juror No. 6 is used at the end of the case to show that it wasn’t actually a fourth wall break, but that was long after the player left the MASON System and long after my inversion was ruined. I can accept weird and barely explained concepts in Ace Attorney - in fact, I’ve come to expect it. However, these usually follow a set of established rules in the Ace Attorney universe, so the player stays immersed. There’s nothing realistic or sensical about Wright’s “Psyche-Locks,” the Fey family’s ability to summon spirits of the dead, or really anything in Spirit of Justice (I’ve only played the first case, don’t spoil it for me). However, it’s an established rule in the world of Ace Attorney that magic exists and certain people can wield it. Thus, despite not being at all realistic, it makes sense in the context of the world. The MASON System, however, does not. I still don’t really understand it, and honestly, my enjoyment of the game is heightened if I just forget about the system itself and just remember what happened inside of it.

Even if I didn’t like the MASON System as a concept, I have to give credit where credit’s due: I did enjoy experiencing Wright’s memories and slowly starting to piece together the truth of the incident that led to Wright getting disbarred and the apparent death of Thalassa Gramarye. There were two ongoing mysteries at that point - the case of Magnifi Gramarye’s death (and Wright’s disbarment) from 7 years ago, and the case of Drew Misham’s death in the present. These two appeared to be inseparable from each other, and the truth about both would have to come out together. In truth, I’m kind of a sucker for mysteries where the past and present collide, even if it’s on the verge of becoming an overused trope in the Ace Attorney series by this point. I love figuring out the truth behind a long-lost case of the past and using that to answer questions about the present, and the MASON System delivers that perfectly. I especially love the use of Psyche-Locks throughout, which are essentially visualizations of secrets that people hide. These appear when a person is hiding something from Wright, and by presenting evidence, you can crack open these “locks” until the truth is finally laid bare. In this section, you slowly pick away at Valant Gramarye’s Psyche-Locks as you explore and gain new evidence. You figure out the existence of a secret as you question Valant, explore somewhere or someone else until you have the right evidence to force the truth out of him, then come back and land another blow that gets you ever closer to the truths behind Magnifi’s death and the Thalassa incident. This allows the player to see how close they’re getting to the heart of the mystery, and is certainly much better than any use of Psyche-Locks in Dual Destinies, where you already have the evidence from the moment the locks are put on display. Then again, that’s another essay for another time. I may not like how the writers used the MASON System to link Wright’s past to Justice’s present, but that was a very satisfying part of the mystery to conquer - if you ignore the MASON System itself, that is. Now that the answers to the mystery are starting to make themselves apparent, all the writers had to do was to stick the landing and call it a day, but it felt more like a belly flop than anything.

Case 4: Turnabout Succession (was not a success).

SPOILERS FOR THE GREAT ACE ATTORNEY 1 IN THIS SECTION

Most of case 4 played out like the rest of the cases in this game: just okay. It wasn’t exceptional, but I don’t have any major problems with it either. My main issue was the way the case was concluded, with a strange turn of events that felt out-of-place and caused a generally unsatisfying conclusion that ultimately made the journey feel like a waste. To explain this, let me give some context about Phoenix Wright’s adventures before and during the events of this game. Despite having been disbarred for presenting forged evidence in court, he was still very involved with the legal system and creating change within it. Specifically, he wanted to incorporate a jurist system into the courts, meaning that the verdict would be decided by six jurors instead of just a judge. This trial would be the first in the country to use the jurist system, and would be a test of this new system. Additionally, it’s revealed at the end of the trial that the player takes the role of a juror, Juror No. 6. This is the same character that experienced the MASON System just prior. Given all this information, you might be wondering: Why does Phoenix Wright have the power to alter the trial system in such a drastic way? Why would the verdict of a “test run” of a new system decide whether the defendant, a 19-year-old girl, spends the rest of her life in jail? Why does the player, who plays the role of the defense attorney, also get to play the role of the juror who decides the verdict of the case? And to those questions, I have no answer, and neither does the game. The end of this last trial entirely revolves around this “jurist system” subplot, and yet it feels tacked-on and pointless in the grand scheme of the game’s story. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad concept - Kristoph Gavin’s breakdown at the hands of the jury showed a glimpse of everything this game could have been. Yet, it just felt improperly executed, as if the writers just forgot about it until the last moment and scribbled down a couple new plot points at the end to make it fit. Furthermore, the whole concept of a jurist system as it existed in AJ:AA just isn’t compatible with the Ace Attorney formula. The judge’s decision is an integral part of a trial, and the only reasonable way they could make it work would be something like the system in The Great Ace Attorney 1 & 2. In TGAA games, the jurors are right in front of the judge, and both the defense and prosecution can argue directly to them. Instead of maintaining the idea of an anonymous jury decision behind closed doors, Dual Destinies just pretended that the jurist system was never introduced, which was honestly a smart decision if they wanted to maintain the classic Ace Attorney formula.

At the very end of the case, the player takes control of Juror No. 6, and gets to make their vote to decide whether the defendant is guilty. The player, who has been arguing that the defendant isn’t guilty to the court for hours, gets the chance to decide whether or not the defendant is guilty. As you can probably tell, there is a correct answer. An Ace Attorney game with multiple endings is a cool idea in theory, but in practice, there’s really only one ending in AJ:AA. If you choose to declare the defendant “not guilty,” you finally catch the real killer and happy music plays as the credits roll. If, for whatever reason, you declare the defendant that you’ve been defending for multiple hours “guilty,” then you’re told that the defendant died in a hospital bed and you’re kicked back to the main menu. The credits don’t even roll if you decide to indict the defendant. The idea of choice is a very important one to this game’s story, yet the one real choice the player is given has a correct answer, and the game punishes you for answering incorrectly. Once again, this doesn’t feel thought-through at all - it was just tacked on at the end for seemingly no reason at all. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad concept. For instance, what if it was used in a case like “The Adventure of the Runaway Room” (case 3) from The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures? That case was an incredibly interesting case for a number of reasons, including the fact that it was the protagonist’s first time acting as an attorney in a court with a jury. But more than that, it was interesting because of one ginormous detail of its beautifully unsatisfying and unsettling conclusion: it’s never made clear whether the defendant did or didn’t commit the crime. You get your “not guilty” verdict from the jury, but you never get a magnificent breakdown from the true culprit, and the defendant acts smug and suspicious as he’s given permission to walk free. In this case, there wasn’t a right or wrong answer, and neither the player nor the protagonist are ever given an answer as to whether or not they did the right thing. They just have to live in suspense and pray that they didn’t just set a murderer loose upon the world. If the final case of AJ:AA was structured more like this, it would make sense to have the player make the decision, since it easily could go either way. However, this isn’t at all similar to what the case actually was, leading to immense disappointment instead of the unease and intrigue it should have provided.

Even so, there was one thing this ending did right: the reveal of Juror No. 6’s identity. By this point, Thalassa Gramarye’s true identity has been revealed as not just the wife of Shadi Enigmar and daughter of Magnifi Gramarye, but also the mother of Apollo Justice as well as the mother of Phoenix Wright’s adopted daughter, Trucy Wright. The key to this realization laid in the bracelet she had on her wrist, which was identical to the one worn by Justice which gave him his powers. However, during his investigation, Phoenix Wright also learned that Thalssa had an unfortunate death in an accident years and years ago. When Juror No. 6’s perspective is shown as they look down on a screen with options for “guilty” and “not guilty,” a reflection is shown on the screen, vaguely showing the face of a prominent witness from “Turnabout Serenade” (case 3) by the name of Lamiroir. She always wore a hood and a mask over her face, which I assumed was just meant to make life easier for the animators. Still, it was instantly recognizable, even if it was just a faint silhouette. Additionally, her sleeve extended up her arm, showing that beautiful and recognizable pattern the player had seen numerous times behind the witness stand. Yet, as the player controls her arm and moves it to the “guilty” or “not guilty” buttons, her sleeve falls down, revealing a golden bracelet - identical to the one worn by Apollo Justice. Thalassa Gramarye is still very much alive, and she’s living life as Lamiroir. I was grinning ear to ear with my jaw on the floor as the answer to the game’s final (intentional) mystery was revealed - exactly how I should feel at the end of an Ace Attorney game. The reveal was subtle enough that I felt smart for figuring out what it meant, but obvious enough that it was near-impossible to miss. The game doesn’t outright tell you what it means (until a wrap-up scene right after), but instead takes a look at the puzzle of answers you’ve been building up throughout the story, and gives you the final piece. Because of this perfectly-written moment at the end, the game actually left a pretty good taste in my mouth, despite everything I just complained about. I may not have loved a lot about the ending of this case, but this one detail almost makes it all worth it. Almost.

Other things I want to rant about

SPOILERS FOR ACE ATTORNEY 1 & 5 IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH

I’ve talked about all my main points of controversy about this game, but there’s still a bit I want to get off my chest about a few other topics. I don’t have as much to say about these as I did about my main topics, but this is a comprehensive essay on nearly all of my thoughts about Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, so why stop now? First, let’s talk a bit about the man in the picture above: Phoenix Wright. Honestly, I liked the way the writers treated him in this game. Introducing the former lawyer extraordinaire as a washed-up bum raises a lot of intrigue from the player, and seeing him in his natural habitat at the defense’s bench supporting Justice was a satisfying thing to see. To Justice, Wright serves as a mentor. Although he’s a very different character now, he still has the intelligence and the whimsy that Wright is known for. He’ll act mysterious when it comes to important topics and he’ll get serious when he needs to, but he’s also just telling dad jokes and reminiscing on his days of presenting his attorney’s badge to every person he saw. He’s an old, retired veteran of an attorney, and a hero for Justice to look up to. Yet, at the same time, he’s a weird and silly old dude with that same old silly sense of humor he’s always had. It would have been very easy to essentially pull a character assassination on Wright by putting him into this role, but the writers of AJ:AA walked the tightrope perfectly and gave the foundations for him to be a great mentor to Justice and possibly take on a role similar to that of Mia Fey for the rest of the series (with or without dying). I have mixed feelings about their decision to bring him back as an attorney in Dual Destinies instead of just entrusting Justice (and maybe Cykes) with the lawyering duties, but then again, that’s another essay for another time.

While we’re on the topic of characters, there’s one more I wanted to rant a bit about: Trucy Wright. As I mentioned in the last section, Trucy is the adopted daughter of Phoenix Wright, and plays a role as an assistant in this game similar to Maya Fey in past Ace Attorney games. (Which makes sense, since Trucy is Justice’s biological sister. Wait, as I’m typing this, I’m realizing: were they ever told that they were siblings? That’s their character dynamic, but Wright just says at the end of AJ:AA that he’ll tell them when the time is right. Was it still not time yet by the end of Dual Destinies? THEY DESERVE TO KNOW!) Trucy’s profession at age 15 is that of a magician, being the sole true heir to the legacy of the famous Gramarye family of magicians. I like her character and her role in the story overall, but I have one major complaint: why are the writers so obsessed with this 15-year-old girl’s panties? The first major magic trick of hers that’s shown is her “magic panties” trick, in which she can make things appear and disappear into her panties. Her panties essentially act as a pocket dimension, like Mary Poppins’ bag. For whatever reason, the writers KEEP COMING BACK to the same panty trick, OVER and OVER and OVER. It’s supposedly her most popular trick, and yet neither she, her adopted father, nor Justice ever question why an audience of grown adults is so keen on seeing this 15-year-old girl’s panties. In so much of anime and so many anime games, there’s that one episode or that one scene that you just can’t defend, and in this game (AND IN DUAL DESTINIES TOO) they just can’t let it go. As much as I love her character, this is the one sin I can’t overlook, no matter how much I want to.

There’s no way to talk about Ace Attorney without talking about the music. I don’t have any real analysis to make about the new tracks in AJ:AA, but I do want to say that I really like the new direction they took with the music in this new game. Justice is a new protagonist, so his music shouldn’t sound exactly the same as Wright’s, but it should still be recognizable enough to feel like a proper Ace Attorney game. The OST of AJ:AA does this near-perfectly. Even Justice’s “objection” theme goes by a different name: “A New Trial is in Session.” Justice is his own person and his own attorney, and this shows the new direction that the Ace Attorney franchise would be going in from here on out. This is another detail that was written out by the writers of Dual Destinies, for the better or worse, but the people behind AJ:AA had no way of knowing what the next game would do. Justice’s new tracks all have a uniquely “Apollo Justice” feeling to them, from the objection theme to the pursuit theme to the all-new “perceive” theme for Justice’s body language-reading abilities. Klavier’s theme feels perfectly cool and high-energy, and Kristoph’s theme feels like the exact opposite with a slow and methodical feel. Also, the various little easter eggs revolving around Klavier’s theme never failed to make me laugh, from hearing it in a live performance in case 3 to hearing a little pixelated version of his theme as his ringtone. And for the guitar’s serenade, well, I could probably write a whole paragraph about that. Actually-

Lamiroir was introduced in case 3 as a singer from the fictional Eastern European country of Borginia, and a very talented singer at that. We’d later learn that she’s actually Thalassa Gramarye after getting shot, losing her memories, and being presumed dead, but that’s neither here nor there. There may not have been enough space on a DS cartridge to fit high-quality human voices, but there was enough space to fit a midi file with a high-pitched part that represented the singing voice of Lamiroir. This track is one of my favorites of the entire OST. Towards the beginning of the case, you witness a joint performance between Lamiroir and Klavier Gavin, entitled “The Guitar’s Serenade.” You’ll be hearing this track again and again as you analyze the video for evidence over the course of the trial, and also because you just want to hear the song again, turn on your phone’s flashlight, and wave it back and forth over your head to the beat. Despite being such a small audio file without any actual human singing, it perfectly displays the soft, gentle, and beautiful nature of Lamiroir’s voice. The Ace Attorney games usually just have to say “trust me bro” after telling you what a witness’ voice sounds like, but this is the exception. Additionally, parts of the song are used in Lamiroir’s theme, giving it that same gentle, majestic, and elegant energy found in the song. This made it very easy to like Lamiroir as a character, which only added more magic to the reveal of her true identity at the end of the game and its story. I’m honestly not sure if I want her to return in a later game for more, or if I’d rather not hear a worse interpretation of her character that sours the memories of her character in this game. I guess all I can do is place my trust in the writers, no matter how hard of a task that may be.

Now, for a (not so) quick rapid-fire round: Payne was really funny in the first case as he completely lost control of the trial, which became a duel between Wright and Kristoph Gavin. I still see Kristoph and his devil-hand in my nightmares sometimes. Ema Skye’s return after Rise From the Ashes (bonus case from AA1) was really fun and cool to see, and I enjoyed the return of the forensic examination techniques. Seeing the Kitaki crime family after having played through the entire Yakuza franchise was really funny. The reveal that Patriarch Kitaki’s shades were actually just huge eyebrows covering tiny little baby eyes was absolutely hilarious. Wocky Kitaki is a baby version of Akira Nishikiyama if he was a furry and also straight (or maybe Alita’s betrayal is what drove him to loving men?). Trucy’s Mr. Hat magic trick is her best trick and I’m honestly appalled that it never showed up in Dual Destinies. Borginians speaking in wingdings is really funny, and I’d love to hear what that sounds like. Valant Gramarye is very evil but also really funny so I think he should be pardoned. Little Trucy in the flashback is really cute, and I love Klavier’s flashback outfit. Kristoph going super-saiyan in his breakdown is really funny and the animation is perfect. I love how everything new they did with Phoenix Wright was explained by just those seven years since disbarment, rather than adding even more things to his backstory (although I think it would be really funny if in a future Ace Attorney game, they just added a bunch of random details to Wright’s backstory then explained at the end of that game that none of it actually happened and the villain was just messing with their brains with magic) (hit me up Capcom I have ideas). I really loved the credits sequence with all the printed pictures. All in all, I feel like I didn’t love the parts of this game that really mattered, but the little unnecessary details were all perfect. Anyway, I think it’s time to wrap up this rant - it’s gone on for long enough.

The verdict on Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Now that I’ve dogged on Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for 27 paragraphs and over 7,000 words, I feel like it’s time to say that it’s not actually that bad. A rant this long can only come from a place of love, and I absolutely love the Ace Attorney series. I started playing the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy in late 2021, which was a pretty bleak time for me coming out of the pandemic. During the pandemic, video games were the only things that really kept me going, giving me something to look forward to day to day as all the days blended together into one blob. Because of this, the games I played at the time all hold a very special place in my heart: Persona, Halo, Devil May Cry, Yakuza, Ace Attorney, and so many more. Maybe my experiences with the games were altered by the conditions of my life as I played through them, but still, I know just how amazing Ace Attorney can be. That’s exactly why I felt so upset playing through this entry of the series - I know the writers can do so much better. The game wasn’t really that terrible as a video game and as a story, but when it has to live up to the brilliant standards set by the Ace Attorney franchise, it just falls flat on its face. I did really enjoy my time playing through this game and I did really enjoy all of the cases, but I just know that Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin had the potential to be so much more interesting and to be written so much better. I’m not going to give the game a numerical rating or anything like that because that system has no room for subjectivity, but I would genuinely recommend the game to any Ace Attorney fan who finished the first trilogy (and maybe The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles) and is looking for more - in other words, anyone like me. I may not have loved this game as much as some other games in the series, but I do not regret one second I spent playing that game. If nothing else, it gave me this chance to reflect on myself, my thoughts, and my feelings about the series as a whole. I’ll always be grateful for that, and rest assured my love for the Ace Attorney franchise will not fade anytime soon.

I’d also like to briefly say that, if you read this far into the ramblings of an insane Ace Attorney fan, thank you. I wrote this to get my own thoughts and feelings off my chest, but if anyone else reads through these words and gets literally anything out of them, then this was all the more worthwhile. And if you’re a vehement Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney fan who’s foaming at the mouth with pure rage while hate-reading my rant, please tell me why. I don’t mean this as a joke or a diss, I genuinely believe that the ability to debate and argue about the things you’re passionate about is one of the greatest joys life has to offer. While I’d rather not have any death threats sent my way, I would still greatly appreciate the chance to keep talking and thinking and debating about this messy yet beautiful game in one of the best series of stories I’ve ever had the joy of experiencing.

And as a thank you for reading this far, I’d like to let you know that I’m a screenshot addict. I cannot stop myself from taking a ridiculous number of screenshots every time I play a game, and it’s killing my hard drive. I still have a lot of really funny shots that I wasn’t able to include as section titles, so without further ado, here are some…

FUNNY SCREENSHOTS!!!!!

[walkergirlsposts]

https://www.tumblr.com/walkergirlsposts/761158071165878272/you-know-because-of-that-terrible-finale-and-the

I know this sad heller is clearly just baiting, but … for what?

“”you know, because of that terrible finale and the consecutive events, J2 friendship will never be the same. heck, we found out it never was what we though.”

- Yeah, the fact that hellers and AAs hate the finally bring we great satisfaction. The fan groups all got what they deserved. J2’s friendship is between them, and we have no way of knowing how close they still are. They still get along. Good enough for me. "Heck" no amount of Jensen making a shitty decision and hellers and AAs screeching about "jivorce" actually changes the obviously real friendship J2 had at one time., or the fact that they still do panels together and have the best chemistry of the cast.

“there's no more Sam and Dean, and there won't be more J2.”

- umm, obviously there is no more Sam and Dean. That’s what happens when a show ends …. J2 are scheduled into 2025 for cons, so, yes, there will in fact be more J2. Also, for those of us who care about their content, they often hang out together in con cities, too. You know who is rarely seen with them … Misha.

"they drifted away, each one on a diferent path and now they only have a bunch of boring panels at cons, which are nothing but a rutine number at this point."

- most adult friends drift at least a little when they have families and different responsibilities. It’s called life, so … so? I will take "boring" and "routine" J2 panels over the dumpster fire that is JenMish, which anon probably thinks are fun, any day. So, I’m good.

"and then Jensen will go out to have dinner with the rest of the cast, while Jared is "too busy" to join. how sad."

- this actually doesn’t happen that often. Also, who cares? Jared clearly has better taste than to constantly slum with the extras, and from what I see Jensen only really does so when Jared is absent or busy.

"the friendship of a lifetime, is now reduced to play pretend for a bunch of strangers in a 30 min panel."

- that’s actually a 30 min, plus 1 hour panel at CE cons. Which happens pretty frequently, so … what is this anon's point? Did they think fans were expected to be invited along on J2 friend dates? Were we supposed to see them together anywhere besides at cons or the odd random public events anyway? What even is this point??

I get that lots of Jared fans don’t give a shit about Jensen. And that’s cool. I prefer Jared myself, but I still enjoy the J2 chemistry, and frankly nothing this petty weirdo had to say has dampened my enjoyment of seeing them together. I don’t need them to be roomies who are still living in each other’s pockets in their 40s to enjoy their dynamic on stage, so … what was the point of this ask? Who were they trying to offend?

This half-wit probably thinks Jensen and Misha are friends, so … excuse me if their opinion is less than meaningful.

That was probably a copy pasta. Go to some Jared hating blogs, you'll probably see it there. They'll be all: "Ohhh yes, Jensen hates Jared, everybody hates him!!!" while pushing the narrative that jenmish' are besties with even less proof than what they sent me. I guess they think we're as invested as they are. 🤷

[dmbakura]

“where it says that if you choose ascension by default, you are playing an evil character?? That's news for me, so if you do anything that someone else considers evil then by default you are?? ( that's what the options are implying) so, a lot of people think eating meat is bad bc the poor animals, so if you eat meat you are evil?.

The point is, everyone will consider different things evil or not, depends on the person, all these arguments between spawn and AA are so tiresome,” - so first they say it’s ok to pick the evil ending but now it’s not evil because relativism or something? I can’t with these people.

I don't get it either lol sacrificing 7000 souls and killing Astarion's personality in exchange for power is an evil act no matter how your character personally feels about it. My slayer durge is having a ball with ascended astarion and they could not be more toxic, power hungry and yes, evil. It's as evil as killing the tieflings or aylin or isobel or alfira or any of the other extremely morally questionable acts in the game. The game allows you to do them because it's an rpg, especially a dnd rpg where you can play out a full range of alignments, but it doesn't shy away from presenting these acts as morally questionable, awful, corrupt, evil, etc.

I feel like this is in response to the weird puritanism sweeping fandoms (usually on that tumour of a site known as TikTok) where enjoying any depiction of something questionable/problematic means you must endorse it in real life or something, which is stupid. Nobody is inherently a bad person for liking A.A, nor an abuse apologist, or any nonsense like that.

But certain A.A enjoyers seem to feel like they need to justify or defend this path in the game as something morally correct, which is not really the appropriate response either. It's a very heavy, very sensitive topic that this ending touches upon and "but these behaviors aren't actually red flags!" is really Not It Chief.

[quitealotofsodapop]

If all versions of Sun Luzhen love apples and hates peaches, what about the other Wukongverse kids? Any favourites? It'll be funny the peach loving Wukongs have half of their kids not liking peaches. The betrayal of genetics.

At least Heaven's Peach Gardens are safe from them... Or are they...?

Referencing this post about Luzhen loving apples and hating peaches.

LMK Xiaotian/MK has canonically expressed his love for stonefruit, so he probably loves peaches. I've seen hcs that he absolute fave though is apricots ("Not too big, not too mushy, just the right amount of cronch!"). This gets his Au counterpart the nickname Apricot.

Mei would love any fruit thats brightly coloured - kiwis being her fav for flavor alone, but dragonfruit is a close second.

Bai He is in the kid phase of "fruit is gross", but Macaque has managed to get her to enjoy frozen blueberries and strawberries.

The Eclipse Twins devour any fruit offered to them like little piranhas, but especially melons. Give them a red watermelon, and the end result looks like a crime scene.

Yuebei is a peach fiend like her baba. No stonefruit left unturned. Her twin brothers Jidu and Luohuo are a little different since they loudly prefer plums and mangos like Macaque.

Hib!Liuer is a peach-fiend like his adoptive dad/mentor. Fa Ming probably convinced the little monk to eat his fruits by telling him how much the Monkey King loved peaches.

Hib!MK/Xiaoyun has a predicament... he does like peaches and other stonefruit - but his fave fruit is pomegranate, a fruit that requires a lot of dexterity to enjoy. Dasheng only found out Xiaoyun had this issue when he caught the one-armed kiddo trying to peel a pomergranate with his feet. Pre-peeled pomegranate fruit/seeds are aa god-send for him.

Shui Lian (the white vixen in the HiB verse) loves most berries and tree fruits, but her favorite is cider apples (like irl foxes) which confuses anyone who eats one and gets a mouthful of super-sour rotten-tasting apple. More for her then :3

In the Reborn verse; Qi Energy/"Fruitie" is a little fruit glutton. As shown in the film; the little nature spirit noms on what appears to be breadfruit, longans, and apples while in the village market. He also eats to replenish his powers. In the reborn au; as Xiao Qi he's even worse. Ever since he's been introduced to stonefruit, he ravages peaches like they're going out of style. The parents still joke that he's a fruit cannibal.

The two wolf siblings (Zhu Yu and Ku Ai) that Reborn!SWK & LEM picks up are used to forest fruits like berries and the rare crabapple. Their favorites are blueberries, which they will literally jump into bushes for. They don't see what the big deal is with peaches.

And ofc you got the 5 Stone-Fruit Monkeys, who are all named for said fruits. More cases of "fruitie cannibalism" the pilgrims joke; as the five babies have declared the fruit they were named for to be "their fruit". Fights will break out if you attempt to feed anyone other than Xiaotao/Little Peach a peach. They all agree that dates are a neutrally-enjoyable fruit however.

Netflix!MK/Xiaoshi loves peaches, but Netflix!SWK actually doesn't care for them that much - bad experience with the poisoned one.

The twin pebbles love cherries, and again, crime scene occurs when left alone with a basket of them. They also love raw tomatoes.

The Heavenly Orchards may breathe a sigh of relief for now... until the different MKs get into the celestial realms and start getting hungry. Xiao Qi and Yuebei probably give a few immortals pstd flashbacks with their snack runs.

[midorikawawas]

So, About Spirit of Justice…

I've been loving that game since I first played it back in 2017-2018, and at times, I wish to do a review for Spirit of Justice, at least the story aspects, because I consider it to be a game that not only isn't as bad or as incoherent as many people try to argue, but that actually made something while carrying the burden of trying to do a lot in a little time, even when we consider that it has one of the longest (if it isn't THE longest) final cases/chapters and pushed a lot of the mechanics and effects for a visual novel.

If anything, the worst sin committed by AA6 is being its own thing (same as Dual Destinies, but that's a different conversation….)

But idk, lots of personal observations under this.

Of course there are things that make me raise my eyebrow and that could've been done better, but if anything, I applaud the fact that the game has that replayability factor to it which is such… an AA thing, to keep the player interested and entertained, even when considering its downfalls. Like, talk about the little details that aren't explicitly said, but that were put in the script and manage to convey so much of what the characters and story have to say. If anything, SoJ is GOOD at the storytelling factor, at switching the setting and making it compelling.

It's visually engaging and the script is just so good (I wish to play the Japanese version one of these days, because I enjoyed the translation and I bet the og is as enjoyable.)

Then there are the characters... Which I don't know how people can't get out of their usual comparisons with other installments and ignore that the characters, their motivations, and even their emotions and inner lives are not as half-assed in this game as some people would like to say. Again, most things get insinuated between the lines, which I don't think it's lazy, rather is interesting instead of seeing a character blurting out everything, but that's a personal choice. I could have a whole field day with the whole royal family and the many things they represent or couldn't say explicitly.

Even though I agree that Apollo's backstory doesn't click as well (we can see it was a last minute thing) I don't believe it takes away from what his past was. From his rather tragic origins, and the charm of the strong familial bond he has with Dhurke, neither the care and wish to reconnect with Nahyuta and protect him, who's either a dear childhood friend or a brother (depending on the version) but still, both are part of the childhood Apollo thought as lost, and who then forced himself to forget. If you ask me, it's of my favorite parts of the game, and I wish that if we get AA7, we get a passing comment about the family Apollo now has in Khura'in.

I simply like Spirit of Justice a lot. It's not the best AA installment objectively, but it is my personal favorite for the ambience, the build up, the characters and script (I feel only the amazing AA4 wins over AA6 in the script department but come on... It's AA4, ofc it wins.) and the over the top story that somehow makes sense within the universe. It is such a joy to play and get invested in everything that's going on, to laugh and to cry, and that makes to me a wonderful game.

It doesn't deserve much of the hate that it gets or to be the butt of the joke (neither does Dual Destinies, but AGAIN, a different conversation) however, every time I see complaints against the game I feel like most people just had a different experience than me.

At least I enjoyed it!

[cursedalthoughts]

Priority Research 7 Predictions - Iris Orthodoxy

Ah, the Iris. At the time of writing this post, we don't quite know if they're the CN 7th Anniversary faction or not, meaning they could be getting a gacha UR.

In this list I will also mention some possible DRs of them. Because I think they deserve more than what they already have - no offense to Brest enjoyers, she's very cool.

Colbert

Let's make one thing very clear:

Colbert was built in Brest in the 1960s, and served until 1972 as a light cruiser. Colbert did exist in real life, which would disqualify her from being a PR; however, she served at the beginning of the Cold War period, meaning I do not care.

Colbert was designed as an AA cruiser, the last of the ships France would classify as "cruisers" before adopting the term "frigate" for them.

She has a total of 16 low calliber 127mm guns in 8 turrets, guns which have a sub-4s reload time and have a considerable fire starting chance of 7%. Might not seem like much, but when you're getting bombarded with around 270 of these shells per minute, that quickly adds up.

Colbert could make for a very fun little DR light cruiser, even if realistically she will never be a PR.

Bourgogne

Talking about DRs, Bourgogne is a classic.

Being a sidegrade to Alsace at one tier higher (Tier 10), Bourgogne is an excellent pesky battleship. As usual with French battleships, she gets an engine boost; and if Alsace is anything to go by (I don't have Bourgogne lmao), she can easily reach 39 knots.

Her 12 380mm guns have a reload of 28s, to compensate for their low calliber at such a high tier; on top of having each a 36% fire starting chance. She's not quite HMS Conqueror or HMS St. Vincent levels of cringe, but she can be an HE spammer with no problems.

And if an enemy ship gives you a tempting broadside, her AP is not disappointing. Despite the low calliber, French shells are fast and hit hard.

Picardie

I sincerely hope we do not get Picardie in Azur Lane. She's utterly disappointing.

Picardie is a Tier 8 retrofit of Lyon, which swaps her perfectly fine and usable 340mm guns with pathetically weak 305mm guns. They have awful HE and AP penetrations, and not even her reload boost can save her.

However... Azur Lane has a track record of turning disappointing WoWs ships into fascinating PR shipgirls, so there's some hope.

PR rarity, of course. Just look at her bruh

Carnot

Certainly one of the ships of all time. Carnot is a supecruiser, much like Brest; but she's considerably different in terms of design. She has, for starters, ten 305mm guns; which is the most any supercruiser her tier has - Alaska, Ägir, Kronshtadt have 9, Siegfried has 6 (albeit 380mm), and Brest has 8. Her reload is subpar, however; at 22 seconds.

Her speed is very good, as it's mandatory of all French ships. Her armor is way too big to be good, as her deck sits high above the waterline, giving her plenty of large, flat, mediocre armor. Easy to penetrate with sufficiently large guns.

She works well as a PR, although I can see her being a DR as well.

Henri IV

Henri IV is the primordial French supercruiser. She's technically still just a heavy cruiser, armed with 240mm guns.

Once the queen of speed, Henri was nerfed to the ground a few years ago. Now, her acceleration speed is horrible, and her turning radius and rudder shift have also been nerfed, making her considerably less maneuverable.

Still, Henri IV could be an interesting older sister to Saint Louis; maybe even a DR.

Condé

While I'm not sure about Henri IV's rarity, I am certain Condé would be DR.

Condé is a bigger, better Henri IV, with quadruple 240mm gun turrets and access to a speed boost, a gun reload boost, and a burst fire mode which allows her to fire her guns every 1.5s for 2 salvos.

Condé is very good with what's known as a lighthouse build, which consists of making her as visible as possible.

The problem with Condé is the same as Yamagiri from the Sakura Empire prediction post - she's a Tier 11, and we have not gotten any Tier 11 yet. However, Condé is one of the most well known and beloved/hated Tier 11 ships, meaning she's way more popular.

[sketchfanda]

Chestnut Stud across the Multiverse Party 5

Texas Plow ‘em!!

Krillin loved his daughter, she was a natural bundle of cuteness and walking, talking proof of his and 18’s love for one another so of course there were times he found himself willing to do what it took to make her happy. Be it one particular special gift for Christmas or her birthday to even something offhand like an autograph from one of her favourite pro wrestlers which is what lewd him to his current place and time as a result of some very fortunate opportunity knocking. It just so happened that one of the aforementioned grapplers, one Tina Armstrong was in town for a show and a Krillin had found himself drafted along with a few local Satan City PD officers to play security for the event. So he wasn’t going to let this chance slide, that was for damn sure.

It was just a matter of waiting for the right time to come up and ask her as a small favour but of course part of him had to wonder if the reason Marron was a fan of Tina was likely because she reminded her of her mother. Easy enough to wonder why given they both happened to be beautiful, busty and well toned blue eyed blondes that knew how to kick ass with few differences between them. That being 18 was a cool as ice while Tina just radiated major feisty southern Belle tomboy vibes but they were both ambitious women in their own right. Hell he had heard that in addition to her pro wres career, Tina was also a model, a rock star, an actress and was even looking to get into politics!

Anyways while waiting around backstage as the sow was nearing its end, Krillin saw his chance as he spotted Tina exiting her dressing room, no doubt looking to check back into her hotel room and enjoy little luxury and pampering. Walking on over to her as she made her way to her ride as he did his best to be polite and not come off as some opportunist looking to make a quick easy buck or some obsessive fan with no sense of timing and personal space, assuring her that he’d lay whatever price she’d ask for the signature in exchange. That last part seemed to get her attention as she side eyed him with those sparkling sky blue eyes of hers, a small smile radiating energy on her face as she looked him over from head to toe and seeming to like what she saw. Which made Krillin feel a sense of relief at knowing she wasn’t annoyed or offended in the slightest as she invited him back to her hotel to discuss the matter, giving him a ride in her car.

it wasn’t too long or short a ride with the odd bit of small talk made here and there even as they took the hotel elevator up to Tina’s room which no surprise was the deluxe penthouse suite. Another aspect she definitely shared with 18 was their taste and enjoyment for the finer things in life when it came to luxury as the short king took in the view of the city. Turning around to speak to Tina, however, he found himself ambushed with a different sort of view as Tina was stripping right before his very eyes. Soon standing naked as the day she was born as she finished removing her Stars and Stripes themed bra and thing, giving him an eyeful of her toned muscular bombshell body with the most bodacious set of tits any man would pay to, let alone touch.

Tina:*letting out a playful giggle at the look of shock and awe on Krillin’s face, the southern Belle grappler cupped and jiggled her juicy jugs in her hands. Walking up close to him with aa particular sway and sashay to her powerful hips and thighs.*”Well now handsome you did you’d lay whatever price for that autograph right? Well I think I’d say a little bedroom rodeo is a fair exchange wouldn’t you think so? How about it little man? Want to be my breeding bull?”*Her tone coy and playfully teasing in its seductiveness as she gazed at him with her sultry blue eyes. Looking down at the raging hard tent he was pitching in his pants as she licked her lips erotically, knowing she was the cause of it and thst she was going to enjoy every second of this…*

Well she knew she’d be having fun but good sweet lord to think this little guy was packing enough to make a bronco seem inadequate as she was currently kneeling on the floor performing a titfuck on Krillin’s cock. Feeling her denim jeans becoming soaked with nectar as if she were becoming a bitch in heat, a sensual grin on her face as she gasped and landed at feeling the hot pulse of this length and girth between her glorious tits. Squeezing and massaging it as she kissed, licked and sucked in the tip whenever it reached her luscious lips from the short king bucking and pumping his hips. Sitting naked in the bed as Tina was shooting her way right up to the top 10 or 5 best titfuck she’d ever received, he had to wonder what it was about blonde women in his life having big titties….

But of course Tina soon learned first hand thst you never put Krillin down for the count so easy as she soon found herself laying on the bed, head hanging off of the edge of the bed as Krillin had turned the tables on her, much to her delight. As the short king was facefucking her deep and hard as he flexed and pumped his hips, pelvisthrusting as his cock penetrated her mouth, neck bulging from how deep and filling his fuckhammer was reaching snd stuffin her mouth and throat became his persomal onahole. Her tanned, toned body naked and glistening with sweat as she groped and played with herself, working her bidy over in anticipation and preperstin for what was sure to be an erotic rodeo. Toe curling, spine arching as her desire grew along with his, making it clear he was more than earning the autograph for his daughter.

But as good as the titfuck and oral workout had been, it was nothing compared to when they got the main event of their one on one encounter as howl and moans of passionate ectasy filled the hotel room. The sounds of skin smacking on skin as Tina was currently riding Krillin, fittingly, in the cowgirl position both foreard and reverse with her pussy welcoming thst meaty cock in its lusty embrace. The short king enjoying either the view of her abs swelling from the fullness of his cock snd the hypnotic bounce of her magnificent boobs or her backside with those muscles flexing snd those tanned bubbly asscheeks jiggling with thunderous claps. As well as her flexing those wonderful biceps and showing off as she performed push ups while bouncing on his cock, her legs performing a perfect splits as her hands firmly rested and pressed on his washboard stomach.

Not that the short king was no slouch in taking control and getting on top of course as Tina was reminded once again to her welcome delight of course. How swiftly and seamlessly he shifted into positions taking her from missionary to spread eagle snd folding her right into a mating press which lesd to her countering into an Amazon press. Only to be countered as he stood up on his feet, firmly planting them on the mattress as he hooked his arms around her luscious, powerful legs, making her howl with delight as he pumped like a piston, making her hold on for dear life as she rode th pleasure train to satisfaction avenue. Making out with him as she hugged sand held hunks sweet little hesd in the embrace of her heavenly bosom.

Her raw bliss and erotic delight only continued to escalate as Krillin n showed no signs of relenting or stopping this marathon mating sessions what so ever. Putting porn stars to shame as they made sweet, hot primal fuck from doing it doggy style and prone bone until the bed broke to the blonde being pinned up against the walls and window, even having her compact stud do her outside in a full nelson fuck on the balcony. Howling with with abandon as she wanted all to know what a real man could do, to witness this short king put all glorified eunuchs to shame with his sexual prowess as kept it up, long into the night. The sun risin to fill the demolished hotel room with its warm glow shining on the duo who slept in one another’s embrace, basking in a long, lingering afterglow.

Some days later after that wild encounter, Marron was ecstatic to have the autograph in her hands, her papa having delivered on his promise. She wasn't sure how he had managed to do it but all she knew for sure was that her daddy was amazing, as she took to having the signed 8x10 picture framed and hanging on her bedroom wall. 18 of course smiled sensually and knowingly as she shot sneaky glances at her man at the breakfast table. She knew full well how he had pulled off that feat, hell she had been hovering outside by the hotel room watching with binoculars.

Like Hell she was going to miss her man proceed to rock another hot sexy piece of ass's world like only a stud like him could be capable of. Having followed his energy signature since Tina had taken out of the arena and back to her room and oooh what a show it'd been especially the quickie they had in the shower the next morning soon as they woke up after the surprise blowjob the Armstrong babe gave his morning wood. As well as giving him her personal cellphone and email contact details along with the autographed 8x10, she have him one hell of a tongue loaded kiss to send him on his way. And had wasted no time in sending him the odd sext and naughty nude pic or selfie of course, letting him know when he would like another one on one rodeo.

Being the kinky alpha wife she was of course, 18 always knew when to sneak a peek at Krillin's phone, having copied herself Tina's number and email. After all it was always her role to admin and play peacekeeper as her hubby's pimp and ensure he kept in good standing with the ladies in his life. Even now she was already looking for a good date and time to run by Tina for when to next have some intimate quality time with Krillin, particulary if she could join in to make it a handicap match. Nothing got her man really going than a blonde tag team sandwich and it certainly helped she and Tina could pass for sisters......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Doctor is in!!

Far back as Krillin could recall, he had never been much for hospitals or doctor’s offices the one time he could recall was the aftermath of the fight with Vegeta and Nappa, thank God for sensual beans. Plus the fitness of training under Roshi did wonders for his health so he hardly ever felt sick but alas, getting a medical check up as part of his work with the Satan City police department, mandatory requirement once a year so couldn’t argue with that. So here he was sitting in the office of a local clinic waiting for the physician to come in and do their thing, apparently Major General Armstrong and Sargeant Nutz personally arranged this appointment for him specifically. Which in hindsight should’ve been a red flag and he damn well knew it but hey, 2020 right?

But there was no bigger red flag imaginable than when the doctor finally entered and he was stunned to say the very least but really who could blame him?! Especially when it was revealed to be a an absolute stunning bombshell of a woman going by the name of Dr. Shoko Sugimoto, her glorious figure more like something from one of Roshi’s magazines as she wore a simple ensemble of a medical coat, a sleeveless sweater, lacey black stockings and a tight, short mini-skirt. Her lush tanned skin radiating a vibe of warmth and and friendliness that managed to put him at ease even as she moved in ways that made her curves sway and sashay while those confined tits and ass bounced hypnotically. Not that he wasn’t struggling to keep from popping a biner of course as she commenced with the physical, even having him strip down to his boxers to make her work a little easier.

Though he couldn’t deny, it boosted his ego to hear her hums of approval as she seemed to really like what she was seeing but of course for a man his height? He was an absolute unit specimen but was it just him or was licking her lips sensually? Before he wondered if this was another possible red flag of course, Shoko firmly but asked him to sit down on the medial bed, to which he obliged her of course before he suddenly found his eyes bugging out and his jaw dropping at witnessing Shoko strip right before him. Soon standing in front him clad only in a scandalous leopard print thong and bra, her tan lines visible as she seemed all the more exotic in her sensual glory as she struck a saucy little pose for him.

Shoko:”Well officer, you’ve e certainly been passing this exam so fsr with flying colours but I find this is the best way to test out man’s stamina and endurance. Don’t be shy now, hmm? The male boy is at its most honest when properly stimulated…”*The tanned toned bombshell of a physical therapist’s honey like eyes glanced down to his crotch, sensually licking her lips at the prominent bulge forming in his boxers. Walking over with an erotic strut as she draped herself over him, pressing his glorious tits against his firm pecs as he could feel her hot breath on his face with her lips inches away from his.*”I must say, quite bold of you to smuggle such a weapon in here without me knowing, officer….do you intend to use it on me? I certainly hope so…”*She playfully teased him for his hard-on before she locked lips with him, kissing him deeply with all the lust and passion contained within her erotic body. Tongue invading his mouth as her hands caressed that quite sculpted body of his, making it clear she more than liked what she saw.*

Soon the saucy pornographic medic laid atop the compact stud on the bed, her glorious thick and curvy bombshell figure pressed snd rubbing up against that 5 foot even frame of sculpted, honed muscle. Her leopard print bra clad tits r massaging against his firm pecs while her thong clad camel toe pressed and grounded against the crotch of his boxers. Warm, sticky love nectar flowing and standing the material as her netherlips expressed their thirst and desire for his length and girth that was sure to take her to heaven. Deep moans and gasps escaping her as she felt his hands smack and squeeze her slutty boot, making those meat cheeks clap and jiggle, making her arousal skyrocket to a level that made her want this specimen of manliness to take her like the bitch in heat she was becoming.

If she was a bitch in heat then naturally that made Krillin the virile and oh so very well endowed alpha male come to mount and claim her by mating with her as she felt him rock her world with that four to five foot even machine of a body of his. Her exotic leopard print bra and thing laying discarded on the floor as she currently bounced her gloriously naked tanlined body like a woman possessed, riding Krillin cowgirl style as sh and the compact stud clasped their hands together, moaning like a shameless wanton whore with her asscheeks jiggling and clapping with every impact of their loins smacking together. Glowing hearts of lust burning windows in her eyes as her tits bounced snd jiggled, her pussy embracing that penetrating with raw, primal desire as she relished Krillin’s eyes on her shameless, sexy form. Shoko had many partners, she wouldn’t deny but there was no doubt Krillin was putting every one of them to shame and ooh she knew he had only just begun to make fuck.

Her instinct and intuition was right of course as she gasped and depend with delight as her compact love machine suddenly turned the tables on her as he sat right up suddenly. His strong arms shifting to wrap around her waist as he planted his face between the valley of her titty cleavage, lips latching onto those mounds to lick and suck on those tanline marked beauties. Making Shoko moan at such a sudden display of raw manly virility and skill before she widened her eyes as she felt his hips pump away harder and faster, practically blurring as they pounded her snatch like he had become a man possessed. Her moans and cries of ecstasy and wanton abandon filling the examination room as he suddenly smacked her bubbly asscheeks with swift, firm slaps to make them clap and jiggle.

If there was one thing Shoko loved in a man besides a nice big cock, it was a well hung and endowed stud who had skill and really knew their wsy with handling a woman. But to say Krillin was meeting expectations was doing him a disservice, he was outright surpassing them and putting prior lovers and partners to shame as he fucked her like a porn star. Of course given his work with Double Z studios in his spare time, of which she had a few titles in her persomal collection, it was no small wonder he was so damn good as he enabled her to live out her own persomal lewd fantasy to its fullest. From the bedsheets becoming soaked with their sweat and juices to steaming up the windows with their pass, thstat doctor’s office became her own persomal porno set, which reminded her to be so thankful having set up that hidden camera.

One she would have to remember to check on later when this was over and done with but knew that it was catching all the best angles as she and continued to go at it like animals in heat and rut. From being bent over the bed or pressed up against the wall as the short king took her from behind, pelvis smacking her jiggling ass as his balls slapped her clit to folding her like a human accordion as he fucked her in a piledriver and a mating press. His orgasms outnumbered by her own but eaglery welcoming the flood of his white hot seed as they kissed and made out with a growing thirst and desire between them thst had become more than a naughty doctor and her patient. Not that Shoko minded in the least, after all how could she not fall in lust and love with such an alpha male in such a small yet powerful body capable of bringing her snd so many other women such sexual satisfaction?

Yes indeed, she, the infamous Shoko Sugimoto, a woman whose very personality was borderline nymphomanic, whose conquests were as numerous as she as exotic and erotic, was in love with this man. This man bringing her to the peak of ecstasy over and over as he currently held her in the embrace of his powerful arms, hooked around her luscious legs as he made her bounce and ride on his godly cock. Their tongues dancing together ina lewd kiss, making out with sloppy desire as she hugged his powerful shoulders, her tits rubbing against his firm chest as they shared one last simultaneous orgasms together. Falling back onto the messed up and trashed bed in one snother’s embrace, the warmth of the afterglow taking them together to sleep and share sweet, sexy dreams.

Suffice to say of course that Krillin had passed his physical with flying colours, not to mention now had the kinky medic's contact details with Shoko having wasted no time sending him a nude selfie sealed with a kiss emoji. Keeping in regular touch with the cueball stud and reassuring him that anytime he wanted another "examination" or even just to have more personal off the clock encounters, just give her a call. Only further tempting him with nude pics and saucy texts, much to his chagrin and 18's sensual approval of course, more than delighted that Major Armstrong and Sargeant Nutz' little surprise for her husband had worked off so well. It certainly helped that Shoko had quite the reputation about her when they'd brought her on board as Krillin's unofficial police physician, such as the reason why she'd once been fired from her job as a fitness trainer at a gym.

Shoko of course continued to fuel and maintain her anticipation for her short king lover boy, missing him already but oh so thankful for those splendid purchases she'd made from Capsule cocks. That Warrior Monk Dildo and Sex-roid made a perfectly ideal substitute to fill the void for her beloved compact bull, to say nothing of her little discovery of his secret side job. There was no mistaking that sweet face of his as Double Z studio's resident human star Don Juan Sanchez and oh to see him in such wild encounters with such exotic women. Nothing got her to slumberland better than to have her Warrior Monk toys work her over as she watched her short king rock and tap some hot sexy furrry girl's luscious ass.

It was after such a lewd personal session that the lovely Ms.Sugimoto had herself an idea, one that was awful and wonderful, wonderfully awful and awfully wonderful all at the same time. Grinning with erotic anticipation as she finished her latest Don Juan Sanchez marathon masturbation session as she picked up her cellphone to dial a certain number. Soon as she heard the receptionist at Double Z studios answer, she wasted no time in arranging an appointment and expecting a date and time to come her way. After all there was no doubt Zigzag was going to love having a new playmate for her favourite little human star.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tetramand Diplomacy

Krillin wasn’t sure how or why this happened, all he knew was apparently 18, the sly silver tongued bombshell that she was had convinced Jaco that their family hime could play host to housing visiting diplomats from other planets in the jurisdictions of the Galactic Patrol. It would explain his prior experiences with a certain pair of Asari and a quarian of course but those were different stories but of course when it came to 18 and that little kink of hers, it was never enough for her. Hence why the latest diplomatic guest they had staying under their roof was someone whose looks alone were alien and exotic alike and seemed intent to get him pitching a tent so fast that.the fly of his pants would snap loose. But really who could blame him, right?

You see the guest in question was Looma Redwind, Princess of the tetramand from the desert planet Khoros who were a species easily identified by their statuesque heights, distinct crimson complexion colours and a set of four arms with incredible strengths to match their muscle mountain builds. The sort of species where the female was the more powerful and who lived by more of a warrior mentality than even the saiyans and as the royalty of her race, Looma was no exception. In fact she had come to Earth as part of her ongoing mission to find a worthy male to take as a mate and husband and quite frankly she had found nothing but disappointment. And no she wasn’t looking for saiyan males, apparently Tetramand females had a long standing rule against saiyan men so make of that what you will.

Yet since coming to stay and live under their roof, Looma didn’t seem to be in a foul mood but of course it helped that Marron’s adorable presence really won her over. But another reason Krillin had a feeling about seemed to be that she always seemed to be in a good mood around him, a sort of casual vibe that….was really bordering on coming off as flirting. Like this her choice of casual wear always consisted of a thong or a skin tight set of spats with a tanktop or sports bra with which she showed off that stunning natural Tetramand amazonian musculature and going by the light glistening off of that crimson skin of hers, she was always pumping herself up. To say nothing of when she would be working out, pumping iron just in time for him to walk in on her and witness it.

But in one such instance this case, Krillin found himself and Looma alone in the house with the Tetramand princess doing squat presses and bicep curls in the goddamn nude!! His eyes bugging out and his jaw dropping at the sight of the red skinned warrior woman’s muscles flexing and rippling with raw, sensual power as sweat poured off of her. Her quite juicy melons and bubbly asscheeks clapping and bouncing with all her most intimate and naughty parties laid bare and exposed before him, unable to even look away as he felt the blood rushing to his groin which made his pants and boxers start to feel a little bit tight. Which made him feel like a deer in the headlights as Looma turned to look his way, catching him red handed as she smiled a mischievous, sensual smile.

Looma:*Pausing in her workout as she placed the weight set back own on the floor, stretching her nude red body with little to no shame in flashing her nudity before him. It almost seemed like she was showing off to him on purpose especially with how she was pulling off a mix of sensual pin-up and bodybuilder poses.*”My oh my, apologies friend, I’d forgotten you would be home from work soon and the weather felt so good thst I thought I’d conduct my workout au naturale as you humans say. Now look, I’ve gone and gotten you all aroused and as your guest, it’s only right I make up for it…”*The Tetramand princess quipped sensually, her tone seductive as she strode over to her host with erotic intent and purpose. Her powerful hips swaying and sashaying, licking her lips as she towered over the compact fighter and stunned him further as she grasped and caressed his crotch to feel the erectiin contained within.*

Before Krillin even knew it, he was as naked as the Tetramand woman, sitting on her shoulders with his crotch in her face as she had him facefucking her. Her upper hands grasping and holding his firm, powerful buttocks to ensure he would pump and thrust his hips, golden eyes burning with lust as she relished his length and girth invading her mouth and throat. The feel of his heavy balls smacking her chin as her second set of hands played with her pussy, fingers probing her slit to prep for when this fuckhammer would soon do the same to her tight walls. Her womb tingling with anticipation at having his hot white seed flood it, visions of her abs becoming round and fill with his children turning her on something fierce.

This desire only escalated when her more than well endowed host pistoned his hips like a machine, facefucking as her. Luth snd throat became a sleeve for his length and girth. His hands reaching down to grab and ho,d her crimson tits with a firm squeeze which made her nerves tingle with delicious pleasure. Her four golden eyes burning with pink glowing hearts of lust as his pre dazzled the tastebuds of her tongue. Not even the most virile Tetramand males were anywhere near half as well hung endowed let alone tantalised her into such a state of mind to mate and breed okke this but this earth man was truly exceptional.

Of course much as she wanted to taste and drink up his delicious seed, her urge to rut took more immediate need for attention and suffice to say? Krillin was proving himself a more than capable mate worthy of being able to please a Tetramand woman, it’s small wonder his blonde mate had approved and encouraged her to make a move like this as they started off with a deep and hard standing fuck. The four armed exotic warrior woman holding the short king in her grasp and embrace as he held onto her waist, bucking and thrusting into her tight, warm snatch as the inner muscle walls welcomed his penetration with need and lust. Deepthroated moans escaping her lips as her as her muscles tensed and flexed while her pussy juices flowed down like raindrops to form a growing puddle on the floor.

How Looma loved it, inch after inch of prime length and girth filling her, pounding her womb with the promise of his seed to invade snd flood it. The way her abs bulged and swelled from how deep his cock reached, the feel of his glorious heavy balls smacking her bubbly, well toned ass while he assaulted her tits with his talented mouth, kissing and licking them. Sucking on them as if to remind her she should practice for when she’d nurse and feed their future babies, which served to further motivate her libido as Looma proceeded to show Krillin how a Tetramand female liked to mate. Which he found out was basically a full on sexercise workout session thst woild leave a lesser man newr death with a crushed pelvis to say the least, did Tetramand women learn from the natives of Amazonia or something?

All the same he endured it like he only could, with an intensity and passion like he as fighting Cell and Frieza at the exact same time, much to Looma’s welcome delight of course. Her potential baby daddy demonstrating his own quite stunning strength as he took her in such alpha male positions such as doggy style or the mating press. The thrill of being fooled into a living pretzel or so primal, raw and animalistic as he smacked her ass and continued to hammer her snatch with his godly cock. Orgasms rocking her crimson amazonian frame one after another as her womb anticipated each and every moment he would blow his load and let loose with a tsunami of thstat rich life giving seed, promising plenty of buns to be cooking in her oven in the very near future.

It'd been a couple of hours with many orgasms and creampies later when the earthman and the Tetramand princess' erotic marathon had finally come to an end. Basking in the afterglow as they soothed their deliciously numb, aching bodies together in the bath, idly making out and sharing a little sensual lovemaking quickie together as if the energy of their afterglow compelled them to keep at it. It was no small wonder 18 came back home, having left Marron over at the Briefs home for a slumber party with Pan and Bra to find her husband and their resident ET lodger going at it in the living room. Looking on with voyeuristic glee to see Looma's little workout courtship had been successful and then some.

Licking her lips erotically at the sight of that crimson Amazon straddling her man as they went at it on the couch, lips pressed together in a sloppy make out as she bounced and rode her powerful form on that talented fuckhammer. It was no small wonder she wasted little to no time in stripping naked as she invited herself in to make this round of mating into a sudden threesome, ambushing Looma as the Tetramand princes moaned deeply at feeling 18 invade her ass with a double ended strap-on. A Warrior Monk model type of course, naturally, as the blonde cyborg pumped and thrust away to show her gratitude and welcome Looma into her unique little pack of sorts she was dedicated to making for her man. Much to Looma's pleasure of course as the wave of pleasure brought about from feeling Krillin's glorious cock twice over made her so glad she lucked out on a host family.

It was said in the aftermath of this day onward that Looma Redwind, princess of the Tetramand had declared herself married to a worthy mate she'd found on Earth and that she was pregnant with his children. Making regular trips to Earth or often bringing him over to her planet every now and then to make more and that the spawn these encounters provided would grow up to become the strongest and most gifted generation of warriors the race had ever seen. But just in terms of their physical strength and power of course with the males, though short in stature, said to be quite the breeding bulls while their sisters became every bit as beautiful and powerful as their mother. With a rather particular standard and taste in men......who stood between 4 to 6 foot even, were well endowed and very good in bed, like mother like daughters.....

[lesfir]

To base most of the my reasoning about Astarion on one line of "play". Watching him change before and after the ritual is one line. But not comparing the two endings in the parsing. At least because I don't like the idea of the Spawn ending - as personally, as philosophically. (of course the fanbase completely discouraged me from exploring that ending in depth, it happened to a lot of AA fans). Any comparison of UA and AA often lead to some sort of non-agreement and maybe a bloodbath. Too different people with different ideas. It's are different endings. The result is different, but no one is superior, globally. There are people trying to do the "better and cooler and there's horrible, tragedy and bad" is really applicable to both endings, however on a personal level. I think the developers gave two equal endings for evil and good, with pros and cons for reasoning. The pros from the other ending should not devalue the pros of the opposite ending. Cons don't make a different ending a great truth, given how subjective they are.

I don't think the idea of this parsing is productive: "in this ending he said this, and in this ending he says this, and therefore it's not true, bad". It's a own line of development, and is favoured by people who see it as more logical, better and fun. Why compare? Is this a narrative war? I think yes, narrative warfare, which is a great truth and better(?) for the character. It can't be winnable when Larian wants every player to find something enjoyable in the game, not only a tragedy, and that kind of thing will have a logical basis. I don't think it's possible that Larian wanted players who chose the "evil path" to have to drown in tragedy, suffering.

The tragedy is the loss - where Astarion is dying and Cazador ascends. Again not for Cazador-enjoyers.

[beevean]

🔥 Ace Attorney

Rise of the Ashes was a very boring case I forgot everything about, and it's obvious that it was written post-humously.

I don't like any of the assistant girls except for Maya, Pearl and Susato lol (susato best girl btw, i love her to death). Trucy was from what I gathered butchered by the translation, Kay has nothing interesting going on for herself and her dynamic with Edgeworth is not as interesting as the Phoenix/Maya dynamic, and while I commend that Rayfa is different, she's still not the most enjoyable character for me - Franziska in 3-5 did the tsundere companion better lol.

Iris deserves her own paragraph because I think she was very poorly written. As a character she's fine, she's cute, she's helpful, nothing bad about her personality... but man does GAA1 beat you over the head with how much of an impossible genius she is. She's 10, she has a medical degree that she earned in less than 2 years, she writes the Herlock Sholmes books that are so good that even Barok secretly reads them, she's the main breadwinner of the house... And I'm sorry, I know AA is no stranger to child prodigies, but compare her to Franziska, who impossibly became a prosecutor at 13 but you can see how much damage that did to her: she's emotionally stunted and, until her character development, saw her very serious job in a very black and white "I win, you lose, if you lose you aren't perfect" way. Iris OTOH seems perfectly normal for being a child who has to financially take care of her own adult guardian. C'mon. (at least she had some very cute normal kid moments in GAA2, like her helping Ryuu in G2-3 and having fun during the fair)

Barok best prosecutor. Best character even. He's a much better Nahyuta :P (or I guess, chronologically, Nahyuta is a worse Barok lol)

Simon Blackquill is underrated. I don't remember a thing about DD, and I know the game overall is rather unpopular, but I remember Simon was very funny and I see him as a Godot without the controversial parts :P I was so happy to have him as the assistant in 6-4.

I think fans nowadays forget a little too quickly that Miles did some shady shit as the Demon Prosecutor, and even after that, 2-4 being the most egregious case.

Depicting Manfred as horribly abusive is cliché. I much prefer the anime interpretation of him being an emotionally distant but doting father to Franziska... it's just that the "emotionally distant" part fucked her up.

Speaking of which, I see something unfortunate in insisting that she's a lesbian because of her "whip only the men" policy. I can understand seeing something romantic in her chemistry with Adrian, but uhhh that whip thing is more the result of the writers' double standard (she was more than fine with whipping women in JFA, when she was meant to be unlikeable).

[teczek01]

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[bryastar]

word salad #2

here we are, day 2!

....kinda

yes I did make a journal yesterday and am currently writing one today, but it's technically the middle of the day for me.....at midnight. yeah, working nights makes days confusing a bit (which doesn't help when I can never seem to remember what day of the week is). and honestly, yesterday's journal was only the first half of my day.... granted what happened before that was I was at work, driving home from work, and then going to bed and waking up and started the day hanging out with everyone at home. aa. maybe I should be primarily focusing on the day before when I make these entries.

anyway

so after writing my entry yesterday I spent most of my day playing sonic adventure DX on Xbox, primarily focusing on raising a power Chao for the Chao races. it's a bit of a grind because the quickest way I could do it is from the mystic ruins garden I dash all the way across the map, and pass through two loading zones to head to red Mountain. here there are not only primarily power type animals (and the random parrot like yuosdhfjkhsd no I don't need you!) but I've played this level so much I can easily get 250-350 rings in one go without getting hit once (except by those red bullet bill things that spin fire everywhere which always seem to hit me at the worst times grrr). and then after that it's going aaalllll the way back to the Chao garden, wrastle up all the animals so they don't keep falling into the pool and having the Chao sit still long enough while I'm trying to find the animal but it decided to hop right back into the pool hfuiashcjdsk aaaa...

anyway wanna see them~? lookit the babies!

afterwards Amber and I finished the main story for Mario rpg on switch. even though I've watched playthroughs of the original before, it's always nice when you still finish a game, especially with amber also playing and helping me with battle strategies while I primarily helped with the puzzles. it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to finally play it.

afterwards (I'm just repeating "afterwards" for now until I find more clever ways to say it x.x) I decided to play starfox 64 on the switch. before, while I had been impressed with how the SNES game was able to use primitive 3d graphic, but the game itself I had a rough time playing it without either getting bored or dying way too early on and feeling discouraged. but then I randomly decided to boot starfox 2, the formerly unreleased SNES sequel, and.......I don't know what it was but suddenly it just clicked with me and I was able to beat the game on Normal.......and that's how I realized that starfox is actually a relatively short game, heck it's literally a shoot em up, just in 3d. sometimes in my head I just imagine this and suddenly I'm less overwhelmed by the low res and choppy frame rates. heck, the walker segments used tank controls....yet I was able to work with that just fine strangely enough..... ok going way off topic but, I think I'm starting to understand the starfox series a bit better (and now I can see a bit better why starfox fans would be offput by starfox adventures on GameCube since it's practically an entirely different kind of game, altogether!

ok this entry is getting kinda long so I'll stop here oops. hope this was at least enjoyable aa

uhm

pizza 🍕

[hotilhotil]

Israel is a beautiful country

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[askaceattorney]

(Previous Letter)

Dear Dawsongfg,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: Probably a typo on Mod Franziska’s part.

Dear Dawsongfg,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: I half expect you to bust the Eminem song Without Me. It’s a horror game, but I enjoyed The Witch’s House.

Co-Mod: I’ve never been a fan of horror in general, but there have been a few exceptions.  Oddly enough, I wasn’t too fond of The Witch’s House, but there was another horror game made with RPG Maker that I found to be pretty enjoyable: Ib.  Which, as it turns out, was given an HD remake last year!

...Which, like many games, I still need to play.  😏

I can appreciate a game like that because it has a spooky/mysterious atmosphere that doesn’t go too heavy on the “freak the player out” factor.  Of course, I haven’t seen the new stuff in the HD remake, so I can’t say for sure if that’s still the case, but there’s a special place in my heart for the original game.

(Referenced Letter)

Dear Anonymous,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: 

Oh my gosh, I only made that reference ONE time and it was used as a joke. I never made any indication that Phoenix would be like Dr. Cox if you read the tag RIGHT HERE. 

The only thing I did was ask if Phoenix would make a great Dr. Cox. That doesn’t mean I believe it. It only means I’m not sure. 

I only knew of that line from a video clip I watched on YouTube. When I saw this question, I thought it’d be funny if Phoenix said it. As far as I know, the context when Phoenix said that line and when Dr. Cox said that line are completely different. I don’t even think both were said that with the same facial expressions outside of sarcasm. I don’t know how you took me asking everyone if they thought Phoenix would make a good Dr. Cox to mean that I believed he would. I guess when you ask someone if they have a dog, that means you believe they have a dog and not just ask a simple question out of curiosity. 

Dear Charicla,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: They kinda do, don’t they?

Co-Mod: Spooky.

Dear Dawsongfg,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: A former pastor of mine served in the Navy, my step-grandpa was in the army and my biological grandpa was in the Medical Unite.

Co-Mod: Not personally, but I’ve met a few who served in the U.S. military.  I can’t imagine ever involving myself in armed combat outside of a video game, so I can’t help but admire the sort of courage they must have, to say the least.

(Referenced Letter)

Dear Dawsongfg,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: There are followers here that are dealing with this and others that write letters here as an outlet to escape from the very things irl that contemplate thoughts of this. Try to be aware that not everyone writes letters here to mess around. Some use it as an outlet or escape from stressful shit that happens irl. 

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but be aware that people are dealing with this. In fact, I was answering letters from someone dealing with something similar and it was affecting how they were writing their letters. They’re better now, but that was the reason why it took me so long before I blacklisted the Hotti letters. I was using them as a scapegoat to distract everyone from going after someone else who had been going through a tough time irl, who was writing weird letters at the time.

Dear The-Carrotella,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: Thank you.

Co-Mod: It’s compliments like that motivate us to keep doing a good job, so thanks!  (That’s true for me, at least.)

Dear Ladynoir,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: No, because if there’s anything we’ve learned for the past decade, it’s that nothing is ever truly discontinued. I mean, we’re having sequels to movies that were made decades ago! So, the rules remain and if AA claims to discontinue, it will still remain.

Co-Mod: My instincts tell me there’ll be more Ace Attorney down the road, too.  As for that sibling reveal, I could maybe be talked into writing a fanfiction about it...

Actually, no I couldn’t, because I’m still working on a dozen other things, but that might be a possibility somewhere down the road as well.  😉

Dear Charicla,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: Don’t worry about it. We know when your mental health is low and if this is the reason for sending unhinged letters as you’d call them. You’re not even the one I was talking about when mentioning using the Hotti letters as a scapegoat. I did notice a few cringy letters from your end, but the person I was talking about did much worse and had been going on for much longer. If you didn’t notice, that’s good. 

Don’t feel bad if you ever write venting letters. We’re not offended or annoyed by them. Perhaps concerned, but that’s only because we’ve been depressed and hurt before. 

Dear Skibot99,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: We lost a couple of hundreds of subscribers since the Mod Maya and Mod Vera incident. So, with the subscribers also went the normal amount of letters we’d get.

Co-Mod: Yep.  The upside of that is that your letters will get answered somewhat sooner than before.  It’s an interesting paradox, isn’t it?

Dear Anonymous,

Chief Mod Edgeworth: Thank you.

Co-Mod: Thanks!  It’s not exactly the same blog it used to be with the original Mods heading off to parts unknown, but I’m glad to see it still going strong, too.  That’s true about a lot of things for me, in fact -- Ace Attorney, Nintendo series, Sonic the Hedgehog games, (some) sequels to classic movies, and so on.  They’re not the same, but they’re still great for the same reasons the originals were.  I’m glad it worked out that way here, too.

- The Mods