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odogaronfang · 7 years

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Zombie apocalypse aus are neat. Tell me more.

oh thank you so much for asking!!!!!!!!

okay this might get long so prepare, uhhh where do i start

so basically. henry is my main character. in this au, the risen are the zombies, makes sense yknow. difference is, while most zombie media tags zombies as slow to move, slow to act, and without capability for higher thinking, the risen are still, on some level, fundamentally human. (this kind of stems from the risen’s capability to fight in awakening, and from of a support between ricken and henry; see “they’re just like us, but dead” (((: ) given, the risen are slow and not all too strong, they’re dead and decaying and atrophying- but the fresher risen, the recently turned, can in some cases rival a healthy, living human. i’m still thinking on what caused the pandemic, i’ll be honest, no haha-no-one-knows cop-out, i’ll get back to you on that. but no one knows of any cure yet, of course, or this au wouldn’t exist.

so. in a world of the living dead(?), where being a mage translates to being a gunslinger, cut to henry. was this an excuse to make henry dual wield handguns? maybe. will i apologize for it? absolutely not.

i digress. henry is the chaotic neutral/neutral evil gunslinger with incredible aim and a questionable at best moral compass. i’ve actually got a sketch of him somewhere, of him pointing a gun at someone saying “give me your stuff. or die! i win both ways!” ‘course i didn’t draw the other person, but it gets the message across. he’s generally just kind of desensitized to things. he comes from a neglectful but wealthy family (as he does in canon), so he never had much of a mentor or anyone to guide him in what’s right versus wrong. mostly he’s just interested in self-preservation, and the preservation of his birds; he’s been rescuing wounded birds (read: crows) since he was old enough to know how, and he names them bird puns and keeps them as pets, and now he’s got what’s basically a murder of loyal crows at his beck and call. they feed on the risen (and humans) he kills, and warn him when something is approaching. he trains them well. he’s the pavlov of corvids.

gaius is a slightly more morally responsible survivor, who probably raided a bass pro outdoor shop/renaissance festival as soon as the pandemic broke out. he’s got a sword, and throwing knives, and some daggers, and a bow (before it breaks and he doesn’t know how to fix it). the good thing about it is that he doesn’t spend time looking for ammo- the bad thing is he has to do a lot of maintenance on them. he is a thief, steals from encampments and sleeping lone wanderers, but he isn’t killing anyone for supplies, usually. except candy. he’d probably kill for candy if he liked the brand enough.

the shepherds are a survivors’ group dedicated to assimilating, training, and protecting fellow survivors- think alexandria, hilltop, or the kingdom from the walking dead, if you know it. their HQ is an abandoned castle, a historical landmark, that they filled with traps and alarm systems, and is practically impassable if you don’t know it. chrom founded the group, along with his (boy?)friend robin (that’s actually his nickname, because of his fighting style, not his real name).

-lissa is chrom’s little sister, an aspiring general surgeon and the current medic of the shepherds alongside maribelle, her close friend since VPK.

-frederick is a good family friend to chrom and lissa, and by extension the rest of the shepherds- he’s a war veteran and former hand-to-hand combat instructor, and does his part by training new recruits, and often acting as chrom’s and lissa’s bodyguard.

-sully is my wife also a veteran, was actually trained by frederick while still in active service. she leads a lot of patrols around their HQ, and interrogates new recruits. just to make sure.

-stahl is the resident herbalist/apothecary, it was his father’s trade and he grew up learning it. he’s often an assistant to lissa when she needs it, as he can make the salves and ointments and medicines that she needs to treat injuries. he also sometimes helps in the kitchen, because of his extensive knowledge of plants.

-miriel is their sniper, and hobbyist historian. the historian part doesn’t matter so much, but she likes to talk people’s ears off about things if they’ll let her. she’s pretty okay with math and science too, so she’ll help stahl with measurements, ratios, etc, but mostly she likes history and shooting things from 200+ yards.

-ricken is the baby boy of the shepherds. “it takes a village to raise a child” they say, and he’s the village’s child. everyone looks out for him. everyone is his parent. he is well loved and being trained by miriel in the art of sharpshooting. (he’d rather be with stahl learning how to make things.)

-donnel is their agricultural expert, and directs all their non-specialized workforce in the maintenance of their fields. he’s very strict about their schedule, about how things are planted and pruned and fertilized and harvested, about how croplands are rotated for optimal yields, but damn if the results aren’t better than anything they could’ve gotten at a market pre-apocalypse.

-virion is their bowhunter. they could use guns, but it wastes precious ammo and is loud and attracts attention, so he trains archers and leads them out on hunts when their tame livestock are running low or they feel they can risk the venture. it’s more sensible to take from the wild than their personal resources, robin says, and robin’s advice seldom fails them…

-panne and nowi are in charge of livestock (and nowi is a herpetologist on the side. she loves reptiles. she has a pet python.) panne hates to see any animals killed, but especially her babies, as she calls the one she raises, and fully supports virion and co’s ventures as long as it spares the lives of her animals. she recognizes necessity when she sees it, however, and if an animal needs to be killed for whatever reason, she does it herself, to make sure it’s quick and painless. she’s not the most social, but she and donnel get along well, and when henry joins their number she takes quickly to him and his avian following.

-generally, their guards/patrols consist of vaike, gregor, cherche, kellam, basilio, flavia my other wife, lon’qu, and say’ri. they’re alternating shifts on castle patrol, two to each group, one pair on each side of the castle, east and west. they’re always up late but they’re allowed to sleep in as compensation.

-cordelia, sumia, and libra jump around a lot, help a lot with donnel’s farming but also with out-of-camp ranging, as they’re skilled riders. cordelia helps tend to the horses, and ricken sometimes joins her.

-olivia was an aspiring actress before the pandemic, and before she became a single mother- now she’s practically a secretary, keeping their records of harvests and hunts and slaughters and rangings and patrols. she’s mentored by miriel, who adores that kind of boring work. olivia is also an excellent liar and if they ever need to negotiate with other people, she’s their go-to.

-tharja is also a sniper and everyone’s favorite hot topic membership cardholder. she and miriel like to have cynical conversations about the state of the world and complain about men with sully. the three of them definitely have a girls’ club going.

-inigo (the only child character i bothered to include) is olivia’s son to an unnamed father. his interests have always been in the performing arts field, but as that isn’t realistic anymore, he spends a lot of time with everyone. sometimes he’ll go and sit with ricken, and they’ll browse the castle library for fairy tales and folklore and read it together, and sometimes they’ll try and write their own and then perform it for everyone else, on stormy nights when the mood is dismal. they’re always stupid but they’re funny- they both have a gift for dramatic comedy- and everyone looks forward to their shows.

i feel as though i should warn people that it’s henry/gaius, though that isn’t the focus of it. it started as a bad shitpost and now it’s a ship so… [wattpad voice] don’t like don’t read, you feel

#fire emblem: awakening #henry #chrom #robin #frederick #just tagged the most popular ones to get attention (:#wow i think this is my first original post about fe #anyway #hmu if you have more questions i love this au that i created 2 days ago #zombie au #my au #i am thinking #i may call this the 'have some death!' au #so just in case #have some death! au

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littlerit · 3 years

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

(Wow ok, let me start by apologising for taking a decade to answer this)

Five stars! I love your enthusiasm 🥰 and I'm taking five stars as a chance to talk about my Five fic ALOT!

I'll be considerate and put the long and joyous ramble about The Time Traveller's Life under the cut so I don't take up too much of y'alls dashes.

(This was written at the time that chapter 26 was published, so may contain some spoilers up to that point!)

Well, I gotta talk about the opening scene right? Writing this was so nerve-racking. Here I was, barely a month old as an author. I’d cranked out my first ever fic over two weeks in the post-season-2 peak, where there were lots of readers and many were kind enough to leave encouraging comments. Then I’d made the little prologue to this fic as a one shot, which also did pretty well. But then I’d sat down and said to myself, I wanna write a long fic (that's a lie, I said that before I posted the prologue). I have written 17k, I'm invincible, I'm gonna write something that's 60-80k long and I'm gonna complete it. I am. And while I'm at it it's going to be a freakin Time Traveller's Wife AU just so I can tick off keeping track of mind-bending timelines and character details from my list. No biggie for a first longfic.

Let it not be said that I do not take on a challenge, right?

Ok so no that wasn't quite the reason. I'm a sucker for a time travellers wife AU and was absolutely gutted nobody had written one for me to devour when Five seemed so damn perfect for one!

Oh right, I was talking about the opening scene. So, the fic opens on the apocalypse, at the moment that Five finds the bodies of his siblings amongst the rubble. But this time, it's told from the POV of an older Five, who has travelled back in time from later on in the apocalypse. A grown up Five, who is hardened to the realities of survival, of life without his family, but hasn't yet had to go back face this day, and has been dreading it for years and years. I think this offered a really interesting perspective on the scene, and a fresh one too, which was important to me as typically the only way to hash this scene is by the Five witnessing it, or by an older Five having a flashback. Being able to put another Five, an older more experienced Five, in the same scene, able to interact with himself and give us a different POV, seemed like such a good opportunity.

The three Fives at the funeral scene, which chronologically on a timeline immediately follows the opening scene but in the fic actually happens in chapter 14 from the POV of a Five who is 24, is a scene I’m super proud of. I think it really encapsulates the unique nature of this fic, bringing together multiple versions of Five all at various stages of life and grief, to comfort each other and to lay the siblings to rest. It was a good opportunity to play these Five’s off each other, with different opinions, experiences and ability to cope and comfort, and demonstrate just how much Five changes as a person, but also how he stays the same. It’s not something you can do very easily in a linear story, and when the fic gets long and you follow the journey of the character it’s easy to, not forget, but have softened memories of where they originally came from, y’know?

Allison’s wedding, and the Ben reveal, was an evil little scene I’d been dying to post for a long time by the time I finally got to writing and publishing it. I had originally planned for Five to find out about Ben’s death by being displaced in a library when it was the breaking news on the TV, but when the idea of getting Five to the wedding occurred, and having it be revealed by Reggie of all people? I couldn’t turn down that opportunity. It made narrative sense, that Klaus would have tried to conceal the truth from Five - as they both grow up they keep more and more secrets from each other, and this wasn’t easy news to share. That Reggie would coldly and callously reveal Ben’s death to Five through sly comments also felt particularly on brand for a man that never really got over Five’s disobedience about time travel.

So finally, to try and bring this long ramble towards something resembling an end, I’m not going to talk about any scene in particular, but instead a bit about some threads I’ve been weaving through the story - and there definitely is some planning amongst the madness and tangled timeline! There are a couple of threads I’ve been weaving since the beginning. There are some theories people have speculated on in the comments that may be right on the money… 👀

Some have now come to fruition - for example the Commission. So the little instances of Five displacing, or spending a day scavenging, and coming back to find his camp slightly disturbed, or things misplaced/missing, they were indeed the Commission playing dirty to keep him trapped in the Apocalypse, to slow his progress. Without interference, a Five with the advantage of being able to displace and teach his younger self maths, or leave notes, or visit a library to consult textbooks, the five of this universe would figure out his time travel equations much sooner than canon five. Five has realised this foul play since his stint in the MAPS department (and thank you @aye-of-newt for that wonderful post about why the commission left him so long in canon for inspiring the whole subplot loop with the Commission!!).

Finally I guess there’s two threads I am currently thinking about that will be revealed later on that I hope will get a strong reaction (@destinyandcoins and @clementineofmine I’m looking at you guys, I fully expect to be screamed at). One is linked to something I’ve been planning for over a year and been innocently dropping into several chapters and scenes from very nearly the beginning that I don’t think anybody will have (or even should have) picked up on yet (but hopefully will inspire a AHHHH! reaction should anybody reread the fic once complete and be able to see the foreshadowing). The other I set the groundwork for in the most recent chapter.

Looking at my outline document is wild. My little ‘aim for 20 chapters, 60-70k, write within 12 months’ story has ballooned into a fic that has over 100k drafted and may even go past 150K all in, is more than likely going to top 50 chapters, and most certainly will probably see it’s second birthday in autumn. But its my baby, I love this story so much and I really want to see it through even if all I can do it chug along and produce a 3k chapter maybe once a month. Aside from being dear to me as a story I love, and a project I have easily poured 150-200 hours or more into so far, it has also led me to some wonderful friends online who I feel blessed to know. 🧡

Thanks so much Shark for letting me ramble on about this, and for being patient will my glacial reply! And here, confetti for everybody who got to the end of my essay!🥳🎉

#tua ttl #time travellers life #the umbrella academy #tua #five hargreeves #welcome to my TED talk #ask game

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oh-lali-lali-lali-lalipop · 4 years

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@mysteriousdbzgt: Hi oh-lali-lali-lali-lalipop! Thank you for your ask. First of all, thanks for asking this question here on my personal (and also for the follow over on t&bftw, welcome aboard! :D) I think you can probably tell from here, that I’m a huge supporter of them becoming romantically involved lol I don’t shy about that here, but I like to present a more neutral stance over on my news dedicated blog, to not influence others of my personal opinions. With regards to the new season, as much as I would be supportive of it, I unfortunately highly doubt that they would become “official” in S2 or anything in the future, but will remain extremely dedicated and attentive to one another, regardless of their constant bickering. The creators of the show are more than aware of the popularity of the “couple”, being constantly popular at doujinshi events and the continuous amounts of merchandise that they bring out, which regularly focuses on the main duo rather than all of the Heroes all the time. The fandom is primarily dominated by women, when originally the show was supposed to target men and “salarymen”, but attracted a completely different demographic that they hadn’t anticipated. I can only think that’s mainly because of the appeal of K&B. Also not helped by some of the staff’s, let’s just say, “unfiltered” thoughts when they discuss about K & B in older interviews, centering around “love” and other similar notions. I think they still want to keep this series aimed towards a male demographic, even if the results don’t line up as they expect. But highly ironically, it’s what makes the show successful, so I doubt they would want to change how they portray Kotetsu and Barnaby’s relationship. Personally I would be absolutely over the moon if they did become “official”, because they’re just perfect for one another (hehe) and it could just break so many standard conventions/boundaries on how media portrays same-sex relationships, if done appropriately, and not be labelled with any genre tags like “BL”, “yaoi” or anything similar, and still simply just be a “drama”, “superhero” tale, with the two main males eventually getting together but not make a big song and dance about it. If we want to normalise LGBT relationships within our media and what we consume, then we need to drop these tags and portray them in a healthy manner, which I think the show does well between them both. I believe that the staff have the talent to pull it off, they just need to be cautious on how they do it. Like you said, how FE is presented in the show which such great self confidence about themselves and who they are, really shows that they can write this. Also T&B’s spiritual successor show, Double Decker (who had a lot of the same staff) tackles some LGBT themes pretty well, so they could absolutely do it. But yeah, I don’t think they’ll become “official” unfortunately. But if anything, I anticipate that KxB will most likely be working even closer together in S2, so they’ll be more in tune with one another, and possibly open up even more to each other than they did before. Hopefully they’ll be over the huge feuds and split apart phase, which The Rising focused on (they’ll still bicker all the time, but that’s just how they are), so we can see just how far their relationship has come and changed for the better. Anyway this is probably way too long (sorry), but always interested to hear your thoughts too! :)

Heya! Before I start I just wanna say thank you so much for taking the time to give me such a thorough reply, it is incredibly well thought out and written! I also want to say I am so freaking sorry you had to type out my monstrosity of a name (seriously didn’t think about that when making the joke lol). Oh, and I’m equally sorry for the formatting of the reply... really had no clue how to go about it, so I just defaulted to going about it the roleplayer way haha. Anyways, for starters, I think I should say that I actually agree with you a lot. You see, logically I think it feels highly unlikely they’d make them “official” in the new season. I’m not sure if I feel like it’s unlikely because I, someone who’s in the LGBTQ community, am a pessimist (aka, I’m negative regardless of proof) who is use to companies not delivering on it/assume companies won’t deliver on it.... or if I’m genuinely, but unconsciously, picking up on Sunrise’s stance of “not gonna happen”. Despite all that I still feel stupidly hopeful about it (y’know, heart louder than the mind and all that jazz)... and I guess for the sake of the discussion I’ll break down why! lol So, I got into the fandom.... around the time of The Rising, I think, so anywhere from 2014 to 2015. I instantly fell in love with it all, but I did end up falling out of the loop for awhile (being a teenager and all that). Recently (recently being that I finished S1 on Friday, watched The Rising on Sunday, and now I’m here lol) I got back into it and.... wow, a lot of it is the same, and.... at the same time it felt like I had so much more to process. It’s still as amazing as ever, if not even more so, and just like with everything else I love with my entire being I started to analyze it and read into it (maybe a little bit too much so lol). In all honesty, KxB seriously stood out even more so than it did last time for me (I don’t know if it’s because I’m now accepting of my sexuality or what) and while it’s not actually the best part of the series to me (God, Barnaby’s arc means so much to me what with me struggling with cPTSD, but that story is best left on my RP blog) I do have to admit that the pairing is... incredibly meaningful, and beautiful. Moving for me, really. I guess the following observations, and hopeful thinking that came after it, could be deduced to me just wearing shipper goggles, but considering my habit of over analyzing and breaking things down... I do try to make predictions and opinions logically, and with that in mind it’s why I’m so stuck on the “hopeful thinking”, since a tiny bit of logical thinking is fueling it. Tiger & Bunny is about human relationships, really. For a show focusing on NEXTs... it’s really about humanity, corruption, society, relationships... and KxB all along the first season is written as an undertone, like a slow burn (which is entirely fitting, and seriously makes any relationship better), which fits because the first season is, in actuality, not focused on that (the plot being bigger than we can see and all that). In the end, having rewatched it, I also noticed how, really, the undertone is written in such a way that.... it feels like Barnaby is the one with the “crush” (or is the first one to realize it) which... kinda fits with the old statements from the crew. Kotetsu the forever oblivious one who hasn’t had an epiphany yet (although if I’m being honest, The Rising seems to have this “side-plot” feeling of Kotetsu having the epiphany when he realizes what he’s lost, which is what I meant by the flow of the series somewhat feels like it’s building towards it)... .... There’s also the whole “leaving it to interpretation thing” they said back then. Which, I have to agree with some other people that it feels like it’s just a way of saying “it’s romantic but we don’t want to take that risk”.... and that was back around 2011. It’ll have been decade since then when S2 is released, and, while a decade is just a decade, a lot has changed on a societal basis since then. Even during this decade long gap Sunrise has become more bold with their representation, whether it be Double Decker! or The Rising.... almost like they’re testing the waters... and what better way to champion representation than to make two main characters the representation? This franchise is... so human in it’s story, and the meaning doing such a thing would have for so many people... in a way, I think out ways some of the risks. I feel like the build up is there, the want is there (tbh seeing posts on tumblr of people talking about how they hope they’ll get a kiss in S2 or something “official” like that also fueled this)... it just depends on whether they’ll feel afraid or not. Which is, really, why I asked for your opinion. You do such good work at trying to bridge the gap between the Japanese fandom/Sunrise and the English speaking community (which, btw, you are amazing at, I can’t thank you enough for the work you do), and I knew you’d be more informed on Sunrise’s attitude and statements, as well as the general opinions and depositions of the Japanese fans. In the end, I can “read into” things all I want, but it won’t matter if you can’t understand the one who pulls the strings... and because of that I wanted to know your opinion. I’m so so sorry this got so long!! I’m really horrible at summarizing myself, so this turned into a major ramble.... I’m gonna wrap it up now before this turns into a novel haha. Again, thank you so much for responding to my question and for being open to discussing it, it means so much! I truly respect your opinion, since it helps me clear my own thoughts, as well as gives me a dose of reality so I don’t get my hopes up too much... I guess in the end though, a part of me is going to continue to think that they just might have the heart to do it, irregardless lol. I look forwards to seeing what you have to say about what I’ve written here!

#mysteriousdbzgt #thoughts #Tiger & Bunny #I have no clue why tumblr tried to squash your post when I copied it like Kotetsu squashes his burgers #but jesus fucking christ #also tumblr what did you do to block quotes wtf

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four-loose-screws · 4 years

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What would you rank all the fire emblem games that you have played.

Thank you for waiting, anon! This essay is finally finished! XD I don’t know if either of us ever intended for this to end up so long, but it did.

It’s interesting to see how each person experiences each game, so I hope everyone enjoys reading this. If anyone wants to ask questions for more details or just for conversation, please do!

I did a tier grouping ranking as well as ordering from bottom -> top, because that helped explain my feelings a little better. This isn’t really reflecting my nostalgia or personal feelings for the characters/world quite as much as “how much fun I had in my initial playthrough(s).” Because I think that’s what these sorts of lists are generally asking for.

First, I’d like to make a general statement about why I love FE games so much: Well, most simply it’s because I have more fun playing FE than any other series. That much is obvious though, right? I also love them because they all stand out in their own way, with their own unique combination of features, and because they are all super ambitious titles. It may lead to some rushing and half-baked ideas, but ambition is what excites me the most in any series. Even if the creators are not able to fully realize the ideas they had, the hard work still wows me as I play, and I can see hints of the full vision they had in every nook and cranny. Even the lowest games on this list are pretty high up there for me in fun level. The “fun but flawed” games just had glaring issues that interrupted the fun from time to time.

...FEs 1 & 3 are overall exceptions to the “unique and standing out rule,” being early games in the series; and FE6 set up post-Famicom FE, so it’s pretty basic, too - but they still get their own awards for setting a solid foundation for a fun video game series that withstands the test of time.

I can’t fully explain it, why I attached to FE the most over all other game series out there. But when I play FE, I usually don’t think about what’s not so great about the games. I just have fun. The gameplay always has me thinking, and I get engrossed in the stories and unlocking convos and supports.

Basic Tier

These games are really hard to judge properly in the ranking system, because they are just so basic for the series.

FE1 / FE11

When FE11 came out, I remember it getting so much flack for being really, really boring. But I didn’t get that. I like FE gameplay and storytelling at its core, so I don’t need the bells and whistles to have a good time. I knew this is where the series started, and was surprised with what content there was considering this is a remake of a game on the Famicom (NES).

FE1 set a very solid foundation for what the core of the series would be. Load it up next to a modern game, and it feels so the same and different all at once. I’ve only played a little bit of FE1 itself. I just can’t get through it because FE11 is SO similar to FE1, so you really only have to play one to get the whole experience. I didn’t feel like playing the same game over again at the time, so FE1 is still on my unfinished list.

Basic, solid foundation for the ages / 10

FE3 / FE12

After FE11 played it “safe” and took an “upgraded graphics with a few new ideas tacked on” approach, I was blown away by how much FE12 did, even if it was more for worse than better sometimes. It added so many conversations, was the first to tinker with the idea of a more fleshed out Avatar, added more story… and so on.

From what I’ve read recently, the new story stuff isn’t that great, but I don’t remember now. I’ve only played this game once. Overall, despite some clunk with the giant maps and so on, this game really challenged itself to improve from FE11, and it’s how I learned to love remakes that aren’t afraid to deviate from and add a lot to the original!

Set the stage for what kind of fun and ambition an FE remake could have / 10

FE3 is way more of a classic than any of us in the West can truly understand. It sold insanely well (the best in the series until Awakening I believe?), challenged the programmers to put FE1 on the cart as well, long before re-releases were a thing in the industry, and the game even made it to the Super Famicom Mini! I haven’t played it yet because again, it’s hard to get the motivation to play through the slow speed and clunkiness when I’ve already experienced the remake, but I’m looking forward to it some day.

The good ol’ days of the Super Famicom & SNES / 10

FE6

This was the first game without Kaga (the series original creator), so it set the stage for a future without him. The series might have strayed far from his plans for story and such, but this game, while it was pretty basic, firmly established a new foundation for the series on a new system, and gave a glimpse of what greatness the future had in store.

Overall though, this game is harder to commit to memory than others, except for classic characteristics like how terrible Roy is until, finally, BAM he gets his sword in the final stretches of the game; and running in circles from Douglas so you can avoid fighting him and successfully recruit him after the chapter.

Awkward, but sets a solid foundation for post-Kaga and post-Famicom FE / 10

Fun But Flaws Distracted From The Fun A Lot Tier

FE16

I really, really hate to say it, because this game tries to mix up the FE formula with the school setting and other new features and changes, and brought in a good mix of old and new, just like all the other FE games. But this game left very little impact on me for such a big experience. And I’m leaving out the fact that trying to play all four routes is dull as heck when I place the game this low. I’m basing it off of just how much I enjoyed the first playthrough.

Overall, I was most turned off by the class system. Which is funny, because I’ve seen others praise this as FE’s best class system. Everyone’s different. Classic classes like troubadours are just gone. The top tier classes are super limiting. Of course, you can just stop one tier down, but that’s not emotionally satisfying to me - I want my characters to reach the top! Despite having such free choice, I feel more limited than anything. If they’d just stopped at 4 tiers and not tried to go to 5, I think that would have been best. They had to stretch out the available classes too much to get to 5. ...Although being able to have an army of dragon riders is awesome, I’ll give it that. Dragons are too cool.

I was also really disappointed by the story. Fire Emblem has established that it can write a really emotional plot, and not be afraid to pull punches, with games like 4 and 8. I was expecting a huge contrast between part 1, where everyone is friends and classmates, and part 2, where war rips them apart, transforms them into different people, and forces them to brutally slaughter each other.

But in reality…the hate between Dimitri and Edelgard has nothing to do with the school at all… That was jarring to me. Of course there is no one right direction to take a story in. But the worldbuilding and story writing… feels even less coherent than Fates. That’s an accomplishment.

This is the one time I say ambition was really just too much. The game didn’t get enough polish. A game about the seasons doesn’t even have seasonal differences...

While my friends who don’t usually play Fire Emblem have had a fantastic experience with this one, after all I’ve been through, I found that I liked other FE’s more.

I think the best part about this game is the characters and supports. After Fates had a ton of supports in it just because it had to have them, the creators of this game weren’t afraid to change up the support formula once more, so they could balance quality and quantity. ...And then, ironically, this game went for the (almost entirely) mute, personality-less avatar character. Funny how that works out. XD

Dragon Lord Army Go! / 10

FE14

I feel this game deserves way more credit than it gets, while also agreeing with the critiques. The ambition was as great as ever. But then it got stuck in development hell and we got what we got. (For those who don’t know, the team was divided in two - the team that wanted a more fanservic-y experience, and the one that wanted to make a standard FE.)

I think the gameplay is the best part of this game, Conquest is great, and the gimmicks are indeed gimmicks, but still fun. In offering three different experiences, the entire package will please few, but that was the point of the multiple routes, to give everyone one route they would like, not to please everyone with all three.

But beyond the gameplay, the story is all over the place, the multiple routes just create more questions than answers; and features like an increased number of support convos and children feel like they are there only because of a desire to bring back “popular” features. After multiple food/cooking supports in a row, I couldn’t take it any more. There was so little that the characters were actually talking about in their supports vs. Awakening. I generally feel that more supports = better, because character interaction through supports is of course a highlight of post-Famicom FE, but in this case, the numbers did not do any favors.

Bringing back weapons that don’t break didn’t feel well done, either. I just ended up using basic weapons the whole time because I didn’t want to deal with the drawbacks of the higher level weapons.

Back to a positive for me: The hub world was neat, though it needed some convoluted story writing to be included. I was amused by going through the different features and collecting the items. I agree with Nintendo of America taking out the “petting minigame,” but since I lived in Japan when Fates released, it was amusing to do on the train and weird out the bored Japanese people who peered over my shoulder.

Since all three routes were different, this game was fun enough until the end in comparison to Three Houses, of which I am STILL trying to slog through the last route one year after release. But Fates was made for every route to be different, whereas Three Houses was not, so it’s not surprising I feel like that.

But time for the real talk about this game… why is everyone’s HP so low??? What happened?????

Up and down and all around in quality from start to finish / 10

FE15

I really want to like this game more. Oh, do I. It’s absolutely GORGEOUS, the character art makes my heart skip a beat, the game proved that full voice acting does fit FE really well, it fleshed out things like the dungeon crawling & story, and added support conversations & skills, etc. while still staying kind of basic, retaining the feeling that the original was on the NES. The momentum for the fun and ambition that an FE remake could have transitioned well from FE12 to here and led to this being a stunningly presented game.

But the creators totally missed the point on what were the defining features of the game in my opinion, and that mismatch of vision ruined a lot for me. I loved the imbalance, struggling as I placed my units in corners of maps just to survive, until I obtained all those OP items, and my super soldiers marched into battle and did wild and amazing things. Valbar with +5 move and 40 speed with the Speed Ring is the one thing I remember the best of FE2 and oh man was it fun, and did I love it.

And I mean, I understand why the creators weren’t going to keep that imbalance, it doesn’t make the game good for everyone. It’s just something I found fun, and made the game stand out among the other FEs. But the developers really just replaced old imbalance with new imbalance, the dread fighters being the one thing I remember in particular.

And they defined FE2’s best defining features as “the maps and the terrain effects” and I just did not agree. That was the stuff I DISLIKED about FE2! And that’s what they wanted to keep most? The terrain that made battles one giant miss, and the gigantic maps where I’d spend half the time just getting to the enemies? No thanks.

Then the story only cranked up the horrible treatment of the women, with Faye… being Faye, and I hated the direction they went in with Celica’s story... Ugh.

For every step or two forward, there’s one back / 10

FE10

FE games are always ambitious, but this one cranked the dial up to 10 and tripped over itself a lot. Still, it provided (even if it is info dumped) an intense and satisfying ending to the Tellius saga, and is another classic for the ages. I found the pacing boring and slow until then, though.

I think now that I’m older I can appreciate the story much, much more - and how it shows the story and aftermath of the Mad King’s War from multiple points of view - but the lack of the support conversations, and too much going on for any aspect of this game to be properly refined, still make this one lower on my list.

If only I could have played it more than once, to really get a good memory of the events of the game. My Wii actually scratched up my disk (How this happened, I don’t know, and it’s the ONLY disk my Wii ever slaughtered). It only held out long enough for my sibling and I to enjoy one playthrough each. I’ll get to playing my Japanese copy eventually!

Part 4 = Laguz Royals Emblem / 10

Somewhere Inbetween Tier

FE5

The last of the Kaga games. Still clunky and difficult, but with it’s own super unique features in capturing, stamina, and stealing weapons.

The brokenness of staves is not at all a flaw, but a feature in my opinion. Encouraging bizarre thinking and finding new ways to plow through maps is fun. I would probably be critical if this was a modern game, but I think older games need these quirks to stand out among modern titles with better graphics and decades of gaming history behind them.

And you still can complete the maps in a more traditional manner if you are determined. I did even for Reinhardt’s map.

Also, I gotta say... I don’t agree that this is the most difficult FE overall… it just has the hardest individual maps. The difficulty spikes are all over the place. The game goes from bashing your head against a wall to snoozefest constantly.

Fog of war was a mistake though, if I was a time traveler, I’d go back and make sure the programmers never figured out how to include it. XD

Steal ALL the tomes! / 10

FE13

Experiencing this game and its release in real time was an experience. The fandom really, truly thought this game might not only be the last FE ever, but also that it might not get a localization. Thinking there would never be a localization, I spent a night of my first trip to Japan buying a Japanese 3DS and a copy of the game. I only had 2 weeks on that study tour, but I was so determined that I used some of my precious free time to go shopping for it. To afford it, I even used the money my college gave to me for food, then subsided off of cheap convenience store meals with what little I had left. I barely had any true understanding of Japanese at the time, but I wanted other fans to experience this game, so I worked as hard as I could to translate as many supports as I could. This game is why I got into translation, and was what I really thought might be the end, so it will always have a special place in my heart for that.

Now to actually talk about playing the game itself. I really enjoyed it the first couple of times. Who cares that pair-up and the kids were OP, you either blast through the game with them and have a good laugh, or ignore them, set some challenging rules, and enjoy having at least a little challenge. I didn’t care much that the supports were a little lower quality because of the sheer number of them, I eagerly awaited unlocking each one, and reading what the two characters would talk about. (We fans have fanfiction to turn to if we hunger for more development. :p) The bonus content was plentiful, and a great fanservice-y way to bring the series to a close.

After all is said and done though, the game left me feeling empty when I thought about replaying it any further. The maps and story felt empty in comparison to previous games. Now that it’s been 8 years since the initial release, I’d of course enjoy a replay or two, but after having played FEs7-9 5 or 6 times in a row before moving on to the next game… anything less than that level of excitement was surprising for me. I placed this game kinda high on the list because it’s fun when you play it. It’s just doesn’t have as much replay value, I feel.

Also, as a group, the children characters are my favorite in the series. They all come from deeply traumatic backgrounds, and the way they work through that trauma and navigate being given a second chance, but also not a true second chance because this timeline is different from their own, is endlessly fascinating for me. I don’t know if other fans give them enough credit, so I wanted to point them out in particular.

Would have been a fantastic way to send off the series, despite the flaws / 10

FE2

This game is flawed, imbalanced, makes me want to throw things, and it’s all, somehow, in a way that makes me LOVE IT. ...So long as I’m playing using an emulator with a speed up button.

This game is so hard, and the hit percentages are such garbage. But as I played, and unlocked more and more OP weapons and items, until I reached a point where the zombie dragons - what once took all my efforts - were an enemy that can easily be slaughtered in 1-on-1 combat... I felt so satisfied.

Old games need some kind of charm to make them still worth revisiting in a world of much better graphics and features that have now had decades to be refined. For me, this game has that perfect kind of quirky charm in spades.

The maps and terrain though… I have no words, just bash your head into the wall and you will understand how I feel.

Also, this game reminds me of Zelda 2 in it being a black sheep of its respective series… that’s a fun little nugget of info.

Duma’s sprite / 10

FE7

I don’t remember this game as well, despite it being one that I’ve played about 5 times? I don’t know why, it’s yet another fantastic Fire Emblem with its own ways that it stands out, managing not one, not two, but three lords, introducing the tactician, and so on. Guess time has just not been kind to my memory on this one.

I remember being really impressed with the length of this game back in the day, and Hector’s mode offering enough differences to make it totally fun to replay the main game again.

Lyn gets kind of pushed to the side (because that’s what generally happens to women main characters in Fire Emblem, if there’s a male lord around), but having the three lords was really fun. With three people, you get a great balance between all of their personalities, and they all play off of each other well.

Of course I loved Lyn and Hector, most everyone does, but I was always just as much of an Eliwood fan. His average stats pushed people away from liking him as much as the others, but I always looked up to his kindness. Eliwood / Ninian was an especially favorite pairing for my sappy teenage heart. Eliwood was just so romantic and sweet to me.

And though the game was made easier with international audiences in mind, the developers hadn’t invented all of the “easier/for convenience” features yet, so this is the last time we got to enjoy some “harder” features like needing to buy weapons during battles, and a convoy separate from the main lord. That’s cool if you like that stuff.

Unlocking the paralogues is hard though / 10

Favorites Tier

FE8

When it comes to FE8, while there’s plenty to like about the gameplay (despite the game being so easy, but again, like I said with Awakening, you can just set your own challenge rules), what I really love to ramble on about is the story and its emotional impact. Lyon is so precious and kind, but has so many inner conflicts stewing deep inside of him, leading him to elder magics, and… The Demon King is just ends up as a sideshow compared to Lyon coming face to face with his own demons. Both the characters - and many players, I’m sure - hope and hope to find a way to save him, but there just isn’t one. There are never any real leads. There’s nothing. Only the harrowing reality that some people cannot be saved, no, that some people do not want to be saved. The inevitability of Lyon’s demise, and seeing it all play out, packs a punch most plots can only dream of.

But it’s not like I won’t talk about the gameplay features either. Bringing back much of the best of FE2, the overworld map and everything to do really enhances the experience. I mean, yeah, I guess two side dungeons isn’t that much to get excited over, I can see that critique… but I didn’t care, it allowed me to easily chase support conversations, and (with some RNG abusing to obtain enough Boots and money to buy the stat-boosting items, but hey, whatever it takes) I could max out my characters’ stats and truly “complete” a Fire Emblem game.

Sacred Stones is so awesome.

Finally! A postgame! I sure hope the developers keep this up in all the future games… oh. / 10

FE9

This is the first FE game I ever played, so it will always occupy the most dear and special place in my heart, even if FE4 eventually won over as my favorite.

Do you believe in first sight? I do, and this is what taught me it’s real. From the first second of the first cutscene, I was enthralled. ...And that’s saying something, when the FE9 cutscenes are the kind of thing only a mother could love. But I just knew. I may have been a wee lass of 14, but I knew a love that would last a lifetime was being born. ...Or that would at least last 14 more years. I can’t predict the future. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and hate Fire Emblem with a burning passion? 2020 has taught me that tomorrow is always a big fat question mark.

Fun fact: in case you are wondering exactly what inspired my very initial interest in this series, it was a TV commercial. Probably this one. I just remember Ike running, of all things. My sibling and I both thought FE9 looked interesting from this commercial, and sought out the game all on our own with zero private knowledge that anything FE even existed.

This is where obsessions are born. Or mine at least. / 10

FE4

As I’ve established, this is my favorite of favorites. The bizarre way money, arenas, items, and more were handled, actually made the game more and more fun for me. Big maps are just so fun. Gen 1’s story is a tale for the ages, and Gen 2’s story is… well, classic FE, which never gets old for me. It will never cease to amaze me even today what the SNES/S Famicom could handle.

All I’d want added is a “warp between conquered castles” feature. I’m completely neutral on a remake otherwise. Of course a lot more could be added and detailed upon that I’d be happy for, but that’s my one specific wish.

Calvary Emblem Forever / 10

Bonus:

FEH

I played this game every day for around 2 ½ years before I finally felt I had to break the habit, so I’m not leaving it out! This title got a lot of flack for simplifying FE gameplay, but… looking at it that way completely disregards the niche app games fill, and the interesting ways developers view what type of games app games should be, and how the developers work hard to both innovate for the format yet stay faithful to the source. It is surprisingly deep, and the maps + higher focus on unit skills make you think entirely differently about how to win in what is, in essence, the same gameplay as the main series.

Plus, what fan couldn’t get suckered into the fanservice of it? My best moments include attaining a +10 Nephenee while only spending money to get 2 of her, the other 9 were all F2P orbs; and becoming a Narcian/Valter shipper after supporting them on impulse because they were both on my flier team, and realizing the sick, twisted chemistry afterwards. Discovering rare-pairs is fun.

Also, finally, this game dared to nerf magic users a bit by making them RNG 2 only. If only the main series could do something like that.

I really enjoyed Heroes a lot, I just quit solely because it was a time drain. It was time to move on and play other things. And I’m glad I got out when I did. Seeing the game stoop to over-the-top powercreep (above and beyond what it was always implementing) and add the monthly service to keep the $$$$$ raking in was hard to watch.

Perfect app-style game gameplay-wise and fanservice-wise, but why aren’t gacha illegal yet / 10

FE Warriors

Oh yeah, this game exists too! It’s a Warriors game. If you like the formula and it never gets old for you, you’ll have fun with this game. If you don’t mind the limited game representation too much, you’ll have fun with this game. For me, the answers to those questions were a yes, so I enjoyed FE Warriors. Yay for wailing on hordes of enemies / 10

#fire emblem #favorites

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recentanimenews · 4 years

Text

Manga the Week of 2/24/21

SEAN: As I write this, Texas is being hit with blizzards. Why not curl up… in your dark house with no power… with some manga?

Airship gives us the print volume of the 2nd I’m in Love with the Villainess, and also a print volume for Skeleton Knight in Another World 8.

ASH: I haven’t finished reading the first volume of I’m in Love with the Villainess quite yet, but I suspect I’ll want to pick up the second.

SEAN: Denpa’s site says that The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes 2 is out next week.

J-Novel Club has a trio of light novels. By the Grace of the Gods 6, Campfire Cooking in Another World 9, and The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 8.

On the manga side, they have The Faraway Paladin 4 and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 5.

Kodansha has two print debuts, though we’ve seen them both digitally before. Cells at Work: Baby! is essentially the superdeformed version of the series.

ASH: I enjoyed the original series, but haven’t managed to keep up with all the spinoffs!

SEAN: A Sign of Affection (Yubisaki to Renren) is one that I’ve gushed about before, but here I am gushing about it again. This story of a boy and girl meeting and falling in love, it’s all about communication, as our heroine is hearing impaired, and our globe trotting hero does not know sign language. Fans of Kimi ni Todoke should check this out.

MICHELLE: I missed this when it was a digital debut, so I’m grateful for a second chance at it.

ANNA: Amazingly, this is one of the very few Kodansha digital titles that I have read, and it is absolutely wonderful. It is by suu Morishita, so fans of Shortcake Cake should absolutely pick it up. I’m sure I bought the first couple volumes digitally due to Sean’s gushing and just never posted about it. Morishita does some wonderfully innovative storytelling as the two main characters figure out how to communicate with each other, and the hearing-impaired heroine is portrayed with great sensitivity. I’m so rooting for Yuki and her first real romance!!

ASH: I’m really looking forward to reading this one now that it’s in print. Can’t pass it up with recommendations like that.

MELINDA: Well, how can I possibly resist after that glowing recommendation?

SEAN: Also in print: Heaven’s Design Team 3. The anime is currently airing.

ASH: I have legitimately learned things about animal life reading this series.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is How Do You Do, Koharu? (Gokigenyou, Koharu-san), by the author of (and in the same universe as) Say I Love You. Koharu (the younger sister of Yamato, the male lead in Say I Love You) prefers to keep her friends solely on the digital side… till she’s tempted by a follower who she might want to be more than just friends with. This runs, of course, in Dessert. I hope it is a bit less drama-filled than its parent series.

MICHELLE: I’d seen this one on the release calendar but didn’t realize it had any connection to Say I Love You. Interesting!

SEAN: We also see DAYS 22, Harem Marriage 2, Maid in Honey 6 (the final volume), My Best () Butler 6, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 2, Shangri-La Frontier 2, What I Love About You 3, and When We’re in Love 5.

Seven Seas’s biggest debut may be one that came out first nearly 10 years ago. After a period where it seemed that you couldn’t go a week without a new volume, the Alice in the Country of _________ series vanished, allegedly due to licensing difficulties with the original creator. But now it’s back… in digital form! It’s getting rolled out over several weeks. This week we get The Clockmaker’s Story and Love Labyrinth of Thorns (Julius) and The Mad Hatter’s Late Night Tea Party 1 & 2 (Blood).

ANNA: I think I’m tapped out of Alice in the Country of stories but I’m amused to see these being released again.

ASH: Oh, wow! I had somehow previously missed this news.

SEAN: In actual new titles, the debut is Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon (Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts), a yuri office romance story that runs in Comic Yuri Hime. Always happy to see more non-high school students.

And there is The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue 2, Days of Love at Seagull Villa 2, Failed Princesses 3, and How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? 5.

MICHELLE: I still haven’t even read volume 1 of Seagull Villa!

SEAN: Square Enix Manga debuts Ragna Crimson, a Gangan Joker title whose summary has the words “dark fantasy” and “revenge-fueled quest” and I stopped caring.

In much better Square Enix manga news, we get A Man and His Cat 3.

MICHELLE: Yay!

MELINDA: Yes!

SEAN: Apologies to Tentai Books, I missed their debut light novel which is actually out later this week. World Teacher: Special Agent in Another World (World Teacher: Isekaishiki Kyouiku Agent) is another of those books where the plot is described by the title.

Tokyopop has a debut. The Cat Proposed (Bakeneko Katatte Sourou) is a one-shot BL title from Canna. A man watches a play and sees one of the actors has cat ears. Turns out he’s a bakeneko, and has chosen our protagonist as his spouse!

There’s also the 3rd and final volume of Still Sick.

Vertical has Ajin: Demi-Human 16 and Bakemonogatari’s 7th manga volume.

Yen On has had a few date shifts (try to contain your shock), but we do get a few new volumes this week… and two old ones, as Haruhi Suzumiya 3 and 4 get reprints. 4 is considered the series’ high point.

And there is Do You Love Your Mom (and Her Two-Hit, Multi-Target Attacks?) 8, The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn As a Typical Nobody 5, In the Land of Leadale 2, Konosuba 13, and May These Leaden Battlegrounds Leave No Trace 3.

There’s also a Yen Press title I missed last week, as it’s out this Saturday. Megumi Hayashibara’s The Characters Taught Me Everything: Living Life One Episode at a Time is her new memoir, and Yen is putting it out digitally the same day it comes out in Japan!

ASH: I really hope this is released in print at some point, too! It should be really good.

SEAN: Because of various delays and date shifts, Yen Press has FIVE manga debuts next week. We start with Adachi & Shimamura, the manga version of which we’ve already seen the light novel and the anime. Please enjoy Adachi’s gay panic and Shimamura’s attempts to be a functioning human being in a new medium. This runs in Dengeki Daioh.

Days on Fes is a series about two friends going to rock festivals, and that’s about all it is, from what I hear. Sounds like a Laid-Back Camp vibe. This runs in Comic Newtype.

ASH: Oh, that could fun.

MELINDA: I might be into this? As someone who used to go to a lot of music festivals, that is.

SEAN: The Girl without a Face (Kao ga Nai Onnanoko) is a one-shot from Comic Beam. A boy and girl are in love. She’s a bit… expressionless – literally – but that’s just fine. This looks both cute and spooky?

ASH: This could be fun, too!

SEAN: Golden Japanesque – A Splendid Yokohama Romance is the sort of josei title folks were BEGGING for ten years ago. It runs in Flowers’ online magazine, and its author did Kare First Love, for Viz fans with long memories. A Meiji-era title about a half-Japanese girl who’s discriminated against and the boy who thinks she’s a fairy-tale character.

MICHELLE: Ooh! I actually do own all of Kare First Love, as it happens.

ANNA: I am a Viz fan with a long memory and I think I own most of Kare First Love too. I am officially intrigued and will be picking this up.

ASH: Same!

MELINDA: Same here!

SEAN: Lastly there is ID:Invaded #Brake-Broken, a title which hurts me when I try to say it out loud. It’s the sequel to the anime, and runs in Young Ace.

We also get Eniale & Dewiela 2, Mieruko-chan 2, Overlord: The Undead King-Oh! 6, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 13, Slasher Maidens 2, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 7, The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap 2, and A Witch’s Love at the End of the World 2.

ASH: I’ll likely be picking up a few of those, too.

SEAN: What manga melts the weather all around you?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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pheacas · 5 years

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16, 17, and maybe 24 for DEH?

16. Best movie musical?

I don’t really know if I’m supposed to be referring to stage musical adaptations or not so I might as well just give one of both.

Once is my favorite overall, which started as a movie and then was transferred to the stage a few years later as a Tony crusher on Broadway. It’s a very calm, serene experience that always gets me. There’s never any real big story going on. It’s just a vacuum cleaner in Dublin attempting to make it as a musician and a Czech immigrant just trying to survive.

Little Shop of Horrors is my favorite movie adaptation (if we consider the original ending and not the theatre ending). That’s not say much, because LSOH is one of my favorite musicals already, but unlike something like Rent (which is a musical higher up on my list), I feel that the LSOH movie gets exactly what the show is going for. It’s weird, it’s quirky, and it’s wonderful. Plus, that puppet is wow.

17. Worst movie musical?

Here’s the thing I don’t watch a lot of movie musicals that I know I wouldn’t like, but I guess if I was forced to name one, it’d be Rent? That can be taken weirdly because yes, I listen to the cast album all the time on Spotify (because I’m forced to they don’t give us the OBC), and there’s certain things I do enjoy about the movie, but it sucks all of the charm from the musical and makes it feel much more corporate.

The spoken dialogue always feels unnatural and unnerving, they take away major plot points and songs for... No real reason (like I understand taking out Contact even though it’s pretty important, but I literally don’t understand taking away anything that gives Mark, Joanne, or Collins character and while still keeping in all of Over the Moon (and I love Santa Fe but like... That could’ve been taken out for more important songs too like Goodbye Love B and even Halloween because we still get more Collins development than Mark (and Halloween is literally only a minute and a half and they filmed it why not just shove it in))).

I mean again I’m such a Renthead if there’s nothing else Rent I’ll definitely take it but ugh I’d rather even watch Rent Live as much as I’ve made fun of it because at least the life is there and at least they didn’t take out important bits and they actually had some really good additions, especially in the Mark department (and I’ll take Jordan Fisher over Anthony Rapp tbh).

24. You’re now the script doctor for [Dear Evan Hansen]. what do you change?

Oh God there’s a lot I would change, but I really can’t say everything, so I’m going to focus on the ending of the Jared and Alana archs.

So, in one of the earlier concepts, Jared was the one who released the letter out of spite. I think that’s much better than Alana doing it randomly and destroying her character arch of caring for people as she sees Evan sobbing to take it down and people automatically attacking the Murphy family.

We set it up early on; Evan actually sends Jared the letter to show Jared what he’s talking about, but Jared never actually reads it, kind of just doing his usually routine of being a dick. Then I’m not going to get into many of my smaller changes but maybe even just a line or two before Evan walks into the scene right after Only Us with Jared and Alana talking about the emails, and Jared giving Alana doubt in it (because definitely what’s already going on, because the backdating emails thing is like? Exactly what Jared said?).

Good For You happens, and then after that, instead of the scene with Evan giving Alana the letter, Jared posts the letter to the internet because he feels that’s the only way he can get back at Evan after their falling out without straight up saying “Evan lied and here’s why”, because it’s the closest thing he can really get he feels before actually saying the truth.

So like yeah Evan is absolutely freaking out and desperately calling Jared because he knows Jared did it and he goes to Alana in a panic, and she’s so confused as well because it was released under Evan’s name, and Evan eventually reveals the whole truth to her, even bringing up Jared in it, and she’s disgusted. Like she just stares at him for a couple of moments, trying to process all of what Evan has said, and then she tries to walk out, but Evan rushes to grasp her wrist to get her to stay, which horrifies her even more and she rushes to pull out of it. Again, there’s another pause while Alana collects herself, and then she eventually decides to give him a little rant in how fucked up it was that he dragged her through all of this, and how rancid it is that he dragged the Murphys through this and used a lie on their dead son for his own benefit, and she forces him to go and speak to the Murphys.

I think at the epilogue, before we see Zoe, we get a scene with Jared, a bit more akin to the book (which is a horrid statement I’ll never reference the book again). It’s not at the orchard, and I’d say maybe quite a few months after? We’re skipping around wowsies but maybe to show the change they can be back in summer clothes and its the summer before college. It’s probably like... Evan’s graduation party and they’re just huddled in the back with awkward red solo cups in hand and the first thing that slips out of Evan’s mouth is a “fuck you” for releasing the letter, and Jared’s face is quick to drop, and this is the first time we really see him show real emotion other than Good For You. He admits he never read the letter before even posting it, and he just wanted to give Evan a little scare before it turned into... That, and he tells him that he regrets even posting it because if he knew what it had actually said, he would have never released it. When he actually read it, he admitted he felt sick, and he wondered if Evan had always felt that way whenever Jared was pushing him around and Evan admits that yes, those thoughts were there and they really hadn’t completely gone away. There’s a bit of awkward tension on both sides, and it ends with Jared again apologizing, saying he just didn’t know and if he did he wouldn’t have ever treated Evan like that. Evan loosely accepts the apology, but he asks why Jared treated him that way, and Jared doesn’t really have an answer. Eventually, after a couple more moments of staring into those sad cups and Jared admits he kinda had a thing for Evan and just never wanted to really... Tell him because he knew he’d be rejected and Evan is just like “oh” and doesn’t know how to process it. Again, more awkward pauses, and eventually it ends with Heidi calling for Evan, but before he leaves he again awkwardly glances to Jared and they both apologize to each other, hug, and Evan runs off, leaving Jared to just stand there awkwardly alone as he transitions with the little set away and the scene changes to the orchard.

#dear evan hansen #deh #jared kleinman #alana beck #evan hansen #sincerelymlb

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trimaplenut · 6 years

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hey maple! I was wondering, do you have any book/fic/story recommendations? ❤️

Hoo boy, I can certainly offer some! I’m more well-versed in fanfics than actual books but I think I’ve stumbled across my fair share of good fics over the years.

Also I’ll warn you this’ll be long.

Cycle by RoseGarden

Hot. Damn.

If you’re a Fire Emblem Awakening fan there is not a fic I can recommend to you more than this one. Cycle is easily in my top 5, no top 3, heck my absolute favourite story ever. The updates are slow - I started following it in 2016 summer at Ch 44, and the latest chapter was (at posting) 55 in 2018 winter - but this is not a complaint. This delay is understandably so because these chapters fucking deliver. Each chapter averages about 10,000-25,000 words (by my rough estimate - chapters tend to include a lot of reviewer replies from the author). This is honestly my current inspiration, and has been since I found it. I dream of writing like this one day. I cannot express how much I love this goddamn story.

Okay enough fangirling, time to buckle down to the content. From the beginning, it seems like your average but well-written insert - Robin is an FE fan and baker from the real world who wakes up to find Blue-Haired McGee and his motley crew with no idea how she ended up in the field in Ylisse. But you find out pretty quick that things aren’t quite what they seem. Mysterious unfamiliar characters are popping up, some people know more about events than they’re letting on, and Robin’s gotta figure out all this shit while dealing with her own missing memory and the responsibilities that come with playing tactician for a nation going to war.

It’s amazing. It follows along Awakening’s plot, but honestly I’m on edge the entire time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. The worldbuilding is hefty and incredible and really brings the world to life. The character interactions are gorgeous. The characters themselves are gold. One of my favourite things is that each character has a clear and defined voice - even if there’s no narration to say who’s speaking, you can work it out by their words and tone. The character interactions are charming and even if the ships aren’t your favourite or usual cup of tea, they’re all so genuine and they work. Robin is different from what I think is the general depiction of canon Robin in fics, she’s pretty crass and blunt and the Earth culture she and the readers know shows, but she certainly stands out as her own personality and still fits in well with the Shepards. She’s also got her own issues and problems and she makes mistakes so that’s fun.

Oh, that reminds me, also be prepared for a heck ton of feels. Laughter and heartbreak in equal helpings. Always a good time.

Queen of Hearts by Circuit

One of the first, and one of my favourite, Persona 5 fanfics that I’ve come across so far. Queen of Hearts retells Persona 5 but with Makoto Niijima playing the role of Wild Card. The change in protagonist brings a few new interesting changes, the big one being the Confidants Makoto hangs out with, including people such as Shiho and original characters in the Student Council. It’s cool to see the changes caused by a Makoto-led Phantom Thieves and also the struggles she herself has with being in that position of leader.

This feels small in comparison to the wall of text for Cycle, so I’m just gonna throw in another P5 fanfic, Crimson. This one’s closer to a retelling of P5′s canon than Queen of Hearts but tackles it with a lot more realism of kids messing with the law and the big bads of P5 and includes quite a bit of Questionable And Morally Ambiguous Choices:tm:. It’s one I’m honestly losing a little interest in, hence why it’s only got this small section here, but it’s still a good fic. I remember liking the beginning and certain scenes that are thrown around here and there, but this fic starts off pretty depressing and gets even more morally ambiguous in more recent chapters. Still a good read. Queen of Hearts is just a lot lighter in comparison and that’s why I recommend it a little more.

Worm by Wildbow

Okay this one’s a little different but hear me out. Technically a web serial, Worm is an original story written on Wordpress. I found it when I read a crossover between it and Okami (also a good fanfic in and of itself, has a pretty different tone from Worm but it’s very entertaining. I’d recommend reading Worm first though since I read the crossover first and, it’s fine to read through itself, but I understood some of the details and nods only after reading Worm). Honestly, I’m still not done with Worm. There’s a lot of story to get through. But what I’ve seen so far is pretty interesting.

The story follows Taylor, a teenaged girl with superpowers, called parahumans in this universe. It starts off pretty dark, though, and honestly it stays that way. Taylor’s bullied at school and feels pretty shitty, but she wants to be a hero. So one night she tries her hand at some vigilantism. Result? Nearly gets killed by a superpowered gang leader, gets saved by a small group of supervillains her age, they think she’s actually a supervillain too. They offer Taylor to join them and she figures it’s a way to go undercover, but over time she faces an internal dilemna since she finds herself actually enjoying their company.

There’s more to the story beyond that. Like I said, I’m not actually done reading it. There’s like 30 arcs, with each arc having about 8-10 chapters, each chapter about 5000 words?? and I’ve only read up to Arc 11. It’s an interesting take on a superpowered world, though, where villains aren’t so evil, good guys aren’t so good, and there’s a whole lot of morality and gritty details that come with it.

Through Her Eyes by Peroth

A RWBY fic that actually has a remastered version currently being written. The story’s about a Ruby that actually has a different semblance than the one we’re used to. This Ruby has the power to summon Grimm - and that’s it. She can’t control them whatsoever. This leads to Ruby being stuck at home for most of her childhood and gives us quite a different personality than canon Ruby - she’s a lot more shy and nervous around people and usually speaks with a stammer. Still the badass little scythe-wielding Grimm slayer we love though. Ruby’s also got eyes pretty similar to Salem’s, which also come with a fear factor, inciting primal fear in anyone who looks at her eyes, which means she has to wear big goggles.

So there’s a lot of changes, but it still mostly follows Volume 1. Ruby goes to Beacon because she still wants to help people - with some focus on the catchup work Ruby has to do as a result of her missing school as a kid - teams up with WBY, makes friends with JNPR, usual kind of stuff. The original fic ends where Volume 1 ends, but I can’t say what changes the remastered version will bring. It seems to mostly be following the original with a few details changed or added, though.

The Shrouded Throne by Iburtide

Okay yes it’s another FE Awakening fic, sue me I’ve been through a massive FE faze. Chrobin is near and dear to my heart. Iburtide has actually written more Chrobin fics, both male and female, but I admit I’ve only read this one, The Heart of the Moon which is also a good one, and Crown of Shadows which is almost the same as Shrouded Throne but told with Male Robin (and also explicit so u18′s don’t look at it you hear me).

So Shrouded Throne (and Crown of Shadows) tells the story of a Robin who fled from a Plegian civil war to request aid from Ylisse. By the time the story starts, they’re in the employment of the Shepards, and after some words shared during a battle, Chrom offers to get Robin an audience with Emmeryn, which pretty much kicks off the story. Kinda follows Awakening’s plot but Robin knows they’re from Plegia and the civil war is between Gangrel and Validar.

I guess I’ll talk briefly about Heart of the Moon too since I mentioned it already. The Shepards get sent out to a village where a monster is stalking the woods. When they meet the creature, Chrom gets challenged to a hunt, one-on-one, with the beast. In the middle of this, Chrom comes across an old abandoned castle - or not quite so abandoned, as a young woman lives there, one who claims to be prisoner to the beast.

Both fics include fun new things like Henry being Robin’s little brother - not by blood but their relationship is cute and precious and gives me new life - and a normal Grimleal religion practiced by normal people and Validar just takes it to an extreme.

Those are a handful of ones I can recommend. I read a lot of fics though so I have skipped over some of the ones I wouldn’t say are my favourites but are still quite high on my list. These are all also multi-chaptered fics, a few of them being unfinished as well. There are more fics I wanted to talk about but they’re either one-shots or don’t have enough chapters for me to definitively recommend them. I dunno, if people want more recommendations or recs from specific fandoms like DR (which surprisingly I haven’t touched upon at all, wow it’s been a while since I’ve read a dr fic), I could do another post or something. One covering a lot of one-shots or short stories, but not speaking in as much detail as I have here oops somebody gets distracted and goes on tangents

OH AND BOOKS. Quick book recs are Percy Jackson and How to Train Your Dragon. I’ll be honest, I don’t read a lot of books these days. And I think these are popular enough that they don’t really need a big ol’ explanation from me.

#I spent like three hours writing this #which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact it's now 2am #oops #I read a lot of fics bc I generally go and look for fics once I finish a piece of media #also I kinda jumped at the opportunity to yell about cycle #look I'm really passionate about it #and fe awakening and chrobin in general #gosh it's good

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gascon-en-exil · 7 years

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A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

#Fire Emblem #Mostly serious but not entirely

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sombraglaze · 4 years

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Lexember 2020 - Kmitmuk ksu

I did Lexember 2020 but I only posted it on twitter, and I thought I’d be a good idea to archive all my posts on tumblr as well ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ

so I’ll put all the pictures in this post and write the transcriptions underneath each pic for ppl who prefer seeing it in that format or are blind.

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(the first 4 entries were posted the 4th of December)

I decided to do #Lexember kind of late 😅 but here are the first 4 entries, it's my first lexember and I'm a beginner conlanger so pls don't be too harsh if I mess up 🥺🥺

entry 1! 😊

tucir [tʊ.ʔɪɾ] Noun. emotions, feelings, energy.

from *tʼoɛːluː meaning blood, because it was believed that one's emotions where in their blood, they thought of it as a soul, so that's why corpses didn't emote or move, their emotions dried up.

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entry 2! 👍

ksu [ksʊ] Adjective. good, correct, important.

from *kusʼu meaning big, the autonym of this language is "kmitmuk ksu" which basically means "the correct way of speaking" and also implies that it's an important language.

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entry 3! 🐍

pi [pɪ] Noun. evil person, "monster."

from *pɛː meaning snake, it's a pretty severe insult, you wouldn't hear it in a civil conversation. it implies "murderer" but isn't always used this way.

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entry 4! ⚔️

pira [pɪ.ɾə] Noun. royal guard.

from *peθæː meaning star, they thought of stars as deities whose purpose was to protect humanity, so the word started to be used for guardians or sentinels and eventually became more specifically used for royal guards.

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day 5! 💬 kmitmuk [kmɪt.mʊk] Noun. language, dialect, speech.

from *kɔmytʼemokʼɔ the diminutive of fog, they live in a cold area, so this references the condensation that comes out of their mouth when they speak.

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day 6! ☝️

qer [qeɾ] Noun. four, index finger (archaic).

from *kʼyːθyː meaning index finger, their words for counting inanimate objects come from the names of their fingers and names of parts of their arm, these words are almost exclusively used for numbers nowadays.

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day 7! 😪

tugh [tʊɢ] Adjective. dull (blade), exhausted.

(originally I romanized [ɢ] as <gg> but eventually changed it to <gh>)

from *tʼuːxiː meaning dull, it's used metaphorically to say you gave it your all and now you need to sharpen (rest) before you can keep going or you won't be quite as productive.

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day 8! 🌨️

nsaqf [nsəqf] Verb. to focus, to pay attention.

from *nusʼoxɔ fe meaning to freeze, referencing the fact that if you're concentrating you're probably not moving a lot, so it's like you're frozen.

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day 9! 👑

muciqxn [mʊ.ʔɪqχn] Noun. king.

from *moy xixæːnɔ meaning great father, the ancient word for great *xixæːnɔ lead to many modern words ending in qxn, which got reanalyzed as a suffix that can be added to words to make them related to royalty.

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day 10! 🐟

nicaqf [ni.ʔaqf] Verb. to be dead, to float (archaic).

from *nyːaxɔ fe meaning to float, referencing fish, that tend to float when they die, it can still be used to say float but it's very uncommon.

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day 11! 🗂️

magheqf [ma.ɢeqf] Verb. to group, to classify.

from *mæːxexɔ fe meaning to cut or separate, the meaning of separating was more and more commonly used and eventually acquired the characteristic of separating based on specific traits that things have in common.

also I misspelled acquired in the image, oops 😅

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day 12! 🌬️

qorazdoqf [qo.ɾaz.doqf] Verb. to howl (wind).

from *kʼolæːsuːtɔxɔ fe meaning to blow (wind), in their culture, the wind howling is seen as a bad omen, it's a warning from the wind God (who is actually a wolf) and everyone must stop what they're doing to pray.

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day 13! 🗺️

nzu [nzʊ] Noun. north.

from *nɛːso meaning north, this language doesn't have words for left, right, up, down, etc. instead you have to use cardinal directions and reference things like landmarks and the sky.

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day 14! ✨🌙

tfpik [tfpik] Noun. star.

from *tøfæːpʼykʼɔ the diminutive of sun, this word is also used for planets that are visible to the naked eye, but not for the moon, which is "ksor" [ksoɾ] from *køsʼɔɾuː also meaning moon.

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day 15! 🔪

put [pʊt] Adjective. new (for tools).

from *pœːtʼo meaning sharp (like a knife), this word is pretty much exclusively used for tools, the generic word for new is "not" [not] from *nɔtʼɔ also meaning new.

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day 16! 🐛🤬

pik [pɪk] Noun. worm, bug, phallus (vulgar).

from *pɛːkʼɔ the diminutive of snake, it can be used as a swear word depending on the context, but it usually means worm and sometimes bug in general.

I realized I had never really made any swear words in any of my conlangs so I thought I'd give it a try 😆

also sorry if this one is a bit too edgy lol I'll return to normal vocab tomorrow 😅

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day 17! 🌲🌲🏔️

terrag [te.rag] Noun. forest.

from *tʼœːræː ki meaning many trees, there's also a word for forest that is more fancy and tends to be used specifically for montane forests "tir" [tɪɾ] from *tiːlyːo meaning forest.

also, this word is always interpreted as being plural because of its etymology, so if you wanted to say "small forest" you would say:

"terrag tacakig" [te.rag ta.ʔa.kɪg] (forest small-PL)

as opposed to:

"terrag tacak" [te.rag ta.ʔak] (forest small.SG)

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day 18! 🐌

kudipaduw [kʊ.dɪ.pa.dʊw] Noun. snail.

from *kutiːpʼæː topɛː wet/sticky animal, meat is "mxa" [mxə] from *mɔxo w/ same meaning & container is "kitek" [kɪ.tek] from *kitʼøkʼɔ diminutive of lake, so bucket of snail meat is "kitek kit mxa tugudipaduw."

based on this meme:

https://twitter.com/Fordsmender/status/1335178530284564480

btw, the gloss is (container with meat snail-LOC) where the locative case is being used to mark inalienable possession (maybe I should've used alienable 🤔)

also kitek is mainly used for things that typically have water in them but it can mean bucket or tub in general.

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day 19! 👹🐕

mzgha [mzɢə] Noun. beast, monster.

from *muːsuːxœː the augmentative of dog, the word originally meant wolf, but the meaning expanded to all dangerous animals and big mythological creatures, and the word for dog is mzu [mzʊ] from *muːsuː

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day 20! 🌋🔥🌲🌲🔥

teqsnubz [teqs.nʊbz] Noun. volcano, burning place.

from *tʼøxœː sʼœːnu pɔθy meaning mountain with fire, that word for "with" was specifically for animate nouns, it came to mean "accompanying" and mountain was the augmentative for hill.

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also, a bonus because it's 20:20 20th-(12 😔 smh)-2020

ke [ke] twenty (animate, base 4) from *kœː meaning twenty.

pipaa qer [pɪ.paː qeɾ] twenty (inanimate, base 8) from *pe pæːyː kʼyːθyː (2 eights (and) four) or more literally (ring finger, forearm, index finger).

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day 21! 🌲🗡️

putfmeterra [pʊtf. me.te.rə] Noun. felling axe.

from *pœːtʼofe mø tʼœːræː meaning blade for trees, blade is the nominalized form of sharp *pœːtʼo and in fact, the modern word for blade or knife is putf [pʊtf]

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day 22! 😇

kidiweqf [kɪ.dɪ.weqf] Verb. to be believed or trustworthy.

from *kytɛːpøxɔ fe the passive form of to see, there is no adjective for trustworthy, it is seen as an action rather than a trait that a person can have.

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day 23! 🌒☀️

napirqf [na.pɪɾqf] Noun. solar eclipse.

from *næːpʼœːθiːxɔ fe meaning to be un-burned (or extinguishing), basically they believe their sun god can extinguish himself at will, eclipses are referred to as "extinguishings" and are seen as a sign of their god's dissatisfaction.

lol I actually ran out of space in the first tweet, that hadn't happened before. this one was inspired by the recent Great Conjunction! 🔭 I'll probably make the next few Christmas related.

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day 24! 🎅🎁

nicirrogi [nɪ.ʔɪ.ro.gɪ] Noun. expensive gift or present.

from *nɛːirɔ ki poruːpʼuː meaning poem, or more literally: beautiful/colorful words (or even more literally: flower-like words) high class people could afford to commission poems, generic gift is msu [msʊ] from fruit *miːsʼo

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day 25! ❄️

kucugitugh [kʊ.ʔʊ.gɪ.tʊɢ] N. snowflake, hexagon, complex shape.

from *kœːo ketʼo xo tœːpʼumæː meaning snow with(ɪɴᴀɴ) six(ɪɴᴀɴ) tips/points, since the word was too long it got shortened to the first four syllables and it's now also used to refer to complex shapes and patterns.

idk if there's a term for words getting shortened, I just figured I could do it since english does it in words like "net" for "internet" and stuff lol I don't know what I'm doing 😂

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day 26! 🗻

teghop [te.ɢop] Adjective. solid, hard.

from *tʼøxœːpʼuː meaning mountain-like, originally it was used to mean huge (anything that was around the size of a building or more) but it started to imply sturdy, and the meaning slowly shifted to being anything solid.

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day 27! ⛰️

mudurus [mʊ.dʊ.ɾʊs] Noun. coal, fuel, inspiration.

from *muːto θøsʼo meaning black/brown rock/stone, it's used metaphorically to talk about how inspired someone is to do any form of art or craft.

today's post was kind of late because I didn't have any inspiration 😅 running a bit low on ideas atm.

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day 28! ♒

tacup [ta.ʔʊp] Adjective. energetic, always moving.

from *taop‘uː meaning river-like, it can be used negatively to mean someone is annoying, but generally it's used in a more positive way.

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day 29! 😡

qo [qo] Adjective. angry / upset (informal)

from *k’uː meaning red-orange, it originated as a metaphor but eventually the word stopped being used for the color altogether.

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day 30! 👋

mukigii [mʊ.kɪ.giː] Interjection. see you, bye.

from *muːk’ø kɛːyː meaning be-ɴᴘsᴛ.ɪᴘғᴠ well, the word for "to be" is now archaic and the word for good/well now means holy, so the meaning of the phrase is a bit obscure for most people.

wow I can't believe #Lexember is almost over, time flies! :o tomorrow is the last day already! but I think I'll keep posting about my #conlang-s, maybe just not as often :) and I might use my tumblr for longer posts in case anyone is interested in checking that out.

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🎇🎆this is the final #Lexember2020 entry! I had the idea to make a "book ending" and end it where it started, with four proper nouns related to the first four entries I posted on the first day, thanks for all the ❤️s and RT's everyone :D transcriptions below:

day 31! 🙂

Txurr [txʊr] Proper noun. (joy, happiness).

from *tix’oruː meaning joy/happiness, this word is used exclusively as a name (typically female) and most people no longer know what it means.

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also day 31! 🗨️

Kmitmuk ksu [kmɪt.mʊ.ksʊ] Proper noun (correct speech).

literally “speech/language correct/important” from *kɔmyt’emok’ɔ and *kus’u meaning fog(diminutive) and big, both previous entries, this is how this language’s autonym is written.

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also day 31! 🐉

Pigh [pɪɢ] Proper noun. (dragon).

from *pɛːxœː the augmentative of snake, used exclusively as a name (gender neutral) most people think it means resilient/wise because of a homophone that comes from *p’yːxi meaning old, only scholars know better.

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also day 31! 🌟

Pira [pɪ.ɾə] Proper noun. (royal guard)

from *peθæː meaning star, this word was featured in a previous entry but this is how it’s written if it’s used as a name, proper nouns have their own writing system, based on an ancient syllabary similar to cuneiform.

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That was a lot, that’s a lot for reading everyone!! ヽ(o＾▽＾o)ノ I’ll start posting more stuff on Tumblr starting in 2021!

#Lexember #Lexember2020 #conlang #conlanger #Kmitmuk ksu

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pomegranate-belle · 7 years

Note

I'm having like massive fucking difficulties picking a mere 500 words from MK1-END, so I kinda want to just give you the entire section beginning 'The elevator is locked, and there’s no way out. They’re all going to die.' and ending 'What’s happening around her, around them, fades away, but she can feel soothing heat and sadness and an ache in their chest,' and let you decide how much from that you want to do, and how.

Oh boy, I have a feeling this is gonna get long but… Oh welllmao

Ok, so… This first part is sort of the first time we’reseeing into the main ZTD cast – like, before that there’s sections that shiftaway from Kyle and Maria, but they’re short and they’re still tangential to thejourney those two are taking. But it’s way, way more exciting to have Kyle-Mariashow up from a different point of view than theirs. Also I might have some CSexperience but I know -5 about hacking, I am admitting that now, that wasdefinitely part of the reason the narrative shifted away from them at thatspecific moment lol

After that, it kind of devolves into Delta, and Delta’sthought process. I’m gonna be honest with you I wasn’t really… Convinced bywhat he says in ZTD and I think that ended up reflecting here. I think I kepthis arguments relatively in line with the ones he makes in the game, but I hadthe others, Maria especially, cut in with my objections to his logic. The wholestory is about Kyle and Maria working together, sharing their strength back andforth to save their families, but when they argue against Delta in unison, thatwas the one thing I really wanted them to connect on. The idea that they’d hadtheir worlds manipulated by him and that instead of just acquiescing they wererejecting his right to do that.

It’s sort of the climax of the story, I think. In the sensethat it’s a culmination of their shared strength and their determination tochange the timeline they’ve been put into. But the part immediately after:

“You’re lying,”Maria realizes slowly.

Her lips are numb,and she doesn’t quite know the meaning of what she’s seen, but it’s there.Something, huge, something he’s not telling them. She thinks it must be aboutLeft, but she’s never been able to learn enough about him or about Free theSoul to be able to determine now what Delta’s motives truly are.

That was actually one of the first parts of the story Iwrote. And it really reflected my own views when I reached the ZTD True End forthe first time. We never got the backstory about FtS that we were promised, soeven though I was absolutely certain Delta was lying to us, there wasn’t enoughcontext to figure out why or about what.

And then we return to the gun. It’s er… Well, I guess wecould call it Chekov’s Gun, couldn’t we… I tried not to draw direct attentionto it, but the question of ‘where’s the gun, who’s holding it, where is itpointed’ was on my mind the entire scene inside the Test Facility. Which ofcourse leads to the gun ending up in Diana’s hands. Sort of a mirror to themoment in the game where we put her in a similar situation as Delta does here.I always knew I wanted it to be her. Eric is the gun-happy nutbar, but Dianaand Delta’s relationship is too interesting not to try and play with like that.

Maria jumping into Delta’s body was also something I wantedto explore kind of from the beginning. Just because we the player (or in thecase of this fic’s canon, Maria herself) were inside Delta’s PoV the wholetime. The thought of going back to it knowingly, even though she didn’t wantto, was interesting. And the truth is that the part about him not letting go ofher… My brain was absolutely 100% on that scene near the end of Anastasia lmaosorry Delta you are Rasputin now.

And then, after all the drama, I had to insert a littlelevity. Thus the “oh no she’s hot” exchange, which was an enormous amount offun to write. And it was a good transition into the Phi/Maria from the prompts.They (obviously) don’t interact in canon, so it was tough to try and find adynamic for them and a way to parse the attraction so that it wouldn’t read astoo sudden and unrealistic. With ? being Maria, I had a lot more leeway withthat, since she ended up getting to know everyone from VLR really well bydefault. But I mean, being the big fucking romance dork I am, I had to do the Lady-and-the-Tramp-esquebit where they touch hands.

I added in my own little headcanon about ZTD Dr. Klim – I’msure if you look at my old ZE posts it’s there somewhere – being the youngSigma from VLR. I was very proud of that bit because time loops always N

I couldn’t resist Carlos scolding Maria for the cuss words,probably because that stupid “Language!!” gag from AoU was on my brain. I alsocouldn’t resist namedropping Dio because I just gd love that garbage clone.What a fucking tool.

The exchange afterwards between Dr. Klim and Diana was atough one. Not in the sense that it was difficult to imagine the exchange, butin that I wasn’t really sure how to resolve it. Of course Dr. Klim was havingthe same problem, so maybe that’s why it worked out in the end. I think Idefinitely drew on a lot of Doctor Who related angst for that exchange.Everything from the Journey’s End exchange to that phone call in Deep Breath.The idea that the version of the person that you love is gone and a strangerthat is also paradoxically him is taking his place is one that’s pretty uniquebut it fits in ZE and in Doctor Who, thanks to the power of time travel.

This part here:

He takes a moment,breathes. Flexes the fingers that are and are not his own. The way he looksdown, aside, is one Maria knows intimately because Kyle recognizes it as hisown – a nervous tic to hide his fear of rejection.

Is one I added one one of my later passes, I think. But I’mreally proud of it. There are definitely ways in which Kyle and Sigma aresimilar and I think that this sort of emotional fragility is one of them. Ireally liked the thought of expressing that similarity through a gestureinstead of words.

Originally, I wasn’t going to have Kyle express a desire toleave so soon. But after the scene between Dr. Klim and Diana, this sort ofsinking feeling hit me. Or Kyle? Both of us I guess. Because it’s true he doesn’treally belong in 2028. He could, maybe, eventually… But then it hit me that hestill had unfinished business in 2074. And maybe that was always in the back ofmy head, that need for a resolution with Luna, just because she’s so near anddear to my heart. And the reason that Kyle begins to see her differently isbecause he sees her through Maria’s eyes, so in that way she’s helping him onelast time.

Their exchange about meeting again, I’m sure I’ve admittedto this before somewhere, is absolutely based on the “End: Lost in the Waves” FEFates DLC. That, in addition to the epilogue, was added on my second or thirdpass through the fic. Originally it ended with Phi and Maria holding hands, butI wanted to see Kyle again, so changes were made.

In the same way that I wanted to hint to a Kyle-Lunaresolution, I knew I had to start mending the ties between Sigma and Kyle,which is what his exchange is all about. I can’t remember who it was that madethat comic about Sigma getting attached to his clones but they kept dying andeventually he cut himself off from them but I think that played a lot into howI conceptualized their relationship. Now that their mission is done, there’snothing holding them back, there’s no longer a wall between them. And Kyle wasnever sure if that was really the problem, or if Sigma just truly didn’t care,so that reassurance is really important to him.

And of course I couldn’t have Kyle leave without talking toDiana. But in addition to having no idea what they would say to one another, Ialso wanted to expand a little bubble of privacy to them. Playing with the waythe body-sharing works was part of it too, because I think up until that pointthe only one who’d leaned back out of control far enough to mute the outside worldwas Kyle. I wanted to see it from Maria’s perspective too, and emphasize thatat their core – emotionally – they’re still connected no matter how far theylean apart.

I guess that’s all of it lmao wow.. I hope that didn’t soundtoo pretentious, I’m sure I got a little long-winded but look….. I revised thatfic like ten times before I posted it and it’s really one of my most polishedworks and I am So Damn Proud of it!

#long post #zero escape #writing #chessanator

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monterey-jack · 7 years

Photo

NEWSIES IN MANILA!!!!1 (I decided to post this after the show is done because I may post some spoilers lol) This is going to be a mess so bear with me.

It’s hard not to compare it to Newsies Live, but I feel so proud that an all Filipino cast and crew are able to create this kind of quality theater! They didn’t adopt the Tony-winning choreography but they still had those awesome jumps, spins, cartwheels, and pirouettes that would just make your jaw drop to the ground.

Everyone was amazing! Their singing skills are on point (I especially love Once and For All. It was so hot but I still got chills), the execution of the choreography was perfect, and there were some trick shots during Seize the Day that made everyone go WOAH and it was so fun to watch a fresh take in this show.

I still hold my position that newsies are humans made out of rubber. And compared to the Broadway stage, this is too small so I’m amazed that they’re still able to fit that many newsies in that tiny stage AND they’re still flying around without falling to the audience like damn.

When they were singing the latter part of Carrying the Banner there were two groups dancing depending on which part they were singing it was adorable. The fight scene during Seize the Day is more like a dance off lol it was funny for me I’m sorry.

Also they knocked out Crutchie before handcuffing him AND THERE WAS BLOOD HOW DARE THEY.

Also the actor playing Finch is a 15-year-old boy. He was able to tap while wearing a sling! I hope he’ll have a good career in theater if ever he’ll pursue it.

I just realized Elmer is adorable. I thought he was gonna get the whole tray from the nun before thanking her lmao.

I love Race you can always depend on him, and he loves his cigar so much

yer werld is yer erster

yer erSTER

YA KNOW YA FANCY CLAM WID DA POIL INSOIDE

The characterization of Morris Delancey is very different from the original, but I think it was so cute. Can Morris be my favorite newsie now?

Les sounds and looks like a 13 year old boy. Sorry kid you don’t pass for 10, especially 7.

There were girlsies I repeat, there were girlsies!!!!!!! (And they're dressed as girls so they're easily seen) They were not there during Carrying the Banner but they're there during the rest of the ensemble numbers.

I also want to give a shoutout to the newsies AND girlsies who were moving the towers while the cast is dancing. No one got hurt! Also, pushing around those sets is also a workout, so it’s not just the actors who got ripped lol.

Tap dancing is hard and tap dancing King of New York is hard but they still produced a good big tap dance number that wowed the audience.

Of course there were some bad points like the sound system is breaking up at some songs and Katherine’s mic was either not loud enough or it’s super loud. But the fact that the sounds are still crisp and you can hear every lyric in an open area, they still get my thumbs up.

My favorite number ever is Seize The Day, mostly because of their iconic newspaper dance, but for this production, it has to be Once and For All. You can really feel that it’s the last straw and these boys won’t take shit anymore and my sister said that the 3 towers formed together and became the printing press with the turning cogs and everything (I didn’t see it because I was overwhelmed with everything. I hope I had a hundred eyes while watching this) and after the key change during “There's change coming once and for all” as they were presenting the Newsies Banner, PAPES FELL FROM THE CEILING AND IT’S THE NEWSIES BANNER AND I HELD IT HIGH LIKE A NEWSIE I’M SUCH A DORK.

From all that’s new in this production I love what they did during the Santa Fe Reprise. So Jack was singing in his penthouse for the first part then he threw his hat during “Captain Jack just wants to close his eyes and GO!“. Then for the remaining part of the song he went down and during the sweet piano notes after "Save my place, I'll be there", he looked at his hat and slowly picked it up. I know it’s a tiny change but something about that scene made me think. Jack threw his hat because being a poor and orphan newsie sucks and being on strike is worse and his friends just got beat up and his best friend got sent to the refuge and he’s so tired he just wants to escape. But he looked at his hat, picked it up, and knew that this is his reality. That’s why he said “just be real, is all I’m asking, not some painting in my head”, because at least if Santa Fe is real, then he has something else to hold on to after the riot in Newsies Square. (I have a lot of feelings okay shut up)

Also during the scene when Jack, Davey and Spot were waving to the newsies at Joe’s office, they were looking at the audience pretending to see the newsies ensemble at the back of the stage. Jack looked in our area and I thought he was looking at me so I nodded my head and smiled, and guess what he did? HE WAVED AND ACKNOWLEDGED MY EXISTENCE. And like a dork I waved back.

AND OF COURSE MY DEAR CRUTCHIE MADE ME SWEAT THROUGH MY EYES. During “watch me stand, watch me run”, he threw his crutch, spread his arms out and tried to take a step until he fell and Jack got him. Cue the tears. Also after “I don’t need a limp to sell papes, I’ve got...” he paused, went to the middle of the stage, gave a big smile and “POISONALITY!!!”. Cue more tears. He really showed that having a disability does not define you. And during Seize the Day while the whole cast is flying about he’s just in the corner cheering and flailing his arms and dancing with his crutch. I love this cutiepie so much. And he knows how to rip your heart out and step on it during Letter from The Refuge.

M O R R I S D E L A N C E Y

The music and score is phenomenal it sounds so perfect and the singing was amazing, like most of the time I had to bite my lips because the songs are just so catchy and they are hitting all of the right notes and I just want to sing it too but I don’t want to ruin it. (However Davey’s poor gUYS head is spinning was a downer, he was screaming than singing that precious note)

Speaking of Davey he’s one of my favorite newsies because I love his development from being a shy, background type of guy who was hesitant to join the strike he became the brains of the strike, he held down the boys who were about to soak the Scabs during Seize the Day, and he was the one who lead the rally at the theater INCLUDING the Brooklyn newsies while Jack was missing. He grew up from a boy to a man and a leader and honestly I didn’t see that in this Davey. All throughout the show he's quiet and doesn't have any strength to lead the newsies. It even seemed like he's always second guessing. I don't even see him as the protective big brother to Les. I don’t know what they were thinking for removing that character development. I have nothing against the actor though, he was amazing. I’m sorry this is such a negative point but I love Davey too much and they didn’t do him justice.

After curtain call they sang Carrying the Banner again and I just can’t help myself anymore. Since I was already standing up, I just sang to my heart’s content. And the newsies at our side of the stage kept on looking at me because I know all of the lyrics and I can be a newsie too????? (just kidding lmao i can’t dance for the life of me)

It’s just a damn good show and it’s one of the best things that I spent with my hard earned cash and I’m going to watch Newsies Live for the 150th time now goodbye

#gianna posts #newsies in manila #newsies #filipino pride!#closing night was just last night #congrats to the whole cast and crew!!!!!!!!

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four-loose-screws · 5 years

Text

FE4 Suzuki Novelization Translation - Chapter 7 Part 2

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations - Ko-fi

T/N: Chapter 7′s title completely spoils one of the big events of the chapter, so I won’t be putting it in my tumblr posts like I usually do. You can check out the Google Doc, where I could hide it. Highlight the Table of Contents page to see it. In the event that this is your first experience with FE4′s plot, read the title after Chapter 7 Part 3. Those who have played FE4, it is of course nothing you don’t already know.

———————————

Chapter 7

Part 2

Text under cut for spoilers.

Prince Kurt’s death had a huge impact on the imperial court of Balhalla.

He’d been King Azmur’s only child, and never married, so it meant the death of Saint Heim’s bloodline.

King Azmur had already been sick, but when he heard of the prince’s death, his health declined rapidly, and put him on death’s door.

The next day, the message that Dukes Byron and Ring were the perpetrators was sent through the semaphore line.

The next signal announced that they were on the run.

The three Dukes left in Balhalla, Reptor, Arvis, and Claud, held a meeting to discuss how they should handle the situation.

Reptor immediately suggested that they deploy the Roten Ritter to take down Sigurd’s army in Augustria. “We already know that Sigurd has tried to act without consulting His Majesty before. There’s no question that he plotted to usurp the country with his father.”

Arvis disagreed. “If we deployed the Roten Ritter, the capital would be defenseless. We should wait until the rest of our army returns home from Isaach.”

“Plus, we have very little information.” Claud added, but his voice was as quiet and timid as ever. “Judging from their personalities, I’d never imagine that they’d ever try to harm Prince Kurt…”

“But they’re running away! What more proof could you need?”

“That may be true, but it doesn’t mean that the opposite isn’t also a possibility.”

“What do you mean?”

“We don’t know for sure if they weren’t assassinated alongside the prince.”

“S-So who do you think did it!?”

“I’m not saying I know who did it. I’m just pointing out another possibility. I’ve decided to go to the Bragi Tower. That is, if you two agree to it…”

“Why would you go to the Bragi Tower now, of all times!?”

“I apologize if I’m repeating anything you already know, but High Priest Bragi sealed the Valkyrie Staff there. If Bragi’s descendant prays to the staff, then it will tell them the truth.”

“But how is that relevant to what’s going on now…?”

“The truth is always important.” Arvis cut in. “Father Claud, I think you should go. I only ask that you tell us what truth you saw when you return.”

“Thank you. I’ll come back as quickly as I possibly can, so please wait to deploy any soldiers unless it is absolutely necessary. I’m going to leave for the tower as soon as I am done with my business here, so please report to His Majesty in my place.”

Claud started for Augustria alone, and continued on without even stopping at his own villa.

The fastest way to get to Bragi Tower was to take a boat from a port in Grannvale, but he wanted to alert Sigurd of what was going on.

Traveling through Augusty meant that he would have to cross Duke Reptor’s duchy, Friege.

Unlike her father, Reptor, and her brother, Bloom, Princess Tailtiu was a warm, cheerful person.

Because Bloom had inherited Thrud’s Holy Mark and the Holy Thunder Tome Mjölnir, Reptor didn’t pay much attention to her. It was a good thing, because it allowed Tailtiu to leave the castle and have fun around town, but it also meant that her family ignored her and she often felt alone, so she was very conflicted by it.

On the day that Claude visited Friege, she was out again, watching a traveling troupe of acrobats in the town plaza.

After they gave their first performance, she walked up to one of the members of the group, a young woman.

She asked what it was like to live life traveling from place to place, why the woman had joined the troupe, what was the best thing about it, what was the worst thing about it, and many more questions.

When their second performance started, Tailtiu watched from the front and center spot once more.

It was the same performance as before, but when she connected it to all the things the woman had told her, she wasn’t bored in the slightest.

When it was over, she threw them a gold coin.

They thanked her, then picked up their belongings and left.

She knew that it would be best to return home soon, but didn’t feel like it, so, she wandered through shops aimlessly, until she just so happened to see the archbishop of Edda coming her way. “Long time no see, Father!”

Claud was surprised by her voice.

“Oh hello, Princess of Friege! Um… what was your name again? Tail… Tail…”

“Tailtiu!”

“That’s right! Hello, Tailtiu! How are you?”

“I’m doing great! What about you?”

“I’m fine, but in a tough situation.”

“Why are you here in Friege?”

“Well, I’m actually on my way to the Bragi Tower. I decided that I would stay here for the night, so I’m looking for an inn right now.”

“Oh really? Then why don’t you stay at the castle? You’re welcome anytime!”

“That’s very kind of you, but…”

“As I thought… You know I’d be the only one to welcome you…”

“N-No, that’s not it…”

“Say, don’t people usually go to the Bragi Tower by boat?”

“Yes, that’s true, but this time, I couldn’t…”

“Wow, sounds like you’re on an interesting adventure! I know of a great inn, and I’m hungry, so why don’t we eat and talk about it there?”

“Alright... Let’s go…”

Tailtiu’s best trait was her cleverness. By the time their meal was over, she already understood the gist of what was going on.

“I’m going to go with you, Father Claud!”

“Huh? But why?”

“Because I heard that pirates have been hanging around the Bragi Tower recently! It would be careless to let you go all by yourself. And I may not look it, but I can use a little magic! You can’t use offensive magic, so….”

“But what would your father say…?”

“You, he, and Duke Arvis all decided at your meeting that you should go to the Bragi Tower, right? So to protect you is to serve an important role for Grannvale!”

Of course, that wasn’t really her main concern. After meeting the acrobats, she now wanted to travel. She had a feeling that there was an adventure out there, waiting just for her.

“What time will you leave tomorrow?”

“Hmmm… About eight in the morning, I believe.”

“Okay, let’s meet here at eight o’clock sharp! I’ll be waiting until then!

The next day, Claud walked out of the inn thirty minutes early.

However, Tailtiu was already waiting. “Good morning!”

“Ah, good morning, Princess Tailtiu…”

“I bet you’re surprised to see me, huh?”

“Y-Yes, I didn’t think a princess would be such an early bird.”

“That’s true, but yesterday, when you said eight, I could tell by your face that you were lying!”

“Huh? I… I could never make such a face!”

“A priest shouldn’t lie, Father! Now let’s go!”

Erinys left the castle to complete her morning reconnaissance duty.

She always started by first traveling east. Today, she saw a unit of armored knights marching towards Augusty.

She started to head back, but then decided to check north first, and once again saw a group of armored knights moving towards Augusty. There were also cavalry behind them.

‘And what about the western forest?’ She thought.

She flew over the forest and saw the shadow of someone trying frantically to hide in the bushes.

And to the south, she saw a cavalry unit that had already come very far from Silvali Castle.

She returned to the castle and reported every thing she’d seen.

The battle preparation fanfare was sounded immediately.

The army leaders all gathered in the castle reception room.

Sigurd had a grim look on his face. “I don’t want to fight Eldigan. There’s still three more months before the time I promised him we would pull out. I want to figure out a way to end this without fighting. Oifey, can we hold the castle?”

“There’s one general rule for holding a castle - that an army should only do it if there’s a possibility that reinforcements will arrive. Can we expect reinforcements at this time? I don’t think there’s even a chance of that. In addition, we are in enemy territory. The moment they caught on to us, they’d easily be able to send in more and more soldiers to put pressure on us. We have no choice but to leave the castle.”

“If we can’t avoid fighting, then we can’t avoid fighting. But what kind of strategy can we utilize? There’s enemies coming at us from all four directions!”

“King Chagall's strategies are simply whatever comes to his mind. There’s both infantry and cavalry in his army. The best strategy is to have all units march together and surround the enemy castle, yet he has his soldiers all coming from four different directions. He probably thought that we wouldn't notice anyone coming if he sent his army in chunks, but it means they are all moving at different speeds. We can deal with them each individually."

"I see. Since we have no choice but to fight, then let's give it all we've got and claim victory! We’ll deploy after breakfast."

Sigurd returned to his room, and was greeted by Deirdre, who was carrying Seliph, and looked terribly worried.

"Are you going to fight again?" She asked.

"King Chagall's army is coming this way from all four directions. But you can't come this time. You mustn't leave Seliph's side. He's still just a newborn."

"But… But I'm worried."

"Then I'll tell Shanan to protect you two. That should put your mind at ease."

It was actually him that she was worried about, but Sigurd did not realize that, and went ahead with calling in Shanan.

“Shanan, will you protect Deirdre and Seliph while I’m out fighting?”

“Okay! I’ll take care of them while you’re gone!” It was the first big responsibility the Isaachian prince had ever been entrusted with, and he was very excited.

“See? Shanan will be with you, so rest easy. And I’ll come home as soon as I can. We won’t be separated forever.” Sigurd said, then left the room.

She didn’t know why, but her husband’s words made Deirdre even more uneasy. As she watched him leave, she whispered, “Lord Sigurd…”

Sigurd’s cavalry unit first hurried south to fight the armored knights.

The knights were caught completely off guard, and suffered total defeat in a matter of minutes.

Meanwhile, the infantry traveled north, hid in the edge of a forest, and waited for the enemy to draw near.

The battle started with the arrival of more enemy armored knights. Sigurd’s infantry unit was unable to finish them off before the cavalry unit arrived, making the situation very harsh for them.

But the tables turned yet again when the cavalry unit returned from their fight to the south.

Lex looked for Ayra, then rushed up alongside her. Though they exchanged no words, they felt like the perfect team as they fought together.

The Brave Sword he’d gifted her was unbelievably sharp. It paired perfectly with her Astra technique, and cut through the enemies like paper.

After they defeated the cavalry from the north, yet another cavalry unit arrived from the south. It wasn’t Eldigan’s Cross Knights, as Sigurd had originally feared. Eldigan must not have answered Chagall’s request for soldiers.

Since Sigurd’s army was so much larger, they had the overwhelming advantage, and this battle also ended quickly.

When they’d defeated this second cavalry unit, the unit approaching from the west was still in the forest.

Sigurd formed a side unit to fight them, then led the main force to Madino.

Claud and Tailtiu met up with the latter group.

Claud told one of the soldiers that they were looking for Sigurd, who led them to him.

Once they had a chance to talk alone, Claud explained the situation to Sigurd. “Duke Arvis is against deploying the Roten Ritter, so he suspended the attack on you and your army, but most of the people in the imperial court right now are part of Reptor’s political party. Please do not do anything to provoke anyone in Grannvale until I’ve figured out the truth and talked to the king.”

“Understood. I’m want to return home because I’m worried about my father, but I’m fighting right now. His Majesty also ordered me to protect Augusty. I’ll stay here until you’ve returned.”

“Please do.”

“But why is the princess of Friege going with you to the Bragi Tower?”

“Oh, we ran into each other while I was staying in the castle town for a night, and she insisted on coming with me. I was troubled by it, too… But she doesn’t have anything to do with Reptor’s party, so don’t worry about her.”

“Really? If that’s the case, then it should be fine… Anyway, I’ll order some soldiers to guard you until you’ve left Augusty.”

After saying their goodbyes to Sigurd, Claud and Tailtiu left with the guards, then headed west towards the port.

Deirdre had just put Seliph down to sleep and gotten out of bed when a black shadow began to form on the wall.

The black shadow gradually became darker and darker, until a man wearing a wine red robe appeared from it.

“I’ve finally found you… daughter of Cigyun.” He stared straight at her as he spoke.

“What!? Who are you…!? How do you know my mother’s name…!?”

The man cackled in response. “You will now be reborn! ...By my dark magic, all your memories will be erased, and you will become that man’s wife. ...It is your fate. Do not try to fight it!”

The man’s voice echoed through her head and clouded her thoughts.

He took a step towards her.

“Wh-What are you doing!? ...Stop! ...No… Lord Sigurd…”

Seliph burst out crying.

‘And, Seliph… I must not forget for his sake, too…’

She thought about them as hard as she could, but the darkness was already consuming her consciousness.

Her memories vanished, and she was engulfed in darkness.

By the time Shannan heard Seliph’s cries and rushed into the room, Deirdre had already disappeared.

#fire emblem #fe #fe4 #genealogy of the holy war #nintendo #super nintendo #snes #famicom #super famicom #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #fe4 suzuki novelization translation

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lielectricians · 6 years

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Nissan Leaf Home Charging Station Installation Old Hickory Tn

Contents

2016 nissan leaf

Schneider electric evlink

Install electric charging station

Installing electric vehicle (ev) charging

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#Station Charging Leaf Home Tn Hickory Installation Nissan Old

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thatgirlintheaudience · 7 years

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OKAY GUYS. I saw Rent and my heart is bursting with joy. I am obsessed with this show and the original Broadway cast so I had such high standards, but let me tell you this cast brought it! They each fit their characters so well and it was phenomenal. I was physically shaking all throughout Act 2. I had floor seats so 5th or 6th row.

The set was incredible. It is so simple yet filled with little details. Rent has such a unique and interesting set. Even though I know this show so well, Rent (the song) hits you outta nowhere. It was so powerful and just blew the walls over and I loved how the whole cast is out for it too. I just stared at everyone. During it, Mimi and Benny danced a little together which I thought was cool to show their relationship. In Light my Candle, Roger mocked something Mimi did which I thought was really cute and funny. I think it was when he said, “I once was born to be bad.” In Life Support, I liked how Roger and Steve both sang, “Because reason says I should’ve died three years ago.” I didn’t know Roger sang that.

Also PSA on the back of Roger’s leather jacket it says, only the good die young and I kind of wept inside when I read it. Whenever Kaleb sat on the table, the chain hanging off his pants would make a sound and I loved it. And when Collins was introducing Angel, Mark bent down to look over at Roger to make sure he was okay and Roger ignored him and I thought it was really cute. And Angel was so sweet to Roger even though he was mean to her. There was also a part when Benny is looking in Mark’s camera and after, Roger reenacts Benny, but flips off the camera. When Roger has that little confrontation with Mimi’s drug dealer, he was like so protective of Mimi and put his hand out and just ugh yes. (side note: I’m Mimi and Roger trash, just FYI). Also Mimi and Roger talk almost the entire time during Over the Moon which I thought was really cute, but no one else talks during it. And then I got to see the Out Tonight outfit (!!!) Love, love, I try to recreate this outfit, it’s like impossible, I’m obsessed. And Out Tonight is sooo fierce. Skyler Volpe is a great Mimi too! Another Day was so angry, like Mimi and Roger were not having it with each other.

And there was also a moment when Collins protected Angel, I think it was during Mark’s encounter with the homeless woman. Either way, it was adorable. Mimi’s mic pack is cheetah print which I loved and it was also her AZT beeper. I believe she also had to turn her mic pack back on when she came back from the dead. I also wanted to say that they changed one of the lyrics in Happy New Year. They changed it from, “You can take the girl out of Hicksville, but you can’t take the Hickville out of the girl” to “You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can’t take the Jersey out of the girl.” Thought that was interesting, not sure why they did it, but whatever.

There was a lot of jumps in this, especially Roger and Angel. Angel jumps onto the table from the floor in high heels. Like, whaaat? Also, Roger would hit the table a lot when he got mad. I liked it. Kaleb Wells was an insanely good Roger, I thought he was amazing. Okay and Kaleb’s face when he hears Maureen say, “It’s Mimi, I can’t get her up the stairs.” He looked so desperate and he flinged that leather jacket off and when he screamed, “NOOO!,” it was filled with so much passion that I couldn’t function afterwards. Will I? is so pretty, like wow. And when Roger leaves the house, I’m just like yes baby, go! Aaron Harrington’s (Collins) voice was like velvet so Santa Fe was good and the I’ll Cover You reprise is one of the most powerful songs ever. When all their voices joined in, I ascended to heaven. By the end, I was just shaking my head like HOW..ARE…PEOPLE..SO…AMAZING?!! But the 1st I’ll Cover You was just pure delight and the song title should really be Could Collins and Angel get Any Cuter?. We’re Okay was so good because Jasmine Easler’s (Jonanne) voice is off the charts! As well as Take Me or Leave Me. Katie LaMark (Maureen) definitely had a young Idina Menzel vibe and voice. And the cymbals in the song were great, I noticed that for some reason. And when Katie performed Over the Moon, she puts these glasses on pretending to be Benny and as soon as she does, Benny takes his sunglasses off which I thought was funny. I’m obsessed with Christmas Bells and Roger sounded so sincere when he went up to Mimi and said hey, so I was dying. And I Should Tell You was so romantic and I loved how everyone just watched them sing it. I was rooting for them so hard. During one of Marks’ dialogue scenes, the band played a really calm I Should Tell You. It was really pretty. Seasons of Love is so powerful. It’s like you don’t even know until you see it. That line they form is just iconic. Ugh, shivers. Roger lifting Mimi in Happy New Year made my heart very happy.

Okay, there is a lot to talk about in Without You, but I’m gonna try. First off, this song is gorgeous. Roger leaves Mimi so she slams her drugs on the floor. I know there is a lot of interpretations of this song, but I see this action as in if Mimi doesn’t have Roger, she has nothing. She doesn’t care about the drugs if she doesn’t have him. Life doesn’t matter without him, so nothing matters. And then Angel is sick and Joanne is sleeping on the first table. And it’s these 3 tables with three different relationships and Mark just watches the entire time alone. I never really felt for Mark until then. Danny Harris Kornfeld was great as Mark. And then Mimi and Roger hug at the end and my emotions were in full gear.

Angel’s death is done so eloquently and unique, as much as it is sad. After Angel’s death, they reform the Seasons of Love line and leave a space for Angel between Roger and Joanne who look at the empty spot and then at each other. Halloween was really emotional. Skyler’s voice cracked when she sang Goodbye Love and I thought that was beautiful. And Roger leaves, but he comes back a second right after Mimi leaves with Benny which broke my heart. And right before Mimi leaves, Collins grabs her hand. What You Own is magic in a song. That song makes me feel things. Mark and Roger just ran around each other and it was great. And then during Finale B, Mark points the camera at the ceiling of the theater and shows the movie on the ceiling. It was sooo cool.

Okay, as you can see I loved this show. If it’s coming to your city, please go. This cast gave it everything. I also went to the stage door and met Danny Harris Kornfeld (Mark), Christian Thompson (Benny), and Skyler Volpe (Mimi). They were all so nice and Skyler is literally a goddess (I’ll post photos later) and they signed my Playbill above.

Thank you for reading, I know it was long. If anyone has questions about the show, cast, stage door, etc. I’m happy to answer. La vie boheme.

#theater review #rent tour #rent 20th anniversary tour #skyler volpe #kaleb wells #danny kornfeld #david merino #aaron harrington #katie lamark #jasmine easler

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ludonarrativediss · 8 years

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My Favorite Games of 2016

Overwatch Overwatch is my favorite game of 2016. I bought it twice, first on PC and then on PS4, because I wanted to play it so much. I made it to level 40 on PC and level 50 on PS4, which is not a measure of skill, but simply a sign of how much I played Overwatch this year.

Every character in Overwatch plays so differently, it’s like twenty games in one. What’s better is that as you improve with the characters, understand each of their quirks and play-styles, the way you play as the other characters change. People always reference Team Fortress 2 and MOBAs when they talk about Overwatch, but I think that natural skill progression makes it more like the best fighting games. Also like a fighting game, it has a wide-range of diverse characters, each with their own skills, and lets players dip their toes in by just choosing a character that they identify with, or simply one that looks cool.

Overwatch is fun in hour one when you have no idea what you’re doing, and fun in hour 60 when you have a tiny idea of what you’re doing. The continued support for Overwatch with two new characters, new maps and modes, and huge seasonal events has given me reasons to come back again and again. Lastly, in the current world we live in, a game that embraces multi-culturalism, diversity, and just revealed the character on its box to be lesbian—that’s the sort of game I’m glad I put so much time into this year.

Doom Doom feels good. It cuts away the fatty mechanics that have weighed down first-person shooters in the 20+ years since its namesake defined the genre, only taking what it absolutely needs. Out goes reloading, in goes a simple upgrade system that encourages learning advanced techniques.

The story, the music, the speed, and the violence all made me smile again and again. It doesn’t take anything serious except the fun. It does a thing that so few games take the time to do: it pauses to learn lessons from the past before heading into the future. It’s a throwback and a step forward. And oh man, does it just feel good to play.

Mafia 3 Mafia 3 proves that a game can be about something real, can have a huge budget, and can still make a bunch of money. Mafia 3 has the best narrative I played all year. Like the best works of fiction, it's a personal story that feels important today. Unfortunately, Mafia 3 is a great 10 hour game crammed into a 30 hour game. It's still very much worth playing, but it's a great example of how despite having some amazing open world games, maybe we haven't quite figured out open world games yet.

Titanfall 2 I loved playing the original Titanfall multiplayer with friends. In a year with Overwatch, though, I barely put any time into the Titanfall 2 multiplayer. It seems great, more of the same, but the single player campaign is still enough to put Titanfall 2 on my best gaming experiences of 2016.

Every level in the Titanfall 2 campaign feels like it could be its own great game. Like a Super Mario Galaxy game, each level presents a new spin on the established mechanics—or presents brand new mechanics—then quickly gives you something else fun to do in the next level. That moment where the pieces peel away and the game tells you “Press L1 to [spoiler].” Wow, I haven’t felt that way in a game since Half-Life 2.

Firewatch Firewatch is a great story told well. It's spooky and personal and will make you feel things a game maybe hasn't made you feel yet. Wandering around the woods and getting to know the two main characters is great, but there's something about the text that opens the game that I'll never be able to shake.

Hitman I've never played a Hitman game before, but I don't think that's the reason I only just now made it past the first level of the new Hitman. Don't get me wrong, I "beat" the first level the first time I played it, but what's great about the new Hitman is that your first playthrough of a level is just the start. The real fun is going back in and discovering all the murderous secrets just under the surface.

Uncharted 4 I didn’t think I wanted another Uncharted game. I didn’t think there was anywhere for the story to go. Then Uncharted 4 comes out and it might be the best traditional storytelling I’ve seen in a game. It's also got such a great, definitive ending, which is something games find so hard to do and it's refreshing to see it done right.

I had a blast with Uncharted 4, but like a summer blockbuster, I sort of forgot it as soon as I finished it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t great, it just shows that right now I’m much more interested in the new ways games can tell stories, and that the traditional cinematic storytelling of Uncharted, even at its best, is a fleeting enjoyment.

Hyrule Warriors Legends Hyrule Warriors Legends was a dumb purchase. I already owned the Wii U version and had barely played it. But I bought it anyway, I guess because I wanted to see what a female Link named Linkle was. Despite the lower graphical fidelity, I ended up putting a ton of hours into it. Sometimes portability can make an okay game great.

Forza Horizon 3 I'm forever chasing that rush I felt while playing Burnout Paradise, and the Forza Horizon series is best at getting me close to that. After the sort of boring Forza Horizon 2, this third entry brings personality back into the open world, and makes a car and music festival feel the right level of dumb again. I played a lot of Forza Horizon 3 this year, but if you asked me I'd say I hadn't played enough.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Persona 4 is one of my favorite games ever, and this game is a pop music version of that favorite. I probably put twenty hours into it, and I hope to go back to it and finish it before Persona 5 comes out.

Games I still want to play:

Watch Dogs 2

The Last Guardian

Final Fantasy 15

Games That Didn’t Come Out in 2016 That I Loved In 2016:

The Witcher 3 - The Witcher 3 is the best game to come out this generation. Go play it.

Her Story - It's a great narrative experience that really shows games aren't done showing us new things. I think it's even on phones now? Go play it.

Max Payne 3 - I missed this when it first came out because the glory kills looked so gross, but this year I gave it a chance and the noir story roped me in deep.

Nuclear Throne - I am not good at Nuclear Throne, but I still love jumping in for five minutes, shooting some gross looking things, and then exploding in a blob of big pixels.

Diablo III - Last year I played a ton of Diablo III on PS4, and this year I returned to it on PC and played through a few seasons. This game is still great, and still a great example that a game can come out awful and then be fixed later on with time and care and an understanding community (I'm looking at you Destiny and The Division!)

Anyway, this probably needs another draft, but I'm gonna just post it now so I can go and start Final Fantasy 15. Happy new year and happy gaming!

#video games #top 10 #goty #2016

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