#I hope I made sense at least | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

synthshenanigans · 4 months

Text

I'm curious as to peoples idea for what he'd do for the next power hour so

[These all being popular ideas or ppl he's mentioned]

This was all just a ploy to get you to read my info dump theory on the concept of a Chonny Jash Power Hour loser HAHAHA

Im joking tho. Not about my CJPH theory, that is very much real but I'm not forcing you to read it lol

However if you're curious, my inane rambles are further down :}

[Long Rant Post Below]

Okay so I'm gonna start with the basic idea I got it from; that being Nerd. Nerd already foreshadowed the THDPH & the WWPH [Even down to the last song for each of them] Not only that, but he references the stuff hes done in the past as well with a break/pause inbetween.

[This is what I mean]

The first three being all stuff he already did. BDG with Pocket, Tally Hall with Vol.1 & then Cage by Tim Minchin being the start the power hours.

The next two being the power hours he would do after this song [Memento Mori & Charlie's Inferno-Will Wood & That Handsome Devil]. But those are the only songs he would reference in Nerd, leaving no more clues as to what the last one would be. The only thing left in it is the video game references & Stairway to Heaven in the ending. [Which oddly enough also fit the pattern in a way. StH being about dying and the afterlife like Memento Mori & Chonny's Inferno and the video game references being all covers he made on his old channel]

While the VG refs could be a hint at a Videogame or Toby Fox Power Hour, I think at most, if its a clue at all, hinting at the next thing he does is recovering old songs.

----

Next, a couple of his songs reference his past stuff. Fine, I'm Fine has a good amount of lines that vaguely refer back to songs from the before [heres a post that goes more into it that's pretty cool!!]. And more importantly Dear Machine references Pocket, Dream (Outro from Calamity) & wings of wax. Pocket being later used in Nerd & the mention of Icarus coming back in Art. Not only that, but the voice in the very end Thermodynamic Lawyer is the exact same [if not very close to] voice filter/effect he uses in Dear Machine. Even down to the British accent he does in it. [Tho it is fairly normal for a music artist to reference their older songs in their music so it could be nothing]

Speaking of Dear Machine tho, quick thing to add about it is that it shows he not against covering his own songs. While yea technically its just a different version of Ode of the Cog, DM,HtC in a way counts as a cover of OotC. Same goes for bargaining/compromise & The Ballad of Dr. Jekyll.

----

Another idea with a CJPH is that in the CJFS discord theres a "Question of the Day" Channel. Where, as the name says, a Mod or Helper will ask a CJ related question & everyone can give their idea/imput on it. For Day 100, as a special fun lil thing, they asked Chonny if he wanted to give a question for that day. His question being:

And yes he does say that he doesnt plan on doing anything like that in future [if he even were to do it]. I fully believe he wasn't lying there & honestly I never saw him redoing any song ever until I had the idea of a CJPH [aside from stuff like Spring and a Storm & Storm and a Spring obviously]. But this is the best idea I could ever see him doing that. Also that question was from early August so a fair amount of time has passed. Whether thats enough time to equal "at least in the near future at all" I have no clue, but it is a thought.

----

One of my last points [that I remember atm lol] is on how he would end the power hours. Cos like, while yea he does whatever he wants & doesn't rlly follow what anyone says or asks [which I 100% agree with & is completely valid btw], I'd imagine he'd still want to end the PHs with a bang. Which is why I originally didnt think the recent one would be Will Wood.

He's stated a couple of time that hes one of his favorite artist & he definitely knows that a huge chunk of his fan base listen to WW as well. So why not end with that? Why not end with one of the most requested artist people wanted him to cover? Why wouldn't he end with a power hour of the artist that was his #1 on his Spotify Wrapped? What else could he do after that? Well maybe he'd go with his #2 artist? WHICH IS JUST HIMSELF BBYYYY

Plus, the name Power Hour already comes from this:

So it's very likely he's had himself play multiple times in a row & had a "Chonny Jash Power Hour".

Of course theories are just theories so there's always the chance I'm wrong & just insane. And again he does whatever he wants whenever he wants so who knows what it'll be. I just think id be an interesting idea for him to do.

As for how a Chonny Jash Power Hour would look? Maybe each song being a cover of a song from a past album or single? I'd imagine one from the before. & Covered in Discontent [maybe Gothic Whore?]. Like remake Pocket since its been referenced so much, tho that's still just a BDG cover so who knows. the before. would be interesting just to see how his perspective has changed since he originally wrote those songs. Gothic Whore he already has 2 songs that have a story version & a him version so I can see him doing another.

I HIGHLY doubt he'd do anything related to Vol.1 as its his completely separate thing & he doesn't rlly wanna touch any song that's TH/HMS related until whenever he feels like starting Vol.2 [which is valid lol]. If anything I could maybe see like TWWAY, Special or maybe Greener? Or go a different route with the og I'm Gonna Win or like a more outta the box one with like Just a Friend [only cos be did a 20 second "cover" of it in Mucka Blucka]. Again, I do not see him touching anything Vol.1 related but still something to entertain ig? [4th TME cover; The Chonny Electric when/j]

Tho maybe he'd just remake songs that he he fully made [like the before. or Gothic Whore], since those are more of actual Chonny Jash songs rather than the others just being covers. Would be very cool to maybe see a remake of some of his Majora's Mask song tho [no this isn't me coping over HEAL not being on spotify shush]. Or maybe he'd do songs from his old stuff like Don't Take it Personally? [also not me coping over wanting that song on Spotify too]

Idk these are just my thoughts on the idea of a CJPH [or even a Can of Soup Power Hour/j]. Either way I am gonna say idc what he'd do, BDG or Streetlight Manifesto are my other guesses, but anything he makes is always rll good & fun so I'll be interested to see whatever it is.

But ya know considering I typed all this out in the span of an hour & a half I kinda hope im not wrong PFFT

#apologies if there's any grammar or spelling mistakes lol #i just typed a lotta insane ramblings so im bound to mess up somewhere. also i am dyslexic #if you actually managed to read all that. Congrats & thank you :D! Also why tho! you're insane for listening to me being insane/j #I hope I made sense at least #And if you spent any time even glancing at my text thank you a lot but I hope you aren't bored lol #also its still gonna be a bit since he does a power hour but still curious as to ppls ideas of it #at least it BETTER be awhile. bro better take that damn br8k #chonny jash #moss post #KJ is going insane again

70 notes · View notes

puppyeared · 10 months

Text

personal character design headcanons + brainrot

Note: the re-bound!au does NOT belong to me, it belongs to @chipper-smol I’m just not normal about it lol

#I SAY PERSONAL BC ITS MY OWN SPIN ON IT. NOT CHIPPERS CANON UNLESS THEY DECIDE TO OR NOT YOU HEAR ME /LH #I made a banner and everything this time. PLWEASE send them your questions not me JAJFHDSF #I thought it would be cool if macaque has two separate forms as a shadow and inside a mindscape. like I wanted his shadow form to reflect #him in his prime and then the mindscape form as what he looked like when he died. or a more vulnerable state at least #based on LBD appearing to MK as the ivory lady when she died in the S3 special. I don’t know exactly what it was but my first thought seein #the white void was she was appearing to MK in his mindscape to talk to him. so I built on that #I wanted to give him a more ‘Smokey’ look as a shadow just based on how he manipulates them in the show like in shadow play. I hope this #makes it look cool and immaterial. and then his mindscape form would be more battered up and tangible #the last couple images are chippers ideas though since they said the monkeys are drawn to MK when macaque is possessing him lol #and the fact that macaque doesn’t have any senses unless he’s possessing someone + literally sniffing out wukong in the scroll 🤨📸#I also have a vivid image of macaque moving from the mindscape to physical form like umm. kind of like when he passes the boundary between #physical and spirit/mind(?) it’s like the shadow covers him like ink. or pulling Saran Wrap over your face and it clings to your skin #so it kind of makes the shadow seem like a sort of shell or covering.. and I love the idea of MK meeting macaque in the mindscape for the #first time too. like the moment mac rescues him from LBD and MK sees him all battered and tired looking brooooooo #I’m not even sure if that would count as a mindscape but it rattles around in my brain like loose marbles #god I fucking love this au. gives me imagination fuel swear to god #my art #doodles #lmk #Lego Monkie kid #Monkie kid #lmk au #re-bound!au #rebound au #lmk sun wukong #lmk swk #lmk macaque #lmk six eared macaque #lmk mk #lmk xiaotian

2K notes · View notes

poorly-drawn-mdzs · 9 months

Text

One final cooking poll.

#mdzs #tgcf #poll #I keep pouring grease on to the kitchen fire with these polls in the hopes it will be a fun thing #this one at least relies on subjective opinions about unstoppable force and immovable object.#every possible outcome is still relatively in character #its up to weighing the strength of each character’s traits against each other.#a fun thought experiment if you will.#***xie lian *has* canonically made decent meals in the past. His current issue is that he gets too experimental. Poor chef’s sense.#And he weaponizes his cooking against others. Quite literally would go 'woe soup upon ye'.#yes there is lore behind why his cooking sucks. Not what the funny poll is about.#I have been making these cooking polls because I like these characters and i like to cook!#alas it is not meant to be. I will be letting the cooking discourse rest forever after this #Will have a comic at the end of this poll's running once again!

295 notes · View notes

devsgames · 1 month

Text

Open-World AI Design: On The Conflict Between Systemic and Scripted Behaviours

I've been playing Skyrim recently, and having not played it for over a decade one thing that has really been standing out to me is how painfully stilted the scripted NPC interactions are in the game. Seeing just how rough these sequences are reminded me of my own experiences designing non-systemic moments in primarily systemic-open world games, and I wanted to reflect on that.

Disclaimer: I recognize that "Why does the AI in this open world game suck?!" is a common complaint The Gamers have and that it's not a new observation by any stretch, and please don't misconstrue me as bashing A Thing You Like. You can still like it. It's fine. I just think it's interesting how the needs and philosophy of open-world AI often encroach upon and affect the execution of highly scripted sequences in open-world games like these.

THE PROBLEM: SCRIPTED INTERACTIONS

Here's a clip of a sequence from my playthrough of Skyrim that illustrates part of the problem. For context, this sequence occurs at the end of a quest chain wherein you help an old and sick alchemist and his apprentice create an ancient artifact he's been trying to make for his entire life:

I think there's a lot of things that are incredibly lifeless (haha!) in the execution here:

The apprentice is standing at the foot of the bed and not next to it, while the mentor is sleeping on his side and not even looking at him.

The transition from Sleeping -> Ragdoll death when the mentor dies looks REALLY goofy.

The phial the apprentice explicitly mentioned as 'filling up' isn't visible anywhere in the scene at all.

The sudden transition from death -> NPC approach -> conversation leaves no room to organically breathe.

The narrative feels incredibly serious and sombre, but the execution is so hard to take seriously.

The ambient music is jaunty and heroic, when tonally the interaction is very sad.

The player doesn't really have much to do here, aside from stare in the corner while waiting for two AI to talk.

The narrative feels incredibly serious and sombre, but the execution is so whiplash-y and abrupt it's hard to take the outcome seriously.

Now first I want to preface that there's a few obvious causes for some of the awkward 'genericness' of this scene, much of which is rooted in more standard production/resources issues with any AAA open-world game. For example, creating an animation of someone holding the phial in question while it fills up would be too expensive to justify creating for just one side quest, only for it to never be used again. While it certainly doesn't help the sequence, I think there's always varying degrees of 'eh whatever it's a video game' plausible deniability that happen here among players too, and it's always understandable that elements like these might fall absent from this scene as a result. It's also a dang video game from 2011, so that certainly doesn't help.

Aside from that, I think a big issue in realizing scripted sequences in open world games like this stems primarily from open-world AI and interactions are often fundamentally at odds with these types of scripted scenes, which in turn reflect poorly on the implementation of the latter.

WHY SYSTEMIC AI?

To understand why scripted sequences can easily feel stunted it's helpful to look at what an AI in an open world context is most frequently expected to do, because it's the baseline of how an AI performs in an open-world game.

In a traditional game a "bandit" AI might only really need to do basic behaviours that have concrete and easily-defined outcomes, such as search for a player and attack them until they die.

In an open-world game like Skyrim an AI primarily has to act believably in an open world where almost anything is liable to happen. A "bandit" in an open-world context would need to keep a running track who is hostile and who is friendly (based on a variety of different changing parameters), pick and choose different locations to travel from organically, travel to potentially unknown locations across a persistent world, use modular systemic behaviours in a way that still appear organic and unique, remember which points it needs to be travelling to and from, what areas it can and cannot go, flee from combat, understand what objects in the world it can and can't interact with, and a lot lot more on top of that. What's more is every AI in the game have to run these same calculations themselves at all time about everything around them - there's a ton of moving parts and AI with different objectives and executions operating at the same time. This is also why systemic AI in open-world games tend to suck - because an open world is inevitably going to write realism cheques that no AI can feasibly cash because there's so much going on in an open-world game.

However there's also good reason why all this complexity is necessary! Killing a bandit who is stationed idly at a guard post in his camp is passable encounter, but killing a bandit who accidentally draws aggression from a patrolling sabre cat from the forest nearby his guard post creates a story out of what was otherwise just an okay encounter. These systemic behaviours are often what people like and expect to see in open-world games to give the world flavour.

On Far Cry there was a name for this sort of concept: the "anecdote factory" - the idea that any sort of emergent experience should make up a fun 'anecdote' for people to talk about and reflect on afterwards, and this approach to AI design is usually built to supports those systemic and organic narratives. This systemic-first AI design is a large draw of what makes open-world games what they are - without this the whole world easily can feel rigid, predictable, and lifeless.

Now this is all well and good, I hear you say, but weren't you just complaining about scripted sequences? Why are you talking about systemic AI? How are these two even related to each other?

Well herein lies the issue: what happens when your immensely systems-based AI needs to do one hyper-specific thing exactly as you planned?

THE FRICTION: SYSTEMIC VS. SCRIPTED

Scripted AI design is often a philosophical counter to systems-driven AI - while a systemic open-world AI needs to calculate many different elements and act out generic AI behaviours on the fly, scripted AI often needs to successfully do a sequence of bespoke behaviours the same way every single time, usually in relation to a larger narrative or sequence.

This causes friction - potentially a lot of friction, depending on the implementation.

The initial assumption most people would have is that if a designer really needs an AI to do one thing perfectly, then they should just force the AI to do it! After all, if it's that important, then why not make absolutely sure it gets done? However, the problem with this approach is that forcing an open-world AI to do just one thing actually makes the AI less realistic in context of an open world game.

In the above scene lets say the player hates the apprentice and decides to blast the apprentice with a fireball while he was speaking to his master. They'd then logically expect the apprentice to react to being hurt by the player and become hostile (as anyone would be, if hit with a fireball). This would be expected to break the sequence as combat would ensue as the apprentice tries to get revenge. This is believable, as it would make the apprentice feel more like an actual human being with the desire to not die. If by contrast the apprentice was forcibly scripted to perform his lines and execute the behaviour like nothing happened, it would feel even worse! This is why most open-world games will actually almost never force AI to perform scripted behaviours if they can help it, because it usually reflects poorly on the intelligence of your AI should anything else happen during the execution of the event.

Unfortunately, the tradeoff to ensuring scripted AI still abide by systemic rules is it means that scripted AI are now expected to perform actions are now operating at the whim of systems, which may choose to override it at any time. For example, if the systemic AI overrides the scripted component of the AI, the apprentice may get distracted by something (a passing enemy, a wandering animal, a stray arrow from nearby combat, etc.) and not complete the sequence as it was intended. This might not seem like a major issue, but keep in mind that a scripted AI failing to perform a task usually results in a sequence break - which in terms of scripted sequences can break a player's entire playthrough. It also reflects poorly on narrative, when scenes of narrative importance might be undermined by systemic nonsense that may happen.

Whenever mission designers witnessed these sort of behaviours on Far Cry the inside joke was that we were just abiding by the "anecdote factory" philosophy. After all, the AI was acting systemically by-design - it just so happened that the anecdote was that a systemic behaviour distracted them. :)

In fact on the production of Far Cry 6 I spent actual months troubleshooting and wrangling AI that just would not adhere to scripted sequences due to the overriding of systemic AI behaviours. For every minute you spend in a scripted sequence you can bet there was hours and hours and hours of unseen troubleshooting behind it!

Now what does any of this have to do with how awkward this conversation looks?

The philosophy of your game design extends downward, and systems-driven is no exception. Instead of using special, bespoke behaviours in quests it becomes cheaper and safer to bank on existing systemic that are widely tested instead of trying to push the limits of what an AI can do. Remember that a sequence failing to execute can block a player's progression entirely, or alternatively result in a ton of work or additional bugs for a level designer putting them together. Safe execution is usually the #1 priority, and that's a tough thing when lots of your scripted implementation is relying on the tech equivalent of shoestring and bubblegum holding it all together.

Even this small scene reflects the drawbacks of a systems-driven philosophy. A good example here is when the mentor dies - he doesn't smoothly transition into a 'death' state, or lie still with his eyes closed, or something more appropriate. Instead, he pops into a ragdoll and plays his generic death sound effect, because his AI is adopting the same generic systemic 'death' actions any AI in the game would. It's how an AI was designed to die from the ground up across the board, so this AI has to die like that for the rest of the game's systems to properly work around it. It could look cleaner, it could look nicer, but for a scripted sequence in a system-driven game it just needs to work.

You'll also notice the apprentice doesn't have any particular uniqueness to his behaviours around the master. He doesn't kneel next to the bed, or do much else for that matter - he just plays his idle on a point until the scripted sequence tells him not to. In fact outside of combat in Skyrim you'll notice that most NPCs use these generic animations because they're built into the AI and are the most likely animation to work in the widest number of cases. In fact, I could probably list the most commonly used animations in Skyrim based on how many times I saw them while playing. A Quest Designer could try to spice a scene up or add variety, but most of the time that would create unnecessary risk around these sequences, so in most instances safe and universal generics are the way to go - which unfortunately limits visual interest because they don't adapt well to unique contexts (like the death of a loved one).

Even something seemingly small like changing music - if we ignore the cost of creating new songs - can bring unnecessary risk. Music is also handled systemically by the game's systems, transitioning based on environment and combat with different enemy factions, so overriding that to play unique songs brings even further risk on a scripted setup - what if combat breaks out during the sequence? Or if the overridden music isn't correctly reverted back by the system? The safer option is to work closer to the bare minimum (i.e. leave the music as-is) than it is to actually push the envelop a bit and bring on further risk.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this sheds a bit of light on how scripted interactions are uniquely affected by systemic design philosophy and some of the drawbacks surrounding it. I feel fairly confident that any open-world game has had to deal with the friction between these two approaches and needed to meet an awkward middle ground as a result. After all, it's sorta an inevitability when you're making massive games intended to mimic a believable world.

#I spent too long on this I hope it made sense at least #gamedev #game development #game dev #skyrim #bethesda #gamedevelopment #game design #video game #analysis #blog #thoughts

55 notes · View notes

koinotame · 2 months

Text

this is jumping off of several different ideas so it probably won't make sense to anyone but me, but imagine some scenario where xiao is pretending to be a regular-ish bird to follow you around for some reason and can't or won't show you his usual form... but you're also the type who loves to baby talk animals. so you (fully aware) take the opportunity to pet him all over and squeal about how cute and soft and did you mention cute he is and rubbing under his chin and nuzzling him against your cheeks and then joking you're scent marking him as yours like a cat and so on, while xiao (completely unaware that you're aware) is combusting on the inside because he knows you're just talking about some stray bird that won't stop following you and not him, but you calling him cute and talking about him as if you own him and he's your precious belonging, as if he's worth loving, is doing something dangerous to him

#i'm really tired i hope this made at least some sense. even if the situation doesn't as much #i would try to place the other playable birdie in a similar scenario but #1. we meet her in her bird form so this wouldn't really work the same way #and 2. she would never

40 notes · View notes

write-it-motherfuckers · 6 months

Text

Sorry for the lack of prompts or reblogs today Darlings, Bunny had a seizure of some kind this morning and though she's behaving normally now, I really don't want to leave anything up to chance given her already fragile health. Luckily the vet clinic that I usually take them to, had a cancelation today, and were kind enough to slot me in. Unfortunately that means I don't have very long to get to the train station to catch the right train, and as such wont have the time to prepare anything.

I apologise again, and thank you for your patience and understanding. I hope you're all doing well Darling ones 🖤

#mod speaks #Bug and Bunny #I hope that all made sense. I can't see all of the text and I'm a little frazzled so I'm sure there #is at least a few typos or repeated words. I apologise if there are

90 notes · View notes

solradguy · 2 years

Photo

This is the second time I have portrayed a woman who has nothing to do with the game, following the world view in the soundtrack. Personally, I like this kind of project theme that’s just on the edge of not being overly vulgar, and I hope that I can include this "slight thrill" in more of my work.

Original character designed for the Guilty Gear Series Best Collection soundtrack cover. Scan from Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000-2007 by Daisuke Ishiwatari

#guilty gear #guilty gear x #daisuke ishiwatari #video game art #my scans #my translations #guilty gear scans #This was one of the few wide illustrations in this book so it was a pain to scan #Sorry her guitar got cut off a little :( It went into the gutter and I couldn't get a clean scan of all of it...#Daisuke's like 'yeah it's not too vulgar at all stickin ya hand in ya pants and palming your entire boob'#I hope 'ほんのりドキっ' does actually mean 'slight thrill' because I could find absolutely nothing about ドキっ in any of my dictionaries lol #The hiragana attached to katakana like that is messing me up but ドキ is like a heartbeat yeah?#So 'slight *heartbeating noise* is kinda like 'slight thrill'?#Anyway that was my thought process for that part #I use 3 dictionaries and none of them had ドキっ in them so I really just had to do my best with that line rofl #Well ok they had ドキ but none of the definitions really made any sense #It can mean earthenware. wrath. or season but none of those felt right at all #Ahhhhhhh Japanese.........#At least ほんのり was straightforward #(slightly/faintly)#suggestive cw

1K notes · View notes

emblazons · 13 days

Note

i’m about a month late to the ffvii rebirth fanfare but i saw your study/shot comparison for the ending while scrolling through some tags and was really curious to see if you had come up with any more conclusions since then! i just finished it a couple days ago and still reeling from it and have been enjoying hearing people’s thoughts about what the heck they think is going on. obvs cloud is not ok, but i’m still trying to decide just how much of what we’re seeing is due to his sanity going out the window and how much of it (if any) is aerith actually speaking to him and/or sephiroth messing with him. the way he tells the rest of the party to not look up at the sky though and none of them see what he sees, just clues them all in to the fact that he isn’t entirely all there anymore. a collective very concerned side-eye lol. somebody help him pls.

!!! oh friend, you're in a TON of luck: I actually started a few different commentaries on how I saw the ending on this weeks back, but didn't post them because I got distracted by other fandoms? I'm more than happy to share them though—not as developed as they could be, but some congealing of where my mind went upon finishing the game and rewatching the gameplay.

forewarning: FFVII ending spoilers + a long af post lmao

So I wrote this on my twitter (where I go to see things only on twt lol) the other day because of a bunch of concepts were clarified by the Ultimania + translators, which kinda sums up where my thoughts are:

Which...yeah. As I see it: as of the ending, Aerith is in fact dead in our current world (the one of the player narrative). How I see it, she's died in our primary timeline—though likely "alive" in the same way Zack is in some other timeline, in addition to her connection to every "universe" through the power of her connection to the planet as the last Cetra.

The white whispers (which represent Aerith/the will of the planet) as well as the “confluence of world” colors we see with Sephiroth are all around when Cloud supposedly “sees her alive" during the classic death scene—

—an indicator that the event itself was the "confluence" Sephiroth was trying to achieve, with Cloud experiencing several versions of it due to his own connection to Sephiroth/the lifestream/his fragmented mind. We see this both in what Sephiroth says around the event itself....and also the contrasting experiences of our party with what Cloud sees in the moment (+ through end of the game).

As I see it, Cloud’s consciousness by the end of FFVII:R-II is fully fractured; throughout both Remake & Rebirth he is already seeing visions affected by Sephiroth’s influence on the planet (the black whispers, the way hooded men and thin air turn into Sephiroth before his eyes)—and now, during the “confluence of emotions / worlds / reunion” mentioned (Aerith's death), Cloud’s already broken mind is slipping further into seeing “the middle space” of the worlds joined and prepared for destruction by Sephiroth in real time, rather than following the timeline of events in the world we play—a la the post that inspired your ask. :)

All that said: the reason he’s seeing Aerith (not just sensing her the way Red does in his own Lifestream connection) is because she’s a Cetra, and now (in death) the embodiment of the positive!Will of Gaia across worlds—so because of Cloud's connection to that "middle space" / ability to traverse different versions of reality because of his connection to Sephiroth, Cloud is interacting with her presence…despite it not being there for anyone else.

It’s also why he can see the sky split no one else can.

ADDITIONALLY:

The Aerith we see fight alongside Cloud in the final battle and the one we see walking around everyone as Cid fixes the plane…that’s the spirit of her person (think the Aerith of Advent Children). Aerith didn’t live this game—her spirit can communicate because of Sephiroth's successful confluence, though she’s ALSO "alive" in the same way Zack and Biggs are to us: aka she died in the world she was in but still exists in others, which Sephiroth confirms/explains both when Aerith pulls Cloud into another “doomed” world—

when he’s trying to manipulate Cloud in the Lifestream—

and when you’re fighting Sephiroth alongside Aerith in the void during the final battle (after she’s died).

Even so, Aerith “living on” as the last Cetra/the spirit of the planet + someone with access to multiple worlds through the "reunion" means she’s now as able to infiltrate Cloud's ongoing visions as Sephiroth is...and is likely trying to keep him even somewhat present despite his clearly fractured mind.

I think that’s implied repeatedly by through the hollow Holy Materia (implying both Aerith is no longer “there,” but still present + that cloud himself is now hollow)—

—and why/how the Black Materia (Sephiroth) is still manipulating him and very much driving his fractured thoughts, visions and actions.

As for the rest of the party: it's because no one but his “vessel-connected-to-Sephiroth” self (+ now dead-but-living-on-in-the-Lifestream Aerith) has any idea what he learned about worlds in the Lifestream that what’s happening to Cloud is lost on everyone (and why they look painfully concerned), and also why spirit!Aerith repeatedly gives him reminders to 1) not listen to Sephiroth and 2) focus on finding himself again.

All that said: because Cloud’s actual self is already slipping away from our present game TL by the second half of the game, it will have to be retrieved and rearranged—which we know will happen in game 3 (assuming you know the original FF7 plot where Tifa rearranges him in the Lifesteam) but that has to be changed from “Cloud finds out about Zack and finally cracks" because Cloud already knows about Zack in some capacity by the middle of Rebirth.

I personally think this sets us up for a really interesting resolution in that Tifa is going to probably have spirit!Aerith’s help putting Cloud back together in the Lifestream in game 3—and that she will likely play a bigger part in helping Cloud “find himself” in his own world again because it’s been made more apparent that she’s a full consciousness in the Lifestream/able to affect multiple worlds now because of Sephiroth completing the first step in his plan. That's more just hopeful on my part going into the next game than something rooted in analysis though.

But yes! those are my thoughts! I hope this gives you (more than a little) something. Feel free to ask if something isn’t clear though lol this was like 4 different half-done drafts combined 😂 Regardless, ty so much for the ask / giving me a reason to post them!

#I hope this made even one (1) iota of sense. I can clarify in a full post later if you'd like because this was a lot of bits and bobs LOL #still. its been made clear by Nomura and Co she is no longer with us at least in THIS world #and context clues as to when cloud sees her + the streak in the sky + the visions of sephiroth etc...his connection to Sephiroth #through Mako/SOLDIER/something similar to the Sephiclones is why he's out here going THROUGH IT #as Sephiroth converges the world. at least in MY reading #cloud strife #aerith gainsborough #sephiroth #ffvii analysis #ffvii spoilers #ffvii:r spoilers #ffvii #final fantasy #the me tag #asks

21 notes · View notes

torgawl · 4 months

Text

i'm seeing people commenting on this new toji art as if it symbolises gege placed toji in heaven even after everything he did and i know it's mostly a joke but i feel like this is actually an interesting thing to talk about. as we all know, jujutsu kaisen is a heavily buddhist inspired story. having in account all the situations gege has made use of this element, which i will add here:

(the first two are illustrations for chapters 89 and 90 of the manga, before gojo and kenjaku died, and the latter for chapter 180)

i think it's safe to say halos aren't used within the manga to be associated with the christian connotation (except for hana, even though her holiness and the one she serves also aren't traditionally christian by context clues we had so far). halos in buddhist art are actually used to depict enlightened beings, which correlates a lot more to toji than whatever christian symbol ever could. however, i don't think it's clear if gege has used halos in jjk with this specific meaning in mind. so far only gojo, kenjaku/geto and rika have been drawn with halos over their heads, as shown above, despite not being the only dead characters. additionally, all their halos are drawn different, taking shape of things relevant to them (gojo has the infinity sign; rika has a flower crown which can be associated with marriage; and, kenjaku has two halos, one within the other, possibly symbolising him residing inside geto). this could relate to toji as he's the only one with a simple halo, and also the only one within those four that is deprived of cursed energy. in my view, this new toji illustration doesn't mean gege sees him as a saintly figure or someone who would go to heaven - that's also why gojo and nanami are shown their own versions of the afterlife at the brink of death - but, most likely, that gege depicts him as a character that has reached an unparalleled understanding of his own existence and transcended death.

#i've made a post regarding halos in jjk before but now it feels relevant to address 😂#so i decides to rephrase my old post which was originally tied with gojo being the only one of the four that hasn't 'cheated' death yet #but i'm choosing to ignore that for now #i hope this makes sense?#i see the halos as figurative at least and don't think they're supposed to be taken literally by western ideologies #so here's sort of an analysis on why i think gege draws toji with an halo #toji fushiguro #jujutsu kaisen #jjk 💭

32 notes · View notes

all-too-unwell-13 · 1 month

Text

ik I'm kind of late to it, but I just watched the live action atla series!!! I've only watched the first so far, but I have some things to say!!!

(Also, please keep in mind it's been ages since I watched the cartoon, so any comparisons I make are based on my memory).

Okay, I'd just like to say I love the casting so far. Like, Katara and Sokka are so cartoon-accurate (is that a thing?), and while Aang does look like he's approximately 7 years old, his casting was also good.

The casting for Zuko was different than how I'd imagined him to look if he was a real person, but so far he seems good too :) although I am slightly concerned about his facial expressions because um.

Anyway!!! I love love love Katara so far, and though I wish she'd stand up to Sokka and his stupid patriarchal beliefs (I don't know how to explain how he acts at this point any better tbh) a bit more, she's so sweet and the way she immediately cares for Aang is just <3<3<3

I'm going to be honest, Aang flying at the beginning looked so unrealistic the cgi was not cgi-ing at that point I think (I also have no idea if that was actually cgi or smth else but let's ignore that!!! Hopefully you know what I mean). But I love how they did Katara's waterbending because, wow, that little sphere of water she made levitate after Aang told her how; I thought it looked so cool.

The firebending!!! I don't know how to describe it other than 'cool,' because it just looked so realistic and :O, you know what I mean???

The Avatar State looked amazing too!! Aang did look a bit strange (I think) when he was flying during it, but other than that, the way his markings lit up was just like the cartoon; it genuinely looked so powerful.

Anyway !!! I will probably also rant about the rest of the episodes when I get to those :)

#as someone who LOVED (and still does love) the cartoon #so far the show looks incredible #how they did the air temples (idk if thats the right word !!!!) was so so so cool #and the cgi and stuff for appa is awesome too #overall im really enjoying it so far :)#atla #atla live action #avatar the last airbender #avatar aang #atla netflix #netflix avatar #katara #atla sokka #atla katara #sokka #atla zuko #so sorry for this long rant #and thank you if you read it lmao #i hope it made at least some sense!!!

16 notes · View notes

masteraqua · 1 year

Text

Chain of Memories x Swan Lake

This has been my little brain worm for the past month and now I wish to infect everyone else <3

#FIRST (and probably last) COMIC WOOOOO #this will obviously make more sense if you're familiar with at least some version of swan lake #but i hope i made the concept clear enough to work on its own #in case my glorious scribbles aren't clear the idea is basically this:#sora has ventured into naminé's memory illusions of hollow bastion (they're in the foyer)#and finds naminé (in the disguise of kairi)#who tricks him into a fulfilling a curse by making a vow to someone other than kairi #what happens next is up to interpretation (because i can't decide LOL)#my art #com swan lake au

122 notes · View notes

waystarresourceco · 7 months

Text

So building off of this post about Kendall and Logan – I don’t know if I’m the last person to realize this but the idea that the hug in “With Open Eyes” is the culmination of Kendall’s (conscious? subconscious?) understanding of familial acts of love is kind of amazing? Like, think about it. It’s a progression:

At 6, Kendall goes to Waystar and it’s the greatest thing ever. Everyone loves him and best of all, he gets to spend time with his dad. But then he wanders off – he’s lost and scared and confronted by a person so much bigger than he is. And right when his tiny world is on the verge of collapse, there comes Logan. Riding in with the power to fix anything and everything with the very strength of his presence. The power to sooth Kendall with an embrace. It’s a comfort.

At 38, Kendall does something awful and he’s not sure how he’s going to live with himself. It’s so big, so painful. He can’t even form the thoughts properly. He should never have gone out. Should have never gone against his father. He feels the pressure of a stare (his father’s or the boys?). It’s suffocating. He feels like maybe this is the end of him. He thinks maybe he’ll die. But then, his father opens his arms and Kendall is six years old. He’s lost and he’s scared but his father is the sun and Logan is there to take some of the weight off his shoulders. It’s a relief.

At 40, Kendall’s father is gone and the world is worse for it. But he can’t think about that now. Because right now, the most important thing is Waystar. And despite everything, despite how complicated it all was – he knows this is what his father wants. It was always supposed to be a family business. And Roman and Shiv are finally with him. Everything is as it should be– except it isn’t. Because Roman is scared. He’s worrying at his stitches and twitching and rambling about what people will think of him and god Kendall knows what it’s like to be that scared. To be lost. He remembers being 6, he remembers being 38, he remembers his father’s embrace. He remembers his father’s love. Now it’s his job to comfort his brother – just as his father comforted him. Kendall opens his arms. It’s a gift.

It's love.

#So now that it’s all written down I’m not sure how married to the writing I even am but the concept made sense in my head haha #Hope it’s at least mildly entertaining #hbo succession #succession #kendall roy #logan roy #roman roy #my writing I guess?

44 notes · View notes

satsuha · 6 months

Text

i got so angry about the AB remaster i drew this

#maplestory #satsuhart #angelic buster #tear #sorry i have to go off about it bc i dont wnna make a separate post about it #im so angry about every single aspect of the new design and art holy shit #simplified all her patterns but added more colours to her main outfit resulting in a rly shitty colour palette #even got rid of her cute peach pink hair with yellow gradient for some bullshit pink/blue hair dye #the bows are drawn SO badly they look so cheap and the added colour looks terrible . her og outfit never even had pink #and dont even get me started on the weapon and the addition of hearts to her design HOLY SHIT im so mad #like before it very clearly had a fantasy 'idol... who Fights' vibe but now she just looks like any low budget jp idol #fkin ruined the look of her soul shooter i used to like the design so much now it looks like a knockoff kids toy that would shoot bubbles #WITH A HEART >!>?!??!?! im gonna kill something #im also so mad theyve fully rounded out her eyes and ADDED HEARTS?!?!?! like i really liked how she had sharp kinda dragony pupils #but thats all gone now SNZZ i can only hope they at least make adjustments to her outfit before release bc wow its terrible!#drawing her again after all these years made me re appreciate how nice her outfit is altho its not like i ever stopped thinking that.#it was always nice #shes cute without being overbearing about it but now its dialed up to 11 i hate it i hate it #everytime maple remasters an illust i lose a few years of my life like seriously they havent put out any nice remaster visuals since 2013 #(RED explorers and they werent even visual remasters in the general sense)#like WAH at this rate im gonna be so pissed off when they get to heroes remaster. theyre gonna butcher my boy and my girl and my #ok im stopping for now but rly. hope ppl are loud enough about their contempt for this bc it didnt work enough for explorers remaster #NOTMYANGELICBUSTER

40 notes · View notes

designernishiki · 8 months

Text

just a thought but like. if akiyama, who’s established as being a bizarrely talented investigator in y5, suspected kiryu’s death to have been faked (or at least “fishy” in his own words) basically on the fucking Spot, i feel like it just makes sense that majima would’ve been just as quick, if not quicker to see where shit wasn’t adding up and become skeptical that the whole thing was a coverup. reason being, in y5 he put shit together and figured out the grand scheme going on so damn early most people didn’t even suspect yet that there was any scheme going on. he then faked his own death well enough to get it in the papers and had masterminded himself all the way to the final boss (with some help of course) before things backfired on him. so he’s got some crazy good skills when it comes to reading people, figuring out their intentions, putting puzzle pieces together, etc– way better than he wants people knowing, generally– and he knows the hallmark signs of a faked death because he’s literally done it before. all that on top of knowing kiryu like the back of his hand and knowing damn well how hard this man is to kill, and how prone to running away from shit for the sake of the safety of people he cares about (for better or for worse) he is. he could absolutely put together that, if given the opportunity by some faction or powerful individual, kiryu would sacrifice his identity and status as a legit living person for the assured safety of others, or for yakuza tensions to diminish, or maybe even as an act of self-flagellation.

tldr: I think the reasons majima didn’t go rogue/apeshit after kiryu’s alleged death are that A) for once he has saejima around to reign him in and make it feel less like Everything has been lost, B) I think he’s legitimately known pretty much all along that kiryu didn’t die that day; nor would he believe it unless he saw it with his own eye.

#however. I also think it would clash with his tendency to be way more cynical and nihilistic than his persona makes him seem #like I do think he’d be pretty fucking sure in his gut And with his logic that kiryu wasn’t dead #but there’d be a pesky depressive part of him that’d scold him for being too idealistic or hopeful in a world that’s so fond of #torturing him. he doesn’t think himself Lucky to say the least. but if he held out hope for saejima while he was on death row for literally #years and saejima did make it back to him in one piece eventually– he’d have some ammo to reason with himself if that makes sense #that + I feel like saejima upon hearing him spiral into supposedly ‘realistic’ nihilism would Strongly reassure him #via reminding him that HE made it back to majima in the end. and that saejima himself knows from experience what a faked death feels like #and how holding onto hope Can in fact be fruitful in the end. overall a bad time for majima after kiryu’s fake death obviously but #he’d be surprisingly stable with all that going for him. makes me think he and saejima would really be the ones keeping daigo from falling #apart. considering he doesn’t have basis for the kind of hope they’re capable of having. almost everyone important to daigo dies eventually #his dad. mine right in front of him. now kiryu. boy must have abandonment issues off the damn charts.#I also like to think he hung around shinada a bit after that incident to just have Something good and pure in his life occasionally. but #he’d be cautious and occasional about it out of fear that he’d ruin shinada’s life or cause him trouble #anyway. many thoughts about all this. they didn’t dive nearly enough into the old guard characters’ reactions to kiryu’s ‘death’ so. yeah #rambling #y6 #majima #kazumaji

50 notes · View notes