#and I hope the game will let him learn from this kind of flaw and essentially give him a more slid character arc in general | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hopefull-mindset · 9 months

Note

I’m eating up all of your Komaeda and Hinata analyses, they’re just so clear and detailed! This might just be my bias, but I’m wondering about your perspective on komahina gradually (hopefully) healing together. I feel like the majority of the fandom mostly focuses on how Hinata would help Komaeda, probably because it seems the more obvious and Komaeda’s worldview is the more obviously skewed. But I feel like Komaeda also has the potential to, at least to an extent, help Hinata heal from his experiences. I don’t doubt that Hinata learned something from the simulation, but he also has a flawed perception of talent and a very low self worth, and I bet it wouldn’t go away overnight. Of course, this comes with the assumption that they would get along again post SDR2, which could be another thing to analyze for sure. Let me know what you think!

Ah I’m flustered again with your kind words! Thank you, I try my best to make sure my point is well explained with backed up reasoning since I tend to suffer intellectually when people don’t do that themselves. Especially when it’s a claim that has no backing but everyone takes at face value *grumble* *grumble*. It doesn’t have to be confirmed canon to be a creditable analysis, a good analyzer doesn’t need to rely on the creator’s every word, but it also can’t just contradict canon itself (unless, if you’re dr3, you contradict canon already and so it’s expected to discard it as creditable). Death of the author doesn’t work like that and it just comes off arrogant, you’re supposed to be working with canon Jesus Christ. Unless it’s a very specific situation where the creator is just garbage at handling their own work, I don’t think anyone deserves that right.

Oops sorry I went off into a tangent. I’m getting a little pissed at what people think is an analysis at all.

Now, with them healing post-game… you’re gonna have to stick with me because this is a lot to speak about. We all want them to be happy together as fellow Komahina shippers do haha, so it’s not you alone that has this bias, but it’s not going to be as quick and easy as the anime shows it to be.

To start, it’s sweet that people do think Hajime can help Komaeda because he can, but they’re going in the wrong direction with this. Hajime is not his nurse, therapist, or at his personal beck and call. Everyone on the island is healing, not just Komaeda. They’re both adults and he doesn’t need to nanny him. Komaeda most likely is going to need more attention medically considering his already poor health and the severed hand of Junko, but mentally? Everyone is pretty much going through some version of mental instability.

Now that’s out of the way, you’re right. People do focus on how Hajime can help him over how Komaeda can help him because it’s more obvious to us. We’re all (hopefully) aware that Hajime had the most positive/impactful influence out of anyone in the cast because of his way of somehow worming into Komaeda’s heart due to their “special bond” and put on a different, more personal level compared to the ultimates. The fact that Hajime proves against what he’s believed in just by being Hajime also works in the favor that Hajime would be the most helpful for him to grow closer with.

I’m glad you brought it up because Komaeda would definitely be as much help to Hajime. A lot of fans have a bad habit of thinking Hajime is much more stable than the rest of the cast and has solutions to everything, when Hajime is also growing with them. Komaeda is deceptively perceptive in how he interacts with Hajime in game. It feels rude when he does target his thoughts toward Hajime and gives his own insight on Hajime’s own person, but he’s never wrong about him when you look back at what’s being said.

When he went on that tangent after finding out what was in Hajime’s file in chapter 4, it was uncalled for to dump that all onto a person at once, but none of what he said about Hajime was wrong. All of it that he said about Hajime admiring hopes peak and what Hajime thought he could be by attending, none of it was objectively wrong. To defend Komaeda in this instance though, he wasn’t being mean on purpose, he was spelling out his own thoughts after being hit with the worst news ever.

However, even in the FTEs when he brings up how similar they are and him being a “miserable bystander” like himself, Hajime always rejects him and by proxy rejects himself. He rejects the part of himself that’s clearly seen in Komaeda at every instance because it’s inconvenient to recognize. Now though, he needs to recognize this if he’s going to accept himself and do what he promised to do outside of the simulation.

To reject Komaeda is to reject himself, that’s why I think it’d benefit both of them to heal with each other and in my wishful thinking, become closer. Another tidbit, as unnerving as Komaeda can be, Komaeda’s uplifting words do clearly make Hajime feel better, especially in chapter 1, and is hurt when he’s the target of distrust or ridicule by Komaeda even after their relationship becomes rocky (oh Hajime, he doesn’t mean it like that). Komaeda is not in the greatest position to help anyone, but these two points would partly help Hajime the most.

To get anywhere near that type of intimacy to let another person get that close to your whole being, especially in their situation, it’s uh. I’m already wincing imagining it play out. Again, It’s glossed over how much work it’s going to take in general for them to heal as a group, but god a relationship like theirs? The only thing I can say is yikes!

Contrary to popular opinion (or unpopular considering what side of the fandom you’re on), it’s not Hajime that’s going to put the most obstacles and barriers between them, it’s Komaeda. Hajime is already on the path of self-reflection and growth, so while for him it’s going to be nerve wracking to try and connect with again, it’s not going to be impossible for him. He already went out of his way to try and understand Komaeda when he’s able to in-game, even after all that Komaeda had did considering his attitude towards listening to his final words when you interact with his cottage after trial 5. It doesn’t make his feelings any less complicated or any less harder for him to confront Komaeda, but he’s going to be more willing in comparison. Komaeda’s side of this is where the real mess starts.

Geez, where do I begin? For one, he’s not gonna be typical Komaeda the way the anime tricks you he’d be. I don’t think he’d be angry at anyone in particular after waking up and finding out everyone is alive. He never was angry at them in the first place, he just stopped idolizing them and did what he thought was right due to his anger at what they decided to become. Questionable I know, but that’s how Komaeda is. Instead, I think Komaeda would just be more lost than he already was, more so after finding out what happened after he “died” and their decision to move forward.

He already keeps to himself, but I think he’d do it more so. I’m not sure he’d know what to say to any of them anymore besides his honest thoughts, which never goes well. He could go back to praising their talents, but for what? Their potential Hope when they’ve already plagued the world with the despair using their talents? What a joke. Again, he can’t easily just let go of what’s essentially his lifeline so that behavior would probably be reserved for people like Naegi or Kirigiri.

Eventually him and Hajime are gonna talk and it’s not going to be pretty. Im sure you can imagine it. This isn’t me saying they don’t have that potential to reconnect because if you remember correctly, he quite literally only apologizes to Hajime in his final message and to his own confusion, says he still cares for him even after what he found out. It’ll just take way longer than just a couple months. It’s not going to be as smooth as it could be, but they’ll try.

Other than that, the only thing to really address is the can of worms that is romantic possibilities. He’s able to truly call him a friend when grown close enough to each other and does show visible improvement in this closeness in stuff like utdp/DrS or Island Mode, but that was already hard enough as it is for Komaeda. I’m not gonna deny that Komahina is “one-sided” in all technical meaning, but not in the way it’s usually used by others. It being one sided means nothing toward Hajime’s general feelings for Komaeda. He still cares about Komaeda regardless of other feelings, but one-sided shouldn’t mean that their relationship stays stagnant?? People use it as if it’s a gatcha to Komahina shippers, which is hilarious.

I don’t like using one sided to describe their relationship as it now has this connotation that Hajime is never going to love him back, and pretty much is an oversimplification of what’s actually preventing him from gaining feelings as well. One-sided is too jarring for me to place on their too complicated mess of a relationship. Kaimaki is one-sided in that I can’t see Kaito responding to her feelings the same way, but somehow they’re suddenly more possible because it’s heterosexual. Too stupid.

Romance should not be important in the healing stage and would probably make things more messy, putting too much importance in romance devalues their relationship to only their ship. Komahina antis are much more guilty of this than the shippers, but it’s a problem I’ve seen with both. If you were to really ask me if Hajime would ever love Komaeda the way Komaeda loves him, then that’s really up to how close Komaeda lets him understand and empathize with him. That’s the only real obstacle here and not one people address well enough.

Hajime could definitely love him otherwise if given the opportunity, but it would destroy Komaeda to let him in that close for him to disappear from his life because of his luck. Issues are complex. Anyway, I hope I answered satisfactory! I could’ve said more, but I’d like to hold those thoughts for another post and I would like to stay on topic believe it or not.

#danganronpa #sdr2 #hajime hinata #komahina #nagito komaeda #it’s a pleasure talking about this!#sorry I didn’t add visual proof #it’s a little time consuming to do that though #*shutter* why do I talk more than I think I do

50 notes · View notes

terrible-eel · 5 months

Text

Thank you @piipaw for tagging me! Here's a game to show off your Tav, feel free to reblog and add your own or take the layout to make your own! I have a million ideas for my guy so I'm so glad I have somewhere to put a few. (Also feel free to ask me questions if you're curious, my dms are always open)

Althea|| Drow || Druid || He/it || 127

What’s your Tav’s…

Favorite weapon: Whips. When in the Underdark Althea whips were his weapon of choice. Once Althea learned how to wield magic through the Old Faith, he grew a thorny vine and nurtured it to maturity before taking a piece for his thorn whip.

Style of Combat: Althea is used to guerrilla warfare from fighting the Loth Drow, but he prefers direct confrontations, taking wildshape and eating whoever’s in front of him.

Most prized possession: He doesn’t care much for material things so he just gives everything he finds to everyone else. He does feel accomplished seeing his companions in the things he gives them though.

Deepest desire: Althea had broken away from the Underdark and traveled alone for so long that he hadn’t given it much thought until he began to get to know everyone. Now he wants to make sure his companions are free.

Guilty pleasure: He makes a terrible Druid by most Druid standards. He’s a complete hedonist and does whatever he wants,( drinks, fucks, fights etc.) feeling that following his own base nature is true worship. He doesn’t care about any gods and has no illusions about “harmony” not implying “savagery” in some ways because everything has to eat and exists on a food chain. (That being said, he hates cruelty)

Best-kept secret: His entire past is a secret. He still has family in the Underdark who chose to remain there. He’d die before revealing anything about them.

Greatest strength: Althea’s sense of fear might be a little broken. It’s not quite bravery so much as an absence of caution, which can be great in combat but might not be so good a trait in a leader.

Fatal Flaw: He falls into caretaking everyone before realizing it. He had left his responsibilities once before, thinking he’d stay independent, but now he can’t help but pick up strays and aid every person who asks, just because he feels like he can.

Favorite Smell: Amber and cloves *wink*

Favorite spell or cantrip: Wildshape. 100%. Learning that specific magic was really the first time he felt free.

Pet Peeve: Volo. The entire man.

Bad Habit: Althea doesn’t enjoy doing one thing for too long. He lacks followthrough with a lot of plans and will just think “Bored now” and find a way out of a situation if it becomes too tedious, even if it means killing someone he had built trust with.

Hidden Talent: The man could command a small army pretty successfully if needed. He has the experience. Not his proudest talent, but it’s there.

Leisure activity: Althea will gamble any chance he gets. Gold is for gambling as far as he’s concerned. Dice, cards, tests of strength. He loves watching people play games more than he cares about winning.

Favorite drink: At some point Gale makes him a cup of sipping chocolate and his life is changed forever. He lurks around when he sees Gale cooking, hoping to get another cup.

Comfort food: Any kind of roast with potatoes and carrots. He loves to eat anything he can get his hands on but roasts are nostalgic.

Favorite person: Aside from his dog and owlbear friends, he’s growing very close to Gale and maybe falling for Astarion.

Favorite display of affection, (Platonic and/or Romantic): Romantic: Althea loves directness and straightforward honesty, but Astarion’s complicated combinations of flirtations and confessions has him fixated. He wants to take Astarion stargazing and let him calm down. Platonic: Gale’s sharing of knowledge is his favorite form of friendship. He’s never bored with what Gale has to say. He wants to show Gale all the secret little magics he’s learned living in the woods. How even smaller mushrooms can reveal secrets, or how bird eggs hold life-lines like the palms of one's hands.

Fondest childhood memory: Building little forts between giant mushrooms with his siblings and pretending they had a little house together.

@basuralindo And anyone else who plays Bg3!

#Tav #bg3 tav #baldurs gate 3 #tavstarion #astarion x tav #astarion x mc #drow #drow tav #druid tav #tav game

4 notes · View notes

rulimaquina · 1 year

Text

Something Is No Longer Wrong With My Stepdaughter

Word count: 4981 words.

If you like my writing BUY ME A KO-FI!

I never planned to have kids of my own. The mere topic of getting pregnant was enough to turn any conversation awkward because most people don't understand why my face twists with disgust at the idea. The idea of giving birth didn't make me feel any less disgusted. And I'd suffered enough during my years spent hopping from foster home to foster home when I was a kid and having my birth certificate altered twice so they could pass me as younger in hopes of getting me adopted off before I finally grew out of the system, to know that 'adoption' is, in many cases, just a fancier word for 'child trafficking'. So that was also not an option.

But I love kids. It was the reason why I became a teacher and studied and continue to learn as much as I can to be the best role model I can be for them. Because all kids deserve to have someone to look up to, someone to turn to when they're excited, scared, angry. Someone who will be there for them. After all, kids are what we, the adults, make of them.

Louis was a godsend. I met him during a soccer game one of my students had begged me to go to, where Louis' eleven year old niece also happened to play, and it was the closest I've ever gotten to believing in love at first sight. He was handsome, hardworking —bordering on being a workaholic— and funny. The best part, the part that made me ignore his talk about leaving on work trips that could last weeks at a times, was that he didn't mind that I had gotten my tubes tied fresh out of college, because he already had a daughter and often joked about how she was more than enough for him. The fact he'd finished the sentence with: "Either way, I wouldn't mind. That's women's choice." earned him even more points in my book. We had a relatively short period as boyfriend and girlfriend —a year—, then spent eight months engaged, two of which were spent living together, before we finally got married.

He was just perfect. The kind of perfection that makes us broken people feel like there has to be something really, deeply wrong, because such perfection just cannot exist.

His only flaw was his daughter, Katie.

Katie was a grade A bitch. Not my words. I would have never called or even thought about calling or even thinking about a preadolescent kid as a grade A bitch. At first, to me, Katie was just a shy kid- some would say too shy for a 12 year old kid. But hey, some kids are just introverted and I saw no problem with that, nor did I see any problem with her behavior. Not right away, it took a while for Katie to show her true colors, long enough that when I received warnings from Karen, Louis' sister, I believed that she must have been exaggerating because describing your own niece as a 'grade A bitch' when your brother introduces his, at the time, girlfriend at Thanksgiving dinner isn't exactly normal. Also because she'd started the sentence with "I'm warning you now that you still have a chance to get out." as if a 12 year old girl's behavior could be enough to make me break up with Louis. Honestly, I thought Karen perhaps didn't like me and wanted to scare me out of dating her brother. I even joked with friends that, maybe, she was in love with her brother and didn't want competition, fully believing Katie was just a shy, introverted kid who hadn't yet opened up to the fact her dad was dating. Her name being Karen also played a role in me believing she was being overly dramatic.

But Karen was right and I was so, so wrong.

Katie was truly a grade A bitch. I tried my best to not let that description of her cloud my ability to create an opinion of my own, but there was just no better way to put it. Katie was selfish, rude, entitled and it seemed that the only thing that brought her joy was making others miserable. I should have known. The amount of times Louis had to leave work to go have meetings with the principal should have been the warning, but he never talked about the meetings and I just assumed Katie was being bullied, not that she was the bully. But her cruel behavior didn't just stay at school, she was banned from Karen's house, was never left alone with her cousin who, despite being only a year younger and both taller and heavier than her, was terrified enough of her to apparently be manipulated and terrorized into all sorts of trouble.

I somehow managed to remain oblivious of all that, until after the wedding.

Our carefully planned honeymoon was canceled because Katie faked appendicitis. I say 'faked' and not 'had an appendicitis scare like many girls going through puberty do' because she confessed to me that she'd been faking it, right after hearing me talk to the hotel we'd booked, begging them to understand our situation and be empathetic, only for them to tell me that, no, they couldn't refund us the price of the suite with a sea-view we'd paid for in advance, because the room had been kept empty and they hadn't been able to reach Louis within the 24 hours window to cancel and get a refund, curiously enough, Katie had been playing on his phone all day because hers was 'dead' and she 'needed a distraction from the pain'. It was the first time I saw her smile.

But I didn't complain, because Louis had promised that he could make that money back in no time, that he could refund me my half or we could make up for the missed honeymoon with a family vacation. Both to celebrate our union and to celebrate that, to him, Katie's appendicitis had been 'just a false alarm'.

Of course, I picked the family vacation. Even if it meant spending even more time with Katie than I had to at the hospital.

I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, willing to understand that having to share her father with a woman who wasn't her mother —another grade A bitch, I might add, and without shame because since I'd gotten engaged to Louis eight months ago, she had only spent time with her own daughter twice, and before that, only five times in two years— was something that took time to get used to and this must have been her way of crying out for attention. Until we made it to the vacation house.

It was a nice two stories tall house —Louis called it a cabin, but I wasn't going to call it a cabin because 'cabins in the woods' just don't look like that— in some heavily forested corner of Oregon. The kind of place with windows that cover a whole area of the wall from floor to ceiling on the second floor, and make you feel like you might get Friday the 13th-ed in there. We got there on a humid summer day, a Friday, intending to stay until two Mondays from that day.

The first day, Katie was just too exhausted from the road trip and having to unpack to start anything. Or so I thought.

The whole day had passed so easily, I ended up letting my guard down. We were sitting down for dinner later than usual, and I was putting down the plates with steak. Mine first, because my chair was the one closest to the kitchen door, then, I intended to walk behind Katie to get between her and Louis, and put both their plates down at the same time like in some fancy restaurant. I was planning to fake a french accent and everything, just to see if I could make them both laugh. But my plan was foiled by Katie planting both her hands against the edge of the table and pushing herself, chair and all, away from the table and into me.

Both glass plates crashed to the ground as I stumbled for balance, one hand gripping the back of her chair, accidentally catching her hair between my fingers and the wood, pulling enough that she shrieked.

It should have felt cathartic. But I apologized to her, profusely, right before I got down on my knees and started picking up the shards of glass and the steak. Louis joined me on the floor, smiling at me before he looked up at Katie, his expression hardening and, for once, I thought he was going to actually do something.

"Go get the mop and a bucket, young lady."

That was it. Katie huffed but obliged, and returned with both things, dropping the bucket an inch away from the floor and causing it to splash some water out. Clearly intended for me, though it mostly reached her father. I could tell she noticed because, unlike if more water had reached me, she looked regretful.

"You cooked mine wrong anyway so, no loss," she said, smiling at me.

As Katie made her way back to the kitchen, a smile of satisfaction on her face that I couldn't see but I could feel was there, Louis gave me an apologetic look. Another flaw of his, he just didn't know how to discipline his daughter despite being the adult and her being the child. But I didn't count it as a flaw back then, because I didn't know how to do so either.

Our second day there was better.

I was stuck taking care of Molly, the chocolate-colored toy poodle that Katie often, even that morning, made sure to remind me was not mine, but who I fed, played with, cleaned up after and walked. Even before this vacation. While Katie only picked her up after her grooming appointments to take selfies with and, very rarely, played fetch with when she had friends over at the apartment I'd been sharing with them for two months prior to the wedding.

"I'm tired of this fucking house." at first, I was caught off guard by the fact Katie was speaking to me. It shocked me enough to make me forget Louis had left to go to the store around forty minutes ago, and that the closest town was fifty minutes away. "I'm gonna go outside."

It took me a minute to react. I watched her walk out the back door and left Molly to her food before I moved to the kitchen window that had a great view of the backyard. I opened it.

"Stay in the backyard, you don't know the area!" I told her.

Katie showed me the middle finger over her shoulder, then disappeared past the treeline.

I deflated a little. But Molly butting my leg, demanding more food and greeting me with that cute little face of hers fixed my mood some. I played fetch with her, throwing the ball from the kitchen to the living room, watching her run after it and bring it back only to make me wrestle her for it. I wasn't really paying attention to the passage of time. I got the ball from Molly again and I threw it across the house again, Molly ran after it, but stopped right in front of the wooden back door, every hair in her little body standing on end as her ears pressed back against her head, teeth bared as she growled. Then, she ran and hid under the couch.

The door opened.

I felt my heart drop to my stomach and my world spin when I laid my eyes on Katie. Her jeans and blouse were dirty and torn, she looked like she'd rolled around in the mud and at the same time, like someone or something had tried to rip her clothes off her. But her body seemed pristine, not a scratch or bruise or even a speck of dirt on her skin, the high ponytail her long blond hair was pulled into was a bit crooked but, other than that, it looked the same as when she'd left. She stared at me, but looked as if she was staring right through me.

"I fell," Katie spoke, realizing I needed some sort of explanation, fast. But only giving me the most emotionless and short explanation.

She fell? She just fell?

I scrambled to my feet and stepped forward, not daring to touch her at first. Then, I dropped to my knees in front of her, my hands moved to feel the inside of her thighs for any wetness, any blood, as she just stared down at me with that thousand yards look in her eyes, her lips pressed into a thin line. Then, her eyes finally focused on me, moving slowly as if she was studying my face carefully.

"What happened?" I asked her, my voice more of a plea for her to tell me than a question.

"I told you," she said, just as emotionless as the first time. "I fell."

I stood up and reached for her shoulder. Without really meaning to, but needing proof that she was actually there and wasn't just an apparition while the real Katie was lying dead in some tree, having been attacked by an animal or taken advantage of by some sick bastard because I had too little of a spine to make her listen to me, I squeezed. She just stared at me. Then, as if she realized she was supposed to feel pain because she'd just told me she'd fallen, she winced.

"That hurts," there was just barely a hint of emotion in her tone. The kind of 'that hurts' that you voice when you get a drop of hot water on your hand while cooking, not the kind you voice when you've fallen in the woods hard enough to walk back home with torn clothes.

I didn't know what to do. I called Louis, I called the rangers. They both arrived at around the same time, with the park rangers car parking in our driveway just before Louis did. He must have broken some kind of record, and all speed laws known to man, considering the park rangers building was way closer than the town the store he'd driven to was located in.

The rangers came prepared. One of them had medical training while the other kept asking me questions. I insisted that something more than a fall had to have happened, and they agreed, but with no injuries, no signs that she'd been hurt other than the state of her clothes, and no word from Katie other than that she'd fallen while taking a walk through the woods and come back home right after, there wasn't really anything they could do other than go outside with Louis and check the surroundings for a little over two hours, before concluding that there was no sign of people nor any animal that could have caused that, only Katie's footprints going to and from the woods.

Afterwards, Katie had been… strange.

I blamed it on the shock of whatever had happened to her, but deep down I knew there was something else going on. Katie hadn't ever come in contact with me, aside from that first time we'd been introduced to each other and we shook hands. Any other time I tried to initiate any kind of physical attention: a gentle squeeze, a playful poke, or even as much as brushing my hand against her by accident, she moved away as if my touch burned her. If Louis wasn't looking, she'd pair her actions with a look of disgust that would indicate I'd touched her with a shit-stained stick instead of my very clean hand. Now, she became my shadow.

She sat by my side on the couch, cuddling against my side. She followed me into the kitchen and insisted on helping me cook dinner, which I had to guide her through like she had never done or before, which didn't surprise me because- well, she was spoiled and I wouldn't have put it past Louis to never teach his daughter how to cook. Since the night before's dinner had been impossible to enjoy and Louis hadn't been able to get more groceries with his quickly he'd returned in his panic of something happening to his daughter, I just decided to recycle the idea of making steak, which Katie seemed really happy with. She watched me open another package of four steaks, and put it in the microwave so that they would unstick from each other. I could have sworn I watched her mouth water when I pulled them out after five minutes and there were droplets of blood dripping from them when I got them with the fork to get them off the plastic container.

When it came time to turn them around in the oven, Katie was hovering behind me, staring over my shoulder.

"Can we eat them like that?" she asked me.

Her tone was gentle, hesitant and polite in a way that made me flinch because I fully expected this to be some sort of trap. I even looked down at her hands to make sure she wasn't folding anything that could be used to prank me or hurt me. That was the level of paranoia this child's behavior had reduced me to. But her hands were empty aside from a cloth I'd been using to clean some blood off the counter and I'd asked her to hold it for me while I checked our food. She was squeezing and twisting it almost nervously.

"You like your steak rare?" I asked her. Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted in confusion. "That's when it's juicy and red on the inside."

"Oh," she said, her tone suddenly monotonous. "Yeah, I like it like that."

I nodded, thinking to myself that, well, that was weird. But I would take this kind of weird behavior ten times over her usual angry-at-the-world behavior.

The next day, we all went to town. Even Molly came along, because Katie insisted on bringing her with us. It'd been an odd night, but slowly, Molly seemed to begin warming up to Katie again, enough to let her be the one holding the leash. I blamed the previous growling and hiding on the fact seeing Katie the way she'd returned from the woods had probably scared the soul out of Molly, or that perhaps she could smell some wild animal on Katie that made her wary of her. But that didn't matter. How could it matter when Katie walked ahead of Louis and I, trotting to make Molly run and bark, her fluffy tail wagging a mile per second.

We made it to the store and each of us went their own way, agreeing to meet back at the front to pay in fifteen minutes, while Molly stayed outside, tied to the bicycles rack.

As I made my way from hall to hall, I noticed Katie in the hall with all the hair products. She was holding a box of hair dye. It didn't surprise me, since I'd already seen her dye her hair different colors a few times. She had the hair for that, honey blond and healthy from her five products routine. What made me let out a punched-out gasp as I approached, however, was the fact that she was holding a brunette dye box, staring intensely at it and, upon realizing I was there with her, holding it up beside my hair.

"Do you think it's the same color?" she asked me.

Hesitantly, I took the box from her hand while grabbing a strand of my own hair with the other, comparing the color shown on the box with my own. Then, I looked up at Katie.

"I think mine is just a shade darker," I said, handing the box back.

Katie nodded, returned the box to its previous spot, even made sure that it was perfectly straight. Then, she looked for a darker shade and grabbed it. She looked at it, then at me, and she smiled a smile I could only describe as tense and unused.

"It's this one," she said. "Can you dye my hair when we get back?"

This time, I managed to hold back the punched-out gasp that threatened to leave me. I smiled a crooked smile, torn between shock and joy that this was actually happening, Katie wanted to spend time with me. "Of course I can!" I said, wincing at me own excitement because this felt unreal, felt like any moment now she was going to start cackling, mock me for falling for her prank. But, instead, Katie hooked her arm with mine, and walked with me around the store grabbing things, holding onto her hair dye box until it was time to pay and I had to tell her to hand it back.

I never heard so many compliments about how pretty my curls were and how shiny my hair was as I did on the ride back to the house. Katie complimented me enough to make Louis feel like he had to, too, but his "I love when you have it loose like today." didn't compare with Katie's "Your hair is soft like cotton."

It was nice. But I still sort of expected the other shoe to drop. I made sure that Katie told me she wanted me to dye her hair the same color as mine and that it'd been her idea out of nowhere to do so, twice, in front of her father once we made it to the house, before I even made my way with her to the bathroom to actually do it, because I wasn't going to risk her claiming that I'd forced her or anything of that sort once it was done and there was no turning back. Once it was done, she stared at herself in the mirror, awestruck, and made me stand beside her, her expression growing even more joyful as we stood side by side with our now identically-colored hair. I even offered to get a curler and try my hand at giving her curls that looked like mine, but Katie very politely told me she just loved the color.

That day had been so perfect, I didn't even have it in me to get mad at Louis when he got a call early in the morning the next day telling him he had to go back home because something at work had gone wrong and nobody but him could sort the problem out. I just smiled and told him we'd be waiting for him, even after he told me that he'd be gone until Thursday night.

Louis left after lunch. I just resigned myself to having Katie go back to her old self the moment his car sped away from the driveway. I even walked back to the living room with fearful, hesitant steps, only to find her sitting on the carpet in front of the couch, Molly curled up on her lap, her tail wagging lazily as Katie petted her. Katie turned her eyes from the weather broadcast to me, smiling.

"It's going to rain tonight," she told me. "We could watch a movie."

That's how we ended up cuddling- yes, cuddling on the couch, a blanket over both of us, Molly lying over the blanket on Katie's lap, and a now empty bowl of popcorn on mine. Rain poured outside, but there was no thunder, just the howling of the wind and the crashing of water against glass and the wood of the porches.

Then, there was a much heavier, louder crash on the back porch.

We both tensed. Molly whined and shifted in Katie's lap, even barked, and Molly rarely barked. Something was wrong. I moved to stand and Katie's hand seized my arm, her features twisted into a fearful expression.

"Don't go," she whined.

I rested my hand over hers. It took me a minute to pry her fingers from my arm, the feeling of her grip lingered even as I brought her hand to my lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

"Stay here," I told her.

I moved the blanket off myself and petted Molly to try and calm her, before I slowly made my way towards the door. I peeked out through the peephole just as something heavy and human slammed against the door.

Katie stood outside, soaked to the bone. Her hair was a mess, knotty and dirty like she hadn't combed or washed it in days, her arms and legs were covered in scratches and bruises, some deep enough to bleed, she had a wild look in her eyes, looking back over her shoulder towards the woods with frantic glances, never ceasing her knocking on the door, her clothes were different from what she'd worn that day when she left the house to go for a walk, it looked like some kind of leather I couldn't recognize if I didn't open the door.

I pressed my forehead to the door and closed my eyes, feeling each vibration all the way to the bone as her fists frantically banged against the outside of the wooden surface.

"Dad, are you there?!" she cried out. "Let me in. They're going to find me! Dad!"

"I told you to stay in the backyard."

A couple seconds of shocked silence passed, then. "Teresa?" she asked. The little shit sounded almost surprised I was there, when this is my house too. "Teresa, what the hell are you waiting for?! Open the fucking door!"

"You should have fucking listened to me, you disrespectful little brat!" I spoke, louder, harsher than I'd ever dared speak to her before. I was tired of being the enabler and receiving only disrespect in return. "Now you're going to learn!"

Then came the insults. Being called an envious cunt, among many other nasty words that no twelve year old should be using with anyone, but much less with her father's spouse who had up until now been trying her best. It made it easier to turn my back to the door, eyes still shut as I took a deep breath, reminding myself it wouldn't be right to tell a child that this 'envious cunt' made her daddy's toes curl at night.

I looked towards the living room and there was Katie on the couch, where I'd left her. Her body remained facing towards the paused television, but her head was tilted as far as she could to the side, staring directly at me through the corner of her eye. Her face seemed to have paled, shoulders tense and eye wide like she'd been caught looking through my closet, but also like an animal ready to attack. Like a cornered rat, the thought popped in my head and, honestly, it was fitting. This was the most genuine emotion I'd seen on her face since she'd walked in with her clothes torn and dirty, but otherwise unscathed.

The microwave went off. The popcorn was ready.

I walked towards the kitchen slowly, holding my hands behind my back to let the Katie on the couch see them at all times. I poured all the popcorn into two bowls and added butter and salt to mine, ketchup and sugar to Katie's. The hairs at the back of my neck stood on end and, resisting the urge to look over my shoulder, I glanced towards the microwave door and saw the reflection of Katie peeking into the kitchen, staring right at me with that same 'busted child and cornered rat hybrid' look on her face. When I turned to face that direction, losing sight of her for perhaps half a second, she wasn't there. I walked back into the living room with one bowl in each hand, ignoring the banging on the door and the voice that had changed her strategy from insults to desperate pleas, and found Katie on the couch again, in the exact same position as when I'd left her.

"Remind me to add ketchup to the list of things I need your dad to buy on his way back," I hummed as I sat back by her side, resting the bowls on my lap, hers in front of mine, closer to my knees. "We don't want to run out or we'll have to find you a different snack for movie nights."

I grabbed the remote, swung one arm over the back of the couch and watched her flinch at my closeness. I didn't touch her, choosing to instead give her time to initiate contact on her own. After all, some kids are fidgety when they feel like they might be in trouble, especially kids like my Katie, always trying so hard to be the perfect child and make me happy, but not socially aware enough to tell that my previous upset had been directed at the rude little shit at the door, not at her.

It took a minute, but she finally returned to her previous position leaning against my side, and I wrapped my arm around her, tracing gentle shapes against the smooth, hairless flesh of her arm. There was hair growing there, I could feel it now.

The screams got loud and more desperate before they finally stopped and I was able to unpause the movie.

"I love you, mama," Katie said from where her head rested against my chest, one of her hands pressed flat over my belly, fingers sprawled out as if she wanted to feel as much of me as possible, as if she loved me so much she couldn't get enough of me.

"I love you too sweetie."

#creepypasta #horror stories #scary stories #nosleep #horror writing #fiction #horror fiction #something is no longer wrong with my stepdaughter #my writing #my original work

47 notes · View notes

lover-also-fighter-also · 2 months

Note

15, 38, 39, and F from this ask game for my girl Anitha! and 4 for Griffin if you feel like doing so <3 I wanted to ask earlier lol sorry for the delay

For Anitha:

15. How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

It mostly depends on the situation present. Anitha usually is the kind of person who speaks her heart out. But when the environment is tense, she makes sure to carefully frame her words before speaking it out.

38. What memory do they revisit the most often?

Two of her favourite memories of Penderghast is the time when Griffin pulls her out of the lake, and the other when she and Atlas have a heart-to-heart after learning the hydrobreath spell.

39. How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?

Anitha accepts flaws as a natural trait in any person, but does not let that flaw define them. Like with Beckett, she understands his insecurity when his sister comes to Penderghast as a professor and advices him to not compare himself with his sister and to follow his own path

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

I can say that Anitha is a reflection of what I wish I was like in real life, and hence I'm always excited to write about her.

For Griffin:

4. How easy is it to earn their trust?

Griffin trusts people and is willing to give them a chance to prove themselves, and hence it's easy to earn his trust.

P.S Im sorry for the late answer @a-cloud-for-dreams. I was going through a bit of writers block and was not able to answer earlier. Hope you understand.

#playchoices #pixelberry #choices #choices stories we play #choices stories you play #choices book club te #oc: anitha russell #anitha x griffin

3 notes · View notes

leekimdramas · 5 months

Text

Death's Game Review (Both Parts)

"It's life that I'm afraid of. I'm not afraid of death at all. Death is merely a means of ending the pain I'm in."

Yi Jae tries to get a job in a company but keeps failing the interviews. Losing all hope he decides that death will be the better solution.

However, Death decided to punish him for his choice giving him 12 lives where all he needs to do is live.

The premise of the drama is really interesting. What will happen to the main character and whether will he get to live or not is always on the viewer's mind.

It is also done very creatively and I loved how each life was somehow connected to all the previous ones. Or at least it was done to make Yi Jae learn something from it.

As aspected though there is a suicide, talks about it in the drama, and sometimes it does seem more like a guilt-tripping. So it might be triggering for some.

I also feel like the revenge part could have been done better. It was interesting to watch but everything happened way too quickly and there was no satisfaction.

Another bonus of the drama is the well-known and amazing actors that appeared in it.

It definitely made me pay more attention to see who is going to pop up next.

And as expected everyone did an incredible job with their characters. It even made it harder to let go of life as I would have loved to see some of the actors for longer.

To sum it up, this drama definitely has its flaws and I get why people would be reluctant to watch the drama. Suicide is a very hard topic after all.

Everyone has different experiences with it. The drama will not do justice if you expect that every situation of why it happens is going to be mentioned.

Personally, I did find it very interesting and every portrayal got me laughing and crying, and feeling all kinds of emotions.

Plus it got me clued to the screen which is so hard to do nowadays.

10/10

#death's game #review #spoiler free

5 notes · View notes

adelle-ein · 1 year

Text

lace's oc2path review

Disclaimer: I am deeply critical of this game and of Octopath 1, and I very much loathe COTC, so there will be a lot of negativity in this post. Don't like don't read!!!111 Also explicit spoilers for everything duh, and game typical content warnings.

Octopath and I have a…complicated relationship. It was my first Switch game. I had fond memories of it, even if it was never my favorite, I found it very hard, I really only cared about Primrose and Cyrus as characters, and I never even got all the secret jobs, let alone beat Galdera. Then the mobile game COTC came along, bringing with it a clusterfuck of horrific misogyny, racism, and frankly terrible grimdark story writing, severely souring my relationship with the franchise. I tried to replay it in 2022 and couldn’t even get to a chapter 2 — the grind was awful, the world was bland, the stories were just insufferably boring at best and misogynistic at worst. The lack of relationships or even acknowledgement between the characters made the whole thing feel stilted. Therion works alone, don’t mind the seven other people walking behind him! Now let’s explain the ways all the stories connect in a diary info dump locked behind a boss rush!

Octopath 1 has staggering design flaws and, as more and more JRPGS come to the Switch, those flaws become strikingly pronounced. Party dynamics are important to me, and without them, most of 1’s cast remained stubbornly boring. The game was hard, but not fun enough for me to want to grind OR learn advanced strats. Every chapter of every story follows the same basic plot beats and the layout of the world is boring and predictable, with even the scenery getting old eventually.

So I had mixed feelings when Octopath 2 was announced, especially when I saw they hadn't changed a single one of the main 8 classes and that the Crossed Paths would only be between four duos of characters. Still, the game went on sale for $40 in mid-April. Split the price with a sibling and here we are.

For starters: The graphics in this game are fantastic. I’m still not in love with HD-2D, mostly because of the lack of expressiveness in the tiny character pixels. Watching them flop over dead in a pile of blood in Triangle Strategy was only ever hilarious, and most emotional scenes fall flat. Strangely, Asano continues insisting on using this style for really drama-heavy, emotional games. Luckily, they’ve made some strides forward with OT2. The bigger human sprites are drastically more dynamic and expressive, move more fluidly than ever before, and have ample opportunity to demonstrate both emotion and personality. Everyone’s unique walk cycles and Bewildering Grace dances really bring character to the game. We can get a clearer look at job outfits and have animations for all kinds of things like dancing and character interactions. And HD-2D, as always, continues to shine in the backgrounds, special effects, and enemy sprites. The game is very pretty, and while I still don’t think HD-2D is the best choice for any character-driven game, the sprites don’t feel nearly as rough and awkward as they do in their predecessors. I hope Team Asano retains this style in future HD-2D installments, especially interpersonal ones.

The world is huge, sprawling, and genuinely FUN to explore this time, with various nooks and crannies to dig into. The day/night cycle and added path actions really add a lot of fun and variety to gameplay. The world not being a perfect circle moving outwards really makes things more exciting and less tedious, and the towns, cities, and dungeons had so much variety. I genuinely had fun on the journey this time, while in 1 i was just dragging myself from town to town. The bonus bosses, latent powers, hidden classes, sidequests, and various new game mechanics all felt like upgrades from the first game to me.

The music is banging, no criticisms here. I’ve gotten the impression before that Revo and Nishiki have been influenced by and learning from each other and I think this really shows it. Super fun, loved that we have more theme variants now. VA work was solid, with some very fun moments but nothing I was super amazed by. That's not a problem, though, it's really all I ask for in a game. Loved the added voice lines, the unique voice lines for certain bosses (I don't wanna fight no doggy-dog…), and how the characters interact with each other in battle as the game proceeds.

I’ll continue with my thoughts on the eight characters/stories one by one and then give some overall opinions on the “main plot” and game itself.

Ochette:

The constant food talk gets old fast. Seriously, every conversation this girl has ends up being about food or similar. I also think her voice acting may have been mixed oddly, sometimes it's quiet and sometimes at too high a volume, she ends up sounding REALLY loud and grating a lot of the time. Overall, she really doesn't feel as fleshed out as every other character, and it's a shame. That being said, she does have some very fun travel banters and brings a fun "kid of the group" energy, it's just…she's twenty goddamn years old.

Story-wise, had a lot of potential but constant food talk and the weird fantasy racism (why do they all speak broken English) were huge drags. I thought the stuff with the unchosen starter was a really good idea, but there just wasn't enough time lent to it, and overall the first and last chapters felt completely disconnected from the middle ones. Oh well.

Castti:

No mercy, only pain. She's just a great character who ended up with so much depth and felt like a twist on the kindly, maternal healer. "Do harm when necessary to save lives" is a great archetype for doctor characters and Castti plays the role fantastically. She has been through so much and still chooses to be gentle when she can, but if she has to she'll bring the axe down. She has a talent for making do. She has so many fantastic scenes and lines and flips the "mom friend" character around on its head. I really love her, she's great, she's up there with Primrose for me forever.

Her story was also my favorite, and her boss the toughest to beat by a comfortable margin (what worked in the end was no strategy just hikari, throne, and their knives). Sure, some beats are always predictable in Octopathland, but chapter 3 was beautifully done, and the use of game mechanics and the interface to play with the effects of Castti's amnesia were really enjoyable. Nothing groundbreaking, but a strong and solid story that felt emotional and meaningful as well as unique and independent from the stuff all three games have done and rehashed. Castti herself is of course a huge part of that, but this is one of the rare Octopath stories that didn't feel like it was being fully carried by the strength of the MC.

Throne:

Throne herself, I adore. She's fun, she's determined, she's witty, she's like Primrose in some ways but firmly different in others. She doesn't want to kill, but it's all she knows. She has some fantastic travel banters. I laughed out loud at her first "Bravo, Temenos." And the little "tada…" when she uses Disguise. She's great, she has endless potential, and boy does she have fun path actions.

Warning for discussion of incest, abuse, and rape in the following paragraph :(

Unfortunately, her story is the classic edgy Octopath misogyny fest. What was with that random sex slave and what the hell happened to her??? We don't care, she only exists to show that Bad Guys Evil and that Throne Can't Be A Hero Because She Is Tainted. Everyone wants to rape Throne and that is made way too clear. Some of those people are her fucking brothers, because why the fuck not. And the ending with the "but was it worth it?" tone was phenomenally stupid. Octopath asking the quintessential question: is it okay to escape slavery even if you have to kill your slavers? What if your slavers love you (even though they keep you in a collar and whip you and offer you up as a rape victim and force you to kill people?) What if your slavers are your parents or siblings? Also not loving any of the Marietta story, anything that involves "she killed our baby" is going to set my hair on end in this day and age and I just did not like the way any of that was portrayed and handled. Even if Claude didn't rape Marietta, it's clear he raped several of the other mothers including a few of the ones we meet, and they're all forcibly separated from their babies and left to die — it's just too much. It's too disgusting. The huge conspiracy itself fell flat due to the general creep factor and tried way too hard to be edgy. Throne cannot be happy within her story for even a second and it's way overdone. I'm sick, absolutely sick, of this type of story and COTC trying to play with "but she loves her abuser" stuff and doing a frankly disgusting and often fetishizing job. Overall, it felt like a COTC plotline, and that is very much a bad thing for me! I'm glad that the postgame sidequest cleared up the Mira plotline and actually had some "breaking the cycle" themes, but the fact that we've just apparently left the residents of Lostseed to suffer and die instead of even attempting to bring them to the Garden or somewhere they can get help is pretty gross.

But again, I adore Throne herself. Get her out of this game. Put her in Animal Crossing or something.

Osvald:

And now we flip around! Talk about pleasant surprises! I was not expecting to like him or his story at all, it felt so Octopath edgy and woman-in-fridges-y. And to an extent, it is, but the game is actually self-aware of this and gently pokes fun at it to a degree that makes it more bearable. Osvald is an Edgy Man and the other travelers can and will be confused by it. That's really fun. Being able to save Elena flips everything about the story on its head in a good way, and The Answer being The Power Of Love is both so funny and so sweet and fitting. Just a genuinely heartfelt and optimistic story in the end despite where it begins, I really liked it despite another dead wife on the pile. The antithesis to Throne's story.

My main complaint is that the story pacing ends up really off due to two out of five chapters being at the very start and about the prison escape. I really think he could have benefited from another chapter between his 3 and 4. I wish the ending was more emotionally satisfying, but it does feel in character and leave on a hopeful note. Would have enjoyed, if not a reunion scene between him and Elena, something more significant about them and their relationship than the tiny nod we got at the end. All that being said, liked both him and his story a lot!

Partitio:

He really is very funny. Those voice lines are a hoot, every Scent of Commerce is just ridiculous, and his determination to stop That Devil Called Poverty by having a polite meeting with the CEO of capitalism and giving him some $$$ is just absurd. As a character, I can’t say I find him as interesting as Castti, Throne, or Osvald, but he’s entertaining if nothing else, and his first chapter pacing is creative. He was my MC and spent tons of time running Arcanist Sidestepper or Latent Power Catapult Inventor, so of course I got pretty attached. Yeehaw let's do it catapult go-go-go

But let’s be real here. Any story about a merchant “helping the poor” by doing more capitalism is going to be kind of a mess. It wasn’t a harmful mess, but it felt like the story was deliberately skirting around making any meaningful commentary. None of this is surprising, but I spent a lot of chapter 4 rolling my eyes. Roque illegally modifying a contract after signature on multiple occasions is just completely brushed aside, and Partitio happily SIGNS a contract with him KNOWING Roque has a habit of violating and editing them. It’s all just very…dumb. Seize the means of production Partitio! Don’t just give The Man eighty billion leaves! Also, Roque apparently KEEPS all that money in the postgame even though he’s allegedly reformed, soooooo (I know he's using it on the railroads but like….Yeah)

But yeah, while it was a silly story, it wasn’t much else. He's a fun guy though. I wonder if octopath 3 will bring us our first edgy merchant MC.

Agnea:

She’s sweet and fun. I don’t really feel like I have a lot to say about her, which isn’t a negative? I enjoy her theme, I love all her dance animations, I think her constantly-slipping accent is pretty funny (I’m genuinely not sure if the premise is that Agnea hides her accent and occasionally slips into it by mistake, or if the VA keeps forgetting that Agnea is supposed to sound Southern and only remembers when Agnea says “oh my stars” or something lol. It’s funny though.) But like I said, I enjoy her, she’s not as grating as some of the other “goodhearted, happy go lucky” characters from 1.

Similarly, while I don’t have much to say about her story, that’s not to say I disliked it. I thought it was sweet. Dolcinea and her gf are some of my favorite NPCs in the game, the final battle kicked my ass in a fun way, and most of all I love how ¾ of Agnea’s bosses are just her going “I want to speak to the manager!!” and it actually working. I liked it a LOT better than tressa’s, which it’s constantly compared to, since it felt like an actual coherent story. She’s a star!

Temenos:

Fandom made me dislike Temenos before I set foot in the Crestlands. In those early days especially, every woman in this game was ignored in favor of an AVALANCHE of fanart of him and crick. People say weird shit about Temenos being a twink, some of which is frankly homophobic and/or creepy. I pretty strongly disliked his predecessor Fandom Favorite Man, Therion. Man had a lot riding against him. All that being said, once I got to know him I liked Temenos just fine! He's a priest who can't remember the Lord's Prayer and calls the scripture boring at every given opportunity. Also enjoys beating the shit out of people for information and can barely be contained by those around him. It's a fun character type.

His story, though, is honestly just blah. I guessed the big murderer about as soon as they appeared on screen, and by the time I finished the story I was pretty confident I knew who was manipulating them too…and I was right. As funny as it is that Temenos can use his "special powers" to just, like, see something lying on the floor, the investigation/mystery is really lacking and dull, which is disappointing. Particularly since his story is the "main" one that reveals the ultimate final boss, and the only one that gets a full follow-up cutscene in the extra chapters — it ended up just being a big pile of text dumping, which is not a fun way to do a mystery/whodunit!

Also Crick is boring.

Hikari:

Hikari is Just Fine. He's sometimes fun, largely unremarkable, just another member of the crowd. The same is pretty much true of his story as well — it's just Fine. Has a pretty hilarious mom-fridging as horses whinny loudly in the background, which I think was iconic. Dunban levels of "bad at making friends" (and while it's not "Therion works alone" levels of stupid by any means, does feel a little awkward that he keeps talking about needing his Allies and True Friends while seven people he camps with are standing right there…) I really just don't have a lot to say about him or his story, which isn't a bad thing! It was fine, he's fine. My only real complaint is that I don't love that his overcoming his Evil Blood was tied to him also having Good Blood on his mother's side — that detail seems irrelevant to everything, and I would have preferred his overcoming the Shadow and taking back his Hidden Power just be framed as him having willpower and a good, kind heart. But I am nitpicking here, since I think that was the intention — just wish blood hadn't been brought into it, y'know? Anyway yeah Hikari's fine.

Together Now:

The Crossed Paths are SO short (other than waiting for that insanely long lute performance to be over) and that's a shame. I wish there were more of them, between more characters, that they were longer…I hope any future Octopath games play with these concepts. Overall, I mean, it's a huge meaty game and it's not that I wanted to be playing it longer, I was satisfied by the length. I just really would have appreciated more character interaction. I'm glad that you can view the travel banters freely and easily from the menus now, and that there are more of them. But I do wish that the characters emoted during them instead of just standing there staring blankly at each other. Huge improvement over one, just not quite there yet!

I will say the Extra Chapters/final boss were also huge improvement over 1's, with actual cutscenes, some character interaction, more consistent foreshadowing, and finally, a boss with no boss rush leadup whose level of challenge is more "difficult but doable" than "haha fuck you." My hopes for this game had been that they would lower the final boss difficulty and make a bigger, harder bonus boss for hardcore players to enjoy, and I'm really happy that they did so! I beat Vide :)

That being said, most of the Extra Chapter reveals were entirely contained in heaps of diary entries again. You guys expect me to remember who Tanzy was or care?? Other than the Arcanette cutscene/battle, things never got that emotional or exciting. A few travel banters tried to fill in the blanks, but there just wasn't enough emotion or stakes put into the scenes. That being said, I enjoyed the Vide battle and it was the perfect difficulty level for me, and I enjoyed the ending and epilogue a lot! It just didn't quite do everything I want from a JRPG ending (which…has been my tune with almost every newly released JRPG I've played in the last couple years :( we need better endings in these things.)

Will also say that the Osterra nods don't really make sense, but I'm personally subscribing to Osterra and Solistia straight up being parallel worlds (I suspect COTC will be confirming this one way or another in the JP version shortly, but like, eh).

Overall, it was a good game, I liked it, it's hands down my favorite Octopath and probably my second favorite Asano game after BD2. Despite my complaints, wishes things had diverged further from the original game, and generally feeling like this series is a bit overrated in JRPG circles, Oct2path is solid, fun, and a big upgrade from its predecessors. Stan Castti

#lace reviews #txt #octopath traveler spoilers #octopath traveler 2 spoilers #octopath 2 spoilers #octopath traveler ii spoilers

8 notes · View notes

trainergraceneedstherapy · 1 year

Text

Suddenly got nostalgic.

It's funny how much I talk about Unova without actually-TALKING about Unova. I miss it, for sure. I just-..it's home. It may not be where I'm from, but I will ALWAYS be a Unovan at heart. That's where my story began after all-where I met him. Well-one of the hims you're probably getting sick and tired of me rambling about on here but-..he was one of the first people to respect me as a trainer, even if He didn't exactly AGREE with me.

He was-..well-in a bad situation. The older I get, the more I understand what was going on and the more ENRAGED I become about how unfair it was. And the more I want to kick that so called father of his' ASS again.

Unova is where I learned people and pokemon BELONG together-where I learned to hold my dreams-my convictions, my truths, MYSELF-tight and never let go, keep FIGHTING-but to accept the viewpoints of others, even if you don't agree. (Unless that viewpoint is hurting other people. Then it's ass whooping time.)

I didn't know what to say back then, when he left. All I could think about was what he asked me. What he-asked me in that stupid cave I kept getting lost in. (Fuck chargestone cavern.)

'Grace, Do you have a dream?'

He looked me in the eye-I was younger than him then, but he still asked me-like I was his peer. Like we were equals and that-..it meant so much, after everything. ..And I still said no. I-had no IDEA what I wanted then. I didn't think about what I wanted to be-what I wanted to do.

And he said to me-

"Dream your dream! Then, pursue the ideals to make that dream a reality, and someday you will achieve all that you dreamed of!"

...I can still hear that last "Farewell!" even now.

I wonder if he's out there somewhere. I mean-I would HOPE he isn't like-dead in a ditch somewhere! For someone that kind, that brilliant-it would be a horrible fate. ..I just wonder sometimes.

...Hey kingy...

I finally figured out my dream. You proud of me..?

(OOC Rambling time: Sorry about this long ass lore post-I was feeling nostalgic.

My first official pokemon game (Not the Spin-offs like the Mystery Dungeon series, Conquest, and my REAL first pokemon game, Pokepark 1 and 2.) was White 2. I guess i should have started with the originals, but i was 10 back then, i didn't know any better! Anyway, my first encounter with N was in chargestone cave, and i was pretty confused. So, i looked up and watched a couple youtubers (Marriland, Munchingorange, ect.) play through the first game to see what the heck was going on, and BOY, did N's story steal my heart. He quickly became my favorite character, and you can't imagine my excitement when he showed up in the anime series! (i used to watch it all the time when i was little, starting with the Diamond and Pearl series) His story really made me think about the fact that these pokemon i was training weren't just tools, but living, breathing beings. Characters in their own right! In short, despite having its fair share of flaws, Unova will always have a special place in my heart, along with the "Freak without a Human heart" whose title couldn't be farther from the truth. Thank you, Gamefreak, for creating a memory that will last a lifetime.

And thank you, N, for being a teacher of sorts for a kid who had NO CLUE what she was doing back then.)

#pokeblogging #trainer grace lore #pokemon au #pokemon irl #unreality #Unova pride #ooc post #kinda

8 notes · View notes

starboyshoyo · 1 year

Note

(I hope I did this right)

Name or alias:

Misumi, Sumi, Misu

Personality:

Isfp, Ambivert leaning towards introvert, air head, witty, shy, creative, insecure, emotional, empathic, passive aggressive, anxious, naive, geek, pet lover, almost nocturnal, daydreamer, stubborn, and silly.

Likes:

Anime, video games, harmless pranks, the night, cheese, music, pants, helping people, manga, webtoon, strawberry flavored things, plushies, hanging out with friends, and sleeping.

Dislikes:

Misunderstandings, whatever could be lurking in the dark, wearing dresses, loud noises, talking to strangers, wasting time, sugary things, being overwhelmed, bright lights, being interrupted multiple times, and bugs.

Hobbies:

Watching movies/Shows, Gaming, reading, writing, drawing, baking, cooking, singing, and cosplaying.

A song that represents your ideal relationship:

Daddy daddy do- Masayuki Suzuki ft. Airi Suzuki

Explanation:

The song over all fits the vibe but I mainly think the lyrics are a pretty good fit.

What qualities you look for in a partner:

I'd like a person who can make up for what I'm not and can accept who I am despite the flaws. Someone who can take care of themselves and other people while also allowing themselves to get the same treatment in return. And they'll also let me cuddle and cling to them whenever.

Not to mention, they are affectionate and do a little bit of teasing from time to time. They'll also help me move out of my comfort zone when the time is right. And lastly, they gotta be at least kinda smart because i'm not that intelligent.

What kind of relationship:

I'd like one where it starts off as causal but by the end we're ready to spend the rest of our life together.

Do you have any preferences for certain characters or dorms:

Malleus, the eel twins, ace, and idia

A/N: @certifieddumbdumb hi! I'm sure you're very intelligent even if you don't think so.

I match you with...

Leona Kingscholar!

While Leona might seem callous at times, he's quite protective and willing to put effort into the ones he loves. He would be a devoted partner and protector for you, and will be able to read your feelings well- especially when you get overwhelmed.

Your relationship with him would be casual at first- just a bit of hanging out here and there. But as time goes on, he realizes how much you mean to him. He'll start putting more effort into everything, and even get up and go to class- but only the ones that you share.

Calm dates with him would be common- he'll nap as you watch a movie or read a book. Cooking dates would mostly be you doing the work, as he doesn't know much about chores. Ruggie might encourage him to learn how bake at least, so that he can help you with it.

You don't have to worry about not getting enough physical affection from him. He'll use you like a pillow and let you use him as a pillow anytime. Oftentimes, the two of you will nap together in the Botanical Gardens as a way to de-stress.

Leona is straightforward, and this would help you guys avoid miscommunications. He isn't afraid to be honest with you, and would like you do the same! No matter what side of yourself you show him, he'll always love you.

Other Possibilities: Idia Shroud, Jamil Viper, Rook Hunt

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst wonderland #twst #birdie.500 followers #birdie.matchups

7 notes · View notes

opheliaswritings · 2 years

Text

Hananene Analysis: A Fatal Love Pt. 1

pt.2 <--

WARNING; I'm open to all criticisms as long as they are peaceful and passive. I am not anti-hananene and any and all people aggressive comments/replies would be blocked.

Intro: Yashiro and Hanako’s relationship, at the start, used to be very simple and sweet like the rest of the plot. But as time goes on it starts to get a lot more complicated and messier. So the question is, are they still good together? A healthy relationship consists of the following traits: respect, honesty, trust, open communication, and compromise to do each other's part in the relationship. An unhealthy relationship is something that lacks any or all of these things. And when there’s a power imbalance between the partners. Do Yashiro and Hanako fit the criteria to be a good couple or will they just flop indefinitely?

Yashiro:

Yashiro, compared to the rest of the cast, is a very normal girl. She has a regular family thag subsides the supernatural world, plays idol games, likes spooky stories, gardening, and most of all is her love for romance. On top of all that, she’s naive and she wears her heart on her sleeve. It’s very easy to read her because she’s 100% all the time, especially during the first chapters. She can get upset, but happy very quickly. Yashiro is very reckless and doesn’t exactly think twice about what she’s about to do, getting herself into many risky situations. But, she does have good intentions and genuinely does care about the people around her. Yashiro’s also very kind and sensitive as well. When it comes to Aoi, she senses as though she isn’t fully letting out her heart even when it comes to her and wishes that she would be more honest. And in the current time of writing this, she’s willing to sacrifice herself so that Aoi can live.

Her main flaw was how focused on love and romance, doing reckless things for the sake of her love life. She may have grown out of that phase, but she still thinks of it from time to time. Getting a boyfriend is something that Yashiro, quite obviously, really wants. She goes as far as to summon a ghost and work for him. As well as grow her hair out, take on gardening, sewing, all to appeal to a boy she barely talked to. But why? Why go through all this trouble? For herself. She’s doing it all for herself. I think Yashiro’s ultimate goal is to experience true love for herself, believing it to be a necessity. To have that stereotypical love that’s shoehorned in every other romantic shoujo manga. And it’s not so far fetched either, as though a lot of girls Yashiro’s age fall for this ideology. Infact, so do a lot of characters. Characters like Yako and Sumire. Through them she discovers she may not even want romantic love, but because she feels as though it’s necessary for her too.

But, as the manga goes on and gets more complicated, it might be hard to miss, but you can see Yashiro’s transition into not wanting a lover fade away. And it’s made abundantly clear in the Picture Perfect Arc. Her goal went towards living her life. She learns that she’ll die in a year, but she manages to triumph it by exclaiming how she still what’s to escape the Picture Perfect world, and face what was real and live. A lot of people would have broken down in fear, but she overcame that. And when Aoi and Hanako first disappeared, she was very depressed, but managed to overcome that too. Which is extremely strong of her and she doesn’t get enough credit. Whether it’ll be she’s in denial or not she held her head up high. But that’s for another time, meantime, this shows how throughout the story she’s learning that life isn’t all about romance. She’s growing and getting stronger. But, she still acts on her heart a lot.

In the beginning, all she really did was help out Hanako, being his assistant or “priestess”. Helping him get rid of their yorshiro and keeping the peace of the school and such in hopes she can get a boyfriend. But after the Sacrifice of the Grim Reaper arc her goals change to helping out Hanako to saving him and Aoi. Yashiro has gone through a lot. Even from the very beginning she dealt with supernaturals attacking her. And throughout the story, there’s just been more and more misfortune. From what happened to Mistuba, Yashiro learning she'll die in a year, and then Aoi and Hanako dying, it’s a lot. Especially for a regular girl like Yashiro. Yashiro doesn’t even have a clear idea of how far this rabbit hole goes, or how much history that goes on. Yashiro perseveres though, in trying to help others and trying to do what is right. But obviously, she’s not doing all that well if chapter 91 wasn’t evident enough. There are little hints even before this that suggests she still is struggling. She gets herself into many dangerous situations from the Red House, to the current chapters. All in hopes of saving them. She even goes as far as sacrificing herself to ensure her friend is well. Which is scary to say the least. She went from being bright and compassionate in the beginning, to wanting to give it all up. Her development turns to a complete 180, from wanting to live her life to that.

Hanako:

Hanako, if you look past his otherworldly characteristics and supernatural talents, is most definitely a 14 year old boy. He’s very childish, likes to joke around a lot, and doesn’t seem to take things terribly seriously from the get-go. He’s a great contrast to Yashiro, who’s very extreme in her ways. But, he’s pretty liable and smart. He holds responsibility for being the leader of the other school mystery’s and does his job pretty well.

But even then, he’s very insecure and quick to quit on things and let things run as they are, even if they are bad, unless it involves Yashiro. We see it in the Picture Perfect Arc when he was just going to let Yashiro die in the world, and in this arc where he wants to let Aoi die in place of Yashiro. This could be linked to the fact that as a supernatural being, he has seen people give into hope and fail countless times. Or into his own trauma with Tsukasa.

Obviously, he does come with his fair share of trauma. And by fair I mean not fair at all. He dealt with bullying and ended up taking his own life right before taking his brother. This would screw up anybody's perception of life as a whole. Not even accounting for the fact that for over 50 years he hardly had any good relationships. Having relationships and connections is important for anybody, especially when you are so young. So, it’s really no wonder that he’ll have trouble empathizing with people properly or understanding what he did wrong.

Hanako lacks those traits and it especially shows in the Picture Perfect Arc when he holds Yashiro and Kou captive in the picture perfect world. He apologized for doing so, but right after in the Sacrifice of the Grim Reaper Arc. He goes ahead and sacrifices Aoi so that Yashiro can live, and lets himself die. In the current chapters, he shows no remorse for what he did, believing that it was worth it because Yashiro got to live. He wants to help out Yashiro, and even Kou, but he lacks the mental flexibility to do so correctly. This is a huge flaw that continuously hinders his relationships with not only Yashiro, but others as well.

He’s very impulsive and selfish, but that’s to be fair for a supernatural being. He’s naturally evil, but he keeps a good heart which is condemnable. He has had a lot of regrets for over 50 years, and even if he has trouble empathizing with others, he still has the capacity to do it.

When he was with Aoi in the train to the far shore, he managed to relate to her. That is a big step.

#tbhk analysis #tbhk manga #nene yashiro #toilet bound hanako kun #jshk analysis #jibaku shoujo hanako kun #hanako kun spoilers #tbhk spoilers #yashiro nene #amane yugi #jshk manga #analysis❀ུ۪ ﾟ

41 notes · View notes

turquoisebooks · 2 years

Text

Once upon a time, I wrote about All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman that it definitely belongs to the category of books “to devour” and now I want to say that its sequel All of Our Demise belongs there too. I went into this book pretty hyped and it did not disappoint.

Disclaimer: The following text includes spoilers for All of Us Villains so if you haven´t read it yet, proceed carefully.

Cured or not, there was no end to the monster story if, all along, the monster had been him.

All of Our Demise picks up where All of Us Villains ended. Cursed Alistair got Hendry back. The Lowe family got massacred kind of Game Of Thrones style. Briony is determined to end the tournament once and for all. Isobel is in the hands of Reid MacTavish. Gavin is still convinced that fighting is the only real way out. A new champion enters the game.

“To be fair, a lot of people have accused us of murder over the last week.”

“Yes, but those were the murders we actually committed!”

As well as AoUV, the sequel is told in 3rd person through 4 of the champions (Gavin, Alistair, Briony, Isobel) with POV-less Finley, Reid, and Hendry more or less joining the game - the deadly over 800 years old lasting tournament - and influencing its outcome.

The characters split into two groups — those who want to break the curse by dismantling the tournament piece by piece and end the bloodbath for good, and the ones who still want to fight as was always intended. The question is what they are willing to sacrifice to see their desired result being the one that gets to play out. As the synopsis states, “Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after”. Just read the book to see for yourself how these two converging storylines come together in an epic and heartbreaking finale.

After the boundaries protecting Ilvernath from the arena fall down, the whole city gets more involved in the plot - let's talk the government agents, members of the Ilvernath Spellmaking Society, and people of the seven ancient families, all of them having their own goals, as well as the all-too-eager reporters seaming the battlegrounds to capture the course of the tournament and get peppered stories for their newspaper or magazine.

The seven Landmarks and seven relics play a key role in the plot. Their pairing, the following trial the characters have to go through, and the ultimate destruction of the place provide enough action throughout the book It is well balanced with more quiet moments - magic planning and strategy talks, intimate and funny moments, peering into the character´s hearts - to keep you turning the pages.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Alistair’s voice drifted through the woods, sounding straight out of a nightmare.

When it comes to the characters, I loved that they are irrecoverably flawed and they know it. Plus we delve deeper into their backstories - learning more about their homes, lives before the tournament, and their relatives - and how that all influences their choices. It was delightful and satisfying to watch their personal growth, to witness their fears and their hopes, and finally see them come out of it definitely not unscathed (more like heavily traumatized) but as better people.

Alistair Lowe is considered by everyone to be this dark, ruthless monster but while he brings a certain level of weight and wickedness to the story, deep down he´s just a broken boy who needs a hug and deserves someone to see him and love him no matter what. When you are “his person” he becomes fiercely protective and loyal. Just ask Hendry. He can tell you all about it. All in all, Alistair is my precious multilayered monster boy and he needs to be protected at all costs.

Gavin Grieve intrigued me from book one - like, who would not root for the underdog whose family has ever raised him only to be slaughtered and never actually love him - but now he just swept me away. His journey made my heart ache.

Alistair aka my bisexual disaster monster boy still owns my heart and throughout the sequel, Gavin sealed its place in it too. I love them separately and as a duo as well. I´ve highlighted so many scenes with them!

One character I initially did not expect to like because of all the s**t and manipulation he had done but he won me over is one and only Reid MacTavish. I found myself really intrigued by him. As I began to understand him I surprisingly enjoyed his role in the story. This rascal simply grew on me.

I loved seeing Isobel Macaslan dealing with the aftermath, owning up to her deeds, and accepting herself for who she is. She goes through quite a journey too. Nevertheless, while I still enjoyed her parts very much I feel like the reason why her POV was more interesting for me than Briony´s is those boys, first Alistair and now Reid.

Briony Thorburn was never exactly my all-time favorite character in this world but I still appreciated her deep conviction and her determination to carve out her own path rather than an obedient champion following the Thorburn legacy footsteps. She´s a rebel through and through.

I actually do not have many thoughts about Finley Blair. He was just kind of there, playing the second (or maybe more like sixth or seventh) fiddle.

“So welcome to the bad guys’ club. You learn to get used to it.”

I love how truly morally grey and cunning all of them are. Nobody´s safe there as everyone in this bunch is capable of swift betrayal of one another, i.e. thinking about killing the allies and even (former) friends. Anyway, while I like them all, the fact that I love Alistar, Gavin, and Reid the most now speaks volumes. These three completely won me over. They are my precious disaster trio.

During the first book, I had a feeling that a certain character may harbor a secret crush (so secret that he doesn't know it yet) on another one but I still thought that the authors will go down the quite obvious route that had been laid out in book one. While this change may upset many readers who favored a certain ship, it made me happy. One thing that these two authors can apparently do excellently is to make you change your perspective and feel happy even though you initially rooted for the pairing as well and could not imagine them not ending up together. Due to my prior hunch, I started thinking that there is no way I am imagining and reading too much into this pretty early on (in the first quarter or so) and it delighted me that I was right. I enjoyed the scenes with them so much! All that tension! It´s the enemies to lovers I didn´t know I needed so much. Their interactions full of snarky remarks stole the show for me. They ensnared me. As I held my breath - my heart aching - I prayed for a happy ending for them.

I have a fan club who draws me with fangs and a six-pack.

The writing is truly beautiful, with deeply captivating and absolutely spell-binding descriptions. I was immersed in a lush portrayal of a harsh and pretty macabre world filled with spells and curses imbued crystals, ancient magical objects, dark alleys, spell shops, andaged stoned walls of magic-filled champions´ shelters. One thing is certain, this author duo knows how to build an atmosphere and pull you in.

Plotwise, All of Our Demise is a truly ripping and captivating story full of twists, turns, and revelations. Alliances are forged, tested, and broken, love and attraction explored, tension increased, and the battle getting inevitable. It is all so damn enthralling cocktail of pain, heartache, love, ruthlessness, desperation, and hope, carefully and gradually unveiling thoughts and motivations of the champions.

I love the intriguing plot, the fantastic setting, the unique magic system, the multidimensional characters, the tense relationships, the high stakes, the twisted mind games, and that (I think quite realistic) ending. All of it! I was not able to put it down. The action and plenty of twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat, kept me on my toes, and forced me to turn the pages at lightning speed.

Overall, it was delightfully and heartachingly addictive to follow the journey of Ilvernath´s Slaughter Seven. I am satisfied with how it ended but also deeply miserable that it´s over. I loved being swept away into the fascinating world of high magick! Overall, All of Our Demise is a bit bittersweet but a wonderful conclusion to a fantastic duology.

With thanks to Netgalley and Gollancz from the Orion Publishing Group for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

#netgalley #Netgalley ARC #all of us villains #all of our demise #turquoisebooks #turquoisereview #ya fantasy #fantasy books #amanda foody #christine lynn herman #Moodboards

20 notes · View notes

karuuhnia · 2 years

Note

what were the unfinished ideas from 3 hopes you most wish they would have fleshed out?

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start.

Well, I should probably state right at the beginning that I didn't know anything about this game beside the very first trailer. I also never interacted with anyone from the fandom and went into the game completely blind.

So the only thing I knew was that Three Hopes would be some kind of alternate timeline. What I hoped and kind of expected from the game was more information on things that were not fully elaborated in Three Houses.

I'll contrinue my thoughts under the cut because, you know, spoilers.

In particular I hoped that we would learn more about Agartha, Almyra and the Nabateans. And that we get some sort of "Golden Route" where all three lords and their comrades team up and fight the true evil in Fódlan together - which are the Slitherers who infiltrated all sorts of political or otherwise important ranks and corrupted the people around them, turned them against each other and spread lies. The true villain in Fódlan is not Rhea/the church (albeit I'm the very first to admit that Rhea is seriously messed up from all the trauma she and her people had to endure during the last centuries).

Anyway, those were my wishes. But nope, we just got a slightly different spin on Edelgard's stupid war again.

About what I was disappointed in:

In general:

I was kinda baffled by Count Varley's characterization tbh. From what we learned about him in Three Houses, I had imagined him as a stern, unrelenting patriarch who keeps his daughter down and tries to force her into the role of a submissive wife for a high-ranking nobleman. Not as an even bigger bag of nerves than his daughter. I got massive Jerry Smith vibes from the guy. lol

What the hell was wrong with Sothis?? Since when does she view Byleth as just her vessel and forces her power upon him/her? Why is she acting so out of character???

Who exactly was Epimenides and what/where is Zahras? How did he incarnate his soul and powers?

On a similar note: It was never fully explained who or what Shez was, right? Apparently he/she is a vessel for Epimenides' consciousness and powers, but how did that happen? Was Shez used in Agarthan experiments? Who were Shez's birth parents? Who was his/her adoptive mother???

No matter if you recruit Byleth and kill Epimenides or don't recruit Byleth and ultimately kill him/her, the outcome is really boring and anticlimatic and doesn't really affect the rest of the storyline. Huge disappointment. :(

Scarlet Blaze: We didn't really learn anything new about the Agarthans and never truly got rid of them either. Edelgard continues her war against the Kingdom and the Church despite knowing the Slitherers are still out there, causing a mess.

Edelgard started a war and wanted to rebuild society from the ground up, abolish nobility, crests, get rid off the established religion to replace it with a church that is only a mouthpiece for her propaganda pretty much.

She also wants to give all people equal opportunities to climb the ranks if they just work hard enough. Sure sounds nice in theory, BUT SHE DOESN'T EVEN LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR THAT TO WORK IN HER OWN DAMN COUNTRY! She wants all people to be equal and give power to the commoners without providing them with better living conditions and adequate education first!! When I read her A-support with Ferdie I was shocked. How did she imagine this to go? Imagine giving power to a person who can't read or write or knows anything about what goes on outside their tiny village. Like, WHAT?!?

Seriously, without Ferdinand and Hubert Edelgard would be completely LOST.

Her route in Three Houses was incredibly flawed already, but this here is outright dumb. I felt so bad for every single one of my actions...

*cough* but I digress.

Golden Wildfire:

I expected most of this route and was let down the worst. It was all over the place. I hoped for Almyran lore, insights in Claude's childhood and family etc.

But then this Shahid guy appears twice and then just dies. Like, seriously! When he fell off that cliff I thought, surely this was a fake-out and he'd show up again later. But nope. I felt really baited by this whole Almyran subplot.

What I also found incredibly ironic was how they constantly tried to push the message that the Almyrans are just misunderstood and aren't as vile as the people in Fódlan view them.

But hey, guess what: Not only does their king not give a shit about what his stupid Shahid does, he doesn't even seem to know what is going on in general, seeing that Nader can just make him sign random papers. Like, WHAT?!?²

Also, Shahid calls the people from Fódlan barbarians, but it is HIS people who invade a foreign country and plunder and destroy everything in their way. And it's not like they're a poor and starved country like Sreng. No, they have plentiful food and treasures in their homeland. They just do all those invasions for fun, I guess??

It is also directly confirmed several times in the game that Claude and Nader actively have to stop the Almyran troops from plundering the Kingdom! Can you imagine that? Claude's dream of opening borders to other nations might sound great on paper, but it is an incredibly naive thought that it would just work out like that when one nation is so aggressive. Fódlan would be a wasteland in no time if they just let the Almyrans in!

Speaking of Claude: He was my favourite of the three lords in Three Houses, but now he's dead to me. They butchered his character big time. In Three Houses he was always wary of the Church (and for good reason!). But his curiosity drove him to find out what REALLY happened in the past. Who the Ten Elites and Nemesis really were. What the Heroes' Relics and Crest Stones really are. He was shocked by the revelation. And then he used this new knowledge to set an end to Agartha and Nemesis, the real threats!

In Three Hopes everything was just: "RhEa BaD bEcAuSe LoNg ChUrCh TrAdItIoN bAd!" And then he joins whoever has the upper hand, only to turn on them the first opportunity. I'm really glad Lorenz and the others called him out for leaving Randolph and his troops - their allies - to die. But that didn't happen often enough sadly. I wanted to grab his shoulders and scream at him constantly!

He berates Acheron for being an opportunistic flag in the breeze, but then he does exactly the same thing - just 100 times worse.

During the whole playthrough I had the feeling that nobody really trusted Claude, not even his closest friends. And how could you blame them? He throws valuable allies under the bus and switches allegiances constantly. Who would ever trust a leader like that? You'd always be scared you'd be next if you're not useful to him anymore.

Urgh. I have so much more to say about this hot mess of a route, but I'll stop now. Just know that I was absolutely enraged when I finished Golden Wildfire.

Azure Gleam

Since I hated both Edelgard's and Claude's routes, I was really about to drop the game completely. I'm glad I didn't because I overall really enjoyed Azure Gleam. Still, it had its flaws too.

The biggest letdown to me was, of course, that we didn't really learn anything new about the Nabateans. I was so hopeful because we saw Indech and Macuil in the opening cutscene. But nothing ever came off it. :(

Also, I was really disappointed that nothing became of the whole Hegemon Husk Edelgard thing. I was absolutely sure Thales would transform her into the monster in the second phase of the battle, but nope. It was utterly anticlimatic. :(

Also also, what happened to Hubert and Ferdie? It said they went missing after Thales took control of Edelgard. So I thought they went into hiding and waited for the right time to save her from Thales’ grasp, maybe join the final battle as yellow or even green units. But nope, they were never seen again.

Then I have some questions about the sidequest where you get the Ochain-Shield. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that shield an heirloom of the Aegir family in Three Houses? Why is suddenly long-lost now and shows up in Indech's workshop after hundreds of years?

Another thing that I found kind of confusing was Yuri's and Seteth's support. In Three Houses I always assumed that the old man who saved Yuri's life and gave him the crest was a decendant of Aubin. But apparently it was Aubin himself??? That raises many questions: Why is Aubin the only Nabatean who was old? Seiros is probably the oldest living Nabatean and she still looks like she's in her prime. So why did Aubin age so much compared to the rest of their people? Also, Yuri said the old man died of natural causes. What happened to his body then? If he really was Aubin himself the Agarthans must have found and taken his bones and crest stone and turned it into the Fetters of Dromi. How and when did that happen? If that really was the case, the Fetters of Dromi can only be ~10-15 years old. How does Yuri know about this "relic" so much then?

Oh well, I guess I'm overthinking. I'm just starved for Nabatean lore. ;__;

______________________________________________________

Okay, now I guess I should conclude with what I actually liked, huh?

Lorenz. Honestly, without Lorenz, Golden Wildfire and Scarlet Blaze would have been an even worse experience. Lorenz, to me, is really the hero of those two routes. I really, really love how he was portrayed. His struggles, his doubts, his convictions. He also had some really great scenes with his father. Definitely a huge plus! He's a great character!

I also liked Felix in this game. I like him as the responsible, mature Duke Fraldarius who still shows his sassy and blunt behaviour too. Never really was a fan of his attitude and tsundere bs in Three Houses, so this was a huge improvement.

All Blue Lions were great! They have by far the best chemistry and closest bonds of all houses. They're supportive of each other and build each other up. And they fully trust each other. I love them so much!

Jeralt (and Rodrigue) don't have to die and are both playable! ;__;

Holst's butt-chin, my beloved (also, ProZD ftw!)

Apart from that I really liked the gameplay. It was fun and rewarding and made you feel badass. lol The expeditions feature is really cool too. And there were a few really great support conversations. <3

Anyway, that concludes my TED talk, I guess lol I want to start a petition to rename this game to “Fire Emblem Warriors: One Hope and Two Dumpster Fires”.

#fire emblem three hopes #karuuhnia rants #((I literally spent almost 3 hours typing all of this #and I still have so much more to say #but I'll leave it at that XD))

9 notes · View notes