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tulipsinthedas · 6 days

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Just finished binging the Fallout tv show and 🤯 I've got so many thoughts running through this little brain of mine. So here's a very long rant no one asked for. Maybe I'll make a more digestible version later. Obviously SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Be warned!

First off - the lore. So many interesting things were added into the lore by this show that I find so fascinating, as well as theories I've had that were touched upon. All of which makes this very exciting but also leaves me DESPERATE for season two. The main thing that has really stuck with me is the confirmation that Vault-Tec were the ones to drop the bombs like hello??? I've always had an inkling ever since I started delving into fallout lore a good year or two ago that they were behind everything, but finally having it confirmed is so fun. Of course, some people out there are going to be irritated (L take) but this imo will make replays so much more interesting. Same with the addition of ghouls needing medication to keep from becoming feral. Although this begs some questions; what is the medicine? Is it just radaway, or something else entirely? Maybe it's connected to whatever Hancock used to ghoulify himself? Or maybe it's connected to Doctor Barrows' research into ghouls fom Fallout 3? Idk! But I hope it's answered in season 2.

Cooper being the inspiration behind the iconic vault boy mascot absolutely gagged me. It was kinda hinted at even in the beginning at the kids birthday party but I was still surprised. Pleasantly, of course. Other smaller things, like the BOS branding and helmets opening up, among other things, were also fun touches that develop the lore in ways that the games probably never would have. It's small things like this that despite livening up the wasteland, would be unnecessary uses of resources from a game-development standpoint. So I think if season 2 ends up being a banger like season 1, we could see a lot more tiny additions to the lore like this!

Secondly - the characters. I don't even know where to start. They were written so well which is such a critical part of a good series. Lucy, despite everything she goes through, stays true to her morals and by doing so, probably unknowingly, is changing those around her. Despite being stubborn, she's willing to listen and understand other viewpoints and adapt herself. It's so refreshing to see a main female lead who isn't written as either weak and naive or strong and boneheaded; she'd a perfect mix of both. I also appreciate them not making her a total push over, even in the beginning before she is given any reason to change. She grows, but never fails to stay true to herself. Plus the whole sex positive thing is an amazing touch to add as well, especially for a woman.

And while on this topic, Maximus is such a cutie pie. Writing characters that are selflessly aligned can definitely be a hit or miss, and without properly being fleshed out, can be one-dimensional, but I never felt that way with him. Despite trying to help others and be a good person, he still has flaws and does feels selfish things. They took the trope of the knight in shining armor, literally, and gave him actual human characteristics that made him feel real. Underneath his heroic demeanor, he's just a little guy who likes slippers and vault popcorn. Who just wants to be somewhere safe away from war and danger, to be where he can just relax and not have to worry. And his romance arc with Lucy is just way too cute. From the moment they met in Filly I knew something was going to happen and I was so excited when they finally kissed lmao. The sweet, innocent love at first sight thing they have going on is the perfect dichotomy to all the bloodshed and heavy themes going on in the rest of the show.

And finally, Cooper is reviving the inner ghoul lover in me and I cannot complain at all. As a certified Hancock lover, I feel seen ✋ also Walton Goggins is just incredibly fine. But that's besides the point. His character is arguably the best written because despite being an undeniably evil person, he is still likeable. 200 years have turned him into a man who had to lose his humanity to survive, and the pre-war flashbacks being shown through his eyes give him, and the story, so much depth. Despite his ways, you can't help but still feel for him, to still root for him and hope that he still has a little bit of that humanity left within him. Which imo was shown multiple times; for example him not killing Maximus in episode two even though he easily could have done so. And the fact that he's still searching for his family all these years later? When he was asked what has been keeping him going so long, I think they are his reason. Whether he is searching to reunite or to exact revenge on Barb for dropping the bombs while him and Janey were outside idk. But it makes his story all the more heartbreaking. I also love the writing for Norm, Moldaver, Dane, and so many others, but this is already too long ass it is.

Overall, this series was so good and I'll be impatiently awaiting season 2! Some things I'm hoping to see next seasons are super mutants for sure, as well as synths and more of the enclave. I think they went easy this season to test the waters and see just how interested people are. And now that they know people are very interested, I think they'll be more willing to invest a larger budget, and add more. Rant over!

#fallout #fallout show #fallout series #fallout prime #fallout tv series #cooper howard #lucy maclean #maximus fallout #fallout series spoilers #fallout spoilers #fallout amazon #fallout ghoul

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crunchchute · 5 months

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HELP WANTED 2 SPOILERS

thinking about how small his hands are in these parts (sc from dawkos vid) its kinda. you know. being normal

also when his hand reached from the charging pod i first thought its just a human hand fhfhgh the lighting and everything made the stitching invisible and previously i just thought of him as huge with the biggest hands ever but seeing those dainty ones im like huhhhh no way thats him

shitty screenshot for comparison (too lazy to take more this one is old) you cant see much but if you know what blob youre looking at, your VR hands are like half the size of his

man and i still dont know how i feel about this. i wanted to see glitch again, but i was completely fine with not seeing him. like i fully believed that he Wont be in HW2, i even tweeted that before the game dropped. and IF he was to show up, then i expected a completely different form or just tiny hints (like the locked files for example, i liked that), but with what we got im just confused!! what is this lore here!! why is he back like this! what!! whos driving the plane!!

and people are already making more guesses about whos the player, cassie would mean this is post ruin and idk if that makes sense (was there ruined chica? i havent played thru everything yet and only know of SB chica) i dont know. thats a mystery. i also think its not quite it because of the ending and how we didnt see the pizzasim like this in ruin, did we? i gen dont remember and i watched ruin gameplays like 83 times atp

some saying its gregory, i dont think so. why wouldnt roxy remember him and such... at least its not just gregory

vanessa again? i dont know, that was my guess but honestly have no idea. perhaps its set during pre ruin and while she and gregory were setting up the mxes system? like that is my guess here, nothing else makes sense to me

cassies dad. i dont know. not enough proof for me? but the more i think about it the less im against it (with her speaking about him in past tense, if this was his demise, that would sort of make sense if he was the one giving the mask for her, but again need more proof. theres apparently some unused lines that could hint at it but i havent gone through unused stuff yet. i would still consider it as i did with ruinborn afton, if not for that creature i wouldnt even think of the entity being william but would have just stayed with the shadow bonnie theory pff) theres that one bonnie mask in PQ and perhaps the whole bonnie kid = cassies dad = hw2 player theory isnt all that bad

but i thought it might be vanessa and gregory? im thinking of PQ and getting rid of glitch and this 4th PQ is cool but confusing as hell but the thing candy cadet was saying about coming back and stuff idk its all a mess for me rn but yeah perhaps its not that deep and glitch is just that hard to kill off. he always comes back i mean uhh

OR wait wait. how i said mimic shed aftons remains and burntrap split back to glitchtrap and the mimic post SB? that makes sense no? instead of going buntrap -> mimic + entity, its mimic + glitchtrap Again and then vanessa wiped him for good and with gregorys help also locked up the mimic. thats it thats gotta be it right? shrimple as that

and vanessa and ggy while making the security nodes (im not 100% in it but im leaning towards it) something got in (the entity), because you cannot wipe him out, hes forever haunting this place. thats what you get for building this huge plex on top of his gotdamn house and farm and whatever. mansion. whatever he is in there. dear mr. fazbear entertainment, william afton is in your walls

anyway so that would beeee SB, PQ ending, they come back, get rid of any leftover traces of glitch and lock up the mimic, then cassie gets in in ruin. and hw2 would then take place sometime pre-ruin, we dont know how long it is so i would even say hw2 happened post-SB until ruin or it overlaps ruin (because were shown the ending scene with cassie but honestly i would rather see it happen pre-ruin and that just being a hint but i have no ideaaa)

people were also saying that cassies dad made the mxes system or vanessa but i think the system was like there originally for years if not thru the entirety of the pizzaplex' existence and vanessa and gregory only made the nodes to keep mimic inside and cassies dad was just a technician that has used the mask and stuff, i just dont know how it works with the og vanny mask which didnt yet have all the tech inside but perhaps that was just like an in-VR version of it in the first hw. man i dont know.

then theres the mxes entity player theory which is... eh, how would they function in reality? and why would they give cassie the mask if were hinting at some possession of mapbot? i dont like that idea past the entity being you know who and also getting rid of a past version of himself (glitch) man i need like a discussion circle

ooftroop and friends please make another video about this please (please)

one last thought, glitchs color seems to be magenta (or purple if you wanna say that) and the mxes system is that color, but the entity is more blue and idk what to do with that information. mr entity why arent you purple WHY ARE YOU BLUE literally my only missing puzzle piece if that mf was purple i would be 100% confident thats him (but im only 99% because he is more bluish but he is the same color as ruinborn who is afton to me and people saying its not, i dont understand you. what do you mean. what do you mean thats not frights corpse afton with his messed up face and bunny ears springing up out of nowhere. he is literally him)

when ppl say that the only people that disagree with everything being just the mimic and that dont get the current lore are just gacha kids, i WISH i was just a gacha kid making up random stories because this is HELL

also that hand puppet glitch is uglyyyy i want 10 (to put in a blender)

#fnaf #help wanted 2 spoilers #help wanted 2 #fnaf help wanted 2 #ask to tag #will tag spoilers for several more days i guess #until i see mutuals on my dash post about it too i guess?#this went from hehe look at this one thing to more lore discussion fuck #sigh #waffling about william 2 #and #crunching #writes a 1k word essay. leaves

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not-krys · 8 months

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1. Introduction (Houki, Abby, Clara)

Totally dropped the ball on August's prompt (in that I completely forgot to do it in favor of doing some art stuff instead), but I did some of the prompt that was meant for August today.

These ideas stem from taking the beginnings of routes and putting my OCs in those meeting scenarios. As such, I guess technically spoilers for route beginnings? I guess? Houki gets IkeSen's prologue with rescuing Nobunaga, plus snippets from her original game's lore; Abby gets the beginning of Vincent's route, and Clara gets the wonderful beginning of Nokto's route.

Other warnings are that this is raw writings, no editing, and cuts off in places, maybe a lil rambl-y in others. Nokto is also a lil shit, but what else is new?

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Houki

Houki tried to close her eyes, trying to think this was all just a dream. That she was going to wake up in her room on Vale Island and that Jasper was going to scold her for sleeping in when there were other suitors and activities she needed to participate in, like Cordelia's tea party, or to watch the boat race that was going to happen later today.

Instead, all she could feel was heat and all she could smell was burning wood and smoke.

Had her room caught on fire? It wouldn't surprise her, really, since that incident with the poisoned letter.

But, no, this was certainly not her room. No plush curtains or glass windows in sight. Just burning pillars and the sound of creaking wood, straining under great pressure.

She also wasn't alone in the blazing room.

A man in black armor was laying on the floor, unconscious. In most matters, he seemed a handsome man, black hair to match his armor, a tall frame. A general, perhaps? His face was scowling in his 'rest'. Perhaps he was left to die in the blazing building. Not a comforting thought. Who was this man that would be left to die in such a place?

Going against her better judgment, Houki bent down to shake his shoulders, the crackle of the fire seeming to lick her cheeks.

Fortunately, her trapped companion seemed a light sleeper, as his eyes snapped open immediately, staring at her with bright carnelian eyes, red as the flames surrounding them.

"Who…?" his deep voice started before a pillar fell behind them with a loud crash.

"There's no time!" Houki said, grabbing hold of his hand, "we need to leave!"

The man didn't need to be told twice, standing up with the grace of a hawk taking flight. Houki covered her nose with her sleeve, trying her best to navigate through the blaze, coughing from the smoke. Her eyes were drying and hurting, as were her lungs. It didn't help that she was still recovering from the poisoned letter incident, making her breathing hurt much worse.

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Abby

Abby sat on the floor, her back against the wooden door, hugging her knees to her chest. She wiped her eyes and saw the familiar brown coat, much too long and big in the shoulders for her, but the comforting scent of sunshine and fresh laundry eased her racing heart.

She was living in a mansion filled with vampires, as Arthur had made so plain to her. Rattled her with it, even. To make matters worse, when she tried to escape, she ran into two unscrupulous gentlemen. If Vincent hadn't happened by when he did…

She shuddered at the thought. She pulled his jacket closer, taking in more of his scent. The bruise on her wrist throbbed.

'She is a very special guest of this mansion,' she remembered him saying, his voice stern and vaguely threatening 'Touch her again and face the consequences.'

Vincent had been so protective of her, even if they had just met barely hours prior. She felt bad when she had swatted his hand away in her fright. She tried to apologize, but Vincent just smiled gently.

"Ah, it's my fault for trying to touch you without your permission, especially after going through something so scary."

He tried his best to comfort her, telling her that she can talk to Sebastian if she felt more comfortable, since he was still human like her. And, like a spell spoken, Sebastian did appear, taking her off Vincent's hands, helping her to her room. In her stupor, she had forgotten she was still wearing his jacket he had so gently and carefully placed on her shivering shoulders. She promised herself that she would return it in the morning, but would also ask Sebastian how to launder it first, since she was no doubt wrinkling it and staining it with her tears. She didn't want to cause him, or anyone else, any trouble. Especially if everyone else surrounding her was a vampire. Would they eat her if she did something out of turn? Arthur seemed to delight in the idea, especially when she saw the red touches on his starched and white collar.

She pulled the jacket closer, trying her best to hold back a sob. She didn't want to leave, lest she get a repeat of running into Arthur again, or anyone else for that matter.

The scent of Vincent's jacket wafted to her nose again.

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Clara

Clara felt like she was going to be sick. Her head pounded something fierce and she was surrounded by silken sheets and scent she normally would have associated with the unsavory parts of town.

Her eyes shot open, the morning light burning her eyes. She closed them again, a pained groan escaping her lips.

"Good morning, my dear." A voice said beside her, soft in delivery but the tone was full of amused mischief.

Her eyes shot open again, taking in the sight of ruby red eyes and a hand with painted black nails reaching for her forehead.

She shot up in the bed, immediately regretting that choice and held her head, her dark hair cascading over her face and shoulders.

"Well, that wasn't very smart of you, now was it?"

Clara gritted her teeth, still holding her head.

"Where… where am I?"

"My bedroom," that voice cooed, "you were so insistent last night, not letting me have a choice. It was quite bold of you, telling a prince you wanted to sleep with him."

"I would never-" her head throbbed, stealing her of her voice, "I wouldn't-"

"And yet, here we are, Belle."

Belle, right… She agreed to that yesterday. She had wanted to get to know the princes. And she had taken Nokto's word that he had sincerely wanted to help her.

This was not the direction she had thought, or hoped, the previous night would take.

She looked down at herself, still thankfully dressed in the fancy underclothes of the dress she had been given to go to that ball with that sleazeball of a prince, but the poofy dress was not on her person, instead laying in a precarious position on the floor. She wished she had the strength to glare at the prince no doubt grinning at her on the bed, but her head barely allowed her the pleasure of concentrating. The room even smelled like stale rose wine, making her stomach turn.

"Ah yes, you should know that you had wine spilled on your dress last night," she could hear the smirk in Nokto's voice, "thus why it's on the floor over there."

"What, I didn't just throw my clothes at you in my lust filled state that you seem to imply I was in?"

"You did try. I just dodged."

#krys's adventures in fanfiction #wip wednesday #ikemen sengoku #ikemen vampire #ikemen prince #ikesen oc #ikevamp oc #ikepri oc #houki of jiyel #abigail clarke (oc)#clara laurent (oc)#this is also not stopping me from getting started on sept's prompt #I will try to have it out before the month ends this time #still debating about fictober coming up tho #maybe I'll see what the prompt is by then and make a decision then and there #we shall see #nobunaga oda #nokto klein

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kyanitedragon · 6 months

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02 The Beginning Thoughts

(First off, I want to warn that this movie needs trigger warnings. There’s a very intense and in-depth depiction of child abuse, and quite a bit of horror, including body horror. This is the most in-your-face dark Digimon has been. So please keep this in mind, especially if you’re sensitive to any of it.)

Simply put, I didn’t like the movie. I have a lot of issues with it, and in general I found it really confusing and thought it didn't make any sense.

Honestly between Tri and Kizuna and now this, I've felt like the new movies have a Star Wars kind of situation going on. Where different people make each new movie with their own ideas and understanding of the lore, and thus none of the movies connect and all of them have dropped plot threads.

(Spoilers under the cut!)

This movie didn’t answer any of the questions remaining after Tri, which wasn’t surprising, but not even Kizuna either, which was surprising. None of Kizuna’s events are even mentioned or addressed in the movie.

Did anyone else lose their partners in the 2-year gap? Is that even still a threat to the remaining digidestined? Are the zero two kids worried about it?

Kizuna ended on such a heavy note. I really feel like that should have been addressed in some form.

Other than a little montage at the start, we really didn’t get any other nods to the 02 kids’ futures and careers. I feel like Tri did better on that note. (Slightly).

Plot-wise, there really wasn’t much to the movie, and despite being advertised as the 02 kids’ movie, they really didn’t do much in it. It was much more of a character study of Lui, which is fine, but not what was advertised or what I came for.

I love the zero two kids, Zero Two is my favorite digimon series, but here the characters all felt off to me. Or rather, they didn’t feel like they had their time to shine. The movie didn’t really play to any of their strengths.

I’d love to see Iori get serious and philosophical. Hikari and Tailmon, who met because Tailmon was trying to kill her, react to and relate to Lui claiming he killed Ukkomon. Ken, who had abused Wormmon in the past. Takeru, who’s lost Patamon so many times now and it's a great fear of his.

I honestly loved that moment at the end, where Takeru is the one to bring up the idea of losing their digimon if they kill Ukkomon, and he was the only one refusing to fight and take that risk. After everything he's been through, after Tri, of course he would be so scared of that. He's always been really sensitive about it, and time and time again it keeps cropping up as a risk.

Daisuke’s the only one who felt consistantly in-character, with him and Veemon being so sure of and passionate about digimon partnerships and friendships.

I feel Iori was done the worst. I’ve been so curious of how his character evolved off screen, as he was so young in Zero Two but always mature, and now he’s an adult. But he really seemed to have the least to do.

I don’t inherently mind Lui. I think he’s perfectly fine as a character. He just really doesn’t feel like a Digimon character to me. His design, backstory, and personality all strike me as from a modern mainstream anime. He stands out a lot compared to everyone else.

I don’t mind his backstory being of child abuse. I actually think it's really compelling on paper. Adventure dealt with kids from all kinds of home backgrounds. But it did feel severely dark in ways Digimon hasn’t gone before, which felt really jarring. I think going a more subtle but still very clear what was happening route would have been better. I don’t think the abuse needed to be shown so graphically.

The horror felt similarly out of place. I think Ghost Game and Digimon Survive managed really dark horror in really natural ways, but here it felt jarring.

Maybe it's just the combination of the abuse portrayal plus the horror, but it felt like too much. I felt like I was watching an entirely different anime.

I keep seeing people say “But this movie is aimed at adults!”, but I think that really undermines the emotional power of the original anime. Of every Digimon anime, actually.

We had a very clearly depressed and suicidal Ken in Zero Two. I watched that as a kid. I didn’t understand suicide or suicide idealation at that point, but I fully understood that this kid was hopeless and was willing to risk his life, and wanting to do that.

And what about Tamers? What about Juri’s entire character and storyline?

Digimon has shown time and time again it can handle dark topics really well and be easily understood while still being child appropriate. I don’t agree that everything needs to be graphic just because it's aimed at adults.

Again, I’m not complaining about the darkness. I’m complaining about how it was portrayed and how out of place it felt among the series as a whole.

I knew this part going in, and I had suspected for a while anyway, so I wasn’t too disappointed by it. But there weren’t any new evolutions. This is an issue with the series’ treatment of Zero Two in general, but I’m really sick of these kids not having confirmed jogress megas or a full through-line of natural evolutions. I was hoping for Valkyriemon, a new jogress mega for Shakkoumon, and then new digimon to complete their natural evolutions. But at this point, I’d take anything. Reuse Vikemon, I don’t care, I just want to see everyone get Megas! I feel really bad for Miyako and Iori, being the only ones that have nothing.

The lore. The retcons. This movie had so many unncessary contradictions of OG Adventure lore. I think I need another post about just this, because I’ve been running in circles trying to theorize and figure it out all night. So I'm moving on for now.

The digivices. As far as lore goes, I’m completely fine with them vanishing. I like the idea of the bonds not being inherently linked to the digivices, I think that's been implied already. And it nicely parallels the 8 kids losing their crests in Adventure.

What I don’t understand, however, is the merchandising side of this choice. They literally were just advertising and selling Daisuke and Ken’s D-3’s for like $130 USD. Digivices that canonically no longer exist in-universe. I was thinking about getting one, but decided against it because of the price. I’d probably be so mad right now if I did order one.

And on a sentimental note, I’m really sad about it. I'm not even considering this a real complaint of mine, as I get really emotional about so many fictional items, but I just wanted to mention it. I’m really gonna miss seeing the kids have those digivices. On the coolness level too, I love their concept and colors and the abilities they have. It feels a little cheap to me that their phones can seemingly do it all now, even if it makes sense at this point in the world.

I think that covers everything. So, yeah. I really didn’t care for this movie. I adore zero two and all the cast, and I was really hoping to see everyone shine, but this movie was really Lui’s movie instead. Maybe on a rewatch I can better appreciate it for Lui's story and character, but for now I’m just really bitter we still don’t have a good follow up movie for the zero two kids.

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 the beginning #02 the beginning #02tb spoilers #02 the beginning spoilers

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kreestatic · 6 months

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My thoughts about the Five Nights at Freddy's Movie

⚠️This will contain major spoilers and I will not be holding back so consider yourself warned⚠️

Everybody out? Alright

Overall, it was good. It was really well made. They clearly put a lot of effort with this movie. The lighting, the composition of shots and of course the animatronics.

I'm kinda surprised we see the animatronics as much as we did. I guess it makes sense since it would be a waste not to show the puppets off. They made sure this movie looked nice which I appreciate.

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Plot Points

The atmosphere was good. I do wish that they 'hid' the animatronics more. They are much more threatening when they are just in the dark lurking and stalking. There are some scenes in the movie like that, I just wish there were more of that.

The way they did the spirits are kinda confusing

The opening was awesome. It sets the atmosphere and threat really well. It was intense.

The middle it felt like it kinda dropped off. There are some scenes that felt kinda slow

Then by the end so much was happening that it was kinda overwhelming. The ending felt so fast. I wish they balanced the pacing a bit better

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I wish there were more moments of the animatronics being alone with the adults and they just threaten them in small ways

I didn't really like the fort scene HAHAHA. Don't get me wrong, I do love me some animatronics acting cute. This feels too cute tho. I guess it makes sense because their kids and they're supposed to be friendly around Abby but that scene kinda removes the threat that they established in the past scenes.

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The actors did really well!

I do wish we seen more of William and Matthew Lillard but I get that they need the twist for the casual audiences. The Springlock scene was good overall. Matthew's action was AWESOME. Dude was acting batshit insane, I love it. I know everyone wished that it was more brutal but it's a PG-13 movie so yeah, I get it. I still think that fan made Springlock audio was perfect and better than the movie. Nothing can ever top that one.

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They focused more on the story of Mike than Freddy's which I understand. They still need to share a compelling story to casual audiences. This movie is clearly not a representation of FNAF's lore. I think it's the viewer's job if they want to dive deeper into this franchise.

Even so, I think this is a movie made for the fans and you need to have knowledge of basic lore to fully understand the movie. So the people going in blind might be a tad bit confused

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I'm kinda torn about Vanessa being an Afton. I'm sure the die hard fans WILL NOT like that. And yeah my feelings towards that are more on the negative side. It's a last minute reveal so that's kinda tacky since there's already so much going on by the end and now yeah I guess Vanessa is William's daughter now.

There's not really much clues driving us to that direction. I just thought that she was related to one of the Missing Children so she has this close connection with the place. I and many people theorized that she would be related to Susie aka the spirit of Chica. It's because of the blonde hair

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So...guess this debunks the Michael Afton is Mike Schmidt Theory which..I'm kinda torn about. I thought Mike was gonna have repressed memories of his past as an Afton. I was also totally on board on the Divorce Theory and I thought that was gonna happen in this movie but I guess not. Scott still has the final say in the end.

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Although I'll treat the canonicity of the movie as I treat the books. What happened in the movie does not equal to the canon that happened in the books and games. They are still separate. It has the same case as the original novel trilogy (Silver Eyes, Twisted Ones, Fourth Closet) where we see the same characters that we see in the games but the story they are telling is still separate.

I guess the events of this game parallel the original trilogy a bit. At least the kidnapping plot points. In there, William also kidnapped a kid which was Charlie's twin. Charlie has these thoughts that drive her towards finding her twin brother. Oversimplification but it's kinda similar.

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Cameos

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Speaking of Charlie..THE PUPPET!!!! I KNEW IT!! I KNEW THAT THEY'LL MAKE SOME SORT OF CAMEO!! Albeit, it's an audio cameo with the music box BUT STILL. FNAF 2 CONFIRRMMEEDDD! Nah they better make FNAF 2 if they tease us like that.

Also the audio in the end said "Come Find Me". That's potentially William or maybe even the Puppet

Although I am wondering how they'll continue the lore since they totally broke it with Vanessa being an Afton. Maybe they'll make their own continuity just like the books.

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MATPAT YOU LIED TO ME HOW DARE YOUUUU!! I trusted you. I TRUSTED YOU WITH MY LIFE. NOW I SEE YOU IN THE MOVIE SAYING "BUT THAT'S JUST A THEORY"??? HOW DARE-

Goes to show how great of an actor MatPat is. Really showing off his theatre kid skills with all that bamboozling

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Mark wasn't there tho which I understand. He's busy making his own damn movie (I'm also very excited for Iron Lung. Cannot wait for that)

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Also I love they made Balloon Boy absolutely cursed looking it's amazing. I guess he's the "secret animatronic" they were talking about that they didn't show in the trailers. Or..it could be another one..

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Theories

One last question before I wrap this up. Was that Springlock suit they were putting Abby in..CIRCUS BABY?

Actually no. I swear I've seen that face before. After a bit of digging. I found it, Ella. Ella was an alarm clock doll that came from the book 'Fazbear Frights: 1:35 AM'. In the movie she's a Springlock animatronic so what could this mean?

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Some theorists, specifically John from YT channel FuNaff, noticed that there was an ongoing circus theme in recent FNAF media. They theorized that Eclipse, Circus Baby, Ballora, and the mascots from the Mimic's room in the Ruin DLC all have a circus theme and these characters could be much older than we thought. Could Ella, the Animatronic be part of this roster?

John's gonna have a field day with that specific detail

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Final Thoughts

So guess that's the end of this review. Overall I think the movie was good but for the older fans, it could be a bit underwhelming. It's not perfect but I still like that they did put a lot of effort to this movie and didn't make it look like an amateur made movie. I'm still very grateful for it.

And who knows, this movie can drive more people into the wonderful world of Five Nights at Freddy's and I'm all for that.

#fnaf #fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddy's movie #spoilers #fnaf movie spoilers #movie review #fnaf movie review #william afton #mike schmidt

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tco-old · 1 year

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Sparks of Hope Thoughts - Beacon Beach

My progress in Sparks of Hope has brought me to the point that there's nothing left to do in Beacon Beach that doesn't require going to the next area and coming back. So I figure now's a good point for my initial thoughts on the game! ☆

I'll probably be doing one of these as I complete each area in full, though this one will likely be the longest (except whenever the final one happens) since it's covering my thoughts on the gameplay itself and such.

This will be very in-depth, and therefore will have very clear spoilers for everything you can do up to leaving Beacon Beach.

So, the best place to start would be...

Gameplay

One of the things I was not expecting was the feel of the game in terms of familiarity to other games.

Obviously, it's still mostly Kingdom Battle, but what else is there to expect from a sequel game? A lot of the core mechanics are still there.

But, while I obviously knew there would be Galaxy influences going into it, I didn't expect space-travel to be involved so heavily. I assumed space was coming to them more than the other way around, y'know? (More talk of the Galaxy influences will be down in the Story and Lore section below.)

But what I really didn't expect... was that this has Odyssey in it. Very clearly. The world is more open, you can do pretty much everything—except the main story—in whatever order you please, there's decent helping of lore if you stop to look for it, checkpoints, and level maps! It's all there, and it honestly floored me a bit.

Combat

The combat is very streamlined, which I'm a big fan of.

I audibly reacted when I was dropped into combat for the first time and discovered I was able to move freely. The grid system is gone—more or less. It's really awesome, it's definitely helped me out when it comes to planning my course of action.

I don't remember elemental attacks and strengths/weakness from the original game, so I think that's new as well? I do remember fire from the Kingdom Battle, but I think that was it.

The combat is largely the same in a broader sense though, with the skill trees and unique character abilities and whatnot. Having the different weapons swapped out for being able to give everyone different Sparks is a pretty good substitute, in my opinion.

Story and Lore

I don't remember there being much concrete lore in Kingdom Battle past 'Real-World Mario Fan made a fusion machine' or something? It was never too set in stone, so this game's story being much more concrete did catch me off-guard (in a good way)!

"Sparks" being the name of the Luma-Rabbid hybrids was a very fun reveal for where the name came from. At the current point I'm at story-wise, there are a lot of questions currently left open about them, though;

The fusion of Rabbids and Lumas is making me wonder what's gone on with Spawny since the last game. I think he's gotten one mention—in a Jeanie memory—but that makes Spawny out to be a strictly ally character now.

In another one of Jeanie's memories, she mentions that the Sparks have retained two instincts from their original parts; Calling Rosalina "Mama" and fearing Cursa. It's not clear whether this is part of the Rabbid side or the Luma side, though I'm figuring the latter. Either way, I'm curious to find out why the Sparks are apparently familiar with Cursa.

Where's Rosalina??? She's been mentioned a couple times now and she's very blatantly implied to be in danger. I do know that Rabbid Rosalina is one of the characters from the original teaser(?), and she's yet to appear either.

I also wonder if all the lore given on Augie and Perfectus is gonna become relevant later. It did turn out to be related to a puzzle in the temple, sure, but I feel like they gave far more lore than they would've needed for how simple the riddle was.

After finishing the available 96% of Beacon Beach, I am a little surprised to see that this area alone is 18% of the story's entire progression. Though, to be fair, that math does come out to 5 areas + a bit more, which would mirror the original game.

Theories

Currently, my theories are few and far between, just by nature of the point I'm at, though there are a couple I'm going to present now.

When it comes to what might be up with Rosalina, I see two possible options; Either she's Cursa or she's Rabbid Rosalina.

With Cursa, her eye looks quite similar, though red, and her general silhouette is quite similar as well. It would also explain why the Sparks already seem to fear Cursa—if it's Rosalina in some way, the and Lumas might have experienced something like this before.

With Rabbid Rosalina, this is pretty much just assuming that whatever caused the fusion to create the Sparks also got ahold of Rosalina in the same way.

I also have a small theory that Twinkle, the Spark that lights up the lighthouse, is created from Baby Luma, just based on them both being the only two apricot-colored Lumas known to exist.

Characters

I will say, when the voice acting started at the beginning, it honestly spooked me a bit. I wasn't too sure if I even liked it, but it's grown on me quite quickly.

First we'll speed through the main cast, since they're all recurring characters from the last game;

Mario is Mario. I love that he's the only one who has no dialogue. Nintendo deciding Mario is mute is always fun (that's not meant to be a drag at the mario movie, but it kind of is.)

Luigi's always great—all the little hums and noises he makes are great. I think I have several of them recorded on my Switch already.

Peach is kind of terrifying. The way she just goes "Ha ha!" when firing at someone is haunting in the best way. Polite Badass Peach will always be one of my favorite characterizations of her.

The three main Rabbids; Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Luigi, and Rabbid Peach. I'm grouping them because I mostly have the same major comment; I love the way they're all different ways of knocking-off their source characters. Rabbid Mario is reminiscent of when Mario is over-characterized—the strong accent and arrogant confidence especially. Rabbid Luigi honestly kind of reminds me of Luigi from the 1993 Mario Movie, even the voice feels similar. And Rabbid Peach just straight up isn't Peach, she's closer to being Peach's foil.

Beep-0 is still pretty much the same as he was before. His voice is very good.

With them out of the way, the new (to this specific series) characters!

I can't tell which exact story trope Edge is playing here. They're either meant to very obviously be an antagonist for dramatic irony, or you're just meant to assume they are so the reveal that they aren't throws you off later. I can't determine which.

Jeanie is a very fun character, though there's a deep sadness in her memories—she wants to know her place in the galaxy, she feels a bit unregarded, she sees the WM ARC as her home, etc. I feel like she's gonna have a character arc. (Also, the lore of 'Beep-0 created an AI that's smarter than himself' is wild if you really think about it.)

Cursa remains as mostly an enigma at this point, though that—and the purple-blue color theme—are very typical for story-heavy Mario games.

Again, Rosalina is mostly absent so far, though the fact that she's been mentioned (plus the Galaxy themes in general) make me certain she'll show up at some point.

Augie is a mood and a half. That's all I have to say about him.

Conclusion

All-in-all, I'm very happy with how things are going so far! I hope the game can keep itself up. Very excited to move onto the next location—Pristine Peaks, I believe was the name?

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theclaravita · 1 year

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Lightfall Thoughts - Spoiler Heavy

So I've given the expansion a bunch of thought, played a bunch of the new stuff, done a bunch of testing, talked to a bunch of people, watched a bunch of videos... I have a list. It's a very depressing list. Filled with spoilers. And salt. Read at your own risk.

PROS

Strand is an absolute joy to play. I've only played on Warlock, but the general consensus that I'm seeing is that Strand is powerful, satisfying, and fun. The three things all subclasses should be.

Strand upgrade unlocks happen at a quick, satisfying pace. You can plan your build at the Pouka Pond, and Meditations drop really frequently, especially once you get to 1720+ and can actually start doing Terminal Overload for 100 per key. No bullshit questing requiring dead gamemodes. No strings, ironically enough.

Neomuna is gorgeous and full of lore references. As a lore junkie and devout watcher of My Name Is Byf, Neomuna is so fascinating and I see the history flowing out before me very clearly. You can see how the city is cradled by the rocky floating island it's on, how the cliffs around it are craggy and treacherous, and how the buildings are all very clearly Braytech/Ishtar Collective themed. The design is clearly inspired and thought-out: this city didn't pop into existence overnight and it feels like it.

The cutscenes are phenominally directed and cool. Almost all of the plot happens via gorgeously rendered cutscenes that had me leaning in and staring at my screen in awe. The events happening on-screen were baffling, terrifying, and made me acutely aware of the stakes. The deaths of the OG fireteam was... Chilling. And the Witness unnerved me in just the right way anytime they were present; even more so when Calus got his scolding for his failures.

The Loadout and Mod Systems are a godssend. I don't use the Loadout system nearly as much as I should... Which makes sense, seeing as I'm just above the soft cap for now. But the new Mods system is INSANE and lets me do disgusting things like INCREASE THE PASSIVE DAMAGE OF MY GJALLARHORN TO OVER 100K PER ROCKET. I've heard of people making builds that cause Winterbite to do over ONE MILLION DAMAGE. My current favorite casual build is orb spam with Osteo Striga + Necrotic Grip, then Kinetic Surge x2. Single projectiles are doing 3k-5k and it's ticking for 8k at times. It's FOUL in Terminal Overload and it carried me through the Classic Campaign.

The new Tower is great. Nothing else to say here; I like the tree and Cayde's memorial. The destroyed corner of the Tower was honestly jarring and pissing me off. I'm just that petty.

Vendor rankups are lightning fast. I'm already rank 30+ with Nimbus, rank 8 with the Vanguard, and I finally reset with Xur. I think I'm also around rank 10 with the War Table already, though I have no idea how; I think it grants EXP from Neomuna stuff too?

Nimbus.

CONS

So. Many. Bugs. I know it's said every update, but this feels like an open beta. The game's clearly done, but it needs polish. The amount of times I had graphical bugs during the amazing cutscenes really threw me out of the moment and undercut the gravity of those scenes. ("Osiris, I don't mean to interrupt my own training montage, but your robe seems to want to go back to Earth.") I've had a few game breaking bugs that I'll list here. - Player models turning invisible... Including my own, along with my weapons' sights and scopes as well. Every time it happens, it suddenly makes the game almost impossible to play. I can't see where I'm aiming when I ADS, there's no audio feedback from reloading or moving/jumping/gliding, and I never realized how much I relied on those audio cues while playing until they were gone. - The seasonal artifact keeps breaking. I've narrowed it down to the second column of perks for me, but not everyone is having this issue. If I unlock any of the mod authorizations, all of my perks stop activating -- including anti-Champion measures. - Commendations overview screen crashes my game. I've had it happen only once, but the fact that it happened at all is troubling. I've also heard of other people having this happen every time they open it, and Bungie has acknowledged it. It's still inexcusable that this wasn't caught. - Mods don't apply all the time. The new Mod system is great... When it works. Several times now, I've applied mods to test a buid and they just... Don't work. I thought I was misunderstanding their effects or something. Nope; sometimes you have to unequip and reequip mods to have their effects actually work. This specifically happens every time with the Empowered Finish mod, (I make sure I have no Armor Charge before trying, since it only grants a charge when you have none), and the Stacks On Stacks mod, (it regularly only grants a single Armor Charge unless I have two instances of the mod equipped).

Enemies are harder now, and we can't spam abilities as much... And the enemy placement did NOT change to accommodate this. If you're going to make an enemy one-shot with a clearly charged and obvious attack, MAYBE don't have FIVE OF THEM PERFECTLY POSITIONED TO BARRAGE ME NO MATTER WHERE I TAKE COVER. That shit worked when I had a Rift or Barricade every 45 seconds. I could weather it. I could huck a grenade over there and clear some space. But enemies are all sponges, they do an asston of damage, and I have NO FUCKING COVER. There's a BOSS-LEVEL HVT that's 1800+ that roams around IN THE SKY with two adds that follow it, similarly beefed up, THAT FLOAT DOWN INTO THE COVERED SPACES??? WHAT DO I DO AGAINST THAT??? I'M JUST TRYING TO DO A PATROL, MAN.

Lots and lots of kills credited to the Architects. I understand that you need a failsafe for when the player and enemy interact in an unexpected way... But RAGDOLLING MY GUARDIAN OUT OF THE MAP because an enemy GENTLY WALKED INTO ME is not valid. The most prevalent strategy I've seen deployed by minor enemies on Neomuna is crowding the player and pushing them into walls to death. Psions do it, War Beasts do it, Goblins do it. They just dash/run/teleport into you and push you around. Oh, got a Rift there? SEVEN WARBEASTS ALL ATTACKING YOU AT ONCE, DOING NO DAMAGE BECAUSE THEY'RE PUSHING EACH OTHER OUT OF THE WAY AND OOPS YOU'RE IN A WALL AND ARE CATAPULTED OUT OF THE MAP. WOE BE UPON YE, LIGHTBEARER.

Walls are not obstacles to enemies... And empty space is not a passage for players. The amount of times I've been killed by a Thresher from across the map, with multiple walls between me and it... Or better yet, getting headshot by a Hobgoblin that is glitched out of the map, on top of a building, behind an invisible barrier it can SHOOT THROUGH, when I'm literally UNDERGROUND. Or when the Tormenter just fuses with a wall, is nowhere near me, and somehow grapples me? DARK HARVEST, LIGHTBEARER. EAT SHIT. IT DEFIES SPACE AND TIME. Additionally, I've shot Gjallarhorn rockets into OPEN AIR, NOWHERE NEAR AN OBSTACLE, and it blew up in my face. I tested it afterward: if you stand in the very middle of the Zephyr Concourse (with the spinny gyroscope structure) and shoot out of the circle, there's a CHANCE that it will hit a wall that isn't there. It's one of the spinny things. At some point, they desync from the graphic and it blocks your path in midair. I tested it further: I was able to reliably get physics-killed by "nothing" by jumping when I knew it would be there based on previous cycles. I'd been in the area for four hours farming Terminal Overload (before I got a key, sadly), so maybe it just desyncs over time? Still stupid.

The open world is boring and unfun to traverse. It looks pretty. I appreciate the little lore references. But FUCK ME RUNNING it's a chore to traverse. There aren't enough grapple points for Strand, and the ones that are there serve no purpose. There's still annoying as fuck deathplanes and invisible barriers, sometimes RIGHT NEXT TO a grapple point, CLEARLY SET UP FOR ME TO JUMP UP ON TOP OF THAT BUILDING, but if I do I die or bounce out. There's too much ground clutter, too few sweeping avenues, too many bottomless pits, too few ledges to jump down from. THEY LITERALLY SHOWED A HUNTER DIVING OFF A BUILDING IN THE TRAILER. WHY CAN'T I FUCKING DO THAT. YOU LITERALLY SOLD THE FUCKING EXPANSION WITH THAT SHIT.

The rewards from Neomuna activities are boring. The new weapons are neat, and that's about it. I miss gathering materials and trading them in. Using materials for upgrades, and the implication that we were trading them into the vendors who would then CRAFT THEM INTO GEAR for us! That was dope! And using materials to unlock upgrades on my badass weapons as I used them... YEAH! Now it's all cores, prisms, shards, and glimmer. That's it. SNORE. And dropping a ton of Strand Meditations all at once has made what I THOUGHT was going to be a length grind into... Nothing. I'm already 3/4 of the way done. And I've only done 10 Terminal Overload runs. I have 900 meditations. I only need 1600 more to get all the fragments. Why even do it this way? I haven't even played Strand outside of the required times for quests. And I almost have the grind done. Just unlock everything out the gate or don't do this way at all. Another example of the game being stuck with "this is how we did it BEFORE..."

Everything being centered on cores now has put a MASSIVE strain on my stock of upgrade materials, and it's forcing me to CHOOSE: keep my gear up to the bleeding edge of my power level, or reshape my weapon I've leveled up and grinded with enhanced perks? Upgrade my armor, or shape a new weapon from the plentiful patterns I'm unlocking? Giving me assured progress on crafting patterns, letting me unlock new patterns quickly, and letting me do that with NEW WEAPONS that are SHINY and FUN? That's great! Love it! Locking me behind a grind of fucking enhancement cores to take advantage of these increased rates of unlock? Kinda makes me want to uninstall the game. Weapon shaping was such a cool system when it launched: you had to seek out the weapons that had the right perks so you can get the materials you need to craft weapons with those perks. Great! Then it got simplified: no more perk-specific mats. And now it's been stripped down fully: no mats at all. Now it's not worth it. I don't give a single royal FUCK about crafting these weapons, and I'm SO GLAD I reshaped my core loadout BEFORE Lightfall... Because I'm not doing it anymore. Congrats, Bungo; weapon shaping is no longer the most effective tactic... It's the least effective tactic. And with the ability to enhance perks on random roll weapons coming, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING GODSDAMNED FUCKING POINT OF ADDING THE WEAPON CRAFTING SYSTEM OTHER THAN TO SELL WITCH QUEEN??? SERIOUSLY??? JUST FUCKING REMOVE IT ALREADY, THEN.

And now for the worst part. I was going to write up a huge wall of text outlining my problems with the lore. I was going to go into detail, with references and pictures and shit. But my mental health would not stay in the "I'm okay" zone for long if I did that. This shit absolutely makes my blood boil. Instead of breaking down every single gripe I have, I'm going to make another list. I'm not going to spend 10,000+ characters describing why this shit sucks. I'm going to keep each gribe short and sweet. Well, more sour. Anyway.

THE LORE

The Veil is not a fully-realized concept. I think they had a cool idea for how it would look and then didn't know how to progress from there. It's clearly an eyeball, right? I'm not nuts for thinking that? It's never referred to that way. "Roots" they called them. THEY'RE FUCKING VEINS. THAT'S AN OPTIC NERVE. GHOST. YOU'RE A FLOATING EYEBALL. HOW DID YOU NOT SEE THE SIMILARITY.

People talk about the Veil as if they know what it is. They don't. Why was the dialogue written as if it was understood? It verly clearly isn't, based on the post-game quests. And now there's not threat right? Why don't we go study it? The way is open.

The Veil was unveiled (wink) during the final chapter of the third act. We had no time to really come to terms with it as an object. And now it's hidden away in "you already did this quest" land forever. They talk about it a bit in the post-game quests, but it's almost immediately just shoved aside for "ROHAN'S LEGACY".

Calus was a terrible character and showed no development at all. I expected him to be either a chillingly calculated new kind of evil or fully batshit insane. He's still the snarky, irreverent snob that he's always been. He's just gold-plated now. Also his combat style is just "Colossus meets Caretaker" followed by "he's just a fucking Gladiator". I died more from him pushing me off the edge of the platform than his attacks. Pathetic.

The Witness was chilling and terrifyingly powerful: perfect for a new main antagonist. They killed an entire swathe of Guardians with a flick of their finger. I want to fight them. We do not even interact with them. They then fucked off into the Kaleidoscope Dimension of Triangles. "We can't follow it." Fuck you, I'm gonna try.

I didn't even blink when Rohan died. Not only did I expect it, I called exactly how he would die sacrificing himself because other people fucked up. He was a boring character with a boring end. His legacy is one of mediocrity.

We literally just call it capital-S "Strand" with no ceremony or explanation. It just comes out of Ghost's mouth. I did all the side dialogue stuff, talked to every NPC between each quest. It is never referred to as Strand except when Ghost randomly calls it that. This is minor, but it is a plot hole that triggers my writer's instinct. It needs to be explained. "This power... It's like strings... Ribbons... Strands... Strand!" That's all I wanted.

Stasis spent way too much time introducing the concept and feeding it to us a little at a time. Strand had no introduction, we literally find it randomly in the second mission, instantly play with it, and then randomly master it half-way through the story... But DON'T unlock it as a power? The training montage was cool and funny. Watching my Warlock unmaker herself with cosmic strings got a chuckle out of me. Just really wish Osiris's feathers hadn't been reaching for infinity during that cutscene.

Why and how was Callus able to just shout a hole through all of the Veil's defenses, all the way down to the actual fucking VAULT IT'S CONTAINED IN, but then uses a gun and swords to fight us? He should be able to just... Shout our Ghost apart, right? He can just will a goblet into being with his mind from raw ore, but he can't have a Tormentor grab us so he can crush our Ghost? I can apparently crush a Ghost with my bare hand, (Lucent Hive taught me that), but Callus can't? How was he powerful enough to vocally drill to the core of the planet, but impotent enough that I killed him with a sword?

"The Traveler is gone..." What? No it isn't. It just has aetherpunk-puke hole disorder. We still have the Light, right? So the Traveler isn't GONE... Why is everyone saying it's gone? We can see it from the HELM! The Witness and all the Pyramid ships are gone, though. That's nice. The Traveler is still clearly there. WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK IT'S GONE???

Nezerec? Really? He had no interactions with the Vex that we know of. And he's in the Vex Network? Really? Kind of a blind left hook there, Bungie. And if he betrayed the Witness, why is he still so evil? Is the implication that "Disciple of the Witness" isn't the ultimate way to be evil? That Nezerec is MORE evil? I don't understand. And knowing this game, I never will.

No interactions with Poukas to help us unlock Strand? Except the implied help we get at the Pouka Pond? Not even a cutscene showing that that's how we're doing it? Just walk up and "here's your shit, now go farm currency".

So many glaring issues I saw in the space battle cutscenes... Why was the Traveler's light beam completely ineffective against the Witness? And why did the Witness get a vision when it touched the Traveler? And why was it of Neptune specifically? And how was the HELM hit by the huge Pyramid ship shockwaves when it was clearly on the opposite side of the battle? Did our entire fleet get annihilated by that attack? What about Callus's ships? Why weren't they destroyed? That entire scene was so jarring and cluttered and had so many continuity issues and inconsistencies. It was cool in the trailers, but we literally saw the entire scene from beginning to end before the launch. It was clearly cut to be trailer fodder and that's really it.

Where the fuck is Xivu Arath and the Hive during all of this? No tombships, no Bladed Terrace... Isn't this battle enough of a clarion call to her that Xivu Arath can use it to call forth her forces from the Ascendant Plane? What about the war on Neptune? WHY IS THE HIVE GOD OF WAR NOT PRESENT FOR THE WAR TO END ALL WARS???

The seasonal story... Why are the Cabal taking prisoners at all? Isn't the entire purpose to destroy us? And why are they kept 5 at a time in a giant Pyramid complex with a single cage in the middle of a huge temple-like room? Are they to be sacrificed? And who are these people anyway? They look like civilians, but Amanda was with them... Were they pilots? Are they Guardians? If not, why were they in the space battle? How did they survive an attack that clearly decimated our entire fleet? Why did they crash on the EDZ?

I have more, but my computer is lagging from how long this post has become. I also need to eat breakfast. I've not slept in 24 hours and now I have a long day ahead of me to reset my sleep schedule.

I regret buying this expansion. I'm not going to whine and bitch about refunding. I made the choice to trust Bungo with my money and I got what I paid for. The fact that what I paid for was apparently a pile of shit is irrelevant. I really hope the seasons to come save this game. But I stand with what My Name Is Byf said: this game is now firmly in the category of "I cannot recommend it". Save your money; don't get Lightfall if you haven't already. Unless you really want to spend $60 for a new subclass. The best parts of this expansion for the most part are available for free.

My heart is breaking for this game... Here's hoping it redeems itself.

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j4gm · 3 years

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TOGETHER AGAIN SPOILERS

A thread of lore, Easter eggs, episode connections, and background details from Adventure Time: Distant Lands: Together Again! Let me know if I missed anything! This is adapted from my original Twitter thread.

Keep reading ⬇️⬇️⬇️

1. I was expecting them to perhaps do a classic style title sequence for this episode, but I wasn't expecting them to straight up use the original title sequence. The only difference is this final screen saying "Distant Lands".

2. The background of the title cards is also the hill from the title sequence.

3. The ice cream having "50 flavours" and having an image of an enlightened soul is an obvious reference to the 50th Dead World as we see it later in the episode.

4. Continuing with the metaphor, the dirt in the ice cream could be a parallel to the fact that Jake's Nirvana actually wasn't perfect, because his inaction was allowing for injustice to perpetuate.

5. This whole scene feels immediately slightly off. Finn has his Scarlet sword and is out on a classic Ice King adventure, but he speaks in his grown voice and all the slang feels much more forced than it did in the real season one. Turns out this was deliberate.

6. The snow golem speaks with a baby voice like it did in the pilot episode, even though in canon it has a deeper voice. This further hints that something is not quite right.

7. The first major break in continuity is these snow golems resembling Uncle Gumbald and Peace Master, who Finn didn't meet until later in his life.

8. LSP sitting on Finn's head like this is reminiscent of Pen Ward's piece for the 2018 Ble crew zine.

9. Finn being given the choice of helping somebody but ending up helping everybody reminds me of "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain". It's the kind of resolution that wouldn't happen so much in the late seasons of the show, which helps make this scene feel even further out of place.

10. Jake is half frozen by Ice King in pretty much the exact same way as he was in "Prisoners of Love", and even has a very similar line.

11. The Snail is seen here. The crew have said that the Snail has been deliberately left out of previous Distant Lands specials, so its placement here is another very deliberate hint that this whole sequence is "trying too hard" to be like the early seasons.

12. The book "Mind Games" appears a couple of times, as seen in several previous episodes of Adventure Time. The first is as Finn is approaching the library in his dream. It also appears as one of the items in Finn's backpack later.

13. Jake is hurt when Finn fist bumps him with his metal arm, revealing that this scene is not real. This is also a callback to the title sequences of "Islands" and "Elements".

14. A whole bunch of familiar skeletons are seen in the bird's nest: Dirt Beer Guy, Abracadaniel, Me-Mow, Lemongrab, Mr. Pig, and the Snail again. This doesn't necessarily mean that all these characters are dead, since this scene is just a hallucination.

15. Old Man Finn! He's still got the chest tattoo of Jake, and this time we know that Jake is dead, so the theory that Jake died before "Obsidian" seems pretty likely. He looks similar to his old man design from "Puhoy", with the same facial hair.

16. There are several cameos of familiar characters who apparently died at the same time as Finn. The first is this duck, who previously appeared in "Ocarina".

17. The second is Donny, from the episode... uh, "Donny".

18. This goblin guy is an unnamed background character from “The Silent King”.

19. This old lady first appeared in "The Enchiridion", way back in season one. Old ladies are a species in the Land of Ooo, so I guess she wasn't actually very old back then, given she just about outlived Finn.

20. This is the cobbler who first appears in "His Hero". Amazing that he lived so long given all the trouble he got into in that episode.

21. Land of the Dead! This place was first seen in season two's "Death in Bloom", and now we are finally learning its actual purpose. It's a sort of gateway and hub to all of the other dead worlds.

22. There are some more minor cameos at the gates: a house person from "Donny", a soft person from "Gut Grinder", and a wood person from "When Wedding Bells Thaw". And, of course, the gate guardian himself from “Death in Bloom”.

23. Finn completely ignores the gate guardian in the same way he did in Death in Bloom. This also has the convenient effect of not having to reveal how Finn died, leaving it up to the audience's imagination.

24. Mr. Fox! We already knew he would die at some point because BMO had his skull in the finale.

25. Finn has his design from the first Distant Lands poster in this scene. Turns out it's young Finn in old Finn's clothes. But they gave him a shirt in the poster so you wouldn't be able to see the tattoo.

26. The clapping that Finn does while he's looking for Jake is a callback to "James Baxter the Horse", when Jake tells Finn to listen for that same rhythm if they are killed and need to find each other in the afterlife.

27. Mr. Fox talks about a "past life quotient", suggesting that there might be some kind of limit to how many times somebody can reincarnate. Finn's reincarnations are also seen in this scene; a callback to "The Vault", and confirmation that reincarnations share the same soul.

28. Boobafina, the goose who Mr. Fox was in love with in his debut episode “Storytelling”, apparently reincarnated into a tugboat. We've already seen that objects can have souls in the episode "Ghost Fly".

29. Finn is initially assigned to the 37th Dead World, which is the same one that Jake went to when he died in "Sons of Mars". We can only guess at what the other numbers on the ticket mean ;)

30. Tiffany! Despite several lucky escapes throughout his life, Tiffany has finally died. I like the use of this imagery to express Finn's conflicted feelings about him.

31. The 50th Dead World has long been established as the "highest" dead world, and the one synonymous with Heaven within Adventure Time's universe. It was first mentioned in "Ghost Princess" back in season three.

32. It's unclear what happens to souls which are destroyed within the dead worlds. It is a similar question to asking what happened to the ghosts that were killed in "Ghost Fly".

33. Death doesn't speak at all in Together Again because his voice actor, Miguel Ferrer, passed away in 2017 long before production began.

34. Finn phases through New Death when he tries to attack him, just like what happened way back in "Death in Bloom".

35. The 30th Dead World contains Tree Trunks as well as many of her love interests; Mr. Pig, her alien husband from "High Strangeness", Danny and Randy who first appeared in "Apple Wedding", and several more who we don't recognise, including at least one who presents as a woman.

36. Literally yelled when these two showed up. Joshua calls Finn a crybaby, which is a callback to "Dad's Dungeon".

37. The wall of weapons in Joshua and Margaret's house includes the iconic Demon Blood Sword, which was broken in "Play Date", as well as Margaret's auto-loading crossbow from "Joshua & Margaret Investigations".

38. Jermaine is sidelined a few times through the episode, in reference to his attitude in "Jermaine" where he feels that Finn and Jake were always their parents' favourites. I would have hoped things would be a bit better by now.

39. Fern gets name dropped while Finn and Jake are reuniting. A shame he doesn't actually show up in the episode.

40. In this scene, Finn says "What time is it?" This is a very subtle reference to the 2010 cartoon "Adventure Time".

41. In a couple of shots during this fight scene it looks like Jake might have a tattoo. It seems like it only becomes visible when he stretches out his arm.

42. New Death's amulet in this scene resembles parts of the Lich's cape, foreshadowing his influence on New Death.

43. There are several more cameos in the 50th Dead World: Booshy from "High Strangeness", one of the Marshmallow Kids from "Scamps", and Ghost Princess and Clarence, who were seen ascending to the 50th Dead World in "Ghost Princess".

44. Finn didn't interact with Booshy in "High Strangeness", but it seems they must have met at some point before they both died because Finn knows his name.

45. It seems like people in the 1st Dead World are slowly melted away until they become part of the landscape. Nasty.

46. Lots more cameos in this scene: a gnome from "Power Animal", a gnome from "The Enchiridion", a Bath Boy from "The Vault", Blagertha from "Love Games", Maja the Sky Witch, a troll from "Dungeon", Chocoberry, Choose Goose, Wyatt, a spiky person from "Gut Grinder", and possibly more.

47. Tiffany's insults are consistently nonsensical and amazing, as they were in the original series.

48. The Candy Kingdom looks extremely different. Peppermint Butler is wearing the crown so he might be in charge now, which is supported by the kingdom's very magical-looking augmentations. It’s not clear whether Finn and Jake were expecting to find Princess Bubblegum or Peppermint Butler, since both have the initials “PB” and both could be going by the title of “Princess”. Perhaps Peps and Bubblegum share the princess duties now that PB is living with Marceline more of the time.

49. Peppermint Butler has a "Boss" mug, although it's not the same colour as the one from "Obsidian".

50. Jake's ghost has the same design as he did when BMO killed him in "Ghost Fly". I also absolutely love Finn's ghost. This scene establishes that ghosts are just visitors to the mortal plane from the dead worlds.

51. Life has only appeared in animated shorts before now. Namely, "The Gift That Reaps Giving" which establishes her relationship with Death, and "Frog Seasons: Winter". This episode gives her a concrete place within Adventure Time's pantheon: she is in charge of reincarnation.

52. A translation of Life’s angry French dialogue by Shado: “After all I did for that boy. After all I did for him. No, it's not possible. It's not possible no, that... that makes me so mad but it's not possible.”

53. We finally have in-universe confirmation that Shoko's tiger is a previous life of Jake. This was previously confirmed by one of the writers, but wasn't canon until now.

54. I feel like Finn pulled off Shoko's look even better than Shoko did. I wonder whether Finn has gained the memories of his past lives now that he’s dead.

55. No Easter egg here, just want to appreciate this image.

56. There is an elemental symbol on the wall here, as seen in "Jelly Beans Have Power".

57. Tiffany's dramatic internal monologue is a recurring gag, as is his habit of nearly dying from falling into holes.

58. The Jake suit makes a cameo in the fight against New Death. It was last seen in the episode "Reboot”.

59. Finn's backpack contains a few familiar items: the t-shirt with the pocket from "It Came from the Nightosphere", Finn's underwear from "Little Dude" and other episodes, and a copy of Mind Games as I've already mentioned.

60. The Lich's Hand is present in the background of Death's... death scene. This is probably the unseen "friend" who New Death keeps talking about.

61. The Lich's menacing monologues often begin with a single command. Previously they have included "Fall" and "Stop". This time, the command is "Burn".

62. Jake uses the word "boingloings", which is a callback all the way to "Hitman" in the third season.

63. Jake's blue shape-shifter form from "Abstract" appears very briefly during his fight with Finn.

64. Finn's lumpy space person form also makes an appearance. This design was last seen all the way back in the second episode of the entire show, "Trouble in Lumpy Space".

65. Jake steps on the Lich's hand in a very similar way to how he stepped on Ash in "Memory of a Memory", which is itself a Monty Python reference.

66. The credits include a dedication to a few AT cast and crew who have passed away. Polly Lou Livingston was the voice of Tree Trunks. Miguel Ferrer was the voice of Death. Michel Lyman and Maureen Mlynarczyk were both sheet timers on the original series. Rest in peace.

67. The message that Finn and Jake write out on the ouija board is "BUTT", which Peppermint Butler takes as a distress signal. This message is also used as a distress signal by the Hot Dog Knights in "The Limit".

68. Peppermint Butler's reversed dialogue from the scene where he makes contact with Finn and Jake is "Kee-Oth Rama Pancake", the spell from “Dad's Dungeon” for banishing demons.

69. That appears to be President Porpoise with all of Tree Trunks’ other lovers.

70. In this scene, Life is humming part of "Lonely Bones", the song which Death tried to record for her in her debut short "The Gift That Reaps Giving". It's hard to notice because it's so brief.

71. Finn and Jake's cover is blown while in the Land of the Dead because Jake loudly farts, which also happened in "Death in Bloom".

72. The place where Mr. Fox explains the perception mechanics of the afterlife is the exact same location as the River of Forgetfulness from "Death in Bloom", which, as it turns out, was imaginary.

These are sort of out of order at the end because I was adding stuff to the Twitter thread as it got discovered. That’s all for now!

#adventure time #together again #finn the human #jake the dog #lorepost

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 years

Text

hi yes im still alive

DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST--

HAVING A MOMENT TO PROCESS ALL THE LORE AND STORY CHAPTER 6 JUST DROPPED ON US, I CAN BARELY WRITE

AHHHHHHH, I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS 😭 kjdbbaufbiafafvoaybo LEMME PUT ON MY THINKING CAP AND THROW SOME STUFF OUT ASDYUBUASDLI;AGVUOQIB;VI You’ll understand why I used Leona’s face here even though it’s Idia and Ortho’s chapter after you read my thoughts--

***Chapter 6 (and other main story) spoilers below the cut!***

Okay, just to keep it simple, I’ll try to keep things in chronological order!

First is a bullet point list of my thoughts on chapter 6 so far, then all my questions and theories (mostly a biggish theory on Ace) are at the end of the post.

Expectation: Idia cowering in his room, Vil and Rook busting down his door using Epel as a battering ram, dead Ortho theory confirmed

Reality: SWAT TEAM RAID ON NRC, DORM LEADERS (sans Kalim) AND JAMIL GET KIDNAPPED

Admittedly, I’m disappointed to see that the injury Grim inflicted to MC was basically just a cat scratch and nothing more. I thought it would be a lot more impactful if MC had to deal with juggling the realization that Grim has betrayed their friendship and trust while also on the verge of death (or at least while being severely injured)... And given how MC reacted to the attack at the end of chapter 5, I would think whatever struck them was much more substantial than just a cat scratch. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say either the script got scrubbed by Disney, or the intent was that MC was still woozy from VDC / OB Vil, MC felt so betrayed that it shook them emotionally, or that MC was just that weak by default that they can’t defend themselves against cat claws.

Hey, Ramshackle’s finally getting renovated! Proceeds to immediately get destroyed again--

I feel like????????? They tried to retroactively explain why Neige won to try and mitigate the uproar over how VDC ended. There’s some dialogue between the VDC group about how they didn’t perform at their peak because of having just walked out of dealing with OB Vil, and how Neige’s fans were going to vote for him anyway because they resonated with his background. Honestly, I think they should have moved on from that sore spot instead of bringing it up again, even if how chapter 5 ended didn’t personally bother me.

BOOM, HERE COME THE TWST TERMINATORS--

NOT GONNA LIE, THOSE STYX GUYS LOOK HOT SO COOL

AAAAAAND IT’S KIDNAPPING MONTAGE TIME, KIDS

JOABSFHUPAUABDBADB CALM DOWN, RIDDLE??????? YOU’RE GOING TO COMMIT ARSON IN BROAD DAYLIGHT--

Okay, I know this chapter’s focused on Ignihyde and Grim, but the standout part to me (so far) has been the scene where Leona’s being kidnapped. Historically, Leona has not been a character that I like (excluding that one time I had to pretend to like him for a game). I feel like he’s one massive missed opportunity (he didn’t show up much in chapter 2, he’s pretty similar backstory-wise to his Disney counterpart compared to the other Dorm Leaders, he didn’t seem to learn anything or become a better person even a LITTLE after chapter 2, etc.). I’m not a fan of his lazy and arrogant attitude either (even if it is justified by his backstory). But here? THIS IS THE LEONA I ACTUALLY LIKE AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF.

LIKE????? I CAN’T DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW MUCH I LIKE THIS SCENE???? Yeah, we have Leona fighting STYX at first, but as soon as he realizes who they are, he wises up and surrenders because he knows better than to resist arrest. AND NOT ONLY THAT, but he uses King’s Roar in a smart way--to turn the falling greenhouse glass panes into sand so they don’t hurt anyone nearby (namely him and Ruggie).

And after he turns himself in????? LEONA TELLS RUGGIE TO TAKE CARE OF SAVANACLAW FOR HIM!!! THIS is what a real leader would do. He looks after himself and his people, but he knows when to surrender, AND he leaves his “kingdom” (the dorm) in good hands while he’s away. THIS is the Leona I want to see.

AJBDUASHPFBUABFIABIYFBIPFAAFIAF I ALSO REALLY LIKE HIS SASS WHEN HE JUST THROWS HIS HANDS UP AND ASDBIASBIABAIODDAYOFAIPPADAIDB SAYS “I’ll go with you, but be careful while escorting me, okay? Despite my looks, I'm a precious prince. I’ll get sick/dizzy if you drive recklessly.” SARCASTIC SASSY SMARTASS??????? IF YOU HAD MORE LINES LIKE THIS, I’D LIKE YOU MORE

I love how Azul’s still talking about capitalism/how he can profit from Idia (apparently the Shrouds are like the TWST equivalent of Google??????) as he’s being escorted away by the agents?????? IF I WERE HIM, I’D BE PISSED OFF THAT THEY INTERRUPTED MY BOARD GAME????? At least let the man finish first--

Damn, everyone’s being tasered???????? And apparently all the STYX agents are equipped with anti-magic plates? I guess Bind the Heart can just eat shit then--

Lilia’s ringtone is cute, period.

CROWLEY CALLED STYX TO CAPTURE GRIM???? GRIM IS OFFICIALLY A SCP THAT NEEDS TO BE CONTAINED????

WAIT WHAT CROWLEY’S BEING KIDNAPPED TOO??????? Oh well, the school is probably safer in Trein’s hands anyway--

askhlbfbilhidbabbidasb RIDDLE WAKES UP POST KIDNAPPING AND HE’S USING LEONA AS A LAP PILLOW?????!

How does it feel to be held in a room against your will, Jamil? Yeah, don’t like a taste of your own medicine, do you?

OH HI IDIA, NICE YZMA MAD SCIENTIST GETUP YOU GOT THERE

Wait, what????? THAT’S IT?????? SERIOUSLY???????

MAN.

I have so many questions??????? Specifically about STYX and what they do, and how the Shrouds are tied into all of it.

So they say STYX is a specialized unit called in to quell serious Overblot cases. And if Crowley called them to deal with Grim... well, bad times ahead for Grim. STYX has also been studying Overblot for a long time, which is why (I think?) they captured Riddle, Leona, Azul, Jamil, and Vil.

There’s been some allusions made between Grim and Stitch in a lot of fan art and fan theories I’ve seen, since their struggles have some parallels: that being them struggling to decide if they are “good” or “bad”. I don’t know if this was intentional on the part of the TWST writing team, but regardless, it’s a really good concept that plays into the themes of TWST itself. There’s no good, there’s no evil, no black and white--most of the characters we see may be BASED on villains, but that doesn’t MAKE them villains. They are good, and bad, in their own ways--and now Grim is dealing with that crisis as he fights to keep his sanity and avoid completely succumbing to Overblot.

Though Idia seems to be involved with STYX’s research, it doesn’t sound like he personally gave the order to retrieve those test subjects (or at the very least, he’s not happy about roughing up the test subjects), it sounds like the orders came from other people in the organization. His parents, perhaps?

They mention briefly that Idia’s parents are asking him to “come home”, so it must be for something urgent. Are they worried about his safety? But Idia’s lines at the end of chapter 5 lead me to think he is estranged from his family, since he straight up rejected a job offer linked to them (Olympus Corp is owned by the Jupiter family, and the Shrouds are a branch family of Jupier), and says something like “I’m not welcome anywhere”. Has Idia done something to disgrace him from the rest of the family? Or is it more of a self imposed/self inflicted statement, given that he always says he’s “cursed” and acts like he’s guilty of something that deserves scorn?

Why is Idia participating in STYX research, even if it means experimenting on his fellow students (and fellow board game enthusiast Azul)? People are speculating that he wants to use blots to fully revive Ortho (if dead Ortho theory is true), or that Idia actually has heroic intentions (he wants to know more about blots to prevent OBing from happening?), but at this point??? Literally anything could happen?!

In future parts, I’m guessing Pomefiore, MC, and Adeuce will team up to break Jamil and the Dorm Leaders (except Malleus, Malleus got left out again www) out? And HOPEFULLY we get to see Rook’s Unique Magic or at least more screen time, since I feel like he got so little in chapter 5... Another thing I’d like to see is Ace and/or Epel getting their Unique Magic, or at least starting to develop it. It’s really mostly Ace I want more details for.

A theory I’ve been holding onto for a long time is that Deuce getting his UM will spur Ace on to become jealous (since he has always seen Deuce as an idiot/”lesser” than him), and that will cause a rift in the friendship, or for Ace to throw himself into a dangerous situation to prove himself (he has done it before with Riddle)... and has his ass rescued again. This would make Ace even angrier, since he feels like everyone is treating him like a little kid or rubbing it in that he isn’t “as good” as they are. I don’t know where it would go from there (I’m sure TWST would get creative), but ultimately it would culminate in Ace making amends with everyone and rushing in to save them from either Grim or Idia OB.

I don’t think Ace would discover his UM in a similar manner as Deuce (Deuce had to embrace his own stubbornness and straightforwardness, but as the term “Unique” Magic implies, the way a magic develops and manifests is “unique” to the user). While Deuce has to learn to accept his own way of thinking, I believe Ace is already sure of his own way of thinking and has totally accepted it. I think what Ace has to deal with instead is coming to terms with his fickleness. We’ve seen him time and time again treating his loved ones kind of callously, from constantly bullying MC, Grim, and Deuce to ghosting his own girlfriend and flaking on people when they are counting on him to do a task.

The issue with Ace isn’t that he isn’t aware, it’s that he is aware and he seems to think this behavior is totally okay. He demonstrates little to no remorse in what he does and says, and he doesn’t seem to care about the consequences either (how many times does he get punished by Riddle, yet he keeps doing the same dumb things over and over?). Ace appears to operate under the mindset of always being in the right, or (if he’s in the wrong), he won’t really acknowledge it, or he will wave it off as “no big deal”--and I think that’s his greatest weakness.

In the scenario I described earlier, I mentioned that Ace’s jealousy will cause a wedge between him and his friends, and I think this will play into him realizing the error of his ways. When he has finally driven away all of the people that supported him, what will he have left? Nothing. Then maybe Ace suddenly finds himself relating to Idia, or to Grim, who have Overblotted and are in a similar emotional state as he is. Confused and lonely... and that energizes him to pitch in again, even if all he has is wind magic up his sleeve. Everyone could be shocked that Ace has returned, and in that moment, he could finally realize his true potential and unlock his Unique Magic!

(Maybe that’s too specific, but that’s a scenario that I’ve had playing in my head for a long time!)

... Buuuuut given that Ace has gotten little to no spotlight so far in chapter 6, I’m not sure if they’ll lean into him developing his UM yet (unless they pull a chapter 5 and really start addressing Ace in the latter half of the chapter like they did with Deuce). Seeing as chapter 6 is dealing with a lot of heavy topics (death, Grim lore, Overblot lore), I’m thinking maybe the TWST team will push off Ace’s UM development to chapter 7???? The only way I can see it happening in chapter 6 is if the chapter is SUPER long, or if the writing is REALLY good or really bad.

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!! I’m so excited for the rest of chapter 6... I hope that we don’t have to wait too long for it!

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steve0discusses · 3 years

Text

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Pharaoh’s Cool New Trick

Digging my way through quite a pile of commission work (funny how these things only come all at once or not at all), nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, was looking forward to some free time to catch up on my many little side projects when I was asked to take off for a weekend to do some cat-sitting to which I would NEVER say no to a cat, so like...Rip this blog I guess, we only update like once a week nowadays, but what do you do?

That’s right, play Puzzles and Dragons! The only phone game worth paying any attention to! Where they just released Pegasus on their Yugioh Collab and he looks pretty great!

So I’m just gonna take a second for some art appreciation, because the Puzzles and Dragons art team is just A++++ honestly, and yes, I did pull 13 times to get a Pegasus in my monster box, and yes, he is a completely insane team leader that is absolutely broken when paired with Yugi (the numbers are so satisfying) but...look at him. He looks so good!

(also I finally got Joey Wheeler, and so now my gatcha cravings are settled. And, don’t worry, I play this game so much that I was there during Christmas when they offered like a bajillion stones for free so I didn’t actually use real money on this.)

Now PAD also released a Weevil and Rex, and I don’t know why, and neither does the art team because they still look pretty good but in comparison to all the mains, they sure do looks like just some shorty guys in some casuals.

though I gotta admit, I want to learn how the hell this art team does swooshy effects, because man, that would make my art so much better to just have flames violently exploding out of all my art. Why am I not doing that more often? I have the technology.

anyway, I didn’t bother trying to pull them. Maybe I’ll accidentally pull them when they eventually release a Duke Devlin. (also, RIP to the fact that Roland will probably never be in Puzzles and Dragons but like...I can only send them so many polite letters covered in stickers pretending I’m some 10 year old child and writing in my broken Hiragana “Roland in PAD?”. Thems the breaks. (They also might not remember who Roland is.))

Shoutouts to the card that Weevil is holding that is censoring this nipple on the booby spider, PS.

So because this is not actually a Puzzles and Dragons blog, and it’s been ten eons since I regularly updated so I could remember episode to episode...where the hell were we?

That’s right, we’re on an island now. This show’s wonderful obsession with evil islands (and spoiler, this is one of the few Yugioh Islands that doesn’t explode at the end. Mostly because Kaiba isn’t here to do it or this place would be cinder)

(read more island stuff under the cut)

Anyway, after announcing “hey guys! Screw islands!” Yugi immediately collapses and without any warning.

Apparently the armor is a big ol parasite, which is something that Yugi is so used to at this point that he refuses to admit that this is a problem. Just normal Muto stuff, refusing to tell anyone that he has a serious illness going on underneath that giant mass of hair.

(the sailor moon vibes coming off this weird orb energy)

Sort of feels like a call back to S1 when Yugi was clearly possessed and everyone else was like “He acting weird to you?” except it’s S5 and everyone has learned to never trust Yugi when he says he’s fine and they are responding like he is about to die. Which is correct.

Outside of the cave falls this scroll that is...glowing, I guess. So they open it up and get a bunch of hieroglyphs that give them the “riddle of light” and like youknow...it’s riddle stuff.

They’re doing this riddle for “wings.” And it’s like...everyone’s monster here has a set of wings or an ability to fly. Every single monster except for I dunno, flaming swordsman? Hell, Yugi himself had two sets of wings when he fused with Dark Magician (which was weird, and I still don’t like to think about what technically was going on there.) But we have to go and get ourselves even more wings.

Weirdly, Joey turns to Tea and does something that in any other show would be completely normal. He was like “you want to stay here with Yugi, don’t you?” and it was the first time Joey has ever actually addressed the fact that Tea and Yugi are close. Uncharted territory. I was amazed at the amount of casual shipping that is happening here. It’s almost like a normal ass relationship.

So the boys decide to go off, and be boys and tackle this themselves. And they shouldn’t have, because Tea is smart for this group, and also has the only healing spell.

Like if you’re playing D+D you wouldn’t typically leave your only healer behind. Just saying.

Also like...Grandpa Muto went with them? I guess he’d have to since he’s the translator but also...kind of weird to leave your grandson dying in a cave, but maybe that’s just the Muto lifestyle.

Do not be fooled by my caps, no one has addressed the Bakura in the puzzle for 3 seasons. I’m starting to think this show will never address the Bakura in the puzzle. Which honestly, that would be hilarious if they made a big deal out of that plot point and then couldn’t use it in the end.

And speaking of plot points that kind of come out of nowhere and don’t make full sense with the continuity of the show--Joey has regressed back to the 4th grade.

Hey show? What?

So like if you love Joey, this is not the arc for you, because this arc he is reduced to a Himbo and nothing else. Straight up didn’t know what an echo is, but is very strong and pretty, I guess.

This inevitably happens with any TV show becuase different people make different parts, and I’ve brought up before that sometimes it feels like some teams only have loose post-it notes of what any character should be like at any given point (ESPECIALLY with Seto Kaiba’s timeline) but like...

...Personally I’m mot so fond of this interpretation of Joey, kind of ignores Joey’s best traits, and makes Tristan look way too smart in comparison (and like I always pinned Tristan to be the Himbo of the group, but maybe it’s because they give Tristan so little else to do?)

And like don’t get me wrong, Joey’s a dumbass a lot of the time and needs to get corrected by his pals...but...to the point he doesn’t know what an echo is? He’s a dumbass in a High School student sort of way, youknow?

Anyway, they get down to this big ravine, and they have to destroy this stone while the light passes over it. Kind of feels like a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, actually. In fact, I think Breath of the Wild recycled the shadow/sunlight pathing quest like 4 or 5 times. (I love Breath of the Wild to death but boy did they run out of ideas at the end there.)

They have to fight a glass monster and it’s kind of like...do you know the game Balls 3D? probably not, but it looked like a bunch of random shapes stuck together like a 90′s animation. They basically went to war with shapes.

Pure Himbo energy, has several pokemon, but punches for his pokemon instead of using them. A power move if I ever saw one.

Youknow that would make pokemon a lot more interesting if you could like throw out your pikachu, and then choose to just physically run up to your opponents Eevee and sock it in the jaw. Raise of hands--I know you all would love a version of pokemon like that. Let Ash Ketchum punch a Ratata.

Bro has informed me that Ash does do something like this in the anime. But I’m not talking about the anime, I’m talking about the video game. Give me the option to physically combat my rival. This is what I want, Pokemon.

They discover a way to break the monolith, and the show thinks we’re like actually 7 years old (because the show is Y7, although I forget because it deals with so many dark themes) so the show is going to hold on to this puzzle for a while...just to fill time. And it’s fine because we gotta switch over to Pharaoh anyway.

Yami has this dream again. He attempts to fuse with Dark magician to overcome the dream, but alas, he is still not strong enough.

Yugi wakes up in this murky cave while Tea is out washing out like...some rag? (he’s also still got a rag, so I guess multiple rags were required for how sweaty Yugi is.)

Yugi says “I feel like I’m a new man!” a lot in this episode, and every time he calls himself a man like he’s some sort of adult it’s very funny to me.

And then this plot lore dropped.

I mean I guess inevitably it had to happen...

But man, end of an era. It was freakin hilarious while it lasted: that Pharaoh refused to read ancient Egyptian because it’s like 2002 and he is a High Schooler living in Japan and he actually doesn’t WANT to resolve the mystery of the puzzle. Maybe the people who made this arc don’t know about how in S2 and S3, the fact Pharaoh couldn’t read Marik’s back tatt was like...a really big issue. He couldn’t read the God card, he couldn’t even read that massive tablet that read “HEY PHARAOH THIS IS LITERALLY YOU”. KAIBA had to tell him how to read the God card for him. Freakin Seto “Magic is a lie” Kaiba had to tell him how to use the God Card because Pharaoh couldn’t read it.

But like...Pharaoh finally gave in at some point after the world was devoured by the Leviathan, and before Kaiba finished building Kaibaland (which was already built in S1 but wtv)

The timelines on this show have always been a mishmash...but this one is just like...

...show are you trying to convince me that at any point in this show after season Zero, Pharaoh had any idea what he was doing? Did he sap that brain energy straight out of Joey Wheeler so he could do this?

Wow.

(secretly hoping he forgets how to read Egyptian after this arc is over and the show goes back to the other development team)

Pharaohs reasoning is that, if this is the riddle of the light.....

....then where is the riddle of darkness????????????

and when Tea was like “Pharaoh that is not even remotely logic. Omg it’s so bright outside, lets go back to gross cave.” and Pharaoh was like “Tea! You got it!” and she was like “What the hell are you talking about?”

Not gonna lie, I saw the Orichalcos green, and I got concerned.

Anyway, Yugi gets very frustrated and was like “ugh, lets go save em. They’re gonna die (again.)” and marches down there as if he didn’t pass out an hour ago.

And he fuses with Dark Magician again while everyone else (including his grandpa) was like “Yugi are you freakin kidding me? The suit freakin kills you omg! Tea you had one freakin job!”

And then we get the plot twist that...I mean it makes sense but it was choreographed in a confusing way.

And out of no where this guy shows up again:

So this mysterious man shows up and says “If you don’t succeed you have to live here forever” which...nice...that would probably save the world a lot of problems if Yami got locked away and took his OP puzzle with him. And then this man also says “if you do succeed you become VERY POWERFUL” and Yami was like. “...”

This whole episode had a theme to it, where Tristan and Joey were trying to prove that they could do things on their own and without Yugi’s help. And honestly...felt a little bit misplaced. Yami’s the same guy who murdered Yugi last season with the Orichalcos so like...

...I mean he is probably more reliable than Tristan who once died and turned into a robot monkey for 10ish episodes.

and then they flew into a glowing door.

Folks, this was wild to look at.

This is wild.

And at this point I closed Photoshop and thought I was done. But then I looked at my timeline on the video and was like...wait...there’s more?

and I’m really glad I kept watching because it went back to Alex, who...is apparently just still at those steps in this haunted ass Pyramid.

Now we’re watching Yugioh.

I forgot for a second when they turned Joey into a Himbo and made Pharaoh literate, but we’re back. I mean...

...look at the liner art on this adult man.

So...I posit the question...has Alex spent the last 2-3 episodes doing nothing but applying eyeliner to his face in the dark? Because he absolutely has. And honestly, the vibe of being in a spooky haunted pyramid with barely any light, just applying eyeliner down the edge of your face...that’s a Yugioh vibe, if I ever saw one.

This arc is wild. Anyway, next episode we do even more fetch quests and riddles? Just going to guess now that we probably will.

(and for those new here, this is a link so you can read them from the top. Which, since we’re in S5, means you got like...hours of Yugioh content to read through. Enjoy the rewards of my weird hobby.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#Yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh #yami yugi #S5 #Ep20 #It's actually Ep 20 now I was wrong last time #Yugi muto #Grandpa Muto #Alexander the Great #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #TeaxYugi #never thought I would ever use that tag #in this show where they are canonically dating but sometimes it happens #Puzzles and Dragons #Because yes I had to talk about it. This collab is great

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mrpenguinpants · 3 years

Note

Hey so that Dainsleif quest huh 👀

[Spoilers for those who haven't played it yet ofc]

These are just some disorganized initial thoughts for your consideration:

So I'm pretty sure his "travel companion" that he keeps mentioning is our twin

Does that mean our twin has gone to the exact same places as we've been going?? Dainsleif seemed to be familiar with all the locations we visited in Mondstadt but I suppose that could've been from an even earlier journey

And the possibility that the Abyss is trying to mislead us bc we hadn't encountered any abyss mages since Dvalin 🤔🤔🤔 what do they want??? We know (kinda) that our twin is watching our progress and that they're the prince/princess of the Abyss so like are they trying to keep us from getting in the way of their plans so as not to accidentally hurt us? Though something tells me we're gonna get tangled up in it one way or the other lmao

Dainsleif said that his goal is to oppose the Abyss so perhaps he's got his own secret plans to try to stop our twin (as is also supported by what he said at the end of the mortal travails video about proving ourselves worthy of stopping "her"/Lumine probably)

Also turns out I'd been pronouncing his name wrong the whole time lmao I had been saying dains-leaf instead of dains-lif

No Vision as confirmed by his full character model

Also his eyepatch is more of a phantom of the opera mask lmao

Important observation he looks like post timeskip Dimitri from a distance when I had to meet him in Dvalin's Lair I legit thought he was Dimitri for a sec XD

Anyway those were my thoughts about the new quest lmao my internet was cutting out the whole time while I was trying to play like dsfkdksjf pls I just wanted to talk to blond eyepatch man

Important part of this post:

I took a lot of pictures of Dainsleif if you want to use them as references (or appreciation). The pictures are under the read more tag so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read anything and skip to the read more.

Also, he calls you and your sibling “idiots” through money.

He asks for 500 mora and (this is probably just a coincidence but considering Zhongli tips Xiangling 888 mora I’m sus). The number 250 [二百五] or ( èr bǎi wǔ) means “idiot”.

If someone calls you 250, they can say (nǐ shì wǔ bǎi) or “You are [250]”. But if you give someone 500, this can be taken as saying two people are stupid (250 + 250 = 500). I mean, that’s probably not how it works but I think it’s funny to imagine Dainsleif being too polite to call us stupid.

---

I know right? When I saw the leak for it and seeing it confirmed in patch notes, I was so confused. Wha-Why are you here so early? I wasn’t expecting you for another 5 years at least. I’m happy to see you and your beautiful model in game but at the same time I was so worried that we were going to get crumbs of interactions. Same thing with Guizhong in Zhongli’s story quest. Genshin please...finish your stories (that’s fucking hilarious coming from me considering I still have a part 2 to Childe that I need to write), but I’m honestly just happy that he’s in the game. But yes 👀👀 more lore food.

You know, I was talking about the archons a bit with @maagdalen and, I may have been misunderstanding or reading the wrong message, but they brought up the idea that what if the archons’ personality is based on their regions country's? So for example, Venti’s personality adopts the German mentality because Mondstadt was modelled after Germany? Obviously, I have no idea if that’s true because I’m not from or am German but in the context of Liyue and Zhongli. I can definitely see some sort of connection.

But some food for thought:

“But cyro archon is very viable since she's suppose to be a kind hearted person that needed to be cold for the sake of freedom. or peace. something like that.”

“Sorry, but this is stupidly Russian style. No matter what you say, people will always be dissatisfied. Of course it's not that bad...but it's something to think about.“

But yess, @svnflowery said the same thing. That Dainsleif was Lumine’s “guide” the same way Paimon is our guide. I actually think that’s an interesting idea. That Lumine has gone to the exact same places as we’ve been through. It actually makes me wonder (since we can play as both her and Aether), that Lumine went through the same story line as Aether. She met Venti, Zhongli, everything that’s happening right now. She’s already been through, then when she reached the Khaenri’ah chapter she failed. So she decided to spin the clock back and change destiny. I mean, this is me spit balling and I don’t think this happened but it’s something to think about.

You know funny enough, hasn’t Venti been asleep for a while? Either way, he doesn’t really strike me as the type that truly wants to be an Archon. He says in his voicelines as well that “that’s a problem for Mondstadt to deal with”. So it would be easier for the Abyss Order to mess some things up. While Zhongli has been alive for 6000 years and I highly doubt Abyss Order can do anything to him haha. If we’re going on that “Lumine has already been through this journey” she could be trying to re-make or lead us on the same path.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Dainsleif was our guide, then when Lumine spun the clock back and aligned herself with the abyss, that’s when they split. That could be a reason why he’s trying to oppose the abyss order but really I think it’s because the Abyss Order’s goal is to basically set the world on fire (or something like that). I always pronounce character names wrong and I don’t understand why people make such a big deal out of it. You know who I’m talking about, my pronunciation isn’t completely shit to the point you don’t know. So why do you keep yelling at me??

Also. The most important part of his quest was it was “Aether’s version” of the “We will be reunited” trailer.

It even showed the crushed dandelion flower and the ruin guard footprints. IT’S OUR SISTER.

I knoww, I was searching for his vision and got weird pics but that’s alright, I LOWKEY HATE THE OPERA MASK SO MUCH. GIVE ME ACTUAL MASK. THERE GOES THE “SEPERATE COLOURED EYE” ART OF KHAENRIAH PEOPLE. Yo, knock off Dimitri let’s go.

I love Dainslief’s english voice but I hate Xiao’s en voice. What a dilemma. I usually play in chinese but wow does Dainslief sound old. Jp is slightly better but I hear grandpa vibes. Korean isn’t bad and I actually don’t mind korean xiao so korean we shall go. It’s weird. I like Dainsleif english voices, Xiao chinese voice, paimon korean voice haha. Jp is usually just good all around but I have preferences. But tyty for telling me your thoughts! I’d love to hear about the Xiao quest that just dropped. Beautiful boy

sweats

yeah about that...xiao scammed me. I wonder if his speech changes based on what you say. i kind of doubt it though.

I’m looking at his outfit from every angle while Xiao stays pretty in the back.

I like that you can see his magic arm there.

While on this side you can’t.

I swear this is for research. IM TRYING TO SEE IF HE HAS A VISION. IM INNOCENT!!

he also has some sort of weird...blue thingy on his foot?

Im using Xiao as a personfication of me BUT TELL ME YOUR SECRETS

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin lore #genshin impact lore #genshin spoilers #genshin impact spoilers #genshin khaenri'ah #genshin impact khaenri'ah #genshin lumine #genshin impact lumine #genshin aether #genshin impact aether #genshin dainsleif #genshin impact dainsleif #lumine #aether #dainsleif #genshin 1.3 #genshin impact 1.3

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emmys-grimoire · 3 years

Text

Lesson 49 - Hunting Fairies

A lotta’ screen caps for this one.

We start the lesson off checking out the fancy hotel Diavolo manages. Luke brings up the obvious implications I pointed out in the last commentary post.

Barbatos is quick to interject and attempts to assuage his worries.

I’m not sure he’s gonna take their word for it, though. Depends on the policies previous demon administrations have implemented, I’m sure.

Yeah pretty much. It appears Barbatos/Diavolo are aware that everything is being relayed back to Michael, but they’d be idiots not to make that conclusion at this point, tbh. If they felt threatened by Michael, then they would be behaving differently.

We go inside and take note of the unique blend of tea that Barbatos is serving. The conversation drifts towards... fairies! Didn’t see this one coming.

But alas...

So apparently 400 years is just yesterday by demon standards lol

Of course.

And you guessed right, we’re off to go find one!

The trio (MC, Luke, Mammon) head off to the library for fairy research. You get to choose who you study alongside.

It turns out that the library has quite a bit of angel lore. It seems the Human World in general may be aware of the other realms existing: it isn’t lore accessible only to magic wielders. That’s an interesting tidbit.

Studying with Luke gives you more secondhand Michael characterization. After he criticizes a picture of Michael, you can comment on how much he obviously adores Michael or ask about how Michael is doing.

How he answers the latter question:

Very subtle.

Much to my surprise, they allude to the portraits I mentioned in my Luke theory.

So they were actually removed (I did think it was strange that they’d keep them considering... everything) and it seems Luke was present for said removal (he knows where they used to hang). I think he must have been born shortly after the Great Celestial War, then.

Poor Michael, though. But I wonder if he might have saved/stole a Lucifer portrait or two for his shrine.

It seems Luke is more cognizant of how Michael feels about Lucifer and his brothers than I previously thought, though he might not know the details about how and why. He recognizes how emo Michael is even though Michael doesn’t talk about it.

More evidence that Michael is the voice in Season 2, imo. It sounded pretty remorseful.

Apparently that image of Michael REALLY sticks out in his mind. It bothers him that the brothers don’t think much about Michael when Michael clearly thinks about them often.

But to be fair, beyond the fact that they’re now demons and wrapped up in their own often selfish impulses, the fact that they don’t actively hate Michael for fighting them is actually a surprise? Yeah it sucks that they don’t miss him but it could be a lot worse.

Mammon, stop triggering the little angel and pretending that isn’t explicitly what you were doing.

There’s food for Mammon stans if you study with him but it isn’t anything really new or revelatory.

Uh, Lucifer totally does treat you that way. Later in this lesson, even. He just finds you cute so he’s willing to give you more leeway lol.

Mammon really does love Lucifer. Surprise.

Solomon drops in and tells Luke and Mammon to stop squabbling and informs them that they’re not gonna find much in the library. They seek out Crowe for help next, who is now a fixture of Levi’s room.

No flying allowed in the Human World!

Crowe recommends they take an overnight train trip.

Levi tells them they need permission from each of their respective legal guardians first. Simeon, being the chill parent, is okay with it. Luke promises to find someone to fill in for him while he’s off on the trip. He intends to pick one of the brothers, and even though you’re given a list of choices, they shoot each one down -- but not without giving us a peek of how they envision each brother performing. It’s not an actual choice, but the results are pretty amusing and are what you’d expect:

Ultimately they settle on Satan (who was my first choice even though they made me cycle through them all!), who initially says no because he’s too busy watching cat videos. Luke cleverly bribes him into the job by promising... cats.

Don’t look forward to his reaction when he realizes there’s no stray cats coming around during his shifts lol.

We return to the manor to seek out Lucifer. Belphegor warns us to stay away from banshees. We totally aren’t going to run into one, I’m sure.

See? He treats Mammon like a troublemaking nuisance as well lol

We challenge him to a card game. If we win, we go on the trip. If we lose, we’re assigned bathroom cleaning duty and Mammon has to stay behind. Spoiler alert: the result ends up the same (Mammon gets to go with us), but losing actually leads to the more entertaining outcome:

And then we’re left with this cliffhanger...

But don’t worry, I’m pretty sure this is going to end up just being silly.

This was a good lesson in spite of it simply being a bridge to the next arc, which is apparently going to involve our search for a fairy ring with Mammon and Luke. Since we’re about halfway done with the season if it follows the same progression as the other seasons, whatever happens in this arc will likely lead to the big conflict. Strangely enough, they seem to have temporarily shelved the growing tension between Lucifer and Diavolo over the latter’s growing affection for MC, but I bet it’s going to resurface alongside whatever this leads to.

And Michael is going to play a part in some way. Not sure if he’s going to try to use the Lucifer vs. Diavolo thing to his advantage, or if he’s going to meddle in something during the fairy arc after we’re somehow flung back into time again... or both.

I want to ask Simeon about Michael. His account is likely to be far more telling, and it may better explain why he stuck with Michael. Buuuuut they’re probably going to save that conversation for much later, if they give it to us at all.

#obey me #obey me!#obey me spoilers #obey me mammon #obey me luke #commentary #obey me lesson 49 #obey me michael #obey me season 3

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astrologista · 4 years

Text

Gavin Bros. Analysis

here be spoilers for apollo justice (aa4)

There are already a bunch of posts all about AA:AJ and just what the heck was behind Kristoph Gavin’s Psychelocks. What were his motivations? Why did he do what he did? As fragmented as the story is surrounding the Gavin brothers, and as much as I wish the source material had rounded out their characters a little more, I believe the game actually tells you pretty much everything there is to know about this case rather succinctly. Don’t worry as I will use evidence to back up my claims...

It is notably interesting that Kristoph’s Psychelocks only come up when Phoenix asks him point blank why he killed Zak Gramarye. This is the one question that Kristoph consistently refuses to answer directly, both in Solitary Cell 13 and in his testimony at his trial. Coincidentally, this is also the main question that he ever gets asked that speaks to his emotions or state of mind. Kristoph has a really good logical answer for basically all of the evidence-based questions. But, it’s also not a coincidence that Apollo has the presence of mind to note - “why not bring up the motive from the start? unless it was a battle he thought he might lose...”

This establishes pretty clearly that Kristoph is going to have a vested interest in keeping all questioning solidly focused on the material evidence at hand such as the postage stamp, the nail polish, and reasons why he cannot be directly connected to those objects. The law provides plenty of escape hatches and loopholes for Kristoph to exploit, which he does, providing him with the legal basis to be able to escape punishment due to the inability for anyone to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This is not surprising as being a very successful defense attorney is literally his job and he happens to be extremely competent at it.

This kind of person is scary if you meet them in real life because they can always seem to wriggle out of anything you try to pin on them. Kristoph is a grand master at doing this, quite possibly as good as they come in the AA universe.

Here’s the rub. Apollo brings up that Kristoph wants to avoid bringing the conversation into motives and state of mind questions, why? Because “it’s a battle he thinks he might lose”. Every single time this topic comes up, Kristoph deflects the question. This also is indicated by the five black Psychelocks that come up when Phoenix asks him point blank why he killed Zak. So from this we can gather that the game is drilling it in pretty well that Kristoph’s motivations are a sore spot for him and possibly the one chink in his armor.

Because the material evidence cannot prove anything for or against Kristoph’s guilt, in a typical case like this the police would hope for the holy grail - a full confession and admission of guilt. Kristoph is much too cool of a customer to fall into any traps, no doubt he was questioned very rigorously after being arrested, but all he even had to do was invoke his right to remain silent regarding his motives or simply claim that he killed Zak just ‘cause y’know, being evil is fun. Once he confessed to killing Zak, though, the police probably didn’t care all that much to probe into his thoughts and motivations really, if he did it, he did it and he’s going to spend a stint in jail either way.

Phoenix sees through this, however. In Solitary Cell 13 he does NOT allow Kristoph to drop or evade the question. That is why we get as far as even seeing the black Psychelocks at all. If we can’t know the motive, why bother to have this scene in the game?

Quite simply we can now understand that Kristoph’s motive for killing is something emotional. It is not something that he’s going to divulge casually, but it is also probably something that he is worried about divulging UNCONSCIOUSLY which is why he constantly tries to steer conversations away from it, instead deflecting to discuss the evidence or the emotional state of other people in the room. Consider that Kristoph’s reputation is PREDICATED on him being “the Coolest Defense in the West”. His identity is based on his successful suppression of emotions in court. This is not to say he shows no emotion or is some kind of monotone emotionless husk. He has a rather dry sense of humor. He banters with Apollo. He banters with Phoenix. He isn’t as uptight as some portrayals would have you believe (”life is to be taken easy”). When it comes to surface topics, Kristoph is an open book. He’s not as terse as you would believe, but rather kind of poetic and loquacious and conversational (to his downfall in 4-1). You get the feeling that he would be a very good conversationalist. But only for surface topics. Try to dig a little deeper and he will very neatly deflect your efforts.

How can we hope to understand a character who by definition does not have any interest in talking about his innermost neuroses? The reason why people still discuss the Gavin brothers and Turnabout Succession so much is that, while a very satisfying and intense case, it is unlike a lot of other AA cases in that you come away from it with a LOT of open ended questions. You don’t feel the same feeling of closure as you would get from the DL-6 case, where it feels like you finally understand all the facts of the case and all of the character motivations come to light making you go “oh! THAT MAKES SENSE!” you understand why von karma killed gregory, and everything comes together nicely in the end. Turnabout Succession is kind of a rarity in that it does not do that. By the end, you feel like you clearly understand the case, but you do not have a crystal clear view of the root cause of the motivations behind it.

In Kristoph’s final testimony he does shed a little bit of light on his motivations for his crimes. The issue that he has is mainly centered around his dismissal by Zak Gramarye as his representation. And, his subsequent replacement with Phoenix Wright, an attorney he perceives to be low-class and sub-par. Kristoph then states “these men shamed me, and I could not forgive that.” This is as close to an answer as to why he went to such lengths to get Phoenix disbarred as we are likely to get. Disproportionate retribution is the name of the game. It seems as if, if there’s one thing Kristoph cannot tolerate, it’s being looked down upon by someone that he perceives as inferior to him. Kristoph has extremely polarized notions of who should get to practice law, who is acceptable and who is categorized under “ignorant swine soiling the courts”. He makes very, very clear that he has nothing but disdain for common people, common wisdom, and any use of emotion or feelings in deciding verdicts.

So the particular manner in which Phoenix sought to bring him down with the jury system was a very deliberate masterstroke to Kristoph’s pride. That much we can establish. But again, motive. The game goes out of its way to tell you that whomever defended Zak would be “famous beyond belief” and, presumably also, rich. They would get a lot of very high-profile clients and cases sent their way after successfully defending the uber-famous magician Zak Gramarye.

Taking all of this into account, right. Is it possible that everything Kristoph did has its roots in one very simple source, the root of all evil?

Money.

Taking a step back for a moment, consider Klavier. Why does Klavier perform in a rock band? “Because I want Frauleins to look at me when I walk down the street.” I feel like people really want to believe that both Kristoph and Klavier are super deep characters and have all this deep lore and hidden backstory. Maybe they do. Most AA characters do. But consider this. What if they’re both so deep, they’re actually just shallow? Yes, that shallow?

Given how much AA:AJ focuses on the Gavins, which is really not that much, this concept seems difficult to swallow. Is there really more to the story based on what the game gives us? If there is, how would we piece it together?

One major hint the game gives you about Kristoph (and, if this is insignificant, then you have to really wonder why they bother to bring it up at all) takes place directly after seeing Kristoph’s black Psychelocks in Solitary Cell 13. He starts doing his nails. Phoenix says “I know appearances are a big thing with you”. Kristoph says “You know what I say? One cannot live a beautiful life without beautiful nails.”

I feel that this statement is important because it is probably about as deep of a look as we are ever going to get at how shallow Kristoph Gavin really is. He hopes you will believe that he’s playing 12-dimensional chess with some kind of fucked up backstory and motive going, but the truth is, he’s no chessmaster. Based on what the game gives you, there’s really only one motivation for everything that makes sense.

Kristoph killed Zak, Drew and attempted to kill Vera to cover his tracks. He had to do everything he could to make sure no one talked about the forgery. He had to stalk people like Spark and keep Phoenix very close (the epitome of keep your friends close keep your enemies closer). There’s nothing really debatable about those facts because they are all discussed in the game.

What about the root cause? Revenge, of course, for Phoenix stealing away the chance for Kristoph to defend Zak.

Why was defending Zak so important to Kristoph? To become rich and famous.

So wait. Why does Kristoph need to be rich and famous?

As it is, Kristoph appears to be very affluent and well off. There is no real reason directly given in the game as to why he would need such prestige and fame other than that it feeds his massive ego and superiority complex. So that’s a big part of it, no debate there.

But why would the excessive monetary gains that would be secured off of the Gramarye case be so appealing to Kristoph? We’ll re-examine this in a little bit.

In Daryan Crescend’s case, Phoenix tells Apollo “every man has an igniter. find his and set it off”.

What is Kristoph’s igniter?

I mean some people would say Phoenix Wright is Kristoph’s igniter based on his breakdown. But, I think more of that trial was contrived by Phoenix than we tend to notice.

I think Klavier is Kristoph’s igniter.

The final trial in Turnabout Succession would not have been able to succeed without Lamiroir, without the jury system, without Phoenix pulling the strings, without Trucy, without Apollo, and most especially without Klavier. Removing any of these elements from the scenario would immediately give Kristoph a massive advantage in allowing him to manipulate the courtroom. Can you imagine Payne trying to prosecute Kristoph?

No. Klavier was the only one who could confront Kristoph successfully.

The final trial had to be contrived in such a way as to put maximal pressure on Kristoph to increase the chances that he would slip up or, more likely, that an element of randomness and/or emotion would become introduced. Phoenix sets up Klavier as the prosecutor for this trial for a good reason - remember, Phoenix tells Apollo point blank that he (Phoenix) is pulling all of the strings for the Misham trial, so whatever happens is entirely his responsibility.

It must have been difficult for Phoenix to entrust Klavier, the person who sealed his fate, with such an important task. But realistically, he didn’t really have a choice. Klavier’s disclosure of Kristoph’s visit to the prosecutor’s office is the glue that holds together the entire case against Kristoph Gavin. Notice that Kristoph never really does anything to keep Klavier out of the public eye or otherwise silence him (up until the very end at least). If I knew there was someone walking around giving press interviews and practicing as a prosecutor who knew something really incriminating about me, I would want them swept away or snuffed out asap - I mean, Kristoph has already poisoned Drew and Vera who were unlikely to tattle on him at best; Drew couldn’t even identify him! What Klavier has on him is much, much more damning dirt. Either Kristoph really loves and trusts his brother or is convinced that he can control Klavier to the point where Klavier would never dare tell anyone about that visit or wouldn’t want to. Probably both are true.

The interesting thing about this dynamic is that this is really the only time where we see both Gavin brothers together in one room, as well. Something about being in proximity changes both of their behaviors. Klavier becomes hyper-alert and nervous in Kristoph’s presence, a marked change from his usually easy demeanor. Klavier’s presence causes Kristoph to make several mistakes, which end up costing him the case.

So all of these things needed to happen, and they needed to happen simultaneously for Phoenix to succeed. Getting back to my theory on Kristoph, we can see from what’s said in the game a few things - he really, REALLY wanted to be the one to benefit from defending Zak Gramarye (a trial he knew he would win against his brother using forged evidence), the presence of Klavier is his undoing in court, and his appearances are very, very important to him.

I honestly think the real reason Kristoph was so salty about losing out on the Gramarye trial fame and money is that he didn’t just want to be affluent or well-to-do. He wanted to be excessively, filthy rich.

If you look at Solitary Cell 13 you will see that Kristoph likes very much to surround himself with many nice things. He likes tasteful decorations and furniture. He enjoys literature, music, art, that weird rose he keeps in a vase, and he has a dog named Vongole. “First rate in all things, accept nothing less.”

To have such top of the line items, Kristoph must not only be rich, he must be like top 1% rich. He has to have the absolute best of everything. This is why he needs money. Without these things, what separates him from the ignorant swine he so despises? This is why Kristoph needed money.

Nowhere is this highlighted more than with the Ariadoney nail polish. I think it’s mentioned a couple of times that the Ariadoney is absolutely the best possible nail polish that you can buy. It’s very, very expensive and is manufactured in extremely limited quantities (this is discussed during Kristoph’s testimony). If Kristoph is this fixated on something as simple as a bottle of nail polish, you can almost imagine the absolutely ludicrous costs of every other item that he uses or owns, not limited to his home, his car, fine foods and wine, his expensive hobbies, possibly traveling etc etc etc etc. I just know this fool shops at Whole Foods, because I can’t see him buying groceries at the Costco. It makes a lot of sense as to why he is single as well. Kristoph Gavin would end up being an expensive habit to any partner who would have him - I wouldn’t want to share a bank account or credit line with him. He needs Gucci to keep him happy. No bootlegs here.

Point is, Kristoph Gavin has an addiction to the finer things in life and he will NOT settle for second rate products. He will have what he wants and he will do basically anything to maintain his lifestyle at its current elite level at the expense of his own morality and soul. Sadly enough I feel like that might be as deep as it gets with him. That’s a really pathetic motive to have and makes me hate him a lot more, but it’s so fucked up I can’t look away.

Consider also the most important thing to Kristoph of all - his appearance. It costs money to keep yourself up and this seems to be the one area that Kristoph might end up pouring the most money into. The top of the line suit, the white shoes, the perfect tan, the platinum blonde hair so immaculately coiffed, the fact that his skin is virtually perfect and the fact that his face is near-identical to Klavier’s despite being some 8 or 9 years older. Most normal people would have some kind of facial imperfection pop up at some point, a wrinkle, a pock mark, something. And that’s when you realize... that Kristoph Gavin has most likely had work done. Like, on his face to make it stay youthful. He’s just that vain and probably also despises watching Klavier stay young and pretty while he’s just aging. Fillers? Botox? Collagen treaments? Something more invasive? No one knows, but all I’m saying is that Klavier’s character description goes out of its way to describe Klavier as “the spitting image of Kristoph Gavin”. Vera notices the extreme resemblance right away. There can certainly be genetic basis for two brothers looking alike, but compare that to how Mia and Maya look “alike”, or Lana and Ema, both of whom have a similar age gap to Kristoph and Klavier. You would realize that Kristoph and Klavier seem to have somewhat of a more obvious resemblance despite the age difference. So this isn’t just possible anymore, this is actually likely. I don’t think the game implies that Kristoph has undergone plastic surgery or anything, so I’m keeping this in the realms of headcanon for now. But it would make perfect sense as yet another reason as to why Kristoph Gavin needs cold cash. He needs to look flawless and he needs access to the absolutely most top of the line treatments and practitioners, continually. And as he continues to age, he needs to get more and more aggressive, more and more products, more and more retouching with those age reversal creams and foundations and stabilizers. That adds up, cost-wise, very very fast, especially if you want top of the line EVERYTHING, and Kristoph does indeed. It is very clear that settling for any less would be completely unacceptable to him.

All of this money, it has to come from somewhere. Being a posh defense lawyer will bring in some money, sure, but nothing near what Kristoph is going to need to live his beautiful life. Winning the Gramarye trial would have probably bought him enough prestige, clients and monetary gains to support himself off of law for the rest of his life. It does make a lot of sense that he would be incensed after losing that chance.

There is one more unexplored possibility as to why Kristoph had to be the one to win the Gramarye trial, though, and it ties into the money issue as well. This was supposed to be a fair match, after all, brother to brother. Klavier’s first case, in fact. It was supposed to be Kristoph vs. Klavier, and Kristoph wanted to make sure that he would be the one to win. Only Zak and Phoenix ruined that chance - a once in a lifetime chance, actually, for Kristoph to go up against his brother on Klavier’s very first day.

Klavier was the prosecutor of the Gramarye trial. It was his very first case. What could Kristoph have to gain by being the one to trounce 17-year-old Klavier in court on his first day on the job?

Well, not much, other than it would have been a huge crushing blow to Klavier psychologically.

There’s a comic floating around by someone, I think zarla-s, where Kristoph wins the Gramarye trial and is discussing his win with Klavier afterwards. Kristoph is smug and hopes Klavier will be humbled by his impressive win, but Klavier is unperturbed by his loss, happy for his brother and insists he’ll win next time.

As cute as this is, somehow I don’t think that’s exactly how it would go down.

Klavier has actively shown how nervous / anxious / upset Kristoph’s mere presence makes him in a courtroom setting. Based on this, it’s not unfair to say that losing to Kristoph IN PARTICULAR on Klavier’s very first case would have been a devastating psychological blow that could technically end Klavier’s prosecutor career before it even began. There is a lot on the line with the Gramarye trial, don’t forget the praise and adulation that Klavier gained by winning it. So other than all of the fame, adulation, money and pride Kristoph would have gained by rigging and winning the Gramarye trial, there is another dimension that he was also robbed of - the ability to ruin his brother’s law career. Losing to another attorney like Phoenix or anyone else would not be enough to do the job. It would have to and could only be Kristoph’s doing.

What reason could Kristoph have for wanting Klavier’s law career to come to an end?

Well, Klavier does have another job. As a rock star.

Wildly popular rock stars make a lot of money, many many many times more than even a celebrity defense attorney could dream to make.

The Gavinners had multiple albums go platinum. They sold out shows all over the country, I believe, possibly all over the world. They are a brand. They are profitable. Klavier is profitable.

With how much Kristoph depends on and uses Klavier, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Kristoph gets to take a big cut of Klavier’s earnings from his music career. For all we know, Kristoph could have been responsible for assembling and filing many of the Gavinners’ early contracts and legal paperwork. The rights to songs, record deals, merchandising - this is a lot of stuff. I’d say it’d be pretty hard to believe that Kristoph did not have his hooks into the Gavinners from day one. If he handled contracts, he could have written in loopholes that would give him a huge cut of any earnings resulting from Klavier’s band, the Gavinners.

Now I know what you’re thinking, Klavier himself is a legal prodigy. He could have easily read through anything Kristoph prepared and refused to sign on the dotted line if he found anything amiss or hidden in the fine print. What if Kristoph’s legal control of Klavier started much earlier than that? Depending on when Klavier started in the entertainment business, which could have been a very early age, Kristoph could have had plenty of time and opportunity to secure access to any of Klavier’s future earnings, especially if their parents were out of the picture.

If you think Kristoph has nothing to do with the Gavinners, think about it. One of their songs is literally called “Atroquinine, My Love”. They are a brand. They are marketed specifically to teeny boppers. They’re not squeaky clean mainstream pop like the Jonas Brothers or anything, but they are marketable. The advertising, the way they dress, the way Klavier says he’s tired of the youthful angst scene, the fact that Klavier only gives Apollo and Trucy a 20% discount on concert tickets. I’m just saying a lot of it could end up being contrived, perhaps by a certain someone with an ulterior motive. It seems really, really weird and coincidental that the band broke up right after AA4 too. Klavier seems like he’s really dedicated to his art, and to music. This much is clear in the way he reverently talks about Lamiroir, how he teared up at her song, even the Guitars’ Serenade seems like a very different song than what the Gavinners would typically do, and it only debuts after Kristoph is already in jail.

It makes you wonder if there might be a little something more going on here. If Kristoph had it set up to where he could get access to Klavier’s assets, which almost certainly dwarf his own by several times, then he had every reason to want to crush Klavier in court. He had to be the one to face Klavier in the Gramarye trial and win, causing Klavier to end his prosecutor dreams - and do what?

Go back on the road, put everything into his music career and become a workhorse for Kristoph’s ambitions.

Putting Klavier full time on the Gavinners would have solved all of Kristoph’s monetary worries for good. He could skim everything off the top and finally live the beautiful life of his dreams, the life he needed to have and couldn’t do without. Most importantly, he could keep up appearances and always look continually young and attractive.

Until we learn otherwise, I think that that is really all that was behind Kristoph’s black Psychelocks. Just a narcissistic, vain, preening loser masquerading as some mastermind villain when, in the end, that’s not really what he cared about being. He cared about painting his nails in a luxurious mansion surrounded by piles of money in a big Scrooge McDuck money vault, and laughing maniacally at anyone who ever thought that there was anything more to it.

#gavin brothers #kristoph gavin #klavier gavin #ace attorney: apollo justice #black psychelocks #these guys drove me a little crazy #because it took me awhile to figure out what they were all about #and then i was like oh. wow. thats really kind of all there is to it #not that i dont enjoy the au ideas where theres like a deeper reason behind everything #but what material there is of them doesnt give us much of anything to work with #and this is the only theory i can think of that best accounts for everything in the simplest way #man i didnt want to like these fuckers at first but they are gd interesting #it's pretty fun to try to fill in the blanks #and by all means all interpretations are valid im not saying this is the only one

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bearpillowmonster · 3 years

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Neo: The World Ends With You

I'm invested in the original game and its characters, I'm invested in this game and its characters. I've had a lot of time for the original game to marinate and I can say that I enjoy pretty much every character and their arc and while I don't exactly feel the same with this one, that's not disappointing to me and this was my most anticipated game of 2021 so I mean that. This is a sequel, I expected as much and it didn't let me down, it's even better than I thought.

This is a NONSPOILER review because I think it's best experienced by actually experiencing it so I'll keep a lot of character, story, and even gameplay details out other than how the very VERY beginning of the game starts out with Rindo and Fret.

Let me give credit where credit is due, Rindo is voiced by Paul Castro Jr. who is a new voice actor and I was honestly impressed by his voice more than anyone else in the game, I love his voice and while Rindo has some pretty big shoes to fill as the main, I think he does it. Rindo seems to act pretty accordingly to the situation he's put in. He's not as edgy as Neku but he has enough push to him to where he would be considered the "negative" of the group but I would rather call it "rational" because he brings up some valid points, stuff that I myself was asking. Putting yourself in his shoes, that seems pretty accurate.

Fret on the other hand is a bit of the opposite, an optimist if you will. He's not really a "bad" character, just in comparison to the others, he's not my favorite. I think that there needs to be someone in his position who tries to uplift the team, but he's just a little annoying about it sometimes. Also get ready to hear "Galaxy Brain, ACTIVATE!!" literally hundreds of times, as much as he talks, you'd think he'd add more variety.

IMPROVEMENTS:

I'm not going to complain about certain gameplay elements or limitations that carried over from the last game except one. The camera. It's fixed to where you have no control over it in the city areas and therefore can't get a proper look at everything, whether that works in its favor, I'm not sure because you get used to it but it's just a small peeve you start out with.

The combat is pretty loyal to the first game which is surprising. I personally didn't like the original gameplay because it was so limited on the DS, a lot of room for error, but having it on console expands the system and lets you use buttons rather than mashing a touch screen, improving on almost, if not all, gameplay fronts. However, because it's based on a game from 2007, the system may seem a little outdated to some, it's really up to you, it made a fan out of me, making it more fun.

I played the original in bites, not because of lack of enjoyment but because I felt like it was a game I could only get into for so long at a time but with this game it's the complete opposite. Maybe it was the DS hardware that hampered the original but I say it's a decent success on this game's part. I also felt that Persona 5 seemed a bit formulaic in its story context and gameplay layout with each castle but this game, while having patterns, it changes before you get the chance to really catch on. I could predict P5 but I couldn't predict this, each day was a mystery, I knew you'd fight people but I didn't always know who or when which is crazy considering that P5 had all the choices!

A small improvement that I'll suggest for combat is having short rhythm based moves or even QTEs, like how in the original Shiki had the directional pad moves which were annoying but still varied from the rest of the gameplay. There are definitely new things that you can do, but there are a few aspects worth complaining about. You can unlock certain abilities and once you enable them, you can't disable them. The only one that it personally applies with is the ability to enable individual health bars for enemies, rather than an overall one. Which sounds good but-

I personally don't like that it's always floating above their heads, if it was on the side screen, that'd be one thing but constantly above their heads? No deal. I actually had to go back and load up an old save to get rid of it. But with unlocking certain abilities comes with quality of life aspects so if you're not in love with the gameplay at first, give it a little bit because you might be able to unlock whatever piece you're missing.

There's also "soundsurfing" that adds to your groove meter that you can use when running around and it said that you press (in my case "X" on PS4) to the beat of the song which is a cool concept but it really isn't clear how to use it because I try matching the beat and I get nothing and have more success just button mashing. The groove meter can drop when it's not supposed to, like when you literally can't attack during the buffering of a special or switching between battles in a chain (The "Get Ready" screen) And if you're in a proper boss battle, you HAVE to fight, it's like a trainer battle in Pokémon which is especially annoying when you accidentally press "retry". It has no reason to be there when I already know that I'm not prepared for the boss and can't back out.

Do the trailers spoil it?

Originally, I only saw the first and or second trailer and knew I wanted it so there was no reason to see any more but it was kind of overwhelming with all the characters they were showing off in just a single trailer. I don't think they needed to go that far but I understand why they did. I understand why they showed a lot of things that they did but I think it's a bit easier to SWALLOW when it's introduced in-game. I even found myself doing all the side-quests and being engaged in the side-stuff in-game. But I knew about people pointing out spoilers so after I finished it, I went back and looked at the other trailers and OH BOY. The final trailer shows some stuff and I'm SO glad I didn't watch it. They straight up show some out of context death scenes as well as different alliances and betrayals, not to mention parts of the freaking ending. The launch trailer is no better, it's just like that trailer but cut down. You may not have context but you can draw some hefty conclusions and that alone makes me question, why? I'm not sure if there are many reveals that they DIDN'T tease, it's like they went out of their way to hit every single one. Whether it's Square or Nintendo, they need to figure out how to cut a trailer, heck, hire me, I at least have the editing skills and know what's interesting enough to show and what's too spoilery not to show, come on!

Is it newcomer friendly?

I heard a lot of things like "it drops you in without mercy so pay very close attention" (in terms of story, that is) so only people who played the original game will be able to get it. But I beg to differ, I think it does a pretty good job of filling you in while putting you in the shoes of a new player (both in the game and out) AND keeping the mystery of whatever happened since the last game coming in small pieces. Most of the dialogue text boxes are voice acted so it's not really a slog to read. To prove my point further, the premise starts out very similar so it should be easy to clue in what exactly happened in the last game. Of course you're going to get more enjoyment out of it if you played the original but I don't think you'd be totally lost if you started with this one and played to right before the ending because then it kinda has to do stuff without preface, so you're going to be confused by much of the emotional weight that it carries. But it still gives you plenty of time to catch up on the original, whether through the game, videos, or lore, this game has you ask the questions, so fill in the blank. It has a nice length to it so you'll have until the ending to figure it out. Also, Final Remix teased stuff that this game makes clarity on but I wouldn't call FR mandatory. (Except maybe no numbers on the hand? Maybe even I missed something there.)

#neo: the world ends with you #neo: twewy #review #game #nonspoiler

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