#not sure if she would become a witch (at least not in my playthrough)
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Thinking about Tishka
I suppose it's nothing new that I love birds of prey. They are one of my fav animals, side by side with wolves and felines. My father and my baby brother call me 'little owl' (what's very cute hahaha), my friends and hubby associate me with crows (what is cute too). Anyway, just babbling.
But. Let's talk about Tishka.
CW: Long Post, Animal's Death, Personal Sidequests, Empyreal Lord apparition, Hook for Witch!Ekaterina, I got carried away again
When I was creating Ekaterina, I thought about giving her an animal companion. I love this part of her class. But the more I read about the druids in Pathfinder, the more I noticed that it wouldn't be her cup of tea. Blight Druids don't bond with animals necessarily, but with the ill land, and it fits perfectly for WOTR's context.
She was a lonely child and one day found an owl's nest in the underground. Katya get quickly attached to the Mama Owl and her owlets. Especially to the odd one: the smallest of the flock. While his siblings grew up and changed feathers, he looked like was always a step back. And yet he strived.
The elders recalled restlessly about how important was to let the Nature follows its course and they should never step on. Ekaterina did that, but not without cheering for her friend to survive because she felt him. When the others owlets were learning how to fly, she made company to him.
The name 'Tishka' came to her in a dream. Actually, it was Tisemir, but Ekaterina got used to call him by the nickname. She only calls him Tisemir when she is infuriated (what's very rare).
When she left Irrisen, he found her midway to Mendev. By that time, Ekaterina had already noticed that he wasn’t an ordinary owl; Tishka could fly long ways in short time, show in her dreams, and could send and bring messages for/from her family. She thought the latter was only possible because Annya and she were druids and were able to understand animals, but barely she knew it wasn’t all.
When her biological mother struck, kidnapping Annya, Ekaterina (and the KC, in the CompanionAU!) confronts a hard moment:
"Are you willing to save your dearest mother or your stupid owl?"
Both beloved ones before her eyes, with their fates on her hands. Annya tied like a lamb, with a blade between her ribs, Tishka locked in a cold iron cage, in the aim of a deadly spell. Regardless Ekaterina's choice, she can hear his last words:
"Trust me... I'm sorry."
A suddenly darkness gouples the room, giving enough time for Annya to free herself and get barely injured, but they can't say the same for the horned owl; a sparkle and a painful shriek are enough to make the aasimar's eyes glow bewildered.
Tishka was dead. And that filth hag would pay for it.
After seizing the witch, Ekaterina mourns for her feathered best friend. When she touches his body, she is transported for another dimension and sees herself surrounded by celestial owlbears and ghostly owls. Among them, a giant, bluish horned owl with glowing eyes is staring at her.
"And we finally met," he says. "Forgive me for not contacting you in a better moment, emberchild."
"Who are you?" Ekaterina frowns with clenched fists.
"... And he told me about you. Tishka, I mean. Since then, I couldn’t take off my eyes of your deeds, emberchild. Since your foreparent is a reckless being and never came in your aid."
"Me? I am Tanagaar, the Aurulent Eye, an Empyreal Lord. I am a watcher, protector of whoelse wanders in the dark to protect their kin from evil."
The druid sttagered.
"Do you know my foreparent?"
"Yes, but trust me, it’s better you two never meet. For your good."
Ekaterina pleadges, "Please, bring him back. It was a mistake."
"Mistake you say? Emberchild, he knew what he was doing. After all, it was me who lend a sparkle of my power for Tishka saves your mother. And what's gone can’t be returned. You should know it very well."
Ekaterina drops her gaze, embarrassed. She sounded like a spoiled child, didn’t she?
"But..."
She looked at the deity again, hopeful.
"It doesn’t mean he can’t keep following you."
Among the ghostly court, an owl flies right way to the druid. She would recognize him in any life or after it. His feathers, now changing their colors between gray and brown, like it used to do when they left Irrisen and arrived at places where the sun was allowed to touch the earth, are dearly familiar.
"You feathered brain," she mocks with cracked voice. "I'm glad to see you again."
Tanagaar states, "The brighter the light, the darker the shadows. Use it in your favor, emberchild."
"What’s the catch? You wouldn’t simply let him wandering with me for free, would you?"
"Why would I not?" The Empyreal sounded concerned. "You are fighting against demons and bringing light to the darkest depths of the Abyss. When your halo falters, you can call for me and my flock. The only thing I ask for is an alliance. But you don't need to answer now. Your people needs you."
Before she could say anything, Ekaterina was back at the witch's den, with curious and worried eyes over her. Tishka's body had disapeared in thin air, yet she could feel him nearby.
All that time, the piercy eyes of an Empyreal Lord were watching her, silent, motionless. And she didn’t know how to react.
#not sure if she would become a witch (at least not in my playthrough)#but the idea of catching an empyreal's attention was interesting to work on#in-game it would give her an ability or two#or just a charmed amulet#thanks for coming to my ted talk#i need to gather all pieces yet#ekaterina grushankaya#pwotr pals
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you have a crazy hc for gryll you say. hand it over /lh
So, I get terribly unlucky with Stone transformations, almost never seeing the rare ones in a given playthrough. (I, uh, also don't use Stone very much...)
One day, while daydreaming about someone exporting and cleaning up all the Dream Friend stone transformations from Star Allies and turning them into 3D printable statues on Thingiverse for me to decorate my shelf with or something SILLY like that (...if, um, anyone wants to do that sometime, let me know...?) I finally perused the wiki to check out all of the transformations across the whole series! And that's when I spotted that transformation in RtDL that pairs the Star Rod with the Magical Paintbrush and the Triple Star!
It's also RtDL that makes it clear the Star Rod was made by the ancients. Logic suggests that those three items aren't just paired together for no reason. They are likely ALL creations of the ancients.
(It’s not even a stretch since the Magical Paintbrush is deeply associated with Drawcia and judging by the history of the unknown painting - and Drawcia’s golden eyes - she's likely tied to the ancients/Halcandra as well.)
But then we go back to the Triple Star. The only time we see it, it's one of a small handful of powerful but otherwise unremarkable weapons in Daroach's possession. Daroach is, of course, a planet-hopping intergalactic THIEF, and it’s likely that not everything he possesses was, oh, originally his...?
There's also the fact that while his ice cane very much suits his "suave gentleman thief" look, the Triple Star doesn't mesh with his aesthetic quite as well - or at all, if I'm being honest...
(Now THIS is Daroach’s defining look to me.)
The Triple Star is big, clunky, and chunky. It's also more like a wand than a cane (despite being called a cane) and you'd almost expect to see this wand type item in the hands of.........a magic user, say?
Long story short, I think Gryll was the original bearer of the Triple Star. Or at least the previous bearer before Daroach got ahold of it. You see, Gryll is also an intergalactic traveler, and thus, would have plenty of opportunities to have a run in with Daroach before either of them visited Pop Star.
Gryll is heavily associated with blocks. I mean, that's what Super Star Stacker IS: a game about throwing blocks at people! The block on the tip of Gryll's hat is nearly identical to the one crowning the Triple Star. And when Gryll attacks you, they turn their broom around and swing the larger end at you, just like how the ancient weapon is used in combat.
And again, the thing makes blocks. (...Okay, okay. It throws projectiles, but it was GOING to make blocks! At least, that’s the speculation, back when it was going to be the “Block” ability.)
Now, if the Triple Star was ever in Gryll's possession, how did Daroach end up with it? The most obvious answer is to say that Daroach STOLE it from the onion witch. But hey (hey, hey) it's also possible that Gryll lost it in a bet or a competition! Maybe Daroach is really, really good at playing Star Stacker...?
Now, why bring up the Triple Star as a creation of the ancients here? Well, there's not much tying Daroach into the ancients (...unless you assume he was another one of/was descended from the animals left behind on the forgotten land, and that the former residents went on to become the ancients - a theory which I'm still not completely sure I believe just because I can't make a rational path from the average-human-height-if-you-translate-the-signs-in-Wondaria-park FL residents to Gonzo I mean Squidworth I mean Hyness and the Jamba cult, at least not yet - and though it took Elfilis messing with Leongar's brain to teach HIM how to speak, maybe Daroach was a/descended from lab rats and so had more exposure to humans than your average zoo animal yadda yadda the Squeaks of NIMH/gee-Daroach-what-are-we-doing-tonight etc etc...)
...Sorry, got off on a tangent!
Anyway, while there's nothing on the SURFACE tying Daroach to the ancients, so far, every canon magic-user in Kirby has had a VERY close relationship with an ancient artifact. Nightmare and the Fountain of Dreams, Marx and Galactic Nova, Drawcia and the Magical Paintbrush, Magolor and the Lor Starcutter/Master Crown (Gee, Magolor, how come HAL lets you have two ancient artifacts?) Taranza and the Dimension Mirror, and Hyness and the Sisters and the Spears of the Heart/Jamba Heart.
That leaves just Gryll without their very own ancient artifact! Boo! While it is a little anti-climactic to get this far and say, "So, okay, they had it once, then they lost it/it was stolen from them" I still think it's a solid theory!
...The real sad thing is that Daroach STIll has it in Star Allies, meaning that if Gryll has any aims on getting the Triple Star back, they've got a long way to go! (Psst, HAL! Gryll returning cameo plz!)
Addendum:
...Soooooo...I forgot about this until I was looking up screenshots to add to this post, but there's also that unused design for a set of Beam Mage equipment based on Gryll planned for Super Kirby Clash and yeah, Gryll is TOTALLY wielding the Triple Star there.
I mean, the embossing is reversed and it’s green instead of gold, but the cane glows green in game so I’ll allow it. After all, these are rough sketches and Gryll’s hat is backwards and missing the block tail so one can assume that the details aren’t meant to be 100% accurate at this stage anyway. Most importantly, it's got the same basic shape it's NOT Gryll’s broom, which they would otherwise be using.
So, given that fairly decisive bit of evidence (?) maybe this theory of mine isn't really a wild theory at all, but something everyone else had already figured out? Either way, at least I get to share it finally!
#Kirby#Kirby series#Gryll#Daroach#Not tagging everyone...#...but Dess really loves every magic-user in Kirby#Fandom is like KNIGHTS! KNIGHTS! KNIGHTS!#I'm here like MORE MAGIC LORE PLZ#(Sorry to take forever to answer this one btw)#Dess Text Post#Dess Answers Questions#katfl spoilers
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I enjoyed doing this last week so this is. a thing now I guess. click through for roundup of whatever media I’ve been into in the past week (will normally be on thursdays I think bc that’s the day I’m usually free but my schedule this week was weird) (inspired by the tuesday again thing that @girlfriendsofthegalaxy does)
listening: the new Mountain Goats album Getting Into Knives is very fun and full of bops, for a given value of both “fun” and “bops” because it’s The Mountain Goats so it does have that edge of depression but quite a few of the songs are a bit more. cheerful? than a lot of their other stuff, for lack of a better word
favorite track is probably The Rat Queen
listening (podcast edition): this very fun episode of Overinvested tearing apart the new movie adaptation of Rebecca which I have not seen and was not planning on seeing but I do enjoy people smartly analyzing why things aren’t good and also I do love discussions about Gothic romance
reading: The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is probably a very good book that someone else will enjoy very much, as lots of people whose opinions I generally trust already have enjoyed it. and I possibly will enjoy more if I give it another chance, once I’ve gotten over being disappointed that it wasn’t what I was looking for right now. the premise is neat! the worldbuilding is cool! the characters are interesting! mermaids, witches, and seas are three of my favorite things and also there are pirates, my other fave thing!
the reason I bounced off of it so hard is that I kept seeing it hyped up as a trans/nonbinary book, and then felt kinda let down when I started reading it and realized that the main character whom I’ve seen described as genderqueer is 1) dressing as a guy because someone else suggested it for safety reasons and 2) this was several years before the story starts and this character still refers to herself exclusively (disclaimer that I didn’t read the full thing but. as far as I got and also I skimmed toward the ending) as she and by her feminine birthname. and those things are fine, that’s a valid gender story, nonbinary people can absolutely keep their old pronouns and names and it doesn’t make them any less nonbinary, but the way it was framed in the parts that I read felt to me more like the old classic ‘girl dresses as guy for plot reasons’ thing, which isn’t something I personally wanted to read more of right now, especially not when I went in expecting something that would resonate more with my gender experience
watching: I’ve been rewatching Leverage, since I only ever watched the first season many years ago because that’s what was free on hulu at the time, and the thing that’s really getting to me is how fundamentally hopeful it is. like, yeah, sure, the premise of it is about how capitalism is designed to fuck people over and there is A Lot about specifically health insurance being really really awful. so there are parts of it that are a lil bit too real, but then at the end of the day they always win and punish the rich capitalists and help their victims and it’s just. nice to see that kind of happy ending
the specific episode I’m having lots of thoughts about is the Mile High Job, which is about the team is trying to protect a potential corporate whistleblower from being murdered by her coworker while on an airplane. at first they’re not sure what’s going on because they weren’t expecting two people from the corporation to be on that flight, so they don’t know which person is the one they should be focusing on. one of them is an anxious younger woman and the other is an extremely generic man, and from the moment they decided that the woman was the one they had to protect I was dreading the plot twist of “no actually you just helped her take out her target and you should’ve been protecting the other guy” which would’ve felt just. so mean-spirited and cynical but it’s the kind of thing I expect from media I guess. and then once it was clear that nope, that twist wasn’t going to happen, I expected her to turn around at the end and be like “actually no I’m not gonna testify against the corporation because I’ve realized how dangerous it is.” and I kind of hate that I’ve become so jaded by both media and also the real world that I’m so ready to expect the most cynical option, because I’m not used to stories about how even though the system is corrupt and oppressive and exploitative, people can still help each and they do and sometimes they make things better
playing: got back into playing Dishonored after taking a couple weeks off because I got stuck and frustrated and also kept playing for too long at a time and giving myself headaches. Lady Boyle’s Last Party (which I am going to completely and entirely spoil so if you don’t want that this is your warning) is probably the mission that I have the strongest mixed feelings about. I love the approach to the party, I love the concept of sneaking into a masquerade ball, I love signing the guestbook with your actual legal wanted fugitive name while wearing the mask that you commit all of your crimes in, I love a good fancy party mission I cannot stress that enough it’s the sexiest possible setting
HOWEVER. trying to sneak around upstairs fucking sucks because the ceilings aren’t high enough for there to be places to hide, like convenient hanging lamps or pipes to blink up to. my least favorite room in this entire game is that art gallery because you can get on top of the cases and you think you’re safe because you’re Up but then the guards spot you instantly and sound the alarm and the entire party shuts down and then you let them kill you so that you can go back to your last save
ADDITIONALLY, fuck the nonlethal option for this one. I hate it so much and feel so incredibly gross about choosing it but I also feel extremely not great about tricking her into meeting me alone and then actually assassinating her. the conversation is so uncomfortable that I tried to be like “actually no nevermind” which causes her to think you’re weird and creepy and she has the guards ““throw you out”“ which apparently in Dunwall is just how you say that she’s gonna have the guards murder you. but anyway. she's a shitty rich lady but she doesn't deserve either of the things that could happen to her and she's only a target because she's sleeping w a guy who sucks. she hasn’t done anything! she isn’t actually responsible for what happened to Jessamine or Emily! which works on a narrative level in my opinion because this is the last mission before you go after the lord regent and it’s becoming clear that the loyalists are just using Corvo for their own agenda and don’t actually care about Jessamine. but it’s still unpleasant to be the one enacting it, y’know?
also on a narrative level, I really like the concept of doing a clean hands run except killing each of the actual targets, because I feel like that would be a cool inversion of the trope where the hero kills a bunch of mooks and then refuses to kill the big bad because murder is wrong. on a gameplay level, I’m still gonna do the nonlethal options because I refuse to risk getting the bad ending, and I’m proud of the fact that I haven’t killed anyone since getting out of prison. I do wanna do a high chaos playthrough at some point though just to see how it goes, since I went low chaos last time too
sorry for writing an entire essay about Dishonored but. the funniest thing from that mission is that apparently if you get spotted by one of the maids in the basement where you are not supposed to be (the guards will immediately attack if they see you) instead of raising the alarm she just says “welcome to the party.” love that solidarity.
making: none of my cosplay stuff is at an especially picture-worthy stage and I didn’t get pictures of the pesto I made for dinner last night so there’s not gonna be much that’s interesting here but I did go to Spirit Halloween after Halloween when everything was on clearance and got a bunch of stuff that I’m gonna use for cosplay eventually
writing: soon I will finish the Eddis/Attolia Queen’s Thief fic that’s been rattling around in my brain ever since I finished the last book. hopefully.
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So I finally played The Wolf Among Us
Being the big bad wolf fan that I am, I’d been dying to get my hands on the game after seeing images of Bigby floating around pinterest. Then I found out it was discounted around 50% yesterday and I knew I GOTTA have it.
Here’s a not-so-short rundown of my thoughts since no one’d read my full review anyway. Also, bear in mind that I never read the graphic novels so I’ll be judging the characters and plot solely on the first and (currently) only game. Spoilers under the cut!
The good:
Bigby. God I ENJOYED playing as him. There was great satisfaction being able to play this rough, potentially dangerous character and see him grow into this person that Fabletown finally grows to accept. During my first playthrough, I wasn’t able to play him as a brutal, full blown anti-hero because I need to keep him on the community’s good side. I’m definitely gonna replay the chapters and choose the more violent options and see him go full badass wolf on everyone. Speaking of badass, I constantly kept thinking to myself “Wow, I’d LOVE to play as him in an action game.” That one big fight scene against Bloody Mary made me go “You’re doing great, sweetie! Keep it up!”
The story definitely got me hooked. There wasn’t a time when I wished a speed button was available unlike Hashihime in the Old Book Town where I got bored during a sex scene.
It didn’t remind me of Happily N’ever After and its forced self-awareness that borders on annoying. Mini rant: I love when stories are set in a world where fairy tale characters meet and interact with each other, but that doesn’t mean every work that does it interests me because the handling of the theme may not quite work (for me at least). I haven’t rewatched Shrek, but I never rolled my eyes every time they make a joke about a fairytale character. I never watched Once Upon a Time but I feel it’s gonna be a pretty mixed bag? It’s just weird seeing all these adult characters taking the whole thing seriously and not in an endearingly self-aware kind of way. The Wolf Among Us kinda did it nicely in that yeah, these were fairy tale characters. Let’s see them work their way as poor people living in New York. I like how they take on the poverty angle because it kinda reminds me of my country, sorta.
To my surprise, the fight scenes DID IT for me. It’s satisfying to be able to beat the shit outta people I wanted to punch from the very beginning of the game (the Tweedles and Mary. Boy I wanted to see them banged up real badly). To be honest, I never played these Telltale games and I had my doubts about the combat mechanics. Turns out they were done pretty well. Also, I can’t shut up about the final brawl against Mary because....Big Bad Boi.
The meh:
Most of the character designs didn’t wow me. I could name the characters whose design I liked: Bigby, Georgie, Flycatcher, Bluebeard. The rest? Not so much. Some characters like Nerissa were a hit-or-miss while the rest are predictable (Bufkin, Crane, etc) or completely forgettable (Faith and Vivian’s design. Faith’s was at least memorable because her introduction was). The worst one, to me, was Bloody freakin’ Mary. Her design was simply underwhelming. I absolutely adored her true form, but her glamored form was simply...not there. I understand they don’t want to play the edgy up to eleven which was probably why they didn’t make her tattoo-ed up like Georgie (which is a shame because her emblem has a cool design. Imagine the cool tattoos she could’ve had), but her design was just half-assed (to me anyway). Not gonna lie, I actually was hooked up by her first appearance —a tough looking enemy with big butch energy —and then she opened her mouth and she sounds like fucking Bayonetta. This is probably just my personal taste, but I hate the femme fatale villain trope to death and I hate seeing this masculine lady sounding like a generic seductive villainess. Plus, I didn’t see her much during my playthrough so she ended up NOT coming across a real threat or a worthy opponent to Bigby, just a violent bully I need to get through.
The love interest character’s development was a mixed bag. I didn’t hate Snow White (like some people seem to do), but I was disappointed that she drifted away from Bigby before she gets the chance to solidify herself as his equal and partner. I know she marries him in the graphic novels, but I didn’t quite root for them to be together in the game. Mostly because of the boss-employee dynamic they had towards the end of the game, but it’s also because I also started to see how she didn’t grow to be somebody who understands Bigby and the plight of the non-human characters of Fabletown (case in point being Mr. Toad and TJ). She keeps saying that she does understand what life is like for people like Holly and I did sympathize with her when she talks to Bigby about her wanting to make Fabletown a better place, but the plot cuts her development once she has to act as Deputy Major in Crane’s place. She eventually becomes affixed as a cog in the machine. Sure, she’s needed to keep the system running, but her insisting on going by the (outdated) book just didn’t work I kept getting reminded of Louis from Beastars and how got his character development was. In Louis’ case, he started out as an covert bigot who strongarms his way to obtain authority, thinking he’d be able to make the world a better place. He does make good out of it, but we also see him coming to terms with his vulnerability which leads him to reach out towards other people with the same goals. Simply put, he changed from a know-it-all who wants to change the world so they’d suit his own views better to someone who genuinely wants to make a difference for other people. This....kinda doesn’t happen with Snow White. It’s probably because the POV (who stays on Bigby the entire time) or they’re saving her character development for the sequel; we can’t really tell until Season 2 comes out.
Speaking of which, how does being a giant, fearsome wolf in disguise reflect on Bigby’s relationship with other animal characters like Mr. Toad? I thought there was some potential in contrasting Mr Toad’s inability to afford glamor and Bigby having his lycantrophy knife handed to him by Snow. I imagine the animal townsfolk would take jabs at him having the privilege to remain constantly human without having to constantly return to the 13th floor but it never happened.
The resolution of the Crooked Man’s plot felt rushed and I was disappointed with how they handled the organized crime plot. It was built to be a grand scheme beyond Crane and the murder of the girls, but they resolved it way too quickly. It’s probably just me, but when you have organized crime and financial exploitation by (persumedly) a mafia, do you expect the villain to have their ass handed back to them in two chapters after their buildup?I mean, during Bigby and Crooked Man’s confrontation at the factory, I kept expecting the Crooked Man to make his escape after the battle against Mary — him being immediately dragged to court was anti-climatic. Does it really take that short a time to take down a big, magical mafia boss? Shouldn’t he have other witches at his beck and call (the secret lab at Johann’s place definitely hinted at that!)
I won’t refute if somebody brings up the lack of diversity in the entire cast. As far as I know, there was only one black person and they didn’t do anything with her character. I thought It would be nice if we get to see POC characters like Aladdin or Yeh-Shen (or replace Aladdin with Sinbad or Ali Baba if we want to go for total accuracy). It doesn’t help that the predominantly white characters look generic. Heck, some of the girls could have some variety in body shapes. For example, why not make Holly be a big beautiful woman? If you don’t want to make her morbidly obese, at least make her look heavier. You know, because she’s a troll. No, her wanting to look beautiful by concealing her troll form doesn’t work. Her wanting to be her own kind of beautiful (especially according to Troll standards) can be contrasted nicely to Lily having to wear her human skin because she needs to cater to her clientele, thus further emphasizing her lack of choice in her employment to Guido (and by extent the Crooked Man).
How long has it been since the exodus? Why is the Fabletown government still this terrible? I really want to be able to see the demographic at a bigger scope. For example, I’d like to see more of the dynamic between people like Bluebeard and the people at the Business Office. Also, what’s up with people with various problems going straight up to the Business Office? Do they not have accountants? How do they handle the legal stuff with the mundies? Who’s handling legal? The organization at the Business Office is just...weird. I thought they’d have some sort of higher council since I thought they’d need a bigger power to keep more powerful magic beings (like the witches) in place. Are things done better in the graphic novel?
Some of the animation lagged/look really janky on my Envy 13 laptop. Also, I encountered a bug at the beginning of some chapters where choices show up when they don’t need to, as well as some weird cuts during scene. Had to exit and reboot the game to proceed.
That’s all I can think of now. Feel free to send an ask so we can gush about the husbando material that is Bigby Wolf if you have other opinions!
#the wolf among us#snow white (twau)#bigby wolf#the crooked man (twau)#twau spoilers#the wolf among us spoilers#by the way hashihime isn't that bad check it out if you like lgbtq+ visual novels#or just yaoi#because it still handles stuff like consent issues wrong#also#where is red riding hood#is she going to be a boss or something#like jeanne was to bayonetta in the first game?
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Grand Academy For Future Villains, Chapter 1: Introduction. A commentary for Three.
Because no one can stop me.
Here’s the important decisions, and other things it feels relevant to comment on, from Three’s playthrough. Contains spoilers for GAFFV, obviously, and there’s a few references to the sequel, although nothing I’d really call a spoiler. All game text is copied from the text files, found here.
General CW for the whole thing: parental abuse, internalised dehumanisation as a trauma response. Three’s not doing well.
Specific CW for this chapter: misgendering, transphobia
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9
***
Rathna hisses with satisfaction, takes you by the wrist, and pulls you after her through the archway into the blackness.
It feels a bit like doing a belly flop into a pool of cold mercury. (And you would know; the exercise facilities back home were very well-appointed.) When the ringing clears from your ears and the fuzziness from your eyes, you're standing in a subterranean chamber. The walls are dripping. The lights are flickering. The screams are echoing.
An icy voice echoes in your head, making your ears sting. "Prepare yourself…to be screened."
"Oh, I am prepared," you assure Rathna the Soul-Flenser. "I trust the Academy! And if they say I need additional screening, I'm sure that's something that really is necessary for everybody's safety!"
How would you classify the expression in her dull metallic eyes? Quizzical? Startled? Pitying?
"Your faith," hisses the cold voice after a moment, "is… touching to me."
"Speaking of touching," you say cheerfully, "we'd better get to the screening part, right? The sooner I get screened, the sooner I can be reconstituted by, who is it, the fourth-year Resurrections class?"
There is a long pause. "No..." Rathna says. "You have passed the screening already. You are a true student of the Academy."
Nonplussed, you head up the stairs in the direction she indicates. As you glance back, you could swear she's wiping away one dishwater-gray tear.
Three’s entire introduction is them being a Good Student - it doesn’t even occur to them not to wait in line, or to try hiding their many, many weapons, or to try and get out of additional screening. They pick Rathna because they’re pretty sure Phil will mess it up and not screen them properly, which means they’re messing up too.
Phil, in Three’s opinion, clearly has zero discipline or competence, and they dislike him instantly. With his utter lack of commitment to the screening process, he’s off to a great start as Perfect Student Three’s unintentional narrative foil.
Rathna, on the other hand, they develop a mutual respect for in this scene. They don’t interact again in-game, and aren’t going to go out of their way to hang out with each other, but I like to think they get along well whenever they do see each other, and are at least friendly acquaintances. (I was very offended when the second game told me Rathna was my enemy, but I like Miriel Bloodshrike, because neither of these things are remotely true for Three.)
VERY WELL, THREE. BUT I KNEW YOUR MOTHER ONCE. AND SHE GAVE YOU ANOTHER NAME. YOU WILL BE THREE AT THIS SCHOOL, BUT TO MAEDRYN THE QUANTUM-WITCH, ONE OF OUR PROUDEST ALUMNAE, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE...
It's true. Your mother named you
#3.
Hardly a name at all.
I mean, Three’s life revolves around keeping their mother happy. They’re not going to throw away the name she gave them. They only changed it from the number to the word because of the massive bureaucratic hassle that trying to input your whole name as 3 was. And what would they change it to anyway? It’s not as if they have an identity outside of Maedryn, is it?
(This does, of course, result in a lot of funny experiences in-game, where people try and psych me out by knowing my birth name and Three’s just, “Yes, that is my name, are you feeling all right?” It’s not impossible that these still take place, even with Three using their mother’s name; in the very next scene, Xi reveals they can hear how people spell things. I’m sure there are some people in the Academy who would deliberately say 3, rather than Three, and hope that Three hears the insult. They don’t.)
As for gender… I think Three at this point still mostly identifies as female. They come out as agender part way through their first year, feeling more confident after meeting a lot of non-binary people at the Academy. They don’t tell their mum. While I’m glad that the game doesn’t have Maedryn misgender you, the fact that she consistently deadnames you and gets angry at you changing “her” body if you become a monster makes me feel it would be very in character for her to do. I’m sure she hears Three is using they/them pronouns now at some point, but has better things to do than remembering to use them.
If asked about their pronouns, Three will tell you that you are welcome to call them whatever you wish, and their closest associates usually use they/them. Expressing their own preference would be far too close to acting like a person with their own desires and feelings, though. Luckily they can easily justify being agender as, “What does a weapon need a gender for?”
“Let's get to know you, Three. What do you hate most?"
#Incompetence and idiocy.
And right now, Phil’s incompetence and idiocy in particular. Three is already up to 75% competence at this point, by the way.
Well, that's your mother. How do you feel about her?
#I'm proud to be her child. But I plan on choosing my own path- while keeping her as happy as I can.
The actual answer here is a lot more complicated. Three certainly doesn’t plan on choosing their own path, they exist only as a tool of their mother’s and are well aware that being anything more would not make her happy. They think Maedryn’s achievements are incredible and that she’s the cleverest person they know. They think they might be proud of her, if not of themself. They love her.
They’re also far more aware than they let on that she’s abusing them, and that they’re never going to get the love and approval that a part of them buried deep down still wants. While they absolutely keep it to themself, they dislike the way Maedryn’s destroyed worlds that could have had so much to offer, and believe she should treat her goons and servants (themself excluded) better.
And they have no intention of ever letting her know they've ever thought anything negative about her, because they value their life too much.
"Excuse me. I'm Three, and I-how did you do that? What were those wires, and all that stuff you were saying about humanity?"
"Nice, isn't it?" says Xi with pardonable pride. "Like I told you, I'm the ultimate fusion of human and computer. Instead of veins-" their voice is suddenly coming out of the speakers again "-wires course the length of my body, running directly from my mind to the Network."
"Oh! Computers!" the other student breaks in. "Whyever would you want to be all tangled up with those...things?"
Xi narrows their metallic eyes contemptuously at him. "I'm a cyberpunk villain. It's what we do. Wait- who are you again?"
The student draws himself up proudly. "Aurion Umbrator Malisar, Scourge of the Universe, Bane of Virtue, Shadow that Swallows the Light, and I-"
Xi sniffs. A shower of sparks falls from one of the wires. "This is the first time you've ventured outside your genre, isn't it? Let me guess, spawned in Fantasy, and now you're here expecting everything to be the same magic and mush you grew up with?"
"Well, that would explain things," Xi continues. "Trust me, pitiful lump of flesh, computers are the way to go. Why, the true power in this school, DarkBoard--no matter what any other genre says--is an artificial intelligence, one who has truly ascended beyond the tether of matter and mind-"
"That's the problem!" Aurion protests, waving his schedule again. "It will not heed my bidding!"
"Well, of course not, if you're talking to Them like that." You can hear the reverence in Xi's voice when they speak of DarkBoard. Odd, since as far as you can tell, the Grand Academy's administrative AI is basically a glorified secretary.
And Three gets to meet their best friends! They’ve been given permission to ask questions about something very cool! Even if they would never be caught using the phrase, “All that stuff,” and would much prefer a, “Would you elaborate further on your state of being, please?”
This also forms the very early seeds of their friendship with DarkBoard. They believe everyone deserves respect, and they know how easy it is to underestimate someone as being a tool. The majority of their previous knowledge on DarkBoard came from Maedryn, who they also know underestimates people she considers below her notice, so they’re very willing to take Xi’s opinion on DarkBoard over Maedryn’s. And if Xi calls DarkBoard a They, rather than an It, They is what Three will use too, because secretary or not, it’s only polite.
Xi sighs. "You've got to organize yourself, pitiful lump of- Aurion. Make some choices. Look. What do you want to do?"
"Have legions of darkness, take over the universe, slay the proud and noble, bring about a black reign of terror on the land, cast evil spells from my fortress, shoot out wires from my hand like that, seduce the pure and innocent, callously waste human life, destroy the world with a word, blow things up, have great men fall before the slightest motion of my hand, manipulate people's minds, be able to call up balls of fire, beat up the heroes, have Ultimate Weapons of Destruction, and wear a nifty cape!" rattles off the aspiring Scourge of the Universe breathlessly. "And more things, too, if they teach them."
Xi looks as if the student's enthusiasm has overloaded their circuits. You step in.
#Tell Xi I'll help Aurion with his schedule. That should earn me some points with the RA.
I mean, if Three had circuits, they’d be overloaded by Aurion’s enthusiasm too, but if there are two things they like, it’s sorting out schedules and making people in positions of authority happy! This encounter doesn’t make Three and Aurion friends, that comes later, but they gain a small amount of respect for each other, at least.
Sidenote - I’m not sure how close Aurion and Xi are supposed to be, they don’t interact much after this in-game, but I love their interactions here, and I really enjoy Three, Aurion and Xi as a group of friends.
#Better get Xi to advise me on this. Isn't assistance in their job description?
You stick your head out into the hall. "Xi? Can you help me with something?"
After a moment, Xi appears, expressionless.
"I need to get my books," you explain, "so I need to access my money. Can you tell me how to make DarkBoard do that?"
One of Xi's wires cracks like a whip. You hope that means yes.
Three might value self-sufficiency, but they also value making use of the resources available to you, and when someone’s job is to provide you with help, it would be arrogant and foolish to rely solely on your own conjecture.
They are also an eighteen year old who’s never spent much time with people their own age suddenly discovering that they find cyborgs in control of wires they grow out of their fingers really hot.
#Get a quick fund refreshment from Mom.
It won't make your mother happy to have you draft her account like this--she prefers more face-to-face groveling, as you've had plenty of chances to observe--but you know that you can make a quick transfer from the Student Security Deposit. A few words to DarkBoard, and the money is yours, with a little extra cushion to cover you in case of emergencies.
I mean, Three’s definitely going to call Maedryn up for a proper groveling session later tonight, and hope that helps a little. But she’s also expecting them to get perfect grades, and they’re worried about their chances of doing that without all the equipment available. Anyway, that’s their first day at the Academy finished!
#grand academy for future villains#choice of games#three#long post#u know what i'm gonna tag the other characters bc i love them#maedryn#aurion umbrator malisar#xi#darkboard#gavril philippe des anges dechus#marsh ocs
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In defense of Dragon Age 2 (review - no spoilers - long post!)
It seems I'm only allowed to play games in disorder, because I played this one after Inquisition, and guess what I'm almost at the end of now (yes, you guessed it, Origins). But it's not a problem for me, because after I *checks notes* ejem, played, uhm, like nine playthroughs of Inquisition, cof, cof, I've learned all the tiny details and branches and possible endings of each installment. So this game's story wasn't a surprise in many aspects – although there were still things I didn't know or I didn't expect.
So DA2 is the black sheep of the family, and somehow I can see why. It differs greatly from the origin prologue you get to play in the first one, and the silent protagonist is gone, replaced by an already created and established character, Hawke. Hawke can be male or female, mage, rogue or warrior – but they are only human. We are ripped off of the option of choosing between races.
And that's not the only thing the game takes away from us – we are used to travel around Ferelden, searching for allies, to fight the Archdemon, because the End is Nigh and we Must Save the World united with friends and so on – here, it's just a city. We only get to know Kirkwall, a Free Marches city that used to be owned by the Imperium and now rejoices in its so-called freedom. Kirkwall consists in some neighborhoods and some notorious buildings, but that's it. It's just the city. And I daresay, it's another protagonist of the game.
Yes, you get to go outside a few times – you even go through the ( I don't know WHY) still mandatory Deep Roads quest and whatnot – but the main storyline will still happen inside the city walls.
And that's… not so bad. But I'll get there in a moment.
So you play as Hawke, the older sibling of the Hawke family. You're escaping from Lothering, which you may remember from Origins – yes, it's the same town you visit right after Ostagar. Lothering has been overrun by darkspawn and so you take your mother and your two younger twin siblings with you: Carver, a warrior, and Bethany, an apostate mage.
In your way to the port, you come across Aveline, a well seasoned captain, and her husband Wesley, a templar. Wesley isn't in a very good condition but you still allowed them both to join your escape.
It isn't so long before the darkspawn reach you, and you make your last stand here.
Now, in this part of the prologue, what matters the most is the class you chose for Hawke. If Hawke is a mage, Bethany, the other mage, will perish at the hands of the ogre that is leading this barricade of darkspawn. If Hawke is a warrior/rogue, it will be Carver the one who makes the ultimate sacrifice so his family would survive. As I have stated in my Inquisition review, I love mages, so of course I created a mage Hawke, and so I watched Bethany, so young and rebellious, die in front of my eyes (Wesley, Avelin's husband, dies as well but we don't care much for him sorry not sorry).
Choosing a class isn't a minor or just a gameplay thing here, because it leads to two very different stories. Carver is resentful with you, he blames you for the death of his twin, and he can't get over the idea that you (and him, as well) are being hunted by templars. He can even become a templar if you choose the required options – so ironic, you a mage and your own brother a templar! His inferiority complex makes it really hard to get on well with him. Bethany, on the other hand, seems to care more for her older sibling, and bears a great admiration for their father, who was a mage and the one who taught her everything. She's guilty over the fact her family is doing everything they can to protect her from the templars and the Circle, and her attitude towards Hawke always follow that line. Her destiny has more options than Carver, though, so it makes me think that maybe Bethany was the "canon" sibling who survived – Still, I always play as a mage so I'm used to Carver by now and it feels kind of contradictory to see Bethany alive and well.
Amidst the chaos, a dragon appears, stretching its wings – it destroys the rest of the darkspawn, and soon we see that it's not just a beast. It transfigures into a human, quite known for us DA's fans: Flemeth, the Witch of the Wilds, Morrigan's mother. She's saved us, but of course she wants a little favor in return, nothing too problematic. For those who are wondering "but HEY I killed Flemeth in Origins", well this encounter happens before you do that. And if you know anything about Flemeth is that she always comes back.
Finally, you reach destination, the almighty Kirkwall, with its columns that seems to go on forever into the sky. Here, you'll start over. Here, you'll pave your way to your future. And the plot begins!
The story is divided into three well marked acts: the first Act you'll be saving money to go on an expedition to the Deep Roads to gain enough coin and reclaim the Hawke estate in Kirkwall; the second Act has you going around playing the diplomatic link between the Viscount and the Qunari who have made the city their headquarters; and the third Act, well, everything blows up. Literally, I might add.
Between the prologue and Act 1, one years passes. Between Act 1 and 2, three more years go by; and finally, Act 3 happens three years later as well. The whole story takes up like 8 years or more inside the same city. This… wasn't a good decision on the developers, in my opinion, but I'll say it after I talk a little about the characters.
First we have Hawke, our Champion. Their personality varies between diplomatic – sarcastic – upfront and direct. And this time is easier to know because gone are the days with the many responses available and now we have the wheel which shows you an icon displaying the "tone" of your reply. If there's something common across all the Hawkes you can create, is that they care for their family, they want to recover what's theirs, and there's no stopping them. They are loved by those around them and seen as a leader. Loyalty is a powerful word here, which will play a big part in the final act, because only those who are truly loyal to you will remain by your side. And it's endearing, really, to see the support of those characters that accompanied you the whole game. Oh, and they have voices. I say this because in Origins we have a silent protagonist (which took me aback considering I played Inquisition and 2 prior), and they are so well portrayed it makes them more human and approachable.
Now that we are on that topic, voice acting here is just FLAWLESS. I can't get over Gideon's voice for that stupid elf damn it.
Alright so, just like in the other games, you can recruit companions. I already spoke a little about Carver and Bethany, who are playable… for a time, at least.
This is the first time we come across Varric, our favorite storyteller. Varric isn't only just your best bud for life here, but he's also the one telling Hawke's story: he'd been abducted by Cassandra Pentaghast (yes, the one from Inquisition) who wants to interrogate him about the Champion. Varric is like your north in the game, he's always there for you, he's always supporting you, he doesn't take sides, he's funny, he's welcoming and he cares so much that I want to hug him. Goodest best friend forever.
Aside from him, you'll be crossing paths with Aveline again, now a soldier in the guard. Aveline is the correct type of person: she takes pride in her job, she wants things to get done well, following the rules. She respects honor, dignity and justice, and she doesn't approve of taking advantage of "illegal" situations and underground activities. If she's on your good side, you'll get a great supporter and a great friend, who will got your back, always.
Fenris is an elf who comes from the Tevinter Imperium – if we know anything of Tevinter apart from its blood mages, it's that they are slavers. Fenris used to be a slave who managed, somehow, to escape from his master. He bears a burning hatred towards the Vints, mages and every slaver out there. He always remarks he's a free man and he will disapprove of your support for the mages or any kind of sympathy towards slavery. So much so, that I started my relationship with him in -10 because I was a mage.
Merril is a dalish elf whom you'll be recruiting after finishing Flemeth's little favor. Merril is a blood mage, and she doesn't see the demons as enemies, but rather friends. She intends to leave her clan and go live in the city, because she's sure she can help her kin from outside instead of remaining cloistered and secluded inside. This will grant her the dislike of all her clan's members, but that doesn't stop her. She's naïve, she doesn't seem to understand most of human customs, and she's quite direct because she can't see through sarcasm or white lies. She's the purest of the team, although her abilities may tell you otherwise.
Isabela isn't new for us, if you come from Origins. Here she'll be joining us again after losing her ship. Her intentions remain a mystery most of the game, but let's just say she's quite involved with the plot of the second act. She's a forced to be reckoned with: she doesn't mess around when things need to be done and she gets them done in her own way. I'm still a bit spiteful about her because she abandoned my team after the second act, although I thought I was doing everything right!
Sebastian is only available through the Exiled Prince DLC – he's a chantry brother whose family was brutally murdered and his estate back in Starkhaven lies headless. He's conflicted about whether to remain in the chantry or go back to reclaim his land. He's righteous, he doesn't accept any rule breaking and, to be honest, he's pretty dull – specially if you're trying to romance him only because of those shiny blue eyes. The fact that he only joins you after Act 1 supports this allegation, in the way that he's not available through the first part for party banter, which always adds a lot of more depth to the characters you're playing with.
And at last… we have Anders. For those of you who played Origins' expansion, Awakening, Anders isn't a new character either. This time, though, it's not just Anders: he's possessed by a spirit of Justice, the same Justice we meet in Awakening. Anders remains in control most of the time, but when he loses it or when he enters the Fade, it's Justice the one who takes over. Anders serves as a healer in Kirkwall, helping refugees for free. He wants to move on from his past as a Grey Warden and he fights for the rights of the mages who are being hunted by the templars. Oh, man, of course I would fall for the subversive mage! Boy was I deceived… He plays a large role in the final battle, which, depending on your choices and your principles, will change your view of him forever. Let's just say that he's a pretty hated character in the franchise.
In this game you'll have choices as well, and your comments and actions will bear points of friendship or rivalry with your companions. This doesn't mean that if you get 100 rivalry points with one of them they'll abandon you, no, it doesn't work like in Origins or in Inquisition. Here you have to see the bar in both directions: the closer it is to one of the extremes, the better. The danger zone is the central one: if you have little points of friendship or of rivalry, the companion is likely to abandon you. This is what happened to me with Isabela: I had a good chunk of friendship points with her, but it seems I needed to max them out, which I didn't, and thus she flew away, goodbye. You can even romance characters with high rivalry points, and their romance plays a little different because of it. As it says, it's "rivalry" and not "deep hatred with death wishes", so maybe it spices some things up in your relationship.
Each companion will have their own questline that stretches across all three acts, and if you want to have all your team available by the end of the game, I recommend you do them. Although… well, you won't have the whole team, but I won't spoil it for you.
So I mentioned before I would talk about why the eight year story decision wasn't a good take for me after speaking a little about the characters – well, it's simple. In those three year gaps, the story acts as if nothing happens. Yes, sometimes the characters say "hey, I haven't seen you in a while" or "that thing happened three years ago" or whatever, but it doesn't work well. For instance, if you romance Fenris, you'll sleep with him in the second act, and then he goes away, seemingly not wanting to continue with the relationship. Three year pass, and then you resume your romancing with him, and he's like "yes, idk why I left that night I so regret it lol" DUDE, you're like just two meters away from Hawke's house, are you truly telling me you didn't talk to them after what happened in these three years?
The story plays as if there are no gaps in time. In fact, if you take away Varric's narration, which states that x amount of time happens between act and act, you won't even notice it! And that's the thing: I don't know why they chose to do this. I mean, I guess I understand the point, they wanted Hawke to make their own name, to be known and loved by the citizens as years went by, they wanted them to start in rags and rise to fortune, I get it. But something similar was accomplished with the Inquisitor in the third game: time passes, I believe almost a year, and you feel the love and respect you've earned from your companions. It didn't take my Inquisitor eight years for that. It didn't even take her half a month to get Cullen in love with her ok sorry. What I mean is, the eight years thing isn't well developed, and characters act as if no such time had passed, and the story is planned as well like that. It's almost as though they wanted to stray as far as possible from Origins in terms of design and choices, which is a great idea, but some things just don't add up.
For example, in Inquistion's expansion, Trespasser, two years have passed. And here you see, you feel that your characters have been away for long. They've all been following their own paths and when they finally reunite they catch up and speak about their futures and what they want for themselves. It truly feels like two years have passed. There's a huge impasse between the ending and the expansion, which marks a milestone, and you can understand why all these characters haven't seen each other for a while. Whereas between Act 1 and 2… it's like… yeah we went to the Deep Roads and yeah… hmm… Varric really three years and you still didn't hear of your brother or… wait is this letter by Carver just sent? I mean he's been away too long now but he could always send me letters why wait three years…. and so on. It breaks the continuity. In fact, it doesn't only do that, but it also makes your characters stupid. Are you telling me Anders has been in love with me for three years and he still hadn't done anything?? What are you, fifteen?
But apart from that, I believe this game is really good. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I enjoyed the mechanic regarding your siblings: their appearance changes depending of what preset for the face and skintone you choose for Hawke. I like the idea that only one of the twins is available throughout the game. I like that the gameplay has been improved from Origins, I love that as a mage you feel so destructive with all those spells, I love that it's fast paced and more colorful. I got also really involved with some of the companions, specially Anders, Fenris and Aveline. I love that, even though they may disagree with you on some topics, they still remain by your side if you were a good friend, because that's what friendship's about. Friendship/rivalry here feels like a human thing, something quite relatable, instead of just shoving gifts onto your companion so they'd like you better. I like that somehow all of your companions are entangled with what happens in the city, and this leads me to my final point about why DA2 is still a good game.
Kirkwall. Our vedette. Our goddess. Kirkwall is the scenario for 90% of the events of the game. We're not saving the world here. We just want the peace for the city. Who should rule? Whose forces should Hawke support? Is Hawke good enough to be Viscount? Are the templars doing a good job? Or is Knight-Captain Meredith going too far?
Political intrigue. And just one city. Not all of Ferelden. Just one bad person trying to control the strings in this small portion of land, not an army of zombies or a dragon ready to consume the world. I love that the plot is just restrained to this small thing, because it lets you go deeper into everyone's stories, and it doesn't mean that it gets less epic, on the contrary. I enjoyed the final boss here way more than I did with Corpypheus in Inquisition. Here Meredith has an actual goal and she's acting upon what she thinks it's right, and at some point and to some extent, she's right! But her methods are questionable, in the least. She's not just a bad guy for the sake of being a bad guy, like it happens with Corypheus. She's bad, but she has her reasons.
You don't get to know a lot of people, because you just know those who live in Kirkwall. The familiarity, the warmth of its streets, it's like you've been living there as well, sharing with these characters and learning about their pasts. Instead of allowing you to see a huge picture with hundreds of characters involved, you just focus on those you care about, explore them more in depth. Sometimes covering everything doesn't lead you anywhere, so it might be better with just a handful of well written plot points and characters.
I'm not saying that Origins is the worst because of this, because it seems like I'm hating on it. In fact, I can't still speak much of it because I haven't finished my route yet (although I know how it ends). I'm just saying that Origins is good, that Inquisition is good, and that DA2 is also good. It's different, but still a good game. Sometimes you're tired of playing as the chosen one hero who must save the world, and maybe saving one city is enough for your heroic career.
I loved the game. I loved that it pushed my beliefs of helping the mages to the limit, to the point of questioning myself. I loved that it played tricks on me like that with the romance option. I loved the sarcastic Hawke, such a well written script. Also, Cullen is here so of course I'd love it.
Just… don't hate it that much. And if you still haven't played it, give it a shot. You might be surprised.
#dragon age#dragon age 2#dragon age origins#dragon age inquisition#da2#dai#dao#bioware#hawke#anders#varric#fenris#videogame#videogame review#review#gamer#ea games
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Interview with d Marie Licea
Recently, I had a chance to talk with d Marie Licea, developer of Us Lovely Corpses, about the creative process behind this fascinating “surreal-horror-romance” visual novel. Us Lovely Corpses is a VN I considered reviewing for this blog when I read it, but I struggled to write a review that would be interesting and accessible—explaining the parts that most impressed and resonated with me would mean spoiling it completely. But I encourage anyone who can handle some disturbing content in service of a great story and heartfelt message to try it out. This interview will start with some more general questions, and it includes a warning farther down before any spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses appear.
Question: Did you always plan for the story of Us Lovely Corpses to be a visual novel, or did you consider other mediums as well?
Answer: In its earliest stages, Us Lovely Corpses was actually planned as a comic! I came up with the original idea somewhere around 2014-2015—it was going to be about 10 pages, and would just cover the scene that ended up being the game's finale. Alex and Marisol (who weren't named yet) were very different—they were much younger, Alex wasn't really "a witch," and Marisol was originally a boy!
I sat on the idea a while, and the longer I did so the more I wanted to explore the history of these characters, which made for a longer and more unwieldy comic. Then in 2015, when I started learning about visual novels, it hit me that the concept could work really well in that format, especially when the "exploration" element came in.
Q: Were there any particular visual novels that influenced you?
A: Yes! The reason why I started getting into visual novels specifically in 2015 was that because that was the year We Know The Devil came out!
We Know The Devil totally shifted my viewpoint as to what a visual novel could be—no diss to dating sims, but before WKTD, I, like most people, just saw VNs as dating sims and occasionally something like the When They Cry series.
WKTD totally changed that for me—a short, incredibly contained story that also managed to be about so, so much, in a surreal, horror-inspired atmosphere . . . it really blew me away! Not only was it the game that got me into visual novels, but you can definitely see a lot of its influence on Us Lovely Corpses.
Besides WKTD, there was also Her Tears Were My Light, a fairly minimalist love story that used the "rewind" function in Ren’Py as part of the story. Utilizing mechanics as part of the narrative was a really cool idea to me that also ended up in ULC. (side note: I met and hired Alex Huang to do the music for Us Lovely Corpses because I loved the soundtrack for HTWML so much!)
Finally, I was really into the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) trilogy when I was younger, and the evidence gathering segments were a big part of those games. I originally envisioned the "rose clipping" segments of ULC like those parts, where you'd have to select each rose before cutting it, but sadly that was a little too complex for me at the time, and I eventually decided to go for something more simple in order to complete the game. But that initial idea was a big part of what made me try Us Lovely Corpses as a game, so it ended up still being a big influence in the end!
Q: Besides technical things like those mechanics and the exploration element, do you find that you have a different style of writing in visual novels as opposed to the stories you've done in other formats, like twine and comics?
A: I'm not sure if this is always the case for visual novels, but I find I have to format my writing differently when writing for VNs—specifically, in length of sentences and paragraphs. I've found my writing worked a lot better in Us Lovely Corpses the more I broke everything up into smaller fragments—larger ones or paragraphs didn't work as well, which can be a problem for me because my writing can tend to get a bit wordy!
This has to do a lot with the pacing of visual novels and how the player/reader is a big part of that. Control over pacing is a big part of why visual novels appeal to me, but you also have to think differently to get the best result.
Technical stuff aside, I found that, at least for ULC, my actual writing style remained pretty much the same. I think this has the benefit of making the writing in Us Lovely Corpses seem unique, but has the disadvantage of posing a problem for a certain something I didn't see coming at all: Let’s Players!
A few people have made videos of their playthroughs of Us Lovely Corpses, which is incredibly exciting, but when I watch them, I can't help but feel bad for them because they always read everything out loud . . . which means, with my somewhat wordy style, they have to do a LOT of talking!
I haven't actually gotten complaints about this or anything, but I still hope people who make videos of their playthroughs of ULC keep some water nearby!
Note: the next part of the interview contains spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses, as well as discussion of mental illness.
Q: As the story progresses, it becomes explicitly clear that the “monster” is Marisol’s bipolar disorder. Did you ever think about leaving the metaphor more ambiguous, and if so, what made you decide to be so direct instead?
A: I'd say if the "monster" was one specific thing, it would her Ocular Rosaceae, as it's the one specific thing that gives a physical form to Marisol's thoughts and unhealthy behaviors. But even that, in a way, is not taking into account her bipolar disorder and depression, her jealousy towards Alex, her self-loathing and introversion . . . "the monster" is all of those things, because at its core, the monster is mental illness. And mental illness is never just one thing, but many things and factors interacting at once to create something much bigger than a single diagnosis.
All that said, it's not incorrect to say that Marisol's bipolar disorder is the monster; it's just more accurate to say it’s part of Marisol's monster. Back when ULC was still a comic, I wasn't going to talk about specific diagnoses, but as the story grew I realized I wanted to talk more explicitly about mental illness. I don't exactly remember where the idea came about, but early on in the writing process I got that idea in my head of Alex finding that fake corpse and finding that doctor's diagnosis. In retrospect, it was a really, really weird scene, especially as it comes right off the heels of realizing what you thought was a dead body was just a weird joke, but I do like what it represents—in the middle of this surreal trip into a house filled with talking flowers, the story suddenly halts as you soak in this very blunt reminder that, magic aside, this is a world that is representative of the real world. Marisol may have a magical disease and be best friends with a witch, but she's a very real girl, so to speak.
So that harsh reminder is part of why I wanted to be so direct. I guess the other part would be that I just wanted to make no bones about it. Some things you want to leave up to interpretation, and some things you don't. From the very, very beginning the story was always about mental illness, so it just felt right to me to be upfront about it.
Q: One thing I noticed that I thought showed a lot of attention to detail in ULC was that in one of the rooms you explore there are two famous paintings that both have connections to suicide (Millais’s Ophelia and van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows). Are there any other little symbolic details like that you added to the story that some readers might have missed?
A: Ah, I'm glad you caught that! If I had stuck with the more Ace Attorney style of gameplay I would have liked to put more small details like that in. As it stands, the big example is probably pretty obvious—Alex's notes about each rose are fairly close to the standard "flower language" of different rose colors in real life. The fact that yellow roses can mean "jealousy" or "friendship" depending on what source you use actually ended up working very well with the story.
The last names of Alex and Marisol are probably pretty obvious: de Rosa ("of the Rose") and Flores ("Flowers"). Something that's probably less apparent is Marisol, a name that originally comes from a contraction of "Maria de La Soledad" ("Our Lady Of Solitude"), one of the titles given to the Virgin Mary.
Q: Was the flower language the reason you used roses rather than any other flower, or were there other inspirations for that as well?
A: There were a number of reasons! One being that Revolutionary Girl Utena was a big influence on my style and particularly on several parts of the game. There's also the whole dichotomy with roses/thorns. And there's also the simple fact that I have fun drawing roses!
Q: For my last question, are you working on any other visual novels right now?
A: I am as a matter of fact! I'm working on a visual novel set in Japan about some high school kids who explore a strange house. It's still in fairly early stages, but I think if I give it my all I will actually have a demo ready in time for Halloween, which would be great!
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that demo—even more so after learning about all of the serious thought d Marie Licea puts into the details and themes of her work. If you’re as excited as I am about updates on her upcoming projects, you can follow her on itch.io or twitter, and considering supporting her patreon. Thanks for reading!
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Dragon Age questions
!!!!!!!!!!! i was tagged by the lovely @bitchesofostwick (thank you so much!!!) and i’m not tagging anyone because i’m late to this (sorry, i didn’t do it immediately when i saw it and in my usual fashion i forgot for a few days. >_>) so i know basically everyone i would tag has already been tagged. but anyway, let’s get on with it!!
p.s. this’ll be long because i ramble. ❤️
01) favorite game of the series? i’d say inquisition, probably. i rather like the character creator and the open-world feel of it. i like the gameplay of it too. it also gets bonus points because it’s the only game i know how to mod even a little, which makes me happy because i can get characters that are 100% unique to me. :]
02) how did you discover Dragon Age? Shit, nearly a decade ago i remember finding this disc for a game called Dragon Age: Origins lying around one day. it was my brother’s and i can’t remember where he said he got it, but anyway it was damaged and wouldn’t play anyway. i didn’t give a rat’s ass about it tbh. my thoughts of it went no further. it wasn’t until about three years later that my brother bought it for the 360 and i saw him play a bit and then learned that there was a character creator and I FUCKING LIVED (AND STILL DO) for games with character creators. so my happy ass started playing!!!! (that was the very first version of my Tabris, Lark!) shortly after that i purchased it for PC and the rest is history!
03) how many times you’ve played the games? I’ve completed Origins only once. I’ve started a few playthroughs, but i’ve never gotten very far. :/ oh, and i also completed Awakening once. i’ve completed DA2 i believe twice. Again, i’ve started multiple playthroughs, just never finished them all. and basically the same for Inquisition, tbh. i’ve done one playthrough without Trespasser and one with. OR i might have just loaded up the finished save and played Trespasser when i bought it. xD in any case i’ve played each game through at least once.
04) favorite race to play as? i don’t really see it as favorites? in Inquisition i’ve technically created a couple characters for each race (except a dwarf. haven’t gotten around to making a dwarf quizzy yet) but most of them are just “throwaway” characters that i make to romance people because i want to try all the romances but i can’t make every character i create into like, a character character, that exists fully in my head and outside the game. so any characters you hear about from me are ones that have really stuck out to me in one way or another. anyway the only warden i ever made that mattered any was Lark, who is of course an elf. i like them all tbh! i was rather excited about being able to play a badass qunari chick, though! (even though my first character was a human. go figure.)
05) favorite class? mage!!!!! when first played Origins i made Lark a warrior. idk for sure why, but i think it was because i didn’t want a character in the Circle. i wanted a city elf. idk why i picked warrior over rogue though. my first Hawke was a warrior. again, idk why. my second Hawke was a mage, and I. FELL. IN. LOVE. i loved the fighting animations, i loved the spells, i just…. i loved. when i finally was able to play DAI (which was a few years after it was released) my first character was a mage. again, i loved it. however, when i went back to DAO at one point and tried being a mage i was not a fan of it. i didn’t like the way it played. BUT OVERALL my favorite is definitely mage. :]
06) do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? the same. it might be sad and pitiful, but in-game decisions give me real-world feelings and anxiety so i just make the decisions that stay in my comfort zone. :] sometimes i’m brave and try different things, but for the most part i make the same decisions.
07) go-to adventuring group? Disclaimer: if applicable, i take my LI everywhere i go. :] i honestly try to take a variety of people because i want a balanced team as much as possible. i’m also a very casual player, so i don’t use the tactical camera or like, the behavior patterns or anything. i leave everything default. so i try to mix and match and come up with a team that i feel best compliments my character’s class/abilities or whatever, without me having to babysit them or really do any work in regards to that. that AND i like to hear the different banters tbh. when i’m picking my team sometimes i’ll stop and think, “omg, what is [character] and [character]’s relationship really like??? i never take them together so i don’t know!!” so i’ll expand my horizons and take groups of companions that i don’t normally take together. that being said, I LOVE ALL THE COMPANIONS ALL THE TIME SO I DON’T PLAY FAVORITES. :]
08) which of your characters did you put the most thought into? Probably Sydnie, because she was the first game character that really developed into an OC. the first one i really wanted to try writing for. my first Inquisitor. :] she was the first (game) character that, as i was playing, i really sat and thought, “what would this living being with a soul do when presented with this situation?” instead of just clicking whatever. xD anyway, ideas just came flying at me when i thought about her. overall i feel like she’s very underdeveloped still as far as character’s go, but i love her and i’ve been thinking a lot more about her lately. i’d really love to finish writing something for her eventually. xD
09) favorite romance? oh man, idk. tbh i’ve not finished all of the romances so a part of me wants to be like, “i can’t really answer this tbh”. Lark romanced Alistair, and it was cute and i love them. (i’ve toyed with the idea of writing some stuff for them and it’d be so cute if i could actually get my ass into gear.) i really liked Fenris’s romance (and DA2 was the only game that i played through more than one companion’s romance.) and Cullen is the only one i’ve completed a romance for in DAI, though i played most of Josie’s and i’m love. :] honestly i really do feel like there really isn’t an answer from me for this one. sorry! D:
10) have you read any of the comics/books? nope. i was thinking of maybe getting The Masked Empire but i haven’t fully decided yet. i unfortunately don’t read books much these days. (i’d rather be on my comp playing games or arting or maybe reading fic!!)
11) if you read them, which was your favorite book? n/a
12) favorite DLCs? i am so fucking ambivalent wtf. seriously, people. i’m coming to learn that there are few things i have an actual feelings on either way. -___- Trespasser is the only big DLC i own and i fucking hate it. it’s great and all but i kind of cried at the end so whatever. :] but honestly i really really like the Spoils of the Qunari DLC!!!!! the antaam-saar!!!!!! (i think i spelled it right idk i’m too lazy to check please forgive me) and the mount!!!!! good stuff. i own (i think) all of the DLC for DA2 and i like them all well enough. i also own all for DAO and i like them well enough. i’ve only ever played the DAO in-game DLC as well as Awakening (meaning no Leli’s Song, no Witch Hunt, etc.) i just never got around to it. anyway, really. not really playing favorites here either. xD
13) things that annoy you. not much tbh. i suppose it’s annoying that sometimes in some games i’m sitting here like, “okay, why did my character just say these words? that wasn’t what the words that i clicked on said. ?????????”
14) Orlais or Ferelden? Ferelden! because it’s more rustic and i like that. :3 also mabaris.
15) templars or mages? mages. though i do believe there’s an argument to be had about the treatment of both groups at the hands of the chantry. but still mages. :]
16) if you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? obviously i intend to have and OC HOF, champion, and inquisitor all in one universe. i’ve had a hard time trying to figure out which characters i want to be canon and which aren’t. i’ve also toyed with the idea of having multiple world states that act as their own individual canons, but that’s a lot of work and like… lazy. :] for a while i just figured Lark was my canon warden no canon Hawke thus far and Sydnie my canon Inquisitor. but idk.
17) what did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc) UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM………………….. one of the mabaris in the first two games was named Charlemagne (i think my Hawke’s dogs are always Charlemagne) and i think Lark’s dog was… omg hold on i have it documented somewhere. *a few minutes later* Shawshank! Lark’s dog’s name is Shawshank.
18) have you installed any mods? yes because i’m garbage that is privileged enough to be a computer gamer and can install mods. i also really like having mods and making mods so yes. yes i install mods. :]
19) did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden? not particularly, though she didn’t mind having to leave the alienage. she’d be dead or worse if she’d stayed and also she would have attempted to run away long before shit hit the fan if she didn’t have her family to think about. she still cared for her family and she did feel some sadness over leaving them, but it was like her soul made a sigh of relief and a weight was lifted. she was truly happy to leave. becoming a Grey Warden was sort of like a not completely unpleasant side effect.
20) hawke’s personality? i don’t really have a Hawke atm but I generally tend to play blue Hawkes.
21) did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition? no and they should all thank the maker because every fucking one of ‘em would be in plaidweave and that’s that on that.
22) if your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? ugh this is too much thinking for me. why are there so many questions?!??!?!!? anyway idk. i think Sydnie would change the way she let herself react to a really bad thing that happened in the circle. because she reacted the way she did, it completely changed who she was and it takes her a long time to get herself back. sorry it’s vague but that’s just how these things go sometimes. :] Lark doesn’t really live in the past, if that makes sense? she doesn’t dwell on things enough to regret. why change the past when you can own this day???? as a certain cheeky lesbian elf apparently says maybe. :3
23) do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? kind of, but mostly small things, and generally only things that pertain directly to my character. also i like to switch things up when it comes to romances. :] i try to take the basics of the in-game romance arc and tailor it a bit more to what i envision. or just what i want. ;D so i guess that could maybe be considered off canon, though i don’t really see the romances as canon anyway.
24) are any of your character(s) based on someone? no. not intentionally, anyway. it would take me way too long to explain my thought processes when it comes to creating characters (and this bitch is already long enough at this point) so i won’t go into details. :] so basically no, i don’t ever really set out to base characters on people. maybe subconsciously it happens? idk.
25) who did you leave in the Fade? my first playthrough was the default world state so i sacrificed Stroud because of course i did. with the custom world state i have now i sacrificed Hawke. D: because you know i’m not sacrificing Alistair!!!! especially not after he said the stuff about Lark and them being together AND I COULDN’T TAKE THAT AWAY. also it wasn’t like it was MY Hawke, because i don’t have an actual OC Hawke it was quite easy to sacrifice her because i had no real attachment to her. anyway don’t fucking ask me who i’ll sacrifice when i finally get around to actually deciding on my canons and their world state because I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT. thank you. :]
26) favorite mount? i don’t use mounts much actually. i like hearing banter. that being said, i really like the way the qunari horse looks. i also like the harts and i don’t care what anyone else says i love their nails-on-chalkboard screech. fight me if you must but i said what i said. :]
THANKS SO MUCH TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS I APPRECIATE YOU LETTING ME WASTE YOUR TIME!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
#i don't remember my tags for things like this#oc memes#?#i think that's the tag#or....#oc meme#maybe#idkkkk#i give up#i used a lot of energy just answering these questions so#yeah#:]
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My ideas for a Fire Emblem game
[ So I was playing through the Thabes Labyrinth in Echoes, and an idea just sorta struck me. What if, I thought to myself, the next Fire Emblem game made dungeons a huge part of the story? Then, I came up with a story that I’d do. So, under the cut, prepare for my “rough sketch” for my own idea for a Fire Emblem game! ]
[ Warning: this gets LONG. However, I’m perfectly fine with likes or reblogs to this long, long ramble. ]
The storyline’s exposition and first chapters
The first chapter has you playing as what appears to be the main lord. He’s well-dressed and knowledgeable -- seemingly the leader of the exploration team. In fact, he’s teemed up with some acquaintances to tackle an Echoes-style dungeon. However, early conversations with the other members of the group yields the truth. You’re not a lord, nor even in any position of power. Instead, you and your comrades are servants of the game’s lord, who has irresponsibly tarried ahead of the group and has gotten lost.
You then enter a conversation about your liege’s tendencies, and uncover the latter’s long streak of irresponsible, hasty decisions. The current king has sent said lord into this dungeon in attempt to get him to learn some maturity. Frustrated by his son’s lack of maturity, he threatens to disown the boy if he shirks this one task or fails to succeed. A flashback, revealing these servants and that lord divulges how this fact changes him. It doesn’t make him mature nor determined to see the task through. Rather, this whole affair terrifies him, and it puts him on edge.
Despite his hotheadedness, this young lord is rather sensitive. He feigns a sense of not caring, but, when push comes to shove, the cowardice he’s ashamed of brings itself to the fore. The real reason he took off was because the group got ambushed by bandits while exploring the temple, and the kid panicked. An early question is asked by the other servants: do you care about your young liege or not? The answer you give will shape your character’s later opinions and answers. Which is another game mechanic I’d like to include: branching dialogue paths. I’m thinking that you’ll sometimes be asked questions prior to the start of battle, too, and your answers will change the map’s objectives.
As for why there are bandits here -- well, that plays into the king’s motivations for sending his own kid down the dungeon. As it turns out, the local wastrels and bandits have taken refuge in an old labyrinth, and the king’s real objective was to teach his son to quickly respond to threats like these. He sent this servant band -- you and your group -- to protect his son because you’re all capable fighters. No one could’ve predicted that things would go wrong like they did.
Another aspect I’d like to introduce to the storyline is forbidden magic. Among these bandits are witches and sorcerers who practice a brand of magic that the kingdom outlawed. This is, in fact, my attempt at bringing back the magic weapon triangle from the GBA and Tellius games: dark, light, and anima tomes all make a return. Dark magic simply has more of a plotline relevance, in that it’s been held in contempt by the country’s clergy (light magic users) and all practitioners of it are to be exiled. Anima magic users are freelance magicians without any allegiances to a kingdom. Magical mercenaries, if you will.
The prepromote character
The obligatory prepromote in your group is a dark magic user, but she turned herself in and told the king about where her former associates were hiding, bringing about this whole affair of exploring the dungeon. She is the least trusted in your tight-knit group, and some of your options pertain to her. All the servants sans her are close friends, having served the king together for years. In the manner of a clique, they exclude this suspicious dark magic user and converse with you several feet away from her.
You learn that some of them are literally terrified of dark magic, but others simply hold her in scorn. You can choose to protest against leaving her out of conversations or not. If you’re “too mean” to her, you’ll lose the option of supporting with her when supports are unlocked. Feeling affronted by your shabby treatment, she may even leave the group or rejoin the enemy. (Being mean to her, however, will earn the approval and trust from your group. This makes it easier to unlock more supports from your group when supports are unlocked.)
Recruitments
Another important thing is how you recruit new allies. Because you spend a lot of the first act exploring this one dungeon, I came up with the idea of said dungeon also being prone to the occasional group of explorers who are unrelated to the outlaws. It’s not a well known fact that a large bandit group dwells here, seeing as the king needed a former member of the group to even know of their base of operations.
Therefore, explorers, for one reason or another, roam the labyrinths as well. Thus, not everyone you meet is an enemy. Sometimes, battles of story importance include green “other” units that are simply spectators that can be persuaded to by either side to join them. If the enemy reaches them first, you have to bribe them to join you or cut them down.
However, some new recruits simply join you after a new cut-scene introduces them. Much in the manner of Echoes, this dungeon includes save rooms or, in fact, rooms without any enemies inside. These rooms now serve a purpose of being introduced to a new recruit. Perhaps you’ll meet one of your servant friends who got separated from the group, and thus rejoins easily. Perhaps you’ll encounter some of your dark magic user’s friends who want to turn over a new leaf. (Which is another benefit to keeping your prepromote around.) Or, in fact, you may find an explorer unaffiliated to anyone, but is inclined to join you.
A big change to this, however, is an added incentive to keep every one of your units alive. An explorer who is unaffiliated to your group may be acquaintances with other explorers of the labyrinth. Therefore, they’re needed to recruit someone else. Your original group may be friends with explorers or even members of the bandits. Until a chapter of recruitment occurs, you have no way of knowing who is needed for what, so you’re adjured to make sure everyone’s alive.
Gameplay notes
I think that this game would play like most FE’s in which every character can hold a total of five items of your choice. Weapons ranks and the weapon triangle are, of course, relevant. Skills make a comeback, and I’m thinking they’re tied to weapons as they were in Echoes. However, you don’t need the weapon equipped to employ the skill it taught you. (I’ll likely put a limit on how many skills a character could learn to stop this from becoming too overpowered, however. Of course, you can always delete a skill to make room for a new one.)
All weapons except staves have unlimited uses. This is because I think that weapon durability in a dungeon-based game would detract from the fun. A wary player would be more likely to fret for a weapon running out and would begrudge skirmishes because extended combat makes for weapons breaking faster. Fates has demonstrated that unbreakable weapons are not as overpowered as it sounds, although I’d likely not include the self-debuffing weapons.
Weapon ranks raise at a pace similar to Awakening’s. Fates made weapon ranks increase at a snail’s pace, which isn’t fun at all.
Fatigue and rations return, to simulate that you’re going through a dungeon, and, thus, doing that will exhaust your party members. I’ll likely make characters who boast of being hardy or healthy have their fatigue decrease more slowly than those with less endurance. For example, say a new recruit has been exploring dungeons for years. Because said recruit would be more accustomed to how long dungeons are, he or she won’t tire out as fast as novice explorers.
Dungeons play out similarly to how they were in Echoes. You roam about and try to get from room to room, and skirmishes occur when you run into a roaming enemy. Due to dark magic’s plot relevance, I’m thinking that monsters spawned by dark magic also appear as enemies.
Unlike Echoes, however, there’s far more enemy variety. I’m thinking that I’ll use the branched promotions seen in Sacred Stones, Awakening, and Fates so that both playable characters and enemies have more variety. I’ll likely also introduce the “trainee” classes from Sacred Stones as well (think villagers in Echoes) who can promote to two new classes of their choice.
Note that cantors, which can summon monsters at whim, will either excluded entirely or will receive nurfed summons. There were tedious in Echoes, and I’d rather not have that tedium return.
A big change I want to make is that enemies can use weapon-based skills, too. Bosses get tougher skills, but some enemies can access weapon skills on their turn to add a new spin on the combat that would occur. You’ll be able to view these skills, of course, and you can prepare for them accordingly.
As referenced earlier, I’ll definitely retain supports in this game. It will likely be in the GBA and Tellius style of supports, in that each character has an average of six to eight characters they can converse with. However, they will NOT be limited to five supports per playthrough. Much like in Awakening and Fates, all supports (with the exception of more than one s-support) can be viewed in one playthrough.
I’m undecided if I’m including pair-up mechanics, but they’ll likely work the same way they did in Fates, in that enemies can use them as well, and that they can be used in either “attack” or “support” stance.
Skirmish maps will change based on what floor you’re on and what you’re near in the dungeon. My biggest gripe with the Echoes dungeons was that skirmishes felt static and stale, as many repeated maps and enemy placements kept happening. Save for story-related maps -- which, of course, will be vastly different from standard maps -- most of the skirmish maps will be randomly generated. However, they will be based on what you’re near, what sort of enemies have attacked you, and if there are magic users on the enemy side.
As a continuation of the above point, yes, magic users can affect map layouts. Why? Because the Dragon Veins mechanic from Fates will return here, too. Much like how Dragon Veins had a huge effect on Fates’ maps, this game’s “Dragon Veins” also have layout-changing abilities. Because magical ability is of story import, I’m thinking that mages -- specifically dark magic users -- can access special points of the map which have immense magical concentration. In-story, most dungeons will have an extensive history, such as being home to old monsters or a clan’s magical ancestor. Their power, which still runs rampant through the dungeon, can be accessed by magic users and can be used to alter or affect a map. Hopefully, this will add a lot of variety to skirmishes.
Another idea I have for keeping maps fresh and fun is for having Radiant Dawn’s height mechanics return. For those unaware, this means that enemies who fight you from atop a ledge or atop a staircase receive accuracy buffs and you, the defender, receive accuracy penalties. However, this also holds true if you attack an enemy from higher up, too. This means it’s optimal for you to take the higher ground before the enemies do.
Available Classes
You’ll have your standard Fire Emblem fare available here: cavaliers, archers, pegasus knights, wyvern riders, fighters, knights, mages, healers, thieves, and, of course, the lord. However, some classes are exclusive to certain games, and, in the name of variety, I’d like to see them return here. I also have my own ideas for this game’s lord class. In no particular order, the classes that I’d like to see return include:
Monks (from Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones): as mentioned previously, I want light magic to make a return, and what better way to see this come true than to include the primary light-using class of old? Monks are the light-magic equivalent of the more better-known mages and dark mages, and they’ll likely retain their branched promotion in Sacred Stones: options to premote into Bishop or Sage. In this vein, I’ll likely include a light magic tome with Sacred Stones’ slayer effect (which allows the user’s light magic to deal effective damage against monsters.
If I opt to include enemy cantors, I’ll likely give your side summoners. Summoners are a class from Sacred Stones who can summon phantoms to fight alongside them. They could conjure one phantom at a time, and these phantoms always spawn with 1 hp, zero on both defenses, and random stats and weapons. (Which is similar to Invoke in Echoes.) I’ll likely have these phantoms get stronger as their summoner levels up. For example, a starting summoner will have phantoms with 1 hp and zero defenses, but, eventually, they’ll be able to summon phantoms with better hp, defenses, offenses, and, of course, weapons. They’ll also be able to dismiss phantoms if they so wish (which can’t be done in either Sacred Stones or Echoes.)
Ninjas (Fates): I personally really like the debuffing daggers and I do wish that they’d make a return. I’d likely weaken the class a bit, because Fates did make them a tad overpowered. A nurf I’d give is to resistance and speed. Ninjas were way too fast and had crazy-high evasion. They’d still will have respectable speed, but not to the ridiculous amounts of Fates’ ninjas. Daggers, however, will be separate from the weapon triangle (just as bows normally are).
Trainees/villagers (Sacred Stones and Echoes): I’ve lumped them together because these two classes serve the exact same purpose. That of an underpowered class promoting into a normal class after reaching a certain level. However, you have the option of promoting this trainee into whatever you please. Lore-wise, these trainees will accompany either veteran explorers in the hopes of learning something from them, or else are hostages with relevance to recruited characters. Either way, they are highly customizable classes that i think warrant a return.
Soldiers/Spear Fighters (Tellius series and Fates): I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’d like infantry spear-using classes to make a return in this game. I’d likely give them a infantry option and a mounted option for their branched promotion, but they’ll function similar to how they did in the aforementioned games.
The lord class of this game will be simply refereed to as lord. The class of choice for the irresponsible boy I’ve spoken of earlier, this class wields anima magic as its weapon of choice. I think a magic-using lord works for variety, and it also simulates a coward, because the lord will mention picking magic to safely attack enemies from afar. He will receive an exclusive anima tome that recovers half of the HP dealt to the enemy to compensate for a mage’s typically lower defenses. The promotion, which occurs after some character development (in that he feels somewhat confident in himself as both a person and in his position of power), will include swords, a close-ranged weapon.
Ending thoughts
Of course, I’m speaking entirely hypothetically about the creation of a game like this, and I only really fleshed it out this much when I opted to put my vague ideas into one long post. Anyways, I’m perfectly open to feedback! Let me know what you think -- do my ideas sound good to you or not? What classes or gameplay mechanics would YOU include? Of course, leave a like if you’ve enjoyed hearing my long ol’ ramble!
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Castle of Shikigami: An informal rant nobody asked for about my most obscure obsession to date
STOP i spent like 2 days writing this post and im only posting it on tumblr because it’s the one website i’m a member of that can hold the most text. i wanted to infodump somewhere...... read this to learn something i guess (´･ω･`)
Bad voice acting is the Peak of comedy to me, and while I was looking for something to laugh at one day, I found this game called Castle Shikigami 2 for the PS2. The US version of the game's dialogue is rife with machine translated text that makes no sense, and awkward voice acting to boot. They even have voice actors saying the wrong lines, voice actors speaking implied commands, and a few voice lines are left in Japanese. Apparently, Roger Craig Smith (Sonic the Hedgehog's current voice actor) was in this game but I don't think he's even credited?! I think I know which character he voiced but I’m not exactly sure.
The history behind this game’s localization is REALLY weird. Castle of Shikigami/Shikigami no Shiro was originally an arcade bullet hell shoot em up game. The series was created by Alfa System and it was one of Alfa System’s main IPs. There are three main shmup installments and a text adventure game for the PS2, Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku. Nanayozuki was practically fanservice for whatever number of CoS fans there were back then. Each main game in the series was originally an arcade cabinet, but they were all ported to PC and home consoles. In CoS 2′s case, it came out on the PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast, but only the PS2 version got localized. The western publisher, XS Games specializes in publishing quality budget titles such as “Bass Pro Shops: The Strike” for the Wii. I theorize they didn’t care too much about the actual content of CoS 2 and were more focused on selling a game quickly for a low price, so they just machine translated it and adjusted a few things. If you’re wondering if Castle of Shikigami 1 was also translated this badly, the answer is No. XS Games instead removed all the dialogue from the western release of CoS 1, and released it with the title “Mobile Light Force 2″.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘Mobile Light Force TWO’ if Castle of Shikigami 1 is the first game in the series?” If you want to know what Mobile Light Force 1 was, it’s GUNBIRD; another shmup game, but by a completely different developer than Castle of Shikigami. I don’t know why they did that. What really kills me though is that both MLF 1 and 2 use the same boxart, which is COMPLETELY unrelated to the actual contents of either game. AFJQHJFOKLJFDS look at this
There’s more hilarity behind Mobile Light Force that isn’t hard to find so you can search that up if you’re interested. But thankfully, Castle of Shikigami 3's Wii edition got more of a proper localization by Aksys Games.
Now I would bluntly say something like “stan castle of shikigami” but:
1. This series’ lore is insanely convoluted. It’s an essential part of this expansive fictional universe referred to as “Mumei Sekaikan” (I don’t know what this translates to in English) where there’s like, 7 different parallel worlds. There’s more obscure ass games and manga that are tied to this universe, and I think there’s even a tabletop RPG made based off it. Have you heard of “Gunparade March”? Most likely you haven’t; it’s an obscure video game made by Alfa System that also got adapted into an anime, and I feel it can be described as Mechas x Persona. One of the characters in CoS 2 is just one of the GPM characters going undercover to find her senpai who traveled to the CoS world. Or something like that. The 7-world universe isn’t explicitly talked about in the game but they make so many references to it without defining anything that it’s like you Must know about it. There is NO documentation in English about the Mumei Sekaikan I could find on the internet, although there is a wiki in Japanese where I got a ton of knowledge from (GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS MY TRUSTED FRIEND) I feel like I might be THE person in the United States who has the most knowledge on the Mumei Sekaikan, and I could go on another tangent talking about what I know so far (and who this one specific dude Shibamura Yuuri is) but I won’t.
2. The writing isn’t excellent and can be pretty Unwoke ™; the first game came out in 2001 and the third game came out in 2005 if that gives you a sense on what era these writers were in. As far as the games dialogue goes, the characters appear kind of flat. CoS 1 and 2 Kotaro (i refuse to use the official “Kohtaro”) is stupid and driven by JUSTICE to a point where it’s annoying. I can’t tell if Hyuga is trying to be a Ladies Man in CoS 2 and 3. Kim, a religious tae kwon do instructor, spends CoS 2 thinking about how he should atone for his sins, then he turns himself into jail at the end. Sayo’s backstory is that she was a shrine maiden raised as a “human weapon” to have no emotions and her only goal in life was to kill god and then die, something like that. However, after CoS 1, she gets a crush on Kotaro because he actually treats her like a human and Of course that’s what you’d expect from the main teen girl and boy in the series. In CoS 3, Sayo's character is mostly played out to be a major tsundere for Kotaro even though surprisingly HIS character in this game changed a ton compared to 1 and 2 (he had to kill an illusion of his older brother, who he learned actually died earlier, and now he has to kill an illusion of his childhood sweetheart... damb that shit sucks :/). He’s still stupid though
There’s a gag in CoS 2 that I can’t clearly remember where it’s like, Niigi makes Sayo and Fumiko, who are both romantically interested in Kotaro, think that he’s only into little girls? Meanwhile, Fumiko’s magic goes wrong and her appearance turns to that of a child though in response she’s like “hee hee maybe Kotaro will like this”. basically more On-Brand early 2000′s anime unwokeness than average. Speaking of Fumiko, she’s a 400+ year old militaristic witch who constantly teases Kotaro (who’s like 16 or 17) and she wants to marry him for his magical potential since he’s like one of the candidates for becoming God??? From the official CoS 3 character descriptions, “Her hobby is to steal the men from other women. Her second hobby is trampling upon people.” She canonically stole her stepmother’s husband from her stepmother (the 3rd boss of CoS 3). I don’t get how that shit would have worked
3. The game itself is HARD af but to be fair I’m a scrub gamer. I can’t get past stage 3 on easy difficulty without continuing. Yes i bought CoS 1 on Steam, Yes it has a port on steam i feel like i should have mentioned this earlier
4. Besides CoS 1 having a port on Steam, CoS 2 and 3 might be hard to obtain legally. The poorly translated CoS 2 was apparently super cheap back then, but since it’s an old game, its value might’ve increased. When I tried looking up prices for English CoS 3, all the listings were like at least $40 and being broke I wouldn’t want to spend more than $29 for a Wii game in 2019... honestly I just emulated CoS 2. shout out to PCSX2
Last month I was desperate, bored enough, and deep enough in the Shikigami rabbit hole that I tried to find the manga based off of it online. The CoS manga only tells the events of the first two games so I still don’t really get anything about CoS 3, like who Mihee, Batu, and Emilio are supposed to be. However, the plot events also differ. For example, Roger Sasuke exists as a character in CoS 3 but in the manga he literally Dies. There’s 11 total volumes of this; 3 volumes dedicated to CoS 1 and the latter 8 (the “Twisted Castle arc”) dedicated to CoS 2. Only the very first 3 chapters were scanlated to English all the way in 2011. Fortunately, I did find the entire manga uploaded though............... in CHINESE. So you know what I did? I “read” the entire thing using my phone’s Google Translate OCR app to take pictures of each page and comprehend the translations. Of course I still don’t understand CRAP because of the Mumei Sekaikan jargon + machine translation but I understood enough to get emotionally attached to some of the characters. I wish I hadn’t. At least through the manga I learned that the characters DO have some depth and pre-established relationships. For instance, the reason why Roger Sasuke became a ninja is because when he first landed in Japan as a kid, he was getting bullied or something and he didn’t know Japanese then Kotaro saw this and told the bullies to stop. Then after Roy /sorry i mean Roger learned that he was set to home-stay with the Kugas in the first place, he decided to dedicate his life to Japan in order to protect Kotaro back. I think. DO U SEE HOW ABSURD THIS SHIT IS Anyway Nanayozuki takes place between the second and third games and sets things up for CoS 3. There’s a full playthrough of it uploaded to YouTube and I think it contains a lot of juicy lore, but it’s just too much to go over with Shitty Google Translate OCR. There’s also Shikigami no Shiro novels which apparently contain the most backstory, but I have a 0% chance of finding these online for free. Not to mention that these would ALSO be too much effort to Google Translate.
in conclusion: You don’t HAVE to play Castle of Shikigami. Like, I’m not gonna recommend it for the content, but if you love shmups and are looking for a shmup game you haven’t heard of then I will recommend it for the gameplay (old touhou mutuals assemble theres a POWER-UP-BY-GRAZE MECHANIC). I’ve counted like 4 total fans outside of Japan that like this series for the story, and I don’t think that number is going to increase because I doubt CoS 2 will ever get retranslated and ported. I just want you to know that this series exists and that there’s a ton of wacky shit behind it besides the bad Castle Shikigami 2 dub. also if someone knows enough japanese or chinese and has an INKLING of interest in this series umm talk to me and help me decipher stuff
I‘m kinda sad that the series is pretty much Dead though. This is the most recent piece of official Castle of Shikigami art I could find, and this was for the 2018 New Year. The next most recent piece of official CoS art I found was also drawn by the character designer Sonoda Miku all the way in January 2008, commemorating the end of the CoS manga serialization. Alfa System released a spiritual sequel to Castle of Shikigami on the Japanese Switch eShop called Sisters Royale, with character designs I think are still by Sonoda. By “spiritual sequel” I mean that it has some of the EXACT same shot types as CoS and the same mechanic where grazing bullets increases your power and score. This is the closest we’ll get to a Shikigami no Shiro 4. I wonder what the business decision behind that game was but it actually looks like fun and I want to play it so OK Go off i guess
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Tales of Berseria - Review
Why is it that birds fly?
Well, of course there is no actual reason for it. It’s not something they choose to do consiciously - it’s simply a result of millions of years of adaptation and evolution. But I suspect the person who asked this doesn’t really want a true answer, but a more poetic and uplifting one that is completely not true.
So anyway, I finished my first playthrough of this just a couple days ago really. I usually play through these games at least twice and there’s bound to be stuff I missed the first time, and an ‘EX Dungeon’ at the end which on a normal playthrough would require a absolutely horrendous amount of grinding to be a high enough level to take on. So you want the EXP bonuses you can get with a New Game +. So yes, I haven’t done that bit yet, but I’ve finished the main story and got to say... actually, I really, really liked it. It’s not without flaws, but still might be my favorite JRPG’s yet.
As I’ve mentioned before, this is the first game in the series to have a sole female protagonist (Xillia let you choose between Milla and Jude), Velvet Crowe. Despite that, I’m sorry to say there is a fair bit of dialogue that’s reinforcing stereotypes - boys are interested in ‘weird’ stuff like technology and exploration, while girls prefer to stay at home to discuss cooking and cleaning. Although it’s not too bad really - Velvet’s a capable fighter from the beginning and the other female companions are a powerful witch and a exorcist (kind of a knight, really). Another important thing is that this is in fact a prequel to Tales of Zestiria.
Like the Final Fantasy series, most the games in the Tales aren’t really related to each other, but this one is basically setting the stage for the previous title. I’m not sure exactly how long before Zestiria it’s supposed to take place... a good few centuries at least I’m guessing. There is a familiar face you bump into a few times, and you get a glimpse of Edna who doesn’t much different. Those are Malaks/Seraphim of course. I don’t know if it’s ever explained if they ever actually age or grow up at all, or whether they just have a form and are stuck with it. Mikleo seems to have grown up normally but maybe that’s just because of his ties to Sorey?
Anyway, that’s an aside. So, Velvet’s story is tragic. And it gets more tragic as you go along. It starts off cozily enough as these things usually do, until some event turns her world upside down. You then start the game proper by breaking out of prison, setting fire to a port, becoming a pirate, destroying a fortress, and wondering if you might in fact be the baddie here. Of course it’s not really that simple, but interesting that you see a lot of things from the other side that you did in the previous game. Anyway it all builds up to a very bittersweet ending but that sets everything up for the sequel.
Velvet is joined on her adventure by five companions. First is Rokurou, a kind of samurai I guess, so despite also being a daemon he’s driven by a code of conduct and honour.
Then Magilou, a jester/witch who doesn’t help much in the beginning but in the end is actually very helpful indeed, so it’s a good thing Velvet doesn’t kill her. Basically, she’s a contrast to the perpetually sombre Velvet by constantly joking and messing around. Although her humour is quite sinister sometimes.
Usually, there’s a child character in these games, of whom Edna is obviously the best. This time though, we’re stuck with Malak Number Two, who gets renamed Laphicet. Turns out he is actually quite important in the grand scheme though.
Speaking of Edna, the next companion is in fact her older brother, Eizen. So if you’ve played the previous title you know what eventually happens to him. I keep wanting to tell him that he should really go visit his sister. He doesn’t have to change his life, just maybe once a decade at least stop by and hang around a bit. But anyway, he’s first mate on the Van Eltia searching for the missing captain. He’s ship is your primarily method of getting around between the different islands in the game. (Also, exploration is a important and a good way of making money in the game).
And finally Eleanor, a noble and dedicated exorcist who wants nothing more than to help people, even though that sometimes against the Abbey’s rules leaving her conflicted. Again, she another contrast to Velvet who has little problem using anything and anyone to achieve her own ends.
Anyway, overally I did really enjoy this. The world actually felt huge, which it didn’t really in Tales of Zestiria, and nothing is black and white, which I guess seems to be really the entire point of the game... also something about free will and birds.
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Dear Yuletide Writer Letter 2017
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you very much for writing for me! This is my first-ever year signing up for Yuletide, and -- while I’m not up on all the etiquette and may make mistakes -- I am quite excited. I’m sure I will love whatever you write.
Although some of the sections below are longer than others, please note that I don’t have a preference between requested fandoms and would be super happy to receive work for any of them. I just write a lot sometimes. (But usually not when I need to, of course.)
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General Likes: Many things. In convenient list format...
Gen, femslash, slash, and het
Genres: humor, horror, slice-of-life, ghost stories, romantic comedy, casefic, action/adventure, angst, crack treated seriously
Atmospheric stuff where nothing really happens but you sure get an image or a mood
Intense relationships between women, whether they’re romantic or not
Surreality and silliness
Appetizing descriptions of food
Loyalty kink, especially where a more powerful or physically stronger character is loyal to a weaker character
Characters standing up for each other
Characters who are socially disliked, awkward, or shunned but secretly really good at something
Cats
General DNW: Permanent major character death; graphic depictions of violence, torture, or gore; rape/noncon; onscreen child abuse; onscreen harm to animals. I’m also generally not a fan of stories that focus heavily on characters’ experiences with social issues or identity.
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Fandom: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Characters: Justine Florbelle, Daniel of Mayfair
Likes/Prompts: Amnesia became my favorite new canon this year. I’m currently on my third playthrough of The Dark Descent and have completed the Justine DLC too many times to count -- though I still haven’t managed to save the last guy, darn it. Things about these canons that I adore include the morally conflicted protagonists, atmosphere of imminent doom and lingering anxiety, Lovecraft-influenced but not strictly Lovecraftian horror themes, mechanics that balance the player character’s essential helplessness with rewards for ingenuity, and the fact that you can throw stuff. And stack stuff! I LOVE throwing and stacking stuff. I... haven’t played a lot of first-person video games.
While I am interested in stories that include both Daniel and Justine, I’d be happy with a story that only focuses on one of them.
Justine fascinates me -- the contrast between her cruelty and caprice on the one hand, and her physical (and, to an extent, social/legal and emotional) vulnerability on the other. She’s also really creepy and into some weird shit. I’m not usually interested in sociopathic villains, but something about her character just hits my buttons.
For solo Justine scenarios, I’d enjoy anything about her escapades in polite society (the ball! the irony! Justine loves irony), interactions with Clarice (how much does she suspect?), or initial meetings with the prisoners. Also, how is her poetry received among her peers? Delving more into the history and development of the Cabinet of Perturbation would be cool too.
Daniel is likewise a fascinating character. During my second playthrough, I was impressed with the slow reveal of his descent into metaphorical and literal darkness. Fear makes people scary, or something. I was also pretty into his relationship with Alexander, all the layers of manipulation and betrayal mixed with genuine connection. (For the record, I totally ship them.)
For solo Daniel scenarios, I’d like to see more about his early days at Brennenburg, interactions with the outside world post-game, and a reunion with his sister Hazel. If you want to pair him with Alexander either romantically or platonically, that’s great. Agrippa, too. I’m honestly interested in Daniel interacting with any character, if you have an idea.
For the combination of Daniel and Justine, I’m interested in either gen or het, set around the time of either game. I feel like they’d make a great pair, for certain values of great. The Unopened Letter found in the water dungeon in Justine also seems to hint at the possibility of a meeting between Daniel and Justine.
As an adult, Justine is experienced at manipulating people, would easily ferret out Daniel’s fears and how to play on them, and could be intrigued by his experiences with the supernatural. Perhaps, in an AU where Monsieur Florbelle answers Daniel’s letter, a child Justine would see a kindred soul in one who’s also been in contact with the artifacts. In a universe where the letter stays unopened until Justine’s day of subterranean exercise, maybe adult Justine invites Daniel to visit with the intention of adding him to her Cabinet, or tries to court him as a momentary amusement and finds it more challenging that she expected.
For his part, Daniel has already spent a lot of time escaping dungeons and being manipulated by Alexander -- adult Justine’s flavor of betrayal would not be that shocking. There’s also his relationship with his sister Hazel and guilt over the girl he murdered, which could soften him towards a young or orphaned Justine. If it’s after the events of The Dark Descent, what choices did Daniel make? Did he favor taking revenge on Alexander over helping Agrippa? Is he guilty, guilt-free, still racked with nightmares, sound of mind? If Weyer rewarded him for saving Agrippa, has he spent time in the other world? The age difference could even be handwaved if Weyer sort of miscalculated when he was sending Daniel back to our world by 19 years.
Fandom-Specific DNW: Please, no romance between Daniel/Justine when she is underage.
Notes: While it is my understanding that some regard the relationship between Justine and her father to have been one where she attempted to seduce him, I do not agree with that interpretation and would prefer not to receive stories that subscribe to it. It seems much more likely to me that her father abused or at least behaved inappropriately towards her.
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Fandom: Pocket Mirror (Video Game)
Characters: Lisette (Pocket Mirror)
Likes/Prompts: What distinguished this game to me, made it stick in my mind, and kept me playing was the atmosphere. Fleta’s bright and well-ordered domain with hints of lurid nastiness underneath, Harpae’s drafty wooden corridors with their creaking floors and distant lights, Lisette’s total abandonment of any reasonable organization whatsoever: I love it. Which brings me to...
Lisette! Poor Lisette. She gets blamed for everything, doesn’t she? She’s mean and destructive because no one else will let themselves be, and hates herself for it. (Or...? I’m also interested in alternate character interpretations, if you have different ideas.) I would like to see her have a nice time.
I’m not super attached to any of the canon endings, so if you want to go an AU route, please feel free. That includes canon divergence AUs as well as AUs where they’re all sort of... I don’t know, neighbors in the real world? Except one of them lives in a mirror maze populated by her evil shadow selves, and maybe they’re all witches.
Femslash, gen, or unusually clingy/possessive/intense friendship with romantic undertones are all of interest to me for this canon. I’m particularly interested by Goldia/Lisette, Fleta/Goldia, and Harpae/Lisette.
Prompts:
Lisette receives a new dress. Who made it?
Lisette expects to be alone on Christmas, but is proven wrong.
Harpae has had enough of Lisette’s tormenting Fleta.
Goldia is in trouble in the real world and only Lisette can save her.
The girls pay visits to each others’ domains.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica AU
DNW: No explicit sexual content for this fandom, please.
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Fandom: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Characters: Kiryuu Nanami, Arisugawa Juri, Shinohara Wakaba, Himemiya Anthy
Likes/Prompts: I’ve been told that RGU is considered “the Evangelion of shoujo anime,” and I feel like that’s... accurate? Anyway, I love it to bits -- stock footage, surfing elephants, and all. I also love the movie and have a bunch of theories about its relation to the series, which I will spare you at this time.
For this exchange, I’ve requested fic about Nanami, Juri, Wakaba, and Anthy. I’d be happy to read about these characters all together, on their own, or in any combination. Gen, femslash, het, and slash are all welcome, as are stories set before, during, or after the series.
While there’s much to be said about the grand sweeping themes in Revolutionary Girl Utena, what won the series my heart is how goddamn weird it is. The Nanami filler episodes, for example, were among my favorite parts of the show. I’m interested in exploring more of that weirdness.
Possibly in this spirit, I’ve come up with a long and eclectic mix of prompts. These are just here in hopes they might give you an idea, if you’d like one.
Prompts:
Nanami goes to space to try to replace one of the stars with herself.
“A Christmas Carol,” starring Nanami.
Touga’s kitten survived... and now it’s back for revenge! Nanami is being blackmailed by a cat.
Nanami spends the night in a strange house, trying to convince herself it isn’t haunted. Anthy orchestrates small events to make her think that it is.
Anthy and Nanami are rivals at magic school.
Juri becomes a world-champion bowler.
Among the incoming freshman class, rumors spread that Juri is a vampire. In attempting to dispel them, she encounters some obstacles.
Juri and Wakaba have a super-torrid romance as adults.
Wakaba dreams of life as a Jeep.
Wakaba has an identity crisis and joins many different student clubs.
Wakaba and Anthy share a rare moment of understanding over their mutual difficulties with cooking.
Anthy embarks on a side career as a barista.
Anthy arranges for Utena to fight a dragon.
Between dueling cycles, Anthy is permitted one day off from being the Rose Bride. How does she choose to spend it?
Fandom-Specific DNW: No onscreen incest, please.
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