I Like Stuff. Things.

Previously Kiki 242

[adalance]

I like the tidbit of how in Shadowheart's love scene after she rejects Shar, there are a few pans to the full moon. Reflecting how Selune's light now shines upon Shadowheart and how she is now empowered by her.

I also like to think that in a weird and convoluted way, it reflects how Selune guided my paladin down the path to intercept Shadowheart in the nautiloid and in turn everything else that happens after. That is my head cannon, anyway.

Shadowheart is free to love the character fully without having to worry about some petty goddess getting jealous.

[adalance]

Thinking of writing a lil buddy cop type fic with my Devotion Paladin and Dame Aylin 🤔.

[adalance]

A world in which my Oath of Devotion Paladin becomes best of bros with Dame Aylin 😌. She would urge Aylin to put her sword down for a while and let herself heal. Take a much needed and deserved vacation with her beloved. And my Paladin understands more than anyone Aylin's desire to power on and continue on as she did before the cage. There is so much evil in the world that one can drown in it, there is always somebody to smite or somebody to save. Its neverending work.

And despite not being devoted to Selune, my Paladin does have a bit of favor with the goddess considering all that she has done. Cleaned up the shadow curse, help free her daughter, help one cleric that was stolen from her return to the moonlit road (even if Shadowheart never fully embraces her, Selune is thankful all the same), her free her daughter, help bring down those responsible for the destruction of a town that was endlessly devoted to her, and so on.

I like to imagine Selune would LOVE for my Tav to fully pledge her sword to her and become a full fledge Selunite 😅. Feels like the good playthrough can make a character an honorary one.

[adalance]

I will always believe that Selune should be the Sunmaiden rather than the moon maiden.

[adalance]

Just some Headcannoning things for the relationship between my character and Shadowheart:

I like to think that my Paladin of Devotion has a bit of a reckoning when it comes to Shadowheart in Act 2. Up until this point, Shadowheart is a Sharran simply by word. Her deeds and approvals say the exact opposite and it allows my Paladin to ignore their differences in philosophy and ideology. The snide remarks towards Selune can be brushed off and ignored. The deep discussions about Shadowheart's faith can be had but they are outweighed by Shadowheart's constant show of heart and compassion.

Getting to the Shadowlands is a harsh reminder of who Shadowheart worships and the glee and excitement she expresses in becoming a Dark Justiciar is a deeply unsettling thing.

And to be quite frank, my character hates it. She LOATHES it when Shadowheart talks about wanting to be a Justiciar and being a faithful servant to Shar, in Act II. Being surrounded by the horror and desolation Shar caused, she cannot reconcile that with the person Shadowheart actually is.

I also like to think that for Shadowheart, this is also where she realizes that she cannot have both. Shar does not allow for her followers to have room in their hearts for anyone beyond her. And it does play in her decision to defy Shar.

Shadowheart is so obviously in love with the character after theor first kiss. Homegurl is down BAD. She remarks about how much happier she is with said character. Staying down the road of being a Sharran would mean giving that up in some form and she does not want to do that.

But before she comes to the decision of defying Shar, it eats away at her that she will have to let Tav go in order to fulfill her Justiciar dream. And when it comes to my paladin, it is not lost on her just how ideologically opposed they are. My paladin's loathing and disdain of Shar becomes more palpable the longer they are in the Shadowlands. Its a heartbreaking thing for Shadowheart because she has to reckon with the fact that being a Sharran will eventually equate to opposing my character.

Following the doctrine of Shar and doing her bidding is a very easy way to find oneself on the end of my Paladin's smite. And unbeknownst to Shadowheart, my character has on fact put down sharrans in duty to her oath and dod not lose a sleep of wink over it. In fact, my character has found herself standing alongside and assisting Selunites in her travels from time to time. This is something that should be quite obvious to Shadowheart but its another thing she lies to herself about.

My character also reminds Isobel of Aylin, and my character gets along with her quite well. There is also a bit of a possessive streak to Shadowheart, and she hates how well isobel and my Tav get along 😅.

[adalance]

Replaying BG3 and I lowkey forgot just how bad of a Sharran Shadowheart truly is 😅. She may try to deny it but that girl LOVES helping people. And my Paladin of Devotion is once again bout to woo her.

Another thought, my character is a tiefling and I so wish that we could make a comment about Wyll's feelings for having horns. My Paladin tiefling would say the most encouraging shit to pick her friend up, especially at the party post saving the grove.

[adalance]

Also, considering all things, i am surprised that Shinobu and Lady Tamayo is not a bigger ship. They are the geniuses of the operation, worked closely together to ensure Muzan's defeat, perished in similar fashion, and most importantly, Tamayo won avid demon hater Shinobu over. They got the base for some mad shippers shit imo.

And the thought of Tamayo slowly working through those emotional walls that shinobu has and all of that anger........ like when Shinobu first initially talked about humans and demons being friends I remember thinking to myself that Lady Tamayo would be the best example of that. The more I think of them, the more perfect it seems.

[adalance]

I am not really following wwe anymore cause HELLO.

But through social media, I have been able to see a good chunk of the Rhiyo vs Kabuki Warriors storyline. And I feel like Kairi deserves more credit for the part she's playing. How emotionally distraught she is has been a constant thing, even when she's being mean and nasty in her own way.

Case in point, when Iyo took that elbow for Rhea, Kairi was so upset about it and it's something that I feel like has flown under the radar. It does truly PAIN her to have to go through with this war against Iyo and every time Iyo chooses to still stand beside Rhea it makes her emotional turmoil worse. She gets sadder about having to hurt iyo (and Rhea to an extent) and she gets angrier at Iyo for causing all of this mess.

And the insane abusive dynamic she has with Asuka rn just makes you truly feel for her. And it's kinda mind boggling. Kairi is supposed to be this big, brave pirate princess who stands up to anybody no matter how she may be outmatched. But she just allows Asuka to run all over her.

When she finally remembers who she is and turns on Asuka, it better be akin to the beat down Alex Riley put on the Miz when he turned on him.

[adalance]

Still in my lady oichi and Yasuke feels. I did let yasuke romance Rin and I have gotten some comments about Lady Oichi from some of the allies. One of them was from Junjiro, mentioning how Yasuke takes about Oichi in his sleep........ this is like after Yasuke and Rin are supposed to be official and what not.

Makes it seem like Yasuke isn't over Oichi and poor Rin is his a attempt to do so. I know that isn't truly the case and the game is being kinda wacky in regard to giving me ally interactions but let my shipper brain cook.

[adalance]

I would never have my Naoe do it, but I have heard that if you have her cheat on Katsuhime, Katsuhime drops her with a quickness and leaves the kakushiba ikki. I love a woman with self respect and a sense of self worth 😌.

[adalance]

In a world where Yasuke and Oichi can be together, Yasuke also has to work to build a bridge between Naoe and Oichi. Can't have your best friend despising the woman you love 😭😭😭.

[phthalology]

like, potentially, the Yasuke/Oichi romance is a terrible betrayal to Naoe. Yasuke stopped Naoe from taking her revenge (much as Junjiro stopped Naoe from killing /Yasuke/), avoided confronting Oichi’s crimes, and took time away from the mission to spend with her even though she was very clear about the fact that they had no future together. OR, Yasuke preserved a potential ally, stayed confident in the face of an awful surprise, and resolved his and Oichi’s longstanding will they/won’t they with closure in order to prevent his crush from potentially shaping his view on his and Naoe’s mission in the future. And Naoe knows exactly how far her friend will go for her, now.

[adalance]

That is partly why the ship is so intriguing to me. Naoe and yasuke have such opposing views on Oichi as they do on Nobunaga. And Naoe, bless my little shinobi's heart does so much to be understanding and forgiving of so much. But holy shit does watching her best friend be all gooogly eyed over someone who had a hand in her father's death STING.

Naoe has to give alot of grace in this game and the game itself seemingly doesn't address that (at least I haven't run into it being pointed out or addressed in any capacity. Haven't finished it yet).

And I find that to be a bit of a parallel or a similarity to Oichi herself. She loved her husband and was VICIOUSLY cut down by her brother and really their clan. Her beloved home burned to to ground and she just had to tuck her tail between her legs and rejoin that same clan until it was time to get married again, for the sake of the clan. All the while ignoring what her heart desires.

[adalance]

More AC: Shadows Thoughts SPOILERS BELOW

Finally did the Fox which led to the discovery of Duarte. And holy shit, this has me so intrigued. I want to learn every little thing about Yasuke's past and how it shaped him to be the man he is today. It's very obvious eith I'm being a former slave his past would be horrifying and traumatic. And I'm so eager to learn who the woman was Duarte was referring to. The flashback that you see hints that that she had a terrifying ending and it's something that yasuke has lowkey been running from. Him being hesitant to tell Naoe about Duarte in full surprised me, they seem to be so deeply connected but this is one wound he cannot share......... at least yet.

I wouldn't necessarily say he "owes" it to Naoe to tell her about his past but considering he has seen every nasty wound Naoe has, it would only feel right that he does eventually open up to her about things.

[adalance]

I legit may be the only yasuke/lady oichi shipper in the world 😅

[ilikedetectives]

Naoe makes fun of Yasuke all the time about romances and this is her looking at Katsuhime lmaoooo

[adalance]

And how she talked how yasuke and Oichi wouldn't work due to Oichi being a daiymo's daughter but that ain't stop Naoe from pursuing Katsuhime 🤣🤣🤣.

[adalance]

More AC Shadows thoughts: SPOILERS

IDK if any is out there already but I am so tempted to write something about yasuke and Oichi getting their happy ending once I finish the game. And while I had Yasuke romance oichi, I had naoe romance katsuhime. And I like to imagine that he's a Lil envious of just how easy Naoe has it in her pursuit of romance.

[adalance]

Playing Assassin's Creed shadows and here are my thoughts. MEGA SPOILER WARNING.

My main critique of this game is that it doesn't have structure if that makes sense. For instance, there is a certain path to be followed in Odyssey that helps sets the tone for the development of the story and Kassandra as a character. Shadows feels a bit more of a free for all that can make things muddy as it pertains to the development and movement of the narrative, I feel this especially with the development of the friendship between yasuke and naoe.

THOUGH, this may be the cause of my own doing as I waited a while just doing side stuff as naoe before advancing the story to the point where you unlock yasuke. The shinbakufu are probably designed to be taken down and are separated by level progression. And it could be that I very well fucked that up for myself by getting pulled into side stuff and leveling up in a fast manner.

I have the Fox, the Wise, Horseman, Ox, and Mitsuhide left of the Shinbakufu, so I feel like I can pretty deep into the main story itself. One thing that I have noticed is that there is so much that Naoe kinda has to grin and bear or just swallow down.

So many people that help her and Yasuke either had a hand in the invasion of Iga (like Yasuke himself) or they stood beside Nobunaga in some manner and are constantly glazing him (again like Yasuke). I have to give it to her, she just rolls with it but that is not to be mistaken that her disdain or hatred of Nobunaga is gone. She will never forget what he did to her home. And maaaaaaaaaan the way she reacted to the reveal of Lady Oichi 🤣🤣🤣. That shit lowkey had me dying.

She was really just like, "I ain't trying to hear that shit, you need to DIE." Which I 100% understand. It may not be fair but Lady Oichi represents so much of what destroyed Naoe's life and to be actively apart of the group that Naoe has dedicated herself to destroying.......... her crashout there was totally valid. I did let Lady Oichi live cause to me she came off as genuine (unlike Aspasia from Odyssey).

And with Yasuke, I find his drive to be an honorable samurai and how his honor binds him to avenge a tyrannical man who did honor less things so intriguing. And he is constantly reminded of the fact that the man who gave him some source of power and agency has striped it from others.

That conversation he had with Oichi where she explains what happened to her husband and how Nobunaga made a globet out of his skull. It shows the depravity of Nobunaga, and it's something that Yasuke himself would never lower himself to do. Another layer is added to if if you play yasuke to romance Oichi as I am. How can you honor the man who has hurt the woman you love the most? Yasuke is a good man and endlessly devoted to a very awful man. And in my playthrough, a good man who falls in love with a good woman who ended up way over her head trying to help the people of Omi. Utter mess this poor man's life is.