Crescent Moon's Veil

Anzu, she/her, 30+, fic writer, occasional streamer Tales (Z/X/D/V/S), IDOLiSH7 (Mitsuki oshi/NagiMitsu ), Cardfight Vanguard (KaiAi, Vanguard Zero), Trignal, and whatever else catches my fancy at the moment. Formerly soymilkheaven. Profile pic and header by DejiNyucu!

[carnelianwings]

All this talk of Hathaway 2 and the conclusion I came to is “Hathaway Noa just needs to pull a Kira Yamato at some point and fly off into the sunset in the Xi with Gigi (or Kelia, if he’d rather and she’ll take him back) and have hot beach sex.”

Or something to that effect because that boy is so repressed he’s about to turn blue from the balls up.

[dyk-tv-theme-song]

Visit Original Link

Do you recognize this TV theme song? #578

I know this and can name the series

I know this but can't name the series

I might know this

I've never heard this

Voting ended onMay 16

[haybellewrites]

you ever read one of your old fics and think "damn past self. you went hard on that one. i'm so proud of you." while simultaneously thinking "future self got to get their shit together and actually write something, i mean come on now."

[carnelianwings]

Putting it here because I need a way to hide spoilers for CFV DivineZ Parallactic Clash finale

They wanted to pull a MadoMagi (with a side of Vanguard if) this season but it falls flat on the account of Akina having little to no connection to either girl besides “Hikari’s friends from the hospital”. What made MadoMagi work was the way they’d built up the entire HomuMado relationship before the plot twist and then the plot twist made it so much more. I think if they’d showed the four of them together in a couple of flash backs in the previous seasons it’d at least help establish a pre-existing friendship. Maybe even have Kanami transfer in during Deluxe and have her hang out with Akina, Suo, and Kuon so there’d be more emotional impact when it turns out, “Surprise, reality’s been overwritten by an illusion and Kurumi’s been resurrected from the dead!”

That said, Kanami’s seemingly nonchalant attitude towards essentially killing her twin sister again by beating her in the Clash makes sense in retrospect since it wasn’t Kanami at all but Kurumi in disguise.

Also I think Rezael’s Divine Skill is the biggest tension killer across all the protagonists. I’ve lost count of the number of times Akina’s ass got bailed out by it, and I don’t even care when I see him get pushed to 5 early because I just know it’ll kick in and save him. But I will give his double crit sack in the end a pass because he did play the deck like a proper Keter deck and deck thinned, so given how small his deck looked (probably at 10-ish cards) before he did the twin drive I don’t think it was completely unreasonable.

[carnelianwings]

Gundam Card Game enabled me to spread my Seed Agenda so much RW Seed ping is actually the meta deck at my local card shop and I actually convinced a few people to actually watch it and give it a fair shot.

One of them has been blowing up my Discord DMs with her thoughts as she’s watching and deep diving into it and she just said she also doesn’t see why people hate it and the first series is in her top 5 for Gundam 🥹

She’s starting Seed Destiny now but I get the feeling I won’t need to nudge her at all to finish, she’s already said she wants to finish it all by the time ST09 comes out and we can talk about her thoughts on the series the next time we meet up 🥹

[carnelianwings]

Binged IBO over the past week since I’m going to the IBO/Endless Waltz double feature in a week and a half with friends from the card shop, actually enjoyed it more than I expected. Feels like a space western with Gundams, with enough named character deaths to match a depressed Tomino anime series. I will say I kind of foresaw Mika’s ultimate fate with the S1 finale since I’d previously seen Valvrave (so I knew where the story was most likely going to take it), but it didn’t make things feel any less tragic. I did enjoy it overall, and the finale definitely felt like it paid off, even if I wished Rustal Elion didn’t get to walk away from the finale unscathed. It’s interesting how “low tech” IBO comes off as, especially in comparison to most other Gundam series (AU or UC), and it adds to the overall brutality and “war is hell” message that’s just a given in every Gundam series.

Overall I’d rate it a 7/10, just wish the opening moved a touch faster (it took me a few tries to really get into it, and if I wasn’t going to see the movie I’d have kept putting this one off). It’s not for everyone (especially if you’re not a fan of grimdark crapsack world settings with large numbers of named character deaths), but I can see why my friends who do love it do.

That said, since we get an explicit Mika/Atra/Kudelia OT3 (as a full on polyamorous ship where all 3 of them love each other and not just a “Mika has 2 girlfriends” situation) and Shino (bi per word of god)/Yamagi (gay) confirmed on screen, I have to say Bamco execs were absolute cowards when they walked back the G-Witch finale and said SuleMio was “up to interpretation”. We already had same sex relationships as a thing before SuleMio, so they really should’ve just rolled with it.

[carnelianwings]

So, about that Berseria Remaster ...

First off, before I get into my thoughts about it, let me just get it out there and say - if you were around in 2017, you already know my thoughts on Berseria. The essays are still here on this blog, even if I've changed usernames (and used my old side blog to hold the original name I used on this one). Feel free to go back and read my spoiler-filled live blogs of the game from 2017. They're there, just buried under a mountain of Tales art reblogs ^^;; My thoughts on the game itself hasn't changed.

Also, if you were around from then, you probably remember that Berseria's global release had ... a very contentious edit made to a very important early game cut scene, in which a (Very Important) child gets stabbed by a sword, and would've earned the game an 18+/M rating in Europe (thus making it much harder for Bamco to promote/sell the game). And so, in the interest of Avoiding The Dreaded M Rating, Bamco redid that part of the cut scene to make it so the child got stabbed by magic instead. The remaster now uses this edited version instead of the original, as seen here, from the Japanese remaster website (original on the left, remastered/original global release on the right):

As for it getting a remaster so soon, even if, as Tomizawa has said in a recent interview, they have multiple teams working on remasters and they're just releasing them as they complete, well, that's a different story. But also, I'm mostly just surprised it's next after they'd hinted X2 was in the pipeline, and since X1 just released, I was expecting them to coast a little longer on the X1 remaster hype to announce X2 early next year. But before I cut loose with my Opinions, let me just get to the main point: Is it worth it?

If either of these apply to you, then I'd say probably worth it:

Tales fan who never played the game before OR someone who's wanted to play the game but never had the PS4 or a PC to play it on

Someone who's played Berseria before, but there's things included with the remaster/deluxe edition that you want (DLC costumes and OST are the big draws here imho - the cost of the remastered game is about the same as buying all the DLC costumes, and if you get the deluxe edition it's basically the OST for an extra $20) and/or you want it to be portable via Switch.

But if they don't, well ... (more behind the cut)

Honestly? If you have the skills to Grade farm and you have the original (especially on PC/Steam) and you already bought the DLCs you wanted? Not worth it. I preordered the original release and imported the OST when the game released, and I have spent *checks Steam* 278 hours on it so there's literally no reason for me to do it. Basically, the more you invested in the original, the less incentive you have to get the remaster.

Also, I just have to say it's pretty funny they're like "You have destination markers now" like it wasn't already a thing in the original, you just have to pull up the dungeon map to see it. Oh, and if I NG+'ed off of my current NG+ save, I'd basically have a remaster save, since I apparently went from 5.1k Grade on my first playthrough to a whopping 29k Grade total with this first NG+ save lol. The secret is playing on Chaos with artes/proficiencies/titles carried over and, iirc, infinite comboing with Therian Mode Velvet, for the curious.

But that's not why you're all really here.

No, let me just say it - if this had been X2, Zestiria (with a camera fix even!), any PS2 era (or earlier) Tales game (except maybe Symphonia 1), it would've been an instant preorder. Yes, even Tempest. I would've done it because these are games that sorely needed to be accessible on a modern console/PC, and it would've been a really fun nostalgia trip for me to revisit those games.

One of the things I realized, even back in 2016 during Zestiria's boom, was that it was nigh-impossible to recommend follow up Tales games to new fans, especially the ones who played on PC. The PS3 was on its way out, there weren't a lot of options on PC that didn't involve emulating, and even then, the original Tales of Destiny didn't run well on PS2 emulators. Still doesn't, as far as I know. So when this remaster project got announced, I was pretty excited. Finally, a way to recommend old favorites to new friends and fans without having to tell them "So you'll need an emulator for this/I hope your PS3 still works ..."

Vesperia/Graces/Xillia? Great choices, the PS3 is basically a dead console (even if mine still works) and I'd been asking for a dual audio port for the older titles (especially Xillia) for ages.

But Berseria? The game that originally released on PS4/PC with dual audio and 60 fps? Yeahhhhhhh, that slot could've gone to another game. Or even just saved for a rainy day when they didn't just release another remaster less than 3 weeks ago.

[carnelianwings]

Update:

Bamco and TomiP, stop taking Ls. This better be a “we couldn’t work out licensing for the SE Asia Tales YT channel so we stuck in another theme that’s got the same length and it just happened to be Velvet’s theme” situation. Because otherwise, this is an outright L to both the game itself and the fanbase. I know I’ve been saying it for a while now, but can we get a new Tales producer? One that cares about Tales? Please?

(Edit: I should add the JP Tales version does have Burn as the OP, so it’s a “don’t shaft the global release version” situation more than anything.)

[carnelianwings]

So, about that Berseria Remaster ...

First off, before I get into my thoughts about it, let me just get it out there and say - if you were around in 2017, you already know my thoughts on Berseria. The essays are still here on this blog, even if I've changed usernames (and used my old side blog to hold the original name I used on this one). Feel free to go back and read my spoiler-filled live blogs of the game from 2017. They're there, just buried under a mountain of Tales art reblogs ^^;; My thoughts on the game itself hasn't changed.

Also, if you were around from then, you probably remember that Berseria's global release had ... a very contentious edit made to a very important early game cut scene, in which a (Very Important) child gets stabbed by a sword, and would've earned the game an 18+/M rating in Europe (thus making it much harder for Bamco to promote/sell the game). And so, in the interest of Avoiding The Dreaded M Rating, Bamco redid that part of the cut scene to make it so the child got stabbed by magic instead. The remaster now uses this edited version instead of the original, as seen here, from the Japanese remaster website (original on the left, remastered/original global release on the right):

As for it getting a remaster so soon, even if, as Tomizawa has said in a recent interview, they have multiple teams working on remasters and they're just releasing them as they complete, well, that's a different story. But also, I'm mostly just surprised it's next after they'd hinted X2 was in the pipeline, and since X1 just released, I was expecting them to coast a little longer on the X1 remaster hype to announce X2 early next year. But before I cut loose with my Opinions, let me just get to the main point: Is it worth it?

If either of these apply to you, then I'd say probably worth it:

Tales fan who never played the game before OR someone who's wanted to play the game but never had the PS4 or a PC to play it on

Someone who's played Berseria before, but there's things included with the remaster/deluxe edition that you want (DLC costumes and OST are the big draws here imho - the cost of the remastered game is about the same as buying all the DLC costumes, and if you get the deluxe edition it's basically the OST for an extra $20) and/or you want it to be portable via Switch.

But if they don't, well ... (more behind the cut)

Honestly? If you have the skills to Grade farm and you have the original (especially on PC/Steam) and you already bought the DLCs you wanted? Not worth it. I preordered the original release and imported the OST when the game released, and I have spent *checks Steam* 278 hours on it so there's literally no reason for me to do it. Basically, the more you invested in the original, the less incentive you have to get the remaster.

Also, I just have to say it's pretty funny they're like "You have destination markers now" like it wasn't already a thing in the original, you just have to pull up the dungeon map to see it. Oh, and if I NG+'ed off of my current NG+ save, I'd basically have a remaster save, since I apparently went from 5.1k Grade on my first playthrough to a whopping 29k Grade total with this first NG+ save lol. The secret is playing on Chaos with artes/proficiencies/titles carried over and, iirc, infinite comboing with Therian Mode Velvet, for the curious.

But that's not why you're all really here.

No, let me just say it - if this had been X2, Zestiria (with a camera fix even!), any PS2 era (or earlier) Tales game (except maybe Symphonia 1), it would've been an instant preorder. Yes, even Tempest. I would've done it because these are games that sorely needed to be accessible on a modern console/PC, and it would've been a really fun nostalgia trip for me to revisit those games.

One of the things I realized, even back in 2016 during Zestiria's boom, was that it was nigh-impossible to recommend follow up Tales games to new fans, especially the ones who played on PC. The PS3 was on its way out, there weren't a lot of options on PC that didn't involve emulating, and even then, the original Tales of Destiny didn't run well on PS2 emulators. Still doesn't, as far as I know. So when this remaster project got announced, I was pretty excited. Finally, a way to recommend old favorites to new friends and fans without having to tell them "So you'll need an emulator for this/I hope your PS3 still works ..."

Vesperia/Graces/Xillia? Great choices, the PS3 is basically a dead console (even if mine still works) and I'd been asking for a dual audio port for the older titles (especially Xillia) for ages.

But Berseria? The game that originally released on PS4/PC with dual audio and 60 fps? Yeahhhhhhh, that slot could've gone to another game. Or even just saved for a rainy day when they didn't just release another remaster less than 3 weeks ago.

[abyssalchronicles]

Tales of Berseria Remastered announced for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via STEAM. 

Coming February 27, 2026 for the West (February 26 for Japan). Similar to other games in the Tales of Remastered Project, Tales of Berseria Remastered highlights its quality of life improvements, such as a destination icon during exploration, original DLC costumes included, the grade shop being accessible from the start, and encounter toggling.

[carnelianwings]

Day 1 Super Robot Wars Y thoughts, spoilers behind the cut because even if it’s a massively crossover story there’s still some surprises in there that might be a bit unexpected, full spoilers for Chapter 1 and first 2 Main Story parts of Chapter 2 (plus a few side missions) behind the cut, very much Gundam-centric because what I know of the Super Robot series featured is 100% via osmosis from previous SRW games I’ve played 😅

Let’s just get my one big disappointment out of the way first - Cagalli is once again unvoiced in this (just like in V) but I guess since Y was (presumably) in development before Seed Freedom was in production I’ll have to give them a pass. But when we get Seed Freedom, I really want her to be a recruitable pilot again. It’s been too long since she’s gotten to be in the cockpit; I won’t even mind if you have to jump through some hoops to get her as one.

Onto the MC. I picked the female MC as usual, she’s a spirited NINJA type (down to her mecha theming) and I’m looking at that backronym like “Yup this is definitely a crossover that includes Seed, how else could you possibly get that to fit in like it’s normal”. I do wish she was a mid to long ranged combatant, because my usual strat is to let Kira/Athrun/Shinn/some other high evasion pilot evade tank the boss while everyone dogpiles with range, but it’s a minor quibble.

And then there’s Echika, the 14 year old leader of the A. Advent. Improbably young leader, but at least in principle she gets along great with the rest of the Gundam Princesses we’ve got this far, especially Cagalli. The second she was like “I’m going to declare this floating city an independent mobile city, and we’ll accept anyone and everyone. And we won’t make money off of fighting but we will use our forces for protecting civilians” I was like “Oh you’re going to get along great with Cagalli.”

Speaking of Shinn, I was surprised to see him be recruitable so early in the game. Much better than having to sit through 16 missions for Athrun in V. Equally surprising is he’s been chilling in Orb with AsuCaga while “on loan” from ZAFT ever since the Revolutionary War (think final eps of Wing crossed with Zeta or ZZ finale) and Zero Requiem, and thinking things over, so when Domon and Forte and friends meet up with him he finally finds the clarity of mind and his purpose that he’d been missing this whole time and joins you, along with going into Seed Mode. Honestly a nice way to have him turn things around for an “on screen” redemption arc of sorts. Interestingly enough, they have him join you with the Force Impulse as his unit, with the same move set it had in V (so Vulcan/Beam Saber/Beam Rifle/Excalibur) because the Destiny is still undergoing repairs in PLANT. Makes sense, because if that fight went down the same way here as it did in canon, Athrun did a number on it 😅 And while the Impulse did take damage from Athrun, its modular construction and assembly upon sortie means they probably had spare parts for it sitting around. Not that I’m complaining - I threw a bunch of upgrades on it, so at best the Destiny will inherit those upgrades, and at worst Lunamaria will get a nicely upgraded unit to pilot when she joins.

Speaking of Domon, it’s actually hilarious to me they had him train Kira, Athrun, and Shinn at some point as part of the backstory, and that he helped Kira and Athrun sort themselves out, while Shinn just remembers Domon’s training from hell. Genuinely funny, in that it’s Shinn acting like a typical teenager and that’s something he never really got to be in canon. Also Domon’s known as the guy who confessed his love in the most romantic way in universe 😂

Also surprising - even though we are clearly post Seed Destiny, Kira and Lacus aren’t traveling together nor is Lacus part of the PLANT Supreme Council like she is in Final Plus. She’s just traveling with Relena trying to keep the peace while Kira went off on his own to figure out what he wants to do now that things are peaceful … and apparently he’s been talking to Char (ironic, given who Char shares a voice with in Japanese 🤣). Not sure where this will take us, because Char’s also loaned out Kamille, Gyunei, and Quess to the A. Advent, and held back on introducing the crew to Kira because “the timing was bad”. Clearly we are somewhere in the CCA timeline pre-Axis drop, but I’m not sure if this version of Char would still go through with the Axis drop.

Not that it matters, because Wufei is definitely following his Endless Waltz arc in going around without a sense of purpose, going as far as to try to recruit Athrun who admitted he doesn’t feel like he has a clear sense of purpose and isn’t sure if he’s “doing enough”, even if he is living in Orb as part of their military and is serving Cagalli under his real name. I’m going to withhold judgement for now on whether we’re about to retread Athrun’s entire arc but Endless Waltz flavored, because for all I know he could be on an undercover mission (possibly at Cagalli’s request) and will ally with Trowa once the Endless Waltz plot kicks off. Even if we do retread that whole arc, I won’t say much - one of Seed’s themes is how easy it is to repeat past mistakes especially if you insist on shouldering everything yourself, and I haven’t seen enough of Athrun here to know where he sits on that. That said if that’s the case maybe they can shove him in the Saviour for a while. At least let me use his Flop Era Gundam if I have to relive his entire Flop Era again 😂

All in all, quite enjoyable thus far, can’t wait to play more this weekend.

[carnelianwings]

Now that I’m in Chapter 3 and I’ve unlocked everything, here’s what I have to add to that (it got long so I put it all behind a cut, and also spoilers 😂):

First off, this is hands down the most fun I’ve had with a SRW game since W. Probably helps that Y reunites Endless Waltz and Seed, my two favorite series, and front loaded them so I got to recruit them both very early on. Also the dev team really pulled out all the stops on this one, the attack animations/cut ins are jaw droppingly awesome for the big powerful attacks. I can also tell there’s a lot of love put into those same animations, just in all the little details replicating the source animation sequences, especially with Heero and Wing Zero Custom. There seems to be multiple variations of the start of his big Twin Buster Rifle (Limiter Off) attack, in that instead of going with a generic “Target locked …”, it’s customized to what you’re attacking, which is super cool. It’s just really hard for me to overstate how much those little details add to the excitement and fun of playing the game!

Game feels harder than SRW 30 and V, I actually got a little bored with V (despite Seed being present) because of how easy it got. Yes I might have my favorite units upgraded so they can’t be hit by your average faceless grunt, but even then I still have to pay attention to bosses to make sure my less upgraded units/battleships don’t take too much damage and launch a unit with Repair Just In Case (I prefer to save my SP for other skills).

Energy management for the hard hitters is definitely going to be the name of the game moving forward, with a lot of the big attacks (Strike Freedom’s Full Burst, Wing Zero Custom’s Twin Buster Rifle Limiter Off, etc) costing upwards of 70 Energy per shot. Resupply isn’t easily available - Noin’s Taurus comes with the ability, but like previous games it can’t be used after moving and you don’t get her until Chapter 3 so early game it’s a little rough. I’ve had both Shinn and Kamille run out of Energy in the Destiny and the Zeta, respectively, just for throwing them front and center and dodge tanking the entire enemy army 😅 (Okay technically that’s my own damned fault but it works, okay? 😂)

Speaking of the number crunchy side of things, Wing Zero Custom and Strike Freedom are insane? What do you mean the Twin Buster Rifle Limiter Off attack is base 8 range (mine unlocked at 9 because I’d already gotten it the upgrade bonus)??? Rolling Buster Rifle as a Move and Fire Map attack??? I remember never using it in W because it was a non-selective AoE that couldn’t be used after moving! And what is that crazy range on Strike Freedom’s Super DRAGOON map attack? Selective AoE? I may as well just stick Kira into the middle of a bunch of enemies and let him cut loose with them. Good thing a lot of them are purely mechanical so even Kira can’t really complain about just blowing them up, no mercy. Also Destiny did inherit all of Force Impulse’s upgrades, so that was a nice 2-for-1 deal that really paid off since I put so much of my resources into it. I really hope Athrun just joins peacefully or else he’s about to get his ass kicked so hard it’ll make his escape from Gibraltar look like child’s play 🤣 Kira, Shinn, and Luna are among my strongest pilots right now alongside Kamille, Heero, and Forte.

On the quality of life side, I’m really glad there’s a mission map built in now, so you can see how missions are connected and have a quick visual on how far you are in the chapter and unlock requirements for side missions. Really helped because I was able to get who I wanted as soon as the missions opened up, like getting Shinn’s Score up to get Luna and the Destiny, getting Kamille and Amuro up to a combined Score of 90 for the Zeta and the Nu Gundams (I did it for the Zeta for Kamille tbh), getting Amuro up to 40 so I could get Char and the Sazabi, etc. I don’t mind that they changed Supporters and ExC over into the Assist Crew system; I forgot to use those skills in SRW 30 (or just outright didn’t need them) but I do find myself using them here, especially for passive money and MxC gain since money feels a bit tighter in this game with pilot skill and unit upgrades coming out of the same pool.

And as for the story - I’m surprised Lord Djibril is still alive here, I was actually expecting him to be dead since everyone keeps talking about how Logos got defeated same as Seed Destiny canon. That said the OC villains feel like they’re either Logos’ backers or a group with similar goals so it’s nice to see Seed Destiny’s plot get used even if it’s supposed to be post-canon (so we can have Shinn and Luna join as allies and not need to beat them first). Kira and Strike Freedom’s introduction is probably my second favorite - it was worth paying extra just to have Kira come in to the opening beats of Meteor. Shinn (both of his) are still my favorites just for how much it shows he’s no longer fighting with his head stuck in the past and he’s fighting to protect the current fragile peace and the potential for long term peace in the future. It’s amazing how similar it is to his Seed Freedom characterization, despite Seed Freedom not being a part of this game.

Needless to say, I spent my entire 3 day weekend playing this, and now if I can convince some of my Gundam Card Game friends to try it out 😂

[carnelianwings]

Day 1 Super Robot Wars Y thoughts, spoilers behind the cut because even if it’s a massively crossover story there’s still some surprises in there that might be a bit unexpected, full spoilers for Chapter 1 and first 2 Main Story parts of Chapter 2 (plus a few side missions) behind the cut, very much Gundam-centric because what I know of the Super Robot series featured is 100% via osmosis from previous SRW games I’ve played 😅

Let’s just get my one big disappointment out of the way first - Cagalli is once again unvoiced in this (just like in V) but I guess since Y was (presumably) in development before Seed Freedom was in production I’ll have to give them a pass. But when we get Seed Freedom, I really want her to be a recruitable pilot again. It’s been too long since she’s gotten to be in the cockpit; I won’t even mind if you have to jump through some hoops to get her as one.

Onto the MC. I picked the female MC as usual, she’s a spirited NINJA type (down to her mecha theming) and I’m looking at that backronym like “Yup this is definitely a crossover that includes Seed, how else could you possibly get that to fit in like it’s normal”. I do wish she was a mid to long ranged combatant, because my usual strat is to let Kira/Athrun/Shinn/some other high evasion pilot evade tank the boss while everyone dogpiles with range, but it’s a minor quibble.

And then there’s Echika, the 14 year old leader of the A. Advent. Improbably young leader, but at least in principle she gets along great with the rest of the Gundam Princesses we’ve got this far, especially Cagalli. The second she was like “I’m going to declare this floating city an independent mobile city, and we’ll accept anyone and everyone. And we won’t make money off of fighting but we will use our forces for protecting civilians” I was like “Oh you’re going to get along great with Cagalli.”

Speaking of Shinn, I was surprised to see him be recruitable so early in the game. Much better than having to sit through 16 missions for Athrun in V. Equally surprising is he’s been chilling in Orb with AsuCaga while “on loan” from ZAFT ever since the Revolutionary War (think final eps of Wing crossed with Zeta or ZZ finale) and Zero Requiem, and thinking things over, so when Domon and Forte and friends meet up with him he finally finds the clarity of mind and his purpose that he’d been missing this whole time and joins you, along with going into Seed Mode. Honestly a nice way to have him turn things around for an “on screen” redemption arc of sorts. Interestingly enough, they have him join you with the Force Impulse as his unit, with the same move set it had in V (so Vulcan/Beam Saber/Beam Rifle/Excalibur) because the Destiny is still undergoing repairs in PLANT. Makes sense, because if that fight went down the same way here as it did in canon, Athrun did a number on it 😅 And while the Impulse did take damage from Athrun, its modular construction and assembly upon sortie means they probably had spare parts for it sitting around. Not that I’m complaining - I threw a bunch of upgrades on it, so at best the Destiny will inherit those upgrades, and at worst Lunamaria will get a nicely upgraded unit to pilot when she joins.

Speaking of Domon, it’s actually hilarious to me they had him train Kira, Athrun, and Shinn at some point as part of the backstory, and that he helped Kira and Athrun sort themselves out, while Shinn just remembers Domon’s training from hell. Genuinely funny, in that it’s Shinn acting like a typical teenager and that’s something he never really got to be in canon. Also Domon’s known as the guy who confessed his love in the most romantic way in universe 😂

Also surprising - even though we are clearly post Seed Destiny, Kira and Lacus aren’t traveling together nor is Lacus part of the PLANT Supreme Council like she is in Final Plus. She’s just traveling with Relena trying to keep the peace while Kira went off on his own to figure out what he wants to do now that things are peaceful … and apparently he’s been talking to Char (ironic, given who Char shares a voice with in Japanese 🤣). Not sure where this will take us, because Char’s also loaned out Kamille, Gyunei, and Quess to the A. Advent, and held back on introducing the crew to Kira because “the timing was bad”. Clearly we are somewhere in the CCA timeline pre-Axis drop, but I’m not sure if this version of Char would still go through with the Axis drop.

Not that it matters, because Wufei is definitely following his Endless Waltz arc in going around without a sense of purpose, going as far as to try to recruit Athrun who admitted he doesn’t feel like he has a clear sense of purpose and isn’t sure if he’s “doing enough”, even if he is living in Orb as part of their military and is serving Cagalli under his real name. I’m going to withhold judgement for now on whether we’re about to retread Athrun’s entire arc but Endless Waltz flavored, because for all I know he could be on an undercover mission (possibly at Cagalli’s request) and will ally with Trowa once the Endless Waltz plot kicks off. Even if we do retread that whole arc, I won’t say much - one of Seed’s themes is how easy it is to repeat past mistakes especially if you insist on shouldering everything yourself, and I haven’t seen enough of Athrun here to know where he sits on that. That said if that’s the case maybe they can shove him in the Saviour for a while. At least let me use his Flop Era Gundam if I have to relive his entire Flop Era again 😂

All in all, quite enjoyable thus far, can’t wait to play more this weekend.

[carnelianwings]

Just venting …

Thinking about taking a break from Vanguard. Not because I’m burnt out on the game, or the meta is feeling stale (how can it when my locals largely avoids playing the elephant in the room and I showed last week she can be beaten?) No, I’m just tired of this one person being a Salty Asshole every time I flip OT. Doesn’t matter what Nation I’m playing, this guy will bang on the table and yell because dumb luck screwed him over. Like I’m almost ready to just show up to locals without OT in my deck but then I’m sure the next issue is I sacked (I like Keter, the Order engine reminds me of Gold Paladin) or that I’m playing an OP deck (my bad for relating to Mirei and piloting Bavs better than this guy I guess). Dude reminds me of all of The Ex’s worst qualities and like I keep telling myself, an ex is an ex for a reason.

Dude’s just unbelievably immature too - he feels entitled to salt just because he had an unlucky game, he’s said to me he “doesn’t care how this game goes because he had a good game last round” (and this is before we’ve even flipped over G0s). And he isn’t like this when he’s playing the other guys, even my friend (and BSF team mate) was surprised at this guy’s reaction when I flipped defensive OT against him (I was on Rezael but I didn’t stack OT there).

I’d go without it (and just play an extra draw/front) but tbh I shouldn’t have to handicap my own deck just to avoid this kind of reaction from him. It’s gotten to the point I don’t want to share deck lists or even my bulk with him because even the people I know less well have treated me nicer and more respectfully than this.

[zeldacw]

Kurama 🌹

Yu Yu Hakusho

[carnelianwings]

Actually talking to people online about Seed just reminds me why I kept my love for Gundam on the down low as a whole after 2016. I’d seen so much hate and jokes from people making fun of it since the mid 00s that I just gave up when I re-entered online fandom after my break up with The Ex. It’s the same reason I mention I’m a Tales fan, but I won’t volunteer the information that Zestiria’s my favorite and instead let the other person lead the conversation.

These days, I’m just glad I have friends at locals who are also getting into Gundam Card Game the same time I am, and we all have different favorite series so we can just trade with each other to complete decks, and also not have to deal with endless “Seed sucks” from irl and online friends. Randos … will be randos, of course. I don’t expect much from randos, and I’ll continue to be pleasantly surprised when I encounter someone who can watch Seed and give the series a real chance instead of immediately disliking it from the get go because of what they heard online or what they think of the character designs or Kira cries at some point or any number of reasons I’ve heard people say they hate Seed.

[littlestrangething]

The Lock Screen of the device you’re on right now is your therapist, how is it?

good

great

My trauma is cured!!!!

Oh no

Oh please no

*screams in fear*

Neutral

Voting ended onJun 18, 2025

[gluten-free-pussy]

The rise of anti-intellectualism has been crazy to witness especially bc people aren’t putting the pieces together. Like more and more I’m seeing average every day people saying things like an education and even literacy are not necessary to earn a living. Meanwhile those in power are absolutely sending their children to the best schools and ensuring that they will receive accredited degrees. The people who hold economic, legal and social power are educated; why would you want to lock yourself out of being able to participate in those spaces? If knowledge was so useless, why do those in power not want you have it while they hoard it for themselves and their children?

[sparklinglakemonster]

This ^, and also the techbros who want your children to be glued to screens from the day they are born and "learn" math from software instead of a teacher and use generative AI to plagiarize their essays for them are sending their own children to private schools that don't let them have electronic devices in class. They want their own heirs to have the broadly applicable critical thinking and problem-solving skills they'd prefer to keep stunted in the general population. That should tell you something.

[varvarafromgr]

Our ancestors literally fought for us to have a chance at an education,so that we would be able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps,so to speak,and these morons are trying to literally cut the bootstraps.

Education is the only thing you take with you when you’re unable to bring anything else.

[carnelianwings]

Read this interview with Morosawa from 2004 on what inspired her to write Seed, and sometimes I wonder if the reason why US Gundam fans hate Seed is because it's such an obvious allegory to US politics and social climate post-9/11, and I remember a lot of Seed's messaging resonating with me because I remember being the only one in my class who questioned why W did what he did, and (at 18, no less - 9/11 happened my sophomore year of high school) coming to the conclusion then it was all about oil. I saw through the propaganda for what it was then, and when I saw Gundam Seed and was suddenly given a story (and a Gundam story, at that!) that reinforced my critical thinking at such a young age - what else could I do but fall in love with it? It goes without saying that if I were to name fictional works that influenced my world view, Gundam Seed would be one of the ones near the top of that list, if not outright the top entry.

But I do wonder if the same reasons that made me fall in love with it are the reasons why so many English (read: US) Gundam fans dislike Seed so much, because Seed is such an obvious allegory that it made them question their own beliefs and attitudes, and it was simply easier to disengage and say "this show is terrible" instead of engaging further and realizing "Okay maybe I need to (and can) change for the better". Because it can't be just be that "Kira cries and whines a lot" - every other Gundam pilot has had that same moment of human weakness and emotion at some point, even if it's just in a flashback.