Y'know. I've posted before about how Riche's namesake being dead in the Divine Comedy makes me suspect that she won't make it out of this series alive. And I've seen others theorizing that x or y thing about her in this arc could be a death flag. But.
After Mémoire 66, if I were Mochijun and I wanted to pick a character whose death I could make maximally impactful, who I could kill at the climax of this current arc and have it hurt just right, I think it would have to be Dante.
Riche has been talking on and on for the last two chapters about how dashing and noble and wonderful Dante is. About what an important, heroic central figure he is for the Dhams. This chapter went out of its way to show his history with Vanitas, how he's had an unexpectedly deep impact on Vanitas's conduct and the face he puts on to interact with the world. It's fleshing out how important they are to each other.
Dante is also the character who apparently already achieved his life's biggest goal years ago, when he convinced Machina to give Dhampirs their own Altus space. And even now, we've seen an arc of meaningful character development as he finally opens up and accepts outside help in the Dhams' affairs. (And the fact that Vanitas knows him well enough to frame his assistance "just as a business transaction" just serves to emphasize the depth of their unspoken friendship/understanding).
Dante could die in this arc, could sacrifice himself in an attempt to protect the other Dhampirs, and I don't think it would do his character a disservice. Mochijun could absolutely take him in a different direction and keep fleshing him out! But I won't be dissatisfied if she doesn't, and that wouldn't be the case for most other characters that have been getting page time this arc. I think it would be much more interesting to see Riche and Johann's reactions to Dante's early death than Dante's reactions to either of theirs.
None of this is to say that Dante is definitely going to die this arc. But I know a lot of Pandora Hearts veterans, myself included, are counting down the chapters until Mochijun inevitably starts killing off beloved VnC characters. And I know a lot of us think this arc is going to be the one. It's been far too long since Noé has been forced to reckon with the painful inevitability of death.
And if that's right, if someone has to die before the miel incident is resolved, then I think Dante is our best option. He's the death that would be the perfect combination of well-earned and painful.
According to the theories, this is where we stand so far.
Humans
Dhams
Vampires
Ruthven as his father
First of all, they share some ressemblances ; red hair, nose shape, general face complexion.
Secondly, we know Ruthven used to have a belief similar to Noé : he loved both humans and vampires, and used to think of them as equals.
Chapter 31
Therefore, it wouldn't be a stretch to think he might have fallen in love with a human in the past, or at very least, had a relationship (sexual or more) with a human.
Lastly, his reaction to Dante during chapter 65 could be interpreted as annoyance- Marquis Machina calling him to bring up his past in the form of Dante, his child.
Ogier as his half-brother
We know they cannot be brothers, as Ogier is a human. However, they could be half-brothers, or perhaps related in some other way (cousins, maybe).
Firstly, we know Dante's mother comes from a (more or less) wealthy background ; otherwise, Dante wouldn't have been educated (it is at least very unlikely), like the other dhams. But he knows how to read, write and calculate. He also seems to understand the general way society and economics work, and how to take advantage of it, even starting with nothing. All of that from a young age, as he is a child when he is abandoned.
My baby...
We also know Dante was likely abandoned in the human world (and not Altus), which reinforces that his mother was human (and therefore, his father was a vampire).
Ogier also comes from a wealthy background, otherwise, Gano wouldn't interact with him (as he openly despises Roland for his modest background) and chapter 67 confirms it again. Therefore, Dante's mother could very well be Ogier's mother, too.
Additionally, they look alike. Even Ogier's younger brother (the child to the left) looks the same as younger Dante did. He's even wearing similar clothes as Dante had.
Side note : While characters looking alike doesn't always mean something, I will point out that MochiJun is particularly talented in avoiding the 'same face syndrome'. All of her characters are unique and distinct. Therefore, characters resembling each other might not be a coincidence, imo.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to add anything to complete this theory!
A filthy casual's review of Assassin's Creed Origins
My thoughts and feelings about this game went through a rollercoaster with this one.
First; I genuinely hated how everything felt. The stealth felt clunky, the weapons felt more of a burden than anything entertaining, the size of the world felt overwhelming and unnecessarily massive and Bayek felt so bland and dry.
As I played more than the first 10 hours, I did grow to enjoy it more. After looking up the most overpowered weapon I can get in early game to trivialise combat since I really didn't vibe with it at all, grinding out treasures and side quests despite not having any interest in it, murdering a concerning number of animals to upgrade my gear as far as it can go before I needed the glowing stone thingies that can be found in special areas and quests.
Only after all that did I finally start enjoying the admittedly good side quests and finally get to pay full attention to their very interesting and very human stories.
I like the main story a lot too. I found Aya more interesting than Bayek overall but I did grow to love and enjoy Bayek's more passionate approach to things and his relentless love of Aya and Khemu.
The Isu recordings confuse me still. Idk if they're supposed to be an animus thing or an in world thing that Bayek is seeing as well.
I did love the ending. I love how the brotherhood came to be, how the tenats came to be and especially how the symbol was chosen. It kinda baffles me how Bayek is given credit for making the brotherhood while in the game it's both him and Aya's work that actually came together to form it properly. They contributed equally if not more on Aya's side of things
Tldr, this is a big 6.5/10 for me. I love the story and characters but I hate the combat and how the world is so big yet so empty yet filled with too much stuff at the same time. This is the first ac game that I don't finish all side quests in and it's honestly sad
Back here all too soon, done with AC brotherhood and ready to write another
Filthy casual's review;
Of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
This was fun but somehow more frustrating then ac2.
Let's start with the positives;
I love how they improved the visuals and the fighting mechanics. Kill streaks, firing the gun in the middle of a kill, the introduction of crossbows and poison darts. All was great honestly.
Introducing the crossbow made the knives useless for me at least but oh well.
I love the brotherhood system so much and that ending broke my heart a little ngl
The memories were awesome. I love seeing things that could've happened plausibly while we weren't looking
I loved burning the towers, fighting the government and Ezio learning from his mistakes before and growing through them
The ending of the wolf gang stuff was worth it and I'm so thankful for that ngl
Poor Caterina :(
Now for the bad;
Idk if it's a skill issue or a controls issue but I had so many frustrating moments with the wall running. I get stuck running, falling and running against the wall over and over again despite trying to direct Ezio in different directions than the first time.
The synchronization put me in so much god damn pain. I come so close to a full sync then boom, failed at the last possible blink of an eye.
I recognized some as shit I just wouldn't be able to do cuz I'm not built like that but good god even the ones I was sure of finishing failed
A filthy casual's review of Assassin's Creed Mirage
Well well well, playing in the place I know most with the history I know most. This made me keep a close eye on the history, architecture, and language sprinkled throughout the game. I didn't read the history of Baghdad stuff cuz I just didn't want to ngl but everything else I saw and heard was fantastic. Especially the folktails added in the valley of memories dlc
The arabic words sprinkled in were... Something. Not a good something but not atrocious either. Surely not as good as I had hope it would be but it was fine. I couldn't bare it though lmao, I switched to arabic voices cuz I barely understood anything from the english vas except Basim's and Roshan's lmao
Maybe I'll go back to it and listen to the English voices but for now, I'll judge the acting based off the arabic ones. Which is a hit or miss. Basim's arabic va did great. Everyone else... Eh. They tried and they were fine for the most part. Not perfect but they were fine and they were understandable enough. Ali is the exception. He was fine to kinda bad for the most part but Bashi's death... That scene was especially horrible.
In general, I'm not too angry about it and I'll take any arabian/iraqi win I can get so overall voice acting and history.
The controls. 0/10- jkjk. I do hate them but I did get used to them eventually and with the new control options by valley of memories, they did become better. Combat is an ac classic. Ie ass and I didn't wanna engage with it at all. Parkour gave me a headache at first but once I got used to it, it wasn't so bad. Stealthing is fun but locking the last tool skill behind animus sequence rewards was... A choice.
Overall, I did enjoy it for the most part but it really wasn't as good as I had hoped it to be coming off the heels of Syndicate but still, I can't be too harsh on it
Now. The story. 🧍 Wtf happened here.
For the most part, it was fine, great even. Makira's part was honestly my favourite ngl but I very much liked it. I liked the mystery around the Jinni and Basim's abilities. The way Roshan clearly knew something but chose to not share it, the way Qabiha tried to seduce him into following her lead like a snake before Roshan got her. I loved that
I loved everything up until the ending. What even was that 🧍
Nehal was... A figment of his consciousness? The jinni was a personification of his pain from his fight with someone back in the day before every human that knew the isu died? I think? He knews there's more people that knew him back then still out there reincarnated? Maybe? Good god, that ending is confusing and flimsy to me. I'm disappointed but not much more
Fuck the contracts. Why did they introduce them, give you a good chunk then forget them for most of the fucking game. I hated the fact that they introduced new coins for no fucking reason then stripped me of them for the majority of the game. Why, just, why.
Overalls, this is a 7/10 game at best, a 6/10 at worst.
I needed a break of all the big serious games so I ended up playing and finishing this in two sittings so here's;
A filthy casual's review of Sonic Forces
Straight up, this is a solid 5/10 game
I enjoyed it but it was rather janky at times. Granted, this is my first ever Sonic game and I am aware that this isn't exactly the peak of the series but regardless, I did enjoy it so I'm taking this as a sign to try more Sonic games lol
The music slapped as I think is known of the franchise so I'm not surprised
The story I can't say much about since I know little of the series but it was fun regardless
The customisation was fun. I didn't expect that I'd enjoy making a Sonic OC (?) but here we are I suppose.
The combat and movement felt awkward and janky at times but that could easily be just a skill issue on my part
Overall, I'm happy with it as a game but not crazy about it
A filthy casual's review of Assassin's Creed Syndicate
10/10 no complaints go fuckin play it
Jkjk but I really did enjoy it a whole lot
I loved the modern day stuff so much more than I ever expected myself to. The set up for the next installment and the continuation of the Juno plot is great (sadly they never continued it with Origins but that rant will come when I play Origins :))
Overall story, I dig it. I think the main story is nice, the associate stories are neat though the Robert races did make me rage a few times. The territory stuff did get tedious but not too much so I'm not complaining. The collecting tho broke my back. I couldn't even 100% every area thanks to the lack of a helix map which sucked majorly since those are the only ones I'm missing things from.
Most of the npcs were great and I honestly like the Templars so much in this one. They're assholes as usual but very nice imo. Fuck Henry tho. Idk what is it about him but I just disliked his character so much. Probably mainly because of the Evie romance subplot but jebus dud I hate that guy
On the note of Evie, I love the twins so damn much. Jacob is rash, irresponsible and reckless but he's such a soft goofball on the inside. I feel him so much and I couldn't stay mad at him even tho he caused so much trouble. He took out the targets but in the most dangerous way possible.
As for Evie, she's straight edge and so emotionally conflicted. She's clearly the playboy of the two and it's honestly so refreshing to see. Her romance with Henry does kinda make sense especially with her father's teachings needing to be challenged but I don't think they did the best job at it. Especially on Henry's side.
The Rooks and gang systems were so damn fun to play with. I loved jumping Blighters with my fellas. It felt like a nice evolution from the brotherhood system in Brotherhood lol. A lot of mechanics in general felt like a natural evolution of the previous games' systems. Except the grappling hook. That wasn't just an evolution, that was a massive lightyears leap in quality. I love that mf so much I could marry it. It made exploration so damn fun I never got sick of it. Call it whatever you want but unfun is just untrue.
This game is genuinely one of my favourites in this entire series and I can't glaze it enough
Genuinely a hard 9.5/10. The 0.5 missing is for Henry feeling so flat in that romance fling
Just binged this game in one sitting and wow so here's a quick
A filthy casual's review of Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry
Gods this was great. Very short but wow. Adéwalé is the goat and I adore him with all of my heart. This is everything I wanted from Liberation. I wish it was longer but oh well, it did great with the time it got
Adé helping slaves after being one himself, respecting them, killing the tyrant, hunting slavers, just fantastic
His characterization and growth, while admittedly felt rushed a bit, was great imo and I love it
Fuck you shay for killing this king you piece of shit irish man >:(
A filthy casual's review of Assassin's Creed Unity
This game is fantastic. Not perfect, far from perfect, but amazing nonetheless
I love the characters and lords, Arno and Elise have stolen a very big part if my heart. The story in this game is very well handled and flushed out for me and it gave me the time I needed to get invested and it was wonderful.
Now, obviously, this game has issues. Not every plotline or story was perfect even tho I did enjoy it. But that's nowhere near as big a problem as the bugs
Good lord were there bugs. Glitches, missions breaking, being stuck in or on objects I shouldn't be. I love this game but those bugs killed me mentally on many occasions.
The heists and coop missions are fun but why aren't they programmed to rebalance when you're alone? I know they're supposed to be played with many people but why have the option to play them alone when it's gonna hell
Still, all in all, I love this game. I love the lore and by god I love Arno and Elise
A filthy casual's review of Assassin's Creed Rogue
I do not like to say this lightly because I feel like this is just not something used correctly online, however, I think it fits Rogue perfectly to not say this.
Assassin's Creed Rogue is wasted potential.
This game needed more time. The team needed to much more time. It could've been fantastic. It could've been ground breaking. And in some places you can kinda see that especially if you look at it favourably. But as is, as the game we have today, it is wasted potential.
Playing as an assassin that goes rogue and joins the Templars is a cool as fuck idea. Even if we're not fully Templar, being integrated into the order and trusted should give us insight into their thoughts, goals and methods. Being able to work as or at least see how Templars work would be a dream.
Templars so far have been evil, a controlling force that wants to keep a hold on information and humanity, believing order and peace can be achieved through mass ignorance and obedience. At least as far as I understand.
I would love to see how these people work. How this age's Templar's aren't wrong actually, how they think and why I shouldn't understand and sympathise with them.
On another hand, I'm playing a rogue assassin. I wanna see how and why he's so full with conviction about breaking out of the brotherhood and why he thinks the assassin order is in the wrong. Or or, he could doubt both sides. Trying to break out of any control or seeing which side aligns better with his goals. His strong conviction towards his goals and ideals that drove him out of the life he knew into one of being hunted and joining what he grew up believing to be the enemy.
There's barely any of this in the game.
The assassins are vague and stubbornly ignorant. Electing to strange pride that breaks the communication and causes unnecessary misunderstandings between them and Shay.
They attack him while he's helpless at a cliff, they don't go searching for his body, they never once think to try and converse with him before trying to kill him. Adewale and Achilles especially acting incredibly out of character and illogically which leads to the death of one and the crippling of the other on top of losing the brotherhood base in north America and causing an unnecessary earthquake that he could've easily avoided if he just used his training and mind instead of shoving Liam and knocking down the artifact
"i MaKe My OwN lUcK" is a shitty catchphrase I'll be honest. He's saved by chance through being found by a kind Templar who angers his fellows by saving him :/ I don't think he made that luck
I played through the whole game and it's just very disappointing to see such a cool idea being gutted for one reason or the other
I would love to play a Templar/rogue assassin game, this is just not satisfactory at all.
Gameplay and music and things are fine. Gameplay is basically Black Flag again which i fine and the music is good. Nothing notable but it's not bad either.
The modern day story is confusing ngl. Maybe it's on me, maybe it's on the game, idk but I didn't enjoy it ad much as Black Flag's modern day story
Overall, this game is a 3/10 for me and I would not recommend it at all
You were born the bastard of a Duke and a foreign dancer. The Duchess always looks at you with a pained expression, which you thought was due to her husband's infidelity… until you learn that she had fallen hopelessly in love with your birth mother as well, and you were her spitting image.
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
