Darkcloud k'California

A page of random media related musings

[bloodraven55]

omg first wolkenritter sighting in the new anime there are my goats!!!

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

There are two things I love in these pics. The first is Zafira looking like he's trying his best to flex out of his clothes. I'm guessing he's one of those doggos that doesn't like dress-up time.

The second thing is lil' Rein following her master's example and using magic to pretend she isn't baby. I'll admit it's been a bit, but I don't recall her being in the movies. Which would make her, what, somewhere between 0-3 years old right now?

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Honestly I don't blame Lina for what happened with Sherra's house. She saw the place just got wrecked by a fireball, summoned a golem to clear the rubble and search for survivors, and gave it clear instructions on what to do and when to stop before heading off to hunt down the source of continuing explosions. Maybe the instructions could have been better or she could have told it to follow one of the villagers' instructions so there was a supervisor on site, but as far as crisis management goes those were some pretty good decisions.

Oh sure, the thing couldn't tell the difference between rubble and slightly-damaged-but-still-fine and just kept "clearing" until the house was gone, but hey, mistakes happen.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well in the latest search for reading material, this time on the manga side, I decided on a collection of short stories, Seven Little Sons of the Dragon, by Ryoko Kui. She also happens to be the author of Delicious in Dungeon. So there's a pretty good chance of this being some quality stuff here.

Anyway, the first story is "The Dragon Turret". This one has a situation where some mountain folk want to go to war with the ocean folk, and visa-versa. There's a problem however. There's only one way to get between the two regions, and a dragon decided the wall and turret there looked like prime nesting grounds to lay her eggs and raise her young, and she does not appreciate the noise of armies. There's just one problem with that description however.

THIS IS NOT A DRAGON! THIS IS A GRYPHON! I KNOW DANG WELL YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE, KUI!

Okay, nitpick aside this is a pretty good one. It has a story about overcoming prejudice by just having the opportunity to interact with others, the futility of war and what it costs, and all that other stuff. And it's kinda sweet to see the two armies cheering for the baby "dragon" as it tries to learn how to fly instead of fighting as their commanders want them to do.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Now this one is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First off, you'd think it would be the elf wind mage complaining about the air pollution here, but she seems fine?

But more importantly there is Amber's statement. Since that smoke is coming from the factory the Empire uses to produce their weapons and armor, I have to wonder if they've actually figured out how to use earth magic for enchantment on a grand scale. Oh sure, Amber could just be talking about metals in the air, but it's not like she's unfamiliar with the concept of pollution. She spent several hundred years on Earth in Japan. Even if her shrine was in the woods slightly away from the city, she's been plenty exposed. So if she's saying there's magic in the air, there's probably a reason for her singling that part out. It makes me wonder if the Empire could be getting close to becoming the de-facto new earth nation. Oh sure, they've got a long way to go before they're as good at it as the dwarfs were, they made Amber after all, but still with the dwarfs gone somebody else could take their place in that matter.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

On a separate note that is Slayers related, though not having to deal with this book in particular, is picking this series back up really helps to show the contrast between ludicrously powerful MCs these days and Lina Inverse.

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Stereotypical OP Hero: people who show them disrespect are jealous or idiots or evil or all of the above and the viewer is to get satisfaction from seeing the haters get humiliated. They're just the nicest people, really.

Lina: people show her disrespect because they're either idiots... or because they know exactly who she is and the crap she pulls. Absolute gremlin. Her friends never pass up a chance to get a dig in. Her reputation is crap because she's greedy, arrogant, has a hair-trigger temper, and a very worrying disregard for collateral damage.

SOPH: effortlessly trounces any opposition. If they do struggle it's only until they stop holding back as much.

Lina: quite possibly one of if not the most powerful sorcerer in the world, to the extent that she's got the metaphorical History Erasure Button. Still has weaknesses however and has to fight hard against powerful demons. Some foes are categorically beyond her under normal circumstances. Has trouble dealing with speedy melee fighters, because even though she's tough she still has areas of expertise and weaknesses, and if somebody can close the gap in combat she's in trouble.

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Seriously people, your OP heroes can have flaws and actual weaknesses! It's okay! It can make them far more interesting!

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well, the book starts with Lina and Gourry having a bit of a problem. Or rather, Gourry has a problem and Lina is the one taking it seriously. See, Gourry was a phenomenal swordsman, but you still need something more to face the kind of threats they do. Now he had the Sword of Light. Had. Past tense. Hellmaster kinda sent it back to Dark Star during the fight with him so it's pretty much gone. But Gourry apparently still tends to fight like he can just cut through a fireball even though he can't anymore. So, gotta get him a new sword.

Problem with that: this might be a fantasy setting, but magic swords don't grow on trees.

Oh sure, people can enchant normal swords. Simple durability and sharpness charms are common. If that was all that was needed Lina could probably handle it herself, she made a protection charm to sell back in vol 1 after all. But that's not enough to help in a fight against magic users/undead/demons. And swords that can do that are far rarer, and tend to get snatched up by local nobels/royals when one is found. So they need to find an unclaimed one.

Problem: wanna guess what the fantasy world equivalent of a tourist trap is?

It ain't the lack of info that's the problem, it's that there so much junk info out there about local "legends" that are completely made up. With props. Lina is so sick of swords in stones she's ready to punch somebody's lights out.

That's, uh, that's not hypothetical. It's how she deals with being given "info" on a sword inna stone in Bezeld as part of the recompense/hush money by somebody whose sword inna stone she just proved was complete junk. But she doesn't have any other credible leads, so might as well head over in that direction anyway so they can check it off the list if nothing else.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

For a more serious take on the latest Nanoha episode, assuming that the drug dealer was telling the truth here (wouldn't be surprising but that is the kind of thing you really need to take with a grain of salt), yeah, that might be another good if unstated reason for the TSAB not doing much here besides picking off small-fry and training up Shiina to be able to handle things herself. If top government officials are making use of monster drugs, either on subordinates or themselves, then yeah, there may not be much that can be done without a revolution/assassination/invasion. And I can't exactly blame the TSAB for not wanting to go there over a place that really holds little significance to them. They probably need to double check to try and see just where the Invasive Species originally came from to make sure it couldn't be a possible threat to them, and also make sure it can't spread out from this particular world. But other than that anything done here could be argued to be a waste of resources for them outside of general humanitarian interests.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Gee, I wonder if there could possibly be some attraction between Shiina and Towa.

...And take this post in a completely unhinged direction, if you consider that part of the last episode's lore dump included the fact that as the Invasive Species eat and grow they eventually reach a point where they become Propigators of their species, and both of these girls have been eating a lot of monsters, well, they may not be subject to the mutations or psychosis, but there may be other effects.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

I dunno if you would consider it an advantage or disadvantage of watching Nanoha Exceeds at the same time as you're catching up with other magical girl shows, but it does cause certain thoughts to pop in the head.

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Honoka: "We seem to be struggling with a more powerful enemy. Is there any way you can help?"

Intelligen: "I don't know if you can oppose such incredible power of darkness, but there may be a way!"

Mepple: "What? Really, mepo?!"

Nagisa: "What? Really?!"

Ten minutes later

Hayate: "Of course, we'll send someone right over."

click

Hayate: "We got one!"

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Seriously, this thing is about going to other worlds to help establish/strengthen the local magical girls to handle their problems. It is made for crossover fics.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well, one thing in the manga for Tales of Wedding Rings that I don't recall happening in the anime is Satou and the girls taking the time after they escaped from the lab/vault was heading back in there afterwards to... tidy up. Not because they felt bad about leaving a bit of a mess or anything, as far as I can tell they were perfectly fine as tenants, but because along with the giant Abyssal Spider there was a lot of black staining and lil bugs that seemed to be from the Abyss as well. Microbial Abyssal "life". In fact the giant spider's ability to regenerate may have come from rebuilding itself from the smaller bits. And so they're heading down there again, only this time with dusters Satou and Hime infused with Light magic.

I suppose this technically means they've figured out how to enchant "weapons" beyond just channeling their power through whatever they happen to be holding? Though I do have to wonder if the enchantment makes the dusters any more effective at non-evil messes.

The manga also offers an explanation as to how the monsters got in despite the powerful seal. Apparently using a place as a graveyard (even if it's just books the deceased wrote) and never actually opening the place up to do anything but inter new dead elf books accumulates some bad mojo over time. Whodda thought?

[shadow-generations]

I didnt vote on the website but i want to lock in my prediction now: i think Kurea is Cure Eclair. Whether im right or wrong, im super excited to see how the reveal plays out next episode :D

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Agreed. I have now watched all four of the lead-up "clue" episodes, and there's one particular reason I think it's her: she penetrated the Hanninda's barrier that separates their battles with the PreCures from the general public.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well as far as what to read next I was doing some random searching, before I had a thought strike me. Now back in the day one of my favorite anime series was Slayers. Just don't make 'em like that anymore. And that series would eventually become the first set of Japanese light novels I went and got my hands on. Now at the time I couldn't get any past volume 8. But it has been years and years since then, so I decided to see if any more were available now.

Yep!

So I am going to be quite happy to next read Slayers volume 9, "The Mystic Sword of Bezeld". And considering that I don't believe that anything past volume 8 got even the anime's loose adaptation, this means I'm going to be getting new Slayers content. Yay!

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Interesting that Saphir seems the most distraught over Granart seemingly acting out of character. Once again, I am fully convinced that dragon girl wants to "pet the kitty". And a couple of the other panels of this section aren't exactly helping her beat my allegations.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

There are times when it is more appropriate to use the "tee hee, did I do an oopsie :P" expression than others. This...

This is not an appropriate time. I mean, at least it was discovered before she had sex. Um... the spell is still 70% effective? Not really what you wanna hear, but better than nothing, right? Although that does raise a different question.

I'd say there was probably some other way of testing the effectiveness of the spell than what they're thinking of if it wasn't for the fact that this particular secluded wizard's lair also doubled as a sex dungeon as that was her field of study.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

The final post for this Final Fantasy Dimensions Four Job Fiesta challenge run.

It's just the Crystal theme.

So, does this make Rosie a princess?

One last bolt for the road.

Oh right, they didn't actually kill off the twins in FF4 either.

The explanation for their surviving is the shost of the Elf King, Vata, and Masked Elgo showed up to do the job of regulating the Flood of Light instead.

And the reason they let the others think they were dead until now was to make a dramatic entrance. Fair. Also Dusk is now the Great Elder.

Sad to say, that game was not excellent. It was bogus.

And that's the game!

Thanks to everybody who took the time to read this playthrough. Please feel free to try doing this challenge run yourself if you ever want to try to change up the Four Job Fiesta. Or just try out the game if you've got an urge for classic-style Final Fantasy. I won't claim it's the greatest game out there, but it is a fairly decent one. But with that, I'm calling it quits.

And no, I'm not going to show off the post-game content. It's just fighting the same few bonus bosses over and over again for items or JP that you don't need because you already beat the thing. I don't get why some games include that stuff.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Last post, the Dimensional Fiesta was completed! Now it's just getting through the ending.

i.e. he thinks he lost the romance wars and doesn't want to have to live with that.

I… have no idea what words that title was combining.

Oh good, it's not just me.

But before it all ends, Alba… casts Teleport on Glaive to get him out of there.

…

WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST DO THAT EARLIER?!

Anyway, Rosie senses the return of the Warriors and flies by to pick them up.

And Glaive was there too, I guess.

He must live with the horrible fate of someday seeing Sol's non-robotic kids.

Well, Castle Avalon gets vaporized by the Flood of Light.

And after that things go back to normal.

Diana has undergone another Job change. Crap, does this mean I lost the challenge?

Glaive got a new job too. You know, being part of a world saving quest doesn't necessarily mean one knows how to fill out the paperwork and oversee training and deployment. Certainly, put heroes in officer training, but like, make sure they actually get experience in leadership before putting them in charge.

But him playing hooky on the event also means he's around for a little surprise.

Nacht doesn't have any other plans besides looks for survivors Graham is pretty sure don't exist. But they gotta look anyway just in case.

Barbara is still a crazy dragon lady.

Cid's basically running a taxi service. Kinda surprised he isn't in a cell for his crimes against humanity.

Matoya is still dancing. Girl's gotta make a living, even if she is over 100. And she's now running the ninja forces on the side to take out any remaining monsters.

Eduardo's with the pirates "totally honest sailors". Not sure if he was just getting a ride or if he decided to get in touch with his mermaid side and sing some sea shanties. Also it's revealed that Aigis is now Knight-Commander of Burtgang. I'd make the same complaint I did about Glaive, but he actually does have military leadership experience and Burtgang's forces were wiped out (except for Gawain) so he has more experience than anybody else they get to enlist.

The ending's a bit too long for image limits, so I'm gonna break it here for the last bit.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Time for the final boss fight in this Final Fantasy Dimensions challenge run!

You know, Neo-Exdeath might have been more grandiose in his mutated state, but dang if Elgo isn't selling the "Things have gone horribly wrong for the villain" vibe a while lot more.

After a bit of a fight Chaos Elgo absorbs all of the party's HP and MP while shifting forms.

Previous party members show up to lend a hand via their signature abilities, whether they're alive or not.

Phase two of the fight thankfully starts with the party fully healed. Chaos Elgo can still drain the party's HP and MP, though this time around it isn't a total drain. Still really hurts while healing him however, so far from optimal. I mean, it doesn't heal as much as Meteor or one of Glaive's Spreadshots, but it's still annoying.

Third form, back to using Pandora's Box, this time dealing Thunder damage and stunning a couple of party members. This for also has White Hole, which heals Chaos Elgo for 5000, which he followed with another Pandora's Box.

Back to the first form. Yeah, he's gonna keep doing this. Red Mages don't like to stick to one tactic, even horribly mutated ones. This form has a move called 10000Gs, which reduces party HP to 1. I hate those kinds of attacks. Especially because my party healing capabilities suck. I decide to just have Aigis Dragon Soul and use Alchemy to get him back on his feet afterward.

This one manages to drop a couple of party members. Time for another Dragon Soul, I think. Dragoon is finally pulling it's own weight around here.

I takes more Meteors and Spreadshots than I can count, and tanking a second Big Bang, but Chaos Elgo goes down.

Challenge run complete!

I honestly doubt anybody has written a fansong of this group of heroes, sad to say.

Time for the victory lap!

Oh hey, it's the Flood of Light! You know, you hear about that thing as a part of Fi-

…

oh crap it's the flood of light

So yeah, great for the world to get their light back. But being in the direct path of that light means, well…

Less a victory lap and more of a panicked scramble. The energy keeps chasing after the Warriors until the reach the gates of the Castle of Nil, and find them shut.

You didn't really think they were going to have a pair of twin spell casters in a Final Fantasy game and not have them sacrifice themselves to save the others, did you?

But while the others aren't happy about it, Glaive decides he's staying behind too.

The rest of the ending will have to wait for another post.