#but yeah. yeah.

[itspileofgoodthings]

I haven’t even BEGUN reflecting on the engagement news.

[kirkwallguy]

I'm currently kinda tipsy so not much coherent words, but the thought of replaying veilguard and having to listen to Rook again is making me want to have another drink. What a one dimensional, cringe, millennial writing, creepy smiling at inappropriate times little shit that was no matter your dialogue choices. That was not "my" character, that was the self insert of some writer at bioware. rpg my ass. They should have just made a set character that play as instead of this half-baked shit. I would have liked to play as Harding. I would have preferred a proper player character, but I'd take Harding over Rook any day.

i'm also tipsy 🤗 but yeah, rook is horribly written. i gravitate towards games where you can create your own characters but i know predefined characters can work extremely well in specific games - disco elysium, most jrpgs, etc. rook's issue is they're a bad middle ground: they don't have enough personality to be fully carried as their own thing but the game doesn't have enough choices for thir personality to be expanded on by the player.

and on a pettier level i just don't like the personality they chose for rook; quips and puns and funny remarks, it's just not something i enjoy in a character as someone who hates marvel. my first rook attempt was a hardened stoic grey warden and he just came across as an uber-positive teaching assistant. not fun!

[shanedyke]

yeah ogivlie or whatever your name is that little smirk was finally whacked off ur face huh…

[kocch]

when I say that Will being canonically gay in stranger things is the biggest proof we need for byler it’s not simply because we know he is gay and that’s it - there is context that comes from being in fandoms for something like 12 yrs or more. 

first of all, I’ve started watching ST because of people talking about will and byler on twitter (in july), as a person who barely knew anything about it (I didn’t even know mike and el were a couple, so I was super surprised they decided to make it romantic in s1 when I didn’t really feel like it would happen). 

i was a sherlock fan who shipped sherlock/john. i’ve shipped non-canon couples for a long time (fandom spaces are queer spaces a lot of times). i know what it feels like to read things from a text that could imply things - a text that could be queercoded, depending on interpretation. i know what it feels like to have fun with fanon and ship things that are potentially there, but not textually canon (like steddie or ronance, imo). it’s fun and it’s mostly harmless, until the writers decide to use it as queerbait to make their fandom stay with them for a long time because they’re rooting for their queer ship (i think supernatural is the worst example of this, as they confirmed the one-sided love and then killed the queer character and sent him to hell LMAOOO). those are milking the fandoms, knowing the strongest core of a fandom is the hardcore ones (many queers) and not the casual public.

i’m a big fan of hannibal, yuuri!! on ice and she-ra, three shows that are mostly queercoded until they aren’t (and they confirm the queer ship to be canon). i swear, people CAN tell. you can see when there is a creator and writer and team who truly wants to tell a queer story/relationship, even when they can’t show it openly (like hannibal or yoi). as a person of the community myself, i’ve been able to tell it was canon. it’s different from fans just shipping things, or queerbaiting, there is care and intention and writing and parallels and romantic framing and so many things that make you see that it is there.

(now, for byler i hope it’s different. every straight couple in ST has at least one kiss and i think byler HAS to have at least one (dramatic, passionate, show-stopping) kiss because it would be totally unfair if they don’t. they have to be totally and utterly canon)

what is different about byler and stranger things, compared to sherlock or other shows for the straights? 

it’s will being canonically gay. bbc sherlock would never do that. bbc sherlock would mock feelings. he would laugh about love. he would probably be even a bit homophobic, just for the sake of it.

and it’s not just will being canonically gay, it’s his love for mike being canon. i’m sure other people have said it, but will’s love for mike is NOT JUST A CRUSH. it’s not ridiculed. sure, it’s used to forward a straight ship (that is sinking), but the story is not finished yet and i want to believe that byler is endgame and the writing in s4 was meant to 1) leave things uncomplete and unseattled between mike and will, between lies and non-confessed feelings; and will being in the middle of a relationship that is sinking. 2) mike responding to will’s feelings of love and to no one else, not even el begging for him to say he loves her. 3) making EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHERS feel sorry for will. cry for will. pity will. root for will. root for GAY WILL. (people who think he is straight and he loves el don’t count, those are morons) 

will’s love for mike is LOVE in capital letters. it is not a crush. it’s never treated as something to laugh about, or something like a one-sided crush like Dustin’s crush for Max or Steve’s crush for Robin, those feelings are clearly more superficial and you can see that they’re not gonna happen from miles away. will’s love is A LOVE THAT MOVES MOUNTAINS. it’s totally romantic. deeply rooted. it’s like those loves you can see between jancy or lumax or even more jopper in s4, a love that saves one another, that makes people do crazy things, a love that is inherently part of the character, that makes them FEEL and DO and LIVE and you can’t imagine them not being in love with that person. 

these writers know how to write that type of love. each canon ship they made (even s1/2 milkvan in some ways), i’ve loved it. they know what they’re doing, how to make it feel like it’s true love even without writing grand love confessions or making them kiss every other episode. it’s in THE NARRATIVE, the things the characters do and say and imply.

and even more, about byler... something i wrote in a fic i’ll never finish but imo it’s the biggest point we can take away from will’s love and confession in s4. WILL SEES MIKE. will sees mike for who he is and loves him anyways. he sees the best and worst in him and still loves him and knows him and grounds him to reality and tells Mike how he could be the best version of himself, pushing him to fight for it (you are the heart). will’s love is ancient and deep, it’s a love that we don’t even know when it started, it’s always been there, it’s always been part of will (and part of mike, because it IS MUTUAL). it’s like breathing. like the sun every morning, it’s just there. it’s not going away. it’s not even a choice, at this point, there is an helplessness in the love will feels - it’s too big and too much for him he would love to run away from it, but still he can’t deny his heart. 

and that’s why i think byler is endgame. because will is canonically gay, and he is in love, and no one is making fun of him for that. his love for mike is serious, profound, romantic, genuine. it makes you cry and root for him. it’s LOVE. the strongest of forces. and every byler scene is made with care. it’s never taken lightly, not even their fights, they always matter. there is no mocking in there. no sneer. it’s treated genuinely. almost like the creators are telling you: “look here, look at them, it matters. it matters to them and it should matter to you. there is something serious brewing here, and it is romantic love”

[marblemuffin]

what happens when you erase a world ending event from the timeline. Does it actually fix the future or does it just break it

Because that's the thing about Silver, right?

Silver was born into an apocalypse. There was nothing that could be done to stop it. But then a strange man came and told him that he could prevent it from ever happening in the first place.

And then he did it! That world ending event wasn't just prevented, it was ERASED ENTIRELY. Sonic and his friends never experienced them. Silver doesn't remember it. The man who taught him to time travel never existed, and his best friend and him never met. He doesn't remember him or her.

But, supposedly, his future should be fixed. They erased the apocalypse! It didn't create a split timeline, no paradoxes, it's just gone. Problem solved.

Except it didn't stay fixed.

So he goes back to the past, from his perspective, for the first time. Who knows how he knows how to do this- he can't remember how he learned. He helps our heroes in the present, and then he goes back. But sometimes, when he goes back, his future is still broken, just in a new and different way. So he goes to the past again. And maybe this time when he goes home, it's finally the utopia it should be... but then it breaks again.

It's an endless cycle. Can he see it? Does he see the transitions from his perfect future turning back into despair?

Is he the only one? When he talks to other people there, do they act as if it's always been this way, even though he knows it wasn't?

He goes back again. And again. And again. But the future never stays. It's unstable. Something was erased from the timeline and nobody knows that, and now it is rewriting itself based on what's now happening in the present.

BECAUSE THAT IS THE THING, ISN'T IT??? The past is the present. Silver does not live in the present. Perhaps he did, before the events of 06, when he lived in the apocalypse... but that's not what it is anymore. And that's why his world is constantly fluctuating. It does not know what it should be. It changes based on the events of what's going on in Sonic's time, because it is actively still being written.

Silver is the only thing that remains from the original timeline. And now he is a ghost in his own world. Doomed by the fact that he does not live in a time that has finished being written, and his own awareness of that fact. And he does not know- and cannot learn- why this is happening. Because the reason was erased

[icharchivist]

like i said. if you wanna suffer ill be happy to watch. but also the only thing i know about ff 15 is that one max0r video which while very funny is probably not 100% accurate to the story

now this is giving me too much power. I'll be happy (and sad) to oblige. And give you a quick overview.

and yeah i doubt that one video is a good description of it. so.

cracks fingers.

One of us is going to end up crying by the end of this. it's going to be me. but you're welcome to join me.

Final Fantasy 15 is the story of Noctis Lucis Caelum, crown prince of the kingdom of Lucis.

The Kingdom of Lucis is facing a crisis as the ever-growing Niflheim Empire is trying to expend and take the kingdom over, at the same time as a sickness called Starscrouge is slowly killing people. When the night falls, daemons come in the dark, and ever since those events have started happening, nights are growing longer in longer.

As the Empire of Niflheim is discussing peace treaty with the Kingdom, a clause is made on their contract to have Noctis marry Princess Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, who's been held captive by Niflheim for about a decade, and who has been Noctis's childhood friend and penpal. She is the Oracle, chosen by a prophecy to be the only person capable of healing the Starscrouge before the sickness takes hold.

King Regis decides to send his son to his marriage-to-be right before the peace treaty is officially signed, accompanied by his three most trusted friends - Ignis Scientia, who's been working as a royal advisor, cook, caretaker ever since they were children, Gladiolus Amicitia, who's been Noctis' bodyguard and royal trainer for a very long time, and Prompto Argentum, Noctis' school bestie who, despite having no relation to the royal family, is the only person outside of it Noctis managed to get close with.

But soon after their departure, the peace ceremony goes array- King Regis is murdered and the Kingdom of Lucis fall to the Empire, now leading a manhunt for Noctis to kill the royal lineage, and recover the Ring of Lucis, a powerful artefact carried through the family that, especially once coupled with the Magic Crystal that is the source of all magic in Lucis, can connect its wielder with the Kings of Old to access tremendous power left by the Gods.

See, there is a prophecy in the Lucis lineage that one day the One True King Of Light, chosen by the Gods, will be able to purge the world of the Starscrouge and Daemons, ending this curse at all cost. and, as you can imagine, this burden will fall on Noctis's shoulders as he goes through his new journey to awake the old gods and reunites the soul weapons of the previous Kings in order to unlock the full potential of his power.

The game mostly plays as an open world where you explore the valley with your besties. There is a lot that is very difficult to communicate that is just about how it feels like a camping simulator. You don't want to stay up at night for too long because Daemons are overleveled and bitch to kill, so you try to level up, do your missions, and enjoy your time connecting with your friends, learning more about them.

From Prompto's insecurities about his place in this journey, to Ignis's unwavering loyalty that would oversee Noctis's protection to the end, to Gladio devoting himself to being the shield even when everything starts to fall apart, you end up caring a lot for this group of misfits who are just trying to enjoy their journey knowing it might be their last.

You spend the game mostly having fun with them. Finding place to camp, new recipes for Ignis to cook, Prompto is constantly taking pictures and selfies to remember the journey by, you stop to every ponds to be sure Noctis can enjoy all of the fishing he can, you meet up with Gladio's little sister, it's really a really heartful game in ways that are very difficult to articulate.

... until shit hit the fan.

You're introduced to the real antagonist of the game, the Empire's chancelor, Ardyn Izunia, who's been pulling the strings all along, while also helping Noctis unlock the powers of the Gods.

And when finally it's time for you to go find Lunafreya for their wedding and hopefully linking the power of the Oracle to the King of Light in order to finally purge it all.....

Ardyn will brutally murder Lunafreya in front of Noctis, killing with her any possibility to stop the Starscrouge and the endless nights around the corner. The death itself is pretty heartbreaking, showcasing Noctis' very difficult time to deal with her loss, and Luna was defined by how she was willing to do everything to carry her duty to the end, so it was really sad.. but Luna was not very well written unfortunately (she appears maybe 15mins in the whole game up until this point) so i don't have as much to say about it :( it was super heartbreaking but yeah... yeah.

During this confrontation, Ignis will lose his eyes trying to protect Noctis, as Noctis was unconscious and Ignis grabbed the Ring of Lucis to ask for the powers of the Gods to protect him, and the Gods burn his eyes off. (it's so hard to properly explain but Ignis becoming blind ends up developping a lot of problems in the plot, of course, but especially in the gameplay. Like you spend the game having Ignis cook all sort of things and exitedly tell you about what he's going to cook today, and then your first campire after this incident you see the only food you can cook is some canned bean and it's just. so sudden in the way to tell you Ignis is changed for ever by it.)

Shortly afterward, Ardyn will create illusions that will push Noctis to push Prompto off from a moving train, resulting in Prompto getting kidnapped and experimented on by the Empire.

all while Gladio is losing his faith in Noctis because everyone is expecting so much from him, that they're their only hope, and yet Noctis is so lost in his grief that he doesn't focus on the bigger picture, while everyone he loves is losing everything around them.

When you finally decide to take down the Empire's HQ to get Prompto's back, is when a lot of truth starts to unravel.

You learn that Prompto is the clone of one of the highest funding members of the Empire, who was created to become one of the mindless drone enemies you fight the whole game, but has been smuggled out of the labs before he could be turned as such - only keeping a mark on his wrist reminding him of who he truly is. As much as Prompto always wanted to be Noctis' friend, he always feared that him being a clone, a failed weapon made by the enemies, would eventually disgust Noctis, and he feared all his life that Noctis would turn against him. so you can imagine the panic for Prompto when Noctis did attack him due to the illusions.

Most importantly though, you learn that Ardyn Izunia is actually Ardyn Lucis Caelum - one of the prince of Olds, the first person who was prophetized to be the King of Light. Bahamut himself, god of gods, gave him for missions to purge the Starscrouge, and Ardyn did just that, and took all of the Starscrouge in the world inside of his body, eradicating it from this world... and when he came to ask what he was supposed to do now, the Gods turned on him and left him to his fate, as he was not the one to actually serve to finish this prophecy. (if i recall correctly they legit say it wouldn't be narratively satisfying. Fuck the Gods, fuck Bahamut, all the homies hate Bahamut no matter the universe.)

Then, as the gods refused to clean him from the scrouge, his brothe, Somnus, tried to kill him before locking him into a magical prison and a magical slumber for the centuries that followed. Somnus became known as the Savior of Lucis, he took the credit for the actions of his brother, and build his kingdom on his ashes, continuing his royal line until Noctis' birth out of it.

When the Niflheim Empire started to come to power, they freed Ardyn, and figured out how to be able to use his power -- Ardyn could unlean the Starscrouge inside of him and have it spread into the world.... and we learn that people who "die" from the Starscrouge actually become Daemons, creature of the night, and the more people become Daemons, the longer the night will last.

And so Ardyn unleashed all of his power, all of his suffering, but himself has been turned into a Daemon at this point due to the sickness ravaging his body for centuries. He only feels pain, and he cannot die, for the sickness made him immortal. So while the Empire woke him up to use him, Ardyn decided instead to use the Empire to take revenge on the descendant of his brother, destroy the world he had sworn to save, and finally by the end, being killed by the True King of Light in the way the Gods will find narratively satisfying.

And finally, as our four companions are trying to escape the forteress, Noctis finds the Crystal, and with all the power he has gathered since then, and prompted by Ardyn telling him that the only way for him to know how to defeat him, Noctis approached it... and was taken in by the Crystal.

In there he met the Kings of Old who told him about the prophecy. The King of Light will pure the world of the Starscrouge and the Demons by taking out Ardyn for good.... but since Ardyn cannot die, his soul will always come back into his body, the King of Light must die as well in order to kill Ardyn's soul in the afterlife once its there.

Noctis therefore learns that by the end of his journey, the only thing that awaits is his own suicide in order to finally put Ardyn to rest.

The Crystal kept Noctis in it for about ten years. For ten years Noctis could do nothing but wait, as the Night fully took the lands over and destroyed everything. Only small camps here and there managed to survive and fight -- and his three friends have been trying to do their best for the people's survival, while being torn apart at the sudden loss of Noctis that day.

When Noctis finally returns, he can meet with his friends one last time. And tell them what awaits him.

For one last time you team up with your dearest friends, all of them having to be aware that they're walking you out so you can kill yourself to finally bring peace.

Before entering the final room to the final boss fight, Noctis turns to his friends, and ask Prompto to give him one of the pictures he took. You go through all the pictures you took as Prompto as you decide which picture Noctis will hold on in his last moments, holding on knowing they were the people who brought him on this journey to start with. In there Noctis will share his final words with them.

And finally you leave your friends behind. Finally it's time to fight Ardyn as he himself only awaits for death. Two dead men giving each other a last fight, two pawns by the prophecy made by the Gods, tool in a narrative that never saw them as humans, no matter how hard they clang to their humanity and to the people they loved.

One last final fight, finally killing Ardyn. And watching Noctis climbs on the throne of his father, and empale himself with all of the swords of the previous kings, in order to finish this fight in the afterlife.

And so the game ends. Ardyn is dead. The Starscrouge and Daemons are purged from this world. the Kingdom of Lucis can live on and see better days. And Noctis is dead as well, standing on the throne of his father.

In the last moments of the game you see him in the afterlife where he reunited with Lunafreya. He's holding the picture you picked in the previous scene. Looking over his friends one last time.

And then in case it's not enough you have the DLCs. Ardyn's DLC tell you more about how the Gods set them up for narrative satisfaction to start with. Then you have all three friends' DLC, set at points in game when you don't know what happened to them. But all of them ends with some final goodbye of some sort.

Gladio's DLC is the most underwhelming one in general so i don't really know what to say about it, and it doesn't really have a big payoff.

Prompto's show how he felt, abandonned in the snow when Noctis almost killed him. Having to wrestle with his existence as a clone, and figuring out if Noctis even wants him by his side. This DLC ends on a last conversation between Prompto and Noctis right before Noctis entered the crystal, in which Noctis tells Prompto he hopes he'll be by his side as he'll try to be a good king. Prompto promise he will be, always.

And then. Ignis' DLC. god that fucking DLC.

You really see the events in which Ignis stole the Ring to try to protect Noctis there, the event that rendered him blind. You see how much he fights out of devotion for Noctis. And you learn that when he put the ring on, the Kings of Old told him Noctis was going to die. Ignis spent his life protecting Noctis. In fact, you go through various flashback of their first meeting. Ignis has to learn that the kid he's protected his whole life, is going to die, and there's nothing he can do about it, because this is the fate that has been drawn on him.

On the first ending of the DLC, There is one last goodbye. Where Ignis wants to follow Noctis to the end and Noctis has to stop him, telling him that he wants him to live on.

(so that's the scene where i was crying so hard i ended up tripping in the stairs)

BUT THEN Ignis's DLC has an alternative ending. an ending where when Ignis hears the plans the Gods had planned for Noctis, he tells them, screw you. I'm never going to let it happen to him. I'll fight all of you if i have to and i'll save Noctis from this cruel fate you have planned.

And so in this ending, Ignis doesn't let Noctis walk into the Crystal and they work together, in an alternative way, until they can save him and put him on the throne.

and let me be clear: this ending is impossible by the game's lore. It's purely a fanservice fix-it ending, a what if, Ignis' ultimate proof of love that is enough to screw over the prophecy hundred of years in the making.

Where Ignis manages to save Noctis so Noctis can actually live on as the King he was raised to be. For ever at his side.

SO. WELL. WELL. I NEVER RECOVERED.

(and i am in fact crying as i'm writing all of this)

all of that while the main theme of the game is a Stand By Me cover by Florence + The Machine that will forever rip your heart and will leave you crying your eyes out as you finish this game, especially after the true ending, watching Noctis' die, and then hearing this fucking damn song.

Anyway i never fucking recovered from it. Like, never.

Like, even a summary doesn't do it justice. My first playthrough took me hundreds of hours. I spent hundred of hours with those kids. Enjoying their banters, seeing them protect each other, fight with one another. There's so much of their dynamic that is so deep into the gameplay, the way your companions will check on you during a fight, the moments they'll pause to have a high five, those moments of pure happiness where you know they're having fun by each other's side.

and Noctis being such a good character you really get to love and for what. And for what!!!!!!!! to get him killed by the end???? like for crying out loud. literally.

So yeah that's the speedrun of what FF15 is about. It's about tearing my heart out of my chest, that's what it is. (and others themes but you get my point)

Anyway. Yeah. Here you are. Here you know FF15's story.

and btw there was a little webseries set right before the event of the games, telling you how each of those friendships started. if you ever goot curious through reading all of this, i definitely recommend it. (the playlist is from newest to oldest though so be sure to watch on the right order)

was it worth it.

[layzeal]

mo xi is so much like lwj I'm losing my mind it's about the unconditional love and devotion

HAHAHA RIGHT???? look, theres a reason wangxian stans read yuwu and lose their minds