So pals and I were just talking about Milly and Parfait as one does, about how if they would get along or how much Sillage might effect that.
And we had the horrible revelation that everyone in Death Libram (Idk about Margaret so she might throw this out the window) has received a power from Evelleon.
Grave's ring was created by Evelleon (It doesn't say her name but it's her voice talking)
She gives Milly enough power to become S-Class sinner
And I assume roughly the same for Parfait
Evelleon is definitely supposed to be the representation of this Libram. The rider of the Pale Horse.
It seems receiving power with her always costs something. A gambit with death?
Graves hasn't had a chance to pay her back yet. But she asks for her compensation regardless
Milly (nearly) pays with her life. In a way I wonder if she should have died? But maybe Evelleon just likes her enough not to?
And Parfait seems to be paying with her "value" as a powerful asset.
I'm not quite sure how the "illusions of joy" fit her the same way that idea applies to Graves, Milly and Parfait. But she likes the pursuit of happiness which is interesting.
I don't have a point I want to make exactly, but it does make a little nervous about Miss Margaret if the imagery of her we've seen wasn't already alarming enough.
Saw this post on twitter and thought 'oooh that looks fun' so see below, unreadable, Milly, Sallie (And Cassian And Jasmine kind of) relationship headcanons and source I made it ups.
Plus 5000 things I didn't include below because the yapping never stops
I thought about including Milly's common in-game teammates, but I realised that's like every good magic unit and I don't know anything about half of them.
^ As a secondary thing to this I hope Milly would go to Raven's school TwT
I wanted to include a love line from Nightingale to Chief, but I was worried that would make Milly's comment on her come off as jealous rather than bureaucratic
Wanted to include '(Oblivious (Lying to herself))' as Sallie's note towards Milly but thought was a littttttle too much skdjsk
Hamel and Jasmine are friends because dancers. I just couldn't be bothered to write it in a fresh and cool Milly / Sallie way.
Since Chief was dead dead dying during Shattered Blade I imagine they had very little involvement with dealing with the 'irrelevant to getting Hella back' parts of the Euphoria Incident (Also kind of insane to get off Euphoria after who knows how long to find out that Discity is at war with the Farlands like-), so I imagine Sallie would mostly be dealing with Wynn and to a lesser extent Nightingale (Who is also dealing with Chief at that time lmao)
^ Second to this, considering the wording at the end of Honeyed Night about Sallie trying to visit Milly (That sound stressful af!). I think she would appreciate Wynn's gentle and patient attitude.
With either Zephyr & Cassian or Snow & Selene (or all 4?) I wanted to put a joke about them having a bet of when Milly and Sallie would get together but I couldn't think how to put that in succinct way.
Kinda wanted to include Sallie's unnamed friend but was entirely unsure how to do that
I think Milly would really like Irrheia and vice versa but I forgor TwT
Something that caught my eye when I initially watched Honeyed Night was how similar Theodore and Milly were. It was very vindicating rewatching the event because it is absolutely all over the text.
I think their most obvious similarity is their "sincerest love, for you!" Or well for Sallie in this case. They point out the same or very similar traits they like about her.
They both protect her, putting Sallie's well-being over theirs, even comforting her in the same way - how sweet!
(Just because there's not a lot of context here, the Milly line is when she returns after being beaten by Mr. E, having taken the punishment for Sallie)
It's their naivete and sincerity and stupidly (as Sallie puts it) that makes her trust them so easily.
One example which makes me smile evil style is this line where Theodore says he wants to stay by Sallie's side. Theodore wants to but doesn't, Milly says she will and she does.
I'd like to point out in particular, that the flashback where Theodore is shown protecting Sallie and saying the 'stay by your side' line is immediately followed by Milly saving Sallie from Merlot and then saying the same thing to her.
There's something to be said with both Milly and Theodore's background contrasting with Sallie and causing rifts between them, but I can't quite think how to argue this particularly strongly on Milly's side
With Theodore this is much more pronounced. His position in life and those around him repeatedly hurt Sallie. His inability to leave that life is the reason she was left abandoned by him.
Milly came from nothing, and Sallie accidentally and purposely hurts her with this. Her love of the world despite everything she's been through drives Sallie up. the. wall.
The biggest difference between them of course is Theodore's cowardice and Milly's bravery. It's a little funny how often Sallie calls him a coward in fact. Sadly I don't think there's an instance where Sallie calls Milly brave or fearless but we know how brave Milly is through her actions the entire event.
There's an irony that when he does at last protect Sallie on Euphoria, it's from Sallie's and his own actual saviour. But it's the thing that allows Sallie to utilize Milly's power, believing in love again.
Then of course there's the scene that solidified the connection to me.
Friends and I watched Tangled the other day, and we made a joke about Mother Gothel and Rapunzel being like Shalom and Christina and my brain absolutely ran off with it, so now you get this.
Some more doodles, and waaaay too long notes below.
(This assumes you know the plot of Tangled, but if not the important bits I didn’t mention in my notes is that Rapunzel is a Princess that gets kidnapped by Mother Gothel and kept in a tower because of her magical hair that can keep Gothel alive forever.)
Rapunzel / Christina:
Christina is probably the character that needs to change the least. Naive, clumsy and pretty violent already fits Christina very well. The main differences would be Christina's sense of justice, and detective tendencies. Tower Christina wouldn't have experienced enough injustice to have such a strong sense for it to begin with, but well Shalom's lie would most likely cause that same anger and injustice she feels in game. She can have a bunch of detective novels in the tower, and she’s getting a hatchet instead of a frying pan.
Mother Gothel / Shalom:
I think Shalom wouldn't need to change from her in game self much at all. This Shalom does need to be a Shalom that has a lack of emotions. The main difference would be Mother Gothel's dynamic with Rapunzel. I see Shalom and Christina's relationship in game as sisterly rather than paternal, but a paternal Shalom works fine here given the circumstances of the story. While Mother Gothel dgaf about Rapunzel, Shalom should care about Christina while still seeing her as a tool, basically the same as their in-game dynamic (Also isn't it more interesting if Mother Gothel does care?). Shalom also isn't just an asshole to Christina for no reason and she would not lose her temper, she doesn't need to be doing all that for her to be the manipulation queen.
Maximus / Rahu:
Woof.
The Stabbington Brothers / Captain of the Guards / Rahu:
Shalom still needs some kind of beefcake to deal with Thistle at some point, so that will be Rahu in this case. She’s only really replacing the brothers as Shalom’s henchman here rather than being previous allies of Thistle, as Thistle would be working alone. She’s dual roleing the Captain so Thistle still has a pursuer (as funny as it would be I don’t think Rahu can replace Maximus as I don’t see Christina being able to convince her to temporarily not throw Thistle in the slammer). After failing to catch Thistle enough times I’m sure Shalom would be able to offer her some help.
Eugene / Thistle:
This one is BIG change. Thistle would fucking hate his ass. I thought initially she could stay as a thief, but wouldn't it be waaay more fun if she actually wanted to commit regicide? :))))) Eugene's/Thistle's back story needs to change a smidge for this, her parents deaths need to be the fault of the kingdom, I 100% want a dynamic of "Every year I watched the lanterns fly over the orphanage, why did one lost kid get so much, when we were left with nothing?" This still works as her having a shallow dream, as even if she does manage her goal, it wouldn’t fix anything for her. Thistle can still steal the crown, call it a consolation prize for a failed attempt or to hurt them even a little, but rather than using the crown for Christina to convince Thistle to help her, it can be her knife (a gift from her mentor) instead. Thistle’s regicidal tendencies also gives Shalom so much leverage to get Thistle to do what she wants once Thistle starts to care about Christina. By telling her the full truth about Christina’s past, she’s trapped. Can’t kill Shalom (that’s her mum!), can’t tell Christina the truth about Shalom or lose her to the monarchy instead, but if she keeps it to herself, doesn’t that make her as bad as Shalom? ;) Also, just. Hark! The pathetic assassin has fallen for her mark!!
Well I caught up to Shattered Blade and I certainly have some thoughts. I will say we watched KaizoRikudo's (thank you for your hard work) videos of it rather than in game, which I do wonder if it that meant we missed out a little on how certain parts of the story were presented.
The first half was incredibly strong, on par with Undercurrents and Aureate Regale. We had to take a break after the West District had been attacked because the writers did such a good job setting up this grounded tone that the logs regarding casulties were incredibly devastating.
I adore the direction they're taking Elvira's character (if also very scared for her lol) she absolutely shone here. Seeing her strike out on her own, the very painful for my heart conversation with Sibilla, manipulating Selyna with a mixture of her and Sibilla's story, and being taken under Big Boss Langley's wing. All handled incredibly. Having a character like her who actually wants to learn about the Outlanders to understand their pain and why they feel the way they do about Discity, is surely needed in a cast that really does not care about them.
For the first half I enjoyed Chief's dissent into stubborn madness, their insistense on being on the front lines, disregarding Discity's dislike of the Discorps, nearly killing Selyna, all because of Hella. Very good. But then everytime I thought they hit a turning point, it seems like they haven't learned anything at all. Maybe if Chief wasn't treated like a self insert, that I wasn't supposed to see myself in them it wouldn't piss me off so damn much. But how can you see the faces of the Outlanders you supposedly care about when you strangle Selyna. Get called just as bad as all the others by Hella and immediately dismiss it as not her (Even if it wasn't her do you really think Hella would agree with those actions??). Even Chief themselves says Hella is acting like a little Outland ambassador and then repeatedly dismisses that she and they could care about each other. Crazy.
This felt entirely unearned to me. You never questioned your understanding of her until it was right in your face. Never realised you were blinded by hatred.
I surprisingly have less to say about Augustus than I thought I would going in. She was very hype moments and aura. The ball and the scene at the council being particular stand outs. It's just, again by the time we got to the actual Black Ring fight, the grounded tone I was enjoying so much had been completely thrown out the window for... I don't even know what to call it? Like the ending to any action movie? Not something that had been built upon by at this point 5 or 6 events worth of content. The earlier Black Ring encounter with the DisCorps felt so much more weighty than what we got. And speaking of the DisCorps their reluctance to kill Hella also felt completely unearned. If this is the direction they wanted to go in they should have brought it up WAY earlier. Had Hella been some random Outland Sinner or Synex they would have felt no remorse, they would not have cared one ounce, how is this their absolution for what they've done? Overall I enjoyed Augustus, but not enough that I am desperate to learn more about her, which is a shame as I've heard good things about her interrogation. It's just pretty low on the priority list for now.
I did really like what they did with Hella herself though, her ghostly apparition following Chief, her description of fighting the current, the way the Black Ring treated her, escaping using Chief's power as her own. THE CGS. All top notch. I just wish everything else surrounding these moments in the Black Ring had been handled differently.
My god awful strat, was to have my reality team be good enough to kill the final boss, and then have enough SAN, using the crystal that gives 15 more max SAN, that I could die to the second one and still win. I did every tablet in the first section to get as many resources as possible before the starter team can't carry itself alone. Don't really think burn team was the play, but it was good enough.
Speaking of eternal nightmare. I decided I wanted to do max chaos level run on every stage, so I finally finished that.
Just to make things harder on myself, I tried to pick a different starting team for every run as well.
Mantis. This one managed to be the hardest, as the weather condition on the final boss meant Mantis was healing 30% of her HP everytime one of the endless little spiders died, but that might be my skill issue not knowing how to play weakspot. I also started with Margaret / Garofano which probs did not help either!
Vanillies with bleed. Felt way better than playing weakspot, especially since it has all the specific relics that care about it.
Hestia with Arcane crit and me failing to take a screenshot at the end, so pardon the inconsistent formatting TwT. This one is very stupid fun to play. (If only I had yingying I could play it real)
Pylgia with burn (Maybe I shoulda played Hestia's route wit the burn team but uh...) was nice getting to play with Zephyr for 10 minutes.
Shin with the Immortals, their relics are stupid, thanks Shin. <3 My favourite team to use, but that might just be because I enjoy the challenge of getting all 6 of them. (And I'm biased becuase I love the immortal libram)
Also I managed to grab that relic at the end that let's you take an extra sinner in exchange for no longer gaining coins so the final fight looked like this.
