Imagine all the Hale kids plus their cousins all at the park and kid stiles is there playing with kid Cora and her cousins then they make Derek play with them. Derek is classic middle child. He’s older than the little kids but younger than Laura and the other cousins. Stiles absolutely loves playing with Derek. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the werewolf kids and even the human ones too but Derek stays behind with stiles until he catches up. Then when it’s time to leave Talia calls over the kids with a loud whistle (lol my mom actually does this) and all the kids all start herding back to the car, including stiles who is just following along. It takes Talia when they’re half way home to realize that she took an extra kid with her, she didn’t even smell him cause they’ve all been rolling around him all day. Good thing she knows Claudia so she won’t be too freaked out.
She gets half way home and realises there’s 11 heartbeats in the back seat when there should only be 10 (I know, what car fits 11 kids, we’ll, they’re small and children - especially werewolf pups - have no regards for safety). She pulls over and turns around to see stiles sitting between Cora and Derek with a big smile on his face.
I like to think that Talia, Noah and Claudia grew up around the same time and know each other well, or maybe Peter caused a lot of trouble growing up and Noah was a new deputy that often had to deal with him (like Parrish with Stiles), so she knows Stiles and just drives him home. Chances are, Stiles snuck out of the house to go play at the park in the first place.
My Fridge Food – No idea what to make? Tell this site what ingredients you have on hand and it will give you recipes to cook.
Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.
Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.
Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.
Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.
LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.
Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.
Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.
CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.
Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.
Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.
Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.
Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.
My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.
Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.
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Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.
Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.
Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.
Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.
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This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.
Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.
BitWarden – Free open source password manager.
Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.
ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.
Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.
Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.
Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.
myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.
DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.
Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.
FF16 cross stitch WIP update, Clive has a torso! The reds of his shirt (and how the shirt folds) look so cool! 😄
This FF16 cross stitch pattern is by NeedleMinderLair on Etsy, and the final piece will look like the below image. I think I’m going to work on his arm holding his sword next!
FFXVI really takes your hand and says 'come with me', then shows you a world that is broken and full of pain and heartache and selfishness and cruelty. It shows you the terrible things people are willing to do to each other for no good reason, it shows you how how leaders can be short sighed and foolish in their earnest desire to do the right thing for their people, and that causes no less pain then when they are corrupted and arrogant and vain monsters. It shows you how people's cruelty all to often is born of a world that beats them down that gives them no other choice but to be cruel if they want to survive.
And then it asks: is this worth saving? Is this worth protecting? Wouldn’t it be better if you just let it all go? Let it all be destroyed, and broken apart, and lost? Wouldn’t it be enough to just end the pain? Wouldn’t that be salvation?
And in the same breath it answers, no because salvation isn’t the point. Humanity is cruel, greedy, fractious and hateful and it always will be. Just as humanity is kind, generous, united and loving and always will be. Even as the world falls apart The Dame fights to keep Northreach together, even as monsters beat down her gates Martha takes in refugees and escaped slaves and refuses to stop, even as nations crumble and bandits flourish the Dragoons still battle for the sake of their people and country, while the Crusebreakers keep struggling to free the innocent and protect the weak. Even as Joshua is hacking up blood, even as his body is shutting down he keeps walking forward at Clive’s side inevitably, inexorably to the end, because he loves his brother and refuses to give him up to Ultima’s scheme.
FFXVI tells you that there are no promises, not guarantees, that the only people who can promise salvation are the ones who want to sell it. FFXVI says that no one is assured victory, or safety, or paradise. The point is not to save the world from it’s evils. The point is that we fight to try and reach the next dawn with the people we love. Humanity can never create a perfect world because we are imperfect creatures, but the battle to make a better world, a kinder world, a more free world, a more gentle more fair, more loving world is what defines us.
JILL IS STRONGER THAN WE THINK: No I'm serious, here's why (all the spoilers)
When I finished FFXVI my feelings about Jill were… ok she's fine. We got her in the party after her time in the Iron Kingdom so she was physically weak. Even her powers were not as strong as Titan or Bahamut. She shone bright when killing Imreann, but then seemed relegated to the background for the rest of the game. She's even captured twice and requiring her boyfriend to save her. In 2023 that's so tropey it hurts.
However after too much overthinking, I think she's pretty great. She's well thought out. The problem is that sometimes the storytelling is too subtle and as an overtired and always stressed modern gamer I missed a few things about Jill.
Thinking back, how was Ultima defeated? Why couldn't Ultima posess Clive? Not because of Clive's physical strength or his massive pecs, but because of his Will. In the end, Clive's Will did not break or falter. Ultima fights with physical strength sure, but he usually gets what he wants throughout the story by breaking people's Will.
Jill's Will never breaks. Not once. Even when facing death from Kupka. She lives through torture and abuse but always remains in control of her Eikon. A broken Will is an Eikon out of control.
Ultima causes Clive's Will to break at Phoenix Gate. He also loses control with Garuda.
Joshua's Will breaks after seeing his father killed.
Benedikta's Will breaks after losing Garuda. Garuda gave her a sense of power and control, especially over men (who had hurt her in the past).
Kupka's Will breaks by eating the mothercrystal to gain more power. He did this at the suggestion of Harbard, who worked for Barnabas, who, well…
Dion's Will breaks after constant frustrations with his family, and Ultima manipulating him into killing his father. It should be noted that Ultima had to work pretty hard for this one.
Barnabas had no Will the entire story. He volunteered it to Ultima. Arguably the most physically powerful Eikon was the weakest when it came to Ultima's machinations. He genuinely thought Ultima would let him be reborn.
Obviously this leads to Cid, who also has an unshakeable Will and maintains control during his short time in the game. Both Cid and Jill influence Clive to strengthen his own Will. So why did it seem to me the Cid was a strong dominant, but Jill was just kind of meh?
I feel like this is an area the writing could have used some tweaks. Cid showed his strong Will by defying everything Valisthea stood on and creating an entire movement about it. This was a huge part of the plot. There are scenes where Jill could have primed out of control to save herself (Kupka and Barnabas's abductions for example, a yellow-eyed eikon could probably break crystal fetters) but the game doesn't really put that idea into the player's head. "Oooh is she gonna go crazy before this big dude cuts off her head and destroy Rosaria?" like they could have shown her struggling, or her eyes turning slightly yellow before regaining control of herself.
Or since Barnabas was Ultima's puppet, the scene on the ship could have been used as a way for Ultima to try to break her Will, but she resisted. In both cases, her resolve didn't seem tested and she seemed more like a plot point. I don't think this is intentionally how her character was written, but a side effect of making Clive the entire focus.
Our human monkey brains tend to lean into a Might Makes Right mindset, but physical strength was not what Valisthea needed. It needed the strongest Wills to save itself.
I know that no one follows me for final fantasy stuff, but I need to write out my thoughts/interpretation the Final Fantasy XVI ending, and tumblr allows for good spoiler protection, so forgive my indulgence.
SPOILERS AHEAD, DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE BEAT FFXVI
Okay. Now, as much as I hate it, I think Dion is definitely dead, or meant to have died. While there's no question in my mind that this is the game's intent, the fate of any of the three who faced Ultima can be easily amended with enough will (hehe) or copium. We only see Dion falling, we don't see him actually die, so why can't Dion be to FFXVI what Shepard is to Mass Effect 3? Joshua (if he lived), or Terence, or Medicine Girl, can be there searching for him in the rubble, find him, heal him. But yes, for me personally this is a pure copium interpretation none-the-less.
As for Clive, I also think he is definitely dead. He states that Ultima's power was too much for his vessel body in the end, and we see the curse taking him on the beach, spreading from his fingertips to his entire hand within seconds. We also see Metia fading, which indicates Clive's death.
The main argument I see for Clive's survival is that in the final Jill quest, she says that no matter how bad the night is, the dawn will always come, as will Clive. And then when Jill is crying, she sees the dawn come, and stops crying. However, I think that's just her finding hope in the darkness, and through her grief, taking comfort in the knowledge that Clive did indeed save the world so that a new dawn would always come.
This also fits with the lyrics of the song that play at the end, My Star, which go:
For your flame still burns inside me deep within my heart
Showing me, a new tomorrow, never too far
And when I cannot bear the pain, I look up to the sky and pray
And though our night is over you shall always remain, forever, my treasure, my star
Yeah, those lyrics definitely say "Clive is dead" to me, sadly. I think Clive's fate is of course debatable, and I see a lot of people convinced that he survived. But, for me, as much as I wish he did, I just don't think he lived.
Now, finally, to Joshua, the most complicated one. The biggest piece of evidence for Joshua's survival is THE BOOK. Final Fantasy, written by Joshua Rosfield. A lot of people think that Clive wrote the book under Joshua's name due to the quill that Harpocrates gave to him, but... why? That makes no sense to me. If they wanted to show that Clive survived and wrote the book, the book would have just had Clive's byline. Let's not forget that Harpocrates also said that Joshua is a gifted writer, so Harpocrates' crumbs don't lead only to Clive as the author.
There's also the interpretation that Clive/Jill had a son named Joshua who wrote the book. While more plausible to me and also a sweet interpretation, it still seems like quite a big reach. Or, perhaps Joshua had already been writing the book while he was alive, and Clive finished/published it? But when Harpocrates tells Clive that Joshua would be a good writer (which he also says to Clive to keep us all confused, lulz), it's implied that there really isn't time for anyone to be writing, but maybe after Ultima's defeat it's the pen they could turn to.
So, of all the explanations for the book, I think that Joshua surviving and writing it is the most likely, and the reason for that being shown at the end when it easily didn't have to be shown at all. And let's also not forget that the name Joshua derives from Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus. Jesus and the Phoenix, these are both figures who rise again.
But, that of course begets the problem of how, actually, did he survive when he was most definitely dead? Joshua even explicitly says in an earlier scene that the Phoenix can mend flesh, but not restore a spirit. Yet, the difference from then and the end is that when Clive healed Joshua, he was using the power he absorbed from Ultima, the power of a God. We know this because after Clive heals Joshua, he states that his body wasn't enough to be able to handle Ultima's power after all. And if Ultima's power wasn't important narratively, then Clive could have healed Joshua's flesh once he absorbed the Phoenix's power, rather than this act occurring after. Besides, whatever he did to Joshua must have utilized a great deal of power, not just the power of simple healing/mending flesh, to have been too much for his vessel body. And while the powers of the Phoenix can't restore a spirit on their own, we really don't know what they would be capable of in conjunction with Ultima's power.
Even before this, we know that Joshua's power earlier went to bounds that it should not have been able to when he reached Clive, who was trapped in Ultima's nightmare realm. Ultima says something like, "You shouldn't have the power to do this. How is this possible? This is the power of creation," (paraphrase). I think that Joshua and Clive's powers, when fueled by their will, determination, and brotherly love, are capable of stretching beyond any normal bounds. There's no telling what they'd be capable of when combined with Ultima's power. Therefore, as Clive cycles through the memories of his brother and burns with the will for the power to heal him, Clive was able to actually revive Joshua at the end.
My last though on Joshua surviving is not based on any actual game events/lore/evidence, so might perhaps be more copium fueled, but I think it also makes more sense for Clive's story arc. The game begins with him (nearly) killing his brother, and a full loop would end with him saving him. Final Fantasy XVI is after all, more than anything, a story of brotherly love. For Clive's final act to be to save his brother and fulfill his duty as Joshua's shield, is a much more satisfying and complete story and character arc imo.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Like I said, it's really up to interpretation which, if any of those three, might have survived. The only thing that would change that would be if we got a post-game DLC that confirmed things one way or another. But, for now, this is what makes the most sense to me, for better or worse.
Thinking about how Clive swore to kill the one who killed his brother.
Thinking about how he told Cid that once he'd done so, "whatever happens, happens", and how Cid then chided him for being a slave to fate.
Thinking about how, according to the Ultimania, Clive made Joshua the core of his spiritual identity...and how he began training to be his Shield since the tender age of 6.
Thinking about how, when fighting Ultima in the end, he did so as Joshua's Shield, and nearly every exchange he had with Ultima was drawn from Joshua's last words. But when the fight was done...his high idealism of humanity seemed to fade. Because it wasn't his own. It was Joshua's.
...Thinking that the "Logos" presence that Ultima picked up on in the Interdimensional Rift and in Origin was not Clive--it was Joshua. Joshua, who'd picked up the power of creation. Joshua "with my light in your heart" Rosfield, who occupied Clive's being so much that Ultima could not. (In short, Joshua benevolently "stole" Mythos out from under Ultima.)
...Coming to the conclusion that Clive ultimately did fulfill his original vow, coming full circle: To kill the one who killed his brother, and then let whatever happened next, happen.
Which means...if we agree with Cid's perspective, Clive was not free. He did not fight for himself, nor against his fate. He did not try to save himself after Joshua was gone, even when so many others wanted him to. (Irony of ironies, Clive committed what was one of Ultima's chief sins according to his brother: He refused, in the end, to honor the faith and will others had for him to return, even those he most treasured.)
If one person makes their relationship and duty to another person their whole identity, can that person truly be free willed, on a spiritual scale?
No...I don't think they can be.
Free will (I think) demands some sense of inherent worth, independent selfhood/ personhood--a sense of identity that allows for the value of others' input, but does not require them to validate or qualify it.
Whether he triumphs or fails; whether he lives or dies, I would very much like to see Clive fight for himself--to find out who or what he is to himself when not defined by his role or duty to another person.
Cloud wasn’t in the mood to deal with this, Hell he didn’t even know where he was supposed to start. He barely remembered what had happened this early in the timeline let alone know how to stop it. ‘Should probably start with the reactor in Nibleheim.’ Getting there would be a long journey on foot with no weapons. Cloud decided to wing it and took off in a random direction.
Typical ffvii time travel fic. No weapons no transportation no thoughts. Just a rewrite of CC with AC cloud collecting swords in the background.
Cloud was leaving the icicle inn after purchasing the Organics for his collection.
He crashes into Modeoheim and throws everything off course.
Cloud doesn't know what he's doing or who this man holding Zack's sword is. They're talking about honor? Cloud has fought with that sword and has very strong words for Angeal. But insane Sephiroth who's been hanging in the background? He's livid but doesn't have the memory to know why.
Cloud wasn’t in the mood to deal with this, Hell he didn’t even know where he was supposed to start. He barely remembered what had happened this early in the timeline let alone know how to stop it. ‘Should probably start with the reactor in Nibleheim.’ Getting there would be a long journey on foot with no weapons. Cloud decided to wing it and took off in a random direction.
Typical ffvii time travel fic. No weapons no transportation no thoughts. Just a rewrite of CC with AC cloud collecting swords in the background.
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