gascon-en-exil

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Remembered we're likely getting regional variants for the Kalos legends game - are there any Pokemon that you'd like or think they'd fit well in the France inspired region that didn't have a chance in XY?

The Snivy line and the Swords of Justice are the ones that stand out the most to me as being explicitly French, the one being loosely Grand Siècle-era royalty and the others being the Trois Mousquetaires. The Swords could easily be the standout legendaries of the game, similar to what I believe was the role of the genies in Legends Arceus. Snivy would be a logical starter choice in general, although I don't know what its new regional evolution would be. Does it abandon the monarchy and embrace the Republic? That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a different Grass starter get used instead, primarily Chikorita because that poor thing needs anything it can get to not be the absolute worst starter line ever.

I think Smeargle getting a regional variant would be a fun idea; XY have artist trainers that use it exclusively, and there's a lot of French artistic movements that could be pulled from as inspiration. Or Oricorio getting a new form inspired by ballet, which developed out of Renaissance court dances in Italy and France. Differently-typed Slugma and Magcargo based on escargots, a Smoliv or Cherubi line variant based on grapes rather than olives/cherries, more Fairies in general to both nod to Kalos introducing them and to pull from European folklore like most of the Galar Fairies (would love a Fairy-type Pumpkaboo line as a reference to "Cendrillon," etc.)...there's a lot of entertaining options.

#Pokémon #Pokémon Legends Z A

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I had to chuckle when someone pointed out that mythic Loki's art in the FEH Channel got a censor blur on YouTube.

I do love having repeated confirmation that Heroes is, in fact, softcore porn for IS's target demographic.

#Fire Emblem #FEH #Fire Emblem Heroes #That demographic being straight male gacha whales of course

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Well...that poll wasn't as helpful as I'd thought it might be.

Thanks to those who offered some advice in the notes on the benefits of delayed publishing; I'll take those as tiebreakers.

For the fic readers out there:

I'm currently sitting on over 11,000 words of an unpublished fanfic, with quite a few more ideas for scenes to come later on. I have a definitive endpoint in mind, but I haven't done much in the way of editing, or broken up what I have into chapters (although I have ideas for logical places to split things up).

Would I be better off finishing the entire fic and then uploading it, probably in stages, or should I edit and then publish what I have and just trust that I'll be able to maintain this momentum and finish the rest of it eventually?

#Pointless update #While it would be nice to get something out before I'm all the way at the end of however long this fic will be #Publishing some of it and then feeling pressured to finish quickly #On top of my various other projects #Just doesn't sound like a good time

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For the fic readers out there:

I'm currently sitting on over 11,000 words of an unpublished fanfic, with quite a few more ideas for scenes to come later on. I have a definitive endpoint in mind, but I haven't done much in the way of editing, or broken up what I have into chapters (although I have ideas for logical places to split things up).

Would I be better off finishing the entire fic and then uploading it, probably in stages, or should I edit and then publish what I have and just trust that I'll be able to maintain this momentum and finish the rest of it eventually?

#Pointless update #Not mentioning the fandom/pairing as I don't think that's directly relevant at the moment

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So much for that alleged Direct leak today.

Works out well for me, though. I've got entirely too much else going on at the moment to be getting hyped over a Genealogy remake.

#Pointless update #Obviously I'd *like* FE18 to be the FE4 remake #...But not in the next two months

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So I kind of started writing fanfic a few days ago. Oops.

If anything ever comes of it - in between my mountains of other current projects, that is - it'll be on AO3.

#Pointless update

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I decided to watch Strange Way of Life this evening, despite my general distaste for US Wild West stories. There's just something I find rather grotesque about the whole setting, and not in a remotely relatable way - and yet I keep stumbling across gay Westerns all the same.

It was fine, very obviously born of a desire to take the sublimated homoeroticism of the Western genre and make it explicit. There might have also been some mild cultural commentary in there, with the Latin character being the more open-minded of the two leads and with Mexico as the site of the halcyon trysts of their youth in contrast to...wherever in the US they're supposed to be in the present.

The resolution of the story is a bit overly tidy, but at least neither of the lovers has to die in the end.

#Strange Way of Life

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Nuisances in the comments section aside, I do note that the Unicorn Overlord video is now one of my best-performing non-FE videos ever. I have mixed feelings on that; there are several other projects I've put more time and effort into, based on material I enjoyed much more than I did UO.

Still, no point in griping about good engagement numbers, especially when they indicate that I may not be entirely pigeonholed into FE content.

#Pointless observation

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i'm genuinely surprised you haven't seen any praise for non-gender locked S-ranks, because i love that they did that.

I'm sure praise for Engage's Pact Ring system exists somewhere, but it's been heavily overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the localization diluting some of the conversations and others (Anna, Jean) outright existing at all.

Of course, as someone who's held the whole Avatar S rank-centered system of modern FE in disdain from the beginning, there's a delightful irony in seeing it so overlooked even now that it's nominally more inclusive than ever. FE17 returning to the Binding Blade system of only giving the lord paired endings did it no favors whatsoever, and the aforementioned controversy sapped almost all the other goodwill the fandom had for the Pact Ring.

I'm glad that someone enjoyed it at least; there are a handful of genuinely romantic outcomes buried in there that aren't half bad if you don't mind the script-sharing.

#Fire Emblem #FE17 #Fire Emblem Engage

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It would appear that the Unicorn Overlord fanbase is proportionately more homophobic than the typical audience for my videos. I wonder why that is?

Also, I continue to be baffled by how YouTube's automatic comment moderation works. This one doesn't show up for me under the video (which is probably why the same person left a shorter and less explicitly inflammatory comment just after), but it does pop up in the list of recent comments that I can see on my creator dashboard - and not in this list of those being held for review. YT has a comment limbo, I guess.

#YouTube update #This isn't the first time I've noticed that with some comments either #But anyway #Usually when I'm being called a parasite it's a reference to New Orleans vampires #Or someone in the family just died and the rest of us are squabbling over who gets their stuff

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I put a ring on twenty-nine men (and a handful of women, for comparative purposes) for the sake of my channel. So much predictable disappointment, so little time.

#Unicorn Ovelord #Youtube

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It took 49 (!) pulls, but I finally got my first Emblem unit. I don't think I've ever spent orbs so recklessly before in the three years since I started playing FEH.

#Fire Emblem #FEH #Fire Emblem Heroes #I still have enough to spark on the upcoming NH banner like always #But I'll be cutting it much closer than I'd like #Oddly enough not being able to spark on most banner types probably helps me #I just don't bother pulling on the majority of seasonals

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Huh. Reading anon here reminded me of a few I got a few weeks ago. The first one in that vein asked me if I opposed the death penalty as a Catholic; I answered that one because it sounded like a legitimate question. But then I got these two right after -

I ignored them because it was starting to sound like more random trolling, which I tend to get pretty regularly (song lyrics, unrealistic-sounding propositions for sex, bizarre information about anon's dick and/or their sex life, etc.).

Interesting to note as always that it hasn't just been me getting stuff like that.

show me where someone said they wanted to put a bullet in you specifically. Never happened. By the way I care more about helping the innocent and wrongly imprisoned than anything on here or discord. I donate to the innocence project every month. I'm also sending money to a falsely accused guy in a very high profile homicide case, though I will not specify who. I raise awareness of official misconduct and how touch DNA has been used to wrongly convict people. That's my calling in life. What are you doing to help people in a worse situation than you. Probably nothing

I wasn't going to publish these but honestly, I have to point this out. Either this is Raxis, Vagrantsea, one of the people in the death threat screenshots, or some other party that has been directly involved in the harassment... or this is a COMPLETE rando with NO stakes in this conflict trying to convince me that if THEY are a good person, that somehow makes the people who harassed me justified to harass me. If it's the latter, that just elevates this ENTIRE ask to the level of absurdist comedy and I can't not share that. Like, imagine if you saw someone get mugged, it's on video, and as they're being arrested a complete rando who doesn't know anyone involved jumps in to be like "no they couldn't have mugged anyone, because I donate to charity!" But for the sake of argument, we're going to assume this comes from someone actually directly involved.

So first, congratulations! I hope you do actually do all of those things. But also, what a weaselly, pathetic little argument to make in response to me, again, talking about how I've gotten death threats and harassment. "You weren't harassed even though there's screenshots of it, and even if you were I'm actually a GOOD PERSON, SEE!"??? What exactly do you expect my response to be here? "Oh well I've been getting stalked and harassed but anon donated to the innocence project, so I guess I can't be upset anymore"? Would you also think it's okay for someone to beat their spouse at home as long as they donated to a homeless shelter sometimes, or can we acknowledge that doing a good thing doesn't cancel out the shitty things you do?

And sure, since you asked, I do in fact do things IRL to help people in a worse situation than me. It's, like, my actual job. I also don't bring that up at every opportunity, unlike you apparently, because I'm not a cowardly little rat who needs to hide behind the suffering of marginalized and abused communities to justify stalking people and sending them death treats over a PNG girlie. I'm sorry if what you've done to me has made you feel like a bad person, but that's entirely your own damn fault for doing it. If you want to prove you're a good person, then maybe it's time you stop trying to justify and excuse your shitty behavior and start taking responsibility for it.

#Fandom discourse

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A Very Belated Octopath Traveler II Ranking

I had an anon asking me about Octopath Traveler II story rankings a few weeks ago. I'd been wanting to do one of those for a long time now, but between all my other projects I haven't really had the time. I can however throw together a quick summation. If there's any interest in longer versions I might be persuaded to explore that...but when I say "long" I really do mean it. Most of my notes at the moment go on for paragraphs for almost every traveler.

#8 Ochette

Knockoff Pokémon. Kind of shapeless thanks to the nonlinearity. Brings up heavy themes but can't really explore them in part because the beastlings are just handled weirdly. The villain only existing offscreen sucks.

#7 Hikari

Literally the standard Fire Emblem plot, only it doesn't work in the Octopath format because of geographic isolation and the travelers being handled oddly as a group like always. Has some pacing issues especially in Chapter 4 with its massive cutscene dump. Was pretty much exactly what I expected from start to finish.

#6 Throné

Fantastic opening and even better midgame, then dives off a cliff at the end because it has to escalate to the Final Story. Overall story can't accommodate such a bittersweet ending so it just kind of...doesn't. Still earns points for how it handles familial abuse and the perpetuation of the cycle of violence.

#5 Partitio

Man's dads get divorced, so he starts an industrial revolution to get them back together. Is as awesomely ridiculous as that sounds, and is enhanced by various unique stylistic flourishes. Succeeds as long as you don't try to bring any serious economic or political themes into it. Also extremely gay homosocial all around, soured only by the token female character...and not remotely in the way you'd expect based on how I'm describing it.

#4 Agnea

A low-stakes, feel-good romp that's exactly what you think it's going to be, and is wonderful at it. Begins leaning on the fourth wall in amusing ways by the end, and although it's also weirdly leashed to the Final Story it goes over better than it does with Throné's or Partitio's stories. Primrose was my favorite from the first game, and while the tone of this one is completely different I'm surprisingly okay with that.

#3 Temenos

A bit lazy doing another story with a Sherlock Holmes-esque approach to mystery when the first game already did one, but the stakes are higher from the start and Temenos is also doing most of the heavy lifting building to the Final Story. Crick provides some much-needed emotional stakes, even including his ultimate fate. Gets a bit lost in its own plot twists at one point, but that's mostly a minor nitpick.

#2 Osvald

Opening is constraining and atmospheric in just the right way. Appropriately dramatic at all the right points with a delightfully hammy villain, and pivots from revenge to the Power of Love adequately enough so as not to feel too cheesy. Spaces out its multiple flashback sequences much better than Hikari's story. It and #1 are actually helped by being narrative cul-de-sacs relative to the Final Story.

#1 Castti

Does pretty much everything the other stories do right. Deftly handles an amnesia plot with clever presentation and a strong supporting cast. Healeaks is devastating, the villain is hammy but also sympathetic (his turn being offscreen is the weakest note of the whole thing), and Castti is a solid presence throughout even if she never really stands out much to me as a character. Ending is satisfying but still allowed to feel melancholy, and it doesn't lead to mood whiplash like Throné's does.

#Octopath Traveler #Octopath Traveler II

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It randomly occurred to me that, had they not already been attached to their own mobile gacha, the Octopath Traveler characters would have been perfect additions to Heroes. OT uses the same weapon types as FE of course, but they also would have made for easy FEH banners even aside from that. I would have loved sharing my OT2 ships with everyone that way - especially considering how open OT canon is on that score.

#Pointless observation #Even Champions of the Continent is an awkward fit for the OT2 cast #They need something more substantial #And more Osvald/Partitio content is always welcome *ahem*

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I had a friend over yesterday and 3H came up and I said the phrase "great Fargheus polycule" unironically. Which I think is pretty clear evidence of the measurable and positive impact you have on the world around you. On an unrelated note, how bad is the pollen in New Orleans this time of year? I live in DC and my sinuses are unionizing as we speak.

That's pretty funny. I can say that sort of thing has happened in fandom before, back when Echoes was current and I started referring to "Clive's gay entourage" which a mutual really picked up and ran with. With how much smaller and short-lived conversations surrounding FE15 were compared to Houses, it wouldn't surprise me if those headcanons from 2017 found their way into broader fandom consciousness. I mean, Fernand is explicitly gay in Sacred Echoes.... But anyway, it's just one of those things that works out well as a reflection of shipping culture, in how there's surprisingly little antagonism between the many gay Dimitri ships. Even if you're not multishipping him with half the continent, they all overlap so well that there's no real need for conflict.

The pollen in New Orleans is awful as it always is this time of year, as is the mounting heat. April is generally what I think of as the beginning of southern Louisiana's 7-8 month long summer, and the ending of that most wonderful time of year when walking outside doesn't feel like entering a dirty, overheated, insect-infested sauna. Pollen only adds to the "fun"...although it doesn't deter tourism much. We just had the annual gay Easter parade, and coming up is French Quarter Fest and later Jazz Fest. I really don't know how all those people can stand it.

#Fire Emblem #Also a pointless observation

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Awakening silhouettes?

Meh, so much for the child banner sticking to classic FE. Now it'll be years before we get Jugdral kids.... *grumbles*

#Pointless observation