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blitzkrieg-mit-dem-fleischgewehr · 3 years

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Headcanons for Balthier mied Bunansa Pt. 1

I had an amazing conversation with my roommate tonight about our above-mentioned leading man. In fact.....the details of what we discussed were so enlightening (as well as building on some of my headcanons already) that before I forget a lot of it, I would immortalize it here on Tumblr so that I can come back and read it when needing details. We spoke specifically about Balthier’s past and his relationship with his family.

It is known that Balthier had siblings, I believe it was two older brothers, and aside from that nothing more is known of them. We also know that at some point Balthier’s mother passed away which caused Cid to fall further into his research, estranging him from his children, and then Giruvagen occurring which had many believe Cid to have gone insane (which I guess some could argue isn’t entirely false).

For me, I like to headcanon that Balthier did have good relations with his entire family. That his mother’s death definitely but a strain on it especially when his father began pulling away from everyone.

Timeline wise, I like to think that there’s a year of mourning for Cid that his children understand that he needs to process the pain of losing his partner. However, once that year is up, I headcanon that he leaves for Giruvagen on his research trip, which lasts approximately two years, where the middle son ends up taking care of Balthier while he’s gone.

This ends up leading to resentment because the moment Cid returns it’s like he’s become a different man. The eldest brother realises right away that his father barely acknowledges him. The middle brother is upset because he put his life on pause to help with Balthier and keeping the estate running and wasn’t expecting their father to return and discard all his duties as a father. In terms of Balthier, having lost his mother, and then having his father disappear for two years to only return and also barely acknowledge him. I can’t imagine that would be easy on him especially if we go with the idea that he did have a good relationship with his father.

I want to say that Balthier was probably around 9 or 10 when his mother passed away (not sure if they gave a date for her death but lets go with that for now). Which would mean by the time his father returns Balthier is around 13 years old. I can see Cid telling Balthier that it’s his turn to be of use and gets him enrolled in Judge Academy. I like to think that because of Cid’s position as head scientist that he was able to pull strings. Thanks, nepotism! And he gets Balthier in earlier than is strictly legal. Many would turn a blind eye to those high in power. So, Balthier, wanting to see if he can mend his relationship with his father, reluctantly commits to it (not that he had much of a choice anyway) and performs to the best of his ability during his time at the academy. Astounding even. I’m going to switch over for a few seconds to mention that I feel as if Balthier is the one that was upset with how broken his family had become after his mother’s death. I headcanon that the Bunansa family dynamic was actually quite good and they were all quite close. So seeing both his brothers take several steps back from the family really hurt. I also headcanon that his eldest brother, upset that his father doesn’t acknowledge any of the work he’s done, ends up going on this diplomatic mission/trip and gets killed in the process. This occurs right before Balthier graduates (which would have come at a later date due to Balthier’s age (( I think 16 is wayyyy too young to be a graduated Judge and one in active duty)) but thanks to Cid gets him to graduate ‘early’/ on time (if he had been of proper age to enroll). For me, it just hammers the fact that Balthier will forever be in his father’s shadows in Archades. That even though he did deserve to graduate because he did spectacularly in Judge Academy, that it was still not his own merit that allowed him to graduate. So that would be another component to stoke the flames of his upset. Plus, then he hears that his brother died just before and it really shows that his family won’t ever go back to the same dynamic they once had. It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. Then, learning everything the Empire has been doing throughout the war and how the Counsel as well as the palace work environment is like, it cements the fact that Balthier would rather do anything but work as a Judge. Yes, he’s the youngest Judge in history but none of this is worth it and none of this is what he wants. I will add that throughout his time in the academy, he has been working on an old airship because he’s been considering running away for a while now. However, he had hoped that maybe he could get through to his father, which he does not, he leaves. He packs as much as he can and he escapes from Archades. This is a side-note on the part in the game when they make it to Archades and Balthier excuses himself to go take care of some business. My roommate and I thought it would be tragic if it was to see his dying brother who had grown ill while he was gone. And he learns that day that his brother was actually very proud of Balthier for leaving and getting to live his own life because that was not a luxury he had gotten. And Balthier at that point feels guilt for leaving because he could have been there to take care of him but at the same time Archades and their father had been a suffocating cage for him and all he ever wanted was freedom. Which, he did get to a degree. He was still chained to his father and the past they shared as well as a lot of unresolved feelings but he mostly deals with that throughout the game. So, he leaves, crashes the ship near Balfonheim and then realises how alone he is and how little he knows when it comes to survival. Seeing as he’s lived quite a comfortable life as an aristocratic Archadian, it makes sense that he would be out of his depth as a 17 year old having to figure out how to make money, where to sleep, how to cook, and just how to get around in a world that he’s actually not at all familiar with. Being that young too and having lost so much, there would be a long period of mourning. Of stupid decisions. Of self-reflection and of figuring out what he can do to support himself. I give it around 6ish months before he runs into Fran and she’s the one that starts piecing him back together, giving him a reason to live and reminding him that family doesn’t necessarily have to be blood-related.

Then the next several years he’s working to make money, making other stupid mistakes but necessary ones for his own development, fixing the Strahl with Fran’s help, and discovering how sheltered he’d been and how beautiful life outside of Archades really is. Then there’s becoming as notorious as he does as a Sky Pirate which I feel like would take a few years, so I headcanon that Balthier is between 25-27 in game rather than 22. I just think that given his history and everything that he’s had to go through, that he wouldn’t be as mature or as stable as he is as a 22 year old. This is off topic but on topic, I also headcanon both Basch and Gabranth as being 32 rather than 36. I just think that as warriors and being as good of a swordsmen as they are, being a bit younger would still afford them the flexibility of being able to bounce back from injuries. I see it as professional athletes who are forced to retire in their thirties because they can’t compete with younger athletes anymore. Of course, I could argue that being a Judge Magister you can get away with being older given you probably don’t actually see action that often. However, Basch on the other hand, was constantly on the batllefield and then he was tortured and practically starved for two years in Nalbina, which....would take time to recuperate from if you’re getting up there in age. I guess what I’m trying to say is, Square Enix, please hire me to do the aging of your characters. I’m not sure who does this but there are some odd ages for some of these characters that I feel need to be reconsidered.

And that will be that for part 1. xD

#balthier #ffxii #ffxii zodiac age #ffamran mied bunansa #headcanons #will work on more

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shielddrake · 4 years

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Final Fantasy XII: A Retrospective Review

So, I received Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for Christmas last year.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. I have played almost every game with that title that has been released…at least the ones released in America, since I sadly do not speak Japanese. So it’s not unreasonable to assume I would want a remake of one of its games. I have quite a few, in fact, including V and VI on my iPhone, III and IV on my DS, and I and II on my PSP. Final Fantasy IX was the first game I put on my PS4 when I got it (yeah, I admit I put a PS1 game on my PS4 before anything else) and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying VIII when its remaster came out last September.

Final Fantasy XII, however, is a bit of an exception because, my Internet friends, I have a confession to make: Final Fantasy XII is my least favorite in the franchise.

Now I wouldn’t say that FFXII is a bad game. Far from it. It’s a very good game. For the most part, I completely understand why so many people love it. I just don’t feel the same way.

When I first played the game when it was released, I was not too thrilled with a lot of the gameplay decisions and where it ended up going story-wise. At the time, I concluded that while it was a good game, it was a poor Final Fantasy title. And this is taking into account the fact that I had played and beaten both Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advance several times before playing FFXII. Both of these games are quite different from the main FF series, but are great in their own right. I basically consider the Ivalice Alliance as a separate spin-off series, sort of like the Crystal Chronicles games or the Dissidia series.

But FFXII was not that great, in my opinion. I didn’t feel invested in the characters, I was not a fan of the combat or license board system at all, and I felt the story was incomplete at best and annoyingly vague at worst. There were a lot of missed opportunities for the use of the characters. I was neutral about the graphics, which, although beautiful, I felt did not really improve on what was presented in Final Fantasy X, and I didn’t like that a lot of the regular trends known in the previous installments (the summons being the main example that comes to mind) were thrown out for something completely disconnected. I finished the game just feeling a mix of boredom and irritation, to be perfectly honest. The only thing I can recall even remotely liking was the music, despite it not being composed by Nobuo Uematsu, my favorite composer of all time even to this day.

Needless to say, playing The Zodiac Age was not on my list of priorities, and I’m not sure I ever would have played it had it not been gifted to me.

All that said, I received the game and felt that, well, maybe since I have it anyway I would give it another shot. Let’s see if FFXII is as bad as I remember. Maybe a retrospective review would be a good thing to post on the twelfth anniversary of the game’s original release, so why not?

* Looks at the dates and realizes Final Fantasy XII was originally released 14 years ago, not 12. *

Uh, never mind. Clearly I’m way too late for that party.

Anyway, as I started playing, I decided that there were two big questions that I wanted to answer with this retrospective review:

1.) Is Final Fantasy XII as bad of a game as I remember it being when it was first released?

2.) Would I change my claim about Final Fantasy XII being my least favorite game in the franchise?

Obviously the game has been out for a long time, remake or not, but I want to warn against spoilers here just in case. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s experience after all. With that, let’s get started.

Statistics

I just wanted to start this review with a few facts about my playthroughs (yes, the plural is intentional).

I played through The Zodiac Age twice, once for about 42 hours in length and the second for about 47. I used each of the jobs in the zodiac job system in each playthrough, but in different combinations and on different characters. Of course, I couldn’t account for every possible combination. That would take a very long time…

The party was at level 46 on my shorter playthrough and 51 on my longer one. I did not complete all of the hunts, although I fought more of them the second time through. I did not try to get any of the special gear like the Zodiac Spear, mostly because I don’t know how. I also did not get all of the espers, because other than the required time you have to summon Belias to get into Giruvegan, I never used summoning.

I avoided any guides or other playthroughs for the game, relying on the game’s directions and my memory from my previous plays…fourteen years ago…to guide me through the main part of the story. Yeah, I haven’t played FFXII since it was released in 2006, maybe 2007, give or take a few months. So, if I got confused or lost during the course of the game, it was because I either missed directions or the game was not clear on where I needed to go.

At the time of this review, I have not experimented at all with Trial Mode or played through New Game Plus.

Graphics

This section will be short, since I don’t have a lot to say about it.

The graphics are very good. As I stated above, in the original I did not feel the graphics were all that different than Final Fantasy X released four years prior, and my opinion of The Zodiac Age hasn’t really changed. According to the Final Fantasy Wiki, the game was given “high resolution upgrades to backgrounds, character models, 2d parts, and movie scenes.” To be honest, I didn’t notice much of a difference, although that might be because I didn’t play the game often enough to have the original graphics etched in my memory.

However, that does not mean the game looks bad. On the contrary, it is still a beautiful game, despite a few small glitches such as Balthier’s dialogue not syncing up to his lip movements or Basch’s hair not moving, Those are minor nitpicks. The game is still lovely to look at.

Sound and Music

Again, the music for this game is excellent. As I mentioned before, the music was probably the one thing I would praise about the game when it was originally released. The Zodiac Age somehow manages to make it better by providing a rerecorded soundtrack that makes a lot of the notes sound less harsh. There is the option of switching it back to the original version, but I preferred the new one. Basically they took the one thing I liked about the original game and made it better.

The voice acting I am pretty neutral about. For the most part, I don’t think anyone’s voice work was either bad or good. Other than the overuse of sighs, of which I get most annoyed by Ashe’s because she sighs all the time, I don’t mind the voice acting very much.

The only one I have a problem with, and this was also the case when I first played FFXII, is with Fran’s voice. I always feel bad criticizing a voice actor because they put a lot of training and passion into their work, but I just can’t help but be really annoyed at the choices SquareEnix made when casting Fran. She sounds so different in the English version compared to the Japanese one, and I don’t think it fits the character at all. Viera, all viera, are supposed to be these rather ethereal beings akin to the elves in The Lord of the Rings. So why, then, would the translation team have Fran be given a voice that makes her sound like a nasally four-year-old? According to the Wiki, the translators wanted to “sell the new take on the viera,” but it just falls flat.

Miscellaneous Gameplay

Okay, I only made this section so I can briefly go over some of the extra gameplay components the game has, both old and new. First, the good.

The high-speed mode is great. I always thought the characters moved so annoyingly slow! This fixes that problem and honestly saves a lot of time. I feel like it sheared off a couple of hours off the game that are just empty time needed simply to move from place to place. I used this in the FFVIII remaster as well for the same reason. I basically never turned it off. It didn’t affect cutscenes, so that wasn’t a problem. Also, the sound effect of four people running in high-speed mode is strangely hilarious to me.

There is a transparent overlay map now available. I find this to be much more useful than the minimap alone, which was constantly moving and incapable of helping me orient myself. Previously, I was frequently frustrated and getting lost in pretty much every area, dungeon and town when I played the original version. The overlay map was especially useful in places where direction was important, like the part in the Tomb of Raithwall where you need to turn the statues to face the blade. I could never tell which way to turn them and needed to bring up the main map over and over and over again. The overlay map resolves makes this and general navigation much easier.

My only complaint is that, although it is transparent, it does take up a lot of the center of the screen, but that is a small price to pay for the relief of so much frustration. There are times when the overlay map isn’t useable, namely in parts of Giruvegan and the Bahamut, and then the frustration rises again, which only emphasizes how nice the overlap map is the other times.

Autosave feature. Need I say more? Thank you, SquareEnix, for an autosave feature! Especially during some of the hunts.

And now the bad, which can be lumped into one thing: minigames. Or I guess they’re minigames. They’re small quests that are required to further the story that are not combat based. The yell at the guards to make them move game while stealing the Dusk Shard, AKA the dumbest guards ever. The have Vaan declare he’s Basch in front of people in Bhujerba to get the Resistance’s attention, which unless you had already played the game you don’t know to do in front of the guides, leading you to just listening to Vaan spout annoying nonsense while literally nobody listens. The exchanging information quest in Archadia to get chops to be allowed to ride a flying taxi, which is only slightly less annoying this time around because they reduced the number of exchanges you need to do from nine to three. I guess they realized how tedious it was. I disliked all of these when I first played the game and they were superfluous and dumb and add nothing to the experience this time around too.

Character Progression and Combat

Now we get to the parts where I feel I can really say something constructive. I was initially going to have these be separate sections, but they are so closely related to one another that it seemed silly to split them.

There is something I want to make perfectly clear, that I must admit came very much to my surprise: The combat in The Zodiac Age is nowhere near as bad as I felt it was when I played the vanilla game. Before it felt like a boring slog just to get from one quest to another, but I found that not to be the case this time around. I think the changes to the license board helps with the combat be more dynamic and require a bit more strategy since not every character ends up being the same. I’ll get to the license board in a moment.

With the job system in place, you have to think more about how you’re going to approach an enemy rather than having everyone just attack the whole time. I mean, you can still do that, but your white mage is not going to be as strong as your knight, so having the white mage do only physical attacks doesn’t work quite as well. And with the option of giving everyone different abilities, it means that every character has a different role to play in battle.

The ability to add a second job later in the game adds to the diversity you can bring, since you can make any number of combinations of jobs and really none of them are bad. You’re also not limited by which characters can have which job. Once you pick a job for a character you are stuck with it (at least on the PS4 version) but that does not lock the job away from other characters. You can have two white mages, two knights, five red battlemages, or make every character a bushi if you so desire. You can have someone balanced, someone focused on only offensive spells, someone focused on healing, someone just for physical attacks, a tank…the possibilities are huge!

The gambit system is still in place, and I still am not a huge fan. If I have to micromanage a character’s actions, I’d rather have a system that allows me to input commands individually like in previous Final Fantasy games rather than allowing an AI to do it. However, I understand that the combat in FFXII is fast-paced enough that it makes that sort of system more difficult, and I managed to deal with it fine. I wish I didn’t have to buy gambits for every single miniscule action though.

On the other hand, I did find having multiple gambits useful for the various abilities each character has, especially since the job system allows for more individualized characters. This time, I felt like having several gambit slots was actually worthwhile because I had the characters able to do more things under specific circumstances, especially for spellcasters. This made it seem like it was worth the license points to spend on gambit slots from the license board. So while I still am not fond of the gambit system, I found it overall less annoying than before.

Obviously the license board is the biggest change to The Zodiac Age. The job system is excellent this time around, compared to the complete lack of a job system in the original version. Normally a blank slate for character progression isn’t a bad thing. VI, VII and VIII all had no job system as well, but you could still customize the characters to fit with a play style that you liked. Vanilla FFXII didn’t allow that. It was far too easy to make every character identical, so it ultimately didn’t matter which character you had in your party. This time, the available variety made it much more enjoyable to play and experiment.

The board was also improved on in that it was much more logical within each job. Before, the board was literally just a board, with every license just kind of lumped together. The license for a helmet was next to a license for the fire spell. It never made much sense and it seemed hard to predict what adjacent licenses you were unlocking. This time, armor licenses are together, sword licenses are together, magic licenses are together, and so forth. Some licenses in the same category are spread apart, such as the technicks, but for the most part there is at least some sort of logic to it all, making it much easier to plan character growth instead of it feeling random.

Later on, it is possible to make the characters very similar to one another, so that everyone can cast white magic, use the same technicks, wear the same gear, etc. This is especially easy if you pick secondary jobs that are opposite the first job (for stance, adding a foebreaker job to a white mage). This doesn’t happen until late in the game though, so it doesn’t feel nearly as cheap. FFX did the same with the sphere grid, but you had to be pretty far in the game before that was possible. Same thing here.

I feel I should mention the quickenings and summons, even though I never used the latter in battle. The mist abilities now have their own gauge rather than using MP, which is a nice throwback to the limit break bars of some of the previous games. I definitely prefer it that way. I found myself using quickenings less frequently than during my first playthrough, but that might be because the game was made to be overall a little easier.

Story and Characters

While the job system was the big change for The Zodiac Age, and certainly for the better, I feel I still need to talk about the story and the characters even though nothing about these parts of the game have changed. The big reason for this is because the story was where I had the biggest problem with the original version of FFXII, and therefore will probably have the biggest impact on answering my two burning questions at the beginning of this review.

That being said, if I were to go into all the details about the story and characters and what I think of it, this review would probably be three times as long as it already is. To add to that, since the game has already been out for twelve fourteen years I’m not sure there’s a whole lot I could add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said, other than to point out how I would change the story to make it what would be, in my opinion, better.

Perhaps if people are really interested in my in-depth analysis of the story I can do that in another post, but for the purposes of this review, I’m just going to give summarized version here.

1.) Reks should have lived, or been replaced by Vaan, or have both in the party.

2.) Vaan is not as annoying as I previously thought, but he needed to have a more concrete connection to the plot.

3.) Same for Penelo. Still kind of preachy, but seemed more like a Jiminy Cricket character this time around.

4.) The Strahl needed to be stolen somehow, both to give Balthier a better reason to go with the group and to give a better excuse to not just fly somewhere.

5.) That said, knowing the whole plot of the game makes Balthier’s behavior throughout the story make more sense. Better foreshadowing, in a way.

6.) Fran’s storyline needed to have a more satisfactory conclusion. It just sort of ended.

7.) Basch and Gabranth needed to have more personal interactions throughout the story to make their final moments more satisfying.

8.) For that matter, have more personal interactions between the party and both Dr. Cid and Vayne. We meet both of them a total of two times…over the course of a 40-hour game. Too disconnected from the party’s actions to give much motivation for us to defeat them.

8.) Why did they not use Vossler’s actions as a bigger plot point, with Basch trying to stop Vossler from doing what Basch was accused of? It’s sort of there, but it ends far too quickly. Big missed opportunity.

9.) More judge fights! We fight a total of three, Ghis, Bergan and Gabranth. I wanted more judge bosses!

10.) To add to that, have more context for some of the bosses. It kind of felt like so many of the bosses were there just for the sake of being bosses, and there’s only so many times I can say to myself, “It’s probably a guardian of whatever place.”

11.) I still don’t get the love people have for Ashe. I just don’t get it.

12.) And finally, Larsa should have been the main character. End of story.

…Yeah, that’s the summarized version.

Conclusion

All things considered, I definitely had a different experience playing through The Zodiac Age compared to when I first played FFXII twelve fourteen years ago. And ultimately this is why I decided on playing this game again. I wanted to see if my opinion had changed, if I could look at it from another perspective rather than just negative memory. And although some of my feelings haven’t changed, it’s good to look back on something and see that maybe it isn’t exactly as I recall it.

Let’s go back to the big questions I proposed at the beginning of this review.

First, is Final Fantasy XII as bad of a game as I remember it being when it was first released? No, it’s certainly not. I think the changes made to the license board made the combat more enjoyable for me, and by extension it seemed less of a hassle and more of an actual game. I enjoyed running around and exploring more, and the bosses and hunts were more entertaining as well. While I’m still not fond of the gambit system, I wasn’t as irritated by it and actually found myself experimenting more with it.

Second, would I change my claim about Final Fantasy XII being my least favorite game in the franchise? Eh, probably not. Again, even with the alterations made to the game, there are still a lot of things that I personally was not a fan of, especially involving the story. I’m one of those people who love the story of a game more than anything else (which is clearly why I prefer RPGs to any other game genre). Since the story is still the weakest aspect of FFXII, in my opinion, especially compared to other Final Fantasy games, the game overall doesn’t grab me as much as some of the earlier ones. It’s still a good game, but not great. To be fair, short of completely overhauling the storyline and characters, it would the difficult change those aspects for the better in just a remaster. This makes me wonder how the FFVII remake is going to go, but the jury’s still out on that one.

With all the various opinions and thoughts about what makes a video game good, it’s hard for developers to create what might be considered a perfect game for everyone, and the Final Fantasy franchise is no exception. That doesn’t mean a game cannot be corrected to make it better than the original. That’s what is good about patches and remasters. It gives the developers another opportunity to improve on what was criticized. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age definitely succeeds in this, even if there are still parts that are not quite as good.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a Kingdom Hearts DLC to play and then proceed to tear apart.

#final fantasy xii #ffxii #the zodiac age #retrospective #review #my opinion

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chaoticrice · 6 years

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WIP

YO I FEEL GENEROUS TONIGHT, SO HERE IS THE ENTIRE OPENING SCENE FROM “THE BURDEN OF RULE”

Here ya go Riley @skystones

He was aboard the Bahamut.

People were dying just outside – in the sky above Rabanastre. They were soldiers – husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. They were merely defending the lives of the innocent people in the city below – they did not deserve this. Larsa knew that.

There beside him all day was his brother, Vayne. He was tall, and strong and dignified. He was fierce, yet calm and collected. He was a military genius and he commanded respect. As far as Larsa could remember, he had always admired his brother greatly.

Until today. And as the airships outside fell and crumbled into nothing, so too did any admiration Larsa had left for his brother.

His heart ached. Another airship fell from the sky. How many more people had to die today? Why must he be forced to sit here and watch these people suffer from the safety of the Bahamut?

He had to do something. But he was not the Emperor, as Vayne was. However, he was there with him. He could try to persuade him to stop the senseless killings, to end the war right then and there. So he tried – but Vayne would not heed him. Larsa had never felt so powerless – and he hated it. He was always taught that words were powerful, but now his words meant nothing to Vayne. And as he continued to ask Vayne to stop the war, he both felt and heard his voice fade into nothing. And even though his lips moved and his throat ached from screaming, his voice was completely muted – it was useless.

All he could do now was slow down his breathing.

He could hear the sounds of war through the walls of the Bahamut. The sounds of airships shooting, crashing – and he could even hear the screams of the soldiers who fell off those ships. But now, over the sounds of death, he could hear his brother’s voice.

“Observe well, Larsa,” and as Vayne spoke, the calm expression in his eyes faded away, and was replaced with ferocity, “Watch and mark you the suffering of one who must rule, yet lacks the power.”

It was a warning, Larsa knew – one that was directed only at him. Should he become Emperor, and should he fail to lead his people…

But he didn’t have time to think on that now, as he saw the Princess Ashe of Dalmasca and her party approach them.

Vayne continued to speak. “Such a woman is not fit to bear the burden of rule. Weep for Dalmasca, for she is lost!” Larsa looked up at Vayne, and no longer saw his brother. He saw eyes looking back at him – eyes that glowed red. And when Vayne spoke to him with no emotion, Larsa felt what was last of anything human in his brother leave his soul. “What of you, my dear little brother? Are you fit to bear the burden of rule? As I weep for Dalmasca and their powerless Queen, should I too, then, weep for Archadia’s future?”

This was not right, Larsa thought as he began to panic, his breath quickening. This was not how it happened. None of this was right – neither his brothers words, nor the pure feeling of fear in the pit of his stomach. In this moment, he was supposed to cast his fear aside and fight his brother. Instead, he was allowing his fear to fester, and soon it spread from his stomach to his heart, and it spread until it consumed his entire being.

He turned around and ran.

He ran faster than he ever had before, the world blurring around him into a sea of red light. His breathing became heavier, and his quickened heartbeat echoed in his ear. There wasn’t enough air to breathe, and there wasn’t enough distance he could put between himself and his brother.

Larsa awakened gasping for air. His heart and lungs had led him out of his dream and into reality. He sat up, and allowed his breathing to slow down.

But that was no dream, he thought, as he felt beads of sweat run down the sides of his face and onto his neck. It was a nightmare – the third one this week.

As his nightmare quickly began to fade from his memory, one thing remained ingrained into his mind: the echo of his late brother’s last words.

“Are you fit to bear the burden of rule?”

It was then that he noticed the pain in his head. Pounding since the day before, his headache was relentless, and it engulfed the entire left hemisphere of his skull.

He heard a firm, yet gentle knock on the door, followed by a deep, muffled voice. “Are you awake my lord?” Larsa recognized the voice as Basch’s.

Larsa had asked him long ago to please call him by his name – but unfortunately for Larsa, Basch was a fan of formality. With unwavering fealty, Basch had been serving as his Judge Magister for five years now. However, he was more than Larsa’s personal guard, and he was more than a commander of the military – he was family. The closest Larsa had, as there was no one else in Ivalice who bore the blood of House Solidor.

“Yes,” Larsa called, “You may come in.”

The door opened and Basch entered the room in full armor – the sounds of the metal clinked, filling the still air with each step he took. He removed his helmet, revealing a warm smile – Basch loved mornings. “Did you sleep well?”

Larsa wanted to say yes. He wanted it to be true – but it simply wasn’t. In fact, he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep all week. And with the constant pounding in his head, he didn’t have the strength or patience to tell his usual white lie. He brought his hand to his left temple and attempted to ease his head pain with a gentle massage. “I am afraid not,” he admitted.

Basch’s smile had fallen to a look of concern. “I am sorry to hear that.” He looked down at a white envelope he held in his hand. “But perhaps – this will lift your spirits.” He walked over to Larsa and handed it to him.

Upon taking it, Larsa immediately recognized the Queen of Dalmasca’s seal- but once he opened the envelope and pulled out its contents – a letter – he knew it was not from Ashe. He recognized the soft, rounded ink strokes as Penelo’s handwriting.

But before he could begin reading, Basch had one more thing to say. “Just a reminder: your meeting with the Senate leaders will begin shortly. I will wait for you outside.”

“Thank you, Basch.” Larsa’s voice was still soft from sleep. He was truly grateful for all Basch did for him – especially now with his pounding head. He gave him a small smile, and as Basch took his leave, Larsa began to read the letter.

Dear Larsa,

How are you these days? I overheard Archadian sky pirates spreading rumors that you are falling ill, but I know it isn’t true; you are one of the strongest people I know.

Anyway, today I am not writing to catch up. Ashe has assigned me to invite you to her twenty-fifth birthday celebration at the end of this week.

I know you are busy, and have been for the past five years (understandably so!), but it would be nice to see you again. My troupe will be performing a new routine in honor of the Queen. It should be our best performance yet!

I hope all is well with you. You are my best friend; please don’t forget that. If those rumors are true: please take care of yourself.

Your friend who misses you,

Penelo

Larsa’s lips curved into a tired, yet sincere smile. Penelo’s words warmed his heart – they always did. He hoped he had been able to do the same for her.

Guilt struck him like a blade to the heart. Had he really been neglecting his friendship with Penelo?

It had been nearly three years since he last saw her – at Ashe’s party as well. He had been invited every year, and he attended the first two. But every year after that, he had been far too consumed in his country to leave it. The reconstruction, expansion, and integration of Old Archades was a task far more overwhelming than Larsa could ever have imagined. The bill barely passed into law – a narrow victory with the Senate’s final vote at 14 – 11 in favor of the bill. Despite its status as a new district being passed into law, and its new name given - the district of Orbon - there were those who still saw it as Old Archades. To the Gentry of Tsenoble, Orbon was a district designated for the poor, and they wanted nothing to do with it.

There was still so much classism – so much classism, entitlement, stubbornness and materialism – and Larsa was losing his patience for all of it.

For the past five years since he received the title of Emperor, Larsa had worked tirelessly day and night to bring this new district to the capital – all while helping Ashe with the reconstruction of Dalmasca – and there was still so much work to do.

He supposed this was exactly why, after the war, he and Ashe decided to form the Council of Ivalice: a gathering of world leaders and ambassadors that met every year in hopes of promoting and maintaining peace. The meetings served as a time when he could learn from people from all over Ivalice, but once a year wasn’t enough for him – not when he was still so young, and there was still much for him to learn.

Larsa took a deep breath and exhaled a heavy sigh that relieved only a small fraction of the figurative weight he felt on his shoulders. He looked over Penelo’s words once more, and took them to heart. He gazed out the window to his left and saw a clear blue sky, and it reminded him of Dalmasca.

“Perhaps I overburden myself,” he thought out loud. He had been doing a lot of his thinking out loud lately – it was the only way any thought could stand out amongst the hoard of ideas, worries, plans, and regrets that crowded his mind every day. “But there is far too much progress to be made, if I am to build a better world.” His words reached no one’s ears but his own, and now more than ever before, he wished his friend was here to hear them.

He felt a sense of calmness as he gazed into the soft blue of the summer sky, and it was then he understood how someone could choose to live a life as a sky pirate – sometimes he wished he could just fly away from it all too.

But he couldn’t. He had that meeting with the Senate leaders to attend – one that he had been anticipating for months now. He wasn’t going to let anything stop him from introducing this next bill – not even this damned. Pounding. Headache.

#its rough as hell but whatever #i can't believe this was on november 1st #the burden of rule

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catherinedmccracken · 4 years

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May 2020 Learning Network Resources

May is National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Check out the Choosing Wisely Clinician Lists – Allergy & Immunology.

Blogs, Issue Briefs, Opinion Pieces and More…

Guidelines on Neuroimaging for Migraine. Physician’s Weekly. May 2020 “Determining when and how to use neuroimaging for migraine is an important issue that physicians face when seeing the 40 million Americans with migraine. Neuroimaging for suspected migraine is used for many reasons, including exclusion of secondary conditions that mimic migraine. Other reasons include medicolegal issues, busy practice conditions in which tests are ordered as a shortcut, providing neuroimaging to appease patient requests, and addressing concerns and expectations of referring clinicians.”

Pandemic effect: All other health care visits can wait. MDedge. May 2020 “A majority of adults are reluctant to visit health care providers unless the visit is related to COVID-19, according to survey conducted at the end of April.”

Reduced cancer screenings in Covid-19. Lown Institute. May 2020 “The authors of the EPIC report make it clear what is at stake–lives lost due to reduced screening. However, it is very likely this number is overestimated, given the high rates of inappropriate screening in the real world, and the potential negative effects of screening on overall mortality. While the true impact of the sudden halt in screening due to Covid-19 remains unknown, we have the opportunity to find out in the future. Such a drastic change in screening is unusual, so we should track the results of this historical experiment to better understand the actual health effects–both beneficial and harmful–of cancer screening.”

Soong C, Cho HJ, Shojania KG. Choosing quality problems wisely: identifying improvements worth developing and sustaining. BMJ Quality & Safety. April 2020 “In this issue of BMJ Quality and Safety, Ambasta and colleagues examined the impact of a social comparison and education intervention on routine blood test utilization at a single academic medical centre. Trainees and attending physicians each received their own performance feedback in comparison with a group aggregate. Compared with controls, the intervention groups ordered fewer routine laboratory tests (incidence rate ratio 0.89; 95% CI 0.79 to 1.00; p=0.048) with an associated cost savings of $68 877 in Canadian dollars (p=0.020).”

Journals

Prachand, VN. Medically Necessary, Time-Sensitive Procedures: Scoring System to Ethically and Efficiently Manage Resource Scarcity and Provider Risk During the COVID-19 Pandemic. American College of Surgeons. April 2020 “Hospitals have severely curtailed the performance of nonurgent surgical procedures in anticipation of the need to redeploy healthcare resources to meet the projected massive medical needs of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Surgical treatment of non-COVID-19 related disease during this period, however, still remains necessary. The decision to proceed with medically necessary, time-sensitive (MeNTS) procedures in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic requires incorporation of factors (resource limitations, COVID-19 transmission risk to providers and patients) heretofore not overtly considered by surgeons in the already complicated processes of clinical judgment and shared decision-making. We describe a scoring system that systematically integrates these factors to facilitate decision-making and triage for MeNTS procedures, and appropriately weighs individual patient risks with the ethical necessity of optimizing public health concerns. This approach is applicable across a broad range of hospital settings (academic and community, urban and rural) in the midst of the pandemic and may be able to inform case triage as operating room capacity resumes once the acute phase of the pandemic subsides.”

Bonafide CP. Prevalence of Continuous Pulse Oximetry Monitoring in Hospitalized Children With Bronchiolitis Not Requiring Supplemental Oxygen. JAMA. April 2020 “In a convenience sample of children hospitalized with bronchiolitis who were not receiving active supplemental oxygen administration, monitoring with continuous pulse oximetry was frequent and varied widely among hospitals. Because of the apparent absence of a guideline- or evidence-based indication for continuous monitoring in this population, this practice may represent overuse.”

Siddaiah H, et alt. Preoperative Laboratory Testing: Review of “Choosing Wisely” Guidelines. Best Practice & Research Clinical Anesthesiology. April 2020 “Healthcare providers, primarily anesthesiologists, should remain cost-conscious when ordering specific laboratory or imaging tests prior to surgery based on available literature. We review the overall evidence and key points from the Choosing Wisely guidelines, identification of potential wasteful practices, possible harms of testing, and key clinical findings associated with preoperative laboratory testing.”

Mark TL, Parish WJ, Zarkin GA. Association of Formulary Prior Authorization Policies With Buprenorphine-Naloxone Prescriptions and Hospital and Emergency Department Use Among Medicare Beneficiaries. JAMA Network. April 2020 “Prior authorization is commonly used for buprenorphine-naloxone because of concerns regarding costs and diversion. These findings suggest that these concerns may be unfounded and that requiring prior authorization before one can access a buprenorphine-naloxone product may be more harmful than beneficial.”

Clark SD, Reuland DS, Enyioha C, Jonas DE. Assessment of Lung Cancer Screening Program Websites. JAMA Internal Medicine. April 2020 “Information on public-facing websites of US lung cancer screening programs appears to lack balance with respect to portrayal of potential benefits and harms of screening. Important harms, such as overdiagnosis, were commonly ignored in the sites evaluated, and most of the centers did not explicitly guide individuals toward a guideline-recommended, shared decision-making discussion of harms and benefits.”

Gupta A, et alt. Physician Practice Variability in the Use of Extended-Fraction Radiation Therapy for Bone Metastases: Are We Choosing Wisely? JCO Oncology Practice. April 2020 “Routine use of extended-fraction (> 10 fractions) radiation therapy (RT) for palliation of bone metastases is recognized as a low-value intervention by the American Society for Radiation Oncology. We examined contemporary practice patterns of, and physician characteristics associated with extended-fraction RT use. In this study, almost one fourth of patients received extended-fraction RT, and one third of physicians had an extended-fraction RT use rate of > 30%. Personalized feedback of performance data, clinical pathways and peer review, and updated reimbursement models are potential mechanisms to address this low-value care.”

Schrag D, Hershman DL, Basch E. Oncology Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA. April 2020 “In the space of a month, approaches and accepted norms of cancer care delivery have been transformed of necessity. Most of these changes would not have occurred without the pandemic. Although the immediate priority is to save lives, in the aftermath and recovery phase, evaluating the effects of COVID-19 on cancer mortality will be a priority. Planning for resuming cancer treatment and screening to mitigate harms is already underway. It is also likely that some changes provoked by the crisis will permanently transform how to treat cancer, in some cases perhaps for the benefit of both patients and their physicians.”

Media Coverage

Column: An opportunity to reimagine health care after COVID-19. Quad City Times. May 2020 “Fourth, the healthcare system will reassess low-value procedures and tests. The U.S. healthcare system spends more than $200 billion on low-value healthcare every year.”

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Virtual Medical Appointment. NPR. April 2020 “It may be frustrating to be told you’ll have to wait for an in-person appointment, but please know that when we say that, it’s done with your health in mind. I certainly miss seeing my patients in person. Telemedicine has plenty of limitations. But I also hope that we doctors can learn from this experience, and start using technology, in some cases, to offer our patients more convenient care. Especially now, when so much of daily life has been upended, “it’s gratifying to be able to offer this additional service to our patients,’ LeRoy says. ‘We can interact with them. They feel connected, and not marginalized or forgotten.’”

https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/625425210/0/catherinemccracken~May-Learning-Network-Resources/

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cellarspider · 7 years

Photo

I didn’t mention it previously, but Basch has some new scars since we last saw him, and they are nasty ones. There’s more on his back as well, all of which look pretty raw and recent. Despite being kept alive for something, the Archadians have not done so gently.

The party has fallen into an old transport tunnel beneath Nalbina, which served the fortress before the days of airships. Basch’s cage hit the bottom so hard that it collapsed the only remaining stairway up to the fortress, so it’s time to wander through the tunnels for a while. But hey, at least the Archadians can’t get to them!

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Once the party restores power to the tunnels so the lights will come on, mimics immediately start feeding on exposed lines, providing me yet another chance to bang on about worldbuilding in this game. Mimics are not a natural creature in Final Fantasy XII: They were designed centuries ago by some sort of mad scientist working on commission. A client wanted a creature that could kill dragons, so the mad scientist (alchemist? natural philosopher?) dreamed up the idea of a construct that could observe and learn how its prey functioned, and grow smarter over time.

Their first encounter with the dragon ended in defeat, and the patron was furious. So the designer hid a young queen mimic in the man’s cellar and left. Meanwhile, other mimics had escaped their lab. The identity of the creator is unknown, but wild mimics became a problem far beyond what had ever been expected. Some varieties have taken to directly feeding on brains, and thus they aren’t all that interested in non-sapient beasts. Humes are their primary targets, because humes in general are shallow and like shiny objects. Thus, a creature whose evolutionary niche is specifically to be an ambush predator of humans.

But that’s not the only thing mimics eat, obviously, otherwise there wouldn’t be these guys noshing on power lines. Some eat electricity (and crap lightning when they build up too much static), but others have a taste for particular metals at certain points in their life cycle.

(Pictured: A Battery Mimic about to crap all over the party)

This is the game’s official reason why there’s no sizable land transports beyond chocobo carts. Microscopic mimic-germinites float as airborne microbes throughout Ivalice, and they’re voracious eaters of high-performance metals. They’re quite delicate at that stage, so taking an airship up to cruising altitude is enough to clear out an infestation. This may also contribute to why handheld firearms are so primitive in Ivalice compared to the cannons on large airships and guns seen on small fighters: Either the bore or the shot for a pistol is going to fall to pieces if you don’t take it on regular jaunts up into the stratosphere.

And one last thing: yes, Ivalice has invented electrical power. Most places don’t use it. Why? Well, previously they did! But when a process to artificially condense natural ambient magick became available, power plants and electrical grids were inefficient and difficult to upkeep in comparison. Most devices run on magickal power now, except for those that require so much energy that electricity is the only way to manage it. What precisely those things are, given the absolutely gigundus size of some of the airships in this setting, I really don’t know. But that’s what the game lore tells me.

And now I’ve told it to you, at great length. Props if you’re still reading! Fun fact for those still here: While this section of the game is not particularly interesting to look at, Basch spends the entire time barefoot, shirtless, and punching anything and everything that tries to eat the party. The game literally will not let me give him a weapon or armor, he is just that committed to this decision. Makes Balthier’s comment about how they could use another sword arm especially amusing.

But in fairness he punched this bat so hard it phased out of existence before it hit the ground, so good job Basch. Two years of torture and deprivation haven’t withered him that much, apparently.

#Final Fantasy XII #Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age #FFXII:TZA #FFXII #FF12 #Spider rambles about their favorite game

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weekendwarriorblog · 6 years

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ED’s Tribeca Film Festival Diary Part 3 – Wrapping Things Up (Very Late)

The Tribeca Film Festival has been over for weeks now, and it was a moderately decent year, although I was sidetracked by other things to post the last part of my diary. If nothing else, not having a job allowed me to spend a lot more time seeing a variety of movies than I normally do when I have to work on other things for theatrical release.

I saw a bunch of movies, mostly in Chelsea at the Cinepolis Cinemas and SVA Theater because going to Tribeca is still a pain in the butt even though I live downtown. It requires a crosstown bus that only runs certain hours, as I found out when I was left stranded in Battery Park on a Saturday night after the only premiere I went there to see.

Before I get into my final capsule reviews, I want to give a big, big thanks to the wonderful Tammie Rosen, who once again gifted me with a Hudson Pass, which allowed me to get into a lot more public screenings and therefore, see more movies. I probably saw about half press and half public screenings, but I was shocked to not see many press people at the latter, especially with so many of them getting similar access as me. It’s kind of a shame, because you can’t really judge a festival in any given year without making an attempt to see a variety of movies in different sections and especially catch some of the awards winners on the final Sunday. I just don’t see many of the local press taking advantage of this opportunity, so they end up missing many really strong films, even once they finally get theatrical release.

I always have to explain to publicists that I don’t generally cover documentaries at film festivals, and there’s a number of good reasons for this. First of all, few outlets care about doc coverage, mainly because they’re not sexy enough to get the required clicks/traffic that’s so important for a site’s income. I get it. The other reason is that I’m such a fan of the doc genre that very often, almost always actually, docs end up being my favorite thing out of festivals, so it’s rare for me to make a festival “Best of” list that’s NOT topped by a doc. Not exactly fair, but them’s the breaks.

With that caveat, I present two of the best movies I saw at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival…and they’re both documentaries…

It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It?

I mentioned this in my capsule review of Madeleine Sackler’s O.G. as a companion doc, but it’s a lot more than that. Frankly, I think this is up there with some of the best docs I’ve seen, which is amazing since it’s essentially a “school project.” Basically, Sackler was teaching a documentary program at the Pendleton maximum security prison in Indiana, allowing a select group of inmates to talk about their stories and what led them to end up in Pendleton for murder, as other inmates filmed them. I’m going to make a confession here, knowing that few people bother to read my blog, but I have a friend in jail who has become my ersatz pen pal over the past few years. I know his story and how he got there, but I also know that he’s not a bad person and he just did something stupid. Hearing the ups and downs of his experience has made me far more in tune with the experience of inmates and ex-cons trying to get back into society. This is an incredibly emotional film, one that nearly had me in tears hearing all the bad things that happened to some of these guys before they eventually lashed out and ended up killing someone. It’s a fair cop and they rightfully deserve to be in jail, but they all seem to have found redemption, and the fact that they were able to make this doc and get it out to the public makes It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It one of the best docs I’ve seen this year and many years, in fact, and it deserves your time and attention, as does…

United Skates

Just as I’d settled into the idea of Sackler’s doc being the best of the fest, I was able to catch this documentary, which won the Audience Award and blew me away just as much. Directed by Dyanna Winkler and Tina Brown, it looks at the rise and fall of the skating rink as a place that brought together the African-American communities in various American cities. I’ll admit that I never really knew much about rollerskating, because I’ve never gone myself, but I found the phenomenon intriguing after seeing it depicted in Malcolm Lee’s Roll Bounce. This doc really gets into the nationwide appeal and tragic death of the roller rink as a community meeting space. The filmmakers spent a number of years with a number of rollerskating enthusiasts in North Carolina and California, as well as an independent rink owner in Chicago, showing how the resistance to “adult nights” – essentially when African-Americans can go to the rink to show off their fashion and moves to the music they liked – as well as the re-zoning of existing rink locations that have made them a dying breed. This is a very entertaining doc, regardless of your own personal interest in rollerskating. What was interesting about the screening I saw this at was that there was not an inordinate amount of African-Americans in the audience, which probably is more because many moviegoers probably bought their tickets to the screening before knowing which documentary won. Still, this doc probably has a lot of potential for the right distributor, and I hope it finds one soon.

The Fourth Estate

Tribeca’s closing night film was also a doc, and that was Liz Garbus’ look at the New York Timesduring the first 100 days of the Trump Presidency, the first of a four-part series for Showtime docs that will air later this month. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not particularly political, nor am I an avid reader of the Times. In fact, I prefer plenty of other New York papers to it, because it always came off to be as high-falutin’ and overly-expensive, and yet, it’s still the best newspaper in the world in terms of quality of content, writing and reporting. I don’t have a ton to say about the movie, as it basically covers similar ground as other docs about the Times, although it’s certainly TIMElier (ha ha) by dealing with the paper’s recent political coverage and how the Washington desk works with (or sometimes against) the higher ups in New York. I’ll definitely be curious to watch the other three parts, though I don’t have Showtime, so hopefully they’ll send me a screener.

To Dust

The narrative Audience Award went to Shawn Snyder’s dark dramedy about a Hassidic man whose wife died and who turns to a science teacher to help him understand what’s happening since her body was buried. It’s a fairly grim and morbid premise but one with enough heart and humor that I can totally understand why it played so well with audiences. It wasn’t my personal favorite movie of the festival, but considering that it premiered out of competition as a Special Screening (possibly to avoid favoritism of it having come out of the Tribeca Institute, maybe?), it was good that it got love from the Tribeca audiences, because I might have missed it otherwise. The film stars Géza Röhrig, who played the title character in the Oscar-winning Son of Saul, as Shmuel, a Hassidic cantor whose wife passed away recently, but he’s been having nightmares about her not resting peacefully after her burial. Unsure of what she must be going through as her body decomposes in the ground, he turns to a science teacher played by Matthew Broderick, to figure out what exactly is happening with his wife’s body. It’s a very dark buddy comedy of sorts as these two men from different backgrounds trying to understand death and decomposition, yet the movie does work.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda

Another Tribeca doc I was interested in, mainly due to my own experiences and passion for music, was this spotlight on the Japanese composer and musician, whose career began with Yellow Magic Orchestra and David Sylvain’s band Japan, which is from where I know him best. Sure, he’s done a ton of soundtrack work and that’s mainly the focus of this film, but it’s by no means a typical “history of” doc, as much as it covers some of his more recent years. It begins with his trip to the Fukushima area where a nuclear power plant exploded in 2011 following an earthquake and monsoon. He was there looking for sound sources but also because he was a frequent ecological warrior in terms of trying to save the earth from the destruction being caused by Godzilla… I mean… man. A few years later, Sakamoto is diagnosed with throat cancer, although it skips over most of his treatment to pick up in 2014 when he’s trying to find direction for his next record. If you’re a musician or into film scores, this doc from Stephen Schible offers enough of Sakomoto’s process for making music to keep you invested, although it’s definitely a movie for music nerds more than anything else. MUBI will release this doc theatrically and On Demand in July sometime.

Egg

I was mostly interested in this film because it was directed by Mariana Palka, whose last movie Bitch, while not perfect, was an interesting commentary on gender roles in the family. (And it starred Jason Ritter, who is one of my favorite underrated actors.) This is a very different movie, written by Risa Mickenberg, and it reminded me very much of God of Carnage, not the play, because I never saw that, but the movie by Roman Polanski that had an all-star cast. This is a similar movie about two couples who get together with issues arising the more time they spend together. The first couple is played by David Alan Basche and Christina Hendricks, who are pregnant with their first child, while Alysia Reiner and Gbenga Akinnagbe play their friends Tina and Wayne, who living in a bohemian Brooklyn loft and are having their own baby through a surrogate. The movie kind of grew on me but really, the best part was when Anna Camp shows up as the notorious surrogate who they’ve been talking about for the last 45 minutes. She brings a much-needed level of humor as the somewhat ditzy but oddly-logical blonde Kiki who really stirs things up. Honestly, this might have worked better as a stageplay, because there’s nothing about it that makes it feel like it necessarily needed to be a movie. I’m sure mileage will vary depending on whether you have had kids or plan to, but it’s not the strongest follow-up for Palka.

Diane

Kent Jones’ narrative feature debut stars Mary Kay Place as the title character, and she’s very good in the role of a middle-aged woman trying to deal with a lot of things at once, including a son with addiction issues, a cousin dying from cancer and more. Jones’ movie reminds me of the work of Kenneth Lonergan, who I’m really not that big a fan of (especially not the much-ballyhooed Margaret), and it’s essentially a character piece that never really goes anywhere. There’s lots of scenes of driving and lots of talking but not really much in terms of plot, as we follow Diane trying to deal with these various things, and quite a bit of time passes over the course of the film. And yet, Jones’ film won the main jury prize as well as awards for screenplay and cinematography. Go figure. I had seen much worthier offerings. (It also became abundantly clear what was missing from Jones’ film when I watched the similarly-paced but far superior First Reformed from Paul Schrader, although to be fair, Schrader has four decades more experience making films than Jones.)

That should be all for now, as the Tribeca Film Festival is over for another year. I’m not sure if I’ll have a job or somewhere to cover Tribeca for next year, but I think I’ve found a happy medium on coverage in terms of seeing as many movies as possible and writing about all of them. Would love to hear your thoughts on my reviews or other movies, if you get a chance.

#TribecaFilmFestival UnitedSkates Egg RyuichiSakamotoCoda ToDust #movie

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tarnishedxknight · 1 year

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What if Ashe came to the MCU world?

{out of dalmasca} Oh gosh... Yeah that would be even more dicey for Ashelia than it has been for Basch. First of all, I wouldn't really know how to get her here other than to pull a fast one like I did with him and just say... yup a spell froze her. Kinda lame, but I can't think of how else to do it. But that allows Ivalice to be in the "real world's" past, which sorta connects the two worlds loosely. So yeah, some kind of dungeon crawl situation towards the end of the game would likely work best to yank her from.

Let's discuss the good aspects first, because there are a lot of bad ones, heh. Ashe would be absolutely amazed by women like Natasha and would want to learn all the things from her. Magic users like Carol and Wanda would also be seen as interesting, although she might be wary of Carol because her powers look a little too much like someone hopped up on nethicite, heh. She'd be amazed by computers, smart phones, television, and all of Tony's tech. Vision would astound her and she'd think he was adorable. Thor would confuse her because he's not at all what she expects of "the gods," but once she learns more about how varied gods actually are (and that the Occuria were never gods in the first place), she'd think he was very cool. Also, Ashe is a much more accomplished healer than Basch, given that she has natural ability with magic, so she'd be a real asset to the Avengers team. For example, she would easily be able to heal Tony's arc reactor issues and completely restore his chest if he wanted that done.

Okay now the bad aspects... Ashe would be utterly devastated to be separated from Dalmasca. Being that country's princess/queen is her life, her identity, her reason for getting up in the morning. Especially if she was taken right out of the game at the point at which she's trying to regain her throne and Dalmasca is occupied by Archadia, she's going to flip shits if she can't get back. It's like no you don't understand, I have to. And then once she learns that Dalmasca is long gone, as is everyone she ever knew... that's going to hit her really hard. I'm going to assume she's already lost her father, but losing Basch would hit her hard. And then to look at history books and see nothing about Dalmasca, or Ivalice at all, would just shatter her. Everything that was so important to her being so insignificant and forgotten by history? She would need therapy, I'm not even joking. She might have a breakdown.

Now... if Basch AND Ashelia ended up in the MCU world together, that would... be... a bit easier? I'm not going to say she'd be fine because losing Dalmasca would break her heart, but Basch is a huge support system for her, so if she has him, she'd be more okay than she would alone. That would actually be really interesting if someone is up for having a thread with both of them at the same time. Or... maybe Basch was found first and has been hanging around for months and then all of a sudden there's news of... hey we found another weird frozen person, lol. That would be really cool to rp.

#{ out of dalmasca } ᵒᵒᶜ #side muse: ashelia

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tarnishedxknight · 2 years

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What would Basch think of the Sokovia Accords?

{out of dalmasca} Ooooh this is an interesting question... I honestly think it would depend on whether or not he actually read it in detail, if he understood what it meant as far as implications for how the Avengers might be treated in different situations, and if he then understood what the Avengers’ potential rights were within the boundaries of U.S. law. And... I don’t see any of that actually happening or being true, heh.

Something you have to understand about Basch, is that he comes from a completely different time and world. The life he was leading in Dalmasca, which incorporated 18 years of his life (more than half at the start of the game, exactly half by the end of it), despite the upgraded technology and other Final Fantasy world-specific things, was a lot like medieval times. Chocobos instead of horses, but... swords, armor, kingdoms, strict social class separation, and severe consequences for stepping outside of your social class, title, or role within that society. So... I think it would depend on how long he’d lived in modern day U.S. and how much he understood what his rights actually were.

He’s used to being told, this is what will happen. These are the laws. This is how you will live and conduct yourself. And he’s fine with that because as a knight serving a king, it made sense that he would be in a subservient position under the king and the majority of lawmakers in Dalmasca. He would have to know the laws and how they function, especially if he’s making arrests or whatever, since he was also the captain of the royal guard, but... he wouldn’t be at the table writing and confirming such laws. He wouldn’t have a say in how they were worded, what they meant, or if they were fair at all. So to Basch... it isn’t normal or correct that he should be dissenting. If his superiors, or at least people in a higher position than him, say these laws need to be put into effect, then he would just agree... because he isn’t used to having the voice, the power, or the right to question anything. So if he hadn’t been in modern day U.S. very long and/or did not understand his rights, he would probably just sign the Accords. He’d feel he had no say anyway and should obey the lawmakers of the land.

HOWEVER... IF... he actually read them in detail AND thought they were extremely unfair AND/OR understood his rights to dissent, he would. Because Basch would not think the Accords were fair. He would see some serious fairness, ethics, and human rights issues with how they were worded, how and when penalties should be enforced, and what those penalties actually were. He would not disagree necessarily with the idea of oversight, because that’s needed and necessary. Any elite body of soldiers, especially magic users, enhanced individuals, things like that, with no one to answer to could be very dangerous to the public if their power is abused. But he would not agree with the degree of oversight and the harshness of the proposed actions if that oversight is bypassed. Sending Wanda to the raft, drugging her, and putting her in a straight jacket and collar... is inhumane in his opinion. It’s overkill and really if the laws and government were working the way they should, it should never have gotten to that point.

What I think is likely to happen, outside of any close personal relationships he might have with any of the Avengers... is that Basch would initially say he supports the Accords, given Ross’ explanation of things that have happened and why it’s needed. On the surface, it seems legit to him. Then when the Avengers talk amongst themselves in private without Ross, I think some of them would be surprised to hear that he supported them, and a discussion would happen. During that discussion, I think the other Avengers would really open Basch’s eyes to what their rights were and how things worked in the U.S., because he really has a medieval knight’s mindset with regard to his position and how government is run, and they could explain to him how different things are for the Avengers. Learning that, he would want a copy of the Accords to sit and read thoroughly. After he does that, he would refuse to sign them without serious amendments and edits. So Basch would be Team Cap, heh.

In a verse where he’s shipped with @illbringthechaosmagic’s Wanda, I think he would feel very protective of her and might be asking a lot more questions earlier on, such as what would happen to Wanda, what do you intend to do with her, is this all being done simply because you fear her, things like that. He’d be looking out for her and wanting to support her, and although Basch isn’t one to put love before the greater good, his love for Wanda would make him push back a bit more than he would for just himself alone. As much as he would want to stay objective in this situation, I think his love for Wanda might skew him towards rejecting the Accords, whether he fully realized that or not. His protective nature towards her would definitely be a factor, whether he admitted that to himself or not.

In a verse where he is friends with or shipped with @starcchild’s Carter, either in her main or ikau verse, I think he’d want to discuss it with her and get her opinion. She’d be someone outside of the immediate situation (Wanda was more in the spotlight during the actual conception of the Accords than Tony or Carter would be, even though some of their messier situations also added to Ross’ desire to push for more oversight) and she’s more familiar with modern times, so he’d want to know what a modern person thinks of them. Especially if he felt they were unfair, he’d want to know if she did too or if maybe he was just not understanding something because he’s out of his own time. He respects and trusts her, so I think he would really want her opinion.

#{ out of dalmasca } ᵒᵒᶜ #{this is a really interesting question omg}#{because he'd be coming at this with a completely unique opinion that's different than any of the other Avengers}#{i'm very intrigued by this haha... if anyone wants a thread about this definitely hmu}

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tarnishedxknight · 1 year

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What if Ashelia was married to someone other than Rasler?

{out of dalmasca} Well yeah, with Rasler gone, she would have to marry someone else. By the end of the game, the person that makes the most sense given the new peace she helped to forge, would be Larsa. That might be put off for a few years considering he's very young, but politically that would make the most sense to both lands, and they would likely become engaged almost immediately even if the wedding would be several years off.

Unless you mean that she just married someone other than him in the first place, in which case... I see only two options, depending on where King Raminas' allegiances lay. He would have to take sides more explicitly instead of sticking with Nabradia and trying to keep the peninsula autonomous. By marrying Ashelia off, Dalmasca would become a protectorate of either Empire, most likely. So that would mean marrying her off to either Vayne or a Rozarrian prince, I'm guessing.

The thing about FFXII is... there are no princesses, wtf, haha. Ashelia is the only one. There's Vayne andLarsa Solidor in Archadia, and however many sons House Margrace has over in Rozarria. And of course Rasler of House Nabradia. All those are princes, heh. So Ashelia is hahaha... kindof in high demand, lol. So the poor girl was destined to marry somebody, especially being royalty in a patriarchal society.

I suspect that, aside from the political benefits of marrying her literal next door neighbor (and very, very distant cousin), King Raminas probably arranged Ashelia to Rasler because they were childhood friends, so she knew him, they got along well, he was close to her age, and he would probably treat her pretty well. Larsa was too young at the time, Vayne is a total dick, and guys like Al-Cid Margrace are... much like Vayne, heh. Pompous, pretentious, and harboring same pretty toxic masculinity. I like to think that in addition to wanting something politically advantageous, Raminas wanted a good marriage for his daughter.

If we consider Fortress to be canon, the scrapped storyboards from that game seem to suggest that ten years after the events of FFXII, Ashelia is still unwed. That... makes absolutely no sense to me. I mean, it makes sense on an emotional level. Rasler's gone, if she felt anything at all for Basch he's now beyond her reach, and there really isn't anyone else that is on her level that she could marry or who would be advantageous to marry. Except Larsa, but he'd be... what... 22 by the time Fortress takes place? 23? He was only 12 in the main game. I really doubt people on his end would want him to wait that long to marry, and certainly on Ashelia's end, her counsel would be rabidly trying to get her to marry from the second she was coronated. She needs heirs desperately. If anything happens to her, Dalmasca is left without a monarch or any legitimate heir. So yeah, I don't... really get that. So I'm really not sure who Ashe would marry, but I highly doubt that 10-11 years after peace was declared, she'd still be unwed.

#{ out of dalmasca } ᵒᵒᶜ

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starcchild · 2 years

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What does Obadiah think of Carter’s ships in the IKAU?

((under the cut because I rambled sdfgjhksdf

well, fortunately for her and her partner(s), Obadiah’s opinion is not something they have to worry about! He’s been dead for at least seven years, if not longer depending on when she gets involved with either Basch or Carol, so while echoes of what he had done still remain in Carter’s head, she doesn’t need to worry about him being there.

with that said, if it were an au where he is still alive... Bad. Bad bad bad. Obadiah’s someone who wants control and will do what it takes to remain in control. He wants to keep Carter isolated, and he effectively put a long stall on her being able to form any kind of relationship with any of the Avengers because of it. He tricked her into believing she couldn’t trust them, that they didn’t care about her, and he convinced them that she was reckless and a loose cannon, which she, unintentionally, proved time and time again by acting out, either provoked by him or by something else and reacting before she could catch herself. He made it so her behavior appeared normal for her, and not because of her acting out from his abuse - something that came unraveling after his death.

the thing is, he doesn’t see Carter as a person - he sees her as something that will help him reach his goals, but nothing more. For her to start developing a relationship with anyone, regardless of what kind of relationship, he’s going to find ways to intervene, and, for him, the best way to do so is going through Carter. He’ll do everything he can to convince her she’s a problem and she’ll only hurt whoever she’s growing attached to, and that it’ll only go badly for her. He’ll remind her of everyone that had left her, of everything she had lost, and if that didn’t work, he’ll flat out hold them over her head. He’ll threaten them, telling her if something were to happen to them it’ll be her fault, and force her hand. She’ll feel cornered and, regardless of how she feels, she’ll push whoever she was growing close to away, and if they try reaching out to her, she’ll lash back. She’ll get angry, she’ll snap, and she’ll push them away until they finally give up and leave her alone. It’ll absolutely destroy her, but she rather it be her getting hurt in the end, because the idea of losing them, especially to Obadiah, is terrifying. But... she’ll also hate herself, because she feels powerless. Feels like she can’t do anything to stop Obadiah or protect those she cares about from him, and will feel like she’s stuck in a rut she can never escape from. And, tbh, I can see him talking to the others about Carter having a boyfriend and asking if they know anything because he’s worried about his adoptive daughter, just to try and drive a wedge between Carter and her ship.

with the more general how he’d react out of the way, I’m gonna be a lil more specific with both ships! And then I’ll talk about Quentin at the end lol

so, with Basch (@tarnishedxknight), Obadiah would respect him! Basch is an honorable soldier with a good head on his shoulders, although he’d certainly be skeptical of Basch’s explanation of where he came from, especially given the technology involved with him being a knight. However, again, Obadiah wants to keep Carter isolated - the moment he catches wind that she has feeling for Basch and/or vice versa, he’s going to intervene to keep her away. With Basch, Obadiah would put on the whole “that’s my daughter you better not hurt her she’s already been through enough” routine, and essentially be on his back about that. However, with Carter, he’s going to do what I mentioned above - convince her she can’t trust Basch, that she’ll only hurt him, etc. However, if she manages to keep how she feels about Basch private, and it gets to where they are in their threads currently (not together, but definitely affectionate with each other and less guarded than they are with the others), Obadiah’s manipulation is... going to hit a wall. She’s not going to suddenly stop believing him altogether or anything of the sort, and will still believe what he says, but... she’s going to be reluctant to leave Basch, and it’s possible it may reach a point where she finally confides in Basch about what’s going on. To an extent, of course, and in a very skewed way considering she refuses acknowledge Obadiah is abusive, but it’s still a possibility she may be able to take a step in that direction. Basch may even recognize something’s wrong before she can even say anything, actually! I mean, the reason the others generally haven’t caught on is because they rarely see Carter and, again, they’ve been manipulated into believing a specific view of her - however, with Basch, he sees her for who she is. He knows who she’s truly like beneath her hostile exterior, so he may very well notice something’s not quite right, and may realize what’s wrong has something to do with Obadiah.

with Carol, Obadiah would honestly hate her. To him, she’s abrasive, loud, and unfit to be a hero. He’d absolutely try to sway Carter away from her regardless of how Carter feels about her, and I think he’d actually be afraid of her. I feel like Carol would be able to see right through his shit considering she went through something similar with Yon-Rogg, and I think he’d be able to see that pretty damn fast all things considered. And I think that, if Carol were to confide in Carter with some of the things Yon-Rogg had done, it would actually give Carter the wake up call she needs, and she’d absolutely turn to Carol first for help with getting out of Obadiah’s control.

now, for Quentin, the lovely anon writing for the ikauv is doing a great job of how Obadiah would react to Carter just being friends with Quentin! He’d turn them against each other and have them separate that way without interfering, so they’re both unable to go back to each other and patch things up.

outside of the ikauv, with what I have planned for the regular ikau with Quentin, Obadiah would still hate him. Even though Carter and Quentin are technically friends (since they have a fwb relationship), Obadiah would still manipulate Carter into leaving Quentin just like he would regarding any other ship. It all comes down to him having control over her, and him keeping that by keeping her isolated. And, since Carter did have feelings for Quentin, Obadiah would see that and use that against her as well, and convince her that Quentin could never feel that way for her. However, if he were to find out the nature of their relationship, he’d lay the disappointment on thick. He wouldn’t get angry with Carter, but... yeah, he’d act disappointed in her, and that’d absolutely hurt her more than if he were to be angry. Plus, I honestly feel like he might be comparing her to her father in a much more negative light because of that, and Carter would... really not have a good time.

#asks #anons #ikau things #abuse tw

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