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kn1ghthawk · 4 years

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Fallout OC questionaire

@falloutfandomeventhub Fallout OC Questionnaire Whether your OC is a Lone Wanderer or Sole Survivor, these questions can be asked by others to know more about them! Or simply be used as a guide to further develop your character. Ask away, luv! 00. Which Fallout game are they from? Fallout 4 01. Which faction(s) did they join and which did they destroy? Why? The only Faction to be destroyed was the institute by the minute men. Officially, the botherhood won the commonwealth. Their equipment and training are stronger than either the railroad or the minutemen can handle on a one-by-one. With the institute destroyed, the railroad had lost its greater purpose. Some of the remaining members worked to establish a pipeline to Far harbor and Acadia for those who didn't wish for a mind-wipe. Others chose to join the minutement to make the world a safer place. The brotherhood is the army, the minutemen are the police. 02.What is their S.P.E.C.I.A.L.? S4 P6 E1 C1 I10 A4 L3 Strong enough to bend metal to his will, but no 'heavy hitter' or load hauler. Good eyes and quite perceptive, able to play with explosives without fear and an able rifleman The frost seems to have sapped all of his endurance he developed in the army, finding himself constantly winded. Between his sarcastic nature as a veteran, the dysphoria of a new world, and his half blasted face, his charisma is something to be desired Intelligence is where he shines, capable with computers, engineering and certified to operate with fusion cores. His agility is fair. Able to be sneaky, but by no means a ninja. He is lucky in cards but unlucky in love. Hard pressed to romance any companion, he is still able to get a lucky shot off. 03. Give us a summary of their backstory. Son of a locksmith, he used his gift with tumblers to break into places for the cheap thrills and fell in with a bad crowd. The first time he met Nora was popping a lock for her in the rain and he decided she was someone he was willing to make a better man of himself. He enlisted, became a combat engineer, got half his face blown off. Came home after the tour, got popped in the freezer. 04. What’s their full name and does it have a meaning? Do they have any nicknames and how did they get em? Nathaniel Victor Winters, A.K.A. Vic, Blue and THE SILVER SHROUD! Vic is a shortening, blue comes from the suit he emerged from the vault, and the silver shroud came from his time enacting revenge in goodneighbor and his codename with the railroad. 05. What’s their sexual, romantic, and gender orientation? Do they feel comfortable telling other people? He's bisexual male favoring feminine appearance lovers, he lost his virginity with another man in the gang he ran with as a kid. In this war-torn world, what you have in your pants and where you stick it really is on the bottom of the totem pole. 06. Do they have any mental illnesses? How do they cope? The horrors of the war and what he has done still tear at him today. He often stays up late nights tinkering and drafting until he is finally too exhausted to think and blacks out. He 07. Do they have any medical conditions? Is medicine/ treatment available for them? His lungs are frost-burnt from the improper freezing technique. He can get enough air to walk and talk, but any sudden exertion like running has him on his knees in ten seconds. he has second and third degree burns on the right side of his face and body. 08. How much do they care about their outer appearance? What’s their “beauty routine”? How often do they shower/ bathe? His physical appearance is a sensitive subject, some days he feels like he looks like half a ghoul with his second and third degree burns down the right side of his face and body. Optimally, he likes to wear his silver shroud get-up with the scarf wrapped around his face and operator goggles. (use surgical mask or striped bandana to represent the scarf pulled up) Not only does he like to bathe, but he has started building water heaters for a hot bath. 09. What do they fear the most? Fire makes him... uncomfortable, his armor always has asbestos when it is an option. He fears loosing curie, the only other person not bothered by his features beyond Hancock, both of whom are his only lovers. Part of him is afraid he will wake up in the tube again, that this was all a dream. 10. They’re biggest flaw? Do they recognize it as a flaw? He overthinks everything, he has an obsession with returning some of the old world tech back to this new place. He sees a hundred things being used or not used that would make things so much easier. 11. What are they most insecure about? He is almost entirely sure he is a synth, placed by deacon into the vault. 12. What Wasteland threat do they fear the most? (ex. Deathclaws, super mutants, raiders) Raiders are just people. So is the institute. But if he had to pick one single crature he will call for an airstrike on everytime is the mirelurk queen. Three story tall crab spitting armor-melting acid? Hard pass. 13. What’s their zodiac sign or which one do you think they relate to the most? What are their placements (if you know them)? (ex. Aries sun, Taurus moon, Aquarius Venus) May 5th 2045 (Taurus/Ox) 14. What’s their Myers–Briggs Type? (ex. ENTP, ISFJ) INTJ- The scientist 15. What Harry Potter house would they be in? (ex. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw) Ravenclaw 16. Which Pokemon Go team would they choose? (ex. Instinct, Valor, Mystic) Team mystic 17. Out of the nine forms of intelligence (rhythmic, spatial, linguistic, mathematical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential) which one(s) are they really good at and which one(s) is(are) their weakest? 1) Mathematical 2) Kinethetic 3) Linguistic 4) Spatial 5) Interpersonal 6) Intrapersonal 7) Naturalistic 8) Existential 9) Rhythmic 18. What natural alignment are they? (ex. Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil) Chaotic good, Doing the right thing, regardless of the law. 19. Do they have any hobbies? What are they? Tinkering, repairing, drafting. 20. Do they have a favorite holiday? How do they celebrate it? Halloween, costumes and parties. 21. What’s their favorite season? Winter, not just because of the namesake, the way the snow absorbs all sound and colors to make a calm quite monotone of the world. 22. Do they have a temper or are they level headed? Level-headed but vengeful. 23. Do they express their emotions freely or hide their true feelings? He holds his feelings until he has time to walk them out and express himself calmly. But if he gets overwhelmed with loss, he is known to find a corner and break down. 24. Are they a leader or a follower? A reluctant leader as he is the only man with a plan half the time. 25. How do they come off to others? What first impression do they usually make? Know-it-all, gallows humor, awful ugly. 26. Do they prefer to travel alone or with company? Who have they traveled with if any? Current companion if any? He has traveled with most of the companions, leaning on their experience and expertise. His constant companion is Curie and dogmeat. He has the sentinel to provide assistance and carry what he needs to keep himself agile. 27. Would you describe them as selfless or selfish? Does it depend on the situation? Most often he is selfless, throwing caps and resources as problems. He always makes sure the farms under his protection have eight turrets and the farmers are well armed and armored with the standard of leather armor and bolt action rifles. 28. What do they find most attractive in others? Name at least one psychological and physical trait. (doesn’t have to be romantic attraction) In curie it is her sweet faux-french voice and elemental green eyes that almost glow in the right light. From his minor hearing loss in the war, he often reads lips which leads to liking the shapes of certain mouths. 29. Do they flirt often? How easily do they fall in love? He is heavily flirtatious, but he cannot fall in love without sleeping with someone first. As a concupiscent, he has trouble forming longer relationships past fleeting friends without engaging in sexual activities with them. 30. What’s their love life like? Are they interested in anyone or in a relationship? He is in a relationship with Curie and Hancock in a 70/30 split. Hancock knows the need to get down and dirty to do what had to be done. So often after a 'dark' mission, hancock will get loaded and Vic will get drunk to wind down and whatever happens next happens. 31. Do they prefer to solve things diplomatically or using violence? “Si vis Pacem, Para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war.” He always hopes for peaceful resolutions, popping a grape mentat before an important meeting but keeping track against addiction. But that peaceful meeting almost always comes with a loaded ten on his thigh and one person as backup. 32. What is their combat style? What range do they prefer? Do they sneak? He is a fine rifleman, preferring to take his targets one by one from a hidden distance for as long as possible with the sentinel and dogmeat running melee interference. If curie is with him, she cannot escape her programming with her buzz-saw limb so Vic gives her a melee weapon like a ripper or the throatslicer for her to exercise her medical expertise. Handcock is given a shotgun and a chance to go to town. 33. What weapon(s) do they always carry with them? Vic's favored sidearm is the ultimatum but his go-to is the Kiloton radium rifle. Before then It was Crickets spray-n-pray with the railroad deliverer. 34. Their most prized possession? A lucky rabbits foot he keeps as a charm on his pistols lanyard loop, it was a keepsake from the first time he ever went hunting. 35. Their thoughts on power armor? He finds them very convenient, as long as they are not overutalized or relied on to accomplish the task. As part of the combat engineers, he spent most of his time in a base skeletal frame with cobbled bits ten feet behind the real armored infantry solider marching through the front lines. 36. Favorite armor/ outfit? The silver shroud costume, armored up thanks to Kent. Otherwise, a pair of ballistic military fatigues with full heavy combat armor. 37. How’s their aim? Do their hands shake while pointing a gun? When using a rifle, his left hand holds the barrel steady, when using a pistol his right hand shakes from the nerve damage of the burn so he has to settle for center mass. 38. What are their thoughts on having to kill on a daily bases in order to survive? Does it take a toll on them? Or do they shake it off rather easily? The sad truth is that killing is easy, push a button, pull a trigger. The hard ones are the melee kills, feeling the hot blood splash and run as the last moments of fight or flight kick in before the death rattle. 39. Thoughts on death if any? (ex. Fear it, accept it) He is fairly accepting of death, the world is already a better place for his coming and going. 40. Do they move around a lot or prefer to have a place to call home? Adventure has kept him on the move, he is content for now, his place is in the workshop bringing back Boston to the way it could be. He trusts his friends to keep the day-to-day running while he plays with his pet projects. 41. What’s their favorite location? He likes Red Rocket when he needs to get away from sanctuary hills, Deacon jokes it is the silver shroud's secret lair. He likes to stop in on all the settlements to make sure he didn't need to call in the brotherhood for a massive problem. 42. Their opinions on ghouls, feral and not feral? Feral ghouls still remind him of zombies. His preferred practice is to kneecap them so they fall and let the others finish them off. He has heard the feral transition on the holotape to ozwald and can only compare it to rabied dog and will put them down like dogs. He feels that it is similar to dementia at an old folks home, there is no coming back yet, even from the serum. 43. Do they scavenge for their supplies or simply buy them? He is a scavenger as often as possible, Often holding off or doing without until later, Sometimes he will buy a weapon just for a specific part, then pass the rest of the weapon to one of the farmers. 44. Are they the type to get distracted and go off to an unknown nearby location or do they stay on track? It often depends on the severity of the mission at hand. If it is tracking a signal or fetching something then he is free to wander. But if it is a time sensitive mission like an assault or someone is in danger, then he is a one track mind. 45. How do they sleep? Are they picky about where and how or can they sleep basically anywhere? He prefers to be able to pull something over his shoulder, be it blanket or jacket. He can only really be at rest to sleep in a room with closed or no windows and a door he can lock or brace. Often blocking bathrooms with fallen stall doors so he can sleep on the floor. 46. What’s their favorite radio station and song? (post-apocalypse) Johnny guitar by Peggy Lee, it was the nickname of the boy he lost his innocence with. 47. What’s their favorite post-apocalyptic food? Are they a picky eater? Do they know how to cook? He prefers the canned dog food, it is a hearty protein and reminds him of army beef stew MRE's 48. What’s their favorite beverage? Do they drink alcohol? His favorite drink is Nuka Cherry and his favorite hard drink is numa Dark or rum and cola 49. Anything they like to collect? (ex. Unique weapons, Bobbleheads) He often collects weapons and armor mods to add to his modular suits to try and think of an answer to every situation. 50. Are they good at disarming traps or do they constantly miss them? He has seen what happens when a trap gets missed, the lives and limbs lost. He studied EOD wherever he could from anyone willing to teach him, the rest has come from experience.

#fallout 4

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Suicide Squad: Inside James Gunn’s DCEU Supervillain War Movie

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In November 2019, I found myself in the middle of a war zone. Well, the closest approximation of a war zone I’ve ever found myself in during my time visiting the sets of blockbuster movies. If I had been brought to this particular set in Atlanta on a sunny autumn afternoon without knowing what movie it was that I was supposed to be getting a peek at, the scene presented to a group of journalists probably would have convinced me that this was some new war movie or straight up action blockbuster, and not one that features a collection of DC villains and antiheroes at its core.

The set in question is called “Jotunheim” and it’s apparently an objective Task Force X needs to conquer in The Suicide Squad. But for all intents and purposes, this could be the kind of Nazi fortress that the gritty characters of movies like The Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare need to conquer, whether or not they get out alive. That’s no accident, according to director James Gunn.

“A lot of the film is within the genre of war caper films,” Gunn tells reporters later that day, specifically referencing The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, and others. “It’s not really something that’s existed for a long time, but in the late 60s that was one of the most vibrant genres of the world. [We wanted to] kind of … add on to it with The Suicide Squad.”

There’s no sign of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, or any of the other oddball DC characters at the center of Gunn’s newest movie as we stroll the Jotunheim set. Whatever wild action took place here seems to have been resolved long before our arrival. But the evidence is everywhere and it must have been one hell of a fight.

From the decrepit guard tower and busted fence at the perimeter to the entrance of Jotunheim (which has a massive hole blasted in it) is probably a distance of 100 meters or so. And virtually every inch of that shows the scope of whatever took place here: burnt out bunkers, overturned and semi-destroyed jeeps, sandbagged guard stations, and so much debris, a mixture of real rocks and carved foamcore and plywood “masonry.”

“It’s a giant construction project” producer Peter Safran jokes about the number and scale of practical sets that have been built for The Suicide Squad. “The idea is to do as much practically as we possibly could.”

That reliance on practical sets and effects wherever possible is a theme that keeps coming up throughout the day as we tour sets and look at production artwork, scale models, weapons, and more.

“We built literally three football fields of a set and that’s so unusual in this day and age,” production designer Beth Mickle says of Jotunheim. “You just never do that. We wanted to have real rubble behind them in the battle sequences, and we wanted to see the building that they’re attacking. For that scene to exist in a film today is just highly unusual. And we’ve done that set and then a dozen others of that scale, so it’s incredible.”

Both the war movie vibe and the love of practical effects are very much in evidence on another set, a convincing indoor recreation of a jungle with a guerilla camp nestled in the middle of it. There’s dirty laundry hanging, filthy pots strewn around, a crumpled pack of cigarettes, and a half empty bottle of watery beer…and what appear to be bloody chunks of skull and assorted viscera littering the grass. Like Jotunheim, something went down here, and whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty.

The Characters of The Suicide Squad: Meet Task Force X

It all stands in almost stark contrast to the wacky assortment of brightly-colored characters that make up the actual team. The concept art and costume tests for these characters were suitably colorful and wildly offbeat, and it’s almost hard to make this line up with the gritty, war movie vibes of the Jotunheim and jungle sets. But storyboards reveal a nighttime action sequence on a beach, with the Squad invading the fictional nation of Corto Maltese, and were it not for the colors and unique designs of the characters wreaking havoc, this too would be evocative of just about anything other than a superhero movie.

A production office is papered with life sized posters of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (performed by Steve Agee and voiced by Sylvester Stallone…although we don’t know that at the time), Blackguard (Pete Davison), Savant (Michael Rooker), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Weasel (Sean Gunn), The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Javelin (Flula Borg), Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), TDK (Nathan Fillion), and Bloodsport (Idris Elba).

Looming large is also Idris Elba’s ominous, armored character who we now all know as Bloodsport, but who the studio remained cagey about identifying during this set visit for some reason, leaving reporters to speculate on the identity of the badass in blue, black, and gold. Between the color scheme, the armor, and an impressively intimidating assortment of weapons left out on a table for reporters to ogle as it’s explained that each weapon transforms into or folds out of each other, speculation about Bloodsport ends up occupying a fair amount of the downtime between interviews.

So what exactly could possibly hold such a motley crew together?

“You have to remember that all either have been wrongfully accused or done horrible, morally wrong things,” John Cena says. ”You can see the good in people, you can also see the evil in people… All of these people have real bad personality problems. So I think when you get that type of group together, that’s what makes it fun. Everybody is kind of different. But I think criminals see criminals, they just size everybody up. I think every one of them is like, ‘how is this person going to stab me in the back?’ That’s the world they come from.”

Cena is playing the authoritarian Peacemaker, a character who sees himself very differently than many other members of the Squad do. But the actors behind two of the stranger characters in the film, offer some additional perspective on the team dynamic.

“There’s people in this story that really want friendships, and people that don’t want anybody near them, just like all of us,” says David Dastmalchian, who plays Polka-Dot Man. “I think all of us have felt at times like we are totally disposable to either our employers or society or you name it. So that’s been interesting, in the relationship [between the characters] with the dynamic that starts to build or break down.”

“These are all characters that for the most part, probably don’t even know the existence of the other ones,” Steve Agee says. “Some of them do, and it’s the story of The Suicide Squad. They are forced to be together, and do this task, this mission. So, part of the story is just watching these people adapt to being around each other.”

Flula Borg (who gave journalists a rambling, uproariously funny interview about his character which you’ll see more of on DoG soon enough) spoke about how his character relates to Viola Davis’ team leader, Amanda Waller.

“Judging from all the relationships that Javelin has I would say poor, non-existent, unhealthy, crosses lines, should consider not interacting with other humans,” Borg says. “Javelin doesn’t worry about how people treat him. He treats them … What’s the golden rule? He has the Javelin rule, which is like ‘suck it, I’m cool.’ I think that’s his rule.”

Even here with the characters, the commitment to practical effects is strong, especially in areas where you’d fully expect them to rely on CGI. For example, Daniela Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2, has a little helper rat named Sebastian. While the hordes of rats the character is capable of commanding will necessitate CGI, at least some of the rats are real.

“We have three female rats [that play Sebastian],” Daniela Melchior says about the um…practical rats that the movie is using. “It’s a little bit distracting sometimes because I have to act lazy and tired like I don’t give a shit about whatever is happening… and I’m just like, ‘come here.’ But she doesn’t want to come, she wants to find new places and go, so we’re like, ‘okay, we’ll try one time with the rats, we’ll see what happens.’”

And when one of the rats playing Sebastian doesn’t want to do as they’re told, only then does the movie revert to CGI to get the desired “performance” from the furry co-star.

“I don’t know if I can say this,” Melchior says conspiratorially. “But actually, [some of the cast] are a little bit afraid of rats…I’m always trying to say ‘look, she’s so sweet, she wouldn’t hurt you.’”

From Suicide Squad 2 to The Suicide Squad

Like the characters themselves, The Suicide Squad has something of a rough past. The first movie failed to become the surefire franchise-starter the studio hoped for in 2016, and while a Suicide Squad 2 was put into development almost immediately, it wasn’t until Gunn became available that the project finally solidified.

“There was no plan before James,” Safran says. “There were other writers that had worked on various Suicide Squad scripts over the years, but… this was starting from ground zero, starting from scratch. All the characters that he selected were just characters that he was a fan of and wanted to play with. I think, in typical fashion for James, he picks more obscure characters…he liked the idea of being able to take these characters and imbue them with whatever characters he really wanted, or characteristics that he really wanted to play with.”

One of the “characteristics” Gunn wanted was to truly tap into the spirit of DC’s long-running and beloved Suicide Squad comics of the 1980s, which were co-created and stewarded by Jon Ostrander.

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“I don’t think of it so much as an interpretation of what Ostrander wrote but I do think of it as a continuation of what he did,” Gunn says. “It’s very much in line with that. When he was first putting this team together, he was only able to get certain characters. For him, it was the fun of taking these characters that weren’t as well-known and developing them in a real way. And it’s one of the greatest superhero runs of any comic book series.”

(Gunn also notes that Ostrander has a cameo in the film.)

As for whether or not The Suicide Squad is a sequel to or a reboot of the previous film, all involved are both diplomatic and evasive. The official line is that any characters that were together in the previous film do already know each other, but as for the actual events of the 2016 movie, that’s where things get murky.

“We just don’t address it any tangible form,” Safran says. “Yes, they’re the characters and actors that played them in the first movie, but we really wanted to make sure that this stands on its own two feet. It’s not a sequel, but there are some characters that were in the first movie, so it’s not really a full reboot either. So we just call it James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.”

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Inside Jotunheim

Later in the day, journalists are taken inside Jotunheim via soundstage, an indoor construction that appears almost as sprawling as the outdoor set. As we saw outside, the remnants of what was likely a furious battle are all around. A stuntman in full Peacemaker gear is hanging around as we see Robbie’s Harley, Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man, and Agee as King Shark (“the studio is trying to play down the whole Polka-Dot Man/King Shark universe they’re building,” Dastmalchian jokes) make their way through the rubble. Elba’s Bloodsport isn’t visible, but we’re assured he’s part of the scene.

While it’s Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark in the film, it’s Agee on set here, wearing a grey mo-cap suit with the kind of padding you see on MLB umpires and somewhat shark-shaped wire headgear. He also appears to be holding a skull.

Harley, however, is wearing the ornate red dress glimpsed in the trailer (although it’s somewhat the worse for wear at the moment). As she navigates the carnage in Jotunheim, Gunn calls out for Robbie to “hum a little tune.” She does just that, conjuring exactly the kind of aimless musical free-association you’d expect from a mind like Harley Quinn in the midst of battle.

“Harley’s been through some things as you can see by this point in the film,” Robbie says to reporters between takes. When it’s noted that Harley’s baseball bat, a fixture in the previous film, is nowhere to be found in this scene, she jokes “My baseball bat is back home in LA, next to my bed, in case anyone breaks in…I’ve got other weapons in this one.”

We don’t get to see these Squad members engaged in any combat during the shooting of this scene, and it’s not clear if this is the interior from the same “entrance” that had seemingly been blasted into the outdoor structure, or somewhere else inside the fortress. But the clues all point to one thing: like everything else in this movie, where The Suicide Squad goes, destruction and chaos follow.

The Suicide Squad opens in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6. We’ll have more from our set visit in the coming days.

The post The Suicide Squad: Inside James Gunn’s DCEU Supervillain War Movie appeared first on Den of Geek.

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jokikudistrict · 6 years

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Enter MACBETH | Hideo + Yata | Chapter 3 | Talent Tour

The most expected thing would likely be for Hideo to perform a scene from one of his films. But though he’d considered it, ultimately it hadn’t seemed like the best idea. For one thing, most of the movies he’s been in hadn’t really had the kind of scenes that could be played out in short by one or two people. A lot of horror lost its true impact outside its proper context, without the necessary build-up and atmosphere.

Aside from that, though, he’d also felt that most of the usable options weren’t appropriate for the setting. It didn’t seem right to stage a scene featuring torture or murder or monologues about being trapped considering the circumstances they were all in. Fortunately, Yata had helped him figure out a good alternative, and so…

Hideo waits with them behind the fountain in the park, just out of sight as the audience arrives, fidgeting anxiously with his prop weapon. And once it seems like everyone who’s coming is gathered, he takes a deep breath and steps out.

Or rather, a tall man wearing armor (well, costume armor, but the way he wears it carries the illusion) strides into view, sword drawn and at the ready, a wide, wild smile on his face, the confidence of an animal that finds itself cornered by what it thinks are lesser predators.

“Why should I play the Roman fool, and die on mine own sword?” Amused incredulity saturates the lines, and yet there’s something, about the forcefulness of it, perhaps, or the tension in the way he holds his sword, that gives the impression of some level of desperation. “Whiles I see lives, the gashes do better upon them!” Hideo’s English is impeccable, and his voice is strong, projecting wonderfully, not sounding like his own at all.

Yatagarasu strides in immediately after. Today they would be a God of Theatre as well. They too were dressed in the proper regalia, and looked rather convincing… despite the big happy mask still obscuring their features. (How else would they know it was them aiding the Horror Star?) This had been quite exciting. Acting was far more strenuous than their talent, in a physical sense. Luckily, their enthusiasm for the task substituted their lack of experience.

“Turn, hellhound, turn!” they barked. Their English wasn’t as polished as their scene partner’s, their accent exceptionally heavy, but their volume nearly matched, making for a somewhat convincing portrayal.

Hideo does not break character, and it is Macbeth who goes still at the command, at the voice of his much feared former friend.

“Of all men else I have avoided thee,” He says before he turns, the bravado of a moment ago dulled, frustrated. When he does turn it’s sudden and violent, expression a cold warning, “But get thee back. My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.” The threat is obvious, but so is the regret, the sorrowful almost-plea. They were not always enemies. This Macbeth will not lay down and die, but nor is he eager to carry more guilt than he already does.

Yata, no, Macduff regarded their enemy with a slow tilt of their head. “I have no words.” the infliction was just as frigid, tone sharp as their blade. (Speaking of, it was time to raise it!) They pointed the prop in Hideo’s direction, stepping closer. “My voice is in my sword!”

A easy, loose languidness came with their continuing approach. Every inch of their act had been choreographed to a tee which no doubt explained their confidence and lack of a cane. However, judging by their movement, a cool saunter, Yata seemed more prepared to dance than spar. This wasn’t a burdened man out to avenge his family and countrymen from a delusioned megalomaniac. It was more of a... friend(?) reciting lines and having too fun while doing it. They were called plays for a reason, right?

“Thou bloodier villain than terms can give thee out!”

Their fake swords clash, Hideo swinging his with an air of violent resignation so convincing that it’s almost a shock the sound of metal on metal doesn’t ring out into the air. Of course these aren’t real blades, but the fight choreography, while simple and well rehearsed, is (perhaps surprisingly) quite engaging. Hideo clearly has experience with stage-fighting, enough that the battle between Macbeth and Macduff is tense and fierce to watch, though anyone with any real knowledge of swordplay would likely notice how perfectly timed and scripted each strike was, that the swords are intentionally aiming to hit each other rather than their wielders.

They fight, and as they do Macbeth seems to gain and lose confidence by turns, with every blow, every ‘near miss’, until he laughs, a high and bitter sound, stepping close to cross their blades and say in a strained taunting tone, “Thou losest labour! As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air with thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.” He pushes them back, a haughty, triumphant action that leaves him half-open for a moment, as if defying them to keep attacking. “Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests, I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born.”

Oh boy, this was the really fun part. Yata remained in character despite their internal hindrance. Hideo or Macbeth or whatever was so intense! But, of course he was, being his talent and all. The AMSRtist relied on the soft pattern created by the faux weapons. The duo struck there, here, here, and there again, according to their ears. They managed to spit their next line with pure malice and mocking, “Despair thy charm, and let the angel whom thou still hast served tell thee Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped!”

The words seem to have an immediate effect, Macbeth stepping back as if stunned, eyes wide and then, settling into a kind of betrayal. He raises his sword as if to strike- or to throw it down, though he does neither, tension in every line. “Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,” his voice quakes with what wants to be denial but is instead realization, painful and absolute defeat, his last line of defense stripped of the assurance he relied on. And it dips slightly, an indication that, were he not still projecting for the audience, he would be speaking more softly, a shamed admittance. “For it hath cow'd my better part of man. And be these juggling fiends no more believed, that palter with us in a double sense, that keep the word of promise to our ear, and break it to our hope.” He lowers his sword, angry, but not with Macduff, but rather with the ones who fed him the false prophecy, the twisted words that, in his belief of them, led to all of this. “I'll not fight with thee.”

His quarrel is not with Macduff, not anymore. For this moment, at least, Macbeth has regained a shred of his humanity, seen the full scope of his wickedness in his failure, a failure that was always his true destiny.

Wait. No. They lied. THIS was the fun part! Yatagarasu chest swelled with pride. They crept forward, blade pointed upward until it rested under Macbeth’s chin. “Then yield thee, coward”, Yata crooned back, more teasing than intimidating,“and live to be the show and gaze o' the time! We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, painted on a pole, and underwrit, 'Here may you see the tyrant~’”

Despite the… liberties, Yatagarasu takes with the lines, Hideo doesn’t break character, and it’s still Macbeth who answers, angrily smacking the blade pointed at him aside with his own and hissing through clenched teeth, “I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, and to be baited with the rabble's curse!” In an instant the tyrant is back, the man with so much blood on his hands, the man who sought to be a king. He knows now that he is doomed, but seeing no way out but through he rallies for his last stand. “Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, and thou opposed, being of no woman born, yet I will try the last. Before my body I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff! And cursed be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'”

He throws himself into the duel, a man who has nothing left to lose but pride, and nothing to gain but death by sword. Still he is fierce, in his final moments, this last defeat, as the fight carries them back to the fountain, off the ‘stage’ as it were, and the end of the scene.

And only then does Hideo finally relax, sliding out of the character with a sheepish smile and a quick, anxious bow, “Um, okay that’s it! Sorry if it was… too long or… or too short… or anything…” He reaches up to brush a bit of sweat off his forehead, eager to get out of the fake breastplate and into cooler clothes again, though he turns to murmur something to Yata before they can depart with the crowd.

#Jokiku IC #Hideo #Yatagarasu #Chapter 3 #submission

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slut-for-fandoms · 7 years

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Little witch (Part 8)

Pairings: Peter Parker x reader

Word count: 2 868

Summary: The reader is raised by Hydra but manages to escape after they kill her parents. She is emotionally unstable and can’t control her powers. The Avengers rescue her and give her everything she missed form life and wanted to feel. But would her new found love be enough to extinguish her desire for revenge? What would be the side she would choose to rely on? Will she be ready to face the real her?

A/N: So here is the new part. I hope you like it and so sorry for the mistakes, I had no time to check it. Enjoy ♥ and please let me know what you mean :3

Part 1// Part 2// Part 3// Part 4// Part 5// Part 6// Part 7

“Jarvis, I want one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s flying machines.”, the girl ordered as she opened the wardrobe. She knelt down and searched for a particular box.

“I cannot do that without permission, Mrs. (Y/L/N)!”, Jarvis protested. By that time the girl had found what she’d been looking for. Taking the black box, she put it on the bed.

“I need it and I will take it with or without your help. Don’t you dare tell anyone of the avengers about that, or I will find a way to turn you off for a really long time. You know I can do it!”, after threatening Jarvis, the girl opened the box. Wanda had given it to her a week ago telling her it was her costume. Every avenger had one and now as she had been part of the family she needed too. At first (Y/N) was skeptical but had taken it anyway. Who had known she would need it?

She took all the stuff out and dressed before you could say Jack Robinson. She was all in black and leather. The material was interesting and odd given the fact that it was created to stop bullets. It allowed her to move without problems. After that she took another box form under the bed. (Y/N) had sneaked into the armory where she had taken some cold weapons to practice with. She had poisonous knives that had a special substance in them. With the help of Bruce, they had created a liquid that once being inserted in your body it killed all the cells around the place where it was injected. Storming out of the room, she went straight to the hall where the machines were kept. The witch was curious about almost everything since some of them were new to her. Thanks to some of the avengers she had learned so many new skills and how to cooperate with a helicopter was one of them. Jarvis hadn’t spoke and (Y/N) believed he was about to tell the Avengers. She hurried to turn on the enormous device. There were a lot of buttons but she pressed only three to start and open the roof. (Y/N) was too angry and in a hurry to think about safety.

“I warn you Mrs. (Y/L/N)! This is a mistake, don’t do anything stupid.”

“I have to do that Jarvis, and I won’t let anyone stop me!”, the helicopter became airborne and minutes later it was high in the sky, far away from the tower.

Peter, on the other hand was lying on his bed listening to music. The different rhythms filled the room but not Peter’s head. All he was thinking about was (Y/N) and her stories. The way she was talking about her past and the scar. He thought about the different people living in her and how the previous night she had somehow combining them just like Peter did. Her soft side when she blushed around him, at compliments, at eye contact, at his touch. Her dark side when she released her powers and she wasn’t scared of getting her hands covered in blood. What worried him was that she looked as though she wanted to do so. Her face would become like a mask, never changing, not showing emotions, nothing…just like a killer who wouldn’t regret killing her friends. Her joking side when she had broken the ice and tried to build sarcasm in her, to joke about everything. At those times the smile would reach her eyes, they would spark and open the gates to her soul. The kid in her who was curious about the world. The one who would explore the whole building and learn how to use a certain object, its history and origins.

He sat on his bed and looked through the large glass wall in his room. As he was looking at the sun above the city and the high building, he heard and then saw a helicopter. It was in the distance but still near enough for him to recognize the object. It was one of the Avengers’ helicopters. ‘Strange!’, he thought, ‘They must be all asleep, it’s noon.’ And then it hit him.

“Jarvis!”, no answer, “Jarvis!”, Peter screamed a little louder.

“How can I help you, Mr. Parker?”

“Where is (Y/N)?”, again no answer. Peter repeated his question but still with no response.

“I don’t know, Mr. Parker. ”

“How can you not know!?”, surprised by the answer, the boy raised his tone again, “Was she in the helicopter?”

“Mr. Pa-”

“Tell me Jarvis! What she in there?! Where is she going? She may be in danger, Jarvis!”, after some moments of considering what to do, he gave in.

“She begged me to show her the file intended for Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Romanoff.”

“What is it about?”

“It’s about some children killed in the woods probably by Hydra.”

“And you showed her that!?”, Peter shouted at the top of his lungs. He could believe that Jarvis had done that. Of course she would fly away and probably try to revenge, “I have to find her!”, he stated and hurried towards the door.

“You cannot go on your own, Mr. Parker!”

“And why not?! You fucking let her go to Hydra alone!”, notwithstanding his anger, he knew Jarvis was right. (Y/N) might had gone alone but he needed reinforcement to go. After some minutes of considering, he spoke, “Wake all the Avengers! We must hurry, she may get in danger.”

(Y/N) knew that Jarvis could have stopped her if he wanted, but he didn’t. She was both glad and sad about it. Although she didn’t want any obstacles on the road, deep inside she wanted someone to stop her, to try at least with all his strength, just to show something. Maybe Jarvis and the others cared about her, maybe she was falling in a deep hole of insecurities as she was nearing Hydra’s base. She had been flying for almost an hour when she saw the familiar area. The vehicle flew just above the place where she was found by the Avengers. Some of the spikes were still there and they brought her memories from that day. The girl felt a stranger feeling in her chest, something heavy. All the feeling from the past tried to fill her – fear, instability, difficult breathing. (Y/N) closed her eyes and pushed all the feelings from her weak side away. Some meters away, the photos she saw earlier came to life. A huge part of the wood was burned down. The trees had been cut down; there was ice which hadn’t melt yet. She decided to land the flying machine there. Once she was on the ground, she turned the invisible shield, so no one would be able to see the vehicle and suspect someone had come. The girl headed out and when she came outside a breeze of dead and blood hit her. (Y/N) began walking despite her trembling legs. Ron, that was the boy with the blond hair, looked as though he had been iced alive. His pale skin and hair, those vitreous blue eyes were the scary yet beautiful…the beauty in his dead, maybe? She knelt down and closed his eyes. A tear rolled down her face but the next one vanished due to the fire in her eyes. The (y/e/c) was now shining and sparkling as though it was in flames. (Y/N) stood up and headed towards the base, every meter taken made her an even more dangerous hurricane.

“She what?!”, Steve exclaimed as Peter told him and the gang the whole story which wasn’t really long. Steve was the only one without a hangover due to the serum in his body, while Tony was the one at least affected. As he loved to say ‘I’m used to such a thing.’ It had passed an hour and Peter was both nervous and eager to go and help (Y/N). Deep down in his heart he felt that she would be in danger.

“I told you, Steve! Don’t make me repeat just because you’re over 70 and cannot hear properly. We need to move!”

“I’ll act as though I haven’t heard it.”, Steve said but took all the needed stuff. They were in the training room as Jarvis had wakened them in the worst way. We, as Peter would say, don’t have enough time to publish you that secret, so let’s move to the main point.

Except Steve and Tony, Nat, Bruce and Vision were the only sober. Thor had taken too much from his Asgardian drink that he was still in bed, not able to move. Clint and Wanda had taken some pills so it was a matter of time to clean their minds. Peter was already in his suit and couldn’t wait for the others to get dressed. Tony was simple. He dressed in seconds in one of his armors while the others took some time. Once they were done, the Avengers went to the bunker where they started another helicopter. With Jarvis orders they soon were high in the sky, following their little witch.

(Y/N) was moving quietly yet fast through the forest. She was taught how to move with the shadows – never seen. The skills she learnt in Hydra were the only thing she appreciated. Although being trained by the avengers too, she knew Hydra had taught her better. Was it because Hydra’s agents were better teachers or they were stronger than her new friends? She pushed out those thoughts and focused on her mission.

Hydra base could be seen in the distance. (Y/N) didn’t miss the four guards outside the gates. She could take them down and she knew it but if she had entered through the main entrance, she would have dug her own grave. Thanks to having been locked in this prison for ten years, (Y/N) had memorized the whole plan of the structure. She knew its weak and strong spots, where the guards were and where not. The witch changed her path and hurried through the trees without stumbling over or getting hurt. Hydra’s base usually weren’t high above the ground but under…it had at least five floors but it always depended on where the base was situated. Although this one had three floors, they were enormous and probably she had been walking on their ‘roof’ for at least twenty minutes. As she neared the concrete fence she sneaked fast to it as one of the cameras was facing another direction. She was like glued to it and moved slowly until she reached the wanted destination. There was a small shaft. She knelt down and tried to open it. No luck. The camera was slowly moving now towards her. She had to do something and in a hurry she broke it and slipped inside as fast as she could. Unfortunately, one of the agents inside the structure had been looking at the views the cameras had been showing and had seen the broken shaft.

“Someone have entered! I repeat, someone have entered! Go to sector 7 and kill the incomer!”, the man spoke and his voice filled the whole building.

The girl knew that she had risked showing she was coming. Well, they didn’t know it was her but still they were probably expecting someone. Moving faster and making no noise she reached the end. She had taken some different directions from the main shaft and now was looking at a corridor. The witch was about to open the grid and go out but some soldiers appeared running. ‘Maybe towards Sector 7.’ When they were gone she jumped down. Looking at both directions she tried to choose one.

To be honest, (Y/N) led her soul guide her for seeking revenge. She had come here with no plan but she would think about it at the moment. Soon after, she decided to take the one where the soldiers came running from. The first thing she had to do was to free the children and then help them escape from here. As she was running searching for ways to get to sector 3, she thought how empty and quiet it was. Yeah, they knew someone was here but they would hardy sent all their soldiers to see who it was. When she turned right, she understood the reason for seeing nobody.

“We knew the person would be smart.”, said a well-known agent, who she had seen before many years, “The leader are glad you are here.”

“They won’t be when they understand the reason for being here.”, the girl received a smirk as a reply and was attacked from the man. He was well trained but it took her seconds to take him down with her flexible movements. One down but she heard steps coming. As she lifted her head she saw other ten agents. She smiled and took her favorite knives. They were longer than the ordinary ones but way lighter.

“Come to mummy.”, and after that she could not remember what had happened. The fight felt like seconds. Her body was filled with adrenaline and on fire but not because of her nature powers. The thrill of killing was indescribable. She moved like a shadow. The soldiers barely saw her but felt the sharp metal across their flesh. Warm red liquid was flowing. If it was hers or not she continued dancing around the falling bodies and once she was done, (Y/N) wanted more. The adrenaline was enfolding her nerves, controlling her actions as she was intoxicated from the feelings it gave her. For the first time she felt alive, stronger, powerful and delighted at the same time.

“We won’t be there on time! She may be lying dead while we are still far, far away from her…”, Peter cried out. He had begun to lose his mind. It had taken them a lot. Through the whole path he didn’t stop blaming himself for this although he knew it wasn’t his fault. If he were her, he could have done the same. The helicopter was near the place where one month ago they had rescued the girl. They were close but at the same time very far away.

“Peter, please, calm down. You have seen how powerful and strong she can be. She’ll be okay, maybe with some scratches but still safe and sound.”, Wanda had sat next to him and had tried to comfort him but in vain, “Think about good things and good things will happen.”, but Peter was afraid that there was no matter. Something bad was about to happen or had already happened.

(Y/N) continued playing the role of Death coming to take the souls of his victims. As she ran her weapon though one agent’s body someone shot at her. She was fast and moved but when she turned around the man shot again. The girl threw her knives and moved her hands in front of her forming the letter ‘X’. The bullets stopped inches away from her face. What surprised the shooting man was that the girl didn’t even close her eyes from fear. She started walking towards him, fire forming in her hand. Her eyes shined in a color between red and (Y/e/c). He cursed under his breath and stepped backwards in terror but the witch was already near him. She clenched her gist around his throat and lifted him up. The fire spread along the body. The agents was screaming and kicking but not hard enough to escape. The grip was tight and the fire was painful. The witch let him down once he was all in flames. Smiling she turned around just to feel electricity through her body. Her body squirmed and she felt on the ground still shaking. The soldier came closer and injected something in her. No matter her persistence, her eyes shut down ending her new world of pleasure.

“I knew you would come back to Hydra, sweetheart.”, a female voice made the girl wake up. She slowly opened her eyes, trying to focus but the vision was still blurred. (Y/N) tried to move her head but felt a strong pain in the neck.

“I’m afraid it will hurt you for two or three hours but that won’t stop us from our plans, right?”, the woman sounded so happy and yet so familiar.

“We really did missed you, Ms. (Y/L/N).”, a man spoke from the distance.

(Y/N) groaned in pain as she moved her head again but this time, maybe due to the ache, she could see properly. She was chained to a well-familiar chair. The girl tried to move but she couldn’t. She was tied strongly to the object.

“You know all your efforts are in vain.”, the voice brought (Y/N) back to as she was falling in her nightmares due to the chair. As she lifted her head, her eyes got wide once she saw who was standing there.

“You?”, she breathed out the word, “You…you ha-had to be-”, while stuttering she almost choked, “…dead.”, the last word was whispered but it echoed through the room slicing her beliefs, thoughts, anchor the same way she had sliced the soldier’s bodies before.

Part 9

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fictionstuff · 4 years

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Tales of Vesperia (Switch) Points: 4.0/5 Status: no walkthrough used (I did look up a few things though, especially side-quests) played through in approximately 70 hours

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am an extremely big fan of the Tales of series. I have yet to play Berseria, which I am super looking forward to, but it's been so so so long that I wanted to give Vesperia a try. The original was released in 2008 and if I had a xbox, I probably would have bought it already. Since I don't like that console, I didn't buy it. I am so glad that due to the game tenth anniversary and new release on the Switch, I could finally try it. It runs smoothly at 4K and with 71h+ I finally also finished it just a few months after its initial release.

Artwork/Design

Taking into account that it's a remaster rather than a remake, this game can't score 5 points in this section. If we compare it to games on Switch nowadays, we have much better alternatives like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or even any Mario game. Nonetheless it was probably beautiful and spectacular in 2008.

While the characters move smoothly, the movements itself seem rather robotic. It shows signs of aging that can't be denied. The weather changes in a matter of seconds very abruptly, which seems rather unnatural. Apart from this Tales of Vesperia features Tales-of-like environments full of colour, vibrant towns and dungeons which all look completely different from one another, which gives them a feeling of uniqueness, which makes them feel real.

Bothersome was the fact that we had no maps for towns or dungeons. While towns may be easily overlooked, dungeons were all the more difficult, because you could easily go lost.

Nonetheless Tales of Vesperia features these funny, sweet skits that are known to many Tales of gamers. These skits show a variety of interactions of the characters, which totally shape their personalities. They're not exactly informative, but it wouldn't hurt to get to know these sweet characters. They all have beautiful unique quirky designs, but that's something the series has always excelled at in my opinion.

Due to dozen of side quests, you can explore a very big world with many places you wouldn't even need to visit in the main quest of the game. You can squire many weapons and armors (which are displayed in battle!) and also: costumes. This stuff has been part of the series as long as I can remember and hey, Tales of Vesperia has some nice assets to look at.

Story/Combat System

Tales of Vesperia starts rather un-hero-esque, having our main character, Yuri Lowell, from the lower quarters of a huge city, run after a thief that has apparently stolen something important: a blastia core. In Terca Lumireis people rely on blastia, energy cores, to get through their normal day to day life. Blastia were called to life by Krytia, an ancient race. These cores are powered through a substance called “aer” which basically displays the energy flow of the planet. Tales of Vesperia features a massive story, that is full of plots and dramatical moments, which I am not gonna spoil.

Half of the game will feel like a big road trip as you get to know Yuri's companions, which are all completely unique and fleshed out, due to big character developments. Vesperia gives every character their back story and the chance to shine unconditionally. This game also easily gave life to one of the coolest male protagonists; Yuri Lowell. He's undoubtedly a ruthless young man, that does almost everything to save his friends and to help them. That does include doing things that are unethical and morally wrong. But it's up to you to decide, if you think that was right or wrong.

Vesperia focuses more on the group of characters than the actual story, which is once again to rescue the world from their doom (which is in fact just a punishment for humanity wanting too much). The game has a rather slow pacing and it takes some time to get into this world, that has just so much more to offer than a small trip to save the planet. All these characters have completely different motivations and goals, they clash at times and other times they save their asses. They ultimately grow together to be friends, to understand one another and to help themselves overcome crises.

Fanservice has been decently reduced and it almost plays no part in Vesperia. Except for a few humorous scenes. Vesperia offers you a big world map, that is meant to be explored, even besides the massive main story. You can do that while listening to Vesperia's great soundtrack, which is sadly all too much like any other tales of game. This overall didn't bother me one bit, cause I am on of the the biggest fans of Symphonia's or Zestria's soundtracks.

This new version also offers you 2 new playable characters, which kind of surprised me, because I thought these had always been part of the story.

What Tales of Vesperia probably wants to deliver is a story about humanity, about human faults and what is means to be human. Apart from that Yuri and Flint also teach us about what is morally wrong and right, but I think that this part of the story should have been explained much more. It would have given the story a lot of substance, if we could have seen more of their friendship and their motivation and their clashes. These characters easily have the strongest influence on the player and both have an interesting mind set, which completely differs from one another. The clash of these ideals would have been so much more interesting, if they had elaborated on it.

Vesperia's combat system is action based and it's definitely one of the coolest systems in the tales series. It's not even half as stressful as some other entries in the series, especially the newer ones as Symphonia's system is rather close to Vesperia's. The basics are very simple and can always be watched again, in case you didn't understand. Vesperia gives you time to try everything out as not everything is introduced right at the beginning.

Vesperia works a lot like other entries though, smashing buttons to enforce normal attacks and artes (which can be developed and switched out). You can give instructions to your party members and while you start out with Yuri, you may also play any character. Each character has different weapons and artes that can be used. Spacing and timing can be very important in Vesperia as not every foe is easily dealt with. Combos can be super important to give life to special attacks like Mystic Artes and the overlimit system gives you a lot of opportunities to destroy your foe.

As I've played Final Fantasy IX right after finishing Vesperia, I realised that both games give you skills through armor/weapons, a classic, if I may say so. Vesperia takes you back to the roots of the tale of games. I haven't played that many entries, but Tales of games always deliver a good RPG.

#game reviews #review

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therealeagal · 7 years

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Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Not to say that Breath of the Wild is not a fun game, because it very much is, but just off the top of my head I can name seven Zelda games that take a big smelly shit on BotW in literally every way. Well, not literally since the graphics are obviously better. So then just almost literally every way.

Best Zelda game ever? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

No. Not by a long shot.

Problem number one: bring back random drops. I don’t give a shit if it’s not realistic that a Keese would be holding five arrows when I kill it.

There are two ways to get arrows in this game. 1: Find an enemy with a bow and wait for it to fire at you and dodge the arrow and hope the arrow wasn’t broken wherever it struck. 2: Shell out five gajillion rupees for at most 15 at a time. Thanks but no thanks.

And rupees! There are no more rupee drops except for the odd Yiga clan attack, which I guarantee won’t net you enough money to pay for all the arrows you’ll need. To unlock all the great fairy fountains you need, if my memory serves me correctly, over 16000 rupees!!! The only other way to get money is to occasionally find them in chests or sell monster parts for a dozen or so rupees depending on the particulars.

You can also own a home in this game, but it costs upwards of 4000 rupees to get it all decked out.

Problem number 2: Breakable weapons. Fuck. This. Mechanic. And the Master Sword isn’t even immune to it!!!! It’s reusable, but if you use it too much it will break and you have to wait for it to recharge. Even if the MS alone were unbreakable that would make the mechanic about a gajillion times more tolerable.

Problem number 3: Rain. The rain in the plains. Or more problematically, the rain in the mountains. You see, my children, when it rains in Hyrule, it becomes impossible to scale any sort of scale-able surface. Guess what Hyrule is covered in? Yes, that’s right. Mountains. And hills and oodles of climbable shit. All of which is 100% off limits in the rain.

There’s a wait feature. You set down a bundle of wood and a piece of flint. Strike the flint with a metal weapon and voila. Instant campfire. Guess what doesn’t work in the rain? Yes, that’s right. Campfires. So you have to wait out rain the old fashioned way.

Again, sacrificing game quality for the sake of realism. IT’S A MAGICAL KINGDOM WHERE YOU HAVE TO FIGHT A PIG GHOST DEMON WITH THE HELP OF ROBOT ANIMALS WE DON’T NEED REALISM.

Problem number 4: The horses. This is more of a nitpick than a problem since there’s only one point in the story where a horse is significant, and even then its use isn’t required. So why bother putting them in? Just give me one horse. Epona. Give me Epona and make her control perfectly without randomly deciding to turn off the path you were on or pull up short in the middle of a dead sprint because there was a patch of ground that was .001 microns higher than the ground around it.

You can register the horses you catch at any stable, so that you can board them and retrieve them later at a different stable elsewhere in the world, perhaps so that you can fast travel and still be able to ride your cool steed, which is a nice touch.

You know what isn’t a nice touch? You can only register horses you catch. You want to register that Stalhorse you caught and name Bonethony (like Anthony but with Bone in it)? Nope. You want to register that stag you’re forced to catch for that one Shrine Quest and name it Bambi? Take a hike, chump. You want to register that super badass glowing horse thing you caught at the top of Satori Mountain that has infinite sprinting and name it Awesome Glowhorse? Fuck you, you can’t.

Problem number 5: Link’s durability. This rendition of Link has the constitution of a wet paper bag. When there are enemies that can one-shot you in the first goddamn area you’ve got a problem. The ability to dodge is at an all time high, except that oops, enemies with ranged weapons can lead their shots and oops most high end enemies have AOE attacks so unless you want to spend half your time playing this game reloading from the last save because Link just got OTKed by a Guardian with pinpoint accuracy from the other side of fucking Hyrule, you’ll spend most of your time in the menus shoving food down Link’s gullet.

“But Eagal!” I hear you say. “You can fight from afar with your mighty bow!” Good point. Except for A: The previously mentioned arrow scarcity and B: Arrows do jack shit to any enemy worth using them on. They can be used to stun most enemies if you get a headshot, but alas, they’ll typically remain stunned for less time than it takes to actually run up to them and attack with your sword or whatever, especially if you’re using a two-handed weapon.

“But Eagal!” I hear you say. “You can use your mighty shield to block enemy attacks!” Except that again, no you can’t. Because AOE ignores shields and any shield not named the Hylian Shield are trash when it comes to blocking attacks from enemies worth using them on and if you do use the Hylian Shield, which is often erroneously reported as unbreakable, it will inevitably break and at such time you can either A: go back to relying on inferior shields or B: shell out 3000 more rupees to a guy in Tarrey town.

Problem number 6: Link’s stamina. Ok, so let’s include the ability to run in this game. But let’s make that run feature utterly meaningless by trying it to Link’s incredibly small stamina meter. There’s a sex joke in there somewhere.

-------------

The music. Mainly the remixes, as opposed to the original songs, which I believe I liked all of. Some of it I liked, some of it I wasn’t crazy about. Off the top of my head I don’t think I actually disliked any of it, just didn’t love it.

-------------

So what did I like about the game? One of the game’s primary gimmicks is the clothes. You can equip different sets of armor which may provide different bonus effects and varying levels of protection. You can get a climber’s set that lets you climb faster or the Hylian guard set that gives you really good defense. Or my personal favorite the Barbarian set that boosts your attack power.

Or you can have Link run around in his skivvies. He wears boxer briefs, which is funny because I would have pegged Link as a boxers kind of guy. Not that I often think about the state of Link’s undergarments....

In any event, whatever you’ve got him equipped with, that’s what Link will be wearing during cutscenes. Alas, no cuckoo costume. You can get a Dark Link outfit by doing a sidequest to unlock a certain merchant. Lets you run faster a night, though come to that, so does the upgraded sheikah outfit, which has an added benefit of increasing your stealth. I bought it anyway, because why not.

There’s also a bunch of amiibo costumes but I don’t have any of those.

The other primary gimmick of the game is the Sheikah iphone slate which replaces items in this game. You can create a block of ice in the water to climb upon or you can freeze time for objects or enemies or you can take a picture with the camera function...which actually does have a use because the map has a search function that will alert you if a certain thing (items, enemies, shrines) is nearby.

------------

THE MOST TRAITOROUS THING about this game. Link doesn’t get to wear green!!!!! Well, ok, he does. If you get the amiibos which give you access to the signature tunics of his predecessors in Linkage. Or if you complete all 120ish shrines so that Link can get his own set. Still.

These are my only thoughts for now.

In summary, good, not the best. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong.

#legend of zelda #legend of zelda breath of the wild #random drops #yiga clan #master sword #epona #hylian shield #tarrey town #sheikah slate

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lyricalive · 7 years

Photo

If you're an Ace Attorney fan and haven't seen the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film RASHOMON, you're missing out on something very relevant to your interests. It's a gripping tale of murder, contradictions, samurais, and spirit mediums... seriously. Here it is on public domain.

By the way, because it's so relevant, I wrote a dumb fanfic that reinterprets the story of Rashomon using the characters of AA.

Two men took their seats in a cramped sideroom on the Global Studios set.

An uneventful silence persisted between them… until a bright and rosy figure sprung abruptly from behind their folding chairs.

"BOO!"

"Maya–!?" The man in blue jumped at her sneak attack. "What are you doing?"

"Haha! Why so shocked, Nick? Didja think I was a ghost?"

The suggestion was enough to send him into a cold sweat. "Don't joke about that, Maya. Sometimes you are a ghost." Turning his attention back to a thick stack of paper he held in his hands, Phoenix Wright furrowed his jagged brow. "I'm still not so sure about this movie thing. I've only read halfway, but this script hits scarily close to home…"

"You're lucky, then!" The girl in the pink costume clapped her hands together with delight. "You’ll be a natural for the part! No need to rely on the acting skills you don't have."

(I resent that! Bluffing could be considered a type of acting.)

Brushing off his indignance, Phoenix continued. "What kind of story is this even supposed to be? Isn't it a little serious for a kid's show?"

Maya shot back, "Get with the program, old man! Everybody loves it when TV shows get a little darker and edgier." She whirled to face the other lawyer seated beside him. "You agree, right? Don't you like things edgy, Mr. Edgeworth?"

"Mm…" Choosing to pardon the pun, Edgeworth agreed. "It is an interesting choice to base the plot on an old cinematic classic. I can commend the franchise for being willing to take risks in a direction that appeals to more mature viewers peripheral to its target demographic."

"…Excuse me?" Phoenix threw Edgeworth a baffled glance, having hoped his old rival would support his argument just this once.

With unwavering eyes, the prosecutor clarified, "I'm only speaking from a marketing perspective."

"Anyway!" Maya interjected. "How often do commonfolk like you actually get to guest-star in a real Steel Samurai special?"

Phoenix protested in vain, "Commonfolk like me? What about y–"

(…Oh, right. You're a little too unique to be called "common.")

His assistant grinned smugly. "That’s right, I was already a shoo-in to play the character I inspired, after all! I told the director I'd do it only if my friends could be in the movie, too. You should thank me for this opportunity!"

"J00 4C70RZ!" The jarring voice of the director called out from the neighboring studio. "R U rE4dy 2 m4Ke dIs m0V13 h4PPen?"

"…" The lawyer’s most crucial objection to participating in this project was the idea of having any further involvement with the greasy criminal accomplice whom he had the displeasure of meeting two years prior. However, his objection was overruled by the unboundable excitement of his young friend.

Rising from his seat, Phoenix sighed and resigned himself to fate.

"5c3N3 0n3!!!1"

Slow pan. The courtroom is hushed in anticipation. The entire gallery is so silent that one can clearly hear every drop of rain that splashes on the cold ground outside.

At once, the silence is broken by the slam of the courtroom door. The attorney barges in, panting, in the middle of this important case.

All others hardly stir. The only response from the prosecutor is a subdued mutter. "I don’t understand," he is repeating, angst dripping from his words. "I don’t understand."

The latecoming defense attorney understands even less. "What is it? What don’t you understand?"

"This entire case, which I should have easily solved in your absence… It makes no sense at all."

The attorney sheepishly scratches the back of his head. "Oh, come on. A famous prosecutor like you, and our wise judge here– you've surely heard every story in the book."

"No," says the latter from atop his golden bench, stroking his silver beard. "Not even the wise judge has heard a story quite like this."

"Here in the courthouse garden," the former somberly explains, “a man has been murdered.”

There is a brief beat.

"…I-is that so?” The attorney fails to convey the proper level of concern. "It's awful, but I mean, we've had murders inside the courthouse too."

"Of course, I've seen plenty of murders myself, but this… This is beyond any crime and any disaster." The prosecutor lowers his heavy head. "Worse than fire, famine, or earthquake."

The tension is palpable. What could possibly be as devastating as all that?

"Three days ago, the Steel Samurai himself… WAS ASSASSINATED!"

Gasps!

Dramatic close-ups on horrified reactions!

The prosecutor slams one hand on his desk to silence the riot.

"You there!" He thrusts his index finger toward a certain person seated along his side of the courtroom floor. "I'm calling you to the stand! Summarize the case thus far."

The person nods vigorously. "You've got it, pal. It's not like I have anywhere else to go. The rain doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon…"

-TESTIMONY-

It was three days ago, pal. I was on my way out from attendin' to business in this court.

Out in the garden grove, a bunch of strange-looking things were scattered around the area.

Like a trail of evidence, it led me right to the scene of a crime I never expected to see: the cold corpse of the old samurai!

When I saw the body... Naturally, I let out a yell and ran as fast as I could to go get the police!

"HOLD IT! ...The police?" The prosecutor narrows steely eyes at his subordinate.

"I mean... to go get backup, pal. Heh-heh."

"Please elaborate," he instructs. "What sort of strange evidence did you see?"

"Sure thing. A detective's eye, you know, always noticin' stuff."

First, there was a long pink veil caught in the bushes.

A little closer to the body, there was some sort of talisman case with red lining.

Finally, next to the body, there was a cut-up piece of rope, pal.

(Interesting. I should jot this down in the court record.

...Wait, I almost forgot this isn't a real trial.)

The judge interrupts with a loud sigh. "And to think, Mr. Prosecutor, you and I had both caught a glimpse of this man, healthy and well, out in the grove mere hours before his death."

"That's right," the prosecutor responds. "I recognized him by his iconic mask, and armed with his iconic weapon, the Samurai Sword. He was escorting a woman in striking pink armor-- but the woman had a veil, so we couldn't see her face."

"Uh, can we cut for a second?"

"CUT! ...Wut U w4nT?"

"Well, if the samurai also had his face under a mask, I don't get that last statement. How could you be sure it was him, yet doubt the woman?"

"Duh, Nick. Everybody knows that the mask is part of the Steel Samurai's identity. It would only be weird if he didn't have it. On the other hand, at this point in canon the Pink Princess isn't well known outside of Little Olde Tokyo. Her outfit wouldn't be enough to give her away."

"Yeah, but--"

"OK! 4C710N!"

"But the samurai..." The prosecutor solemnly shakes his head. "I didn't expect that would be the last time I'd ever see him alive.

"Ah yes," the judge muses. "Even for such a brave warrior, life is as frail and fleeting as the morning dew."

The policeman scratches his chin. "Well, we actually found him toward the afternoon, pal."

The judge's eyes widen. "Are you suggesting that the morning don't?"

"So..." The defense attorney takes the chance to speak up. "Do we have a suspect or a murder weapon?"

"You bet, pal!" The answer is delivered with a hearty salute. "In fact, the person we caught is none other than the notorious criminal everyone's been buzzin' about! The new heir to the line of EVIL NINJAS that've long been terrorizin' the Steel Samurai's regime!"

Bursting through the door, a bailiff drags in the struggling prisoner-- a feisty female ninja with raven-black hair. Her garish clothes drawing the attention of every eye in the gallery, she violently kicks the air.

“Lemme go!” The young ninja rips her arms free from the bailiff. “Lemme GO!”

"When we caught her, she was carryin' the sword you see here..." The policeman raises the relevant evidence from the stand in front of him. "None other than the legendary Samurai Sword!"

"I understand," says the prosecutor. "The day after the murder, she was found passed out by the side of the river, evidence in hand. Presumably, she was caught in the act of theft, and killed him to escape. Then, exhausted from the struggle, she fell asleep by the waters."

The suspect, who had been listening to the charges, begins to laugh hysterically.

"Come on!" she squawks. "There's nothing wrong with a little nap."

"You didn't say anything about the murder. To what part of the accusations do you object?"

"Listen, I'm a ninja with honor. The only thing I ever steal is the truth! Naturally, that means I have nothing to hide!"

(Who even is this? This character is awfully suspicious, down to the actress herself.)

"So then, motives aside, do you confess responsibility for the fate of our samurai?"

Her maniacal laughter rings out again. "...That's right! I did it!"

"What!?" The prosecutor is aghast. "With such insolence? How dare you!"

"Oh, the wind carried me into flight... but I struck with my own wing." She inhales deeply. "Here's exactly what happened..."

-THE BANDIT'S STORY-

Three days ago, I was napping under a tree in the grove, drifting in and out of dreams.

So I thought it was a dream when I saw him... Coming down the path, that goody-goody Samurai escorting this woman in pink.

She had a veil as a disguise. Probably some damsel in distress he was saving.

That's when... the fateful wind lifted her veil, revealing a glimpse of the rosy face beneath.

It was only then that I snapped awake! This was no dream, and this was not just any woman.

This was the Pink Princess of Little Olde Tokyo-- getting all cozy with the Steel Samurai!

I thought, this was my chance. I could get to the Samurai by striking at his heart: his precious Princess. I couldn't take him down alone, but if I could get her to join me instead of him, he'd be at my mercy! Persuasion is a specialty of my clan, you know...

I set my plan into motion. While the Princess was off gathering water at the river, I snuck up on the Samurai from behind and used my handy stash of rope to tie him up to a tree. It happened so fast and so easily that I was surprised at my own strength!

With the Samurai out of my way, I went back to find the woman.

We met eyes through the branches. "...Samurai?" she questioned me.

"Nope, I'm a ninja. You can tell by my trademark shuriken!"

"Very funny. I mean, where is my Samurai?"

"Oh, him? I saw him resting over by a tree. I think he might be sick."

"Sick...?" There was such sappy emotion in her voice. Like, did she really care that much about him? All I could think about was showing her how pathetic he looked tied to that tree. Then she'd definitely wanna side with me!

Now, again, I'm stronger than I look. I scooped her right on up, Princess-style, and ran.

(What kind of mutant strength does this teenage ninja have!?)

Her veil caught on a stray branch along the way, and I could see her shocked face.

"Evil Ninja!" she gasped. "It's you! What do you think you're doing!?"

"I'm taking you to the dark side, Princess! You'll have no choice but to join forces with me instead!"

I set her down to see her helpless hero.

This is where things got weird... She looked at him, then back at me...

Suddenly, that innocent expression turned fierce, as she drew her rapier from her armor's sheath and started slashing at me!

Whoa! She really had me fooled with her goody-goody act! I laughed out loud, 'cause now I wanted her on my side even more. It was like a game as I danced around tree trunks, avoiding her swipes.

"Join me, and we could take down that stupid Samurai together!"

The rapier dropped slowly out of her hands and her face went dark. She repeated in a whisper, "Take down... the Samurai..."

"HAHAHAHA! My plan was a total success!"

SLAM! The prosecutor furiously pounds a hand on his desk. "Villain! You corrupted the pure heart of the Pink Princess!"

"Eh... It didn't last very long though. That heart of hers is weaker than a twice-picked lock."

She snapped out of it as easily as she'd snapped in.

"What am I saying...? I've dishonored both our states by even considering betrayal."

She gave me her rapier to cut the samurai's ropes. "You two worthy opponents must fight. I'll have no choice but to go with whoever survives."

And so, we faced off. I even waited for him to strike first! I may be a ninja, but I'm also an honorable gal.

I used the princess's skinny rapier to counter his legendary Samurai Sword. My skills are so great that I wasn't even at a disadvantage. We crossed blades twenty-three-and-a-half times. I remember because I was so impressed. No one's ever crossed me more than twenty!

THEN I GOT HIM! BAM! Right in the chest! I defeated the Samurai, fair and square!

When I turned around, the Princess was gone. The fighting must have scared her away.

I wanted an ally with a fierce spirit, but after all she was just a loser who couldn't handle a fight! So I wasn't interested anymore...

Still, while I claimed his sword as a victory prize, her rapier was probably just as valuable. It was pretty dumb of me to leave it behind!

"OBJECTION! ...Didn't you say you don't steal anything but the truth?"

"Uh... Right, yeah, of course. Hahaha."

SLAM! The judge strikes his gavel on the bench.

"Prosecutor, you have a suspect who has directly confessed to the crime. Isn't this all the deliberation we need?"

He shakes his head. "Your Honor, as much as I wish to see justice done for our samurai's true killer... It is for this very reason that the trial must go on. We will hear the accounts of all possible witnesses, including the princess herself."

SLAM! The attorney shields his ears from all the clatter. At that moment, the courtroom door gives another dramatic burst.

The edges of the doorway shine with a hopeful light. From behind the barrier, a perfectly poised woman in pink makes her appearance on cue.

"Indeed! Though my lord's spirit is gone, long live the spirit of justice!"

"Princess!" the gallery cries. "It's the Pink Princess!"

With no veil to hide her painted face or her flowing hair, she confidently takes the stand. "People of the court... As much as it will pain me to do, a true account is exactly what I intend to give. Or my name isn't the Pink Princess, Warrior of Little Olde Tokyo!"

-THE WOMAN'S STORY-

That terrible ninja... I would never dream of betraying my dear Samurai!

She was certain that she could sway me, bragging about what a great bandit she was. "I can even steal people's hearts!"

I tried to run to his side, but I became dizzy and fell to the ground, such that my veil came tumbling off.

I may act strong now, but the truth is... In the moment, I failed.

The bandit attacked the Samurai, but unlike in her grandiose tale she was unable to finish the job. She ran away in the middle of the fight, dropping leftover pieces of rope like a trail behind her.

When it was safe, I finally rose and made it into the samurai's arms. But... the look I saw in his eyes chilled me to the soul.

It was neither anger, nor sorrow... but the cold light of pure hatred.

"Have I dishonored you, my Samurai? Don't look at me in such a way! It's the cruelest punishment I can imagine!"

But his steely gaze held steady, almost as if in some sort of trance.

I held out my rapier as an offering to him, resigned to my fate. "Kill me if you must! Preserve the honor of your name! Just stop with that cruel look in your eyes! I can't take it! Stop, stop!"

"Maya, please... Wasn't she just looking at the face on his mask?"

"Nick, it's not your line! Have you no tact? Let the Princess mourn!"

"But I mean..."

"4C710N!!!"

And that was it. I must have fainted after that. When I came to, and looked around... There it was. My own rapier, stuck in my own dear lord's chest!

"A tragedy indeed," the prosecutor laments. "But does this mean you are unclear about the actual moment of the murder?"

I refuse to accept the ninja's victory with honor. I know not what happened, whether she returned to catch him in a weaker state, or whether another person entered the scene. But I can certainly say that his demise was the doing of a coward.

"Oh my." The judge looks troubled. "The more we hear, the less clear it gets."

The policeman waggles his heavy eyebrows. "You know, pal, it's funny. Since the suspicious bandit was found with the Samurai Sword, we would've thought that was the murder weapon."

"Hm, why yes. And yet both witnesses have testified that it was the Princess's rapier."

"The rapier itself wasn't found at the scene. I wonder where it is now, pal!"

"In lack of evidence," the prosecutor speaks, "these words are everything. Unfortunately, everyone inevitably holds a biased account."

"You're right. What can we do, sir?"

"...HOLD IT!"

(Finally, I get a line in somewhere! And one I've practiced so much.)

In an instant, all eyes converge upon the source of the shout.

"I have an idea," the attorney speaks, "if the honorable court would hear out a commoner's plan."

(Though I could do without the excessive humility.)

"Very well," the judge graciously agrees. "What are your thoughts?"

"Well, we've heard from all the witnesses. I would say that the only thing left to do... is to hear the tale from the man himself."

The courtroom gallery buzzes with confusion. "Huh? From the Steel Samurai? But how?"

"I happen to know a spirit medium, who can communicate with the spirit of the deceased."

"So even if he's gone, we can hear his story..."

The camera pans down, down, down. A petite body draped in light purple robes peeks out from her hiding spot behind the defense's bench. The extra small medium speaks in an even smaller voice.

"H-hello. I am a channeler of the dead. I will do my best to shed a shining light on the true purr-pa-traitor."

The judge's eyes widen. "This is madness! A spirit medium? We haven't used this technique in years, since the fall of the last regime..."

"And yet," the attorney insists, "it may be the most reliable method there is. After all, why would a dead man lie?"

The lights dim.

From the orchestra, a heartrending ballad pours out to fill the ambience of the fallen hero's scene.

From the center of the room where the spirit medium stands, a strong and familiar voice resounds, a voice that is not her own.

"It is I, the Steel Samurai! I am now suffering in the world of darkness, where I can no longer protect the people who rely on me."

(So in this movie, when a medium channels someone, only their voice comes through. Considering the true face of the victim, that's a relief.)

"...Sniff."

(But, poor Mr. Powers. Cast down to a voiceover role. I can hear him sniveling between lines.)

"Ahem. It is a dark day for Neo Olde Tokyo. But someday, surely, the villain too will fall. When that day comes... I'll see you in hell, Evil Ninja."

"Worry not, my lord," the prosecutor asserts. "Justice will be served in your honor. Simply tell us the legend of your final moments."

-THE SAMURAI'S STORY-

It hurts, my dear Princess... to hear you testify that my death was the work of a coward.

Every action I took was to ensure the very opposite. Allow me to tell my own tale.

After the bandit attacked the Princess and left her full of shame, she then preyed on these emotions.

"Now that you've been tainted with traitorous thoughts, why not join me once and for all?"

The way the Princess looked at that moment... it was no ordinary look, and it was certainly not my Princess's face.

On my honor, she was bewitched! It was the ninja clan's devious power of mind control!

"I'll join you," is what she shockingly replied.

"Now that we're on the same side, we have to take out the samurai!"

"Yes. TAKE OUT THE SAMURAI!"

Even the bandit turned pale at her fierce, frightening words. After regaining her composure, she addressed me with a scoff.

"Are you hearing this, Samurai? How do you feel about your traitorous Princess?"

Waging a battle of will against the ninja's tricks myself, my head was spinning and the conversation around me grew faint.

All I could muster was, "Princess, snap out of it... Save yourself..."

Soon, I was relieved to hear her footsteps as she obeyed and escaped into the woods.

The Evil Ninja turned to me once more. "Oh, she got away. I guess I have to deal with you myself."

The ninja readied the rapier that she had stolen from my Princess, and approached me.

In one swift motion, I took the weapon from her hands... and I killed myself with it instead.

That is the one and only truth. After all, that's the only honorable way for a samurai to go...

"...OBJECTION!"

The outburst erupts from the prosecutor's bench.

"My lord! I am loath to oppose you, but I cannot stand for these lies any longer."

"Prosecutor, what do you mean?"

"The rapier, as everyone mysteriously insists, was not the murder weapon. This man was killed by the sword!"

The judge thoughtfully strokes his beard. "I see, and... how are you so sure about that?"

"Because I... I was there."

Gasps!

"Prosecutor... You saw the whole thing, didn't you? Why didn't you tell the court?"

"I wished not to get involved. Of course, now there doesn't appear to be much of a choice. I will add my own testimony."

The man in red, with piercing eyes that could slice through wood, nobly takes the witness stand.

-THE WOODCUTTER'S STORY-

This courthouse is a second home to me. Of course I was nearby.

I first found the pink veil caught on a branch in the grove... At the same time, I heard the sounds of voices.

Peering through the foliage, I witnessed the Samurai tied up, the woman on the ground sobbing, and the bandit gloating.

I didn't only see him before and after the crime, as I earlier claimed. I saw the scene of his very death.

"Come with me!" the bandit crowed to the Princess. "You and I together will take down the Samurai!"

"Take... down..." Tears filled her eyes and choked her words.

"Eh? I can't hear you!" the bandit demanded. "Quit crying and answer!"

With that, oddly, her crying stopped on a dime. "Hmph. Impossible. How could I, an innocent Princess, make such a decision?"

The newly articulate woman approached the Samurai, and with her rapier swiftly cut the ropes that bound him.

"Go ahead, take him down yourself. If you can't, you're not a real ninja!"

"This... can't be my Princess," the warrior lamented, and I thought the same thing. "This must be mind control! Her love isn't this weak!"

The Princess broke out into laughter. Getting a better look at her face, unobscured by crocodile tears, I saw that it had completely changed. "Oh, Samurai... A famous writer once said, 'A woman loves a man who loves passionately.' Your love is that which needs to be tested."

They were finally motivated to fight. The Evil Ninja seized hold of the Samurai's sword, and the Samurai was left with his Princess's rapier. Even with this advantage, she didn't put up nearly as impressive a fight as she would have you believe, I assure you.

The Samurai valiantly blocked each of the bandit's thrusts, one by one. The sound of metal against metal echoed through the grove.

Suddenly, the Princess swooned backwards, reeling from her seeming trance. In this brief moment, the Samurai was distracted by her fall, and it was only then that the ninja managed to land one lucky strike... or rather, a fatally unlucky one.

The deed done, the great Steel Samurai sunk to his knees. The bandit, in pure shock, withdrew the sword from his body and stared down at it. Then she decided to replace the rapier instead into the corpse's chest, running off with the sword as her trophy.

"So this is the real story...?" asks the judge. "Then why wasn't the rapier found at the scene of the crime, I wonder?"

"That is, er... TAKE THAT!" With a sweeping gesture to the court record, the prosecutor reveals his possession of the rapier all along.

"Sir, you withheld evidence!?" the detective roars. "But how can we trust you then?"

"Admittedly irrational in the moment, I removed it in a vain attempt to help him, though he was already gone... Then I confiscated it as evidence. I waited for the right time to present it, but at every turn it made less sense..."

"Feh!" the ninja girl scoffs. "Are you sure you didn't just want a souvenir, samurai fanboy? And you all call me the bandit."

All around, each person in the courtroom is eyeing one another with suspicious disbelief.

The judge somberly shakes his head. "Human beings who can't trust each other... What has my job come to?"

(That's how your job has always been, Your Honor...)

SLAM!

"Let's take a moment and think about this," the judge continues. "The Bandit, the Woman, the Samurai, and the Woodcutter. Out of these four contradicting stories, whose is the most believable?"

"Hm... I still say the victim's firsthand account should be the most believable," the attorney insists. "Again, why would a dead man lie?"

"Mister Attorney..." The young spirit medium suddenly speaks again, the sound of her shy voice a quiet surprise. "Isn't that a great question?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The spirits told me... that's the question you should be asking. After all, Mister Attorney, that's your doo-dee of juzz-tizz!"

"..."

Struck with inspiration, the attorney at last raises a confident finger.

"That's right... People of the court, there may be justice yet!"

-CROSS-EXAMINATION-

It's time for a turnabout!

Instead of looking at the suspects' motives to kill, why not look at their motives to lie about killing?

The bandit... would lie to claim the honor of defeating her clan's sworn enemy.

The samurai... would lie to preserve that honor, and to protect his beloved Princess from suspicion.

The woman... Her motives, between her strange behavior and hazy memory, are the most unclear.

Her changing face... the so-called mind control... It's all coming together!

The judge appears captivated and excited. "Enlighten us, commoner!"

"Well... We still don't know the culprit, but we may have another character involved that may make the accounts we have more compatible to judge. The presence of a fifth party is based on reasoning that is difficult to prove, yet we have proof in the very courtroom: spirit mediums. And, if my hunch is correct, not just the little one."

The Pink Princess steps gracefully forward. "An astute observation, Sir Attorney. Indeed, I hail from a royal bloodline of strong spiritual power."

"I see..." murmurs the prosecutor. "This could be the key to understanding her strange behavior. She never betrayed our lord after all."

"And maybe, the long arm of justice will have to reach somewhere beyond!"

"...MY PRINCESS!"

With a dramatic slam, more dramatic than any other, the courtroom doors burst open one last time. Trumpets flare with a familiar melody.

"Wait, what?"

"I thank you, commoner. My Princess is purged of her dishonor." A deep masculine voice rings out as once before, but no longer from the spirit medium's position. "I too, will reclaim my honor and together we will return to our rightful service."

Standing proudly between the courtroom doors, a tall and muscular figure is drenched in the rain that continues to pour outside, which only makes his steel armor glisten all the more with the impending hope of the rising sun.

Here before everyone stands... the Steel Samurai, well and alive!?

"…Wait! No! HOLD IT! This is definitely a contradiction!"

"Nick!" The princess puffed out her rosy cheeks. "An actor must always keep in character!"

"I am my character! And I don’t think he would stand for this." Phoenix turned, troubled, to the grubby little director. "The medium couldn’t have channeled the samurai to testify if he wasn’t actually dead. If that’s the case, this whole story doesn’t hold any water."

"Hm," the prosecutor mused. "Then again, are irreconcilable contradictions not the very theme of the original film?"

(Edgeworth… Tell me you're not praising the writing for being purposely bad.)

"…It is clever," he shrugged with a smirk, "though I don’t believe in irreconcilable contradictions."

“L0L.” Not actually laughing at all, the director stared condescendingly at his blue-suited actor. "D0 j00 7h1nk 1’m 5700p1D 3n0ugH 2 fR4G t3h 5733L 54mur41?“

"Obviously, the face of the franchise can't die! Just be patient and it’ll all work out in the end," Maya confidently asserted, as if she were the one running the show. "We still haven't gotten to the part about the Iron Infant! Where they all discover a reason to restore their faith in humanity– and get back to fighting Evil, of course."

Phoenix opened his mouth to object to absolutely everything, but, much like his character, he had no answer to these contradictions. Unlike his character, his faith in humanity was anything but restored.

#ace attorney #rashomon #akira kurosawa #fanfiction #YOU REALLY DON'T NEED TO READ THIS!!#literally all i wanted to do was point out the parallels #and i promised myself i'd finish this for years hsdgfd

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Star Wars

I was five years old when Star Wars: A New Hope blasted its way into movie theaters. Like most members of Generation X, the film cast a long shadow over my childhood, dictating my Halloween costumes, afterschool play, Happy Meal purchases, toy collections, and clothing; I had Princess Leia action figures, Star Wars drinking glasses, Star Wars t-shirts, and a Star Wars beach towel. One of the few tie-in products I didn’t own, however, was a comic book adaptation of the movie. I’d purchased The Star Wars Storybook at a Scholastic book fair in 1978, but never knew that Marvel Comics or manga publishers were peddling something similar.

That’s a pity, because Star Wars has a long and fascinating history in print. Marvel’s six-issue adaptation of A New Hope, for example, was cooked up by a Lucasfilm executive in an effort to drum up business for the film — in essence, it was a trailer for comic geeks, arriving on newsstands a month before the movie opened. Though Marvel executives had been reluctant to license Star Wars — according to former editor Jim Shooter the “Prevailing Wisdom” at Marvel was that “science fiction doesn’t sell” — it proved one of the company’s best business decisions of the 1970s. “The first two issues of our six issue adaptation came out in advance of the movie,” Shooter observed:

Driven by the advance marketing for the movie, sales were very good. Then about the time the third issue shipped, the movie was released. Sales made the jump to hyperspace. Star Wars the movie stayed in theaters forever, it seemed. Not since the Beatles had I seen a cultural phenomenon of such power. The comics sold and sold and sold. We reprinted the adaptation in every possible format. They all sold and sold and sold.

By contemporary standards, Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin’s version is skillful but a little stodgy, relying on voice-overs to introduce key characters and explain plot points, rather than allowing the art to shoulder the responsibility of telling the story. Nonetheless, as Star Wars fever crossed the Pacific, Weekly Shonen Magazine republished Thomas and Chaykin’s comic, touching off a Star Wars manga blitz in Japan.

Japan caught Star Wars fever again in 1997, when the Special Edition trilogy hit theaters across the globe. Kadokowa’s MediaWorks division churned out a new set of Star Wars manga, hiring Hisao Tamaki (A New Hope), Toshiki Kudo (The Empire Strikes Back), and Shin-Ichi Hiromoto (Return of the Jedi) to handle the adaptations. And while all three are good, faithfully reproducing the main beats from each film, Tamaki’s version of A New Hope is that rarest of tie-in products: it captures the look and feel of the movie without slavishly copying it, offering both a fresh perspective on a canonical text and a point of entry for someone wholly unfamiliar with Star Wars.

Part of what makes Tamaki’s version so fascinating is how he compensates for the absence of a soundtrack — no mean feat, given how noisy the Star Wars universe is. While Tamaki uses plenty of hand-lettered sound effects, he never uses them as a crutch, instead finding nifty ways to help us imagine the sound of a landspeeder skimming the desert floor or a Stormtrooper firing his blaster. Tamaki’s most effective tactic is careful attention to the velocity and direction of moving objects; through deft placement of speedlines and artful manipulation of the panels’ shape and size, he conveys the same information that a well engineered roar, squeak, thud, or electronic rumble might.

Then there’s the film’s lush, Wagnerian score, the kind of movie music that had been fashionable in the era of Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia but was considered unhip in the gritty, naturalistic world of early 70s cinema. The opening fanfare and dense web of leitmotifs are unquestionably part of A New Hope‘s appeal, goosing fight scenes and capturing the melancholy of a young Luke Skywalker as he gazes at a Tatooine sunset. Absent those musical prompts, however, Tamaki is forced to think about how to elicit the same emotions in words and pictures. One of the most dramatically successful attempts to bridge sound and silence occurs in volume one of Tamaki’s adaptation, right after R2D2 and C3PO land on Tatooine:

In the film, John Williams accompanies C3PO’s trek with music cribbed from The Rite of Spring — a decent choice, as Stravinsky’s dour ostinati and octatonic harmonies imbue the harsh landscape with an otherworldly quality. Tamaki, however, distills this two-minute scene to an evocative two-page spread in which a wide-angle view of the Tatooine desert unfolds beneath the individual panels, reminding us just how small and vulnerable both droids are. These images track closely with Lucas’ own vision, but the implied silence of the first and final panels in this sequence more powerfully conveys C3PO’s isolation than any musical gesture could:

The absence of sound has another unexpected benefit: minus the actors’ desperate attempts to make George Lucas’ dialogue sound… well, like conversation, the script has more room to breathe. Tamaki plays the earnest stuff straight and ramps up the comedy whenever someone is surprised or indignant. Luke, in particular, benefits from such an approach, given his age and naivete; in Tamaki’s hands, he’s Monkey D. Luffy with a lightsaber, freaking out over chores, the Millennium Falcon’s shabby appearance, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s death, a kiss from Princess Leia… you get the idea. Tamaki’s elastic deformations of Luke’s face transform him from blandly handsome farm boy to Shonen Jump hero, equal parts brave and ridiculous:

One of the manga’s other great virtues is its ability to expand and contract time in ways that a purely temporal medium like film can’t. The ability to speed up and slow down the unfolding the plot isn’t unique to comics, of course; filmmakers can use slow motion imagery or cross-cutting to manipulate the viewer’s perception of time, but a good manga artist takes advantage of the fact the reader can, in fact, stop time by poring over an image or a scene for minutes, savoring small but telling details that would otherwise get lost in the cinematic flow. Writing for Animerica in 2004, Patrick Macias offered a thoughtful explanation of how this kind of creative expansion of time adds new layers of meaning to Tamaki’s story:

It is in Tamaki’s take on destruction of the planet Alderaan that he really shows off his stuff. A scene that took mere moments to depict on-screen is drawn out to fill half a dozen pages. He inserts images of the Alderaan populace looking up to the heavens, and you can almost hear those “millions of voices suddenly crying out in terror” with more dramatic impact in the manga than in the film.

Of course, none of this would matter if Tamaki lacked the precision to bring Lucas’ vision to life on page. Again and again, Tamaki delivers amazingly detailed drawings of space ships, aliens, and weapons that pulse with the same life as Katsuhiro Otomo’s AKIRA and Shirow Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell; if you’d never seen or heard of Star Wars, you might reasonably infer that Tamaki dreamt up this world on his own. Tamaki proves equally adept at staging deep space dogfights, too, conveying both the dizzying speed with which the ships are moving and the maze-like surface of the Death Star:

For readers coming to the manga from the films, the biggest stumbling block will be the character designs: did Tamaki get them right? The short answer is yes, if you can tolerate a little artistic license with hairdos and body types. Not surprisingly, R2D2 and C3PO look most like their big-screen counterparts — no pesky noses or mouths to draw — but the rest of the cast bear a passing-to-strong resemblance to the actors who portrayed them, though Obi-Wan Kenobi has gotten a beefy makeover as Chuck Norris. Tamaki does an even better job of bringing Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers to life on the page, adding an extra touch of menace in the way he draws their helmets; you can almost see the soldiers grimacing under their plastic armor from the way he draws their browlines.

If I’ve sold you on manga Star Wars, you’ll be happy to know it’s a relatively inexpensive way to relive the original trilogy. The digital versions — currently available through Amazon and ComiXology — retail for $1.99 per volume. There’s also a Phantom Menace manga for the morbidly curious; Kia Asamiya is the author, and he’s been given the truly thankless task of condensing that stinker into two volumes. At least it won’t be as interminable as the movie.

WORKS CONSULTED

Macias, Patrick. “Star Wars, The Manga.” Animerica, VIZ LLC, 7 Apr. 2004, http://ift.tt/2C9euK1. Accessed 27 Dec. 2017.

Rickard, Ron. “Retro Foreign: Japanese Weekly Shōnen Magazine #18 – 23 (1978).” Star Wars Comic Collector, 20 May 2016, http://ift.tt/2lpIFkQ. Accessed 27 Dec. 2017.

Shooter, Jim. “Roy Thomas Saved Marvel.” Jim Shooter, 5 July 2011, http://ift.tt/2C8vHDo. Accessed on 28 Dec. 2017.

Spellman, Ron. “A Long Time Ago: The Strange History of Marvel’s Original Star Wars Universe.” Comics Alliance, Townsquare Media, 28 Jan. 2016, http://ift.tt/1PI3KCV. Accessed 28 Dec. 2017.

Tamaki, Hisao. Star Wars: A New Hope, adapted from an original script by George Lucas, Marvel Comics, 1998. 4 vols.

By: Katherine Dacey

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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