#V: Us Vs The World (XIII) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ewoodxx · 9 months

Text

↳ i got that can’t stop, won’t stop in my veins

i. phenomenal - eminem // ii. headlines- drake // iii. heart of a champion- nelly // iv. remember the name - font minor // v. a cut above - avery watts // vi. mirror - lil wayne // vii. vices - ludacris // viii. right above it - lil wayne // ix. live forever - liam payne, cheat codes // x. take me back to london - ed sheeran, stormzy, aitch // xi. home -bebe rexha, mgk, and x ambassadors // xii. wavin’ flag (coca-cola celebration mix) - k’naan // xiii. come on england -442 // xiv. you’re welcome- dwayne johnson // xv. hard - rihanna, jeezy // xvi. all i do is win - dj khalid xvii. fight back -NEFFEX [LISTEN]

that’s why they can’t stop, won’t stop screaming the name↵

beware: my unnecessary commentary below xD

i. phenomenal - eminem however long that it takes, I'll go to whatever lengths, It's gonna make me a monster though

this song represents the lengths ethan is willing to go to turn his career around not to mention the fact he does actually think he's phenomenal. i'm also a giant sucker for some monster vs man parallels and him grappling with what makes a good man. and finally, this song is numero uno on his before match pump-up playlist.

ii. headlines- drake I might be too strung out on compliments, overdosed on confidence, started not to give a fuck and stopped fearing the consequence

this song represents ethan currently. he thought he was untouchable and was finally going to realize his dreams, but he let his temper and his fame get the better of him and now he must dodge the headlines and rehab his image in small town USA.

iii. heart of a champion- nelly I got that can't stop, won't stop, in my veins that's why they can't stop, won't stop, screaming the name

this one emphasizes the heart of a champion and the hard work it took for ethan to become a successful athlete. i also like the whole heart comparison because i like to think that ethan has a good heart beneath the muscles and 99% of the time he means well (even if his methods are unconventional). this is also on his personal locker room playlist.

iv. remember the name - font minor this is 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% percent pain, and a 100% reason to remember the name

ethan was born into a soccer royalty (think beckham level). his surname is both a blessing and curse and ethan wants nothing more than for people to remember his name apart from his family and to prove himself worthy of it.

v. a cut above - avery watts what it looks like (looks like) being the best what it looks like, to be a cut above the rest

for no other reason than the fact that ethan really is that good on the pitch, like ronaldo level skills. but ofc being "a cut above the rest" isn't always enough and also does come with responsibilities off the pitch that he's still working on.

vi. mirror - lil wayne lookin' at me now I can see my past, damn I look just like my fuckin' dad

this one goes out daddy dearest, someone ethan always used to look up to until he practically disowned him for messing up at the world cup. they no longer talk, reminding ethan that he needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and pave his own way.

vii. vices - ludacris from philly to the bay, the only loyal b*tch I know is a loyal b*tch named tanqueray she gets me right everytime it ain't never no fussing or fighting

obvi ethan has his vices. he likes to go out, party, drink, hook-up, but never commit. therefore his longest and most loyal relationship is with a pretty little bottle of tanqueray. whoops.

viii. right above it - lil wayne & drake life is a beach, i'm just playing in the sand

a nod to life before the world cup. he was living a lavish lifestyle with parties, money etc. and enjoying his success a little too much until it all came crashing down. i just imagine this being the song in the background to a partying montage lmao. ps it was so hard to just pick one line to highlight, and this is totally on his personal playlist too.

ix. live forever - liam payne, cheat codes reckless, restless I let it get so hectic all the way up with my head in the sky, too much, too gone, too many, too fun I don't know how but I got out alive

fun fact: ethan's first fc like ten years ago was liam payne, so this one is selfishly for me since i just had to throw him in here somewhere. BUT this is another nod to him losing sight of the bigger picture and getting too reckless. it also touches on everything changing when meeting someone special who can make you want to let go of your old ways which is something i truly want for ethan.

x. take me back to london - ed sheeran, stormzy, aitch I hit my friends up, go straight to the pub 'cause I haven't been home in time..so take me back to london

despite losing the world cup for england, ethan still loves everything about his being an englishmen and his home town. he just honestly just wants to go home, get back on the pitch, and grab a print with his buddies. he won't admit it, but he misses how things were before cape may.

xi. home -bebe rexha, mgk, and x ambassadors Now tell me, how did all my dreams turn to nightmares? How did I lose it when I was right there?

ethan felt like he was on top of the world and then it came crashing down. suddenly nothing makes sense anymore, and everything he's ever known isn’t quite right.

xii. wavin’ flag (coca-cola celebration mix) - k’naan see the champions take the field now you define us, make us feel proud

S/O to the little kid that ethan lost sight of, the kid with big dreams of scoring in the world cup just to make his dad and country proud. i like to think this is a song that reminds ethan of watching his dad play in the world cup and knowing that one day he'd be out there, too.

xiii. come on england -442 one-nil, two-nil, three-nil, four-nil, FIVE! keep this country's dream alive

a song/chant dedicated to all of ethan's hero's growing up, one's he's probably met and even played with at some point now. ngl he's probably been remixed into a song like this too so also a nod to that. plus, this one SCREAMS country pride.

xiv. you’re welcome- dwayne THE ROCK johnson i know it's a lot the hair, the bod when you're staring at a demi-god

I chose this song not only because ethan is full of himself like maui BUT because this grown ass man absolutely loves the movie moana and has no problem belting it at the top of lungs. I like to think it’s gotten to the point where it’s been remixed into one of his footy chants whenever he scores a goal. Half the crowd : What can Wood say except… The other half: You’re welcome! All together now: YOU’RE WELCOME! YOU’RE WELCOME! YOU’RE WELCOME!

xv. hard - rihanna, jeezy They can say whatever, I'ma do whatever no pain is forever, yup, you know this

to me, this song has a message of strength and perseverance especially when it comes to gossip and the media which is something ethan struggles with. also, ethan's ultimate celeb crush is 100% rihanna. like he had a poster of her on his wall growing up and everything.

xvi. all i do is win - dj khalid all I do is win win win no matter what, got money on my mind I can never get enough

this song is dedicated to ethan's brothers. at one point before they stopped being so close, they deemed this their song. they had this silly little dream of being on same team together and just dominating the competition, but ofc life happens and this dream was never realized but the song still makes ethan think of his bros.

xvii. fight back -NEFFEX don't tell me you believe that, are you just gonna take that? or will you fucking fight back?

this is the song i imagine plays in the background whenever ethan gives into his temper, doubts himself (yes, it does happen on the rare occasion lol), fights, and gets real angry. it's also not lost on me that this is the last song on the playlist and "phenomenal" is the the first song because i just adore the juxtaposition of the two songs. his confidence vs that little voice in his head that tells him that maybe, just maybe (if you squint and tilt your head the side) he's not good enough.

k im done. god bless if you read all that <3 if anything this makes for a pretty fab workout/ pump-up playlist imo.

#cape.task:001 #playlist #tw: explict

5 notes · View notes

sugareey-makes-stuff · 2 years

Photo

Wow! What a wild ride May was! I never really got into microfic writing until recently, and I’m so glad I gave it a shot. WC limits always push me harder and make me work to my potential, and it looks like this time wasn’t any different. What a fun challenge, and I’ll probably continue writing more microfics in the future! Listed below is the complete masterlist of all the Flintwood microfics I wrote for @microficmay. That’s 1k of words! You can also check out the #there are no boundaries tag or read There are no boundaries on AO3. Which microfic was your favourite? Let me know, and maybe I’ll use it as an idea to run with in the future for a longer fic. ;P

i. Ignite (T, 50, Snogging, UST, First Kiss) ii. Heartbeat (G, 50, Quidditch, Competition, Rivalries) iii. Survive (T, 50, Battle of Hogwarts, Duelling, Life Debt) iv. Irresistible (G, 50, Hogwarts, Seventh Year, Snogging, Neck Kissing, Sneaking Around, Late at Night) v. Expectations (G, 50, Hogwarts, Seventh Year, Pureblood Culture, Plans for the Future, Professional Quidditch, Graduation) vi. Ferocity (M, 50, Implied/referenced sex and climax, bruises) vii. Black & White (G, 50, Second Wizarding War, Pureblood Culture, Difficult Decisions ) viii. Balance (Teen, 50, Hogwarts, Seventh Year, Prefects’ Bathroom, Sneaking Around, Late at Night) ix. Fire & Ice (Teen, 50, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Quidditch, Rivals, Post-Hogwarts) x. Remember (Teen, 50, Quidditch, Rivals, Sytherlin vs. Gryffindor, Hogwarts) xi. Secrets (Mature, 50, Implied/referenced sex and climax, biting, lace knickers, teasing) xii. Hesitate (Teen, 50, Rivals with Benefits, Feelings, UST) xiii. Open the Door (Teen, 50, Arguing/Rows, Conversations, Developing Relationship) xiv. Promise (Mature, 50, D/S undertones, bondage, blindfolds, safewords) xv. Invincible (General, 50, Professional Quidditch, English National Team, Teammates, Quidditch World Cup, Victory) xvi. Progress (Teen, 50, UST, Flirting, Teasing, Rivalries, Quidditch) xvii. Pain & Pleasure (Mature, 50, D/S undertones, bruises, impact play) xviii. Wander (Teen, 50, Late at Night, Sleepy Cuddles, Idiots in Love) xix. Hopeful (General, 50, Interviews, Established Relationship, Press and Tabloids) xx. Why? ( Teen, 50, Snogging, UST, Locker Room, Enemies to Lovers, Rivalries, Feelings)

#microficmay2022 #flintwood #marcus flint #oliver wood #microfic #masterlist #there are no boundaries #hp fanfic #self rec #fic recs #my fic #sugareey

10 notes · View notes

foaming1234 · 2 months

Text

Foaming Dish Soap: The Secret Weapon for Effortless Dishwashing

The world of dishwashing has seen a delightful evolution with the introduction of foaming dish soap. No longer relegated to the realm of traditional liquid soaps, foaming dish soap brings a touch of innovation to the kitchen sink. In this article, we'll explore what sets foaming dish soap apart, its benefits, and why it's becoming a staple in households across the globe.

I. The Rise of Foaming Dish Soap Foaming dish soap has emerged as a game-changer in the kitchen. We'll delve into the origins of this bubbly creation and how it has transformed the way we approach dishwashing.

II. How Foaming Dish Soap Works Unlike its liquid counterparts, foaming dish soap is specially formulated to dispense as a rich lather. Uncover the science behind its unique foaming action and how it contributes to a more efficient dishwashing experience.

III. Benefits of Foaming Dish Soap Discover the numerous advantages that make foaming dish soap a popular choice among households. From its economical usage to the ability to cling to surfaces, we'll outline the perks that set foaming soap apart.

IV. Environmentally Friendly Packaging Foaming dish soap often comes in containers designed for optimal dispensing. Explore how these environmentally friendly packaging options contribute to reducing waste and promoting sustainability in the kitchen.

V. Aromatherapy in the Kitchen One notable feature of many foaming dish soaps is the array of delightful scents available. From citrus bursts to lavender freshness, we'll explore how foaming dish soap turns dishwashing into a sensory experience.

VI. Foaming Dish Soap for Multiple Surfaces Foaming dish soap isn't limited to just dishware. Uncover its versatility as it proves effective for cleaning multiple surfaces, from kitchen countertops to stovetops, adding an extra layer of convenience to your cleaning routine.

VII. Cost-Effective Cleaning While it may seem that foaming dish soap comes in smaller containers, its unique formulation often means you need less soap per use. Explore the cost-effective nature of foaming dish soap and how it can lead to long-term savings.

VIII. Choosing the Right Foaming Dish Soap With a plethora of options on the market, finding the right foaming dish soap can be overwhelming. We'll provide tips on selecting the best one for your needs, considering factors such as scent preferences and specific cleaning requirements.

IX. DIY Foaming Dish Soap Recipes For the DIY enthusiasts, we'll share simple recipes to create your own foaming dish soap at home. Discover the joy of customizing your dish soap with natural ingredients and scents.

X. Foaming Dish Soap and Hygiene Hygiene is a top priority in the kitchen, and foaming dish soap rises to the occasion. We'll explore how its unique properties contribute to effective cleaning, ensuring your dishes are not only sparkling but also hygienic.

XI. Foaming Dish Soap vs. Traditional Liquid Soap A comparison between foaming dish soap and traditional liquid soap will help you understand the distinct advantages of each. From ease of use to overall effectiveness, we'll weigh the pros and cons of both options.

XII. Storing and Dispensing Foaming Dish Soap Optimal storage and dispensing methods can enhance your experience with foaming dish soap. Explore tips on how to store and dispense this bubbly solution for maximum efficiency.

XIII. Foaming Dish Soap for Dishwashers Can foaming dish soap be used in dishwashers? We'll answer this common question and discuss the compatibility of foaming dish soap with automatic dishwasher systems.

XIV. Conclusion: Elevate Your Dishwashing Routine with Foaming Dish Soap In conclusion, foaming dish soap is not just a cleaning product; it's a dynamic addition to your kitchen toolkit. Its foamy texture, delightful scents, and versatile applications make dishwashing a breeze while adding a touch of joy to the chore.

1 note · View note

articlesofnote · 4 months

Text

“The Social Construction of Reality,” Berger and Luckmann - Ch. 2 “Social Interaction in Everyday Life”, paragraph-by-paragraph summary

I. We can identify several ways in which we interact with others in our everyday lives/paramount realities.

II. Face-to-face interaction is most important; all other forms of interaction are derived from it in some way.

III. In face-to-face interaction, other's subjectivity is most accessible through "symptoms" (channels) such as posture, gesture, expression, tone, word, idiom, etc. All other types of interaction are more "remote."

IV. In face-to-face interaction, the other is most "real" and perhaps even moreso than "myself" as the other's subjectivity is immediately apparent as an ongoing here-and-now experience but "myself" is only accessible through self-awareness/self-reflection (often triggered by other's response eg "you look mad")

V. It follows that relations with others face-to-face are highly flexible e.g. most change in understanding is possible, even if not guaranteed

VI. On the other hand, face-to-face interaction is still patterend by "typificatory schemes" which hold as defaults unless enough contradictory evidence accumulates in the interaction

VII. The other also has a type-scheme for me, and the interaction itself is "typed" ("the waitress isn't flirting with you, man")

VIII. Typifications become progressively more anonymous the farther they are from face-to-face interaction, and vice-versa

IX. The afore-discussed directness/indirectness is thus a key aspect of experiencing "others..."

X. ... but it is not the whole story. There are gradations of indirectness (familiar face, vivid encounter, known by reputation, public figure, etc. etc.)

XI. And degree of anonymity depends on my choices about eg. desired intimacy, or whether a typification is meant to be individualized ("my boss" vs. "the man in the street")

XII. Social reality is thus apprehended as a series/continuum of typifications, intimate/familar/detailed to anonymous/abstract/limited, and this continuum is an essential element of everyday human life.

XIII. In this chapter, the main discussion has focused on people who are contemporaries of one another (the "now" in "here and now") but we can apply similar relational concepts to past/future generations

----

note re: III. The concept of 'resting bitch face' is illustrative of what amounts to a purely social expectation; a physiologically neutral/expressionless face is transmuted, through social expectations of how femininity "ought" to be outwardly enacted ("look good, look happy"), into an "active" expression of hostility. the "act" is by definition unconscious ("resting bitch face") and yet treated as though it is a meaningful display of a character trait

note re: VI. can look at this concept from a Bayesian perspective; all interactions should in principle influence "priors", isomorphic to "typificatory schemes" i.e. stereotypes

note re: VIII. in an economics context, does it make sense to say that "price is a stereotype of value?" eg. price, as I understand it, is a very simple first approximation of what something is worth, and as a social tool it is good enough for most real-world purposes. however, it is very limited in describing value in the multitude of senses that people use the term; thus you can maybe say that "price is a stereotype of value" in much the same sense you could say that "having no rhythm is a stereotype of white guys"

#the social construction of reality #chapter two #summary #stereotypes #anonymity #face to face

0 notes

brainstormhome · 4 months

Text

Examining the Future of Education: Trends in Home Tuition

I. Introduction

Hey there, little explorers! Today, we’re diving into the magical world of education and peeking into the future, where learning happens at home. Hold onto your crayons, because it’s going to be an exciting ride!

II. What is Home Tuition?

Learning at home? Yes, please! Imagine your home turning into a super cool school where you get to be the boss of your learning journey. How awesome is that?

III. The Rise of Personalized Learning

Guess what? Learning can be like your favorite adventure story! With personalized learning, it’s all about you, and your lessons become a thrilling quest.

IV. Tech-savvy Tutors and Interactive Learning

Grab your gadgets, little Einsteins! Your tutors are like wizards using magic devices to make learning feel like playing your favorite video game.

V. Flexible Schedules: Learning When You Want

Say goodbye to boring timetables! With Home tuition in Chandigarh, you decide when it’s time to learn. It’s like being the captain of your own learning ship.

VI. Learning Beyond Textbooks: Real-world Examples

Who needs just books? Let’s explore the whole wide world! Learning becomes a journey filled with exciting real-life examples.

VII. Parents as Learning Partners

Hold the phone! Your mom and dad become superhero partners in your learning adventures. Learning is even more fantastic with them by your side.

VIII. Fun and Games in Learning

Games in school? Yes, please! Learning becomes a playdate where you laugh, have fun, and still become a little genius.

IX. Socializing in the Virtual Classroom

Friends, friends, everywhere! Even in the virtual classroom, you get to meet and chat with your buddies. Learning together is double the fun!

X. Tailored Learning Paths

Imagine learning that’s just for you! It’s like having a custom-made outfit, but for your brain. Learning fits you perfectly.

XI. Home Tuition vs. Traditional Schooling

The ultimate showdown! We’ll compare home tuition with traditional schooling to see which one wins the battle. Get ready for a friendly competition!

XII. Overcoming Challenges in Home Tuition

Uh-oh, sometimes learning can be tricky.But don’t worry, we’ll find out how to tackle challenges and turn them into victories.

XIII. Success Stories: Home Tuition Triumphs

Cheers for success!We’ll hear inspiring stories of kids just like you who rocked their home tuition and became real-life superheroes.

XIV. The Role of Parents in Home Tuition Success

Go, parents, go! Discover how your parents become the mighty heroes of your learning journey and make it even more amazing.

XV. The Big Future Picture: What Awaits Home Tuition

Time to peek into the future! What amazing things await in the world of home tuition? Get your crystal balls ready, little fortune-tellers.

Summary

Wow, what a journey! We explored the future of education, where home tuition becomes a thrilling adventure. From personalized learning to virtual classrooms with friends, it’s a world of wonders. But our journey doesn’t end here!

Call to Action

Ready to make your learning super exciting? Join the home tuition adventure now! Share your thoughts in the comments and let’s keep the conversation going. Your future is waiting!

FAQs

1. Is home tuition better than traditional schooling?

• Both have their perks! Home tuition offers a personalized experience, while traditional schooling has its own charm.

2. How can parents help in home tuition?

• Parents can be learning partners, cheering you on, and making the journey more fun. Teamwork makes the dream work!

3. Can I still have friends with home tuition?

• Absolutely! Virtual classrooms bring friends to your screen, making learning a social adventure.

4. What if I find some subjects challenging at home?

• No worries! We’ll discover ways to overcome challenges and turn them into victories.

5. Tell me more about success stories in home tuition.

• Get ready to be inspired! We’ll share stories of kids who aced home tuition and became real-life superheroes.

And that’s a wrap, little learners! Stay curious, keep learning, and remember, the future is as bright as your favorite crayon colors!

0 notes

remixinc · 1 year

Video

Do Not Go Gentle: A Film Tribute from Emory Pardun on Vimeo.

A visual/auditory mosaic compiling 60 beloved movies, set to remind the audience why THEY love the medium in the first place. - "rage. rage against the dying of the light." - Films used in order of appearance: i. The Perks of Being a Wallflower ii. There Will Be Blood iii. Moonlight iv. 2001: A Space Odyssey v. Prisoners vi. The Squid and the Whale vii. The Dark Knight viii. Shutter Island ix. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly x. Jaws xi. First Man xii. Inglorious Basterds xiii. Inception xiv. Se7en xv. Django Unchained xvi. Mid90s xvii. The Perks of Being a Wallflower xviii. Singin’ in the Rain xix. Room xx. The Social Network xxi. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World xxii. The Sound of Music xxiii. Beginners xxiv. WALL-E xxv. Up in the Air xxvi. Little Miss Sunshine xxvii. Mad Max: Fury Road xxviii. Midsommar xxix. Nightcrawler xxx. The Master xxxi. The Wolf of Wallstreet xxxii. Silver Linings Playbook xxxiii. Moonrise Kingdom xxxiv. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World xxxv. Drive xxxvi. Goodfellas xxxvii. Whiplash xxxviii. Kill Bill: Volume 1 xxxix. Sicario xl. Baby Driver xli. Dallas Buyers Club xlii. O Brother, Where Art Thou? xliii. Heat xliv. Psycho xlv. 500 Days of Summer xlvi. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) xlvii. The Raid xlviii. Taxi Driver xlix. La La Land l. Beginners li. When Harry Met Sally lii. Fargo liii. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood liv. Magnolia lv. The Avengers lvi. The Grand Budapest Hotel lvii. Death Proof lviii. Half Nelson lix. Knives Out lx. Drinking Buddies lxi. No Country for Old Men lxii. The Farewell lxiii. Punch-Drunk Love lxiv. The Florida Project lxv. The Revenant

0 notes

esthcim · 4 years

Text

Okay, this took way longer than it should have.

#V: Us Vs The World (XIII)#V: Building Academia (XIII2)#V: Out of time (LR)#V: Settling in (NW)#V: Reunited (HEA)#V: Live Trigger Event (Paradox)#V: Aethernet Attuned (XIV)#V: This is a story (XO)#Where does the boomerang go? (Crack)#Airwing (Aesthetics)#Hawkeye (Musings)#Nue (Screens)#Alexanders Keeper (Meme)#Time Capsule (Saved)#Synergist (Answered)#Voice of the Almighty (Writings)

0 notes

musicallisto · 2 years

Text

└➤ angst tropes & clichés (taken from tv tropes)

i. Anguished Declaration of Love: Someone who's harbored their feelings for another person ends up confessing their love when it looks like they and their object of affection are done for.

ii. Cry into Chest: A character breaks down sobbing into the chest of their friend or lover.

iii. Died in Your Arms Tonight: A dying character is cradled in the arms of an onlooker.

iv. Dying Declaration of Love: Someone tragically dies as they confess their love for a person.

v. Et Tu, Brute?: Betrayal is one of the worst things that can happen to a character, and it can especially hit hard if it's someone the character trusted most in the world.

vi. Evil Former Friend: It's a special kind of twist to make the standard good vs. evil conflict more tragic by establishing that the villain used to be the hero's friend.

vii. Go Through Me: A defender interposes themselves between the attacker and their target

viii. Green-Eyed Epiphany: I'm not interested in him/her. *sees them with another character* I can't believe he/she's with somebody else instead of me!

ix. "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Fighting a corrupted or transformed friend while trying to get the good in them to overcome the evil inside them.

x. I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Someone is attracted to a person, but is willing for the other person to be with someone else if it means that the person they love would be happier that way.

xi. Now Or Never Kiss: The Last Kiss, except it's not the last. But the characters don't know that.

xii. Planning for the Future Before the End: It can be very depressing to see someone promise something that, due to incoming death, can't possibly be kept.

xiii. Please, Don't Leave Me!: A character desperately begs their loved ones to not go away and leave them.

xiv. Reunion Vow: The basis is that a character is about to be parted from their loved one (usually significant other) with little hope of reunion, but nonetheless vows to be reunited with them one day, despite how unlikely it may seem.

xv. Star-Crossed Lovers: Two lovers for some reason cannot be together.

xvi. The One That Got Away

xvii. Nightmare Comfort: don’t know the name for this one but when a character is awoken by a bad dream and their love interest / friend conforts them. yeah I eat that shit right up

└➤ fluff tropes & clichés (taken from tv tropes)

i. Reunion Kiss: In short, all the torment of their separation and its surrounding events is released in a shower of mixed emotions and sealed with a kiss.

ii. Intimate Healing: Includes huddling for warmth, after action patch-up, mouth to mouth resuscitation, caring for the other when sick...

iii. Lazy Morning

iv. Snow Means Love: A classic romantic setting is two lovers alone in a gentle snowfall. Bonus points if the first snowflake falls immediately after they get together.

v. Stargazing Scene

vi. Grand Romantic Gesture: Grand Romantic Gestures occur when someone gives elaborate gifts or stages outlandish events in an attempt to be romantic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it backfires. The path to true love never did run smooth, after all.

vii. Proposal

viii. Meet Cute

ix. Dance of Romance: For some reason, waltzing with a friend, or friend-of-a-friend, always winds up with one or both participants acquiring (or realizing) feelings of love towards the other, as though it were some kind of movement-driven truth/love spell.

x. Love Confession

xii. Reincarnation Romance: Two people love each other so deeply, and are tied by the Red String of Fate so closely, that they will meet and fall in love every time they reincarnate, lifetime after lifetime.

xiii. Sleep Cute: Two characters sleep together, one's head pillowed on the other's shoulder, chest, or possibly lap.

xiv. Hurt/Comfort

xv. Mutual Pining

don’t hesitate to suggest some more!

#tropes #writing prompts #prompts #fluff prompts #angst prompts

38 notes · View notes

datcloudboi · 3 years

Text

List of video games turning 10 years old in 2021:

- The 3rd Birthday (the 3red entry in the Parasite Eve series)

- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

- Alice: Madness Returns

- Assassin's Creed: Revelations

- Back to the Future: The Game (or at least, Episodes 2-5)

- Bastion (the first game made by Supergiant, the guys that made Hades)

- Batman: Arkham City

- Battlefield 3

- The Binding of Isaac

- Brink

- Bulletstorm

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

- Catherine

- Crysis 2

- Dark Souls (I know, it doesn't feel that old)

- Darkspore (the dark, edgy, action-oriented version of Spore)

- DC Universe Online

- de Blob 2

- Dead Island

- Dead Space 2

- Deus Ex: Human Revolution

- Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten

- Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (012 pronounced as "Duodecim", which is Latin for 012)

- Dragon Age II

- Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (the DS release, which was the first time the game was available outside of Japan)

- Driver: San Francisco

- Duke Nukem Forever

- Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

- F.3.A.R. (yes, it's actually spelt out that way)

- Fight Night Champion

- Gears of War 3

- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

- Hatoful Boyfriend (the dating sim with pigeons in it)

- Homefront

- inFAMOUS 2 (as well as inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood)

- Killzone 3

- The King of Fighters XIII

- Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

- Kirby's Return to Dream Land

- L.A. Noire

- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

- Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

- LittleBigPlanet 2

- Lost in Shadow

- Magicka

- Mario Kart 7

- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (as well as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3)

- Minecraft (the full release)

- Mortal Kombat 9

- The Nintendo 3DS

- Okamiden

- Orcs Must Die!

- Pokémon Black and White (outside of Japan)

- Portal 2

- Radiant Historia

- Rage (from id Software)

- Rayman Origins

- Red Faction: Armageddon

- Saints Row: The Third

- Serious Sam 3: BFE (Before First Encounter)

- Shadows of the Damned (a quirky third-person shooter/survival horror game from Suda51)

- Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

- Solatorobo: Red the Hunter

- Sonic Generations

- Star Fox 64 3D

- Star Wars: The Old Republic

- Super Mario 3D Land

- Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

- Terraria

- To the Moon

- Total War: Shogun 2

- Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

- World of Tanks

- Yakuza 4

345 notes · View notes

daleisgreat · 3 years

Text

Speed

youtube

Today’s entry will mark the first official 4K home video release I am writing about. I already own a few other 4K UHDs, and a couple of months ago, I watched my first 4K video at home with 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. However, I already covered that movie’s BluRay release here several years ago, so I will not be dedicating another entry for it, other than to say that the 4K upgrade pops and makes it look like a new release. Today’s entry is for 1994’s Speed (trailer). Before diving into this movie, I noticed one of the tracks from this film’s score repeatedly used throughout sounds awfully like one of the main themes I primarily associated with the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I have no idea if this was pointed out before, and I just overlooked it all these years, or maybe I am grasping at straws. Click or press here to take a listen and decide for yourself. 1994 was a hell of a year for Hollywood movies primarily transpiring from a highway with The Chase, Speed, and the OJ Simpson Bronco chase….oh wait (although I highly recommend the ESPN 30 for 30 on it, simply titled: June 17th 1994). The majority of Speed has a straightforward premise: serial bomber and local madman Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) planted a bomb on a bus rigged to explode once the bus drops below 55 miles per hour. Police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) is alerted to this by the bomber himself to exact revenge on Traven after successfully rescuing hostages from an elevator Payne armed at the beginning of the film.

From there, for the middle hour of this nearly two-hour film, the action almost entirely takes place on the bus. Traven makes a grand entrance onto the bus by commandeering a Jaguar and having its owner (Glenn Plummer) take the wheel so Traven could heroically leap onto the bus and save the day. It would not be that easy of a rescue mission as Payne has eyes on the bus, and Traven has to play by his rules and get him his $3 million ransom to disarm the bus. Without question, the middle hour on the bus is the best part of the film. The opening half-hour is an excellent appetizer with the elevator hostage crisis that Traven and his partner, Harry (Jeff Daniels), successfully foil. However, once the action shifts to the bus is when Speed takes off. Shortly after taking control of the bus, one of the passengers freaks and inadvertently shoots the bus driver, and a fellow passenger, Annie (Sandra Bullock), takes over the wheel. Throughout the film, Annie and Traven have wonderful chemistry, and I could not help but root for the duo throughout. Every couple of minutes, there is a new potential conflict to overcome to keep the bus going over 55mph. The film wisely peppers in brief dialog exchanges to let the movie breathe just enough before the next hurdle makes itself present.

The film's standout moment is the major obstacle for the bus to overcome when it encounters a stretch of unavoidable highway under construction and missing a hearty chunk of the road. Traven’s solution is that since that stretch of a road is on an incline, they may clear that gap if they build up enough speed! That epic stunt hits all the right notes, and I got goosebumps all over again re-watching it, and odds are, I bet you did too if you have seen this movie. If you have not, then watch this scene and see for yourself by click or pressing here. A lot of the critical discussion in the aftermath of this movie was if that jump was realistically possible. The best thing I can do is to compare it to another film, Road Trip, which is likely a better indicator of what could happen when attempting such a feat. Once the middle bus portion of the film is over, there are still about 20 minutes left where Traven tracks and chases down Payne in a subway station. The movie felt over once the bus portion had such a satisfying conclusion that it almost feels wrong to keep sticking with the film by this point, but I recommend you do since there is a satisfying payoff in the form of Payne’s demise. I have to share a story now when I first saw this film at around 13 or 14 on VHS. My dad’s VCR had what seemed to me at the time was a revolutionary feature where if I kept pressing the pause button repeatedly, it would slowly, frame-by-frame, play the film in super slow-motion. At that age, I thought this was a fantastic way to get the most out of the biggest stunts in action scenes. My favorite moment exploiting this feature was seeing Traven and Payne wrestle around on the top of a subway train until Payne was not watching his field of vision, and a warning light lead to his sudden beheading. I slow-motion replayed that sequence countless times in my awkward, early teenage years. Suffice it to say, Hopper plays the out-of-his-mind bomber perfectly, going so far as to make sure he receives his appropriate cinematic comeuppance.

The director ensures the many passengers on the bus maximized their minutes to the point I where it feels like you are right there with them!

Two audio commentaries are the only extra features of the 4K disc in this 4K/BluRay combo pack. One is with the director, Jan de Bont, and the other is with producer Mark Gordon and writer Graham Yost. Props are to whoever decided to subtitle the commentary tracks. I very much appreciate it! I first started to bounce back and forth between the two commentary tracks, but Bont was way too relaxed and had too many pauses to hold my attention, and I finished up with his track within five minutes. However, Yost and Gordon are very much engaged from beginning to end and have fun cracking jokes and sharing memories throughout. Some quick takeaways I got from them were how they wanted to film a major scene outside of a sports arena, dealing with critics poking holes at how unrealistic their stunts were, and how watching the movie felt very different at the time of the commentary recording just two months after 9/11. The BluRay disc contains the remainder of the bonus features. Inside Speed is a four-part feature lasting just under an hour breaking down the visual effects, stunts, and location sequences, but half of it also contains an HBO First Look special hosted by Dennis Hopper that hits all the right kinds of cheesy mid-90s EPK nostalgia that it is worth checking out. Aside from 12 minutes of extended scenes and a Billy Idol music video that seems totally off base with the tempo of the film, there are a couple of Action Sequences mini-features breaking down some of the stunts. I highly recommend watching the one dissecting how they did the bus jump, as it shows raw footage of what really happened when they shot it, and showed footage of some of the specific safety measures they instilled to make that stunt as safe as possible and had some eye-opening interviews with the stunt driver before and after.

After watching that old VHS copy nearly a dozen times, Speed wound up being one of my favorite action films I got burnt out early on and never bothered upgrading to a DVD or standalone BluRay. Watching it again in 4K all these years later breathed new life into it for me. I am not an expert at breaking down video quality by any means, but watching the 4K disc on my 4KTV gave the impression of this having far more current production values. The editors somehow managed to remove all the old film grain defects for a smooth 4K upgrade. If you have not seen Speed yet, then it has everything you could want out of a mid-90s action movie with explosions, gripping thrills and stunts, dramatic rescues, plenty of zinger one-liners…..and a Billy Idol theme song. Pardon me while I attempt my best Dennis Hopper impression here, “Pop quiz, hotshot, which 1994 blockbuster that takes place primarily on a bus is a perfect candidate for beer and popcorn movie night at home?” Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dirty Work Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Inglourious Basterds Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Mallrats Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Old Joy Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #speed #keanu reeves #Sandra Bullock #jeff daniels #dennis hopper #glenn plummer #jan de bont

4 notes · View notes

mamthew · 4 years

Text

A Final Fantasy Ranking

Over the course of the quarantine, and because I had such a good time with the Final Fantasy VII Remake, I've ended up blazing through a ton of Final Fantasy games. Since April, I've played IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, and XIII. 6, 7, 9, and 10 I'd beaten before. 4, 12, and 13 I'd played to some capacity before. 5 and 8 were completely new experiences. I had no interest in going further back than IV, since it was the first one to really put any effort into character work, and I didn't play either MMO because MMOs don't really appeal to me (I'm planning to try XIV whenever this new update drops that makes the story mode more accessible, but it keeps getting pushed back so oh well). I also didn't replay XV because I've played XV three times and watched other people play it in its entirety twice, so I have a much better handle on it than any other game in the series.

Anyway, I didn't really have any plans for what I'd do with this, besides get a better understanding of the series as a whole, but I was kinda inspired to do my own Final Fantasy ranking. I'll probably be a bit more detailed than I should be because I tend to overanalyze my media and end up having too much to say. I’m actually not placing VII Remake in this ranking half because I regard it as a spinoff and half because it’s not yet a complete story, even though Part 1 is unquestionably a complete game. If I were to put it somewhere, it would probably be close to the top, possibly even in second place. Also worth noting that this is gonna have SPOILERS for every game I discuss here. I really just wanna use this as a place to nail down some of my thoughts on these games, so they’re pretty stream of consciousness and I didn’t bother avoiding any details from the plots.

10: Final Fantasy VIII.

I don’t think there’s another game in the series with a more obvious corporate hand in it than VIII. It’s kinda the Fant4stic of FF games; there are the bones of a substantive game in there somewhere, but every aspect of the game is such a bald attempt at checking off a 1999 list of “things gamers want” that the whole affair feels hollow and sickening. A major trend I’ve noticed throughout this series is the extent to which FFVII’s success pushed the architects of almost every subsequent game to try to recapture whatever it was that worked about VII, and VIII got the worst of it. It’s got the sullen guy with a special sword. It’s got the sci-fi. It’s got the terrorists with hearts of gold fighting against an oppressive state. It’s got the train scenes. It’s got the case(s) of amnesia that hides the true premise of the story. It’s got the ability to give any character any loadout.

Besides that, they kinda crammed in just a bunch of stuff popular with kids at the time. Jurassic Park? It’s in there. Beauty and the Beast? Here’s the ballroom scene. Hunchback of Notre Dame? Here’s that carnival. Alien? Now you’re alone on a spaceship running away from a horror monster. Saving Private Ryan? The party shares brains with war veterans and dreams of their experiences at war I guess. Half of anime? It’s all about a high school for mercenaries and the party is trying to get back in time for the school festival. Fandom culture? Zines are a collectible item, and each one you find adds an update to Selphie's Geocities page. It also has astronauts, and transformers, and a haunted castle, and a prison break, and Rome, and Alpine Wakanda, and war crimes, and lion cubs that have attained enlightenment, and there’s almost no connective tissue from one idea to the next.

Also the junction system is convoluted and terrible, using magic makes your stats worse, all enemies level up every time you do, and I couldn’t tell you which character excelled in what stats. The characters were all very flat, and the first time I felt like I was seeing the characters interact in ways that helped me to understand them was in the cutscene that plays during the end credits.

Also the female lead’s role in the story changes entirely with no warning every five hours or so. She’s a terrorist, oh no she’s aristocracy in the country she’s terroristing against, oh no she’s jealous of the others because they grew up together and she didn’t, oh no she’s Sandra Bullock in Gravity, oh no she’s the villain and it’s too dangerous to let her out, oh no it’s actually fine and they were bad for locking her up.

It’s an absolute disaster of a game. However, the music and background art is absolutely beautiful. Maybe they never gave me a good enough reason to be in an evil time traveling haunted castle, but damn is it a gorgeous rendering of an evil time traveling haunted castle.

9: Final Fantasy XII.

I’ve known for years that FFXII had issues in development. The writers came up with a story for it, and execs got scared because there were no young characters and they’d convinced themselves that young protagonists are what makes games sell. So two more characters - Vaan and Penelo - were added, one was framed as the protagonist of the story, and the entire story was rewritten so it could feasibly be from his perspective.

While the two characters they added are egregiously tangential to the plot, XII honestly has no protagonist. The writers originally wanted Basch to be the protagonist, but his entire arc is really just following Ashe around and being sad about his evil twin. Ashe is probably the most important to the story, but doesn’t have much presence for a good chunk of the story, and makes her most character-defining choice offscreen before having it stolen from her by a side character. Balthier has the largest presence in the story, and is most closely related to most of the events of the story, but has pretty much no role in the ending.

Honestly, if I were writing FFXII and told it needed a young protagonist, I would have aged up and expanded the role of Larsa, the brother of the main villain, who shows up as a temporary party member from time to time. The entire game is about family ties, and a journey spotlighting Larsa could have involved his learning about Ashe, Basch, Balthier and Fran’s family situations and using their experiences to grapple with his own. Damn, now I’m sitting here thinking about how good that could have been.

As it is, the game feels disjointed and aimless, and the ending is so bad it’s farcical. When I reached the ending, I watched Basch and Ashe forgive Basch’s evil twin for his villainy rampage, harking back to the moment earlier in the game when Ashe turned down the chance to gain powers that would have allowed her to avenge her country because she realized that those powers could also drive her to hurt innocents in the crossfire. In this moment, I realized how Vaan fit in as the protagonist of the game. “Oh, he’s going to realize that violence begets violence, and that he must break the cycle by forgiving Vayne for the death of his brother. He’s going to let go of that hatred he’s been trying to push onto someone for so long, and it’ll finally allow him to heal.” I realized that even though the road to this point was rocky, the writers had managed to craft a satisfying ending from the seemingly disparate pieces of this uneven plot.

And then Vaan picked up a sword and screamed AAAAAAAAAAA and charged Vayne down and stabbed him, and Vayne turned into a shrapnel robot dragon and exploded all the star wars ships and I threw my controller aside and laughed uncontrollably while my characters beat him up and completed the game on their own without any further input from me.

Oh yeah, the battle system is also incredibly boring. Instead of battling, the player writes up an AI script for each character, then lets them act based on those scripts. I would straight up put the controller down and watch youtube videos whenever a group of enemies showed up. I was pretty excited about the job system, but then there didn’t really feel like much of a difference between jobs, and my characters all behaved pretty much the same as each other.

The hands-off battle system, unfocused story, lethargic voice acting, and tuneless music all left me pretty uninvested in the whole affair. The art style and locations are beautiful, though, and it did make me want to eventually check out some of the Tactics games, which take place in the same universe but are supposed to have excellent stories and gameplay.

8: Final Fantasy XIII.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had two such opposing opinions of a game’s story vs. its gameplay. This game is the only one that plays with a bunch of story elements from FFIX, which did a lot to endear it to me. It’s sort of a game in which the protagonists are Kuja, the villain of IX. Like Kuja, they are created as tools by an uncaring god for the purpose of fighting against one world on behalf of another world, and are subsequently forced to grapple with the horrors of having an artificially shortened lifespan.

The story actually has a lot of Leftist themes, too. The gods of that universe spread ideology among the populace, and the people unquestioningly believe these false stories, as the gods have provided for them for as long as there has been written history. Much of the character arcs center on the characters being forcibly removed from their places within those ideological frameworks and having to unlearn what they’d always believed to be objectively true about the world.

So the story actually is pretty good, but it’s held back by some really clumsy storytelling; it constantly uses undefined jargon, has almost no side characters with which it might flesh out the world, actively fights against players trying to glean information from environmental details, and maintains (at least for me) a weird disconnect between the characters in the gameplay and the characters in the cutscenes. I think this partly stems from Square’s original failed plan for FFXIII to be the first game in a much larger series of games sharing themes and major story details. Despite these issues, however, the characters are all likeable and (mostly) believable, and their interactions are grounded in real emotional weight even while their universe feels intangible.

This all got dragged down by the gameplay, which is total dogshit. It’s got the worst battle system I think I’ve seen in an RPG. The game only stops being doggedly, unflinchingly linear about thirty hours in, the whole game took me about fifty hours, and I spent the last fifteen hours beating my head against each individual battle, waiting until the system hiccuped long enough to accidentally slide me a win. That meant I had about a five hour window of euphoric play, convinced that I actually loved this game, thrilled with every new experience it gave me, and excited to see what would happen next. I guess those five hours are what pushed this game over XII in my ranking.

7: Final Fantasy V.

Until FFXV, this game was the last of the “Warriors of Light” games, in which the game follows a party of four set characters for its entirety. To this day, it’s the last of the “Warriors of Light” games to let the player customize which character holds which roles through the job system.

FFV’s job system is the reason to play the game. Its story is mediocre, and its characters are all fairly flat, but there’s something viscerally satisfying about building party members up in jobs that might enhance the role they ultimately will fill. For my mage character, I maxed out Black Mage, Blue Mage, Mystic Knight, Summoner, and Geomancer. Then at the end, I switched her to a Freelancer with Black Magic and Summoning, and she kept all the passive skills for those jobs and also the highest stats across those jobs.

It was super fun and kind of a shift of focus for me, since I tend to place story above anything else in games. Despite the story not being special, though, the game’s writing is actually a ton of fun. It’s definitely got the most comic relief in the series, and I came away loving Gilgamesh as much as everyone else does.

And while it’s nothing special graphically, it does have some really cool enemy designs, and the final boss design is one of the most memorable ones they’ve ever done. Which is impressive because I keep having to look up Exdeath’s name because the character himself is super forgettable.

6: Final Fantasy IV.

This wasn’t the first game in the series to feature actual characters with names and depth, but I have no interest in playing FFII, so it might as well be. I actually played the DS Remake for this game, so it definitely had some quality of life improvements, like full 3d characters and maps, voice acting, an updated script, the ability to actually see the ATB gauge, and the ability to switch to other characters whose turns are ready without using a turn.

Apparently one thing the remake didn’t do was rebalance the difficulty for more modern sensibilities. Instead, this remake is...harder? It requires more grinding than the original? Why??

Either way, though, the story is actually solid! The game opens on its protagonist, Cecil, committing a war crime on the orders of his king, who raised him as a child. The first ten hours of so of the game follows Cecil as he tries to understand why he was ordered to kill so many innocents, turns his back on his country, and works to redeem himself.

This arc is reinforced by the game mechanics, too, which is super clever. His redemption is marked by a change in job from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, which also resets his level. For a time, his life is considerably harder because he’s finding his footing as a new person, which is marked by battles which had been easy becoming much harder for the player for a time.

This game places storytelling over gameplay more than I think any other game in the series. Each character is locked into a job, which I much prefer in my RPGs to games where characters function pretty much interchangeably. I dunno if it’s because I cut my RPG teeth on Tales, but it really bugs me when I can give Tifa the exact same loadout as Barret. I want the lives of the characters to bleed into their functions as gameplay devices.

However, the developers clearly had a ton of different jobs they wanted to add to their game, but hadn’t figured out how to allow for the player to switch in and out party members in standby. To fix this, they increased the in-battle party to five characters rather than or four (or the later constantly frustrating three), rotated the roster a ton, and had a ton of characters who straight up leave permanently. One character dies and never comes back. Two characters die and only are revived after it’s too late to rejoin the party. Four characters end up too injured to continue traveling.

This let the developers make a ton of jobs, but it doesn’t let the player exploit these jobs to their fullest. Characters’ stats reflect their role in the story, as well. One character is quickly aging out of adventuring, so his magic stats increase on levels, but his attack and defense stats actually decrease, signifying his failing body. Another character has already achieved some form of enlightenment, so he gains no stats when he levels up at all. The purpose of IV is the story, over any other aspect of the game, which makes it even more mindboggling that the remake would have increased the difficulty.

Besides that, the biggest issue I had with this game was the overbearing constant drama of it. While there were a few more lighthearted parts, they were mostly relegated to NPC dialogue and sidequests. The characters in this game don’t become friends so much as they become companions who bonded over shared tragedies, and this makes for quite a few scenes of every character separately wallowing in their own immeasurable sadness. I played FFV directly after this game and the light story and jokey dialogue was a much-needed palette cleanser.

5: Final Fantasy VI.

Before the unexpected success of FFVII irreparably changed the franchise, Square constantly mixed up the story formula for the series. IV, V and VI all handled their stories really differently from each other, and what I remember of III also felt fairly different from the games that came after.

Every game from VII on had a very clear protagonist (except XII, whose botched protagonist was still clearly marketed as the protagonist). The concept of the Dissidia crossover series is built on the idea that every FF has a protagonist at the center of its story. FFVI’s Dissidia character is Terra, but Terra is not the protagonist of FFVI.

Apparently while developing FFVI, the directors decided they didn’t want the game to have a clear protagonist, so they asked the staff to staff to submit concepts for characters, and they’d use as many as they could. This game has fourteen characters, each with their own fun gameplay gimmick in battles. Three of the characters are secret, and one can permanently die halfway through if the player takes the wrong actions. Of these fourteen characters, the main story heavily revolves around 3-6 of them, while five more have substantial character arcs.

There’s kind of a schism in the fandom over whether this game or VII is the best one in the series, and I can see why; this game is absolutely fascinating. No other game in the series has done what this game did, which means it’s one of the two FF games I really want to see remade after they complete this VII remake.

The first half is very linear. It breaks the beginning party into three pieces, then sends each character to a different continent, where they meet more characters and build their own parties before everyone reunites. Once the story has taken the player everywhere in the world, the apocalypse hits. The villain’s evil plan succeeds and tears the entire world apart.

The second half of the game picks up a year later with one character finally getting a raft and escaping the island on which she’s been marooned. In this half, the player navigates the world, which has all the same locations, but in completely different parts of the map. The driving factor for much of the second half is to learn from incidental dialogue where each party member has gone in this new world, to track them down, and to try to fix some of the bad that’s been done to the world before finally stopping the villain who destroyed it.

It’s unique and clever and occasionally legitimately tugs at the heartstrings some, which is impressive for a poorly translated SNES game. The final dungeon is a masterpiece all on its own. It requires the player to make three parties of up to four characters, then send them in and switch between them as new roads open. This way, the game manages to feel like an ensemble piece up to the very end.

4: Final Fantasy VII.

As I previously mentioned, there’s kind of a schism in the fandom over whether FFVI or FFVII is the best game in the series. Neither is the best game in the series. FFVII is better than FFVI. Oops.

When I was first drafting up this list, it was before I’d reached my replays of VI or VII, and I tentatively placed them next to each other, with the strong assumption that I’d end up placing VI a bit higher than VII, since it has so many strongly differentiated characters with solid story arcs, beautiful artwork, great music, etc. etc. Then I reached FFVII and not even four hours in, I realized it would have to be higher on my list than VI.

VI has a better battle system, its characters are much more differentiated by their gameplay, its character sprites have aged much better than VII’s character models, and it has four party members in battles instead of three. But I couldn’t overlook VII’s gorgeous artwork, sharp character work, and character-driven story. In the end, I had to give it the edge.

VII is a strange beast. It simultaneously really holds up and has aged horribly. The story is excellent and I love the characters, but the actual line-to-line writing is pretty bad, making the whole experience of the game a bit like swimming upstream; you’re getting somewhere good, but the age of the game is still pushing you back the best it can. Similarly, the background artwork is fantastic and gives the game locations a sense of place incomparable to anything that had come before it, but the character models are so low-poly that the two are constantly at odds with each other.

Still, the game is more a good game than it is an old one. I think it’s managed to duck the absurd level of hype around it by actually being very different from what the most popular images of it make it out to be, if that makes sense. The super futuristic techno-dystopia city only makes up a very small portion of the larger game, and most newcomers to the game won’t have seen Junon, or Corel, or Cosmo Canyon. Heck, I didn’t know Cait Sith or Red XIII were characters before I played the game for the first time. One of the many reasons I’m excited for the rest of this remake is to see newcomers to the story learning just how much variety there is to the world, events, and characters of this game.

FFVII also began (and pulled off really well) a number of storytelling trends that continued in subsequent games in the series. Obviously, almost every game since this one has a clear protagonist with a cool sword for cosplayers to recreate, and an androgynous villain whose story is closely linked to the protagonist (or one villain who is linked to the protagonist and a second one whose purpose is to look like Sephiroth), but it’s started broader, more quality shifts, too.

FFVII is the first game in the series to try to give all its characters arcs based on a similar theme, for example, a trend that has helped give it and future games a sense of thematic unity, especially in IX, X, and XV. Heck, that trend was why I almost came around on XII before they nuked it. It was also the first game in the series to have a real ending, rather than closing out with essentially a curtain call featuring all the party members, like they did in IV through VI (and I assume earlier).

Another common feature of FF games that it didn’t start with VII but certainly was canonized with it was the mid-game plot twist tying the protagonist to both the villain and the larger story. FFIV had this as well, of course, but I feel like the orphanage twist in VIII, the Zanarkand dream twist in X, and the time skip twist in XV were all meant to recall VII’s twist of Cloud’s…very complex existence (IX’s two worlds twist actually is a clear homage to IV, but it’d be hard to argue that Zidane’s connection to Kuja - and the character of Kuja generally - weren’t more influenced by VII).

2: Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XV.

Sorry, this one is a two-fer. I’m not gonna spend too much time on why I placed these two together in the #2 spot (I wrote a long thing on it here, if you’re interested). In summary, the games kinda mirror each other, in story and design. Each game can be seen in the negative space of what the other game leaves out, and at the end, the characters react to similar situations in completely opposite ways. For this reason, and that they’re of comparable quality, I think they’re best viewed as companion pieces.

FFX was the first mainline Final Fantasy game I ever completed, six years late. It was the first FF game with voice acting and many fully modeled locations. It also kinda marks the beginning of the series’ constant changes to the battle system.

That’s not to say the previous games’ battle systems didn’t also differ from each other, but they all had the same setup, with levels and an ATB gauge. This was the first game since III not to have any real-time element to its battle system, nor numbered levels gained through experience points. Since X, no two FF battle systems have been remotely comparable, which is cool and innovative and keeps things fresh, but also means I’ve been starved for just a regular ATB FF game for too long.

In many ways, FFX feels like a bridge between the PS1 games and the later games. It feels much more streamlined than VII, VIII, or IX, in terms of both storytelling and design. The game is very linear, pushing the player from one area to the next and not allowing much backtracking until the very end. It also loses the aging look of the PS1 games’ menus and UI, finally updating the classic font and the blue menus with white borders to fully modernized and sleek graphics.

However, movement still feels very similar to movement in VIII and IX, the music definitely evokes the PS1 games more than the later games, and most locations are portrayed with beautifully painted backgrounds, rather than modeled in (which I actually prefer, and I was glad to see that VII Remake has gone back to that in some places).

Voice acting in this game is phenomenal for 2001, and honestly on par with many contemporary games. I can’t think of a voice actor for the main cast who didn’t do a great job. Tidus’s narration, especially, is emotional and evocative in all the right ways. Grounding the plot in a very personal story about Tidus’s difficulty coming to terms with and proving himself to his abusive father keeps the story relatable and real.

Something interesting about my experience with X is that because it was my first Final Fantasy game, I thought for a very long time that the series was about organized religion, and the ways it is used to justify evil acts. This might be the only game of the ones I’ve played that is about organized religion, or even prominently features a religious doctrine, which really sets it apart from the rest of the series.

The game’s thematic unity is on point, even if there is a scene where they state the central themes a bit too plainly. Every character, and even the entire universe of the story, is held back by the past, and every subplot and the main plot revolves around finding ways to move forward and leave the past behind.

I love FFXV. It feels like a return to form after XII and XIII. It’s also probably the furthest any game in the series has strayed from the original formula. Battles are entirely real-time, and the game is a straightforward action game. There is very little time spent with menus, and even the leveling system has been stripped down to a few skill trees. It’s immediately obvious that the game was originally created to be a spinoff, not a main title.

FFXV is also probably too much a product of the current era of microtransactions and payment plans. The full story is spread out across *deep breath* a feature film, an anime series, an anime OVA, a standalone demo, two console games, four DLC story chapters, a multiplayer side game, a VR fishing game, four phone games (though really three phone games because A New Empire straight up isn't in that universe and also is terrible), an expansion including several entirely new dungeons, and finally a novel set to release sometime this year. That’s a whole lot of story. I’ve not played the phone games or the VR fishing game, or read the novel yet, but I’ve experienced all the rest.

But I also played FFXV when it first released, before any patches, before I knew there was a film, just the game all on its own. So you can believe me when I say that without any supplementary material, the game is still great.

It goes back to the FFI, II, III, V “Warriors of Light” system, where the party has four characters who do not change at all throughout the game. While this bugged me at first, I soon came to appreciate having a story where almost all character interactions involved these four characters. It meant I came to understand them well enough to feel like they were my friends, too. Most characterization in this game is understated, presented through small shared moments, dialogue, and body language as they travel the world together. Much like X, the overarching story might be expansive and far-reaching, but the real show is in the personal journeys the friends have.

Much of the first half of the game is spent exploring an open world, driving along the road and getting out of the car for pit stops or to explore the forests nearby. This is one of the very few games where I don’t mind just exploring an area without the promise of an upgrade or a new scene, just to see what’s around the corner, or to hear whatever banter the characters might engage in next.

The entire world of this game is gorgeous, and the orchestrated music is some of the best they’ve ever done. The main plot is beautiful, too. It’s bittersweet and emotional, with a charismatic villain and a twist that blew me away the first time I reached it.

The supplementary material is also mostly really quality. I’d recommend the Royal Edition over the original edition for sure, and to watch Kingsglaive as well. The anime series is quick and fairly fun, and Comrades expands on the universe in some great ways, but neither has as much bearing on the overall plot as the DLC chapters and Kingsglaive. I’m so in love with the DLC chapters, actually, that two years ago I wrote a piece just on how much Episode Ignis affected me (here if you care).

This is definitely getting long, so I guess I’ll move on after saying I’m upset that they patched Chapter 13 to make it easier, and I’m angry at everyone who complained that Chapter 13 was too hard. It was a brilliant piece of storytelling through game mechanics, and it’s mostly been stripped of all that, now.

1: Final Fantasy IX.

It’s IX. It was always IX. I actually did come into this with an open mind, wondering if one of the new games I’d experience (IV, V, VIII, XII, XIII) might end up hitting me harder than Final Fantasy IX, but as I replayed my favorite game in the series I quickly realized that wouldn’t be happening.

There are only a handful of games that make me cry. IX is one of two without voice acting. There are several songs from IX that make me tear up just when I hear them.

The story of the black mages gaining sentience, learning that they can die, and trying to force themselves back into being puppets just to lose that knowledge really moves me. The same goes for the story of Dagger no longer recognizing her mother, setting out to find a place to belong, learning that her birth family is long dead, then watching her mother return to her old self a moment before losing her forever. And Zidane’s story, where he has nowhere to call home, finally discovers the circumstances of his birth, and realizes that had he stayed in his birthplace, he would have become a much worse person than he ultimately did.

More than any other, though, Vivi’s story will always stick with me. He was found as a soulless husk by Quan, a creature with the intention of fattening him up and eating him, but each of them awoke something in the other, and Quan ended up raising Vivi as his grandson. When Quan passed, a rudderless Vivi went to the city to find a new home, and eventually learned he was created as a weapon. Other weapons had also gained sentience, but none had the worldliness that Vivi had gained from his loving relationship with Quan. When Vivi discovers that most weapons like him die after only a few months, he grapples with the possibility that he may die at any time, and eventually decides that he can only take control of what life he has by living each moment to the fullest. He ends up becoming an example for the other weapons to follow.

FFIX is a game about belonging: both yearning to have somewhere to belong and learning that the place where you think you belong is actually toxic and harmful to you. Even the menu theme is a tune called “A Place to Call Home.”

IX ran counter to the trends of the series in a number of ways. It was a return to high fantasy after the more sci-fi VII and VIII, and was also much more lighthearted than those games, while still being heartfelt and occasionally bittersweet. Gameplay-wise, it locked each of its characters into a single job, gave them designs based on their jobs, brought back four-character parties, and introduced a skill system in which characters learn skills from equipment. It also had a much softer, less realistic art style, and mostly avoided the attempts to recapture VII that have plagued most other subsequent titles (besides Kuja’s design, I guess).

The story is also structured so well. It regularly shifts perspective for the first thirty hours, allowing the player to spend ample time with each of the party members, and shaking up character combinations for fun new interactions. It introduced a system similar to the skits from Tales games, showing the player often humorous vignettes of what’s happening to other characters at the time. Once the characters have all come together in one party, the game has earned the sense that all of them (except for the criminally underexplored Amarant) have become a family.

The supporting cast are a blast as well. Zidane’s thief troupe (who double as a theater troupe) are likeable and fun. Kuja’s villain arc allows him to be sympathetic without losing his edge. The black mages are tragic without being overdone.

The development team for this game put so much more work into this game than they had to. The background artwork was all made in such high-definition resolutions that the act of downscaling them to fit in the game removed details. Uematsu traveled to Europe to make sure he’d get the feel of the soundtrack right, and has said it’s his favorite score he’s ever done. Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, says IX is his favorite game in the series.

FFIX is one of the two games I would like them to remake after they finish the VII Remake, but I’m terrified they’ll mess it up in some way. Honestly, the game’s only flaws (which I do desperately want them to fix) are a lack of voice acting, the underdeveloped party member Amarant (and to a lesser extent Freya), the dissonance of Beatrix never getting punished in any way for her hand in a genocide, and the fact that very few of the sidequests are story-related because so many of the smaller story details that would normally be relegated to sidequests are covered in the main plot.

Despite the danger, though, I think revisiting IX is absolutely essential moving forward. It represents so much of what made older games like IV and VI great, and its story is much more grounded in real emotion than many current Square stories tend to be. Remaking VII will be good for getting VII out of Square’s system. Remaking IX would be good for putting IX back into Square’s system.

Here’s a IX song as a reward for getting this far. I’m gonna go listen to it and tear up again.

#final fantasy #final fantasy iv #final fantasy v #final fantasy vi #final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii remake #final fantasy viii #final fantasy ix #final fantasy x #final fantasy xii #final fantasy xiii #final fantasy xv

12 notes · View notes

alexr-fightgames · 4 years

Text

100 game kumite: mission complete

I streamed 100 different fighting games, finishing up last night. Please see the "hundred game kumite" tag on my blog for all the vods.

What did I learn?

Fighting games are really fun. Still. It’s a joy to fight other people, it’s a joy to stream and have friends come through.

Most of the people who came through, to be totally honest, were my IRL friends, and that was a great emotional boost. I’ve been lonely since quarantine started and I wish I could see them. There were some local FGC people who supported the endeavor too, either by encouraging me or showing up in the stream. Also a few random Twitch folks came through just due to the game I was streaming at the time.

Remarkably few Tumblr folks. Step it up, Tumblr folks :-O

My lovely wife was really supportive of the project <3 <3 She tried being a co-commentator one evening, but she decided to just make that a one-time thing.

Surprises finding online matches -- some games more active than you’d think, others less so

Some games that I would have thought would have active online scenes, I couldn’t find any matches! The new Samurai Shodown game, for example -- when I tried at least, no matches! Dead Or Alive 6 seemed dead; no good. Fighting EX Layer was empty when I tried it. Several more games too.

Games that I was happily surprised to get online matches: Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Tekken 6, Vampire Savior, Mortal Kombat 2 and UMK3 (all on PS3!) -- and Dead Or Alive 5 LR on PS4, it was still going down! Despite its successor not having any matches going. And the Steam version of Melty.

Also the “online arcade” mode in Super Turbo (in the SF Anniversary Collection) was quite active, and that was a bunch of fun.

Where did I mess up?

I had a few snafus getting some games going, either in general (input issues with Steam games, one time when I forgot my laptop was running Folding@Home), or particularly with my two-monitor stream setup. I could have done a better job making sure the games for the night were configured correctly before starting the stream.

Also, I probably did too many versions of Street Fighter II.

I FORGOT GAROU: MARK OF THE WOLVES, WHAT THE HECK. Somehow I never wrote it down in the planning spreadsheet?? That would have been way better than, say, yet another version of SFII, or Gang Beasts, which is a fine game, but turns out not to have any single-player content.

What do we want to do in the future as a result of this?

Keep playing fighting games.

This series really renewed my love for KOF, Virtua Fighter, Darkstalkers and Killer Instinct; I want to git gud at a KOF game, VF5:FS, Vampire Savior, and KI 2013. Also I would really love to understand Fighting Vipers more. That game is super charming.

Aaaahhhhh maaaaan. And Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2. Maybe I’ll dig into GG Strive.

There are so many good fighting games in the world.

Thanks for reading <3

Here are all the games I streamed, by series...

Battle Fantasia Revised Edition

BlazBlue series: BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

Bloody Roar series: Bloody Roar, Bloody Roar II

Bushido Blade

Darkstalkers series: Darkstalkers, Vampire Hunter, Vampire Savior

Divekick

Dead Or Alive series: Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, Dead Or Alive 5: Last Round, Dead or Alive 6

Fantasy Strike

Fighting EX Layer

Gang Beasts

Guilty Gear series: Guilty Gear XX AC+R, Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2

Injustice series: Injustice: Gods Among Us, Injustice 2

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle

Killer Instinct (2013)

King of Fighters series and closely related games: King of Fighters '94, King of Fighters '97, King of Fighters '98 UM Final, King of Fighters '99, King of Fighters 2002 UM, King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition, King of Fighters XIV, SNK GALS' FIGHTERS

Koihime Enbu Ryo Rai Rai

Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code

Mortal Kombat series: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe

Marvel vs Capcom series: Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite

Nidhogg series: Nidhogg, Nidhogg II

Pocket Rumble

Pokkén Tournament DX

Punch Planet

Samurai Shodown series: Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown V Special, Samurai Shodown VI, Samurai Shodown (2019)

Schwarzerblitz

Skullgirls Second Encore

Soulcalibur series: Soulcalibur II: HD Online, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur V, Soulcalibur VI

Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi

Street Fighter series and closely related games: Capcom Fighting Evolution, Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium 2001, Pocket Fighter, Street Fighter, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III: New Generation, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Fight for the Future, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter V

Tekken series: Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken 3, Tekken Tag Tournament HD, Tekken 4, Tekken 5, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken 6, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 7

Them's Fightin' Herds

Toshinden series: Battle Arena Toshinden, Battle Arena Toshinden 2, Battle Arena Toshinden 3

TowerFall Ascension

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] (with uniclr update)

Virtua Fighter series and closely related games: Fighting Vipers, Sonic The Fighters, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis), Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown

Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm

#fgc #hundred game kumite

2 notes · View notes

verumking · 4 years

Text

⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆HEADCANON : RE/MIND TRAILER ANALYSIS

I’ve been working on this since the final Re/Mind trailer was LEAKED, but now that it has been officially released I can finally POST IT! This headcanon post encompasses all three Re/Mind teaser trailers and some of the events of KH3. I know this is structured like a THEORY POST, but take it all with a pinch of salt: this is just a LORE DUMP for how I’ll be roleplaying Yozora until the DLC actually comes out. I’m not aiming to be ‘accurate’ or right, just stringing bits of CANON to line up with my portrayal ;v; So, without further ado, let’s jump right in...

( Warning, this is a stupidly long post ! )

ONE. ┆ THE TWO HALVES OF THE SKY - YOZORA VS SORA

Without a doubt, Nomura has been planning this ARC for years. It is my firm belief that he was planning SORA and NOCTIS to eventually meet, the latter being axed from the joining the KH PLOT after Nomura was removed from XV’s development. Here is what Nomura ORIGINALLY SAID in 2013 about Sora and Noctis’s dynamic:

Do you know the name Sora mean the “sky”, in Japanese and Noctis, his family name is Caelum which mean sky as well so basically, Noctis means “night sky”, so they are kind of complete opposites to each other. There is a reason why I named these characters as opposites.

I don’t believe that Sora and Yozora are the SAME PERSON, nor is Yozora a FUSION of Riku and Sora, but rather, they PARALLEL each other narratively, like what Nomura originally INTENDED for Noctis and Sora. Yozora and Sora are simply OPPOSITES of each other.

I believe as much as SORA embodies light and hope, YOZORA embodies darkness and despair. SORA, not being TECH SAVVY ( see any interaction he has with a COMPUTER, or the first time he uses a GUMMIPHONE ), and YOZORA, who uses hyper-futuristic weaponry with EASE, and comes from a world where ROBOTICS is commonplace.

Aside from the obvious VISUAL JUXTAPOSITION between the optimistic keyblade wielder and the austere newcomer, I also believe that they are going to OPPOSE each other in abilities and goals. Much as Sora used the power of waking to BRING BACK LIVES, Yozora has just as much power to TAKE THEM: see the characteristic skull motif upon Yozora’s sleeves, as well as the prominent THEME OF DEATH within Versus XIII lore.

Which ties in perfectly to my headcanon about the role of REINCARNATION within the KH and Verum Rex worlds respectively. YOZORA is a harbinger of DEATH, and SORA is the harbinger of REBIRTH. Rebirth, of course, being the meaning behind the TITLE of the DLC, as mentioned by Nomura himself:

“ ... The meaning of what I just mentioned and the double-meaning are the same. It means “remind”, “reconfirmation”, “ reclaim the heart* ”, and so forth. ”

(*Note: 心 means “heart” and also “mind”, and 再生 can mean “regeneration”, so 心の再生 can also mean “regeneration” or “rebirth” of the “mind”. Also, “Reclaim Your Heart” is a phrase used on the back of the box for Verum Rex in Toy Box)

The TWO SKIES, like day and night, perpetually maintain this SAMSARA of death and rebirth. Both UNAWARE of each other’s existence, and IMPACT upon the wider universe.

UNTIL NOW. Given the description of the DLC mentioning ‘a secret episode and boss battle’ in a separate line, this is most likely alluding to YOZORA. As such, Yozora will play an antagonistic role towards SORA, at least for the events of Re//Mind. Yozora confronts Sora, after he ABUSES the power of waking to bring back all of his FRIENDS from death. The friends YOZORA was intending to REAP. And thus, the boss battle begins.

Whether Yozora CONTINUES to antagonise Sora even after Re//Mind, it can’t be ascertained at this point. But Sora had been REPEATEDLY WARNED that he will have a price to pay for abusing the POWER OF WAKING ( see the section on YMX below for more detail ). I believe YOZORA has come to deliver this retribution.

TWO. ┆ A SEA OF STARS - THE FINAL WORLD

There has been a lot of speculation about the ‘FINAL WORLD’ we see at the end of the Re//Mind trailer, and whether it IS EVEN the Final World, or the SAME 'Final World’ we have been visiting thus far with SORA.

So far, YOZORA’S WORLD has only been depicted at night. This, PAIRED with Yozora’s name meaning ‘night sky’, could imply that YOZORA HIMSELF caused the Final World to shift from DAY to NIGHT. The two ‘Final Worlds’ are one and the same.

But WHAT IS the Final World exactly? Chirithy describes the FINAL WORLD as a place where “the edges of sleep and death touch”, and that Sora had VISITED the Final World “more than once before on his visits to the Station of Awakening”. Chirithy also mentions that SORA previously came to the Final World “out of his own choice” and can’t just “wander out like his other visits”, when he came to the Final World after PERISHING at the Keyblade Graveyard. The fact that Sora QUESTIONED “What is the Final World?”, despite visiting NUMEROUS TIMES before, implies only one thing: Sora visits the Final World in his DREAMS. And, like most humans upon awakening, he fails to REMEMBER what he dreamt.

The fact that YOZORA is also present in the Final World, in a fully CORPOREAL FORM, implies that he also visits the Final World in his DREAMS, rather than simply arriving there after PERISHING. Their SHARED LINE from the KH1 opening says it all:

“I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately. Like... is any of this for real? Or not?”

The Final World is a realm one visits on the BRINK OF DEATH, and with Yozora and Sora being agents of DEATH and REBIRTH, they visit this realm even in their SLEEP. Yozora’s visits during his sleep are a PREMONITION orchestrated by the Watchmen of Fate, alluding to his destiny to ascend as the VERUM REX: aka the god of death.

THREE. ┆ A STRONG SENSE OF PURPOSE - THE NAMELESS STAR

I joked a lot about the NAMELESS STAR being Yozora’s love interest, but it may be CLOSER TO CANON than I originally thought: especially given Yozora’s appearance in the FINAL WORLD, and how accurate her DIALOGUE is to Stella Nox Fleuret: the infamous LOVE INTEREST from Nomura’s cancelled project, Versus XIII.

Aside from the obvious indicators ( “They took away my name, everything about me” ), the male she “PINES” for also fits perfectly with MY DEPICTION of Yozora. She mentions that he has been “changed beyond recognition, his heart replaced with another’s”. Aside from the developmental parallels of NOCTIS becoming YOZORA, it’s also accurate to my Yozora’s HEART being replaced with an ASTRAL CORE, with the Gigas experimentation CHANGING HIM beyond recognition ( his hair and eye colour ).

The NAMELESS STAR also mentioned that “were he to regain his old self again, he would be distressed by my absence”. Whatever HAPPENED to Yozora that made him forget about his LOVE INTEREST, his presence in the Final World alongside SORA gives the impression that he has REMEMBERED his love interest, and has come to rescue her-- much has SORA had returned to the Final World to rescue KAIRI.

Delving a teeny bit more into my OWN META here. I find it interesting that the NAMELESS STAR gave Sora advice about how to OVERCOME the TASKS before him. What intrigued me the MOST, is how she mentions his ability to RETAIN his PHYSICAL FORM in the Final World, due to his “strong sense of purpose”. The word ‘PURPOSE’ is distinctly emphasised by her voice actress, so I want to BELIEVE that there is importance to it.

MY PORTRAYAL of Yozora and his world encircles the concept of the ‘KARMA’ that lies inside all humans, as per the back of the VERUM REX BOX COVER in Toy Box. To summarise that post, this KARMA is the sum of a person’s grasp of FATE + CONSEQUENCE, and their connection to the SPIRITUAL REALM. The stronger your hold on your DESTINY, aka your karma, the stronger your CONNECTION to the cosmos. It is Sora’s POWERFUL HOLD ON FATE that gave him his corporeal form in the Final World-- much like YOZORA at the end of the Re//Mind trailer.

It thus becomes obvious that the NAME the Nameless Star whispers to Sora is YOZORA. Which not only explains why he looked so SHOCKED after hearing it, but also why Sora RETURNS to the Final World alone in the Re//Mind trailer. He was explicitly LOOKING FOR YOZORA, and was calling out his name-- and expressed the same level of SHOCK upon discovering that Yozora is MORE THAN just a video game character.

FOUR. ┆ AN AGENT IN THE SHADOWS - YOUNG MASTER XEHANORT

Puzzling enough, the Re//Mind trailers also REVEAL that Young Master Xehanort has been WORKING ALONGSIDE the Master of Masters. How is this relevant to Yozora, you ask? Consider the following:

1. YMX was the MAIN VILLAIN in the Toy Box world. He was responsible for introducing SORA to Verum Rex, quite literally, by THROWING HIM into the Verum Rex video game ( which I canon to be the ‘data’ version of YOZORA’S WORLD... but that’s for another post lol ). 2. YMX is WORKING with MoM, who appears along with Yozora in the SECRET ENDING, in the Shibuya district of Yozora’s world. 3. In Dream Drop Distance, YMX made a PROMISE with two characters from The World Ends with You, a game directed by NOMURA encircling the concept of reapers, also based in SHIBUYA. The promise being to bring them back to their world, if they brought Sora and Riku to him. Perhaps YMX did FULFIL that promise, and RETURNED the TWEWY characters to Shibuya. Which implies that HE KNOWS how to reach Shibuya: where MoM was present.

Nomura mentioned in the KH3 ULTIMANIA, that the Shibuya featured in the SECRET ENDING is in a “different reality” compared to the TWEWY Shibuya. What if the SHIBUYA of Yozora’s world, coexisted with the Shibuya of TWEWY? Much like how the worlds were SPLIT IN TWO, not only in Dream Drop Distance, but in Toy Box as well?

4. More specific to my META for Yozora, YMX finds it INTRIGUING that “even empty puppets can be given strong hearts”, and that “a heart can be placed in a vessel of our choosing”. My Yozora was essentially moulded into a PUPPET of Gigas Corporation after having his heart replaced with an ASTRAL CORE, with the intention of making him rise as a ‘HIGHER BEING’: an elevated version of humanity. Also note how YMX says ‘OUR’... what if he was not alluding to True Organisation XIII... but HIMSELF AND MoM?

5. YMX also plays a ROLE in Sora abusing the power of waking. Before unleashing the FINAL BOSS of Toy Box on Sora, he whispers “Find the hearts joined to yours”. In the Re//Mind trailer, SORA re-emphasises this: “But, follow my heart? Hearts are all connected. Trace the connection!”. YMX also APPEARS again, after Sora dove into all of the Sleeping Worlds, claiming that he nearly “buried himself in the dark of sleep”, TWICE OVER: once in DDD, and once again in KH3-- instances where YMX was both present.

Note how also, Nomura chose SAN FRANSOKYO as the final Sleeping World that Sora reaches, before YMX appears. San Fransokyo being very AESTHETICALLY SIMILAR to Yozora’s world ( Both being TOKYO CODED CITIES, with a night time setting ).

Despite LEADING Sora down this doomed path, YMX WARNS him that there is a “high price to pay” for wielding such power FOOLISHLY, and that he had now “paid (this) price”. The price? HIS OWN LIFE. This is reiterated several times in the GAME and PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL:

a. On the BACK of the Verum Rex box cover in Toy Box, it mentions ‘A JOURNEY WITHOUT A PLACE TO RETURN’. b. In the Re//Mind trailer: once by XEHANORT himself: “Seeing that you have also taken the FORBIDDEN PATH, you too must be ready to make the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE”. c. And once again by CHIRITHY, claiming that Sora will “vanish from this world”, and that “without ( his ) powers, ( he ) can’t return to the world ( he ) came from”. Sora has not only LOST the power of waking, but had also SACRIFICED HIS LIFE.

Stranded in the FINAL WORLD, with no one left to turn to, Sora calls out a NAME. The name of a person he knows is COMING to the Final World... to save his lost star.

SHOUTOUT to Steph ( @kyecupio ) for fuelling the big galaxy brain with XEHANORT and YOZORA’S connection fgjhfg.

FIVE. ┆ THE WATCHMAN OF FATE - MASTER OF MASTERS

We’ve gotten an INSIGHT into YMX’s intentions, but what has the MoM got to do with all of this? Why does he APPEAR in the secret ending?

We already know that MoM is working alongside YMX from the brief Re//Mind trailer, where it is disclosed that the MoM GIFTED YMX the characteristic black coat that wards off darkness. YMX is also seemingly REPORTING to MoM about a ‘world tour’, which I assume MoM advised him to go on. What is this ‘world tour’? Difficult to tell at this point.

But what I do know is that MoM is OBSESSED on keeping universal order. He created the GAZING EYE to allow himself to see into the future and write the BOOK OF PROPHECIES, and refuses to give LUXU a copy of the book to ‘avoid temporal paradoxes’. Nomura has definitely created an ANTAGONISM between Luxu/Xigbar and Xehanort, especially NOW with it being revealed that YMX is working with MoM.

WHATEVER Nomura is planning with LUXU vs MoM/YMX, I can’t be certain. But what I do know, is MoM’s MOTIVES are extremely similar to MY META for the Watchmen of Fate, something I have come up with exclusively for MY PORTRAYAL of Yozora and his world.

The WATCHMEN OF FATE are responsible for maintaining the BALANCE AND ORDER of the universe, and are CHARACTERISED by their dark reaper’s hoods. Note how the MoM never takes his hood off, and this HOOD is strikingly uncanny to a GRIM REAPER. Furthermore, the Watchmen of Fate in my canon are not only NOTED for keeping the order of the universe, but some are also ‘TRICKSTERS’ by nature and occasionally like to manipulate fate. Note how MoM also has a PLAYFUL PERSONALITY despite his wider goal.

I believe the MoM has a greater power in the UNIVERSE, and has advised YMX to lead SORA to the Realm of the Dead where YOZORA resides. For what purpose? To UNITE the agents of DEATH and REBIRTH under the same sky. To fulfil the cycle of KARMA. To achieve the REINCARNATION of all worlds.

To reincarnate Kingdom Hearts.

TO CONCLUDE:

1. MoM and YMX are rogue Watchmen of Fate, trying to REBIRTH the universe together via KINGDOM HEARTS. 2. They want to UNITE SORA ( who embodies rebirth ), and YOZORA ( who embodies death ), to achieve the REINCARNATION of the universe ( death + rebirth ) 3. SORA is seeking Yozora because he TALKED to the Nameless Star, YOZORA is seeking Sora because he USED the power of waking to REVERSE DEATH, they both meet at the FINAL WORLD. Yozora initiates the BOSS BATTLE because “ you broke the rules, perish ” 4. YMX ( + MoM? ) possibly SPLIT SHIBUYA into two: one comprising of YOZORA’S REALITY, and one comprising of TWEWY’S REALITY ( not sure of the reasons yet but it’s suss ) 5. ( Specific to my VERUM REX META ) YMX and MoM are potentially connected to GIGAS CORP, given YMX’s intrigue about placing STRONG HEARTS in EMPTY VESSELS, much like Gigas Corp are, thus already serving as ANTAGONISTS to both Yozora and Sora.

#⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆a synthetic heart bled dry by the hands of fate. ❪ headcanons ❫#( this is a mess but i just want to post it jfhjfhg )#( i'll tidy it up later if this makes any sense-- )

17 notes · View notes

tennesseeprelawland · 2 years

Text

Johnny Depp Vs Amber Heard

By Caroline Hood, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Class of 2021

May 11, 2022

Depp Vs. Heard Trial began on April 11, 2022, in Fairfax, Virginia. In this specific case, Johnny Depp, 58, is suing Amber Heard, 36, for fifty million dollars claiming that she committed libel against him in a Washington OP Ed where she said she was a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” In Depp’s opinion this op ed cost him jobs and income. [i] Heard is countersuing Depp for one hundred million, claiming he is seeking to “destroy and defame her.” [ii]

But, who exactly are Heard and how did this all get started?

Johnny Depp and Heard are both actors with Depp featuring in movies such as Alice in the Looking Glass and Heard in Aquaman. They met on the set of a movie called The Rum Diary in 2009 and started dating in 2012. In 2014, they became engaged, and by 2015, the two were married. In 2016, Heard filed for divorce and claimed that she had been abused, filing for a restraining order.[iv] In “Amber Heard has Filed New Allegations that Johnny Depp Abused Her in During Drug-Fueled Rages” by Amber Jamieson, Heard stated that Depp would drink and do drugs, acting violently on them. She states that she called Johnny when he was on drugs “the Monster.” In one incident while in Australia, Heard claims that Depp took eight MDMA tablets and slammed her against the mirror as he choked her, resulting in him severing his finger. He then wrote messages in the blood. [v]

However, Depp would deny the abuse and claim that Heard was the abuser. His first legal battle was with the Sun, a British newspaper who claimed that Depp was a “wife beater.” Heard and Depp went to court where Heard testified about all the abuse she allegedly suffered, including accusing her of sleeping with her costars. Depp lost this court case. [vii]

But, the legal battle as we know is not over. As stated above, the current legal battle over the Washington OP Ed is taking place. So far, there have been witnesses on both sides with Heard and Depp claiming that the other was the abusive one. Instances that are most striking are the fact that Depp states Heard was the one who sliced off his finger. He argued she threw a vodka bottle at him when she was in a rage. Ben King, who used to be the house manager for Johnny Depp, said that he checked on Depp and discovered his severed finger wrapped up in a towel on the bar. Depp also claims that she defecated in his bed.[ix]

Interestingly, according to sources inside the Heard camp, it seems that a lot of the evidence Depp is using is the same evidence that he employed the first time. However, the United States requires substantially more evidence than the UK to win cases. Thus, Depp has an even harder task ahead of him than with the Sun trial [x]

Not to mention this case has become an example of how a court system could be used to silence and punish victims who do speak out. Marilyn Mason, who has been accused of several assaults has filed to sue one of his alleged victims.[xi] In this age, when so many women have begun speaking up it will be interesting to see if more court cases like this appear.

The internet has reacted to all of this by creating a petition to remove Amber Heard from aquaman. The petition currently has reached over 3 million signatures. [xiii] In addition, the internet is calling for Johnny Depp to be reinstated in The Pirates of the Caribbean movies and has over 5 million signatures.[xiv]

However, now that the trial is progressing and will draw to a close in late May, Heard has called for the trial to be dismissed.[xv] According to the statutes of old dominion, in civil cases, the defense lawyers in civil cases are required to attempt to pass a motion to dissolve the case once the defense has run through its witnesses. But, this motion will most likely not succeed. [xvi]

As the trial continues, the world will be able to watch and see as we wait to see who the courts will elect to be the one in the right. It could be Heard who has evidence of damning text messages sent from Depp to Paul Bettany or where he wanted to “burn her.”[xviii] Or it could be Depp who Heard taunted when caught on camera she stated that no one would believe he was a victim of abuse. [xix]

_____________________________________________________

Caroline Hood has her M.A. in Rhetoric in Composition from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is extremely interested in different legal issues and is attending law school in the fall.

_____________________________________________________

[i] Donaldson, Jenyne. [i] Johnny Depp Trial: 8 Shocking Moments, From the Search for His Missing Fingertip to Amber Heard’s Hair-Raising Plea (thewrap.com), retrieved 8 May 2022.

[ii] Rosenberg, Rebecca. Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial: This week's craziest and most disturbing moments (msn.com), retrieved 7 May 2022.

[iii] declaration_johnny_depp.pdf

[iv] Ntim, Zac; Sarkistan, Jacob. A Complete Timeline of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's Relationship (insider.com), retrieved 8 May 2022.

[v] Fairfox County Gov. CL-2019-2911 John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard - Plaintiffs Opposition to Defendants Motion for Protective Order (fairfaxcounty.gov), retrieved 6 May 2022.

[vi] DailyMail.com Reporter.Amber Heard's restraining order against Johnny Depp extended for two months | Daily Mail Online, retrieved 7 May 2022.

[vii] Gaspar, Maria. Johnny Depp Amber Heard Trial Summary | What We Know So Far (thecurrent-online.com), retrieved 8 May 2022.

[viii] UK Judiciary. Johnny Depp -v- News Group (judiciary.uk), retrieved 5 May 2022.

[ix] Donaldson, Jenyne. [ix] Johnny Depp Trial: 8 Shocking Moments, From the Search for His Missing Fingertip to Amber Heard’s Hair-Raising Plea (thewrap.com), retrieved 8 May 2022.

[x] Patten, Dominic, Johnson, Ted. Johnny Depp Trial Will See Amber Heard Make Dismissal Motion She Is Sure To Lose – Deadline, retrieved 6 May 2022.

[xi] Grow, Kory. Marilyn Manson Sues Evan Rachel Wood for Defamation - Rolling Stone, retrieved 8 May 2022.

[xii]Los Angeles, California Superior Court. marilyn-manson-v-evan-rachel-wood - DocumentCloud, retrieved 5 May 2022.

[xiii] Schonfeld, Alexandra. Petition to Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2 Reaches Over 3 Million Signatures | PEOPLE.com, retrieved 5 May 2022.

[xiv] Ishwarya Taniya. Justice for Jack Sparrow: Petition to bring Johnny Depp back to 'Pirates of the Caribbean' goes viral | MEAWW, retrieved 5 May 2022.

[xv] Fairfax County Gov.CL-2019-2911 John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard Defendant's Motion for Briefing Schedule and Evidentiary Hearing (fairfaxcounty.gov), retrieved 6 May 2022.

[xvi] Patten, Dominic, Johnson, Ted. Johnny Depp Trial Will See Amber Heard Make Dismissal Motion She Is Sure To Lose – Deadline, retrieved 6 May 2022.

[xvii] Fair Fox County Gov. CL-2019-2911 John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard Defendant's Motion for Briefing Schedule and Evidentiary Hearing (fairfaxcounty.gov), retrieved 6 May 2022.

[xviii] Isenberg, Meara. The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Defamation Trial: Everything You Need to Know - CNET, retrieved 5 May 2022.

[xix] Emmons, Libby. Johnny Depp's Amber Heard trial may win back his reputation (nypost.com), retrieved 5 May 2022.

0 notes

thirteenthspirit · 5 years

Text

Not a Very ‘Organized’ Organization (XIII)

I thought hard about this week’s topic of choice. Brexit was on my mind - I pondered about doing a comparison between parliament’s never-ending struggle with delays and failed agreements, vs Harvest Moon’s unending gameplay, farming and shipping and eventually marrying and digging in the mines and COLLECTING ALL THE DAMN SPRITES in that DS one. But that’s as far as it goes… I didn’t think I’d be able to milk it like those cows (hey!).

Speaking of Hey, I still want to get Space Channel 5 in there somewhere, those Chu’s and Hey’s have been on my mind like crazy…

So I settled on writing about one of my favorite topics – Organization XIII!

Organization XIII was always one of my favorite parts of the Kingdom Hearts series. They are cool and mysterious and (debatably) heartless, ranging everywhere from the mute heavyweight champions (*cough* Lexaeus *cough*) to the twink rockstar wannabes.

So, Organization XII is, like the name implies, a group of 13 nobodies – wait, scratch that – a group of 14 nobodies (eyeroll) who have banded together to… um… depends on who you ask. And in which game. Their primary goal was to be whole, to be granted a heart/soul, even if practically EVERY ONE OF THEM had a different agenda and there was a whole underlying separate reason for the creation of the Organization. NO WORRIES, let’s stick with that, because it’s more fun.

Ok so, breaking down the members, should we go by number? Order of appearance? Relevance? Element of choice? Maybe click (you know, high school clichés)?

Well – first you have the Mains. Roxas (no. XIII), is the counterpart of Sora, the main character in the whole series. So you know he’s gotta be pretty high on the list. The most interesting thing about Roxas is surprisingly NOT that he’s voice by Jesse McCartney, but the duality of elements he controls. Light and Darkness are everywhere with this guy – his outfit has chess squares on it and he wields both Oathkeeper and Oblivion, not to mention having an incredibly sad and traumatic origin story! He’s like, a slightly smarter and moodier Sora. I like Roxas, I’m sad they didn’t give him anything to do in KH3. Dual-wielding keyblades is pretty awesome and his light attacks can hit pretty hard. One of my favorite moments of the series will always be his fight with Riku in the secret ending of KH1, over 10 years ago! Seeing Roxas clash with Riku in mid-air in front of that clock tower (not to be confused with the one from Neverland – I mean England) really made my heart race as a kid. He can also boast to having shared quite a couple of awesome struggles (go Vivi), with Sora in that “Station of Awakening” place where Destati usually plays, and then with both his best friends - while trying not to be kidnapped by his “Flurry of Dancing Flames”, best friend Axel, and when dispatching Xion.

Xion (no. XIV) is a “puppet”, made to take over Roxas’s place and role in the Organization, should anything happen. She is an interesting character, tragedy befalls her and her journey with coming to the realization that she must sacrifice herself for Sora’s behalf (in order for him to become whole again) is a beautiful one to see. Vector to the Heavens plays when you’re fighting Xion for the last time, ending with Roxas effectively killing her and is a beautifully crafted piece. Xion suffers a bit from that ‘unintentional retcon’ where she didn’t really have a place, story-wise, and was created solely for 358/2 Days. So she was effectively written-out of the main storyline until the later games, with every character practically forgetting about her (literally losing their memories of her).

Rounding out the trio is one of everyone’s favorites – bad-guy good-guy Axel (no. VIII). Axel’s portrayal changed throughout the series. In CoM, he is responsible for unmasking a conspiracy and dispatching rogue members of the organization. He is the de-facto assassin. With not a hint of remorse. As his friendship with Xion and Roxas builds, he regains access to some degree of emotion – perhaps it’s caused by the (stick with me on this one) Lea-Ventus-Sora-Roxas-Axel connection, or perhaps he grows a heart, sitting on that clock tower overlooking the (ALWAYS SETTING) sun of Twilight Town and eating sea-salt ice cream. Eventually he turns on the organization, proving his loyalty is to his friends and even joins the main cast as a Keyblade wielder, turning the tides on some occasions (he really makes the end of DDD worth it). It helps that he has a wicked-cool design. His element is Fire and he wields twin Chakrams, boasting two tear tattoos and incredibly spiky hair. His relationship with Kairi is a cute element to the story, I wish (aside from some more combat or like ANY AT ALL) they had more scenes together and overall relevance to the main storyline. My favorite moment, aside from him rescuing Sora from his peers in DDD, has to be when he executes Vexen in Castle Oblivion.

From Axel, the most closely linked member, aside from Roxas and Xion, is SaÏx (no. VII). SaÏx is a warewolf. The moon sends him into a trance and he is often plagued with anger management issues. Berserk is his Nirvana. Him and Axel go way back and there is still a storyline to be uncovered there, judging from the secret reports found in KH3. In the end, his motivations aren’t really clear and fully explored, so his presence is not much more than Axel’s right arm, who happens to have a big “X” scar on his face. Sorry SaÏx – maybe see a therapist. At least you got a happy ending! SaÏx was one of the last Organization members to fall, in KH2. One of the last defenders of the Castle in (one my my all-time favorite KH worlds), The World That Never Was.

Another of the final defenders and members of the Organization to be vanquished at Sora’s had is – *drumroll* arguably MY FAVORITE OF THEM ALL, the incredibly hot and suave Luxord (no. X). Now – this guy is blonde. Has facial hair. Earrings. A British accent (maybe that’s just in my mind) and makes me look up his voice actor just to drool over that sweet sweet voice. He is the “Gambler of Fate” and shows up in the POTC world to basically taunt you and play a few games. Everything’s a game to this guy, even fighting. Which I can’t say he is great at… For someone able to control the element of Time, he’s kind of a pushover. But he’s still got a place in my heart – and maybe we’ll get to see him again, since he was the one who gave Sora that “wild card”… “Parlay!” more like “Let’s play strip poker pls”.

Who next… well let’s round out the oddballs with this guy. Ladies and gents, fans of the underground metal, garage bands and mohawks – I give you… Demyx (no. IX)! The Melodious Nocturne! …although there is nothing ‘nocturnal’ about him. This guy irradiates happiness and excitement and joy. I suppose he is just pretending, since Nobodies can’t really feel, rather they remember what it was like. Dem-dem too is a fan favorite. He is very young and has a different disposition than the rest of the members, he’s just your lazy, average Joe that just wants to spend his days jamming out on his Sitar. He is the first Organization member to fall in KH2, and is considered “not much of a fighter”. I would obviously disagree with this BECAUSE DANCE WATER DANCE MOTHERF***** is hell. Hell! Still, Dem-dem brings some lightheartedness to the game and the entire group, so he is a welcome addition. He is shunned even in KH3 but that’s just a side note of his… personality traits, I suppose. Never forget when he ‘drops the act’ just before turning on Sora, before what would be his final battle. Demyx controls the element of Water.

And since when it rains, it pours; and when it pours, usually it thunders (at least here in Portugal), that seems like a decently-crafted segway to the next member – Larxene (no. XII). Larxene is… a bitch. I don’t say that lightheartedly, I consider myself a feminist and I never forget that quote “when a man is assertive, he’s called a Boss. When a woman is assertive, she’s called a bitch.” But Larxene is just MEAN. She’s the mean girl of the bunch – together with her GBF Marluxia. Larxene poses some of the hardest fights in CoM but sadly, and like most female characters in this series, she’s shunned in favor of other members. This is a critic I have with the entire KH series – Aqua is virtually my favorite character but she’s really the only female character that is given storyline, relevance and overall strength. And like most fans I was DYING to see Kairi kick ass in KH3, but… we all know how that went. Not much to say about Larxene, her lightning-fast attacks and knives give her a pretty sharp demeanor and she’s not afraid to play every trick to her advantage. Standout moment is, unfortunately, her demise in CoM, fading into darkness. Oh and that laugh.

Larxene’s ‘somebody’ appears in KH: Unchained, together with Marluxia’s somebody. Marluxia (no. XI) controls the attribute of Flowers.

Yes.

Flowers.

He also boasts pink hair and – the best part – a huge pink scythe. His nickname is “The Graceful Assassin” but aside from plotting to overthrow the Organization and posing as the main antagonist in CoM, he doesn’t really do a lot of killing. The fights against him in KH2: Final Mix are among my favorites, especially with that countdown as he swings about the field. It seems he has quite a role in the Mobile game, so maybe we’ll get to see more of his backstory in the future. His final parting words were somewhat mysterious. Together with Larxene and a sneaky Axel, Marluxia betrays the Organization and his fellow members in Castle Oblivion, for his own agenda.

The assignment to Castle Oblivion introduces us to 3 other members of the organization – Vexen (no. IV), Lexaeus (no. V) and Zexion (no. VI). And 3 character tropes. The mad scientist, the jock, and the emo kid.

Vexen, aka “The Chilly Academic”, controls my favorite element, Ice. He is, ironically, killed by Axel in a flurry of flames, in a very dramatic moment in CoM. Vexen merely wants to conduct his experiments in peace – he doesn’t care who rules, what happens to the worlds, even who might or not be possessing him. He only cares about his “Replica” program. The Replica program consists on the creation of “puppets”, bodies able to function who are only missing a heart. He plays quite the role in KH3, effectively redeeming himself. Vexen is one of the creepiest characters around – he has long blond hair and green eyes, but really that ‘mad scientist’ vibe is all that transpires. Shout-out to his English voice actor, Derek Stephen Prince, for giving him a creepy vibe. He’s not much of a fighter, with his weapon of choice being an icy shield called “Frozen Pride”.

Zexion is one of the younger members of the Organization – perhaps even younger than Demyx. He is also arguably one of the smartest. Like Vexen, he cares mostly about his research and specific topics of interest *cough* Riku *cough*. However, his young demeanor reflects some innocence – he is the only member you don’t fight against in CoM, ending up murdered at the hands of Axel (with a little help from a Replica…). I really like Zexion, to battle he wields a book (the Lexicon) and would rather dazzle the opponents with some crafted illusions than hit them hard. He is one of the most prominent figures in KH3 and his reunion with his Master, Ansem the Wise, is very touching and reveals once again his innocence. He is often accompanied by Lexaeus, who is essentially a shadow of Zexion, a silent guardian to the smaller member. It is suggested he has been protecting Zexion since the latter was a small child.

Lexaeus fights Riku at one point, effectively forcing Riku to unleash the darkness in his heart just to defeat him. The Organization member is a towering figure and barely ever talks – he is just muscle, but emanates a safe and caring feel outwards, especially in his interactions with Zexion. To battle he wields a huge hammer-like weapon (which totally reminds me of Rikku’s weapons from FFX) called the Skysplitter and commands the element of Earth.

These 3 members are one half of the initial 6 apprentices, who formed the Organization. These founding members all worked together under the tutelage of Ansem the Wise and range from the scientists like Vexen and Zexion to the guardians like Lexaeus and Xaldin.

Xaldin (no. III) is very much… wasted. His virtually only appearance is in KH2, in his vain attempts to turn The Beast into a heartless. His most evident feature is his sideburns. Xaldin’s sideburns are thick, dark and intimidating. He also wields a lot of lances – like, more than 3, which he uses his wind powers to attack you with. He has a really cool attack where he forms a dragon out of wind and blows you to pieces with. Other than another “werewolf” look, that’s pretty much it. Mickey to the rescue!

Then we get to Xigbar (no. II). Xigbar, or Braig, or Luxu, OR ONE-EYED PIRATE, I’m not sure there is much of a difference, became a usual presence throughout the series. Apparently he’s been around for a loooooong time, ever since the forgotten time of the mobile game. He is a cool dude. His “As If” will go down as a pretty cool quote. Xigbar’s nickname is The Sharpshooter and he immediately stands out from the bunch. We are still unaware of his agenda and interests, not knowing to what extent he is controlled or, rather, he is controlling the narrative. He is overall an awesome character, essentially sniping you from afar with his stylish gun-like weapons. He even fakes his own death in KH3! In what is one of the best moments from the final act. His interactions with the rest of the Organization are always funny to watch, especially with his on-and-off younger lover, Demyx. The standout moment against him is undoubtedly that moment during his fight where he corners you and forces you to run around trying to avoid the millions of blue bullets being aimed at you. One of the best members overall.

And then there was I. Mr. Xemnas (no. I) aka “The Superior of the In-Between” (seriously bro, that’s the nickname you’re gonna pick?) aka “MANSEX” among the fans, aka “Xehanort’s nobody”. He is the man behind the Organization, the one really pulling all the strings. I’m gonna skip the part behind his motivations, they’re murky and the writers decide to change them between games, and I’ll get right down to the cool bits – THE SWORDS. Yes, Xemnas wields two red lightsabers. No, he is not Darth Maul, just a fan. He is calm and has a raspy voice, never really getting too flattered (that one’s yours, Axel). The coolest interaction with Xemnas is the final battle against him. Besides his black and white coat, he eventually summons a plethora of red projectiles which surround Sora and Riku, as they (in a very realistic, grounded and believable moment), deflectem with their respective keyblades. Xemnas ends up falling a bit short when compared with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness… He was just never that menacing of a villain, especially with his always calm behavior.

And that’s it. That’s the full list of the organization members. This turned out to be more of an exposé on each of the members, than anything else. I thought about trying to find real-life personalities to match each of the members, but eventually came up short on that. Organization XIII’s struggle to “be whole” and regain the part of their humanity they had lost – their soul, the ability to feel, always struck me as a really interesting motivation. For quite some time, the idea that you could shed the part of you that is able to “feel” struck me as something good, something to be envious of. I was, of course, wrong – even the dark feelings within us are what gives us the ability to connect and empathize with others.

So be sure to deflect those projectiles, and someone PLEASE give my number to Luxord,

-João A. (Pachiren)

17 notes · View notes