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#now i just need to find a yugioh video
steve0discusses · 9 months
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Ep 46 Pt 2: Seto is Sad Now
I just want to take the time to fully appreciate Seto and Yami on the back of this horse.
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You can’t tell me that the image alone of them on horse back where Seto is just on the back like it’s a motorcycle or something? Two cousins trying not to be weird about this mode of transportation while the tall one sits in the tiny seat?
 (which by the way, I didn’t realize it at the time, but uh my condolences to the shippers of Yami and Seto, they are...damn! They sure are cousins, aren’t they? Like a reverse Sailor Uranus/Sailor Neptune situation right here. Well, you still got modern Seto, but...sooo many lost fanfics out there, I’m sure, who were...probably not happy with this revelation.)
So I had to look this up because I’m not a horse girl, regrettably, I do not know enough about horses to know if two grown men can fit on the back of a horse without busting that horse’s spine in half. But, what I found out is: you don’t do this to a horse. I mean you can, but you shouldn’t.
Thing is...Yami is technically a kid in size, if memory serves, Yugi is still less than 100 lbs.
Maybe this horse is OK? this horse they occasionally use to skate down mountainsides? It’s not a real horse anyway, and honestly, this whole idea of the two on a horse is very funny to me so who cares.
(read more under the cut)
Also speaking of scientifically incorrect things in Yugioh, this was also very funny,
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FAR BE IT FROM ME to get all technical and make some weird youtube video about all the historical inaccuracies in TV shows (which damn, I sure do hate those videos) but I can still laugh at it when it happens.
Bro just told me “bold of you to trust Google” and he’s correct. For all we know some AI just lied to me just now, so if you know some deep lore about trebuchets don’t be afraid to speak up.
Their horse pulls up to the line of out of touch trebuchets and warriors flanking the city, where we reunite as a cast minus Karim.
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Yami then dumps this on me and it was so outlandish I could not tell if this was canon to the manga/original translation or if the dub decided this would be OK to do.
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Just let the man die! He divorced his wife on horseback and then did not raise Seto, he abandoned this boy to kill thousands of people, just let Aknadin freakin die. Please, Yami, this is not up for debate, Yami. Let Aknadin freakin die he hella deserves it.
Agh, Dartz all over again, I swear this show didn’t used to feel the need to redeem it’s villains, youknow? Or maybe it was always like this but I forgot because of freakin long covid wiping a year of my life, I don’t freaking know. But if/when Aknadin comes back I genuinely can’t see how he and Seto could ever fix their relationship on this planet Earth.
Anyway, speaking of being tired beyond your ability, Yami remembers just how many fireballs he took to the chest today and decides to just keel over. Good thing he didn’t do this on the back of the horse.
Relatable, honestly, this is what I do nowadays when I have to stand too long because I decided to cook 2 things instead of 1. Yami just has long covid, he’ll be fine. Just find a couch and do a big sittie, Yami.
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Like damn, Yami, maybe should’ve let Seto at least drive the horse?
And so the trebuchets fire off with all this animation that a bunch of people looked at, and after them, these scenes passed over like 100 more people’s hands, and no one at any point said “yo they used sleds instead of wheels in Egyptian sands, right?” and they were...like they were from the wrong anime really, but please admire the wings on these “trebuchets”
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freakin nerf guns made out of logs hahaha.
Anyway, Bakura noticed.
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Sad Seto starts botching it so poorly that it, in fact, triggers the end of the world.
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Could’ve been Isis commanding the troops. Or Grandpa. Or Shad- no wait, no actually...
...probably shouldn’t be Shada.
But I think that Isis would not have needed that necklace to know throwing logs at the enemy would not work. Especially since this particular enemy is like...all log.
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Thanks for the America shout-out Yugioh, my warm and fuzzy patriotic vibes go off in my heart every time I see lady liberty in an apocalyptic setting, not gonna lie.
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I make fun, but it really did take Yami a while to figure out what the hell Bakura was implying here.
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Lets admire the guy in the very back who looks like he just lost his glasses so he’s just gonna sit it out directly on the ground.
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I will not revise the death count. They died. They died right in front of me. This is clearly a ghost.
They’re just back now. They’ve done this before where they magically come back to life, it’s never explained, and I’m used to it. Rex and Weevil are god tier and it’s never ever explained. I’m ready for them to die again every time I see them on this show. But this show will never let go of these bastards because like...well I don’t know, really, but it feels like the show runners REALLY like these two and I’ll let them have their comfort OCs.
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LISTEN.
So I know I was going to put a towel on this boy’s enormous smiling dong, but it would, in fact, make it more obscene to put the towel on him in this particular scene than to go without the towel.
And yes, it did grow larger than the last time we saw it, and no... I don’t think we should analyze that.
Meanwhile we have run out of useless logs and their out of place trebuchets.
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Blue Eyes just sitting on the bleachers being like “no dawg, it’s fine! I’m fine, we’re all fine!”
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And then we uh, killed Shadi.
It happened so quickly I think the dub actually removed a scene where he gets hit. Like suddenly Yami’s in danger, then it cuts away, and then Shadi is just on the ground like “you get em buddy” and he kicks it.
What an unceremonious way for this creep to die.
And of all the times! He has been threatening to die this entire season! And I guess it’s better than getting bricked in the head by Aknadin, but still...a lightning bolt huh?
And in case you were like “so why is he this weird ghost that haunts us 5000 years later?” That’s apparently answered in like the movie, from what bro tells me. I forget which. I want to say it’s Dark Side of Dimensions, that movie I keep threatening to watch. He hasn’t seen it either, he doesn’t know.
Anyway, we made it through another episode, and yes, it was Shadi who died.
I cannot believe how long Grandpa has held out this season, can you? I can’t believe it at all.
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We’ll catch up again next episode, where...it feels like this is the finale guys. Wow. We’ve come so far. And again, I wish I was in a better state to write, because I feel like I used to be a lot more in depth and just...more analytical. 
But really, this season is just pretty freaking weird. Like there is stuff to analyze here. There are things to get out of it. But I spend so long being like “and then this weird thing happened, and that weird thing happened” that I’m still just stringing together the nonsense and I’m not really appreciating the forest for the trees.
But I’m sure those things will come to me in time, if they really are that important to glean from this season, even if it may be in some later episode or some sort of post-season essay I feel like writing (I probably won’t). But until then, we’ll just admire the dickface they convinced 4kids to put on TV.
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
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borreloadsavagedragon · 9 months
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Guess whoo, our butterfly girl Droite/Dextra for the ask meme 👀🦋
DROITE!!!! I'm so sorry this is so late omfg, I have the attention span of a squirrel gdjsakljkg
First impression: I'm the worst so when I first saw her, I was like 😳😳😳 Oh she's gorgeous Her design and color palette both are impeccable I needed to know more about her immediately
Impression now: Oh my god I love her, I was not disappointed for what we were shown, in fact I'm rage-induced because of how LITTLE we saw her One, her design is SO good, I've considered cosplaying her before omg I love how strong-willed and all business she is, I know it's like trope-y that the one woman is the voice of reason between all of the just unhinged members of the Heartland government but she also gets things done, she's got a coldness to her, I really vibe with her gjdsklaj I'm also so unbelievably salty she only got so much screentime to show off!!!!! Like honestly the Zexal girls were too strong and got shafted too quickly for the plot's sake bc it would be 100 episodes lighter, but Droite especially felt cruel because she was shown to be SO smart and cunning, but she wasn't allowed to show it off more and of course one of the duels where all of her tactics were on full display had to be against the main villain of that season, agh In a perfect world, she put Tron in the hole <3 Also she can just casually fly a helicopter? Sign me UP
Favorite moment: God, her duel for Gauche is just so touching, genuinely that tag duel is one of my favorites in all of Zexal, and the Spartan city episodes in general are some of my favorite to rewatch anytime I feel like throwing on some Zexal because you see how far the pair of them both come from their backstory, their shared trauma being under Heartland's training, and then also the stress of being put under government operations It's her push that is the first true crack in Alito's hold on him The only thing I'd change is having her win, but it's a yugioh show so we can't have that, aggressive side eyes at gallop
Idea for a story: I'm a sham and I don't have any ideas for her specifically at the moment BUT I need to find an excuse to put the three of trainees somewhere..........
Unpopular opinion: I think we all agree she was shafted and underappreciated so I'm not sure omg I guess I as a person am afraid of butterflies and therefore am creeped out by her deck so that's... a thing We're not gonna dissect that today GJSDAKLGJAGK
Favorite relationship: I LOVE her dynamic with Gauche, I absolutely love them, I love that she went with him and how much he cares about her in return, I love how clearly you can see what they've endured as a pair, like they're the definition of soulmates and that's without giving a romantic context, while I'm also on board with them as a pair, I also love that without needing to label anything, they're just two people who will find a way and will stay together in any lifetime I also like where her and Kaito end up after the fact, I wish they'd somehow squeezed one last private conversation into the Spartan City episodes like in the WDC when she calls him out, but I do love he came around on her and Gauche both and how he recognizes her strengths and her spirit, like even vocally defending her skill to Rio and Ryouga is a huge step for him since the last time we saw Kaito consider Droite, he was relatively in different, because even when he was playing the part of the aloof, distant soldier who didn’t need help, he was watching and taking note of her in his own little gremlin way However I'm also beating Kaito with my bare hands for his initial treatment of her, he literally fumbled the bag
Favorite headcanon: Oh you KNOW she keeps in contact with Kaito, she'll video call him when she knows he's working long hours in the lab, sometimes to vent about Gauche, sometimes to make sure he's not spending his entire life working
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meggannn · 1 year
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2022
I didn't read a lot of books, or write a lot of fic, or even watch a lot of TV, but I did play a lot of video games!
my real life is a bit of a controlled mess right now, this year I had a medical procedure and a minor breakdown and moved suddenly because covid malfeasance in the city terrified me and I think I need to be with family right now after we've had several family deaths over the years. one day I'd like to move back there but only when I can afford to live alone, which is definitely not in the cards any time soon with how the rental market is looking.
I am proud that I started posting and finished Tides, Receding this year. because I started writing it... three years ago? oh god I just looked it up and it was Feb 2020 that I made the post that ended up spawning the fic. and I told myself 2022 was the year I'd get it done, it's been sitting in my lap too long, and I did it. (party horn noise)
anyway my 2022 game list is under the cut, check it out for recs or whatever. this does not include the games i replayed, which included HZD, DAI, and FE3H, but lbr I'm always replaying those games in my heart
Puzzle games:
The Last Campfire (4/5): Play as a little... thing...? lost from its companions trying to find its way home. Some of the puzzles were a little too simple but this was a short and sweet game.
TOEM (5/5): Play as a tourist taking photos around various places and cities. perfect little photography game with cute side objectives and diverse landscapes.
Inscryption: I ended up abandoning this one during Part 2 because it just didn't hook me and I was hanging on by a thread with the creepiness as it was, but Part 1 was a lot of fun and I'd recommend it for anyone who's a fan of card games, escape rooms, horror, or Yugioh.
Unpacking (4.5/5): Unpack the protagonist's life across various moves. I loved this, my only criticism is that it was too short; I'd love more levels.
Into the Breach (4.5/5): Play as groups of time travelers trying to stop aliens from taking over several war-torn archipelagos in a turn-based combat system. the actual game (till the end credits) is great, the combat system is clear and intuitive. the story is pretty short, but progress carries over at the end cause time-travel. I could've gotten more mileage out of this one, but ultimately burned out cause I wanted to do more than just play the same levels all over again with different units.
FRAMED collection (3.5/5): I guess? for a cool concept—adjust comic panels and strips to help the characters progress through levels—it was a bit forgettable. still, nice for a few hours and probably cool for big comic fans.
Please Touch the Artwork (3/5): An abstract game that combines puzzles with modern art. Oof. I had to give some stars for effort cause I felt like the concept was cool, but I just couldn't get into this one. someone who enjoys both might like it?
Elli (3.5/5): Play as a guardian in a 3D platformer, search for gems and coins, try not to get swallowed by the time rifts. I remember really enjoying this this fall, but now that I'm writing this wrap-up, I barely remember playing it. I liked the puzzles a lot but I think it went on a little long.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (4.5/5): You're a turnip. You rip up taxes in a sentient veggie world. need I say more.
Later Alligator (3.5/5): Play as an Alligator in Alligator New York City and do puzzles and solve crimes. it's adorable, it is, but I wish it was a little more forgiving; if you fuck up a puzzle, you lose so much time in an already limited day cycle.
Rain on Your Parade (4/5): Play as a cloud. Rain on people's parades, wedding days, office parties, whatever. Snow, thunder, acidic goo, you name it. go goblin mode. probably ideal for kids.
Moncage (3.5/5): solve environmental puzzles within a six-sided cube matching elements up across different sides of the cube to affect the scene. very similar to Goragoa, for the three other people who've played that game. short, beautiful, zen game, but man was it hard sometimes or I’m just an idiot. thank goodness for the hint system
Narrative games:
Heaven's Vault (3.5/5): You play as a young woman charged with tracking down a missing archaeologist across the galaxy with a robot companion. Really cool mechanic in this one where you decipher an ancient language as the main gameplay. RPG style choices set across make me want to rate it higher than I have, but some clunkiness (like not being able to revisit sites once you've left) knock it down. Someone once called this made by people who "want to bring archaeology to games but don't known how to make a game" which I agree with.
Tacoma (5/5): You explore an abandoned corporate space station trying to figure out what happened. Honestly, no notes. Interesting narrative, easy mechanics, great writing, doesn't overstep or overstay its bounds.
When the Past Was Around (3.5/5): got stuck on a couple dumb things that the game wouldn't let me interact with, and some other things were really not that intuitive, but other than that I thought this was short and serviceable, good for an afternoon with a sad story.
Wytchwood (4/5): Play as a witch who's charged with collecting twelve souls to deliver to a talking goat in a fairy-tale world. not really a narrative game but it's not puzzle or an RPG, so here it goes. anyway I had a lot of fun with this game. some of the backtracking was annoying and I wish the resource management was a little easier to, well, manage, but overall I enjoyed it.
Forgotten Fields (3/5): Play as a young author traveling home as his family decides whether to sell their home. Honestly a bit let down by this, there were some clunky mechanics I couldn't get over but it had interesting topics about moving on and finding artistic inspiration.
Adios (4/5): A pig farmer decides to quit his job disposing bodies for the mafia. Great voice work in this one, I enjoyed it; even though you know how it's going to end, they still managed to make it suspenseful.
RPGs/Open-world:
Horizon Forbidden West (3.5/5): I think I've already expressed my thoughts on this one this year but overall: great open-world game, mechanically and visually impressive; just OK story, unless you were a big fan of the first game, in which case the story was a big letdown.
Sable (4.5/5): Play as a young girl on her rite of passage as she travels a harsh world called Midden. hard for me to rate any open-world game as perfect because eventually some parts of it somewhere feel like padding, but despite some technical hiccups, Sable is the peak for me. non-combat, vibes-only, beautiful graphics, incredible soundtrack, easy recommend.
Control (3.5/5): Play as Jesse Faden, who arrives at the Federal Bureau of Control looking for her brother after his disappearance several years ago. this never wow'd me the way it was clearly trying to but I did enjoy it, whenever I could get over my fear of anything that moved. gameplay itself was great and i loved the oldest house as a setting. probably fans of the supernatural/horror genre could appreciate it better.
Citizen Sleeper (4/5): play as a cyborg who arrives on a space station and tries to make their way in the corporate underworld. a bit like Disco Elysium meets Murderbot Diaries. there's no combat, so I'd recommend this to fans of the RPG genre.
Paradise Killer (4.5/5): Play as Lady Love Dies in an island out of time, full of gods and demons and human sacrifices tired of being human sacrifices. Someone has been murdered in Paradise and you have to find out who did it. I had SO much fun with this one and the soundtrack is admittedly a huge reason why. (I'm serious listen to Ego 24-7 and tell me it doesn't get you pumped.)
Persona 5 Royal (4.5/5): the Phantom Thieves steal the hearts of corrupt people throughout Tokyo with their inner Pokemon-like demons and man this concept is cool, the soundtrack is killer, the only thing that fucking sucks is the unapologetic sexism that is unavoidable and irritating AF. (am I a little bitter I paid full price for this only a week before it went on sale for half off, yes. but I got a lot of mileage out of this that week during which when I was preparing for a medical procedure, so.)
God of War (4.5/5): Kratos and Boy travel to the highest peak in the realms to spread his wife's ashes. honestly? it's best enjoyed as a guy who enjoys puzzling going on a long walk with his son. as an action game it's meh.
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (5/5): I am PETER PARKER and I can throw MANHOLE COVERS at people while insulting their OUTFITS it is hard to top that
still playing:
Phoenotopia Awakening: A young woman named Gale sets on a journey to rescue the adults in her village after they are all mysteriously kidnapped. I haven't finished this one yet cause I hit a wall but ugh I just want to recommend it somewhere. there is so much love in the little details in this game, so many characters and puzzles and enemy types and history, you can tell so much heart went into this that I'm disappointed it won't get a sequel. my biggest criticism for it is that it is HARD, unnecessarily so at times, and there are no difficulty settings which sucks. but it might be good for Zelda fans or people who are good at 2D platforming, which I am not.
Eastward: Sam and John live in an underground town where travel to the surface is forbidden, until a mysterious event triggers Sam's magical powers and the mayor banishes them... eastward. I want to like this more than I am, the post-apocalyptic concept is very in-line with what I like, but jesus this writing feels like it never saw an editor. it just drags. I don't know how many times I can button-mash past Sam saying "Come on, John!" the game is beautiful, the designers and animators really earned their paychecks, but IDK the jury's still out.
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krakenshaped · 9 months
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Or Judai! I'd be cool with Judai too! (< person who sent manjoume for the character ask game)
Judai too!!! Let's go let's go!!!
First Impression: So like funny story. I first saw Judai when I was 10 and obsessed with 5Ds and god I HATED him LOL I thought he was so arrogant and annoying, I just could not STAND this boy. I don't know if younger me would adore me because I own the core rose dragon deck or slap me across the face for liking Jaden Yuki. "BLUH" younger me cried. "JADEN? I HATE JADEN! JADEN WILL NEVER BE AS GOOD AS YUSEI! YUSEI IS THE BEST PROTAG AND 5DS IS THE BEST SHOW!" I was so goofy when I was a kid.
Impression now: in late 2021, I watched yugioh gx and read the manga. At first I was pissed because I still believed in 5Ds supremacy. I believed in Yusei and Yusei only. But then I got like a couple of episodes in. And man. Watching Judai just have fun was so NICE!! Watching his friendship with Bastion especially and watching his relationship with his friends grow and watching him learn and go on silly adventures in season 1 was just FUN. Judai is fun and that's why I like him, GX could trick you into thinking school is fun because with Judai as a protagonist, everything does feel fun! And it makes me happy. He is also my son!! He's very hard to dislike and very hard to hate and he's a really interesting character to analyse.
[LONG DUMBASS RAMBLE AHEAD]
A lot of GX's subtle storytelling in season 1 foreshadows a lot about Judai's life and its interesting seeing it piece all together in season 3. The fact that Judai doesn't have a lot of memories of his childhood and the fact he doesn't go home at all kind of suggests from the start that he at some point has experienced some kind of trauma and that he's most likely a latchkey kid (which isn't too uncommon in Japan). Additionally, watching his mental health decline and seeing him self destruct while trying to keep up with his hero complex is painful but also feels surprisingly real. I mentioned it briefly in Manjoume's ask but Judai in a way perfectly encapsulates the ups and downs of adolescence - depicted through his complicated relationship with his friend circle, his implied romance with Johan, the build up of all his stress and ultimately his downfall. And that's just why I love him!! He's a tornado of emotions and a ball of energy. He runs into every new adventure, whisking the audience away with him and giving us insight in his wins, his loses, his mistakes and how he rectifies them. A lot of characters do get sidelined in GX but at the end of the day, GX is in a weird way about growing up and its through Jaden we see that happen. It almost makes me emotional seeing him in season 4 because you can tell that the events that have happened have changed him and he's no longer that silly kid that played baseball with his best friends or gambled for sandwiches during lunch. The events in the series have permanently changed him and he's grown up.
You'll never be that kid again, but in the end you're still you. And as long as you find happiness in your own way, you don't ever need to be the same as the way you were. You have to just keep moving forward and do what's best for you.
Judai is wonderfully written and incredibly likable in his own silly way, and that's why he's my favourite protag.
.
OOF I WROTE TOO MUCH NEXT QUESTION
Favourite moment: I like the episode where he paints Bastion's bedroom :D I also like the scene where he forgives Yubel, made me emotional
Idea for a story: So many. Too many to write here.
Unpopular opinion: Idk if this is unpopular but I don't like when people limit Jaden's personality to being obsessed with duel monsters. He has other hobbies! He plays all sorts of sports, plays video games, likes to fish, browses web forums, etc. (Not aimed at anyone in particular naturally, just a pet peeve of mine)
Favourite relationship: Oughh I like Spiritshipping... but I also like Gx Rivalshipping... But I also like Heroshipping... platonic fiance is my favourite thing too... his relationship with Bastion is also heavily slept on... but also his complex friendship with Syrus and how Hassleberry looks up to him and how codependency (not necessarily romantically) is explored through his relationship with Yubel...
Man Judai ROCKS
Favourite headcanon: That boy has the tism!! He's filled with autism!! I hc he's gay too but tbh it's suggested so hard in the show it might as well be canon. I also hc he collects blu-ray and dvd sets of movies, his favourite cartoons and famous duel matches. Aspec Judai is p rad too
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What I thought of Vrains overall
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This is a little late. I swear I haven't been putting this off. I've just been trying to gather my thoughts and feelings and make sure I'm understanding everything because there were definitely some things I missed or got wrong in some of my live posts, which I'll address when I get to them. Before I start, I will say that this one is worth watching for yourself if you haven’t, as I’m about to spoil huge chunks of it. It can be very emotionally intense so be prepared for tears but if you like the first episode even a little, I will say that it’s absolutely worth continuing. So yeah, there’s the obligatory spoiler warning. Onto the overview.
I guess I need to start with the fact that I finished this show really quickly. I started watching it on July 14th. That is when I posted my very first liveblogging VRAINS post and I finished the show on August 14th, yesterday as of writing this. (Those dates are coincidental, I promise). This is a reflection of both how short VRAINS was and just how much I loved it. When I first started it I only watched a few episodes every few days, sometimes in a row because I didn't want to finish it too quickly and I wasn't quite hooked on it yet. It was toward the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 that I became hooked and watched several episodes a day whenever I got the chance. I just couldn't put it down. I became very invested in the main cast of characters, particularly Ai and Yusaku, and the intrigue of season 2 with what was happening with the Ignis. Despite it being already tonally darker than the other Yugiohs, I didn't realise just how different this one was until season 2 when they did something no other Yugioh series does: they permanently killed non-evil characters. In fact, they permanently killed an entire race. This fact alone raised the stakes so much higher than any other Yu-Gi-Oh series ever has. Suddenly anyone could die, and they wouldn't come back. This is by far the most emotional YGO series for me. Do they overdo it at times? Absolutely. It was not necessary to have Soulburner destroy Roboppi's body after he lost his memories and in general, this show could've and should've had more moments of levity between its emotionally destructive scenes.
Also, about Roboppi.
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(Rest in peace my sweet son)
Yes, I realise now that Ai knew Roboppi was probably going to die and that the orb he gave him was the letter for the others to find. Still, Ai in no way caused Roboppi’s death and absolutely did not want it to happen. Expecting something to happen and wanting something to happen are completely different. Ai was horrified when Roboppi started glitching out. He gave Roboppi that island to make him happy in what he knew could be his final moments. He cried over him.
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So no, I don’t hold that against Ai and I never will. Anyways, despite how much I personally cried and broke over this show, I don't think any of VRAINS' emotional intensity crossed the line into harmful. Well.. besides one thing…
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I know I made a whole video about this but it really does bother me. It's a lovely scene, it really is. The words that they say to each other are lovely. I wouldn't change a thing about the scene itself. But killing Ai permanently when he's one of only maybe two openly gay characters in this show (the other, Shima, being a joke character who is treated like he's stupid and I don't even know if he really counts) is a little... well, harmful. Yeah I know what you're going to say "But the ending alludes to him being alive and that Yusaku's looking for him!" And you know what? You would be right if this scene hadn't been insanely brief and vague. It is not clear what we're seeing. It's not clear that he's alive or remembers anything that happened (based on just the context of the scene in the show, not any extra material that may exist. I shouldn't need extra content to understand a scene in the main content). So no, I don't consider that a solution to this problem. Because as emotional of a scene as Ai's death is, it falls into a pattern of gay characters often only being shown in fictional media if they die.
Ai loved Yusaku, he says it himself:
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It's not something you have to read between the lines to know (which I absolutely do appreciate). Yusaku's feelings though are never explicitly made clear in this way. Based on what the show gives us, Ai could've very well unrequitedly loved someone who at least presented as the same gender and he was the one who died. And honestly? This could've been fixed so easily if the final scene had just been clearer. Because I don't want to remove Ai's final scene and I don't think anybody does. It's powerful, it works for the story, but he shouldn't be permanently dead with only the barest hint that he may be alive. Even if you would ignore the slight homophobia of it, it's just a dumb vague ending. It doesn't feel conclusive or satisfying, at least not for Ai. They do a great job showing how everyone else is doing so why not give Ai the same treatment?! Yugioh brings back characters from the dead constantly. Would it really have been that much harder to just add a tiny moment of Yusaku responding to Ai at the very end? That alone would've been so much better. But, anyway. Besides not treating Ai well, I honestly do like the VRAINS ending. The final duel is fitting and emotional and like I said, Ai's finale scene with Yusaku is beautiful. I don't want that scene to change, I want what's after it to change. VRAINS deserves a better ending, AI deserves a better ending.
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(Silly screenshot to defuse some tension and to strengthen my point about this darling deserving better)
While I’m on the topic of VRAINS’s shortcomings, I need to briefly cover things that don’t bother me as much but were definitely symptoms of just how badly VRAINS struggled in development: the amount of recap episodes.
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While there were less of them overtime, they were popping up every ten episodes for a while at the beginning and did next to nothing to progress the story. I honestly feel bad for the animators. They couldn't take a break so they used recap episodes as that break, and probably as a way to save on budget since the reason Sevens got a different animation studio behind it was due to the budget being too high for the first studio to handle. Really though? It’s an excusable issue. Just fast forward the recap episodes, or in some cases, where there aren’t secretly important scenes snuck in at the beginning or end, skip them entirely.
And the second problem is Go Onizuka.
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This guy started off fairly strong in season one. It was cool seeing another entertainment duelist coming off the heels of Arc V and him being an inspiration to orphaned kids due to being an orphan too was really sweet. And then season two came along and suddenly he was obsessed with wanting to defeat Yusaku because he’s jealous of the attention he gets. And this sudden resentment came about completely offscreen and the entirety of the explanation was in one flashback. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he changes back to his original personality between seasons two and three with even less explanation. He flips back and forth so often that it’s hard to actually get invested in him as a character, which sucks because like I said, he was really cool in season one.
Also, I’m gonna be honest, and this may piss some people off, but I didn’t find the duelling itself very interesting this time around.
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I like Link Summoning, I like how the monsters can all link to each other and give each other effects, but at the same time… there are way too many “I activate this effect!” “well I activate this effect then!” “no I activate this effect!” moments for me to keep up with. It honestly makes me kinda zone out. I’ve seen people complain about the action cards in Arc V but honestly? I preferred that. Because it’s something the characters have to work for. Some of the most stand out moments in Arc V for me were just the characters hopping around and doing silly nonsense parkour and gymnastics trying to get those things. So as you can imagine, I really really enjoy the rush duels. Even during those “married couple fighting over their card effects” moments, there’s the added danger of them being on a hoverboard thousands of feet in the air so it’s not exactly dull. In the master duels though… yeah… let’s just say besides the ones that destroyed me emotionally, I didn’t care for many of the master duels.
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Also, this is a problem to some degree with every Yugioh (and to be fair VRAINS is not as bad as the original, Zexal, or Arc V in this regard) but this show does not treat its female characters well. Ghost Girl is basically the Mai of this show, she’s really cool but never wins a duel onscreen and might as well just be there for eye candy. Aoi is really cool but really should’ve been allowed to win more and dear sweet jesus I hate Aqua’s design. WHY IS HER LOWER BODY LIKE THAT?!
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Despite all that though, I honest to god loved this show. The concept of this virtual world and card games on hoverboards and a vigilante hacker Spiderman wannabe kidnapping (and in my personal interpretation falling in love with) with a sentient AI is just… it’s ridiculous and I fucking love it. I love when this series is more absurd and even more impressively, when they can balance the silliness with the seriousness. This show is fucking hilarious at times, both because of the absurdity of the situations and strange lines but its intentional humour is absolutely hilarious. Like the duel where both of them brick instantly and pretend they didn’t? Roboppi calling Ai out on his summoning speech being too long? Nearly everything Ai says in his first six episodes of season 3? Oh my god, Ai. He can make even the most insufferable puns hilarious to me:
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It is amazing. Also, I didn’t watch the dub (and fuck it for being even MORE homophobic) but to its credit, that debate over whether a hot dog is a sandwich is fucking hilarious. I regularly show people this clip because it makes me laugh that much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQtTgJwbH00&ab_channel=GeneralFreckleface 
There are times it leans too far into one side (like hardly anything the frog and bird say is funny), but honestly, this show overall does a good job balancing its dark plot with its humour. And that’s due in large part to the protagonists: Yusaku and Ai.
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Whether you ship it or not (I do), they play off each other brilliantly. It’s a classic dynamic: the stern and serious one being stuck with a positive upbeat jokester who loves getting on their nerves and it works great here. If Yusaku were on his own, I’d understand the criticism of him being a boring character, (because even I find him to be a little dry at times despite how relatable he is to me) but he has Ai. They work so well together, which is why the final duel is as impactful as it is.
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Honestly, out of all the final duels in Yugioh, theirs is my favourite. It shows this show’s duelling at its full potential and there’s so much emotion to it as we learn more and more about why this duel is even happening in the first place, about why Ai is acting this way. The way this duel slowly brings all of this out in such a natural painful way was the perfect duel to end this show on. It’s the relationship that invested me most in this show and it’s the best way to show how deep their bond has become and how much both of them have grown as a result of each other. Yes, this is the case with Yugi vs Atem and Yuma vs Astral as well, but honestly? I like this one better because of all the layers there were to Ai’s actions, and how it reveals just how human and simultaneously how much like an AI he really is. I’ll probably make a separate analysis on him because there’s so much I want to say and analyse about him that would be too much to put here. Just know that he and Judai from GX are my two favourite characters in all of Yugioh, and that Ai is my favourite YGO villain. Yeah, he topped Yubel. Honestly, this show overall felt like another GX: a YGO series with a lot of emotional depth that I related deeply too, a fantastic cast of characters, and a balance of the serious and the silly. Between the two of them… I’m not going to choose right now. You can’t make me.
Overall, VRAINS is one of my favourite Yugioh shows and a reminder of why I fell in love with these silly card game soap operas in the first place.
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Text
I think it's about time I wrote a proper introduction post
Hey y'all, welcome to my blog! I'm a tumblr veteran but decided to start over on a new account recently. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
🎵 the basics 🎵
nick ~ 28 ~ he/him ~ bi ~ white author ~ musician ~ gamer ~ nerd multi-fandom/shitposting this blog will be (mostly) SFW, but i still would rather not have minors following me. i just prefer interacting with adults, sorry. it's not personal. my likes, however, will be N/SFW, so be warned
my messages and ask box are always open! feel free to hit me up!
more info (including other links, and a list of fandoms/things i like) under the cut
tags: my ramblings | my face
🤩 a bit more about me 🤩
heya! the name's nick. i've been on tumblr since like...2011 or so? i was really big into it in my college years (2012-2017) but after The Great Tumblr Porn Ban of 2017 I've sorta been drifting in an out. When The Great Twitter Debacle of 2022 happened, I decided to migrate back on a new account so I could start fresh.
this account was immediately suspended because of my side-blog. which was a bit too unsafe for work for tumblr's guidelines ig 🙄 not mentioning that they had just recently updated their policy and everything i was posting was PERFECTLY FINE under them but w/e
so i started another one lmao and that's the one that you're looking at right now! my other account has since been restored but at that point I was already situated over here so like. whatever i guess. lol
i'm currently 28, and bisexual. semi-recently out of the closed as bi, actually. for years i identified as gay, but over time i started realizing "actually...i do kinda like girls?" i still identified as "gay" cuz it was easier than saying "so like i'm bi-sexual but mostly homo-romantic but also maybe potentially demi-sexual but only when it comes to real people?" then around 2020 it just kinda clicked with me, and the label of "bisexual" just felt right
anywho you didn't come here for my full life story. here's just a little bit more about me:
i'm a total nerd. i love video games, playing Yugioh, DND (just starting to get into that one), etc. i'm a writer. i've written several fanfics (some of which i'm really proud of, some of which i'm...less), and have a goal of one day publishing a novel (my main genre is YA contemporary with queer themes and characters). i'm a musician. i actually got my bachelor's degree in music (BA in Music). my main instrument is drums/percussion, but i'm learning a bit of guitar and can play a little bit of piano. i'm also a composer/songwriter, though haven't been writing as much these days. if i write anything cool i'll be sure to post it here!
🎭 the artist formerly known as 🎭
previous account: @excuuuseme-princess other previous urls: musicdork, sincerely-whelmed, futuremehatesme, @nickplayswhat, @spearfeld, among others, probably
🔍 other places to find me 🔎
tumblr sideblog (N/SFW, seriously be warned): @fadingfast1 twitter: @libromancerfire n/sfw twitter (again...be warned): @whatifitspriv tiktok: @libromancer_fireburst ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkjaden825698
⚔ fandoms/things i like ⚔
Books 📚
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz
Darius the Great is Not Okay / Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram
TV shows 📺
Arrowverse (especially Legend of Tomorrow [r.i.p. 😢])
Doctor Who
Travelers
Manifest
Movies 📽
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
Love, Simon
Cartoons/Anime 🍞
Yu-Gi-Oh! (DM, GX, 5Ds, ZeXal, Arc-V, currently watching VRAINS and Sevens, have yet to start Go-Rush)
Code Lyoko*
Video Games 🎮
Resident Evil (played all mainline games, some spinoffs, faves are RE2make, Village, and Revelations 2, Ethan Winters is my husband)
Horizon (Zero Dawn, Forbidden West)
Persona (mostly 3 and 5, still need to finish 4, but Kanji is bae)
Fire Emblem (have played all except FE1, 2, 3, and about halfway through 5 but keep losing interest, Engage was FANTASTIC, but Ike is my favorite character)
Zero Escape (999, VLR, ZTD, Sigma Klim is my husband)
Life is Strange (particularly LiS2, but I love them all)
The Legend of Zelda
Golden Sun*
Music Artists 🎼
Paramore
Neck Deep
The Wonder Years*
Other
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
*fandoms/media I was once very involved in, but not as much anymore, still enjoy though fandoms/media i consider to be some of my faves/am very active in will (try and remember to) update as new things become relevant to me lmfaoo
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sleprandomizer · 1 year
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Just want to write about gaming and personal life. Maybe will delete later if I remember.
These past weeks I couldn't enjoy playing video games. Especially the one that require long play through like rpg. I do wish I can get the hype of xenoblade 3, and persona 5 royal but I can't. I feel those games will give me stress than fun consider how large the content in those games. I want to be happy with FE engage soon will be released but I can't. ( Like I don't feel care much with whatever characters they show. I don't even have much energy to think those characters design are good or bad)
The root of my problem is I feel so much pressure with my experiments that often not produce solid result when I'm in the situation I need to write a thesis but what should I write? I don't know what can I put in my thesis if the result is not good. I want to graduate this semester but can I?. I doubt myself too often and it led to my mental health.
However I do feel so much better recently after watched some vlogs of my favorite singer. He just recovered from cancer in march and have been sing in many big concerts. I watched his vlog about his cancer treatment and how his sister always there for him. One memorable quote from his sister is "It is difficult but you can do it. I believe you can do it". I do feel some hope to not give up (I hope the fire will not die soon lol)
**Although I avoid playing video games that so demanding in term of time, I find myself have so much fun recently playing yugioh duel link. It has been a while. Last time I played when it still in xyz era and now the link summoning is in duel link. I admit I enjoy duel link more than master duel these days. Shorter game session also help and it less stressful than dueling in master duel.
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abellaheart-blog · 2 years
Note
OMG you're providing us with ships!! Since I can't find anyone else in the fandom who does ships may I ask for a Yugioh ship (either season 0 or DM since I basically consider them the same thing)? Thank you so much in advance!!
So to start off I'll say that I'm Demisexual, very sex-positive but don't want it with another person unless there's something special between us. I've had feelings towards women in the past but I do have a preference for masculine presenting people. I'm a Virgo, but in vedic/eastern astrology I'm actually a Leo. My fam always says it's perfect because I'm a "good blend of Virgo and Leo traits" whatever that means lol. If I had to take a guess I'd say that it means I'm a bit flashy in the sense that I love fashion and decorations and have a bold sense of humor, but I can also be very reserved and a perfectionist. I'm very critical of myself and tend to hold people at arms length at first, but once close to you I'm a very loyal friend and that's when you see my flashy Leo side. And speaking of my sense of humor, I love making people laugh. I think it's one of my better traits actually. If I'm feeling comfortable I'll do stupid shit to make you laugh (example, one time my bestie and I were the only ones in a movie theater for a bit so I got in front of the screen and started repeating a parody skit we saw on youtube).
I'm very artistic, drawing, sewing, crafts, writing, you name it I probably at least have a desire to try it if I haven't already. If I had access to better fabric I'd definitely make a lot of my own clothes, but for now I just have to stick to decorating my house with my crafts. As for my "style", eclectic is the only way I can describe it, I like puffy sleeves and skirts one day, then wear a corset top and combat boots the next. I just like lots of styles okay? lol
I'm an introvert and I think I'd prefer someone who's the same, or is at least okay with staying in most nights. I like getting out once or twice a week and don't mind outings, but I really value my time relaxing on the couch with video games or my favorite shows, so someone who likes those things too would be ideal.
So, for my partner, I actually like sensitive people, I look for compassion and emotional intelligence in my partners above all else and sensitivity is part of that imo. I just wants someone who wants to love me, if that makes sense? I don't have time for asshats who make "ball and chain" jokes when talking about marriage or roll there eyes at simple romantic things like flowers and picnics. Also don't wanna waste my time with jerks who think dating is a game or whatever. If you belittle my romantic side or try to play games with my heart, sorry honey, you're getting kicked to the curb, don't test me. I give my loved ones my all, I put everything into my relationships, so I need someone who doesn't take advantage of that and gives me their all in return, so we can hold each other up equally, together. Supporting their dreams, what makes them happy, is also very important to me. I honestly don't really care about looks, if you look at all my fictional crushes there's no common physical traits between them, it's mostly the emotional connection and friendship foundation that's important to me.
As for my own looks, I'm tiny, barely 5'2" and so scrawny that people are shook when they see me lift 100lb boxes like it's nothing (I have to lift a lot at my job lol) I think they expect me to be helpless or something. Oh! I'm also a woman, guess I should have mentioned that earlier. I usually have short hair but I cut it in different styles often (gotten quite good at cutting my own hair over the years if I do say so myself) and dye it when I have time, mostly red but I've tried some blues/purples before.
I think that's all I'll say, I feel like I've pelted you with too much info already lmao! Again, thank you so much! I hope these are helping your writers block because your stuff is so fun to read! Don't forget that you're awesome!
Anime Matchups 💘
Yu-gi-oh! Season 0
You’re so right about no one else in the fandom doing these! I don’t mind all the extra info buddy 😌 makes it easier for me to pair you with a character. Your very welcome and thanks for the kind message about my writer’s block. So far these matchups are really helping me honestly. And thanks for saying that about my writing 😭❤️ xoxo you’re awesome too.
Yugi Muto
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Yugi is definitely your man. He has such a big heart, his emotional side is so strong. He would never insult or joke around about love. He values love as much as you do. These were some of the main reasons I paired you two.
Yugi’s soft side is sure to attract you. He’s flattered you’d grow feelings for him. I can see him making a flustered expression when he discovers your true feelings for him.
Yugi wears leather pants and has some flashy style of his own. He’ll love you no matter what you wear. In fact he’ll buy you more clothes your heart desires.
He’ll like your sense of humor even if it’s bold. He’s besties with Jonouchi so he’s used to it.
He’s a bit introverted so he respects you being reserved. He’s friends with Kaiba later believe it or not and that guy is super reserved.
He’ll definitely enjoy your humor. If he were to see you act out that YouTube skit at the theater I’m sure he’d get a good kick out of it.
He likes that you’re sex positive but want the relationship that goes with it. I feel like Yugi wouldn’t be ready until he knows how he truly feels about you and there is truly a connection between you two.
He’s a bit of a perv so be ready for that, as surprising as it may be. It’s okay because he’s a gentleman but it might shock you at first. He’ll still be shy about it since he’s inexperienced.
Yugi loves your artistic side. He’ll want to look at all your artsy creations to be the supportive boyfriend. He’ll even buy you supplies. He’s so impressed you can make clothing. He must buy you material for it. You’ll find that he compliments your various styles. He’ll shyly ask you to dress him up.
Yugi is a bit introverted himself. He adores games and anime so he will like to watch tv and play video games with you. He’ll often ask to play games with you. He doesn’t mind at home dates. He will invite you out once in a while to hang out with the gang or even for a date but if you’re uninterested he won’t mind. He’ll end up asking what it is you’d like to do instead.
Yugi is sensitive and so emotionally strong. His tender side will instantly make you melt. He believes compassion is important to a person as well as their need for love. He’ll find himself loving you more when you express someone wanting to love you. I feel like Yugi is a hopeless romantic so he’d do anything for you. He would never take advantage of you or anyone for that matter. He’s genuinely a selfless man with the need for love as much as you do.
I feel like you being Demi goes hand in hand with you not caring about looks. Yugi would be elated since so many overlook him for his appearance. He’s pretty self cautious or doesn’t think he’s good enough. As much as he finds women to be beautiful he often looks at their personality. There’s a reason he had a crush on Anzu in the past. She’s a great friend and protects him. He admires you for your heart.
As for your looks he thinks you’re so beautiful. He loves all your various hairstyles and other changes to it. Yugi himself has some wild hair so he approves of expressing yourself through your hair. His height stands at 5’0 so you’ll beat him a bit lol and he’s also scrawny so he won’t think much of it. Though your strength impresses him. He might give you nicknames relating to fictional heroines since he’s a nerd like that. Be prepared for that. Since you’re slightly taller I can see him looking up at you with a shocked expression since he thinks you’re so majestic. He’d be so embarrassed if you caught him staring.
Your zodiac is Virgo and Yugi’s is Gemini. There’s room for some work but some relationships have proven to work. You two would have to work on it but it doesn’t mean it can’t work.
You mentioned having Leo traits. Leo’s go well with Gemini’s.
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You and Yugi share so many desires. The need for love and an emotionally strong partner is so strong. He’s loves every aspect about you and he’s hopelessly in love with you. Good thing for him you’d be gentle with his heart. I can see you two play a lot of games and spending time together. This dynamic is soft romance. A cute match indeed.
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tl-notes · 3 years
Text
Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon S2 Episode 3 Notes
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Sparrows! Specifically the Eurasian tree sparrow, known in Japan as the suzume. You can just about see them all over Japan, all year long—but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a season word!
Depending on their depiction, they can be used as a season word for most times of the year, but a major one is “late spring,” as that’s when they’re out and about finding food for their baby birds. You can also see in the art they look a little floofy, indicative of the winter coat they haven’t fully shed yet; suzume in summer have a more sleek look. Here’s a shot of them from late summer last season:
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And from closer to winter here↓. Quite fluffy.
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As a quick refresher, 季語 kigo, or season words, are words/phrases/concepts used to give a sense of season to a haiku (or other poem/work of art), which is what part of what differentiates them from a senryuu. They were used pretty frequently in a lot of episodes last season, but a bit less so this time so far.
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Where Lucoa and Ilulu are talking about a “right” here, the Japanese word is 資格 shikaku. While this usage is similar to “right” in English, the connotation is a little different as the word actually means more “qualification.” 
Whereas a “right” is generally something you have innately in some sense (e.g. if you make art you automatically have copyright over it, you have human rights just for being human, etc.), a shikaku is something you earn (e.g. if you study and take a test for certification program and pass, you’re rewarded with a shikaku.)
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Ilulu’s response to the question here is 
そういうのは違う。小林がくれたあの言葉はなかったことにはできないから。
One way in which this differs from the English is that she’s not saying it would be right or wrong, but rather not the solution she’s looking for—because it would also mean undoing the words Kobayashi gave her, and that is something she doesn’t want to do, no matter what.
In contrast the English feels more like she thinks it would be wrong to do that, and even if she did it wouldn’t let her escape what Kobayashi said to her. (That would make more sense if Kobayashi had called her out on being evil, but that’s not really what went down.) An alternative wording might be something like:
“That wouldn’t solve anything. Besides, I don’t want to erase what Kobayashi gave me.”
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This line is: 小林さんのようにはいかないなー
This is perhaps just my interpretation, but the English here sounds like Lucoa once convinced/helped Kobayashi in some fashion previously, is trying it again with Ilulu, but failing this time. (I don’t that’s ever happened though.)
In contrast, I think the Japanese is saying that Lucoa is trying to be like Kobayashi (e.g. when helping alleviate/solve Tohru’s various worries), and it’s not really working for her. I.e. “It’s not working like when Miss Kobayashi does it.” 
Ilulu’s line about “I don’t want to ask Kobayashi about it because she’d probably solve it too easily" seems to support that reading; the dragons know Kobayashi as worries-solver.
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The English here has Lucoa saying she’ll go talk to Kanna/Saikawa, and casually telling Ilulu to wait in the bathroom. But Lucoa doesn’t actually talk to the kids, and even if she was planning to, why would Ilulu waiting in the toilet do anything?
The answer is that Lucoa is actually telling Ilulu to talk (to an unspecified subject, assumed to be Saikawa, since she’s a human and thus someone Ilulu feels guilty about interacting with; Kanna she’s more fine with, as a dragon). And instead of “Go ahead and wait in the bathroom,” it’s more of a “Go wait in the bathroom and see what happens,” with the implication Lucoa is going to set something up. 
And she does!
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“I won’t lie about X, but Y is a different story.” This seems to imply she will still lie about Y? That seems a bit odd to me, especially when she just lied about X (those feelings) to Kanna/Saikawa minutes ago. 
The Japanese says something a bit different though.
The core of the middle line here is 気持ちに嘘をつかない kimochi ni uso wo tsukanai. Because the に, the particle indicating “direction,” is attached unadorned to "feelings,” it is saying not “lying about X” but “lying to X.” This construction, to say one is lying to a feeling, is fairly common in Japanese media. It’s basically equivalent in English to lying to yourself about those feelings.
(for “lying about X” you’d change the に into a について or similar)
So basically she’s saying she won’t pretend, to herself at least, that she doesn’t want to play. But that’s a separate issue to whether she has, as she said before, the “right” to play after what she did. 
You could maybe put it sort of like this:
“I won’t lie to myself about my feelings anymore. But that doesn’t mean I can act on them after what I did.”
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I feel extremely silly even pointing this out, but the beam here is 尿意 nyoui, which is the urge to pee, not necessarily actually needing to pee. Hence why she seems to stop needing to as soon as she gets to the bathroom and walks straight back to the living room with Ilulu after they talk.
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“Be deceived” here is not 騙される damasareru, lit. “be deceived,” but 騙し討ちにあう damashi-uchi ni au, which is like being hit by a sneak attack, being stabbed in the back, etc. In a fairly literal sense in this case too, as they’re talking about actual combat.
I mostly bring it up because it feels like there is not much difference between “being deceived” and “being tricked,” despite those being portrayed as polar opposites (deceived by hostile dragons, tricked by kind Kobayashi), so it might have been wise to differentiate them more in the translation.
E.g. perhaps “She had to change to avoid a knife in the back.” (though dragons don’t use knives, so maybe a claw?)
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Another pretty minor point, but the “doesn’t know right from wrong” is 分別のない funbetsu no nai, where funbetsu means not so much “knowing right from wrong,” but a more encompassing sense of discretion and maturity.
I mostly bring this one up because it struck as me awkward to say Ilulu explicitly shouldn’t know right from wrong, since that would be going backward to her be okay destroying the city again. Instead it’s more that she shouldn’t need to feel weighed down by what’s “correct” or what she “should” do. One possible alt example:
“So go back to being a kid, and worry more about what you want to do than ought to do.”
(Lucoa also changes from a narrative tone to a more conversational tone at the end, in conjunction with the visual shift away from the flashback, so swapping the “she” to “you” might be appropriate.)
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Note how Kanna shuffles the cards here. Depending on where you’re from, this may seem like an odd way of doing it (unless you watched Yugioh maybe). A lot of places with majority English speakers tend to use the overhand shuffle or riffle shuffle, but in Japan (and many other Asian countries) the most common shuffle is the one on display here, known as the Hindu shuffle. 
~The More You Know~
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The act of handing over a piece of candy like this has been used as imagery in other places in the show as well, though I’ll leave thinking about what it represents to you.
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“Blanket” is futon, which is used to refer to both the “mattress” part and “blanket” part of a full futon, the traditional Japanese bedding (not the same thing as the sofa/couch mattress you might hear called a futon in some places).
I mostly mention because just “a blanket” kind of sounds like they’re going to leave them on the floor, but they’re actually going to get the equivalent of a guest mattress (+blanket) to put them to sleep in, as it’s late enough for this to turn into a sleepover.
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Just as a bit of trivia, the word she uses for “onlooker” here is the same term as the “spectator faction.” In the manga Tohru interjects with “Aww, come on, why not Chaos faction instead?” 
Also as a side note to this whole bit about Kobayashi wearing a maid outfit; recall this scene from early in season one, where Tohru found an outfit Kobayashi had bought and stuffed deep in a closet:
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Relevant! Anyway, back to the actual episode now:
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If you felt like this exchange felt a little disjointed, especially given Tohru’s tone of voice: the idea is that Lucoa is saying Tohru really goes to extremes when it comes to matters relating to Kobayashi, which is implying that it seems excessive to call so many people over for a relatively mild issue (not that she necessarily minds though). Tohru’s response is a slightly defensive “yeah I know, but thanks for coming over anyway.” 
(They’re saying it in ways such that you have to read between the lines a bit though, so it may not come across as easily in a translation.)
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The word for “cold” here is 水くさい mizu-kusai, basically meaning “watered down” (like beer etc.), and used frequently to refer to a person/actions/words that the speaker considers too reserved for the relationship they have with the other person.
So it’s similar to cold, but cold in the context of already warm relationship. If talking about a stranger or someone you don’t get along with normally, you shouldn’t use 水くさい; you can just say 冷たい tsumetai (lit. “cold”) or similar.
In this context you could probably have her say “No need to apologize, Kobayashi-san.”
Also I like how they swap around the honorifics (Miss, Lady, -san, -sama, etc.) based on the speaker (I think differentiating between dragons and native-Japanese-speaking humans?). I would say it works given the setting, but that’s just me.
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The text there says “Money Street.” It’s probably obvious, but it’s based primarily on Monopoly, which is semi-popular in Japan (though not to the extent as say in the US). 
Just some trivia, but the “sales pitch” for the game in the Japanese market is more that it’s an educational game that teaches investing and negotiation skills. (The origin of the game in general being an educational tool about exploitation of tenants by landlords, so not quite the same thing.)
Japan also has Momotarou Dentetsu (”Momotetsu”), which is a video game series that’s been around since the NES and is broadly similar to Monopoly rules-wise.
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I just want to point out, amid all the riches, the bag of potato chips and other junk food in the back there.
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Mini-trivia: the cardboard boxes in the background there seem to be a mix of the Amazon logo and the Seino Transportation logo, a Japanese shipping company with a kangaroo logo.
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You probably noticed it without me pointing it out, but I enjoyed the fact Elma got corn starch* all around her mouth from the daifuku and then immediately got told to go play with the kids while the adults are talking.
*It may seem like powdered sugar if you’re used to donut holes, but daifuku, like most Japanese sweets (wagashi) generally, is not heavily sugared and not even particularly sweet by the standard of most “sweets” (which is part of the appeal for many). The skin of the daifuku is powdered with corn starch or similar simply to make it less sticky.
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Kobayashi’s “do that” here is やろー yarou, which can mean “let’s do X” (which is a construction often used to tell/suggest someone to do something, without really including yourself in the “us”). 
However in this case—especially given Kobayashi’s pronunciation and tone of voice—I think it’s actually a homophone of that, a form of 野郎 yarou, a word for “guy” with often negative connotations, like saying “son of a” or “asshole” etc. 
The idea, I think, being that his immediate agreement of “Oooh, right I didn’t think about you wearing it,” comes with a heavy implication of “yeah you’re right, you couldn’t pull off something cute like that,” so she’s replying with a (mostly good-natured) “oh you fucker.”
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This giant 完 kan means “the end,” used like “fin” at the end of a story or game etc. It’s also frequently used in “fake end” jokes. E.g. a show about a sentient zombie might start with the main character getting hit by a truck and dying immediately. The end! ...Except not, and they wake up as a zombie.
So here, the original goal was “make a maid outfit for Kobayashi to wear.” Then Georgie convinces Kobayashi that anything is a maid outfit as long as you are a maid at heart, so really, she’s already wearing one! The end! ...Except not.
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Here’s some extra, probably needless, context on this “annoying”: it uses the word 面倒くさい mendokusai, which is basically used to describe something as annoying, a pain, etc. When used to describe a person like this, one of the ways it can be taken is specifically that the person is really fussy about details that others wouldn’t really care about—which describes Kobayashi about maids pretty well. 
So just for clarity, it’s not necessarily “I became an annoying person who is a maid otaku,” and can be more of a “within the context of my maid otaku-ness I became annoying.” Just to kind of shed some light on the extent of her self-deprecation here.
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The word Kobayashi uses for “helping with the housework” is 家事手伝い kaji-tetsudai, which is a noun* that means “a housework helper”... here, basically a more bland way for a native Japanese speaker to say maid. 
Hence why Tohru reacts with “Oh, don’t call me that, call me a maid!”; Kobayashi went as far as to acknowledge her clothes as a maid outfit, but not quite as far as calling her maid outright. That’s our “annoying maid otaku” doing her thing. 
*It can also be verbed.
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These neighborhood notices, 回覧板 kairan-ban, ~lit. circular notice, are a method used by local governing organizations to distribute information or forms etc. For example, about an upcoming neighborhood event to pick up litter.
The general idea is that one person gets the notice, reads it, signs it, then goes and passes it to the next household in line. It saves paper versus sending everyone a thing in the mail, encourages interaction between neighbors, and is more likely to be read than a flyer/email, though some people consider them a pain and they generally feel a little dated.
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The phrase for “piercing noise” is  劈く金切り音, tsunzaku kanakiri-on, ~lit. “ear-piercing sound of tearing metal.”* 
“Was it that loud?” in the Japanese is a little different, そんな音してた?, meaning “was it making a sound like that?” 
I’m mostly just bringing it up to say that the “Sasakibe’s cooking isn’t just loud, the sounds don’t even make sense” gag is alive and well this season.
*The “sound of tearing metal” phrase can also used idiomatically for some types of high pitched sounds, but I imagine it was chosen very deliberately here.
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It’s probably obvious, but this is a reference to the music video of the OP for season one. You can see it on the official channel for the band, fhána, here.
The season two music video is here, and it seems to have decent English subtitles for the lyrics if you’re curious what they are.
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The adjective here is ニヒル nihiru, an abbreviation of nihilistic. It can be used as actually “nihilistic” like in English, but it can also be used more colloquially to describe a person with dark vibes. It can almost be a compliment!
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“Sleeping” here is 惰眠をむさぼる damin wo musaboru. Damin is not just sleep, but “worthless” sleep—not like a nap because you’re tired. Musaboru is a verb for ~gorging upon on something (often metaphorically, not just food).
The two words are somewhat frequently used together for, basically, lying around the house doing nothing all day. And not in a particularly flattering way, so it’s pretty funny for her to just be like “yeah I do that as a hobby I guess.” 
It doesn’t mean the same thing, but it’d be like saying your hobby is loitering. Maybe could have translated as like “Hobbies? Vegetating.” or “Procrastinating?” or something, though I don’t know if those would have the right impact...
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Kanna’s word for “idol” here is アイドル aidoru, i.e. idol in the pop culture sense.
Tohru’s word is 偶像 guuzou, or idol in the religious sense.
(Tohru swaps to the pop culture “idol” when she starts talking about Kobayashi though.)
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Kanna’s “lost it” it here is 大変 taihen, a pretty common, almost generic word used as an intensifier (greatly, immensely, seriously, terribly, really, etc.) in both positive and negative ways. E.g. “thanks, you really saved me!” or “that was extremely rude.”
When used alone, like here, it usually implies something bad has happened, like something has befallen Tohru and/or she’s in some sort of trouble. Hence why Kobayashi immediately rushes home worried and bursts through the door like this—and loses her tension when she sees Tohru is fine, just... extreme(ly annoying to Kanna and Ilulu).
You could maybe say e.g. “Something’s wrong with Tohru!” to keep that double meaning open.
(”Lost it!” also makes sense for Kobayashi to be worried about, but the type of worry is somewhat different in that case; “oh god what is she going to do” vs. “oh god what happened to her.”)
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The “lick” here is べろ bero, an onomatopoeia for licking that’s also used as slang for "tongue” (noun).
A bero chuu, as in the chorus here, is slang for a French kiss/deep kiss/tongue kiss.
~The More You Know~
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The text here says “If your total assets are above one billion, proceed towards goal.” 
Only billionaires can win...
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Here is 私のものはカンナのもの, lit. “What’s mine is Kanna’s!”
This line is a reference to a catchphrase of the bully/antagonist in Doraemon, Gian: “What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.” 
His line, and character, is so well known it’s spawned the term “Gianism” to represent that sort of self-centered philosophy: everything is rightfully mine to take, even if you think you lay some claim over it.
It’s interesting that the inversion of Gianism, i.e. “what’s mine is yours,” is the only way Kanna and Saikawa are able to overcome the rules, beat the billionaire, and win the game.
Solidarity forever.
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millenniumblog · 3 years
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[ID: A chart describing the core values of each of the nine Enneagram personality types with YuGiOh characters correlated to each of the types.]
YuGiOh Enneagram Analysis, Part #1
Please note that this is the “boring” informational post about Enneagram with the Types listed and explained as well as a few other things. The next post is what has the actual, in-depth character profiles promised!
Introduction & Motivation
Over the past several months, I have been trying to analyze my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and learn more. I have been writing fanfiction since I was a little kid, making my first FF.net account in 2003 when I would have been twelve years old. Even before that, I was a lurker and wrote fics to share with my childhood best friend on paper or floppy discs.
YuGiOh came into my life at some point shortly thereafter. I know this, because I spent my thirteenth birthday in a comic book shop, mostly watching some of my male friends play the trading card game. I had some of the cards, but I was never much of a player, unable to keep up with the seemingly rapid rule changes. Besides that, I was always way more interested in the story and characters than I was in the card game. I remember I even wanted to call “YuGiOh cards” “Duel Monsters” instead to make it seem a little closer to tween-y LARPing.
Eventually, I gave up on collecting cards or trying to ply the game. I felt that while my male friends didn’t mind me being around when they played, they weren’t extremely interested in helping me learn or keep up. I felt I had other strengths, so I started carrying around a notebook even more than I already did. I started my fledgling forays into online fandom. And YuGiOh was a big part of the beginning of that.
I can’t remember posting any YuGiOh fic in particular, and I’m sure that if I had it would make me cringe now. What I do remember is reading some and also spending a lot of time lying on my bed, headphones plugged into a small purple stereo, listening to the first of the two American-released CDs with YuGiOh-inspired music on them. In particular, the last three tracks were pieces of music from the original score composed for the 4Kids dub, which is - for some reason - different from the original Japanese music.
During that time, I would fantasize and conjure my own YuGiOh plots in my head, most of which were focused on the Ancient Egyptian and more spooky, spiritual, and horror themes in the show. I was really fascinated with the reincarnation angle, though my understanding of and opinions on how that works have grown with time.
Years went by, and I didn’t think about YuGiOh much at all. Then, something happened in 2018. I don’t know what got in my head, but it was like all the joy I once found in thinking about the YuGiOh characters came back in a giddy conversation with my childhood best friend. Then, for a little while, it wouldn’t leave me alone.
I started writing for the fandom then, and after several detours, I’m trying to get back in the groove of it.
My approach to the tone of YuGiOh-fanning is that it’s a bit serious, but it’s also with a tongue placed in my cheek because of how incomprehensible or silly the plot can be on a meta level. Sometimes, it almost brings tears to my eyes by being so over-the-top about something that, in the real world, would make no sense at all. But the drama, in the context of the universe, somehow rings true.
I think that’s all owing to how most of the primary characters are just... really freaking great characters.
It has often puzzled me. Like, did Takahashi do all this layering on purpose? Is it really there, or did earnest fanon just make it seem like it? And, as a person, I am always here for a good fan-and-canon symbiosis.
This post is going to be, from here on, an effort to match the YuGiOh characters to the 9 Enneagram Personality Types. I am writing this for my own benefit as I continue to work on my pet YuGiOh fanfiction project, It’s Always Sunny in Domino City, which is a mixture of YGOTAS-vibes-and-concepts taken seriously and a sincere take on fanfiction for the actual canon. It’s dramedy about a sizeable chunk of the main cast a few years post-canon with some canon divergence such as the Memory World arc not yet and possibly never-happening. If that sounds like something you’d like, I would humbly request you check it out!
Either way, this will be an in-depth character analysis cheatsheet for all of the characters above, based on my observations, opinions, and feelings. I invite discussion, but it’s fine if we need to agree to totally disagree!
If you are interested and enjoy what’s below the Read More and in the coming second post, then you are welcome to utilize the character analyses to aid you in your own fanwork!
Enneagram
What is Enneagram, and why am I using it?
Enneagram is a personality categorization system that one might compare to the somewhat better-known MBTI. However, in the words of excellent writing-advice YouTuber, Abbie Emmons:
MBTI shows us how we behave.
Enneagram shows us what we believe.
I will be referencing Abbie’s video Using The ENNEAGRAM To Write CONFLICTED CHARACTERS and her free Enneagram-cheatsheet, available in the description of the linked video. Whether it’s before you continue reading or after, if you’re interested in writing, I would highly recommend you check out her channel!
The Enneagram system has nine basic personality types that overlap and interact in really interesting ways. It is not a hard science, and it’s not a horoscope. Instead, it’s supposed to be “based on conventional wisdom and modern psychology.” All I can say is that with every set of characters I’ve tried it with, it works! Once you get the hang of it, it feels kind of like ~✰~magic~✰~!
Below, I will list Abbie’s simplified definitions of each of the personality types, in order:
Type 1: The Reformer
The Rational, Idealistic Type:
Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic
Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective
Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced
Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.
Type 2: The Helper
The Caring, Interpersonal Type:
Generous, Demonstrative, People-Pleasing, and Possessive
Basic Fear: Of being unwanted, unworthy of being loved
Basic Desire: To feel loved
Key Motivations: Want to be loved, to express their feelings for others, to be needed and appreciated, to get others to respond to them, to vindicate their claims about themselves.
Type 3: The Achiever
The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type:
Adaptable, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious
Basic Fear: Of being worthless
Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile
Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.
Type 4: The Individualist
The Sensitive, Introspective Type:
Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental
Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance
Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity)
Key Motivations: Want to express themselves and their individuality, to create and surround themselves with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect their self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a "rescuer."
Type 5: The Investigator
The Intense, Cerebral Type:
Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated
Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable
Basic Desire: To be capable and competent
Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment.
Type 6: The Loyalist
The Committed, Security-Oriented Type:
Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious
Basic Fear: Of being without support and guidance
Basic Desire: To have security and support
Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity.
Type 7: The Enthusiast
The Busy, Variety-Seeking Type:
Spontaneous, Versatile, Acquisitive, and Scattered
Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain
Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled
Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.
Type 8: The Challenger
The Powerful, Dominating Type:
Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational
Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others
Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life and destiny)
Key Motivations: Want to be self-reliant, to prove their strength and resist weakness, to be important in their world, to dominate the environment, and to stay in control of their situation.
Type 9: The Peacemaker
The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type:
Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent
Basic Fear: Of loss and separation
Basic Desire: To have inner stability, "peace of mind"
Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.
Now that you’ve seen all those, what do you think your favorite character is? In YuGiOh or anything else! It works great for original characters and even yourself and your loved ones.
The actual Character Profiles will be in coming post(s), but continue reading if you want me to explain more about how and why the Enneagram is a great personality typing system. #nonspon, or whatever.
The Enneagram Chart
Now, you could just go to the Enneagram Institute’s page on How the System Works, but below I’ll cut it down to only the parts I’m interested in and explain those in a way that helps me.
Unlike in astrology or MBTI, which are both more restrictive in different ways, the relative position of each type matters a bit on the Enneagram chart, because it can be used to visualize a lot of things about a person!
The Basic Chart
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The Types are shown in a clockwise fashion with “1″ in the 1 o’clock position on an analog clock. The interior lines mean things, but I have trouble reading it without further delineation.
Centers of Response
Below are two small charts, displayed side-by-side. (If it’s too small, try right-click, open in new tab!)
The chart on the left shows the three “centers.” The “centers” indicate the first ‘processing language’ a person would use to respond to stimuli.
Type 8, Type 9, and Type 1 respond first based on instinct (primal, gut-feeling). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the id.
Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 respond first based on feelings (social or personal desires, the heart). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the ego.
Type 5, Type 6, and Type 7 respond first based on thoughts (analytical rather than emotional, the head). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the superego.
Remember that, of course, every single type and person engages their instincts, their emotions, and their thoughts at different times and to different degrees, and some of these are learned or changed behaviors. This is about what their innate drive toward that would be.
Likewise, the same “centers” can also be used for the chart on the right. You will notice that all three of these are defined by what is typically considered a negative emotion. This is because this is about a person’s instinctive, not particularly conscious emotional response when they are backed into a corner and deprived of something that is core to the needs of their personality type.
Type 8, Type 9, and Type 1 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with anger/rage.
Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with shame.
Type 5, Type 6, and Type 7 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with fear.
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Stress vs. Growth
We all know that there are times when a person isn’t acting like themselves, for better or for worse. Usually, “You’re not acting like yourself,” means that a person is behaving badly. Of course, it’s way easier to withdraw and bristle and defend rather than growing in the midst of adversity. However, it is certainly possible to experience character growth in response to experiences, good and bad. Unlike a lot of other personality typing schemes, the Enneagram has a way to display and predict what stress and growth do to a person.
The Enneagram never suggests that any Type is an island unto itself. Every person contains multitudes, but a person’s Type is likely to remain relatively stable throughout their lives, once they have had a chance to develop any personality at all. This means that when a person is stressed or growing that they do not become the type they emulate. Rather, they are more highly expressing that aspects of their personality that reflect those drives and desires but in a way that is either fraught, sickly, or unwell (in the case of stress), or aspirational, flying-high, and incorporating the hard-lessons into who a person is going to be going forward (in the case of growth). The latter, especially, isn’t a sustainable mode, while a stressed person can become more entrenched in their bad habits and defensive coping mechanisms.
Stress
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Note the white, directional arrows. Each number has an arrow point pointing to it and an arrow leading away from it. The point indicates that this is the stress manifestation for the Type at the origin of that arrow. The origin of each arrow indicates the Type being described.
Confused? Let me finally give you a YuGiOh example.
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When I was trying to identify the Types of the characters, defining Marik was difficult, because he has a “Yami,” or Dark Side, which has its own personality and will but which is not its own separate soul or person than Marik himself. Rather, it’s a kind of fantasy/magic-assisted personality splintering where Yami Marik is a full manifestation of the negative traits Marik needed to embody to survive.
So, for reference:
When stressed, Type 1 behaves more like Type 4. 
When stressed, Type 2 behaves more like Type 8.
When stressed, Type 3 behaves more like Type 9.
When stressed, Type 4 behaves more like Type 2.
When stressed, Type 5 behaves more like Type 7.
When stressed, Type 6 behaves more like Type 3.
When stressed, Type 7 behaves more like Type 1.
When stressed, Type 8 behaves more like Type 5.
When stressed, Type 9 behaves more like Type 6.
Alternatively, you can use these sequences to follow the stress lines:
1-4-2-8-5-7-1
9-6-3-9
Growth
Think of the above-explanation in reverse.
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The sequence:
1-7-5-8-2-4-1
9-3-6-9
As a Type 1 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 7.
As a Type 2 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 4.
As a Type 3 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 6.
As a Type 4 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 1.
As a Type 5 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 8.
As a Type 6 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 9.
As a Type 7 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 5.
As a Type 8 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 2.
As a Type 9 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 3.
Wings
The final thing to know about the Enneagram chart for my purposes is about wings. The wing of your personality traits accounts for the complementary and contradictory aspects of your personality. They are the inconsistencies that make you human, predicted and jumped in. Typically, a person is not thought to have both possible wings but one or the other. A wing is one of the two adjacent Types to yours, the number before, or the number after, and it is annotated, for example:
Type 1, Wing 2: 1w2
Type 1, Wing 9: 1w9
Link to Part 2 Here!
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dark-magical-ships · 2 years
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how about Bastet, Hermit Purple and Silver Chariot for the ask game??
Ohmygosh, hi ectoplasmer!! :D Another yugioh selfshipper following me?? I’m honored!! ❤️ Thank you so much for the asks!! :D
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Bastet: Quick! Show us/Tell us the first thing that comes to mind when you think of your F/O!
Dragons. Do I even need to elaborate? 😂 There are so many other things I think of pretty immediately when I think of him—his dry wit, the color blue, a really specific brand of whiskey that I haven’t been able to get ahold of since the pandemic started, and more—but dragons were always the first thing I associated with Seto, and remain my knee-jerk response.
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Hermit Purple: Show the most recent picture/video/gif of your F/O you have saved!
Oh geeze lol. Okay, well, the most recent was a whole gifset that I took a screenshot of before setting it to my reblog queue. T.T
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So you got a two-for-one deal there. My lifelong partner, Seto, and my little-brother-in-spirit, Mokuba. 💙
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Silver Chariot: How does your F/O normally act? Do they act different when they’re around you?
Reserved and levelheaded, most of the time. He spends a lot of time doing corporate bullshit, and a huge part of the CEO schtick is schmoozing. He’s very, very good at it, which you wouldn’t guess if you know him personally because yeah, his behavior changes a lot depending on who he’s with. He’s got a solid rival/frenemy dynamic going with Yugi, and has a weird I-love-to-hate-you-so-much-that-we’re-absolutely-friends-but-the-word-is-entirely-inadequate thing with Jounouchi. He’s an arrogant bastard sometimes—not as often as he was when we were all younger, but it’s still absolutely there. Cold and indifferent at the best of times, aggressive and prone to outbursts when he’s especially emotional. He’s not the easiest guy in the world to like, which is entirely fair honestly, and I say this as someone who loves him dearly even when he’s in full chameleon mode or all-out “say-that-one-more-time-and-I-will-personally-feed-you-to-my-Blue-Eyes” mode.
With Mokuba and I, though… look I know it sounds absurd given that this is Kaiba Seto but he’s very sweet and considerate, in his own way. And the man absolutely loves to communicate with touch. There can be ten empty chairs in the room, and he will always find some excuse to sit somewhere that means he can be touching me somehow. He has a way of flirting with insults that I cannot describe but absolutely adore; something about the way he can’t hide a smile when he’s calling me a dumbass that says “I mean exactly what I said but it’s part of why I love you.” He also somehow just knows when to quit with the bullshit and speak directly and from the heart—which is quite often, given that I’m autistic and don’t always pick up on what he’s trying to tell me otherwise. When Yugi or Jounouchi call him out on his bullshit or if Jounouchi starts throwing insults, he gets angry; when I do it, he listens. He might refuse to explain himself with others, but his communication with Mokuba and I is always open and honest.
With the public, he’s everything you expect in a young top executive with a persona to perform. With his, ah, interesting friendships, he’s often passionate but vitriolic and aggressive. With his family and his partner, he’s someone who cares so deeply that he’s willing to shed any and every mask he wears and do whatever it takes to keep everyone he cares about safe, cared-for, and loved—and over the years, he’s learned to add himself to that list of people he looks after like that. Which is good; Mokuba and I can only do so much to look after him without his cooperation and it’s much easier now that he’s on board. 💙
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steve0discusses · 3 years
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S5 Ep 14: So If You Put a Fraction Into a Duel Disk, the Card Explodes
We left on quite the cliffhanger last episode, so I’ll fill you in:
I did not get the haircut.
Like I seriously considered getting a Zigfried for a cool 3 or 4 minutes there, but then I decided to wait a couple of days and I basically forgot.
But, back to the arc finale, Seto has decided to walk, not run, to the Kaiba lab in order to fix the virus rapidly eating his entire company.
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I just want to point out that Zigfried went through a LOT of work to get Seto Kiaba to go “uggggh” turn around, and pretend to calmly walk away. I’m used to Seto losing his nut kind of a lot and blowing things up but this season he’s like “be chill be chill be chill” so that the entire world doesn’t think he’s a spaz on TV.
And little aside about Seto’s design choices here, I fell down a hole of interior design videos, and can I just say: apparently these wood frame things on the wall are back in style? Good on you, 2002(3?) Seto Kaiba. Don’t think that current designers are painting them purple but...we’re halfway there to Yugioh fashion.
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Meanwhile, Pharaoh decides to remind everyone that these stakes are hella low. The worst that happens is that Zigfried deletes the plane that Yugi needs to fly home...which would be an impressive virus.
Like it’s hard to tell if Yami even has a solid concept of “capitalism” and whether or not he cares about or understands the makeup of Seto’s company (which up till now has operated like a small country and not a business...which is a little more Pharaoh’s understanding. Either way...hard to tell if Yami would shed two tears for the loss of Kaiba corp.)
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And, despite what I say in the caps, I feel like Leon and Zigfried are the first villains we’ve ever had that Yugi and Pharaoh didn’t unintentionally disclose that they are 2 people to. Zigfried and Leon are just...completely oblivious to how effed up Yugi’s bean is. They think that’s just a normal kid and lol no dudes...y’all got distracted by Seto Kabia but you have a literal Egyptian God just hovering around in the background and dating 3 people by accident.
Like when the show shelves the main storyline, it is very funny how it’s all “And we’re gonna put the Pharaoh crisis on hold--just put a pin in it. No one will notice this child is two nervous wrecks stitched together” and then Yugi and Yami just kinda hold it in and watch all patiently until it’s their turn to get off the bench.
(read more under the cut)
In the giant computer tower, Seto Kaiba shouts out a string of orders and numbers, admired the many sonar detector looking windows open on every monitor, and then sat down at his desk to like...check the firewall, I guess?
The virus is past the firewall. It’s um...it’s inside the firewall, pretty sure that was the point, but youknow, it’s a kid’s show so they’re just throwing out computer stuff that has no meaning to the writers of this show.
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Mokuba thinks fondly of how Seto Kaiba has never screwed him over (which I mean...maybe not on purpose, ((except for that one time he did screw him over on purpose to get Gozaburo Kaiba to accidentally give Seto Kaiba the company, but you could say that was a grander scheme that he knew Mokuba would see through, which...)) but Seto certainly has screwed Mokuba over accidentally. At least once.)
And meanwhile, Yami fixes everything through card shenanigans.
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So here’s the shenanigan this episode: I don’t go over cards here but this one requires a limited amount of explanation.
So every round the golden castle deletes half of Yugi’s cards. So he was like...I’ll just draw down to one card. They can’t delete half a card...so that means the card must delete one of the two cards on the field which means it must delete itself.
...which is like the closest Yugioh will probably ever get to abusing a glitch to do a speedrunning tactic like GDQ.
Anyway, like I stated in the title: there are no fractions allowed in Yugioh. If you do that to your priceless one-of-a-kind card you got from winning one of Pegasus’ murder tournies, it will irreparably bust the card.
I’m sure at least one of you will correct me with the proper way to insert a fraction into your duel disk. Cuz like...as I say multiple times so we never forget, I barely pay attention to this card game and I’m just flying by the seat of my pants.
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I want to say Seto and Mokuba were in the hacker chairs for like...3 minutes maybe before they realized “oh...Yugi fixed it...” and walked the half a mile back to the duel arena.
and also, as I’m looking at Seto’s glasses here, I just realized...all of Kaiba’s team wears sunglasses all the time. Inside, outside, night, or day...
They haven’t outright said this...but what if those aren’t sunglasses?
Is Roland and that other Roland wearing fancy cyber glasses? They are, right? Because they wear them indoors?
Damn, they can’t take a piss without being on call with Kaiba Corp, can they?
Now the problem is...Yugi played all of his cards (he has two in front of him face down, but none in his deck) and after milling himself, this means he’s now basically a sitting duck for Leon to take the title of “King of Games.”
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Leon insists that he defend whatever scraps are left of his card honor and not duel a person who is carrying no cards and Yugi was like “COME AT ME BRO THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I KNOW I’M ALIVE.”
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He didn’t even have to do a horror on Leon, he just...played cards good? I skipped it, I’ll be honest, but overall Leon’s card honor was...saved? Maybe? I mean he also go destroyed when his competitor had not a single card in his duel disk so...
...Leon will have to work on his card honor off screen because he’s pretty well humiliated at this point.
But stumbling onto the playing field like he’s half dazed/daydrunk, Zigfried is like “You forgot I already won, bastards!”
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Which is when we find out that Zigfried’s “delete all” virus failed to press “enter” and deleted basically nothing. Just like when my Mom attempts to send something in Gmail but doesn’t press “Send” and tells me that Google is down and broken.
Sorry my bro has informed me that he ALSO has had to help my Mother locate the “Send” button and I just...I know she absolutely did that but I’m in denial that this Riddle of the Sphinx has happened to her multiple times.
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Honestly, the pep talk we get from Leon at the end to cheer up his bro was a whole lot of “we will pick ourselves up and we’ll do better next time. Together.” and sure you can translate that as “we’ll be honest next time” or you can translate that as “next time we will be not nearly as obvious about inserting a virus into their computer until it is done doing the job, bro.”
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Just like Dartz, we didn’t really get a whole lot of retribution or closure when it comes to Zigfried. But, unlike Dartz, Zigfried didn’t do too much murder, so I guess this is fine. He tried to cheat in a card game...
...and I guess tried to delete Kaiba Corp but youknow...
...people let him have that. The police saw the ticket of “this man tried to delete Kaiba Corp” and they just...didn’t arrest him. The judge saw that ticket and didn’t put out a warrant. They just let Zigfried have this, almost like “better luck next time, ya?”
And then Roland clocked out for the day and went home, thus ending this arc.
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Look at all these characters, most of which we never saw duel even one card.
We also got one shot of Mai for some reason although she was not in this arc.
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AAAHHHH. Every time I’m like “the show is done screwing geography” we get another freakin geography spook!
But we went back to California in order to get a scene of these guys in an airport to get a flight to Japan...
which means Rex and Weevil just...were they shipped home by the Kaibas? Because way to ditch getting arrested by the American Government, hot damn. They are...literally terrorists who destroyed a Caltrain in a plot to kill everyone in the world so like...really surprised Rex and Weevil are in public...but maybe all the FBI were dead at the time so they just didn’t know?
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Meanwhile, Duke has to go back to Death Valley and call a tow truck for his car, RIP.
I sure hope he got PTO during this stunt and isn’t going home to a pink slip.
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I’m not sure of Dukes life or anything going on with Duke. I’m sure the thing about Serenity is him joking because we have all forgotten about that girl by this point...but also...is Duke...still living in the Tenderloin? The crime rate is very, very high and the ground isn’t solid, so it will liquefy if there’s an Earthquake, but it is one of the few places in the Bay Area that doesn’t light on fire every year. He has that going for him.
I just really hope Duke moves out of the Tenderloin one of these days, he needs a better life.
Meanwhile, Rebecca does one last crime.
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This is like a post-epidemic reaction to a hug, but in 2002(3?).
I don’t think I’ll miss Rebecca too much. Wanted to like her more, but she was under-utilized, like most of the characters on Yugioh. Not even just talking girl characters here--most characters on Yugioh are super under-utilized, just Tristan Wallflowers doing nothing, but also being selectively OP as hell about very specific things they never, ever need to do.
Speaking of the devil:
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Yugi...just saved his entire company...
But Mokuba is just has to make sure to make it seem like they owed Mokuba and not the other way around. Just in case.
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So off they go on this massive plane. It’s probably more to do with the length of the trip as to why the plane is so big but also...
This plane is overcompensating.
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But before we analyze that, lets close the book on Seto Kaiba’s very short therapy arc. Overall, it was a nice distraction, but I can see why people call it a filler arc, as it really doesn’t affect...anything going on in the major plotlines, which makes me think it could have been a movie or a game or something. But overall, it’s not bad, it’s just not what you’d expect if you were a Western audience.
Like I’m preaching to the choir, but typically, Western stories are entirely plot focused, and so our arcs always give or take away from that plot. But in a Eastern story arc, it may instead be character focused, where the climax is a character evolving or coming to some sort of cathartic realization, which this arc was, in a big way. We still had some plot, because this is a Shonen, but overall it was about characters, and specifically whether or not Leon and his bro would reconcile or change--which they did.
We did get to see a little more growth on Seto in that he...didn’t go bonkers and hallucinate during a card game. It’s been a while since we’ve had him not do that. Seto was very chill this arc, which makes sense, it was a very chill slice of life arc for everyone involved.
So, next we move on to the next one, which bro has informed me...is
still not Bakura.
According to Bro, the next arc didn’t even air in the Japanese version of the show? Like he’s got a lot of spicy Yugioh headcanons so he could be wrong (He did tell me that he thought that Zigfried was Seto Kaiba’s ex boyfriend when he saw this as a kid which...that sure is a way to interpret this arc, and it probably wasn’t just my little brother who went down that thought tube there...)
(Bro Note: To be fair, I didn’t watch much of this arc as a kid.)
But he says the next arc was originally a movie. But they released it in the States as episodes to be part of S5, just to put more episodes in there. Which, if he’s correct, makes it seem like we’re getting like the Mulan 2 experience kind of shoved in between this arc and the next
But um..
according to bro it has virtually no card games.
.......
I’m so used to only capping 10 minutes an episode, what?
Anyway, until then, here’s the link to read the rest of these from the start in chrono order:
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
I’m kinda itching to do a Season Zero, it’s been a hot minute--so those take a little longer to do, especially since I need to go to a different site I haven’t...checked out yet...I’ll be back...eventually? I just know that at some point in Season Zero they fight it out with yo-yo’s and I want to see it.
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serenedash · 3 years
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I started rambling about my experience with kh and then it turned into khux and then it just turned into me rambling about Ryou and my art journey????? enjoy I guess,
it’s very long but there’s art in there :)
It’s funny to think about my kh journey as a whole tbh, I grew up watching my mom play video games, which included kh1 and 2. I wasn’t allowed to play the playstation2 we owned BUT I did have a gameboy so the first game I played was CoM (after my mom finished it ofc,) so I guess you could say I’ve always been passionate about kh “””side games””” lmao but I did fall off of kh very quickly bc again, I wasn’t allowed to play our PS2 and also I Am A Terrible Gamer I’ve Never Finished CoM I’m sorry you all had to find out like this, but then 358/2 came out when I was in middle school and!!! I didn’t care and I didn’t play idk why lol
Anyway, fast forward to high school I’m like 15 and my older sister, who HAS been keeping up with kh, has a wallpaper on her phone of roxas and ventus. And bc I haven’t kept up I say “nice roxas wallpaper” and she says “thanks but it’s roxas and ventus” and I proceeded to get so mad that I was determined to prove to her that her wallpaper was just roxas twice and then I fell down the BBS rabbit hole and suddenly I was reading about vanitas and then I’m reading the fan translations of the BBS novel and I’m crying??? I am sobbing???? and that’s how I actually got into kh for real lol we are vanitas stans before we are people,
It’s so funny how I thought I was some kh super fan, knowing all this stuff that I spent so long reading and rewatching cutscene movies, but I never once, SOMEHOW NEVER ever came across khx. It’s so absurd and bizarre I seriously have no idea how I never once encountered khx prior to khux. I suppose that has to do with the fact I wasn’t involved in the fandom? In early high school I had stepped away from fandoms as a whole and I didn’t have any interest in really posting content or interacting with fans anymore bc of how burnt out I was from a previous fandom,
but khux released! and I was so hype and excited for it! on launch day I was a senior in high school, I had ran around to every “nerd” and weeb I could find in school to ask them to join my party and fun fact about me is I have crippling social anxiety I literally refuse to start conversations irl so holy shit I was OUT HERE doing the MOST
My player just originally had my name (Matt) but everyone in my party had fun names so Ryou was born! High school was one big yugioh phase for me and ryou bakura is one of my favorite characters ever so it was just the logical name choice lol I quickly started creating Ryou, the character, as well. I was also leaving my homestuck phase and that + vanitas obsession made This character design (art circa 2016)
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If y’all are familiar with my kh oc’s you might notice that keyblade now belongs to my kid Monty LOL
Anyway that got scrapped quickly for the chip and dale outfit (which is where Ryou’s trademark goggles are from <3) Goggles have been a staple of my character designs for a LONG TIME so like, it had to be done, (that’s a separate ramble about a separate oc tho)
OG Ryou was an interesting guy; he was a young party leader with this overwhelming responsibility on his shoulders bc of his status as a party leader. In his original story, he also struggled heavily with darkness, much like Terra but for Ryou it was more that the darkness was controlling him and not like a source of power like it was for Terra
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A big part of early Ryou I kept, however, was the crushing awareness of loss. One of my party members (the strongest one at the time,) had left without saying a word and I was very confused and hurt. This was around the time the ephemera plot was happening so I decided to incorporate it into Ryou’s story; having him experience losing a friend to darkness since it’s so normal for wielders in Daybreak Town to just disappear, and this would unintentionally become a theme for both me and Ryou as khux friends would just randomly disappear.
I was desperate for khux at this point and I decided to watch the fan translations for khx and GOD, god, was I obsessed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the foretellers. And I’m not going off about that here bc I already did that, but I actually started entering fandom again! I did it slowly, I started on tumblr before this blog was made altho it was me sending anons to the few khux related blogs I could have lol a friend convinced me to get twitter where I got involved with the ffxv fandom, which led me to the kh fandom and eventually the khux fandom there which is what REALLY got me going on khux.
I joined discord servers, most of the servers I’m in are khux related, and from there I joined the khux oc rp (shout out to anyone there who might be reading this lol here’s some art from the beginning of the rp,)
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It’s SO FUNNY how the RP influenced me so heavily. I hadn’t RP’d in YEARS, I used to have a strict no oc rp policy, but here I was? And the funny part is, I had barely developed Ryou. I had scrapped his original story and all I had was POST WAR Ryou so I literally had to reverse write him; I had only ever written him as a depressed, guilt ridden adult, but it was a fucking blast and I have such fond memories of this rp when it was active,
But anyway, this encouraged me to get more serious about art! I started drawing, writing, cosplaying, and roleplaying when I hadn’t done any of that stuff in a very long time. The first time I ever drew a background was for a deviant art khux competition actually LOL
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also! I always think extremely fondly of the drawing I did of Aced in the keyblade war. It was also one of the first backgrounds I ever drew and it felt like my real starting point in the khux fandom. It got a ton of notes on here and someone wrote a tiny fic in a reblog which just made me SO HAPPY like it really felt like people were noticing me :) I was going to draw a matching Ira but!! I just never did!! One day tho, it’s on my art bucket list to redraw this along with Ira,
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Aside from my personal growth, khux was great for my social life ngl, I made SO MANY friends online and got to meet a ton of people irl over the years! It’s crazy to think about all the people I now know and talk to? It honestly makes me really emotional. I’ll never forget taking the train into NYC and meeting up with discord friends. Going to conventions and talking with people about the latest khux update? Absolutely insane and those were some GOOD TIMES, if I thanked every khux friend or even just person who made an impact on me then we’d be here for a LONG TIME,
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Fun fact, for my Lauriam cosplay all I needed to buy was the wig I just owned his outfit LOL also? Probably retiring that cosplay ngl people treated me like absolute garbage when I wore him and it led to a lot of confidence issues for awhile ngl. That’s probably one of the only memorable negative experiences I have with khux; it was great when khux people recognized me but for kh fans that weren’t in khux? They were FUCKING MEAN??? fuck kh fandom at large, I only care about khux fandom,
This leads me to another huge part of my experience in khux fandom: THEORIES!! I used to write SO MANY and oh my god my brain was so full all the time. It was a huge appeal for me in the fandom; I had been previously writing theory posts in the RWBY fandom and it just migrated over to khux for me lol I had done a ton of theorizing around Lauriam tbh, it was really the only reason I liked his character at all bc initially I did not care about the dandelions, anyone who wasn’t Skuld I was like “please leave Now thanks”
A funny part of khux fandom I never intended to be apart of is the MEMES, I really only started doing memes as stress relief bc college had me so busy all I had time/energy for was these quick little shit post drawings.
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The first meme I made, file name “invi despair” LOL we need to get her a girlfriend smh anyway, I think in my senior year of college I did a bunch of rapid fire memes all in one month bc the stress of finals was getting so bad afdgfhdgf as far as I know my impact on this fandom will be my memes bc all I do now is enter a kh/khux server and introduce myself and I go “yeah I draw art. here’s a meme” and everyone goes OH YOU, honestly I am nothing if not a clown
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I’ve talked so much idk where I’m going with this. Khux is just a good game even if the gameplay actually kind of really sucks yknow lol but it was the first game I played where I like, REALLY got into the meta and the mechanics. I used to read so much on the mechanics and watch youtube videos on which medals were worth pulling for. I was never a whale or a top player exactly, but I could rank well if I tried lol I’ve made it to the top 100 for solo rankings, my party has made it to top 10, and in pvp I’ve made top 300. I’m not the highest level in my party but FUCK do I know how to manipulate this game LOL
And with all that hard work, the strategies, the theorizing, the content I’ve made-- it’s been my life for 5 years. I’ve logged into khux almost every single day. At the end, I have logged 1820 days in khux out of 1910 days. Kinda crazy. Crazier I’ve never spent money on khux either lol the only “money” gone into it was one time my mom gave me a google play store gift card and I used it on my birthday for a VIP xemnas medal which eventually made it to regular pulls anyway but it was nice and a little treat :)
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I’m not a gacha fan, I don’t care for it, so I don’t think I’ll be touching another gacha again. But for kh? This was pretty fucking awesome, even if it sucked a lot sometimes LOL It was worth it for the people I’ve met most of all I think. I would honestly be a completely different person without khux and that’s REALLY insane to think about.
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Kingdom Hearts 3 broke my heart.
I am a fan of Kingdom Hearts. i've been here through the first game and even though I grew up without the money to play every game I stuck with the series as best I could. In fact I've bought multiple copies of games on multiple systems and beat a couple of the games not just once but 3 or more times. Here is a list of the things I've done involving this series.
1: I bought KH1/2/COM on more than one system such as ps2,3, and 4. 2: I've played and beaten on the hardest difficulty on each main installment (except critical mode of 3) 3: I have 100% KH1 which might not seem like a big deal but it is the only game I have 100% ever. Got all the trophies and so on. 4: I stuck with the story and even recently before 3 came out played and beat most of the games. (except DDD since it wasn't my kind of deal since I don't like the flowmotion part of the combat.)
You could say I'm a fan of the games and have done what I can to in general keep up with the series as well as have enjoyed the series.
But then 3 came out and I was just not happy with it. After waiting for so long and playing the game and screaming and ranting about certain plot points that just don't make sense to me (KH is notoriously hard to keep up with plot wise and I am just not the brightest person in the world when it comes to shit. Like I really need some things explained outright for me and to some degree do not mind spoilers for some things) I swore off KH the entirety from now on cause it was just that bad of a game for me. It wasn't a horrible game but the direction they started taking it in was just so far removed from what the original 2 games in the numerical series were that this was just NOT Kingdom Hearts at all. Sure you can say it is a love letter to the biggest of fans but I can say that a letter to regular fans was something it needed to do more than cater to such a rabid fanbase compared to a regular fanbase. I thought this was unfair and then bought Memory of Melody. That is now the worst game in the series to me. So I dived into what people thought and looked at a ton of youtubers who played the game and saw what they thought. I looked at reviews of non youtubers and read what they thought and the game has made the fanbase more divided than anything I'd ever seen from a fanbase. So I replayed the game with the intent to write down all I felt on the game to give it a fair review. Like I said I'm a filthy casual and I can give stuff a large break when it comes to media and have a large understanding of what that thing is meant to be. Sometimes a product is meant to be a certain way and we have to enjoy it for what it is and I can try and do that. I mean I love the WWE and Yugioh and anyone who is a part of those fanbases knows in their hearts (kek hearts) how bad those things can be at times. So I played the game and wrote down all the thoughts I had on it and Some might be easy to explain while others are in general probably at least fair on how I feel about it.
Kingdom Hearts is a series not meant for the new comer. It knows what it wants to be and does that thing. It isn't here to make everyone happy and that is just absolutely fine in general. I've been a fan and it makes me happy that the game is one long story that I can appreciate and make call backs to in stuff. I remember being so rewarded when I looked at my then best friend who skipped over chain of memories (I had to emulate it but I think it was fair of me to do so since I bought the game 3 times since now that I have the money to do so) and said he knew what happened because he saw the cutscene of Sora reaching the top and Namine betraying him by putting him into a pod. I laughed at him cause he was a fool who knew nothing of how the story went cause he foolishly just thought he didn't NEED to play the game. This made me more invested into the series than he was. I stuck with the series reading up articles and even watching videos on the series for stuff I missed out on since again i couldn't afford everything. They were building a story over a decade long and at the end it just didn't do it for me. It's not that the story wasn't the end of the series in general. Heck gotta make dat' money Y'all but in general this was the end of a saga for Xehanort and it just didn't cut it. But maybe I'm not starting at the right spot to give my feelings on it. Maybe I'm coming fresh off a game play and feeling a rant building for multiple reasons. So let me start with the positives before I bury the list under a pile of problems for me.
So I'll be putting things in order of good, mixed, bad. They will be somewhat fair and if they have an answer you have my sincerest apologies but remember I'm slightly the "dumb" and would in general like to just get simple straight answers. Something simple and clean if you would. On that note
1: The starting song is a god damned banger - Face my fears is up there with sanctuary which is better than Simple and clean. To be fair though simple and clean was made in like a flight and pretty much is nonsensical to the game in general. However it is a good song. How could it not be with one of japans best pop artists? Have you heard sakura drops? Colors? Traveling? Apples and cinnamon? Fuck man this song is just really good. 2: The game looks great - Sure the game might not look like ps2 graphics anymore but this isn't a bad thing it just is a different thing. The only time I thought it looked bad was during the pirates area where they had to make real people. Sometimes it is better to have a different art theme and even if something is just ok at best during it it can still be over all great. Everyone looked good during it. It just in general looked like a new version of KH entirely. 3: You can power up keyblades - One of the best parts of the game is powering up keyblades. Now sure mickey saying "we should have powered up our keyblades" is a stupid line in general when they are magic items and not fully meant to break form normal stuff but i think the ability to latch onto a key and make that sucker your main key is a great idea. Finally I can power up keys like sweet memories or the kingdom key and go through the cutscenes with the keyblade never changing and it look like it's meant to be there. 4: The whole getting treasure for sinking ships - Even if in general people might not like the ship combat the idea of being a pirate and stealing treasure from a ship when you sink one of the large ones is one of the best thematical ideas in the game. You can just sail the ocean and just pirate ship for loot if you wanted to and since you get xp during it and get your ship to be better it just is a great idea in its entirety. 5: Rikus keyblade - That is one of the better keyblades. I'm not gonna lie but the final fantasy cloud based keyblades where they are more realistic have been one of my favorite designs and I am sad i can't throw it on sora. I like the idea of an actual blade instead of a blunt weapon in the game since it just feels cooler sometimes. Riku getting a keyblade that not only looks more like a sword but is also still a key for a more modern car is one of the cooler things they have ever put in. 6: The call back to union cross players - This was a little lover note to people who played the game. They grabbed a ton of names and threw them in as you threw hundreds of keyblades at the giant heartless storm mob thing. I think it is great and even if I didn't play one of the names that pops up is my actual name so I find that pretty cool whenever I see it.
And that is it. Those are the best parts of KH3 to me. Everything else is either a mixed bag or just not good. I'm sure you can tell which one has more in it. As for the stuff that is in the middle of both good and bad let me make it clear that some stuff that is bad will probably be talked about in the bad section because it needs its own commentary.
1: All the party members - I always was a little sad having to remove one of the characters in my party to add the one new person they wanted to add in and was always sad at that limitation but with 3 you can now have ALL THE MEMBERS. This is great because now I have access to all of my forms with donal...... Oh right, they're not in the game anymore. 2: Nice to one and done an area - Back in the day when I first played the original first game I never went back cause I beat the level and thought it was extra stuff. When I got older and playued through 2 I was a little impatient and just didn't want to keep going back. Now as I am older and wiser and more patient I just do the thing cause it's a part of the game and deal. Thankfully it is all in one trip which is good CAUSE I DON'T WANNA FUCKING PLAY THESE LEVELS EVER AGAIN. 3: I'm gonna say it and people are gonna question me (probably not I'm not a large content creator thus people probably don't care about my opinion so strange of you to be here reading this) but I fucking hate winnie the pooh. I don't like him as a person and I'm just not a fan of his entire world. I only like Eeyore and not cause "gosh that's how I feel" Eeyore is the fucking man. He never lets his bad mood get him down and he powers through even when life is shit. Good for him man. Love that guy. Such a trooper. I just don't like pooh but the levels. God Kingdom Hearts mini games are just mostly not fun in general so not having to play so many mini games in poohs level is fantastic. EXCEPT EVERY WORLD HAS A DAMNED MINI GAME IN IT. 4: Speaking of mini games the ship combat is fine. - It's just, fine. 5: I had so much money - I don't remember playing any other game having so much money. I remember caring and investing and even trying to get money to spend on stuff in some points and in here it just.... I never spent it until i got bored and started using food. I didn't use food until the last world and beyond cause I wanted to finish the game faster. I mean the change of pace having money is nice but there was nothing really to do with it. Maybe I should have bought Hayner, Pence and Olette a ton of pretzels with it. 6: Playing as any other keyblade wielder - Man this was one of those great moments that I was excited to do. Having played as many other characters during other games was always nice and refreshing and being able to do so here was great. It got me excited to play as Mickey again since I got to use him a few times in KH2 or to be able to use Ventus or Aqua again cause they were gonna be saved and be able to fight in the upcoming battle. That is you know. If they are used in the game more than one time each. 7: Giant heartless battle - One of the best moments in the game was the "goofy just died" moment. Not because The goof man "died" but because you got to solo fight a crowd of enemies and in this game it was so cool to have that call back. The shit icing on that beautiful cake was having to use the train to win. Like it just felt like I was making no progress and I can't on my own fight the enemies and no matter how hard you try you can never stop the enemies ever. 8: The what if scenario - The group dying was pretty cool and was a great what if but would have been better if they didn't come back to the past and have Ventus run up and think it was Terra again. It was cool for the lingering will to step in and help but even then the whole situation was so stupid that it could have been written better. What if instead of doing the whole scenario it was a mind fuckery to sora to put him down mentally like they had been trying to entire game. What if it showed him losing and that it was possible? Instead we got this long winded scenario where people didn't learn from their first mistake and tried to go run up to Terra when in that moment Aqua when Ven tried going should have grabbed his shoulder and said "you know it's not him so let's just get ready to fight"
Those are the mixed bag moments I was commenting on. Some things are fine and aren't really an issue except the are a part of a bigger problem in itself which makes them a mixed bag. The last part's I'll be writing about are pretty much a giant rant or asking questions to things. There are problematic points I'll be making as well. So now let's look at the bad stuff in KH3. However, before I get into it, I want to also write down the not as bad stuff as well as some of the really big stuff so I'll make sure to point out when it is a gripe that isn't the worst thing in the world compared to it actually being not good.
1: Nitpick/The social media is dumb - Look I'm not much of a social media person and I know todays kids and teens are all about that jazz and such but man this part of the game is pretty dumb. I am in no way too old to "get hip with it grandpa" and think social media is a bad thing. Times and things change but WHY IS THIS A THING? Sora and friends are out saving the world and probably do not know about current phones since they are so busy. They would be like really old people trying to catch up with todays world and just in general should not have time enough to do it. Sure giving a phone is fine which whatever they can just add in ways to contact which again makes the phone fine but social media is dumb. What platform are they on? Who is following them? What world is this being sent to in general? Does anyone really care?
2: Nitpick/Why 7 VS 13? - I think the number is just really off. Ok look the original organization 13 was fine. Having 14 members in it wasn't a big deal and sure fighting them seperately and not all in one game made me a little sad until final mix came out but at least i got to fight Marluxia in all his pretty boy glory. The point I make is they just seem to have stuck with the 13 which is fine I guess? It just seemed like it was more or less there for no real reason. Sure we would have to fight every single Xehanort around such as Ansem, Xemnas, Terranort, Xigbar who works with old man Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Old man Xehanort. If you also in general wanted him to have each good guy fight a bad guy we would need one for each single keyblade wielder to come out. So let's say Kairi and Axel were just gonna join in so we can have for whatever reason Xion and Roxas just pop out to fight people. We would have need for a total of 7 enemies to fight. Let's just use these guys here as people for people to fight. We can have terranort fight someone before he comes back as lingering will to fight and get his body back. We can have Kairi fight Xion until she defects in general and fights another person with her. We can have axel fight Xemnas so he can get revenge and then have him lose and Roxas can come out. So on and so forth until we have just enough for each person to be matched with another person. You wouldn't need to stretch and find whatever you can and just fill the numbers. You could have at that point just filled it with villains you knew you wanted on your team. Not just bring back generic dudes who don't even need to be here. I'll get more into that in a moment but the numbers just seem off and could have been anything not 7 v 13 but like I said. Nitpick.
3: The plot of Sora flying around this time is a little weak. - So Sora lost his powers and needs to get them back. So he fucks off for a bit until he can regain the powers. Wouldn't it be better if he also trained with Kairi and Axel? What about just going into the realm of darkness to help the others get Aqua? What if instead of just going back and forth to each Disney world like he normally did he in general just.....trained. See the point of the other games was "close the keyholes of the world so heartless stop getting in. Stop those nobodies from opening Kindom Hearts." Kind like saving the world is a great motivation to have compared to "fuck off until you are good or something". It's one of the biggest issues in general. Now if he was told something more substantial than "you need the power of waking" than it would have made the grind through much better. Add in a new plot element for him to need to travel to lands in general so he can earn the power of waking. Send him to places to get that shit instead of "get stronger". You think I can't just do that shit with story? Shit's boring man lemme do stuff.
4: You cannot turn off attractions - That is without playing critical mode. Man Attractions are in general one of the worst parts of the game. Sure I find it hilarious when I'm fighting an important boss (such as Xemnas) and I last hit him with a merry go round but in general they just suck. They aren't fun and they slow the games combat down with a cinematic. Sure they can be "avoided" and I "don't have to use them" but they exist in the game. They are the creators vision and he wants you to use them. If they didn't want it to be a huge part of the games combat system they wouldn't add it in and the fact that it shows up so often just kinda proves they want you to use the thing. Combat in here is very floaty if you haven't noticed and a more grounded approach is sometimes best. This is what the attractions do since they still try and attack you thus getting closer to the attraction in the first place. It's really a jarring object. Telling me not to use it while having the chance to actually accidentally press the button is frustrating. It's the smaller version of telling someone don't be mad when they are mad or try not to be depressed. It's hard to avoid and the answer isn't just "don't do it." Especially when the game puts in abilities to make them more prominent such as extending the time on them. Another point on this is that if the developer wanted them to be optional they wouldn't sometimes be mandatory or even show up during boss fights. Either this was an added on horse shit thing where Disney was like "add attractions or we're done" or Nomura just was like "i recently went to disney land and you gotta put this in it's dope". Joke aside it is one of the worst parts of the game since I can't turn them off and it is hard to get around them. Let me turn them off fully or let them be used as an ability where you can add them in if you want it. Customization should be more of a thing than a gimmick you keep getting. Also they show up so often and I believe in every enemy spawn group. Multiple times even if you miss it the first time. Having so much prominence placed onto this one mechanic just shows they went in hard on it and sure if it was just the rock titan or just the horde of heartless at the end or maybe even rare I wouldn't find it much of a problem but it is EVERY FREAKING COMBAT. I hit that button on accident more times than I wanted to that in general I was trying to use a spell but I missed it by seconds or something and the carnival ride started up and I just said "god dammit" and had to end it dealing a burst of damage since you can't just stop it, it has to go full swing. Also only in critical mode is kind of bullshit. Add it to every mode in the game and it'll be less of an issue.
5: Nitpick/Sora is an idiot - Look I don't mean the whole "he's so stupid now he just is always happy or has dumb dialogue" I mean the idiot tried to touch fire and instead of water magic which he now has and I spammed on the fire balls he walked up to a freaking inferno of flames and just tried to see if it was hot by touching it with his bare hands. Shit Sora you dumb fuck Goofy had a better idea than the mage and the main character and he's not always the brightest. Fuck you.
6: There is too much stuff in this game - Way too many mechanics and most of them are on forever. You have so much you can do such as the shotlock, Flowmotion, Carnival rides, Extra forms, Summoning the fat cat dream pokemon, so many mini games,  just so much shit and I'm sure I forgot something. Now look I can let go of the whole "cat" thing because it is a summon and those are normal but in general it just feels like the entire game was overloaded with everything from every other game EXCEPT for cards and if we don't have cards for character upgrades or something it feels like a waste. (that's a joke) The point is that there is too much stuff and it's all filler and fluff and we can just have a nice game without 10,000 things to learn in the first section of the game.
7: Nitpick/ I think the selfies are just dumb - I've taken a total of maybe 5 selfies. All of which are to show a single person in that specific moment. Selfies don't really do much in the world we play in for KH3 and I just think it is in general a dumb game mechanic. However it is not required to do so it's not a big deal to have in. Just another nitpick.
8: Food and cooking - Look, this is not monster hunter. This is not another game where food is an important detail and sure I don't mind the addition of it if you really wanna put it in but it does make the game easier when used. In that direction fine making a game easier isn't a bad thing, however, constantly telling me now is a good time to find ingredients for little chef is annoying every time. I could figure it out if I really wanted it but in general since it is an optional mechanic to which I can just buy the parts for it and even the food at a kupo shop than what is the point in adding in the game play mechanics for it? The mini games are dumb and take too long to do for such a small mini game. Crack and egg get soup. Nothing else but crack an egg. So than the game is too short for a mechanic I'm supposed to do often? Why not add in a larger game so that I can help him create the object one time to see if he likes it and then when he adds it on I can order the object from him. Don't add it into the kupo store if I you want me to make it and don't make me make it be so tedious if you want me to make it. Also why is sora cooking at all? It's Remys passion not mine. He's even shown to run a packed restaurant all on his own at the end of the game in the credits scene.
9: More customization please - Here's a major issue I have with the game. There is less customization compared to other games. This is strange as in general it seems to be the same. The problem is this. I have to use flowmotion in the game. It is not an option because in certain levels it is a legitimate requirement to use for moving elsas castle. It is required in a couple other places as well but the point still stands. I need to have them equipped in order to make progress. The fact that in KH2 I could turn off big moves from team members but cannot now takes the agency away from me from making my fighting style more what I want to do. This means in order for me to really enjoy the game I have to really accept mechanics I was not a fan of in DDD. Maybe having an option for character customization such as turning off forms, and what special attacks you wanna do would be nice instead of giving everything under the sun. Do I want to be a fast mobile fighter? Than make that a character level abiliy choice instead of just making me have it from the start and also making it mandatory for levels. Allow me to remove the big moves with my team and stop making them always on since I never liked them. Sure I can ignore them but it comes down to the same thing as the attractions. Sometimes you cannot avoid hitting the wrong thing. This also goes into the whole magic sucking ass in this game. Every spell is offensive and thus it just feels like it is the same. Wanna do a little small thing with some damage? Wanna do massive damage comparatively? It just feels like they wanted to simplify the whole having a summon, having a spell, having 2 items on or something along those lines. This stops you from having more options on your character and just stream lines you in to a generic build. I didn't use ice once past the first time finding out its pretty much a fire ball. I used cure, fire, water, thunder. Thunder for crowds, fire for damage, water for crowds also because I just stopped caring and cura cause I heal all my damage cause DONALD NEVER HEALS YOU. WE'RE 4000 GAMES IN MAKE DONALD HEAL BETTER. This again comes back to the limits. Let me turn them off since I do not like them. If they worked as magic they would be better cause the magic sucks ass in the game. I mostly after a while stopped doing any real care in magic and just used healing. This also comes back to the original abilities in second form that you can unlock via smacking them with your keyblade. They would be nice since the magic in the game again sucks ass so having something to use magic bar that is not cure would be a nice touch.
10: For a guy who lost his powers I sure have a ton of abilities right away - Remember when in the beginning of each game you lost all your powers and had to slowly unlock everything and it would come to you not just willy nilly? Man those were the days. Could earn powers for reasons. I'm not helpless in the game if I can run up mountains or sky scrapers. If I can glide with the shotlock from one spot to another. I'm too strong if anything at the start and it just makes you feel like the game is padding time before the small amount of story at the end that matters. This could have literally been with the final chapter prologue and it would have worked fine. But no, we didn't get that. That leads into us just spending time until something happens. The story has its own issues (which I will touch up on near the end) and it has some really bad pacing issues. There is bad pacing, and then there is bad writing because of bad pacing. Why not put some shit in the middle. Show I'm getting better instead of just having me just do everything all at once.  That's not really an issue if they space parts of it in or let me play as the other characters while sora is fucking off for power. Imagine if they added in more parts with Riku while Sora quests for strength. Imagine us going through the land of darkness instead of just Disney world after Disney world. Imagine what we could have had had it not just been all the Disney stuff then the finale all at once. It wasn't bad pacing for the end to pick up, it was bad pacing for there to be nothing in the middle. This is where the final fantasy characters could have been nice. Adding in the end of the Cloud and Sephiroth stuff so we can fight for more power there. Having us talk with Leon and the gang while they battle with some heartless just in the area and needing help. This would have made better pacing since it would have cut the monotony of the Disney grind. There are times when you just sit there waiting for stuff to happen as you run through world after world waiting for plot in general to just move forward. This does not mean it is bad pacing, this just means there is nothing important going on and leads to the story just falling short of being gripping and engaging. I again bring up the final fantasy characters because let's face it, if they did exist it would give something in general more time to flesh out. There is nothing to do but repeated disney movies that either play out like normal or that you play no real part in since it is after the story in the whole movie. Sure it was great to see what happened with boo and the monsters but Randall just is there and I'm sure he was gone at the end of the first movie. In fact after using my Disney plus account (#notsponsored) to just hit the end of the movie it shows him in a trailer getting beat with a shovel. He probably got back but still.
11: The combat is too "floaty" - I'm in the sky like fucking constantly man. Like all the time. Which is a bad thing since the fucking god damned level creation is now just a tall hallway. See I say tallway (patent pending) beause the level of the game is still pretty small but now it just also goes up a long way. I know this because there are so many flashing walls that there should be seizure warnings in the beginning of the game. It doesn't stop either since in general you have to climb high and doing so brings you ledges and if you have to hit people flying then you are gonna fall. Sure we can use magic but magic runs out and is complete ass. Now look this isn't just me saying it can happen since it does right in the hercules area. The first area where they could have been testing thing and probably did which means someone dealt with this shit and said it was fine enough to pass. That's just bad game mechanics right there. If you want me to be floaty in combat that do not put ledges I can fall down in your game. I do not want to climb all the way back to the top just to get into more fights I might fall down because of. Maybe make the parts I'm on bigger platforms. It just seems they want us to use the attractions because you can't fall off the safe attractions. Another thing is that it isn't just combat that is "floaty" but your movement is also a little too fast. Making larger areas and then making us speed up into a sprint is fine but having me stop right next to a save spot inches too short of touching it only for me to Vroom Vroom right over it because of how fast and far I move is god damned infuriating. It also continues combat wise as an issue in that once you get the ability to knock people up you start going into air combat and smacking them away and you can do that so much since in general the areas you fight in are so large that you can knock a single heartless out of the spawning area enough that you have to run back to fight it.
12: Proud mode is a fucking joke - I think I died a total of one time in proud mode which is probably more than others. See the difficulty has been said to be really easy on this games play through and I'm inclined to believe them. Here is the thing. I know critical mode now exists. I just don't like it. See critical mode was doable in 2 since it was just again harder stuff but in this it is no longer you playing KH3. It is you playing Dark Souls which if I wanted to play that kind of game I'd pop in my copy of bloodborne or turn on my copy of dakr souls 2 which in general I'm not a huge fan of so I stopped playing those games. Difficulty in a game is fine but there is going from hard to fuck why am I playing dark souls? No I'm not the kind of guy who says anything hard is dark souls because I grew up in the era of gaming where games had one difficulty and you had to learn to "get gud" or deal with never winning. Even if I was never good at games I didn't shy away from things being difficult. There is however an exception that the game changes so drastically that there is no happy medium between pants shittingly hard or baby mode. The other thing is that in general DLC should not dictate if a game is good on its own. DLC is meant to enhance the fucking experience and should not make me want to have to buy something (this was free) to get a god damned happy experience out of something that cost me top dollar to begin with. If I need your DLC to have fun or enjoy the story than you clearly missed the damned mark. DLC is extra boss battles. It is final mix of the game when it comes out. It turns your vanilla play through into more than what it once was. It adds aesthetics to the game not makes the game difficult and if it does it doesn't make the game different to such a degree that I'd rather fucking play a game that was created to be that difficult because their combat system is hand crafted for said difficulty. Secondly on that list of being too easy who the fuck thought kupo coins was a good idea. I literally just stopped giving a shit since I could use my now always full magic bar since magic is ass to heal when I needed it and to just run away with my big fucking area during battles and not take damage until I could go in and do slappies for a while before running away and gauging if I need to heal and then if I died come back to life. With all the power moves and free attractions each combat I could have beaten proud mode without gimping myself by trying to not use attractions. The forms didn't help with that either because I would just second form and have a brand new powerful thing to do since it was right there. Not only that but rage form is a full heal and why am I heartless sora again? Either way rage form into run away fast because I run like I'm form kenya with all the movement abilities and then with kupo coin and magic makes the difficulty in here easier than "just don't use it". Mostly because it is implemented in the game and they want you to use it. Telling someone not to use the thing is again stupid because if they didn't want me to use it they would remove the feature. This is no longer a kids game. I'm over 10 years older than I once was and I'm a big boy and want to not be treated like a child. Sure they could be putting it in for kids but why not just have it in easy mode since kids will either do easy mode or know they want that extra challenge.
13: Many of the fights and heartless are just not that good compared to earlier games - So firstly the giant horde of heartless was cool one time. Each time you fight it it gets more and more boring and feels like a cop out on trying to make a good battle and a "oh man this is such a cool idea lets use it alot more than we need to". For a game that was in development for 6 years you think they would have more varied enemies and fights and by that I mean more better heartless. Also some of the heartless are just kinda eh in general. Not only that but the places we visit feel like the heartless are kinda thrown in there and they just made way less enemies than normal. Maybe that is me forgetting if other games did the same thing but I can remember many places having more unique enemies that made more sense. Like why is the monkey heartless here? This is not the time to return to monke or some shit like that and it makes 0 sense when I have to fight it in more than one area. How about the lady heartless with the umbrella. Doesn't fit in every single place it shows up and just feels like it is there. Sometimes they do a nice job putting in certain heartless such as the reindeer which I thought was a nice touch but i don't remember them interacting at all with the reindeer from frozen. I also in general remember each heartless having a newer form such as the fat heartless eventually turned into fire breathers and then eventually into shield dudes. They do not make a reappearance but the fat ones show up all over the place and it would be nice to fight things that are great for the area. Some just also have eh designs and the game just feels poorly made because of it. Some bosses are just boring as well. In fact off the top of my head I can't really remember one I like but I sure as shit can remember the one I hated most which happens to be the airship section where you board a machine gun heartless to fight that sky bird thing in the pirates section. I even found the robots in general tedious because they were hard to beat without the use of the robot suits and felt like another tacked on gimmick to use to make combat more easy. Had they been a single section and not everywhere in the store it would have been cooler but instead we had many fights to do with robots who almost always wrecked my shit. In fact it ruined combat a little for me in general and made the section of toy story a little less good. See most of these issues I have with the places are the grand scale of things and having to go back and forth with them with having really unmemorable heartless for the most part and just not finding the game to be that great with some of the more important parts. Enemies help to flesh the game out to be cooler and as much as I love the generic heartless the worlds make the heartless cooler by making them change to be better suited for the world they are in. Having extra enemies like nobodies and unversed without having much of a reason to have them there other than "you remember this right?" seems like a waste of design chances. Some just either were frustrating tank sponges and the others were just not good. The other issue is some bosses appeared numerous times and just didn't feel impressive when fighting them since they just keep coming back. The giant heartless who I saw in hercules mode coming back on the bridge where you first meet Baymax makes the scene not great since it is a simple color swap at most and it is the same thing again. A lot of the bosses in general just feel ok at best too design wise. I can look back at many of the designs and just name really enjoyable ones who are better than the ones we got here. Honestly the designs are just so much of a let down I don't even wanna revisit the stages which is good because the game just isnt that much fun. One of the more unfun parts of enemies is also the shield stuff they have sometimes which is just more ways to give them extra health. Why not just in general just give them more health since it is just a way to beef them up? Not only are they now mostly damage sponges but the fact that some turn into shielded damage sponges just makes me less happy to fight things. The worst version of unfun boss happens to be the lich at the end when you need to rescue everyone from it. The thing is that it not only takes forever and makes you have to fight it numerous times but it also has the ability to make you unlock from it and in such large areas that becomes tedious to deal with lengthening the entire fight from the already long fight it is.
14: Quick speed round of things I don't like that are just not as good as earlier games - Magic sucks in this game. It's all relatively the same since it is all offensive. Aero was in general the same as thunder since it is aoe with a secondary effect. Water, Fire, Ice are all the same as they shoot a ball of the element that homing devices onto an enemy and when not in general locked on fucks off wherever. I miss the older spells and how they worked and felt more unique in 2 while also having more than just offense. Maybe introduce more spells to the next main entry based on the spells of every other game? I'm just not a fan of some of these worlds as they are all new. I haven't had a chance to catch most of the new movies (even thought I have disney plus which is great you should totally buy it #stillnotsponsored) I just don't like some of the places and the mini games in the don't help. Slight inconvenience but making me have to press x as I load new levels is kinda dumb. Maximus should be a party member. Give me him instead of eugene. Why do I need the flowmotion to progress? Hooray WATER LEVELS MY FAVORITE. Crabs. Watch me beat davy jones in a 4 on 1 battle.Darkubes are dumb. Jesus christ Jiminy shut up I'm trying to grind in the best place for the end game. Oh look it's an organization member maybe I can figh....nah they gone now. THERE ARE SO MANY CUTSCENES.
15: 2 final things before the story issues - Playing as other characters, keyblade forms. One of the biggest gripes I had in this was each time I used a new keyblade i wanted to fight with it and not transform into a new form because I do not like the new forms. They do nothing for me and since they kind of all are ok at best that it just kinda feels meh to me to use them. I pretty much used the kingdom key because second form was fine and stayed a keyblade. If anything I would rather have a new style of fighting like second form in general like the original forms are in KH2. I like valor and wisdom form and as cool of a call back as it was for the 2 first keyblades to be given to you I don't like the final ability to be used which makes me less inclined to find a weapon I do like. Which leads into my second final gripe. I was really excited to play as multiple keyblade wielders. Playing as mickey in 2 was super fucking cool and I miss that. Playing as Aqua and Riku in this made me hope for eventual fights at the end where it was each person fought someone else and you would get an ability to play through a final area for extra boss fights as any character for extra gameplay. I was excited to see what Axel and Kairi could do since in general they finally had moments to shine. You could make them fight and even if they did win just have them lose via cutscene and bring back Roxas and have Xion turn to your side. So many issues I have with that because it goes into another issue of.......
16: Everyone but Sora is fucking worthless - I have seen Dragonball GT and the main main main main main issue I have with that show is no one matters except Goku. See in other series characters could fight and kill or do something against the not main villain and be worth a damn but when GT happened everyone kinda just. Became worthless. No one could win a fight except Goku especially near the end when they had him fight 7 dragons. Sora does the same here when he has to be involved the final boss rush in the game. I'd have liked to see other characters stand out but even then he is the only one who can fight Xehanort when Mickey failed to do anything. It was all sora. Even waking Aqua was all sora. The only time someone did something was when Aqua fought Vanitas and still got her shit kicked in at the end during the cinematic and at that point he just didn't wanna fight 3 people. This is a shame because as I already said it would have been cooler to have those characters fight people and it matter. Let's break down the people who would be on our side Riku Kairi Axel Roxas Terra Ven Aqua Xion Sora Mickey Thats a total of 10 different people to play as. That would have made the final boss fights unique and super cool. You say that would have taken so much time and I say "Cool" but it would have been cooler to fight as these different characters. If they put in 2 extra just do them all. It is the most let down of let downs in gameplay mechanics. Who could they have fought in the game? Let's look at the villains Xigbar Marluxia Terranort Young Xehanort Xemnas Ansem Larxene Luxord Older Xehanort Evil Clone Riku Vanitas Saix Xion There are 12 total people to fight that are not the original Xehanort and each one could be fought with someone totally different. If Xion fights twice but wasn't really trying the first time she can be fine for the second battle. Let's give everyone a person to fight. Let's get the easy ones out of the way. Remember the ones who we fight first don't matter as much because each person not Older Xehanort do not matter even if they are him in other forms. Terra as the lingering will is gonna fight Terranort and get his body back. Riku can fight Ansem who tries to use his darkness and their past against him. Kairi can fight Xion who is noticed to not even be trying and then kairi can be captured to still do the ending they planned for. Xion who now defects can join and fight Larxene Axel can fight Xemnas and lose leaving him almost die while Roxas can jump out and fight him instead Ventus can finally defeat Vanitas Aqua can fight and defeat Xigbar who she has some history with Sora can fight and defeat Luxord so he can give him the card he was going to give. This fight can be more simple than the others and Sora can have to fight against the other Riku Mickey can fight Marluxia Before losing his fight with Xemnas Axel can fight and beat Saix We get to the final battle and while Sora who ran off to find Kairi he has to get through Younger Xehanort to get to the older one.
Look at that clean battle line up. Throw them in the correct order and you can have fights with so many people and even do the stuff needed for it to make the story go smoothly. Everyone gets to be unique and have their day in the sun. The final fight would be sora and gang fighting Xehanort and since the end game would be choose who fights who you can literally have over 120 different fights total if you leave out Donald and Goofy from the sora versions of fights. Heck allow us to fight the final boss final main form and we can in general have even more as we fight him with each character.
17: What is the difference between a heart and a soul? - This is a simple question because they keep saying we don't need the bodies cause we still have their hearts and I'm just having troubles figuring out if the story writers know the damn difference between a heart which is a physical thing or a concept of the soul which is the metaphysical thing. You know like what makes you you.
18: Why doesn't Axel have 2 keyblades? - Like I like that he holds it the way he does, it's very him very unique and all that but if Roxas can have 2 and he gets one from Xion who is no longer a part of him because she is right there than why can't Axel who is specifically a dual wielder of weapons get 2 of them? I mean give the main a sword that is like a Chinese Dao sword combo. It literally is a blade that turns into 2 blades. Like don't even tell me that shit is unable to happen cause Ventus fucking gets that strange keyblade because it is unique to his style so if that is how it works and they all have based on their personality he should have two. Especially since it would be a great call back to my favorite Axel line in the entire series. "Two!?"
19: Clone Riku should not be a boss - Remember when we beat the shit out of Riku as Sora and then Riku clone and then Riku beat Riku clones ass? He's not a challenge. "He was given more darkness powers" Nice, cool cop out there. Fuck you.
20: Why kill everyone just to set up a story line when you could just do it better - So this one is a little subjective. Need sora to meet Chirithy or whatever its name is and maybe set up remind dlc or whatever but in the end you could have just broke his spirit from his body and put him in the other world by making Xehanort who tried taking him over show him everyone dying and it causing Sora to blank out and travel there as a spirit or some shit. It could have worked just as fine allowing the rest of everyone else to go fight the enemies at the end giving sora time to eventually wake up and join in while Donald and Goofy protect him. Then when he wakes up Luxord who could have said "I'll handle the boy when he wakes up could have just did what he wanted to do with the card then. It's just a dumb moment and we could have instead of dumb gameplay where we have to put ourselves back together and have to save everyone and re watch a stupid ass cutscene just watched a cutscene and went back while everyone handled what they needed to.
So before I get into the final 4 parts to get into I hope that you know I was trying to be really fair with a bunch of these and not just looking for things to gripe about. When I didn't understand things I made myself look up to make sure I understood and didn't just bitch about it for the sake of bitching. These last 4 things are kind of in general I beleive super fair.
1: The battles stop as you talk with each person - Nothing kills a fight sequence like starting it, defeating a single enemy in it, talking with a full blown conversation to them, then as they die restart with another fight scene to do it with every single person in the fight. WHY WOULD MARLUXIA AND LARXENE ALLOW LUXORD TO GIVE HIM A CARD? Why would they stop fighting? Why would Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort watch as one of the others fell and talked? Why would any sane fucking person do that? It makes 0 sense and ruins that boss rush.
2: I know you need to set up another game but fuck you - You literally made the happiest of endings where everything is the best for everyone ever and I MEAN EVERYONE except for Sora and Kairi. Fucking fuck you man. I'm not even mad that that was the ending but when everyone comes up fucking peaches and cream I tend to question the product even if they need to set up story. They can do it better, do what you did at the end of 2 and send a message in a bottle and say "there are still other worlds out there that need us, just not in this universe" or some shit like that. Shit if in general they can have emotions in games than have sora have to jump into the game. You already said my microwave can feel love so than if he can be in that rex universe than he can just go in after he has a nice break with all of his friends.
3: No - Xehanort was not a good guy the entire time. He literally murdered people and stole a childs body and ripped the emotions out of another child and made them not whole. He got a child so angry he murdered his new sorta dad. He pretty much was the whole reason anything bad happened and he was "misguided and wanted to good but did bad to do so". Then in the end he's forgiven and everything is fucking fine? Then he turns into a good guy and goes into the big heart in the sky. This is the kind of writing that literally kills off stories for at least me. Not everyone needs a second chance and sometimes people are just evil. We need stories that have people die at the end sometimes. I know it is fantasy and it can be all rainbows and butterflies but dear god Steven Universe was literally "no you" and that was the end of the entire fucking series. This is the same thing. It might not be "no you" but fuck this ending. This was a story that was supposed to end a 17 year long story and the end of this single part literally spits in the face of people who played it by saying "hey guys, he wasn't bad, he is sorry now". That is complete and utter horse shit. I don't mind that this is not the end of the series. I don't care because if I stuck around this long I would do the same if the story had a satisfying ending. Fuck man in the new game he's even evil then unless that is just how Kairi remembers him but let's face it. The gang would have told her what happened and this is just horse shit in general. This is a fucking stupid story and I literally am fine with alternate realities since time travel and other dumb stuff has been the main name of the game the entire fucking time but let's face it. This is one of the worst ideas for an ending for a villain. The buold up is fucking massive and the payout is just sad.
4: NO - Fucking xigbar. I don't even know how to put this into words how much of a let down it is for Xigbar, Fucking XIGBAR to be the next main enemy. (or at least it looks that way). Fucking we could have had Luxord. We could have had Marluxia. We could have had Demyx. We could have had fucking I don't know Vexen. We could have had fucking anyone but we get Xigbar. You could have slapped any other character onto his scenes and gotten the same amount of out of nowhere shit to explain him being next but it is fucking xigbar. Fucking unreal.
So yeah. That's my massive wrap up on KH3 and I personally do not know where I stand from here. Maybe if the next game doesn't play like shit in 400 years when Nomura gets off his ass and lets us have kingdom hearts 3.76 tie in to 4 which is oddly enough a main title and not a second part of 3 I'll see how it plays. Until then I think I'm gonna sit hereand never touch 3 again and never finish Melody of Memory.
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norcani · 3 years
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I watched a bunch of losers best games of 2020 videos and decided I can do that too
except I don’t play recent releases so only a few of these are 2020 releases and out of those all of them are vns.....I did play these in 2020 though..I think... 
10. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Miotsukushi-hen
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I also read  Yoigoshi and Tokihogushi but they fucking sucked! The rest of the console arcs I had played beforehand. What to say about this? It’s been a real mixed bag and by this I mean its been a pile of shit but in the middle of a shit there is this puzzle piece that you needed for a puzzle you completed the rest of 10 years ago and you grab the shit covered piece and go “holy shit! look at this! I’ve been looking for this all along!” but of course it’s still covered in shit and you’re not even sure it’s quite the right piece, it’s not made by the original puzzle maker but with some cleaning wiggling it fits into the puzzle perfectly and you can finally rest assured that the stupid puzzle you thought would never work out is completed. (And then the puzzle maker is like, hey here are a bunch of new pieces and drops gou on you but irrelevant) . Anyway this got translated this year so I say it counts as a 2020 game. 
9. Witcher 3
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wow i played this game this year apparently! Or at least, steam tells me so. Honestly I never had any intention of playing this game because people are annoying about it but I somehow ended up playing it anyway....and it was...fine? I liked it, especially the blood and wine dlc. I like geralt as a protag a lot. And I somehow spend 100 hours on this thing. So you know, I liked it. People are still annoying about it though. The best part of finishing it is that I can now call it overrated with the confidence of someone who played and even enjoyed it! 
8. oneshot I got this one from the bundle of racial justice though it was on my radar for quite a while. In this one, you are god, and there is a cute cat child that talks to you directly, which rules. 
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fuck yeah!!!!!  (there is also a huge light bulb in this, for the moths in the audience)
7. the ghost of you
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This is a text based vn with minimal visuals. A uh.. lesbian horror survival romance story? Is that too many genres. I was utterly obsessed with this for a short while. The gore and body horror stuff in this were top notch but towards the end it got a bit too over the top campy and silly for me, though still enjoyable I mainly wasn’t expecting it to go that route. I also thought ironically the romance was by far the weakest part. The villains were super fun though I still think about them...
6. iwaihime 
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i really thought i would end up disliking it until about halfway through but afterwards it was really good except when it was kinda fucked up to the point of I made a cw list for the vn. This is like a shameless mishmash of half of ryukishis previous works and the worst part is it *works* and i love it. I ended up being suprisingly attached to the cast even though they seemed super generic at first glance. Also at some point someone puts the actual yugioh shisha sosei(monster reborn) card in someones coffin so yeah you know..... this one was actually released in 2020 too so goty 
5. Cyberpunk2077 Dry Drowning
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another one from the bundle. This is a cyberpunk noir detective mystery / sorta political drama? One of the rare games I replayed immediately after finishing, Great setting, solid plot and cases, great art, kinda generic characters but they grew on me. My fave was a cool trans lesbian character but the circumstances surrounding her were a bit *vague hand gestures* . Definitely a shame not more people know about this one! 
4. Vampire the Masquerade: Shadows of New York
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first of all incredible art and music! 2nd of all.... its just a really well written vtm story with a goth girl in a toxic lesbian relationship of course I love it. This vn also justifies coteries of new yorks existence which is a great accomplishment since that vn itself just felt like a introductory course to vtm. Also another 2020 release! No one can criticize my list now. 
3. Fire Emblem 3 houses
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I’m still playing this one but I put 60 hours in already so I think I can include this here. This is the main thing I’m playing the past few weeks and  as with all my favorite games I could complain about it for ages , However its really fun and compelling in a way I can’t quite articulate and also Rhea and Sothis I love you both
2. Assassins Creed Vallhalla Expeditions: Viking
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this fucking ruled!!! Solid 40 hours or so of solid story and characters that ends exactly when it should. really unique protag a lot of different ways to “win” would. Also one of the few rpgs where the evil choices make just as much sense as the good ones. Would have replayed immediately if my switch hadnt arrived just when i finished my first run. I wish the cast had more lines but at the end of the day Roskva is adorable as is.  10/10 would tell my enemies to not fucking talk to me again.  1. Demon’s Souls Dark Souls 2 
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(I coudln’t find any decent screenshots I took for this so enjoy this meme. Trust me my character was really cute. )
 I’ve been playing this for 2 fucking years and i was somehow still sad that it was over....I played for around 140 hours and approximately died every 6 minutes. If you do the math you might notice I’m not very good at this game. I also don’t know what the fuck the story is even about. But hitting things is fun, and I beat fume knight twice which was great. Too bad I will never play the other games since steam never puts them on FUCKING sale. 
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wooyoungqueen · 3 years
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Man this took forever for me to finish but I did it here we go. @rosegaming117
Ateez reacting to you playing Yugioh duel links.
Hongjoong
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* he saw you in your phone 24/7 while your in his studio.
* he will take a glace when u say a cuss word. "You okay love" "yeah I'm fine.
* but knowing him he will go to your side and said "I don't know this game but if you try to change cards. Then you win".
*when u follow his advice you reach QOG making him giggle and giving you kisses
Seonghwa
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*this boy, wants to cuddle and tell you about his day.
*but when he saw you in your phone he put his poetry book down and went over to your side and saw your game.
* at first he was confused since it was his first time playing the game. But he realized that it was fun
*When he reach Queen of Games for you, he told you that if you could make an account for him which you nodded. "Can u make me an account." "Sure".
Yunho
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*this boy loves video games, he plays them day and night.
*when you told him that you played Yugioh duel links. He was confused at first but he looked at your phone.
* when he hears the water running he will get your phone and start playing in your account.
* the mintue you saw him playing and reaching QOG for you. He looked at you and said "You don't need a card game to be queen because your a queen to me."
Mingi
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* he looked at you playing, and saw that you kept on climbing down the ladder.
*when your asleep, he unlock your phone and started to play. When he saw your deck he fix it and tried again
*You were finding your phone after your long stress relief nap. Then you saw him in deep thought until you saw him winning.
*you hugged him when you saw him reaching Queen of Games for you. All you could do is to hug him tightly.
Yeosang
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* this boy just wanted to take a nap with you. But you were too busy playing until he took your phone and looked at the game saying. "What is this?"
* when you were cooking chicken he decied to pick up your phone and played at first he will make you lose rank but later on he started to get it
"Ooh okay, now I get the point of it."
*when Yeosang saw you stressing out he just shook his head and said. "Just pick another deck that I build." When you heard him say that your face went 😲 then you did change decks making you to reach QOG then said
"Okay let's take that nap."
San
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*he's not new to video games, so he had no problem with you playing yugioh duel links. When he saw you beating him he just smiled.
*when you saw his name after the duel you just stood quite making you to smiled but surprised that he knew about this game. "I didn't know you play this game." "Jazz hands"
* when you lost going rank down you just pouted and threw your phone then he went to pick it and played your account.
*after a while of hours of griding you finally reached QOG making you to hugged him tightly. "Thank you!" "No problem love, now let's eat then we play more." You just giggled and walk to the kitchen with him.
Wooyoung
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* this kid, now he loves video games he plays them day and night. But when he saw you up at midnight he looked. "You play yugioh?"
* "fuck this" he turn around with a shock in his face and said. "I think you need a brake." You looked at him and sigh then said "yeah maybe" he saw you disappearing in your shared room. He pick up your phone. "Okay, let's do this."
*after your long nap which you woke up at 9:00pm you were looking for your phone then you heard sounds coming from the living room hearing wooyoung saying. "Man this is so fun, good thing I have a duel links account." "You have a duel links account?" He's face turned red surprise that you were there hearing him.
* Both of you guys stood up all night trying that you reach QOG, after taking brakes and griding you finally reach it. Making wooyoung to spin you around and give you a kiss in your forhead.
Jongho
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* he perfer you braking apples with him not being in your phone 24/7. Then he looks into your phone screen.
"What's the point of you playing the game."
*when he heard you cussing out, he knew it was the game. Making him to take your phone away then he would try it himself.
*"so that's how u play" when he saw you staring at him he said. "This is actually fun you know, you don't mind." "No go ahead." He just smiled at you and went back playing.
*Both of you guys took turns he would help you build new decks. For you to change up a bit, when you try neos fusion deck you fell in love with it and made you reach QOG. Which you just hugged him and he giving you loving kisses.
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