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would you still love me again?
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The way Mass Effect imported your save files across the trilogy was so interesting. It created this one cohesive narrative across multiple games, that really made it feel like a personal journey. But it clearly came with a lot of limitations, too.
By Mass Effect 3, most of the characters Could Possibly be dead, so they either couldn't be important (Jack, Thane, Samara), or they had to have a similar backup character who could step in as a failsafe (Mordin, Wrex, Kaidan and Ashley).
You can feel the writing team's stress over all this. Kaidan and Ashley essentially merge into a single character depending on who survives Mass Effect 1, becoming interchangeable. Mordin's got this whole thing about how it "had to be him", but as it turns out, it literally didn't, because Padok Wiks can fill his role just fine. The story is generally the most satisfying if as few people die as possible, which creates this urge to get your perfect run. But then it still leaves several characters with a smaller role than they would have had if they couldn't have been dead.
The standout here is Wrex. Because his death gets to matter. If he dies, his brother Wreav takes his place, but this is an instance where it does make a difference. If Wrex survives, he becomes the leader of his people by ME2, and he sets the krogan on a path towards peace and success. But Wreav doesn't care about any of that. Wreav is a warmonger. He will start a war he can't win, and get his entire people killed.
If Wrex dies in Mass Effect 1, it immediately tolls the death knell for the entire krogan race.
If you’re ever curious, Many a True Nerd did a run to see how far he could push this by letting everyone who could die in the game die: https://youtu.be/IwyDkGVdyyw?si=AqmiGa-UOtXseonH
Probably the most interesting part was who remained standing for the Citadel DLC party:
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To be fair, nerds recommending shit to each other using formulas like "it's like if [game/genre/influence A] fucked [game/genre/influence B]" isn't new. Twenty years ago someone plugged Empire of the Petal Throne to me by describing it as "[like] R E Howard fucked J R R Tolkien in a truck stop restroom" (and I'm pretty sure that's verbatim!), so really, all we need to bring it in line with modern standards is to somehow imply that both Howard and Tolkien are girls in this scenario.
@tsunderace replied:
Considering the fate franchise and similar things I think its only a matter of time until there's a popular rendition of JRR Tolkien as a girl
Back-dooring a sexy anime girl Lord of the Rings character into the Fate franchise even though Tolkien's work is still under copyright by dint of the fact that it's technically not that character, but the actual, historical J R R Tolkien dressed up like the character in question.
Question is, which one do you go for?
Alternative route is what they did with Van Gogh, where it’s not actually Van Gogh per se but Van Gogh fused with the water nymph Clytie from Greek mythology that happened to have a connection with sunflowers and madness (which also lets them get connected to Lovecraftian horrors for whatever reason).
So what hot anime girl from myth can have a loose connection with Tolkien and his stories?
whammy5 reblogged
rewatched she-ra after like 4 years.....damn it was so good. here's some art of my fav (yaaaas my girl catra) and crossover art I couldn't resist making.
More random Epic the Musical crossover animatic ideas that I do not have the ability to do!
The Locked Tomb x Underworld
Harrowhark taking on the role of Odysseus being haunted by the Ninth House children that were sacrificed for her to be born a necromancer. Only covers the “Why did you let the Cyclops live” part though.
Gideon might fit the Polites section. She definitely isn’t a cuddly “greet world with open arms” person but is the closest to that role for Harrowhark.
No idea on the Odysseus mom part, though.
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Happy New Yuri! It's time to look back on 2024 !
Unfortunately, 2024 wasn't as amazing a year for textual yuri as 2023 (2025 is looking good, though!), but we are drowning in subtext as usual (and a few textual confirmations of ONE half of the couple's feelings).
I kind of had a hard time picking the 11 because this one was so subtext focused, but I did my best (for the ones I haven't watched, I went with what I'd seen talked about in yuri circles the most, which was tagged with LGBTQ themes the most on anilist, etc). Sorry, Laid Back Camp, NareNare, Train to the End to the World, and others.
And to pre-empt: I didn't include Gushing Over Magical Girls because it makes me deeply uncomfortable, and it's my poll. If you want to fully vote on it you can make your own poll--but you're free to vote in the "something else" option.
Added a second vote for me. Of what I had seen this year was split between that and Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night. Ultimately decided to give some attention to one of my favorite messier picks. Love a good messy romantic/romantic coded series.
Delicious in Dungeon was my third, but feel like if I'm voting a sapphic anime wanted a bit more out of it than what DiD was doing at this point in time. Marcille and Falin are great, but need more meat on the sapphic bones to get a vote lol. Whisper Me a Love song was...it wasn't bad, but the production issues kind of made me forget about it. I legitimately missed that the final episodes came out. SHY needs more sapphic. That girl Shy rescued just isn't in the show enough =P. I also still need to finish Love Live! season...
Rest I haven't seen.
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And I've been waiting...
Waiting...
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"we must do what it takes to survive."
Scylla inspired by the song from the thunder saga! Epic the musical my beloved how I love you
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Buying you time
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Was briefly thinking of like an Epic The Musical au animatic of Micah returning to Brightmoon with the song “I Can’t Help But Wonder”. That thought was stopped by the fact that while Glimmer can work as Telemachus, there were two glaring problem:
- The Athena equivalent would be Shadow Weaver, who sure as hell isn’t gonna be all wondering what the world could be with more empathy as a result of her and Odysseus flipping on Ruthlessness vs Kindness.
- He’d be returning to no Penelope aka Angella, unless you set it really early on I guess.
Random updates:
- Eh, it’s a AU, we can let Angella be alive.
- And if we really twist things Light Hope had a kind of Athena-like arc.
- No matter what, Swiftwind as Hermes.
Was briefly thinking of like an Epic The Musical au animatic of Micah returning to Brightmoon with the song “I Can’t Help But Wonder”. That thought was stopped by the fact that while Glimmer can work as Telemachus, there were two glaring problem:
- The Athena equivalent would be Shadow Weaver, who sure as hell isn’t gonna be all wondering what the world could be with more empathy as a result of her and Odysseus flipping on Ruthlessness vs Kindness.
- He’d be returning to no Penelope aka Angella, unless you set it really early on I guess.
whammy5 reblogged
In honor of the Ithaca Saga and Epic the Musical in general🫡🫡
Ody and Penelope have my heart🖤🖤
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Nothing says Christmas like a song about a guy stealth archer build murdering his way through about 100 or so men.
Merry Ithica Saga Release Day!
The pause from Odysseus after Athena is all “You know, maybe we could use some more empathy in this world after all” is probably the most unintentional funny moment of the entire musical simply because my first thought was Odysseus just thinking “Oh now you want to greet the world with open arms, miss warrior of the mind.”
Nothing says Christmas like a song about a guy stealth archer build murdering his way through about 100 or so men.
Merry Ithica Saga Release Day!
wooloos wish
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JENTRY IS SO COOLLLL 🔥 thank you animators + editors for the best tv intro of the year 🩷🫶
Finished The Sun and the Star all in one sitting
While I’d like to comment on my enjoyment of the relationship between Will and Nico and more gods learning to be better people (shoutout to Nyx’s children standing up to her), I am still reeling from the psychic damage of Mythomagic apparently being a game from Nico’s childhood in the 1930s/40s.
Like seriously, I’m not familiar with the history of tabletop games but were tabletop figurine games like that a thing back then? I figured it was something he picked up in the Lotus Hotel or once he left. Must be a good game to gave survived till modern day.
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The sun and the star review
With Tower of Nero finished I have now completed the Trials of Apollo subseries. Overall don't think I have that much more to add compared to my previous post, but just to summarize:
- I've really enjoyed Apollo/Lester as the point of view protagonist and his character arc. I would have to see how this might cause things in future stories to go, though, to see how it sticks. Is Apollo more accommodating or helpful, within what gods are allowed to do? Is there any spreading effects of Apollo perhaps intervening on their behalf when other gods get testy? Stuff of that nature. A god with experience as a mortal helping to maybe change some of the messed up family dynamics with the lessons he learned is a fascinating thing I'd want more insight on.
- Love Meg, another top character for me. Gremlin child who eventually gets the chance to stand up to abuser and help her own siblings get out and hopefully get the chance to move forward.
- As also mentioned in that other post, admittedly still kind of raw about Jason's death, but as I've read a lot of books/watch a lot of shows/etc. I've gotten to understand this sort of I guess nuanced thing of "This is a story decision that I hate, but the fact I hate it kind of also why it works?" Like, the fact I was attached enough to Jason to feel upset at his death - and I don't think it an absolutely horrible out of nowhere thing either - and so mad it happen is evidence of the effectiveness of the writing. Or maybe I'm just rationalizing it lol. At the end of the day even stories I like can make decisions I'm not a fan of but willing to accept it. Same deal with Rayna joining the Hunters, though that's also cause I probably have a hot take style view of them.
But yeah, overall, really loved the series. I checked out the Will & Nico spinoff book, and then after guess I'll take a break cause not able to go grab more books from the libraries. Some point also gotta go into the Egyptian and Norse series as well. Maybe also start tracking down some more geared toward adult books...
Feels really nice to get back into reading like I did as a kid.
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Re: Reyna joining the Hunters and why I think it’s actually really depressing
So for a variety of reasons I’m not a huge fan of Reyna’s arc ending with her joining the Hunters of Artemis. Part of that is rrverse characters should be allowed to be single without joining the eternal celibacy club, but that’s not a problem exclusive to Reyna. I also think handling asexuality in the context of celibacy by choice is… messy by default, especially if it’s your one confirmed ace character.
Beyond that, though, there’s a bunch of context surrounding Reyna’s life and personality that just make that choice seem really sad to me?
I’ll split this into three thematic subsections and put the second and third one under the cut because this got pretty long
Reyna and her sense of duty:
I highly suspect Reyna’s fatal flaw is her sense of duty. This is never explicitly confirmed (because no one except Percy and Annabeth has confirmed fatal flaws), but duty is the theme her entire character revolves around. Basically from birth she’s raised to believe the fate of New Rome lies on her shoulders. A lot of her actions in the books explicitly link back to her sense of duty.
She runs herself ragged trying to find Jason and trying to manage a job made for two people on her own before Son of Neptune.
A lot of her conflict stems from the fact that what is necessary to protect her home (leaving her post and following Jason) inherently clashes with the rules of that home.
Reyna also actively chides others (like Lavinia in ToA) for leaving their posts and not sharing that same sense of duty.
Because of this, like Jason, Reyna is never really able to be a kid.
Joining the Hunters sort of does a good thing in that it allows Reyna to gain some distance specifically from New Rome, which her fate and also a lot of her trauma regarding her upbringing revolves around.
But it doesn’t allow her to be a kid any more than being a praetor at Camp Jupiter did. Potentially less so, actually, seeing as the Hunters are basically always on the move doing something important while at Camp Jupiter you probably have regular days off and a city to visit and relax in always right around the corner.
Reyna lays down one duty and immediately commits herself to the next one. She doesn’t grow and learn that she doesn’t have to carry the fate of the world on her shoulders. She just trades one burden for another.