#phdfan

11. Do you prefer 1, 2 or 3

Oh gosh. For me, it's between 1 or 3. I love so much about them both but I think it has to be 1 just for the sheer scope of the universe being set before you and the potential inherent in the beginnings. Some of that has to do with my favorite Shepard being hit hard by 2 and spending the beginning.of 3 climbing out of it, but even without that 1 is all about the possibilities.. 

26. No diplomatic solution available, Geth or Quarians?

Ugh ugh ugh.  It surprised the HELL out of me how much I loved the Geth in 2 and 3 but I can't leave Tali to her fate, no matter how questionable the Quarians' decision making is.  Punch an admiral and save the Quarians. And CRY.

53. Non-Shepard OTP's?

Something I forgot to say in the prior post. All of the FF games have common elements. For instance, chocobos (giant chickens(?) you can saddle and ride), crystals, certain reoccurring mythological elements, certain monsters, etc. Also, all of the games have similar or reoccurring weapons/skills/classes/spells.

There is also a specific themes and aesthetic that create the evolving look and feel and message of a final fantasy game.

Oh, and then there are the costumes with belts.

The belts.

Oh, the belts.

you’re literally making my night right now holy shit 

the fic definitely came first. the title i stumbled on when i was reading a favorite book of mine (it’s referenced in the fic, Walden by Thoreau) and when i really dissected the quote i was like.. holy shit. this describes the plot perfectly. thus the title/thesis quote was born :)

i definitely made a rough outline, but true to form i didn’t stick to it. :P it changed a LOT, but at the very least the bare bones of what i wanted to do plot-wise was there. it’s usually how my outlines go. 

my favorite to write. hmm. definitely when the sexual tension breaks between dean and cas - that scene just totally flowed. my other favorite scene is probably in the grocery store, when they’re having to pretend to be in a relationship in front of the neighbors, all the while a lot of pretty significant details about Cas’ time away from Dean comes out and upsets him. there was a lot of layers to that I think (or at least I tried to make it that way) and it was fun to do a lot of underhanded stuff in that scene, so to speak.

I’m confused about why you would have three needles for the magic circle method…. It’s done using one long circular needle??

Do you think he's still Michael in this shirt?

From spoilers that I’ve seen, it seems that Dean’s managed to recover control of his body at this point! But totally don’t take my word for it, because I haven’t been able to keep up with spoilers very well this summer.

As someone who doesn't have access to the episode yet... what excuse are they using???

they’ve found a lead on michael and said cas can’t go bc his ‘angelic nature will tip off michael’

SOLIDARITY

that is how all my sentences look like

although I do find it interesting to see yours looking like that because I associate you with a much more broken-up style. Like, your style gets stuck in my head.

ha

fun fact, all my sentences are either 80 works long with 15 commas or they are three words, and in both cases they are probably paragraphs all on their own. There is frequently no in-between.

It also depends a lot on POV character, like. Aveline is very abrupt, Theia is less so, obviously. Sebastian and Adelaide mostly only wax endlessly about each other but not anything else and Erana and Blackwall are both surprisingly poetic. I haven’t quite figured out Solas yet, it’s why in all the WIPs I’m mostly writing about him from Erana or Blackwall’s POV. (And while I figured out Maia Ryder, I cannot get a handle on ANYONE else in ME:A so.) Someday I may actually finish a fic again? But maybe not a BioWare fic? IDK. 

I still want to write a Spirit Monk/Sagacious Zu fic for you, but it seems unlikely.

(I also occasionally stare at the Scarecrow and Mrs King epilogue notes I’ve written and am caught between intense 30yo shipping feels and a *handwave* of despair ‘cause who the fuck besides me wants to read that?)

anyways

#writing is the weirdest hobby?

@phdfan replied to your post: “so I’ve been tagged a couple times in that “last sentence of your WIP,...”

I kind of love that sentence as is!

thank you! I do enjoy my excessive paragraph sentences immensely, even if they are usually less atrocious on the final pass :D

@cmdrfenris replied to your post: “you knowI always feel like crap after I get a flu shot it’s never...”

I get ill for several weeks after taking the flu shot, with flu like symptoms. One of the draw-backs of autoimmune disease. Have the have the vaccination that makes me ill to stop me from getting even more ill.

ugh. so ugh. (Though that is obviously part of why I get mine, because I can. *hugs*)

@servantofclio replied to your post: “you knowI always feel like crap after I get a flu shot it’s never...”

Mine was okay at first but then ached a few days afterward. Sigh. I'm sorry you're feeling crappy! <3

Why thank you. <3 (IT was mostly shark-week this time, so I am feeling much better now.)

@teaandinanity replied to your post: “So I’m thinking of writing a Malec Persuasion AU for NaNo this year...”

I am not in this fandom but YES ALL THE PERSUASION AUS!!!

PERSUASION MAKES EVERY BETTER 

I have a really dumb question that I'm going to use this post as an excuse to ask! Are all the FF games set in ultimately the same universe, or are they largely separate worlds?

This is a good question given how massive the Final Fantasy universe of games are -- the first game came out in 1987(!!) and the series has created *many* spin offs that aren’t branded under the Final Fantasy brand name.

Each of the “numbered games”, currently Final Fantasy 1 through Final Fantasy 15, are self-contained and exist in their own universes. The worlds in the numbered games have their own unique world maps and some of those worlds are named. FFVII takes place on Gaia, FFX on Spira, FFXII in Ivalice.  

Some of these universes have been revisited in follow-on games or in other games within SquareEnix’s catalogue. 

In some cases, those follow-on games take place close in time and explore the same characters. Some examples:

Final Fantasy X-2 takes place a couple of years after Final Fantasy X ends and includes some of your main party from FFX. 

The Compilation of FFVII is a collection of media (games, movies, novellas, short stories) that take place relatively close in time and feature the same ensemble cast, although each piece of media in Compilation emphasizes different main characters/POVs.

(There are other examples for other numbered FF games, but this post will get too long.)

In other cases, SquareSoft/SquareEnix has repeatedly visited the same world at different time periods although the connections (and maps) can be a bit of a headscratcher **cough** IVALICE:

Initially two very different times periods in Ivalice were explored in Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) and Vagrant Story (2000) on the PlayStation1.

Some of the dev team for prior Ivalice games were assigned to Final Fantasy XII (2006, PS2) which was later re-released with extra bells and whistles in Japan as FFXII:InternationalZodiacJobSystem and, more recently, remastered and re-released worldwide as FFXII:ZodiacAge.

The characters in FFXII plus additional new characters took part in a follow on story, FFXII:RevenantWings (2007, NDS)

And a collection of different spin-off tactics games in Ivalice were released in the late 00s under the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance brand and the Crystal Defenders brands.

AND THEN, to add confusion or alternate universe possibility to all of this, there are various cross-over universes in spin-offs, some very popular, that feature various characters from various numbered FF games all together, sometimes with other new characters. The most notable examples:

Kingdom Hearts -- a Final Fantasy x Disney crossover which is a franchise in its own right with a good dozen or so titles. 

Dissidia -- a “toss lots of popular characters from the different numbered FF games into a strange other-world they are magically transported to and FIGHT!” franchise that now has a good handful of games. The story across the dissidia games is much thinner than a typical RPG and generally assumes that the player is already familiar with the characters’ stories from the various numbered FF games.

A variety of different cell phone games that feature new characters and old characters, all mushed together in new worlds.

Phhheww... I think that covers most of the final fantasy franchise without getting into some of the far-outlier spin-offs.

BOTTOM LINE:  The easiest way for a newcomer to enter into the Final Fantasy universe is through one of the NUMBERED GAMES, which are each story-rich JRPGs with unique casts in a unique world. It doesn’t matter where you start. FF8? FF12? FF10? FF15? Old school like its the early-mid 90s with FF4? It’s all good. Barring issues of platform and availability, etc. etc. (most of the numbered FFs have been released over time on multiple platforms), any numbered FF can serve as an entry point, although each story in the numbered FFs is unique and different and will appeal a little bit more or a little bit less depending on your personal tastes. Same goes for how one’s tastes run for retro-looking games from the 90s vs games from the 00s and 20teens -- your taste in graphics, in voiced vs unvoiced games, and in game play mechanics. 

As a fair warning, some people today feel that PS1 games (games from the mid-late 90s), on average, have a higher level of difficulty than today’s games. They certainly are more fiddly and games guides (or online message boards) were considered a necessity back when I played them on my PS1 when they were first released -- and I still have my large collection of PS1 games [far beyond the final fantasy series]. 

After playing one of the numbered final fantasy games, a newcomer can, in some cases, explore the universe for that game through various spin-offs **OR** go play another numbered final fantasy game. The x-over universe games (various cell phone games, dissidia, etc.) are more fun/relevant after you’ve played a few numbered games (with or without their spin-offs/add-ons). I can’t speak for Kingdom Hearts but presumably one can jump into that without playing a numbered final fantasy game?  It is possible to play Vagrant Story or the original Final Fantasy Tactics (both are in FFXII’s Ivalice) without playing FFXII first, purely because they came out before FFXII and have very strong stand-alone stories.

.

I can suggest a few good entry points based on tastes and platform availability.