Don’t worry, I am carrying out your will. We took this world back together, I won’t let them ruin it.
So, if you’ve been following this blog, my main blog or The Legend of Dragoon tag, you may have seen screencaps and essays popping up every now and then. I’ve been working on a project for the last two months and with the exception of two bonus pages (similar characters in other video games + fanfic recommendations), it’s finally finished!
Valkyrie - a Rose shrine.
Rose is my favourite video game character and one of the fictional women I fiercely love, with LoD being one of my favourite JRPGs (even though I want to set its gameplay on fire), so I’m glad I took the opportunity and finally dedicated a shrine to her in response to a challenge (”The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions”) - I’ve dreamt of having a Rose shrine for years.
I’ve channeled all of my love and a lot of myself into this project, and in the absence of dedicated fansites, I wanted to make it show all of the game’s strengths and themes - for the nostalgic fans out there and for the people who have been considering picking it up. Whichever category you belong to, I hope that you can find something worthwhile if you decide to check out the site, just mind the spoiler warnings on the index page if you’re new!
Content overview:
an introduction to The Legend of Dragoon and Rose including an extensive review of the game (as a refresher or as an introduction to the game; two sections are relatively spoiler-free specifically for those interested in checking out LoD)
detailed analytical articles on Rose’s past, her relationships, development and her thematic journey
interpretations regarding Rose’s roles in the game and the messages conveyed through her visual and mechanical design
an extensive media section including recommendation of external fanwork
about 300 high quality screencaps spread across the shrine, taken by myself while replaying the game
Here are some of my favourite pages from the respective navigation category (if you’re new, please don’t click on these before checking out the spoiler warning on the index page):
The Stranger: Group Dynamics (aka here have ~27 screencaps of Rose lurking in the back)
The Survivor: Ruins of Past Glory (because LoD is all about worldbuilding and all these locations are fascinating and I needed an excuse to use all those screencaps)
The Comrade: Shana / Sympathy, Miranda / Similarity
The Woman: Trials and Resolve
The Paragon: (everything tbh, but especially) Mechanical Design, The Protagonist Role, Theme Song, The Female Narrative
I really hope it’s not super creepy or that it comes across the wrong way (and you don’t have to look at the shrine or anything), but I’d like to dedicate this shrine to LoD’s Tumblr fandom, especially the people listed below - because honestly, thanks so much for keeping this old game alive in your memory, you’re amazing. I didn’t get to know and play it until 2011 (not even due to the PSN release or anything, since that’s not available in Europe), so I’m so happy there was still something for me to read and look despite being terribly late to the party. Thanks to everyone who’s been liking/reblogging the last few essays and screencap sets too! I hope to spam town screencaps of the game on this blog sometime.
I’ve linked some of your LoD musings that I particularly enjoyed and/or that have influenced my view of the game on the links page - if you mind, let me know!
@legendofdragoon / @eva-cybele / @gatheringbones / @starnosemole / @claranon / @themoonmaydrawthesea
