LOST and Tales of the Abyss

[sincere]

+ LOST almost made up for the horrible of yesterday. I make only oblique commentary, so as not to spoil anyone else still watching.

Charlie is a goddamn hero. I can't even tell you how many points he gained as a character for the season 2 finale. So he was a goddamn hero, but I was reminded of it so powerfully last night. You finally did it, buddy -- you're a hero.

Also, Jacob's shack is a stalker. ♥

P.S.: Dear LOST creators, it isn't a two-hour premiere if the first hour is "LOST: The Recap Episode" and only the second hour has new content.


+ Apparently, in the Tales of the Abyss fandom, if you think there's a possibility that the Luke of the ending might in any way be Asch-related, you are a slavering fangirl. I like to think of myself as more of an intellectual fangirl -- you know, one who can take hints. It's not like I'm finding messages in the clouds behind his head and doing mathematical proofs to justify it, I'm sort of just using material that the entire game from opening song to closing movie to the entire Jade sidequest shoved at me.

At least, this is the impression I get from bitter fanboys on message boards and wikis.

There are things I want to say about Peony, the Fabre family, and why this game pushes my buttons. I might do more of that instead of working today, in an act of spite.

This fandom needs to stop making icons. I only have like 130 icon spaces, you guys.


+ Today is Another Side day. Must write more, Roxas needs to get out of Twilight Town already.

Comments

[melting.livejournal.com]

WHAT ABOUT PEONY I HAVE TO KNOW

[schwann.livejournal.com]

IAWTC

D:

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

My extremely dorky observation about Peony! (http://kay-willow.livejournal.com/235033.html?thread=1201689#t1201689)

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Everything about him is awesome. ...But you already know that.

Specifically, I had an amusing train of thought -- the game tells us that Luke and Dist are uncomfortable around Peony because Peony is this extremely confident, extremely self-assured person who doubts nothing ever. So insecure people shy away from him, because he is uh a human whirlwind that they're afraid to be caught up in, but people like Jade and Guy are drawn to him.

And so it occurred to me that this manner in which Peony canonically affects other people makes him an interesting sounding board to evaluate characters. I'm writing the script for an original video game, and so I turned to my partner in crime and said, "Given this about Peony, what would our characters think of him?" And we were able to analyze them based on the way they'd hypothetically react to Peony. XD

Which only furthers his total awesome as a character. :D

Other things about Peony = I have written 2.5 drabbles with him, and Jade's relationship with him prompted me to write an essay about my shipping preferences. XD

Is that enough knowing about Peony??

[fyretoppaaa.livejournal.com]

... AHAHAHAHA. That is made of awesome. O Peony. XDDD I'd never thought of it that way before, but I might have to start. ♥ I still need to replay TotA after I get through FFXII. :3

Waitwait, what's this about an essay on shipping preferences? |D

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

♥ It's fun to ponder. It's such an intricate and rare sort of character detail, but apparently typical enough of him that Jade can easily quantify it, and Guy recognizes it even though he's relatively new to Peony's acquaintance.

I would be elaborating on that in great detail, if it weren't for the fact that it doesn't seem to be an email draft like, uh, everything else I've half-written in the last year. It must be at home.

LONG STORY SHORT: Jade is a perfectly independent, extremely intelligent, ridiculously powerful individual -- who voluntarily chooses to serve and obey someone else for wholly unselfish reasons, e.g. "He's a good leader" or "He's a better person than me" and not "He can do something for me" or "Following him will get me to my own goals".

And I think that's really hot. XD

[fyretoppaaa.livejournal.com]

Apparently, in the Tales of the Abyss fandom, if you think there's a possibility that the Luke of the ending might in any way be Asch-related, you are a slavering fangirl.

... WTF? I don't understand how you can not at least have some leanings towards wondering if there isn't some Asch in that Luke (or vice versa, but anyways), just on a purely intellectual level. Like you said, the ENTIRE GAME kind of hints at you. :|||

There are things I want to say about Peony, the Fabre family, and why this game pushes my buttons.

You should ttly do that. :DD *bad influence ftw* /o/

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I think I shall. :3 I have my Fabre family ramble with me, if apparently not the button-pushing-ramble. *sad*

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

P.S.: I don't understand it either. It's so obvious that there is some combination Luke/Asch thing going on there, so WTF FANBOYS, stop calling me crazy. I'm not seeing Asch's face in my potatoes, I'm just seeing what the canon is implying. XD For god's sake, Jade asked Luke if he felt anything come into him when Asch died and Luke said yes and Jade went "HMMM."

I'm sure he was only hmmm'ing because he realized he left the stove on at home.

[fyretoppaaa.livejournal.com]

I looked around in the actual TotA official merchandise/material/guides, and there is in fact a NAME for the phenomenon that combines a replica and an original (to put it simply), called the Big Bang. Okay. NOW LET'S RUN THROUGH THAT 'if you think Luke is in some way Asch, you're a slavering fangirl' THING AGAIN. *glares at the masses*

ROFL. I don't precisely remember the 'hmm', but there was definitely that question. HONESTLY WTF I don't think it was just Asch's 'power', either. >:|;; And at the very end? ASCH DEFINITELY TWITCHED OKAY. /spoiler spoiler spoiler sorry

[schwann.livejournal.com]

A-and this is why I tend to avoid fandom discussions with people that aren't my friends. I tend to have some crazy ideas, and most people would be like "WHAT." Still, I'm usually praised for my ability to remain remarkably in-character when roleplaying, so it's not as if I'm making things up. I think way too deeply on things, sometimes.

Except, you know, 90% of my discussions on fandom are crack-filled. Oops?

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I love thinking too deeply about things. D: That's what I do. *clings at ♥* Analyzing is so much fun, although fandom hates it these days. X3 If you analyze you're a slavering fangirl to the fanboys or you're a killjoy to the crack-filled portion of the fandom.

BUT NOW I'M HERE FOR ALL YOUR ANALYZING NEEDS. :D WE CAN ANALYZE TOGETHER IN PEACE.

I'm always complimented on my RP, but ahaha my attention span is too short for joining LJ RPs. XD

[schwann.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. It's what I do late at night, just listening to my iPod and thinking about anything and everything. One thought leads to another, and before I know it I've come up with theory or basically nailed down a character's personality in my head. I would totally write on some of the things that I come up with, but, um. I'm way too nervous about getting things wrong or people taking it the wrong way, that I hold back. Man, I've lost so many awesome trains of thought because I refuse to even write it down.

And as a random note; As much as I love crazy and such, I can't stand CAPSLOCK communities. I'm not sure why.

YES. I basically just flailed a little at what you had to say about Peony, because it's so true. Oh, love, love. ♥

I'm addicted to LJ roleplay. It's so bad. I really need to just sit down and start writing fic to get out all of my character needs. Sync and Natalia and Lloyd from ToS... Hmph.

[iolites.livejournal.com]

I hate it when they do the recap episodes. I watch the show regularly! I know what's going on. PLZ TO BE GETTING TO THE PLOT KTHX.

Charlie is definitely a hero, but Hurley made me so upset yesterday with his speech.

And bah at the fanboys. As much as I hate it, I came to the conclusion that the Luke in the ending is kind of like both of them and neither of them at the same time. The game is constantly questioning the identity of who the real Luke is, and so the Big Bang theory answers it. It makes sense, but I wish Asch had gotten the chance to live on his own. I suppose the Luke at the end would technically be his chance to grow into himself, but I would have rather seen his character grow on his own instead of be fulfilled by something forced onto him by the plot. Asch gets so gypped. :/

I'm curious to see what you have to say about the Fabre family, and what pushes your buttons. XD

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I may have been zoning out slightly -- the speech he made that convinced everyone to go with Locke?

IAWTC 100%. I hate that the game did that to me -- that they showed us so clearly that the world did have room for Luke and Asch, that no one was choosing between them, no one. Papa Fabre said both of my sons and I thought I would cry. Luke found his place in the world and that's great and all, but Asch was lost, too. It's so cruel that Asch was never able to find peace with his life. :\

Also, Jade, you dick, how could you slap Natalia for grieving for him?

Anyway, I'm totally writing about how ending!Luke is both and then neither of them, so. ♥

[iolites.livejournal.com]

Yes. The whole, "He went down to help us contact these people, but something happened that made him change his mind. I'm not going to believe you, I'm going to believe my friend" thing.

I love Asch to bits, and that whole chunk of the plot vexes me. The events that lead up to his death are forced, and could have been totally avoided. Even towards the end, Guy getting ready to set aside his differences towards Asch, and Asch could have had the chance to break free of the shadow Van cast over him and become himself. The game tried to make Luke the more sympathetic character, and glossed over the fact that Asch was endearing, too. I wanted him to live so much.

Gah, that scene makes me seethe. Natalia carried herself so well during most of the game. She struggled through the fact that she wasn't her father's daughter gracefully, rather than some of the frustrating ways that the other girls were allowed to deal with their problems (running around to various Sephiroth and letting oneself die while everyone watches, or spying for an enemy and inevitably killing the Fon Master). It was bad timing for her to break down, but nothing else in the game had crushed her spirit so painfully. I think that's probably the game's way of telling the player to stop worrying about it and go fight Van, which is bad in itself. I hate Jade for that.

Sorry, tangent. XD;

That's awesome! I tried to balance out that Luke in my mind so that I could write him, but I got completely sidetracked by AU ideas.

[vangirl]

...I don't see how having a theory -- which the entire game hints at -- makes you a slavering fangirl.

What sort of arguments do they have against it? I'm genuinely curious about how they can insist that Asch had nothing to do with the ending.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

"It gives three hints saying it's Luke in the ending alone. And if you bother to do the Contamination sidequests and others, there's even more stuff pointing towards Luke. What is there to point towards Asch? Nothing, except that the Big Bang usually has the original survive."


"I will say I think you're dead wrong about the rest, but I'd rather not wast my time on what I honestly think is a lost cause."


"One thing that shoots the whole Asch thing right out of the water is the following:

LUKE IS THE MAIN CHARACTER.

Not Asch, Luke. You play as Luke. You follow Luke's journey, not Asch's.

It's Tear who reacts to Mr. Ending's return, not hmm, Natalia.

Anyone who says it's Asch is overanalysing this whole thing."


"SNAPE KILLS VAN...DEMORT."

[fyretoppaaa.livejournal.com]

I always LOL when somebody pulls the overanalyzing ticket.

HELLO, YOU'RE ALSO ANALYZING THIS VIDEO GAME. Why stop halfway? /snrk

[vangirl]

...But the contamination sidequests point toward Asch and Luke becoming one, and if the Big Bang means that the original survives and a big bang does occur in the ending, how does that even work?

I mean wow, if those are direct quotes they sound really aggressive about it too. o_o Seriously, it sounds like they're the ones being irrational to me. o_o

[(Anonymous)]

ajsfljajfasf

being someone who was arguing on that thread and who may or may not stalk your journal now and then, uh, thank you. seriously.

[slayerofgod.livejournal.com]

You see something other than the same three yaoi pairings over and over and over again(along with some occasional Luke/Tear and Guy/Natalia) in the TotA fandom? I am somewhat jealous.

Also, I don't even like Asch(points to icon), and I see the possibility. It's kinda beyond denial to not see it.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Well, I was specifically looking for discussions about the ending, and was somewhat surprised to find that apparently there's a lot of vitriol out there.

I love me some Jade/Peony, but there's a lot of interesting pairings that no one tries to look at.

[green-and-warty.livejournal.com]

+ I am now and again reminded that I need to watch LOST, if only for Charie and Locke.

+ DON'T GET IT, LA LA LA LA LA.

[hauntedreality.livejournal.com]

I don't watch Lost. I know, I know...I should. Anyway, recap episodes are painful. That was a dirty trick!