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Tales of Vesperia! And a DVD meme?
Okay, despite my initial burst of hatred for its battle system, I have given up on Secret Missions come here today to express my love for Tales of Vesperia. I think, so far (I've only just gotten Ba'ul), that it is my favorite game in the Tales of series.
1. Tales of has a shady history with romances, for me. I really liked Lloyd/Colette, for instance, even though I also like Lloyd/Sheena, but TOS was quality because they let me choose who I really wanted Lloyd to be with. I really hated Luke/Tear; I'm ambivalent but positive towards Stahn/Rutee, and ambivalent but negative toward Reid/Farah.
Early on in TOV I worried that I was being set up for blunt force Yuri/Estelle. There were all the signs. Two dissimilar characters who have something to teach each other; they hook up alone early on and everyone else joins their journey; people were suggesting that Estelle was Yuri's wife and girlfriend, etc. But the heavy-handed insinuations of their coupledom faded almost immediately, to be replaced by a genuinely interesting relationship with no overt romance...
...and a sibling myth. The game has blatantly set up Estelle to be the Child of the Full Moon, which suggests that Yuri would represent Brave Vesperia -- her brother.
If I'm not misreading the signs, and having been told there is no blatant raburabu, I'm frankly surprised anyone would suggest that this pairing is canon. (Unless they mean canon incest.) But I love this idea. I'm really excited to see it played out.
2. I really like Yuri. He's very original as far as video game protagonists go. The typical JRPG has one of two kinds of protagonists: the good-natured, warm-hearted, idealistic imbecile -- or the self-centered, conflicted, but still idealistic anti-hero. Yuri isn't either of those guys. He's a competent, rational adult, calm and collected and a little bit of a friendly jerk; he likes teasing people. He's smart, too -- all too often in video games the obvious is paraded in front of your character's face, and you have to wait hours in the game before they figure out what you already knew. Yuri has not only taken those same clues that helped me figure things out and figured them out himself, but he's sometimes taken subtler clues and figured them out before I did.
But I just liked him until he went all vigilante on me. Ragou is an evil man who killed and tortured lots of innocent people while on the Empire's payroll, but because of his power, after he was arrested he was able to wiggle out of most of the charges and go free. Unlike hisboyfriend best friend, Flynn, Yuri determines that if the law fails, he'll take matters into his own hands. He kills Ragou and dumps his body in the river.
He's not proud of it. He doesn't even like it. It kind of makes him feel sick. But it's justice, and someone needed to do it.
Later on, Cumore does the same thing. Tortures and kills innocents while claiming to be under the authority of the Empire. Now, I fucking hate Cumore, so Elizabeth and I were saying "KILL THIS BITCH" at the screen the whole time.
...and then Yuri went out and he did it. He hunted Cumore down in the night and killed him. (That never happens in video games.) And the man was so pitiful, so desperate and terrified, that Elizabeth and I almost felt bad for having wanted him dead.And Flynn caught him at it and ohhh, boys, how are you ever going to get married if this angst continues.
But Yuri didn't turn a hair. He just dealt with it and did what he thought was right -- even though that meant cold-blooded murder. And he felt bad, but he did it anyway.
And that's when I decided that I fucking. Love. Yuri.
3. And speaking of yuri lololol, if Rita were a boy she and Estelle would be married already. People would be stunned you could ever call an alternative pairing "canon". I like other pairings, don't get me wrong (I think Flynn/Estelle is cute, although Flynn is totally in love with Yuri, and I think Yuri/Rita is kinda cute) but they're just so shippy together.
I've seen people argue, "They're not gay! You just don't know what girl BFFs are like!" Well, as a girl, I feel comfortable saying that if another girl ever followed me around the world with extremely flimsy justification, fretted about how I feel about her despite being tough and bossy and uninterested in other people's opinions of her, got outraged instead of my hypothetical love interest (these people always also argued that Yuri/Estelle is canon) when my life was threatened, and then gaze lingeringly at me and say "Kay..." in a soft trailing way for no reason, I would wonder if she wants to make out with me. I'd do it, too. That'd be really touching.
Also, I can't help thinking Estelle is kinda gay. There's that battle-end chat she has with Judith where Estelle is like, "Wow, they're so bouncy" and Judith goes "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" and I go "ESTELLE, her eyes are up THERE". (She's the cutest lesbian ever, though.) (Also, I can't stop being in love with her cute Glasses accessory. I have her wear them all the time.)
Finally, I really like everyone, even characters I thought for sure I wouldn't care less about (like Karol and Repede) and the plot's kept me interested.
Fic: The New Girl In Town, DGM, Lenalee/Kanda & Emilia/Kanda suggested. No one has yet commented on my title, which I admit is inspired by the Hairspray song! Man. Um, Emilia drives Lenalee crazy.
1. Tales of has a shady history with romances, for me. I really liked Lloyd/Colette, for instance, even though I also like Lloyd/Sheena, but TOS was quality because they let me choose who I really wanted Lloyd to be with. I really hated Luke/Tear; I'm ambivalent but positive towards Stahn/Rutee, and ambivalent but negative toward Reid/Farah.
Early on in TOV I worried that I was being set up for blunt force Yuri/Estelle. There were all the signs. Two dissimilar characters who have something to teach each other; they hook up alone early on and everyone else joins their journey; people were suggesting that Estelle was Yuri's wife and girlfriend, etc. But the heavy-handed insinuations of their coupledom faded almost immediately, to be replaced by a genuinely interesting relationship with no overt romance...
...and a sibling myth. The game has blatantly set up Estelle to be the Child of the Full Moon, which suggests that Yuri would represent Brave Vesperia -- her brother.
If I'm not misreading the signs, and having been told there is no blatant raburabu, I'm frankly surprised anyone would suggest that this pairing is canon. (Unless they mean canon incest.) But I love this idea. I'm really excited to see it played out.
2. I really like Yuri. He's very original as far as video game protagonists go. The typical JRPG has one of two kinds of protagonists: the good-natured, warm-hearted, idealistic imbecile -- or the self-centered, conflicted, but still idealistic anti-hero. Yuri isn't either of those guys. He's a competent, rational adult, calm and collected and a little bit of a friendly jerk; he likes teasing people. He's smart, too -- all too often in video games the obvious is paraded in front of your character's face, and you have to wait hours in the game before they figure out what you already knew. Yuri has not only taken those same clues that helped me figure things out and figured them out himself, but he's sometimes taken subtler clues and figured them out before I did.
But I just liked him until he went all vigilante on me. Ragou is an evil man who killed and tortured lots of innocent people while on the Empire's payroll, but because of his power, after he was arrested he was able to wiggle out of most of the charges and go free. Unlike his
He's not proud of it. He doesn't even like it. It kind of makes him feel sick. But it's justice, and someone needed to do it.
Later on, Cumore does the same thing. Tortures and kills innocents while claiming to be under the authority of the Empire. Now, I fucking hate Cumore, so Elizabeth and I were saying "KILL THIS BITCH" at the screen the whole time.
...and then Yuri went out and he did it. He hunted Cumore down in the night and killed him. (That never happens in video games.) And the man was so pitiful, so desperate and terrified, that Elizabeth and I almost felt bad for having wanted him dead.
But Yuri didn't turn a hair. He just dealt with it and did what he thought was right -- even though that meant cold-blooded murder. And he felt bad, but he did it anyway.
And that's when I decided that I fucking. Love. Yuri.
3. And speaking of yuri lololol, if Rita were a boy she and Estelle would be married already. People would be stunned you could ever call an alternative pairing "canon". I like other pairings, don't get me wrong (I think Flynn/Estelle is cute, although Flynn is totally in love with Yuri, and I think Yuri/Rita is kinda cute) but they're just so shippy together.
I've seen people argue, "They're not gay! You just don't know what girl BFFs are like!" Well, as a girl, I feel comfortable saying that if another girl ever followed me around the world with extremely flimsy justification, fretted about how I feel about her despite being tough and bossy and uninterested in other people's opinions of her, got outraged instead of my hypothetical love interest (these people always also argued that Yuri/Estelle is canon) when my life was threatened, and then gaze lingeringly at me and say "Kay..." in a soft trailing way for no reason, I would wonder if she wants to make out with me. I'd do it, too. That'd be really touching.
Also, I can't help thinking Estelle is kinda gay. There's that battle-end chat she has with Judith where Estelle is like, "Wow, they're so bouncy" and Judith goes "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" and I go "ESTELLE, her eyes are up THERE". (She's the cutest lesbian ever, though.) (Also, I can't stop being in love with her cute Glasses accessory. I have her wear them all the time.)
Finally, I really like everyone, even characters I thought for sure I wouldn't care less about (like Karol and Repede) and the plot's kept me interested.
Fic: The New Girl In Town, DGM, Lenalee/Kanda & Emilia/Kanda suggested. No one has yet commented on my title, which I admit is inspired by the Hairspray song! Man. Um, Emilia drives Lenalee crazy.
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So instead of a angsty pretty boy for a main character, Vesperia's got a pretty boy that can lighten up and be funny, you say?
I am sold.
[prays for a 360, but knows she'll never get one].
:(