Sharing (most of) this big lovely comment because YES--! People get bristly on the subject of Doing The Inconvenient Thing That Makes Your Life Experience More Full, but expressing love for something in an unsanctioned and personal way still hits like nothing else. The incalculable lifetime fulfillment of god damn hobbies!!!!

Neutral sidebar: I remember someone talking about how we'd even save packaging or disposable promo materials because branded stuff was so rare. Which makes us sound like orphans. But also it's a great reminder that packaging can be given sentimental meaning itself!

i've been thinking about this a lot because i did grow up watching how fans across the pond were getting cute plastic keychains of their art and easy access to official merch like plushies and figures and oh how i Longed to be like that. But now I feel so... nothing about it. I back a kickstarter for an indie game and all the updates for months are about merch, keychains and standees and plushies I don't want because I haven't played the game yet??? since it's not out??? and the devil whispers but what if you do play it and fall in love and now that merch is forever unattainable? like no! im not buying plastic on the mere chance i might get attached to the character printed on it??

And with artist alley creators you see people scrambling as soon as trailers or leaks are out to produce something of a new character, in order to be the first one there before it gets oversaturated by everyone else joining in and then... the character sucks? nobody really likes them? Time and again gacha game fans will run pages to generate hype over leaked future characters they basically have 2 jpegs and a post-it note of info about only to just not care about them once the character actually debuts. Which only fuels this constant barrage of Things for characters that barely exist that we just convince ourselves to hype up, into making a part of our identity, that we buy merch of to prove we were the OG and then a few months go by and nobody cares anymore because a new thing's gotten everyone's attention.

Fandom already moves really fast compared to when I was getting into it for the first time but it boggles me that we're at a point where we don't even need to feel any real attachment through story or actually experiencing the thing to make and have merch of it. I see mutuals talk about their struggle to get over the impulse to buy all the merch they find as soon as they get into a fandom and it's crazy! There's no rest! No simmering in any kind of experience. Just physical goods.

honestly I kind of want it to EoS just because I'm suffering at the hands of favorite character flanderization but at this point I'm not sure how likely it is. Many older games are seeing player loss, feel outdated, and japanese companies are starting to dip from their mobile game investments as chinese mobile games are basically dominating the industry (and for good reason). But at the same time because FEH is relatively low budget with simple 2D sprites and minimal voice acting then if there are enough whales at the moment it could always be worth it for nintendo to keep them going.

There's also possible outside forces like stricter rules or even banning of gacha mechanics in some places since many countries have tried recently to introduce more crackdowns on this stuff to protect kids from gambling addictions or whatever.

So really who knows! It feels like either it goes on to 10 years or it ends in a year and it would really just have to depend on a lot of different factors happening.

Explanation and reiteration, my dear Nashu! The other blue bird of despair site has been humbugging upon Dawntrail. Comparing it to Stormblood under, from what I gather to be, negative implications. Which lead me to hijack this whiplash response to the yet to be released new expansion. And see how everyone feels about each chunk of the story. Firstly, there was A Realm Reborn. Which...the general consensus is, its enjoyable and important its basically the foundation laid upon the ground to build Heavensward, Stormblood, and much more upon. Without it, we would be nothing but with it we are everything.

Then I asked about Heavensward which seems, overwhelming positive but not without a few addendums hither and tither.

But now, we reach Stormblood. An expansion that chose to split its focus between the freeing of both Ala Mhigo AND Doma from the Garlean Empire. Introducing the home lands of the Au Ra who had been around since Heavensward at that point in the form of the underwater city of Sui-no-Sato for the Raen and the Azim Steppe for the Xaela Tribes. As well as pulling the rug up from under us with the change of Yda suddenly to Lyse.

Stormblood! The expansion which spent its Post-MSQ bouncing between both and then seeking out brand new areas on each country. Some beneath the Ala Mhigan Castle in the form of Skalla. Others far, far, far out into the Burn west of Yanxia. Still further, we explored Ivalice, Dalmasca, and other provinces similarly seeking freedom from Garlean rule at the time. Both suddenly taking a sharp left with "The Call" as friends drop comatose before our eyes and we set the stage for Shadowbringers.

It introduced Zenos, under water diving, and a variety of elements and stylings to the MSQ. But what did you think of it? Either at the time before any aether current changes, QoL shifts, or the dungeons being able to be run with trusts or as it is today?

yall reblog this with the most disappointing game u have ever played

like the one that was either a sequel or overhyped and then turned out to be trash?? mine was bioshock infinite

God

Source: THE iDOLM@STER Million Live! Theater Days

Character: Fuka Toyokawa

Song: Hanazakari Weekend✿ (花ざかりWeekend✿)

Video Source: @stailight_02 on Twitter (Deactivated)

FE fans’ discussions of racism and discriminatory depictions in its casts are always a swing-and-a-miss.

You have people on Twitter saying that the Ravens are an anti-Semitic stereotype that’s on the same level of discriminatory as Danved/Devdan-the actual borderline minstrel show caricature-all because… Raven enemies have coins in their inventory in FE9 and Nealuchi has a more prominent nose. And yes, that’s all. And I’d agree if Kilvas was depicted differently (instead of as a country taken advantage of by oppressive beorc), and the Ravens in general had anti-Semitic design elements instead of one old man having a big nose. But as it is? Don’t get me wrong, the Tellius games’ allegories to racism ebb and flow from serviceable to batshit and gross, and it undercuts itself sometimes because of how it depicts other characters not meant to be the focus. No denying there. But it’s not “Scary black man has scary black face and is called ugly by slave trader and don’t talk good” level.

And I just find it funny that the Ravens are seen as FE’s main anti-Semitic punching bag on Twitter Discourse Land rn, meanwhile, people still short circuit whenever you so much as dare bring up how Edelgard’s treatment of the Nabateans and how her Adrestian Empire in general have some disgusting real life undertones.

Again, swing-and-a-miss.

this stuff drives me nuts for real!!!! 

same thread i think that said goldoa is south asian and intsys is racist for making the characters orange, but ignoring the colors (paler characters like boyd and greil are also a gross unrealistic yellow tone so its not just the “poc” who have it) how do you see goldoa as south asian! ena’s outfit looks more east maybe southeast asian than south asian, nasir’s name is Arabic, goldoa looks more desert-y than jungles, and there’s just no south asian influence on anyone else’s dress. the only thing that feels remotely south asian is Kurthnaga and Rajaions names having some sanskrit words in them. 

then theres the same people who say rinkah is a racist depiction because she’s based on Ainu or even Ryukyuan culture when she is based on ONI FOLKLORE which is JAPANESE. if you looked at anything ainu At All you wouldn’t find anything remotely similar to what intsys gave rinkah.

All of these examples it feels like people aren’t very good at identifying IRL cultures or single out only examples that suit their argument rather than looking at the whole thing. then they just come off as ignorant bigots instead while they act like they fight for accurate representation and it drives me so insane. 

fire emblem as a series has problems when it comes to race but i feel like the community is not ready to talk about them at all because they want to make up more problems than there are

Not quite, he's specifically doing the Awa Odori, which is danced as part of Obon (the festival celebrating the ancestors descending to visit the living) but is not the same as the Bon Odori. While still very culturally significant, the dance itself is meant to feel more light-hearted. In today's Japan the Awa Odori festival "motto" is in the lyrics "dancers are fools, viewers are fools, if we're all fools then why not dance?"

You could argue that they could have given Xander a more typical bon dance but they went for a dance like awa instead, and while I love this alt, I do think they go the silly route for Xander alts in general.

Anyways I feel kind of bad because I feel like every time I post about FEH it’s just me complaining, but honestly this game has gotten so stale. Nine out of the twelve months feature the same themes and at this point all the art is feeling really same-y as well. There’s only so many times you can do playboy bunny alts or wedding dresses or santa suits before it starts feeling stale.

And the power creep has gotten so bad it’s just like… what’s even the point of trying to pull or build a unit when they’re going to be outdated in two to three months anyways? It doesn’t feel good to build a unit because they’re immediately outclassed by the next shiny new unit that gets released a month or two down the road. We’re actually getting more and more OP Edelgards every six months at this point (is there any reason to use her Legendary over her Fallen now?)

So at this point I’m just like… really only here to build my faves. And even then, there’s only so many times I can get excited about building another lance infantry unit.

It's weird that they decide to use the same themes every year instead of leaving some room for new ideas. They're clearly running out of fallen ideas at this point. Do we really need child units to be a Thing? I think having banners to look forward is nice but there should at least be some surprises throughout the year.

Personally the powercreep is also on characters I really can't care about. As much as I like Dimitri I'm playing FEH to potentially see summer Dimi crushing watermelons with his bare hands and instead he gets same old timeskip lance alt. I never cared for the goddess/mystical background characters much either so it's weird that they make these ones the powercreep units you're expected to shell out for so you can maybe get more orbs just in case your obscure (or fatesawakening) fave miraculously gets an alt down the line.

I'm not even sure if Intsys is understanding their audience at this point. 3H is a game where you can make a character almost any class but the 3H alts in this game are unimaginative as all hell. The fanservice is somehow even worse (as in, bad quality) than 3H's. Who asked for stupid elf Felix? Sure it was memey but you couldve made him a sexy vampire or ninja and raked in so much money.

Oh god please save us Japan

Seriously though I didn’t realize Japanese fans were annoyed by this. When the interim results came out people on Reddit mentioned seeing mostly positive reactions from both fanbases (though admittedly I can’t check for myself to confirm)

Japan isn’t really that pissed about gatekeeper, a lot of them think it’s just funny or wonder what the hell intsys will do if he wins (like will he get an actual name?). The most popular post against gatekeeper on the JP FEH tweet is actually written by a foreigner who has good japanese skills and the likes on it are mostly foreigners too. Since, yknow, everyone has access to the translate tweet button. 

I’d say there was more negative reaction to Brave Ike resplendent in Japan than there was gatekeeper. But it was mostly along the lines of “I like him but other charas deserved this more” indicating that people would probably still shell out money for it. 

Hussein Bazaza f/w 2017-2018 rtw

Like ships passing in the night, we were going in different directions on different winds, yet there was a moment in which we sailed together.

China

Miracle Night (M@STER VERSION)

Sung By: Haruka Amami (天海春香) [CV: Eriko Nakamura (中村繪里子)], Makoto Kikuchi (菊地真) [CV: Hiromi Hirata (平田宏美)], Ami Futami (双海亜美) [CV:Asami Shimoda (下田麻美)], Mami Futami (双海真美) [CV:Asami Shimoda (下田麻美)], & Iori Minase (水瀬伊織) [CV: Rie Kugimiya (釘宮理恵)] Album: THE IDOLM@STER PLATINUM MASTER 01 Miracle Night

Angel Ruiz de la Casa (Spanish, 1938–)

Like ships passing in the night, we were going in different directions on different winds, yet there was a moment in which we sailed together.