I need to renew my writing mojo after days of summer experiment prep and whatnot!

a fremblem of ur choosing

paine is still so new to me, tell me more about her!!!

fuu!

faris

whyellewhy oooh so many... I WILL TALK ABOUT MY BOY TRAVANT

aka the guy who killed the character I played for the last 3 years lmao. but I love him

FAVORE THING: That he isn't just a selfish politico out for personal aggrandizement. He knows the difference between right and wrong! But for reasons, he's come to the conclusion that Wrong is the only way he can save his country

LEAST FAVORITE: his hair color in his sprite isn't so great

Favorite line:

poor altena thinks she's getting some quality father-daughter bonding time and then he just goes and says that :')

brOTP/OTP: hmm as a game's antagonist, I'm not sure! I think I could bro or OTP him with Hannibal, who's a very respected Tharcian general that ALSO wants to make things better for his country, but like, without doing underhanded war cimes

Travant gets paranoid that Hannibal is going to defect and takes his adopted son hostage, which sets off a bit of a TRIALSOME recruitment challenge lmfao. but in actuality Hannibal was probably just going to fucking RESIGN because he was too patriotic to ever turn against Thracia wholesale

...until his king kidnapped the kid Hannibal loves, and then Hannibal said "okay yeah it's time to depose him"

so I think there could be a lot there because they're about the same age, and have experienced the same things, and have the same goal (good life for Thracians) but diverge on a crucial moral level

random headcanon: I think the reason Travant (and other Thracian characters) has long hair is because since malnutrition & associated maladies are common in Thracia, being able to grow long hair is a point of pride

And if you have long hair, it means you're probably a mercenary earning money (and eating better food) elsewhere to send back to Mother Thracia so it's like, a status kind of thing

STRONGLY HELD OPINION: Travant is my favorite villain in FE, and I think he is one of the best written ones too

HE COMPELS ME.

wisdombitch PAINE!!

FAVORITE THING: One thing I love so much about Paine is that she does things on 100% her own terms. She joins the Gullwings, but she holds herself at a distance until she decides to drop it. She doesn't let her old associates reveal her past when they run into each other. She stays with the group because she wants to and enjoys it.

When she starts to truly become friends with Yuna, one thing Paine does a lot is encourage Yuna to say no more often, to feel less obligation, and try to like, guard her against saying "yes" to any rando request before considering if she actually wants to do it

which is why I call her Boundaries Woman so much LOL

LEAST FAVORITE THING: look some of the outfits in FFX-2 really are dumb there's no way around it LMFAO. I FEEL LIKE THEY COULDA LET PAINE WEAR FLATS since Yuna and Rikku are in just, normal ass boots. BUT THAT'S NOT PAINE'S FAULT

okay I'm searching thru my screenshots for my favorite line but I want to share this hilarious one I took bc of the way the camera was at battle end

SERIOUSLY LOOKS LIKE PAINE JUST FRAGGED THEM BOTH

but okay this is my favorite line

for reasons, in FFX-2, Yuna and co have to figure out how to stop the two main factions from bickering so they can deal with the evil motorcycle that might destroy the world

Someone suggests a concert and Paine makes a sarcastic comment about singing campfire songs but

when you have Yuna talk to her after the cutscene, she reveals a moment of real sincerity and past vulnerability

Paine has a lot of good lines but I really love that one where she fully lowers her armor, even if it's just for a moment

broTP: Rikku. Rikku is basically the annoying sibling Paine may have always wanted or once had (everyone in FFX/X-2 is an orphan with assorted other dead family members). She's always giving Paine something to react to

OTP: Paine is in unrequited love with Yuna and is not saying anything bc Yuna is of course in love with the male lead of FFX that she's trying to find & rescue all thru X-2

but

I do believe this about her

"can you have a normal OTP" no

random headcanon: okay so this is not so much of a headcanon exactly, but one thing that's important to me in writing Paine is at the end of the day... she is still 18 years old lmao

She comes off as the cool, pragmatic, world-weary member of the group, yeah

but she's also putting skulls all over her stuff and coming up with pithy one-liners and battle and all that

(which is why I set her network ID as "skullwing" in Etraya because it's like MAXIMUM EMABRRASSING CRINGE in retrospect. but right now she thinks it's great.)

Strongly held opinion: she's fucking cool? LMAO. But for FFX-2 in general... like

It's a very divisive game because FFX is SO big and operatic and tragic, and FFX-2 opens with this peppy pop song and is about missions and nonlinearity and fun adventures

And I get that! But to me, I really like that because hey, Yuna spent most of FFX thinking she was going to die at age 17, and she didn't, and then the thing that was never going to happen (end of 1000 years of whale monster) actually DID, and pulled down the theocracy with it. because of her specifically

So 1. she's allowed to be silly and have fun and 2. I like how X-2 is a game about "now what???" after a society loses the thing that has defined it to its very core for 1,000 years

even if the thing is a bad thing they dreamed of one day ending

SONG I ASSOCIATE:Marina & The Diamonds-Fear and Loathing

I live my life in bitterness
And fill my heart with emptiness
And now I see
I see it for the first time
There is no crime in being kind
Not everyone is out to screw you over

Baby you don't have to live your life in fear
And the sky is clear
Is clear of fear
Of fear
Don't wanna live in fear and loathing
I wanna feel like I am floating

(Paine spent a significant chunk of the past two years 1. being traumatized by Spira things 2. being a fugitive from the theocracy and 3. being traumatized again because someone she thought was a friend shot her and their other buds [he was possessed])

and so a lot of her own journey in X-2 is not only figuring out why all that happened, but realizing she can move on

sonopants FUU HOUOUJI MY BELOVED

FAVORITE THING: That she is the logical one, and the compassionate one. Fiction sometimes pits those two things against each other. For Fuu, they are deeply intertwined and inseprable

She becomes the healer because that is what is most in need at that moment. Her "most precious person" is herself because she's aware that she is loved and to protect her friends & family from sadness she should take care of herself

LEAST FAVORITE: I wish they'd let her keep her bow. HER FUCKOFF HUGE SWORD IS HILARIOUS but her staying an archer would have been so fun and cool

BROTP: the other 2 magic knights
OTP: also them

nOTP: HMM I don't think I have one, unless it's "shipped with Umi but not Hikaru" or "shipped with Hikaru but not Umi." IT'S THREE MUSKETEERS OR NONE AT ALL

Random headcanon: Fuu's dad is a tech guy and she likes to make mixtape cassettes for her friends. Also she eventually did get back into video games, but through puzzle games and other non-sword-PC ones

ALSO ALSO she becomes PM of Japan eventually

STRONGLY HELD OPINION: I've seen this less lately but it bugs the hell out of me when people label Fuu shy and/or wallflower because it literally only is because she's a glasses nerdy girl

and it demonstrates that whoever's saying it payed zero actual attention to what she actually says and does over the course of the story they just looked at her and decided she fit a stereotype and apart from that being annoying as a Fuu fan, it's also annoying because A MAJOR THEME OF MKR IS ABOUT NOT ASSUMING THAT KIND OF SHIT BASED ON APPEARANCES

SONG:The Boundless Ocean (Final Fantasy III) (Nobuo Uemat...

FF3 is from her era (early 90's) and is very pretty and sad. when I played FF3 the first time I spent aaages on the world map just to listen to this, and I think she would too

paperbacks FARIS

FAVORITE THING: That Faris never becomes "good" or a "proper princess/woman". Faris does grow and change throughout the story, but in a way that expands and retains her identity rather than rejecting it. Faris does try living a different way but decides not to

ultimately going back to looking the way he did at the start of the game and doing the same thing (piracy), but as a better, more honest version of that person

Least favorite: I already complained about outfits with Paine so I will say a thing I actually love/hate about Faris. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HURT YOUR SISTER JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE AFRAID OF YOUR OWN EMOTIONS

(bc he's a disaster who was raised by a bunch of pirate men and does not know what to do in situations where "be a pirate at it" doesn't work)

oh ALSO real answer - I wish we saw more of Faris' relationship with Krile! Because Faris had a wonderful, hilarious, bickering relationship with Galuf, but we see very little one-on-one interaction with the granddaughter that replaces him

(this could also be because /gestures at above emotional problems)

This is why I have multiple fics written that are About That lmfao

FAVORITE LINE: "I reconsidered your request. You can go back to the brig if you'd rather" and "Besides, a buccaneer like me, really a prince—er, princess? 'Tis a bit much, that!"

brOTP: Faris and Bartz. Bartz is the first one to shrug it off when Faris is revealed as afab and they connect over having Complicated Father Feelings that they do Not Know How To Express

OTP: faris/piracy. but also faris / leila (FF2) because Leila is also a badass pirate and is super glam

nOTP: look I understand why faris/lenna is so popular. it is the best written relationship (of any type) between two women in the series. and I'm not just talking about SNES era, I mean THE SERIES IN ITS ENTIRETY

But ffs don't shove it down people's throats and call it "queerbaiting" and insult people who DON'T like it. sheesh

anyway incest ships ain't my thing overall and some F/L fans saying deeply stupid things about it doesn't help LOL

STRONGLY HELD OPINION: Faris' gender is It's Complicated. Any interpretatiion of her gender (whether it's trans, genderfluid, agender, or female But It's Rough Lads) is fine as long as It's Complicated

(most of the fandom is on board with this too that I've seen these days)

Tho my own is that Faris is genderfluid because I don't think little Sarisa decided on her own to crossdress, I think that was decided for her by the pirate that took her in

And I don't think Faris necessarily minds being seen as female as long as people aren't fucking weird about it, but also, she's so used to presenting male she just does that anyway. and mostly she feels male but sometimes he doesn't

I also kind of don't think Faris would go with "they" as a pronoun, and if he did, not without a few years of thinking about it. He feels like one or the other

pronouns yar/harr

SONG I ASSOCIATE WITH THEM:[Video Soundtrack] Pirates Ahoy [FINAL FANTASY V]

BOUNDARIES WOMAN LMAO... AND GOD THE COSTUMES!!! familiar to all of us jrpg lovers honestly. anyway she seems great, I can't wait to play w her more

yessss IM LOOKING FORWARD TO IT TOO :>

my whole thing with my characters is just like. picking them up and holding them out going look at how cool she is

i will show you so you can love her as much as me