Board 8 > SaveEstelle & LeonhartFour in New Houses: The Great Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Krillin the best

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solar flare
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Ironically it's the one move that doesn't require charge time

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Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Azure Moon beated.

Out of Crimson Flower, Silver Snow, and now Azure Moon I think I'd say it's my least favorite of the three.

I feel like it makes the decision to focus on Dimitri's revenge/fall and then the redemption story but there's a few problems it runs into there. The primary one, I feel, is that it centers on Edelgard far more than it *should* on a number of levels. Like, it's tough for me to put this into words because it's a bit tangled I feel but... the focus on Edelgard makes sense in the Chapter 11-17ish range with Dimitri's complete mental unraveling. I've commented on how it's definitely interesting coming at this story having played Crimson Flower/Silver Snow to have a fuller picture of Dimitri's accusations against Edelgard and I'm fine with that - Dimitri is *not* well at this point in the story and the game doesn't shy away from that. But then once he recovers I feel it completely loses focus and clings to the Edelgard-Dimitri relationship to its detriment. Trying to unravel the truth behind Duscur? It comes up here and there in cutscenes but it's largely a sideshow to the war against the Empire and never actually answered satisfactorily. Gilbert comes up with a theory that sounds good but Dimitri doesn't like it and you never really know for sure. In theory that's fine. Dimitri having to come to terms with the event that traumatized him being an unanswerable mystery with signs that the answer is *probably* completely wrong from what he had gone on believing for all that time can be an interesting one but again it all feels pretty secondary or even tertiary to the plot.

So back to Edelgard, since that's where the story chooses to place its focus with the war and all it goes back to this... only I don't really think they sell it well enough if that's going to be the main thrust of the narrative? Like you get one flashback to Kid Dimitri and El in Part 1 and another towards the very end in Part 2. You're *told* Dimitri fell in love with her and all but I don't really feel like the emotional power is there with it.

Now this part is specifically a gripe with knowledge/experience of Silver Snow (and to a lesser extent Crimson Flower): I also think it kind of derails Edelgard's character at the very end for basically no reason. Edelgard becoming a Dark Souls boss for the final chapter is weird but "okay." I guess they just couldn't have the final boss be a normal person for whatever silly reason. Just give Edelgard monster health bars anyway or like 300 HP but whatever fine that's not really my problem here. I think Edelgard's end here is just... really poorly done. Like Silver Snow had it done damn near perfectly. You're in the same map but she stays human and then the cutscene where Byleth kills her is honestly perhaps the most emotionally powerful scene in all 3 routes I've played. Why they replace it with the attack on Dimitri and her getting killed in return with no dialogue I have no earthly idea. Like I'm head-canoning that she was intentionally provoking that response because she realized Dimitri wouldn't willingly kill her otherwise and she knew that for the sake of Fodlan's future she had to die there. Like hell, just re-use the Silver Snow cutscene it's just literally a million times better. just paste a still picture of Dimitri in the background or something. Ugh.

Oh right, it's a bit funny I consider this more a secondary problem with the route but: We uh, we really just kinda stealth Bad End'd there, didn't we? Just let Those Who Slither In The Dark run away and live to try again in another few years/decades/centuries seriously they've been operating for at *least* 1200 years and still have weaponry *way* beyond anything Fodlan has so like even if they poured a lot of resources into this attempt they also very much did *not* even bother to play/use their best cards so they still have them. Heck, if you kill Myson before routing the other TWSITD enemies on the last map they literally get away with just Dimitri like "Huh. Guess they really weren't Empire military?" (If you save him for last you just skip that dialogue.) Comically, the Byleth/Hapi paired ending even confirms my suspicions that they indeed are still around and even caused trouble later down the line! Who knows if they were decisively defeated that time either? If this were an intentional "whoops on this route you forgot to pursue the evil masterminds" kind of twist I'd actually kinda dig it but I don't think that was the intent!

Anyway, I spent most of this post discussing my issues with the route but I still enjoyed it. I definitely wonder how I'd be feeling if I played it first like Leon did (IIRC) because I definitely think that would be a different experience.

still team edelgard

At some point I'll play Golden Deer/Verdant Wind to complete the 4th and last route for me but definitely not for a while, I was feeling some definite fatigue from about mid/late Azure Moon.

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Blue Lions still the best

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Yeah, Azure Moon definitely has the worst writing of all the routes. Shame it doesn't match up in quality.
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Listening to a sports show do a top 5 video games list is always an interesting experience.

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https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tennessee-football/6-losses-that-still-annoy-every-tennessee-fan/

I remember every single one of these losses, and my immediate thought upon seeing the link was "Jabar Gaffney."

Although the OU loss is probably the least painful of these on this list for me, @Dr_Football

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My first thought was the game against Bama when yall had the field goal blocked twice?

I assume the OU loss is painful because we end up making the playoff that year, and in an alternate universe where Tennessee holds on it isnt a big stretch that they ride that momentum (and knowing how to win) into winning 2 of the other 3 games yall lost that year.

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Or its just painful if you hate Baker because if Tennessee wins maybe that changes Bakers whole career trajectory

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Well, it was a potential big upset game that we should've won and we blew it. It could've been a "We're back" type of victory. I don't necessarily get as bothered about upsets where we didn't hang on (like the two blocks in the Bama game). It's the games we should've won all along because we were the better team that upset me most.

And pretty much any close loss to Florida ever because for some reason it's never uneventful.

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What If...? Episode 3 complete!

Interesting premise with a cool reveal at the end. I really enjoyed this one.

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Started Robotics;Notes DaSH and already this is a major improvement because with Daru as the MC I have the entire Steins;Gate cast as his Twitter friends having conversations which is A+

also this being set in 2020 is like alternatively distressing and hilarious in how comments are aging either so poorly or so poorly it loops back to incredible foresight.

Like not even 5 minutes in:

Random Twitter Account: "If you think the Olympics were a success, then you've probably gone mad"

Complete with complaining that most people didn't want the Olympics because of a disaster only just... you know, not a pandemic because the game was made before that it's just so surreal though.

i'm not saying the science adventure series is a documentary sent from the future (that's metal gear) i'm just saying CERN is sus

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Friendly reminder that MGS4 was set in the year 2014

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Ted Lasso Season 2 Episode 6 complete!

That was an emotional rollercoaster of an episode. Curious to see what the next episode brings!

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So the good news I mentioned not long ago is that my wife is pregnant. We're being slow to announce anything publicly until we're sure the pregnancy is viable (she's only about a month along at this point), but she said it would be fine to talk about it here because (most likely) none of you will get this news out to anyone we know before we're ready to tell them. Regardless, we're pretty excited about it.

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Congratulations!

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Congrats! When is she expecting?

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The Mana Sword posted...

Congrats! When is she expecting?

The due date would be late April-early May, which would put them right in between our birthdays, so that would be cool.

And we should find out the gender around my dad's birthday, which would be pretty special.

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Congrats!
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congrats, incredibly exciting!
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Congratulations!

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Congratulations
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Ey let's go baby!

LeonhartFour posted...

(most likely) none of you will get this news out to anyone we know before we're ready to tell them.

Whoops too late

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If it's a boy, we want to name him Jack. It's for my dad, but you best believe my first words to him will be, "Let's make this the greatest ten minutes of our lives, Jack." I will say this whenever possible during his life as well.

And his first song will be "Snake Eater."

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Congrats Leon!
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Congrats in this topic as well!

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man the Culture Festival arc in Kaguya-sama ain't messin' around

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Culture Festival sooo good

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I never saw it comin'

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Leonhart4 posted...

I never saw it comin'

lmao i imagined Life Will Change playing through the last bit of that arc

Lookin' good, Shirogane!

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Wait, is Kaguya-sama transitioning into Miko-sama: Love is War?

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IMO the phantom thief confession is the worst part of the cultural festival arc, but I like the following arc quite a bit more for romance.
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congrats leonhart!

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Dragon Ball Z Episode 149 complete!

Okay, that Piccolo/Android 17 fight was great. Good job, Piccolo!

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one of the highlights of this saga for sure
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Whoa Cam Newton released by the Patriots

Bill ain't messin' around

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whoops

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wow pats in tank mode already

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Or Mac is the new Brady

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Dragon Ball Z Episode 150 complete!

Argh, not again with Piccolo. Although it's looking like we might finally get to see Android 16 in action, so that will be interesting.

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16 would be my main if I ever played Dragon Ball Fighterz

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My fantasy draft is tonight. I'm doing my customary research of skimming one Matthew Berry article and then trying to get players who went to Tennessee on my team (which turned out to be a brilliant strategy in Kamara's rookie year!).

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Aw yeah got Derrick Henry with my first round pick

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Draft complete! My team:

QBs: Russell Wilson, Tua Taigovailoa
RBs: Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Kareem Hunt, Damien Harris, AJ Dillon, Nyheim Hines
WRs: Deandre Hopkins, Ceedee Lamb, Michael Thomas, Jaylen Waddle, Josh Palmer
TE: Noah Fant
D/ST: Patriots
K: Ryan Succop

I mostly like my team. Not thrilled about my depth at RB, but I did at least get the one I wanted most. Got stuck with a mediocre TE, but that happens sometimes!

Now I just need to come up with a clever team name.

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It take Tua to Tango
Ceedeez Nutz
Wanta Fanta

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Well, this is a church league, so the names have to be relatively clean lawl

I was thinking CeeDee Lamb has a lot of potential though

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Behold the (CeeDee) Lamb of God

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Haha, that's a great one.

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man we're really getting into Shirogane's dark side now

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