Sad harpsichord music.
...Oh, right, I said I was gonna self-publish some stuff, didn't I. And I was gonna work on fe_contest fic. It's not surprising that I've failed to do either of those, but the weird thing is I have actually been writing plenty! Just. Other stuff. All of it, other stuff. I was also gonna edit Golden and Gray and do some more work on Corpselake and Gentleman Ichthyologist, but instead I have been productive in all kinds of irrelevant directions. I've been doing a 30-day writing meme I found on Tumblr, mostly - saves me the trouble of writing about the same thing two days running. And on the fanfic front, SUDDENLY ALL I CAN WRITE IS SKRIMIR. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I just picked up Radiant Dawn again in the middle of a playthrough where I left off in Part 3.
(My WIPs folder remains full of Shinon, because who the hell do you think I am, but I can't shake the idea that all those stories have been done before and maybe I have nothing new to say about him. Sigh.)
I usually have pretty good luck with Mia, but this time around she is BASICALLY NEVER CRITICALLING ANYTHING, and what are you good for if you're not scoring the criticals, missy? Not much. You just die all the time. But at the same time, I can't just make an entire party out of lance users and Boyd, because there are not enough awesome lances to go around. So on an experimental basis, I am passing Sword Person responsibilities on to Makalov, as I've always had a soft spot for the guy but had a hard time finding excuses to use him. He picked up some levels and acquitted himself respectably on the bridge level, though I did have to baby him a bit - BUT HONESTLY CONSIDERING THE COMPANY HE'S IN THAT WAS NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL. Whatever dude just stand behind Nephenee and nothing's touching you
And then the Dawn Brigade is the exact inverse, ha ha. Nolan wrecks everything while everyone else is a delicate freaking hothouse flower requiring careful cultivation. I'm on 3-13 now; I've lost Edward and Zihark twice each (GODDAMMIT SWORDMASTERS) and Jill once. Fiona and Meg I benched a long time ago, but Leonardo has now had his invitation to the battles rescinded as well. I gave Edward Paragon for one chapter and he caught up to Nolan in levels right sharpish, so then I moved it to Aran and he. Cannot double-hit anything ever, so progress is slow. Still! While it's nice to just take the mercenaries and stomp all over everything, it is an entirely different kind of rewarding to get through a DB chapter. Like, AW YEAH, I needed BRAINS to do that. BRAINS, D'YOU HEAR.
Skrimir's character arc remains one of my favorite types of character arc ever and, in my books, a quite excellent example thereof! I just love the big dumb bastard, okay.
Also, I feel as though I'm liking Micaiah more every time I play this game? In all honesty, I tend not to be a very close reader, so I end up picking up on more stuff every time I go through these events. I still think she could've been handled better by the narrative (literally every person in Daein adores her, the army will just totally implode if she's not around to ~*inspire*~ them, sort of thing), but as a character? She's all right by me. I was pretty eye-rolly last time at her running up to take the knife for Pelleas - seemed kinda needlessly melodramatic - but now I'm seeing it as more of a "GIRL HAS FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO ANYTHING BUT SACRIFICE HERSELF" thing. Coming right on the heels of That Thing Where Sothe Almost Died, I can kinda get how she'd go NOPE. NO MARTYRS HERE TODAY UNLESS THEY ARE ME, because it would be easier to die herself than see someone else die whom she feels responsible for? And oh boy, is she ever responsible for Pelleas. It is like she adopted a dog who generates sad harpsichord music and bad decisions
I dunno. Maybe I'm talking through my hat, this kind of thing isn't normally my style. I think I wrote fic about this at one point, but that was in the middle of an Episode We Don't Speak Of, so I've never been able to bring myself to look back at it. It'd be weird if I was actually onto something all along.
In conclusion: lions.
(My WIPs folder remains full of Shinon, because who the hell do you think I am, but I can't shake the idea that all those stories have been done before and maybe I have nothing new to say about him. Sigh.)
I usually have pretty good luck with Mia, but this time around she is BASICALLY NEVER CRITICALLING ANYTHING, and what are you good for if you're not scoring the criticals, missy? Not much. You just die all the time. But at the same time, I can't just make an entire party out of lance users and Boyd, because there are not enough awesome lances to go around. So on an experimental basis, I am passing Sword Person responsibilities on to Makalov, as I've always had a soft spot for the guy but had a hard time finding excuses to use him. He picked up some levels and acquitted himself respectably on the bridge level, though I did have to baby him a bit - BUT HONESTLY CONSIDERING THE COMPANY HE'S IN THAT WAS NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL. Whatever dude just stand behind Nephenee and nothing's touching you
And then the Dawn Brigade is the exact inverse, ha ha. Nolan wrecks everything while everyone else is a delicate freaking hothouse flower requiring careful cultivation. I'm on 3-13 now; I've lost Edward and Zihark twice each (GODDAMMIT SWORDMASTERS) and Jill once. Fiona and Meg I benched a long time ago, but Leonardo has now had his invitation to the battles rescinded as well. I gave Edward Paragon for one chapter and he caught up to Nolan in levels right sharpish, so then I moved it to Aran and he. Cannot double-hit anything ever, so progress is slow. Still! While it's nice to just take the mercenaries and stomp all over everything, it is an entirely different kind of rewarding to get through a DB chapter. Like, AW YEAH, I needed BRAINS to do that. BRAINS, D'YOU HEAR.
Skrimir's character arc remains one of my favorite types of character arc ever and, in my books, a quite excellent example thereof! I just love the big dumb bastard, okay.
Also, I feel as though I'm liking Micaiah more every time I play this game? In all honesty, I tend not to be a very close reader, so I end up picking up on more stuff every time I go through these events. I still think she could've been handled better by the narrative (literally every person in Daein adores her, the army will just totally implode if she's not around to ~*inspire*~ them, sort of thing), but as a character? She's all right by me. I was pretty eye-rolly last time at her running up to take the knife for Pelleas - seemed kinda needlessly melodramatic - but now I'm seeing it as more of a "GIRL HAS FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO ANYTHING BUT SACRIFICE HERSELF" thing. Coming right on the heels of That Thing Where Sothe Almost Died, I can kinda get how she'd go NOPE. NO MARTYRS HERE TODAY UNLESS THEY ARE ME, because it would be easier to die herself than see someone else die whom she feels responsible for? And oh boy, is she ever responsible for Pelleas. It is like she adopted a dog who generates sad harpsichord music and bad decisions
I dunno. Maybe I'm talking through my hat, this kind of thing isn't normally my style. I think I wrote fic about this at one point, but that was in the middle of an Episode We Don't Speak Of, so I've never been able to bring myself to look back at it. It'd be weird if I was actually onto something all along.
In conclusion: lions.