Brave Exvius: Final Fantasy X

お祝いしなきゃな！

Aqua’s experience in A Fragmentary Passage and subsequent Norting changed the entire way I look at Light and Darkness in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Up until now, the light/darkness dichotomy was only ever something I interpreted as being a plot-specific force within the narrative. Sure, we had characters verbally telling us that darkness is related to negative emotions, light is related to friendship and positivity, etc. but beyond characters getting powered up for battle after verbally making those connections (“My friends are my power,” basically anything that comes out of Ansem SOD’s mouth), we don’t really get a chance to see what that means.

A Fragmentary Passage connected the emotions to the forces in a much more obvious way, for me at least. I’ll never forget playing the mirror level that has Aqua’s inner monologue going the whole time and realizing that, holy shit, this game is about depression! And then we see the E3 trailer from this year. For her to get Norted, we know she had to succumb to The Darkness, and because we have her experience in AFP as a background, we know how she got to that point and exactly what she was feeling when it happened. (Yes, AFP ended on a more hopeful note, but … I still think this is probably what happened).

I’m playing through all the main games again, and suddenly, the rest of the series has a LOT more context. The Xehanort/Eraqus arguments get a lot more nuance. Honestly, I think Xehanort has a little bit of a point? Light and Darkness (ie: positive emotions and negative emotions) existing in a balance seems WAY healthier than just trying to have ALL POSITIVE EMOTIONS ALL THE TIME. This could apply to “The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.” The more you try to push down or hide your negative emotions in an attempt to remain positive 24/7, the more that negativity festers beneath the surface and can explode out of you. Maybe this is what happened with Terra. Dealing with the Darkness is something that has plagued him since he was a kid, but because light-obsessed Eraqus basically raised him, he had to repress negativity until it sorta just exploded in BBS. (As someone with mental health problems who grew up in a family that didn’t talk about problems or emotions and just pretended everything was fine all the time… my most recent BBS playthrough hit me kind of hard.) Along these same lines “hearts of pure light” don’t seem totally healthy either? Maybe it’s different for Princesses of Heart, because they’re Naturally Occurring, but it makes total sense why my boy Ven was so fragile after Vanitas got ripped out of him. In any case I am REALLY SCARED for Sora. I know he was close to getting Norted in DDD, but if he just tries to stay positive all the time because so many people are counting on him my boy is going to BREAK.

Now, when I see the darkness cloud animation emanating off a character, I have context for what that means and what that feels like. When Terra uses his dark command styles, I used to think “well yeah, he’s mad” but know I get that he’s pissed. When a Nort uses dark attacks, I get that he’s channeling his greed, his feelings of superiority. When Sora goes into Anti-form, I get that this is his moment of release, where he physically can’t be his happy-go-lucky self. The black cloaks, which protect people when travelling in corridors of darkness, have the power to shield people from negative emotions. Does turning into a heartless feel like being overwhelmed with hopelessness and dread?

This also makes Riku’s arc way more interesting to me! His “road to dawn” becomes a road to recovery!! Instead of pushing down his negativity, he lives with it! He uses it to his advantage without letting it overtake him!!! He doesn’t pretend to be sunshine and rainbows, and his friends still love him!!!!

I don’t really have a conclusion to this. I’m just really glad that they did what they did with A Fragmentary Passage.

This clock points to the numbers 2 and 7.

I’m-

Once again practice turned into pure fluff. Tumblr may or may not deem this inappropriate

Pienso en ti, dondequira que estés

Aesthetically Pleasing Anime Movies

The mentions below are a combination of beautiful visuals animation movies that had captured an immediate attention due to its fresh and appealing color choices and drawing-styles; yet, still intrigued the audience with a unique plot. Before you check out the list, keep in mind that I did not forget any of Studio Ghibli productions. I think every project in Ghibli is so special that I feel I need to make a separate post, don’t you agree? Plus, I want to give a shout-out to other animes. Some are extremely underrated and need much more love and appreciation!  ❤️  this and enjoy~ 

Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari /  Ancien and the Magic Tablet (2017)

Digimon Adventure tri. 4: Soushitsu / Digimon Adventure tri. Loss (2017)

Uchiage Hanabi, Shita kara Miru ka? Yoko kara Miru ka? / Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom? (2017)

Zutto Mae kara Suki deshita.: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai / I’ve Always Liked You (2016)

Koe no Katachi /  A Silent Voice (2016)

Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni /  In This Corner of the World (2016)

Kimi no Na wa /  Your Name (2016)

Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken / The Case of Hana & Alice (2015)  

Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda / Anthem of the Heart (2015)

Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai (2015)

Giovanni no Shima / Giovanni’s Island (2014)

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha / Inari, Konkon, ABCs of Love (2014)

Tamako Love Story (2014)

Kotonoha no Niwa /  The Garden of Words (2013)

Buki yo Saraba / A Farewell to Arms (2013)

Hal (2013)

Kaguya-hime no Monogatari / The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)

Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki / Wolf Children (2012)

Nerawareta Gakuen /  Psychic School Wars (2012)

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai / Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (2011)

Hotarubi no Mori e /  Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light (2011)

Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo / Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)

Momo e no Tegami / A Letter to Momo (2011)

“Bungaku Shoujo” Movie / Book Girl, Literature Girl (2010)

Summer Wars (2009)

Byousoku 5 Centimeter /  5 Centimeters Per Second (2007)

Paprika (2006)

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo /  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

Tekkon Kinkreet (2006)

Bonus: A 15 one-minute shorts created by various people from Japan’s animation industry. Be prepared to indulge in 3 seasons of masterworks. 

Ani*Kuri15 (2007)

Hey Goblins, uh

Did you know, that you can make an AWESOME journal for your adventures ALL ON YOUR OWN from a cereal box and paper/scraps that you likely have at home/can get from friends or family/you may find around your environment?

They’re called Junk Journals and they’re my entire life.

Im gonna do my best to walk you through how to make one! First, get you a mini cereal box! I use boxes from those cool multipacks of cereal that you can find at Walmart!

And then cut it out so it looks like this! (I already had one cut, so I’m gonna use that)

That “nutrition facts” side is gone become your spine!

Next, find some paper to use to decorate your cover! I was lucky enough to be gifted a bunch of scrapbooking paper, so I’m gonna use that, but you can also use newspaper, paper from books/magazines, junk mail, napkins, paper towels (excellent texture), etc!

Go ahead and glue that paper to your box (to cover the cereal logo) and cut it out! It’ll look like this;

Next you need to find your pages! Again these can be anything! Junk mail, envelopes, receipts, food wrappers, magazine/book pages, scrapbook paper, computer paper, construction paper, ANYTHING. Just grab a whole bunch!

You’re gonna want to fold them in half and cut them to the size of one of the covers of your box, and layer other pages inside of it to make your signatures, like this!

Each signature should be about 7-10 pages. You don’t want them too thick, otherwise the inner pages start sticking out when folded in half. You’re gonna have a LOT of these signatures, as you wanna fill the area in the spine as best as possible. For this one I’m using 7 page signatures. Here’s a pic to show just how much paper you’ll need

Each of these signatures are 7 pages, 6 signatures have only filled about half of the spine, so I’ll need probably 6 more.

Next you gotta figure out how you want them in your journal. Personally, I like to sew them into the spine, but you can also keep them in the spine with rubber bands, so you can have removable pages! (Be weary that rubber bands may break over time! So you may want to always keep extra bands near it to replace in case one snaps. This is why I prefer sewing them in) I find it best to look up on YouTube how to sew in signatures, just because having someone walk you through it where you can see what they’re doing is easiest. If you can’t access YouTube, there’s plenty of text tutorials on how to sew in signatures online, or you can message me! I’m not gonna go too into detail, but here’s the jist;

Okay so I’m a forgetful gob and I hecken forgot to take pictures as I was going along kahshshshsh

But essentially, I sewed in the pattern similar to the one I drew. The dots are where the needle goes all the way through to the back. I also like to use rubber band as an extra mode of support but you can do one or the other. I also like both cuz I can tuck stuff in em between the pages. Since I didn’t take more pictures; I’d really recommend looking up a how-to on YouTube or w/e if my badly drawn diagram isn’t clear enough (heh sorry about that)

Next, I glue fabric to the spine. It spruces it up quite a lot and holds the rubber bands in place, plus it give more support to the spine since there’s gonna be a lot of strain on it.

Only 10 photos per post, so I gotta post this and reblog it with the rest.

Final Fantasy IX Desert Palace