Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, I'm off back to Skyrim. Got an Emperor to kill...

[Punished Dayni]

The neck is next in terms of depth of spoilers

Spoiler

Picked Masaru.

So far, have found a deactivated Cube 😞,  two trials and a trial guard who destroyed Masaru through Petrification.

So I guess I'll need to find the others then.

46 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Nah cause when you level down, the levels you already had get converted to BEXP. So if you need to level up again, you can just level up again, no grinding.

Good old BEXP.

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Okay, I'm off back to Skyrim. Got an Emperor to kill...

Wait, there's an emperor they let you kill?

I don't remember that Stormcloak being anything but a traitor! And no emperor would deign to have a presence in Skyrim.

[Shrimpica]

16 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

...>Flute Remix..?

[Acacia Sgt]

20 minutes ago, Awoken Dayni said:

Wait, there's an emperor they let you kill?

I don't remember that Stormcloak being anything but a traitor! And no emperor would deign to have a presence in Skyrim.

The Dark Brotherhood.

There's a reason for that.

[Shrimpica]

Chapter 5

Spoiler

> Z

Zanza confirmed i guess

 

[Lightcosmo]

6 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Chapter 5

Wait, I pulled ahead of you?

[Shrimpica]

7 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Wait, I pulled ahead of you?

Long agooo lol

There was a day i couldn't play much and you just rushed ahead xD

[Shrimpica]

YOU FUCKING BASTARD

[null]

and now, the end is near

[Lightcosmo]

46 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Long agooo lol

There was a day i couldn't play much and you just rushed ahead xD

"Rushed"... Sitting at level 75 and still havent gone on yet. Xd

@Armagon going for broke on 99 here!

[Shrimpica]

"Sucks to be you"

Wise words xD

[Shrimpica]

BRO WAT

[Shrimpica]

BROOOOO

1337 UNDERGALAXY CHESS MOVE

[Punished Dayni]

Spoiler

Masaru can wield Taeko's Furious Fist.

Perfect.

I should have made three shouldn't I?

20 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

and now, the end is near

  And so I face, the final curtain

[Shrimpica]

Spoiler

Bro just accept a no

 

I love how the game despite having a solid story can very easily be parodied lmao

Spoiler

The nations? Fanbase at war

Their waifus? Not real

Consuls? Trolls

N? A person who can't accept a No

Z? Probably another version of Zanza lol

 

[Shrimpica]

"You're full of shit"

-Ninty 2022

[Venger_06]

It's been a long time since I've found a character so hateable.

19 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Their waifus? Not real

No, I don't want that...

Edited August 7, 2022 by Newtype06

[Sidereal Wraith]

8 minutes ago, Newtype06 said:

No, I don't want that...

They don’t exist Newtype, they’re a work of fiction.

[null]

21 minutes ago, Awoken Dayni said:

And so I face, the final curtain

my friend, I'll say it clear

-----

gg see-no-blade

on to Future Connected after dinner

[Shrimpica]

Tfw

Spoiler

I left 2 quests which probably require city for later (i wanted more main story after 3 days sidequesting) and now the city is gone F

Well, maybe i can still do the quests who knows

Ok scratch that lmao

Edited August 7, 2022 by Shrimpy

[Venger_06]

14 minutes ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

They don’t exist Newtype, they’re a work of fiction.

I want her to think about me for the rest of my life! Even after I die... I want to be at the front of her mind for a while! Ten years, at least!

 

[Lightcosmo]

11 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

on to Future Connected after dinner

Have fun! 

[Punished Dayni]

Wait, Excelblem said he's going BS next. I wonder if he does Lyn mode

12 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

my friend, I'll say it clear

I'll state my case,

Of which I'm certain

3 minutes ago, Newtype06 said:

I want her to think about me for the rest of my life! Even after I die... I want to be at the front of her mind for a while! Ten years, at least!

Someone went out of their way to splice this

Edited August 7, 2022 by Awoken Dayni

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay... it's done. I've finished the Dark Brotherhood questline. Now, to finish the main one. To Skuldafn! Sovngarde awaits!

[Saint Rubenio]

3 hours ago, Awoken Dayni said:

 

  Hide contents

There is a LOT to unpack with the scenario to my mind. I want to look at each narrative character: Streibough, Alathea, Lucrece (well, the people at least) and then Oersted, as the more morally complex of the bunch here (Poor Hasshe and Uranus, too good for this land).

When I first heard Streibough give his speech, my mind shot to incel. Yeah I know, harsh. But let's back up a bit. He definitely feels a bitterness about losing that couldn't have been put to written dialogue alone, but he covers that decently enough that he then can swagger up to Oersted and say that they should be enough to slay any angels or demons. He's knowledgeable enough to know about the shields by looking at them, thus giving the in to speak to Uranus and then Hasshe. If we assume he's coming at the quest genuinely with no ill intent (which I can believe, though he probably has some understandable resentment for Oersted for always playing second fiddle to some knight who is suggested (by him I caveat) as being a man of violence and little else), he does have the tools to do so without Oersted. Then we reach the fake Lord of Dark, where Streibough responds to Hasshe's dying words by being focused on his own shit (which makes his calling Oersted out for not getting Hasshe out with them when they thought they were going to get caved in on (as he expressly says if they take him with them they'll die for sure) a bit rich), finds the secret door, fakes the cave in to pretend to die and then finds Alathea. For the rest of the chapter he's at the back with Alathea until Oersted finds him, but he does show Oersted visions and illusions to make Oersted commit regicide and see Alathea tormented (true or not). He also speaks before each of the bosses, wanting to see Oersted emmiserated before he strikes the killing blow.

And then Oersted reaches the peak. Streibough had found the secret, but he used it as an opportunity to get one over Oersted and win Alathea's love for himself. He revels in how much he got away with scaring off Oersted and leaving Hasshe behind. Then confesses to the deception leading to the king's death and is frustrated by Oersted coming to stop his dream. He goes out of his way to call Oersted a beast here driven only to triumph and victory over all. He says that be begged in the name of love, (but it's not expressly shown he did this, but he said he'd hold nothing back during the tourney and that he wouldn't yield this. He asks the gods for the strength to get glory deserved, not something more akin to him suggesting his love for Alathea, though if we go that route he does seem certain he couldn't ask Oersted to do so with the ending dialogue in mind). He then gets into calling Oersted a lustful wretch (which I'd say is a slight stretch considering Oersted doesn't particularly show emotion, especially not that up to then) and someone who never loved, lost or felt shame, which I'd say he's saying as him insisting he's better than Oersted because he felt all this pain and hurt. At this stage is when he insists Oersted'll repay his loyalty by dying..... only for Oersted to kill him instead, one last greedy victory when Oersted could've just let hi win. I'm assuming he was dead by the time Alathea came out too, never getting to say farewell to his love after Oersted did him in. Course, I'm taking the interpretation of Streibough not being in a reciprocated relationship with Alathea before events play out. This does make him less sympathetic in this argument.

Alathea meanwhile, yeah look at what she's left with. Pushed into marriage of someone who won a contest of strength, she almost immediately sounds like she's only doing this for king and country (she doesn't exactly speak of Oersted in romantic terms), though trying to make the best of the situation and trying to be close to Oersted. Then she gets whisked away by the fake Lord of Dark to be locked up right at the end of it. After this, she's then kept a hostage all the way to the end, tormented by the Lord of Dark, which is what Oersted sees but for all we know could be entirely an illusion considering it wouldn't be the first time. Now Streibough could have been doing both, playing Odio to scare her and then being there for Alathea as he pretends to be stuck under his service and thus not being able to get her away from there. He could have been saying it was safer to stay there than risk Oersted breaking up what happiness they have left, especially after Oersted kills the king. But I'm throwing myself off talking about Alathea herself. She does seem to me like she's trying to make the relationship work in the opening. Then Oersted returns and kills Streibough in front of her. She immediately asks him not to touch Streibough (bit late sadly), asks why it took him so long to show up and how she had trusted him for the King's sake only for all this to happen. She recognises Streibough did wrong while also acknowledging his love for her. She then goes and talks about Streibough had been left suffer, second fiddle to Oersted and I feel like she may have been hearing a fair few talking points from Streibough. But the says Oersted's victories were hard won by better men and I agree with this line as a kinda Oersted apologist before I started this. Because it was more than Streibough who was sacrificed and we have seen that in Hasshe and Uranus, even if the former could have been buried better but for one asshole and the latter tried to redeem a man doomed to fall. Back to the speech, she truly resents Oersted for having been like this and being insistent on being the superior one in the room. She comes out and says she won't betray her love for Streibough, which yeah that says a ton about how this marriage went. Then, because she has noone left to trust as Oersted's killed them she decides better to die than be killed inside. Oersted runs to stop her and of course fails, his prize taken by it's own hand. But yeah, prize.

I mean, she was essentially made into a prize by her father. The King does this first thing in the story to have a son-in-law who is strong for the future of Lucrece, then when she's kidnapped proceeds to insist that Hasshe needs to be found to defeat him, but Oersted then offers to do it in Hasshe's stead and the King seems to genuinely want to see him succeed. From there we see a people wanting to see the Lord of Dark slain, cheering Oersted and then we hear Uranus speak of how their story ended (with Hasshe truly sick of them and Uranus tired but wanting to see Hasshe happier) and how they kept asking for their aid. Hasshe was still a hero to the end, dying for the cause after fighting the fake, Uranus noble and true still. But the King upon hearing of Streibough and Hasshe's deaths asks where the fiend who took his child is. Which, understandable. Then Oersted's tricked into killing the king and the people look on him as the Lord of Dark (which, I'll be honest this stretch of the chapter's the weakest. He can commit regicide without being a demon y'know). Suddenly they make him out to be the monster and act like all the dots connect, that Oersted did it all and they cast him out (which, yeah. Maybe they should have kept him). They torture Uranus to near death to get information. Uranus asks Oersted to show a better nature and avoid committing violence against them, but the guards will take him captive eventually (either at Archon's Roost or by turning himself in at Lucrece, which again, weird for the lord of Dark to be doing). Then when Uranus dies freeing Oersted from his cell, he also calls on Oersted to find Alathea to seek redemption. And of course he gets blamed for that one too. Once Oersted takes the mantle of Odio, the people see true misery for the crimes of a king.

Oersted meanwhile, I'll admit that I may have given him too much leeway in that line you mention on first listen. Knowing that he had been told to find Alathea and try to seek his innocence only to double down on his guilt, kill his oldest friend and see the woman he was married to kill herself rather than be with him it's not like he's had a good day. Outside his willingly taking a woman as his bride as prize for a tournament (Which Streibogh very much is fine with taking part in, even if he was in a relationship with her beforehand which I suspect if he was there could have been more done to prevent things getting to this state), we don't get much in Oersted's worst nature (considering he turns himself into the guards after his crime when they let him go, never mind that the murder was committed using manipulation) up to the end where Streibough and Alathea deliver a haymaker. At that stage he's had Hasshe and Uranus tell him to be better against a kingdom hunting for him, a king who he wouldn't have killed outside of the deception and his wife and best friend dead in front of him after the friend had led a campaign of deception and his wife said she had fallen out of love knowing his behaviour and that the two had bonded with this knowledge. Some just reward for his service eh? He feels he has been shortchanged and in the limited scope of having been told he was to marry into the royal family and seek out the Lord of Dark he had certainly tried to achieve these tasks. That he had fought as he seemed to have been raised into and all it got him was isolation and condemnation.  He then accepts that he is a demon, if people cast him out and want naught to do with him why not I suppose. A monster of circumstance it could be argued, but he runs with it considering he aids the other Odio forms to seek their desires.

Though I could be giving him too much credit for his pain. Oersted being confirmed to not be a mute before the final speech but someone who doesn't seem to emote much outside battle (the battle quotes seem like he feels he has the upper hand, aside for "For Lucrece") is certainly a character who could be considered a concern, on top of his minimal emoting before the end too (if he's sociopathic for instance). And of course the first event of this story, the tourney and subsequent marrying off of a woman to satisfy the king he has no qualms about. Maybe that suggests a malaise of this part of the timeline, but in the grand scheme of things he ends up proceeding to say that all of time deserves to suffer.

There's a further question I have in all this. Where is Odio in all this? Hasshe was said to have killed him 20 years before, but someone had to have given the order to the fake to carry off Alathea despite his not being there when they arrived. And there's many guesses that can be made, but there's two I want to put out there. The first is the idea that Oersted was in some manner made into Odio's new vessel. Now, he is young enough that it could have been he was born after Hasshe killed the Lord of Dark (Hasshe does call him boy), grew up to become Oersted and then Odio after all this had occurred. Now, as you can tell that's pretty anticlimactic to the whole thing right? The second and the one I'd believe is that the energies and power of Odio are tied to Archon's Roost for someone of sufficient malice to take for their own. It explains how Streibough was able to use the power (and Megalovania playing in their final bout), as well as suggests maybe the purple lights I mentioned earlier were guiding them to Odio on purpose. Where it could arguably fall short is that Streibough was clearly not that powerful if Oersted could still defeat him singlehandedly, but then again Streibough was using the power to fulfill his own fantasies while Oersted intended to really deliver on the destruction of humanity, though how much Oersted himself wants that is up for debate with his ending which of course has him wallowing alone having finished the job but clearly being dissatisfied.

Another tidbit before I come cutting at my argument with your point of Streibough and Alathea: the story itself seems to say that by hero's hand must fall the Lord of Dark after describing Hasshe. That seems to suggest that Hasshe was the only one who could have stopped the Lord of Dark if her got to the final peak. It seems like he didn't last time either. That seems in a way to unintentionally doom the rest of them considering his fate and how he'd ostracised himself from a world that saw him as of use for as long as possible before he faked his death.

Your point about Streibough and Alathea being in a relationship beforehand and this being why Streibough was so determined to win at the start. Thing is if they weren't in a relationship and Streibough was trying to win Alathea for his own beforehand this story still holds. Regardless of if he pretended to be the Lord of Dark and her only friend in the Archon's Roost or if he was just showing that to deceive Oersted and he was fully honest with Alathea, she has been given this perspective that changes her opinion of Oersted to be the person who just takes for himself and had no awareness of others around him. The reason why I bring this up is that it matters to their relationship. He could have been manipulating the situation regardless, but pretending to be her jailer and confidant in her isolation is pretty shit on it's own, whereas if he was just pretending she was in danger he seemingly wanted Oersted to see that he had lost her and fall to despair before Streibough finished him off (judging by the boss dialogues)

TLDR: Medieval period has no true hero in the end.

There's a fair piece I had to write for this, sorry I took a while. I may have gone over the entire chapter dialogue to be sure (because SOMEONE had to make sure I couldn't save screenshots).

Words.

Spoiler

No yeah, you're right. Streibough is an incel shithead. Whether his feelings for Alethea were real and even mutual, it doesn't really matter. He was still a douchebag.

I agree that he's right, however, when he says Oersted's victories were won by better men. This is even reflected in the gameplay. Hasshe is the strongest party member, and he's likely the one doing the most work in the fake Lord of Dark confrontation.

Alethea was clearly manipulated by Streibough. Unlike in the original, however, she reacts a lot more realistically to her forced marriage to Oersted. Not only are her lines quite impersonal, as you pointed out with the "for king and country" line, but for over half of the balcony scene she's looking away. Clearly she's not thrilled, but marriage as a tool was common in this time. The king obviously just wanted a second Hasshe, and paid for it with his daughter's hand. As you said, she wants to make it work. But then, disaster strikes.

I forgot to bring up his battle quotes. It's a fair point - he sounds downright smug. Between this, his silence and the "fair and just reward" line, it lends some credence to Streibough's claim that he was a competitive, violent jerk.

Interesting that you say the people's turn on Oersted was the weakest part of the chapter. I'll admit it was pretty sudden, but I think it fits. These are middle age folks, they're highly superstitious. The Lord of Dark had returned and kidnapped their princess just days ago... And she was alone with Oersted when it happened. They'd just lost the greatest hero they've ever known... And he was last seen heading off to the Lord of Dark's hideout with Oersted. And now he's found, bloodied sword in hand, standing before the corpse of the king. Again, right after he's returned from the Archon's Roost with half his party wiped out. It's not that unreasonable to believe they would've believed him to be the demon, all these things considered. But the game goes a bit too fast here, that I'll admit.

Also, the way they instantly turned on Uranus as well is rather suspect. But then, Hasshe clearly stole all the fame and glory for himself (to his great chagrin), leaving Uranus to be remembered as "that one priest that helped Hasshe a bit." And people being forgetful and ungrateful suits this story perfectly. Watching Uranus be betrayed so easily was another dickmove for the pile of dickmoves that drove Oersted mad.

Odio prior to Hasshe's death is left up to interpretation. Personally, I like to believe there was no Odio at all. After Hasshe and Uranus's victory, his minions scattered and were left to roam the abandoned Archon's Roost. One of these wandered off and, perhaps guided by some sort of instinct instilled in it by Odio when it was created, found the princess of Lucrece and took her away. Just as Hasshe said, the fake Odio was nothing more than a pawn, perhaps one that could take different forms and tried to live up to its master's legacy - this magic exists in this world, as Streibough handily proves. This would explain why it's so weak. Then Hasshe dies, Streibough comes up with his plan, and becomes the Lord of Dark himself... Until Oersted steals the demonic influence from him, alongside his life.

Still, this is just one possible interpretation. Some think Streibough or even both Strei and Alethea planned everything from the start, but I don't think that's as likely, their dialogue later on makes little sense going by this theory. Others think Odio was the really weak guy that Hasshe claimed couldn't possibly be Odio, and that the next Odio after the one Hasshe killed simply happened to be a weak person. Some believe Odio was just chilling by the statue with Alethea, and Streibough solo'd him offscreen. In the end, we'll never know for sure.

You make a fair point regarding my theory. It really doesn't change much. Ultimately, I think the true dealbreaker was Hasshe's death. Hasshe was the true hero of the story, all along. He even had his own protagonist arc. Had he lived, he would've been able to corroborate Oersted's story, and the people would've been less reluctant to turn on him. Even if he was demonized alongside Uranus and Oersted, he was stronger than Oersted. He probably would've been able to save Uranus and get all three of them out of the palace safely. And then, the two heroes of old would've been able to back Oersted up, keep him from straying to the path of dark when his day turns from bad to worse... Or take him down, should he still fall to the dark influence. Alas, he had to go where Arran is...

I love this, because just like the rest of the chapter, it's a great deconstruction of the oldest JRPG tropes in the book, the middle age fantasy setting. As I said while I was playing the game, Hasshe and Uranus are clearly set as a parallel to Oersted and Streibough. The jaded, weary heroes of old, making way for a new generation of paragons of justice and good. A tale as old as time itself.

Except, that's not at all what they are. Hasshe and Uranus may've turned jaded and weary, but ultimately, they were far greater people that were less quick to give up on everything. Heck, Hasshe seemed to have enough hatred in him to possibly have turned into the Lord of Dark himself... but he didn't. He turned himself into a hermit, but he didn't succumb to the darkness. And Uranus even kept some traces of hope in his heart all these years later. Meanwhile, Streibough is a manipulative asshole and Oersted is a violent dickhead. Both of them were selfish and hateful. Both of them allowed themselves to turn into the Lord of Dark. The heroes of old made way to the wrong people. And the entire realm paid the price.

...Honestly though, I realize that, while you may be a bit too lenient on Oersted, I'm probably too strict. The man may've not been perfect, but the amount of suffering and betrayal he underwent in such a short time is just... nobody should suffer like that. Still, he failed to resist the temptation in the end. He took all of his hatred, all of his anger, and let them burn him to ashes. There is an interesting comparison to be made between Oersted and the seven protagonists of the game. Almost all of them suffer great losses as well. Akira loses his parents, his best friend and has to watch his sister struggle with a severe sickness he can do nothing about. Pogo is casted out of his tribe and eventually loses Beru as well. The Earthen Heart heir watches the Shifu die in front of them. Masaru has to hear that he led a crazed murderer to the people he had looked up to and learned from.

But perhaps the most direct and interesting comparison, Sundown lost absolutely everything - not unlike Oersted - before his story even starts. In fact... So did O. Dio. And each of them takes a path. Sundown takes the path of Hasshe, turning himself into a pariah and waiting for death to embrace him, only coming out of his rut years later to do "something good and decent" for once, because he's a genuinelly good person. And O. Dio let his hatred consume him and used his power for evil, just like Oersted. In the end, Oersted embodies what any of the protagonists could've turned into, had they not been as emotionally strong as they were.

tl;dr: I love this game. It gets me rambling, which is always a good sign.

Ruben rambles for 30 minutes about Live a Live spoilers.

Play Live a Live.

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Jesus Christ. I'm never going to trust a hit rate ever again, this is the only time something like this has ever happened in my four years of playing this game, but I'm going to think of it every time I encounter in enemy that has a low hit-chance in every Fire Emblem.

Welcome to Fire Emblem. There is no better way to learn this lesson than an ironman run. You stop taking risks when risks could irremediably force you to watch your favorite person lose their life and never come back ever.