rionaleonhart | This Was A Triumph.

Entry tags:

This Was A Triumph.

Last night, I dreamt that

cane_tie had sent me a copy of Portal for the PS2. I was quite distressed when I woke to remember that no such thing exists and I still have no means of playing it. I don't know why I was distressed, because I actually seemed to be inside the world of the game at points, and I am fairly certain that Portal would be a very bad game to find oneself trapped in.

Of course, this leads me to wondering whether any game would be a good one to be trapped in. Jak II: oppressive dystopia. Most Final Fantasy games: the world is in peril. Katamari Damacy: not a good idea.

Here is a poll that has no relevance other than being connected to video games. I was going to include 'I haven't met Irvine' and 'I haven't met Larsa' options, but those tend to dwarf the actual answers, so just skip the question if you haven't met the character. Feel free to answer only the third question if you don't play Final Fantasy but feel like writing genderswap minific anyway!

[Poll #1162428]

Seriously, I thought that Larsa was a woman for the entire mine mission. When Ba'Gamnan called him 'boy', I didn't believe him. It took 'fourth son to the Emperor and brother to Vayne' for me to begin thinking '...all right, maybe this character is male'.

(The dream inspired me to search on Amazon, trying to find out whether the Orange Box had miraculously dropped in price enough to make buying it purely for one two-hour game worth it, and it turns out that Portal is being released on its own for the PC on the eleventh of April. Awesome. I may be able to play it after all!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

what what

how bizarre

i also thought larsa was a girl. irvine not so much.

I feel I should thank you, because you made my dream-self very happy indeed.

hahaha, you're very welcome

I did not think either was a woman because I knew beforehand! Especially Irvine, because I had a friend who related to me the whole story of how she had thought Irvine was a woman for a while.

You can't escape the gender-confusion! That is clearly just not fair. Tell me you at least thought Kuja was female.

...blast, I should have included Kuja in the poll, shouldn't I?

OH GOD KUJA

hahahahahaha

Wait, what? Kuja's not female? But how does that even work?

...

Man, I know. Why does he have armour that is clearly designed specifically to protect his nonexistent breasts?

I was also told in advance about Kuja, actually!

I asked some Knowledgable Gamer Boys if you should buy Portal even though it comes with all the other games, and they said Y.

Well, I can wait a fortnight and get it on its own, anyway. (It really annoys me that there's no version for the PS2. ALAS. I am so not a PC gamer!)

I saw Irvine and thought 'ah, the traditional ridiculously pretty boy with pretty long hair who is loved by all the fangirls'.

Well, VIII was my first Final Fantasy and my first Japanese videogame, so perhaps I just didn't know enough to expect pretty long-haired men.

This is Larsa, by the way.

Well, I suppose the fact that neither Irvine (nor Larsa, by the way) were scantilly dressed would help in assuming they were guys.

And Larsa does look rather androgynous.

The GameFAQs boards (which should be avoided at all costs, or else you might LOSE YOUR SOUL!) say he's got boobs and a goatee. Larsa was fun for the GameFAQs fanboys, only really not, because they all got their little fanboy crushes on the new female character, and then "she" became a "he" and they began questioning their collective sexuality. FUN!

they all got their little fanboy crushes on the new female character, and then "she" became a "he" and they began questioning their collective sexuality.

That is excellent. Of course, women who fancy Larsa have to deal with the 'HELP ME, I'M A PAEDOPHILE' conflict. Larsa messes with everyone's sexuality.

I was totally disappointed when it turned out Irvine wasn't a smoking hot gunner chick.

SO WAS I. It would have been wonderful. MORE GIRLS WITH SHOTGUNS, PLEASE, FINAL FANTASY.

I was disappointed when it turned out Irvine didn't even want to shoot the Sorceress.

My FFVIII issues, let me show you them.

Oh, come on. You can't tell me you'd shoot the woman who raised you without a second thought.

But they hadn't had the flashbacks to being raised by her the first time they tried, had they?

No, but Irvine could still remember. (He hadn't been using Guardian Forces before he met the others.) BE NICE TO POOR CONFLICTED SADLY-NOT-A-WOMAN IRVINE.

Edited 2008-03-29 16:08 (UTC)

I WOULD BE IF IRVINE HAD MENTIONED THAT HE DIDN'T WANT TO SHOOT EDEA BECAUSE HE WAS RAISED BY HER. INSTEAD, HE JUST GOES 'WAH SO MUCH PRESSURE I CAN'T'.

"Under orders from the Galbadia and Balamb Gardens, Squall and his comrades—now joined by Rinoa, Quistis and Irvine—attempt to assassinate Edea. Despite a nearly flawless execution of the plan, the party is defeated and detained. Squall's party also learns that Seifer has left Garden to become Edea's second-in-command."

"During an investigation of Trabia Garden's ruins, Squall and his comrades learn that—with the exception of Rinoa—they were raised along with Seifer and Ellone in an orphanage run by Edea; they later developed amnesia due to their use of Guardian Forces."

From Wikipedia. So Irvine being useless was entirely Irvine being useless, and not having Edea angst. Yet.

My fandom is consistently brainbreaky in this regard.

When I first played Suikoden V, I thought this (http://27runesgallery.iespana.es/4images/data/media/14/maha%20sparna.jpg) was a man. I thought this (http://27runesgallery.iespana.es/4images/data/media/14/shula%20valya.jpg) was a woman. (Bear in mind during the actual game you don't get to see their portraits below neck level.) Turns out it's the other way around. Wtf, Konami, wtf.

Shula is still the most beautiful military commander evar, though.

Honestly, I'm starting to suspect that Japanese game developers do it just so they can sexually confuse their customers and cackle evilly.

Hey, I had a Supernatural dream! And it was quite happy with very little angst and nothing horrible happening to anyone! It was weird. Even weirder than the kid sister/sisters Sam and Dean acquired who kept changing size, age, appearance, and quantity (I was, at varying points, the sister, one of the sisters, and possibly Sam; it kept changing).

All the demon-hunting was done, Sam and Dean had a lot more family than they'd known about, and "Carry On My Wayward Son" played like a million times (for some reason, I kept thinking it was really important I pay attention to the lyrics). Mother-of-assorted-sisters lent me, Dean, and Baby Sis her motorcycle with a sidecar. Dean was a smartass, and tried to make me control it, even though I didn't know what I was doing. But once it became clear I was at "We'll quite likely crash" levels of not knowing what I was doing, he took over, and let me hold Baby Sis. Then we got to the restaurant, Sam was an entirely separate person from me, and Baby Sis was now Teenage Sis. We all sat down, had a lovely dinner, and talked about going to the Grand Canyon as a big family trip. Dean was a bit, "I have no idea what to do with my life now," but more hopeful than angsty.

Also, Mother-of-assorted-sisters had a suspiciously TARDIS-like house. The exterior was tiny, and the interior was huge!

You've just reminded me that I'd quite like to make a poll to find out how many people on my flist have dreamt that they were a fictional character. I'll have to do that at some point in the future.

The idea of the Winchesters having a SURPRISE HUGE FAMILY makes me sort of happy.

That would be a fun poll. I'm not entirely sure if I was Sam Winchester or not; the dream was a bit confusing.

Sam and Dean thoroughly enjoyed the SURPRISE HUGE FAMILY. I'd just made it as far as Croatoan (His whole "I'm tired" bit made me think I really need to write Dean/Reaper Girl, oddly enough), and my brain may have been concocting an antidote.

Although now my brain keeps picking at the age-shifting uncountable sisters, the house with the suspiciously large interior, the endless repeats of "Carry On My Wayward Son" and the sheer weirdness of "Hi, I had a whole bunch of daughters with your dad! Even though you're both grown men who I've never met in my life, welcome to the family!" and trying to make a horrible plot bunny where they get a wonderfully happy ending and it's all snatched away from them and revealed to be a sham, and have it all relate to "Carry On My Wayward Son" in some way. Bad brain! No!

ETA: Also, apparently you can pick up bad driving habits off Top Gear through sheer osmosis. I had no intention of driving like Jeremy Clarkson, but the driving instructor says I'm too fast around the corners.

Edited 2008-03-29 23:31 (UTC)

To be fair, when I first saw Larsa, I was just very confused about his gender. I wasn't sure if he was a girl or a guy. ...whereas I honestly thought Michael Jackson was a girl the first time I saw him.

I AM NOT IN ANY WAY COMPARING MICHAEL JACKSON WITH LARSA. Except in the way where I say they both kind of look female.

This comment inspired me to search Google for 'larsa "michael jackson"' (I AM SURE THAT THIS IS A PERFECTLY NORMAL RESPONSE), and I can find nobody else who has made this comparison (although someone did say 'An unfortunate fact is that Michael Jackson was originally supposed to be the voice actor for Larsa', which I suspect may be untrue). HOWEVER, I have found pages saying the following:

Vaan looks like a blonde, younger Michael Jackson
Vaan, the Michael Jackson ripoff: His nose is exactly like MJ's and he is all girlish
Vaan is like the lovechild of Tidus and Michael Jackson.
vaan looks like he's based on michael jackson
Vaan is hot. :) Not so much in the face, though because it reminds me too much of Michael Jackson for some reason. (Maybe since they're both CG)
Put blonde hair on Michael Jackson and you get Vaan.

I AM A BIT ALARMED BY THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THIS.

...AUGH

AUGH

I -- now that I think about it, I guess I can -- I can vaguely see it. GOD I HOPE I CAN STOP SEEING IT.

I am so disturbed by this. And am strangely wanting to either force someone into do terrible photomanips of this, or do them myself. It would be a terrible idea.

I am sure I must have made this mistake at least once, but I cannot think when that would have been. I did not even mistake this (http://fireemblemblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/lucius.jpg) for a woman the first time I saw him, and everyone else in fandom as well as at least one character in the game made that mistake.

...that's not a woman?

Seriously, you must have some sort of superpower or something.

Luscious Lucius is indeed a man. He is a monk. =D He's also in a pretty-much-canon relationship with the lord of the house he works for, which isn't good for his vows of celibacy but is just dandy for fangirls.

In weird search-engine info, an entry on your journal's the first thing that comes up when searching for the words Oz Clarke and slash.

The second is some television-reviewing blog which talks about the wine adventure and uses the words "slash-proof" (while discussing clothing they're selling, but still funny).

And unlike the mystic cosmic energy thing, this was not me googling a phrase from you're journal. You're just the prime source for all Oz Clarke-related slashy things.

I am weirdly pleased by this! (In fact, your saying this made me go and search for 'riona', and I am on the second page of results now! This pleases me a lot; I was nowhere near the front the last time I checked.)

(By the way, as you are apparently not as obsessive an e-mail checker as I am, I have sent you a ficsnippet!)

(Have finally checked email. Ficsnippet loved and cuddled. You sound fantastically American when you try.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This Was A Triumph.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject