meme catchup
Jun. 4th, 2011 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liriBack from Northern California, where we went to a mushroom festival (DEEP-FRIED MUSHROOMS. The Greeks were wrong, THAT is what gods eat) and San Francisco, and played many, many rounds of Dominion along with some Catan, Bang, and something Cthulhu-based (Arkham Horror?) which was entertaining if only for the fact that my husband was playing a psychologist who was dual-wielding magic swords with a bullwhip as backup weapon. We also watched the first four seasons of The Guild.
My gardenias are finally blooming, huzzah! I needs me a plant icon. I did a lot of other productive, garden-related stuff today -planting fountain grass, setting up the strawberry pot, getting some more plants to put in the shady side yard - and I hope to have my first tomatoes soon. Leela keeps escaping when I open the door to my computer room, but she wasn't very good at it for a while. Once she figured out that sticking only the top half of her body under the couch was not enough, she got her way and got to explore the house a bit. She seems to be exhausted from her adventures and is passed out on my lap again.
FF Meme!
Day 10 – Best Final Fantasy scene ever.
A toss-up. I'm tempted to say the scene in FF9 where Zidane and Garnet watch helplessly as Atomos wreaks havoc on Lindblum, but part of the reason that impressed me is the idea of summons as weapons of mass destruction used against civilian targets, and that scene isn't the only example of that in the game. There are scenes in FFX - I'm sort of weird among fans in that I didn't hate Tidus or his voice acting, and the "Dad? I hate you" scene impressed me.
Or, I could just go the predictable route and pick something from FF6. Not the Opera. I never understood why that was so beloved; THOSE GODDAMN RATS IN THE RAFTERS were enough to make me hate it forever, even without the Woolsey lyrics to the opera, which the FF6A version can never displace no matter how much I wish they could... No, it'd be the intro again, and I'm pretty sure that's been my answer to something else already. Or.. NO. Setzer's flashback in Daryl's tomb. Which was ALSO my answer to something else...
Day 11 – Final Fantasy game that disappointed you.
FF7. I was so RIDICULOUSLY excited for it before it came out, and it didn't get released till my freshman year of college. I'd go home on weekends to play it, and the play sessions fell such that I saw the whole big scene at the end of Disc 1 - where Sephiroth's severely messing with Cloud's mind - and then had to quit and go back to school for a week. I spent that week convincing myself that Cloud was a brainwashed clone of Sephiroth, had never had an independent existence, that he was basing himself off Tifa's memories and they'd all have to come to terms with the fact that he didn't really exist, or at least that he wasn't the same person as the boy Tifa had known... and then, nope! Cloud was just convincing himself he was cooler than he really was, that was all. I was so let down.
Day 12 – Final Fantasy game you’ve played more than 5 times.
FF6. Of course. Just off the replays I can confirm I played through to an ending... I know I beat it at least twice before I realized you could save Shadow. I know I beat it once without Sabin, Locke, or Strago, just to see how the endings for Edgar, Celes, and Relm were different. I know I beat it once with just the Edgar/Setzer/Celes trio. I know I bought into rumors about a "good ending" when I was new to the Internets and spent eternities trying to obtain the Cursed Ring so I could de-curse it; I know I beat it with Shadow alive and having seen all his dreams, because I thought that might change the ending (it does, but not as dramatically as I hoped.) And then there are all the playthroughs where I was trying to confirm something (what spells does Terra learn on her own and when does she learn them? What about Celes? I had to get both of them to 99) or review a scene (who says what in the Gau-makeover scene) where I easily could have beaten the game but I'm not sure I actually went ahead and finished the job.
Day 13 – Your favourite version of Cid.
Er... I... don't really usually pay much attention to Cid... I like Al-Cid Margrace, but I don't think he's The Real Cid for FF12. Since I've yet to encounter FF12's Real Cid (though I believe him to be related to Balthier, so he'll probably be hot, which would be a nice change from prior Cids) I'll go ahead and say FF4.
Day 14 – Favourite Final Fantasy male character.
Setzer, Balthier, or Reeve. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN THEM. I also really liked Zidane.
Setzer, largely because of the Daryl flashbacks; I liked that he wasn't wearing his angst on his sleeve, his choice of lost love spoke well of him, and he had about the hottest 16-bit sprite possible. Balthier because he's witty, entertaining, and has much of the devil-may-care, I-have-an-airship appeal of Setzer; between attitude, voice, and looks, he's the most ridiculously hot guy in the FF series and the main reason I want to finish that game.
Reeve is a bit of a different case. I like him because he's the most morally-comprehensible playable character in the game, to me. I'm always surprised that so many people don't seem to feel the same. Let's face it, most of us are FAR likelier to work for a big, evil corporation than to be eco-terrorists. (Or religiously-motivated terrorists; if someone started blowing up power plants in the US because coal and petroleum are the LIFEBLOOD OF THE PLANET, how sympathetic would you find them?) My husband works for a big corporation that accomplishes both good and bad things but certainly looks evil to some people.
But because the eco-terrorists are the main characters, everyone thinks they're obviously right and their opponents are obviously wrong. It helps, I guess, that the mystical mumbo-jumbo is proved right, this being a Final Fantasy game, and that 90% of the Shinra-affiliated folks in positions of power are demented and cartoonishly evil, but still. Reeve's position makes sense; he's a good guy working for a corporation that accomplishes both good (implementing an apparently clean, renewable energy source) and bad (like... burning down villages, conducting hugely unethical human experimentation, and funding mad scientists who inadvertently bring about Armageddon) - and there's no indication most people even KNOW about all of the bad stuff - who's trying to do things as ethically as possible in the position he's in, while being understandably opposed to people blowing up power plants and ordinary employees just doing their jobs.
Locke's not on the list. Sure, he's half of my OTP, but it wasn't his own, solo characterization that I found endearing; it was the way he interacted with Terra. Once the game started playing up his interaction with Celes instead, I lost interest in him.
Day 15 – Favourite Final Fantasy female character.
TERRA. So easy! I'm also partial to the FF12 ladies (all of them.)
Terra isn't just my favorite character out of habit. I sympathized with the wanting-to-know-what-love-is - because at 15 or so, I didn't really get it either. I mean, I loved my family, but they were fixtures in my lives - you don't spend much time thinking "I love my family so much" when life is normal, or at least I never did - and I didn't get romantic love. I felt sort of out-of-place and weird, much like Terra clearly does, and while I would have preferred her resolution to involve Locke - even if just Locke saying "sorry I was such a dick, Terra, I went and fell for Celes while you were in a coma," anything to even acknowledge the early hints - I felt better for the fact that she was able to find her reason to keep going. I liked her rejoinder to Kefka ("it's not the end result of your life that's important") in the Woolsey translation, and I need to finish FF6A to make sure they didn't change it.
And, well, I am attached to her - she's been a favorite for so long.
As for the FF12 ladies: I like Ashe's dedication and determination; I like that Penelo's clearly the smart and reliable one in her partnership with Vaan, and her Dissidia commentary makes me smile (she admires Terra, too!); and Fran's just cool, plus she and Balthier pretty much come as a unit so... yeah.
Day 16 – Your favourite Final Fantasy limit break.
.....This is really biased towards players of the new games! Great Gospel was totally worth getting. I like the FF12 Quickenings, but haven't completed all of them yet; of those I've seen, I'm partial to Balthier's Tides of Fate, Basch's Ruin Impendent, and Ashe's Maelstrom's Bolt.
Day 17 – Favourite Final Fantasy mini game.
Probably Chocobo Hot and Cold. I also spent a lot of time on chocobo racing in FF7, at one point, for the sake of getting the Gold Chocobo and Knights of the Round, but that didn't mean I liked it.
Day 18 – Favourite Final Fantasy opening sequence.
FF6! I know it doesn't impress most people with its graphics anymore, but it looked pretty good in 1994-95. The way Kefka's and Terra's themes are mixed, the music as the Magitek armor marches toward Narshe, the lit windows of the town becoming more clear as they go... I love this game. My favorite opening sequence of all time is Chrono Trigger's - the original, no changes or adjustments in any way - but that's not FF.
My gardenias are finally blooming, huzzah! I needs me a plant icon. I did a lot of other productive, garden-related stuff today -planting fountain grass, setting up the strawberry pot, getting some more plants to put in the shady side yard - and I hope to have my first tomatoes soon. Leela keeps escaping when I open the door to my computer room, but she wasn't very good at it for a while. Once she figured out that sticking only the top half of her body under the couch was not enough, she got her way and got to explore the house a bit. She seems to be exhausted from her adventures and is passed out on my lap again.
FF Meme!
Day 10 – Best Final Fantasy scene ever.
A toss-up. I'm tempted to say the scene in FF9 where Zidane and Garnet watch helplessly as Atomos wreaks havoc on Lindblum, but part of the reason that impressed me is the idea of summons as weapons of mass destruction used against civilian targets, and that scene isn't the only example of that in the game. There are scenes in FFX - I'm sort of weird among fans in that I didn't hate Tidus or his voice acting, and the "Dad? I hate you" scene impressed me.
Or, I could just go the predictable route and pick something from FF6. Not the Opera. I never understood why that was so beloved; THOSE GODDAMN RATS IN THE RAFTERS were enough to make me hate it forever, even without the Woolsey lyrics to the opera, which the FF6A version can never displace no matter how much I wish they could... No, it'd be the intro again, and I'm pretty sure that's been my answer to something else already. Or.. NO. Setzer's flashback in Daryl's tomb. Which was ALSO my answer to something else...
Day 11 – Final Fantasy game that disappointed you.
FF7. I was so RIDICULOUSLY excited for it before it came out, and it didn't get released till my freshman year of college. I'd go home on weekends to play it, and the play sessions fell such that I saw the whole big scene at the end of Disc 1 - where Sephiroth's severely messing with Cloud's mind - and then had to quit and go back to school for a week. I spent that week convincing myself that Cloud was a brainwashed clone of Sephiroth, had never had an independent existence, that he was basing himself off Tifa's memories and they'd all have to come to terms with the fact that he didn't really exist, or at least that he wasn't the same person as the boy Tifa had known... and then, nope! Cloud was just convincing himself he was cooler than he really was, that was all. I was so let down.
Day 12 – Final Fantasy game you’ve played more than 5 times.
FF6. Of course. Just off the replays I can confirm I played through to an ending... I know I beat it at least twice before I realized you could save Shadow. I know I beat it once without Sabin, Locke, or Strago, just to see how the endings for Edgar, Celes, and Relm were different. I know I beat it once with just the Edgar/Setzer/Celes trio. I know I bought into rumors about a "good ending" when I was new to the Internets and spent eternities trying to obtain the Cursed Ring so I could de-curse it; I know I beat it with Shadow alive and having seen all his dreams, because I thought that might change the ending (it does, but not as dramatically as I hoped.) And then there are all the playthroughs where I was trying to confirm something (what spells does Terra learn on her own and when does she learn them? What about Celes? I had to get both of them to 99) or review a scene (who says what in the Gau-makeover scene) where I easily could have beaten the game but I'm not sure I actually went ahead and finished the job.
Day 13 – Your favourite version of Cid.
Er... I... don't really usually pay much attention to Cid... I like Al-Cid Margrace, but I don't think he's The Real Cid for FF12. Since I've yet to encounter FF12's Real Cid (though I believe him to be related to Balthier, so he'll probably be hot, which would be a nice change from prior Cids) I'll go ahead and say FF4.
Day 14 – Favourite Final Fantasy male character.
Setzer, Balthier, or Reeve. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN THEM. I also really liked Zidane.
Setzer, largely because of the Daryl flashbacks; I liked that he wasn't wearing his angst on his sleeve, his choice of lost love spoke well of him, and he had about the hottest 16-bit sprite possible. Balthier because he's witty, entertaining, and has much of the devil-may-care, I-have-an-airship appeal of Setzer; between attitude, voice, and looks, he's the most ridiculously hot guy in the FF series and the main reason I want to finish that game.
Reeve is a bit of a different case. I like him because he's the most morally-comprehensible playable character in the game, to me. I'm always surprised that so many people don't seem to feel the same. Let's face it, most of us are FAR likelier to work for a big, evil corporation than to be eco-terrorists. (Or religiously-motivated terrorists; if someone started blowing up power plants in the US because coal and petroleum are the LIFEBLOOD OF THE PLANET, how sympathetic would you find them?) My husband works for a big corporation that accomplishes both good and bad things but certainly looks evil to some people.
But because the eco-terrorists are the main characters, everyone thinks they're obviously right and their opponents are obviously wrong. It helps, I guess, that the mystical mumbo-jumbo is proved right, this being a Final Fantasy game, and that 90% of the Shinra-affiliated folks in positions of power are demented and cartoonishly evil, but still. Reeve's position makes sense; he's a good guy working for a corporation that accomplishes both good (implementing an apparently clean, renewable energy source) and bad (like... burning down villages, conducting hugely unethical human experimentation, and funding mad scientists who inadvertently bring about Armageddon) - and there's no indication most people even KNOW about all of the bad stuff - who's trying to do things as ethically as possible in the position he's in, while being understandably opposed to people blowing up power plants and ordinary employees just doing their jobs.
Locke's not on the list. Sure, he's half of my OTP, but it wasn't his own, solo characterization that I found endearing; it was the way he interacted with Terra. Once the game started playing up his interaction with Celes instead, I lost interest in him.
Day 15 – Favourite Final Fantasy female character.
TERRA. So easy! I'm also partial to the FF12 ladies (all of them.)
Terra isn't just my favorite character out of habit. I sympathized with the wanting-to-know-what-love-is - because at 15 or so, I didn't really get it either. I mean, I loved my family, but they were fixtures in my lives - you don't spend much time thinking "I love my family so much" when life is normal, or at least I never did - and I didn't get romantic love. I felt sort of out-of-place and weird, much like Terra clearly does, and while I would have preferred her resolution to involve Locke - even if just Locke saying "sorry I was such a dick, Terra, I went and fell for Celes while you were in a coma," anything to even acknowledge the early hints - I felt better for the fact that she was able to find her reason to keep going. I liked her rejoinder to Kefka ("it's not the end result of your life that's important") in the Woolsey translation, and I need to finish FF6A to make sure they didn't change it.
And, well, I am attached to her - she's been a favorite for so long.
As for the FF12 ladies: I like Ashe's dedication and determination; I like that Penelo's clearly the smart and reliable one in her partnership with Vaan, and her Dissidia commentary makes me smile (she admires Terra, too!); and Fran's just cool, plus she and Balthier pretty much come as a unit so... yeah.
Day 16 – Your favourite Final Fantasy limit break.
.....This is really biased towards players of the new games! Great Gospel was totally worth getting. I like the FF12 Quickenings, but haven't completed all of them yet; of those I've seen, I'm partial to Balthier's Tides of Fate, Basch's Ruin Impendent, and Ashe's Maelstrom's Bolt.
Day 17 – Favourite Final Fantasy mini game.
Probably Chocobo Hot and Cold. I also spent a lot of time on chocobo racing in FF7, at one point, for the sake of getting the Gold Chocobo and Knights of the Round, but that didn't mean I liked it.
Day 18 – Favourite Final Fantasy opening sequence.
FF6! I know it doesn't impress most people with its graphics anymore, but it looked pretty good in 1994-95. The way Kefka's and Terra's themes are mixed, the music as the Magitek armor marches toward Narshe, the lit windows of the town becoming more clear as they go... I love this game. My favorite opening sequence of all time is Chrono Trigger's - the original, no changes or adjustments in any way - but that's not FF.