Imperial Witch.

Firstly: I've been on kind of a serial adding rampage, so hello new people, welcome to my hell :D I don't have an intro post or anything, but it's a livejournal, you know how this works. Also, shogunate, I was going to comment something about my deep secret love of Tokugawa Japan and how this relates to your new username, but it said I was banned from commenting? Which might be a good idea, really, I'm just not sure how intentional it was!

Moving right along with that Top 5 Meme, here are my Top Five Ridiculous RPG Outfits as requested by in_solis. The number one is kind of obvious, but really, there can be only one.

( Top Five Ridiculous RPG Outfits )

On a slightly more serious note, I was really busy last afternoon not studying for an exam, and so I found myself at TVTropes in the vicinity of the Valkyrie Profile. Somewhere around Misaimed Fandom I stumbled upon this little gem:

Lezard Valeth from Valkyrie Profile was written to be as repulsive as possible, a sexually deviant stalker and violator of natural laws; like Harry Potter grown up terribly, terribly wrong. Some fans eat his character up, and pair him with the heroine of the first game.

Now, as someone with this icon, I think it's pretty obvious that Tri-Ace intended Lezard to be a popular character-- after all, he's a super-special Seraphic Gate party member, with his partners in badass Freya and Brahams. His lechery is played for humor as much as it is for creepiness, and he is a genuinely brilliant free agent in a world overly concerned with destiny. Lezard also has an entire series of official manga to his credit, as well as a prominent role in Valkyrie Profile 2, which may has well have been subtitled Lezard for all Silmeria showed up in that thing. Yes, he is a horrible, horrible person-- but horrible people? In my Valkyrie Profile? When did that one happen?

But it did get me thinking: how does one fangirl evil? I love Lezard because he's such a fascinating character, because in a game full of gods his motivations are supremely human, in a game full of the dead he remains so triumphantly alive. To love, to aspire-- these are passionate, red things, things the gods do not do with any vibrancy, and watching Lezard's quest for knowledge and kindness unmake him is weirdly poignant. His actions are pretty reprehensible, but his worth as character isn't the same as his worth as a person.

Still, I have to admit the appeal of fictional evil. The characters I like in books are almost never the characters I like in life, and vice versa. I don't think this is so unusual; even the good guys can be too brightly colored and brooding to tolerate for periods of more than thirty minutes per week plus commercial breaks.

And yet, the love of villains is so often accompanied by a desire to change them, to make them better. We give them happy endings instead of downfalls. Does erasing fictional sins cheapen the real ones? Probably, eventually, if you decide that Satan is really the hero of Paradise Lost or make Tom Riddle your private pink squishy bear. At the very least, it's hard to make Sephiroth the good guy without insulting Aeris. But more than that, really, by writing off a character's faults we make them less than what they are, not more. I'm not sure what to do with the moral question, or the question of authorial intent versus popular interpretation, but if you take away the worst parts of a character, you usually take away the most interesting.

So, as you know me, you might know that they're releasing a sequel to Final Fantasy IV featuring the adventures of Ceodore, Cecil and Rosa's son and very possibly the least masculine child ever. Many of the old cast members are returning, despite the original game's abysmal death rate, and some of them will be wearing their underwear!! It'll also only be available on fancy Japanese cell phones because that's just how the Artists Formerly Known as Squaresoft roll.

But guess what else? Kain's back!!

The thing about this, though, is if you remember, Kain had one of those great ambiguous endings because he was this great ambiguous character. We never got to see if his hero's journey ended in success or failure, and that was kinda the way I wanted it. Luckily, fanfiction.net, as ever, comes to the rescue.

( Some ideas for Kain in the sequel... )

In other news: Valkyrie Profile for DS! Jimmy Olsen vs Darkseid: now with bonus KAMEHAMEA action? It is a good time to be me. I have also determined to get a PSP pretty much just so I can play the fancier, shinier version of Final Fantasy Tactics. Squaresoft used "Spiffy Cutscenes" on wild terra. It's super effective!

Zen Question: when Ashley Riot rearranges his living room, does all his furniture go back to the original configuration when he leaves the room?

Thank You, Alex - Your application for the Final Fantasy VI- Cole, Locke fanlisting has been received. A staff member will process the application and you should hear back within 4 weeks (hopefully sooner!) :)

Wish me luck everyone :D *crosses fingers* Also, I should mention the lovely and wonderful dresstokill has made me a fanlist, so I think I should probably plug it everywhere.

( Shakespeare! Now with more zombies! )

I was working on that Nash related project, trying to write about Nash and Chris, and this is sort of what happened. (I am enjoying Open Canvas muchly, th3newblack.)

I also randomly picked up The High King, and now I can tell I'm going to have to read all the Prydain Chronicles all over again. Why do I still find children's fantasy novels so enjoyable after I've pretty much given up the grown-up books of the genre?

The biggest news around at the network is that I made an icon dump. It's not very glamorous, nor does it have a name, or serve any unique purpose, but it's there. Actually, it's step...two in my overly ambitious art-network webthing that will never get done. Yaar! Also, Lightbringer has some new "donated" icons.

Further updates are delayed because I'm spending every minute of my considerable free time playing Tales of Symphonia and reading bad fantasy novels. I have book 3 of the Wheel of Time, I found it lying around. It looks like I'll have to read it now.

Plug time! Firstly, all of lalaloveppears things are moving and she has two spiffy new domains: Ayu Vogue and Midgar Rock. Also, I recently stumbled across this excellent FFV shrine, Seafarer. I'm all for archaic video game tributes, but Final Fantasy V impresses even me. And the webmistress linked Lightbringer, which is really sweet.

And now, for the Vagrant Story plugathon. Because everything is coming up riskbreaker in Alex's internet land. Firstly, sarisa, known far and wide for her adoration of Mr. Losstarot, is now in possession of the Vagrant Story fanlisting, and she's added various content which I am not reading because I'm in the middle of the game and would prefer not to be completely spoiled. (Er, she also has a matching FFXII site, if you prefer skypirates to attractive young cultists.) And then delphi has expanded her Ashley Riot fanlisting to a full blown shrine of antennae-hair loving. And finally, rydia has given In the Fade, a very useful shrine database findery thing, a new Sydneyish layout. So, Vagrant Story love for one and all on the internet as I impatiently wait for my copy to get back to me.