aruru | On friendship plots/subplots in games.

A comment a few days ago from a conversation with

ruaki (regarding Yuri and Flynn's friendship in Tales of Vesperia) leads to me totally having a nostalgia-attack and thus fangirling over Tosh and Shu's friendship in the original Arc the Lad trilogy. (Warning: Spoilers for Vesperia in the original entry [mainly, the comic linked] and in the comment linked above, and spoilers for a subplot in AtL 3 in my comment... though that game is several years old already, so it might not matter to anyone.)

Seriously, I think my summary of the AtL 3 subplot in question is one of the times I've best been able to explain (by example) why I like those two so much, both as best friends AND as a ~~smokin' hot!~~ pairing, so I felt like sharing. (I know it's incredibly hard to find now, but I DEMAND THAT MORE PEOPLE PLAY THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY, GODDAMMIT! WE NEED MORE FANS!!! ~~ESPECIALLY OF TOSH x SHU!!!~~ >O)

Anyway... so, since I figure it might be an interesting subject to some of you reading this: Does anyone else here have their own "Friend vs. Friend story where the friendship mattered, but without the theme taking over the entire plot"-type of duos (Or trios? Or maybe polygons? Haha... XD) to share? Doesn't necessarily have to be games, if you don't want it to be or can't think of one in that particular category... :)

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I'd have to replay the games and re-watch the anime (which is slightly painful because I didn't think it was that great) since I remember so little of how everything worked out other than ~~Arc and Kukuru die~~.

LOL yeah, the anime was admittedly kinda lame. I did like seeing the cast in anime format (even though the designs weren't particularly "wow"-inducing for the most part), but even that didn't help wash away the aura of suck it had. Sapants. ;_;

And LMAO... ack, I hope I didn't annoy you, then! :O Sometimes I forget people don't develop the same attachments to stuff that I do (same way that sometimes I don't develop attachments to other people's favorite stuff), and then I go off on some part of something that I particularly liked (and thus latched onto), and people are all left like "Huh?!" at it. My bad, dude. I just really, REALLY loved the original AtL trilogy. ^^;;

(Speaking of Arc and Kukuru, I really wish they'd had gotten better lead-up to/development as a couple. :( Their romantic relationship just kinda seemed to have come out of nowhere... heck, Arc himself should've had better chara development, period.)

I develop attachments to things like that too!

I'm just partial to going with the hetero option first and foremost until Word of God says otherwise. Maybe it's just because I see the 'they're good friends, so they must be gay' thing to be weird since my best friend were super close, but we were definitely not spending our summer vacation at Camp Gay after a cruise on the loveboat. Or it could be my natural urge to ~~hate everything someone loves~~ ~~loathe fandoms~~ ~~rain on people's parades~~ ~~play Devil's Advocate because I'm the Scion of Balance~~ maintain a counterbalance in everything.

(Damn you TV Tropes.)

First off: Nice tatt! I don't think I could ever show my attachment to a fandom by way of permanent body art (just too scared it'll hurt, plus I worry that I'd regret it later, haha), but I can appreciate it on someone else! :D

Anyway, I just wanted to say that, despite my massive doses of fangirling making it look like the contrary, I actually DON'T think "good friends = they MUST be gaygayGAY!" (or even "good friends = they MUST have a romantic relationship!" for hetero pairs) in reality. It just doesn't work that way in most relationships - things are more complex than that.

The reasons why I ship most of my ships are twofold: Firstly, because of obvious aesthetic reasons (Because I won't deny that all the stuff I ship - het, yaoi, OR yuri - are things I find "hot" in some manner or other. And by "hot" I don't necessarily mean the charas are pretty to look at - sometimes it's the character dynamics/interaction that touches on my sense of... I guess we could call them "personality aesthetics?" Does that make sense?).

Secondly, because I enjoy thinking of "what ifs" - in other words, the possibilities an "alternate storyline/relationship dynamic/etc." could bring (And to me, all fanworks are essentially alternate realities, regardless of whether they follow canon to the letter, or play fast and loose with AUs, because none of 'em were done by the original creator[s]... and heck, considering some creators even make their own AUs/crossovers [CLAMP's Tsubasa comes to mind], we even have alternate realities of alternate realities, haha... XD). And sometimes those "what ifs" for me... well, a lot of them turn out to go to the Gay Side of the force, LOL. XD I'm not sure why is that - perhaps force of habit or something.

I'm sure there are other reasons too, but I can't really think of them at the moment.

Anyway... in my opinion, what it all boils down to is basically: Certain kinks will push certain people's buttons, and not others, and that's Perfectly Normal and Fine, and if more people would just learn this, we'd have a lot less drama going on and develop better understanding of one another. Also, while you can sometimes learn a few things from looking at someone's tastes/kinks, it does not mean that a personal kink/taste is wholly representative of that person (Easiest example I can think of for this last bit is that, despite how often I love to gush over "Big Beefy ~~Ukes~~ Manly Men" in games/anime/other works of fiction, my actual taste in "real-life" men is actually pretty... well, usually average build. Sometimes I even like slender or awkward-looking guys, as long as they look strong & sturdy for their build.); and That Is Okay Too.

...and you probably already know all this, since you've been so cool about things in this conversation thus far, so maybe I'm being redundant? Stop me, I'm turning into a sermon service today, ack. XD

(And I have heard of the suck-you-in-for-hours evil of TV Tropes, so I am NOT touching it tonight, as I got to go in a little while. Besides, I've already fallen in that trap by Wikipedia in the past, heh. XD)

On friendship plots/subplots in games.

Re: My thoughts on ya- I mean, relationships! in Arc the Lad (part 2)

Re: My thoughts on ya- I mean, relationships! in Arc the Lad (part 2)

Re: My thoughts on ya- I mean, relationships! in Arc the Lad (part 2)

Counterbalancing your counterbalance? XD (Nah, don't think I am, I'm just babbling at this point...)