Anniversary ghetto sayings
Surgery upcoming
2024.05.16 10:38 Warm-Media-5251 Surgery upcoming
I can't sleep I'm reading about the Tevar surgery and freaking out about all the kinds of complications and just knowing that my life is never going to be the same, it's just hitting me now and my biggest fear is that I might be conscious after I'm dead but I don't want to be I just want to be dead that probably doesn't make any sense because it's the middle of the night in my brain is doing weirdness thank you for reading, I've been awake for 2 hours should I just get up at 4:30 in the morning and have a cup of coffee? I've already posted this in the aneurysm subreddit but I'm still freaked out and I'm alone so I think you can understand, I've been writing about this in here since the anniversary of my husband's death on March 31st. The day after he died I said a note to everyone I could find in his computer and one of them wrote back saying they thought it was an April fool's joke he was a sweet man and of course very upset but gave a lovely eulogy yet the funeral... I've told my kids this is the decade of my death but I don't want it to be at the start of the decade. I spent so much time as a widow for 16 years feeling sorry for myself I guess that's a way to put it and now I know I did my best but I regret not letting myself enjoy things even more than I did even though he was gone. đđđđđđ
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2024.05.16 10:36 Winter_Mammoth8179 If you had to keep one what would it be and why?
| If you had to keep one: - 15510 50th anniversary white/silver dial - 15500or rose gold on leather (& rubber black dial) Which would not be and why - price not to be considered please. Although, the 15500or was c.35k to the 15510 24k Things to consider - if the 15500 was to go, thereâd be no more rose gold in the collection but plenty of white metal. Letâs say for this example, theyâd be no other APs on steel bracelet either. Let me know your thoughts! submitted by Winter_Mammoth8179 to audemarspiguet [link] [comments] |
2024.05.16 10:12 so-coco Coon cousin *sigh* they got him
Iâm visiting my cousin who recently moved to Colorado a few years ago. Heâs originally from Miami, Florida, Dade county specifically. I havenât seen him in years and heâs a complete 360. He somewhat talks down on BW sigh but around me Iâm not tolerating that shit. Itâs okay to have a preference but why talk badly about women you donât prefer? He seems so anti-black now. He talks about BW as if heâs disgusted. Saying the way black people talk is âghettoâ. He talks as if we are a monolith sigh. I always correct him and stand my firmly on everyone has different backgrounds and some prefer to speak aave more than others, nothing wrong with it. Crazy because I was considering moving here temporarily but absolutely not. Not at the cost of being brain washed. I will stay my happy black ass in IL
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2024.05.16 09:38 Phazers-_-pew-_-pew Did I make the right decision - a sushi chefâs dilemma
Here me out, I trust yâallâs judgement because you know sushi.
Iâve been a sushi chef for 12 years now. I learned under a Japanese chef in the middle of desert first. I moved to Austin and learned under various chefs for years. I have a lot of experience in kitchens as well. I can cut fish, nigiris, sashimis, recipes, rice, zu, sauces. I can order and budget and manage.
Where I currently live (El Paso TX) thereâs not very many sushi bars, much less good ones. I luckily found a chef (Korean/Japanese) that had great fish. We had Korean kimchi freezers for the fish and he had good reps for his products. We had better fish than I was getting in Austin. He was a maniac but I respected his product and recipes. Late last year he picked up and moved out of town.
Iâm his absence I was asked to work for a newish sushi bar. A chain from South America whose first bar in the us was this one. Though their goal was more upscale than their previous ventures. Their other restaurants were fast casual, lots of fried rolls and volume volume volume for their sales.
This bar was already a year in. I was asked to cut two whole blue fin tunas for the anniversary party. A 50lb and 75lb. Thousands of dollars worth of fish. The premise was to break them down in front of customers then immediately go into a 65 person seating, 8 courses in Two hours. Then 30 minute window to reset the tables then a 100 seating. the tuna itself was the product we were using. A miso, a sashimi, a couple rolls, something from the kitchen. Several nigiris of akami, chu toro, and otoro, followed by otoro and chutoro sashimi.
Suffice to say it was a shitshow, and we spoiled out most of the product. The tuna itself wasnât great, it wasnât bluefin but yellow fin. Neither fish had any otoro, much less chutoro. I cut what I could of the belly and we used that.
They needed help. They knew nothing of purchasing seafood, much less making rice, cutting fish, storing fish, Japanese food on general.
At first I had free reign to change everything, but that quickly got undermined. I tried everything. Made my case with numbers, with support of the servers, customers even. Went as far as to purchase product myself or get samples to physically show the difference in quality. I readjusted ecipes, order guides, training guides. I bought stuff under the radar. Everything got shot down. We continued to suffer through bad reviews, always the quality of the product came up. It was literally the cheapest fish in the catalog. Yet sold as the most expensive in town.
We had ton of problems in the kitchen too. I got promoted to run both sushi and kitchen. I didnât have experienced staff, couldnât get the ok ok that payroll. I burnt myself out, 75 hr weeks, no days off. No dishwasher. No. Sushi chefs other than myself had enough experience. I walked. I got the fuck out. I felt like I couldnât fix it. I wanted too but the powers that be felt like it wasnât worth it. I donât know, I just needed to get it off my chest
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2024.05.16 09:28 haygurlhay123 âThis Time, I Will Never Let You Goâ: Cloudâs Mission and the Hidden Purpose of the Remake Trilogy - Literary and Musical Analysis of FFVII - Part 3
(continuation of
part 2)
III. e) The
Mobius FF x FFVII collaboration
Alright, back to our suspension world-hopping! Letâs visit the realm of
Mobius FF, âmore specifically, the collaboration between
Mobius FF and
FFVIIâ, where I found the most substantial evidence for my theory.
In case youâre unfamiliar with the
Mobius FF (
MFF) world and games, letâs begin with a bit of a summary of the parts relevant to us. The story takes place in a world called Palamecia, to which people from other worlds are inexplicably summoned. The vast majority of those who are brought there donât remember anything from their worlds of origin or their lives before Palamecia except their names: these amnesiac people are called Blanks. The main character is Wol, accompanied by a guiding fairy of Palamecia named Echo. Echo knows a lot about the mechanisms of Palamecia, as sheâs tied to the realm. The leader of this world is Vox, a being who manifests only as a voice. The first thing all Blanks remember before they wake in Palamecia is Vox telling them the rules of the realm. Incidentally, the crystals of the
MFF world are teleportation crystals.
III. e) i. Devsâ Statements
Letâs review some of the
MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration devsâ statements before diving into its story.
For both the
MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration and the
Remake project, Kitase took on the role of producer while Nojima supervised the screenplay and wrote the scenario. The project leader was none other than the
Remake trilogyâs Hamaguchi, who told a SE interviewer the following:
âWe would love for you to play the [MFF x FFVII] collaboration event as you look forward to [Remakeâs] releaseâ (âCelebration of the Overseas Release of the Steam Version and FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Collaboration Eventâ, Square Enix).
He later hints at the collaborationâs storyline:
âThis collaboration is focused on Cloud, so the other characters will not make an appearance. Players will join Cloud, who has gone astray in Palamecia, on his adventures and see how the story unfolds based on his decisions. Content-wise, FINAL FANTASY VII fans will surely become fraught with emotion as events unfold in-game (laughs).â
Kitase concurs on the emotional aspect of the collaboration in the same interview:
âWhen it comes to the story, I seek two thingsâ âmysteryâ and â[âŚ] emotional impactâ.â
Clearly, fans of
FFVII are supposed to react emotionally to the events of the collaboration. With these statements in mind to give us perspective, we can get into the plot points relevant to our analysis.
MFF x FFVII Remake comes in two parts, the relevant plot points of which I will describe and analyze one at a time.
III. e) ii.
Eclipse Contact 1) Fact-Finding
Part one of the
MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event is called
Eclipse Contact. It came out in 2017 on Aerithâs birthday, February 7th, and its release campaign ran until March. In
Eclipse Contact, Palamecia welcomes someone new: Cloud Strife appears in the realm with very little recollection of his core world of
FFVII.
Cloud isnât a Blank, since he recalls the mako reactors in Midgar upon his arrival in Palamecia, and also remembers that he was hired by Avalanche to blow them up:
âEcho: How did you end up in Palamecia?
Cloud: I⌠That day... I remember now. A job. I had taken a job. I was hired muscle protecting clients. They wanted to stop the reactor... We used a train to get past security... Was it at night? Something happened... Next thing I knew, I was floating through darkness. Then [I woke up here]â.
This piece of dialogue reveals that
Eclipse Contact Cloudâs memories end at the very moment when Avalanche arrives at reactor 1 in OG (disk 1, chapter 1): the very beginning of the game. Consequently, Cloud does not remember anything that happened from the beginning of the OG timeline onwards.
Wol and Echo are intrigued by Cloudâs strange case: non-Blanks rarely arrive in Palamecia. The following text appears on the screen shortly after they meet:
âPerhaps he is not truly who he thinks he is.
Perhaps everything is illusory, a dream.
Only one thing is certain, that he must press on, one step at a time, toward the light that shines from the promised land.â
Just like he did in
FFTâs Ivalice, Cloud feels the need to find the Promised Land in
MFF x FFVII, despite the fact that he lacks memories of the OG timeline. Though Cloud doesnât remember anything beyond the train ride to reactor 1, he does remember the Promised Land (at least somewhat). This is odd, given that in OG, Cloud didnât learn about the Promised Land until several chapters into the game.
Wol and Echo agree to help Cloud figure out why heâs here, since thereâs clearly something strange going on with his presence in Palamecia. In fact, Cloud brought Midgarâs mako reactors with him somehow, transplanting them onto the landscape of Palamecia. The group decides to bomb these reactors, following Cloudâs instincts in the hopes that it will jog his memory.
Now for my favorite part. After blowing up another reactor, the group is surprised by the appearance of a crystal. A piano rendition of Aerithâs theme begins. When Wol tries to touch the crystal, something akin to a force field rejects him. When Cloud approaches it, however, the crystal responds to his hand by flashing with light. As it begins to glow, Wol concludes that the crystal is linked to Cloud and Cloud alone. Letâs examine the resulting dialogue:
âEcho: This is the light in your memories. The light of home.
Cloud: Home? But I donâtâ
Echo: If you don't remember⌠then your home is lost to you.
Cloud: Then my memories are gone.
Wol: Do you want to reclaim your past?
Cloud: Not interested... I am what I am now. Not what I was.
Wol: Then tell me⌠This light. If you canât remember it, what does it mean to you?
Cloud: It's a warm light... I feel at peace. If this place âhomeâ is as warm and peaceful as this light, then I want to go there.
Echo: You can't go there... Not back to the past.
Cloud: I see.
Echo: But even if you can't go back to the past, you can go forward. If you wish for it strongly enough, the crystal will show you the way. The way to a new world. The way to your Promised Land. [âŚ]
Cloud: So... Should [I] take [my] chances and make a wish to this crystal?
Wol: Go ahead. Itâs your crystal.
Echo: I should warn you that once you start on this journey, there's no coming back.
Cloud: The past is the past. I want to go to a place where everything is new. Iâm ready.â
What follows is a moment I call
the wishing scene (13:43-14:34). Cloud closes his eyes and wishes on the crystal. It flashes, and suddenly, rainbow-colored ripples of light appear around it. Aerithâs theme is replaced by a slightly modified version of
âMidgar, City of Makoâ, the track that plays during the opening cutscene of
Remake. You can recreate the modification by listening to âMidgar, City of Makoâ from 2:00 to 2:23, then skipping to 3:00 and listening until 3:18. You may recognize the musical motif that kicks off the wishing scene as the
Lifestream motif, which has become symbolic of the mysteries of the
Remake trilogy, as it often plays during scenes where unexplainable plot deviations from OG occurâ more specifically, deviations involving multiverse shenanigans. For instance, it plays during MOTF 4. It also plays in
Rebirth after Cloud blocks masamune as Aerith is shown dying anyway.
Cloud disappears with his crystal, after which Echo speaks to Wol about Cloudâs journey:
âEcho: Each person gets the Promised Land they justly deserve, not the one they really need. If youâre a bad person, you go to a bad place. If you expect nothing, you get nothing. Even the journey there makes you look deep within yourself to find out who you really are. Cloud should be facing his own past as we speak. Itâs cruel, but necessary. That battle was a long time comingâ.
Apparently, at least in the context of this collaboration event, the Promised Land can be a reward or a punishment, depending on which you deserve. Echo explains that Cloud will have to face himself and his past on his way to his Promised Land. This means that the Cloud that appears in
Eclipse Contact must next embark on a journey that will confront him with his past, test his mettle, and ultimately lead him to the Promised Land he justly deserves.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
Thereâs a lot of vital information to dig into here, mostly provided by Echo. She claims that the crystalâs light is linked to Cloudâs memories of home; Cloud has to have known this home in the past, as it could not otherwise exist in his memories.
MFF Cloud must be a post-OG Cloud. Unfortunately, Echo indicates that whatever Cloudâs home is, heâs lost both it and his memories of it. Despite this, Cloud describes his home as warm and peaceful, concluding that he wishes to find it. Though Cloud canât return to the past, Echo tells him that if he wishes it strongly enough, the crystal can guide him toward a new world, where his home and his Promised Land exist in the future. The fact that Aerithâs theme is playing all throughout these descriptions of Cloudâs lost home, his Promised Land and the past that he canât return to makes it extremely obvious that these concepts all point to Aerith. Aerith is Cloudâs lost home. Wherever Aerith is, thatâs his Promised Land. The time spent with Aerith before her loss is the past he tragically canât return to. You might have clocked the similarities between
Eclipse Contactâs mention of Cloudâs lost home and
DFFâs mention of Cloudâs lost dream: in both these titles, Cloudâs home and dream are equivalent to his Promised Land. Itâs confirmed yet again that Aerith is the one Cloud hopes to return to, just like every soul returns to the Lifestream. At this juncture of my research, I was curious as to why the last thing Cloud remembers before waking in Palamecia is the run-up to the Reactor 1 bombing mission in OG (disk 1, chapter 1). This mystery will have to persist for a while longer.
The alarm bells in your head mightâve been triggered by the mention of the wishing sceneâs rainbow ripple effectsâ and rightfully so. This visual cue has sparked passionate debate in the fandom since its appearances in
Rebirth, as seen in these pictures:
Zack Choosing To Get A Cure For Cloud, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating a New World/Timeline Aerith Pushing Cloud Out of that World/Timeline, Remake Chapter 14 Cloud Blocking Masamune, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating New World/Timeline You might have read or heard that this rainbow effect signifies that a character has entered another timeline, created a portal to another timeline, created a new timeline or is being shown different timelines. Indeed, whenever the OG timeline is deviated from in a significant way, this effect appears. The pictures above present multiple examples of these shifting realities.
One might propose that the rainbow ripples in
Eclipse Contact and
Rebirth are unrelated because of the long period between their respective release dates. This long in-between period indeed makes it likelier that the effect was used without forethought in
Eclipse Contact, forgotten over the years, and incidentally reused in
Rebirth as a plot-important visual cue with no connection to
Eclipse Contact. Iâm inclined to disagree since the crystal is specifically described as a vessel that can take Cloud âto a new worldâ by Echo, which is a bit on the nose. Regardless, itâs plausible that thereâs no connection. That is, it would be, if the rainbow effect didnât show up in
Remake too.
When
the Whispers are finally defeated in chapter 18 of
Remake, a burst of the rainbow ripple effects indicate the emergence of multiple worlds, newly freed from the restrictive clutches of fate (1:16:36-1:16:47). Shortly thereafter, Sephiroth takes Cloud to the Edge of Creation and invites him to join forces with him. Cloud refuses, and Sephiroth says the following:
âSeven seconds till the end. Time enough for you. Perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see.â
The question âWhat will you do with it?â implies that the answer is unknown, meaning Cloud is no longer bound to the OG timeline by fate: many alternate futures lay ahead. Sephiroth is telling Cloud and the audience that now, the mystery of the Remake trilogy has become âWhich future will Cloud bring into existence? Which among the infinite possible timelines will his choices result in?â After pondering this aloud, Sephiroth leaves Cloud alone to consider the rainbow effects in the sky (1:19:23-1:19:36). Because they generally represent alternate or changing timelines, itâs safe to assume that the rainbow ripples here represent the myriad of possible worlds that Cloudâs actions in those seven seconds could generate. After all, Sephiroth was just talking about them, and chapter 18âs description in
Remake reads as follows:
âIn a world beyond, Sephiroth shows Cloud a vision of the planet seven seconds before its demise. Having strayed from the course destiny set for them, they strike out on a path towards an unknown future."
This explains why the player is shown Cloud staring at those colors in the apocalyptic sky at worldâs end, directly after hearing Sephirothâs cryptic words: those are all the alternate âunknown futureâ timelines ahead of him, now unravelled from fate. Amongst those rainbow ripples lies the answer to the question âWhat will you do with [the seven seconds]?â
Given that
Remake was released in 2020 and
Eclipse Contact came out in 2017, the major story elements of the
Remake trilogy âincluding the eventuality of alternate timelinesâ had to have been planned out at the time of
Eclipse Contactâs release: while the
MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration was being made,
Remake was also in production. Also recall that the collaboration event and the
Remake trilogy share a codirector in Hamaguchi, a writer in Nojima and a producer in Kitase. Based on all this, itâs more than likely that the rainbow ripples in the
Remake trilogy and in
Eclipse Contact represent the very same thing: alternate worlds and timelines. All this to say that when the rainbow effect appears around the crystal in the
Eclipse Contact, it means the crystal is acting as a vessel to another world, just like Echo said.
But thatâs not all Echo said: she also mentioned that this other world would take Cloud to his home, to his Promised Land. Weâve already established what that means for Cloud, what itâs meant since two whole decades at the time of
Eclipse Contactâs release: this crystal will take Cloud to Aerith. So, where exactly did the crystal take Cloud? In what world can he meet Aerith again?
The music that plays during the wishing scene gives us a huge hint. As I noted before, the track playing in the background is a slightly modified version of
Remakeâs
âMidgar, City of Makoâ, which plays in the introduction cutscene of
Remake. This is a musical cue that the ending of Cloudâs journey in
Eclipse Contact and the very beginning of the
Remake trilogy are closely related. Add the fact that the devs wanted players to experience this collaboration event before playing
Remake, and it becomes undeniable: the crystal that appeared to Cloud in Palamecia âwhich offers to lead him to his home and Promised Land, meaning to Aerithâ, took him to the world of the
Remaketrilogy.
Eclipse Contact is huge. The whole crux of my theory lives and dies right here. However, we still have part two of the
MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event to analyze as well as its promotions to look into before I can drop the thesis on you, so bear with me in order to receive the most thorough analysis of all this possible! I want to give you every drop of proof I can!
III. e) ii.
MFF x FFVII Remake Fatal Calling 1) Fact-Finding
Fatal Calling came out February 1 of 2018, and its release campaign ended in March. The game opens with a cutscene: Cloud is floating, seemingly unconscious, through a sparkling, green current of light. The current flows into a circle of bright, white light, surrounded by rainbow ripple effects as Cloud is driven toward and into it. An orb floats along with him. The
Advent Children theme âThe Promised Landâ plays, a choir of mournful, aching, mutedly desperate souls engaged in a lamenting prayer. Sephirothâs voice echoes:
âSephiroth: Itâs time. You may turn your back on the past, lock your memories away. Hide reality beneath a layer of illusion. But destiny will not die so easily. Yes. At memoryâs end you may plead for it all to go away. But the past is a curse, binding your soul. Itâs time. Wake to your fate. Rise to your destiny.
Cloud: (In a half-conscious grunt) ReunionâŚ
Sephiroth: The light will lead you. Wake to your fate. Rise!â
Sephirothâs mentions of Cloud hiding under an illusion and repressing his memories are no doubt allusions to Cloudâs past, which was complicated and darkened by Hojoâs experiments. It makes sense, then, that Cloud responds with âReunionâ.
Fatal Calling indeed focuses on Cloudâs relationship to his past, his identity and Sephiroth. Everything involving Nibelheim âwhere everything startedâ, Sephirothâs manipulation, and Hojoâs experiments are on the table. Also noteworthy if not out of place is Sephirothâs evocation of fate.
Cloud enters a battle with Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, who are surprised to see him back in Palamecia. Cloud tells them about the orb seen floating along with him in the opening cutscene: though he calls it a materia, he doesnât know how or when he acquired it. Based on his behavior, it appears that Cloud remembers just as little about the events of OG as he did by the end of
Eclipse Contact. Wol informs Cloud that whoever he heard speaking to him on his way here was probably Vox pretending to be Sephiroth.
As the group advances, Cloud recalls Midgar and decides they should go there next. At one of Midgarâs mako reactors, the group encounters Sephiroth, who speaks to himself:
âIt's still not enough. This... this is but a pale imitation of the power I desire.â
Once Sephiroth has disappeared, Cloud explains what he remembers: Sephiroth was the greatest SOLDIER of all and a hero to Cloud, though Cloud canât remember what exactly ended this admiration. As players of
FFVII OG, we know the event in question is the Nibelheim incident, wherein Sephiroth slaughtered the townâs residents, including Cloudâs mother, after learning of his past. The former war hero also severely injured Tifa, whom Cloud presumed dead when he found her in the old mako reactor with a vicious slash on her chest. Cloud is agitated by the gaps in his memory, so the group resolves to follow Sephiroth for answers. When they find him again, Sephiroth causes Cloud to experience a piercing headache with the mere mention of the Reunion. They fight, but Sephiroth is too powerfulâ he skewers Cloud with the masamune and taunts his unconscious body:
âSephiroth: A puppet. I wonât kill you. Not yet. Not until you know true despair.
Wol: If you want despair, we got plenty to go around. Palameciaâs full of it.
Sephiroth: Yes, this planet knows suffering. But it is not the world that was promised to me. I must go home. Tell Cloud, if he wants to see me again, he should face his memories. I will await him there, in the land of memory, where it all began. In Nibelheim.â
Sephiroth darkens Cloudâs materia, turning it black. Later, Wol explains to Cloud that Sephiroth stole the light from his materia, taking Cloudâs strength along with it.
Once Cloud has woken up, the group travels to Nibelheim to uncover the truth about Cloudâs memories. Cloud slowly gathers pieces of his past, shown to the player as titled, diary-like text written from various perspectives. Cloud learns the truth about SOLDIER, Jenova cells, Sephiroth, and what happened in Nibelheim. Letâs examine a few of these diary entries:
âA Warriorâs Tale: There's a girl in Nibelheim I think about. Warm. Cheerful. More grown-up than a child. Haven't talked to her much, but she seems nice. She's going to be leading the SOLDIERs to the mountain reactor. Maybe if I get into the survey team I'll get a chance to talk to her? Nah. She's out of my league.â
Young Cloudâs crush on Tifa is on full display! This must be a memory from his time as an infantryman accompanying Zack and Sephiroth to Nibelheim.
âTale of the Nameless: I drift along in the mako, asleep. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Give me a number. I⌠I⌠I am⌠The Reunion. The Reunion must happen.â
This entry could be taken from any one of the Nibelheim survivorsâ perspectives, as they were all bathed in mako and turned into Sephiroth clones. I would venture to say this is Cloudâs perspective though, given the reference to this iconic line from OG:
âCloud: Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor...
Hojo: Shut up, miserable failure.â (disk 2, chapter 2).
The trio encounters Sephiroth near the old Mt. Nibel mako reactor. Because Sephiroth stole the light from his materia earlier, Cloud goes into the confrontation already drained of his strength. However, when Cloud lifts the materia in his hand, it lights up and creates rainbow ripples in the air around him, similar to those seen in
Eclipse Contact and
Rebirth. Cloud is healed of his injuries: he closes his eyes for a moment, wearing a peaceful expression. Sephiroth is displeased, but recovers quickly:
âSephiroth: The guiding light⌠it healed you.
Wol: [âŚ] here, near the mako reactor, the materia regained its light. And your strength returned [âŚ]. [Sephiroth]âs here so he can steal the power you've stored inside that materia.
Sephiroth, with a short laugh: I have all the power I need. Cloud. What strength youâve regained is yours. Use it to fight me. Itâs time. Letâs decide this, in this land lost to despair. The prize is home. The Promised Land. There to answer the call of destiny.â
With this second evocation of fate, Sephiroth disappears.
Cloud, Wol and Echo find Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. He mocks Cloud for believing the orb in his possession is materia. Sephiroth waves a hand and his signature black and purple fog surrounds Cloud, immobilizing him. Sephiroth claims that the power Cloud regained at the Mt. Nibel reactor was Sephirothâs all along. Now that it courses through Cloudâs veins, Sephiroth controls him. He calls Cloud his puppet and finishes with the following before the two vanish, leaving Wol and Echo alone:
âNow, let us return. Back to the Promised Land. The time of the Reunion has come.â
After Cloud finally breaks free and defeats Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, the villain makes a final threat:
âVery good, Cloud. Youâve destroyed an illusion. But the time will come to abandon your illusions and face reality. Then, you will know true pain.â
Sephiroth disappears for the last time, his body surrounded by his signature dark fog and the rainbow ripples. A piano rendition of Tifaâs theme begins. Cloudâs orb rises into the air and becomes a crystal, with the same shape and glow as the one we see in
Eclipse Contact. The following dialogue is illuminating:
âCloud: I will fight. The light will lead me where I need to go.
Wol: You sure? Wasnât that [crystal] Sephirothâs?
Cloud: I heard Sephiroth's voice, at the end. Inside me. Whatever he put in me, itâs still in there. Someday Iâll settle that score. If I can't avoid destiny, I might as well face it head-on.
Wol: Yeah. That was quite a speech, Cloud. Surprised you made it through without laughing.
Cloud: Yeah, forget I said it. I will too.
Echo: Forgetting wonât make it go away. Even if the words fade from memory, your dream will never disappear. Not until it becomes real.â
The crystal shines as though in response.
âEcho: See? See, that's how the light of hope works. Hope can turn your dreams into reality.
Cloud: Yeah. I guess so. I might forget this world, but I wonât forget hope. And my reality, thatâs for me to live.â
Tifaâs theme ends. Cloud approaches the crystal, and disappears in a beam of blinding light. Once Cloud has vanished with the crystal, Aerithâs theme begins playing. A few pale feathers with a slight orange tint (the color of
MFF) float down onto the floor where he stood seconds before. The image fades to black. The credits roll, and Aerithâs theme continues all the way through.
Once both the final name in the credits and Aerithâs theme fade, weâre surprised by a sudden, troubling image: Sephiroth appears in a frightening flash, standing amidst the flames of Nibelheim. When his image fades to black, the collaboration title *âFinal Fantasy VII x Mobius Final Fantasyâ*appears on the screen. The
FFVII title is surrounded by the 1997 meteor logo. Then, a flash of light: the titles reappear, except this time, they read
âFinal Fantasy VII REMAKE x Mobius Final Fantasyâ. The new
Remake Meteor logo replaces the 1997 version. As soon as these changes to the
FFVIItitle and meteor logo occur, Aerithâs theme returns. It plays on until the game ends a few seconds later, the screen fading to black.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
The introduction cutscene shows that
MFF Cloud travelled from
Eclipse Contact to
Fatal Calling via Lifestream. Itâs unclear how much time has passed in between, but the atemporal nature of the Lifestream makes the question irrelevant. My theory that
MFF Cloud has died is corroborated by the way heâs depicted in the opening cutscene: his eyes are closed and his body is limp as the Lifestream carries him.
Eclipse Contact ended with Echoâs claim that Cloud will face his true self and confront his past while he journeys to his Promised Land. This description resembles what Cloud experienced in the OG Lifestream sequence (disk 2, chapter 8). Indeed,
Fatal Calling revolves around the same topics the Lifestream sequence addresses: the truth about the Nibelheim incident, Hojoâs experiments, young Cloudâs crush on Tifa, etc. The opening cutscene shows Cloud being transported to his Promised Land and facing his past on the way there, just like Echo said he would.
Letâs now take a long detour to examine the song that plays during the opening cutscene of
Fatal Calling: âThe Promised Landâ theme from
Advent Children. The title and general subject of this song are obviously relevant to the cutscene, but there must be more to its inclusion than that. Perhaps the lyrics can help us understand its appearance in the opening cutscene of
Fatal Calling. Here are the unofficial English lyrics (translated from the original Japanese lyrics by an anonymous fan and verified by me via DeepL):
âWhy do we cling together?
Why do we give punishment to lesser hearts?
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The pulse of veins flows through the earth
A faint, faint pulse
Of a heart drawn to death
A gentle life returns to the planet
Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?
Why do we cling together?
Why do we beg for forgiveness
In the Promised Land?â (ââThe Promised Landâ (theme)â by Final Fantasy Wiki).
The song appears to be a regretful lament of human behavior, expressed by the repetition of âWhy do we [âŚ]?â questions. The behaviors listed are all typically human ones: the terms â[clinging] togetherâ and â[giving] punishment to [the] lesserâ express the uniquely human nature of tribalism and the consequences of the fear and hatred it can generate, and â[begging] for forgiveness in the Promised Landâ is likely a reference to the human hypocrisy of only feeling sorry for oneâs crimes when judgement day arrives. This last line describes a scenario where someone remains passive or ignorant in the face of something important, only to realize its essentiality once itâs too late. The repeatedâThe planet did not forgive usâ lines reflect the fear of being condemned forever because of oneâs mistakes, as though the planet is a deity one has sinned against. The lyric describing a pulse in the earth is obviously about the planet being aliveâ a reference to the Lifestream. But the pulse is faint and weak and the planet is dying, perishing because of mankindâs greed. This is an indictment of mako energy. The line âA gentle life returns to the planetâ refers to an innocentâs soul returning to the Lifestream after death, while the next lyric âIs it necessary to sacrifice souls?â protests the âsacrificeâ of the planetâs soul energy for mako production. In all this darkness, this songâs mention of âforgiveness in the Promised Landâ leaves a modicum of hope for a better place, however meek, even though mankind might not deserve it. The song âThe Promised Landâ is both a lament of mankindâs ways and a plea for mercy, with religious and/or spiritual undertones. The songâs themes seem to be: the Promised Land itself, regret and shame, the sins and foolishness of mankind, the death of innocents, grief, Cetra spirituality, and a meek, quiet hope despite it all. The most interesting aspect of the song is its antithetical portrayal of death as a thing of both despair and hope, condemnation and salvation, cruelty and mercy, suffering and relief. Maybe we can glean more information about this themeâs significance in the world of
FFVII if we examine the contexts in which it appears.
Importantly, the song plays in Marleneâs introductory narration of
Advent Children, meaning its themes are related or similar to the filmâs. I highly recommend listening and watching it again, even if you remember
this iconic segment. Marlene references Aerithâs sacrifice as the image of Cloud lowering her into the water is shown. Note that Marlene says âSadness was the price to see it endâ (2:36) after we are shown Aerithâs death and her subsequent unleashing of the Lifestream (1:49-2:24): Aerithâs innocent life was sacrificed for the planetâs survival. The lyrics âA gentle life returns to the planetâ and âIs it necessary to sacrifice souls?â suit Aerithâs situation quite well.
The theme also plays in
Advent Children as Kadaj dies in Cloudâs arms (1:45:00-1:47:55), hearing Aerithâs gentle voice and reaching up to take her invisible hand. Here is what Aerith says to him in his dying moments as âThe Promised Landâ plays:
âAerithâs voice: Kadaj?
Kadaj: Huh?
The dark sky has gone with Sephiroth. Healing rain starts falling from bright clouds. The rain no longer hurts Kadaj.
Aerithâs voice: You donât have to hang on any longer.
Kadaj: Mother! Is that�
Aerithâs voice: Everyoneâs waiting, if youâre ready.
Kadaj nods his head slightly in acceptance. He holds out his hand, and slowly evaporates into the Lifestream. Cloud watches [âŚ]â (Advent Children).
Kadaj is brought into the Lifestream by Aerith as she provides rain from the Lifestream. All those with geostigma are healed by the rain, and Tifa feels Aerithâs presence as the party celebrates:
âTifa, looking out at the falling rain [âŚ]: Somehow, I knew you were there. Thank youâ (Advent Children).
Cloud stands in the rain with a smile âhis first in the whole filmâ, closes his eyes and basks in Aerithâs healing with his face upturned. He is finally at peace:
âCloudâs expression is one of peace as the [Lifestream] rain patters against himâ (Final Fantasy VII Advent Children English script, â[83] Atop the Shinra Buildingâ).
One thing is clear: the track âThe Promised Landâ accompanies Aerith. It only makes sense, since weâve seen overwhelming evidence that she is Cloudâs Promised Land, and since she occupies the Lifestream âwhich some consider the Promised Land as it is where souls go after deathâ during the events of
Advent Children. Note that when the piece plays, Cloud is shown either mourning Aerith and releasing her into the river at the Cetra capital, or basking in her presence, smiling with relief at the peaceful feeling that sheâs somewhere near: these two opposing scenes reflect the songâs antithetical portrayal of death.
Additionally, the songâs themes of regret, shame concerning oneâs sins and a small hope perfectly describe Cloudâs character arc and feelings in
Advent Children. Cloud regrets his inability to save Aerith, which he considers a sin. Further, he only realized how important she is to him once it was too late to tell her. And of course, he harbors a fragile yet important hope that heâll be reunited with her in the Promised Land:
ââCan sins ever be forgiven?â â Cloud asks this to Vincent, who mutters a brief answer. For both of them, âI couldn't protect my loved oneâ is the sense of guilt that they carry, so their words resonate with weightâ (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, âChapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorldâ, âVincent Valentineâ, âIn Advent Childrenâ, page 72).
&
"âIt is my sin that I couldn't protect my loved oneâ â under this assumption, Cloud closes off his heart. What will the reunion with Aerith bring him? âI... think I want to be forgiven. Yeah, I just want to be forgivenââ (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, âChapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorldâ, âCloud Strifeâ, âIn Advent Childrenâ, page 40).
&
âCloud, after seeing Aerithâs hand reach for him through the Lifestream: ⌠I think I'm beginning to understand.
Tifa: What?
Cloud: An answer from the Planet⌠the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... thereâ (disk 3, chapter 3).
Just as the song and Marlene express in the introduction of the film, Aerith was innocent, and her sacrifice generated great grief. Cloud finally experiences peace when he feels her presence in the healing rain, and he smiles: heâs glad to be with her again, even if itâs only for a brief moment of tangential respite.
The scene depicts Aerith guiding Kadaj into the Lifestream as the song plays, tying her to the concept and theme song of the Promised Land once more. This connection is later solidified by Tifaâs thanks to the late flower girl. All of this evidence shows us that this musical theme is intimately linked to Aerith, as it never plays in her absence. After all, the song speaks of sins, the death of innocents, forgiveness, grief, a small sense of hope, regret and the afterlife: all themes relevant to Cloudâs feelings surrounding Aerithâs death in and outside of
Advent Children.
The
Remake OST also includes a version of this piece called âThe Promised Land - Cycle of Lifeâ. This iteration of the theme begins playing in the wake of the first bombing mission, right after Sephiroth taunts Cloud with his motherâs dying words in Sector 8 (chapter 2). Sephiroth appears to Cloud surrounded by flames, evoking the Nibelheim massacre, and the theme begins playing in the background once he disappears,
continuing (13:17-15:30) as Cloud walks through the sector, encountering fires and destruction all around him. This version of the Promised Land theme is meant to emphasize the deaths of the innocent Nibelheim townsfolk and the innocents in Sector 8. This dreadful atmosphere is amplified by the cries of despair that ring all around as Cloud passes by NPC Sector 8 residents. Perhaps the themes of tribalism and mankindâs sin are relevant to this scene as well, since Shinra and Avalanche are two distinct and warring groups whose quarrels, regardless of their necessity, result in the deaths of innocents. The theme of guilt also emerges, reflecting the Avalanche membersâ feelings upon seeing the unintended collateral damage of the explosion. âThe Promised Land - Cycle of Lifeâ plays until Cloud encounters Aerith on Loveless. So it seems in this scenario, the heavy weight of death and despair is lifted when Cloud meets the lively, cheery Aerith. Once more, Aerith is central to the musical theme of the Promised Land, as well as to the concept itself.
I also noticed that a version of the song plays as Cloud and the party ready to enter the Forgotten Capital to save Aerith in
Rebirthâs chapter 14: it truly adds the weight of her upcoming death to the scene.
Back to
Fatal Calling, the scene where Cloud regains his strength is quite mysterious. Wol says Cloudâs orb regained its âguiding lightâ light because of its proximity to the mako reactor. In the moment his strength is replenished, Cloud is shown tilting his head back and closing his eyes: this is reminiscent of the scene in
Advent Children when he stands under Aerithâs healing Lifestream rain, feeling at peace. The rainbow ripples shining from the orb indicate that something is crossing the boundaries of worlds. Since the mako reactor pumps up the Lifestream, being near a reactor also means being physically near the Lifestream. This means Aerithâs spirit is within proximity. In my opinion, Aerith was able to heal Cloud from the Lifestream, just like in
Advent Children. However, Aerith is not in Palamecia with him: her healing had to travel there through the Lifestream, transcending the boundaries of worlds, hence the rainbow ripples.
Letâs now address the appearance of Tifaâs character theme in
Fatal Calling. Since
Fatal Calling is all about discovering Cloudâs past in Nibelheim and then in Hojoâs lab, it makes lots of sense for Tifaâs theme to play as the crystal appears. In OGâs Lifestream sequence (disk 2 chapter 8), sheâs the one there helping Cloud sort through his past instead of Wol and Echo. Cloud even picks up a piece of his childhood crush on Tifa in
Fatal Calling as a shard of his memory. After all, this crush was the catalyst for him joining SOLDIER, and everything that transpired in consequence:
âCloud: That was the first time I heard about Sephiroth. If I got strong like Sephiroth, then everyone might... If I could just get stronger... Then even Tifa would have to notice meâ (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 8).
Additionally, itâs fitting that her theme should begin right after Sephiroth speaks of â[abandoning] your illusions and [facing] realityâ, considering that Cloudâs false persona was concocted by Jenova using Tifaâs mistaken impressions of Cloud:
âWhile being tended to by a station worker in the Sector 7 Slum train station, [Cloud] was reunited with Tifa, and using the abilities of Jenovaâs cells, formed a new personalityâ (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, âChapter 2: Character in FFVII World, âCloud Strifeâ, âCloud Behavior Record, Compilation of FFVIIâ, page 40).
&
â(Image caption:) A new personality takes shape the moment he sees Tifaâ (FFVII Story Playback, âStory Check: Tifaâs Flashbackâ).
&
âTifa (to Cloud): Deep down, you're a pretty nice guy. Didn't see it when we were kids, but...â (Remake, chapter 14).
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2024.05.16 09:25 altacc9002 Is this normal? Cant tell if my girlfriend (25F) is attracted to me (27M)?
I had a late start in life with IRL relationships. This is my first real one. Was a virgin before by choice since i was focused on grinding my wealth up and waiting for the "right person" to do things with.
We have been talking on and off for years online and there were always sparks there previously but nothing happened. We first started talking back when i used to be broke and didnt have nuch going on at the time. I was rejected by her initally about 6 years ago, we stopped talking for a few years and eventually just chatted every now and then if she decided to reach out to me. I always had a thing for her but respectfully kept my distance. She has been keeping tabs on my life and knew when I started doing really well for myself the past couple years.
For months prior this year we sparked it up again online, talking everyday wheneve she had a free moment of time and even sleeping on call every night. She seemed quite into me and would make it clear she wanted me or was horny frequently online and would send me hot pics/vids. We met up IRL finally and she did initiate a few times at the start because she knew i was inexperienced. We discovered i had trouble getting fully hard, i suspect it was because of possible porn-induced ED with freq masterbation in my past. This was quite embaraasing but she said it still felt good even tho it was only semi hard. I did also go down on her and i do enjoy that. I promised to just quit watching porn or jerking off altogether which ive stuck to til now.
Despite my problem down there for now, she still really wanted me to ask her out officially which i did. Up around this point i had done a lot of research about foreplay and just trying to learn how to touch her to get the mood going. She seemed to go along with the touching and we did have sex a few more times around this time.
However, ever since we made it "official" it feels like she's much less willing to be touchy or have any sex at all. We had sex a week after making it official. Since then I've had my foreplaytouching rejected and brushed off, she told me on multiple instances she didnt want to be touched when she was trying to sleep so i would try in the mornings and get rejected and eventually she told me she didnt want to be touched when shes sleeping in (she lays in bed for hours in the morning with her eyes closed even if shes mostly awake).
So i stopped trying to make any bold moves after a bunch of rejections. I've waited for things to happen on her terms since she's a bold person and will initiate if she wants it, she is the opposite of shy. I would cuddle with her but would avoid touching as much. It took 3 weeks but she did finally initiate again on her own. The relationship is barely a month old at this point and right before the 3 week dry spell ended i was honestly feeling extremely unwanted/undesired.
I havent been in a relationship before so i really have no idea if this is normal. I lack experience and my advances after we were official were all rejected. About a week ago I just straight asked if she was attracted to me because it felt like we werent doing anything sexually and she said that she was attracted to me and sex wasnt important to her and it's something for special occasions or whatever and that women are complicated. She seemed a little annoyed when i brought this up saying "your demons came out for zero" and made it known she didnt get as much sleep that morning because i brought up that convo while she was laying there (she was awake when i started the convo).
I just dropped it there but honestly it feels important to me because despite my issues it did feel good and i did feel closer with her when we did do it. Because I've also quit jerking off or watching porn since our very first encounters, I've been extremely frustrated since i cant do anything about how horny i may be feeling since my prev solution was to just rub it out. I could probably go every morning and night if it was up to me although i know it's unrealistic to expect.
I love her but i am honestly not sure how to bring this issue up again without making it weird or pressuring her to do something she doesnt want to do. I feel like she lost her attraction to me or faked it and only did it with me after that 3 week dry spell as a chore. A bit after this 3 week period we also had our 1 month anniversary date somewhere nice, we dressed up very well and she even said she was horny when we were there and couldnt wait for later (honestly caught me off guard that she felt anything for me). However we got home... aaaand nothing, she went straight to sleep after going to bed.
It digs into my own insecurities a bit that if she isnt attracted to me, then she might have other reasons for being with me, like that I'm quite well off and could honestly retire at my age with a modest budget. I pay for everything when we go out, I've paid for a ton of fun experiences and outings, even for her friends if we go out with them too. I've probably spent over 20k in the last month or so on theme parks, gifts, hotels, fancy dinners, etc. I even knew she was behind on bills so i sent her 4k straight up to help out. She works 12 hr shifts waiting at a restaurant everyday and is basically in debt. She's had a ton of past relationships and partners so she has a lot of experience. She also used to post a lot on OF for another revenue source but she wouldnt have any partners or anything, it was a solo activity OF from what she described to me. She doesnt currently do OF right now since ive gotten with her.
I stay at her home since i flew in a month ago and take care of the chores when shes out at work all day, walk/feed the dogs, etc. I have put a lot of effort in so i dont know what else I could have done to have the bedroom feel dead in a 1 month relationship. She's also been bringing her large dog to bed everyday and there's honestly not much room for the 3 of us. I told her i cant sleep well with the dog in the bed since im a light sleeper and the dog actively competed with me for space during the night, but nothing has changed. I bought a $100 doggy bed after making it known i really cant sleep at all. She helped pick it out with me. The dog seems to like the bed and uses it throughout the day, but she still brings him to the bed and cuddles the dog to sleep on most nights, so the dog hasnt slept once in it. I swear the dog has gotten more kisses and affection than me lol...
I'm 170 lbs, 6 ft tall, think i look at least above average although my confidence in myself has gone down since this relationship started. I've never once lost my temper, raised my voice, and im extremely gentle with her and try to put her first.
She has one of my cards saved on her Apple Pay and other spending things to make it easier for me to help her. I literally am paying for all her Uber eats like when she's at work. I'm aware that the money bit may sound alarming to a lot of people but i can afford it and i literally do not mind taking care of someone i love if it means that i also feel loved and wanted... but with how the bedroom is currently going... idk. I feel like she was initiating and reciprocating way more frequently at the start up until I heard from her how she wished i would just ask her out already and it feels like it's dropped off hard since. The relationship is currently 1 month and a week old altho we have talked on and off for 6 years online before meeting up for the first time a month ago.
I really want to make it work. I know this is probably not how a typical relationship looks like but i just want my needs met. I just want to feel wanted by my partner. Shes really the only girl I've really wanted but i cant tell if it just seemed better from a distance online before making things official in person or im a little delusional. I've enjoyed my time with her when we are out and about doing things together. Idk if this is going to work long term, would love some more perspective.
(Also I did recently get Cialis prescribed which should help with bloodflow downstairs, but haven't had any action to try to gage differences with it.)
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2024.05.16 09:18 AshJammy Advice: Avoidant Partner
Hey.
I'm at a point in my relationship where I'm struggling with one specific aspect of my partner that has always negatively effected me. She's avoidant. When her mental health dips she ignores me. It has been happening a lot more recently and its hurting my mental health every time.
She lives in an abusive household and years of trauma have taught her to isolate when she's hurt instead of seeking out others. This isn't the problem. We established a system for when she gets like this where she'll send me a coloured square to indicate her status and that she wants space. When she does that I don't feel as bad because she isn't ignoring me, she's taking space. The problem is most of the time she just doesn't use that system. She says its because she spirals into shame and starts catastrophising worst case scenarios and doesn't want to confront them. These can last anywhere from 24 hours to 4 or 5 days. The first time she did this was in the days before our first visit. I heard nothing for almost 3 days and only got a reply the day before I was set to fly out. Now whenever she does it I feel like it brings up the mental pit I fell into that first time.
We recently made the decision to close the distance with her coming here. I'm meeting a lawyer on Friday but she's still reluctant to come visit me before she moves permanently. I wanted her to visit for our 2 year anniversary in July but she's worried about her parents kicking her out (again) if she does and that's also taking its toll on me.
I know I've made the situation seem dire but these are the only 2 real issues in our relationship. Outside of this she's endlessly supportive, beautiful, loving and all the great things I look for in a partner. But her trauma has created a system where if she feels depressed, I will through her ignoring me. It used to only happen every few months but now it's been every few weeks for a couple days at a time.
I dont know what to do. Has anyone dealt with this before? Do you have advice for getting around or over it? Even any comforting words would help đ
Thanks
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2024.05.16 09:08 Asgard0822 How are we feeling about the 25th anniversary celebration?
I wanna start off and say i absolutely LOVE Sabaton. Seen them live for 32 times, been a fan since early 2008, having all albums and a LOT of merch etc But this celebration feels a bit lackluster.
Celebrating an album each month is cool but thats about it. They listen to an album, release some merch and give us some background story about it. But is that really how you wanna celeberate the 25th anniversary of the band? I had hoped for a BIG tour and some cool new stuff.
No new info on the new album, no news about the recording of the Amsterdam show that was shot last year, beside the USA tour dates no touring that we know off in 2024.
In general is pretty quiet on the Sabaton front about whats to come. Besides the Sabaton cruise and shot tour in the USA, they guys havent toured in a year, which is so weird given they toured so much in the past.
So i wanna hear if its just me or if you guys and girls have any other view on all this.
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2024.05.16 09:00 Mizzno [H] Games [W] Cornucopia, Headbangers: Rhythm Royale, art of rally, Games (Listed Below), Steam Gift Cards
N.B.: I'm mainly looking for the games listed in the title and at the bottom of the thread. Feel free to post other offers, but if I haven't responded to your comment(s) by my next posting, I likely wasn't able to find a trade that interested me.
For sale (for Steam Gift Cards or gifted Steam Wallet balance):
For trade:
*
signifies that a game is tentatively up for trade, assuming I buy the bundle
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends: 2 Card Packs (Skyrim) 1 Event Ticket 100 Gold 100 Souls
- ESO Vanity Pet: Bristlegut Piglet and 15 Days of ESO Plus
WANT:
- 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
- Astebreed: Definitive Edition
- Avernum: Escape from the Pit
- BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
- CrossCode
- Dead Rising 4
- Dungreed
- Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2
- Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
- Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
- Myst (2021)
- NBA 2K23
- NECROPOLIS: BRUTAL EDITION
- Omensight: Definitive Edition
- OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition
- OPUS: Rocket of Whispers
- OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
- RAGE
- Resident Evil Village
- The Jackbox Party Pack 5
- The Jackbox Party Pack 6
- The Jackbox Party Pack 7
- Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
- Zombie Army 4: Dead War
- any extra copies of WWE 2K23
IGS Rep Page:
https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/ti26nz/mizznos_igs_rep_page/ submitted by
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2024.05.16 08:57 its-ur-boi54 Tired of being judged on my clothes
Iâm so sick and tired of being stared at by old people at the masjid or being laughed at and judged by friends and parents for the way I dress.
âYou look blackâ âYou look like a gangsterâ âStop trying to act ghettoâ
I never claimed to be any of these things nor do I act like it.
My awrah is covered, I display no symbols of shirk, profanity, or violence.
So whatâs the issue? I finally feel confident in the clothes I wear after years of insecurities but people always have something to say.
Itâs really not that big of a deal but Iâm so tired of always hearing about it and I never say a word to them either I just bite my tongue and stay quiet.
Why canât people just mind their business and let me dress the way I want to dress? I understand if I was wearing something haram, thats a different story. But I really donât see what Iâm doing wrong.
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2024.05.16 08:55 Antique_Ad_8396 Does the game still corrupt
So around the time of Dying light 2 1st anniversary, was on PS4 at the time and the game crashed and corrupted 20 hours in, since moved to PS5 and the only reason i dont want to play Dying Light 2 is cause i dont wanna run the risks of the hours i got on PS5 also getting corrupted, really hope they have fixed it by now, seen a lot of other people also say they got their game corrupted
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2024.05.16 08:40 Denz-El My attempt to plot out a hypothetical Live Action adaptation (with no guarantee of sequels or future seasons)
I've been thinking that if Spy x Family ever got a live action adaptation (never gonna/never should happen?), whether as a film (trilogy?) or microseries, then a smart way of truncating the story would be to have Loid and Anya have a pre-established father-daughter relationship as a result of him rescuing her from the lab.
Twilight infiltrates the lab as a janitor, discovers that Subject 007 is the only survivor from their human trials and immediately decides to rescue her. Fortunately for him, the facility is distracted by a completely coincidental simultaneous attack by the mysterious Thorn Princess (who wears a mask in this adaptation since part of her Garden-mandated M. O. is to allow a survivor every once in a while to build up her reputation... in this case, said survivor just happens to be the dumbstruck Twilight, still in disguise. She informs him that she's about to rig the place to blow and that he should leave now. He runs off to retrieve Anya from her hiding place, where he told her to stay while he investigated the sounds of fighting. Thorn Princess allows them to leave, since Twilight was able to convince her that he really was just a hard-working man who was disgusted by the experiments and just wanted to help this girl escape. They part ways and the lab is destroyed.
Although in my imagination, said infiltration-turned-rescue would have happened while Anya is four, allowing her the awareness to get overly attached to Twilight, thus resulting in him getting automatically assigned by the higher ups from WISE (they're the only ones who know about her power) as her guardian/mentor. His mission is to protect her while helping her hone her abilities. Whether she becomes a spy or an ordinary well-adjusted citizen, would be up to her once she comes of age... All of this could be a cold open prologue narrated by Anya in the style of a spy novel. It's a mental diary entry she recites to herself on the anniversary of her rescue.
This would be a great way of shortening the set up as far as Loid and Anya are concerned. Among the Forger family, these two have known each other for longer and are the only ones who have any knowledge of Operation Strix and are actively working for its success (Yor is a wonderful and essential addition to the family, but sometimes she does feel a bit like an outsider... which she is: as far as she knows, she's Loid's second wife and Anya's stepmother).
If this hypothetical adaptation has Twilight rescue Anya as an infant/toddler and Operation Strix happens when she's around eleven or twelve, then this would allow the casting director to look for older, more experienced child actors for the role. But then again, a twelve year old Anya who was raised by Twilight may not be so eager to ship her spy dad with a freaking assassin they just so happen to bump into... unless said assassin happened to attack the lab several years ago and coincidentally allowed Twilight to survive and thus liberate little Anya! (As for why Yor doesn't recognize Anya now... Um, she just forgot, okay! :D But seriously, if pink hair were to be a rare, but not too rare, hair color in this adaptation's universe, then there would be little reason for Yor to suspect that Anya Forger is the same kid she helped rescue a few years back, especially if she doesn't recall hearing the child's name at the time.)
I imagine the first film of this hypothetical adaptation to start with "Dr. Loid Forger" being visited by his "mother-in-law" (Handler) who informs him that WISE HQ has determined that Anya and her ability are necessary for Operation Strix. Twilight, who has grown attached to Anya over the years, is upset but reluctantly agrees upon hearing the reasoning behind the decision. Anya is much less reluctant! After moving to Berlint and passing the entrance exam for Eden Academy, they receive the letter about both parents showing up for the interview. They come up with a plan to hire a single woman as a nanny for Anya, a woman who they can convince to also act as Anya's mother for the interview and trustworthy enough to keep quiet about it. While looking for prospects, the pair end up reuniting with an oblivious Yor.
So as not to complicate the plot too much (in the case of a standalone film with a soft potential sequel hook at the end) let's say that Yor had, at this point, handed in her resignation to the Shopkeeper since Yuri is now a grown man who's taking good care of himself. Unfortunately for Yor, resigning from Garden basically means getting politely excommunicated by the organization. No longer will they spare any of their resources to provide for her or to protect her from the authorities (should it ever come to that). She's on her own. So she's out job hunting when she coincidentally crosses paths with the Forgers. Seeing Anya makes Yor think of the time she helped rescue a pink haired kid from a lab. Anya reads her mind and she KNOWS that she's found the mom she wants!
Anya takes Loid aside to explain that Yor is Thorn Princess. She also tries to convince him of the benefits of keeping a jobless assassin away from unassuming civilians and from enemy employment by hiring her themselves. They'd keep her out of the loop as far as operation Strix was concerned, instead monitoring her as they keep her around as a loyal nanny with the skills of a bodyguard. After much pestering from Anya, Loid very reluctantly hires Yor as her nanny (and also fake mother for the interview).
(Now, Yuri is either still an SSS officer, or just a regular government employee... If the latter, then Yor might be able to get him to forge her marriage certificate later. He might grudgingly go along with it, the guy did give his sister a job... but he better not touch her.)
After that, the film would focus a bit on Anya adapting to life as an Eden student and befriending Becky and trying to befriend Damian... Maybe even showing a montage of the Forgers going about their daily lives: Anya doing good/badly at school and earning stellas/tonitrus bolts, Loid going out to do other spy jobs with Franky, Yuri (toned down) paying visits and eventually introducing his girlfriend Fiona (also toned down), and Yor settling in and finding peace in her new life as "Mrs. Forger".
Eventually, Anya sets her sights on earning another stella by signing up for community service at the dog adoption fair leading to an adaptation of the Doggy Crisis arc as the climax. Loid is called in by WISE and Yor is left to accompany Anya. Blah blah blah. Maybe Damian's also doing community service for the stella and ends up getting entangled with the terrorists and Anya ends up saving him at one point. Yor stops the terrorists that WISE couldn't capture. Perhaps, as a backup plan, the terrorists found and hired another excommunicated Garden assassin to take out the Westalian ambassador. Higher stakes may also force Anya to reveal her powers to Yor in order to help Loid in time.
At the end of the day the Forgers get to adopt Bond and Yor is brought in on Loid and Anya's secret, becoming an active participant of Operation Strix. Throughout the film, Loid has seen how quickly Anya and Yor clicked and grew close together and how they obviously loved each other. Loid ("for the mission, for Anya", he tries insist, but drops the excuses) proposes to Yor for real with a grenade pin. She happily accepts.
The film ends with the Forgers settling into their new lives as a family... One night while having dinner, the phone rings. Anya gets up to answer it, leaving Loid and Yor alone and trying to flirt with each other. Anya comes back, phone still in hand, explaining that the caller is Damian whose parents have given permission to invite friends and their parents over for his birthday party. Anya shares a knowing look with her parents, who both give her a nod. She says her thanks and accepts the invitation, hangs up the phone, and rejoins her parents at the table, gives Bond some food from her plate, Loid and Yor resume talking about their day. As this peaceful family scene plays out the music takes on a jazzy tune, clearly implying that the Forgers are already making plans. Cut to title: SPY X FAMILY.
Roll credits. :)
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2024.05.16 08:18 haygurlhay123 âThis Time, I Will Never Let You Goâ: Cloudâs Mission and the Hidden Purpose of the Remake Trilogy - Literary and Musical Analysis of FFVII - Part 2
(continuation of
part 1)
III. Searching for Aerith Beyond FFVII
There were absolutely no answers in
Remake or OG (at this point in my research,
Rebirth wasnât released yet), no matter how much I looked; nothing at all hinted at how Cloud couldâve obtained the memories of OG that emerge in
Remake as MOTFs. I knew I had to look elsewhere to search for more clues, so I decided to check every piece of media ever released by SE with a mention of Cloud or Aerith in it, digging for hints in the compilation and beyond.
And boy, did I find them.
III. a) Core Worlds and Suspension Worlds
There are a couple of general
FF rules that we need to establish before going forward.
Itâs important to note that there are multiple realms in which the
FF stories take place, each with a different name, history and society. This ensures that all
FF stories occur separately, never intercepting or interactingâ though they do have creatures like moogles and chocobos in common, as well as concepts like airships, gil, magic and some form of crystal. For simplicity, I will refer to these separate worlds in which the numbered
FF games (
FFI, FFII, FFIII, etc) occur as âcore worldsâ.
Characters from different core worlds may appear together in non-numbered
FF games, the events of which have no impact on the core world at all: it seems that sometime after a
FF character has reached the end of their core worldâs plot-line, they may somehow be summoned to far-removed realms where they will face new adventures. I call these far-removed realms âsuspension worldsâ. One example of a
FF game that takes place in a suspension world is
Dissidia Final Fantasy, wherein characters from multiple core worlds unite to accomplish a mission as a team.
III. b)
Final Fantasy Tactics First on our list of non-compilation SE games to explore is 1997âs
Final Fantasy Tactics (
FFT), a game whose plot takes place in the suspension world of Ivalice. Letâs plot out the relevant events, and then analyze!
III. b) i. Fact-Finding
The main character of
FFT, Ramza, encounters a brunette flower peddler with Aerithâs iconic, gravity-defying bangs:
\"Aeris\" in FFT's Ivalice If you choose to buy a flower from her, she express her relief: apparently, business isnât going well because no one is interested in flowers. The girl wistfully dreams aloud:
âWhen is my knight in shining armor going to take me away from here...?â
Later, Ramza and his companions encounter a mysterious machine that can summon people from across universes. The machine is activated, and a rather rude young man with spiky blonde hair appears. Cloud claims he used to be in SOLDIER, and says the last thing he remembers is âgetting stuck in the currentâ. He looks to be disoriented and lost, and suffers from piercing headaches. Mere moments after being summoned to Ivalice, Cloud rambles:
âWhatâs this? My fingers are tingling⌠My eyes⌠theyâre burning⌠Stop⌠stop it [Se]phirothâŚâ
He dashes out of the room, but not without announcing:
âI must go⌠must go to that placeâŚâ
Outside, Cloud encounters the brunette flower girl Ramza met earlier. She offers Cloud a flower, but he only stares at her wordlessly:
âFlower girl: Buy a flower? Only 1 gil.
Cloud: âŚ
Flower girl: Something wrong? Do I resemble someone?â
Cloud: No⌠itâs nothing.â
As soon as Cloud leaves, a gang of ruffians surround the flower girl and start harassing her, demanding payment thatâs apparently overdue. One of them finally calls her by her name: âAerisâ. He grabs her, insinuating that he might sexually assault her in lieu of payment. Aeris is not strong enough to push him away. Thatâs when Cloud returns:
âCloud: Get your hand off her!
Thug: What did you say!?
Cloud: Didn't you hear me? Get your dirty hand off her!
[âŚ]
Cloud, to Aeris: Go⌠now.â
Aeris heeds Cloudâs advice, fleeing the scene before a fight between Cloud and the thug can break out. After Cloud scares the ruffians off with the help of Ramza and his companions, he speaks once more:
âI lost⌠something very important⌠Ever since, Iâve been lost [âŚ]. What should I do? What about this pain [?] Must go⌠to the Promised Land.â
III. b) ii. Fact Analysis
Thereâs a lot to unpack here, all of which you probably clocked in your head upon reading, but letâs put it down in writing.
While
FFT Cloudâs memory is far from perfect, the Aeris he encounters in Ivalice doesnât recognize him at all.
FFVII Ultimania Omega addresses this question without answering it:
â[The flower sellerâs] name is Aeris, and she has the same appearance and tone of voice as the Aeris of FFVII. However, when she comes across Cloud, she does not recognize him. Could she really be the same Aerith who appears in FFVII but with memory loss, or is she a completely different character?â (â#4 Proof of Omegaâ, âFFVII in Other Gamesâ, âFinal Fantasy Tacticsâ, page 560).
Regardless of her unknown identity and inability to recognize Cloud,
FFT Aerisâ fantasy of a âknight in shining armorâ is quite reminiscent of the flower girl/bodyguard dynamic weâve come to know and love. Cloudâs armor doesnât shine, but in my opinion, if youâre looking for the dystopian, corporatocratic equivalent of a knight, you canât get much closer than a supposed-former-SOLDIER-turned-bodyguard. Additionally, despite his rude and cold attitude toward Ramzaâs gang, the urgency with which Cloud swoops in to save the flower girl from the ruffians betrays a softer, warmer side to him: the flower girl/bodyguard dynamic strikes again!
FFT Cloudâs dialogue borrows two lines from the speech OG Cloud makes as Aerith lies dead in his arms (disk 1, chapter 28): âMy fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!â and âWhat are we supposed to do? What about my pain?â You mightâve noticed that this glimpse of grief Cloud experiences in
FFT bears a resemblance to the fourth MOTF 4 experienced by
Remake Cloud (see section âII. a)â). Could it be that
FFT Cloud and
Remake Cloud have something in common?
Shortly after being summoned to Ivalice,
FFT Cloud declares that he must go to âthat placeâ, a mysterious line that is later elucidated when he tells Ramza that he must go to the Promised Land and find the âvery importantâ thing heâs lost. The Promised Land is the Cetra cultureâs afterlife, meaning
FFT Cloud is looking for someone whoâs died, someone âvery importantâ to him. OG suggests this is none other than Aerith:
âCait Sith, reading Cloudâs fortune: You will find [what] you pursue. However, you will lose the most precious thingâ (disk 1, chapter 16, English translation by Kotakuâs âLetâs Mosey: A Slow Translation of Final Fantasy Seven: Part Eightâ by Tim Rogers, 9:42-9:52).
&
âCloud, after seeing Aerithâs hand reach for him through the Lifestream: ⌠I think I'm beginning to understand.
Tifa: What?
Cloud: An answer from the Planet⌠the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... thereâ (disk 3, chapter 3).
Finally, letâs try to understand where on the OG timeline Cloud was summoned to this suspension world from and what he remembers. His comment about getting stuck in a current has to be about the Lifestream; apparently, on top of its atemporal nature, it can act as a conduit to other worlds. One only enters the Lifestream if theyâve somehow fallen into the core of the planet or once theyâve passed away and returned to the planet. Both scenarios merit consideration.
On the one hand, itâs possible that Cloud was summoned to Ivalice after he and Tifa fall into the core of the planet: this point in the
FFVII OG timeline occurs after Aerithâs death and shortly before Cloud finds out he was never SOLDIER, which matches the gaps in
FFT Cloudâs memory quite well. However, this scenario does not account for the vagueness with which
FFT Cloud remembers Aerith and her death. Most importantly, Cloudâs realization that he can find Aerith in the Promised Land occurs much later in the game (
FFVII OG, disk 3, chapter 3) than when he falls into the Lifestream with Tifa (
FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 8).
On the other hand,
FFT Cloudâs vague yet persistent memories of Aerith suggest that heâs been summoned to Ivalice after his eventual death post-OG, but also that heâs lost quite a large portion of his memories. His incomplete memory loss is likely the result of Cloudâs individualityâs erosion by the Lifestream after death, which we discussed in section âII. a) ii.â. We can therefore surmise that by the time he is summoned to Ivalice from the Lifestream, Cloud has been dead for long enough that the Lifestream eroded a large portion of the memories of his lifetime. This post-death scenario is likelier than the first. The memory of Cloudâs realization that he was never SOLDIER must be gone, which explains why he claims otherwise upon being summoned to Ivalice. Contrastingly, vestiges of Cloudâs OG memories of Aerith cling to his soul, even after others have been wiped clean. Could this be a consequence of their soulmate bond? Could the strength of Cloudâs love and grief for Aerith have made his memories of her stronger and more difficult for the Lifestream to erode? Could it be both?
One thing is clear: Aerith is of fundamental importance to Cloud, even when he canât quite remember her. In fact, the only other character he remembers and/or mentions in
FFT is Sephiroth. It does make sense that the memories of those who have marked oneâs soul forevermore would be the most difficult for the Lifestream to erode.
III. c)
Dissidia Final Fantasy The next stop on our travels through suspension worlds is 2008âs
Dissidia Final Fantasy! Now strap in, because hereâs where things get really serious.
III. c) i. Fact Finding
In the suspension world of
Dissidia Final Fantasy (
DFF), the goddess of harmony Cosmos and the god of discord Chaos are engaged in a never-ending cycle of conflict. Both deities need warriors to fight on their behalf, so they recruit core world characters into their respective teams by summoning them to
DFF. Some of these summoned characters are
FFIVâs Cecil,
FFVIâs Terra,
FFVIIâs Sephiroth,
FFXâs Tidus, and of course,
FFVIIâs Cloud. The warriors find themselves in the suspension world of
DFF with no memories of their core worldsâ plotlines. However, as the
DFF adventure progresses, they are able to recover pieces of their memories here and there. It isnât clear how much they come to remember. Ultimately, the warriors hope to return home to their core worlds by fighting in this war and seeing to its end.
Cloud is summoned to
DFF as a warrior on the side of Chaos, who seeks to destroy all existence. Sephiroth is also on Chaosâ side, meaning the two are teammates despite being enemies in their core world of
FFVII. It just so happens that Tifa is a summoned warrior in
DFF too, though sheâs fighting on Cosmosâ side. Intrigued by her vague familiarity, Sephiroth hypothesizes that killing Tifa will bring back his memories of OGâs plot line: before long, the masamune wielder finds Tifa alone and corners her into a one-on-one fight. Thankfully, Cloud swoops in and saves her before Sephiroth can do any harm. Tifa is thankful for Cloudâs help, though confused that Cloud would elect to assist her and turn against a fellow warrior of Chaos; she doesnât remember what Sephiroth and Cloud mean to each other in OG. In fact, Tifa doesnât even remember Cloudâs name or that they share a core world, though Cloud feels somewhat familiar to her. For his part, Cloud at least remembers that Tifa is someone he cares about from his core world. As Tifa thanks Cloud for saving her from Sephiroth, something she says elicits an odd reaction from the warrior of Chaos:
âTifa: The way you showed up and fought that guy off. It was a pretty cool thing to watch. You were like a hero, charging in to save the girl.
Cloud gasps at her words. She doesnât noticeâ (Dissidia 012: Treachery of the Gods, report 5: âUnexpected Fulfillment 2â).
On another note, Cloud knows he will have to fight Tifa once the Cosmos-Chaos conflict comes to a head, as they are on opposing teams. He thinks to himself:
âOnce [her] memories return, [she]âll lose the will to fight just like I have. So... Before that can happen, I have to act...â (Dissidia 012: Treachery of the Gods, report 5: âUnexpected Fulfillment 2â).
In order to end the cycle of the conflict and to avoid fighting Tifa, Cloud decides to try and defeat Chaos himself. Predictably, Cloud is no match for the deity. As he dies, Cloud pleads the following to the goddess Cosmos:
âCosmos, goddess of harmony. If you can hear me, listen to my plea. I beg you. Save her. Save my friend⌠Tifa.â
Cosmos hears him and responds immediately:
âCosmos: An end to this conflict, and a life spared? This is your heart's desire? If your will remains unchanged, I shall bring you here when the battle draws to a close. Cloud. My chosen" (Dissidia 0.13: Treachery of the Gods, report 7: âUnexpected Fulfillment 3â).
Cloudâs wish is granted by Cosmos: the first phase of the conflict ends without Tifa getting hurt, and she is sent away from the suspension world of
DFF before the second phase begins. Cloud is saved from death, and Cosmos enlists him into her team of warriors for phase two: this time, Cloud is fighting on the good side.
Now we enter phase two of the war. Cosmos tells her team of ten core world warriors that in order to save the world from Chaosâ destruction, they must collect what she describes as crystals containing the power to persist through darkness. I call these the â
DFF crystalsâ. There are ten
DFF crystals in total: one for every warrior in Cosmosâ group to find. To obtain their crystal, each hero must overcome a trial that will confront them with whatever personal struggle they faced in their core world; if they prove themselves worthy, their
DFF crystal will appear to them. On one hand, some warriorsâ
DFF crystals simply take the form of the crystals found in their core world. For example, Onion Knightâs
DFF crystal looks to be nothing more than one of
FFIIIâs elemental crystals, which hold little to no personal significance to him. On the other hand, some warriorsâ
DFF crystals symbolize something more personal to their respective warriors. For instance, Cecilâs
DFF crystal looks to be one of
FFIVâs dark crystals, which specifically represent the dichotomy of light and darkness he struggles with in his core worldâs plot line. Cosmos describes the quest for the
DFF crystals as follows:
âCosmos: The crystals embody the strength to face despair. With ten gathered, there is hope yet to save the world. The path to your crystal will be perilous... and different for each and every one of you. But you must believe in and follow your own path. Even if you know not where that path leads" (Dissidia 013: Light to All, prologue: âA Final Hopeâ).
From this exposition, simply keep in mind that: Cloud must find his crystal by overcoming a personal trial, and his crystal may have the appearance of an object in OG thatâs important to him.
Once the team is debriefed on their mission, Cloud remains reticent to fight; he doesnât much like the mysterious nature of this conflict. Not knowing exactly what theyâre all fighting for is clearly bothersome to the swordsman, and the idea of thoughtlessly engaging in battles leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Fellow warrior Firion understands that without a reason to fight, Cloudâs heart just isnât in it. He imparts upon Cloud that he must have a dream heâs fighting to protect, something he wants to see come true, to motivate him to stop Chaos from destroying all existence. Unfortunately, Cloud doesnât have a dream to preserve, or canât find one for himself:
âCloud: I've looked, but I'm still empty-handed. And without a dream, what do you suppose I should do? [âŚ] Maybe what I'm looking for... isn't hereâ (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 1: âBeyond Doubtâ, âGateway of Good and Evilâ).
Another fellow warrior, Cecil, expresses worry for Cloud, whose response evokes the main theme of
FFVII OG:
âCecil: Everyone's worried, Cloud. But... Do you shoulder a larger concern?
Cloud: Concern... Maybe a sense of loss" (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 1: âBeyond Doubtâ, âBeyond the Continentâ).
Whatever Cloud is looking for âisnât [there]â, and he feels âa sense of lossâ: Cloudâs motivating dream has been lost to him. This is later reasserted in a conversation with Terra, another warrior of Cosmos:
âTerra: And you, Cloud... What's your dream?
Cloud: I've lost mine" (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 3: âThe Chosen Battleâ, âGateway of True Intentâ).
Later, Cloud encounters and fights Sephiroth, who is still a part of Chaosâ team. Sephiroth is defeated, but not before heâs taunted Cloud with his habitual puppet talk. However, Cloud remains strong and refutes Sephirothâs manipulation, asserting that only he can determine his own path. This mustâve been Cloudâs personal trial, because his crystal appears at that very moment: it is a small, light green orb that looks like materia from his core world. Having pocketed his crystal, Cloud decides he must find his own reason to fight. Interestingly, his search is depicted as intertwined with Fate:
âCloud: Even if I have my doubts... I have to find my own answer [âŚ] Until then, I'll keep fighting.
Narration: The warrior has vowed to keep fightingâ and keep fighting he will [âŚ]. Etched in destiny, his quest for answers continues onâ (Dissidia 0.13: Light to All, chapter 1: âBeyond Doubtâ, âGulg Gatewayâ).
Later, the nemeses meet again in a segment called âRecurring Tragedyâ. Their interactions here are particularly interesting. Sephiroth speaks of making Cloud suffer through despair and pain as though referencing their history together:
"Sephiroth: This disease called hope is eating you alive. The world of suffering was born out of such half-baked ideals.
Cloud: If that's the case, I have to endure the suffering. There's no moving on if I run from it.
Sephiroth: If that is what you wish for, you shall drown in the pain. I'll lead you to true despair. [My] shadow is burned into your heart. We'll meet again, Cloud. I'll keep coming backâ as long as you are who you are."
Sephiroth disappears. Cloud looks out into the distance before the scene ends.
âCloud: No thanks. The one I really want to meet isâŚâ (Dissidia 013: Light to All, epilogue: âConclusion of a Cycleâ, âRecurring Tragedyâ).
This final line suggests Cloud has finally found a reason to fight: he wants to meet someone unspecified.
Finally, after the war has ended, we arrive at the final cutscene of
DFF. I will let you read the full script, with notes added by me
in bold behind the spoiler censors. Please do not read my notes if you do not wish to encounter spoilers for
FFI,
FFII,
FFIII,
FFIV,
FFV,
FFVI,
FFVIII,
FFIX or
FFX:
â[The] heroes are all standing together in a grassy field with a forest behind them. Birds are chirping, the sun is shining brightly, and the wind is blowing gently. The heroes look around them in awe. They're all holding their crystals.
WoL: The battle has come to an end...
Tidus notices that his crystal has begun to emanate a blue glow.>! His crystal is a movie sphere from his core world of FFX: a capsule containing sounds and images that people record for later viewing. Tidusâ crystal likely represents the specific movie sphere recorded by his love interest Yuna, which revealed that sheâd loved him from the beginning.!<
Tidus: Gotta go, huh...
The blue glow transfers to him as well. He turns to look at the others
[âŚ] Tidus grins at the others, then turns and runs toward a nearby lake. He leaps into it in a manner reminiscent of [the events] of FFX. He vanishes as he descends toward the lake.
Zidane: We're not vanishing. We're returningâ
Zidane is sitting on a tree limb as he says this. His crystal begins to glow gold, as does he. His crystal is shaped like a highly important âprogenitor of all lifeâ crystal from his core world of FFIX.
Zidane: â to where we're supposed to be.
Zidane spins around the tree limb with the use of his tail and launches toward the sun. He's lost to view.
A white feather then drifts down from that direction and Squall catches it. The feather is reminiscent of his love Rinoa Heartilly, whose character symbol is a white feather. In fact, Squallâs crystal looks like a mix of his revolver gunblade from FFVIII and Rinoaâs feather motif. [Squall glows blue.]
Squall: Perhaps we can go on a mission together again.
Squall vanishes.
Cloud is then visible, standing in [a] flower field. The flowers are white and yellow. Cloud has his crystal, a light green materia from his core world of FFVII, in hand.
Cloud: [(Chuckles shortly, like a scoff)] Not interested.
Cloud walks off into the flower field, gaining a green glow. He vanishes.
A snowflake then falls into Terra's right hand as her crystal begins to glow pink. The flames drawn on her crystal represent her power, which is connected to the element of fire: her character arc in FFVI.
Terra: I think I've learned how to keep going. Thank youâ and take care.
Terra glows pink and then vanishes. Bartz throws a stick. He's glowing pink as well.
Bartz: When you're having the most fun, that's when time always flies. His crystal is the Adamantite from his core world of FFV.
Bartz vanishes.
Cecil: It's mine to pass onâ
A moon appears behind Cecil and goes through its phases as he begins to glow blue. His crystal has shadowed and illuminated parts, representing the duality of his character, which is central to his personal arc in his core world of FFIV. It also represents his brother Golbez, who has chosen the darkness. Cecil considers his familial bond with Golbez his guiding light and hopes to be with him someday.
Cecil: â this strength I've gained from everyone.
Cecil vanishes.
Onion Knight hugs his crystal and looks up toward the sky. His crystal is shaped like those found in his core world of FFIII**.**
Onion Knight: Everyone... thank you!
OK briefly glows blue and then vanishes.
There are wild roses at Firion's feet. He and WoL are looking toward the sky. WoL suddenly begins walking away while Firion looks down and sees the roses.
Firion: This isn't the end. Another dream is waiting to begin.
His crystal is the color of the wild roses that were at the center of his dream and of his motivation to fight Chaos. The roses are also the emblem of the Rebel Army he was a part of in his core world of FFII. His crystal is shaped like Pandaemonium, the final dungeon of his core world story. Firion gains a violet glow and then vanishes.
WoL is walking through the field and then comes to a stop. He's looking at something.
WoL: May the light forever shine upon us.â
As you can see, everyoneâs crystal is very important to the story of their core world, and in the cases of at least Tidus, Squall, Terra and Cecil, the crystals represent something very personal. What about Cloud and his crystal, then? What about the dream he lost and the person he wants to meet? Letâs begin analyzing to answer these questions.
III. c) ii. Fact Analysis
Firstly, itâs clear to me that the Cloud that appears in
DFF is a post-OG Cloud, given how many plot points from OG he interacts with. Iâm reticent to say whether or not this post-OG Cloud is dead like in
FFT, as he recovers many of his memories of OG during
DFF and there is no evidence of him having passed away and joined the Lifestream.
The second thing Iâd like to point out is Cloudâs strange reaction when Tifa compares him to a hero who swoops in and saves the girl from the bad guy. Cloud gasps, indicating that her words mean something to him; the trope Tifa references must therefore be included somewhere in the
FFVII OG plot-line. Some of you are surely ahead of me by now, having realized that only the tragic antithesis of this trope appears in OG: Cloud is unable to save Aerith from Sephiroth (disk 1, chapter 28). Whether or not
DFF Cloud remembers Aerith herself at this point, itâs clear he recalls the pain and guilt of losing Aerith to Sephiroth.
Next, letâs address Cloudâs lost dream: to meet an unspecified person. It seems Cloud is aware at this point that in OG, he was eternally separated from the person he dreams of meeting. So, who was he separated from in his core world? Who can he never meet again, even if his team of warriors defeats Chaos and Cloud returns to the realm of
FFVII? There are a few options âhis mother, his father, Zack, Jessie, Biggs, Wedge, and any other person he knew who diedâ, but the sheer narrative weight that Aerithâs untimely death carries makes it clear who he truly wants to meet. This is corroborated by Cloudâs âI think I can meet her⌠thereâ line in OG (disk 3 chapter 3), by
FFT Cloudâs search for Aerith during his appearance in Ivalice, and by Cloudâs strange reaction to Tifaâs comparing him to a hero who swoops in and saves the girl from the bad guy. All the available evidence suggests that Cloudâs dream is indeed to reunite with Aerith, and that this dream is âlostâ to him because she was killed by Sephiroth (disk 1, chapter 28). This would also explain the title of the
DFF segment âRecurring Tragedyâ, since as we all know, the ultimate tragedy of
FFVII OG is Aerithâs death. Considering Sephiroth was the one to take Aerith away from Cloud, Sephirothâs threats of drowning him in despair in âRecurring Tragedyâ only solidify this interpretation of Cloudâs lost dream.
Finally, we arrive at the ending cutscene. Cosmosâ warriors return to where they belong to try and accomplish whatever dream they held as motivation during the Cosmos-Chaos conflict, each carrying their
DFF crystal. Cloud is shown standing in a field of white and yellow flowers and walking deeper into it with a light green materia in hand. Why was a white and yellow flower field chosen to represent
DFF Cloudâs dream? The answer is obvious. White and yellow flowers symbolize Aerith: she sold Cloud a yellow blossom upon first meeting him in OG (disk 1, chapter 1), and her yellow and white flowerbed cushioned Cloudâs fall when the two reunited in the Sector 5 church (disk 1, chapter 4). Whatâs more, we have the
iconic credits video of the original cut of Advent Children to refer to, wherein Cloud is seen driving near flower fields. Aerith stands there (3:20), seemingly waiting for him. Hereâs what Nomura had to say about this credits scene:
"[...] we filmed the video for the ending credits in Hawaii. There are fields of flowers on both sides of the road, and the colors âyellow and whiteâ are the same as the flowers in Aerith's church [âŚ]. With Aerith, 'flowers' have been her image throughout the seriesâ (FFVII Reunion Files, âCountdown to Reunionâ, âStories from CG Productionâ, page 87).
Even in the
Advent Children Complete cut of the film, where Aerith is not shown standing in the field, the flowers and their symbolism of Aerith remain. That being so, itâs more than fair to say that the white and yellow flowers in
DFFâs ending cutscene serve as yet another confirmation that Cloudâs dream is to be with Aerith.
With all of this established, we can address the nature of Cloudâs
DFF crystal. As we established, every core world has its own version of a crystal, each possessing a distinct appearance, function and meaning. Materia are the crystals of
FFVII, so one could be satisfied by the proposition that Cloudâs
DFF crystal is simply meant to represent a random materia. However, I think Cloudâs crystal is specifically the White Materia, as it represents Aerithâs sacrifice, her importance to the plot and what she died fighting for. If any one object symbolizes her death, itâs the White Materia; itâs even given closeups during the
event (2:33-3:02). Besides, unlike any other materia in
FFVII, the White Materia is known to glow a light green when Holy has been activated:
âBugenhagen: If [the prayer] reaches the planet, the White Materia will begin to glow a pale greenâ (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 15).
Here are pictures of the White Materia in OG and
Advent Children, and two pictures of Cloud's
DFF crystal (in order) so you can compare for yourself:
https://preview.redd.it/0qtumfeyfq0d1.jpg?width=386&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3995f010738c83fca0c5842a0564d0a9ad206dfd https://preview.redd.it/0kj525tzfq0d1.jpg?width=1144&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=575573ef1d2c937635cf569d4a376886a24b384c Cloud's DFF Crystal Cloudâs DFF crystal So far, in both suspension world games weâve examined (
FFT and
DFF), Cloud is searching for Aerith. As a final note on
DFF, it may interest you to know that codirector of the
Remake trilogy Toriyama was actually a writer for
DFF: he may have carried some themes from
DFF to
RemakeâŚ
III. d) Detour: The
Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Farewell Exposition
Before we hop onto the next suspension world, letâs return to ours for a quick detour: the 2018
Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Expo. Themed with farewells and tragedy, this expo showcased the heartbreaking goodbyes featured in different
FF games. Artwork, clips, quotes and images aplenty here! As the highly anticipated
Remake was going to be coming out approximately a year and a half later, the
FFVII section of the expo featured a few sneak peek
Remake designs. This means the expo was at least partly curated with the
Remake trilogy in mind; there could be interesting material in the
FFVII section of the expo related to
Remake. Letâs dive in!
Unsurprisingly, the focus of the
FFVII section is Cloud and Aerith, since she is the loved one he lost in OG. Zack is also given a mention, however Aerith was the glaringly central star of the show. To showcase how important Aerithâs farewell in particular was to the expo, the
FFVII portion was introduced by a photo of Cloud lowering Aerith into her watery grave and a video of her tragic death:
Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Farewell Exposition, FFVII Introduction The description under the video screen reads:
âShe was gone in the blink of an eye. But the pain never went away.
Aerith awoke the ultimate magic to protect the planet and the people she loved. Yet her life came to a sudden end at the hands of Sephiroth, a man bent on seeing the world destroyed. Even the usually stoic Cloud couldnât hide his grief at the unexpected death of an irreplaceable companion. âMy fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning.â True words, revealing Cloudâs deep sorrowâ (Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exposition).
Conveniently enough for us, the expoâs tagline is âWho is the person you want to meet again?â Given that Aerith holds the spotlight in the
FFVII section of the expo, itâs clear who SE is telling us Cloud wants to reunite with. Recall Cloudâs unfinished line in
DFF: âThe one I really want to meet is..." (
Dissidia 013: Light to All, epilogue: âConclusion of a Cycleâ, âRecurring Tragedyâ). We theorized that he must be referring to Aerith, and now, we are certain.
The expo also had pamphlet descriptions of the farewells depicted. Here is the general summary of
FFVIIâs farewell story according to that pamphlet:
âThe story follows the lead character Cloud, but it is the heroine, Aerith, who opens Cloudâs eyes and helps bring him closer to understanding the mystery that is his past. Through her, we draw closer to the truth of the story.
This scene, in which the heroine Aerith is lost, is easily the most shocking and tragic in the story. No one expected to say goodbye to such a major character in the middle of the story. Rumors of a secret way to revive Aerith spread, and it was clear players were having a hard time saying goodbye to her too. Even now, twenty years later, it still feels like a shocking turn of eventsâ (Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exposition Pamphlet, page 36).
Itâs interesting that SE would mention the rumors of Aerithâs revival circulated by players back in 1997, especially as fans were awaiting
Remakeâs releaseâŚ
In light of everything weâve analyzed so far, it can be said that between
FFT (1997) and this farewell expo (2018), SE has consistently demonstrated that reuniting with Aerith is post-OG Cloudâs goal. Thatâs a period of over two decadesâ two decades of wishing, seeking, longing in real-world time for this character. This is a huge long-term commitment for SE to make, and you can bet the devs donât take it lightly. Again and again, once the events of the OG game have ended, Cloud is shown to desire a reunion with Aerith. This ever-present and ever-insistent theme will become very important to us later in this analysis.
(continued in
part 3)
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2024.05.16 08:10 Sad-Pop6649 Lunetten, Utrecht, Netherlands, a higher density green suburb?
| https://preview.redd.it/8yds0x4mdq0d1.png?width=1482&format=png&auto=webp&s=92f6de754e519475997b6af36b838a95b80ae404 This might end up as a bit of a weird post. But mostly a very long one. I donât think this place Iâm presenting here is heaven, but without Suburbs Heaven Thursday this subreddit may give viewers the idea that weâre all just hating, and this case study may help illustrate some of the alternatives and what one could like and dislike about them. I know that yelling âthe Netherlands!â on any urbanist platform is overdone and so 2 years ago, but I also feel like the available âNetherlands!â content is giving people an incomplete picture. So Iâm going to discuss a suburban neighborhood, Lunetten, in Utrecht, where Iâve lived for about a year now. Itâs a place built in the 70âs and 80âs, housing about 11,000 people in 5,500ish homes, for a density of just over 4,000 people/km 2, 10,000 per square mile. Obviously thatâs pretty dense. In a North American context Lunetten may count more as an example of the âmissing middleâ than a true suburb, but I feel it still works as a comparison because it is situated at the edge of a city* and it offers features people often look to the suburbs for, like a low noise environment, plenty of green and child oriented features. So, what can we find in this example that people may like or dislike in their suburban areas? If you want to look along on your favorite online map: 52° 3'53 N, 5° 8'13 E. Traffic and transit Lunetten has a clear main road (middle left image, bright pink line on the map) that serves as the main way of getting around by car. It is the only road where the limit is 50 km/h (30 mph), not 30 km/h. The main road has priority over all side roads, indicated by the exits of all side streets being raised a bit. The speed bump automatically makes one slow down to yield to the traffic on the main road. In the places where peopleâs front doors open towards this main ring there are service roads for them to do their parking and loading and such on. In the busiest part of the ring the road was raised a few meters so pedestrians and cyclists can pass underneath through tunnels. So while the maximum speed cars can go on most of the roads in this place is quite low, the time to destination is pretty good, because a lot was done to ensure a good flow of traffic. A more debatable feature is the lack of through-traffic options. If you want to leave Lunetten by car there are two roads leading West, connecting to the rest of the city and to the 70km/h raised road that serves as the exit from the city. There is also one small road going South-East along the train line, and thatâs it. Despite being next to two highways Lunetten has no direct on- and off-ramp accessing it, and even no direct way across the highways for cars. Cyclists and pedestrians do have options leading in basically all directions. On the one hand this does wonders for how quiet the neighborhood is, but on the other hand that one road taking people in and out of the city is still more prone to blocking than a direct ramp to the highway, so car owners will experience some travel delays because of this. Lunetten is no public transit hotspot, but there are like two bus lines both going to more connected places including the cityâs central hub, and the train station is two stops from said hub as well, which happens to be the biggest train station in the Netherlands. Public Spaces Even by Dutch standards Lunetten has a pretty urban-ish density. Thereâs a mix of mostly rowhouses and midrise apartment buildings, mostly gallery flats up to 5 stories tall, including the ground floor. To give you an idea of Dutch standards for density: I grew up in a commuter town of about the same size as Lunetten, housing 1,000 less people (present day numbers) on roughly 1.25 times the surface**. But what I find interesting is what that space is used for. In Lunetten, on the outer ring of the neighborhood, adjacent to the two highways, busy raised road and train line that surround the neighborhood, there are quite sizable parks (bottom right picture). Thereâs plenty of space for dogs to run off their leash, there are football/play fields, there are two skate parks, two ponds for amphibians to spend the winter in (granted: thatâs an amenity most people could live without) and an entire petting zoo, in case you had doubts this was a suburb. Together with a football/soccer club, a tennis club, some allotment gardens and a small business park near the train station these parks take up most of the space where traffic noise is an issue. There is room for recreation and other daytime activities in the noisy bits (there are sound screens, but thatâs not blocking all of the noise) so that peoplesâ homes can mostly be in the quiet parts, shielded from noise by trees and stuff. And then thereâs the neighborhood interior. Youâll see on the map a few yellow locations marked as âplayground/squareâ, but in reality many, probably most, of the dark green âcourtyardsâ contain a little playground too. All of the courtyards have grass, most if not all of them have trees, many of those trees being taller than the midrises. Some of the courtyards feature parking space as well***. The middle right image is far from the greenest example. The combination of the parks and the courtyards make Lunetten much greener than the actual smallish town I lived in mentioned previously. Plenty of birds live here too, including a bunch of water birds who enjoy the ditches and canals. In the smallish town much more of the space was simply used for row houses with pretty large gardens, and in the newer parts a bunch of four home and two home units and free standing homes as well****. Which brings me to the reality check. With all these pedestrianized public spaces around and loads of playgrounds, is Lunetten actually a good neighborhood to raise kids? From what I can tell, opinions are mixed. Because one thing that does tend to come with density of people is density of crime. In my year here I have personally witnessed a man snorting coke off his bicycle saddle, in broad daylight, in the middle of a bike lane near a skatepark with playing children in it*****. There is also the occasional lost shopping cart dumped in a canal and apparently there was a pretty shocking supermarket robbery just before I moved in. Especially if your budget only allows for an apartment and not a house I could imagine feeling a little scared to let young children wander around near the house on their own, also maybe because of the canals and ditches they might fall into. The sweet spot age for children in Lunetten is probably around 9-12, old enough to be trusted with their own safety around water and some minor drug use and vandalism, yet young enough to fully enjoy all the outdoor play space. The blame for the crime is often put on the street pattern that is said to attract drug dealers and the like who love having good get away options, and the many green public spaces and nice dry apartment building entrances are certainly not the worst place a homeless person could go to for another night of hopefully not being bothered by the police. More recently developed neighborhoods have tried to avoid these effects by using a âcauliflower patternâ for their streets, branched streets ending in a bunch of (at least to cars) dead ends. The downside of that pattern seems to be less sense of community. The more direct neighbors you have, the more interaction. Thatâs why cul-de-sacs can be so isolating after all. Lunetten is not the worst crimey part of its parent city by a long shot, but itâs noticeable enough to be worth mentioning. A planned neighborhood The big advantage I think Lunetten has over a lot of other places is that it was designed in one go. The land it was built on was part of the Dutch Water Line******, and had to stay free of buildings and obstructions that would block the firing lines of defending artillery. (Thatâs what the two weird shapes in the northern park are: old fortifications, called Lunette 3 and 4. Hence the suburbâs name.) When the line was legally disbanded in 1963 Utrecht started planning to build a new neighborhood here. Because of the highways (current configuration built at the same time as the suburb) and the train line that surround the place it was very clear to where the neighborhood would stretch. And it shows. The suburb is designed as a cohesive whole. Thereâs a neighborhood shopping center (bottom left image and the main soft pink blob on the map) at the heart of the neighborhood. It has two supermarkets, some small other shops, several small fast food/lunch places in different styles, two bicycle shops and repair places (itâs the Netherlands), a restaurant (thereâs another one on one of the forts in the park, which doubles as a sort of social work place), a community center which houses some clubs and such (not the scouts, those have a place in one of the parks) as well as a library. Thereâs even a bar (I think, I should maybe go there ones), and some space where small neighborhood markets and events turn up with some regularity. The other main soft pink and yellow blob in a convenient central location on the map is two elementary schools*******. In many more organically grown neighborhoods or places the amenities wouldnât be so conveniently centralized or would eventually be âcentralizedâ on the outskirt of town. The Bijlmer comparison, what not to do Another interesting point of comparison I think is the Bijlmer (Bijlmermeer officially) in Amsterdam, another green neighborhood designed as one big plan outside of its parent cityâs core, yet quite different. The Bijlmer is nationally famous as a bit of a ghetto, a place where you donât want to live. (To be fair: the plane falling down on it didnât help its case.) A lot of work has been done to improve the place, but its initial âghettoizationâ was surprising because the Bijlmer was never intended to even be particularly affordable, but more of a vertical suburb, spacious family apartments (around 120 m 2) for 100,000 people or more in large highrise buildings with between them plenty of green. A quiet place, with quick access to the city, using density to save on land use and travel time. There are three main differences I see between the struggling Bijlmer and âdoing pretty wellâ Lunetten: 1 The Bijlmer has a higher density through the use of massive apartment buildings, literally and figuratively increasing the distance between peopleâs homes and the public space. 2 The Bijlmer is a much bigger place, Iâm not sure they ever got to those 100,000 inhabitants, but it certainly loses that towny vibe. 3 Theyâve been correcting this in the rebabilitation, but as designed the Bijlmer had basically no amenities. It wasnât a town or city, it was people storage, housing for people who mentally lived several kilometers away but couldnât afford it there. See the rest of this subreddit for why that doesnât work for many people. Interdependency with other suburbs Looking back on growing up in that smallish town I notice that there really isnât that much of a difference in amenities. The town offered much of the same things Lunetten does. But Lunettenâs status as a suburb gives it a big advantage over that town. Because while suburbs mostly serve themselves, they also serve each other. Take sports: thereâs a football and tennis club and two indoor sports halls in Lunetten, but what if I want to swim or throw spears instead? Well, thereâs a pool in a suburb to the North, as well as an athletics stadium. After elementary school thereâs no middle/high school in Lunetten, but there are in nearby neighborhoods, and there are even college options******** spread throughout different suburbs and neighborhoods. These things are closer than they are in a small town not because the suburb is associated with a city center, but because it is associated with other suburbs. There are things I liked about the commuter town, but having to take either an honestly too long bike trip or a bus ride that only went whenever it was not convenient for me whenever I wanted to do something my town didnât provide, like going to school, wasnât one of them. And I say that even as a spoiled person whose commuter town at least had buses and bicycle paths. Conclusion And that is I think the main takeaway from this absolute wall of text: suburbs donât have to be places where thereâs nothing to do and you feel disconnected from the world. Thatâs the entire point of living in a suburb instead of in a town: there are other places nearby. There is a balance to be found between private space, public space and connectivity. Essentially, in a neighborhood of 10,000 people, for every 100x100 meters of public space or amenities either every person gets 1 square meter less private space or everybody gets maybe a few meters of extra travel distance on the average trip. Lunetten probably provides too little private space for the taste of many North American suburbanites, but it does show I think that there is quite a bit of room on those sliders. A green place with amenities sort of near other places can still be built with more spacious houses. (Just maybe go easy on the sea of lawns?) And thatâs when all the separated bike lanes and other urbanist talking points really start making sense: when you found the balance between having your own place, having local places worth going to and being close enough to other places worth going to, then you want a good way to get there. The other takeaway I feel is that it pays to design neighborhoods as a unit. And thatâs another reason why suburbs can be better than towns. A town of 10,000 residents canât plan ahead for the next 10,000, but a city of several hundred thousand people can. And it pays off. Donât lose track of the human scale though, planning 10,000 residents ahead might actually be better than planning 100,000 or 1,000,000 residents ahead when it comes to suburbs. It is still supposed to feel like a quiet little place with maybe a bit of its own identity. * On the other side of one of the highways thereâs a bit of forest tied to several historic estates thatâs very nice for walking in as well as a golf course half as big as this entire neighborhood, this really is the edge of town and will be for the foreseeable future. ** Iâve also lived in several other cities since then, near the city center, further out and on the far edge in a highrise neighborhood. Honestly I might still prefer the smaller cities Iâve lived in, being near everything the city offers and even to some of the stuff outside of it. But work took me back to a larger city (pretend I said âless tinyâ if youâre from Mexico City or something), and I could honestly have landed in a much worse place than this particular suburb. *** Fun fact: this is one of the very few neighborhoods of Utrecht where parking is currently still free, because of enough parking space and enough distance to the city center. It really is a suburb. **** In the 90âs a style of more expensive neighborhoods called âVinexâ set standards for the ratio of more expensive to cheaper houses in those neighborhoods, and ever since both contractors and local politicians refuse to let go of those ratios everywhere. A newer, competing vision is that we shouldnât be building new neighborhoods at all, just filling in the gaps in our cities. So now we mostly build quite large houses, but only in very small spaces. Weâre still not sure where that massive housing shortage came from, somehow. ***** I stopped and addressed him because I thought he was having bicycle trouble, chain ran off or something. Quite a chill dude, very apologetic, but still maybe not exactly what the average parent is looking for in a neighbor. ****** More accurately: Holland Waterline, because it wasnât the only Dutch waterline, but it was the main one defending the part called Holland. But that sounds a bit off in English. ******* We have a bit of a weird school system, for every public elementary school there is at least one other founded on religious grounds or based on some specific didactic theory. Thatâs why there are two schools in the same central location instead of just one bigger school or two in separate locations. ******** If I start going into the differences in advanced education systems weâll be here all day, but there are options within cycling distance ranging from trade school to university, depending on the field you actually want to study *********. ********* I could start using other symbols instead of these confusingly long rows of asterisks, but where would be the fun in that? submitted by Sad-Pop6649 to Suburbanhell [link] [comments] |
2024.05.16 07:42 dis_ma_account Im so alone and feel like I donât belong anywhere
Iâm someone who since a very young age has felt like he never belonged. This started when I was 12 when I moved to a different school (which really would set the mood for what seemed to be the rest of my life). I never clicked with anyone (since these were preppy kids while I wouldnât say I was preppy but not ghetto either) & became the loner. I remember kids would try to talk to me but only because they felt sorry for me, it got pretty bad that during recess I overheard one of my teachers say to another that I seemed like I just desired purpose. This practically sums up my high school life and current college life. Now being 22 I just feel lost but find myself stanning famous people that I find common ground with. For example an artist (Kid Cudi) I know I follow him because I identify with the lyrics in his music, then an athlete (Mistico) know I follow him because of I see how people respect him but most of all, I realize I give look into them so much because I genuinely wish to be like them who have found somewhere to belong with their fan base & work. Iâm only getting older and feel this habit and emotion Iâm going through should have been something I left in high school but no matter what I try I continue feeling ostracized and misplaced wherever I go. I could add more details but I donât want this to turn into an essay. Iâm turning to the community for some advice before I go through another breakdown.
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2024.05.16 06:30 JournalistBright5821 BLAH BLAH BLAH SSDD (Same Shit Different Day)
Heâs talking about itâs his past life that he had to ask for help. Ummm, that was yesterday! Wow, you have a short memory! You get pissed when people call you out on your BS. The truth hurts you fools! Is your full time content creation not working out for you?
Also, if you have to ask for money for your anniversary vacation then clearly you shouldnât be going! Why would TikTok want to fund your vacation while you sit on your asses day in and day out? Make that make sense!
I would wager to say that probably more than 75% of your views are from people watching your train wreck of a life embarrassing yourselves for the whole world to see! Wake up!
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2024.05.16 06:25 shinnith I donât play this game but have a gamepass perk for it- anyone want whatever the â10th Anniversaryâ pack is?
To note: Iâm based in Canada so to use it, you also have to be in Canada. Also had a convo with someone else about a different perk and if you wanna redeem this on PC, I think you need to have gotten the game from the Microsoft store or linked your Microsoft account thru whatever launcher your using (not sure about that part tho). It says itâs valid for Microsoft PC, Xbox series X/S & Xbox One. So basically you can use this if your in Canada and are playing this through Microsoft as a launcher.
This gamepass perk gives the â10th anniversary packâ and it needs to be redeemed by June 9th of this year. PM me if you want it or comment and Iâll PM you and send it your way!!
Edit: despite the couple comments, itâs still not claimed so feel free to take it lol I wanna get all these perks gone by tonight so I donât have to leave these posts up & possibly break the rules
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2024.05.16 06:21 alcoholicnow23 He doesnât trust me and I donât blame him
I made this throwaway bc I donât know who else to talk to. Today I got home to my boyfriendâs apartment after a long weekend apart, and he told me this couldnât work anymore. Iâm an alcoholic, and Iâve been one for over a year now. We had been together about six months when I first ever got drunk and then over the next year he got to watch me slip further and further into it. I blacked out a lot, I drank whenever we went out, but I mostly drank at home. I had never been part of the party scene in highschool or college and I considered myself a responsible person for the most part. But one night when I had been drinking and hiding how much during our weekly D&D session we had had a fight and I left early. He didnât know I was drunk and I blacked out as soon as I drove out of the parking lot 9pm. I donât remember anything until a cop finally pulled me over at 2 and my BAC was over .25. I was covered in vomit. I could have killed someone. He told me then that this couldnt continue. After the DUI I pretended to change but as a real alcoholic now I kept drinking in secret. I didnt drive so what harm would it do right? A month later he left me alone at his apartment for only a few hours and I walked down to the gas station to get alcohol bc he left me his keycard. By the time he came back the liter bottle I bought was gone and I was incoherent. I donât remember that day either, just waking up in the hospital, my bac almost at a .3. When I got home all my stuff from his apartment was there. After a week of sitting in the tub and crying he came to drop off a few more of my things, and the conversation we had was so painful. He has lived with alcoholics before and this is too much it cannot continue. I thought then that we would just be done, that there was nothing I could do bc I had already had done too much to hurt him, put him in danger, put myself in danger, been so stupid and selfish. But he gave me a second chance. I started an intensive outpatient program as part of my DUI sentence and began trying to put myself back together. I fell off once when I found cider in a room I was cleaning at work, housekeeping. I blacked out and when I came too in the single bathroom. When I had stumbled home he was there since I had drunkenly texted him. Everyone knew I was drunk right away. But even though he told me if I happened again he would be gone he stuck with me. That was October 15th. Since then Iâve been sober. I completed my program on our two year anniversary, and now two months later itâs over. And I donât blame him at all. How could I? Who wants their kids to see their mom drunk? Who wants that constant fear of coming home to find their spouse unconscious or worse? I wonât list all the reasons he gave but they were good and I donât disagree. And it still feels like my heart was ripped out of my chest without warning. I donât want anyone to tell me I donât deserve this or that he should have given me more chances bc he has already done that a hundred times over what could be expected of anyone. I just needed to dump all this somewhere so I could feel like I was doing something. I love him. I just need to say it one more time before I fall apart.
Happy six months sober everyone.
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2024.05.16 05:55 alcoyot Condo vs house vs rent
So I really wanted to buy a house lately. But needless to say, that is kind of ridiculous right now unless you want to live in a run down dump in the middle of ghetto gangland territory.
So I figured I would just rent for a while and save more money. But the lowest I can find thatâs reasonably close to my work is about 2600 per month. It will be advertised that thereâs apts for less, but when you call or show up, the only ones that are available are 2600 or 2700+ for very mediocre one bedrooms.
So I started doing some math on condos. And the total payment would be about the same. But youâd be accruing actual property, not just wasting all the money on rent.
It feels to me like this is the best solution at this time. You could also just living with roommates like college kids in your 20s with all those problems. But that gets old once youâre 30, 40+.
Any thoughts on that? Cause itâs really looking to me like condos are the best solution in the current market. Everyone is charging through the roof just because they can. Iâve seen some of the shittiest places all over 2k, not even in a good location.
The problem with rent is that itâs essentially price fixing. If. everyone agrees to charge a certain amount, they can all get away with it.
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2024.05.16 05:50 RuthlessKhaleesi I (F28) and my (M31) been together 10 years ; he's been constantly searching fb for a specific person, should I be worried?
So in January, my SO brought up to me that he was unhappy in our relationship because we were arguing too much, and I wasn't making time for him. We have a son with adhd, he takes up my patience and time, I'm a full time student, and an office manager. Still no excuse to make someone feel neglected, so I apologized and prioritized my time, talked to my therapist for aid in stress relief (I knew I was in a bad mood often), and cut back on hours. I told him to keep me up to date in his feelings, and if there is something else I can do to work on my end.
Everything has been going so much better and I asked him if he's happy with me a couple times, to which he responded he was never unhappy with me but with how our relationship was. Making the changes I did and being more present has felt amazing for me and I realized like wow, I have my person and I don't feel as stressed anymore maybe I bit off more than I can chew and this just feels good. I excitedly planned our 10 year anniversary, and we're both beyond excited.
Brings me to my issue, I can't shake this feeling off since January when he told me he was unhappy. I overthink and I know that but I can't get out of my head. I worry I'm not doing enough, looking good enough, having enough sex, etc... so we make jokes about our sex life taking a hit when becoming parents, and I make jokes about myself gaining weight, my stomach being different, etc. But he made a couple jokes a week ago and it hurt. It doesn't feel the way it used to because in my head he's not happy and I wish I could change it all and be someone he's proud to have (I gained 40 lbs since my son and have pcos so losing it has been a nightmare).
Fast forward to last week, I got his phone to look up his cousin (to buy a minisplit from them) on Facebook. I see multiple searches for women on it and it made my heart drop. I trust him, I don't think he'd cheat but it caught me off guard because one them is a spitting image of his dream girl. I put his phone down and just let it be. Before I get scolded on here, I know I shouldn't have looked again as it's an invasion of privacy (even though he has told me years ago, I could look through his phone) I never felt the need to and this was just coincidence. But I did, two more times. The old searches for her were deleted. But he forgot to delete the search from yesterday. Now my thing is why search them so often? And why delete it? And apparently, they went to high school together (says on the fb).
My brother is his best friend since 8th grade (how we met) and I was kinda just made apart of the friend group and they have talked about old crushes/flings in the past and the name of the girl he's been consistently searching up has never came up in these conversations so I'm kind of like who is she? Where did she come from?
I guess another thing that is just so bothersome to me about the whole thing is how I've been trying hard, putting in work to this and he's just doing whatever. But told me when I asked how happy he is now and happy about the changes.
Anyway, any advice would be great. And I guess bottom line is, should I be worried about his consistent searches? Should I ask him about it or let it be? Am I too in my head? I don't know.
TLDR; F28, M31 my SO of 10 years is consistently searching someone up on Facebook after telling me he was unhappy in January but now says he's so happy and loves all that has changed so I'm unsure if to bring it up to him or I'm overreacting and in my head.
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RuthlessKhaleesi to
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2024.05.16 05:50 thenewbw Am I focusing on the wrong things? Wife F35 / Husband M50
I (F/35) have been married to my husband (M/50) for 6 years. Iâm his second wife, and he is my first husband. We had some challenges after we got married, which we worked through with a couples therapist and have been doing great for the past 3 years. We had a baby a year ago. It was my first, and his third (two from previous marriage, live with us 50/50).
My husband has high paying job and I work part time. He covers a lot of the bills and earns us a very nice lifestyle, which Iâm thankful for.
He is the kind of person who values âexperiencesâ, and while I also value that, I like to collect nice items that I get to keep forever. He knows that I care about material things too, and that I have a taste for high quality and high end items, I buy from time to time and pay for them myself.
That being said, I think my love language is gifts, and I love to be spoiled. Not all the time, but it would be nice for big events, like having a baby or a big anniversary. And a year ago, we became parents together.
Recently, he discovered this brand of really cheap jewelry, like really really cheap. He gave me two pairs of earrings from them: one for my birthday and one for Christmas. He also gave me a $400 jacket for Christmas, so itâs not like heâs being frugal or entirely cheap. He can be generous when he wants to.
It says their jewelry is 14k plated but their earrings retail for $18 and $13, so Iâm really not sure how thereâs any actual gold in it.
The reason I looked it up was because I saw him digging through my boxes of jewelry to use for the pieces he got. He put the cheap earrings in one of my velvet jewelry boxes and gave it to me, saying âgold and diamondsâ⌠when it was a $13 piece of jewelry that came in a paper box. When I asked him why he took my box, he said âI liked it more than the one that came with itâ.
Anyway, I didnât say anything negative about the gifts. I thanked him, put them away, and havenât touched them since.
I wouldnât be upset if thatâs all he could afford, or if we were struggling financially and he was trying to be considerate, etc. But thatâs not the case. His income is in the mid 6 figures, and he is constantly splurging on events, dinners, and family trips (âexperiencesâ).
Part of me feels like Iâm being too materialistic, but part of me is just hurt that he isnât taking me and the things I value into consideration. I canât help but feel insulted by these gifts.
Iâm upset because he never gave me anything as a âpush presentâ or for our 5yr anniversary, and quite honestly, now Iâm afraid I will end up with more cheap jewelry sitting in my closet.
Am I focusing on the wrong things? Am I being ungrateful or too materialistic?
Should I get over it, or should I approach him about it? How does one even approach their spouse about something this?
tl;dr My husband is giving me really cheap gifts when he can afford something nice and knows I treasure things I can keep for life. Am I right to be upset, or am I being ungrateful because we have a nice lifestyle otherwise?
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2024.05.16 05:36 Itz_FancyFire On Steam Sale Soon?
Does anyone know of any upcoming Snowrunner sales on the steam store? Ive been looking to buy the 4 year anniversary edition. and before anyone says I should try it out before spending that much I Already own it on xbox and ( also the base game on the epic store which was a big mistake) so I know its fun
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http://rodzice.org/