Time you would love this event btw (forced event story support for 5/6 available slots with super entertaining, story-aligned gameplay)

-Galaxian-

I really wanna write for the SS AU.

^ By that they mean, avoid character planning and development and write some weird crap with people bonding over food or haircuts (/hj, only for the last part. the avoidance is real)

-Galaxian-

God Cloth Aphrodite is also funny because he came right after I wrote "I will cry at Aureole (SS AU Pisces Saint #1)", implying he came just to watch me cry. Okay.
(Maybe he came to help Aureole? Doubt. Serious doubt.)

Today I was like "No wonder Asa is the way he is, there is no older guy role model in this group" and then I realized, Aureole is older than him.
So basically, accurate. 

Manigoldo also came earlier (again) after I summoned on Sage's banner. You see, this is why I love their dynamic, he acts all tough and stuff but clearly he doesn't want his master to be overworked.
Dw dude, none of these skills are levelled lol.

-Galaxian- 

Actually Legend of Justice drew him very well as well, but you see...I don't play that.


The downgraded resolution is real lol.


Here's SS's Sleeping Beauty too, in an interesting style


Yes, I am making fun of them.
Gotta love translating SS hairstyles over. Ahaha. Ahahaaahhh. AHAHAHA! SUFFERING!

-Galaxian-

He speedran the "First to Immortality Potion" category and then accidentally got smited immediately (also accidentally speedran the "That's Against the Rules" category. Well, that was intentional but he forgot that Zeus just lightning strikes anyone he doesn't like)
Instead of channeling his hatred to his dad(???) he went insane. Cuckoo even. 

-Galaxian-

Love how Arknights went from tower defence to tower defence (new game mode: manual skills automatically activated, operators all deployed at once)
Taking me for a spin. It's so fun tho. I love new mechanics/game modes. Plus now my PC can die fr (I keep taking Reed Alter with S3)

-Galaxian-

Back to making fun of SS
I love how since Athena hates weapons, the Gold Saints instead:
-Sends you straight to hell (it's your home, if you're a Specter. Mu is very hospitable)
-Shatters every bone in your body
-Disintegrates your atoms and every atom along the way (probably)
-Uses a stolen technique to make you do reverse character development
-Sends you straight to hell (again, but less effective?)
-Punches you punches you PUNCHES YOU
-Makes you a living corpse
-Goes to McDonald's (he refuses to show any canon feats)
-Torture acupuncture for your own benefit[?]
-Punches you punches you PUNCHES you (actually he just pins your shadow in place with an arrow or something. And refuses to wear armor)
-Tries to literally chop you in half. But you see, it's only his arms and legs that are imitating a famous sword from legend so it's okay. 
-Turns you into a popsicle if he likes you. Literally shatters you if he doesn't. I mean idk, he doesn't really have canon feats either. In canon he was mostly on his last pegs and then got beat up by a frog that got out of the freezer.
-Sucks out all your blood, but with a rose. And destroys all your armor.   

Like honestly are any of the above really preferable to the alternatives. Idk. Btw they also have access to a god-slaying dagger for some reason, which you would assume is to beat enemy gods. However, it seems exclusively to be used against their own goddess. Even in SoG it's just to destroy some tree roots or something idk. They forget about it against Loki (or I'm forgetting). 
In any case--where the heck was that dagger during the Poseidon arc? Beats me. Where was it during Inferno and Elysium? Beats me. 

Similar thing for the entire Gold Saint blood and Athena blood thing btw. These dudes need to be donating much more often than they actually do. Even if it's useless against gods, it has to be useful against high-ranking Specters.

Anyways, the Bronze Saints just gang up on an enemy god and their army of uhhh...3-7 actually useful people, so honestly I think they're doing better at not committing war crimes. (May I add that the rest of the Silver and Bronze Saints are absolutely useless tho)
Adding for clarity purposes that while I like the Gold Saints more, they are not good role models for the most part. Even Dohko doesn't get off the hook 'cause he really was like "Get off my lawn" to a little boy the first time they met. I think Mu, Aldebaran, and Aiolia (when he's not an enemy) are okay, the rest really need to go to therapy or something. Aiolos is included there too btw 'cause he needs to learn not to make sacrificing the protocol role model behavior. 

Also gonna make fun of the Norse side of things real quick even though it's not canon for either the Asgard arc or Soul of Gold. Like what the heck is that coordination guys. Hilda I love you but your productivity is offline ma'am

-Galaxian-

I thought it would take more time, but actually, (major spoilers for LB 7 ending lol)

Xu Fu stomped over ORT's last stand, and then Jeanne Alter did Tezcatlipoca in lol.

I like how the way the Arknights fancharacter designs can go depend simply on whether I find the continuation of friendship a worthy enough purpose
Hey Rai. Hey Rai. Hey Rai. (I have yet to find a single AU where he doesn't fit in. Bro can suffer so many ways and he doesn't even react, wow.)

-Galaxian-

Faust's theme getting me real bad

-Galaxian-

I think Wiley will just murder me in Organic Chem. Either that or I'm getting him first.
The worst thing is the fact that even if I were Raez he would do the exact same thing. So basically, he is the worst.
(specification of "if I were Raez" is because if I were Dion or Rai or Petey it wouldn't even be a hecking question)

-Galaxian-

LB 7 review (not very formal at all)

Starting off with the Lostbelt Not-King. Well, the Crypter's Servant. Tezcatlipoca is a very interesting character. Bro yaps a lot.
He's confusing, but also very straightforward, I guess. I'm not the most familiar with Aztec mythology, but it feels like they did their research on his lore...? Either that or they're really good at making what they made up sound legit (Fate writers are good at that).
Insert usual joke about "South American" Lostbelt here. Lol. They have no excuses for that part.

Daybit's character was rushed. Either that or I just digest slowly. His backstory part was so cool, and I understand his motivations mostly, but I feel like his role in the Lostbelt was mostly:
-Help with the protagonist's hike through the underworld (thanks dude)
-Feel morally ambiguous, but not really since you kinda know his backstory. Plus he and Kirschtaria and Pepe get along (even if he kinda calls Pepe an idiot), so he can't be that bad.
-Disagrees with you (will fight you for it)

At the end he really says "I didn't think of it that way." Bro I have been saying the same thing to you the entire time, wdym you thought the new Chaldea couldn't stand against the old one just because we have the word "Chaldea" in our name?? Are you deaf?? And blind??

So basically, interesting pair...missing content. Maybe they'll get more time in the future? I sure hope so, but also I doubt it lol. I know some parts of the fandom love their dynamic. I think I would love it...if I saw more of it. Rn all I can think of that's notable is the fact that Tezcatlipoca apparently knows that Daybit likes a certain genre of movie and based some of his decisions in-story off of cliches in the genre. And btw, that's something I picked up from the fandom, or else the reference would have gone clean over my head. They really deserved some sort of fluff to their relationship instead of just serious parts.

In general, for storytelling, many characters deserved better for their parting from the story. The vibe I got was "the visual design artists tried so hard", so props to them, but otherwise it was kinda like "oh bye". For instance, I feel like Camazotz and Fujimaru definitely should have gotten a goodbye of some sort, even though the primary thematic pairing was Camazotz and Nitocris (expressed well through art lol). The pacing felt a bit rushed as well, maybe because of ORT's section. Character development mostly felt like "And now I think this way," though. 
Like Izcalli. Yes, there was progression to his way of thinking, but dude did a really big turn on his thinking, and that ended up being his death flag. It was executed well in terms of sprite art (again, thanks visual designers), but since earlier he'd killed off Nemo Marine and was in general pretty pathetic, I doubt many people cared. That being said, I really liked Izcalli and Tenochtitlan's relationship, even though most of it wasn't shown. At first you think it's Izcalli being soft despite being Tezcatlipoca's next host, and then you realize...that's one of the last Aztec emperors with the capital city of his empire lol. It becomes slightly funny when you realize he's wearing a Black Panther costume (I didn't even watch that movie), but in the end, it's pretty tragic. He didn't have the mettle to become a god and gets shot just like that. 
Nitocris. I love her, and I love her Alter's design, but other than doing what is pretty much the definition of Alterization, I cannot hecking remember what she's done. Like yeah I love her, but did we really establish that much of a new connection to her? It feels more like she's an extension of normal Nitocris' dedication and trust in Chaldea, and even so, that's weird since this copy of her was supposed to be unconnected to previous Singularities or whatever.
Camazotz is silly and I love him for that silliness (plus the inevitable trauma), but he felt like a thematic puppet, which is highly unfortunate. Bro deserved more out of that "last Master" storyline. Instead his exposition was dumped at us...from the void...right before his death. And we didn't even get to send him off. 
And Kukulkan is very funny too, but she felt more like a plot device? Clearly she's a very reliable ally, but sometimes she times herself out so we can struggle a bit. I liked her final monologue, but I wish we could have actually been better friends than shooting her compliments for pretty much no reason. At least, it felt like we were complimenting her for no reason most of the time. 

Lastly, the President of the Earth herself. Olga-Marie. 
I really enjoyed the time we had with her. True heroine for real. Of course, I also have some complaints about the memory loss shenanigans...but honestly, if we had to level up our bond with her, it wouldn't work otherwise. 'Cause you remember how she was in Olympus, right? Right, fellow Masters? 
Anyways, her plot was like Kukulkan's, and they had some thematic parallels in "how to be a proper god" as well. She was clearly a reliable ally who would never break a promise she made. I really enjoyed her perspective on the deinos vs. PHH humans topic, since otherwise the only perspectives we could know were from those sides. But it did get a little tiring how she'd keep on being like "I'm gonna go now and never come back" and then come back. Realistic tsundere behavior.
I don't think her story is concluded at all. I mean, how many fake-outs were there? So I'll leave this a WIP.

Alright, will have to comment on the deinos and ocelomeh (I keep trying to type ocelotl bruh) later.

I love you Aldebaran (technically SSA shows that some Gold Saints like me enough to show up and comfort me or whatever. I love you guys)
(reminder: I understand there is no causation. still)

I love how I went from having no emotional coping skills to just holing it in for a year and coping in the meantime with gacha results

-Galaxian-

I think it'd be funny to draw the AU Gold Saints in that whole "they're all framed with the center being the Pope" setup
-Someone who can't even draw headshots of the whole cast in one go

Okay, but consider, whoever is in front just has a bigger head-to-body ratio. The further back you go the more deflated their heads become. 
Alternatively whoever is up front has actual details and eventually whoever is in the back is just a stickperson.
No I am not sane, but this is so funny imo.

-Galaxian-

This one btw.
In my defence, Aldebaran is already squished, so.

I like LC Gold Saint group photos. (The Gold Saints get a lot of group photos from the fandom, I like those too.)
Watch the above be fanon too lol (LC is like a fever dream for me, I barely remember anything except for selective parts like making fun of Phantasos and Aspros and Alone)

In case you're curious, Chikyuugi's Gold Saint lineup is for emotional damage, and then the Wailing Wall setup is an emotional nuke (that SSA shows me every time I login (((((: )

-Galaxian-