Valkyrie: Rose

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Lethe
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Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Lethe »

Image

My shrine to Rose from The Legend of Dragoon is up! It's only half-way done, though I've worked hard on it over the past three weeks, but I'm posting it here since it's been submitted to BAB's September Challenge and is thus public. I'll keep working on it now since I want to finish it while the memory of my recent playthrough is still fresh, and will post updates on my domain's update log as well as on Twitter (will either comment here or in my Amassment update topic when I have finished everything).

Rose is my favourite video game character of all time and I've been wanting to shrine her forever, but never had the courage to until Emrys posted the challenge prompt (I'm so grateful to Emrys ;_;) - and even then, I was hesitating due to a variety of factors. The Legend of Dragoon is also one of my favourite JRPGs even though I think that its gameplay... sucks (actually, I have nothing but murderous rage for it by now). If by some miracle you are still playing the game or intend to play it, please read the spoiler warnings carefully before clicking on anything in the navigation so that I don't ruin it for you.

I've mentioned some Amassment folks as inspiration in the credits since I've always wanted to make a video game character shrine. ^_^v

As always, I'd love feedback, error/typo reports, etc.! :D

Edit: 18 November - The shrine is finally complete!
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Robin
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Robin »

What a magnum opus! WOOOOOOO!! Congrats!!

I know you're still working on sections of the site (the crossed-out ones on the nav), but it feels overall well-fleshed out and comprehensive. Also, I totally understand hating the gameplay of a game but loving a character from it (thus, why I still want to play through Super Paper Mario because I get to play as Princess Peach ^o^). That honesty is refreshing and unique to find in a video game shrine, because usually one feels a certain pressure to like the game that a favorite character came from.

Also, all the screencaps?!?! Mad skills alert! :D

Phew, I tell ya what, you've raised the bar for video game characters! Whenever I finally get around to doing my Princess Peach shrine, I'mma have to bring my A+ game :P
~ a dream is a wish your heart makes ~
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Lethe
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Lethe »

Thank you for visiting my shrine and leaving me such lovely feedback as always! <3 Such high praise too. ;_; YES I like presenting a thorough look at the thing (manga, video game, etc.) that a character I'm shrining comes from because I like coming close to "exhausting" my thoughts on a subject and because it might be of interest to those who might want to give the thing a try. (I like browsing well-written critical reviews on things that I might pick up. XD)

LoD is not a bad game as far as gameplay is concerned, I just don't think it has aged that well due to the amount of time the battle system and the backtracking eat up (and guess what, I'm stingy with my time), and it is definitely subpar to other JRPGs due to the low amount of gameplay elements. :>

Taking the screencaps was surprisingly fun - first I thought it'd be too much of a chore, but naaah. PLUS now I know how to use the Lightbox script for future shrines. 8D

Looking forward to you shrining a video game character!! :D Your sites certainly have inspired me, and I totally have a future project in mind related to mental health. <3
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Mikari
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Mikari »

I love how detailed your sites are! You have a gift for writing and analysis. :D
Robin
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Robin »

@Lethe: what is Lightbox? If it makes taking screencaps easier, I'm all for it! XD *living up to my username*

/Off-topic: Ooo a site about mental health? NEAT :D we will need to affy when you get it uploaded! ^O^

(And my Princess Peach shrine will be up next year--projecting Nov 2016 so far, but we'll see how it goes, LOLOLOL)
~ a dream is a wish your heart makes ~
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Lethe
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Lethe »

Thank youuu, Mikari. <3 <3 It's what I loved doing the most at school. <3

Lightbox is the script I use to display sets of connected screencaps so you can easily enlarge and browse them all at once without leaving the page (+ captions). :D It's best seen in the wall of screencaps I put up on the first personality page. For screencapping itself, I used ShareX in this instance because I already had it installed, but I'm sure there are better screencap programs out there. ShareX is for easy screencapping + automatic uploading to imgur/etc. to share with friends lol. (Larissa recommended KMPlayer to me, which I use for automatic anime screencapping.)

Yesss I was totally going to link your sites whenever I realize that project. <3
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Robin
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Robin »

COOL! Sorry about the confusion of technologies--both sound really interesting though! (And when used together, they sure make for such an awesome collection of screen caps :D)
~ a dream is a wish your heart makes ~
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Samantha
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Samantha »

Lethe,

I am completely blown away and inspired by Valkyrie. Not only can you write very well, but you did an amazing job using screenshots and quotes to enhance your analysis in a way that I've never seen before. Further, your analysis is so detailed and really shows how much time you've spent thinking about not only Rose's character, but those around her as well. It can be hard to hold every little detail of a main character in your head when writing a shrine, but it really seems you were able to do that.

What I loved most, though, was that I learned a lot about Rose and thought about the game differently than I had before. I had a shrine to Shana at one point in time (as you know), and your page on their relationship made me reconsider a number of things that I hadn't thought of in the way you presented both their relationship and Shana's relationship with Dart.

I can't wait to see the rest of the shrine when you are able to get it up! I'm particularly looking forward to the symbolism and role pages, and everything in "the woman" section! You've definitely set the bar for character analysis and have inspired me to work harder on my own shrines. <3

EDIT: Oh, I noticed that Rose's name isn't highlighted for one of her lines in your last blockquote on the "Catching Up" page. D: Just thought I'd let you know!
Lethe
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Lethe »

!! Thanks so much for reading my shrine, especially since it's... so much... text....... lmao. And for leaving me such a lengthy feedback! ;_; Your encouragement really meant a lot to me while I was shrining this, especially since I started the month being very very indecisive about whether or not I'd finally make a shrine for Rose.

I took a lot of screencaps and cut/marked the entire game script with different colours while having an entire notebook with notes for the shrine in Evernote specifically for this shrine, so I'm happy that all that organization and effort makes itself visible in how I wrote about those around Rose!

Re: Shana - I admit that I didn't always see her this way either (her actual and symbolic relationship with Rose, yes, but not her relationship with Dart) and still don't feel 100% positive about the handling of her romantic relationship in the game, but I was fortunate to stumble upon some Tumblr posts on this matter that gave me a different and reconciling perspective on this. (These two posts in particular if you're interested. XD) As with my other shrines, I'll most likely put up a link list with recommended reads that aren't fansites or fanwork somewhere. :D

Yessss I'm super looking forward to working on the rest of the shrine due to the amount of thematic essays coming up. :D And thank you for pointing out the oversight, I'll go fix it! :D

I'm really happy to hear that something I've created is inspiring others. \o/
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Crystal
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Re: Valkyrie: Rose

Post by Crystal »

I don't know anything about The Legend of Dragoon but I love your layout and how you used quotes for each section. I love quotes. I also admire how you can write so much about a particular subject. It's something I always struggle with so I think it's awesome.
There are shadows before us - but only because the light is at our back.
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