Latest Posts by craneo87me - Page 2

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A bizarre impact of popculture I've observed is that nowadays you can encounter religious people deadly afraid of Ars Goetia demons, who are about as religiously significant as oc monsters from Dungeons and Dragons

The non-spherical meta-knights!

Mundane Design Detail of Digital Devil Saga: Tag Rings

(Spoilers for both DDS + DDS2.)

I have a tendency to look way too deep into little details of character designs in media, and when it comes to DDS where uniform designs are common, it gets even more fun for me. One of the things that first stood out was tag rings; the Junkyard invention that is introduced briefly and very early in the game as identifiable objects used simultaneously as trackers for downloadable mantras and can also act as digital wallets. I always wondered though, how much more they can represent for a character's actual design rather than just being a game tool for logging progress.

Rings on different fingers (and hands) represent different ideas on how we wish to present ourselves; these ideas can change from culture to culture, and in observing these differences, I looked both at general Western culture and of course, Hinduism. I was able to find more information in Western cultures with more commonalities. However, in Hinduism, by looking into mudras, you'll find rings on each finger can still hold different meanings. The middle finger is "ego", the pinky is "illusion", the ring finger is "karma". The index finger is Jiva-Atman - the individual soul or self. The thumb is Paramatman - the universal, eternal soul.

And if you've noticed, most individuals of the Junkyard wear their tag rings on their middle finger (on their left hand). In Western culture, the middle finger, similar to "ego" in Hinduism, represents "individuality". And hey, what do you know? That's a pretty important theme brought up later on.

The Samsara Tunnels scene with Lupa is actually what drove me to research further into this. Lupa removes his tag ring before performing an inevitable act of self-sacrifice, and at first, I thought it meant he was giving up his individuality. Until I noticed that no, Lupa wears his ring on his index finger on his right hand, rather than his middle finger on his left hand like almost everyone else. In Western culture, the index finger on the right hand instead represents the "potential for leadership". Fitting, for the Leader of the Wolves, who has offered his own head to the dominating tribe of the Embryon.

And then he hands it to Gale - who slips it onto his left hand next to his other ring, and he puts it on his index. And what does that represent? Comradery. Ohhhhhhhhh man. Let's go, gay subtext!!!

Irrelevant comment: (The funny thing is Lupa's ring literally does not pop up on his hand until the camera focuses on his hand and then it disappears. For the rest of the scene and the rest of the game and DDS2 it is gone. I don't know if that was an intentional choice - I doubt it - perhaps the animators didn't want to make a whole other Gale model with the two rings. I like to think he kept the ring...)

Moving onto DDS2, and Serph sells his tag ring at the Mad Mart to make some cash. Nobody else sells their rings. With the hacking disk, they are no longer needed, so it seems everyone just keeps it for sentiments. Serph himself also wears his ring on his middle finger, so was it a story choice for him to give it away - to represent him giving up his individuality? Of course, maybe not immediately, but eventually, Serph's individuality blends with another soul - being Sera's - in order to become Seraph. And no, they do not wear any rings, because neither Sera nor Serph did at the point of fusing.

Yeah.

Some additional points:

Cielo doesn't wear his tag ring as a ring, he wears it as a necklace. Similar to Lupa and his layers of necklaces with several tag rings. I'm not sure what that means - usually, necklaces with rings represent vows, most commonly found for promise rings. They can also represent deceased loved ones. Which is quite heartbreaking when you think about Lupa's necklaces...

Generally, the right hand for rings is the "action" hand while the left is the "thinking" hand.

If I ever find more information and more opportunities to extend this drabble, I will. I'm not sure how interesting this essay is for others, but some friends were interested in hearing it. I really do wonder how much thought was put into this design aspect, and if anyone has their own knowledge to bring to the table, I'd love to hear it.

You can only reblog this today.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶EYE PRACTICE︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

decided to take some more art lessons. mostly to overcome my issue with drawing skin! i think that is a thing of da past now    try to guess who is who! the tags might help ya!

Dude I showed you my silly little crossover can you please respond

literally so important to me…. kitty moment

Warning: Long Post, Bragging about

For me, it’s tied with Valigarmanda (not Tritoch) and Ultima Weapon (not Atma Weapon, as much as it hurts me since i love DDS but i digress) both from FFVI

Valigarmanda is such a underappreciated Summon, Esper, Eidolon, whatever. i love this Quetzalcoalt-looking thing (i don’t know if would be a better feathered serpent design for quetzalcoalt than smt 1 quetz but that’s beside the point) despite how much important it is for FF6′s plots (being the first Esper you encounter not counting the half-esper herself, terra, which speaking of which, it also help her to unlock her esper form) it’s kinda of a shame that outside of it’s debut game, it barely appears, and most of it’s other “appearances” are just reference to it (which an antagonist from world of final fantasy being probably it’s most important non-ffvi “appearances”) i think it’s gimmick being a “tri-elemental” summon would atleast make it stand out for most other summons in the franchise.

Ultima Weapon is also very badass design and (thankfully) it does appear in more FF games (thought sometimes other i can be a pain trying to refer specifically to this thing since i usually refers to the weapon (both the FFVII and the literal definition of the word) of the same name. (also Battle to the Death slams)

honorable mentions, in not particular order:

The Weapons from FFVII

Odin

Behemoth

Typhon

Sprite Gilgamesh (yeah, i’m kinda weird)

Diabolos

The Four Fiends from FFI

The Four Archfiends from FFIV

Shinryu

Sefer Sephiroth

Alexander

Leviathan

Deathgazer

The Warring Triad

so what's your favorite Final Fantasy Monster? (whatever if is "myth accurate" or just looks cool)

Accuracy to myth is definitely not something that figures into my appraisal of FF designs. Anyway:

this was the most freak shit that a preadolescent soren ever saw. still unfuckwithable to this very day. god this shit is sick. fuck!!!

The magoverse is real!!!

Soaking wet cat meets alternates of himself who are all equally as soaking wet and pathetic as him

Featuring Magolors from

myself

@opal-owl-flight

@waddledoodledee

i did it

have you seen the 'Outsider' Kirby music video by Rinyo?

tried to find what you meant and only this came up (i am very unfluent in japanese so)

is this what you were talking about? if so, then yes, i've seen this before and I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCH LIKE GOOD GOD

anyone who's a kirby fan must see it at least once.

Demiurge Nazo

huh, that sure looks familiar @eirikrjs​

Two wizards having a lovely conversation. 

What secrets could they secretly be sharing in secret?

Magolor has taken over the Kirby Twitter just to announce Sand send tweet

2004 Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne for Sony PlayStation 2 Magazine Ad

[The sidequest where the player fights Mara in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne has several references to the previous numbered titles.] [The summoning area references the 4 dolls used in a summoning ritual in Shin Megami Tensei II which goes wrong due to the inclusion of “The Dancing Doll” rather than the correct “Sleeping Doll”. The Nocturne ritual also goes wrong, likely for the same reason] [Baphomet’s incantation is taken from the introduction of Shin Megami Tensei, which invokes the names of God as part of its ritual.]

in 12 years went from being forced to pose for a family photoshoot to just being happy to be there together

(almost) the entire intro cutscene!!!

Finally drew my fav party in dds 🥹

no way

Your article about JJCAT has irreparably rotten my brain. I randomly ran into a post on Reddit about the Sakafuneishi stone (which apparently nobody really knows what it was made for) and my first thought was "yo that really looks like the sefirot" lmao

It's funny,because my brain was also damaged recently (not irreparably,thankfully)

Here is the stone:

GALE AND THE GANG 💚💚💚

Just a reminder that Digital devil saga will be real in 2 years

Marx and magolor? are they homies or more?

Scans from DDS Maniacs Guide Booklet - ザプレPLUS 超冊子 DDSマニアクス攻略 [source]

shadow of the colossus is a game about being on the ledge and shit