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Skwerl posted:Actually, I think a while ago I thought I saw someone literally downed acz's final boss fight with UGB. 
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Feb 14, 2016 15:39
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Is friendly fire a thing? Can you shoot down PJ? With the A-10?
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Feb 14, 2016 16:49
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ElTipejoLoco posted:Can you catch up to and shoot down Pixy after he defects using a sufficiently overpowered plane or cheats? Your wingmen are literally invincible and despite him shooting at you Pixy is still considered your wingman by the game at that point, so no.
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Feb 14, 2016 16:55
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nine-gear crow posted:
Use the A-10 in the final boss fight. InfinityComplex fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Feb 14, 2016 |
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Feb 14, 2016 17:31
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PoptartsNinja posted:Is friendly fire a thing? I've actually seen Pixy fly through a mountainside, your piddly A-10 means nothing!
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Feb 14, 2016 21:22
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nine-gear crow posted:Edit: of the lot of them, the only one I can't promise I'll deliver on is Mayhem (Guns Only), just because it's a huge enemy-heavy mission, I suck at gun kills, and it has the potential to turn into a bore with how long its going to be. Be prepared for corner cutting and loophole abuse, is all I'm saying I never said you have to finish the mission. Although you giving up after 1 attempt isn't that fun.
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Feb 14, 2016 21:45
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The Casualty posted:I've actually seen Pixy fly through a mountainside, your piddly A-10 means nothing! Is that all? In Joint Assault I've flown straight into a mountainside that an AI plane I was tailing flew straight through, and watched AI planes fly into a canyon, fly through the canyon walls, then book it away faster than a player plane is capable of going while underground to deny me the progress towards new paint schemes. The AI has achieved CHIM.
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Feb 14, 2016 21:46
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Ashsaber posted:Is that all? In Joint Assault I've flown straight into a mountainside that an AI plane I was tailing flew straight through, and watched AI planes fly into a canyon, fly through the canyon walls, then book it away faster than a player plane is capable of going while underground to deny me the progress towards new paint schemes. What if all the ace combat games take place in the electrosphere???
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Feb 14, 2016 22:07
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InfinityComplex posted:Use the A-10 in the final boss fight. I accidentally spoiled myself on the final boss on youtube. Someone did it with the F-117, which is apparently in the game but not available yet. On Ace.
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Feb 14, 2016 22:40
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nine-gear crow posted:
I'm voting for this one.
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Feb 15, 2016 00:57
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Cythereal posted:I accidentally spoiled myself on the final boss on youtube. Someone did it with the F-117, which is apparently in the game but not available yet. On Ace. I think EA-6B (in cockpit view) would be far harder.
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Feb 15, 2016 01:38
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PoptartsNinja posted:Is friendly fire a thing? Now that's just mean. But if you can shoot down PJ, I'd say do a montage of you shooting him down with various planes and subweapons, to a goofy soundtrack.
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Feb 15, 2016 17:11
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If only that were possible. Problem is, PJ checkpoints a lot so he won't die.
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Feb 15, 2016 17:22
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Alrighty, here we go with Ace Mode one more time. Now with 300% more laser cannons and 1000% more embarrassing failure from me. ACE Combat Zero - Mission 9 featuring Lunethex ACE Combat Zero - Mission 10 featuring nine-gear crow
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Feb 16, 2016 01:21
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The big advantage about the F-5 is that it's so slow that it can just do that (go slow and get on their butt) The big disadvantage is that it happens even when you're not trying.
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Feb 16, 2016 02:19
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Dear PJ haters: how good are you at polo? That's what I thought... get hosed.
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Feb 16, 2016 02:20
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And just when you think the day can't get any worse, I show up with two more Ace mode videos. I'm almost sorry. Mission 11 - Where Cypher's war crimes come to a head... (feat CJacobs) Mission 12 - ...And where he's punished for it. (feat Lazyfire) Turn your volume down
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Feb 17, 2016 06:47
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Well, if Knight Cipher is Dash Rendar, then we've now established who Mercenary Cipher is: The Demon Lord That Comes When People Call Its Name
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Feb 17, 2016 07:06
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Mods please change the thread title to "Yo Buddy, Napalm Sticks To Kids" - Let's Play Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.
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Feb 17, 2016 07:25
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nine-gear crow posted:Mods please change the thread title to "Yo Buddy, Napalm Sticks To Kids" - Let's Play Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. We bomb the sick, the young, the lame, We do our best to maim, Because the kills all count the same, Napalm sticks to kids. Flying low across the trees, Pilots doing what they please, Dropping frags on refugees, Napalm sticks to kids. It's like the perfect theme song to my Mercenary run. I'm starting to think maybe my version of Cypher has been getting crazier as the run has gone on. Maybe it's just me.
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Feb 17, 2016 09:10
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9eybY9qFfY Works best with Aces laughing at the end.
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Feb 17, 2016 09:39
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I recorded all the missions of AC3 and I'm gonna start working on getting the final of UPEO out, finally. Although I DO need to say something about this. There are some missions with a poo poo ton of pre-mission brief and for those ones, I will not be subtitling over the video because doing that can make it take way longer than any video render has a right to take for the sub 10 minute length they mostly are. To give you an example, in the last update, One-Way Ticket was only 5 minutes and it usually takes 5-6 minutes to render a video for me upwards of 20 minutes. That took 40 minutes because for whatever reason so much text fucks with a video. But to be fair it can also be attributed to the blur I threw on the dialogue box. It also just makes editing take longer and I'm going to start getting busier on other things lately. For all the medium length stuff though yeah I'll fill it in myself, and all the gameplay stuff. It's just this particular instance where the Big Bads™ make their reveal and there is just a huge plot dump. This gets repeated 5 times to make up for the fact they show up in every route so I'll also be dropping time codes in the video for people to skip past what they've already seen etc. So instead of subtitling all the wall of texts I'll just set up a SSLP test post thing and post it next to it and you can read it next to the dialogue, read it in advance and skip, etc. Whatever works for 'ya. Ya'll cool with that? Sometimes there are small differences in them across the 5 routes but I'll always point it out in the video.
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Feb 18, 2016 10:01
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“The Valley of Kings” Mission 17: Operation Point Blank – December 31st, 1995 Epilogue & Credits Closing Interviews – Espada 2, Soldier & Mercenary Versions Overview: Backed by a full wing of fighters from the Osean Air Defense Force, Cipher and PJ make a daring run through the Mund Valley to Avalon Dam to destroy the launch control module for the V2 nuclear superweapon and prevent A World With No Boundaries from causing a nuclear holocaust. However, one last enemy ace blocks the way... Yo Buddy, you still alive?  Guest Commentator: Who else would I have on for this mission other than my very own Solo Wing Pixy, Blind Sally—and by that I mean we are probably also going to wind up killing each other one day in a frozen nuclear hellscape. His body of LP work speaks for itself, because I literally cannot find the words to describe it. He’s currently LPing the Tau campaign of WarHammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade; an LP that just will not die apparently.  I know that only three people read these posts, but whatever, just be forewarned that the write ups that follow spoil the gently caress out of the final boss, so if you haven’t seen the end of Zero yet and want to go into the finale blind, then stop reading RIGHT HERE and watch the video first. This is your last warning. Okay, I’m gonna assume if you’ve scrolled down this far then you’re all in for spoilers or you have some kind of wicked impulse control problems. Either way, you’re hosed now, so let’s get to the  ’ing!  AVALON The mythical island home to the supernatural forces of the Arthurian myth ruled over by the Lady of the Lake, and, at one point, by Morgan Le Fay. It formed a binary with Camelot in terms of the realm of man and the realm of nature or the divine, serving as an analog to the afterlife. It was the place where Excalibur was forged, and where it was returned to after Arthur’s death. It was also, according to some versions of the Arthurian myth, the place where Arthur was spirited away to following the Battle of Camlann and the death of Mordred. Because in some versions of the myth, Arthur never actually dies, he only appears to, and is instead placed in a kind of mystical sleep to recover from his wounds and will one day re-emerge to reclaim the throne of Britain. This is where the “future” part of The Once And Future King comes from. See? Arthur’s not dead, he’s just hiding!  AVALON DAM The Avalon Hydroelectric Dam was built along the Mund River by the Belkan Federation in the 1980s by the Belkan Army Corp of Engineers with a total energy output of 126 kWh. Construction lasted 8 years and ended shortly after the Belkan Federal Law Review of 1988. Advertised as a civilian infrastructure project, the construction came under fire from the international community when Belka refused to disclose what it meant when it claimed Avalon would be a “multipurpose” facility in its project outline to potential international investors. What Belka didn’t tell the world was that the majority of its underground facilities actually housed covert intercontinental ballistic missile silos and launch facilities. Avalon was intended to function as a key component of Belka’s nuclear triad, designed to be a both a first and second-strike capable facility in the event of a nuclear war with Osea, Yuktobania, Sapin, Erusea, or Emmeria. So closely guarded was Avalon’s true purpose that Osean Intelligence only learned of its launch facilities on December 31st, 1995, when an Osean spy satellite stationed over Belka to monitor for violations of the post-war arms reduction treaty detected draining of the Mund River and the emergence of Avalon’s launch silos from beneath the dam’s receding waters. In addition to the hydroelectric and launch facilities, the Avalon complex also housed an airfield ostensibly designed to receive supplies for its continued operation. The airfield was also appropriated by A World With No Boundaries when then seized the Avalon facility and made it their base of operations. Avalon makes a reappearance in Ace Combat Infinity as part of the game’s loose storyline between missions. This version of Avalon Dam is located in Russia, or rather part of Russia that now belongs to the rogue nation of the USEA Federation. Much like Zero’s Avalon, Infinity’s is also a covert ICBM launch facility which the player is tasked with disabling before USEA can launch a warhead from it.  WHO’S RUNNING THIS PLACE, ANYWAY? So like I said in the last update, this is the spot where things get a little tricky to form a cohesive narrative due to a rare burst of direct mission-to-mission alternate continuity. Depending on your Ace Style and who you fought in the Round Table in the previous mission, whoever is controlling the V2 launch procedure in this mission will change. If you’re playing on Knight, like we are for the LP, then you face Wizard Squadron in the Round Table, and Sorcerer 1 will be running the show at Avalon. If you’re playing on Mercenary, like ACES’s Genocide rear end in a top hat Cipher run is doing, then you will face Sorcerer Squadron in Mission 16 and Wizard 1 will be on the ground for Mission 17. If you play on Soldier then you will face Gault Squadron in the Round Table, and… Sorcerer 1 is also at Avalon. Yeah, that’s the kicker. I said the game really undersells the fact that Anton Kupchenko is the big bad of Ace Combat Zero, and I meant it. He never appears at Avalon, and is never even mentioned or hinted at even existing in a Knight or Mercenary run. He is effectively summoned into being by a Soldier Cipher. Spooky. As for trying to square the circle of “okay well how was Sorcerer 1 in the Round Table and Avalon at the same time?” The answer is: “it’s a video game, I don’t give a poo poo.” For argument’s sake though, we’ll just assume that Palmer was rescued from the Round Table and whisked away to Avalon in time to oversee the V2 launch by, oh… let’s say… Moe.  V2 This section will focus on the real world references to the V2 missile. For the in-universe write up, please see the “Superweapons” section. The V2 superweapon of Zero was named after the V2 missile developed by Nazi Germany near the end of World War II. Because Belka’s all about rockin’ dat Nazi style  . The V2 was the world’s first long-rage guided ballistic missile, and was intended to eventually carry a nuclear warhead, had the Nazi nuclear program proved successful, which it thankfully didn’t.The V2 was one of several Vergeltungswaffen, or “vengeance weapons,” designed for long range retaliatory strikes on Allied targets. It was also the first manmade object to cross the atmospheric boundary known as the Kármán line and enter space. Following the war, the V2 was repurposed by the Allied countries for both peaceful and weapons development purposes, and the majority of its development staff including Wernher von Braun surrendered themselves to the United States, where von Braun would go on to develop, among other things, the Saturn V rocket for NASA which put a used car lot on the Moon. So then it’s presented with just a touch of irony by Project Aces that on our Earth, our V2 heralded the arrival of the age of the intercontinental nuclear menace, while on Strangereal’s Earth, their V2 sounded its death knell.  MIRV So what the gently caress is a MIRV, I hear some of you asking. Well, MIRV (pronounced like the name “Merv”) stands for multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle; a two-stage ballistic missile sabot that, when it reaches the apex of its firing arc, separates into smaller projectiles each of which having their own independent reentry vector and target. So instead of one warhead, you now have potentially a dozen raining down upon you. It’s basically the ICBM version of a shotgun shell and one of the biggest, nastiest gently caress yous in the realm of nuclear weaponry because just one MIRV is capable of taking out an entire country’s worth of people. The V2 in Ace Combat Zero is a MIRV weapon with eight nuclear warheads, for reference.  MORGAN LE FAY Another one of the “big ones” in the canon of “HEYGUYSDOYOUKNOWABOUTKINGARTHUR?!!!  ” Morgan Le Fay is Arthur’s half-sister by his mother’s previous marriage (you know, the one Uther and Merlin broke up with a little bit of “I’m pretty sure that’s technically rape, guys”). Depending on the version of the Arthurian myth you go with, she plays a wide variety of roles, from an openly antagonistic villain to the Knights of the Round Table, to a stand-offish potential adversary and occasional ally, to just, well, not even existing. Some versions of the myth see her reconciling with Arthur near the end of the saga, while in orders they remain hostile right up to Arthur’s death.In just about every version, she is a powerful sorceress estimated to be on par with Merlin himself, perhaps even surpassing him in terms of power and skill, hence why she’s such a deadly and eternal thorn in Arthur’s side. She was entrusted to Merlin’s tutelage around the same time as Arthur was when her magical talents were discovered. But while Arthur was an exemplary and humble student, Morgan became power-hungry and impatient and her and Merlin had one hell of a falling out. She would then spend most of the rest of her life scheming to bump off Arthur and take control of Camelot for herself, even playing a role of sorts in the rise of her nephew Sir Mordred. In earlier versions of the myth, she was a simple enchantress and healer associated with the Isle of Avalon, appearing only at the end of the legend when Arthur is spirited away to the island to enter his eternal-ish healing sleep. It is speculated that she was inspired by The Morrígan, the Irish goddess of fate and death, who herself (or themselves—The Morrígan is often depicted as a trio of goddesses, similar to the Greek Fates) is a whole other can of worms and references. In modern media, portrayals of Morgan run right across the character alignment grid, usually depicting her as either a straight up villain or a potentially dangerous wildcard ally of convenience to Arthur and co. Although an increasing number of works have begun to portray her in a more positive, even heroic light as of late, and literary scholars of the modern era have gone on to claim Morgan Le Fay as a literary feminist icon, being a complex and evolving woman of equal or even greater power to her male counterparts within the stories she appears. In the context of Ace Combat Zero, her name is appended to the boss superplane ADFX-02 and its player-controlled sister the ADFX-01. While the Morgan isn’t the most powerful plane in the game, it is the most powerful plane in existence from a timeline perspective, just as Morgan herself was the most powerful human being of Arthur’s time. Its abilities are also gamechangers, both in a gameplay sense, and an in-universe sense. With the Morgan, Ace Combat enters the age of the superplane, and things are never going to be the same again. We also get through her name a “how we got here” reference to Pixy. Morgan’s full name, Morgan Le Fay, effectively means “Morgan of the Fay” or “Morgan of the Fairies,” and what’s another word for a Fairy? Pixy. It’s like poetry, it rhymes.  UTHER PENDRAGON The namesake of Belka’s Project Pendragon is of course Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father and predecessor as King of Britain in the myth. He is also the stepfather of Morgan Le Fay, Moraguse, and Elaine. By and large, Uther is kind of a blur in the Arthurian mythos, a character who exists to bring Arthur into being. Certain modern works like the BBC’s Merlin television show have fleshed him out a little more as a character, but his two big moments in the Arthurian myth are banging Igraine disguised as her original husband Gorlois to sire Arthur, and then kicking the bucket so that Arthur can ascend to the throne and become king himself. Beyond that he’s usually described as being a boilerplate strong, wise, and just king. Boring boring boring. Certain takes on the Arthurian myth play up the bastardry angle to Arhtur’s birth, as thanks to Uther’s glamour fuckery, Arthur was not legitimate at the time of his conception and birth. In some versions of the myth he is later legitimized when Igraine weds Uther, but in others he remains a bastard, at worst case an unacknowledged bastard (as is implied by the Disney Sword in the Stone film), who then proves his paternity and by extension is claim to Uther’s throne by pulling Excalibur from the anvil Uther thrust it into before his death. Uther had stipulated that only his rightful heir would be able to pull the sword from the stone. Cue royal bastard. Arthur’s bastard conception by Uther also serves as a prefiguring to his fall and death and the end of Camelot. The reign of Camelot began in effect with a bastard birth brought about by deception (Arthur), and so too did it end with a bastard birth brought about by deception (Arthur fathering Mordred with a woman he didn’t know at the time was his half-sister Moraguse, and Mordred later tearing Camelot asunder and killing Arthur in a bid for power). To tie this back to Zero, the V2 MIRV is referred to in-game by characters as “The King” (disputably, I’ll cover that in the Arthur section), so it’s only fitting then that the device that symbolizes Arthur in the narrative in all but name was birthed from a project that carried the name of his father.  ANNWN The medal awarded for completing the secret special objective of Mission 17 is referred to as the “Gold of Annwn”. In Welsh mythology, Annwn is a loose analog to Avalon, where it functions more as straight afterlife paradise closer to Heaven, Valhalla, or Elysium. It appears primarily in the Mabinogi cycle of Welsh myth, which served as the inspiration for Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain. In the Prydain books, Annwn, stylized as Annuvin, served a far grimmer role, becoming basically a Mordor analog as Alexander reinterpreted it from being The Land of the Dead, to The Land of Death, and its ruler Arawn, is shifted from a more neutral to friendly portrayal to an openly antagonistic one to the heroes of the series. The emblem of the medal “The Gold of Annwn” depicts a fairy, or more aptly, a pixy, in reference to its connection to Avalon, and to its connection to Larry Foulke. Header image shamefully stolen from The Black Cauldron, because gently caress it, why not, it’s an underrated Disney flick and it’s tertiarily related to my point.  ZERO “Zero” by Keiki Kobayashi, Takanori Goto, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra is pretty much any Ace Combat fan’s undisputed favorite song from any of the games’ soundtracks and if you disagree with that I will fight you goddammit. This track closes out the game and plays over the fateful final duel between Cipher and Pixy. Aside from its distinct use of the flamenco guitar and castanets, it’s also famous for its choral interlude. But what isn’t as well know about that AMAZING choir section is that the lyrics are actually lifted word for word from another favorite track among Ace Combat fans; Ace Combat 5’s game-closing “The Unsung War.” I won’t detail what those lyrics are because that’s all yet to come from our perspective and contain some heavy thematic spoilers for 5, but given the inescapable pairing between Zero and 5, I find it highly appropriate that Zero the song is calling back to, or rather calling ahead, from our perspective, from the deeds of one great demon to another.  KING ARTHUR So, hey guys, do you know about King Arthur? Well, just in case you don’t, let me tell you about him. It’s actually kind of funny how Zero throws nearly every Arthurian reference you can thank of at you, famous and obscure alike, yet the name “Arthur” is never once uttered or printed anywhere within it. That’s like doing a game loaded with Biblical imagery, allusions, and references, yet never once mentioning the name Jesus Christ. …wait. So yeah, Arthur, son of Uther of House Pendragon, First of His Name, King of the Britons, and the Andals, and the Rhoynar, and First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. Yada yada yada. I’ve kind of covered the broad strokes of the Arthurian myth across just about every other referent entry in this LP that even if you didn’t know Thing 1 about Arthur coming into this LP, you probably have a decent image of him by now, so there’s not really that much to talk about that doesn’t involve us all falling down the rabbit hole and going through The Once And Future King and Le Morte D’Arthur chapter and verse. In Zero itself, there are two candidates for who/what fits the moniker of “The King” that the Aces of the previous mission all mentioned incredibly obliquely. Fans are divided evenly on what the reference is to, some say it refers to the V2 missile, while others claim it actually refers to Pixy. I can see where both sides have a point, but I’m in the “Arthur=V2” camp here. Giving the V2 the nickname “The King” is in keeping with a long real-world tradition of naming big fuckoff weaponry after people or positions of authority. See Russia’s Tsar Bomb, the single most powerful (known) weapon on the planet. While the V2 might not be as out and out powerful as that, it’s probably capable of killing a lot more people due to the fact that it’s a MIRV weapon. The other option is Pixy. Sorcerer 1 claims he and his AWWNB cohorts “raised the King” to see humanity into their new age of peace and understanding in a world with no boundaries. Now, again, this could be seen as a reference to V2, because a nuclear holocaust that wipes out a quarter of the planet is one way to create a boundaries world. Because dead people have no concern for boarders or boundaries, amirite? But beyond that, this phrase can also mean that Kupchenko, Bristow, and Palmer had groomed Pixy to be AWWNB’s “designated survivor,” who would go on to continue their work in the post-apocalyptic world and become its king. You know, typical boilerplate short-sited world-ending anime villain poo poo. Welcome to Ace Combat, the pool is deceptively shallow in places. Though as we see over the course of the game, Pixy’s attachment to AWWNB and its ideals wasn’t really as strong as the rear end in a top hat Triumvirate thought it was, and he eventually pulls his head out of his rear end to become a decent person. Add in the fact that there’s no real other imagery or elements of the Arthurian myth that point to Pixy outside of Morgan, I just find myself having a hard time buying him as the Arthur figure of the game. Sorry. If anything, Kupchenko should have been the Arthur figure of Zero, but I’m not going to litigate a 10 year old game with Project Aces via an LP, so what can you do. Regardless of whether or not the Arthur reference is pointing to Pixy or the V2, the situation we find ourselves in in this last mission ends up pointing to one last unacknowledged Arthurian reference, this one pointing directly at us, the player. Or, more to the point, to Cipher, who’s the one who takes down both Pixy and the V2. And who’s the one in the Arthurian myth who ultimately brings down King Arthur?  SIR MORDRED The traitor knight who slays Arthur and is responsible for the breaking of Camelot and the Round Table at the end of many versions the legend. Mordred is also, in many versions, Arthur’s bastard son with his half-sister Moraguse, conceived during a fateful encounter where neither were aware of the other’s true identity. Arthur later learns of his true identity and paternity and kind of has to stand back and accept him into the Knights of the Round Table when he pledges his service to him with a hearty poo poo-eating grin. He’s also kind of a sore spot around the kingdom because he’s the closest thing Arthur has to an heir on account of him and Guinevere never having kids of their own (or in some versions, where they do, Arthur kind of… murders them for no reason… yeah). It’s made even more awkward by the fact that Arthur also kind of reluctantly and almost accidentally begins grooming Mordred to be his successor. Because, gently caress it, he’s my kid, and Guinevere just ain’t puttin’ out any more now that she’s hanging around with Lancelot all the time, and who gives a poo poo if the brat’s been hanging around with his Auntie Morgan an awful lot lately, I mean what’s the worst she’s done lately, am I right? Things come to a head when Arthur amasses his army to pursue Lancelot and Guinevere to France after the two abscond together. Arthur leaves Mordred in command of Camelot as steward, but Mordred seizes the opportunity and proclaims himself king in Arthur’s absence. In other versions, Arthur heads to France to fight the Roman Emperor Lucius Tiberius, again leaving Mordred in command of Camelot. He also proclaims himself king in these versions and goes the extra step with his “NO gently caress YOU DAD” powergrab and forcibly marries Guinevere too. There are also some versions that say Mordred and Guinevere wed willingly and that she was in on the plot to dethrone Arthur because she was all aboard the “anybody but Arthur” train by that point in their marriage. Either way, Arthur hauls rear end back to Britain with as many knights as he can muster (Lancelot included in some versions) and meets Mordred’s forces in a final battle at Camlann. The battle sees the final ruination of Camelot and the end of the Round Table as all but seven of Arthur’s knights die on his side and every knight who swore fealty to Mordred on his side die as well. In the midst of the battle, Mordred wounds Arthur with a poisoned blade, a wound that would later prove fatal, and Arthur kills Mordred on the spot shortly thereafter. I’ll be the first to admit that the reference isn’t exactly water tight, and actually works better if the roles were reversed and Cipher was our Arthur analog instead of maybe Pixy. Yes, Arthur comes in like a force of nature and destroys AWWNB’s Camelot and “kills” both their potential kings before their reigns could even begin, but it makes more sense to look at Pixy as Mordred and Cipher as Arthur in a post-game perspective. Cipher kills Pixy’s career as a pilot instantly, but the reciprocal wound Pixy leaves on Cipher is a lot slower acting and only after some time has passed does Cipher disappear from the world like Arthur does, off the mythical otherworld of forgotten history, now a legendary figure himself invoked only by storytellers.    *This flag is semi-canonical. See below for details. DELARUS Full Name: The Republic of Delarus (conjecture) Capital: Unknown Continent: Usea Head of State: Prime Minister (conjecture) Government: Democratic Republic Real World Analog: Belarus, Romania, Ukraine A mid-sized republic on the Usean continent between Osea and Verusa. It lies on the doorstep of the continent’s local superpower Erusea, and as such found itself caught up in both of the continent-spanning wars that engulfed Usea in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was also the nation that hosted the internationally supervised asteroid defense installation known as the Stonehenge Turret Network or STN. Though Delarus was one of the nations that remained neutral during the original Usean Continental War of 1998, it nonetheless found itself a battlefield during the conflict as the Erusea-backed rebel forces of the North clashed with the FCU-led Allies of the South. During the so-called “Shatteried Skies” conflict of 2004/05, Delarus was the first nation invaded by Erusea in its bid to establish dominance over Usea and depose the FCU as the continent’s defacto governing body using Stonehenge as its main offensive weapon. Brett Thompson managed to track Larry Foulke, the one-time Solo Wing Pixy, down for a headlining interview in an unnamed, war torn town on the Delarus-Erusea boarder. Foulke, now a ground soldier for the Usean Independent States Allied Forces (ISAF), was in the town as part of a peacekeeping detachment helping the local citizens to rebuild following the recent Erusian surrender declaration. We will be seeing a little more of Delarus in Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies coming up in the near future. As for the flag and the map. The borders are accurate, but that’s just someone’s best educated guess as to where Delarus lies on Usea because Usea is a giant loving mess of conflicting canon. The flag meanwhile is a simplistic recreation of a very tiny and blurry flag that appears in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy, the Strangereal “canon-friendly” remake of Ace Combat 2 for the 3DS. It’s never stated which Usean nation that flag belongs to, but the architecture its flying over looks very similar to what we see of Delarus here in Zero, so I’m making a judgement call here. It’s probably wrong, but I don’t think anyone really cares about it, so whatever.   V2 The V2 nuclear MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) intercontinental ballistic missile was the crowning achievement of the South Belka Munitions Factory’s Project Pendragon next-generation weapons development program. Designed by Project Pendragon chief Dr. Anton Kupchenko, the V2 housed eight independent nuclear warheads in a single missile and was capable of striking multiple targets across the planet upon reentry once at an optimal deployment altitude. The ultimate goal of the A World With No Boundaries terrorist organization was to cause a civilization destroying anarchy on the North Osean continent by destroying its centers of government with the V2’s warheads in a single cataclysmic attack. First concieved of by Kupchenko in 1985, the V2 was to be the centerpiece of Project Pendragon, having been deemed more “practical” by the Belkan government than some of the other potential designs Kupchenko’s team had been shopping around such as the XB-0 Hresvelgr heavy command cruiser. For much of the late 80s and early 90s, its existence had only been a rumor, but following the liberation of Directus, Ustio, the Allied Forced recovered documents from the Belkan occupation headquarters in the city detailing the V2’s existence. This lead to the Allied attack on the Glatistant fortress complex, as Osean Intelligence believed there was at least one V2 unit hidden along the Hydrian Line. Their suspicions proved in correct, however, as no nuclear weapons of any sort were recovered from Glatistant. Following the Belkan surrender on June 20th, 1995, the lone V2 warhead produced by Project Pendragon was stolen from the South Belka Munitions Factory storage facility it was being housed at and transported to the Avalon Dam ICBM launch facility by A World With No Boundaries personnel. In the six month stretch between the armistice declaration and the Christmas Day attack on Lumen, Kupchenko and the former Project Pendragon staff members who’d joined him in A World With No Boundaries hastily completed the remaining work on the V2 to get it operational before its intended deployment against the nations of the Osean continent on New Year’s Eve of 1995. The intended V2 launch was overseen from the ground by former Osean Air Defense Force Captain Anthony Palmer, but when the launch control facilities at Avalon were damaged by Cipher, Larry Foulke, aka Solo Wing Pixy would oversee the launch using a set of redundant launch controls installed about his experimental ADFX-02 Morgan. When the Morgan was shot down by Cipher, the launch controls for the V2 were also completely destroyed. Following the signal interruption from the loss of the Morgan, the V2’s failsafes initiated and the missile detonated harmlessly in the lower atmosphere over Avalon.  ADFX-01 & ADFX-02 MORGAN The aircraft designated “Morgan” actually refers to two distinct planes developed by the South Belka Munitions Factory in the late 80s to early 90s as part of Project Pendragon. Designed to be the first in a series of next generation, highly advanced fighters, the Morgan was, for a time, the single most powerful fighter craft on the planet. The original ADFX-01 prototype was developed first, but later mothballed alongside the ADFX-02 test type airframe following the cancellation of Project Pendragon in the early 90s. Developed after the initial successful test flights of the ADFX-01, the ADFX-02, later flown in combat by Larry “Pixy” Foulke, was designed with a reinforced airframe and increased thrust and weight capacity. Compared to the ADFX-01, the ADFX-02 was capable of flying with all three of its specifically designed special weapons equipped at once. The ADFX-01 was only capable of flying with one of the three at a time.s These special weapons were the Zoisite Tactical Laser System (TLS), a scaled down, external piggyback-mounted version of the Excalibur chemical laser weapon for use over short distances; the Hypersthene Multi-Purpose Burst Missile (MPBM), a highly volatile polynitrogen accelerant and tungsten shrapnel ballistic missile capable of destroying any target in a 2,500ft blast radius; and the Morganite Electronic Countermeasure (ECMP) pod, an internally mounted component designed to put out high levels of electronic interference to prevent an enemy plane or SAM installation from establishing a missile lock on the Morgan. The ADFX-02 was ultimately shot down by the mercenary Cipher over the Avalon Dam complex in Mund, Belka. Though its pilot was able to eject before the plane crashed to earth, its airframe was damaged beyond all hope of recovery by the Allied Forces upon impact. However, the unused ADFX-01 was recovered by the Ustio Air Force’s 6th Air Division from Avalon following A World With No Boundaries’ surrender on December 31st, 1995. It was later transported to Valais AFB in Ustio where flight engineers from the Republic of Ustio and the Osean Federation attempted to reverse engineer its designs to glean potential insights towards creating their own slate of advanced fighter craft. It was later handed over to the Osean Air Defense Force following the conclusion of the Ustio engineers’ work on it and the disappearance of its only test pilot, the mercenary known as Cipher. The ADFX-01 airframe is currently in the possession of North Osea Gründer Industries GmbH.  Aircraft featured in Mission 18, Zero:  AFDX-02 Manufacturer: South Belka Munitions Factory Role: Multirole Manufactured: 1995 Status: Prototype destroyed Primary Operators: Belka Quick Facts:
  Developed from an experimental aircraft of the South Belka National Weapons Plant, this all-weather multi-purpose aircraft's attack and defensive capabilities far exceed that of any other fighter. AMMO Missile: 84 TLS: 7 MPBM: 8 ECMP: 8  Tracks featured in Missions 17, Operation Point Blank, Mission 18, Zero, and the Epilogue: DISC 2
 For this final mission, we unlock a whole slew of medals for beating the game, though the Ace Style medals are only unlocked one or at the most two at a time during a particular run.  Medal: The Gold of Annwn Awarded for: Completing Mission 17 “The Valley of Kings” after destroying all the gun towers at Avalon. Description: Awarded for destroying the enemy fortress at Avalon.  Medal: Knight Ace Awarded for: Completing the campaign of Ace Combat Zero in the Knight Ace Style. Description: Awarded for following the path of honour in eliminating enemy threats as a Knight Ace.  Medal: Soldier Ace Awarded for: Completing the campaign of Ace Combat Zero in the Soldier Ace Style. Description: Awarded for superior strategy in battle as a Soldier Ace.  Medal: Mercenary Ace Awarded for: Completing the campaign of Ace Combat Zero in the Mercenary Ace Style. Description: Awarded for aggressively destroying enemy assets and inflicting massive damage as a Mercenary Ace.  Medal: Supreme Knight Awarded for: Completing the campaign of Ace Combat Zero with the Ace Style slider at the farthest extreme of the Knight panel. Description: Awarded for following the path of honour and pride in eliminating enemy threats as a Knight Ace.  Medal: Supreme Soldier Awarded for: Completing the campaign of Ace Combat Zero with the Ace Style slider in the exact center of the Soldier panel. Description: Awarded for superior strategy in battle as a true Soldier Ace.  Medal: Supreme Mercenary *The ACES CURE PLANES Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of War Crimes Awarded for: Completing the campaign of Ace Combat Zero with the Ace Style slider at the farthest extreme of the Mercenary panel. Description: Awarded for aggressively destroying enemy assets and inflicting massive damage as a true Mercenary Ace.  161 Blair Winthrop "Turm" 30, Male, Ustio 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Shot Down F-35C Lightning II Difficulty: Any (Appears from the north a few minutes after you reach the Dam.) Ace Style: Any An Ustio Air Force survivor, he became a sleeper agent for the coup d'etat forces. After the war, he was spared a court martial through an agreement with the Allied Forces. He currently lives in Ustio as a civilian.  162 Paul Rummenigge "Bauer" 29, Male, Belka 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Killed In Action X-29 Difficulty: Any (Appears inside the tunnel after at least one V2 control device is destroyed.) Ace Style: Any A former test pilot for the Belkan Air Force. After the cease-fire, he stole cutting edge weaponry which was later used by the coup d'etat forces. From the surveillance video, it was determined that Rummenigge was the perpetrator.  163 Rainer Walter "Ritter" 28, Male, Belka 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Shot Down F/A-22A Raptor (Special Plane Colour Unlocked) Difficulty: Any (Appears on the west side of the Dam if at least two enemy planes have been destroyed in the canyon.) Ace Style: Any Graduated from the Kellerman Institution, a Belkan Air Force academy. After the V2 was deployed, he escaped to Avalon Dam. He was detained by Allied Forces and turned over to Osean authorities. He is currently serving time in Oured Federal Prison.  164 Viktor Metlev "Sion" 35, Male, Yuktobania 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Killed In Action YF-23A Black Widow II Difficulty: Any (Appears east of Avalon Dam after the Mission Update.) Ace Style: Mercenary Upon investigation after the war, it was discovered that Metlev had led several to defect from the Yuktobanian Air Force, and his personal history was found to be completely falsified. As a result, the autopsy results did not match any of his records, and the body was returned to Yuktobania as unidentified.  165 Kira Alekhin "Pyoshka" 27, Female, Yuktobania 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Shot Down EF-2000 Typhoon Difficulty: Any (Appears south of the Dam.) Ace Style: Soldier Former member of the Yuktobanian Air Force. She was shot down during Operation Point Blank and was captured by Allied Forces. She became a vital source of information that brought down the coup d'etat forces. Currently, she lives sheltered by the witness protection program.  166 Yakov Saifullin "Kon" 27, Male, Yuktobania 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Killed In Action F-14D Super Tomcat Difficulty: Any (Appears south of the Dam.) Ace Style: Knight Joined the coup d'eat forces after defecting from the Yuktobanian Air Force. According to Yuktobanian records, he exhibited no troublesome behavior and his motives for joining are unknown. He was shot down and killed by the Allied Forces during Operation Point Blank.  167 Lars Matthaus "Springer" 32, Male, Belka 12.31.95 Operation Point Blank - Killed In Action EA-18G Growler Difficulty: Ace (Appears near the third bridge in the canyon.) Ace Style: Any From the communication log of his downed aircraft, the connection between the Rald Party and the movement towards A World With No Boundries was made clear. This led to the downfall of Rald. After the war, Lieutenant General Blauvelt of the 6th Air Division reformed the Belkan Air Force. And last but not least, our old Buddy:  168 Larry Foulke "Pixy" 28, Male, Belka 12.31.95 “Zero” - Shot Down ADFX-02 Morgan Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Any Joined the coup d'etat forces after defecting from the Ustio Mercenary Unit. It is rumored that he is currently a soldier in a volunteer army but nothing is confirmed. So that’s it, that’s the complete Assault Records for Ace Combat Zero, the largest one of its kind in the Ace Combat series. 168 enemy special aces spread out across 18 missions, 6 difficulty levels, and 3 Ace Styles. I might have cheated a little bit and shot all of them down with an invincible Morgan with infinite ammo and automatic MPBM reloads that drat near crashed the game just to speed up the process, but I still downed all 168 of these jerks on my own over the course of roughly 4 hours and five loops through the game for the sake of completion. Barring a final write up on Zero as a post-script at the end of the Post-Mortem nuts and bolts update, we have reached the end of the LP. I can’t believe it, but I’ve just about run plum dry of things to say about Zero, and not a moment too soon either. Still… This feels a little incomplete though. Like something’s missing… Wait… No… There’s ANOTHER Assault Record? One nobody’s ever seen before? One that’s exclusive to this LP? Madness! Who could it possibly be?  169 Dash Rendar "Cipher" 29, Male, Ustio 12.31.95 “Zero” - Missing In Action F-15C Eagle Difficulty: Any Ace Style: Any OH MY GOD HE WAS DASH RENDAR THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!  One last batch of production artwork: Production sketches of the enemy aces in their post-war lives (note Pixy's sweetass ISAF hoodie sadly not realized in-game).     Sketches and CG renderings of the Morgan.     And storyboard sketches of the interstitial war photos from various cutscenes and the Avalon Dam.     Thus endeth this noble and joyous book entitled Le Morte D’Cipher. Notwithstanding it treateth of the birth, life, and acts of the said Demon Lord Cipher, of his noble knights of the Round Table, their marvellous enquests and adventures, and in the end the dolorous death and departing out of this world of them all. Which let’s play was reduced into English by Sir nine-gear crow, Knight, as afore is said, and by me divided into seventeen updates, chaptered and emprinted, and finished on the forums, Something Awful, this eighteenth day of February in the year of our Lord MMXVI. Enjoy the peace while it lasts. Ulysses is coming. 3 years, 6 months, 3 days… and counting. nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Mar 25, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 12:05
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What's the chance of the F-35 being equipped with working missiles?
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Feb 18, 2016 12:35
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Well the missiles were actually designed by talented people, so very high.
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Feb 18, 2016 13:11
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Which is why the F-35 wouldn't be equipped with missiles in favor of a new tactical laser system built by Lockheed-Martin. Cost savings on ammunition!
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Feb 18, 2016 13:14
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Love your write-ups, crow. Both the mythological references and the in-universe happenings. Looking forward to when you do the next game in the series.
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Feb 18, 2016 13:37
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Love the choice of music for the AC2 teaser.  Rendezvous had always been a favourite AC5 track of mine.
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Feb 18, 2016 14:07
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Yayyyy and we are done with Zero! Here's my tribute to our favorite cannon fodder of the game the Ustio Air Force pilot. Out of all the pilots in the history of aerial warfare, they probably had the shortest life expectancy due to flying in dangerous situations such as: raiding oversized laser installation, serving as decoys in Death Star styled trench run and surviving 7 simultaneous nuclear blasts...  
Skwerl fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Feb 18, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 14:37
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The actual song Zero is, in fact, the best music in the entire series and possibly in any vidjagame ever. This is completely correct. It's awesome. Like, I don't actually like AC0 (I could never get into it, the melodrama just didn't grab me like 4 and 5) but that song is hype personified.
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Feb 18, 2016 14:49
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Skwerl posted:Yayyyy and we are done with Zero! Here's my tribute to our favorite cannon fodder of the game the Ustio Air Force pilot. Ha, that looks fantastic!
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Feb 18, 2016 15:03
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I think part of the reason I don't like 0 is I loving hate Pixy. He's just a nonsensical shithead. There's no real drama to his character. First he's the awesome mccool guy (they assure you) and then he turns into the crazy mass-murdering edgelord. There's just no real spark of conflict there. He is the most Bad Anime of all AC foes. "Man, I'm so upset about that nuclear incident! I better cause a much worse, better targeted one! That'll fix things!"
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Feb 18, 2016 15:10
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Ahhh, it's that time again...  Annwn: Not Actually A Land Of The Dead So, Annwn is popularised as either a land of the fae, or a land of the dead, mainly thanks to the properties of certain characters in the Mabinogion, the main source of Welsh myth surrounding this, and due to the Black Cauldron (Also, funnily enough, known as the Cauldron of Plenty, because as well as raising people from the dead, mute, but definitely back in the fight, it could also copy food placed in it, a sort of cornucopia. No mention is made that all the food tastes like dead person butts, but it is assumed )There are, however, a few problems with this. Hafgan, core antagonist of the first story of the first branch of the Mabinogion (Divided into four branches, based on which dynasty are the heroes: Pwyll, Branwen, Manawydan, and Math), is the only immortal. In other stories, Arawn, lord of Annwn (after he subsumes Hafgan's territory, thanks to Pwyll having some loving restraint... Hafgan couldn't die if he wasn't mortally wounded on the first go, and would resurrect if you hit him more than once to kill him) is attributed a long life, magic, and stuff that would be considered part of a Fair Folk story. But that's later, and no such thing is implied in the earlier stories (IE - Pre christianisation, before the time where eeeeverything has to be of God, the Devil, or the Wee Ones  )Even so, there's a few flies in the ointment. Let's start with the biggest folkloric elephant in the room: Everywhere else in the Mabinogion (IE - WALES) is pretty much the same. People turned into animals. People who turn themselves into animals... At least one of whom, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, is harder to kill than Achiiles. Let me just quote the relevant section to give you some idea... drat, that's some plot armour! posted:Blodeuwedd tricks Lleu into revealing how he may be killed, since he cannot be killed during the day or night, nor indoors or outdoors, neither riding nor walking, not clothed and not naked, nor by any weapon lawfully made. He reveals to her that he can only be killed at dusk, wrapped in a net with one foot on a cauldron and one on a goat and with a spear forged for a year during the hours when everyone is at mass. With this information she arranges his death. He still doesn't die, by the way, and Blodeuwedd (Flower Face. A woman made of flowers) gets turned into Blodeuwedd (The Owl, a symbol of bad luck in Wales.) Oh, let's not forget Branwen's big brother, an Arthurian figure called Bendigeidfran, who is literally a giant. Don't ask, I don't know either. And that's some of the saner things that happen. So yeah, if Annwn is meant to be a weirder place than Wales of the Mabinogion? It fails at it. Quite heavily. Then, of course, there's the linguistic end of things. We Welsh are a somewhat literal people, with a somewhat literal language. If it was a Land of the Dead, or Land of the Fair Folk, it would be "Tir Mabw" (Land [of the] dead) or "Tir Y Twylyth Teg" (Land of The Fair Folk.) Instead, it's Annwn, which, as is, makes no gods-damned sense in Welsh. But funnily enough, the original form of the word does: Anhwn. One simple line added, a letter changed, and all of a sudden, it fits Welsh linguistic rules. And yes, it is an accepted version of the word. But what does it mean? Well, "An-" is a privative prefix, used to imply something is not something (Much like Darkness is Not-Light). The most common example of this you'll see in Welsh is Anabl (Not Able - Disabled), but there are many others out there, although not all of them will be in a dictionary, much like certain dialect forms such as "Sae'n" (I don't/am not.) Hwn, meanwhile, has a double meaning in Welsh. On the one hand, it literally means "This." But it's also used as a synonym for "Yma" (Here). That's right, folks. Not. Here. This also, funnily enough, fits with what we know of Welsh culture, historically speaking, as regards magic and the occult. Put bluntly, we don' give a gently caress, so there are figures we celebrate such as Doctor John Harries (of Cwrt-Y-Cadno, Caerfyrddin) and his Black Book. So yeah, strange poo poo happens in Annwn. It also happens everywhere else in Wales in the myths too. For real, go read the Mabinogion, and other related stories (Such as those of Gwion and Gwydion.) They're awesome. But ditch the idea that Annwn is a land of the dead or some poo poo like that, because it does the rest a huge disservice. 
JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Feb 18, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 15:47
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Bra-vo! And on the whole game!
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Feb 18, 2016 16:43
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Welsh as a language is far more interesting to read than listen to, because when you listen to it it's all sensible sounds that go together, but when you read it it's goddamn incomprehensible. Also that Ace Combat 2 teaser is exceptionally well-spliced, crow. I honestly had to go look up Assault Horizon Legacy's attract screen to see if you hadn't just nicked it wholesale.
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Feb 18, 2016 16:50
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I eagerly await the Ace run, none of this "I'm just going to ignore all the ground targets" crap  But seriously, well done Crow, I'm really happy that this series, one which I have spent way too many hours playing, is getting the treatment it deserves. Your writeups in particular are excellent. It's been for-loving-ever since I've played AC2 and I don't remember anything about it, so I'm excited for what's next.
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Feb 18, 2016 17:03
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Night10194 posted:He is the most Bad Anime of all AC foes. "Man, I'm so upset about that nuclear incident! I better cause a much worse, better targeted one! That'll fix things!"
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Feb 18, 2016 17:06
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The Casualty posted:I eagerly await the Ace run, none of this "I'm just going to ignore all the ground targets" crap Haha yeah about that. Only mostly joking. I have two runs, one where I take the MiG-31 through at top speed the whole time and one where I Tiger II my way through everything. I don't know which one I'm gonna actually use yet. 
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Feb 18, 2016 17:07
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anilEhilated posted:Really; I have no idea what his deal is. You'd think after being disgusted by the nuclear weapon use he'd decide not to join a group hellbent on... nuclear weapon use. "I am so disgusted with these pointless wars between nations and all the senseless destruction they cause that I am going to join an anarchist terrorist group and plunge the world into a new dark age."
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Feb 18, 2016 17:09
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Say, Aces Cure Planes, is the reason you're using the F-5 so much because your Cipher is a Japanese airline pilot trapped in indentured mercenary service?
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Feb 18, 2016 17:10
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