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Add me to the list, this game is up there with Mana Khemia, Tales of the Abyss, and .hack GU as one of my favorite PS2 RPGs.
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Mar 14, 2019 23:57
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Me too - plus it was a way of experiencing an RPG that wasnt a Final Fantasy.
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Mar 15, 2019 00:07
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Same, same. I have no idea why I ended up with a copy of Shadow Hearts 2 (I was an avid used games browser, so I probably picked it up on impulse like Unlimited Saga) but the strength of its writing quickly made it one of my top ten games.
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Mar 15, 2019 00:37
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Now you're making me regret not playing more JRPGs as a kid, when I had more time and patience.
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Mar 15, 2019 01:38
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Leraika posted:Same, same. I have no idea why I ended up with a copy of Shadow Hearts 2 (I was an avid used games browser, so I probably picked it up on impulse like Unlimited Saga) but the strength of its writing quickly made it one of my top ten games. Same here. Never played the first and picked it up on a whim which wasn't a mistake. Still have my copy around here somewhere. I kept only a handful of PS2 games.
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Mar 15, 2019 02:02
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Episode X: Arachne.jpg) .jpg) Welp. So much for getting out of the forest before sundown with Yuri off in metaphysical dreamscape la-la land for the time being... While he's sorting out his mental baggage, we return to Gepetto and Karin hanging out by yet another bonfire. .jpg)  Is he human? Or maybe... Or some sort of man-devil or has a devilish trigger of some sort...? Hehehe. Eh, he's human. Ehh... But he's a strange one, all right. I once found him trying to fry an eggshell. Wha...? Why? He told me he heard egg whites were good for you. Thought they were talking about the shell. I tell ya, the boy is a disaster at taking care of himself. If he couldn't fight so well I'd call him a lost cause.Karin sits down at the fire. .jpg) ...... ...... Have you been with him for long? Hmm? Well, over half a year now, near as I can recall... I forget the exact date. It was just after that Austrian Archduke was assassinated, roundabouts. ...... See, it sounds real bad when you use that as a date reference point... He suddenly appeared one day along with my late wife's niece. Your wife's... niece? I suppose that'd make me her uncle-in-law. But I don't like the idea of being anyone's uncle. Too old sounding and weird a title for my tastes. ...Sure. Anyway....jpg) Hmm... she was more like my own daughter. But unfortunately, she was already dead when he arrived. She and Yuri were lovers... He dug her grave with his own hands. .......jpg) <sigh> We've both lost people in our lives. We just try to live as best as we can. Hmm? Hehe..jpg) ...... With his own hands... Wow.Sometime later...  Music: Flame of Strain to Blaze ~ Tension .jpg)  <grunts> Ahh... ugh....jpg) Yuri's stirring wakes Karin up. She wisely backs up from the guy that can turn into an eight-foot tall demon on command. .jpg) <continued unpleasant groaning>.jpg) <shakes Gepetto awake> Eh? What's going on? I was just getting to the good part. The size of the jugs on kangar—wha?!.jpg) .jpg) Yuri surges with energy from his talisman and then proceeds to take another dirt nap. I think he just acquired the Karyl Fusion on the other side. Gepetto and Karin rush up to Yuri. .jpg) What's happening to him? Hey, Yuri! What is it? <bark>.jpg) .jpg) ...Is that normal? What do you think?! Y-Yes...? Why would you think that is normal?! I don't know! This is all new to me!.jpg) .jpg) OK. A giant spider is one thing. Putting a nose on a giant spider? Not a fan. No sir... Not a fan at all. And that is not even getting into the fingernails on the end of its legs. That's a bad scene all around. .jpg) What's that?! No! Malice is pouring out of his body... It's formed into a monster!The creature starts stomping toward the party. Karin runs up to the comatose Yuri and starts shaking him. .jpg) .jpg) <snores> Ngh... N-Not yet... C'mon... Just f-five more... min...utes mom... Wake up!.jpg) Music: Glint of Light ~ Mid Boss in Europe  With that, we're thrust straight into the second boss battle of the game -- Arachne. This nose sporting hell spider is an Earth elemental with 300 HP, making it tougher than every previous enemy we've faced combined health pool wise. Which says less for it and more the pitiful amount of HP everything has been blessed with up to this point in the game. The name Arachne comes from Greek mythology (I mean it literally means "spider" in Greek too, but...) Wikipedia on Arachne posted:
Most versions boil down to Athena being a salty rear end in a top hat god and turning the lady into a spider for getting uppity. It feels like Athena gets a big pass as being slightly chiller that most gods in a lot of modern stuff referencing Greek mythology. But nah... She was a huge shithead like most of the rest of them.  Back on task, to show off its Earth elemental abilities, Arachne immediately blasts Yuri awake with Crag -- a magical attack that does a good 33 HP of damage to our rude hero. Thankfully, it VERY rarely performs this attack since while Yuri only loses around half his HP from that technique, that's enough to put poor Gepetto or Blanca in critical status (Blanca taking additional damage since he's a Wind elemental good boy.) .jpg) .jpg) Arachne's only other attack is a three string combo that hits for 25-30 HP of damage but also potentially inflicts the Poison status effect. This again is enough for anyone to be concerned about at this early stage of the game.  Now that we've had our first romp in the Graveyard, Yuri once again has access to his Harmonixer Fusion abilities. Or at least one of 'em. Using a Fusion drains from Yuri's (way larger than everyone else combined) Sanity Point pool. All the initial numbers in Shadow Hearts II are much smaller than they were in the opening hours of the original game. As such, instead of draining like a third of Yuri's total SP using a Fusion it is only a mere three Sanity Points out of his total 26 SP. Yuri also seems to have gotten less stable with using his Fusions again and is back to looking like he has to pass a kidney stone every time he transforms. .jpg) .jpg) We could go straight on the offensive with the newly buffed Karyl Fusion. Or we could play it smart by tossing a handful of buffing spices on Yuri before letting loose. For instance, we can use his Rage technique to buff his Physical Attack by a healthy amount. .jpg) .jpg) And if you'll recall, we gave Blanca Air Edge which can be used on Yuri to give him Wind elemental punches which work wonders against this Earth boss. After that, we'll have Yuri go on the offensive with Physical Attacks and Blanca back him up with Gale Spin magic and physicals too once he runs out of MP. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Meanwhile, we'll just have Gepetto spam the Hail Break spell since he's rather worthless otherwise with his single physical strike. It's worth mentioning that not all magic attacks cast the same way. The wind spell we gave Blanca and the Light spell Nicolai was carrying back when he was playable were both limited range AOE attacks that exploded from a target's position. Hail Break, on the other hand, actually has a path it will cruise along damaging all enemies in a line between it and the target before exploding in a sizable AOE. So that can result in some extra collateral damage against the enemy if some chump happens to be in the path of the spell. Not that it will help us here against this big goofy bruiser. But it's good to know for the future. .jpg) .jpg) There isn't a lot more all told to be said about Arachne. It is a REMARKABLY slow enemy. Other than having the initiative at the very beginning of the fight, it only took roughly one attack turn for every character in our party getting two rounds of attacking. .jpg) .jpg) Needless to say, these numbers do not work in Arachne's favor... Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) Haha! We sure showed them!.jpg) That's a wrap on the boss of Ardennes Forest. We get some extra Cash for doing a decent Combo to it during the battle and also waxing it after it got only two attack turns (the opening attack does not count.) b.jpg) Additional, we picked up another Magic Crest. This time it grants the Surge magical ability which can buff Special Attack Power (read: magic.) Gotta spend magic to make magic, you know? I'm sure a wizard somewhere said that once. c.jpg) We also got lucky and got a rare drop of a ring add-on that potentially will poison enemies on attack. That could unreliably come in handy. .jpg) And naturally, everyone leveled up from that boss battle. The lack of gaining a full bar of health after leveling is really egregious after a major fight. Even if everyone did flawlessly in the clash without taking a single hit, it still makes it look like everyone took a ton of damage just thanks to the HP caps going up. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find a place to heal soon enough. Music: ENDS .jpg) <looks around confused> What's going on...?!.jpg) <points at Yuri> That thing just jumped out from inside you. Mmm-hmm. That was worse than the first time I let you swipe some of my hooch before going to bed..jpg) ...... I'm sorry about that. It's all because of that weird "holy" stick thing. The monster souls inside me are starting to get a bit unruly. I'll tell the kids to keep it down next time. ...... ...Probably..jpg) Monster souls? Yeah. He's got a strange power. Hmph. Whenever he beats a monster, he takes their souls and then can fuse with them. I mean... that's not EXACTLY how it works. It's not like I can punch a random wolf out and then suddenly turn into a wolf. Awroo! Don't worry. I wouldn't even try to punch a wolf. Awroo... Yes, OK. Maybe I've punched a few wolves in the past... But they were all bad! Awroo. Look, the point is....jpg) I can change into a monster, okay? Gonna be real... That Fusion back against that spider thing? It wasn't my best work. I know I just kind of looked like a guy with a tan in armor that lifts a lot of weights. That lousy curse has me a little off my game... <crosses arms and looks suspiciously at Yuri> ...... Huh... Hmph. <stretches and walks off> Anyway, it's good we're OK. Heh. Let's get out of this forest before something else happens. <turns back to Karin and nods before walking off> Hm. ...... Ugh....jpg) Karin briefly protests and lingers behind. But a growl in the distance quickly challenges her resolve and she runs off to catch up with the others. And so ends our time in Ardennes Forest. Tune in next time as our story continues with awful fashion decisions, questionable collection quests, dog fights and more in the mean streets of Paris as Shadow Hearts: Covenant continues!  Technically, this is Domremy and Ardennes Forest's entries rolled into one. But there was no real breakpoint between those two areas. So let's just get 'em out of the way now.  MONSTERS: .jpg) MC Moe, Jdog and Lil Sqwalk put out the freshest beats of Summer 1915. .jpg) That's a hell of a robust spring. .jpg) I feel like there is an upper limit to this snail's skull shell growth potential before it just becomes a homeless slug bum. .jpg) It's a very small springboard between photosynthesis and man-eating in the plant kingdom. Also adherence to the laws of gravity. .jpg) Aww. I didn't even notice its little cartoon snake tongue. That looks like an enemy from Donkey Kong Country. .jpg) We made this creature full of poisonous sacks. No, we didn't make it immune to said poison. Who'd want that? CHARACTERS: .jpg) 1915 Leon S. Kennedy was a huge dick. .jpg) Lenny has his faults but the man clocks in at 9:00 AM on the dot each morning and puts in the hours every day with no complaints.   Video: Episode 10 Highlight Reel (You should watch this.) The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Mar 17, 2019 |
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Mar 15, 2019 02:24
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One of the many highlights is watching Yuri and Blanca become BFFs. You know Yuri would buy one of those bracelets too.
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Mar 15, 2019 02:33
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Blanca is the goodest boy who will probably bathe in the blood of his doggie enemies. Also that's a pretty hosed up interpretation of Arachne, not gonna lie.
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Mar 15, 2019 02:38
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So now we don't need to worry about trying to figure out why at the end of every dungeon we fight "arbitrary random monster out of nowhere!" happens. Its just the Yuri's bling spewing them out.
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Mar 15, 2019 02:40
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Another gameplay note: In Covenant, Yuri's Fusions 'cost' for SP are actually a per-turn cost, instead of the first game's up-front ones. So, instead of a big Sanity cost for transforming up front, Yuri just burns through SP faster transformed. This actually has the benefit of allowing Yuri to switch between Fusions on the fly for tactical reasons (aided by the fact that he can now, you know, go from one Fusion while already fused), which is nice, and opens up some interesting strategies later on.
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Mar 15, 2019 03:02
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Ol' Finger-Spider was one boss design that stuck with me for ages. I'm not arachnophobic but it still gives be a little bit of the heebie-jeebies. Definitely the giant fingernails.
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Mar 15, 2019 03:09
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'Known to some as the god of bees and wasps' So... Zos, some say Zosim?  i'll get my coat
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Mar 15, 2019 03:10
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Almost every mechanical element of Covenant is an improvement on SH1. I may not like the story as much but the game is fantastic.
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Mar 15, 2019 03:12
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The Dark Id posted:Yuri runs up to the comatose Yuri and starts shaking him.
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Mar 15, 2019 03:24
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Tuxedo Ted posted:Ol' Finger-Spider was one boss design that stuck with me for ages. I'm not arachnophobic but it still gives be a little bit of the heebie-jeebies. Definitely the giant fingernails. especially as the nails looks filthy and broken - eeeuuugh
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Mar 15, 2019 03:36
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"Oh, yeah, what are you gonna do? Release the bees? Or the snakes? Or the bees with snakes in their mouth and when they buzz, they shoot snakes at you?!" The monster designs in this game series are always so great 
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Mar 15, 2019 03:45
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Junpei posted:Another gameplay note: In Covenant, Yuri's Fusions 'cost' for SP are actually a per-turn cost, instead of the first game's up-front ones. So, instead of a big Sanity cost for transforming up front, Yuri just burns through SP faster transformed. It's especially nice that they let you use any fusion you've unlocked in Covenant instead of forcing you to equip just 3 like in the first Shadow Hearts.
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Mar 15, 2019 03:52
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Yeah, the per turn SP costs for fusions is so much better than the one large upfront cost from the original in many ways. It allows Yuri to change roles throughout the fight as the situation demands. You can buff with a fusion on one turn then switch to a strong physical attack fusion for the next turn and then switch to a strong healing fusion for the next turn. And the stronger the fusion, the higher the per turn cost, so there are situations when it might be smart to switch to a lesser fusion (or even defuse altogether!) in order to slow the SP drain. Way more options and a lot more strategy involved.
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Mar 15, 2019 05:54
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yuri being Dan Ryckert makes alot of sense.
Roobanguy fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Mar 15, 2019 |
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Mar 15, 2019 06:01
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Zosim is a straight up forest Xenomorph. Forget the Alien vs Predator movies and all those dumb prequels with Prometheus and David, this is clearly the direction the next Alien movies should take. Also, wasn't one of the enemies from the Castle of Mad Gods called Arachne? So since this thing is a pissed off monster soul that Yuri's newly cursed self hocked up, I guess there's no discrepancy here. The first actual boss is an endgame enemy from the previous game just all messed up even further from the misfortune of having gotten acquainted with our rude boy protag. Shitenshi fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Mar 15, 2019 |
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Mar 15, 2019 07:26
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You're more than welcome to do the LP and play the game however you see fit, Id, but I would treat it as a personal favour if you took Geppeto out of the active party at your earliest convenience so I can never see that puppet again
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Mar 15, 2019 07:51
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Illuyankas posted:You're more than welcome to do the LP and play the game however you see fit, Id, but I would treat it as a personal favour if you took Geppeto out of the active party at your earliest convenience so I can never see that puppet again Make Geppeto a permanent party member, so this guys has to look at his doll all the time.
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Mar 15, 2019 08:31
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Gyehhhuuugh the spidery fingerlegs with the nails - I have never been able to forget those horrible things and somehow they're even worse than I remember.
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Mar 15, 2019 10:12
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Confront your fears. Look at the puppet. Do not look away.
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Mar 15, 2019 10:23
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Malachite_Dragon posted:Confront your fears. Look at the puppet. Do not look away. You can either keep an eye on the doll and KNOW where it is, or let it roam free and do as it pleases free from your gaze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TZx3xwLRos
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Mar 15, 2019 10:43
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The Dark Id posted:
Hah!
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Mar 15, 2019 13:17
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He told me he heard egg whites were good for you. Thought they were talking about the shell. I tell ya, the boy is a disaster at taking care of himself. If he couldn't fight so well I'd call him a lost cause.
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Typical millennial. Can't even feed himself. Useless 
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Mar 15, 2019 13:35
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:Typical millennial. Can't even feed himself. Useless Typical turn of the centennial
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Mar 15, 2019 13:45
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The idea of 'being turned into a spider' being the gods just changing the shape your body fills but not it's actual make up is deliciously horrific. In a maths kind of way.
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Mar 15, 2019 15:33
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Typical turn of the centennial Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Mar 15, 2019 |
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Mar 15, 2019 16:30
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Not exactly a scholar of ancient Greek myths so I don't know how much credence to give it, but I've heard that one of the reasons given for Athena turning Arachne into a spider was the tapestry Arachne wove for their contest was all about the sexcapades of the gods. Athena was not amused.
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Mar 15, 2019 18:56
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Edvarius posted:Not exactly a scholar of ancient Greek myths so I don't know how much credence to give it, but I've heard that one of the reasons given for Athena turning Arachne into a spider was the tapestry Arachne wove for their contest was all about the sexcapades of the gods. Athena was not amused. Yeah that's in one version - the version I had specifically mentions it depicting Zeus with Europa. The kindest version is where Arachne actually hung herself after the contest is over (either by losing, or Athena being mad and destroying her loom when she won), so Athena gave her new life as a spider out of pity.
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Mar 15, 2019 19:08
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Edvarius posted:Not exactly a scholar of ancient Greek myths so I don't know how much credence to give it, but I've heard that one of the reasons given for Athena turning Arachne into a spider was the tapestry Arachne wove for their contest was all about the sexcapades of the gods. Athena was not amused. E: Consider that by ancient Greek standards, Arachne was the villain of the myth and totally deserved her punishment for her overweening hubris of daring to compare her abilities to those of the gods.
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Mar 15, 2019 20:29
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My favorite version of the myth is the one where Arachne brags about being better at weaving than the Gods and then Athena comes down and is all "oh yeah?! Prove it!" and Arachne is just like "Fine, I will" and it turns out Arachne actually IS better at weaving than the Gods and Athena is so pissed about this she whacks Arachne other the head and murders her and then turns her corpse into a spider as an extra little gently caress you. The Greek Gods were total dicks.
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Mar 15, 2019 20:39
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:My favorite version of the myth is the one where Arachne brags about being better at weaving than the Gods and then Athena comes down and is all "oh yeah?! Prove it!" and Arachne is just like "Fine, I will" and it turns out Arachne actually IS better at weaving than the Gods and Athena is so pissed about this she whacks Arachne other the head and murders her and then turns her corpse into a spider as an extra little gently caress you. Especially Zeus, who could keep his out of anything.
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Mar 15, 2019 21:29
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Yuri casually shrugging off losing control of his demonic powers and releasing a finger spider from his body is a good indication that he hasn’t changed too much.
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Mar 15, 2019 22:06
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OminousEdge posted:Especially Zeus, who could keep his out of anything. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of problems in Greek myth were caused by the fact that Zeus couldn't keep his dick out of
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Mar 15, 2019 22:18
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The version i remember hearing about had the reason the spider could produce silk was that Athena killed Arachne by shoving whatever the weaving implements were down her throat.
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Mar 15, 2019 23:13
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Whammiewazzle posted:The version i remember hearing about had the reason the spider could produce silk was that Athena killed Arachne by shoving whatever the weaving implements were down her throat.  Now that's one version I haven't actually heard about before. But I do recall reading the previous versions mentioned.
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Mar 15, 2019 23:21
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W.T. Fits posted:I'm pretty sure the vast majority of problems in Greek myth were caused by the fact that Zeus couldn't keep his dick out of I love that this is such a defining trait of zeus that even a game like warriors orochi has him actovely hit on every female character he comes across... sometimes in front of their lovers/husbands (Of course it being a warriors game they keep it relatively PG, so no zeus forcing himself on anyone or the like)
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Mar 15, 2019 23:49
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