Leasspell Dæl is Old English for "Fiction Valley" and is a writing and fandom journal for Jade Dixon.

This journal is a mirror of my Dreamwidth account, and all of the links found below will lead there. Feel free to comment using OpenID if you don't have an account. However, all of the content IS on this LJ as well, and you can use the tags to navigate through it if that's your preference.

( Regarding spoilers )

( Regarding Ratings/Warnings )

( Fanfiction )

( Essays/Reviews/Reference )
 

I find Serah and Snow's relationship to be fascinating, and have very strong opinions about it. These opinions were formed abstractly during FF13, but with the additional perspective of FF13-2, they've solidified. (FF13-2 information will be behind a Cut.)

In my review of FFXIII, I mentioned how I wish we had learned more about Serah throughout the course of the story, especially her relationship with Snow. I wanted to know how long they had been together, how long they had known each other, how they met, that kind of thing. The only hint we have is that in the "Thirteen Days" section of the Datalog, we learn Snow has only just met Lightning. This suggests a fairly new relationship.

Everything goes topsy-turvy at this point, when Serah gets branded as a Pulse l'Cie and attempts to break-up with Snow for his own protection. Snow, madly in love, refuses to let her face her fate on her own. He defies everything that has been indoctrinated into him since birth and stays with her, promising to help her fulfill her Focus, saving her from becoming a Cie'th. Both Serah's actions and Snow's show how much they care for each other.

( During the Fireworks Festival, Snow asks Serah to marry him. This is an absolutely heart-warming gesture, and give Serah a desperately needed morale boost in her darkest hour. )

( Final Fantasy XIII-2 Spoilers behind the cut )

So that's my two... er two billion cents on the matter. If you have questions, comments, suggestions, disagreement, or anything really, feel free to drop me a line! I love discussion! (and recs :D)

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/18128.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

So I recently posted a review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 (which should only be read if you've finished the game), and left a slew of topics at the end which I claimed I would discuss later.

game as fanfic, Chrono Trigger, Snow/Serah, Lightning's knowledge of the future, "hope", Noel's inexperience, Etro's successor, Yeul's connection to Caius, historia crux shape, fanworks

It is later. :)

( As before, this is going to be full of spoilers for the game, so it should only be read if you have completed it (including the Paradox Endings). )

Okay, getting wordy again. Going to leave the topic I wanted to talk about the most (Snow/Serah) for another day, and will shoe-horn in "fanworks" with it.

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/17731.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

I finished Final Fantasy XIII-2 a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to let my thoughts percolate rather than make a knee-jerk review. I think I've reached the point where my opinion isn't going to change, and I have a solid grasp of why I feel certain ways about certain aspects. So, here's my review. All spoilers will be written after the second cut. There will be spoiler-space in-between the cuts if you're reading the first section.

Graphics: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Battle System: 8/10
Story: 8/10
World Building: 7/10
Music: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

( Spoiler-free breakdown )

( Spoiler-filled discussion of squee! and issues )

TL,DR; Very fun, with lots of replay-value. Significantly improved from its predecessor.

Wow, quite a wall of text, huh? And guess what?! I'm not done yet!! :D

But I will leave it there for now. Next time: game as fanfic, Chrono Trigger, Snow/Serah, Lightning's knowledge of the future, "hope", Noel's inexperience, Etro's successor, Yeul's connection to Caius, historia crux shape, fanworks

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/17608.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

So, I was excited enough when I realized that James Patrick Stuart who voiced Xigbar/Braig in the Kingdom Hearts series was playing Dick Roman in Supernatural this season. When I realized that the guy who played the enemy for 7x12 (Jason Dohring) was the voice for Terra (BbS)? The glee was unparalleled.

I can totally get behind turning SPN into a retirement home for KH voice actors! XD

Moment of shame? I recognized Dohring from his role in Veronica Mars, and only coincidentally made the connection to Terra this morning. *sobs*

ALSO! Suikoden fans should keep an eye on marksofstars for the next couple of months! They're trying to post 108 days of new fan activity, be it fanworks or discussion. There's still a lot of days left unclaimed if you want to join in!

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/17382.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

Swiped from cypher.

Here are twenty ships of mine in twenty different fandoms, not named but described in a sentence. Guess who!

(I'm pretty liberal about my pairings, and don't have many dedicated "ships" per se. So these are just some pairings I enjoy. Some are canon, others are decidedly not.)

[Edit: 2011/11/28 to add answers. Some will only have the fandom visible, with the characters blacked-out if I feel it might be spoiler-y. For the record, I'm being stricter than my normal spoiler policy here...]

( Read more... )

All fandoms are represented in my interests on my profile, if you want some hints.

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/16858.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

According to Scrivener, I have achieved my 50000 words! \o/

(Of course, according to Open Office I have 986 words to go, but given that I have sixteen days left, I'm not too concerned.)

The fic is far from over, although I have finally reached the first true inklings of the plot. And am mere scenes away from introducing the love interest from left-field. And I've surpassed all the scenes I had skipped ahead to write when I needed speed over order.

Now I'm going to go sleep the sleep of the dead, because I only got four hours of sleep last night, and my eyes just won't stay open any longer.

If they would, I'd attempt to show Open Office who's boss. But just... no. Not right now.

Sleeeeeep~!

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/16332.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

Dear Self;

Using video-game cameos to fill-in for the KH characters' parents was supposed to prevent you from needing to make up back-story and characterization while still having standards with which to hold yourself. Giving the parents further back-story defeats the purpose of this. Especially as it's not plot relevant. Remember the plot? The bit you haven't started writing yet?

...

*sigh*

The worst part is I'm not even certain that the scene that's causing me this consternation is going to make it into the final draft. I'm not even sure the scenario that's plaguing me would make sense in the greater scheme of things. I'm going with it for now, though, because I'm having problems getting into the groove today, and I have to write something.

*mutters mutinously before returning to the document*

(In the interests of helping others procrastinate on their NaNo/general discussion, how do you guys deal with characters having absent or vaguely referred to family?)

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/15962.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

Okay, so my last title got cut off, apparently. It was kinda wordy and excessive.

In my panick-y whiny post about a week or so ago, I bemoaned (amongst other things), that I'd have to go into work today.

It turned out, that I didn't. This meant a whole extra day of writing I wasn't expecting, and I decided to make the most of it. Being 11/11/11, I made it my personal goal to write 11000 words today. Then I discovered that there was an on-site challenge to do 11111 words.

Made it! :)

This leaves me at 37774 words in total, which is 75% done guys! I'm stoked, I really didn't think I'd make it even this far (especially as, y'know, I only got my plot last night, and still haven't really incorporated it yet), and now I actually think I'm going to reach 50000.

If I write as much as I usually do on my days off on Sunday and Monday, I could even be "done" by Tuesday. I barely dare to hope. Of course, the fic is so far from being done that it isn't even funny, but y'know. Progress.

( The thing I've really liked about doing NaNo this year (besides actually keeping on top of my wordcount for once)? )

I don't have an excited flail-y icon. Why do I not have an excited flail-y icon? Must look into this.

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/15645.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

Skipped a couple of updates. I managed to squeak in my (personal) goal of 2000 words Saturday night, then completely slacked off and skipped Sunday altogether. Today I managed nearly 8000 words, bringing my word-count just over the half-way point at 25076! \o/

My editing sensibilities are twitching at all of the things I already know need to be either edited out or expanded upon, but I'm just going with the flow for now. I'm find the farther in I get, the less twitchy I'm getting. About the current material anyway, the earlier stuff I'm pretty much ignoring. XD

I got an extra hour sleep this weekend, and that makes me happy. :)

This entry was originally posted at http://leasspell-dael.dreamwidth.org/15297.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.