braintransplant / Entries tagged with hzd

USER: ALVA [DATA SELECTED]
fandom: horizon zero dawn/ horizon forbidden west
ship: aloy/kotallo
rating: g
word count: 3,009
additional tags: epistolary, outsider pov, canon compliant, h:fw spoilers, if you know you know

many people @'d me on twitter yesterday to inform me that hzd2 was officially announced at the big ps5 event today, and once again i just have to say: i always win...eventually.

anyways. the sequel is titled horizon 2: forbidden west so obviously we finally get to go west of the sundom and see if all the crazy rumors circulating about it between npcs in the first game were true. and i think maybe we finally get to have interax with the utaru, which i am excited about...the one side quest with a utaru character was cool and i remember wishing they were in the game more...give me those peaceful farming bitches!! i also spotted sylens in the trailer which means we will get elaboration on the post-credits scene between him and HADES, and from the narration/visuals it looks like we are fighting a faro-plague adjacent thing again. or something? some of the characters looked like the were from an offshoot of the eclipse or possibly from tenakth. idk hzd plot twists are nuts so who knows what we'll actually be fighting at the end.

at this point im vry curious about continuity re: special hunter's lodge weapons and the inclusion/exclusion of characters you could choose to kill or spare in hzd1. by which i mostly mean nil because who cares about olin, i need that crazy bitch back!!! and if i have to do all 15 hunter's lodge challenges and get 15 blazing suns again i straight up just wont because that shit was so fucking hard.

hzd2 wishlist:

another big meridian plot/quest that ends with an awkward proposition from the sun king for the laffs xx
big utaru quest a la the first game's sunfall plot
restoring APOLLO so everyone can stop having shit idiot brain disease
nil . . . i want to be psycho bandit hunting partners again!!!!
more customizable armor please....i want to mix and match instead of having to commit to full body armor sets.
i personally hope petra forgewoman is there so she can hit on aloy. vanasha too
cauldron so i can override the flying machines and ride one into the sunset
please let me talk with the AI. i want to romance the AI
free climbing a la botw please for some reason my eyes are blind to the climbing cues in the first game
lance customization...getting sylens' was cool but i wanna make it fucked up
my dream is expanded dialogue options...i want to say more shit to more people

hzd2 anti wishlist:

i would like to never speak to erend again though i am aware this is a big ask
no more oseram society has progressed past the need for oseram
i hate teb. kill him
please dont make me hunt foxes for 2 hours just to get one single fox skin so i can make a golden fast travel pack again
make storage bigger or i'll blow up
stop making me buy ropecasters i hate ropecasters all my homies hate ropecasters

im sure i will think of more things later but for now. thank you

im compiling shit that has been sticking in my head for the past couple months because. well i don't know why but here it is

game of thrones | s3e6: the climb
V: i did what i did for the good of the realm.
L: the realm? do you know what the realm is? its the thousand blades of aegon's enemies. a story we agree to tell each other over and over, until we forget that it's a lie.
V: but what do we have once we abandon the lie? chaos. a gaping pit waiting to swallow us all.
L: chaos isn't a pit. chaos is a ladder. many who try to climb it fail , never to try again. the fall breaks them. and some are given the chance to climb, but they refuse. they cling to the realm, or gods, or love. illusions. only the ladder is real. the climb is all there is.

detroit: become human | chapter 22: the bridge
H: i could kill you, and you would just come back like nothing happened, but are you afraid to die, connor?
C: i would certainly find it regrettable to be...interrupted, before i can finish this investigation.
H: what will happen if i pull this trigger, hm? nothing? oblivion? android heaven?
C: i...doubt there's a heaven for androids.
H: having existential doubts, connor? sure you're not going deviant too?
C: i self test regularly. i know what i am, and what i am not.

horizon zero dawn
the proving | massacre cut scene
H (holding a knife to aloy's throat): turn your face to the sun, child.
the face of extinction | capturing helis cut scene
H: impossible. i am chosen. this was not meant to be.
A: none of this was meant to be, helis. you made it happen. followed your orders, butchered so many - and for what? to die on your knees, used like a pawn by a power you don't even understand.
H (with disgust): you pity me?
A (spear to his throat): turn your face to the sun.

dreams of clytemnestra
O: where have i seen you before?
M: in a dream.
O: a thousand years ago.

the overstory | mimi ma: mulberry
A: who are they?
SH: holy people.
A: what's wrong with them?
SH: happiness. they see the true thing.
A: and what is that?
SH: the true thing mean: human beings, so small, and life, so very big.
A: they've just worked this out?
SH: yes.
A: and this makes them happy?
SH: yes.

the kekulé problem, cormac mccarthy
he was trying to arrive at the configuration of the benzene molecule and not making much progress, when he fell asleep in front of the fire and had his famous dream of a snake coiled up in a hoop with its tail in its mouth; the ouroboros of mythology. the problem, of course - not kekulé's but ours - is that since the unconscious understands language perfectly well or it would not understand the problem in the first place, why doesn't it simply answer kekulé's question with something like: kekulé, it's a bloody ring. to which our scientist might respond; okay, got it, thanks. why the snake? that is, why is the unconscious so loathe to speak to us? why the images, metaphors, pictures? why the dreams?

1. banuk. hardcore sons of bitches. actual meritocracy that respects skill and nothing else. crasy ass religion where the shamans weave blue machine wires into their skin. nomadic + societal groups called weraks based on hunting parties, each with a chieftain who can be challenged and overthrown at any time by anyone, even an outside, via competition. surprisingly tenderhearted, have cool weapons, make cool paintings and have fun colored clothes they dye with pigments from geothermal pools. also, they live in the brutally cold and snowy northern mountains which i am always predisposed to love. thank you. also best motto/ sayings re: "we are banuk. survive. prevail. what else matters?" and "your blood is in my teeth" as a way to show respect. also cool origin story since their tribe was founded by a lady running from cannibals?? i love these motherfuckers and i dont know why i really felt like i was dying when aratuk + ourea + aloy were all in the cualdron together. and the mission with the three exiled hunters...all banuk are perfect.
2. carja (post rebellion). BEST outfits in the whole game by 10,000 miles. everyone in the city of meridian is crasy, sexy, bitchy, or all three. describing sun-king avad as "the first sun-king to ascend to the throne via an act of patricide" is so epic especially considering he went on to be the only good ruler ever. the religion is out of hand but it IS fun and fresh and lends a billion poetic sayings to the dialogue with carjans about sun/shadow. beautiful ass city on top of a cliff that you have to run across an extremely long bridge to get to...love it. surrounded by jungle. love it. the titles they give people are also hilarious re: blameless marad, studious palas. also i love when you walk through the city and all the NPCs loudly talk about aloy is a savage from the nora. we get it you're all assholes. and thats ok just be who you are. the sun shall fall quest centering on the carja and the city of meridian is my favorite main quest in the game. sidenote: just remembered the statue of the mad sun-king before avad outside the city was symbolically beheaded but also later revealed to have been sculpted by a gay man from the oseram when you kick the priests out to let his husband in to see it. WIG...
3. utaru. cute tiny semi-isonlationist agricultural tribe in the plains...best headdresses in the game, or at least on par with the carja bird/feather ones. zero interax so i cant say much but i just like them <3
4. carja (pre rebellion). so basically carja again but imagine they have an insane king who starts a 10 year war later referred to as the red raids where his army repeatedly lays siege to the other tribes to sacrifice their people to the sun. and more misogynistic. its bad. but also kind of sick ngl
5. tenakth. cannibals but not even in a fun way. zero interax. NEXT.
6. oseram. pre rebellion carja and tenakth are objectively 1000 times worse but i licherally just hate the oseram so much. probably because erend is the introduction to them and i dislike him on a molecular level. boring ass forge workers. GET SOME FASHION TASTE i cant stand these motherfuckers

sorry for being hzd bot i promise the fixation will pass within a week. anyway

aratuk: you are banuk. survive. prevail. what else matters?
aloy: my blood is in your teeth.

aloy about to kill helis: turn your face to the sun.

sylens: i've done all i can. from here on out, the rest is up to you.
aloy: where will you go?
sylens: elsewhere and everywhere. theres so much more to discover before the world ends.
aloy: and all this?
sylens: i'm leaving it to you, of course. as it turns out, it was your all along. i was only...trespassing.

aloy: did bandits wrong you somehow?
nil: they wrong us all. they live filthy lives, so they have to die that way too.
aloy: so you hunt them down to help others?
nil: no. for sport.

aloy: i'm past trusting you with secrets!
sylens: good. that means you're wising up. trust is for fools. it shifts and crumbles like sand; a poor foundation for any partnership. but mutual self interest, now that is solid.

aloy: why did they cast you out?
unnamed npc: murder. you?
aloy: birth.

aloy after becoming anointed: everyone calls me aloy of the nora. it should be aloy, despite the nora.

nil: so what do you say? how about we try to kill each other?
aloy: i'm flattered that you think of me...that way, but i don't want to kill you.

nil after aloy declines to fight him to the death: ah. your last arrow is the cruelest.

aloy: avad, please. we have something urgent we need to––
avad: i know, but please. just listen for a moment. i want you to stay in meridian.
aloy: i don't think you or i are ready for that. at least...not yet. i've got a long way to go before i find what im looking for, and it's gonna take me far away from meridian.
avad: i––of course. i didn't mean to presume.

rost: it was allmother working through you bring us the rabbits.
aloy: you always say that, but i was there, and i hunted alone.
rost: and you always say that, and so, make yourself alone.

none of these feel as #epic out of context but i swear i was going through it at the time

sylens busting you out of the sun ring on overridden striders and seeing him in person for the first time after only interacting over the focuses and via holograms when i thought i was gonna have to fight two corrupters with no weapons
finally getting the door scan to let you into the cradle beneath the mountain only to realize that because the door was locked everyone inside was trapped. and then you walk through the room from before apollo was purged and see all the focuses intended for the people in the new generation they were all only one locked door away from :(
at the final battle in meridean when helis shows up in the palace and avad tries to hold aloy back and yells 'he will cut you down!' and then you get to rappel down the side of the building like a badass. also getting to say 'turn your face to the sun' to him before you kill him just like he did in the beginning of the game when he tried to kill you. epic. epic. epic. epic. epic.
seeing a tallneck for the first time + climbing up onto its head to override. ancient taxi that only goes in a circle.
the final scene where you find elisabet's skeleton in the old armor, and aloy, although she is elisabet's clone, sees her as a mother + takes the earth locket and lights up her focus for her. plus the audio tape playing in the background really got me. also if you did the power cell quests you are wearing identical armor WTFFF my heart
watching the hologram playback of elisabet going to seal the door at gaia prime knowing she would be trapped outside forever and die...the soundtrack was so beautiful DIE
ted faro revealing he wiped apollo and then suffocating all the alphas inside gaia prime. first time it hit me how dark a lot of this game was. i hate this guy so much
dont know why but its always the best to spot a bandit hideout and have to look around for nil who is always standing on a hill somewhere waxing poetic about how killing bandits is the only thrill there is
obligatory sun king marriage proposal. we get it avad you're a bimbo.
learning that operation enduring victory and zero dawn where complete lies, and the civilians were being tricked into feeding the machines long enough for the people at zero dawn to prepare gaia (which then went on to fail, sort of, anyway)...my jaw was on the FLOOR i never saw it come. like ever. at all. and yet it was so obvious the whole time the game completely bamboozled me.
randomly deciding to go back home to the embrace out of boredom to see if anything had changed and realizing the cabin aloy grew up in with rost is now rost's grave...depressi. also knowing that the nora gave him a proper grave despite being an outcast...agh. you are DAD....
when nil's crasy ass insists you two need to have one last adrenaline rush together but makes you go to a circular clifftop beforehand for the drama of it all.....and then when you meet him up there he's like so what do you say? how about we try to kill each other? and this isnt exactly a moment because its a choice that can go one of three ways but the first time i said sure yeah because i thought he was joking and then i actually had to kill him hellllppp. and how you can loot his corpse afterward but he has licherally nothing of value. also if you dont kill him and he comes to meridian to say weird shit and freak out the guards. its just so fucking funny

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ficpost for posterity
HORIZON ZERO DAWN SEQUEL?????????????
there is a personal thesis in here somewhere
ranking hzd tribes based on my personal tastes
best hzd dialogue TO ME
top 12 epic moments in horizon zero dawn in no particular order

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Entries tagged with hzd

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ficpost for posterity

HORIZON ZERO DAWN SEQUEL?????????????

there is a personal thesis in here somewhere

ranking hzd tribes based on my personal tastes

best hzd dialogue TO ME

top 12 epic moments in horizon zero dawn in no particular order