Happy holidays, everybody!

I say “holidays” because it’s more politically correct, and it recognises everybody, whether they celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, some holiday related to one of these religions where you perform sacrifices and eat a human heart, or none of the above.

Well, whatever it is you do this time of year, you’re not obligated to do anything productive for two weeks.

It also brings us closer to the New Year. 2010, yay! We’ll finally start referring to years like we used to. Instead of reading out the whole number like “two-thousand-and-four”, we’ll go back to taking shortcuts like “nineteen-ninety-three”. Hurray for “twenty-ten”!

We’ve got some exciting things on the horizon, like Ace Attorney Investigations finally reaching North America in mid-February.

Since I’m not a rabid Edgeworth fangirl, this game won’t be such blatant fanservice to me, but it’s an Ace Attorney game, therefore it will be awesome.

I’ve done better than usual in terms of spoilers this time around. Of course, for me “better” isn’t really good by other people’s standards, but I’m happy with what I’ve achieved.

Edgeworth’s Logic mode sounds cool, and the spoiler-free stuff I’ve seen seems to indicate a nice plot, but from the looks of it, most of the murders are with guns and knives. I hope it’s only the weapons that they’ve gotten less creative on, and the murders themselves will be just as complicated in execution as the other games.

It also seems that the second case features some epic Borginian-ness. At first, I didn’t like the fact that the writers just came up with some fake foreign country, but Borginia has really grown on me.

It looks like another Borginian Interpol agent gets murdered in this game, leading me to believe they are now officially cannon fodder. Hopefully this agent’s death will be less pathetic than LeTouse’s.

I also hear that the fifth case is about as long as Rise from the Ashes. Now I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. On one side: “Oh! It must be EPIC!”, but on the other side: “Shit, that’s long!”. Also, it looks like the main villain isn’t quiet Kristoph or Dahlia-level awesome...

One thing that’s a bit annoying whenever a new game comes out is getting used to all of the character’s localized names. It’s difficult, because since the Japanese version gets released months before, you get used to referring to the characters by their original names. I remember that for about a month after I finished Apollo Justice I was still referring to the Gramaryes as the Arumajikis, and I kept calling Kristoph Kirihito.

Thankfully, this wears off pretty quickly.

All in all, I’m really pumped for this game, just like an Ace Attorney game. I'll have a lot more to say after I've gotten my hands on it, trust me.

Also on the horizon is Fading Echoes. Yay! That comes out in late March/early April, right?

Anyway, more OotS means we’re probably going to see more of the Dark Forest and such. Apparently there are going to be some villains we haven’t seen before in there. Although it probably isn’t going to come fully into motion until later, I just can’t wait to see how this whole StarClan vs. Place of No Stars thing is going to work out.

Other tidbits we know so far include the fact that Leopardstar apparently dies, a tree is going to fall on some cat, and something bad is going to happen to Briarpaw. For all we know, those last two might end up being the same thing.

One thing that annoys me about the tree thing is how some of the fans have inserted something about the cat being blinded into that.

WHAT?

Okay, when did Vicky ever say anything about the cat becoming blind? For that matter, how does a tree falling on someone cause them to become blind? That could only conceivably happen if the tree fell on their head, in which case they would be dead. Since Jayfeather is supposed to get into some kafuffle over asking for help to treat this cat, I seriously doubt they will be dead for the entire book.

Apparently we’re also supposed to get some hints about Lionblaze’s mate in this book. It won’t be canonized, but there will be hints. Meaning it won’t quiet be canon, but it will still be obvious to everyone except for shippers who are in denial.

I won’t really care until I get a taste of the pairing in canon, but I thought I might as well bring it up since Lionblaze-related shippings seem to be so hotly debated.

I don’t really know or care who it will be, but I can tell you who it won’t be: Hazeltail.

Okay, now that I’ve actually bothered to check, this shipping is unnamed, but that doesn’t mean people don’t support it. Trust me, I’ve seen some.

You think these people would realize that the Erins aren’t going to pair one of the protagonists with a mostly undeveloped minor character, but no, they don’t.

Really, if they even were planning on pairing them up, you would think they would try to fit some evidence into Sunrise when they were both on the Sol patrol.

And of course, there was no evidence between them then. Hell, Birchfall had more chemistry with her.

But getting back on topic, Fading Echoes sounds good, but the book I’m really looking forward to is Night Whispers. Allow me to pitch a little theory that I’ve pieced together from little bits of information we have.

Now, Vicky has told us that Firestar will die, and that his successor will be a cat that we won’t expect. Now, since Brambleclaw is his deputy, he falls into the category of “expected”, meaning that rules him out. Vicky has also emphasized how close Brambleclaw has swung towards the dark side, and says that she’s not quiet done with him in terms of where he falls on the morality spectrum.

Now, we can assume that Firestar might make a change of deputy that is generally disapproved of. His leadership has always been controversial (“How dare he support peacekeeping! The bastard!” ), so I’m guessing that this, among other things, will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Judging from the book’s original working title, Betrayal/Dark Betrayal, I’m guessing Brambleclaw, and possibly some others, will finally be fed up, and some form of Betrayal may take place. And it may or may not be somewhat Dark. Of course, the Dark Forest would probably be involved here.

Since all grievances apparently will be resolved, Hawkfrost has to get in on this. I mean he literally says “This isn’t over yet” when he dies.

Of course, that was over six books ago, but it has to count for something, right?

So yeah, I’m hoping to see Brambleclaw and him in cahoots again sometime in the future.

Even if everything I’ve just said is complete bullshit, the old title does seem to indicate something big happening. OotS is sure to be epic.

Another thing to come in 2010 is Golden Sun DS, and other than generic statements of how I want it, all I can say is: About freakin’ time. Seven. Freakin’. Years. And it’s finally coming.

Considering it seems to be the only direction for the plot to move in, I’m guessing Alex will play a big role, which is nice, because he’s awesome and wasn’t in the first two nearly as much as someone as significant to the plot as he was should have been.

Well, I think that pretty much covers everything I’ve got planned for 2010. Why yes, I do have no life.

Anyway, happy holidays everyone!