Costume Shilling #Bonus: Shilling Anniversary

AIGHT EVERYONE. I’m sure you all saw this choice coming from miles away lmao. I’ve picked Lee’s wedding dress skin.
Fun little story to start off this shilling: I actually acquired this skin the day before I acquired Lee herself; My first month in GFL was just a lot of RF crafting, to no avail, to obtain her, while I watched practically everyone else I knew, that was playing at the time, pull her with omega ease. Maybe whaling for this skin was the catalyst I finally needed lol.
While I cook up my full thoughts, tell me guys, what do you think of this glorious skin?

I can talk about Lee’s ass all day, everyday. For reference, this is the figure Adam was talking about:

I was saving up for a graceful shilling, but since you insist so much: let the hornt flood gates open!
I don't think I can adequately put into words just how much Lee's ass makes me awooga more than anything else in the entire game. 
This skin overall really exaggerates just how huge her butt is. They look so full and slappable, whether the slap be from my hand, my own face into them, or [REDACTED], everything would be an amazing experience. I would love nothing more than to [REDACTED] onto that behind during our [REDACTED], whether that be while doing [REDACTED], [REDACTED], or any [REDACTED] that allows a nice grip on [REDACTED]. Then, I would die for the chance to get to [REDACTED] my [REDACTED] between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] one out of me with those [REDACTED] mountains, giving them a glorious [REDACTED] [REDACTED] when I [REDACTED]. I'm sure they would make for amazing pillows as well, getting to sleep on those must result in the greatest night's sleep ever. Overall, Lee's ass is just a complete incredible package. Anything you think you can [REDACTED] for, Lee's ass obviously would excel at. I bet she could even [REDACTED] like a champ if she really wanted, but of course she's too classy to [REDACTED]. At least, for anyone but myself hehe.
Oh my, I got redacted so much I feel like this is black ops document style.

So, I think the time has come for me to drop my load. Let's begin shall we?
I'll start by talking a bit about Lee-Enfield herself. While I'm not a big gun fan IRL, the Lee-Enfield is one of, if not my favourite gun, even prior to starting GFL. It had a combination of things I was interested in thanks to video games: It was a part of the WWII arsenal, I am quite the fan of bolt action rifles, and it's a British weapon. So naturally, when I was considering getting into GFL by looking at what guns were available, Lee caught my immediate attention.

At this time, I wouldn't say she was my "love at first sight" or anything, but she was definitely my biggest interest in obtaining character wise. Then came the moment she did become that: when someone told me about this skin. In my friend group at the time, it was well known that I had a huge thing for wedding and bridal attire. So seeing this skin was when I truly fell in love.
So started my month-long journey of pain as I failed again and again to roll Lee-Enfield while seemingly everyone else in my friend group got her without even trying. Several of which got her as their very first 5 star character. It was agonising to see when I was the only one who cared about her this much, but I persisted regardless. Not even the seven goddamn WA2000s I rolled before getting her stopped my resolve.

Like I mentioned in the story at the start, in a way I can thank this skin for potentially being the catalyst that finally got me her. I rolled Lee the day after I obtained it, it felt truly incredible, like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. After that, I actually didn't use this skin on her until I oathed her. Felt kind of appropriate after all, with this being a wedding themed skin.

Needless to say: Lifelong Protector is my favourite skin, but you all probably knew that already lol. Let's close off story time for now and discuss the actual skin.
o let’s get something also mentioned earlier in the air immediately: this ain’t a wedding dress innit lol. It’s more akin to what Adam said: Bridal themed lingerie. Which maybe is part of why I love it so much? I also have a thing for lingerie after all heh. If we’re being specific, it’s like a wedding themed leotard, accompanied with thigh high boots, sleeves, a veil that looks like you couldn’t see through it, and half of a gown that seems to be trying and failing hard to conceal her huge ass.

In a skin theme that can often result in a lot of similar dresses (let’s be real, there’s only so much you can do with a traditional ‘wedding’ theme), you can’t say that Bridal Lee doesn’t stand out. Without accounting for damaged art, it’s one of the most sexually suggestive bridal skins. Hell, it even looks like you can see a bit of a camel toe if you look close enough. If we’re being brutally honest, it’s not really a fitting skin for her. Lee is very modest and stoic, something like this should surely be way too lewd for her to even consider wearing.

Whether or not this fits her thematically though, is irrelevant. Cause it’s just hot lol. In a way, I feel that’s part of the charm. It’s something so unexpected for Lee that it results in it being even hotter. Try to imagine someone like DSR-50 in this skin instead, yeah it’ll be hot but she’s such a lewd doll to begin with that it’s probably expected. But with Lee, it’s so surprising that it adds to the appeal.

Putting aside all of that, onto the dress itself. Despite it not being a wedding dress, it’s still absolutely beautiful. It’s surprisingly complex for a type of outfit that’s normally relatively simple bar some patterns. The leotard is adorned thematically with gold accessories, I particularly am partial to the ribbon going around her hips and complementing her alluring figure. I don’t quite understand where the large primarily red ribbon that flows behind her is coming from, but I really like it all the same.

Of all her skins, this is the one that really shows off Lee’s killer figure. I already spoke about her uhh ass earlier, but her whole curvature is just to die for. Every single part of her is divine, but it’s clear this skin aims to amplify the ass and thighs in particular. Good lord, does it succeed too, those thighs oh those thighs.
I feel some would probably call this skin overdesigned, and not gonna lie I’d probably agree with them to some extent. I’m not typically a fan of overdesigning, but in this case I don’t mind it. Mainly because the end result is so gorgeous that it’s not like it’s even a bad thing.

Now, the L2D animations. Being one of the first L2D skins that the game offered, it’s naturally not as advanced as some of the newer L2D skins that we get these days. But still, they’re overall really nice animations. They’re mostly fairly basic and generic, being typical talking animations, but seeing Lee smile so much brings tons of joy to my heart. The one where she pats her chest and comments on how she’ll treasure the uniform deepy, it just melts my heart anew each time I see it. Of course, she also comes with a fitting salute. Gotta act proper and ready for orders even when you’re actually ready for a sortie in the bed.

So is there anything I don’t like about this skin? Yes, there is. I kinda really don’t like the L2D component of her damaged art. The damaged art in itself is fine enough, I don’t really have much to comment on here since I’m not much for damaged art in general anyway. She definitely looks proper damaged, that’s for sure, with the dress practically torn to shreds.
Fun fact btw, this skin actually has different damaged art depending on whether or not L2D is enabled. In the non-L2D version, her crotch has most of the clothing torn away, the goods only protected by the big ribbon. Let’s all thank the big ribbon for maintaining Lee’s modesty. In the L2D version though, since the ribbon moves, the bottom of her dress is understandably intact.

This isn’t why I dislike the L2D portion of the damage art though lol. It’s because I think it simply looks bad due to its gravity defying nature being made so apparent. This problem is had with her big ribbon in the standard art but otherwise it’s ok. Here though, not only her ribbon but also her veil, hair, and practically any hanging part of the outfit is up in the air. The animations themselves are alright, showing some typical movements you’d expect of her trying to cover herself up and whatnot. But regardless, I simply am not a fan.

Given how little I care about damaged art anyway in general, this is far from a big negative for me. For most skins, I judge them primarily on just their regular art anyway. I may be biased in Lee’s favour, I don’t care. I love this skin and think it’s absolutely incredible. It was the first time I whaled on GFL and now almost 3 years later from that point, I don’t regret it one bit. I think this skin will stand forever as my favourite skin in GFL. The only real chance of it being dethroned was if Lee-Enfield got another skin, especially a summer one. Such a skin might just stand a chance.

I’ll eject Matt later. So, this was the first video i saw of suomi's xmas live2d
I saw her and fell in love on first sight, then immediately wanted to pull her. Fortunately, i didn't have to wait for long (6 months lol), so i saved some money and threw in some gems to pull for her, and retarded me at the time was like: hey, let's pull for both EN and JP (i was playing jp at the time too)
holy shit my singaporean accent was so thick at the time LOL.

So, fast forward a few years, I still love suomi's xmas live2d the most, among us her 3 live2ds, swimsuit suomi scratches her boobs too much, wedding suomi produced this emote:

As for personality, I guess I can say it's her soft personality: shy, and she keeps secrets that she wants to share to the world, but is afraid to share them. Well, that was me back in 2016-2019: shy, have lots of secrets to myself, afraid to share with anyone. I think I've grown up and matured a lot since then, and I hope she's proud of me from what i've achieved in these few years.

Well, I hope one day I'll find a girlfriend or girl bestie that's shy and both of us can open up to each other and mature together, but that's beside the point. Cheers to anmi for drawing suomi and making her come to life in her live2d, if it wasn't because of suomi and this game and what i've done so far for it, I think I might still be stuck in the hole I was in back in 2016.

I want to preface my comments here by saying that I really like all of the Suomi skins we have. Like they are all super nice. That being said though, this is probably my least favourite of her three. That isn't anything against the skin, it's just a thing with me. Two of my biggest interests skin-wise are swimsuits and wedding dresses. Suomi's other two skins are a swimsuit and a wedding dress. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.
Anyway, just talking about this skin here, it's still great. It's a fitting skin for the Christmas season and is simply so cute and comfy looking. A beautiful light blue and white colour scheme throughout the entire outfit, both fitting and calling back to her original art. Looks really soft, perfect for warming up with cuddles. Also cute butt. This is not something unique to this Suomi skin. I just wanted to say she has a cute butt.

There's not much I can say about just how absolutely breathtaking this skin is for me. It just accentuates how beautiful she is for me.
Fluffy fur trim.
It's more like the skin is less what I like about her, and more her personality. She's a very stern, serious professional, but getting this skin (if you decide not to OATH) reveals her post-OATH line (via coding bug i suppose), it reveals how she wants to be a person you can rely on. And very much, you can rely on her.
As for the skin itself:
Weird as it is to say, I like her hair style, and the hair bow she has actually accentuates it for me. The dress itself is absolutely beautiful, the flower imprints on it are a beautiful catch, and the dress itself accentuates her modest figure. I find her to be enticing, but more elegant than anything. More thoughts on seven, I want some time with Groza now.

CNY groza just exudes sensual vibes and elegance. She's totes the lady who enters a party with an impacting dress, with a confident pose, and a poker face, that draws the attention of everyone. She knows all eyes are on her and she doesn't shy away. I find it rather amusing that her CNY skin seems to be more elegant than her anni skin, or at least it seems so to me. Prove me wrong Doc

But did she [REDACTED] you even once? Imagine neko23 goes “what is it, darling” before [REDACTED] you with a big [REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED].
Actually imagine your first waifu becoming [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] your second waifu in front of you;

Crally knows da way

The final piece of my MK23 collection, wedding Darling is probably the skin I like the most, both damaged and normal. She dodges the Calico bride problem with shading in the skirt, and a pink middle layer, and the heart pattern on the edge is superb. Personality wise, she's probably got a bit to much peppy for me to say I'd want to spend forever with her, but to a degree,  MK23 actually kinda reminds me of an IRL friend (who's also into pet names......and cats...this is getting worrying). Somehow I've never noticed she'd heterochromatic until now, and I approve of this design choice. I still haven't figured out where she hides the gun in her normal art, but that's okay.
With Adam, animations are solid for this skin, 100%, used it as a rotation adjutant for a while, she's very cute.

Full disclosure, I actually stalled on choosing this skin not because I dislike it, but I was breathing pure copium while waiting for the possibility of a lore accurate beach 40 skin to be released in the meantime. Just the original TL name of the skin, WIsh Protecting Maiden of Shadows, is such a fantastic reference, if not outright explicit about her role in the story. I feel like she is always a lowkey fan favorite, and I'm more than glad we can continue to see her influence on 45 in the story, as well as MICA acknowledging her as a proper UMP sister in celebrations.

It's interesting how she plays the cello in the orchestra set, but here in the band she plays the drums.  I thought it was weird at first, but it really does fit her personality.  She is a cheerful, sunny girl who marches to the beat of her own drum.  It is specifically this desire for free will that motivates her to sacrifice herself for her sister. As edgy and cliche her backstory may be, it was written so powerfully that even a summary made me cry.  I am a sucker for tragic characters like that - she did the best she could, and even then when life fucked her up, she still had the selflessness to wish on a better life for her younger sister.

Her dynamic with 45 is truly precious.  Usually, we hear her referred to as "45-nee", the older sister, but to 40, 45 is the younger sister.  In short, 40 is practically the only unconditional ally that 45 can show her fragility. UMP40 gets a different artist for her skin, this being one of the times where the change in artstyle really stands out. Despite being based on the same frame as 45, depictions of 40 vary wildly with artist. Especially with her magazines. In any case, they managed to keep her sunny eyes, the brightness that really makes UMP40 herself. Similar to her sisters, she has the same subtle bunny ribbon, which naturally fits in with her hairstyle.

Hey I own one myself.

The one who showed the skin back then was no other than our own Destination. I was like, "holyshit G36C is soooo pretty." Then I went on a journey to roll her skins with tokens. Yukata, Halloween, all failed. When I saw this skin on the shop, It was a no brainer. Plus, quoting Desti, "G36C has the [REDACTED] hips." The big sister is the wife, but the little sister is more attractive.

I actually know almost nothing personality-wise about 36c, just that her Halloween skin is horny on a scale that doesn't quite work when typed out like it does spoken. Her base art has much more of a sensual vibe than her family tree, which makes sense I'd say, given not being an Imoko daughter.

This one is much the same, there's a fair bit of 'this is what you're getting to enjoy tonight' in that expression it seems. or maybe it's midnight horny talking. something something something pretty sure she caught the magic boobs, or maybe my memory is bad.

She looks so hot. One word: thighs. And I'm a sucker for thigh highs+ garter belt. There's a reason why almost every girl I draw wears thigh highs. (I haven't tried pantyhose yet).

If you know da way, you bow to the Queen.
You will not take my opener.
You will not take my woman.
No, you shall NOT!

Well, so much for a proper opener worthy of Springfield. Let’s get the shilling well at least.
Queen In Radiance is not my oldest skin, but it is and always will be my most favourite by far. I was a young, unwise player, struggling to clear Deep Dive, when the Radiant Collection rerun started and I thought, "How much could I lose?"

I lost enough.
WA2000 may have came first to get my attention. But Springfield captured my loyalty. A gentle, caring, hard worker, Springfield's support for her Commander is unwavering. The fact that she came to me in bad times was the icing on the cake. Even if I needed to spend 156 runs for her special ammo, despite all the better advice I was given to not raise her, I looked at Springfield and decided, I will. I would. And I did. 

Granted, I also assumed Super Sass was the protag, as one does from looking at her art. While the game cheerfully dispatched that notion, at the time I enjoyed it well enough, got a head start on my dislike of 416 and her attitude, and was having an alright time for myself. Of the characters they throw at you right off, very few really stuck with me. Nagant revolver/1911/P38/etc were whatever in my books, mostly still are, and the higher rarity characters I'd pulled didn’t really stick, being 9A (who was rather off putting to be honest), and Mosin, after 416. My acquire order, oldest to newest, for reference. Obviously missing a bunch of low rarities that I’ve cored and never gotten back.

See for yourself. 

Now, I have Etrikia to thank for this knowledge, but apparently C-MS's skin is designed after a famous irl hobo from China (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/handsome-chinese-vagrant-draws-fans-homeless-chic-1915812.html), The Independent Handsome Chinese vagrant draws fans of 'homeless chic' Identity of 'Brother Sharp' – dubbed China's coolest man – remains a mystery.

So, about time I shill for this skin. But before that, story time.

As someone who played a lot of shooters before joining GFL, it's rather impossible to not know AUG as a gun. The gun itself was designed with a futuristic style in mind, which caused a huge impact when it was released. How does that affect us? Well, its style, and success, is what made it such a popular gun in media, especially in shooter games. I have mentioned before there are a couple of guns I particularly liked to use back in my Battlefield days, and AUG was one such, so I was quite happy when I found out AUG was a character in GFL, and a very beautiful one at that. Fast forward some months, and AUG was one of the first dolls that caught my attention before I joined GFL, among us with Mosin, Vivi. 12 and 94. Unlike those three though, AUG took a fair few months to come to me, since she was the only one locked behind mica's farm plan. But then, Isomer arrived, and with it X95; AUG did.

It was love at first sight. The predominance of black in her attire contrasts sharply with platinum blond hair. The laces at the hem of her dress are simple, but give her an air of elegance, which matches perfectly with the way she speaks. Her black jacket and gloves give (at least to me) a black ops vibe, and given her team's role on chapter 8N, add up to her appeal. Her high boots, letting us only get a glimpse of her thighs, add a sorta sensual touch to her, while keeping her classy. To finish off, the flower hanging on the left side of her hair, adds an air of delicacy and ephemerality to her, that matches up her soft spoken voice lines and her interactions with IWS2000: They always seem laced with melancholy at how ephemeral life is, especially a doll's life. Needless to say, she hit all the right places in me, so of course I'd insta 100x5 SL10 oath her right?

Nope!

I always felt guilty that I never had room to level her, not with seriously wanting to rank Isomer, and later SC. Because of that, my corpsedrags and CRs never had a spare room to her, even though I wanted to give her the spotlight she deserves, despite being a very suboptimal unit.
Right, I was supposed to shill this skin, not her default
Fast forward to 2.06 release back in September, and we were graced with the surprise that Medieval batch was coming to EN briefly after being released on CN. I was in love with that batch. Mosin (the skin who was also an option as my fav skin) had a significant upgrade from her anni skin. Her facial features were much more smoother, and much more healthy.

That said, AUG on the other hand, was a L2D skin, which meant either I luccsacced, or hoarded 8 BCs to get her. Needless to say, she was but a distant dream. Despite getting 416 on anni lucky bag, and R93 on summer rolls (since I wanted cute Z62) I didn't have high hopes for AUG. I had around 2600 tokens back then, so I was confident I could roll Mosin, even if I had to do so with exchange tickets. On the actual day of the banner, I had a good start, rolling right off the bat Gareth M1897 and then another M1897 skin with Mosin. I could have stopped there, but since I was on a luck spree, I decided to keep rolling.

At around 1000 tokens, I was graced with yet another Mosin skin, and I had a choice: I could either keep rolling, in a feeble hope of getting AUG, or BC another M1897 and be done with the banner. I noticed I only had 4 furniture pieces left, so I decided to roll till I got them or get 200 exchange tickets to get those. So, when I rolled her at 1600 tokens, I couldn't believe it. I exchanged the tickets for the last piece of furniture I was missing and another M1897 skin to get a third BC.

I instantly oathed her.

The idea of a melancholic, romantic beauty that proteccs me, while also showing me her vulnerable side in our intimate moments, is far more valuable to me than any hornt R93 could jiggle my way. LWMMG may be my first love in GFL, and Mosin the reason I rolled for this banner, but AUG was the only one doll I insta oathed without even thinking. The idea of sharing an umbrella with her, on a rainy day, with just us two walking down the street and soft lofi music on the background completely captivated me. AUG had successfully become my knight in shining armour, and I gladly offered her my heart.

To me, the apex of her appeal, besides her post oath line, is when she says "I like rainy days. The rain lets my expression look...more natural.", and seeing her say this on the Epiphyllum flower field while lightly grizzlying is the perfect image of "sad beauty", which makes me want to serve and love AUG all the more.

It has been computed.

The SC background is 100% a good match for AUG doing AUG things, and her love of rainy days, even if for slightly different reasons is something I can get behind. Honestly though I really want to rant bout Nier/2b comparisons and how they still fit this skin, but will restrain myself Funnily enough I think AUG's melancholy is a good representation of her state in the game, a melancholic look back at a simpler time in GFL, before stat inflation, and armor spam overran the lands, and she was in fact the funeral bearer for her enemies. ...and this got weird and dark all the sudden whoops. I'll point out a bit of I guess irony here, that AUG is more set up to need the knight in shining armor, even in her knightly armor, than being one something something, AUG would make a solid female lead in a romance movie that's going like 500% on the troping.

And with that line, we end this shilling convo, and this shilling edition. Now, Commanders and Shikikans, did you expect all these skins to be here? Were you surprised by some of the panelist choices? Let us know in the comments.

Also would like to thanks my friend Kabr for patching up this beautiful cover for this panel in such short notice. xoxo