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thepageofhopes · 5 months

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Talking about my choices and template under the cut!

Favorite Game of All Time: Undertale

Probably will stay my GOAT forever unless Deltarune manages to stick it's landing with the many cool extensions to undertale's themes and lore it brings up. Part of my love for it is based on how little games cared to explore the themes it brought up before undertale came out.

Favorite Series: Super Monkey Ball series

No other games have really managed to capture what this series had, though Rolled Out might by the time it's finally released. Lots of nostalgia baked into this choice- I used to do stunts as a teenager back in the day and learn the tech from forums.

Best Soundtrack: Terraria's Calamity Mod

Yes, I'm counting a mod as both a separate game and enough of one to have the best soundtrack. I already loved DM DOKURO's undertale remixes, and they just knock it out of the park with the Calamity mod. I will never not scream THE ENEMY HAS ASCENDED BEYOND YOUR CONTROL but Devourer of Gods is also something truly special.

Favorite Protagonist: Zagreus from Hades

I'm not usually super into the protagonists of games as I usually am with the supporting cast, but Zagreus really makes the story of Hades and his commentary brings the game to life so, so much. Other contender of this spot was probably the Voice of the Hero from Slay the Princess, but hard to say if they are really the protagonist, and also, I like Voice of the Contrarian even more.

Favorite Villain: The Masked Man from Mother 3

-endless crying-

Best Story: Mother 3

Listen, Undertale may be my GOAT but Mother 3 is my number 2 because of how good the story is. Please go watch Super Eyepatch Wolf's video on it if you haven't. The incredible themes, the knife-twisting tragedies, the goofy humor covering up extremely dark subject matter, all of it is so, so, so, good.

Have not played but want to: Alan Wake 2

This game seems so much My Shit™ but sadly it is only on epic games store which I hate. I've heard so many wonderful things about the game and all the visuals in those reviews look amazing and seem like it really is the peak of modern survival horror. Can't wait for it to come to Steam/GoG.

Everyone hates but you love: Continue?9876543210

'Everyone' is quite an overstatement for such a weird, niche game but it is the only game I really like that also has a non positive rating on steam. I've always loved the weird themes and existentialism tinged with hope that this game offers, despite everything from its mechanics to the story being vague and near impossible to parse.

You hate but everyone loves: Into The Breach

Nuclear Throne/Enter the Gungeon could also go here. All are roguelikes which are incredibly loved in the community that I just can't stand. I don't even particularly know why I don't like them, just something about the feel of the mechanics don't agree with me.

Best Artstyle: Splatoon series, but specifically Octo Expansion (until Side Order inevitably beats this)

Splatoon has always been a series marked by it's incredible visual design. Everything screams 90s, the color choices are vivid and striking, the character models are super expressive, etc. Octo Expansion adds even more with the retropunk aesthetic and dark environments mixed with the neon greens and blues.

Favorite Ending: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations

The entire last case of this game is perfect. The ending montage where you get to see where all the characters are going is sweet and ties a great bow on the series, and the final picture with the vase gets me every time. This was another game that was a contender for best story.

Favorite Boss Fight: Undyne the Undying from Undertale

'Not Sans???' listen Sans is probably the better design but Undyne the Undying was my literal first true boss I ever fought in Undertale, and it will always stick with me. I love the rhythm game style of her mechanics and her intro into her music sets the tone perfectly for the genocide run.

Childhood Game: Ball Revamped 2: Metaphasik

Catz is also a contender here since that is even older and I also played that quite a lot as a kid, but Ball Revamped 2 and a lot of jmtb02's other flash games were really when I started to heavily get into video games. I still sometimes go back to this one, the design still holds up quite well, and the rest of the series ain't bad either.

Relaxing Game: Vampire Survivors

I don't generally play 'relaxing' games, I like my games hard and fast and brutal. But vampire survivors build crafting is incredibly relaxing and when you make a successful build being able to just sit back and let the game play itself to win is such a dopamine rush.

Stressful Game: Cook, Serve, Delicious 3

Honestly, most of the games I play could go here. CSD series however is a special type of stress that puts me on edge through the whole level, enough that I often can't do more than a 3 or so in a play session (lovingly). A rhythm game without music, there is no other game series that demands the level of intense focus and execution like this does.

Game you can always come back to: Fallout: New Vegas

I've come back to this game at least 10 separate times with new characters. A combination of incredibly relaxing due to the easy combat system and replayability given the role playing system mean it's an easy game to just jump back into even after a long time away.

Guilty Pleasure: Project Sekai: Colorful Stage

I play a lot of gacha games and most if not all could fit here given how terrible those games are with the players, but Project Sekai is one where I will actively gush about it as I think it's story and characters are legitimately great. Magia Record could also fit here if it the NA servers weren't shut down.

Tons of Hours Played: Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Not my most played game technically (Terraria and Tabletop Simulator beat it) but both of those don't count as many of Terraria's hours are idle due to holding a server up, and Tabletop Simulator due to waiting and also it's not exactly a game in it's own right. I've so far put 750 hours into Rebirth, and still only have 545 of the 637 achievements. No other game has ever captured BoI's way of insane item combinations that make each run a discovery fest.

And here's the template!

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otaku553 · 2 years

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What appearance and personality traits of the character can attract you?

Do you have a certain type of character that you're crazy about?

Do you have any characters in mind that have stuck with you in particular?

It is SO EASY to make characters that pander to my tastes specifically lmao. Refer to the image for examples

Im a sucker for baggy clothes and extra layers and visible layers of clothing!! They give me Gender feelings. I actually started playing genshin because I liked chongyun’s design so much, but kazuha has since usurped the spot of favorite character design because of the off-shoulder outer kimono, which reminds me of the way gintoki from gintama wears his kimono

Forgot to include also that capes and cloaks are peak as well

Personality-wise I always enjoy characters that act more mature than they actually are in some way, I.e. child genius characters or prodigy characters, or characters that had to grow up and couldn’t enjoy childhood due to tragic circumstances. Even Kirby and meta knight both have this in my interpretations of them, meta knight because he has to wear a mask and armor and a cape to make himself more imposing and intimidating and Kirby because he’s so powerful that it’s his responsibility to face the biggest threats to the world.

Hitsugaya Toushiro from Bleach is another example that sticks out in my mind, especially as a sort of classic child prodigy character. I feel like much of his sort of cold and mature personality must stem from his responsibility as a captain and the necessity for respect in his role and his authority. Can’t think of any others off the top of my head rn tho.

Second after characters that act mature are characters with some duality of fun joy and solemn duty/responsibility, or some kind of serious motivation, ulterior or otherwise, that makes them drop the niceties and jokes. Always enjoy a good crouching moron hidden badass trope, like Hanako-kun. Recently have also really enjoyed Qiffrey from Witch Hat Atelier!

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eldritchqueerture · 21 days

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Okay I thought of something to ramble about and it’s the utterly bizarre and confusing relationship the CW show Riverdale has to chronological time. Apologies in advance for how long this rant will be.

Disclaimer: it’s been several years since I’ve watched Riverdale, and I never actually finished the show. This is all based on my memories. Also, I’m pretty sure the seasons I never got around to get EVEN weirder with their timelines.

So, season 1 makes the setting of Riverdale anachronistic as an obviously deliberate stylistic choice. The characters all have computers and cell phones, but they’ve also got rotary landlines, and the cars all look like they’re from the 50s, and the costumes tend to be vaguely vintage-inspired. Honestly I always found this element kind of fun - it’s a unique-ish style, and it pays visual homage to the era the original comics were set. (Side ramble: season 1 is both the most normal the show ever was and also the closest it ever got to being “good” in a traditional sense. Season 1 was a reasonably competent teen drama/murder mystery with an interesting aesthetic - it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it wasn’t terrible. And then it almost immediately went off the rails in ways that are wildly entertaining but a lot harder to take seriously. Post-season-1 Riverdale is, imo, the peak of “makes no damn sense, compels me though” tv)

And then in season 2(?), there’s an awkward cross-promotional thing where a bunch of characters go to the movies to see the 2018 film Love, Simon, and talk about how great Love, Simon is, and shuts generally urge the viewers to please go see Love, Simon - now in theaters. And it’s like. Oh. So it is set in the modern day, then? This is just a modern day town where everyone drives cars from the 50s?

And from then on it’s kind of hard to tell if the writers are trying to set it in a nebulous anachronistic dreamscape like in season one, or if it’s concretely set in the modern day - they kind of go back and forth.

And then. There’s the time skip. I can’t remember what season it is, but eventually, the writers announce that after the characters graduate from high school, there’s going to be a seven-year time skip, and the rest of the season will pick back up with the characters as adults. This seems like an idea that will accomplish a lot: it will allow the show to stop pretending that these clearly-in-their-20s-and-30s actors are fresh out of high school, it will allow the characters to take different paths after high school and then just pick up the story when they’re all back in Riverdale, and also, it will explain away why none of these characters are wearing masks or social distancing or at all acknowledging the global pandemic that is currently happening. Win-win. Makes sense. But then.

The characters are all about to graduate, and Archie is trying to decide what he wants to do after high school - does he want to go to college, or does he want to join the army? And right before graduation, he’s in the high school, and he sees a photo of a previous graduating class of Riverdale High posing in their uniforms before they go off to fight in what is very clearly WWII. And Archie hallucinates some soldiers in WWII uniforms during graduation, and that makes him decide to join the army. So WWII happened in the past. Makes sense so far.

And then the time skip picks up with Archie getting out of the army, and in all the flashbacks, it is very clear that he just fought in WWI. There’s trenches, and WWI-style uniforms, and Archie has shell shock (which obviously can and does happen in any war, but the way it’s framed in this feels very WWI-coded. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is.) So WWI is the present now?

And Betty’s post-time skip storyline is *just* Silence of the Lambs. Like she’s training to be an FBI agent and hunting down a serial killer and there’s a lot of VERY on the nose references. So the costuming and set design of her storyline is super 1970s, but then she meets up with Archie the WWI vet?

And THEN, in Veronica’s storyline there’s a scene where she’s arguing with her dad about his sexism and she says something like, “It’s 2021, dad, women aren’t property anymore,” and it’s like. ??? You just skipped seven years into the future?? Shouldn’t it be 2028? Was the show secretly a period piece set, very specifically, seven years in the past the whole time?? If it’s 2021 why aren’t any of the characters acknowledging covid? Was Love, Simon released seven years earlier in this universe?

And then Jughead gets kidnapped by Mothman.

sometimes i will learn things about riverdale and its just. more unhinged than i ever expected

#is this how people feel about supernatural #ask #ronnie tag #this is insane ldnfkndkd #it does sound like a fun idea tho! if. there was a consistent idea behind it #like timelines converging and stuff #also as a local love simon enjoyer i do have to agree. love that book and love that movie

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innerchorus · 1 year

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Gurgin for the ask game, pick and choose whatever numbers you want! It's a free-for-all! :D

I probably am gonna ask you about Shapur, Isfan, and Kubard later too because of course I am

I said I wanted to answer every question for him and I wasn't lying. Thank you for enabling me! (Ask game post is here, for anyone else who wants to send something in / reblog it themselves. I have a few others to answer already which I'll get too asap now this post is done, but feel free to send in more!).

My first impression of them

Just one of a handful of evil masked guys. Best mask design by a long way, though.

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

I first got curious about him when I read about his backstory and found out about his shared past with Farangis. Honestly I'm not quite sure how I got to the point where I love him as fiercely as I do now, but I know I started shipping him with Zandeh after seeing art by @strangeshipper and it built from there. I don't know. I just find him really interesting.

3. A song that reminds me of them

I know I've mentioned You Are The Blood by Sufjan Stevens before, but also Don't Worry, We'll Be Watching You by Gotye (POV: you are being recruited by Team Zahhak).

4. How many people I ship them with

Always with Zandeh. OTP status for sure. I have considered other stuff (such as the Zandeh/Gurgin/Parizad OT3) though. And Hilmes/Gurgin in Mage Hunt AU. And if anyone wants to suggest other ships for him, I'm listening.

5. My favorite ship of them

Zandeh/Gurgin, obvious answer is obvious.

6. My least favorite ship of them

I don't know whether anyone actually ships it but Gurgin/the Master.

I won't lie, it's crossed my mind, but my headcanon is primarily that although the Master was once interested in stuff like that he's been alive for so long that he doesn't really have those sorts of urges any more (overlaps a bit with my thoughts on how the type of magic that Team Zahhak use might affect sexual desire, I don't think I've directly mentioned that before but the basic concept is that it can warp it from its baseline just as it warps their bodies, and results vary from person to person, but it's quite common for it to be either dulled or switched off completely and kind of goes hand in hand with the headcanon that their magic renders them sterile).

Gurgin in Sacrifice AU falls into that category, he doesn't completely lack interest but his focus is dominated by his work for Team Zahhak and by the time the AU picks up his story afterwards he's also underweight and depressed so his sex drive is basically 0. And then he meets Zandeh, and gets better, and realises what it's like to want someone so badly you can't think of anything else, lmao

(My headcanons for Gurgin vary a bit in this respect depending on the AU, though. There's probably an AU out there where his desire never returns or he never had any in the first place but even in that case I still see him and Zandeh as life partners and feel they'd work it out somehow.)

7. A quote of them that you remember

What he says when he's rallying his comrades at the end of Book 7 after their Master is (temporarily...) killed: "Let those who do not respect the Snake King Zahhak boast of their victory! Three years, just three years is enough. At that time, they will fall from the peak of joy to the bottom of the valley of despair. The higher they climb, the further they fall!"

It's primarily the last line that sticks in my mind. If I ever make the Gurgin playlist that I daydream about so often, I'd definitely title it 'The Further They Fall'. Anyway, that's actually the last line of dialogue from the final scene of Book 7 (the last book before the timeskip). A very ominous way for it to end, right?

8. Your favorite outfit of them

He has One Outfit. (He would've worn something different when he was a trainee priest, but there's no description of it. A manga flashback to that time feels much less likely now, but you never know, maybe Arakawa will decide to reveal a little of Farangis's backstory before the end… my one hope…)

9. Your least favorite outfit of them

One Outfit, and I love it so no complaints. But I wish Arakawa had planned to adapt the second half so I could see him getting drenched by the rain in Soleimaniye.

10. Describe the character in one sentence

My blorbo who did lots of things wrong.

11. What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?

Huh, this question made me realise that in the mental picture of Gurgin that first pops up when I think of him, he's not wearing his mask. His hood is up, though, and he's in Team Zahhak black. Maybe it's because I've been thinking about the Magical Healing AU more recently, where his appearance is often like this.

12. Sexuality hc!

He doesn't waste much time thinking about it, but he's mainly into men. However, I do headcanon that he had a crush on Farangis when he was young.

13. Your favorite friendship they have

This question makes me sad because I don't see him as someone who's ever had many friends. I don't think his peers at the temple liked him that much (though honestly I think he probably felt quite indifferent about this). There were a handful of other trainees he spent time with, but his closest friends were probably his brother and Farangis. There's certainly no real evidence of friendship between any of the Team Zahhak disciples.

He deserves more than having one-sided conversations with winged apes! Was that mainly for exposition purposes in canon? Perhaps, but it's also a result of a lack of human contact — the novel makes it clear that the mages feel loneliness as their numbers dwindle, and at that point Gurgin is operating alone and hasn't heard from his remaining comrades for a while.

(He absolutely does talk to Hamkar from time to time in Sacrifice AU before Zandeh arrives on the scene, too.)

14. Best storyline they had

Is there anything about his canon trajectory that I really wanna label 'best' lmao? I mean, I wish things had turned out different for him but I do find his loss of faith / corruption arc interesting. Though that's because I also love to think about a future for him where that all gets reversed.

15. Worst storyline they had

His involvement with what went down in Oxus, probably. Oof.

16. A childhood headcanon

You know, I haven't spent much time thinking about what his childhood was like (aside from Mage Hunt AU specifics that differ from whatever a general /baseline headcanon would be). I guess the only thing I feel certain of is that he and his brother had no other siblings, and whatever region they grew up in didn't have much to offer in terms of creating a better life for themselves, and that's why they ended up at the Temple of Mithra in Khuzestan. (Tentative headcanon is that he grew up in / near the Nimruz mountains.)

Aghriras entered the priesthood because of ambition, and that reasoning makes sense for Gurgin, too (they're azat, freeborn commoners aka the lowest social class above slaves, and if they want to climb above the few opportunities that affords to them then it's either joining the priesthood or proving their merit on the battlefield) but I do think that to a certain extent Gurgin followed his brother.

lmao I can feel a backstory headcanon forming even as I type this.. like, what if their father died or left them when they were young (Gurgin probably doesn't remember him much) and they were raised by their mother, who wanted them to have a better life than she had? She wouldn't have wanted them to face the horrors of war, so she encouraged them to work hard on their education so that they could find their place in the priesthood. Perhaps she, too, had passed away by the time they left for the temple, so at that point they only had each other. I feel like Gurgin didn't have any close family after his brother died.

Oh no Gurgin, are you desperate for recognition from your Master because you never had a father figure? Fuck.

17. What do you think their first word was?

Eh, probably some variation of 'brother' or 'mother' (with the headcanon above). I feel like most first words are… not that interesting.

18. How do you think they were as a kid? (Like, were they shy, noisy, wild, etc)

Curious and intelligent! Asked a lot of questions. Easily frustrated when things didn't go his way. I imagine at school he had trouble making friends as he both sought approval from his teachers and thought himself superior to others who were not as clever as him, plus he could be impatient with others. (He was, in general, a bit better about all of this at the time he joined the priesthood, but when he's with Team Zahhak all those negative traits are brought to the fore.)

19. The most random ship you've seen people have with them

Well, I'm not sure this really counts but sometimes I'll ask my boyfriend really weird ArSen questions out of the blue, and recently I asked him "give me a Gurgin ship" and usually when it's something like that he'll try and pick something at random that he thinks I won't like… He said Gurgin/Farangis.

(No, he didn't remember that they knew each other. And I can't think of a way this would work but it sure gave me a whirlwind of feelings to think about. The thought of something happening between them because of shared grief, years after they last saw each other? It's so angsty and messy. If something did happen I think Gurgin would feel immensely guilty for it, but I'm not sure about Farangis. I feel like she might be able to compartmentalise it as something that happened that shouldn't have done, and move on. She'd handle it better than Gurgin, at any rate.)

Wait, my Hilmes/Gurgin ship is pretty random I suppose? Think of that as an alternate answer. Zandeh/Gurgin probably qualifies too given that they don't ever meet in canon, but I can't see it that way now, not after spending so much time thinking about them together.

I've also had very vague thoughts of yeeting Gurgin back into the past, but would I ship him with anyone in that circumstance? Eh, not sure.

20. A weird headcanon

I'm sure I have many! The 'he likes hot baths' headcanon is a pretty random one that came from 1. reading that the real Mount Damavand has some pretty nice hot springs near it (which in ArSen verse are probably disgusting bubbling sulphurous poison mud pits but whatever), and 2. the fact that he probably had a bad time during the flooding of the Dark Temple and it amuses me to imagine him enjoying water in a different context? I just want to let him relax from time to time? He works hard, he deserves it.

I want to write a bath scene for him in Interlude (Magical Healing AU). Or I keep thinking about a comedy scene of him at one of Ecbatana's bath houses with a gaggle of bird-faced beasts for company, because it amuses me.

Here's another headcanon: he's pretty bad at archery. It was taught at the temple, but it didn't interest him much and he wasn't that motivated to work on his skills, even though Farangis tried to instruct him. As far as weapons go, later on he uses a Team Zahhak-typical knife, which he wears strapped to a thigh like Farangis. (He still has it in Sacrifice AU! Chekhov's Snake Knife lmao.)

21. When do you think they were at their happiest?

When he was at the temple with Farangis and his brother, before things went wrong. Other than that, he was pretty fucking ecstatic in Book 16 when the Master said that he would be his successor (disregarding the fact that it's because there is literally nobody else left at that point lmao). I'm not sure I believe the Master was ever planning on stepping aside, but whatever.

22. When do you think they were at their lowest?

After his brother's death.

23. Future headcanon

The whole of Sacrifice AU, I guess. Just anything where he makes it out of Team Zahhak and tries to lead a different life.

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

I love this question. I wouldn't necessarily know the answer for every character but I do have a headcanon for this for Gurgin, and that is that no matter how vehemently he protested his brother's innocence, a small part of him wondered whether Aghriras really had done it. I don't think he'd ever admit that to anyone (except perhaps to Zandeh in Mage Hunt AU, where Gurgin's backstory adjustment gives him very good reason to hope that Aghriras had killed that particular person). The fact that Aghriras's innocence was later proven only makes it much worse.

25. When do you think they acted the most ooc

I don't think any of his canon scenes are OOC? Is that what this question is asking? I may not like what he does, but none of it feels unbelievable.

26. When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?

Maybe I'm picking this just because it's before he went down a dark path, but I think the conversations he used to have with his brother back when they were at the temple are pretty typical of his true self. The little flashback conversation we get in particular gives the impression of someone who's curious about stuff he maybe shouldn't be, and is attracted to power, but it also shows that he was willing to listen to his brother's guidance. I don't think he'd have ended up with Team Zahhak if his brother had lived.

Otherwise, his Book 16 decisions that get him killed are unfortunately also peak Gurgin, at least in his Team Zahhak era.

27. If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc, who would be the most fun for them to meet?

Either (or both) of the Devil Forgemasters from Castlevania, 100%.

28. The most unnecessary thing they ever did?

Killing the dog at the temple. Or lashing out and cutting off the hind legs of a winged ape (a creature that is on his side, and under his command!) when his plans started to go wrong in Book 13.

29. How do you think they would be as a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?)

Honestly, not great but not as bad as he might think. But it's not something he wants. Thoughts of having a family aren't really on his mind (except for AU instances where he's worried it's something Zandeh might want that he won't be able to provide).

30. The funniest scene they had?

Okay, Gurgin's not actually present in this scene but it's hilarious to me so I'm choosing it: after the winged ape attack on Soleimaniye in Book 13 was thwarted, Kubard and Narsus are discussing what happened. They don't know that Gurgin was the one in charge, but Narsus's opinion is that it couldn't have been Ilterish (the usual commander of the demon army) because Ilterish would've done a better job, lmao. Sorry Gurgin but your inexperience is showing.

Anyway, that's the end of the questions! Not sure how many people are interested enough in Gurgin to make it this far, but like... if anyone does want to talk about Gurgin with me... my inbox is always open...

#arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #gurgin #if farangis can have a sexy thigh knife then so can he #this post took me ages to write #i went on... so many tangents...#the irresistable urge to keep talking about my blorbo

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electricprincess96 · 2 months

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I've decided to rank some Jason Todd designs. He's had a few, so I ain't looking for all of them. Just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

This is my list, don't come at me if you disagree even though you're wrong cause I'm obviously right about this. Anyone wanting to start a fight with me about this can save yourself the time as I will be ignoring you.

Number 1

There is no competition this is just peak Jason design, no others come close. There's a reason why Under the Red Hood movie used a variation of this design and not the UtRH comic design (which admittedly was not a bad design keep reading to see where that lands in this list), it's the design Wayne Family Adventures uses, it's the most cosplayed Jason design. It is just peak.

Number 2.

People will say I'm cheating here. I'm not. Under the Red Hood comic confirms Jason did infact wear this outfit, in fact this IS Jason in this panel. It's half way through the fight when he swaps with Clayface.

What I like about this design is its throwbacks to Robin with the belt and the R symbol on his chest. I get that the trench coat was very much Hush's thing but Jason rocked it here. The white streak in his hair has become to popular that some fans don't realise it wasn't canon for a long time (I'm aware plenty of newer stories have him have the white streak, I think it's entirely up to the artist now which is kinda dumb shit like that should be mandated by the editors but whatever).

Overall I just like this design, I wouldn't necessarily want him to ever adopt it again but it was certainly very nice for what it was. And it's different without stripping Jason of all his identity since it references his Robin past.

Number 3.

Oh I debated between this one and number 4 partly because they are very similar. I think this one is edged out 1. By that belt with the R which again is hinting at his past as Robin, something Jason was immensely proud of even if people want to pretend he wasn't. I'm aware they'll say it's R for Red Hood but that's why it works, it's his current alias' initials but R is Robin's symbol. And 2. This design is also just helped by the fact the art style is just very pretty and this particular Jason is just so god damn pretty, like he's gorgeous and I wish the story accompanying it was better.

Number 4.

(Yes I'm using this picture, sue me)

Under the Red Hood. An actually pretty good comic story completely let down by a lot of the shit that came after it. BUT it gave Jason the glow up he deserved at the time. Sure its now far from peak as I've already shown what peak is but its solid. I wouldn't complain if suddenly Jason got another redesign and looked like this again. This is below 3 Jokers cause of the fact it looks very similar to 3 Jokers but 3 Jokers had the inclusion of the R Belt which I liked and 3 Jokers had a better art style in my opinion.

Number 5

The Arkham series had a particular style. I'm putting these together cause while they aren't the same design they are the same character, in the same game and I rank them somewhat evenly. Now Mask off Jason in Arkham is up there with 3 Jokers in terms of how much I like it. I always loved a sense of irony that despite being adopted and being the "fuck up of the family" Jason resembled Bruce so much and he really does resemble Bruce in Arkham. BUT these actual designs are both fine, nothing about them are amazing, I don't love them but they're OK and thats all they need to be.

Now I ain't even gonna number these cause well I'm sure there's maybe a couple dozen one shot or elseworld Jason designs out there that come before these two. Every version of Jason's Robin suit comes before these two. Gotham Knights with the mask off comes before these two (although I hate how the mask in Gotham Knights is cloth and not a helmet but I'm basically screaming into the void right now to try and get Jason's helmet back and designed properly).

Slightly Less Worse

I've said what I have to say about this design, I hate it, I despise it, I get an angry twitch whenever i see it or whenever I see fans lusting over Jason's exposed arms or talking about how deep it is that he wears a muzzle now as if calling a character you're meant to like a wild animal is somehow a good thing. Like yes Bruce called him an animal, Jason then going and choosing to wear a muzzle is so wildly out of character I despise it. Jason is so fucking PROUD, like does he have some self doubts and self hatred? Yeah. But when it comes to Bruce and the rest of the Bats this boy is PRIDEFUL. He wouldn't go and deliberately "muzzle" himself just to make Bruce happy. Its dumb conceptually, it strips Jason of the uniqueness and individuality and it clearly exists to try and emulate the Winter Soldier since Civil War was coming out around that time. Some art styles make this design look OK but it still isn't a Jason design for me.

The Objective Worst One

Kill it with fire! Just make it go away and never return. As I've said for all my utter dislike and distaste for the muzzle I will take another 100 issues of the muzzle and the crowbar if I could wipe this monstrosity from ever having existed. This design and the storylines that accompanied it almost did irreversible damage to Jason Todd as a character. That's why UtRH is not seen as being as good as it actually is because all the ground work set was instantly trampled by other writers and Grant Morrison was one of the main perpetrators. I will spare showing you what he looks like under the helmet cause that might very well be worse than the helmet. Jason went from being a at most 20 year old to looking like he was older than Bruce at times. Other times he looked like knock off Roy Harper. As I say anyone who wants to argue with me that Jason's canonically a ginger always uses this as proof and no I'm sorry Grant Morrison was someone who didn't believe in retcons and that everything was always canon which I mean I'd love for him to explain to me how Jason can both be a circus kid and a street kid stealing tyres but whatever. Jason Todd is a brunette, he was found on the streets by Bruce with black hair and no way of getting consistent hair dye, his father had black hair, his mother had blonde hair. Jason Todd is a brunette and this design and all the stories attached to it need to be wiped from collective consciousness.

#dc comics blogging #batman comics blogging #jason red hood todd

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ghostampede · 1 year

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peak character design isn’t sleeveless turtlenecks, it’s actually giving your oc a silly item that covers part of their face. whether it’s a face mask or a masquerade mask or opaque-looking glasses or a really high scarf, it’s always peak

#inspired by #zacharie off #vash the stampede #(1998 at least)#gin akutagawa #gin akutagawa bsd #korekiyo shinguji #(his character is shit and the games are shit but he looks so cool sorry)#etc etc

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the-most-design-of-all-time · 1 month

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The Ultimate Character Design Tournament

Please remember to vote for characters solely based on design!

Mako Masks (Hong & Azul) | OC

i thought it would be fun to submit the oc of mine whose design i like the most (because most of my art is in the realm of character design) and it turns out the answer is two of them. they're splatoon fan characters, based on the various 'idol groups' of the series, but i mostly took inspiration from off the hook (in their original outfits) in terms of the balance between shared motifs and distinct features. most likely because they're some of my oldest ocs in terms of when i first made digital art of them, i've come up with a lot of fun details to work their motifs into, like how all of their facial features above their noses are shaped like the curve of the eye on their mask, and how basically all of their clothing has a 1-1 connection with the other person's clothing in that area. i also want to specifically point out their eyeliner because that was one of their most recent design additions and i feel like it adds SO MUCH. their previous iteration is barely any different (aside from being on the other side of a major leap in art quality) but without that one detail they look so much more bland.

Milky Way Cookie | Cookie Run: Kingdom

Every time I design an OC that is just a "silly little guy" they always end up looking like Milky Way Cookie in some way. I am DEAD serious about this btw it's like some weird form of crab-ification for me. This can only mean that she is peak character design there is no other explanation for this.

#ultimate character design tournament #poll bracket #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #bracket tournament #tumblr bracket #original character #milky way cookie #cookie run kingdom #character design

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papirouge · 11 months

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sorry for the Tekken sperging

if you want to have an idea of how much japanese game developer hate women, just look into Tekken tbh

there is no female character beyond 25 years old

since there's been a 15 years old gap between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3, and while ALL the male characters who were in Tekken were allowed to get old (Heihachi, Lei, the Laws (father & son), Kazuya, etc.) AND still got included in the next games, the female ones didn't 🙃

Michelle Chang? she got a replaced by her "daughter" Julia in Tekken 3. The William sisters got cryogenized for all this time so they biologically didn't age. And now they're basically doing the same for the next opus by bringing back Kunimitsu....through her lookalike daughter (same mask and all) ??? wtf is this?? that daughter doesn't even have the same swag as Kuni. That Kunimitsu #2 looks like a cute anime girl, when Kunimitsu was that mysterious morally ambiguous ninja thief, like- HELLO??

glo down of the millenium tbh. rEAL KUNI WHOULD NEVER SHOW HER FACE!!!! Tekken hasnt got a decent/original character since Tekken 6 anyway.

Oh and they killed Jun after Tekken 2 (that may or may not be back from the dead somehow, but ofc won't be old cause she DIED AT A YOUNG AGE WHEN JIN WAS STILL A CHILD !!!! so probably her reincarnation, ghost or some random nonsensical shit like that)

And let's not talk about Julia tragic makeover between Tekken 6 and 7 and became a whole different person : she went from a caring, environment defender Native American to....a hyperconnected bimbo'ish geek?? ...all of this was to cater to scrotes ofc bc OG Julia wasn't really sexy to begin with (kinda horse girl'ish - she was the -less sexy- equivalent of Hitomi in the DOA franchise imo). Her character was more serious and had so much substance than she does now...

I also HATE how there's a gag overkill in the serie (esp the Mishima e.g their endings in Tekken Tag 2 aaaaaand IDC if the TTT games are not canon, stop trying to make this dysfunctional family where everyone wants to kill each other look like a comedy skit EVERYTIME, it's getting old)

CANT WE HAVE SOME SERIOUS RELEVANT CHARACTERS WHO ACTUALLY MAKE THE PLOT MOVE FORWARD??

Tekken story plot went down the toilet after Tekken 5 anyway, and the overall chara design tanked big time after Tekken 4 (exception for Dragunov who was truly a novelty I'm always a sucker for mute characters and Lars who's my haafu husbando). My biggest Tekken crush has always been Hwoarang and they made him unrecognizable lately (he was perfect in Tekken 5)

But yeah, Tekken hates women, has become shit, and it bums me out so bad bc that's basically my first video game, and the storyline/lore used to be so good (Tekken 3 had the best plot!!! Heihachi shooting Jin -his own grandson- with a bullet in the head in his ending got 9 years old me SHOOK. Ogre was sooo creepy, his Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ending is legit nightmare fuel)

I mean, even Dead or Alive that is infamous for catering to scrotes has a more attractive male roaster at this point (Hayate <3). They also did a brilliant chara design overhaul for DOA6 that made the characters so much prettier and is actually consistent and done tastefully.

Because yeah, what shocks me the most is how SHITTY Tekken chara design has become. It peaked with Tekken 4 (Jin Kazama tracksuit will forever be iconic dont @ me) but it's now such a convoluted tacky mess. Characters don't even have their own style anymore. Lars has the same tacky outfits as King (who's a luchador!!!). Also : WHY HAS HE BECOME SO BUFF??? Did he take the same steroids as Chris Redfield?? He was so hot in Tekken 6... WASTE!

They should take a few pages from Team Ninja who knows how to make shit done when it comes to rework characters aesthetic. Look at this work of art

#that tiktok vid triggered me so bad i had to unleash my frustration lmao #JUSTICE FOR KUNIMITSU #gaming #papi watch #Tekken #tekken 4 #tekken 3 #tekken tag tournament

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ggoatz · 5 months

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Special Operations Original Art Concepts & Thumbnails!

Since it's been over a year since Special Operations was first ever uploaded, I thought I should celebrate and make a proper masterlist of everything I've compiled throughout the year. I will also go ahead and link the official designs down below!

Quick disclaimer: Special Operations is MY fanfic, but I obviously don't own the characters! As always, thank you to Spoon & double-thank you to the fanartists and for 1,000 hits on the fanfic!!! Thank you thank you!

This post will get pretty long, so I'm gonna go ahead and make a cut below if you're interested in seeing more/reading my rambles!

Here are the very first ever art I did about a year and a half ago, before I even started writing the fic:

God damn, has my art come far. I don't want to get too sentimental, so let's move on the redesigns of these designs & my thoughts on these:

This was Donnie's first ever concept design (after the original designs) - I always knew I wanted to have him have a gas mask or mask of some kind - his ultimate design really changed there at the end! It's really cool to see how far my art has come since this last year LOL.

This was Mikey's original design concept for this au, once I reworked the original one above. I wasn't really happy with it, or any of the designs, for that fact... I didn't really have anything directly in mind over than the fact that knowing his brothers were mad overprotective of him would mean he's covered in clothes. I wanted a mask for him as well and really took inspiration from his design from the show, and tried to include the aspects from that. below here is a few mask concepts I tried out, and a sneak peak of Raph's design/doodle I did.

Even though these other mask concepts were cute, I just couldn't resist going with the first and original design I had. I took the inspiration off of that for the stickers/paints on his shell from the show. Below is an additional drawing of Mikey! Not much changed in his final design other than the fact that he has no shoes, really.

Here's Leo's first ever intial design. I am glad Spoon convinced me to change it, because while it's cool, I don't think it really fits Leo's flashy and show style. He is a fighter who works beautifully with his skills, so while stealth was obviously the #1 thing to be considered on the list, I ultimately just kind of handed his design to Spoon to decide how he should look LOL. This was such a starch contrast to the first drafts...

I've always struggled at drawing Raph, so I don't really have any photos of him saved ): / to show off. Sorry Raph lovers, but Spoon did him JUSTICE and I will forever be grateful for them for that <3<3

Below are the final designs, done by Spoon through nearly a year of us talking about the designs!

Spoon does not have a Tumblr, but they do have a Twitter, which you can find here: @Hydratedturtle! Without them, these designs would have never been finished/completed. It was so beyond crazy to see the very first drafts by me and the finished concepts executed beautifully by Spoon and making my ideas coming to life.

Below are all of the thumbnails of Special Operations that I've done, and the improvement is obvious! These are done through the year of 2023!

Annnd, finally, here's a sketch I did of Donnie back in November/December with his more updated design!

And that's all for now!!! <3

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the-black-bulls · 1 year

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How about Gauche, Nacht, Zora for the last ask game?

Give me 2 or 3 characters and I'll compare their:

the black bulls local assholes? sure!

. Introduction - between gauche asking thugs he beat to worship marie then die, zora walking into an event uninvited just to insult everyone and their dead mothers, nacht roasting people left and right while hard-projecting onto them, it's hard to determine which one I like the most... but Nacht's intro came in a critical timing in the story so I'd go with him here!

. Characterization - the anime didn't do him justice but I've always liked Gauche's character traits

. Backstory - not necessarily the best but I think it's pretty cool that Gauche had a history with grey which made him her yami in a way and highlighted the positive side of his character

. Design - Nacht, even without his forms his basic look is really up there as one of the best yes including the absurd belts

. Power - Zora because ash in and of itself is an interesting magic attribute and he uses it creatively!

. Development - it's slow and subtle but I like Gauche's

. Symbolism - Zora, and I hope he'll take off his mask one day as a represenation of him stepping out of his father's shadows

. Dynamics - Zora doesn't have a whole lot of them, but I like that he doesn't stick to 1-2 dynamics like most of the bulls, hope to see him form a friendship with charmy or gauche next!

. Dialogues - Tie, honestly they all got cool lines and a unique way to deliver them or more like shove them into others

. Peaks - Zora, man's blown my mind in the spade raid

. Journey - gotta give it to Gauche for now, he's underrated

. Conclusion - Nacht had a good moment at the end of his arc

. Personal Impact - I've been a fan of Gauche the longest...

. Overall - probably Gauche but Zora is one of the two bulls who have grown on me a lot, so he's very close! #fuckyounacht/s

I had my fun wit this ask, thank you and sorry for the late response!

#I want this trio to be a thing #or at least just zora & gauche #black clover #gauche adlai #zora ideale #nacht faust #ask game #not a quote

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max1u3 · 8 months

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Re-Watching Origin Stories

I was re-watching Origin stories and was only a few in when I came to Kiriko's.

Everything is you know, not making sense because of the age differences between her and the Shimada brothers, and then, it starts to just make even less sense.

She basically says in her story that she didn't pick either her mothers way of protecting people, or her Grandmothers, instead she combined the both into a more renegade style.

Cool, chill, whatever.

Then it shows this at the very end:

Like who are these people??

They all look pretty young, and by the looks it it they're all dressing up as Japanese spirits or Yokai.

Those are five sick character designs and all we've heard about them is this single screen grab and some possible references in the Yokai short story?

In the Yokai short story, three characters are mentioned, Ryōta, Nobuto and Sakura. We're introduced to them as Kiriko is meeting them for a festival.

We also learn that Ryōta and his friends do illegal jobs on the side to slight the Hashimoto gang - which are the group of thugs that run the area, Kanezaka, where Kiriko lives.

Here are the bozos in Kiriko's short:

This fight always gives me chills ngl, it's so well animated and staged, it's a wonder to watch.

Also, just have to point out a little line of consistency (that could also be considered laziness considering you've view on it).

But, this Bozo: (from Kiriko's short)

First appeared in Hanzo and Genji's short:

Which came out seven years ago now.

I guess it depends on your point of view. Would it be considered lazy because they couldn't be bothered to make another lackey. Or, is it consistent to use a character they'd already assigned to the Hashimoto group seven years ago.

Guess it can be a little bit of both.

Anyway, getting a bit off topic.

The Yokai short story basically depicts Kiriko stopping her friends from blowing up a warehouse in-case it caused collateral damage, and instead they just sabotaged the weaponry inside the warehouse.

She brings them around from the destruction by telling them a story she heard the Shimada brother's father tell them when they were younger.

At the end of the story they talk about forming a group of that strikes from the shadows at the Hashimoto, and the word Yokai was specifically mentioned.

Which is what these look like:

I'm not sure about the two women, but I'm fairly sure the green one on the right is supposed to represent a Kappa and the brown animal mask on the left is a Tanuki. I'm assuming the one in the back is supposed to be an Oni, sort of like Genji's skin.

So, could this group contain some of the members mentioned in the short story? Are some of them Ryōta, Nobuto and Sakura?

Just from names alone, I would assign the Oni in the back as Ryōta, the Tanuki as Nobuto and the girl holding the umbrella as Sakura.

It would make sense for them to be there if they were mentioned in the short story, which honestly, I feel like should have taken place during their little groups peak.

And included descriptions.

The writing of the short story was kind of weak as well and I just skimmed over most of it quickly. There were a lot of flowery descriptions and analogies, but other times things were too blunt and straightforward. It wasn't a thrilling read to say the least.

Although, it's difficult to make 6 pages good or thrilling, so I suppose they worked with what they had.

If the short story had taken place when the gang had all come together, and it detailed a more complicated heist against the Hashimoto it would have been a much more interesting read.

Plus Blizzard would have had the opportunity to develop more lore, instead of putting loosely put together ideas out there for the sake of time.

Trust me, I know what people will be willing to cut out and half ass all for the sake of meeting deadlines. I'm an art student.

So, I feel the writers are less to blame here and the Blizzard managements are more in the blame.

They keep mass producing these heroes with the bare bones of lore, and then chuck them into the game. It makes more sense for the newer heroes to have less lore, but some of the older heroes have just as much lore as the newer ones; less in some cases.

Surely the writing team hasn't been too pre-occupied with OW2, since well, there was a shortage of new heroes for years and the missions turned out to be... not what we thought.

I just don't understand how Blizzard can keep putting out these strands of lore and then not follow them up.

It drives me up the wall.

If Blizzard was a blanket they would have too many lose threads to count when it came to Overwatch Lore.

Just! Please give us something more concrete Blizzard!

Write more books, draw more comics, release more lore, release more lore centred events!

The Overwatch universe is a plethora of amazing stories to be told and Blizzard is missing on almost everything!

#overwatch #ow2 #overwatch 2 #ow #kiriko

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starkettes · 1 year

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you have inspired me . and i am indeed a child with figurines that i will absolutely show off to you even if you just nod and give a thumbs up at the end <33 my love language is pulling up a blackboard and sitting whoever im talking to down for The Talk and this will happen. you cannot refuse it <33333

(for real tho it took me months to also learn how to discern the links from each other AJSJSJAJ so yes to make it as simple as i can i will only deal with the canon 3D games . im listing them by order of their game release, but definitely not in the correct order of their place in the timeline(s). ily so so so much and im sorry in advance for the long infodump of an ask)

Ocarina of Time + Majora's Mask

the original 3d little man <33 hes like . the only 3d (adult) without chainmail bc he lived in a forest full of immortal children for his entire childhood (we dont talk about his age in majoras mask bc its complicated but just trust me hes a literal manchild) so AJSJAJAJ i differentiate him by that and his pants being distinctly white. the entire franchise and lore did him SO dirty but thats not the point of this (frothing at the mouth to rant about it but at another time)

Wind Waker

littlest of little men <33 hes the easiest link to distinguish from the others mainly bc of the art style, to the point that the fandom also calls him toon link. you can also tell ww link by the little swirly belt buckle thingy he has. also ALSO his tunic having a combo of dark + light green. literally forced the gods to choose him as his era's hero (he never held the hero's spirit in the first place) all bc his sister got kidnapped. absolute force to be reckoned with but still has voice cracks and Will Not Swear in front of his grandma in my hcs. all links are gremlins but this one literally sails with pirates so he has the background AHSHSHAHH

Twilight Princess

I WANNA BE A COWBOY BABY

fr tho hes so <333 AUGH. can literally turn into the goodest of good boys (wolf link). hes the disney princess of links bc animals Cannot And Will Not Hate Him. differentiated by the chainmail and his pinchable cheeks in game <333333 (also one of the only links imo that is absolutely not compatible with their zelda bc midna is rIGHT THERE. once again not the ask for this but i have. thoughts and things about tp zelink and tp link in general)

Skyward Sword

HES SO SOFT AUGH IM CRYING I WANT A PLUSHIE FRFR AJSJSJAJA but fr . absolute himbo and dumbass but vv much in love with his zelda <33 he has such a similar design with tp and its hard to be sure its him bc both tp and sksw link wear chainmail, but the art style of the game makes it so that the one who has the brighter and more pastel green is sksw link. his hair is also kinda diff and more soft looking, and hes also right handed <33

Breath of the Wild

do i need to explain. im so sos sos ssoss s9 r9rbf mentally ill over this reincarnation specifically <33 i really hope that i ruined this character for you now with my ability to not shut up about him for more than one (1) week. distinguished by blue and gender and hair and literally just everything bc im crying nintendo really hit peak character design with him and if somebody were to ask me to give a ted talk on him i wouldnt even know where to start bc hes just so PERFECT and augh look ok his character is so complicated starting wi-

okay it’s currently 3:30 am i will read this when i wake up

okay good morning im putting on my glasses cracking my knuckles and reading this like a grandma reading the news

the first two and twilight princess is crazy who the hell needs a hat that long i wouldnt be able to resist i would yank that thing off his head and run away jack sparrow style

wind waker link is so damn small he using a needle or something for a sword like he's desperaux 😭 😭 also didnt know he had a sister always assumed he was only child bc..well idk he just seemed like it to me

i was aware of wolf link (bc of how much u like him :3) but i didnt actually know anything so again i went to the fandom wiki and read it he's so cute (and midna rides on his back they look so cute 😭 <33) i am putting him in a puppy carrier and taking him with me

yeah breath of the wild is the main link i know of like that is the representative of the links to me thats the guy i know ALSO HE'S 4'11 I AM JUST BARELY TALLER THAN THIS GUY well a win is a win when ur short

this was great to learn actually and just know that if i ever get around to writing my head (1968) essay i’m gonna do this to you too <3

#thx u for this rei <33 #u are always more than welcome to dump about the blorbos around here #loz #soul-of-rei #mailbox

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