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ghoulfriendfangs · 1 year

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KINKTOBER ‘22 - No Shirt

Day 30: Photography with Beelzebub

{WC: ~500} {reader x Beel, photography, more romantic than horny, but horny is still there, fluff}

“Could you help me with something?” Beel asked, nervously. He was dressed in his new uniform, which was a bit small on him. He had placed an order for a larger size, it must not have come in yet.

“I need headshots for the school newspaper… for the new fangol uniforms? They need to look professional, so… can you take a photo of me?”

You hopped to your feet, “sure thing, Beel!” You took out your DDD, aiming it carefully. Beel smiled, but it was nervous, he looked too shy.

“Thank you, I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

“Beel, you look too nervous… imagine those warm, fluffy bao we ate for dinner last night! We still have some in the fridge, we can share them afterwards!”

Beel smiled, his shoulders back, looking relaxed. You snapped a few pictures.

Bored, he began to stretch, his muscles flexing against the taut fabric. You snapped a few more photos, as he stretched his arms back, flexing his trapezius- his shirt suddenly ripped, a tear going right down his chest. Beel looked at it in shock, mouth agape.

“…I… ripped it?”

You nodded solemnly. “With your tits.”

He lifted the fabric, a quizzical look on his face. “So… I’m probably not getting a refund for this…”

“Probably not… but I’ll help you pay for it.”

“Ah? In that case… get ready.”

“For what?”

Beel suddenly ripped the fabric of the shirt further, a loud tear ripping through the air as he exposed himself. You clicked the photo button as fast as you could, creating a slideshow as he tore that shirt to scraps.

He smiled, “your face is red.”

“…is it?”

He laughed. “I know you were looking at my muscles a lot, so I figured… that’s how I would thank you.”

“It was… effective,” you admitted. “Let’s snack on those baos.”

“You know,” Beel said, between bites of bbq chicken, “I like… that you like my muscles.”

You swallowed a bite, “oh…?”

“I’ve… always liked being strong, but never for my looks… I really didn’t care how others saw me.” He shrugged. “I like being strong because then I can protect the people I love. Like when we went to that haunted hayride, and Mammon and Levi were hiding behind me? I liked that. Because they felt safer because of me.”

“You’re really kind, Beel,” you said, your heart melting at the sappy brotherly love.

“…I never cared about how people saw my strength, but… when I see you looking at me like that, and knowing you think it’s hot… I really like that.” He smiled brightly, flexing his arm, “I like showing off, but only if it’s for you. Does that make sense?”

“It does, and hey, I’m not complaining if you want to save showing off for just me,” you grinned, “that’s kind of… romantic.”

Beel blushed, he thought he wasn’t very good at romance. “Is it?”

“Actually now that I think about it… it’s very romantic.”

“Then… maybe we could take more photos after we finish lunch?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

…

Leviathan pointed at you two accusatory.

“Who broke Beel’s shirt!?!”

#kinktober 2022 #kinktober #obey me #obey me beelzebub #beelzebub #beelzebub x reader #beel x mc #photography #fluff #spicy #obey me fluff #Levi has a cameo #Did you know that the film Osmosis Jones created the annual chicken wing festival in Buffalo

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shawtuzi · 1 year

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“i told you, you better stay prayed up. you never thought the universe would be looking for…revenge”

alexis | twenty | black | nov scorpio | eren and abby’s pretty gf

before clicking any further my blog is 18+ and all my writing is nsfw!!! any minors or blank blogs that interact will be blocked with quickness <33 now that that’s out of the way pls enjoy my writing!!! also this is not a democracy any comment i don’t like will simply be deleted as well any hate in my inbox xoxo

attack on titan ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧

eren yeager

peaches and coconut + peaches and coconut pt 2 ft jean kirstein

peaches and coconut drabble #1 (eren teaches reader how to masturbate)

peaches and coconut drabble #2 (eren and reader have sex in the bathroom during a church service)

peaches and coconut drabble #3 (eren and reader have high sex in his car)

basketball player!eren x chubby!reader fic

basketball player!eren x chubby!reader pt 2

plug eren hc’s #1, #2

plug!eren drabble #1 (eren fucks readers mouth w his glock)

plug!eren drabble #2 (eren pulls his glock out on someone while he’s w reader)

plug!eren drabble #3 (reader sucks eren off while his glock is pointed at her head + reiner cameo)

plug!eren #4 (eren and reader discuss his hair length before having nasty sex)

plug!eren drabble #5 (reader is craving skin to skin contact and eren helps)

aftercare w plug!eren

nerd!reader x eren drabble #1

nerd!reader x eren drabble #2

jailbird!eren drabble

toxic baby daddy eren fic

mma fighter!eren drabble

childhood best friend eren fic

aot boys squirting hc’s

rough sex w eren drabble

ceo!eren fic

nerd!eren x nerd!reader fic

eren eating pussy w grills in

sex w toxic bf!eren

nerd!eren drabble #1 (eren has a big dick)

nerd!eren drabble #2 (eren’s first bj)

nerd!eren drabble #3 (eren cums a lot and loves to be overstimulated)

nerd!eren hc’s

oral fixation drabble

incubus!eren drabble

actor!eren x playmate!reader

jean kirstein

raw

aot boys squirting hc’s

oral fixation drabble

armin arlert

pervert!armin hc’s

pervert!armin fic

aot boys squirting hc’s

connie springer

plug!connie drabble (lil intro to plug!connie)

plug!connie hc’s

levi ackerman

plug!levi hc’s

semi sub!levi drabble

aot boys squirting hc’s

reiner braun

aot boys squirting hc’s

oral fixation drabble

househusband!reiner hc’s

mikasa ackerman

sub!mikasa drabble

jujutsu kaisen ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧

toji fushiguro

the girl next door

gojo satoru

hide n’ seek

tokyo revengers ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧

draken

big dick kenny drabble

ran haitani

drabble about getting slutted out by ran and rindou

rindou haitani

drabble about getting slutted out by ran and rindou

kazutora hanemiya

drabble about kazutora being a bitch boy for you

demon slayer ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧

tengen uzui

lights, camera, action!

our favorite girl ft makio, hinatsuru, n suma

#everything i’ve ever written is in here so pls enjoy!!!#can u tell that i’m biased by the amount of eren fics

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welcometomyoasis · 4 months

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Petrichor [Preview] | Joshua Hong

Synopsis: Joshua Hong has felt inexplicably drawn to you since the first time he saw you. Alas, he was betrothed to another. Against his better judgment, Joshua still allows himself to get close to you. When you start to fall for him too, what happens then?

Pairing: naiad! joshua x human g/n! reader (ft. spirit of opportunity! platonic minghao x reader, cameo by cupid! jeonghan) Genre: greek mythology au, ancient athens au, forbidden love, fluff, angst Word count (for preview): 729 words Word count (for full fic): 26.6k words Warnings (for preview): none Warnings (for full fic): loss of vision, discrimination, greek deities, insecurities, blood (reader gets a small cut), slight profanity, toxic relationship (Joshua’s betrothed is a b*tch), violence, others tbd. Est. release date: 17th February Notes: this fic is inspired by 4 things. (1) the story of Daphnis and Nomia. (2) the lyrics of akuma no ko by higuchi ai. (3) levi ackerman fics written by ReiaBritannia on wattpad. (4) this amazing fic by @\fairyhaos.

A/n: I’m also thinking of creating a taglist specially for this fic. If you’re not on my perm taglist but want to be tagged for this fic, send me an ask or comment below! Thanks :)

The situation that Joshua Hong found himself in was one he never expected. The whole thing was ironic really. As a naiad, a water nymph, he knew that mortals, humans specifically, would be inexplicably drawn towards him should they ever lay eyes on him. In fact, much to Joshua’s annoyance, there were several occasions where he had to avoid some rather unsavoury characters.

Yet this time, the tables were turned. Here Joshua was, crouched behind some foliage near the creek he presided over just so he could observe this one human from afar. There was something about this human that inexplicably drew Joshua towards them. He was completely enamoured and fascinated by everything about them.

They became a regular sight at the creek over the past few months. Joshua remembered the first time he laid eyes on them. It was a balmy morning in spring. He had just finished his duty of directing some fresh water to a nearby town. When he returned to the creek, the human was there, sitting on a sky blue picnic mat crafting an intricate looking object. He remembered being struck by the sheer brightness in the human’s eyes. Literally and figuratively. Their eyes glistened under the sunlight, reflecting the sparkles from the water’s surface. At the same time, their eyes were full of life. They told Joshua everything about the human’s appreciation for their surroundings, their life, and most of all their determination to live life to the fullest. Joshua was in awe. That was the first time he ever saw such striking eyes.

Since then, Joshua felt as if there was a magnet pulling him closer to the human. Overtime, Joshua began noticing other details about the human. They would always visit the creek on the weekends, often staying for hours at a time. They would simply sit on the picnic mat reading or making those intricate looking crafts. There were even instances when they would pluck the tiny flowers around the creek to make flower crowns. He even noticed some of the human’s quirks. Like how their eyes would crinkle slightly, or how there would be a ghost of a smile on their face when they read something funny or accomplished something. They would also crinkle their nose and furrow their brows when they were concentrating. One thing Joshua definitely picked up on, was that the human was always alone. This puzzled him immensely. Weren’t humans supposed to be social creatures?

Eventually, the amount of time Joshua was spending observing the human began to drive him crazy. Sure, he could partially blame the fact that naiads were naturally curious creatures. But he knew that the attraction he felt went beyond the confines of rational curiosity. This was infatuation, obsession even. In Joshua’s attempt to figure out what this attraction was, he approached his acquaintance, a relative of Cupid, Yoon Jeonghan, to ask if he was hit by yet another one of Jeonghan’s infamous stray arrows. To his disappointment, Joshua was not. (Jeonghan adamantly insisted that “using arrows is soooo 2 centuries ago” although he cheekily admitted that he did randomly shoot love arrows into the air “just for the fun of it”.)

Still, Jeonghan did give him a somewhat useful piece of advice. Infatuation. Love. Jeonghan explained that these feelings were complicated. There was usually much more nuance that needed to be teased out when attraction was involved. Especially in this case where the attraction was one-sided (for now anyway). Simply put, Joshua had either really fallen for this human, or there was something about this human that he longed for. Something that sparked an intense sense of desire and curiosity within him, like a personality trait or the human’s way of life. Perhaps it was a bit of both possibilities?

Whatever it was, Joshua would need to figure that out for himself. Outwardly, Joshua cursed Jeonghan’s advice, thinking that it was just like a relative of Cupid to tell people to keep spying on humans like a creep from the sidelines. However, deep down, he knew Jeonghan was right. His desire, his need to decipher this complex feelings of attraction for the human was overwhelming. That human lit a fire within him, and he needed to quell those flames before it completely consumed his life.

So, Joshua (rather reluctantly) continued his routine. He hid behind the foliage, and he watched.

perm taglist: @weird-bookworm @wonijinjin @babyleostuff @wishing-fieshes @kwanienies @mayashu @megseungmin @porridgesblog @haecien @mirxzii @scoupsofcherries @eightlightstar

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seeingivy · 10 months

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the ensemble cast

actor!eren x f!reader

**part of my method acting fic, masterlist here

content: eren being possessive for no reason, cherry + coke slushies, reader gets criticized online, good old teasing, reader mentions feeling anxious/having anxiety

an: lalalalalallalala lights camera action babes pls enjoy :D

previous part linked here

The set that Attack on Titan is filming on was originally from a previously scrapped project. Three weeks ago, when you and Eren first moved in, the two of you had pilfered from the leftover set dressings and props to see what you could find.

That’s where you find the tandem bike. The breaks don’t work that well, and the seat in the back is really uncomfortable, but it works well for you and Eren’s purposes, which is running away from set on lunch breaks to get slushies at the convenience store two blocks down.

As Hange said, you and Eren wouldn’t really have to do any method acting to become best friends. He’s literally the only other person on set besides Levi and Hange, who are usually too busy workshopping the set and the scripts to talk to you.

You guys eat breakfast together, go to class, and spend hours talking at night when you’re both too bored to do anything else.

You’re both leaning against the bike, two straws poked into the extra large slushie that you and Eren got. The cashier, Michael, gives you guys the slushie for free, but only one since he’s “not made of money.”

Hence, sharing. You guys always split the slushie in half - the right side is Coke for you, and the left is Cherry for Eren. It always swirls together halfway through when it starts melting, which is when you and Eren start playing with the straws - smacking yours into Eren’s and vice versa.

“Do you think it’ll be weird when everyone comes tomorrow, Eren?”

“Maybe a little bit. There’s a lot of them coming. And we’re used to having the place to ourselves.”

Tomorrow is the first official day of filming.

You and Eren have been filming scenes for the past three weeks. But tomorrow, the rest of the ensemble cast arrives, and you start really filming. And you can’t even lie - some part of the entire ordeal fills you up with anxiety.

Because the rest of the cast knows know each other already. Because they’re better actors than you. Because you’re kind of a fraud.

Eren mentioned that most of the people on the ensemble cast were great people because they were part of his class when he went to the SHWA. Meaning he already knew them. Meaning they all knew each other - that they had spent two years going to boarding school together and socializing within the same cohort.

Eren has already co-starred with Mikasa, and he and Jean used to do cameos on a different show together. He used to room with Reiner when he lived at the SHWA, and they’re all still really close.

Eren said it was kind of like a cult at times, how the industry seemed to function in that way. You just think he’s trying to make you feel better for being the sore thumb of the group.

But even beyond just meeting the cast, this entire week is a big deal. The ensemble cast is supposed to attend a panel that WIT hosts every year to answer questions and play the teaser trailer. Hange and Levi are panicking because first impressions can mean everything to a start-up show like this.

Eren tells you that there’s really big advertising company called the Elms that posts reviews of shows before they come out. They have no connections in the fields since they’re advertisers, but their opinions and reviews are basically written law once posted.

They’re the industry equivalent of a Michelin Star.

That’s why the pressure is on for this week - for the cast to get along, for us to finish filming and taking pictures for the promo, and to do great at the panel at the end of the week.

There’s so much to mess up you can’t even fixate on what to worry abo-

“Y/N. Stop it.”

You look over to find Eren glaring at you, shuffling his straw through the bottom of the ice at the cup. His lips and tongue are tinted pink from the drink, his expression annoyed.

“Stop what?”

“Thinking so hard. They’ll all like you, even if you didn’t go to SHWA.”

“I don’t know. I feel like you’ll all have inside jokes without me or something and leave me out. I don’t want to feel like a loser.”

He takes the cup from your hand, now empty, and swishes it into the trash can a few feet away from you. And then his ice-cold hand is in yours, squeezing.

You learn quickly that Eren isn’t the best with his words, but he’s always touching you in some way when a situation like this arises. He squeezed your shoulder when you forgot to bring your harness to set, delaying the entire crew for twenty minutes. And when you didn’t do so well on the French test you had last week, he put his hand in your hair but didn’t really say anything.

If it were anyone else, it wouldn’t work. But it’s Eren, and for some reason, it just does. It’s almost comforting now that you can rely on his hands to be on yours whenever you feel awkward.

“You’re not a loser, Y/N. And if someone thinks you’re a loser, I’ll just tell them they’re wrong about you.”

“Okay.”

“Plus. When they see us act, they’ll change their minds. You’re electric on the screen.”

Eren yanks the tandem bike off of the stand and pulls you up by the hand, the two of you lazily biking back to set. You try to ignore Eren’s comment and how it makes your entire body buzz.

You and Eren make ramen every morning. Because Levi said that the first time he did, it was a one-time occurrence, and he can’t feed you guys daily. He leaves out all the stuff for you, even going as far as cutting up all the vegetables that you like to put in your bowl.

“Eren.”

“Hm.”

“Try to catch the extra carrots in your mouth.”

You’re both playing the game a little bit too competitively as you start racing around the kitchen, trying to throw them so far that you both have to chase after them. And when Eren throws it all the way into the foyer, you go running.

That’s when you bump into him.

There’s a guy in the walkway who you accidentally knock into the ground from running so fast. He has short brown hair, the strands closer to his hair darker. And now that you’ve fallen on top of him, his hands are secured around your waist, both of your cheeks burning red.

You quickly scramble off, awkwardly running your hands through your hair.

“S-sorry. Me and Eren were playing a game.”

“No problem. I’m Jean.”

“Y/N.”

He smiles, his eyes glinting at you.

“Jean.”

“You said that already,” Eren grumbles from the kitchen.

You can see Jean’s cheeks burning red as the rest of them pile into the room, the quiet house suddenly bustling loud. You can’t help but get overstimulated by everyone you’re meeting, trying your best to remember names - Armin, Sasha, Bertholdt, Annie, Connie, Reiner - as they all start milling around the kitchen, sitting at the table.

“So, when are we eating?”

“Sasha shut the fuck up. All you’re worried about is eating.” Connie responds, smacking her across the forehead.

You walk over to the side of the table, tapping Sasha on the shoulder.

“They’re catering since you all flew in. They should be here in twenty minutes.”

She gives you a gleaming smile, returning to arguing with Connie. You can feel a hand tugging on your wrist, the guy from earlier yanking on your arm.

“So if they’re catering, why are you making ramen?” he asks, his cheeks pressed in his palms.

“Ah. Eren and I are kind of in the habit of making it. We kind of forgot they were supposed to cater today.”

“Well, it smells really good.”

“Did you want it, Jean? I don’t mind because Eren and I kind of ate before.”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t-”

You march over to the kitchen, where your steaming bowl of food is, much to Eren’s dismay, and return to place it in front of Jean. And when you return to the kitchen, you watch chaos ensue.

Connie and Sasha claim that Jean should share because they’re best friends. Jean says that Sasha’s asking for too much. Then Ymir says that Jean’s face is asking for too much, and now everyone’s arguing with each other.

You lean over, whispering in Eren’s ear as you talk.

“Are they always like this, Eren?”

“Unfortunately.”

He pushes his own bowl of ramen to your side, placing the chopsticks in your hand.

“Oh. It’s okay. I was the one who willingly gave my breakfast away and started World War Three, so.”

“Don’t be stupid, Y/N. Let’s just share.”

You and Eren shuffle the chopsticks in between your hands, taking turns eating from the bowl. And you’re so distracted because Eren’s asking you about Falco and Colt that you don’t realize it when it happens.

Connie taking a picture of you two.

And suddenly, they all stopped arguing with each other and started teasing Eren.

“So this is why you didn’t tell us anything about her? Trying to keep her all for yourself, huh?” Connie says first, smirking at Eren.

You can see the tips of Eren’s ears turn red as he denies it vehemently, only goading the rest of them on more.

“Eren. Do you think Y/N is pretty? Do you love her?” Ymir asks, swinging her arm around your shoulder.

“Where do you get off, you little bitch? Why would you even ask me that? Do you think Historia is pretty?”

“Yes. I do think Historia is pretty.”

You crane your neck over to Historia, whose sitting at the table, her cheeks glowing pink in her hands. Mikasa and Armin are sitting right next to her, focused on typing away on their phones, but you can see the smile pressed on both of their faces.

“You didn’t answer, Eren. Do you think Y/N is pretty? Do you guys kiss each other goodnight? ” asks Reiner, this time leaning even more forward. They’ve backed you and Eren into a corner, the six of them smiling bloody murder at Eren.

Eren hates being put into a corner like this. But he hates it even more when you’re looking over at him, your eyes boring into his, expectantly waiting for an answer.

“Yes. I think Y/N is pretty. No, we don’t kiss each other goodnight.” he murmurs, his cheeks burning red.

You can feel your own cheeks heating up as Levi comes by, dragging the rest of the new people to set with the promise of food. Sasha’s the first one to leave.

Leaving you and Eren alone in the kitchen again, the half-finished bowl of ramen between you.

“Eren.”

“They’re always like that. It’s so embarrassing. Now I’m never going to hear the end of it. Especially from Connie and Reiner, they’re so fucking annoying sometimes it’s-”

You place your hand on Eren’s shoulder, stopping his rant in his tracks.

“I think you’re cute.”

“Huh? What?”

“You told me that you think I’m pretty. Just thought you should know I think you’re cute,” you say, shrugging your hand off and grabbing your harness from the ground as you walk off to the set.

Eren joins twenty minutes later.

He needed the extra time to get his heart to stop violently thumping in his chest.

Armin is the only one brave enough to ask. He leans over, straight into Levi’s headspace, and asks.

“Levi. What are they doing?”

The eleven of them have been watching you and Eren do this for the past few minutes. You’re both…standing there, staring at each other. You’re not exactly talking, though you do whisper something to each other a few times. You’re just kind of…standing there together.

“They do this before they shoot scenes. Y/N said it’s not really a thing for her, but Eren says he needs to feel some… tingle before he can shoot.” Levi responds, yanking his headphones partially off.

“Tingle?” Armin repeats.

“Tingle.”

“That’s not a tingle. He’s just excited to see Y/N.” Reiner responds, the rest of them chuckling.

You’ve asked Eren to explain it to you maybe a hundred times. And he always says the same thing. That he needs a second before he can shoot to stop being him, Eren, and being the character, Eren. And he knows he’s thought about it hard enough when he can feel this… writhing in his chest.

Most of the time, it’s not bad. He usually just stands there for a few seconds, looking at the ground or the set, and he’s ready. But today, the entire thing is making your cheeks burn. Because not only are the rest of them watching you, but he’s staring at you - green eyes, all soft and warm. He never really looks at you like that, straight on.

“Are you nervous, Y/N?”

“A little bit. They’re all watching, and it’s kind of a hard scene.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“Why are you taking so long today? You’re literally just supposed to look all passed out in my arms.”

“For you. You’re like nervously twitching and have to stop before we can start.”

The scene isn’t too bad. You’re just supposed to get suspended in the air and then grab Eren when he comes out of his titan. Levi and Hange said it was preferable if you could try to cry, which Eren has been trying to coach you on for the past few days.

It’s supposed to be an emotional scene. You’re supposed to think Eren’s dead and that he’s returned to life. That your best friend, the only person whose been with you since you were little, will still get to be by your side.

(Hange’s really dramatic when they explain scenes).

And when you do it, you can feel your hands shaking. They’re blowing a lot of steam onto the set as you and Eren stick out of the prop titan, making your hair stick to your forehead and your skin sizzle under the lights.

You’re sure Eren feels the same way. You place your hands around Eren’s face as he starts wobbling in the air in your hold.

You’re not supposed to say anything. You’re just supposed to feel it.

That’s what Hange wrote on your script, next to the blocking for this scene. You place your hands around Eren’s face and take the sight in. The red marks streaking down the side of his face, the way his eyes are closed, and you’re not sure what makes it happen, but you really want to hug him.

Because if this were really true, if you really did think Eren was gone, you would want to hug him. You would want to hold him in your arms, press yourself into his skin to make sure that you can feel him, so that you knew he was really there.

So you do. It wasn’t in the script or what Hange and Levi wanted you to do, but it just felt right. To hold him like this. Some part of your stomach is burning because Eren isn’t really wearing a shirt and even Eren awkwardly shuffles when you do it. You whisper down into his ear.

“Sorry. Felt right.”

And when Levi yells cut and they pull you and Eren down, Annie is the first one to say something.

“I get it now.”

“Get what, Annie?” Eren asks, yanking his own harnesses off.

“You’re not a good actor, Eren. I was really confused when they picked you as the lead. But I get it now. You guys have really good chemistry.” she replies, milling off.

You apologize to Levi for not following the script. He, in turn, tells you to do it more often.

After four days of filming, Eren’s more pissed than ever. Because he figured that his jealousy or possessiveness would wear off by now, that it was just because he was used to it being just him and you for the past three weeks.

And he gets why everyone wants to talk to you because they’ve all known each other for years, and you’re the shiny new toy, but do they really have to talk to you all the time?

He can’t eat ramen with you in the mornings because Sasha always begs you to make her some too. Then she’s milling around in the kitchen, asking you mindless questions while you make some for her.

He can’t do homework with you in your room because Reiner always joins - and he gets that Reiner is really bad at French, but does he always have to ask for your help with the assignments?

And he can’t even talk to you at night when he’s bored anymore. Because Mikasa’s always there too - teaching you how to braid your hair, the two of you giggle about things he doesn’t understand.

He loathes it, which is why he has the outburst that he does.

He invited you to go for slushies with him on Friday before you fly out to Cannes for the panel. But when he yanks out the tandem bike and Jean asks to go along, he can’t help but get irritated at him. So he yells at him . Like bloody murder yells at him. Which is why you and Eren quietly bike, awkwardly sharing the slushie on the bench.

“So.”

“I wasn’t going to let him come, you know? Slushies are our thing, Eren.” you respond, swirling the brown and red ice together.

“Oh. Really?”

“Well, yeah. Some things should be just ours. And I can’t help it for other things - like when Sasha asks for food, or Annie wants help with the props - but I can for this.”

Relief floods through Eren’s chest, and he smiles for the first time in five days. Thank god.

“Okay. Good.”

“Were you feeling… bad about it or something? Like I wasn’t really talking to you?” you ask, Eren not meeting your gaze and instead focusing on the geese walking across the street.

“I know you’re not like supposed to talk to me or whatever, but like. I just kind of missed you, that’s all.”

You smile, leaning your head against Eren’s shoulder.

“I missed you too, Eren.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

You and Eren bike back, matching pink lips, which is just asking to get teased at this point. Ymir asks how long you and Eren were sucking your face to get lips that pink, which just pisses Eren off to no extent. Levi makes them both sit on separate sides of the plane.

“Each person answers the panel questions in sets of two or three. There are three panels, so ensure you’re with the right person for each part.”

Your first panel is with Ymir, which you lucked out on. Because the second they start asking questions, your face is burning, your throat is itching, and you can’t answer even a single one they ask you.

You’ve never really been the anxious type. You’ve acted in school plays before and performed for big crowds. But that was always low stakes in your mind. The only people in the audience were people that you grew up with, their older sisters that always compliment you on their hair, and their parents that love to take pictures with you.

This crowd is something different altogether. They’re all wildly unfamiliar, with big cameras and notepads in their hands as they scribble down every little detail they can. Before you and Ymir could even introduce yourselves, even give them something to write down or take a picture of, they were already going hard.

That’s why you feel petrified on the stage. One of the questions is literally what your name is, but for some reason, this crowd of adults with shiny cameras and notepads makes you choke. Ymir saves the day. She’s charming enough to woo them all on her own, with a few comments from you here and there throughout the panel. Every word out of your mouth feels like balmy chalk running down your throat.

Your second panel is with Mikasa and Connie, who are surprisingly a really comedic duo. They’re both so different that they complement each other really well, providing funny anecdotes from set and talking about what it’s been like to film.

Connie, much to your dismay, tells the audience that you and Eren are inseparable - so much so that he’s caught you cuddling together on set before.

That was an accident. You were just tired from shooting on set for eleven hours. You can sneak by with another comment here and there for this panel too.

But the third panel is just you and Eren. And you know you can’t choke here because you and Eren are the leads. And granted, you haven’t really been acting like a lead this entire time by squeaking once like a mouse, but it’s infinitely worse to do it now.

“What’s wrong?”

You can feel the tears welling in your eyes as Eren looks over, concern washing over his face.

“I-I can’t do this.”

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t know. I already messed it up. My entire panels I- I didn’t even say anything because I felt so weird and like- I don’t know, I just can’t be a lead role. I’m not cut out to-”

He shakes his head, yanking you forward to push you into his embrace, his arms warm. His mouth is hovering by your ear, his voice so soft that it sends shivers down your spine.

“You’re going to be fine. You’re literally everyone’s favorite person on set because you’re just the best to be around. And it’s the same thing out there, just with people you don’t know.”

“You guys…you guys have to like me. And it’s hard when they’re all looking at me.”

“Don’t look at them. Just look at me. Just pretend you and I are sitting there, and the person asking the question is me, not them.”

You shake your head, burying it deeper into his shoulder. You can feel your panic subsiding, but there’s still a bubble of anxiety right in your throat.

You and Eren walk out, Eren’s hand pressed in yours, as you sit at the table, your hands still locked together under the fabric.

He squeezes three times before starting, introducing the two of you. The first question is for you.

“Who is your favorite person on set?” asks the lady in the front.

“Um. Maybe Hange. I’ve always looked up to them for a really long time, and getting to work with them has been re-really cool.” you mumble straight into the microphone.

You look over at Eren, who feigns shock as he talks into his.

“I’m offended, Y/N. My favorite person on set is you but your favorite person on set isn’t me?” he says, the crowd laughing.

“What? You’re so full of it, Eren. If they asked you, you probably would have said Levi because he did your laundry once.”

The crowd laughs again, and Eren smiles, his eyes warm as he looks into yours.

“You’re annoying, Y/N. I’ve literally said you’re my favorite person on set on every panel. You think you’re special to someone and find out they don’t even like you that much.”

“Oh, be quiet Eren. You’re so irritating. You know I like you.”

“What was that? Say it louder for me, I didn’t really hear you.”

“I like you.”

“One more time, Y/N. Use your big girl voice.”

“I hate you, Eren. You’re not funny and you’re not cool.”

The entire crowd laughs, Eren squeezing your hand under the table as they ask him questions next. You’re doing it.

And for some reason, you’re really in awe of this side of Eren. You never figured that he was the type of guy to be really good at press since he seems so awkward and stumbly when he’s around you, but he’s…really charming when it comes to this. He’s cracking jokes, poking fun at you while answering all the questions.

“Last question. For Eren. What was your favorite scene to film?”

“There’s this scene that we filmed a few weeks ago. Y/N did some really good improv in it, and when Hange and Levi showed it to us for the first time, we were just so excited for the show to start airing. Basically, you think my character is dead, but-”

You feel your eyes widen as you clamp your hand over Eren’s mouth, stopping him from spoiling the show before it airs. And you forget that you’re on the microphone because you accidentally start berating him into the speakers.

“Eren. You’re so full of shit. Stop spoiling the show before it can even come out.”

For some reason, the entire cast finds the entire ordeal so funny that they’re clapping bloody murder for you and Eren as you deck out.

And when you get to the back of the stage, Hange’s applauding you both for doing so well and Levi’s threatening Eren with promises of masking tape on his mouth the next time he tries spoiling the show.

You’re just thankful Eren held your hand through the entire thing. You wouldn’t have been able to stomach it if he wasn’t.

The review comes out early the next day. The eleven of you huddle around the computer, you and Eren sharing a chair as you wait for Hange and Levi to return with Erwin from the airport. The man of the hour himself has finally arrived to set, meaning you can watch the review.

It’s two girls with short blonde hair on both of them as they dissect the teaser trailer Hange and Levi produced for the panels, and the individual speaks themselves.

They introduce each actor and their character, commenting on past roles, character dynamics, and how they feel about the character overall. Almost everyone gets a glowing commendation except for Armin, who they feel doesn’t look the part.

You can tell from the way Armin shifts uncomfortably in the seat that he’s a bit put off by the comment, but Jean and Marco are already coming to his defense, whispering reassurance in his ear.

“Now, onto the leads.”

You instinctively grab Eren’s hand under the table, the two of you leaning closer to the computer to listen.

“The male and female leads for Attack on Titan are Eren Jaeger and F/N L/N. Eren Jeager was in the fourteenth SHWA cohort and already has a nice plethora of credits behind him - even going as far as to have already co-starred with major parts of the ensemble. We’re sure he will be a great lead for the show, a career-defining role if he does it right.”

You squeeze Eren’s hand three times under the table, everyone patting him on the back and squeezing his shoulders in congratulations.

“We’re unsure if the same can be said for female lead F/N L/N. Upon closer inspection, head casters Hange Zoe and Levi Ackerman have chosen something a bit untraditional by not picking an SHWA-affiliated actor. We’re unsure if she can hold her own on a show with big chops like this one since she could barely handle the panels themselves. Sure, everyone has been gushing over how cute the two leads are together, but Eren can’t really carry that part of the charm for her on screen. We’re unsure how it’ll play out, but it’s feeling pretty bleak for now.”

Eren squeezes your hand under the table, but you let go altogether. And when you look back, they’re all awkwardly staring at you, Hange and Levi pinching the bridges of their nose.

“Um. I’m not in the next few scenes, actually. So I’m just going to go eat dinner if that’s okay.”

“We’ll come with you,” Mikasa responds, yanking Sasha up from her chair.

“Oh, you guys have to stay on track with filming. You shouldn’t backlog the schedule. It’s okay.”

Eren watches you walk off set alone, Hange and Levi already doing damage control on their side. Levi’s already screaming bloody murder that they have no right to say that when they have no experience in the field, and Hange’s getting ready to run off and comfort you.

“Hange. Let me come, please.”

Eren watches Hange's features contort as they shoot him down.

“Sorry, Eren. I don’t think she really wants to talk to anyone right now. And I’m just going there to sit with her till she’s ready to talk.”

“She’ll talk to me. I can sit with her, I do it all the time. We’re best friends. And I just want to come. Please, please let me go.”

“Eren. These are all your scenes. You need to stay here. I’ll let you come check on her after, okay?”

Eren watches Hange run off and angrily acts through the next seven scenes.

When he’s done on set, he basically all but sprints to your room, snatching the video camera from Levi and Hange’s office, and knocks on the door lightly. And when he sees it, he can’t tell which emotion he feels most strongly. Never mind, he’s almost positive it’s anger.

You’re lying flat under your soft blanket, Hange’s hand in your hair. He can tell that you’ve probably been crying for a better part of the day, your eyes were all swollen and pink and your nose all runny.

Eren climbs under the blanket with you, hand locking with yours under the sheets. He squeezes your hand three times, which you return as you wipe the excess liquid from your face.

“Y/N.”

“What, Hange?”

“I’m going to call your mom and tell her that you have a boy in your bed.”

You and Eren laugh, rolling your eyes at Hange as you reach up to pull on their hair. Hange hops off the bed, retreating downstairs to get make the ramen that you asked for, as you and Eren shuffle under the blanket.

“Y/N. You okay?”

And at the sound of the question, you immediately start crying again, eyes burning as you lean your head into Eren’s shoulder.

The entire thing - it’s just so fucking embarrassing above anything else. It’s already humiliating enough to get called out as one of the only bad actors in the cast. Sure, they really dug on Armin too but it wasn’t to the extent that they did it to you. And Hange said that was because you were a girl, and they’re always going to be more critical of you than him, but it sure doesn’t feel that way.

You can’t act. You can’t do press. And for some goddamn reason, you’re the one leading the show with Eren instead of someone else. Maybe it should have been Mikasa or Historia or something, they’d surely be doing a better job at this than you.

“Nothing you say is going to make me feel better, Eren. Hange’s been trying for the past few hours, but you’re all just lying to make me come back to set.”

“What do you mean?”

“You guys just feel bad that they said that about me, even if it’s true. And now that you’re stuck with me, you have to make me do it. I’ve been telling Hange - I don’t know what they saw in me even to pick me in the first place. They clearly made a mistake.”

“Hange and Levi didn’t pick you.”

“What?”

“Well, they did. But, I picked you too.”

He reaches over, grabbing the shiny black recording camera from your nightstand. He pulls his arm around yours, holding the camera a few feet away from your face as he holds the looks for the video. And when he plays it, you recognize the same soulless room you did your chemistry screening in, Eren sitting in the chair.

“So Eren. We’re picking through the last few candidates for the lead. Is there anyone you want it to be in particular?”

You can recognize Levi’s voice over the video, and you’re sure Hange has to be the one recording from how the videos wobble around so much.

“You’re going to let me pick, Levi?” Eren from the video asks, eyes wide from shock.

“We’re in between three and we can’t pick one. And this person is your co-star, you’re probably going to spend a better part of the next five to six years with them if things go well. Should be someone you like.”

“Y/N.”

Hange comes into the frame on the video, pinching Eren’s cheeks as they ask.

“That was fast. Any particular reason?”

“I don’t even remember the names of the other ones. That’s how lame they were in comparison.”

“You sure, Eren? You really want it to be her?”

“Positive. I’d even bet on it.” Eren responds, looking over to Hange.

Hange smiles, circling a name on the clipboard, turning to the camera as they speak.

“F/N L/N it is.”

The video ends, the white screen glowing back on you and Eren’s faces.

“You… you picked me?”

“Yeah. And I’m not lying to you when I’m trying to make you feel better or tell you that you’re great. Maybe Hange and Levi are, but I’m not. I’ve always thought you were great.”

You and Eren lean back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. His hand is still in yours under the blanket, warm and sweaty, but you don’t really want to let go. Eren doesn’t say much after that, but when Hange comes with dinner and he has to go back, he says one thing which such confidence that you can’t help but believe him too. That you want it to be true.

“You’re going to prove them wrong, Y/N."

next part here

taglist: @platrom @k0z3me @kayleegomez @yihona-san06 @bsenpai @sweetenertea @mykyoon @violetmatcha @daisynik7 @rebeccawinters @cutiejg @bokutosthings @bookwrmm @mblrrr @wheredidmycrowngo @somethinginyoureyes7 @bsenpai @chilichopsticks @okaystopwhore @you-always-made-me-blush @itzmeme @firelordazulaaaa @whoami-72 @g-ghostly @intimacywithceline @erensmoodygf @cocomellxn @squirrelspoetry

pls comment on this post or any of the chapters if you want to be added to the taglist <3

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vgfm · 4 months

Text

A Lily Gilded: A Review and Analysis of Undertale Yellow

The Short, Spoiler-Free Review (TL;DR)

Any Undertale fan who owns a PC should play Undertale Yellow, even if they previously weren’t interested or have any doubts or reservations.

No criticism that I levy at Undertale Yellow, big or small, is intended to dissuade anyone who hasn’t played it from trying it: you should play it and there is no reason not to aside from a lack of free time or not owning a PC.

Although I have some criticisms of Undertale Yellow, my overall opinion of it is still very positive. I’m glad to have experienced this game.

If you haven’t played the game yet, then I recommend starting with the neutral route. Pacifist is much harder in this game and there are story segments exclusive to the neutral route that make it worth the time investment.

My analysis from this point forward will include spoilers for all three major routes of Undertale Yellow. It will also be very long (close to 60 pages), so be warned.

My Background

I’ve completed all routes of Undertale, Deltarune (Ch 1-2), and Undertale Yellow

I primarily engage with UTDR fandom by reading and writing theories. I like to think that I’m decently knowledgeable about the series, at least

I have no professional background in game development

I’m usually a purist when it comes to games and the topic of fangames and mods. I’m a “picky eater” in particular when it comes to UT/DR fan content:

I’ve never played an Undertale fangame prior to Yellow

Most UT and DR fangames have either not appealed to me personally or have not been finished

I don’t engage with most story-driven Undertale/Deltarune Aus or fanworks if I feel they don’t capture the spirit of the original games

Saying Something Nice

Undertale Yellow is the best fangame that I’ve played in recent memory. I think it’s very likely that Undertale Yellow is not only the best Undertale fangame ever made but that it will remain the best Undertale fangame of its kind for the foreseeable future. It’s not just a good fangame but a good game in general--had Undertale Yellow been a completely original game with no ties to Undertale, it very likely would have become a cult classic in its own right.

Of the long-form fan content I’ve seen, Undertale Yellow is among those that come the closest to replicating the style and tone of the original game without feeling like it’s simply cribbing the story or jokes.

It goes without saying that Undertale Yellow’s spritework and animations far surpass those of Undertale in sheer effort, and at times they rival and surpass those of Deltarune as well. There are some stylistic differences between Yellow and the canon games, and I wouldn’t go so far as to say Yellow’s visuals are always better in every conceivable aspect, but the general quality difference is night and day.

Yellow’s music comes close to rivaling Toby’s work, though frankly I think this is a barrier that no fangame will ever overcome for me. It’s a better impression of Toby’s style than most who’ve tried, but it’s still noticeably an impression. One thing that I immensely appreciate is that Yellow has battle theme variants for each major area in the game. “Enemy Approaching” is a fine song, but I always start to get sick of it by the time I reach the end of Waterfall in the original game.

Most of all, what I respect about Undertale Yellow is when it shows restraint: the restraint to largely omit cameos and callbacks to Undertale’s characters except when it feels warranted to do so. I respect that the game doesn’t try to smuggle in characters or worldbuilding elements from Deltarune and instead sticks to its guns as an Undertale prequel. I also appreciate that, for the most part, it sidesteps the trap that most prequels fall into of trying to tell a bigger story than the original—the story of Undertale Yellow still feels impactful and meaningful, but it does not overshadow or diminish the events of Undertale.

I wanted to frontload my praises for this game because a lot of my more detailed analyses to follow will come across more negative and nitpicky. Admittedly, it’s much easier to point out something that doesn’t work in a story or game that’s otherwise good because it sticks out like a sore thumb and takes you out of the experience. Additionally, so many things are done well in this game that I’d be here all day if I listed every single thing that worked. If there’s an aspect of the game that I don’t comment on then just assume that I found it at least serviceable, if not great.

My Criteria

Since Undertale Yellow is based on the world of Undertale and borrows many gameplay elements from it, it’s virtually impossible to review or analyze the game without inviting at least some comparisons to Undertale.

Having said that, I’m going to avoid criticizing differences between Yellow and the original game if the criticism would boil down to “it’s different from Undertale, therefore it’s bad.” There are things that Yellow does differently that I find worse, but I’ll argue those on their own merit rather than pointing solely to the fact that they’re different. On the flip side, there are a few places where Yellow differs from the original game because Yellow does something better—I’ll be sure to point out these instances as well.

Overall, I’m grading Undertale Yellow on a curve because I can’t help but compare it to the original game. I don’t feel it’s unfair for me to do so, since Yellow relies on Undertale not only for its conceit but also for some of its story beats—Yellow would not make sense or feel complete as an experience if Undertale did not exist.

If Undertale Yellow had been a completely original game, with whatever tweaks or rewrites would have been necessary to make it such, my overall tone would probably be more positive, since I’d be comparing it to the average game experience rather than to one of my favorite games of all time. This is not to say that Yellow would have necessarily been better as an original game, nor am I saying that it should have been—it just would have made the comparisons to Undertale less warranted.

Lastly, I’m going to try to avoid comparing Undertale Yellow to Deltarune. I feel like this is a less fair comparison since Deltarune is not a finished game and Yellow lifts very little from Deltarune beyond a run button and the charge shot.

Bosses

Undertale Yellow’s bosses were the most contentious issue for me during my initial playthroughs. Subsequent playthroughs caused me to warm up a bit to some of the problematic ones, but most of my gameplay-related gripes are tied to its bosses.

My three biggest issues with this game’s bosses are the strategies for sparing bosses, the telegraphing of their attacks, and the attack variety that each boss has.

Sparing Strategies

To start with the simpler complaint, half the bosses and minibosses in this game have pacifist fights that consist of waiting for the boss’s dialogue and attacks to run out before you can spare them, sometimes requiring a token act only at the very end of the fight.

This is a problem because it reduces these fights to waiting games that can be brute-forced with a full supply of healing items. Annoyingly, these same fights also come with 2-3 options in the ACT menu that often do nothing and in most cases don’t even prompt any reaction or different dialogue from the boss.

By comparison, Undertale’s pacifist route only has two (and a half) bosses that require waiting out the opponent: Papyrus and Muffet, and both of these fights have alternate completion conditions that can be used to bypass the wait.

Conversely, Napstablook’s fight requires acting, Toriel requires constant sparing, the Snowdin dogs all have unique acts, Mad Dummy requires redirecting her attacks back at her, Undyne requires running away, the Royal Guards require acting, Mettaton must pass a ratings threshold tied to unique acts, Asgore and Flowey require fighting; Asriel’s fight is half waiting but the second phase requires the lost soul segments to be completed.

Every Undertale boss felt like a puzzle on pacifist and some like Undyne and Mad Dummy were genuine brain-teasers. None of Yellow’s fights ever quite scratch that itch, though a couple come close like Guardener and Axis.

It baffles me a little that this issue is even present because the common enemy encounters in Yellow don’t fall prey to this. In fact, a few enemy encounters in Yellow cleverly require using multiple different acts in a specific (and usually intuitive) order to achieve victory—something that even Undertale seldom did.

It seems that most bosses in Yellow were designed around distinguishing themselves via their attack patterns rather than their spare method, though this leads into anther major issue: how these attacks are conveyed, paced, and telegraphed to the player.

Attack Telegraphing

Undertale Yellow is meant to have harder combat than Undertale, which had me a bit wary going in. The average enemy encounter in Yellow feels harder than Undertale, and the same is certainly true of the bosses. However, I’m not sure if I’d say any of Yellow’s hardest bosses quite rival the Sans fight in terms of sheer difficulty, at least in terms of the number of attempts it took me to complete them.

This could be chalked up to me coming into Undertale Yellow with more experience than when I first played Undertale, or Yellow’s 1.1 patch toning down a few of the harder fights. For the record, I’ve beaten all fights in Yellow without the use of the game’s “easy mode” option—I used it for certain bosses in my very first pacifist and no mercy runs, but I later replayed those runs with the setting disabled in order to have a “proper” experience.

Many fights in Yellow, big and small, feel less “fair” than the fights in Undertale and even now I’m not 100% sure I can nail down why. A lot of this boils down to the “feel” of the fights, but part of this could be due to me already being familiar with Undertale’s attack patterns and not Yellow’s. OG Undertale does have a handful of battle moments that feel “unfair” or not designed as optimally for new players as they could have been, which is easy for a player like me to gloss over after I’ve become familiar with the game. One such example is the Lemon Bread amalgamate, which (imo) is one of the hardest fights in the pacifist route.

Still, I noticed many instances in Yellow where incoming attacks would give little or seemingly no warning before they were able to hurt you. Some examples off the top of my head would be Mooch’s moneybag attack, Guardener’s triple stomp attack that fills the whole box, Starlo’s horseshoe attack that blends into his head before it drops, and Ceroba’s paralyzing diamond attack.

The only consistent way I found to avoid attacks like these was either to know in advance where they were going to enter the bullet box or to already be moving before they appear. It doesn’t help that often attacks that come from outside the bullet box will spawn in immediately outside the box, minimizing the travel time where players could see them coming and act accordingly.

Another common issue I found is the frequent use of blue and orange attacks, often paired with each other and/or with regular attacks, and often without properly telegraphing which will be used until they’re already onscreen. In contrast, Undertale generally used these types of attacks one at a time or, in Asgore’s case, clearly telegraphed them before they were used in tandem.

Yellow’s approach presents a problem because dodging orange and blue attacks demands either movement or lack of movement, which can force the player to take a hit if there’s already another attack onscreen that demands the opposite. In my experience the solution was either to know in advance where the blue and orange attacks would come from (and when) to get into optimal position, or simply tank the hit and hope you make up for it later.

Speaking from my own personal experience, I struggled for a time with Ceroba’s No Mercy fight when I went in blind—she has multiple deadly attacks with little to no telegraphing as well as color attacks that can overlap each other if you’re not already in an optimal position. I was only able to complete this fight on normal after I watched a no-hit run so that I could memorize her patterns. This is something I’ve never had to do for any Undertale or Deltarune fight, including Sans, and it doesn’t really feel like it’s in the spirit of the franchise. I always try to go into each of these games blind and I don’t think it’s unreasonable that a new player, even on a harder route, should be able to intuit what is expected of them in a fight. A few attacks might be challenging or counter-intuitive at first, but having to rely on rote memorization or a guide just doesn’t feel fun or organic to me.

On that note, some of you may be nodding toward the Sans fight as an example of some of the things I’m complaining about, particularly the lack of proper telegraphing and a reliance on memorization. Well, let’s unpack that.

To start, I’ll say that the Sans fight is not my favorite fight in Undertale from a pure gameplay perspective and that I don’t fully agree with some of its design choices. One reason I don’t play fan battles in general is because many of them seem to emulate the style of the Sans fight or double down on it without understanding it.

Despite my minor issues with it, I find the “unfair” aspects of the Sans fight to be more justified and acceptable within the context of Undertale than I find the seeming “unfairness” of Yellow’s harder fights to be in the context of that game. One reason is that the Sans fight is the only fight in Undertale (or Deltarune) that works the way that it does, whereas Yellow has several, even if they’re overall less hard than the Sans fight.

More importantly, the Sans fight has proper buildup, feels appropriate for the character and story, and (most important of all) the game itself acknowledges the fact that it’s unfair and the fight is designed around that admission. Sans literally has over a dozen different dialogue variations depending on how many times you die in his fight and when.

The game is even aware of the fact that most new players won’t survive Sans’ first attack and creates multiple variants of just the dialogue before and after that attack. Undertale fully anticipates your deaths and cultivates a unique experience for you along the way as you learn Sans’ patterns.

To put it simply, the Sans fight is the exception that proves the rule: it makes you realize how much fairer the other fights in Undertale are and how easy it is to take those design principles for granted. Conversely, the attack patterns in the hardest Yellow fights didn’t feel radically different or radically “less fair” in philosophy from Yellow’s moderately difficult boss fights—both feel varying degrees of “unfair,” but the harder fights are just “more” with the occasional twist added on top.

My platonic ideal of a challenging boss fight in an Undertale game would be Undyne the Undying. Undyne the Undying is a massive difficulty spike in her respective run, at times she requires ridiculous reaction time, and it’s easy to psych yourself out and get double-tapped by her barrages and die quickly. Nonetheless, her fight feels fair—it’s a culmination of the rules you’ve been taught and it doesn’t needlessly subvert them. Even though she has her dreaded reverse-arrow attacks that trip up new players, these are still properly telegraphed and manageable. Looking at footage of it now, it’s surprising how this fight looks more honest and straightforward than many of Yellow’s later boss fights.

Attack Variety

Another contributing factor to my issues with Yellow’s boss fights is the sheer number and variety of attacks that some bosses have, particularly in the latter half of the game. To wit, most bosses in Undertale have about 4-5 unique attacks that are repeated with variations, while Undertale Yellow’s bosses can have upwards of 9-10 unique types of attacks, not including variations. Ceroba alone has ten completely different unique attack patterns in just the first phase of her pacifist fight—every single turn is a completely different attack requiring different dodging strategies and none are repeated.

Some may be asking why this is a problem. Isn’t more variety a good thing? This just shows that the Yellow team put more effort in, right? My issue here is that many of these attacks don’t seem to exist for any reason except for the sake of artificial variety and because the devs (presumably) thought they’d be a cool-looking thing to dodge. If you’re confused as to the point I’m trying to make, let’s look at how Undertale utilized its attack patterns with Mettaton EX.

The Mettaton EX fight is a favorite of fans and mine, and one reason I like it so much is for how it uses eclectic and seemingly chaotic attacks to teach the player new mechanics while offering a spare mechanic that relies on strategic thinking to optimize. The fight offers the following types of attacks: moving legs, bombs, boxes, miniature mettatons, gates, a disco ball, and Mettaton’s heart. Not counting the joke/gimmick turns like the essay or break time, this is seven main attack archetypes, each with their own variations and crossover with each other.

Note that all seven of these attack types interact with the fight’s core mechanic: the yellow soul mode. More importantly, each of these attacks teaches the player something about how the soul mode works with no need for an onscreen prompt. Boxes and bombs teach you that there are some attacks you should shoot and some that you should not. The hand gates initially teach you that some bullets are unaffected by your shots, but later you’re given gates with yellow buttons that will open them, teaching you that some targets require precision. The miniature mettatons teach you that some attacks will become a bigger problem for you if you don’t take them out right away. The moving legs teach you that shooting can stop certain attacks from moving and that the timing of your shots is important. The disco ball builds on this lesson, requiring the need to plan your next movements when shooting the ball. The heart serves as the culmination, featuring the bombs and mini-mettatons from before while also giving you a precise moving target to hit repeatedly.

All of Mettaton EX’s attacks tie into a common theme and reinforce one another—learning to dodge and utilize the mechanics of one attack will make you better-equipped to deal with the others. It’s by no means a perfect fight, nor does it teach all of its lessons perfectly—I remember it taking me several attempts to complete and some mechanics like the disco ball and legs didn’t “click” with me immediately, but there’s clear intent behind every attack and it’s remarkable how utilitarian the whole thing is structured, despite its reputation for being one of the game’s longer and more self-indulgent fights.

Let’s bring things back to Ceroba for comparison. Her first phase has 10 unique attacks, only half of which feature mechanics that appear in the later phases: her paralyzing diamonds, her spinning bullets that circle around you, her bells that create colored shockwaves, and the vortex that opens in the center of the arena.

The other attacks are only used once, have little-to-no pattern commonality with each other or with her later attacks, and teach nothing other than how to dodge each of these one-off attacks. At most, a few attacks share a flower motif but move with completely different behaviors (straight line, fanning out, circling, homing in). While this isn’t horrible design, I can’t help but find it a bit wasteful considering what other fights have done with less and how chaotic the later phases of Ceroba’s fight get—something that players could have been eased into by having her first phase present more of her later attacks in a more controlled environment.

In the end, I remember being frustrated with the Ceroba pacifist fight when I first played it. Part of this was due to my own mistake of going past the point of no return without a full stock of items, but the lack of cohesion in the first phase and its lacking relevance to the mechanics of the second phase made it hard for me to “gel” with the gameplay and, as a result of my own frustration and confusion, I had a harder time getting invested in the narrative. I’ve seen some fans label the Ceroba fight the best fight in the series, but I wouldn’t even put it in my top 25, despite the overwhelming effort on display from the developers.

To bring the comparison home, I cried the first time I saw Mettaton say goodbye to his call-in viewers, but not once did I cry during Ceroba’s fight. A flamboyant robot making a single pained expression leaves a bigger impact when his attacks are unintrusive to the experience, and a lovingly-animated grieving fox’s backstory doesn’t hit as hard when I’m distracted by a hodgepodge of visually stunning but incoherent bullet hells. Less is more.

I realize I’ve been a bit mean to Yellow during this segment. In fairness, I did replay the pacifist route and tried the Ceroba fight in a more prepared state. I enjoyed the fight more my second time around, but I still would not rank it among my favorites in the franchise. And to be clear, I don’t hate this fight at all—I just think it represents the excesses in Yellow’s battle design and how they can sour a first-time experience, which is the most important experience for a narrative-driven game. Even the weaker aspects of Yellow’s design are, by and large, serviceable by the standards of typical game design. Compared to Undertale, though, I was disappointed in the areas where it lacked or, more accurately, overstepped.

Having fewer types of attacks is not a result of less effort—it allows more room for variations on each type of attack and it can make difficult or poorly-telegraphed attacks more forgivable if the attack is used multiple times with the first instance training the player for the future variations. I feel that having too many unique attacks for each boss resulted in each attack not receiving the necessary polish and balancing that it should have, and it also made each fight feel less instructive and lacking in a clear design goal.

To close this off, I’d like to give a positive example of a boss fight from Undertale Yellow: Axis. For the most part, Axis successfully walks the tightrope of Yellow’s more complex late-game fights while still maintaining a consistent theme and introducing concepts to the player gradually. The whole fight revolves around blocking Axis’ attacks with a trashcan lid—first with a ground-based lid, then with a lid that rotates around an axis (get it?). As the fight progresses, new types of projectiles and hazards are introduced, usually first using the ground-based lid to avoid overwhelming the player.

As if that weren’t enough, the fight comes with its own unique sparing strategy where players fill a meter by blocking attacks and then attempt to reflect an orb back at Axis once the meter is full. The fight’s not perfect—there’s still the occasional one-off attack that doesn’t really teach any relevant lesson to the player, the orb reflection mechanic is finicky, and the fight is perhaps slightly more difficult than I’d prefer from a typical boss fight, but if all Yellow bosses had been of a similar caliber then I wouldn’t have needed to go on this massive detour about boss design in the first place.

Since some might ask, I might as well weigh in on Yellow’s most controversial boss: El Bailador. I initially had difficulty with this fight due to my lack of experience with rhythm games (and the lack of preparation that the game gives you). I also found the need to press a direction key and the Z key for each note to be a tad clunky. Beyond that? I actually didn’t mind the fight all that much. It introduces a simple concept and builds upon it gradually in a way that felt satisfying to me as I began to master it. The last turn maybe goes on for too long, but I can’t say that I hated it. I promise I’m not trying to piss off the Undertale Yellow fandom (who, if memes are anything to go by, seem to despise this fight), but I found the simplicity of Bailador refreshing considering how chaotic the later fights get. That said, I turned on the auto-rhythm setting in future playthroughs to make this fight less of a difficulty spike.

Themes

To start off, I’d like to acknowledge the fact that Undertale Yellow largely avoids most of the “meta” themes that Undertale and Deltarune touch upon, nor does the game try to go in its own direction in regards to metatextual concepts. Undertale Yellow generally leaves the topic untouched, aside from continuing to use in-universe mechanics established in Undertale such as saving and EXP/LV. Some fans might view this as disappointing or even a betrayal of the tones and themes previously established in Toby’s work. Me? I don’t mind at all, honestly. If anything, it’s refreshing to see an Undertale fan project that takes the setting of Undertale at face value rather than trying to outsmart it or put their own meta spin on it. Far too often have I seen fanworks that swing the pendulum in the other direction and have characters just flat out address the player and shatter the verisimilitude of the setting with no buildup.

None of this is to say that Undertale Yellow is lacking in themes. The most prominent theme I noticed, unsurprisingly, is that of justice. Undertale strongly implies that the yellow human soul is the soul that represents justice, and fanworks ever since have ran with the idea. Undertale Yellow represents the culmination of this concept by turning each of its routes into differing interpretations of what justice means.

As a refresher, Undertale Yellow has three main routes with four endings: true pacifist, “false” pacifist, neutral, and no mercy. I see each ending as its own realization of and commentary on the concept of justice.

Neutral

In Undertale Yellow, the neutral ending acts as something of a “bad ending” from classic video games. These are the kind of endings you get when you fail to 100% complete a game and you’re told to go back and do it again, complete with Flowey’s laugh imposed over the “Thank you for playing!” end credits message.

Who wore it better?

Thematically, the neutral route represents justice as subjective and personal—Clover can spare or kill whoever they wish. It’s hard to argue that any one monster in Undertale Yellow is more guilty than any other in this route, so killing monsters in neutral largely comes off as the capricious whims of Clover rather than being based on any consistent law or greater principle.

This outlook ultimately blows up in Clover’s face when they come to a head with their foil in this route: Flowey, who exercises his own form of justice, or “judgment” as he prefers. Flowey only cares about freeing himself from his current situation and will use any means to achieve this goal. In his eyes, your failure to follow his directions or be of further use of him is a slight against him that demands punishment as he sees fit.

Fitting this individualistic outlook, Flowey takes “might makes right” to its logical conclusion by trapping you in his own personal hell while he acts as a wannabe-God looking down on high. Ultimately Clover can only escape when Flowey wills it, cementing Clover’s status as a pawn subject to the whims of the powerful despite their illusions of independence. Without laws to protect them, the weak will be trampled by the powerful.

Pacifist

Pacifist presents two outlooks depending on whether Clover spares or kills Ceroba in the final battle. Of all the monsters Clover meets, Ceroba is the most culpable for a serious real-world crime other than Asgore and Axis (the latter of whom may not meet the definition of culpability or competence to stand trial).

Clover lacks the fore-knowledge that Ceroba’s daughter will likely survive thanks to Alphys’ efforts, so Clover would view Ceroba’s actions toward Kanako as manslaughter, or at least reckless endangerment. Unlike the neutral route, Clover’s choice can’t solely be chalked up to their own personal whims—actual harm has been done by Ceroba, but more harm may yet be done if she’s killed.

False Pacifist

If Clover kills Ceroba, then this choice seems to represent justice as following the law to the letter, for good or ill. Starlo, who’s most upset by Ceroba’s passing, reluctantly echoes this sentiment:

Even if Clover stands by their choice deep down, it’s reasonable to assume that hurting Starlo this way left a bitter taste in their mouth. Not long after this, Clover reaps what they’ve sewn as they come face to face with their foil for this ending: Asgore.

Initially I thought it was strange that Asgore doesn’t appear if you spare Ceroba, but this ending illustrates why Asgore’s entrance is most appropriate here. Asgore finds himself in a similar situation as Clover. Asgore is keeping his word to his people for good or ill, and a king’s word is law. In all likelihood, Clover probably hated killing Ceroba in much the same way that Asgore hates killing humans. But both are trapped within the confines of their own rigid principles.

Martlet, who acts as an onlooker, first argues on behalf of Clover’s killing of Ceroba on the basis of the law, but just as quickly turns around to plead that Asgore bend the rules of his kingdom to spare Clover. In the end, she can’t have it both ways. No one is happy with how things turn out and the only thing served is the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of justice.

True Pacifist

If Clover spares Ceroba, it might be for her own sake or because killing her will benefit no one and will only serve to harm Starlo. In much the same way, killing the monsters who harmed the five humans won’t bring any benefit to monster or human alike and will instead only fan the flames of war.

Clover came to the Underground armed in search of five humans, no doubt willing to enact justice on anyone or anything that harmed them. Instead they find a world of good-hearted people who have ample reason to distrust humans. Through acts of kindness, this distrust is cast aside and many friendships are made.

In the Wild East, Clover is presented with the classic trolley problem. Starlo emphasizes that Clover could let a large group of monsters die while incurring no personal responsibility. Clover didn’t tie those monsters to the tracks in much the same way that Clover is not personally responsible for monsters being trapped Underground. However, Clover can save them by sacrificing a single life—an anonymous other, but eventually Clover is faced with the possibility of becoming that sacrifice willingly.

Clover choosing to give up their soul is not only an ultimate act of selflessness but also interprets justice as a principle higher than any mere law or person’s whim—laws should not exist solely for their own sake because laws should be a means for the betterment of all. Any “justice” that loses sight of this higher principle has no meaning or value, so one must act in service to the greater good.

Clover doesn’t deserve to die, but sitting on the sidelines so that monsters or the next fallen human can suffer in their place would be a greater injustice in their eyes. Ultimately they decide that their own sacrifice, while tragic, will create the best outcome for everyone and act as a step towards restorative justice for monsterkind.

No Mercy

No mercy was a bit of an enigma for me initially. It starts off largely the same as Undertale’s no mercy route, only without the one-shot kills and commentary on completionism. It’s not until Steamworks when the aim of this run starts to come together. We see a role reversal where Clover chases down Axis, and Flowey of all people questions Clover’s craving for destruction.

When fighting Axis, we see him admit that he had killed a previous fallen human. Although this information can be uncovered through a hidden tape in the pacifist route, here we see this revelation enrage Clover to the point that their LV increases on the spot. Normally I’d nitpick something like this, since Undertale states that cruel intentions can make a human’s individual attacks stronger but their LV is tied to their EXP. However, I can overlook this since the rules are bent in service of a good character moment that defines the run for me.

This moment and the ending recontextualize the whole run up until now: Clover isn’t killing indiscriminately like Frisk was. On the contrary, Clover is quite discriminate with their killing: they specifically want monsters (and their creations) destroyed, but not humans. Up until now we haven’t had an Undertale protagonist who is unabashedly pro-human. Chara was very much the opposite and some lines in Deltarune imply Kris may feel similarly. Frisk seems ambivalent, but from the beginning Clover has been acting for the sake of the five missing humans.

In neutral and pacifist, Clover judges monsters on an individual basis, but in no mercy all monsters are deemed guilty. What distinguishes this run from the others, besides the brutality of Clover’s actions, is that their actions can’t solely be chalked up to dogmatic obedience of the law or their own selfish desires.

Throughout the run, Clover can choose to steal from shops, commit armed robbery against Mo, and even cheat in their “dual” with Starlo—all of these indicate some degree of underhandedness or dishonor, but Clover’s outlook is seemingly that monsters don’t deserve fair play or the benefit of the doubt.

Conversely, we see from the ending that Clover goes out of their way to free the five human souls—they don’t leave them behind or try to go on a power trip and use them for their own ends (as far as we’re aware). No mercy is a dark reflection of true pacifist, where “justice” has transcended the letter of the law as well as personal desires. Instead of “justice” being in service to the greater good of all, it’s in service to division, tribalism, and vengeance.

Even so, one can debate whether Clover’s actions are motivated more by a love of humanity or purely by a hatred of monsters. Asgore points out that Clover’s actions will only worsen the conflict between humans and monsters, and more humans will die in the future as a result.

This doesn’t seem to give Clover any pause, so one can assume they either don’t believe Asgore or they don’t care—they’re here to make monsterkind pay, and if more conflict arises then that means more opportunities for payback in the future. Make them pay and never stop making them pay.

Characters

Character writing is a crucial component of any Undertale-adjacent game and it’s often the biggest stumbling block I encounter when I’ve tried to get into fanworks. I mean that in no way as a slight against fan creators, but rather to illustrate how high the bar has been set by Toby. This is a bar that’s set just as high, if not higher than Toby’s musical abilities, imo. In all the ways that I would describe myself as a “picky eater” when it comes to Undertale content, I’d say character writing is where I’m by far the pickiest.

To give Undertale Yellow a fair and thorough analysis, I’ll be going over all of the major characters one by one to give my impressions of them as well as what I feel works and what doesn’t, starting from the top:

Clover

There isn’t a ton to say about Clover compared to the other characters, but this isn’t a bad thing. What’s apparent is that Clover has more personality and initiative on display throughout the game than Frisk did, though in some ways not as much as Kris—Clover is something of a middleground between the two canon protags. At several points we’re only given a single dialogue “choice,” meant to illustrate when Clover has made a decision on their own.

We’re told Clover’s surface-level motivation: to find the five humans who disappeared, but we’re not given any context as to what connection (if any) Clover has to these humans or what their own history is beyond one or two vague bits of flavor text.

Clover’s motivations can evolve or outright change course depending on which choices the player makes throughout the game. I already went over this in the themes section, but the fact that Yellow largely eschews the broader metatextual commentary found in Undertale means that Clover’s actions are much easier to attribute as their own in-universe decisions, rather than something imposed on them by a controlling entity.

Beyond this, we also see Clover display various quirks via their character animations, such as kicking their feet while seated, tugging on Ceroba’s sleeve, or standing on their tippy-toes when handing their hat to Martlet. We ultimately can’t say much about Clover’s overall personality or interests outside the context of game events, but these little flourishes help to make the character memorable.

By default I’d argue that Clover’s “better written” as a character than Frisk was, barring the metatextual baggage attached to the latter. Overall, not a bad start.

Dalv

I wasn’t sure what to make of Dalv initially. Confession time: Dalv was the deciding factor that led to me not checking out the Undertale Yellow demo when it first dropped. I’ve got nothing against the guy, but at the time I didn’t really “get” his character—I wasn’t sure what his motives were and I couldn’t even understand what his first lines of dialogue were meant to convey.

Even now I’m still not 100% sure whether his first line of dialogue is him rehearsing a conversation with another Ruins monster, with the monster that used to leave him corn, or with the previous human that he encountered. The fact that Dalv is known by the other monsters for talking to himself and having imaginary friends only blurs the lines further, though this doesn’t feel intentional.

This is part of a broader, though minor, issue with some of Yellow’s writing where characters will allude to events and other characters that a first-time player wouldn’t be familiar with. To be fair, Undertale does this as well early on but usually with enough context clues to help you figure things out—Papyrus namedrops Undyne and Alphys in Snowdin, but we learn from context clues within Snowdin that Undyne is a monster of authority that Papyrus knows and Alphys is a doctor and apparent inventor.

To draw a more direct comparison, we know early on that Toriel is a motherly figure and we see in her house that she has taken in other children who’ve met an unknown fate—this mystery leads to some first-timers speculating whether Toriel is the one responsible for said fate. Right before her boss fight she explains her motives more clearly--her actions, though overbearing, have been to protect Frisk. You can also infer, though not stated directly, that her actions towards Frisk may be some attempt on her part to recreate or make up for her past experiences with children that she’s lost. Later on we learn that she’s Asgore’s ex-wife and lost her two children tragically, but this is not something that needs to be spelled out in order to get a basic grasp on Toriel as a character.

Dalv, on the other hand, has an implied backstory that is never outright stated but instead needs to be pieced together from context clues given much later in the game, some of which are tied to optional secrets and randomly-generated fun events. In short, Dalv was a monster living in Snowdin who met Kanako when she and Chujin came to visit. During that visit, Dalv was attacked by a human (implied to be the one carrying the blue soul), who was later killed by Axis. It’s implied that this experience was so traumatic that Dalv retreated into the Ruins and cut off all contact with those around him. Conceptually? This is a solid backstory. No notes. It’s a shame, then, that most players don’t even seem to be aware of it after finishing the game.

Now, a character doesn’t need a tragic backstory in order to be likable or compelling. In fairness, I do enjoy the aspects of Dalv’s character that are given upfront in his house—his neatness, his social awkwardness, his creative side, and his “imaginary” friends. The problem is that we don’t see these sides of him until after his boss fight, when most players likely won’t see him again for the rest of the game.

Characters don’t need to front-load their entire personality or backstory into their first encounter, but doing the opposite isn’t helpful either. First impressions matter in fiction, and unfortunately Dalv gave very little for me to latch onto for most of his screentime. It’s really only through hindsight that I began to appreciate Dalv as a character, but even then he isn’t one of my favorites in Yellow, let alone comparable to Undertale’s core cast.

Martlet

Martlet is the most recurring character in the game aside from Flowey. Although her personality is quite different, I get the sense that her role is meant to be analogous to that of Sans and Papyrus, namely as a comic relief character that drops into your adventure regularly and presents a crucial turning point right before the game’s ending.

Martlet’s introduction gave me flashbacks of Dalv—namely that she never even interacts with Clover until the end of Snowdin, making me fear that once again a new character’s story was going to be backloaded into their final appearance before they disappear from the narrative. Thankfully this wasn’t the case. Martlet’s in it for the long haul and her boss fight is more of an introduction to her character than a conclusion.

So what do I think of Martlet? I’d say that I like her more than Dalv, or at least she’s better utilized than Dalv. Still, it took a while for Martlet to “click” with me. I think what I got hung up on was that a lot of her early gags revolve around royal guard protocol and the handbook that she keeps around. In many ways this feels at odds with what’s later established about her character, namely that she’s scatterbrained, wishy-washy, and lacks long-term goals or planning skills.

Martlet doesn’t seem like the type of person who’d follow a handbook in the first place, given how often she disregards it anyway. Perhaps the intent was for Martlet’s “arc” to be her unlearning what she’s learned from other monsters regarding humans and for her increasing disregard of the handbook to symbolize this. While I think the former is true—she says as much on the apartment rooftop at the end of the game, she seems to waffle back and forth on following her royal guard duties as the plot demands—ignoring them when it means accompanying Clover but following them when it means having to be separated from Clover.

I think this ties into a bigger issue that I have with Martlet, which is that at times she feels like she’s a character of convenience for the story rather than a character acting on a clear want or need. I think this is most blatant when viewing the various “abort” points in a no mercy run.

No matter how badly you beat Martlet in Snowdin and how resolute she is at stopping you, she’ll turn on a dime if you’ve aborted a run prior to Oasis or Hotland just so that she can play out her allotted part.

Other times it feels like she’ll show up just so that there’s someone for Clover to talk to and someone to react to what Clover sees. Now, it would be reductive of me to write off Martlet as a mere plot device—she isn’t, and any appearance otherwise is more so a flaw of the narrative than of her as a character.

You’ll notice I haven’t said much about how I feel about Martlet’s personality, her dynamic with other characters, or her overall “vibe” and honestly she’s just… fine? It’s hard for me to say anything because she feels a bit lukewarm to me—she’s not undercooked like Dalv, but she’s not as memorable as many of the other characters either. She says some funny things, but she’s not the funniest. She has some great and heartfelt lines during the pacifist ending, particularly this one:

But as a whole? She’s just fine. She's competently written, no major complaints.

I think maybe what Martlet lacks is a “larger than life” quality to her character. I’m not saying that her role within the setting should be larger than life, but rather she could use at least one exaggerated trait to help her stand out from the pack—Papyrus has his bravado, Sans has laziness and jokes, Undyne has intensity, Alphys has awkwardness, and Mettaton has his showmanship. Not every Undertale character is like this, but I feel like Martlet was intended to fit a similar mold—we catch glimpses of it, like her overly long “P.S.” messages amended to her first puzzle, but imo she doesn’t go far enough consistently enough (assuming that was the intent).

One last thing that I want to touch on is Martlet’s contingency plan for Clover that comes into play in the No Mercy run, where she injects herself and becomes “Zenith Martlet,” as fans have dubbed her. Conceptually I’m fine with the idea of Martlet having an ace up her sleeve that she’s too indecisive to actually use in most scenarios.

This feels in-character for her and I can even look past a scatterbrained character with no planning skills having a plan like this since it’s largely Martlet appropriating another character’s plan. The main thing that I find questionable about Martlet’s plan is that it relies on Alphys’ determination extraction experiments.

We the audience know what that is, but how does Martlet know about them or even what to look for? We do know that underground residents were asked to donate fallen down monsters to the lab, but seemingly nothing is revealed to the public about the nature of the experiments. Even Ceroba, who had a vested interest in learning all she could, seems to be completely in the dark. In the pacifist ending, Martlet offers to investigate the experiment for Ceroba, implying she didn’t know the full story either. I also question how Martlet would’ve been able to venture into the true lab seemingly without running into a single amalgamate, given that she never brings them up in pacifist.

Now, my issue here is not the supposed “plothole” that this creates. My main issue is that a more reasonable solution was sitting right there: Chujin’s monster serum. I legitimately wonder if earlier drafts of this game’s story had Martlet using Chujin’s serum instead of Alphys’ extract, because the former would bring everything full-circle and it would tie in more naturally with the flashback scene of Martlet with Chujin.

Now, the obvious answer is that Chujin’s serum was never completed, but I can’t help but wonder if perhaps this wasn’t always the case. During Ceroba’s flashback, we can see a case with two syringes—one full and the other seemingly empty.

This is just my own speculation, but I can’t help but wonder if it was once intended for Ceroba to use one syringe on Kanako and for Martlet to have taken the other. Obviously this doesn’t jive with the story as it’s currently written—Martlet is clearly taken aback when she learns of the experiments that Chujin conducted. Still, part of me wonders if an earlier draft had Chujin entrust Martlet with a prototype of the serum to keep her safe.

I think it’d be fitting if the no mercy route were to reveal that Martlet was a lot more privy to Chujin’s less savory actions than she let on, and that even in pacifist she kept this knowledge to herself of self-preservation or shame. This would fit with a line of hers in the no mercy fight after her flashback of Chujin:

It would be fitting for the NM run if we were to learn that there was always a seed of doubt and mistrust between Martlet and Clover, even during the best of times.

The Feisty Five

I’ll be brief, but when these guys first showed up my first thought was “great, I’ll never remember all these new characters” and I’m glad I was wrong. While they don’t have quite the depth that the main characters do, they’re all memorable in their own way. They’re also the first characters in the game to get a serious chuckle out of me and I wish we got more of them. If we’re comparing quirky miniboss squads, these guys clear the Snowdin canine unit and Sweet Cap’n Cakes. There, I said it.

Starlo

This is the coldest take ever and I won’t even try to bury the lede: Starlo is the best Undertale Yellow character. He’s funny, he’s charming, he’s flawed, he has layers, he has great moments of pathos with Ceroba, and he has a backstory that isn’t tragic yet still feels necessary to his character.

Here’s another cold take: Dunes/Wild East is the best part of the game. Dark Ruins and Snowdin, while not bad, still feel very much like typical fare for a romhack or fangame. Wild East is the first area that truly feels like Undertale, which is ironic since it’s also the first completely-original area.

By extension, Starlo is the one original character who feels most like he could be an Undertale character. It’s easy to take for granted all the little nuances that Toby injects into his characters to make them stand out, which is probably why I felt so lukewarm towards Yellow’s cast up until Starlo’s introduction.

One thing I admire about Undertale’s core cast is that each character has their own unique manner of speaking, to the point where you can identify a character’s dialogue without needing a dialogue portrait or typer sound. Starlo shares this trait, speaking in a semi-stereotypical drawl while occasionally misspelling words (FEISTYJ, dual vs duel). It’s a small touch but it goes a long way to endearing me to the characters in these games.

Although Starlo is mostly a comedic character, he still has plenty of depth. Another hallmark trait of Toby Fox characters is that they have multiple sides to them that seem contradictory at first glance but actually tell you something profound about the character (Papyrus’ bravado masking his loneliness, Sans’ joking to cope with his harsh outlook, Alphys’ awkwardness stemming from her guilt).

Starlo also fits this trend, first presented as a dashing and charismatic lawman that is nothing more than the mask of a nerdy and immature farmboy. And I would say Starlo’s fatal flaw is immaturity—not because of his interests, but because of his attitude. Starlo treats his friends like playthings, takes what he wants from Clover and Martlet when he first meets them, and he acts utterly irresponsible with his (or rather, Blackjack’s) firearms.

We learn from Starlo’s mom that he once pined after Ceroba and that he took a long time to move on.

It’s also implied that Starlo had a grudge against Chujin, which could have been due to the two having differing opinions on human culture or Starlo’s own jealousy over Ceroba.

We can also see this immaturity reach an ugly conclusion if Ceroba is killed in the so-called false or “flawed” pacifist ending. Starlo previously trained Clover to carry the weight of taking a life and also taught them the value of sacrificing one life to save many, but Starlo immediately throws this out the window as soon as Clover acts (as far as he’s aware) in self-defense.

This is a case where I’d argue that Starlo is right but for the wrong reasons. Starlo’s not so much recanting his earlier philosophy as he’s simply upset because someone he cared about was sacrificed this time—had it been a stranger or a ne’er-do-well like Vengeful Virgil then I doubt Starlo would’ve parted ways with Clover so bitterly. That’s just my interpretation, anyway.

None of this is to say that Starlo is always immature. When it comes to his interactions with Ceroba he’s often the most sensitive and emotionally-mature person in the room, which is a trait that we only see grow in him after he gets a reality check in the Wild East. When trying to talk Ceroba down we see Starlo give his respect to Chujin, despite their past differences, and he’s patient and understanding to the utmost once the fight is finally over.

This doesn’t mean that Starlo is a doormat for Ceroba either, as we earlier see him confront her and call her out when he suspects foul play involving Kanako—he clearly cares for Ceroba a lot but won’t sit idly by while she ruins her life or the lives of others.

Honestly, Starlo’s bond with Ceroba is a contender for the most wholesome relationship (platonic or otherwise) in the entire franchise—yes, I’m actually saying that there’s an aspect of this game’s writing that rivals and perhaps even surpasses Undertale and Deltarune.

I realize a lot of my analysis of Yellow’s writing has skewed negative, but as a reminder I am grading this game on a curve because it’s a companion piece to one of the best-written games of all time. To give Yellow a bit more praise, I think it might actually do a better job than Undertale at portraying characters’ moments of vulnerability and allowing them to cut to the emotional core of an issue, as seen with Starlo and Ceroba’s late-game interactions as well as Clover’s ultimate fate and its aftermath.

Unlike Undertale, there was no moment in Yellow that quite made me cry, but moments in the pacifist ending came close. I consider this quite the feat because the final outcome of Yellow’s pacifist ending is easily predicted from the start and the way that it plays out is a concept that would be difficult for any writer to sell. Yellow was backed into a corner by being a prequel, whereas Undertale had free reign to tell whatever story it wanted. In many ways I feel Yellow’s ending did just about the best job it could with the hand that it was dealt—it’s not perfect, and in one or two areas I feel it overplays its hand (which I’ll cover shortly), but the writing succeeds far more than I would’ve thought it would have with such a concept.

Axis

This’ll be another brief entry, but I wanted to include Axis since he always seems to get left out of fanworks. I enjoy Axis but I’m not sure I fully understand him. His overall arc and goals are very straightforward, but for the life of me I can’t really nail down what his personality is. He’s funny and memorable, which goes a long way for me, but I can’t really wax poetic about him beyond saying that he’s your stock quirky robot. It is a bit of a shame that, like Dalv, he’s largely isolated to one area and has little to no interaction with the rest of the cast.

I suppose one thing that bothers me is how robots in this game aren’t treated as people, which feels at odds with the broader themes of Undertale. We’re taught that amalgamates and even a soulless flower are still people, so having robots that lack free will and don’t even count as EXP kinda rubs me the wrong way. I generally don’t like when fictional works treat sentient robots as less than human or “soulless.” In my view, the true point behind sentient robot stories isn’t to debate whether robots have souls, but rather to question what a soul is and who gets to decide who has one and who doesn’t, or whether they exist at all.

Robots in fiction are meant to be a reflection of humans, and the robots in Yellow could have been presented as a reflection of video game characters as a whole—can free will exist when you’re programmed to fulfill a function? Unlike in our world, souls are a scientifically measurable quantity in Undertale’s universe, so I guess Yellow’s portrayal of “soulless” robots works on a technicality, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Ceroba

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Ceroba is the most controversial character in the game, and I find my own opinions of her (and her family) to be polarized as well. In a neutral run she’s barely noticeable but in pacifist she eventually becomes the main focus of the story. I’ve seen some people criticize Ceroba’s level of focus, but I’d liken it to Alphys and Flowey’s elevated level of focus in Undertale’s true pacifist ending. In other words, it doesn’t bother me.

Ceroba’s personality is a bit of an anomaly for me in the sense that she’s not quirky like a typical Undertale character, and yet I feel that aspect of her works for the story that Yellow tells. Previously I mentioned how Martlet didn’t really “wow” me as a character in part due to her lacking a sufficiently “larger than life” personality, but I feel Ceroba succeeds where Martlet didn’t for me because (1) Ceroba is clearly not intended to be a comic relief character and (2) Ceroba often acts as the straight man to other characters like Starlo and the Steamworks machines, whereas Martlet often feels like she has no one to work off of her besides Clover (for whatever that’s worth). In many cases, Ceroba’s understated reaction to things or her attempts to parse or explain them rationally end up making scenes funnier, such as when Starlo cuts off her piece on the ethical quandary of his trolley problem.

Having said that, I do think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity that the game doesn’t expand more on Ceroba’s own interests or quirks outside of her family. While showcasing a character’s hobbies can sometimes feel like checking an item off of a list, it helps add a bit of texture to a character that makes them that much more believable.

Not knowing this information doesn’t “ruin” Ceroba or anything, but it’s a bit disappointing that most of her “talk” dialogue in the steamworks, while interesting, pertains to her immediate surroundings or her family and friends instead of herself. The most we get is that she used to have a gym membership and (if I recall) she was once a waitress. We later get to see her room and all that’s in there is a bed, a photo, and her clothes. After seeing all the loving detail put into Papyrus and Alphys’ living areas in Undertale, it’s such a shame to see Ceroba’s opportunity squandered.

Oddly enough, if there’s one existing bit of characterization that I think could’ve been retooled sightly, it’d be Ceroba’s dynamic with Clover. Ceroba is a mother who lost a child around Clover’s age (or younger) but she’s also distrustful of humans and had a husband who hated them. You’d think that Ceroba would react strongly to Clover one way or the other, either distrusting them as a human or having a soft spot for them due to Clover being a child, or feeling conflicted between these two outlooks. Instead Ceroba seems utterly casual around Clover.

Initially her laid back attitude served as a nice contrast to the overbearing wackiness of Starlo and the Feisty Five and helped endear Ceroba to me as a character, but it begins to feel a bit out of place when she says things like "I respect the hell out of you" to a child.

Maybe I’m overthinking it, but the way Ceroba treats Clover makes sense for how she’d treat a stranger who was a monster, given what we see of her personality, but I’m just not sure it makes sense that she’d treat Clover that way specifically. I’d be fine with it if the narrative unpacked the idea—maybe she’s casual around Clover because she’s too world-weary to muster a strong reaction, or maybe she’s forcing herself to act casual to hide her true plans for Clover, or maybe she never fully agreed with Chujin’s rhetoric on humans and is acting against them out of pragmatism, or maybe she never liked kids until she had one of her own, etc.

Speaking of kids, I guess there’s no avoiding the elephant in the room: Ceroba’s backstory. If I had to guess, I’d wager this is probably the most controversial portion of Undertale Yellow’s entire narrative, and I have a lot to say about it.

To start, I’ll say that I really like the way that (most) of Ceroba’s backstory is doled out to the player piece by piece over the course of a playthrough. As early as Snowdin you hear mention of Chujin, then in Wild East you can piece together from various bits of dialogue that Ceroba had a family that she’s reluctant to speak about. Steamworks fleshes out Ceroba and Chujin’s pasts considerably, albeit mostly hidden behind optional talk dialogue.

Steamworks also has one of my favorite scenes in the game when Ceroba learns why Chujin got fired—it technically doesn’t contribute anything major to the main plot, but it helps illustrate Chujin’s flawed methods that Ceroba willfully overlooks so that she can double down on furthering his “legacy.”

Right before Hotland is when the other shoe drops and Starlo confronts Ceroba—this was the moment that had me hooked on uncovering the mystery of Ceroba’s past. This leads right into the abandoned Ketsukane estate, which is another of my favorite sequences in the game. I was always a huge fan of Undertale’s True Lab and Ceroba’s house scratches that itch for me. The two locations have a very different tone and style of gameplay (or lack of), but both are dripping with unsettling atmosphere and environmental storytelling. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always been creeped out by abandoned houses—not decrepit haunted mansions per se, but places that were abandoned so recently that you’re not sure whether someone might still be lurking inside.

Unfortunately, I start to run out of nice things to say about this storyline as soon as Clover and Martlet enter the estate’s basement. Before we descend into that chasm, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I am not a “Cinema Sins” kind of guy. I do not go into a work of fiction looking for inconsistencies to complain about. My philosophy is that I can overlook the occasional plothole or retcon or bending of the rules if it’s done in service to a good story or memorable character moment.

If anything, I find it annoying when a story tries too hard to cover all its bases with exposition out of fear that some smartass is going to find some plot detail to complain about—this just draws more attention to potential “plotholes” that could’ve easily been ignored. I don’t care if the eagles could’ve carried the ring to Mordor and I don’t care whether the ark of the covenant would’ve killed the bad guys in Raiders if Indy wasn’t there. At the end of the day, if a story is well told then I can overlook things like that, and if it’s not well told then my mind wanders and I begin to notice those sorts of things, but those nitpicks (more often than not) are not the underlying cause of the problem—lack of a compelling story or believable characters is.

So, getting back to the basement. Here we see Chujin’s tapes and the plot begins to lose me. Chujin wants to create a serum that will strengthen monsterkind and give normal monsters the power of a boss monster. All well and good. Where I start to take issue is the convoluted method of creating this serum and what it means for the story.

As a point of comparison, I always thought that the rule in Undertale of requiring a human soul plus a monster soul to pass through the barrier felt a little convoluted and contrived, but it seems to exist for the sake of forcing a “kill or be killed” confrontation between Frisk and Asgore as well as explaining why Asriel passed through the barrier with Chara’s soul but (presumably) Chara alone couldn’t. In this way, the rule acts in service to the story and creates memorable character moments with Alphys and Asgore and gives Frisk a stronger temptation to kill Asgore during their fight. The two soul rule is a bit clunky, but I can begrudgingly accept it. Chujin’s serum fulfills a similar purpose but is clumsier in its execution.

To start, Chujin’s serum also requires a human soul and a boss monster soul—this makes sense, as the goal is to turn monsters into boss monsters and one can assume that human souls have some kind of preserving property that would keep the serum stable.

On top of that, the human soul must also be “pure of heart, uncorrupted.” I thought nothing of this line initially until it was reiterated during Ceroba’s flashback and I realized why it was in the story.

This concept bothers me for a number of reasons and it’s technically not even a plothole or inconsistency. It feels out of character for Chujin to frame things this way given how he views all humans as evil, and this purity rule seems to exist solely as a plot device to explain why Ceroba enacts her plan in pacifist but not in neutral runs. I feel like the story could’ve come up with a more organic method of explaining why Ceroba couldn’t be present or was otherwise occupied during the steamworks section in a neutral run, plus I feel like she wouldn’t let something like “purity” get in the way of attempting her plan if she was that dead-set on it, given how rarely humans appear in the Underground.

Lastly, we learn that Chujin and Kanako are both boss monsters, or at least “carry the boss monster gene,” which is an odd concept to me. You could argue that this revelation technically doesn’t contradict anything established in Undertale, but like the pure soul rule it just bugs me. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of the early days when the fandom thought that all bosses in Undertale were boss monsters instead of just the Dreemurr family. I won’t waste time rambling about the particulars of boss monster lore, but I think what bothers me with Chujin and Kanako is that it feels like yet another contrivance to explain why Ceroba’s actions had to involve Kanako specifically.

I’ve mentioned that Undertale’s two soul rule feels somewhat like a contrivance. One could argue that the Barrier requiring seven human souls to shatter is also a contrivance, but I think what makes that easier to swallow is that it’s a rule that’s established fairly early in the game. The reveals of the Barrier’s two “rules” are spaced apart from one another and each are given dramatic weight and time for the player to dwell on their implications.

The mechanics of Chujin’s serum, on the other hand, rely on multiple contrivances that are all spilled out onto the floor at once in the final stretch of the game right before they become necessary to explain Ceroba’s motivations, which only makes their narrative purpose feel all the more transparent.

Getting back to Ceroba, we’re left with her plan and what she did to Kanako. Now, I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt here and say that I don’t mind the particulars of whether Ceroba’s plan involving Clover would have worked or not—as far as I’m concerned, Chujin’s plans could have been doomed from the start even with a “pure” soul. The point wasn’t whether Chujin’s plan would’ve worked but rather how Ceroba’s grief has turned her own life (and by extension the lives of her family) into a sunk cost—she feels that she has to go through with her plan or else all her family’s suffering was for nothing.

In many ways this makes the contrived requirements for Chujin’s serum feel less necessary, since the serum’s mechanics could’ve been kept vague or it could’ve even been implied that Ceroba was simply repeating the same experiments as before hoping for different results.

I’ve put it off long enough, but it’s time to talk about that scene. You know the one: the big reveal flashback at the climax of Ceroba’s pacifist fight. Again, I’ll try to be charitable and say that I don’t absolutely hate the idea of Ceroba testing Chujin’s serum on Kanako. I mean, I would hate the act on a moral level if she were a real person, but I don’t hate the idea as a story concept. Still, my charity has its limits.

I’ll just come right out and say it: the scene where Ceroba injects Kanako is hard to watch—not because it’s tragic, but because it’s just not a good scene. My original write-up for this part was far harsher, but I’ll spare the vitriol. This scene has been memed to hell and back by people more critical of the game and… I can’t disagree with them—this is my least-favorite scene in the game.

(Image from ScottFalco's "Undertale Yellow with a side of salt" video)

The most obvious criticism I’ve seen is the fact that Chujin specifically told Ceroba not to do the exact thing that she does. That’s a fair point and honestly, yeah, I think the simplest writing fix would’ve been for that line not to have been in Chujin’s tape to begin with so that Ceroba doesn’t look willfully ignorant on top of being recklessly negligent.

Tbh, it feels a little out of character for Chujin to say something like that because I got the impression that Chujin wasn’t always the most thoughtful or attentive dad. His own tapes mention that he didn’t keep an eye on Kanako when a monster was attacked in Snowdin, and even then Chujin was more preoccupied with tracking down the human than with comforting his own daughter. He made nice things for Kanako, sure, but even that could be explained as him being more wrapped up in the work than her. It’d be wrong to say that he didn’t care about Kanako at all, but I got the impression that he had the wrong priorities and it’d be fitting if Ceroba’s own actions followed that pattern.

That being said, I can’t solely blame Chujin’s warning for why Ceroba’s flashback doesn’t work. The scene as a whole is just dreadful, even when viewed in isolation from the rest of the narrative. There’s so many issues big and small with this scene, like Kanako being able to read the word “corruption” but not “extract,” Ceroba’s immediate turnaround after the slightest prodding, or the predictable outcome of the whole thing that’s dragged out for what feels like an eternity.

You know, I’ve heard some people critical of Undertale say that the true pacifist ending to that game felt maudlin—I disagree, but in some places I could see where they were coming from. Calling the Kanako flashback maudlin would honestly feel like letting it off easy. If I wanted to be mean I’d call it manipulative, but honestly I think a more fitting term would be a comedy of errors. It feels less like tragedy and more like dark humor bordering on self-parody of what an Undertale character’s sad backstory would be.

So what should’ve been done differently? The easy and safer option I’ve seen suggested would be for Kanako to stumble across Chujin’s research and inject herself, with Ceroba feeling guilt for allowing it to happen. I would prefer this over what we got, but I said earlier that I don’t completely hate the concept of Ceroba experimenting on Kanako, so how can that idea possibly work? Besides getting rid of Chujin’s overly-specific warning, I honestly think the best fix for this scene would simply be to not show it. Don’t remove the events from the backstory, but just don’t reenact them onscreen. Normally it’s better to show than tell, but there have always been exceptions to that rule.

I’m reminded of how Undertale didn’t show us Asriel’s death or the Dreemurrs’ divorce, and only offered a glimpse of Chara’s buttercup plan. These were cases where less was more—letting the players imagine these events in their heads sidestepped any potential tastelessness and seeing the aftermath of these events and how they affected the characters involved painted a vivid enough picture. I think Ceroba would be a perfect fit for a similar approach.

If we need to see something, then either portray it via montage like Asriel’s memories or only portray Kanako finding Chujin’s basement and Ceroba stumbling upon her after she’s viewed the tapes. Ceroba could then explain to Clover that Kanako pleaded with her for months or even years to let her help with Chujin’s experiments. With time Kanako only become more stubborn and their relationship more strained. The whole time Ceroba knew that only Kanako’s soul would work for the experiment but she tried to remain in denial and hope an alternative would present itself. After countless research dead-ends used up all but one vial of the leftover human soul extract, Ceroba gave in to Kanako’s demands in a moment of weakness. And that’s all it took—one moment she was there and the next she was gone.

Not to toot my own horn, but I feel this kind of summary would’ve worked better because it leaves things up to interpretation. Was Kanako still a child when this happened or was it many years later? Did Kanako understand what she was signing up for? Is Ceroba’s recounting of the events reliable or is she merely rationalizing her actions after the fact? It’s not perfect and it’s still somewhat “safe” compared to the game’s swing for the fences. Unfortunately, a big swing means nothing if it misses, and even less if the bat goes flying and hits someone.

Despite what I just said, the Kanako scene doesn’t ruin Ceroba for me as a character. It blemishes her boss fight for me, though I have other issues with that fight besides the flashback (as I’ve mentioned). When thinking back on this game’s characters and story, I mostly just ignore the particulars of the Kanako scene unless if I need to sit through it again. I view it as the equivalent of a flubbed line read or a boom mic visible in a shot--I can see the pieces that were meant to be there underneath the lackluster execution.

Surprisingly, Ceroba’s still my 2nd favorite original character in Yellow, though a lot of this is owed to her dynamic with Star, and part of me wonders if I like her more for the character she could’ve been rather than the character we got. Still, I’ll always remember the buildup to the mystery of Ceroba’s backstory, even if the reveal failed to deliver.

Flowey

Flowey is one of my favorite Undertale characters as well as the only character from Undertale featured in a recurring lead role in Yellow, so I was curious to see how this game would handle him.

When this game was first announced, many fans debated the “canonicity” of whether Flowey would have encountered the human who fell prior to Frisk and whether Flowey would retain his save abilities in such a scenario. Often this debate overshadowed the other aspects of Flowey’s portrayal, so to avoid doing the same, I’ll just say that I don’t believe Toby ever intended for Flowey’s save abilities to function in relation to a human like how they’re portrayed in Undertale Yellow. However, I don’t take issue with this “lore contradiction” because I feel that the way Flowey is utilized in this aspect works for the story that Yellow is trying to tell. Flowey’s role is to limit Clover’s own powers and to keep their story on-track.

It’s easier to tell a prequel story where the main character is destined to die if that character doesn’t also have the ability to return from the dead at will or turn back time, so having Flowey fill that power vacuum makes sense. Despite this, Clover is still given plenty of agency. Flowey only railroads their story in two notable instances: whenever Clover is going to live with Toriel or when Martlet offers to have Clover come live with her in a neutral run. Both outcomes would be a bit of a cop-out for the game’s main conflict and would be the boring option as well (sorry fanfic authors)—Flowey agrees with this sentiment, making it feel justified that he’d intervene.

Having gotten that out of the way, what do I think of Flowey’s portrayal? Compared to Undertale, it’s interesting to think how much more screentime Flowey receives in Undertale Yellow, despite Flowey being the main antagonist and ostensible central character of Undertale. Since Flowey’s story can’t be allowed to conclude in Yellow, his character is kept in some degree of stasis—in many ways, Yellow’s portrayal can be seen as “Flowey, but more.” That might sound like a pejorative, but for the most part I think it works here. Flowey’s interactions with Clover honestly make him feel a little underutilized in Undertale by comparison.

That said, Undertale was a game intended to have moments of isolation, so having Flowey chime in at every save point likely would have diminished that effect and also made Flowey less threatening due to overexposure. I think Yellow can get away with giving more screentime to Flowey because for most of the game his mask hasn’t dropped—he has every bit of ill intent that he did in Undertale, but for the sake of his plans he has to play along at being your friend for far longer than he did in Undertale.

The result is that very little of what Flowey says in Yellow can be taken at face value once you know his aims. Until that point, however, I think the game does a good enough job at keeping you guessing as to how far gone Flowey is and at what point in his moral decline this story is meant to take place. If someone played this game without playing Undertale first, they’d probably chalk up Flowey’s mannerisms to him just having an odd and occasionally morbid sense of humor, which isn’t far from the truth.

One thing that I appreciate about Yellow’s portrayal of Flowey is his dynamic with Clover—the game manages to thread the needle of not making their relationship an also-ran of Flowey and Frisk or Flowey and “Chara” from Undertale’s No Mercy run. For most of the game you get the sense that Flowey views Clover as a means to an end that he’s forced to humor and put up with, but that deep down he likely has some small sentimentality towards them (mainly shown in the pacifist ending).

I think Flowey’s relationship with Clover in neutral and pacifist gives us a look into how he likely acted around the other monsters of the underground back when he tried to solve their problems or form bonds with them—he can’t fully relate to them but is willing to fake it ‘til he makes it, or rather until they make it to the outcome that he wants. If I were to draw a more direct comparison, I think Flowey’s bond with Clover might be the most similar to his bond with Papyrus—he’s implied to have spent a lot of time with each of them and found them each amusing in their own regard, but ultimately Flowey isn’t above using them or casting them aside.

What I find especially compelling about Flowey and Clover is the turn that their partnership takes in Yellow’s No Mercy route. Here Flowey initially seems to be cautiously optimistic about Clover’s rampage, but as his advice is ignored he grows increasingly exasperated with their actions. It’s strange to say, but it’s a refreshing dynamic to see Flowey outright grow to hate his human companion—while he voiced plenty of insults and disdain towards Frisk, it came off more as condescension or an attempt at intimidation.

In Yellow, however, you can really feel Flowey becomng absolutely fed up with Clover, not just for their pushiness and disobedience in the no mercy route but also for the hundreds of runs where Flowey has had to string them along and, in the process, be strung along himself. This development is much better-paced in Yellow than Flowey’s turn toward fearing Chara in Undertale—it’s amazing what can be done when you’re allowed to have more than four conversations with a character.

That said, I don’t think there’s any one Flowey moment in Yellow that quite lives up to Flowey’s speech in New Home or the conclusion to his story in the form of Asriel—those two moments will forever be peak Flowey to me. When comparing Undertale Flowey to Yellow Flowey, it’s a case of quantity vs quality, but in this case the “quantity” is still pretty good.

If I had to voice any complaints for Yellow Flowey beyond a broad “it’s not as good as something near-perfect”, I will say that when Flowey’s mask does drop in Yellow, he doesn’t sound quite as crass or childish as he does in Undertale—something I feel is important to him as a villain, but this is a very minor nitpick since he has plenty of lines in this game that go hard. I didn’t even notice the difference in speech styles until I went back and watched footage of Undertale and realized “oh yeah, I guess he sounds a bit more childish here.”

I suppose there’s one other thing I should discuss regarding Flowey. This is a topic that I intentionally saved for last since I find it’s a perfect capstone for Undertale Yellow and my opinions on it: Flowey’s boss fight. If ever there was a case of “Flowey, but more,” it would be this fight. For years Undertale fans have speculated and wished and wondered what a fight against plain old vanilla Flowey would be like. Countless fangames and fan battles have tried.

Yellow opts for an unorthodox approach by centering the entire fight within Flowey’s mind—this framing is used to its fullest and then some, allowing for interface-screws and psychedelic attack patterns showcasing Flowey’s twistedness, his self-loathing, and his various forms of retraumatization.

Players are attacked by phantoms of any bosses that they killed, complete with Floweytale-esque corrupted designs. This aspect of the fight dovetails perfectly with Flowey’s comment about only enjoying the moments of Clover’s run where they “gave in” to their violent urges, and clearly these moments are etched in Flowey’s memories for Clover to relive.

Afterwards we’re treated to a peek behind the curtain at Flowey’s subconscious, featuring a collage of his first runs as a flower—this whole sequence adapts my favorite Flowey moment from Undertale while not tipping its hand too much by revealing Flowey’s true identity, as it easily could have in less-skilled hands. We’re given just enough to ponder without spoiling things for the mythical gamer who tries playing Yellow before Undertale.

Next up is a brief horror fakeout where Clover “reunites” with Martlet. I don’t have much to add other than the telegraphing being a bit obvious but not in a way that majorly detracts from the moment. Overall it just makes me consider that this fight as a whole might be scarier than anything in Undertale

Finally we have the climax of the fight. I’m not quite sure what to call it. Photoshop Flowey 2.0? To be brief, the visual spectacle shown in this phase surpasses not only the visuals of any sequence (so far) in Undertale or Deltarune, but I think it’s unlikely that future chapters of Deltarune will feature anything with visual flare on the level of this finale.

That’s probably the highest praise I’ve given to Undertale Yellow so far, which is what makes this next part so difficult. I’m sure this will go down as my hottest take in this entire review, and it breaks my heart to say it given the clear effort on display from the developers, but…

I did not care for the Flowey fight.

How can I even say that? Was all of my prior praise just a lie? Not at all—I meant every word of it and then some. So how is it possible that I didn’t like this fight? You’ll notice that I broke down the Flowey fight into its individual phases and aspects, praising each in isolation. You might also notice that my praise was aimed at the spectacle and underlying concepts of the fight, which are fantastic, but I had very little to say about the actual experience of playing the fight—and that’s because I found the fight to be an utter slog to get through. In hindsight, it might actually be my least-favorite fight in the entire Undertale franchise if we’re solely talking about the gameplay. I’d rather fight a Jerry than have to fight this thing again.

I’ll admit up front that I sucked at this fight when I played it. I sucked at all of Yellow’s final bosses and initially didn’t care for their gameplay. I eventually warmed up to Ceroba and Martlet’s fights as I got better and learned to beat them without needing easy mode, but the Flowey fight never clicked for me in the same way despite arguably being the easiest of the three.

So what’s the problem? There are little things here and there—I found some of the phase 1 attacks a bit obnoxious to dodge, though nothing major. I found the collision detection in the vine chase sequences to be a bit clunky, resulting in one or two deaths that felt unearned, but none of these issues are enough to sink the fight.

No, two major missteps that come to my mind are length and repetition.

Out of curiosity, after my neutral run I looked up gameplay videos of the Yellow Flowey fight and the Omega Flowey fight from Undertale: on average, Yellow’s fight took players twice as long to complete as the Omega Flowey fight. The difference is so stark that a “no hit” speedrun of Yellow’s fight with dialogue skipped, the intro cutscene edited out, and no attacks from killed bosses is still longer than an Omega fight played normally.

I want to be clear that my criticism here is not “it’s different from the Omega fight, therefore it’s bad.” The Omega Flowey fight, in my opinion, already drags at times, and it’s probably my least-favorite final boss in Undertale despite having the most effort put into it. I already take (minor) issue with the Omega Flowey fight for overstaying its welcome, but Yellow’s fight is beyond the pale. One nice thing I can say is that Yellow’s fight at least tries to break itself up with an intermission of sorts in the middle, but the whole experience is still technically one fight, so in some ways this just feels like padding, particularly the Martlet scene.

To give a non-Undertale point of comparison, the Flowey fight reminded me (oddly enough) of Darth Vader’s hallway fight scene in the film Rogue One. For many fans this scene was considered the highlight of the entire film, but a vocal minority at the time criticized this scene for being irrelevant to the film’s central characters and unnecessary to the overall plot—it was just something thrown in for fan service that could have been cut at no detriment to the overall narrative. While I can understand the latter perspective, I have no issues with the Vader scene at all—if anything I think it enhances the third act’s feeling of desperation. but overall it’s just a cool scene and that alone makes its inclusion feel warranted.

So why do I feel different about Vader’s scene compared to Flowey’s fight? After all, both are action-heavy “scenes” featuring the main villain of the original installment doing what they do best at the end of a prequel that wasn’t centered on them. The difference is that Vader’s scene is less than 2 minutes long. It’s closer to 60-90 seconds if we only count the portion where he’s onscreen and it’s less than 1% of the film’s runtime. Conversely, there’s a no commentary neutral run of Undertale Yellow on Youtube where the Flowey fight takes up about 15% of the overall run. Had Vader’s scene been that long, even if it were expertly shot and choreographed while being broken up with bits of pathos, I would’ve been checking my watch and waiting for it to be over.

Still, I could forgive the Flowey fight’s length if it had variety and was building toward something. Surely this is true of the Yellow fight, right? Well, I would say that the Yellow Flowey fight probably has the widest variety of total attacks in the game—it has six unique photoshop phases as well as copied attacks from previous bosses in the first phase. The problem is that these are part of his total attacks but not necessarily his most common attacks—half of the ones I just listed are optional depending on who you killed and the other half are for brief one-off phases.

For the majority of the fight you’ll be dealing with Flowey’s other attacks: his standard attacks, which are recycled ad nauseam with little variation and no iteration. In phase 1 this isn’t too noticeable if you only killed one or two bosses, but if you killed most (like I did) then every unique boss attack is sandwiched between a standard Flowey attack and a vine chase sequence, which really bloats the runtime of the fight. Still, I’d argue that phase 2 is the worse culprit in this regard.

For those who’ve played, let me know if this sounds familiar to you: four vines shoot up out of the floor, four piranha plants emerge twice spitting up bullets, two hands scroll across the screen lazily scattering pellets, three guns materialize and fire at your location, a bomb with an “X” or “+” shape detonates, a small circle with spikes orbiting it homes in on your position, and two cowboys riding horses gallop by until one explodes, all while the song “Afterlife” plays from the beginning. Now tell me: which part of the fight am I referring to? If you guessed “more than half of all attacks in the 2nd phase,” then you’d be right!

Now, some of you might be questioning why I’m complaining about lack of “variety” when I just listed off seven individual attacks and earlier I complained about Yellow bosses using too many types of attacks. Well, the problem is that these same seven attacks are all used in sequence with each other over and over and over with no progression—each phase of this lasts 25-30 seconds and it’s repeated at least 7 times in the fight (more if you die).

Combined, no joke, this one sequence of attacks lasts 3 minutes, longer than an entire pacifist Toriel fight (dialogue included). Don’t believe me? Look it up on Youtube. You spend at least 10% of the Flowey fight dodging this one attack pattern. You literally spend an entire Toriel fight dodging just one prolonged attack pattern. And as the cherry on top, “Afterlife” always starts over from the beginning each time this sequence plays—just to drill into your head how repetitive this all is.

To be fair, Omega Flowey has a similar problem of repeating a ~25 second attack phase multiple times, but I find it more bearable there because:

Omega Flowey randomly uses 3-4 types of attacks from his larger arsenal per phase instead of trying to cram nearly every single one in every time like in Yellow, which (ironically) makes the Omega sequences feel less samey

Omega Flowey makes use of loading, which spices up the encounters by feeling unfair initially until you notice the save messages in the corner that telegraph them

Each of Omega’s sequences has a Fight button that, though optional, acts as a goal and motivator, as opposed to the player just impotently killing time until the phase ends, and

Omega Flowey’s music doesn’t start over from the beginning each time he attacks.

Those last two might seem minor since they don’t directly affect the overall gameplay, but I honestly think they’re the most crucial because they give the player a goal and a feeling of progression, even if it’s illusory.

Probably my biggest issue with Yellow’s Flowey fight, even more so than the length and the repetition, is that it ultimately doesn’t go anywhere. It pretty much can’t be allowed to go anywhere due to the aforementioned “stasis” of Flowey’s character arc. Flowey can’t suffer a grand defeat or learn a lesson that impacts his character in any major way, which only makes me question why this fight is here at all.

Omega Flowey, while feeling hopeless and repetitive in some places, has a clear progression, goal, and conclusion that leads to Frisk either reinforcing Flowey’s beliefs or causing Flowey to seemingly question them and offer a path to the true pacifist ending. There’s a reason why the song “Finale” is considered an underrated gem—because it shows a clear turning point and building momentum in that fight. I’m not saying Yellow’s fight needed to copy this same moment, but instead it just peters out with nothing to show for itself. I mean, do I even need to say anything when the game itself basically makes my case for me?

So what would have been better? Personally, I think the first phase of the fight is largely fine as-is. Phase 1 is by no means without its flaws, but it’s the phase that’s most relevant to Clover and the overall story on a thematic level—the boss attacks are a consequence of Clover’s actions and the vine chases (though repetitive) are meant to symbolize Clover’s endlessly repeated runs. And the thing is? The pieces are already there for the fight to end in a more natural way that respects the player’s time.

If the fight were to be given a page 1 rewrite, then I would end it at the section with Flowey’s subconscious that shows his past. Why?

It’s a great scene on its own that should be kept,

The scene would actually be relevant to the fight instead of it going unremarked on like it currently is (seriously, Flowey has nothing to say about it?),

It would fit the central conceit of the fight—Flowey is able to peer into Clover’s memories but Clover can do the same to Flowey and that scares him, and as a result...

It would be a more believable and character-driven “off ramp” for Flowey to back out of the fight.

This last point is especially important because we see throughout Undertale Yellow that Flowey is constantly hiding from other monsters—he clearly doesn’t want to entangle himself with them or have them interfere in his affairs. We can also pick up from his dialogue in Undertale and, to a lesser degree, Yellow that Flowey doesn’t want to talk about his past life as Asriel.

Having Clover intrude upon that territory would likely spur a strong reaction from Flowey, to the point where he’d rather abandon his plans, albeit temporarily, than open up that side of himself to a stranger. This would not only make the fight shorter and end it on a more emotionally resonant note, but I feel it also makes more sense for the narrative and themes of Yellow.

Flowey’s rationalization for letting Clover go could be something to the effect of needing to “tidy up” his head space before he’s ready to share it with someone else. Perhaps in the process he could drop a hint that he’s only opened himself up like this once before (with Chara) or that he had thought he had buried those old memories for good.

I also feel like this explanation would work better in the greater context of Flowey’s actions—Flowey quitting the fight out of boredom raises the question of why he’d repeat the fight on future neutral runs or why he’d be so confident that he could absorb the six souls in Undertale if one was too stubborn for him. Instead, having Flowey be emotionally unprepared for his plan but trying to find a workaround would lend itself better to him trying again in the future—to him it was just a little slip-up that he can overcome with enough attempts.

I don’t want to give the impression that my critique here is “the Flowey fight wasn’t done the way I’d have done it, therefore it’s bad.” My suggested “rewrite” to the fight is merely piggybacking off of what was already there, which are great concepts that I could never have dreamed up myself. The problem is that there’s just too much. Way too much. It feels like not enough was cut during the planning stage and what we’re left with is the epitome of “less than the sum of its parts.”

Of course, my rewrite omits the 2nd phase entirely—something that couldn’t be done with the current fight since it’s the most visually stunning segment of the entire game—like it or not, that genie is out of the bottle.

If I had to give any suggestions to improve the fight that we currently have? I’d say that I don’t think the “afterlife” portions of the 2nd phase need to be repeated so often. I think the phase would be better paced if afterlife only occurred at the very beginning and very end, and instead each mini-phase just brought you right back to Flowey’s petal roulette wheel to take you into the next mini-phase.

None of this is to say that I hated the Flowey fight overall. I still love many of the concepts that the fight brings to the table and I’ll watch moments of it on Youtube from time to time, but I just don’t care to experience it again firsthand any time soon, which is pretty much the opposite of how I felt with the Omega Flowey fight.

Looking at Yellow’s final bosses now that I’ve completed them all, I think my favorite might actually be Zenith Martlet? Which is insane to me because I hated that fight the first time I tried it—anyone who shared a Discord with me can attest that I was complaining nonstop when I attempted that fight.

Even now I’d say the Zenith fight is sloppy and the bandaid solutions for it in the 1.1 patch only illustrate how unbalanced this fight originally was. I’ve never beaten it on 1.0, nor do I intend to, yet in 1.1 I’d say I probably enjoyed myself the most with this fight. It doesn’t overstay its welcome like Flowey, nor does it have anything as egregious as the Kanako cutscene in the Ceroba fight. It respects my time, it has great music (though that’s par for all the bosses), the attacks (while chaotic) mostly stick to a consistent handful of themes, and the narrative context of the fight works (minus the bit with Alphys’ lab).

At first I found the Zenith fight unfitting for Martlet as a character. I thought “what? Martlet isn’t some hidden badass,” but that was exactly the point—this isn’t who Martlet is, and reality catches up with her. The 2nd phase is my favorite part of the fight as we see, in typical Martlet fashion, she didn’t plan ahead and can only hopelessly flail about as the “enemy retreating” motif overtakes her theme. It’s a somewhat understated and undignified ending to the character and that’s exactly what makes it work—it’s another example of the game showing restraint and being all the better for it, as opposed to overreaching.

That said, if I wanted to cheat, I’d say my real favorite final boss is the Asgore “fight” from the false pacifist ending. It’s focused on the characters and their goals and it doesn’t try to be anything too flashy. It’s an even more understated yet fitting final boss than Martlet, though the rest of the “false” ending outside of Asgore is a bit lackluster since it’s just a glorified neutral ending.

Conclusion

To wrap things up, I’m sure you’ve all noticed the throughline here: Undertale Yellow is at its best when it’s tasteful and restrained, and at its worst when its ambitions run wild. Of course, that’s easy for me to say from the outside looking in. It’s likely that many of the things I enjoyed about Yellow were ambitious in their conception but were handled carefully enough to appear restrained and effortless. I have no intention of downplaying that—the project as a whole was ambitious, given the time and effort lovingly poured into it.

As I mentioned in the beginning, my criticisms are not intended to dissuade anyone from trying this game. I would not want this game to be forgotten, but I also would not want it to be uncritically praised as some flawless masterpiece that eclipses the original game—that not only does a disservice to the people who worked on Undertale but also to the people who worked on Undertale Yellow. Both games were carefully crafted and both games have their triumphs as well as their flaws.

The last thing that I would want any fan creator to take way from Undertale Yellow OR the original game would be “this was perfect, just copy what they did.” What’s important is understanding why things worked and where they could be improved. Despite Undertale Yellow’s reverence for Undertale, it takes risks and finds places to innovate over the original game. Not all of it works, but I can respect the effort.

And that sums up my overall opinion of the game—it’s a game that I like but a game that I respect even more. The best complement that I can give is that even the parts of the game I didn’t like still had good ideas evident within them. The pieces were there.

With some tweaks, fine-tuning, and the courage to reign in a couple aspects, I honestly think this game could be made to rival the original one day. But even if that day never comes, Undertale Yellow is still a fine game as-is. It’s not a game I consider “canon” like some fans have argued, but I still plan to replay it alongside the original in the future, and I can’t think of higher praise to give than that.

#undertale yellow #undertale #starlo #ceroba #martlet

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dedicatemyhearttoyou · 4 months

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AoT actor au - Tattoo Headcanons

Levi is either heavily tattooed or won't let any ink touch his skin EVER!

Levi with a full sleeve or a tat peeking out of his collar/on his neck

a bunch of the male survey corps actors get the wings of freedom tattooed on their peck above their hearts (the 104th boys, Reiner, Erwin)

Armin likely picked a more discreet place for the tattoo

in a twist of turns, however, it turns out that sweet, innocent Armin ends up as the cast member with the most tattoos

during a reunion years later he turns up and no one recognizes the shy boy from then anymore, even though he is still as sweet

Eren, Mikasa, and Armin also get their initials EMA tattooed on their wrists (kinda like one piece Ace's tattoo of asce)

Ymir has a ton of tattoos, so many that she spends the most time in hair and make-up because covering them all up takes so much time

there are like three make-up artists working on it simultaneously every time

and they still manage to miss spots, much to the fun for fans who try to find a tattoo peeking out during every Ymir scene

Historia in contrast has none... or at last, she used to

Ymir while not having coerced her in any way definitely influenced Historia's decision of wanting to get a small one

which is also why Ymir accompanied her to get it done

Hanji also has the freedom of wings tattooed, together with a titan or something symbolizing the titans and science

Hanji definitely tried to talk Levi into getting a commemorative aot tattoo, but a silly one. Like him getting 'heicho' or something tattooed, which he refused

he did get a tattoo to celebrate the show but one of his own choice and taste

him with a more elaborate, almost regal version of the wings of freedom spanning over his shoulders!

Sasha also definitely got a small potato tattoo

eren has a tattoo of his titan/the eye portion on his calf

The OG Levi squad from season one all got the bite mark on their hands tattooed and surprised the cast (mostly Eren) when they returned for their cameo in s4

#aot #snk #aot actor au #levi akerman #hange zoe #armin arlert #eren yeager #mikasa ackerman #erwin smith

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steampunkforever · 19 days

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As a semipro screenwriter myself, I often find my thoughts occupied with a yearning of sorts for the close circle of creatives that spawned the Romantic movement or the Beat Generation. "Networking" and the astroturf sterility of online writers guilds and facebook groups just don't have the same spark as a loose grouping of maladaptive freaks devoted to making intolerably pretentious artworks. Where, I ask, do I organically find a circle of like minded snobs to be a freak about movies and culture with? Do they not make those anymore? Where have all the inner circles gone? Did nepotism and studio commercialization pave over the greatest minds of our generation?

In watching legendary skate film Yeah Right! I was reminded that these sort of movements aren't sorted until hindsight can gain some focus. "Malaise Era" is a term referring to Carter's post-Vietnam America (specifically in the manufacturing industry) decline, but it was minted in a 2008 jalopnik blog post. Cultural storms are only named well after landfall, and Yeah Right! reminded me of this.

Yeah Right! is a darn good skate film, but the talent within it is frankly of more note than the film itself. The movie gives you exactly what you want from a skate film: people doing tricks on boards. It's artfully shot and tracked to a stacked setlist of the best possible songs you could imagine for this sort of skate film (minus break stuff, mind you), with whip smart editing and great composition, but that's not the special part.

What's most impressive about the film is who populates the credits, a star studded list of skateboarding for that era's best and brightest, alongside names like Sofia Coppola, Owen Wilson (who has a great little cameo sequence), Sam Spiegel (whose work you've definitely encountered through Jose Cuervo/Levi's/H&M/T Mobile ads if you didn't encounter it through MIA/Kanye/Doja Cat/Crystal Castles/Maroon 5 first), Andy Jenkins (of the band Milk) and Ty Evans. Even if they didn't contribute to the film any more than needed to warrant a special thanks mention, these names represent a network of creatives who all hang together in a loose association that only now am I connecting into a sort of movement of young creatives of the era that reaches all the way to Nitro Circus, Gymkhana, Hoonigan, and RWB in japan.

What I'm saying is that you won't be able to see the wave til it breaks. And this is coming from someone who watched the film surrounded by a loose collection of like minded movie freaks that'd organically grown from just a few people who wanted to see weird films into an organized crowd of people there to discuss art, film, and whether or not Nic Cage is hot. Some questions answer themselves. Go watch Yeah Right! It's a great piece of sports cinema.

#filmposting #film #Yeah right!#spike jonze #cinema

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the-irredeemable-batman · 25 days

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SPOILERS FOR INVINCIBLE S2E08!!! WATCH AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION!!!

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Well, everyone that has read Invincible knows that during his fight against Levi, Mark gets thrown into the Marvel universe, bumping into a fight between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus. Let's be sincere, Amazon getting the rights to add Spider-Man was an almost impossible idea... But not entirely impossible. Yet still, we had to brace ourselves for small cameo in which the Marvel character would seem recognizable for the fans, yet ambiguous enough for lawyer teams. I was lowkey expecting that, but they decided to go further and have a more elaborate encounter... So... That's the thing: The either payed for those juicy Spider-Man rights or they made a legally distinct Spider themed superhero. Of course they went for the second option.

So... Introducing...

Agent Spider! Ugh...

Look, I think it's unfair to be disappointed by them not being able to add Spidey. I get it, but it was a pipe dream...

... However...

This legally distinct character looks quite awful and unappealing, which is weird considering how generally good Invincible designs are (specially for the pastiche characters). I'm no rabid MCU hater, but this guy looks like the worst MCU design trends in an original Spider-Man design, minus all the basic Spider-Man elements.

Like, I get not making him look too close to Spider-Man — stuff like changing the colors or composition — but this looks WAAAY too tacky. And what's with that "agent" motif? Who came up with that random ass bullshit? "Agent" Spider? Why? That motif actually add the worst elements to the design. Like the stupid "A", or the harness, or the pouches, or the "tactical" lines of the... Is that a fucking helmet? Jeez.

What irks me the most is that making a good looking Spider-Man parody/pastiche is not really that hard, you don't have to overdo it. Look at the Brown Widow from Venture Bros.

The theme makes more sense, as this chatacter is based on a specific type of spider and there is a comedic motif that doesn't take over most of the design. Yet still, it retains the simple siluette of Spider-Man and a basic notion of detailing and distribution of elements on the suit. Most importantly, THE EYES! The eyes scream Spider-Man, yet they give it their own spin to fit into their own motifs.

Whatever Spider-Man knockoff they would have added to the Invincible season 2 finale, it should have been something more like the Brown Widow, not that awful Agent Spider.

Well, at least they got Josh Keaton.

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 22 days

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Is It Really That Bad?

“The hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change.”

So said Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson many, many times in the lead up to the debut of his superhero vehicle Black Adam. And, at the time, it sounded like he may have been telling the truth. Johnson was at a point in his career where he’d gained a bit of respect as an actor after his early career was plagued by boring garbage like Doom and campy cheese like The Scorpion King; he now had showcased some comedic acting prowess in films like Moana and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and in the former film he also got to show a bit of emotion when needed. Also in the case of the former, he was clearly very passionate about playing Maui, and it seemed like he was passionate about portraying Captain Mar—Er, SHAZAM’S archenemy as well, seeing as he’d been attached to a movie about the guy since about 2007 and was now able to swing his Hollywood clout around to push it out of development hell. And while the DCEU was on a bit of shaky ground thanks to Wonder Woman 1984 being infamously bad even for a film shat out during COVID, James Gunn’s one-two punch of critically acclaimed cult classic The Suicide Squad and the fantastic spin-off series Peacemaker gave people hope that DC was on the rise and we were about to be given some of the best Johnson we’d ever experienced.

Unfortunately, that’s just not how things panned out. Black Adam ended up being yet another in a string of bombs for DC, and this wouldn’t be so noteworthy if not for a certain cameo.

Leaked online ahead of the film’s premier, people got super hyped that Henry Cavill was finally back as Superman after faceless teases of the character in Peacemaker and Shazam! No more jerking the audience around, this was full confirmation Cavill was back, and he’d be fighting Adam (a longstanding dream of Johnson’s)! The audience was absolutely ecstatic, and whatever else could be said about the movie everyone was hopeful about the future of DC!

But let’s be real here: A couple of good films notwithstanding, the DCEU was a disease-ridden old pooch, and it had to be put out of its misery with a Gunn. James Gunn was announced to be taking over the DC movie universe and ushering in a continuity reboot to unfuck the messy and convoluted universe, one of the exceedingly rare good decisions WB has made in the past decade. But such a change in the hierarchy of power was not something that was good for this film (or any of the forthcoming DC films), and not helping matters were some of Johnson’s more egotistical decisions coming to light, such as vetoing an appearance by Zachary Levi and forcing in the aforementioned Supernan cameo.

The result was yet another bomb on DC’s hands, losing an estimated $100 million due to its budget ballooning. But this didn’t have the issues that the other recents bombs had; it didn’t have to compete with a Sonic movie like Birds of Prey, it didn’t have to deal with having an abysmal predecessor that scared audiences away like The Suicide Squad, and it wasn’t an astonishingly awful piece of dogshit with horrendous writing starring and directed by two phenomenally terrible human beings like Wonder Woman 1984. It failed because Johnson got too big for his britches and couldn’t just change course to deliver a Shazam sequel and instead tried to swing his Hollywood superstar dick around when the writing was on the wall for the franchise.

But now that some time has passed and we’re on our way to seeing what Gunn’s new take on DC will be, let’s take a look at the death rattle of the DCEU and see if it’s really that bad.

THE GOOD

Dwayne Johnson’s genuine passion for Adam honestly shines through. Like this isn’t really a character who is breaking new ground or reinventing the wheel or anything, but within the framework of the story the film is telling Johnson does an exceptional job bringing the character to life and manages to inject quality acting into the performance. The emotional backstory moments land, the humor lands, it’s just a Rock-solid superhero movie performance. And while he doesn’t end up feeling very antiheroic overall, he rips the bad guy in half with his bare hands while shooting off a one-liner, a moment so fucking cool it makes me a lot more lenient with some of the film’s flaws.

youtube

Of course, as much as he’d like to be the best thing in the movie, Johnson really can’t hold a candle to Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate. You can always count on a former Bond actor to deliver, and he adds a sense of class to the proceedings, especially in his interactions with Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman. Hodge is a bit more of a mixed bag, but when he’s bouncing off of Brosnan he really shines. Seriously, Brosnan is just the MVP of this movie. This might be his best late-career role since Mamma Mia!

All of the action in the movie is great, even by superhero movie standards. That’s not to say everything is amazingly plot relevant, but all of the fight scenes are exceptionally well done and exciting. When two dudes are punching the shit out of each other or Adam is vaporizing thugs, it’s a lot of dumb fun. Going off of the previous point, they actually manage to utilize Fate's powers in a lot of fun and interesting ways that make him a delight to watch in his few battles, and Hawkman is no slouch being a winged dude who can have a midair battle with Adam.

Also, there’s just something really nice and refreshing about seeing a Middle Eastern country being liberated from its oppressors by a powerful guardian who wants them free from tyranny. It feels very topical even though it pretty obviously wasn’t intentional at all. If you wanted to be extremely charitable, you could call this a pro-Palestine response to Wonder Woman 1984 and its blatant Islamophobia. Do I personally believe that? Uh, no. Does it really make the film any better if it is the case? Er...

THE BAD

I think one of the things that absolutely wounds this film is its steadfast refusal to engage with the source material it’s adapting. Shazam laid the groundwork for this movie, setting up Adam’s appearance down the road, and then this movie doesn’t even mention Billy Batson at all. We get a cameo from Superman, sure, but Superman isn’t Adam’s archenemy is he? And this issue is apparently directly traceable to the Big Johnson himself. There’s this idea that he has it that he can never look stupid in movies or lose big battles, and I don’t necessarily believe that’s an actual thing, but it feels really true here. How’re you gonna be a badass anti-hero and get your ass whupped by a teenager? It’s a dumb thing to worry about when you’re playing a character known for it though, and it’s even dumber to veto a cameo of that character just because you wanna be a big tough guy who only fights macho men like Superman—and that’s exactly what Johnson used his clout to do. It honestly makes me wonder why he wanted to play a villain most famous for going up against the original Captain Marvel if he didn’t want to engage with the character at all.

Maybe this would be easier to swallow if we had a villain who wasn’t a forgettable CGI sack of shit, but sadly as badass a concept as SABBAC the demonic anti-Shazam sounds on paper this is all he ends up amounting to. His human form, Ishmael, is even worse and blander, though I do find it funny Marwan Kenzari has twice now performed as an underwhelming villain who turned into a big red CGI demon turd.

Also, as cool as Dr. Fate and Hawkman are, the other members of the Justice Society are so utterly forgettable and superfluous to the plot that it’s easy to forget they’re even there most of the time. I can’t remember a single thing of note they did. It’s a shame too, since they have interesting powers and designs, but they are just so unimportant to what’s going on that it’s hard to care about them. And it’s not even the heroes who are dull and forgettable; the Kandaq people we follow throughout the film are just really forgettable as well. The fact only a handful of characters will make any impression on you in a film with this chunky runtime is really troubling.

But the biggest crime of the film is just that it plays everything way too safe. This is strictly formula, plain and simple, hitting all the beats of your generic origin story for a hero with just a teeny tiny bit more brutality because they’re trying to sell Adam as a badass anti-hero. Except, no, it doesn’t really work because he’s neutered by the PG-13 rating for the most part and he never really comes off as morally gray or unscrupulous. This man ain’t a badass, he’s a badbutt. The point is, you’ve seen this exact story play out a million times before—and usually better—to the point where you could probably guess certain lines of dialogue before they happen and you’ll likely figure out where the plot’s going ages ahead of the characters.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

Black Adam is pretty much the definition of “mid.” It’s not an awful film. It’s not a great film. It’s not a film that really brings about much of a strong emotional response no matter what way you slice it. But it’s not a wholly unpleasant viewing experience either. It’s just… fine. It’s an okay movie.

But “okay” is not what DC needed, and it’s certainly not what Johnson wanted for this character he was so passionate about that he stuck with him for almost twenty years and used his massive star power he’d accumulated to get it made when he could have easily swung that power into making some dramatic passion project. He wanted this to be big, he wanted to be the next big anti-hero, he wanted to fight Superman so goddamn bad… But it’s ultimately this ego that held the film back. This is a dude who is supposed to fight Shazam, but Johnson was dead set on him fighting the other buff flying super dude; if he really wanted to fight Superman so bad, why not push to play a Superman villain? He has proven time and time again he’s funny, so why not make him Bizarro? Or get really crazy and cast him as Lex Luthor, bald and occasionally buff super genius archenemy of Superman? There are so many dudes who actually fight Superman that Johnson could pull off and yet he chose to forcefully repurpose another hero’s villain instead of shifting gears a bit. The whole film just ends up feeling like a massive monument to his ego and hubris as opposed to the passion project it obviously was, and he unfortunately only has himself to blame there.

Ultimately, while I don’t think Black Adam is responsible for the DCEU dying—this film series was on life support since Dawn of Justice—it definitely is emblematic of every single problem that brought down the series. It just genuinely doesn’t understand what fans of the character would want to see, it features a bland and underwhelming villain only there for some cool action scenes, and it sets up so many things that would never be delivered upon. Sure, there’s plenty to like here, but why bother when you can watch something else with these same good qualities and actually have it be more than decent background noise? You wanna see some great Pierce Brosnan acting in an action movie? I have great news! He made three James Bond movies worth watching, and also Die Another Day! You want a good comic book anti-hero movie? Go watch Dredd, The Suicide Squad, or even Punisher: War Zone. Dead set on a movie where a buff hero with your typical flying brick powers fights some evil demons? Just go watch Shazam!

I hope this movie failing so hard and leaving so much egg on Johnson’s face humbles him a bit and gets him to check his ego in the future, because I do genuinely enjoy the guy’s movies. He’s got good comedic chops, he’s pretty charming when he wants to be, and he’s great at elevating batshit material if given the chance as Southland Tales’ unorthodox use of him goes to show. I’d like to see him go back to doing weirder, smaller stuff for a while and maybe build back confidence in his acting career again because right now he’s almost as big a joke as the Scorpion King CGI in The Mummy Returns. He’s just not respected as much as he was a few years ago, and this overhyped bomb is what did it.

I’d say the score here is just about right. This really isn’t a bad movie, but it’s not anything special either; it’s just some mindless entertainment to put on in the background while you do something else. It genuinely is a shame, because this could have been a great movie that ushered in a fantastic new age for the DCEU, with Johnson saving the franchise after the past blunders of Snyder almost tanked it… But he came too little, too late and his movie ended up paying the price. And while it’s not fair to lay all the blame on Black Adam, it’s hard to feel too sorry when it does next to nothing to justify its existence beyond a scant few memes, and even in that regard it is outdone by far worse (and thus more entertaining) films like Morbius and Madame Web. This movie is, sadly, just nothing. It is a nothing film that elicits no strong feelings and you’ll likely forget it soon after watching it. It won’t be an unpleasant experience to view, but I’d be shocked if it leaves anything beyond the most minimal impact on you. It is the dictionary definition of “mid.”

#is it really that bad?#IIRTB #review #movie review #Black Adam #DCEU #Dwayne Johnson #DC #DC comics #comic book movie #superhero movie #Youtube

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jaxs-beanie · 1 year

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Levi Kreis Hermes Headcanons

Levi Kreis recently posted an amazing video on Cameo about his headcanons for playing Hermes in the National Tour of Hadestown. He kept a 160-page Hermes journal filled with his own headcanons about Hermes--it started with the basics of Hermes from mythology and went from there.

In his imagination journal, Calliope meant more to his Hermes than any woman he'd been in contact with, and Orpheus may or may not be actually Hermes' son. Regardless of paternity, Orpheus was a son to Levi’s Hermes, and he had ideas about what it was like the day Calliope left Orpheus with him for him to raise, and why she left and who she gave her loyalties to. The first year without Calliope was hard for Hermes too and that informed the bond he had with Orpheus--he had a whole backstory about how they met and the love they shared.

Levi’s Hermes taught Orpheus how to play the lyre, laying in the grass, he thinks 'he can learn it by ear, he's talented, this is beautiful' and he wrote Calliope letters on a regular basis to keep her up to date on how Orpheus was growing. “I also needed him to do the one thing Calliope asked from me before she left which was 'help him find his gift, his voice, his place in the world.‘ When Orpheus is on the turntable and singing LAAADADADADADA (his words) he imagines Calliope there in the astral realm seeing that Hermes got him to that point, and that's when Hermes feels he made good on the promise.

That also has an impact on his relationship with Persephone, who he has a bit of a crush on but more than that they've been the longest of friends, and Persephone would share with him that Hades was...that things weren't right at home. They had conversations about what was going on, and it means a lot to him to see Hades and Persephone together because in sharing her pain Hermes has lived through it.

Levi also talked about a moment no other Hermes had, where he and Kevyn Morrow had a face-off during Why We Build the Wall. Hermes refused to sing along, Hades noticed and got in his face about it, and he still refused to sing. 'I love that Kevyn and I came up with that because it not only speaks to the dynamics between us--he is my uncle, yes we are all gods but he is my uncle, and that's a power dynamic you see in that moment. i think that's the moment of the show that i am most angry with him. and i think that he feels that, and Kevyn’s cheeky grin during that whole moment is so interesting.”

#Hadestown #hadestown tour #hermes #orpheus #hades #persephone

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silveragelovechild · 8 months

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BLUE BEETLE (Minor Spoilers)

I was unsure if I wanted to see “Blue Beetle”. Is it one of the last of the old DCEU movies? Or, as suggested by recent articles, the first of the new DCU films under James Gunn and James Safran.

Well, the movie was green lit by Warner in 2021 to be part of mid-budget films to be released exclusively on HBO Max. But with the regime change… and lucky for it, with Safran as a producer, it got a theatrical release date.

As I’m not a fan of Warner/Gunn’s new direction for DC Comics movies, I hesitated. But because the Blue Beetle features the Jaime Reyes version of the character, Warner’s first Mexican superhero, I felt I should at least see it.

First, does this feel like an introduction to a new DC Universe? Flat out, No. The story is set in a fictional city in the Florida Keys, and except for very minor passing references to Batman, Superman, and the Flash, there is no sense of the outside world and the heroes that might inhabit it. So this movie is largely standalone and could exist in any of DC’s multiverses (included the Arrowverse).

What sets this movie apart from other superhero movies is its focus on “La familia”. We have Jaime, his sister, mom and dad, Uncle Rudy, and Nana the abuelita - and they all love each other very much.

This is both good and bad, because like the Shazam-Family in Zachary Levi’s films, Jaime is never on a solo mission. He has to share a lot of screen time and plot with his family.

As Superhero family go, this one is extraordinary… Tio Rudy (played by George Lopez) is a veritable tech genius (someone actually refers to him as Doc Brown). And Nana? She’s played by well known Mexican actress Adriana Barraza. Her character was once a “revolucionista” who can handle a machine gun twice her size. As I don’t recall any revolutions in Mexico in the past 50+ years, maybe in her youth grandma traveled to Nicaragua in the 1980s to fight with the Contras.

These additions are meant to be playful, but each needs a setup, and an arc and conclusion which make the movie less and less about Jaime.

Xolo Maridueña is charming as Jaime. His devotion to his family is his defining trait. Once the alien scarab takes over his body, he’s constantly trying to stop it from killing anybody. An odd juxtaposition because in Tio Rudy’s and Abuelita’s action scenes, they don’t hesitate killing (remember that machine gun?).

Susan Sarandon plays a generic corporate villain and offers nothing special. Her #1 henchman is played by Raoul Trujillo. He eventually becomes a red version of the Beetle (don’t you hate it when the villain becomes a copy of the hero). He and Jaime have many fight scenes (CGI versus CGI like in the Iron Man movies).

The ending gets bogged down in too many fight scenes:

Jaime’s sister versus generic henchmen

Tio Rudy versus generics henchmen

Abuelita versus generic henchmen

Jaime versus generic henchmen

Jaime versus Raoul Trujillo (twice at the end and at least 4 times across the movie).

In all, I thought “Blue Beetle” was just “okay”. Certainly better than “Quantumania” and “Thor L&T” but not has good as either WW movie or the recent Flash (which I enjoyed quite a bit).

NOTE:The plot references the Golden Age Blue Beetle (Dan Garrett) and the Silver Age version (Ted Kord) but neither appear. But we do get to see Kord’s airship, the Bug, in action.

Post Credit Scenes: Shortly after the credit start, there is a scene referencing Ted Kord. At the very end of the credits, there is another bit that is not worth waiting for (trust me!). And there are NO cameos by any other heroes or actors.

Best Line:

“My name is Sanchez, pendeja!”

#blue beetle #Jaime Reyes #george lopez #Adriana Barraza #just okay #too many fight scenes #James Gunn #ted kord #WARNER HBO MAX #xolo Xolo Maridueña

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romancomicsnews · 2 months

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5 Non-MCU Characters I'd love to see in Deadpool & Wolverine

Superbowl Sunday saw the return of everyones favorite Merc with a Mouth Deadpool in the trailer for his upcoming new movie Deadpool & Wolverine.

And as usual, Marvel hooked me.

Some fans have seen it as a return to form for the MCU, others as business as usual for Ryan Reynolds, and some just couldn't get over the little bit of Wolverine we got.

Myself, I was mainly focused on one thing. Aaron Stanford.

For those not in the know, this clip from the trailer shows Aaron Stanford returning as minor villain and asshole Pyro from the original X-Men Films. He was a sidekick to Magneto, and has a rivalry with Iceman in those movies.

The return of Pyro from the X-Men films confirms what most fans expected: we will see old heroes and villains from the Fox era, not just Wolverine.

And while a few have been already revealed through casting news or set photos, there are plenty more in store for us, I'm sure.

This got my head gears turning, so I decided I'd look back on the old Fox films to see who I want to return, even for the briefest moment or cameo.

None of these have been confirmed officially, so you are spoiler free from here on out. But I must warn, once I put this ideas in your head, you may be mad if they don't show up.

5. Animated Deadpool Voiced by Donald Glover

*sigh* The project I wish existed.

In 2017, Donald Glover was in development and given the green light on an animated Deadpool show. The show was to premiere on FX in 2018. However, for unknown reasons it was cancelled, and never debuted, leaving fans and Donald Glover displeased.

After the success of films like Spider-Verse, and Glovers involvement with Marvel, having him come in for a scene where he fights with or against Ryan Reynolds Deadpool could be a fun nod to the fans and maybe give the project the boost it needs to somehow come back.

But alas, I'm still hoping Spider-Verse will bring back Spectacular Spider-Man, so what do I know?

4. X-23

If there is a character ripe for a spin-off from the old X-Men universe, it was definitely X-23.

It's surprising to me she hasn't been revealed as a main member of the cast. She's a character I think few people talk about anymore, but was a crucial part of the film. I'd say Logan is up there and one of the best superhero movies.

Dafne Keen and Hugh Jackman made Logan such an impactful moving film. I'd love to see where the character has gone since Logan, and see how them reuniting effects the film.

Not to mention if she fought Deadpool, it would be one hell of a good (and kind of funny ) fight.

3. Apocalypse

Do I like this character? Absolutely not.

Do I want him here just for the Moon Knight jokes? Yes.

I actually think theres a good Apocalypse in Oscar Isaac somewhere. Having Deadpool and Wolverine at one point face the X-Men's Thanos sounds pretty cool, and Isaac is a great comedic and dramatic performer who deserves another shot.

I wouldn't mind a CGI version that looks more comic accurate, like Beast in the Marvels.

But again. I really just want Deadpool to say "So are you Steven or Marc?"

2. The Human Torch

Similarly, I want the Captain America jokes.

But if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that Human Torch was by far the best part of those Fantastic Four movies.

There's just so many things you can do with it!

We can have him in the frosted tips, in a new Fantastic Four uniform. Maybe even have him fight Pyro, stop a fire guy with a fire guy. Or have him come out from behind a train like Captain America in Infinity War, but it's Johnny.

Having Evans play across Reynolds even for a bit would make so many fans happy and get more cheers then No Way Home.

Besides Evans has done a cameo in a Shawn Levy film starring Ryan Reynolds once. He can do it again.

1. Legion

The rumored main villain of this film tends to have a very particular vendetta with Charles Xavier. So why not use his son to acquire power?

Legion is the acclaimed show from Noah Hawley starring Dan Stevens as David Haller, a mutant with schizophrenia and basically unlimited power.

Dan Stevens is incredible in this show, and I think bringing in such a powerful X-Men character would make for some fun interactions and extreme stakes. Not to mention the insane visuals, all while delving deep into the psyche of both are protagonists.

While I doubt all of these characters show up, if one or two do, I'd be extremely happy. We'll just have to wait and see.

Thank you so much for reading! Please consider following, and check out my socials and other sites here! And let me know: Who do you want to see in Deadpool and Wolverine?

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simeonist · 2 months

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Wedding Lonely Devil Proposals Ranked Part 2

3. Mammon

Oh my gooooddd

Nightmare. Literal nightmare proposal. Four little words made my stomach clench irl.

There's no way I could fake happiness if this happened to me. Even if I loved them. I didn't wanna be mean since Mammon's in my top 3 but yeah...Lucifer was right. This is hell. This is cringe hell.

So why #3? Well.

🎆🎇🧨SIMEON JUMP SCARE!!! 🧨🎇🎆

Simeon, cheerful, supportive, and always up for fun time, makes a cameo in the flash mob Mammon apparently forced the transfers to do. And complementing Simeon's joyous appearance?

An incredibly miserable Solomon! It was indescribably beautiful seeing him writhe in embarrassment for this awful plan. Any pain on my face would have faded once Simeon stepped in and melted away completely after Solomon's agonized dance. Thank you Mammon for my life.

Sadly, I can't rank Mammon's higher because technically speaking "two hot guys (one who I like more than you) made me smile" is not what most would call an ideal proposal. 3.5 barely contained panic attacks in a public venue out of 5.

2. Levi

Everyone's proposal kind of sucks and I can't say Levi is an exception. He programs a game for you, wildly misjudges your capabilities, backseat games, then ends up beating the whole thing for you. Whoops.

But sucking is in Levi's nature and the way he fucks up is organic to who he is - he even acknowledges it in his proposal speech.

I found it endearing and sweet. This proposal was genuine, held personal significance, took effort, and was overall a warm experience. Also, kudos for creating a game where the protagonist is supposed to be me and saying you want to take on life's struggles together. Someone lower on this list should take notes…

The only reason Levi doesn't clear first place is because he did kind of fuck it up. But I appreciate the hard work that went into it. I would say yes. 4 poorly considered video game recs out of 5.

And finally(ish)

1. Beel!

He is so so so cute, from his bouquet of vegetables to fighting the urge to eat the cake he made for you. Making my favorite cake with a ring in it isn't all that grand but a) I'll keep it real with you: none of the proposals are and b) I don't need a grand proposal. I just want it to feel meaningful. Just a bit of creativity, something that holds significance, and also I'm not dying of embarrassment. It's relevant to his theme, it's fun, it has thought out into it, and it requires some self-restraint on his end. Beautiful.

5 wedding cakes made with buttercream frosting out of 5.

Finally.

Lucifer

I intentionally ranked everybody before watching his because I knew this smug jackass would do some shit that might affect my rankings. I needed to be confident in my opinion.

Fucker. Humiliating how well this would work on me.

True #3. Lucifer

Sorry Mammon :(

#obey me #lonely devil review #obey me beelzebub #I'm happy he didn't instantly steal first place but he did make my top 3😮‍💨 points were made

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another-lost-mc · 2 months

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Hiii, I’m new to your page and I’m already obsessed with your work. I love how you write the characters and I absolutely love your O/Cs. I was just wondering if you ever planned on continuing your O/C’s stories? Specifically Feathered Friends and A Roll of the Dice.

Feel free to totally ignore this, I was just curious and I’m absolutely feral for Karasu!!

I'm so glad you enjoy my writing and the OCs. <3

I don't mind talking about upcoming plans for the OCs' stories so I'm happy you asked!

The next few chapters of Karasu's story are outlined. Part Four involves MC's tentative pact with Mammon and how that affects their developing relationship with Karasu. It goes into a bit of Karasu's backstory with Mammon and some insight into Karasu's opinions of pacts in general. I play a bit fast and loose with the canon story and pact order after that. I've mentioned this before, but Levi's pact is a long way off. That being said, the Dogi Maji game shenanigans in Lesson 10 becomes a critical turning point in their relationship progression. 👀

Karasu's Nightbringer story is being re-written now that I have the entire past plot to work with. I'm leaving the existing ficlets as they are since I wrote them for fun and like them as their own standalone thing. I do have an outline in the works that follows the NB canon right up to Lesson 40. It's going to be a longer one-shot rather than a multi-chapter fic.

The outline for Azra's entire S1 AU is practically done. It focuses less on canon events and more on the significant milestones in their relationship while MC is in the Devildom. I thought about re-writing Part Two's premise but now I'm not sure if I want to do that either. The original idea was a bit corny but also hilarious? I might keep it the way it is.

And since I'm already talking about OC stuff, let's cover the others too:

I have some brief ideas outlined for Zee's AU but nothing post-ready yet, which is why I'm trying to include him in the multi-character OC posts so he can still get some love. There are certain tropes/scenarios I haven't written about for other characters public sex period sex that apply to Zee, so at least I have some stuff to write about in the meantime.

I have the first part of Tenebris's AU outlined, but it needs some tweaking to reflect additions/changes I've made to his character and story (I originally wrote that outline like, a year ago). His SFW/NSFW Alphabets are in the works too.

Most of my focus for Metatron lately has been fleshing out his past and current standing in the Celestial Realm. I've had a lot of fun writing about his volatile history with Azra and how that will eventually tie into whatever present-day AU I write for him. In the meantime, he'll pop up in some of the Celestial Realm-based writing (he's already made a couple cameos and he's very good at making the other angels jealous lol).

#jes.replies #jes.oc asks #my oc: karasu #my oc: azra #my oc: zekhan #my oc: metatron

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brokehorrorfan · 3 months

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Lost in Space will be released on Blu-ray on April 9 via Scream Factory. Based on the classic TV series, the 1998 sci-fi adventure is directed by Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child).

Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend, A Beautiful Mind) wrote the script. Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Jack Johnson, and Lacey Chabert star. Several of the original TV stars make cameo appearances.

Lost in Space has been newly scanned in 2K from the interpositive with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound.

Special features:

Audio commentary by director Stephen Hopkins and writer Akiva Goldsman

Audio commentary by visual effects supervisors Angus Bickerton and Lauren Ritchie, director of photography Peter Levy, editor Ray Lovejoy, and producer Carla Fry

Interviews with director Stephen Hopkins and writer Akiva Goldsman (new)

Building the Special Effects featurette

The Future of Space Travel featurette

Deleted scenes

Additional scenes

Q&A with the original TV cast

Theatrical trailer

The family Robinson is in hiber-sleep, soaring into deep space. Their mission: establish a colony that will become home for a dying Earth's inhabitants. But sabotage jolts the Robinsons awake, sending them — and an often troublesome robot — off course and into amazing adventures where the question is not just where they are, but also when.

Pre-order Lost in Space.

#lost in space #gary oldman #william hurt #matt leblanc #mimi rogers #heather graham #lacey chabert #shout studios #dvd #gift #stephen hopkins #akiva goldsman #90s movies #1990s movies #will robinson

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