#actually every pokemon bad guy for that matter

[jaredthebc]

Fucking love that trope of adult villains who have unessisary beef with literal teenagers its always so funny

Like bro you should focus on your taxes and the groceries you need to get next week not act like the 15 year old ruined your life

#tropes #so many characters come to mind #the shredder #eggman #jessie and james #actually every pokemon bad guy for that matter #that one dude from Xenoblade 2 #vlad plasmius #you get the picture

[ganondoodle]

as i was awake in the middle of the night for like 2 hours bc i felt sick i had more somewhat random totk thoughts

one being that i really hate how raurus response to concerned zelda is, after sonia died in that almost funny how little impactful it was way, "im sure you are here for a reason" (actually, i hate how often this sentence is used in general to .. idk i guess its supposed to be inspiritational???)

bc what does that mean actually? him saying that to someone who got there absolutely by accident really just sounds like "i dont care go figure it out yourself bc i dont want to think about anything concerning you or your troubles lol" i guess its meant to sound like OOOOH fate has BROUGHT you here bc you have to furfill a role you dont know yet (spoiler its being a sacrifice girl with no personality) and besides me hating the 'inescapable fate' trope in general (at least the way its usually done in these games, which is not to struggle against it but willingly accept whatever you are told and pretend thats good) its really jsut goddamn boring and is really only an excuse to well .. ignore her and her trouble; shouldnt you, if you were actually such a cool guy like the game wants me to believe so bad, do everything in your power to get zelda back to her own world before shes pulled even further into the war you caused now that her only ""mentor"" that could help her get more use of her pretty much useless sudden powers is gone too?? i know shes basically dead wife sonia replacement (can of worms ugh) but it still grinds my gears whenever i think of that cutscene, bc i cant help but hear it as the lamest excuse in existence to not care about her and just kinda .. see what happens which in this case means leave zelda completely on her her own since both rauru and mineru die as well (honestly shouldnt rauru have thought about like .. any plan to defeat gan besides dying himself, given hes the oh so cool and goodest guy king whos only mistake was not stabbing gan the second he stepped into their kathedral castle thing, like even if you had a plan it can still fail but it seemed like he just kinda went in with a handful of people that didnt seem to know each other at all, never got names or faces -or unique voices for that matter- to fight gan face to face inlcuding the girl that came from a different time and had nothing to do with any of this conflict and couldnt even really control her sudden new powers just seems pretty stupid)

thought 2

how totk really feels like botw but for the people who didnt like shiekah tech, its not a sequel, its botw again, but version of only sonau, its like a pokemon game that had two versions but one has weirdly incoherent story and acts like the other never existed jsut as a whole its like retreading the same points but worse, all shiekah tech that was so integral to the world and had such a long history just vanishing and no one caring about any of it like it never happened, HELL the titans were called divine beasts in english but i guess they werent divine or important enough to keep around LOL champions WHO and isntead a never before seen or even heard of race for that matter showing up and planting their ass in every place the shiekah were before, dare i say it feels weirdly manipulative, like either them or some outside force erasing every fact about the ancient shiekah and replace them with sonau stuff bc they are the hot new shit now

this is a point that just doesnt stop bothering me, how the shiekah tech seemed so carefully designed and integrated into botws world and story, its a difficult to keep balance after all, integrating high tech stuff into a medieval setting, but they made it work! and then totk comes around and throws a bunch modern day tech into it puts some vague greenish stone filter on its exterior and call that even better more ancient tech; why did they even bother to make pottery inspired laser shooting spider legged robots so well integrated when they throw a car and rockets into the next game without a thought and call it a day, what was the fucking point

it feels like someone was dead set on having a set of legos thrown into the game it had no place in, if you want players to build whatever they want make a building game instead!! especially if you are just gonna throw it in with seemingly no consideration how out of place it feels togehter with the fACT THAT YOU ALREADY HAD AND ANCIENT HIGH TECH CIVILIZATION WITH A VERY DISTINCT AESTHETIC THAT WAS ALREADY WELL INTEGRATED INTO THE WORLD YOU ARE PLANNING TO REUSE WITH ALOT OF MYSTERY AND UNKOWN STUFF ABOUT THEM TO EXPLORE FURTHER YOU COULD HAVE USED!! but i guess they just "didnt want to play with you anymore" and that so much so that they went out of their way to erase every trace of it, i dont think the words shiekah tech are ever used in the game, and the purah pad and her towers just drive me more isnane bc they are the same shit but called different and also much worse, liek the purah pad isnt some more developed shiekah stone, no its a glorified camera with a teleport function and thats it

(i know i said this before but i really cant stand how obsessed every single NPC is with sonau shit, you get told to your face every second line of dialog that they are so cool and are so mysterious that it just makes me annoyed of them even more, the game is obsessed with shoving them everywhere and telling you over and over you too should obsess over them, they werent weird like that about the shiekah stuff in botw?? the biggesst talking point in botw was calamity ganon ..... which makes sense and in totk its like ... gan is mentioned what, in a newspaper article??? once???and then not even by name i think???)

aside from that big point which will never let me go, its also just .. its not moving forward anything, it actively walks BACK the progress that was made in botw, call me dumb but i dont really count moving one step up in the social roles of each race as a character development (for the side characters like the champions desc- ahem SAGES) but mainly zelda ... god how dirty she was done, totk pretty explicitely makes her regress any development she made in botw aside from she likes link uwu and some people like her too, but also not enough to notice that that weird zelda being all evil and weird isnt her (INLCUDING THE CHAMP- SAGES WHO YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY FRIENDS WITH??? you dont have to be a genius to pick up on that my god, were you all given the mc dumbo potion or what)

she gets put back to square one, back into the little itty bitty princessy maiden role forced upon her by her royal parentage, this time rauru edition, back into a white little dress, back into the scared puppy eyed teenager, back into a situation she cant handle, back into losing everyone around her (tho honestly botw made me care more about rhoam than totk did about rauru), back into being forced to do a big sacrifice- but worse actually

in botw she went to FIGHT AND HOLD GANON IN THE CASTLE SO LINK HAD TIME TO RECOVER AND IT WOULDNT DESTROY THE LAND!! and you are telling me in totk rauru takes up her botw role and she bascially killed herself to ... restore the mastersword.

......... she ... she did that only to be a glorified version of the stone pedestal in the forest. and then she gets returned to normal itty bitty girly no problem via magic sparkle beam at the end and

DOESNT

EVEN

REMEMBER.

it really is just botw but worse, you even get yet another ghost king of hyrule to guide you around (rhoam did it better fight me ... we dont talk about the questionable choice to make himself darker skinned when posing as just some guy)

i honestly dont think i was ever truly taken aback by anythign that happened in botw, while in totk, the further i played, the more i had to fight with myself to keep the feeling of unease, disappointment and betrayal down

its such a god damn shame, totk should have stayed a DLC, i will forever mournfully dream of a game that explores more of the ancient shiekah, doesnt erase integral parts of the world, developes characters more instead of making them regress back and make them end up even less developed than at the start of the game, dives into buried secrets and mistakes of dark pages of history without giving into a weirldy nationalist(imperalisitc?) narrative and lets characters have some agency for once

if it werent for the yiga i might have actually considered refunding the game, just to be at peace with myself

anyway, aboslutely incoherent word vomit.

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #totk #ganondoodles rants #old man yells at cloud #i know im repeating myself in alot of points #but some things just wont stop rotating in my head #ngl i felt like nintendy was trying to gaslight me in totk #what noooo the shrine of life was ALWAYS just a barren cave with a puddle of water in it #noooo dumsda (hundson) NEVER had a funny quirk of how he talks #nooooo purah NEVER cared about shiekah tech or that stone she used to have in her lab in hateno #noooooo robelo NEVER cared about the shiekah oven he named cherry #nooooo yuno was never not dumb like a rock and ridiculed by the narrative worse than koga #noooo yuno never had inheretited an ability unique to daruk #nooooooo zelda never had any character besides like white dress waifu #nooooooo the dekutree never actually played a central role #nooooo there never was any shikeah tech #noooooo there never were any champions we were actualyl friends with #why is this series so damn allergic to moving the world or characters forward #you literalyl showed us that zelda companion is doable #you made 5 fram rate killing ghosts that are more useless than useful in any fight but noooo cant do zelda #she gotta be the little maiden uwu #you could have shown us the past without sendign zelda back #you could have revealed the sonau without erasing the shiekah #you had such a good setup from botw #and isntead chose to focus 3 years on being able to glue a stick to a stick in a game that isnt about glue or building

[chycoin]

HUGE SPOILER AHEAD!!!

Watch “TRASH FRIENDS” before reading. If you haven’t watched it and still read this, pls don’t say I didn’t warn you 🫠👍

Just watched “TRASH FRIENDS” and the thumbnail really made me think this was going to be an episode focusing on the way Mario has been treated by Smg4 and his friends (at least that’s how I see it) but I wasn’t expecting an episode about Smg3’s insecurities and fears (mostly insecurities)

I really was caught lacking because I was expecting something and I got the opposite lmao. I should be familiar with this guy’s content already and know that the only thing expected from these episodes is the unexpected xD, but anyways back to talking about the video.

In previous episodes we see that he gets a little bit of customers such as in the episode “You used to be cool” and “CEO OF RIZZ” but in this last mentioned episode he tries to advertise his café after Boopkins’s date works out in the end and so does the same in “SMG4’s NEWS.”

At first you think “Maybe he wants more than what he has” but after watching this episode you realize he’s actually struggling with his business and last weeks episode you change your view from his actions and see him as more desperate rather than greedy after watching this latest ep.

Constantly trying to get more people into his café and taking every single chance he can see to advertise no matter the place or time, like life depends on it.

And talking about chances ._.xD

(This goober losing the video to a basketball, I’m dead😭)

Smg4 comes to this guy’s café for his help to get his “Michael Jordan Endorsement Video” back because boi lost it and he wants Smg3’s help because their “FRIENDS”

Of course Smg3 saw this as a chance to advertise his café because HOLY SHIT MICHAEL JORDAD!!! A famous basketball player that anyone would want to have the chance to meet and that’s a chance that Smg3 is willing to take because it means his business would BLOW UP *someone throws them a chair*

Btw when Mario shows up to offer his help, I expected Smg4 to be more happy that he has his avatar buddy always trying to help him but instead…

Don’t get me wrong, I know they got a little weirded out about the fact that Mario is a regular around the Junkyard due to him eating at that location but still, that dialogue still sort of hurt me man qwp

But anyways back to my review of this episode and giving my acoustic povs that nobody asked for.

They arrive at the junkyard and after being there for 5 seconds, they find the legendary pokemon that goes by the name of “Michael Jordan Endorsement Video” (sorry for my weak ass jokes, I just woke up and my humor is a little broken rn)

After having the video on sight, Mario pulls a Yoshi and beats the crap out of the spaghetti plate where the video so happened to land on, in one go. Obviously, causing the other two to try and force the USB out of him but both failed as Mario did a BLJ through the trash and forcing 3 & 4 to dig through everything to find him.

Now… the part I was dying to talk about and hopefully I can let out my thoughts the proper way.

As the two spend an entire evening just digging through trash, they start a friendly conversation until Smg4 touches the Smg3’s CnB topic which causes Smg3 to get nervous and lie about everything being fine because he has something that every human being has unfortunately, ✨I N S E C U R I T I E S✨.

Which I understand because bruh, 3’s been seen as a bad copy of 4 who’s the total opposite of him for a good piece of his life, if not his ENTIRE existence and now that’s he’s going through a change in his life for the better, he’s going to face a lot of these insecurity episodes because he’s so used to being seen as the bad guy, the bad copy, The Villain. Always people seeing what 4 does and never looking what 3 does which got him into that dark path.

Is like the Sun and the Moon kind of thing. The Sun (Smg4) can shine the brightest while the moon (Smg3) is just a floating rock shining the least. I’ll bring this up again at the end of the review.

But yeah, Smg3 has insecurities and is more shown when they reach the entrance of Mario’s hiding spot.

-Part 2 🫠👍-

#smg4 #smg4 review #smg3 #smg4 smg3 #I wasn’t planning for this to be a 2 part thing

[jjinx1998]

xxtc-96xx Callout post

To start I want you to know I didn't want things to have to come to this but after recent developments and discussions from others I cannot ignore what's been going on for years now. This is a problem revolving around the user @xxtc-96xx , the comic Endertale, and the Undertale fandom. I will try to explain what I know and offer proof when I can, but there might be some sloppiness as this is my first real post on Tumblr. If there is any technical issues about this post, please let me know so I can fix it.

Let me start from the beginning. I have been a long time fan of xxtc-96xx since about 2016 (I will refer to them as TC to make it easier). I have enjoyed looking at the art they create for many years, mainly the ones revolving around Endertale.

Endertale is a fan comic that TC made of the game Undertale. It's a very decent story with a pleasant art style. I would recommend it but I cannot and I will get to why. You see TC has suffered from something that just about any creator can relate to, burnout. The most recent comic page being posted in 2021 though there was already a hiatus established before that.

While they made it long clear that they needed to go on break for personal reasons, people wanted to ask for when they will continue it. Some of them calm and reasonable and other's were very much not nice. TC answered them honestly at first.

Then it started to devolve into troll responses or just not answering.

Not just on Tumblr but people kept asking on Deviantart as well. In fact people are still asking today in 2024. It has gotten so frequent that TC felt it necessary to change their profile header to this:

And it has stayed that way for so long I lost track of when it started. To be fair, even I found the frequent questions to be overwhelming and they just like every artist who makes stuff for free is entitled to take a break from their work. However this post isn't a complaint about how long it takes to finish a comic, it's about something that started because of the wait.

See, their original reason to take a break was because they were too busy with personal matters for them to commit to an actual comic. But as their history up to today has shown that's no longer a valid excuse. As time went on they started to show an interest in the Pokemon fandom. specifically the pokemon known as Mewtwo. To make a long story short, what started as small doodles grew into a whole bunch of fancomics and animations. To compare, they have drawn nearly four times as many Pokemon drawings compared to Undertale. Now, it is perfectly fair and acceptable to find an interest in a different fandom. And while I personally prefer Undertale over Pokemon I completely supported their decision to focus on other fandoms and enjoyed what they made. I also understood their issues with the fandom at the time, some people were rather aggressive, rude, or demanding the comic to be completed, a comic that's completely free that they make no profit out of. I even recall one point they tried to unsuccessfully drag a different content creator into this issue as if it would somehow work.

However I started to notice they had a warped perception on the fandom. Rather than blame the few people that harassed them online with constant asks, they believed that the entire fandom as a whole is to blame as declared it all toxic. Something they insist on repeating to all their fans and making them believe their opinion as fact.

Now for the record I am very aware of how toxic this fandom was and can be at times. I was around since the beginning and have seen just about every drama that has come. From the fans harassing you for not doing the pacifist route in the first time playing, people arguing if either Frisk or Chara is a really bad person, arguing over Frisk's and Chara's gender, is genocide the right choice, is Toriel the bad guy or Asgore, and a controversy revolving around a certain creator of the au Glitchtale (the last one TC coincidentally emulates their "Delay work for one week for every ask" and finds it amusing). I know this fandom is not the best but I love it all the same, it's as much a part of my life as it is for TC. I know I am not perfect at showing my interest for Undertale, as this image of a private ask shows.

Or this time I made a obviously joke ask and apparently I didn't realize a lot of people don't understand sarcasm.

Or when I tried to ask this sincere and nonaggressive question, one of the few times TC isn't putting up some kind of attitude.

Or this other ask from me.

At the end of the day this is just a comic. No one has any right to demand them to continue it or make death threats, this is completely unacceptable. However, at the same time this doesn't mean the creator should dehumanize the entire fandom or punish the few that are being respectful. They wait and what do they get, people mocking them and bullying them. That's what I realized in the past week when I engaged in the comments of a few posts. TC allow their fans to bully the fandom.

I tried to be as calm and reasonable as I can and yet I get called out as a toxic fan. And in the end did TC scold everyone else, no, they basically told me to shut up. I overestimated the fans intelligence and if they could handle basic logic, read the comments for yourself to see my point. As someone with Asperger and anger issues, it's a god given miracle I am still trying to maintain my composure within this insanity that has been going on for years. I have spoken with several content creators who asked to remain anonymous about this entire fiasco and we have similar conclusions about TC.

TC has been through a lot of painful and hurtful comments over the years that they did not deserve in the slightest. They are entitled to do whatever they want with their comic and works. Saying a fandom is or isn't toxic is unhelpful as you fundamentally miss the mark on how fandom culture works. As a creator, it is not right to hang this hiatus over people's heads and string them along. TC does not respect their Undertale fans in the slightest and mocks those who is still waiting. They indirectly encourage their other fans to bully and dehumanize the rest.

I held back on making a comment about all this for two reasons. One, TC's fandom terrifies me. They are complete smug hypocrites who spend way too much time on the internet that they don't realize that if they use their words in real life they will get punched in the face for it. Two, despite everything I still believe that TC can change. I like to believe the best in everyone and that there is hope that maybe this time TC will realize they have become the very thing they hate. That hope has faded to cinders. I'm done with TC, my only concern is the people remaining to wait for the comic.

To everyone who is waiting for Endertale and/or following TC because you like their Undertale stuff, leave them and never come back. They do not respect you, they look down on you, they laugh watching you wait, you deserve better than them. Even if they do finish the comic eventually it will not be made out of love or passion.

DO NOT harass and bully them because of my words. I will not tolerate any attempt to do so.

My final words are for TC if they even decide to read this:

TC, I know we are not friends, you made that clear long ago but I was hoping we could've been. You were a huge inspiration for me in the past and was what pushed me to attempt learning about art. I looked up to you and tried to support you when you were feeling down. You are no longer that person.

You do not have the right to condemn an entire fandom as toxic and declare it as a fact of life. It's people like you that keep the fandoms so divided to this day. It's because of people like you I am scared for my life if I ever mention Undertale in public. Your fixation on the sins of the past prevents us from moving forward. I do not excuse what happened but the past is in the past, get over it and grow up, you are an adult so act like it.

You say you don't owe us any comic or works, well at the same time if you want to mistreat the fandom I care about then I or anybody don't owe you any respect yet I did for nearly five years.

Why? Because I cared about how this all made you feel. What do you see when you look at me, another obsessed toxic fan who should keep their mouth shut or a PERSON with their own thoughts feelings and beliefs?

One of your problems is that you think nothing ever seems to be your fault, just the fans who keep asking. Well maybe they wouldn't have asked if you didn't leave them hanging for almost five years. To me, it no longer matters if you finish Endertale or not.

Maybe you still think it isn't your fault, then that makes me the idiot for hoping you can be better. You hurt me, really hurt me. I don't think I can ever trust someone like you again.

Do you know what I really want?

Your apology. I want you to make a genuine apology to me and the fandom at your actions over the years. I won't block you because being the idiot I am I hope my words mean something to you and you'll want to chat.

But until you wise up ask yourself this familiar question,

Do you really think you are above consequences?

#Endertale #Undertale #call out post #toxicity #cw: vent #undertale comic #long post

[gehtsis]

In Which Ark And Celebi Have A Chat

(The latest chapter of TPiaG had me really liking those conversation bits with ms. onion fairy and arky so here's another one-off fic starring these dastardly two. The Present is a Gift belongs to @sincerely-sofie)

The Future Trio decided to pay Twig a visit. Mainly to check out if she's been doing alright, and to bring her some of the food that Dusknoir made back home.

Celebi, being the energetic and tireless little onion she was, decided to check out the area near Verdant Village and spotted a forest nearby. She chose to bring Ark along for the walk, with the Pitch Black Pokemon choosing to tag along to breath some much needed air and to avoid the death glares from a certain grass type and a certain ghost type.

During their walk, the two conversed about various Mythical matters, nothing too important or zany.

"So you're telling me that you've met a Pokemon that claimed to 'be from space', who can also regenerate from every hit that is inflicted upon him?" Ark said, rather confused and a bit of hesitation in his tone as he was unsure if he should take Celebi's take wholeheartedly.

"Uh huh! He has a sick gem in his chest, and he can also 'change forms' as he called it! He was so cool, honestly! He also had a run in with that big dragon guy that lives reeeeally high up! Raycrocza, or whatever his name was. Me personally, I could also take on that guy, but I'd rather not have Grovyle and Dusknoir worried about me." Celebi explained ecstatically, being sure to fill Ark with every detail about her newest friend in a heartbeat.

"He certainly sounds peculiar. Didn't think I'd be possible to know someone from the worlds beyond." Ark nodded as he listened to Celebi's words carefully.

"Actually, speaking of Grovyle, what did you two talk about a few days ago? Grovyle still looks a bit shaken up from it. He insists that he's fine, but I know him long enough to know." Celebi asked, curiosity present in her tone as Ark Ark could only frown after having to remember that talk after hoping that he'd never have to bring it up again.

"Nothing too serious," Ark sighed heavily after having to muster up the courage to recollect their little conversation, much to his delight. "He only told me about how much he isn't rather happy because of my presence here, and that if I were to hurt Twig, he will personally put the "mortals can't kill legends" myth to the test and make sure that I die, slowly. I told him that he was welcome to try, and we went our own ways." Ark rolled his eyes at that last part, not trying to pay much attention to pay too much attention to Grovyle's threat. He glanced over to Celebi to see what her reaction was, and while she was silent for a moment, she nearly burst into laughter when he finished speaking.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHO! That's my darling Grovyle, alright! I'd have to warn you, he definitely have the strength to back up that claim!" Celebi happily spoke as she wiped the tears of joy off, leaving Ark a bit confused by her reaction.

"Well, he can put that strength back to his leaves if he wants. I have no intention of hurting Twig, that much I am sure of." Ark spoke sternly and seriously as he maintained eye contact with Celebi. Although something stirred inside him a bit, and since he was already at it, he may as well ask away.

"Actually, Celebi.. I have something to ask you, too."

"Oh, ask away! What is it?"

"How did Grovyle even meet Twig in the first place?"

Celebi was silent for a moment. While she definitely knew the answer to the question, it would be a rather bad move to disclose it with anyone, much less with the same Pokemon that traumatized Twig and wanted to plunge the world into darkness. Regardless, she knew of a way to share just about enough, while leaving out the 'unimportant parts'.

"Well, I don't remember it clearly, but I'll try my best. Basically, when he first came across her, Twig was all alone. No friends, no family, nothing. Grovyle took her along with him, and the two eventually became friends, and sooner or later, they saw each other as a family. She was his little fire breathing sister, and he was her weird big grass lizard brother who had the back posture of a shrimp. It was a bit beautiful, honestly." Celebi explained just how the two matter to one another, regardless of how much one of them thinks they've strained the friendship with the other, and Ark's expression changed to a rather sad and somber one as he took in her words.

"Why'd you ask, anyway?"

Ark sighed heavily yet again, not feeling very content with what he'll have to say. "I can't believe that I'm saying it out loud, but I wanted to see things from Grovyle's perspective. I care about Twig just as much as he does, but I suppose that rarely even matters when he was with her from a young age whereas I am only the major inconvenience that makes her so scared and afraid." Ark lowered his head in shame as the words that he spoke could only echo through his head and taunting him while they were at it. Celebi saw this unfold, and sought to help her friend out.

"Now now, darling. Being hard and heavy on yourself never works. I know that it's hard knowing that Twig doesn't see how much you care about her, but do you remember how you said you appreciated it that she talked to you or rather rambled about those Team Skull bullies that really annoyed her? That was a sign that she trusts you, and that she slowly but surely comes around to get around your presence rather than fearing it altogether. All you to do is be there when she needs you, and she will get used to you overtime." Celebi explained, feeling a bit odd that she was explaining this to Darkrai of all people, but it had to be said nonetheless. Ark raised his head to meet eyes with her as he breathed in and out to try and relax himself.

".. Do you think it'll happen eventually?" Ark asked, gathering up some confidence to try and heed Celebi's enthusiasm and encouragement.

"I don't think so. I believe so!" Celebi enthusiastically exclaimed, and with some newfound encouragement gathered, Ark managed to be more collected and calm. Perhaps Celebi wasn't wrong, and all he needs to do now is try and be a good friend, even if the road ahead can be tedious.

The sun slowly set, and it was time for the duo to head home before Grovyle and Dusknoir will freak out and assume that the worst has happened. During the walk home, Ark thought near and dear to Celebi's words, and he decided to follow them carefully. In that moment, Ark felt momentarily peace in his heart.

[writers4all]

"BAD GUYS DESERVE HAPPY ENDINGS, TOO!" Except It's A Random Person's Essay Opinion On It.

So I've legit lost count the number of times I've seen people say that villains deserve to get a fairytale Happily Ever After and whatnot. But here's the thing ... I always get the vibe that they mean it as in it's always rainbows and butterflies (it's not) where the good guy gives the bad guy a Heel-Face Turn.

No, no, no. Stop right there.

While I don't entirely mind there being complicated af relationships going on in stories — OG Fiction or Fanfiction, it matters not — we really need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How about instead of having the bad guy having a Heel-Face Turn or whatever we just flat out have The Bad Guy Win? It's actually been done before, and quite a lot, surprisingly. Here are a couple of examples down below:

Pokemon USUM where the big bads from Gen 1 to Gen 6 (Giovanni, Archie, Maxie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre) won in an alternate timeline.

Most of the SAW films with a vast majority of the traps.

Batman Arkham Knight actually succeeded in doing this by having Scarecrow reveal who Batman truly is ... ... ... ... ... TO THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD VIA LIVE TELEVISION.

Injustice: Gods Among Us played with this when The Joker manages to successfully brainwash Superman into killing Lois Lane. This one's pretty triggering, though, so head's up.

Dragon Ball Z plays with this as well for the timeline Future Trunks is from Cell actually won due to everyone except for Bulma and Trunks dying by the hands of Androids 17 + 18 and Cell.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers played with this for the Rangers actually lost the ability to morph permanently via the morphers they had at the end of the series thus having to obtain the Zeo Crystals to morph into the Zeo Rangers and not the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Mortal Kombat 11 plays with this if you choose Shang Tsung over God Liu Kang and have it to where Raiden and Fujin are mindless servants.

Something similar happens in Injustice 2 where you choose Superman over Batman to where the latter becomes a mindless servant of the former (thus scarring the young Supergirl).

With all of that being said, why not have it to where the villains do have a happy ending but not in the way we expect it. Get your readers emotionally invested to where they're not happy with the outcome kind of like when Sephiroth killed Aerith out of nowhere in the OG FF7. Or, if you really want to, make it to where they get a kick out of it kind of like how The Joker makes Batman laugh at the end of The Killing Joke. Just have the bad guy win every now and again.

#the bad guy wins #writing advice #writing tips #villains #antagonists #antagonist #protagonists #protagonist #good guys vs bad guys #good guys #bad guys #happy endings #happy ending #happily ever after #heel-face turn

[muzzleroars]

Cyrus was wrong for his methods and for depriving people of choice, but was he really wrong about much else? Life is painful. Most days you’re unhappy pretty much every second you’re awake, trying to enjoy yourself is a waste of time because you feel just as bad the second it’s over, and anything that does make you numb for more than an hour hurts your health. Emotions are important to make sure we survive and care for our young, but is it worth it? If Cyrus offered everyone the choice to join his perfect world, I think a lot of people would take it.

this is why i genuinely connected with cyrus in many ways tbh, because i saw the worst of my depression reflected in a character with desperation i could understand. in those times, all you want is safety, you want things to just stop, and your emotions get so bad you think, in fact, it would be better to trade both happiness and pain away. and when you're grieved (as i believe cyrus is), it brings out this constant, awful anticipation where you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. something terrible happened, and something terrible will happen again because now you've lost your sense of safety. it's wild how much that eats you up inside, and that's what i saw in cyrus - this guy is only in his 20s and he's just barely hanging on because he's been so badly hurt, he feels so alienated from his own emotions AND no one's ever been able to connect well with him (nor him connect with others) and like. OOF did i get that!!! at the end of the day, cyrus's motivation was literally just to see no more pain. he was done with all the hurt inflicted on both humans and pokemon, and i think you're right in saying many probably would actually see it his way because we've been hurt too, we've been in so much pain and so isolated that we understand this in a way some other people can't.

BUT i do just want to say i totally understand where you're coming from anon and i know life is hard, especially right now. my mental health has been suffering, i've been feeling my depression more and more, but i want you to know you're not alone in what you feel. honestly i'm so grateful we have characters like cyrus to connect with because it shows, through media, that someone else gets it - i've said over and over i'm a sucker for happy endings, which is why i'm so happy he got that in pokespe. cyrus has so much love in him (so much gratitude at being proven wrong!!! like!!!) and when it was recognized by shaymin, it hit me so hard i wanted to cry!! he gets to live, to take care of his team (his friends, really) and he gets the ending he actually deserved because there isn't truly evil in cyrus imo, just pain and desperation. so i want to hope we can be happy too, that life will get better, and i think that's absolutely true no matter how hard it can be to believe at times. i hope you can take good care of yourself anon <3

#SORRY if i got sappy but i know how you feel #that's why cyrus is one of my favorite characters like. #his whole internal struggle hits hard #and im really glad he gets development in extended media #bc he's a very interesting villain and its clear he could easily be redeemed #like it's hard to describe but im glad so many narratives connected to him acknowledge his pain #rather than demonizing him for that pain like so many other pieces of media seem to do with similar characters #cake answers #cyrus

[stars-at-5pm]

SERO X READER COMFORT BREAKDOWN

Univers : Mha

Ship : Sero hanta x reader

Pronouns : He/They

Tw : Mental break down, crying, thoughts of self harming, feeling overwhelmed, weed, panic attacks…

Context : You we’re just hanging out with your boyfriend and your group of friends when suddenly, you broke down.

11 pm, Friday night, Mina’s dorm

It was such a pleasing feeling, being surrounded by people you love, laughing and smoking with them.

It felt good honestly, except that, you didn’t feel completely good, actually you felt terrible.

Your mental health was getting worse and worse every day, you were getting more exhausted after every night, and the worst, you never said a word about this thing. You just couldn’t, it was too hard, felt like the whole world would be watching you if you even said a single word about how you felt. So you just lived with this suffocating feeling of letting yourself die. Everything was too much, each noises, each feeling, each breath that you took, they all felt like too much.

Expect when you were in his arms, in her dorm, with some drugs in your veins. You were high, on the floor, in Sero's arms, in Mina's dorm, feeling like you were floating on some pink clouds and that nothing mattered anymore. Your stupid mind wasn't shouting at you, your stomach didn't ache. You could smell your boyfriend's perfume, god you loved that smell, you could feel your back against his torso, such an euphoric feeling.

Mina, high asf : So y/n tell me, what's that shit on your thigh ?

you laughed

Y/N : You're the shit mina, you kept on laughing.

Denki : what are you guys talking about ? ouuuh let me guess!! pokemon ?!

Every person in the room bursted out laughing

Jiro : I think Mina talked about... someone thigh ?

Sero : Why are we talking about tights?? do you wanna start doing ballet Y/N ?

Y/N : What the hell babe, you laughed

Denki : Oh shit, now I see whats Mina talking about, he laughed nervously. The fuck happened man ?

Y/N : Okay GuYs I don't KnOW what ya'll are tAlKinG-

shit

Now you've realized what they meant. You wore shorts, short shorts, some of your sh scars were very fresh and were now seeable by your friends.

You've never sobered up this fast in your entire life. You were not on your pink clouds anymore, your head was now racing, screaming, and everything felt like walking on liquid acid. They knew, maybe they didn't understand, but they all saw it.

Y/N : Alright, you guys stay here, i'll be right back ok ? Your face was incredibly pale, like you've just seen a ghost, your own ghost.

You got up, almost fell 3 times and ran out of Mina's dorm. You ran, ran again and again, you couldn't stop even though you were already hyperventilating. It was too much, you failed yourself. You failed, again, you failed to hide, you didn't hide. You couldn't stop running, you had to go as far away as you could. You never felt so stupid, you had one job, to not show signs of your bad mental health, and you FAILED. You felt like you just failed everything, being normal, happy, confident. Nothing worked out like you planed it.

SHIT

At some point you just stopped in a random hallway, no human near to be seen. You fell to your knees and cried. Not like a sad man, more like a frustrated child, who didn't eat and couldn't find his favorite toy. You were just like this child, you didn't anything that day, and you couldn't find a way to be happy.

Everything around you was spinning, your heart was threatening to burst through your chest, your spine was turning into a strange stone-like sensation. Nothing felt comfortable. What the hell was happening to you? You've never felt this way, you've had panic attacks in the past, but this was way worse, and different. It was like you were about to pass out and dye, in this random hallway, where no human were near to be seen.

Well accept one, your ghost.

Sero was there, standing 3 feet away from you, watching your last bit of sanity vanishing away from you. He looked like he had been running, he's almost as sweaty you. Probably because he ran after you, when you left Mina's dorm room. He didn't understand why you left running like that, you looked so worried and panicked that he couldn't help but follow you.

From your point of view, you couldn't see him clearly, your vision was very blurry and your head was making it impossible to concentrate. But you still understood that he slowly approached you and knelled down to your level.

Sero : Y/N ? Can you hear me sweetheart ?

Obviously you couldn't respond with words, how could you though.. You were not breathing well at all and you didn't understand what was going on. So you just lifted your head and looked at him.

Sero : Hi baby it's me. Im here now. Can i get closer ? Can I touch you ?

With the last bit of strength you had, you nodded and started sobbing like you never did before. Sero felt his heart shatter to a million of pieces, you, the person he loved, his darling, was in distress, and his hero heart couldn't do anything to make it all better. So he got closer to you and held you, trying to protect you from whatever demon was attacking you.

Sero : It's gonna be okay, I swear you will get through this, you will i promise.

Y/N : It hurts ! Please make it stop, please ! You said, sobbing, gripping on to his shirt

Sero : It okay baby, I’m here. See ? I’m here! Just breath, breath with me.

Sero didn’t care that you were in the middle of a hallway, in pyjamas, at 4 am. All his attention was on you, and how he could help you. You’re is world, and seeing you hurt just makes him feel so bad.

Sero held you close, caressing your hair, making sure you were breathing. It took you maybe 20 minutes to have a slower breathing pattern, your lungs were still icky but were not burning as much.

Sero : Sweetheart ? Hey. Can you look at me ?

You lifted your head up, your eyes met his. He looked so concerned. Yet, the moon light made his face glow, making him look beautiful.

You never realized that Sero has always been by your side. Ever since you’ve been in a relationship, whenever you asked for help, he was right by your side, doing his best to help you. You felt guilty, you never truly thanked him, he did and does so much, couldn’t you be grateful ? Before the thoughts started to attack you, you felt your body lift up from the floor.

Sero : okay so ! Since I’ve asked you 3 times wherever I should take you to my dorm or not, and you never answered, I’ll be taking this as a yes.

Y/n : Oh.. okay. Thank you by the way

Sero : It’s okay. But, we are gonna need to talk sweet thing. I’ve never seen somebody loose their shit like you just did. I’m worried about you. Please talk to me, I’m here for you.

Y/N : i know ! But it’s just so hard to open up. It’s complicated and scary and..

Sero : Breath, we’ll talk about this tomorrow. Now just try to relax in my arms. The dorm is about 10 minutes away, you’ll be okay ?

Y/N : mhm. Thank you sero, I really love you. You do so much for me, and all I do is always ask for more help. I’m sorry about that, promise I’ll work on it. I love you. You said before passing out in his arms. You poor thing, you were so exhausted.

Sero : Mhm, sleep tight. Tomorrow will be a big day, but for now just rest. I love you too.

#comfort #bnha #headcanons #mha #mha sero #sero fluff #sero x reader #mha manga #bnha fanfiction #break down #panic attack #stress #love #mha x you

[sunnyhatchats]

sorting the gang: dee reynolds

Previously: Dennis, Mac

Dee is obviously a giant Bird. OK now that we've got that obligatory joke out of the way let's do this for real.

(There aren't very many standalone Dee clips on YouTube so some of these come out of compilations, sorry! Most of those compilations need content warnings.)

Primary: Super burnt Badger (self-centered Snake model), maybe super burnt Snake

I mean it's definitely one of the Loyalists and it's definitely super burnt. (Interesting how both the Reynolds children have burnt primaries and are the only ones who do.) Dee desperately craves others' approval, is totally unable to get anyone's approval, pretends that she doesn't care about others' approval, and in doing so further sabotages her chances at gaining others' approval, usually through doing some egregious shit. That's it, that's her tragedy.

I don't know. It's hard because Dee in a healthy community and Dee with people she loves both seem equally impossible. I want to say double Snake because she definitely acts like one (and if she is burnt Badger then she has the strongest possible Snake model). Dee is in it for herself alone, and honestly she isn't even in it for herself most of the time because her self esteem is just that bad. Her character "growth" (as opposed to growing as a person) involves becoming steadily more and more OK with being loyal to herself alone, no matter how terrible of a person she becomes to do it. Becoming Frank basically.

But Dee also is pretty focused on doing whatever it takes to be accepted as "part of the Gang" or as part of a group of sophisticated ladies or popular high school bullies, or just "part of" in general. (Which she has in common with Charlie and it'd explain why they connected so easily in "The Gang Misses the Boat"... until she sabotaged it by being a terrible person obviously.) She cares about the group in the abstract, not the people in it; if anything, people having their own wishes and doing their own thing is an annoying inconvenience to her. Probably no coincidence that Artemis's roast of her starts with "the outcast."

Either way, there's something kind of telling and also kind of sad that Dee's fantasy from "The Gang Saves the Day" involves getting everybody to praise and admire her, then killing and/or betraying them immediately afterward, and now she's alone:

too soon

Secondary: Snake (occasional Badger model)

This one is pretty obvious I think. Dee's way of dealing with problems is to think fast, lie and manipulate her way out of them, and then when her lying doesn't work, come up with a different lie.

I mean she "succeeds" in getting the therapist to tell her she's good and to not have to do actual therapy

There's an important distinction here between "compulsively lies to get out of situations" and "is good at lying to get out of situations" and most Dee plots exploit how she is bad at it. ("...did it not go through?") Constant string of failure. Every time she says "goddamnit" is like her own personal Pokemon cry for going into neutral.

But honestly? She's not THAT bad at her Snake secondary. She is the only person who ever managed to get out of Dennis's "escape room" (MAJOR CONTENT WARNING on this link for rapey behavior), by finding a way to get out the window. After getting insulted by a pageant kid she wants to ally with in "Frank Reynolds' Little Beauties," she persuades berates the kid's sister to ally with her in less than 1 minute. She legitimately saved her and Dennis's lives in "The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore": they've witnessed a murder, the guy who did the murder has them both at gunpoint at the beach ordering them to bury the body, and Dee suddenly throws sand at them so they can both escape. (Also worth noting how totally useless Dennis is during all of this.)

Even her supposedly incompetent-Snake method of berating people and escalating shit and being generally crude gets results... but not good results for her or anyone else. The former is how she does her own version of Dennis-like predator. The latter, well, she improvises this revenge "magic trick" almost immediately, gets even more revenge than she wanted, and desperately tries to talk herself out of everyone else's horrified reactions. Because it gets all the results she could possibly ask for... besides being genuinely liked. (For an even worse version of this revenge plot, there's "PTSDee.")

note: she didn't plan any of this, in fact she got volunteered for the trick

The Badger model is kind of a weird thing but the show keeps dropping these bits of backstory about how Dee worked really hard to win a boxing match, to win pageants, to become a great bowler, etc. And it's always like "she really practiced and did all the things until she got good at it." It seems so out of character except the show keeps mentioning it!

#iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #sortinghatchats #shc

[ben-talks-art]

Why I like Zatch and Kyo

"How much do you think I've changed... How much do you think he's helped me? That's why it's my turn!"

Zatch Bell is one of the first mangas I've ever read. I used to love the anime even though the premise and the character designs were so strange and weird.

The idea is that there are a bunch of humans who need to fight with other humans in a pokemon, digimon, or Medabots-like style where they have a partner by their side that does all the battling while the human gives emotional support. Except here, the "pokemon" are replaced with little kids...

This is a very odd concept since the reason these types of stories usually have a human partner up with some sort of monster or robot is so that you don't feel that bad while watching them beating the hell out of each other... So having kids (very, very little kids no less) doing the fighting makes you go "Isn't that, like... Really violent?"

Little did I know as I kept watching the show that this was exactly the point of the story.

Something I really respect about Zatch Bell is that, unlike many series where characters just feel like pain sponges, wounds in here actually matter... Both physical and emotional.

Basically, every major conflict in the manga starts with the two leads, Zatch and Kyo, taking on the burden of someone's pain and trying their best to help them out.

The manga itself starts with these two taking on each other's pain. Kyo was a kid who was growing distant from his friends so Zatch tried to devise plans to help others see his good points so Kyo can make friends. Meanwhile, Zatch is struggling with memory loss so Kyo is working his big brain to solve the mystery of who Zatch is and where he came from, and as they keep trying to help each other they both start to bond and realize they need one another more than they realize.

As Kyo spends more time with Zatch he learns how to trust his emotions more, and as Zatch spends more time with Kyo he starts to mature and use his head more.

The more they try to help someone, the better people they each turn into, and they each act as a guide to the other on how to best help others.

Zatch Bell is a series where you really get the sense that friendship truly matters.

Any time a new character is introduced we quickly are told what their struggles in life were and what kind of emotional damage they are dealing with.

Something I tend to obsess with whenever I think about a series is how it deals with the victim's pain. There are times when someone's pain is just a tool to further the plot, or just an excuse to get the main character angry and motivated, or just to show how evil the bad guy of the arc is, and when that's dealt with, the victim is just forgotten and ignored.

But here, everyone's pain always feels like they matter. There is hardly an arc where Zatch and Kyo don't end up crying out after hearing someone's backstory and feeling frustrated for being unable to help. You feel like they are bonding with these people, you feel like they are understanding how much they are suffering, and you feel their desire to help them out.

In fact, the thing that triggers the big goal that motivates the two characters throughout the rest of the series is seeing a girl forced to fight into the tournament as well and seeing how much that was torturing her.

Again, these are all kids around the age of 6 to 12, and they are all battling with each other using these big demonic spells that tend to leave them bathed in their own blood by the time the fight stops, and one of the big plot points is that when they lose a fight they basically have to leave the show until the end.

When characters are suffering you feel that pain as well.

I like Zatch and Kyo because they're characters that best showcase the power of sympathy. Any time you see them fighting, or getting injured, or doing their best to come up with a plan to take down an enemy you always sense that they have someone's pain or possible pain motivating them.

My all-time favorite moment is when one of the villains is threatening to use a weapon called "Faudo" to destroy the island of Japan, and when they face against said villain and he starts his "bad guy" monologue all the heroes are thinking about is keeping all these innocents live safe.

It's so simple but so effective how this shows these two always put the pain of others before their own.

This is one of those series that makes you realize the importance of establishing connections between characters. It's not just about having one invincible main lead that deals with everything on his own, it's about showing why it's important to stand up and fight by showing the people they care about and why they care about them.

All those cliche lines like "friendship is power", "my friends are my power", "I fight for my friends", "there is something I must protect", and all that stuff, they all feel earned here.

I love Zatch and Kyo because they're the kind of heroes that really show the importance and power of caring about others!

Favorite character list>>

#zatch bell #konjiki no gash bell #gash bell #kyomaru #zatch and kyo #gash and kyomaru

[mantisgodsdomain]

For the choose violence ask game: 5, 24, and... 16.

(Choosing Violence)

5. worst discord server and why

Listen we have a VERY SOLID answer for this one specifically for BF but we have been in some Very Bad Discord servers over the years. Fandomless, it would have to be [server we were in that gradually devolved into something that counted as a cult by BITE model] or [pokemon server we were in once where a guy called us a faggot for saying that he was getting way too worked up over random NPCs blocking the path]. For current-fandom servers... we're like 70% sure that it we name it it'll get back to the One Specific Guy that made it so very miserable to Be There but uhh

We were once in a BF server which was actively hostile to human life in a way that slowly crept fingers into your skin until it hampered your capacity to communicate with other people and it may have had lasting impact in making us significantly more reactive to people having certain takes on The Hive because we got used to not being able to bring it up in any even remotely negative context without One Specific Guy appearing to tell us not to slander the hive like that.

We are still working on undoing that particular damage but The Hive is one of those places where we find it VERY hard to be even remotely charitable about them because they Suck Very Hard in a way we're personally familiar with so it's likely that the best we're going to get there is, like, "comfortable enough to write a very long essay on how the structures seen present in the hive would harm its inhabitants".

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

...we're pretty sure that having any opinion at all in the Rain World fandom opens you up to being shot on sight? Like, we're not affiliated with the fandom as a whole anymore, but we're WAY too familiar with their Attitude towards takes. Part of the reason we don't participate anymore, actually.

In all seriousness, this is one we've posted about Recently, actually! Every time someone brings up Vi's age and how it's handled in-game, it tends to kick up the WORST discourse. Like, every time, it tends to devolve into a lot of, like... people who have Strong Opinions on What A Child Should Be and a lot of arguing about, like. "if you think she's Not A Kid then it's because you're a creep" and whatever.

We're well aware we've contributed to this, as we have strong feelings on the matter, but we may not be The Best at cohering them into speech - we don't really have the proper tools vocabulary-wise to fully cohere how we feel on the matter, so we tend to just stay away, even if it sucks to see people being Wrong On The Internet.

For our opinion... we've said this before, but we don't really think that a Discord post from 2019 should be taken as gospel for this, and we REALLY don't think that being 17 should mean she should be, like, treated the same as a twelve-year-old or something similar.. A lot of people, to be quite honest, act REALLY WEIRD about this, and we have VERY little patience for the infantilization that crops up constantly in these conversations for reasons we've mostly already stated in aforementioned Recent Post.

It's the sort of thing where, were it any other situation, referring to Vi as A Child would just vaguely annoy us with the modern internet's complete and total lack of any categories between "cute innocent child" and "totally 100% responsible adult" and make us mark someone as a sort of guy we're Very Much not interested in engaging with, as she's Very Obviously aged out of the bracket where she SHOULD be being called a kid, but with the situation as is it makes us lose our mind because Holy Shit, Have You Not Seen The Same Scenes As Us, There Is Baggage Attached To That Word You Have Clearly Not Thought Through.

We wish that this territory of fandom sucked Less. Unfortunately, we occasionally click on works that make us feel like we've just reached into a Get Attacked By Monkeys Box. That is a young adult who commits tax evasion. Please don't treat a woman who worked at a factory for years and was a known patron of an underground bar like she's an eight-year-old who doesn't know what sex is. We've been through this with Papyrus and we really don't want to do it again.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

WHAT is the appeal of Modern Without Magic??? Why the fuck would we ever want a Human AU of anything??? Why is this a genre??? Why are normal human high school AUs a thing why is it so appealing to reduce characters that used to be something Interesting down to Human High School Guy #627482 we don't understand

#asks #we speak #ask game #fandom bullshit #hi we have opinions. this took A Bit to answer #if we word things poorly here then please dont kill us about it

[clowngames]

OKAY SO

The story is a quasi-traditional pokemon adventure, which follows 3 trainers who each have their Own Shit Going On.

The first is Harris, a guy who has an undiagnosed anxiety disorder, who hasn't really explored his own region yet but has heard a lot about it. He makes up for a lack of being emotionally prepared for anything by being physically prepared for everything... that he can anticipate. It turns out he can anticipate very little.

The second is Fiona, who has something of an energy deficit. The line between being awake and being asleep is significantly blurrier for her, and she can fall asleep mid-sentence, and even sleep standing up. She's never really been self-sufficient because her body betrays her too easily. She feels like a burden on everyone she meets and wants to accomplish something great to prove to herself that she can - but it's difficult for her to stay motivated, no matter how much she wants it.

The third is Sophia, a woman who actually has her shit together... or at least she thought she did. She was on track to become a pokemon professor, she had her whole life planned out, when she was suddenly struct by the feeling of artificiality of studying pokemon in a lab. You could only really learn so much from pokemon in captivity. The real data was in the wild. Suddenly overwhelmed by a frustration she didn't understand, she made the first impulsive decision of her life and quit her internship and became a trainer. Sophia is no-nonsense, extremely capable and prepared in ways the other two only wish they could be, but she's also impatient and impersonal, which becomes a problem when they get their pokemon.

Harris chooses a Houndour, because he likes dogs and wants to challenge himself. Fiona chooses a Slakoth, because they vibe instantly. Sophia chooses an Absol, and she doesn't really know why. It spoke to her? It was probably a bad decision, given that an Absol don't give the trainer any immediate edge in battle, but what's done is done.

In their requisite "ash and pikachu learn to get along" plot, Harris struggles to get Houndour to trust him (and stop attacking him), and faces his fears to take a hit meant for his pokemon. Fiona and Slakoth enable each other until they realize they finished off the food they had packed and didn't have any money for more. Sophia tries to start her adventure but Absol won't listen to her, instead going the other way, and Sophia learns she has to listen to her pokemon as much as they have to listen to her. Sophia finds out that this is the youngest Absol ever captured, and it was searching the remains of a wildfire looking for its mother. Sophia promises it that they'll look for her together.

The three of them learn pretty quickly that they'll survive this adventure better if they stick together; Harris won't be able to chicken out at every opportunity, Fiona won't be able to oversleep so badly she never gets started, and Sophia will be forced to slow down enough to do what she became a trainer to do - learn from the pokemon around her.

All three of them started this adventure late in their life - they're already adults, and should already be in a more stable point in their life, but due to different reasons each of them never got to the point where they could adventure until now. Together, they struggle to find the right pace, trying to "catch up" to others, trying to stop and smell the Roselias, trying to push and pull each other along, never leaving anyone behind.

There are several plot threads, including the Gym challenge, an evil Team, and a quad-annual Badge Race, where participants have 3 days to get 3 badges across "gym leaders" in 3 different adjacent towns without using any fast travel to get from place to place, and get 3 player badges from their fellow participants. If you succeed, you gain access to a higher rank version of the challenge next time. The retired Champion of the region participates every time, taking a new team with him each year. Sophia loses at the end in a battle against Harris, but she still catches the eye of the Champion and he commends her for conceding instead of overworking her pokemon.

That plot thread develops but I should stop there for now.

The story ended up being a lot more character-focused than I intended, and it's the first time I really stepped back and went "oh I have OCs." I actually tried to get art commissioned for them at one point, but it didn't work out and I don't have the money to try again any time soon.

#pokemon oc #long post

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Rose

Alright, listen.  Galar Villain Arc is happening earlier than expected.  I had thought this would be like Hoenn last year, and take up all of August, but apparently this is a two-month affair.  Which means next month has another opening for the lead-up to anniversary.  And I’m just saying.  Maxie is getting a rerun, so like...Roxanne alt?  It’d get me to spend, DeNA.  Just think about it.

Anyway, the VA starts off by actually introducing the villains of Rose and Oleana.  Hoping this means the latter half is just introducing a windfall of first-time arrivals.  If we get Opal I’ll die.  If we get Kabu or Peony, my wife will die.  But for now, Rose and Oleana.  No one is surprised.  What is surprising to many is that they’re both PokeFairs.  Apparently a lot of people expected Oleana to be a general pool?  Naive fools.  Rose is a bit more surprising to me, since I don’t think he’s all that popular, but let’s see if Copperajah lives up to the title.

General Overview I can sum up whether you want to pull on Rose in a single question: How do you feel about SS Giovanni?

Rose and SS Giovanni operate identically.  While Giovanni focuses on higher single-target DPS and on-type Max Moves, Rose makes the honestly smarter trade of getting AoE on moves and Max Moves, in exchange for slightly less single-target power.  At time of writing, we don’t know how much extra damage he gets for Steel-type, but it’s presumed to be a lot.  I’m literally betting 50%.  If it is...he might be better than SS Giovanni, even in the areas he was already good at.  Like, SS Giovanni is a bit of a struggle when off-type.  Rose’s tradeoff may actually be to his benefit, as he’s got an easier time off-typing thanks to serious boosting of his Iron Head, which also flinches.

The downside is he’s an extreme Giovanni in both the good and the bad.  Specifically, Rose is slower, and hits himself with a -2 speed penalty on trainer move.  If Giovanni was so bad at gauges that my only real solution in Gauntlet was “max team speed,” Rose feels like more of the same.  This guy is going to downright struggle with gauges no matter what you do.  He does get a merciful MGR9 on Iron Head, but any serious gauge savings come from 5/5, where he gets Free Moves Next every action under Steel Damage Field.  Which means one use, and he has to take his Steel-type Max Move.

Rose is fascinating to me.  Despite my dislike of SS Giovanni, I really love Rose’s kit.  I think it’s just...the personality.  Like, this is a man who cannot wait to save his life.  He needs immediate, overwhelming, decisive action to be taken, and provided the course is sane, he wins.  If it’s not, then immediately following failure, he may as well give up.  The gauges aren’t there, he can’t act, he’s just...lost outright.  Which is exactly like Rose.  Take a big risk on solving the energy crisis forever, and if Plan A fails, you have no backup.  I dunno.  I like when the kit of a Pokemon matches the personality of the trainer in a serious way.  That said...Rose is probably the worst of the major four sync pairs.  Tate and Liza have wildly exceeded expectations, and Oleana is exceptional.  Rose will be unbelievable in CS, but his Gauntlet performance will suck ass and there’s very little he can do to fix it.  As someone who values pairs that are good at both, having a pair that’s exceptional in one at the cost of basically all utility in the other is never a fantastic trade.  At least Liza has reusable Free Moves Next with +80% damage every use of it.

EX and Move Level? To be honest, Rose might be one of those “one and done” types.  While he offers a lot at 3/5, I feel like spread Max Moves are a really strong point in his favor, and that he’s probably completely fine without move level or EX.  EX on a striker with Extend Range is a known problem, too.  What, you’re going to AoE blast your opponents when the sides are already dead?  Idiot.  But move level does have some consideration.  Hit the Gas 5 stacks with move level damage increases, so each successive level makes him that much stronger.  Is it necessary?  No.  But is it funny?  That’s for you to decide.

Team 1: Rose, Marley, Tech Magneton Rose wants for incredibly little, and on a budget for on-type, Marley is a great pick thanks to how fast she caps team speed.  She isn’t really needed for much else, but that speed will get you where Rose needs to go.  Magneton is chosen because frankly, the DPS and Max Move will clear sides just fine.  All you want is to maximize your target damage on center via Screech, and Magneton has matched theme skills without being too terribly slow.  Congrats on clearing Steel, Ground, and Rock stages, friend.

Team 2: Rose, W!Jasmine/C!Red, Colress But if you want to be COOL?  Winter Jasmine strats.  SEUN can be applied to Max Moves for absurd damage, and nothing solves his basic single-target DPS issues like a multiplicative 50% bonus.  Colress has AoE Screech, because sometimes you just need to see a funny number pop.  In this scenario, Jasmine takes sync to maximize Rose.  While gauge issues are generally a nightmare, Colress does get Infliction Freebie so it’ll get the job done on-type.

Team 3: Rose, P!Marnie, Skyla As an off-type option focused on Steel, P!Marnie does work well with Rose, thanks to her defense debuffs and Steel Wish.  That said, holy hell the gauges.  That’s why we brought Skyla.   For physical stages, the combination of her defense boosts and Marnie’s Growl really keeps the team going, while solving gauge issues.

Team 4: Rose, Courtney/SS Diantha, Ingo And now the other two off-type.  Courtney and SS Diantha work very well with Rose’s physical focus, and Rose does get Sandstorm tiles to help manage gauge.  Rose can set his own Sandstorm with Rockfall, but also...Ingo.  Ingo buffs speed per action in Sand, and has the absolute chaos of multiple free moves next effects.  I know he functions well, but if Dojo Gloria can get a grid expansion, when’s Ingo?  Give him Sand Alert 5.  I want to see people go nuts.

Team 5: Rose, SS Steven (Speed), Tech Magneton I mentioned that Rose is SS Giovanni.  That means SS Giovanni solutions apply to him too, and we can look directly at my man Sygna Suit Steven’s Speed Forme, which has such unbelievable gauge generation that you’ll go crazy trying to think about it.  Rose does have limitations compared to Giovanni for Gauntlet purposes, specifically the worse single-target DPS, but Screech should, should solve it, since Steven as an evade tank also has Recover.

Final Thoughts Guys.  I’m not gonna lie.  I actually really like this kit.  I think this is fun.  I dunno man, I wasn’t impressed when SS Giovanni did the Hit the Gas 3-types Max Move thing, and I wasn’t impressed when Victor did the AoE Max Moves thing.  I have no idea why I’m so invested in this Rose.  Like legitimately, I do not get it, I am setting myself up for disappointment so badly.

I think at least in part, it’s hope.  Masters does really, really well with characters on the whole.  When allowed to write a fun event, they nail it every time.  The VA has largely been disappointing because they keep shifting focus back to Giovanni, and if they can just keep attention on Rose and Oleana for a bit?  I feel like they could sell me on them.  Make something work.  And I’d love for that to be the case.  I am a Galar Hater at heart, but my wife loves it, it was her first real Pokemon experience so she’s super attached, and I would love to share in that attachment.  They’ve done a decent job with other members of the cast.  They got me to like Bede.  Maybe they can pull something off with Rose too.

#unit teambuilding #rose

[gray-wednesday]

I saw a tiktok on my for you page about how a ton of women say they hate Andrew Tate but can't actually say what he does that's so bad, so here's an essay about alphamales and conformity:

One of the things that has been most stark after watching quite a few alphamale videos, especially critiques of these videos, is the central belief of these men that deep down in the psyche of biological male and female people is this instinctive drive to exhibit stereotypical behavioral characteristics of their sex.

For male people they believe there is a predisposition towards being aggressive, dominating, and thinking without emotion(?). But female people are passive, submissive, and assert there sphere of mental strength in emotional intelligence.

This assignment of behavioral characteristics is not completely unfounded, as in American culture children are conditioned from a young age to exhibit behaviors aligning most closely with their sex. But they have not been scientifically proven to be instinctual or genetic so saying that they apply to every member of a sex is incorrect and also comical.

'Alphamales' typically use these behavioral characteristics in order to facilitate sex between members of different sexes; which is done by making interactions between these sexes formulaic. To 'alphamales' female people are like a puzzle game (think a rubik's cube), they're fundamentally the same but require different steps to solve them depending on how they're scrambled up. Functionally there are a few set moves or ways to behave towards a rubik's cube that will allow you to solve it. And since each rubik's cube is the same, methods that worked on one woman should be just as applicable to another.

Women being the same, then, is something that 'alphamales' want. If every female person is the same, and the same tricks work on every single one, it makes it easier to have sex with as many as possible; something which, I have discovered from watching their videos, is desirable so that they can achieve the end of finding the 'best one'. This ideal woman would of course only differ from other women in her looks, talents (in exempli cooking, cleaning, sexual pleasuring, et cetera), and ability to portray herself as the 'alphamale's' sanitized ideal woman. This proves that 'alphamale's' don't see women as real people, (or at least not in the way that they see other men as real people). Women are accessories that can be compared and traded like pokemon cards.

However, in reducing female people to one cookie cutter model, 'alphamales' face the consequence of being reduced to carbon copies of each other as well. The people making these videos prescribe certain stereotypically masculine behaviors to their followers in order to be more attractive to their cookie cutter woman. In some cases, they tell them how to dress 'correctly' and once I saw a guy tell his following that certain piercings were only for girls. The men who subscribe to this ideology risk losing their individuality and introduce throes of the same toxic man in different forms into society, which just makes it worse for everyone because 'alphamales' see themselves as ideal versions of manhood and thus everyone else as inferior, meaning that they have no respect for anyone other than other 'alphamales'.

Thus, the central dogma of the 'alphamale' movement is a desire for conformity. They believe that a person's sex dictates their role in society and reduce people to that assigned role. It's stupid and funny because people are diverse and vibrant and are never going to fit into those reduced roles no matter how much they try to force them into them. Pretending that people can be confined to such things makes a person treat others like objects, which is gross and a blight on society.

#Andrew Tate is an asshole because he subscribes to this ideology #he's doubly an asshole because he actively tries to manipulate the women who work for him into acting like his ideal for a woman #i mean have you heard about the parties he throws when one of the women quit because he treats them like shit? #he instills shame in the others because they don't want to be mocked by him and their coworkers when they leave to find better #opportunities elsewhere

[ranger-kellyn]

i said i wasn't going to write an essay, but i ended up writing an essay anyway

so, here, my official review of scarlet and violet. obv major spoilers below. also, unfortunately, it's mostly negative, so be mindful of that. at the end of the day, the only thing i can say i loved about the games were the characters-

and even then, my love of the characters doesn't feel...idk if genuine is the word i'm looking for, but something along that vein. like. the story i was writing in my head during my second playthrough was more enjoyable than the actual playthrough itself. i love the version of the characters who live in my head -- but i really have to ask myself, am I just doing that whole "OC committing identity fraud" thing...?

open world full of fucking nothing. my favorite thing to do in BoTW was get up somewhere high, look around, admire the view, and then just take me wherever my stamina could get me to. in this game, you get up high and there's...not really anything of note to look at. the textures are awful and stretched, and so many of the mountains are at a needle point. i have no motivation to actually go out and search for all 999 gimmighoul coins just to evolve one ugly pokemon into an even more ugly pokemon.

there's a distinct lack of Sense Of Place throughout the game, and in the wildes it's in how sparce the landscapes are. Hardly any trees or unique landmarks. the towns and cities are even worse in this regard. like. apart from the occasional spanish tossed in here and there, and the general shape of the region, and names of the towns, how in the fuck would I have known the region is inspired by spain?? like. how did we go from Galar which is very in-your-face-obnoxious-English to Paldea which is like..........spanish i guess

As a tangent to the above, the distinct lack of like. culture??? there are so many wonderful foods that come out of spain-- and sandwhiches??????? i remember thinking curry was weird for galar, but was satisfied with the answer of "it's a current trendy food". sure, fine, i can deal. sandwhiches????? how the fuck is me throwing three pickles and some olive oil on a footlong supposed to lure out pokemon

anyways,

the game feels wildly directionless. if you look up a list of the "least to most strong" encounters for each three storylines, there is no way in FUCK it makes sense from an exploratory standpoint. it's made worse by the fact that the battles don't scale. one of the best things about BoTW is how, in my experience, no matter what order you do things in, no matter when you decide to finally take on ganon-- it always felt satisfying. finishing up these three storylines didn't feel satisfying in either of my runs, and looking at it from an objective standpoint-- i can't find a way to write this and have it make sense without scaling things. it the battles simply scaled this would be a non issue for me. Not to mention the classes you're also supposed to be taking at the academy during all of this. I completely skipped over them during my first playthrough, but made sure to go and take the classes every other gym or so. yes, they added to the lore here and there, and it was a neat attempt at the whole free time events to bond with characters and whatnot. but it still kinda fell flat for me. (also if i have to read "apro-pros of nothing" one more time i Will gouge my eyes out) (ALSO yes i had to look up what in the fuck chugey meant when the director asked like bitch me the fuck too no clue what it meant)

related to directionless, the game's final arc in the great crater feels...too slow, then on the immediate flip side, too fucking fast. like. for the longest time, i couldn't have told you what the plot of the game was. the treasure hunt feels vague at best. for the longest time, the three storylines just felt like "things you can do" rather than like genuine plot. like. finding out the professor is long dead and essentially the "bad guy" of the region feels...eh? like. i guess it was emotional, but the painfully slow build up only to have the end of the game take like...less than half an hour? Arven's neglect from his parents feels rushed and not really handled with much care. Penny's whole story line with Team Star also feels...unsatisfying? I think her final battle would have been better had all the star leaders ended up revealing themselves when she was down to just Sylveon, about to lose, basically giving way to phase two where their cheering her on gives a huge power boost to Sylveon, like how the crowd cheering can give you boosts in other battles. As much as I love Nemona. like. i ADORE this kid. she feels...inconsistent at times. (which like-- in plenty of ways i'll give her a pass bc like. Teenager lmao. but also. :\) I think I really just don't understand her role as student council president. she doesn't read student council president to me. maybe a club president, but not of the whole student council. always ready to rush into things without thinking them through-- not exactly qualities you would want from SCP.

dont even get me started on the performance issues and distance rendering. like....good fucking god. like. even the fact that the in-game timer is dependent on the frames--- my game for scarlet says i have 37:07 hours in the game. my switch profile says i have over 40 hours. 3 hours of game time lost to lag. on youtube, smallant's violet video showed the same thing. his in game timer was at like 14 and the profile timer was at like 16 and so.....Bad Some of the glitches and bugs were funny for a bit, but i really just...can only laugh for so long before getting overwhelmed with "these wouldn't be here if they had just given the game an extra year or two of work". The fact that the very first mod I saw for the game was a 60FPS mod-- it's sad.

ALSO ALSO. i fucking HATE the lack of a visual or audio cue for shiny pokemon. the models are already too fucking small for me to see, and then the colors aren't stark enough for me to notice-- i will literally never find a shiny pokemon if they don't patch that in. i will not see them. i am missing out on a whole section of the game because gamers hate disabled people so fucking much.

but i guess to end i'll try to talk more about the things i did like.

the genders in this game??????

fucking IMMACULATE. catch me grinning like a dork every time i catch a glimpse of rika-- i want what she has so fucking bad i cant sEE STRAIGHT

my faves of the game are Nemona, Rika, Atticus, and Grusha, but there's really no characters other than Iono who i actively dislike. the only thing i like about Iono has been watching actual streamers get to her and visibly cringe and dsfhljk. good joke But i fucking ADORE Nemona. she's a little one dimensional, sure, and sometimes i felt like her characterization wasn't exactly. consistent?? but i love how all about the player character she is. i love the "lets be rivals for life" cheesiness. i love that she thought you were just picking fights with randos when you first meet Team Star and was like, "you can have all the battles you'll ever want with me!" i ESPECIALLY loved playing it as the girl bc it all just reads like "i have the biggest fucking crush on you and it's also my first huge crush so i have no clue how to even act around you" I love how absolutely kind and wonderful she is. My favorite rival since Cheren and Bianca back in BW. I will not forgive the fandom for at first making her sound like this huge creepy stalker. that's my "cinnamon roll who could probably kill you" your honor. Rika is just...my own personal "life goals or wife goals????????" bc fucking CHRIST i look at her and have my own little gay meltdown every time. i wanna look like her sO BAD i'm literally buying clothes to dress like her Atticus i love bc the fandom seems to find him annoying, but i just adore this little theater nerd. really, i ended up adoring all of Team Star. at the end i was looking at all of them and laughing to myself, saying, "yeah i know why these kids were getting bulled. same reason i was getting bullied. we ALL are running around with undiagnosed autism aren't we". i also just love that atticus has the most gorgeous face hiding under that goofy ass hood. goofy theater boy let me love you Grusha i found really compelling my second playthrough, where i actually talked to more NPCs and realized that like...oh. grusha got fucked up on the slopes, didn't he? that little cetoddle you see him with is probably like...a disability aid pokemon of some kind. his line that's like, "this is a bad day to challenge me, are you sure?" is probably more like. you essentially went to challenge him on the day that is also the anniversary of his big injury. (unfortunately i also one-shot his entire team in both playthroughs so like....for gym 8 he wasn't that strong :( ) but he's def a character i'd love to dig into one of these days.

so, i loved the characters. i even loved the dynamic of the Elite 4. While i hate the idea of a like....4 year old...being on the e4, i like to think it's more like...Poppy's parent is on the e4, but they're in and out of the region a ton and Poppy has just memorized how to order her parent's pokemon and -- idk. it sounds funnier in my head.

and as many gripes i have about the new pokemon, i do think there was a good balance of new to old pokemon. i wish i liked some of the evos more (looking at all the nightmare bugs) but i do think the balance was pretty good. My first team was: Skeledirge, Klawf, Tauros (water), Tinkaton, Kilowattrel, and Baxcalibur My second team was: Quaquaval, Pawmot, Tauros (fire), Tinkaton, Farigiraf, and an EV trained Sunflora bc it made me laugh Clearly Tinkaton is a favorite, but as I've said before, Quaquaval absolutely snuck its way into my heart. I also loved the Tauros variants, which I also thought was a simple but great way to get more out of less.

but so i guess the big question is: do I think Scarlet and Violet are worth $60+????

honestly...i don't think i can say yes. the negatives outweigh the positives for me, but on the same hand, i don't exactly regret spending the $120 for both games. but i am a story writer and it's given me enough plot bunnies to be worthwhile to me. i don't like that most of what i'm already brainstorming feels like nothing but fix it fics... but i digress.

tl;dr: good characters, great genders. performance and graphical errors out the ass. an open world full of nothing and no life. a generous 5/10

#talking tag #kellyn plays #sv spoilers #edit: okay i THINK i fixed whatever the fuck happened with the formatting #thanks tumblr dot edu

[hxdrostorm]

@iruludavare​ has sent: “penny for your thoughts”

send “penny for your thoughts” for me to talk about... [Accepting]

// I’m kinda of late on the discussion, I saw last night about villain muses and irredeemable ones. But here are my two cents on the matter:

This is kinda of a genuine critique I have towards the pokerpc, at least a good majority of it. I don’t understand why this community, seems to have such a hard time to grasp the idea that Mun =/= muse. Whatever your muse does, should never reflect in any shape or form you, as a person. Unless you’re self-inserting, that should never be a thing to be worried about. And yet... It feels like you can’t write the villains the way they’re intended to, out of fear over how others will take it, unless you make them ‘uwu a good bean’ or give them a redemption arc (no matter how tacky or odd it may seem like).

I remember back when I used to write my Lance, and I decided to write him as a morally grey character/not a good person. And I almost lost muse for him, bc everyone & their grandma tried to use him as a punching bag, bc ‘they’re mean & my muse is the good one uwuTM’. I’ve never run into any problem like this, in any of the other RPCs I’ve been in (or if I did, it was an isolated case and that’s it).

Obviously, I’m not here to tell anyone how they should or shouldn’t tackle their muses. I’m personally tired of seeing every bad guy redeemed in a way or another, but I can understand why people would try to do that. And although I’m also tired of seeing relatable villains, I can also see the appeal of giving other traits to a villain, for obvious reason. But I find it very odd, that it seems like this RPC doesn’t seem to be able to grasp such a simple concept. Which would save us all from so much trouble, and actually give ppl space to be creative with their villains. Maybe it’s because, this is pokemon, and storytelling is the last thing the series seems to ever bother with. It’s all narratives that are easy to digest, and it feels like a lot of people are also on board with that. So, their reactions tend to be pretty bad, when you write anything with a nuance of sorts. Or y’know ppl are just really desperate, for that makeshift moral highground.

I’m currently in SW hell, I don’t think anyone would last 5 secs with that mentality in this series. Where there isn’t anyone that’s 100% good, and the villains pack a punch with the packages of lore they carry.

#ooc / #iruludavare #thank you for the ask! #Would you like some salt in your tea?