#another thing that could’ve been unique for him in terms of my character designs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

koushou · 3 years

Note

hi!! could u do a oneshot for fem!mechanic!reader x childe, zhongli & albedo separately? if u only do one character per request, then i'd prefer childe - also i get the term 'mechanic' is kinda vague so i guess a reader who invents and repairs things could be another way to word it

pairings : childe, zhongli, albedo x f!mechanic!reader (separate)

{fluff, lots of crack}

warnings : none !

wc : 1.3k

a/n : i'm so so sorry this took so long TT it’s been a bit busy recently, anw thank you for requesting!! (the reader here is less of a mechanic, she just invents stuff; i hope u like them!)

“Ouch!”

Childe yelps as he steps on the hundredth nail that day in your shared home in Liyue, hopping on one foot in pain as you sheepishly send him an apologetic smile.

“Oops! Looks like I missed one.”

“Baby, you’re killing me - literally.”

You hum, happily returning back to whatever strange invention you had come up with that day, as Childe heaves a sigh and retreats away from the danger zone, aka anywhere within a 5-feet radius around you.

He grimaces, inspecting the minor outline the nail had made on the bottom of his right foot, before your voice rings through the air.

“Childe, come here!”

A few crashes and bangs sound from the other room you occupied, followed by a string of curses.

Yup, you really were going to kill him someday.

He makes his way cautiously to where you were, and he was surprised to see you holding a metal bow-shaped gadget with little parts attached on the sides.

“You mentioned wanting to improve on your archery skills, so this, my newest invention - you should be honored, by the way - is made just for you!”

You smile triumphantly at him, beginning to explain the functions of the gadget, the little parts that can assist him in working on his aim, how you could adjust the grip on the bow to make it more comfortable, and -

Childe couldn’t help the grin spreading across his face, he thought you looked the most beautiful when you talked about your passions and interests. Plus, you took your time and made it just for him?

He engulfs you in a hug, breaking you out of your rant, leaving you confused.

“I love you so much. Thank you for this, honey,” Childe suddenly proclaims.

You giggle, about to say it back when one of the small parts on the metal gadget in your hand falls off, landing right on your boyfriend’s foot.

“Ow--!” He limps with his unwounded foot before tripping again on the same nail he had stepped on earlier.

“Childe!” You rush over to him, bending down to offer him a hand before stepping on the nail yourself and falling right on top of him - also accidentally stepping on his wounded foot along the way.

Ignoring your half-dead boyfriend now on the verge of tears on the ground, you gasp at the sight of the nail.

“Oh, that must be the nail I was missing - that’s why the part fell off!”

Childe sighs again.

In Mondstadt, you two were known as the smartest couple.

With Albedo as the Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius, it was only natural he had a deep understanding in alchemy already. Paired with your unique skill in being able to repair and invent almost anything, experiments with you two were a daily routine.

“Darling, do you mind passing me the warming gadget you made earlier? I’m heading out to gather some ingredients for my next experiment.”

“Of course! Here.”

Being with the most dedicated alchemist of Mondstadt meant traveling quite a lot, especially to Dragonspine.

Of course, Albedo insists you stay home as it could be dangerous, but you argue that you would miss him too much. Plus, you could - quoted from you - “use your inventing abilities to assist him in his experiments.”

It would be a lie if Albedo said your skills haven’t come in handy, especially in situations like these.

“I designed it so that the colder the temperature gets, the more heat this gadget produces! Super helpful, right?”

Albedo chuckles, taking your latest invention from your hands, before smiling at your excited expression.

“Yes, dear. I’m not sure what I’d do without you.”

You giggle, leaning into him, planting a small kiss on his cheek before he sets out on his exploration.

“Ah - just remember to adjust the sensitivity when-“

You gasp suddenly in the middle of your sentence, eyes widening like it always did when you had some brilliant idea for your next creation.

“Wait, dear, what do you mea-“ Albedo starts, but stops as he watches you already busying yourself around the workspace, gathering materials with a wild grin on your face.

He sighs, smiling gently to himself as he decides it was probably nothing important.

He regrets not asking.

Albedo shivers, breathing out in relief as he spots the entrance to the camp.

The gadget had suddenly started producing an excessive amount of heat as he was starting to head back, too hot even in Dragonspine.

After the small gadget had become too hot for the touch, it let out a small explosion before letting out a trail of smoke indicating it was no longer usable.

The small explosion had shocked the blonde alchemist, resulting in him falling in a pile of snow.

Albedo steps into the safe confines of the camp, alerting you of his presence.

“Oh - you’re back Alb-” You pause, examining his appearance.

“Why are you covered in snow, dear?”

He only sighs, as you narrow your eyes at the broken gadget in his hand.

“Oh no - did you forget to adjust the sensitivity??” You furrow your eyebrows at the now useless tool, taking it from him and examining it carefully.

“You didn’t tell me-” He starts to explain, before you interrupt him.

“I just made this, Albedo!” You pout at him, setting the broken object on the table, before huffing and walking towards the alchemist.

Grabbing a nearby towel, you start to clean him of the snow he had fallen in earlier, scolding him to be more careful.

“Go sit down, I’ll make you some hot chocolate. You’re gonna get sick.” You huff again, turning around leaving a very confused Albedo still standing.

He then breaks into a laugh, amused by your very unique way of caring for him.

“I love you a lot, darling, you know?” He suddenly confesses while making his way to a seat.

“W-wha-” You almost dropped the cup in your hand, flustered.

“Be quiet and drink your hot chocolate--!”

Your giggling could be heard as a confused Zhongli held a small controller in his hands, trying to navigate the robot dog on the floor.

“Zhongli - other way--!”

“Like this?”

The dog crashed into the wall of your home, leaving Zhongli huffing and putting the controller down.

You couldn’t resist a laugh at your pouting boyfriend. “Aww, Zhongli, here I’ll show you!”

You take the controller and explain the buttons and how to move the dog properly, while he watches with a serious expression.

“Here, you try.”

Zhongli furrows his eyebrows, carefully moving the buttons as you instructed. When the dog finally moves in a direction that isn’t crashing into something, you could’ve sworn you saw Zhongli’s eyes light up.

You stifled a giggle at his excited expression, almost resisting the urge to ruffle his hair with how adorable he looked for such a seemingly mature man.

Without thinking, you leaned forward to press a kiss against his unknowing lips, to which Zhongli froze almost dropped the controller at the action.

“Ah-uhm,” The geo archon clears his throat, facing you with a raise of his eyebrows. “What was that for, love?”

You shake your head, leaning your head on his shoulder. “Nothing. You’re just too cute with that thing.”

Zhongli chuckles, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “Thank you for making this, darling. It is quite amusing to play with.”

A smile breaks across your face, sitting up to face him. “There’s a cool trick this dog can do, want to see?”

He nods, curious as you take the controller from his hands.

Hiding a mischievous smile on your lips, you press a button on the bottom of the controller that sends the robotic dog jumping into Zhongli’s lap, startling the tall man.

The dog starts to lick Zhongli’s face - with its mechanical tongue - as he sputters and finally gets the dog to stay in place in his arms.

“Love - this is...the trick?”

You burst out laughing at the still squirming dog in your shocked boyfriend’s arms, raising the controller again.

“There’s another trick too! Wanna s-”

“No.”

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pokelec · 3 years

Text

A Dead By Daylight Novice Reviews All the Killers' Trailers (and makes suggestions for what they'd change)

Reveal trailers are paramount for an audience's first look at new characters. First impressions are everything, so your trailer for your shiny new character needs to be perfect for what's in store for the video game! I started playing DBD a month-ish ago but watched all the trailers for the killers before I started playing, and watching some of them got me to thinking about how I would have changes some of the trailers. Some require no changes, while others I think need an overhaul.

Disclaimer: This is in my personal opinion, is not objective at all, and I'm only doing this because this is something I've been thinking about for a month and need some sort of release or else my brain will implode.

Under a read more bc this gets long.

The Trapper - The first trailer! For a first trailer, I think this one is pretty spot on. It follows a lot of beats of slasher movies, in terms of following a survivor that's gonna be killed, her encountering dead bodies, and the suspense of the killer looking for her. Considering Dead by Daylight is effectively a playable horror movie, I think this is a perfect intro to the game. As for what this means for the Trapper, aka our Jason substitute, I think it showed him off alright! We saw his bear traps and got a good look at him doing this thing. Pretty good, all things considered!

The Wraith - The Wraith, Hillbilly, and Nurse all features gameplay as the means of showing off what the killers can do. The Wraith's isn't too bad, since it does show off his Wailing Bell power enough for people to understand "This is a killer that can turn invisible, and you may not know he's right next to you until it's too late". I wish it has a more cinematic style, but I'll be forgiving here because DBD was still young when this was made. I also thing it showed the new map, Autohaven, pretty well. I'm not too big of a fan of ending the trailer with his mori, but that could be because I don't find his mori exciting.

The Hillbilly - Next is our Leatherface expy! This one feels shorter, still using gameplay to introduce our new killer but at least shows off his chainsaw wielding and hints at the map associated with him. I like the shot of him revving his chainsaw underneath the tree with the animal carcasses! I don't mind the ending with his mori here because even if it's off screen, getting cut with a chainsaw is brutal enough to leave a lasting impression. Again, I wish it had the cinematic style, but it's fine.

The Nurse - I think the Nurse's trailer is the weakest of the three gameplay-focused trailers. The text intro is... fine, but I honestly think it fits the Doctor more. It does an okay job of showing us her Blinking mechanics, but it also doesn't? Like we see her teleporting to Nea, but it feels lackluster. I do like the ending shot of dead Nea as the Nurse just blinks away. I'm not quite sure how to change this trailer to be more effective in my opinion, if I'm being honest.

The Shape/Michael Myers - Our first franchise killer, and a perfect trailer. The first second in, we hear John Carpenter's legendary Halloween score. Even non-horror fans will quickly pick up which killer this is. The suspense of Laurie see Michael, Michael coming up the stairs, and especially the shot of Laurie and Michael being on opposite sides of a door is *chef's kiss*. We see enough of the Shape to be satisfied and eager for his release. It's the perfect trailer for him AND Laurie imo.

The Huntress - Ah, the Huntress. She is my favorite killer to play as, and I probably have the majority of my playtime on her. Unfortunately, I think her trailer leaves a lot to be desired. It's the start of the 'let's look at the killer from different angles, have them turn around to the camera, and then attack the viewer' trend of DBD trailers. I call for a complete rewrite! Here's what I would have done:

The map is Mother's Dwelling. Two survivors (David aaaand idk Dwight?) are running and hides behind some trees. We hear the Huntress's lullaby get louder, and we see the bottom half of her and her axe as she walks past the survivors. The lullaby gets quieter, and the survivors take a sigh of relief. Then, a hatchet is thrown and lodged into Dwight's head! David screams and runs. We then see our full look at the Huntress as she picks up the body. Her signature lullaby continues as the trailer ends.

The Hag - The Hag's trailer also follows a similar formula to the Huntress' trailer. There is an animation bump, so we get to see the Hag's emaciated appearance in full detail. I'm not too mad about that, since the Hag's appearance is unsettling enough to cause viewer distress and curiosity more than the Huntress' would. However, because this is a DBD original killer, we need to see what her deal is with her trailer. Thus, I propose this:

On the swamp, Ace is repairing a generator but hears another survivor (Dwight?) get hooked. Ace goes to rescue him, but we see as he steps on a rune in front of the poor survivor. The illusion of the Hag pops up, jumpscaring poor Ace (and the audience) but disappears. Ace then rescues Dwight for real, but Dwight quickly runs away. Why? Because the real Hag is behind Ace and lunges at him, biting his neck. Trailer ends.

The Doctor - I now realize that my taste in writing DBD trailers is 'have the survivor do a thing, they think the killer is near, they then relax, and only then are they attacked by the killer'. It's a bit stereotypical, but again, we're dealing with a game centered on the horror genre, so that's why I'm okay with it.

I mention this because that's effectively the story beats the the Doctor's trailer follows. Instead of attacking Feng, however, the Doctor just looks at her run and stares menacingly. Even though we don't see the Doctor's shock therapy powers here, I think the long look at the killer is still effective because of his design. A first reaction I (and other reactors) experienced went from the initial "OMG the killer is here, run girl!" to "Why tf are his own eyes and mouth held open like that A Clockwork Orange scene?!". We also don't linger for too long on him either, so I think this trailer works well enough.

The Cannibal/Leatherface - Another franchise killer, this time good ol Leatherface! This trailer is a little different, using text to draw up suspense. I do like the reveal of "What is his mask made of? YOU.", but I would've loved to have seen some actual Cannibal action, or at least his in-game model doing his Texas chainsaw massacring thing.

The Nightmare/Freddy Kruger - Oh, c'mon, we got one of the most well known characters in horror in this little video game, and all we get for his trailer is some scratch marks and a 'killer does nothing but stand there menacingly and attack the camera' trailer?! I do like the detail that when we see him, it's DBD's version of the dream world, but we could've at least featured a survivor falling asleep and then seeing him for themselves.

(Also kinda sad it's the reboot version of Freddy instead of the Wes Craven version and the survivor is Quentin instead of Nancy Freaking Thompson, but I guess we should be happy he's in the game at all)

The Pig - Largely, I think this trailer is pretty good. I'm not too big of a fan of Amanda just standing there menacingly near Dwight, but I do like everything else. I especially love the security camera shot of the famous Saw bathroom and the cutaway when Dwight's reverse bear trap activates (but we still see a good bit of gore!). It feels very Saw-like.

The Clown - This trailer is pretty good! Even though we don't see the Clown in much action, we get a lot of visual storytelling with the bottles, the circus, and the ring of fingers, all leading up to the reveal of his face. The diagetic music from Kate is a nice touch, too.

The Spirit - This one is alright. There is a lot of focus on Adam, but it does build up tension to when the Spirit reveals herself. My biggest problem with it is the ending card that is used for her. Yes, I know that's traditional for the end of these trailers, but her pose and expression is kinda meh after the face she makes when she's about to attack Adam. Seriously, that couple of seconds haunts me (sorry) otherwise.

The Legion - My other favorite killer to play! It's so funny how I didn't like Legion when I first heard of them but now they're my favorites. I love how the trailer emphasizes that the new killer(s) looks similar to survivors and the brutality of when Frank reveals himself and stabs Jeff. However, the trailer does a disservice to the other members of the Legion. C'mon, that's their whole shtick!

My recommendation would be to end with a shot of Julie, Joey, and Suzie joining Frank (and obviously getting a good look at them) and surrounding Jeff right before they all stab him. This is a little disingenuous since you can't play as all four of them at once (unless you count that one Blighted skin...), but you also can't disguise yourself as a survivor, so... Yeah. They are The Legion! They act as one! Treat them as such in their trailer, dammit!

The Plague - The Plague's trailer is interesting. Even though we don't see her in action, I think it's fine because seeing her puke on people during her trailer might be a bit off-putting. Just a bit. We still get some storytelling with her whispered prayers, the candles and incense thingy, and, of course, her face. I think because the Plague's design is inherently unique among all the killers so far, she can get away with the 'let's just tease the audience by looking at the killer and nothing else' trend.

The Ghost Face - Not too much I can complain about with this one. I do like the wtf factor of 'wait, why is a DBD trailer at a modern day warehouse???', especially if you're watching a trailer playlist like I first did. It all makes sense when you learn it's Ghost Face, though! Also, justice for that poor cashier.

The Demogorgon - RIP Stranger Things DLC. I don't watch this series, but I really like the Hawkins Lab map and I'm going to be sad when it's gone. :(

I love this trailer! When I hear the Stranger Things music, it actually gives me chills. I'm legitimately so sad the DLC will be gone from the stores, but I do own them myself. I need to actually sit down and play Demo, Steve, and Nancy one of these days. Why am I crying? No, I'm not kidding, why is this trailer making me cry? Renew the contract, Netflix, please! I don't want this stuff to disappear forever!

(Is it weird that I've been nagged on for years to watch Stranger Things but it's Dead By Daylight that's actually convincing me to watch it?)

The Oni - This is an interesting case. The "main" theme of this trailer is the contrast of modern day Japan's Yui and her motorcycle vs the literal ancient samurai Oni. I think it works out, and again, I think the presentation makes up for us not seeing too much of the new killer.

The Deathslinger - Oh boy, do I love my cowboys! This trailer is nearly perfect. We establish the western setting quickly over the sounds of some poor bastard in pain. The reeling in of the chains and the closeup of The Redeemer is so great. My biggest complaint with this trailer is that we linger a bit too long on the Deathslinger's face at the end. Yeah, he's creepy with his eyes and his disjointed jaw, but you can only look at a horror for so long before you want to move on.

The Executioner/Pyramid Head - I like this trailer! I haven't played Silent Hills, but I'm at least somewhat familiar with the premise and Pyramid Head. I love the shot of him passing the classroom door window and the sword cutting a rift through the ground. Yeah, my lack of SH knowledge makes me unable to recommend any changes here.

The Blight - I have no changes to suggest. The Blight's transformation is super horrific, reminding me of the typical depiction of Jekyll and Hyde. Honestly, he is so much more terrifying in his trailer and in lore than in gameplay.

The Twins - No changes needed. BHVR is really starting to hit their stride with these trailers! Seeing Victor come out of Charlotte's body is amazing.

The Trickster - We depart from all of the other trailers by using an K-POP music video style. It does a good job at referencing some of his story beats (namely torturing/killing people, recording their screams, and using them in his music), but it doesn't really make me afraid of the Trickster. Sure, it fits with his theme, but I would have preferred seeing more of him, y'know, instead of just looking pretty and making faces? I still wouldn't change the art style of the trailer, though. It's fitting enough for him and a breath of fresh air from the doom and gloom.

The Nemesis - No change needed, mostly because I'm not too familiar with the Resident Evil series, but seeing Jill, the twink Leon, and Nemesis on-screen is a very cool moment. Also can we get an F in chat for Meg?

The Cenobite/Pinhead - This is a perfect trailer. We got the Lament Configuration, we got the chains pinning up Dwight, we got Pinhead himself! What more can I ask for?

If you actually made it this far, thank for reading? I don't think I really contribute anything to the fandom with this analysis, but DBD has been living rent free in my brain for the past month, so I may as well write something, eh?

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salty-fang · 4 years

Text

Twisted Fate Sugar Edition

Part three (sorry for the long wait) thanks for being patient @loveswifi

Marinette had had a weird day. She had kept being pulled in the direction of people who could’ve been mistaken for male versions of herself. Jason, Tim and Dick.

She had met Jason first. She had taken a quick detour from her hour-long trip to the fabric store. It had been a week after her outing with Gina, Alfred and Bruce Wayne but a week before the whole Lila debacle. She hadn’t expected Lila to even be in Gotham so Marinette didn’t feel the need to worry. She should have.

----------------------------------------------------

Jason had loads of knowledge on malicious stalking. Growing up as a vigilante taught him some things. So, he was truly stunned when he saw two shady people watched that pregnant woman with wolfish glares that he actually felt the need to follow them. He dragged her out of there line of sight, which without an explanation was pretty stupid. She’d kicked him in the balls causing him to hiss.

“Let go of me.”

“I’m trying to help you. A woman and a man have been watching you for a fucking long time. I just wanted to make sure you knew them. By the way, I’m Jason Todd.”

“Marinette.”

“One of them literally has sausages for hair. I think I’m going to have nightmares for a while.”

“Ugh, you should meet Lila Rossi.”

“Agreste's new wife?”

“Yup. Her eyes are so cold and dead. And she wears so much orange. It’s so painful when you actually look at her that I’d rather stick pins in my eyes.”

“Yo, this chick is the same. You sure we aren’t talking about the same person?” she snuck a quick look around the corner, laughing at the confusion on both Lila and Kim’s faces. She’d laughed too loud as Lila’s head whipped in her direction.

“That’s definitely her. Still as annoying as ever.” Kim had whispered something in Lila's ear just as she rounded the corner. They had started sprinting towards her and were going to catch her if she didn’t move her ass.

‘I can’t run far in heels. I’m going to have to catch a bus. The doctor did tell me to take it easy. Can’t affect those triplets with too much movement.’

She had only made it outside the door when she felt herself be hoisted onto sturdy shoulders.

“Let go of me! Oh it’s you Jay. Give a girl some warning will ya!” she said sighing in exasperation.

“Sorry but you really thought I was going to watch them hurt my little sis.”

“Hey! I’m not little. And put me down. “

“That’s what your focused on? And I won’t put you down. You may think you don’t need help but you’re wrong. So let your good big bro do his job.

“Good my ass,” she muttered, ducking under a signpost. “More like arrogant goofball.” Kim and Lila had either disappeared or they just blended in with the crowd very well. They’d probably lost them. Thank God for that.

“Jay, you can put me down now.”

“Huh, are they gone?”

“Yup.” She said popping the ‘p'. “Thank you Jay. For everything.”

“No worries, pixie pop. You’re my sis. I’d kill a bitch for you.” Marinette had fallen in line with Jason. But with his long strides and her pregnancy she was always steps behind him. Sure he’d fall back to match her pace but Lila had waited until the perfect moment to capitalise. She’d tried to scream for help but she had lost the ability to. They dragged her round the corner to one of her favourite cafés. Her head ached where Lila had pulled tightly on her braid (think Lady Noire) as she felt several strands of her hair fall out. Had no one found her being dragged around slightly disturbing?

She supposed no one cared about business that didn’t affect them in Gotham. Wow. Great, just great. She’d submitted herself fully when another blue-eyed black-haired man had come to her rescue. Seriously, was everyone in Gotham like Jay Jay or had he just been a manifestation of her sleep deprivation. He’d seemed so real, so human but it wouldn’t be the first time her mind would make something so absurd up. It was probably her loneliness acting up again. There was no way any sane person would stay around her for so long.

---------------------------------------------------

Surprisingly it had been Tim who saved her, though she hadn’t known that. Unsurprisingly, Jay and him had two distinctly different personalities. He lived off coffee, looked twice his age with those bags but had such wit about him that he could manipulate the situation without the other party realising. He had been surrounded by so many coffee cups that she had thought he had been in his final year preparing for exams or perhaps working night shifts every day of the week. But nooooo, he was the co-CEO of a business. Starting at the age of 17. Marinette had felt some of the burden dropped on her and she wasn’t even in his position. No wonder he looked like he needed a pick me up. It was just as well that she’d come equipped with her special coffee. She’d make more for Gina later, he needed it more. Plus, Gigi wouldn’t be back in hours.

“I know you said it was alright to sit with you uhh...”

“Tim.”

“Right, Tim. I don’t want to bother you anymore but that coffee looks like it doesn’t do shit for you. I made some for my grandma but she won’t be back for ages so maybe... you would like it?” Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Of course he won’t want some he probably thinks you’re a weirdo who poisoned his drink. Maybe you can take it back from him? “ on second thought-"

“Sure. Why not?” Ok Tim needs sleep. My God, I could have spiked his drink and he accepted it. He’s so vulnerable like this.

“If I give you my drink it will probably take a minute to kick in but... but you have to promise me that you’ll drink my power down later. If you don’t I’ll find you and I’ll get you to sleep one way or another. Don’t test me.” He gulped, eyes wide as he frantically nodded. “Good. Now would you like some pastries to go with your Marinette’s Super Special?” Her shift in character made him freeze. He couldn’t find his voice quick enough and instead opted for a simple thumbs up. She dug two flasks out of her bag, placing one in front of him and sniffed her own. Then, she brought two plates out, setting out croissants so buttery they made him drool, raspberry macaroons and a dozen mini chocolate chip muffins.

“You look like you needed a sugar rush so I guessed what you might like. Sorry if they’re not your favourites. Now chop chop eat up child!” Tim took a tentative sip of his drink feeling it slip down his throat. It had been just how he liked it yet slightly stronger. And then he felt the kick. It had been so small that his brain glossed over it but it’d been there. He was starting to feel more human again. And it had shown. His face had become less pallid and gaunt, his eyes held a fire that had been previously extinguished and his movements became less robotic, almost lighter. Before Marinette could utter ‘I told you so' everything had vanished. Tim was never usually a messy eater but he definitely was right now. Chocolate was smeared all over his chin , flakes from the croissant had littered around his suit and coffee had spilt on his white polo shirt.

“Beanie,” he muttered, a wild look in his egyptian blue eyes. “Please tell me you’re real. Or I at least died and went to heaven. You’re too sweet not to be in my life. I don’t know how I lived without you before. Please, I need you as my dealer. Your coffee is the only one I’ll ever drink again. Please.”

----------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t every day you saw Tim Drake beg on his knees and whine. But when you did, you would probably laugh your ass off. Whoever that poor girl was had just attracted the attention of invasive photographers. Unlucky, but at least they would get a show out of it.

“If I give you my coffee you’re not going to sleep. You’re going to be a living zombie and I can’t live with that. I’d rather not have anyone connecting me with your death from excessive tiredness.” Tim knew he had to play dirty if he was going to win. Thankfully, Steph had taught him how to master the art of puppy dog eyes which he aimed at Marinette. He then wrapped his arms around her leg, consequently being dragged along the unsanitary sidewalk to where both their belongings were.

“Please please please please PLEASE.” He noticed Marinette’s will become fragile. He wobbled his bottom lip, sniffling softly. “I’ll stop begging if you say yes. Please beanie.”

“Fine.” She huffed whilst he fist pumped the air. “But we do things on my terms alright?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Jeez. You’ve given me a headache.” She stated aiming a half-hearted glare at a sheepish Tim. “That’s an achievement, dude, not even Chloé could do that and her tantrums were super bratty.”

He had gone to apologise when shrill ringing rang in the air.

“Sorry,” he mouthed. “ I have to take this.”

“Jason what do you want? You just interrupted my deal with my dealer.”

“ I didn’t know you had it in you. But now isn’t the time. I need you to check security where you are. Pixie pop's gone missing.”

“Pixie pop?”

“I’ll explain later but right now she’s in danger. See you in 5 replacement.” With nothing left to say the line went dead and he decided to run some checks on Jason’s location whilst idly chatting with Marinette. She had asked for his unique insight on her latest design.

“What shade would you use on this? I’m only asking because of your peculiar style.”

“Definitely lavender but towards the bottom fade into a dark purple. And peculiar?”

“Who wears a suit on a hot summers day?” she asked eyebrow raised.

“Me. Batman. Business owners. Cosplayers. Bruce Wayne. The list could go on but I don’t have all day.” He said throwing an exaggerated wink at her.

“None of those people you mentioned are normal except maybe cosplayers so it doesn’t count. Better luck next time. I’m going to go pee.” Tim had opened his mouth to respond when he spotted Jason. He looked terrible. His hair was matted against his forehead with sweat, his eyes were bloodshot.

“I came as soon as I could. What did you find replacement? Spit it out. I don’t have all fucking day.”

“First, I want you to meet me dealer and then we can talk about what happened to ‘pixie' and who they even are.”

“Tim, as much as I’d love to meet your drug buddy, it’ll have to wait. She’s more important. I’m worried that the people who took her are going to seriously harm her.”

“Fine but you’re missing out on meeting the sweetest girl ever.”

“I’ll pass.” Jason snarled before turning back to the pixelated security feed. “That was where I last saw her. That’s weird. It’s like she disappeared from all footage. Do you have any other leads?”

“Jay-Jay?” Marinette barrelled into him locking him in a hug. “How do you know tater-tot?”

“Hey!”

“Sorry little lady but I’m looking for someone. Holy shit, is that you pixie pop?”

“Yup and who you calling little lady? I’m fun sized and could totally whoop your ass if I wasn’t pregnant. Just remember that Jason.” The way she had said his name sent shivers up his spine. She had delivered her sentence as a fact, not a threat.

“That’s why you’re my favourite, pixie pop.” Jason said, tearing up.

“Replacement, how did you even save Marinette?”

“They probably took a look at his half dead state and got scared off.” After an hour of re-introduction, they finally left. Jason drove her back on his motorcycle and dumped Tim’s limp body (from drinking Marinette’s calming chai tea) on his back.

With many hours to kill before Gina would be back from her night shift, she got changed into her gym clothes- a pink shirt with short sleeves and grey shorts- and headed to her local sports centre. Surprisingly, it was Dick who saved her this time

Marinette had been doing light exercise to keep in shape every day since she arrived in Gotham. She had a daily routine of squats, sit ups and weights, moving at her own pace. She had only attended the gym once before this and everyone had been friendly or had just gone about their days. Today was the first day anyone had actually approached her

“Hey sunshine, is it alright if I call you sunshine?” She nodded. “There’s a creepy guy watching you. He hasn’t actually done any workouts but he’s pointing his phone at you for a hell of a long time.”

“Thank you for telling me...”

“Richard but you can call me Dick.” She snickered. “If you want to that is.” Dick walked away to take a quick call from his brother when...

WARNING: YOU MIGHT NOT BE COMFORTABLE READING THIS PART. TW: sexual harassment. I'll put a brief summary at the bottom if you would rather skip

When she felt a firm hand squeeze her ass. She felt it trail down her shorts before she could even look at their face. She leapt away from his grasp, her breathing heavy as she looked around for any support. Unfortunately, the gym was empty, giving the predator an easy advantage.

“Hey baby did anyone tell you you’re damn sexy when you smile? Cuz you definitely are.” he aimed a snide smile at her. His yellow teeth glinted and his heady scent made her sick. “Princess, come back to mine tonight. We could have so much fun together and I’ll make you scream until you forget your own name. So, how about it?” He had approached he, pushing her boundaries, forcing her to back up against the wall.

‘No. Not ever. But especially not today.’

Marinette paled quickly. Gina wouldn’t be home for hours and he would most likely follow her home anyways. With no one to bear witness to this, he could do as he pleased. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He could seriously hurt her or worse... and there would be nothing she could do about it. She’d just fade into the background, just another statistic. No one would believe her because ‘she shouldn’t have dressed like that’ and ‘she definitely wanted it’. So, she would fight and if he won well so be it. At least she had done all she could.

“Has anyone told you it’s rude to hit on people’s girlfriends?” Dick said forcing himself between them. He knew she could handle it but something about that guy made him uneasy. Marinette had exuded confidence but she still trembled and he could see how tense her muscles had been.

“He’s your boyfriend? You could do so much better than him. Just tell him your coming home with me. Or better yet, I’ll pay you to do it in front of me.” Marinette could see the repulsion on Dick’s face, as she gagged. “Yes, that would be way better. I’ll seriously pay you. Got a couple hundred bucks if you want it.” He stated palming himself through his jeans.

“No thanks. Maybe after she’s given birth?”

“She’s pregnant? What a slut. I bet she poked holes in your condom so you wouldn’t be able to leave her. Anyways, got to get back home to the wife and kids. Hit me up when she’s good again.” Marinette flung her arms around Dick as soon as she was sure he was gone.

Tw over

“Thank you so much. He wouldn't have stopped if you hadn’t come Dick.”

“No problem, sunshine.”

“It’s Marinette.” She mumbled, scuffing her shoes against the gym floor.

“What?”

“The name's Marinette. I would have loved to meet you under different circumstances. Oh well. Nice to meet you anyways.”

“You too Mari. Are you driving back home?”

“I actually walked her. I’ll probably just call a taxi or walk back.”

“No way sunshine. That guy is a huge sleaze ball. I don’t doubt that he’ll try something funny. If no one’s coming to pick you up I’ll walk you back home. Ok?”

“Ok.”

Dick had been completely right. The dude had been waiting outside, most likely waiting for Mari to leave but when he saw them leave together, he raced to his car. Dick had memorized his license plate and got a brief description of the car but he would probably dump it somewhere. Still, no harm in trying. He watched constantly to see if he was following them and took some turns to shake him off. In the end, they had arrived and Dick hadn’t left until he saw her actually enter her apartment. He had to tell everyone about Marinette.

-------------------------------------------------

Marinette’s battery had been drained, both physically and socially after that week. Lila had pissed her off and she felt really bad for that guy she spewed on. Not like she would see him again. She’d spent all week working on the dress Tim helped her with to wear to her visit to the Wayne’s tomorrow. It had been her fastest completed project ever, though she had neglected eating and sleeping. Marinette had to agree with Tim. The fade into dark purple had been a nice addition and made it really stand out. Even Penny had thought so when she saw it on their chat about commissions. A hungover Jagged threw a ‘rock’n’roll’ over her shoulder and Marinette had felt a pang in her heart at the tenderness they treated each other with. Maybe, one day she could have that special bond with someone too. But she needed to focus on helping herself heal first. She could see the apologetic look written over Penny’s face to which she giggled at before declaring that she needed some rest.

Gina had forced her to rest before they visited the Wayne’s. Apparently today had been Thursday not Wednesday? The days had just blended into one. She had been intrigued to meet the rest of the family but she felt so weak.

‘Oh well,’ she thought. ‘Nothing a little tea can’t fix.’

Since she had found out she was pregnant, all her normal guilty pleasures had been off limits. No double espresso as bitter as her soul and no alcohol. She had to adapt to the restrictions because of her doctor. So, she whipped up a tea as strong as her go to coffee with way less caffeine. It had still her the kick she needed but it wasn’t as good as she would have liked. Still, she’d take what she could get. It still aggravated her when she would reach for a glass of white wine or coffee beans forgetting about the warnings. It aggravated her when she would call out to Tikki to transform forgetting she was no longer by her side. She would toy with her empty earlobes before letting her tears fall freely. Tikki had been the most loyal-kwami or human- and she still got taken. She wouldn’t pretend it hadn’t hurt but she had moved on. Some days she would remember she wasn’t with her and cry but on some she’d pretend everything was normal. Today was one of those days where she wore herself out from crying. Gina had caught her but even she knew Marinette needed space, assuming she was still upset about Adrien.

After a good half an hour of crying, she went to freshen up refusing to look like a puffer fish when she met everyone. Dabbling at her eyes, she applied light mascara and used concealer under her bags so she wouldn’t look as dead as Tim. She slipped into the dress, wearing it with pride. It had fit like a glove exemplifying her curves and showing her protruding baby bump. That had been the only downside as she wanted it to be a surprise. Though, nothing slipped past Alfred’s keen eyes. She’d been puzzled as to how she could style her hair before she settled on voluminous curls. It had required Gina’s help and a hell of a lot of hairspray but it had been worth it. She set her flower crown upon her head (delivered to her by Adrien) and placed one on Gina's. She’d been quite surprised when Gina told her she would have to go by herself but it wouldn’t be too bad. Alfred and Bruce were kind so she could just chat with them if the others were rude.

--------------------------------------------------

Damian was annoyed. Gina was late. Very late. And he’d been waiting for hours for her to arrive. A soft rap on the door sent him flying out of his seat as he scrambled to unlock the door. He’d expected Gina but on their doorstep was that angel from before.

“You,” he whispered. “Why are you here?” He didn’t like feeling confused so he schooled his features to be cold and cynical. Footsteps behind him caused him to instinctively slam the door shut.

“Sorry angel.” Not that she could hear him. Jason had stood behind him, watching him with curiosity.

“Demon spawn. Who was at the door?” Shit. He couldn’t exactly say how he knew her or his reputation would be tarnished. Everyone in his family knew Todd was the biggest gossiper and he would definitely spread the news. Like hell would he tell Todd. He’d take that secret to his grave.

"It was bArBarA. I mean Gordon. Yeah it was Gordon.” His voice may have cracked several times but it was a convincing lie, right?

“One, you almost never call people by their first names.” Jason said, eyes narrowing slightly. “Two your voice sounded awful. And you don’t stray from perfection. So, what’s your deal?

“Puberty?” He shrugged trying to conceal his panic.

“I’ll take your bullshit for now but you forgot Barbara’s already here. Let’s try this again. Who was at the door?”

“It was that harlot that Grayson suggested I try to court.

“Oh, that bitch. She’s all yours. Just keep her away from me. And Damian when dinner is over, I’ll find you and I’ll kill you. Make no mistake.” And with that, he threw a quick salute over his shoulder and strolled away. Damian had let out a sigh of relief, turning to walk away before he remembered who was still outside.

“Todd tell everyone I went to the bathroom.” He yelled shutting the front door before he could hear his reply. He descended down the stairs only to find her missing. He had begun mapping out all the locations of the manor when his eyes fell upon her. He felt the air forcibly be removed from his lungs and he remained unmoving. Awestruck. His heart squeezed as he watched her sniff his magnolias that he tended to. The way her dress pooled around her and the small but present baby bump had made him flush.

‘She truly was an angel.’ His eyes glanced at the flower crown entangled in her inky locks as the moonlit sky enhanced her celestial look. ‘She’s also much more than that though.’

“Take a picture. It’ll last longer.” She saw his mortified face. “You know getting a door slammed in your face isn’t the greatest first impression a family could give.”

“I’m sorry. But what are you doing here?”

“Expecting a warm welcome, not being left out in the cold, really anything but this. And I don’t even know you so...”

"You do."

"Excuse me?"

"You puked on me. I didn’t think you were going to ever see me again so you surprised me. I didn’t want to explain to anyone how we were acquainted.”

"I’m so sorry. It’s these stupid hormones. And that stupid Lila. Everything is just stupid."

"Lila Rossi? She is pretty stupid.” And then something changed. His face was softer and he hadn’t looked like he would bite her head off. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m waiting for my grandma but maybe tomorrow. I’m meeting a stuck-up client so I’m gonna need to vent. I’ll tell you the details later?”

“Fine with me.” She hobbled away. She had been patiently waiting by the doorstep, her soft rap probably inaudible due to all the chaos. He whipped out his spare key, unlocking the door. He hadn’t expected that soft click to prompt the attention of his whole family.

"Marinette-"

“Beanie?”

“Pixie pop?”

“Sunshine?”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH DAMIAN?” they screamed, rushing forwards to envelop her in hugs.

“I let her in. You guys didn’t even hear her knocking. Wait, how do you all know Angel?”

His eyes nervously flitted to hers at the slip of his private nickname. He saw the flush on her cheeks as her mouth formed a small ‘o'. She couldn’t even look him in the eyes as the others taunted him for his cute pet name. He felt Dick ruffle his hair, which took a while to style, and Jason poke his sides. He felt Tim snicker and Barbara pinch his cheek. And he felt Marinette link their hands together in solidarity, enduring the teasing with him. They had been so embarrassed that they completely missed the arrival of Gina and the scheming look on Alfred’s face who dished her the gossip. They missed the dark but silent chuckle that left both Gina and Alfred as they decided to meddle in their kids failing love lives.

“What’d I miss, my little chicks? Because Mama’s home.”

NOTES (optional)

In the part labelled with tw here is what happens:

Creepy old 50 year old man hits on Marinette and feels her up. He asks her to come home with him but Dick helps her out and stops him. He tells them he would pay to watch them go at it and calls Marinette names. He eventually 'leaves' to his wife and kids.

Tags:

@sassakitty @lunathealphafemale @krispydefendorpolice @blackmagicforever @nach0ava @wannajointhecrabcult @thornalchemist23 @moonlightstar64 @iloveitwhen @little-angel1031 @screwthisshit111 @rebecarojas07 @animegirlweeb @mystery-5-5 @moonystars14 @gingerdaile @spyofthenightcourt @mialuvscats @notmycupoftea26 @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @kuroko26 @miracleofadisaster @novicevoice @iloontjeboontje @abrx2002

#marinette dupain cheng #damian x marinette #damian wayne #ml x dc #gina dupain #alfred pennyworth #batfam #lila rossi #kim le chien #damienette #daminette #maribat

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ikuzeminna · 4 years

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Why I love Gundam Wing and hate Frozen Teardrop

With Frozen Teardrop being the first new thing released in the Gundam Wing universe in ages, I feel I should make my stance on it clear, seeing as I’ve read (and by now thankfully forgotten) a large chunk of it.

So, what do I like about Gundam Wing? I can say without lying, almost everything. I like the story, the characters, the themes, the designs and the music. I like its humor, its subtlety, the fact that everyone plays a role and that there's no definite bad guy (nor good one for that matter). I like its dynamics and how you can view it any way you want, e.g. the Gundam pilots being heroes or plain murderers. And I like that you can and even must dig to understand things. The whole composition really works for me.

And what's best is that this entire composition makes Gundam Wing more; it makes it unique. I grew up with classics like Dragonball and Sailor Moon, the forefathers of the 'Idiot Hero' archetype for both males and females. Even to this day you see series featuring these types of main characters. Classic scenario of a naive yet pure kid growing up to become the savior of the world. We've all seen that.

It's why Gundam Wing is so special to me. It has a completely atypical setup and there's absolutely no stereotype I can apply to any character, no matter what TV Tropes may say. Heero is hardly your typical hero, is he? Heck, Heero is hardly a typical anything. What's more, Gundam Wing doesn't follow the 'growing stronger' plotline that, for example, the original MS Gundam or Seed series used. No, Gundam Wing starts out with fully trained soldiers who can kick your butt from episode 1 and will kill you without qualms if the situation requires it. (That's not to say that the characters don't grow, it's the physical growth and capabilities I'm talking about.) What's truly surprising about that is the age of the characters. This is another important point. Gundam Wing and realism. Many times I hear that GW is realistic. I'm sorry but no. Teens fighting against armies isn't realistic. Teens leading said armies isn't either. Neither is bending steel bars, nor surviving jumping off cliffs or blowing up your suit, nor successfully back-flipping from a motorbike onto a clothesline, nor becoming the Queen of the World as a teen, nor stealing a MS carrier plus suit at the age of ten, nor walking around with bazookas at the age of ten nor what have you. It's safe to say that Gundam Wing lacks any sense of realism. But it does not lack logic.

Realism never was Gundam Wing's aim to begin with. The way I see it, it's not just the plot or circumstances that prove this, but also the "inhumanity" of the characters. Would a real person with a similar background as Heero, Duo or Trowa really exhibit such selflessness or noble-mindedness as them and risk his life for strangers by fighting a war that could end in their death? I don't think so. Would anyone as sheltered as Relena give up her lifestyle, have the guts to go against the world's armed rulers with just words and put her life on the line for the sake of others? Hard to believe.

And that's it. One of the things that contributes to Gundam Wing's uniquity and is therefore a, if not the, defining trait of the series, is that it doesn't tell the story about angst-riddled terrorists and princesses, but a tale of heroes. The characters are ridiculously noble, strong, selfless, courageous, determined, make the impossible possible and still retain a certain purity, despite having gone through hell and back. It's what makes them so awesome. It's what makes the series so awesome. Duo isn't badass because he fights in the war. He's badass because he fights "so that no one else will have to" and when you see what he went through, you can only say "wow". Lady Une killed Relena's father and when Relena is given the opportunity to take revenge, she declines, saying there's been enough bloodshed. That's role model material there. Something that is sorely lacking in a lot of shows nowadays. And something that a lot of people seem to miss the point of (I'm referring to those that call the pilots wussies for not killing in EW).

All of this is the reason I hate Frozen Teardrop with a passion. Forget the nonsensical, recycled plot or the billion clones of everyone or the terrible mobile suit names like Snow White or Merciless Fairies. Forget Treize getting French’d by his mom or the Zero System being a digital cat or Relena’s grandfather being a disgusting ephebophile. That stuff is messed up and random and dumb and I have no idea what was wrong with the author at the time to write this.

It’s also that he completely destroys the essence of the original series, making every single characters whine about some drama and the never ending “woe is me” monologue I had to wade through every chapter.

Let’s take Duo, for example. He woke up one morning and decided to become an irresponsible, gold-digging bastard. To get Hilde’s money, he agreed to her terms to cut his braid off and get a “proper” name, just to buy himself a motorbike with their joined assets. Then he inherited a church plus orphanage, which Hilde got stuck with, too, being his wife, and when she asked him how to fund the orphanage, Sumizawa wants me to believe that Duo freaking Maxwell was just “Eh, whatever, leave them to it. I’m out” before taking off? Excuse me, what???

I’ve had discussions with people about this and there were statements that maybe more people just need to learn how actual manic depressives and people with PTSD act in relation to Duo's development in Frozen Teardrop. I've noticed a tendency for people to want to apply realism to Gundam Wing, especially in fanfics, but as I said before, Gundam Wing and realism don't have anything to do with each other. So why should I apply it?

What I expect from anything featuring Gundam Wing's characters is the same "heroic" behavior that was displayed in the series. Sure, the pilots each had a mental burden to carry but it wasn't what defined them. For example, Trowa's insecurity about not having a name or yearning for a home never became the main focus unlike his endless selflessness. And Heero's bitterness about the colonies' betrayal was well hidden under his joining the Treize faction to be able to keep retaliating against OZ. A noble deed to fight on but was it really necessary for him to go for the missions with the lowest chance of survival?

As I said, Gundam Wing is unique because it is atypical. That encompasses pretty much everything; you have bloody murderers in the role of the 'heroes', noble, honorable 'bad guys' who value life and the ever flashy Gundams that can't even begin to compare to non-flashy Relena's influence and importance to the plot. So why on earth should I go along with Duo and Wufei bickering like kids, like characters from five million other series do? I want my uniquity. I'm not saying that it isn't a possible outcome for Duo and Wufei to become bitter and bicker and argue and not be able to stand each other when they become adults. But considering those two could get along splendidly, it's a letdown. Duo and Wufei are very much alike; they both lost people important to them twice, they both fight partly out of revenge and their loss has had the biggest impact on shaping them into what they are in the series, unlike the other pilots. Heck, they both wear their respective culture's colors for mourning. Despite that, their personalities (or ways of dealing) are exact opposites. It's enough to make for a more interesting relationship dynamic between them than what was done in Frozen Teardrop and a lot of Gundam Wing fanfics.

Heero's regression is the same. He was frozen because J said something to the extent of "a guy like him would be needed in the future". How J is even alive is another point of unnecessary addition. But what would a guy like Heero be needed for? Killing, apparently.

Way to ignore the ending of Endless Waltz.

I guess it's partly my wish for Heero and everyone else to live a well-deserved 'happily ever after' which makes me have such a knee jerk reaction to all the drama. That and the fact that there was nowhere near as much drama in Gundam Wing. Nor sap, nor stereotyping, nor "realism". >_>

This grated on my nerves, which was why I dropped Frozen Teardrop like a hot potato and haven’t bothered since. This novel does not only fail on a general level with all the random, messed up crap and terrible pacing, it also fails to satisfy the Gundam Wing fan in me because Sumizawa, the very head writer of the show, also ignored major character traits on top of everything else. Why would Catherine, who stated that she hates war and did everything she could to keep Trowa from fighting, train his clone to become a soldier? Why would Duo become that deadbeat I described above?

Being the sole writer of Frozen Teardrop meant he could take as many creative liberties as he wanted. But in the end, he took too many, which in turn resulted in so many inconsistencies with the series that Frozen Teardrop now takes place in an alternate universe, in which not the series but the manga Glory of Losers takes place. Which is the sole reason I’m not bothered by Frozen Teardrop’s existence anymore.

There were some good passages in the novel, it wasn’t all bad. The battles with the new characters were exciting at times, I’ll be honest, but even those couldn’t be called genuinely good because of the carbon copies deal. There is always some blemish. Like Heero’s proposal to Relena. I’ve seen fans of the pairing rejoice at the scene. Alas, I’m not one of them because frankly, the characters in the novel hardly resemble the original ones. So I don’t care.

As the head writer of the show I had expected him to treat the source material with more care and not run it over with retcons and meaningless additions. Best example being everything surrounding Odin. The world could've definitely done without him being Heero's father. Or freaking Trant being related to him.

But again, alternate universe so who cares.

#gundam wing #frozen teardrop #rant #meta #I don't like it #at all

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new-anon · 3 years

Note

hi! have you seen the new episode of the mandalorian yet? if so, what are your thoughts?

Anonymous asked

Thoughts on [REDACTED] [REDACTED] in the mandalorian?

Obvious Mandalorian S2 spoilers under the cut!

Anonymous asked

Thoughts on ahsokas look in the mandalorian?

Just wanna start by saying that my expectations have been pretty lowkey thoughout The Mandalorian, so I’m afraid my opinions are kinda open ended 😅😅

The thing I’m actually most critical about (in general) is the cinematography/editing/direction, and for this episode was kinda disappointing lol,,, The fight scenes were also a bit... hmm 😐

I was kinda spoiled on Ahsoka’s debut in this episode by a few posts being really disappointed by her design, namely her montrals+lekku. It would’ve been awesome if they were more pronounced; her overall head/face appearance (in general) did take some time to get used to, but I eventually warmed up to it.

I don’t doubt the MUA team really wanted to make taller montrals and longer lekku, so obviously a compromise had to be made (for action or whatever). Yeah they probably didn’t have to be that short, and the makeup could’ve been waaay better, but overall a very cool looking live-action interpretation.

I was kinda hoping Ahsoka would’ve accepted to train Baby Yoda/Grogu (goodness knows this menace child desperately needs a master), and I think that’s what we were all expecting which is probably why the writers denied us of that chance ahahaha. I’m torn between wanting more Ahsoka/Jedi content, and also being worried that path will stray too much away from the space cowboy vibe we got going on (also unsure how this feels like we’re turning into SW: Rebels)?

The ending with them parting ways could also just be an excuse for the show to not go balls-deep into Jedi territory just yet. I do hope it was the writer’s intention for Ahsoka’s decision to not train Grogu, to have stemmed from her own fears of not wanting to create another ‘Anakin-Vader’ situation, rather than this episode being a one-off marketing scheme cameo.

This show all has to link up to be canon-compliant with the sequel trilogy somehow, and I’ve always wondered how/why Disney would create a character (Grogu) that seems so special/exceptional/unique in this universe but not have them play a key role in the future of the galaxy/force/etc. when all that stuff was going down in the new movies.

It might be a nice character arc for Ahsoka to eventually agree to training Grogu, finally coming to terms with what happed to Anakin, letting go of that guilt, and realising it was her own fear that prevented her from training Grogu in the first place (rather than Grogu’s emotions/fear that she thought would make him untrainable). That way Ahsoka can take Grogu to train him on nomadic Jedi adventures!!! And they can happily ignore the dumpster fire that is the rise of Palpatine and another badboy Skywalker.

I do have another theory about where Grogu might ultimately go if he is to fulfil his ‘Jedi’ potential, but I doubt Disney will do it, and it doesn’t have a happy ending :D!

#new anon inbox #Anonymous #edit: I realise this post makes me sound kinda harsh :S #just wanna reiterate that this episode was overall fun!#i liked it i promise ahahaha

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danwhobrowses · 3 years

Text

One Piece 1000 - 10 Confessions as a One Piece Fan

Although we did the Initial Thoughts a week ago (a long week ago, damn) which you can read here I wanted to do something for the official release of One Piece’s 1000th Chapter At first it started out to be ‘10 things I wanna ask Oda that I don’t think we’ll ever know’ but I couldn’t think of 10, then I was gonna do a General opinion post about it, but didn’t want it to come off too negative. So I am settling on a confessions post, which will have elements of these anyway.

So as we have a happy 1000, let’s talk about some stuff I usually don’t get to talk about in One Piece

Note: There will probably be spoilers so make sure you’re up to date

10. Late Beginnings I think the first confession I have to have is that despite being older than One Piece I am unfortunately not a ‘Day One’ fan. In fact I think I mainly got into One Piece around mid-Whole Cake Island arc, before I had of course known about One Piece, it was a ‘Big Three’ anime after all but the most I knew about it was that they had a guy named Luff-y and another called Zorro, and it was about ‘Pirates who can’t swim’. My curiosity only developed when in a youtube deep-dive of anime clips I kept being recommended One Piece clips, and decided to give a couple a go. Most of them were Paradise arc stuff from the anime, the dub voices were mostly atrocious so I stuck to sub. I was happily surprised about the amount of fun and emotional weight these clips gave me, which led me to check where One Piece was as of current and backtrack from there (Ironically I did the same with Beastars). I did eventually get caught up around the time of the Mafia Meeting and I’ve kept up with each chapter since.

9. I mostly still prefer the Pre-Timeskip looks When I first felt this I thought it to be pretty controversial, nowadays not so much. I understand that Oda wanted to change the look for many characters but some of them did feel like a downgrade. I think the ones who got it worst was Franky, I think it’s the bulbous shoulders, Franky was no stranger to body horror from Enies Lobby to Sabaody but I kinda preferred that he still had a lot of his humanity rather than looking like an action figure. Otherwise I think Robin, Nami and Chopper had it bad, maybe Brook too but his was more fashion than design; the women in general took heavy hits by Oda’s proportion design - I mean I get it boobs are nice but proportions are what make them better - but Robin also underwent a skin color change in the anime, who pre-timeskip shaded her skin darker than in the manga and corrected it to match the manga, I think most of us would’ve preferred Robin to have kept the darker skin tone and possibly even the fringe, Robin’s hairstyle (and her fashion in general) can be hit and miss. I go to and fro about Nami, other than the general waist and bust adjustments I think it fits her character to use her sexuality a bit, she was no stranger to that pre-Timeskip, sometimes though I can’t tell whether I preferred her with short or long hair (Short was definitely better on Nojiko), I do think though that Oda could have her show less skin, she is still very pretty in outfits such as Water 7, Thriller Bark and even her fake pirate disguise in the early chapters/episodes. Finally with Chopper I think it was a bad move to alter the hat, that was a memento from his father figure Hiriluk, it’d be like if Luffy altered his straw hat or Zoro replacing Wado Ichimonji, I do also feel that the design for Chopper’s points while easier to draw don’t look as good, I think a lot of it is the scruff, or lack thereof in favour of smoothness, Walk Point is fine but Heavy Point, Guard Point and Horn Point seem less threatening, Monster Point especially too, in Enies Lobby he looked like a cave painting of menace and destruction, now he’s smoother and his scruff lighter so it’s not as good. The rest of the designs I’m quite fine with though.

8. I wish some markings stuck as well Tattoos and Scars seem to be optional in the One Piece world sometimes, unless it’s branded in molten heat like the Dragon’s hoof, Sun Pirates logo or an attack from Sakazuki. While Nami’s redesigned tattoo has stuck around and Luffy and Zoro’s scars persist, they are mainly character reminders/mysteries for huge moments in the story, and I kinda wish that some of the Straw Hats had littler markings, not just scars either. For instance, the Alabasta X on the arm, I really wish that stayed on each of the Alabasta characters’ arms since it was a symbol of friendship with Vivi, I also wish that Luffy kept the 3D2Y mark on his arm. In terms of scars though it would’ve been nice to see the characters a bit more battle-worn; Zoro’s ankle scars from Mr. 3 have faded and frankly he should be covered in little and long scratches given his fights with Mr. 1 and 2 years of Mihawk Training, Nami’s shoulder scar is hidden completely by her tattoo and she has no scars on her hand (from fake stabbing Usopp) or foot (from blocking Miss Doublefinger), Usopp himself could’ve used some small scratches because lord knows how there’s even still bones in his nose plus he was in murder island for 2 years, Chopper could at least have a small bald patch from when his shoulder was impaled and burned by Shura’s fire lance too, other than that there’s just Jimbei’s potentially missing shoulder scar from Marineford, though Oda has kept it obscured a lot so maybe that is still there. I understand why Oda doesn’t or forgets to, but it would’ve been nice if we lived in a vacuum of no time limits and whatnot.

7. Dead End Adventure is my favourite One Piece film I don’t know what it is, but Dead End Adventure just gives me the most fun out of the One Piece films. It has a good side plot and the side character Shuraiya was a blast of a character. Granted, Gaspard wasn’t too good of a villain side for actually harming the straw hat and his defeat was a bit underwhelming but the race, the settings it was all fun. It is not to say I don’t enjoy any other One Piece movies, I delight in the horror fuel of Baron Omatsuri - and that killer final punch - and Z’s tragic tale of a fallen marine, Strong World has that epic entrance to the party and Stampede also had some great team up moments and fantastic writing for Usopp and Smoker but Dead End Adventure always feels like the movie I could watch in any mood.

6. Skypeia and Fishman Island are some of my favourite arcs While I can understand the criticism of the Long Ring Long Land arc (especially since the anime dragged out the Davy Back Fight) it surprised me that people found Skypeia and Fishman Island arcs to be boring or less entertaining than previous arcs. Everyone has their preferences of course but I felt that Skypeia and Fishman Island were very powerful arcs especially with the theme of racism. Both had glorious setting design different to the common customs of the world we had seen, Oda made both Skypeia and Fishman Island feel very much lived in with its own budding culture and prejudices, with a villain who was dead set on destroying everything just to have their way. With Enel and his priests we were able to push several characters to newer limits, with Robin showing her fighting capabilities, Zoro learning his projectile slashes, Chopper having to endure fighting 3 priests and even Usopp growing all the more braver in the face of seemingly indestructible opponents and later gaining access to the dials. With Fishman Island it was different because it was basically a ‘flex arc’: where the main villain is meant to be a stepping stone rather than a threat but even then the symbolism of the enemy is what’s significant with them, the inherited hatred of humans. But at the same time we do learn new strengths from the crew; Red Hawk, the use of armament Haki, Skywalk, Hell Memories, Franky Shogun, Usopp’s pop greens, Nami’s weather eggs, Brook’s Soul Solid and his new DF power (which is possibly an awakening), as well as the first true steps of Jimbei joining the crew. The biggest strength of both arcs is the flashback as well, like Wano would in present time both arcs demonstrated that Oda can carry a story without his main characters and still keep it as captivating as ever, be it the friendship of Noland and Calgara, the tragedies of Otohime and Fisher Tiger or the life of Kozuki Oden and the man who would be Pirate King. And the impact of Fishman Island and Skypeia’s flashbacks both come back around in Dressrosa with the dwarves and Koala, and Fishman Island really does kick off the whole Yonko saga with Luffy challenging Big Mom, these arcs were definitely significant as they were entertaining with silly faces, strong fights, challenging themes, lorebuilding, good side characters and unique twists. And the overall message of healing from the past is still significant to this day. Through Wyper’s sacrifice and the Bell ringing to Jimbei giving blood and the Ryugu royals wanting to attend the Reverie, it is all very powerful stuff and while the arcs are similar in nature its their similarities that make me love them. Also the cover stories with Enel and Gedatsu on their own mini adventures are fun

5. I really want to know where Ghin is Ghin/Gin was such an interesting character in Baratie. Given that this was right before Arlong Park too so we had not seen a character conflict with different loyalties in One Piece until then, his gratitude to Sanji against his loyalty to Krieg created a fantastically complex character, but then he left and we didn’t hear about him ever since. Did he survive Krieg’s poison gas? Is he still with Krieg? One reactor of the episode said “maybe he’ll become the next Don” which was a concept I kinda really liked. The guy was pretty strong given that he had bested Sanji at that time, and since he didn’t appear in a cover story my mind does wonder. It’s not just Ghin either, a lot of the early East Blue characters kinda fell off the map; where is Morgan? Last we saw he was sleeping as he sailed past Jango, where is Kuro? For someone wanting to resume piracy after some years off he has been very quiet, where is Krieg? Only Arlong and Morgan were arrested and the latter escaped so the rest of these characters are a mystery. Recently in Wano I am still wondering where Law’s crew that he brought to Onigashima went, as well as Caribou - where is that slippery bugger?

4. Basil Hawkins is probably one of my Top 5 Supernova There’s something about that dude I gravitate towards, which makes it quite frustrating when the anime decides to add extra malice and creepy faces to him. Hawkins in Wano is still a victim, if anything he is simply a prisoner with better working conditions, if he thought he could survive escaping Kaido he would but he doesn’t so he won’t, he’s also gonna feel sore about Drake betraying him and letting Law cut him up, so it annoys me that Hawkins is seen like a villain. Not only does he have an extremely interesting Devil Fruit and creativity with it but he’s also audaciously confident in his fortunetelling, even Luffy ran from Kizaru at Sabaody while Hawkins looked at his cards while Kizaru was about to boot him to holy hell and said ‘nah I’m not dying today’, you gotta respect that moxie. At the same time though as a pirate he has that shades of grey element, he’s okay with letting some of his crew be disposable and we don’t even know to what end, he doesn’t look like a guy too concerned about being Pirate King or having riches. I also get a good laugh in that his hobbies are interior design, it makes me really want to see what the inside of his ship looks like. I think as a top 5, I have Luffy, Zoro, Law, Hawkins and then Kid, Bege, Killer and Bonney are not far behind with Apoo dead last because fuck Apoo. Kid and Killer are cool but I do feel like they need a bit more character, Bege earned some points in being funny and his care for his family in WCI and then there’s Bonney - I really hope we dig into Bonney’s significance, she feels really important and that mystery keeps her fresh whenever we see her. Drake too has only really started to become interesting because of SWORD, we could still see more fleshing but for now he is like bottom 3. It’s a shame Urouge has to be so low, he’s not bad but he’s not spectacular either, gotta admire his hobby of lovemaking though, you do you Urouge.

3. I don’t think that either of the ‘Most Beautiful Women in the World’ are the Most Beautiful Women in One Piece The in-world consensus seems to be that the Most Beautiful Women in the World are Boa Hancock, Komurasaki and Shirahoshi, and granted they are very pretty, but the most? Not for me. I mean, y’all know that Nico Robin, Nami and Vinsmoke Reiju exist right? Makino as well is stunning, as are Tashigi, Bonney, Margaret, Ishilly, Nojiko, Vivi, Rebecca, Pudding, Perona, Cosette and I’m sure a few others, realistically I think they could all give them a run for their money. I get how for those three their beauty is a plot point (Boa it’s drilling home Luffy’s obliviousness to it, Komurasaki it’s the swerve of her not being awful and for Shirahoshi it’s due to Vander Decken IX pulling the creep factor on her) but it would’ve worked the same way without the ‘world’ hyperbole I think. As much as Oda is iffy with proportions and rarely writes women with as much attention as the boys he sure knows how to make them attractive.

2. Some of my favourite individual Straw Hat scenes aren’t in Canon If I were to have a top 5 moments of each character, it may surprise you that some of it comes from movies or filler episodes, particularly Sanji’s flexing on Jessica in the G8 Arc (in fact, Jonathon is one of my favourite marines, T-Bone is in there too, but I don’t have room to fit that). Some are of course obvious because of how iconic they are but it does go to show that sometimes filler isn’t all bad. Since you’re probably curious: As a Group Goodbye Merry [Enies Lobby] Entering Shiki’s Palace [Strong World] Walk to Arlong Park [Arlong Park] Entering the Grand Line [Reverse Mountain] vs a Stuck Oars [Thriller Bark] Jimbei Giving Luffy Blood [FMI] Vagabond Drill on Big Mom [WCI] Leaving the Big Mom Pirates [WCI] Returning in Wano [Wano] Trying to argue with Luffy [FMI] Brook vs Chess Soldiers & Big Mom [WCI] Flashback [Thriller Bark] Breaking Mother Carmel’s Picture [WCI] Baron Corpse vs Dog Minks [Zou] Hysterically laughing at seeing Duval [Sabaody] Franky vs Senor Pink [Dressrosa] Playing with the Kids [Punk Hazard] vs Fukurou [Enies Lobby] Freedom Roller [Wano] Trapping Caribou in the Barrel [FMI] Robin I Want to Live [Enies Lobby] Clutching Spandam [Enies Lobby] Throwing Usopp under the bus [G8] vs Yama [Skypeia] Clutching Tequila Wolf guards [Amazon Lily] Chopper Monster Point [Enies Lobby] Flashback [Drum Island] Chopper Man (& Minoru Kazeno) vs Usobada [Chopper Man Special] Don’t blow the whistle: Immediately blows whistle [Skypeia] Dr Chopper the definitely Human Doctor not wearing fake glasses [G8] Vivi w/ Karoo (she counts okay!) Goodbye speech [Alabasta] Escaping Bon Clay [Alabasta] Karoo Digging Luffy Out [Little Garden] Luffy Fan Club Meeting [Reverie] Slapping Usopp awake [Drum Island] Nami vs Kalifa [Enies Lobby] Standing by the kids [Punk Hazard] Saying goodbye to Bell-mere [Arlong Park] Helping Luffy vs Cracker via Lola’s Vivre Card [WCI] Luffy WILL be Pirate King [Wano] Sanji ‘I needed a light’ [Skypeia] Flexing on Jessica [G8] Saving the Vinsmokes [WCI] O-Soba Mask [Wano] vs Doflamingo [Dressrosa] Usopp Alabasta speech [Alabasta] Awakening Observation Haki [Dressrosa] Sogeking Theme Song [Enies Lobby] vs Perona [Thriller Bark] Saving Luffy from the fire [Stampede] Zoro Nothing Happened [Thriller Bark] vs Ryuma [Thriller Bark] vs Mr. 1 [Alabasta] vs Gyukimaru & Kamazo [Wano] “He’s sweeping our floors that fiend!” Test of Luck [Loguetown] Luffy ‘On the Sea, you fight Pirates’ [Wano] Red Roc [Wano] vs Katakuri [WCI] Haki clash with Doflamingo [Dressrosa] Punching Saint Charloss [Sabaody] I will have to say that for some characters I could go to 20 so if one’s missing it may’ve just missed the mark, such as Usopp and Nami vs Enel or Luffy putting back a Zombie or Stealth Luffy, I mean it is 1000 chapters as well as movies and filler episodes/specials...

1. I’ve learned quite a lot due to One Piece Since my fascination started with a deep dive of checks, I did start to learn a hell of a lot more not just about the franchise itself (you know it’s almost catching up BATMAN on total sales, which has been around more than 3 times longer?) but I also learned a lot about stuff Oda has used as a reference key; folklore, actual pirates, actual practices, the amount of detail Oda puts in is astounding. Which does lean into another thing I’ve learned, One Piece has changed the way I approach some of my ideas for writings and whatnot, before I would be afraid of either spoonfeeding or being too vague, Oda’s mastery not only in storytelling but character development, character quality and pacing has both helped and intimidated me a lot of times, I mean consider this: it took hundreds of chapters to get a proper backstory on Luffy, the main character, how unprecedented is that? Often I could fall into the trap of making sure you knew everything about the main character from day one but now I wonder about what’s necessary for the now and what can I work on. Another thing that both inspires and intimidates me is his drawing, I suck at colours and still do, and a lot of Oda’s attention to detail is incredible considering he’s gotta whip that out on the weekly, but at the same time you see some of his rough sketches and they’re pretty similar to a rough sketch of my own, so in a way it’s a ‘there’s still hope for you’ moment seeing those. I can’t say I’ve learned Japanese from listening to One Piece, but I have picked up on some stuff, some hiragana there, some phonetics here, I also appreciated some of the stuff kaizokuou-ni-naru does (I won’t tag them in case that’s a bit rude to do it out of the blue but check out their tumblr) when it came to deciphering the Japanese of chapters and the little puns and hints Oda puts in his native tongue. And of course any One Piece fan has learned one thing above all else: Patience. Oda himself included, it took over 20 years to get to 1000 chapters and we still have plenty of questions to ask, plenty of islands to see and thus plenty of chapters to go. So Straw Hats off to you Oda, and a happy 1000th!

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mc-critical · 3 years

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How do you think Şah Huban and Ibrahim's relationship really was? We've never been given insights about it and while I would have loved flashbacks, the way it is also fits well imo. Şah has an air of mystery around her, part of why I love her so, because I love unravelling ambiguous yet clear characters with hints but not insights to their backstory. I've always been drawn to them and Şah Huban is another one of them.

Personally, I can see why they would be drawn to each other at first. They are both shown as appreciative of art, very intelligent and pragmatic and have a similar personality, but in the long run I can't see them working as both prefer to be the dominant partner and Şah is very prideful and always maintains a power balance with those not from the family, whereas Ibrahim is quite insecure. They'd clash.

Even Hatice's reminder of his status hurt him so much that he started an affair with Nigar. According to him, it was a loss of innocence between them and for sure Hatice's innocence, purity, and nativity is what I think drew him to her, and I can see why. Among all the darkness of politics, power plays, his own insecurities and early loss of innocence, Hatice would have been the one ray of light to him..Their entire early interactions and love was so pure and free of darkness and I don't think he ever had that with Şah, who I don't think was ever innocent.

Şah also told Hürrem that Ibrahim is quite difficult to control and I thought that was maybe hinting at the past. It always seemed to me that she was the one who ended things with Ibrahim, judging by her and Ibrahim's interactions ( I really wish we had more of those ) and I have many theories why.

Also, my personal interpretation is that she did move on from Ibrahim and only had vestiges of her feelings for him, his memories to be more precise, left by the time we see her. Unlike many people, I don't think her unwillingness to be with Lütfi sexually or romantically has anything to do with Ibrahim. I just don't think she loves him or wants him and I can see why tbh. While he is a decent enough politician, he doesn't have much personality to be attracted to nor demeanor lmao. even the way he read her that piece of poetry was quite dry, and he is visibly much older than her.

What do you think?

{I also love Şah's character for much of the same reasons you do. Her lack of a backstory and more simplistic design that isn't put through a deconstruction for a character arc in the way Hatice's was during S02/3 bring us one of the most unique characters in the whole franchise. These aspects of her personality complement her motivation and I find her motivation to be the most fascinating element about her that makes for an interesting, contrasting duality in all her relationships. Revealing more backstory for her risks throwing all this out of the window, that's why I'm usually okay with that the show not delving deeper into her past.}

Still, in the case of Ibrahim, I agree that we could've seen a few more flashbacks. I feel Şah's distance and tiny resentment of Hatice stems from her previous feelings for Ibrahim and more flashbacks would put that distance and resentment into more context, which I don't think would harm her character all that much. It would actually help flesh out Şah's relationship with Hatice on a deeper level and that's always welcome for me, since I found their relationship to be the epitome of where Şah's character shines the most. All these delicious contrasts, the way her ambition goes with the care she has for the people she's closest to.... I love it! sorry for the blabbering

I also pretty much agree with your view on Şah and Ibrahim's relationship. They definetly wouldn't get on all that well - their ideals would clash right out of the gate and Şah isn't a person that would pull rank out of ignorance, it's not something she wants to detach from, no, she's living with her position and she's proud of it. Anytime Ibrahim would disagree with Şah, I feel she's going to pull rank instantly. And that's not something that Ibrahim would bear - Hatice did it one time and that one time was enough to make him doubt his whole relationship with her, I believe with Şah it's going to be an even more reccuring conflict and it's going to make things even worse.

I believe that in Manisa, in their past, Şah didn't have hopes for so long when it came to Ibrahim. Maybe she learned very quickly that he didn't have any feelings for her. Maybe Ibrahim didn't pay all that much attention to Şah and if she tried to give him subtle hints, he didn't catch on them at first. If Ibrahim and Hatice indeed had tiny crushes on each other that just hadn't had the chance to flourish yet in Manisa (as the flashback from E58 implied) and Şah became aware of this? All these factors could've contributed to Şah moving forward, along with her ambitious personality. Even her older self isn't a person who would fight what she views as a pointless battle (she didn't want to fight Mihrimah, she didn't get why Hürrem was such a problem at first, she could hold her part in the decisions SS made for Hatice off for so long) and her love for Hatice was apparently present even when they were kids (the whole horse situation), so these would be decent enough reasons for her to want to step out of it.

Her getting to know Ibrahim more personally after he could've gotten the hint is very likely, too. Her "he's difficult to control" line is definetly something to ruminate on: maybe she decided that they wouldn't get along despite of all, because yes, she would like to be on the more controlling side of the relationship. Not only is Ibrahim very insecure and wouldn't handle it when someone is pulling rank on him, this line could hint that a part of Ibrahim has had that ambitious side of him back in Manisa. Not as much in terms of power, but rather as in his sharp mind and dreams he had together with SS to conquer more than Alexander the Great and maybe Şah felt this aspect of his ambition whenever they've interacted. That means he could have exerted some amount of control in the relationship, and maybe Şah wouldn't be so okay. Both could be very dominating and that could very well show even earlier. There wouldn't be any innocence in their relationship, it would only result in clash of personalities and philosophies and probably both of them got aware of this. While with Hatice it was possible for both of them to get over their extremely idealistic delusions, because they both were able and willing to reason with one another deep down, you wouldn't get that with Şah. It's probable she would consider herself right and not realize what's wrong, especially in terms of pulling rank, because well, that's what the tradition and law stands on and for her, Ibrahim's only role is to fit the mold.

Yup, Şah definetly had some of her feelings for Ibrahim remaining, because that's what moved a lot of her conflict with Hatice. Maybe she felt some jealousy that Hatice succeeded to make this work and that could be also a part of why she wanted to stop Hatice from grieving and didn't tell her where Ibrahim's grave was, but on the other hand, she had accepted it to an extent, as seen by her reaction when she learned about the infidelity. One could argue that she got irritated because of her own feelings, but I feel she felt bad for Hatice, too, and was really surprised that he pulled something like this. Yet both circle back to her own feelings anyways. Another reason why I think she didn't get over her feelings for him completely is that (most of) what she does is driven by personal desire and attacks directed to her personal bonds and attachments. It's Hatice's suicide attempt that drove Şah to act against Hürrem, but it's also Ibrahim's death that made her at least think whether should she act, in my opinion, because of something so surprising happening to a personal attachment of hers, seemingly all of the sudden. (in E84, she also said in front of Ibrahim's grave that she wouldn't let his blood stay on the ground) Şah's actions are driven by feelings more than anything else, but she tries her best to mask these feelings and only use them as fuel to her more pragmatic plans, if that means letting go of them or discarding them completely. She puts mind over emotion not because she doesn't have emotion or vulnerability or feelings lingering from the past, it's more because she considers pragmatism and careful planning the better, more effective way to achieve her goals. Just like the dynastic views and the elitism, it's something engrained in her she's proud of, but in the case of her feelings, when she's alone or with Hatice she can open herself a bit more. But because she has gotten over Ibrahim, she would never admit outright she has something for him in front of him or Lïtfi later.

I also don't think Ibrahim has ever had feelings for Şah to begin with. I don't think he forgot their experiences and memories completely (the "did your love turn into hate?" line) , but he has definitely left them behind him, even more than Şah herself.

While I think the love for another (Ibrahim) was a part of Şah's distaste for Lütfi, especially because the first hint of conflict between them, as far as I recall, was him sorta shading on Ibrahim in E82, it's definetly not the only factor. He just isn't a guy she could fall in love with, no matter how much he seemed to love her (more like tough love, but still), I'm sure she has gotten to know the more shadier aspects of his character, since they've lived together for so long. (even though the situation around the prostitute surprised her, since she hasn't ever seen such amount of disrespect, Şah may have seen other skeletons in his closet. He seemed to be very authoritarian in the relationship. She also said in E101 that the divorce was a long time coming and I don't think it all originated from the show, the situations there were simply the peak of previous issues.) It being a forced marriage made things even worse, no one would like a forced marriage. I actually admire Şah for keeping up with this marriage for so long and finding advantage in it, being as composed as possible. (when she is) Their daughter is most probably what kept them together all these years, on a personal level outside of Şah's ambition.

#magnificent century #muhteşem yüzyıl #muhtesem yuzyil #sah sultan #ibrahim pasha #ask #illusorybeing #i know I detracted from the topic quite a bit more than usual here and I'm sorry #but Şah is just so interesting

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sepublic · 4 years

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If the characters of The Owl House had JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stands, who would have which Stand? (Note: It can be from any part in the series, not just Part 3)

First off, I just want to say- THANK YOU, because The Owl House and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, two of my favorite things ever, in one ask? And I get to ANALYZE the two? This is a dream come true…!

I love Stands, not only for their unique designs and crazy abilities that can get weirdly specific, but also because they’re essentially a reflection of one’s soul, so they’re a great glimpse into a character’s personality! As someone who loves the characters from The Owl House, this is naturally a fun way to explore their psyche by assigning a Stand most compatible with them, White Snake-style!

I should preface that for this ask, I’m going to be using Stands from Parts 1-6. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet read Steel Ball Run, nor Jojolion; I plan to, and maybe on another day I’ll revisit this ask with updated information- Assuming that any of the new Stands I encounter and know about fit the characters more than the ones already assigned to them.

But with that out of the way… Here’s a list of characters and the Stands I’ve assigned to them- For fun, I’ve even gone over some minor named characters (although Bellows and Kikimora were left out due to there being too little to work with)! Some characters will have multiple Stands, if only because I couldn’t decide between some, or I felt like there were others worth considering. Lengthy explanations for my reasoning will be underneath the cut, as well as alternate Stand possibilities, even for those who I’ve already made a decision on!

(I’m going for best fits, not perfect ones)

Luz- The Cure

Eda- Sticky Fingers

King- Wheel of Fortune/Bad Company/Harvest/Little Feet/Weather Report

Hooty- Horus

Owlbert- Anubis/Stray Cat/Sex Pistols/Aerosmith

Willow- Strength

Gus- Hierophant Green/Emperor

Amity- Spice Girl

Lilith- Magician’s Red

Emira- Joy Division

Edric- Khnum

Boscha- Goo Goo Dolls

Mattholomule- The Lock

Bump- The Grateful Dead

Wrath- Bastet

Adegast- Judgement

Tibbles- Marilyn Manson

Bat Queen- Atom Heart Father

Starting off is Luz, the main character and personal favorite of mine! She was REALLY difficult to figure out… I considered multiple options for her, such as Crazy Diamond, Gold Experience, Heaven’s Door, Bohemian Rhapsody, etc. Ultimately however, I decided to go for a rather obscure Stand, one from the light novel Golden Heart, Golden Ring- The Cure. To put it simply, The Cure, well… Cures people by absorbing wounds and injuries, becoming bigger before eventually dissipating the accumulated hurt. I feel like this reflects greatly Luz’s very kind, almost healing nature- She helps provide Eda with a greater sense of found family, she helps ‘fix’ Willow’s situation and self-esteem, as well as Amity’s own insecurity and loneliness, etc. Not only that, but Luz also has a lot of thematic similarities with The Cure’s user, Coniglio- Coniglio is heavily associated with Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

The character of Alice is led into a new, magical world by a small creature she later befriends, and gets into trouble with the local law- Just like Luz. Coniglio herself was ostracized when she was younger, being called a Witch, which fits Luz’s initial loneliness, and of course her eventual aspirations. Coniglio is an inexperienced Stand User when we meet her, just as Luz is still learning magic. Finally, Coniglio learns to control and tame her stand, which takes the form of a rabbit- Luz is associated with small animal sidekicks, such as King or Owlbert. However, The Cure can also turn into a more monstrous form and become berserk, which in its own way mirrors Luz’s relationship with Eda, and how she has to calm her mentor and revert her back the way Coniglio did.

For a more canon option, there’s also The Sun. We don’t really know anything about is user, Arabia Fats- The most we can glean is that he’s clever, but he can also rely on dumb ideas. Likewise, his Stand is incredibly powerful, but provides almost nothing to defend him. If one goes by the Tarot meaning, however, The Sun is associated with good times, with fun and optimism, all that stuff! It’s about someone who still maintains childlike wonder… and that sounds like Luz! She’s kind, bright, and in a lot of ways a ‘light’ to others’ lives, which is also supported by her name’s literal translation!

Continuing on Tarot meanings, we can also go for The Fool- It’s about being adventurous, of starting a new journey. There’s some freedom, but also a bit of carelessness, which reflects how Luz didn’t quite fully think through her actions in the beginning of Episode 1, or her plan in Episode 3. The Fool is a bit of an outsider compared to the rest of the Arcana, which fits Luz’s outsider status as a human who somehow goes Magic anyway. And like The Fool, Luz can be somewhat unpredictable and unusual, at least to those who know her- She’s kind of a cryptid to them, what with having confetti in her pockets at all times(?) and casually revealing that she knows the infamous Bat Queen.

For Eda, I chose Sticky Fingers- Someone else on Twitter mentioned it, I don’t remember who… But they analyzed a few of the Stands of Part 5, and during their analysis they discussed how Sticky Fingers is symbolic of Bruno’s ability to connect with others, making his own path to them, zipping them together, etc. Bruno Bucciarati is a mom with a found family, which I feel suits Eda’s personality. Likewise, they’re both criminals, who willingly left a prestigious organization despite their talent and the powerful role they could’ve had in the group, as a result of moral disagreements with its ideals and leader. Plus, Sticky Fingers is a term that refers to people who like to steal, and we know from Covention that Eda is a notorious pickpocket!

On the other hand, Weather Report is also neat. It’s associated with a character dealing with memory loss, which fits Eda’s schtick and character a whole lot, what with not remembering who cursed her. Likewise, Weather Report (the user) has a brother, Enrico Pucci; The two used to have a more complex antagonism, although by Stone Ocean it’s a lot more straightforward. Still, this kind of complex sibling relationship also works with Eda and Lilith, and with Weather Report being a ridiculously powerful Stand (just as Eda is the strongest Witch), I feel it also works for her character, personality, and motifs.

King is the most interesting and diverse scenario for me. I’ve considered Wheel of Fortune for him; Both rely on an outside force, a pre-existing thing, in order to function. Likewise, Wheel of Fortune’s power is proportional to the user’s confidence, which fits with how King talks big about himself. Its user, ZZ, also made a big deal of talking himself up, being a lot of bark in order to build up his confidence… However, the moment things begin to fall apart, his confidence wanes and he basically runs away. His powers diminish, and he becomes all bark and no bite. This kind of sounds like King- Obviously there’s more courage to him than with ZZ, but generally speaking, the concept of a character who’s in over their head and operates a lot on building up their self-confidence, only for it to collapse as soon as things go wrong, fits with King.

On another hand, Harvest and Bad Company fit King’s whole desire to lead massive armies, and his claims of having been a King of Demons. Having a Colony Stand that acts as his personal army of loyal followers and soldiers fits almost perfectly; Bad Company is more militarized, representing King’s grandiose aspirations for power, and him becoming a Drill Sergeant in Episode 11 definitely helps this. It’s also associated with a lost childhood, which… King is kid-coded and he doesn’t seem to be necessarily missing out on anything, but the idea is still there. However, Harvest is less deadly, having a more animalistic appearance, being cuter, and having an inclination towards theft that King himself also does. Plus, King seems like the kind of person who’d use Harvest to carry himself across the sidewalk, let’s be real here!

Finally, I’m considering Weather Report as an option, if only because of the fan theory going around (which I’ve dabbled in) about King having once been the Boiling Isles Titan, or at least an ACTUAL King of Demons… Part of the theory speculates that he lost his memories, which fits into Weather Report’s arc. It’s about a hidden potential, that when rediscovered, can be outright terrifying. Little Feet also works with King’s Napoleon Complex.

King is an interesting character to assign a Stand to, in part because there’s a lot we actually don’t know about him, and the mystery surrounding him as a result. I feel like we once we learn more about King’s backstory and who he is, we may get a better idea of what Stand most fits him.

Horus was assigned to Hooty, not only because of his bird motif, but also because the Egyptian God Horus is seen as a protector, just like the Stand’s user Pet Shop, who acts as Dio’s main guard for his mansion; Likewise, Hooty is the Owl House’s primary security system, and ‘state-of-the-art’ no less. Not only that, but… To get into some heavy theorizing here, @fermented-writers-block has speculated that Hooty may or may not have connections to a hypothetical ‘Owl Deity’, of which we see a mural of in Episode 1. To put it as simply as possible, Hooty is either a manifestation of this Owl Deity’s power, OR the Owl Deity itself; And if so, then assigning Hooty a stand named after a major Egyptian God seems all the more appropriate. Additionally, Pet Shop himself has a helmet typically used to restrain birds of prey, and Hooty himself usually needs to be ‘restrained’; Either told to stop his cryptic riddles and just give straight-forward answers, or kept from tearing apart a canvas.

Also, if that one MSN article mentioning a labyrinth below the Owl House is true, then Hooty could also have Tenore Sax; It’s a Stand that manipulates the environment, and was used to make Dio’s Mansion look like a maze. It’s about control of one’s environment, which makes sense given how Hooty controls the Owl House itself. Hooty could also have Mr. President, as it’s a Stand wielded by an animal that provides a safe environment for others to live in- Befitting of Hooty’s role as the Owl House.

Owlbert is a bit weird, in that he’s already wielded by others; Still, he’s a part of the family, so I feel obligated to include him. Off the top of my head are a couple of considerations- There’s Anubis, which exists as a sword that can be wielded physically by the user and even others, outliving its user- That fits Owlbert’s capabilities and role as a Palisman to a staff! Stray Cat is also an option, because like Owlbert it’s an animal that’s born of plant-matter and associated with the air, albeit through air bubbles.

Sex Pistols is a Stand that needs care and attention, just like Owlbert, and also has its own personality. Likewise, the Sex Pistols support and enhance the ability of another, pre-existing tool, just as Owlbert enhances Eda’s magic and helps her focus it through her staff. Finally, we have Aerosmith- They’re both free-flying, but also very powerful and capable, and not to be underestimated. Like King, there are plenty of options for him that all fit in their own ways.

Willow was a fun topic, and ultimately for her, I’m gonna go with Strength. Ignoring its user, Strength is a stand that recognizes and unlocks the hidden potential of just about anything it finds, no matter how innocuous; Willow is a character who is meek and shy, but contains a hidden power and talent that is legitimately powerful. Strength is an incredibly powerful stand, upgrading a regular boat into an entire shipping freighter; Willow is able to turn a seed into an entire garden of powerful, thorny vines. They involve nurturing power and helping it grow. Plus, most depictions of the Strength Tarot Card involve a woman taming a lion- And I think that kind of works with how Willow may seem all gentle, but she controls and tames powerful plant-monsters. Also, a recent drawing by Dana seems to confirm that Willow is canonically buff, so that works too, alongside the Tarot’s additional meaning of controlling oneself, as Willow does with her anger!

There is also the minor consideration of Purple Haze, given that Willow has genuine frustration in her that can manifest as real, powerful rage. However, Purple Haze also explicitly hurts and shoves others away, which Willow doesn’t do- She’s kind and open and is already good friends with Gus by the time Luz appears. Gold Experience is also a very viable option, given its power of creating life and facilitating growth- However, I decided to go with Strength, not only because of the additional symbolism of hidden potential (which matches Willow’s initial, unrecognized talent), but also because of the symbolism of the tarot card. And also, Gold Experience is a main character Stand and already a pretty obvious option, so trying something a bit more unique seemed interesting.

Gus is another VERY hard one for me, like with King- It’s not that I don’t get his personality, it’s just that there are plenty of Stands that I feel could match him. For example, we’ve got Hierophant Green- Its user, Kakyoin, was lonely and is also an excellent student. He desired friends, which he got through the Stardust Crusaders- Similarly, Gus himself is talented but also expresses loneliness over being younger than everyone else, with part of his motivation for forming the H.A.S. to make friends and also provide support for others who’ve gone through the same experience. Likewise, Gus may not have the raw power that his other friends have, but he’s still plenty clever himself, like Kakyoin.

There’s also Emperor; The tarot meaning discusses a person who takes a leadership role, and its reverse is losing control of that leadership, as well as poor decision-making. This relates well to Gus’ conflict in Episode 9; Likewise, Emperor’s user is Hol Horse, who prefers to be Number Two and is aware of his own flaws, not desiring the spotlight. Gus himself states in Episode 6 that he knows what he’s about, not at all concerned that Luz doesn’t consider him as strong as Eda or Willow- He doesn’t particularly seek attention or glory. Gus is happy and content with being a ‘Dweebus’ and embraces it alongside his supporting role, like Hol Horse. Also, the kid wears a crown when he’s in charge of the H.A.S., and that’s something I really want to incorporate with his Stand’s symbolism!

On a lesser note, there’s also Kiss- It’s a Stand that makes doubles of things, and Gus has an affinity for Illusion spells that can create copies of him, tangible or otherwise. Dolly Dagger from Purple Haze Feedback is wielded by Vittorio, who is the child of his group, and represents him not being ready to handle a lot of the responsibility placed upon him; Just as Gus struggles with control over the H.A.S., as well as the isolation that comes from being a talented student who’s younger than the rest and not taken seriously.

King, Owlbert, and Gus are definitely a dilemma to me… There’s plenty you could assign to either of them, and I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of Gus’ potential Stands. The dude has range and potential, so it’s hard for me to decide given how my options are ultimately limited and usually specific.

For Amity, I went with Spice Girl. Spice Girl is a manifestation of Trish’s psyche, and her whole character involves putting up a hardened, mean, stoic façade in order to hide how scared and vulnerable she feels; A lot like Amity, who tends to push people away because of her loneliness- She mentions not wanting to show ‘weakness’. Like Amity, Trish learns to be strong in her own way, in a way that can still be soft, while incredibly strong and resilient; A form of kindness and personal growth that manifests literally through Spice Girl’s ability to make things soft yet virtually indestructible. Amity hasn’t quite completed her character arc, but she’s made major steps towards it by opening up to Luz and learning to be nicer. So, Spice Girl it is!

There’s also Purple Haze- Fugo and Amity are both high-performing students with a lot of pressure on them, who deal with genuine frustration over their situation. Purple Haze’s ability forces others away lest they get hurt, representing Fugo’s paranoia over his childhood trauma, and how he ends up ‘pushing’ the others away when he chooses not to go on the boat. However, Purle Haze doesn’t fit as well the way Spice Girl does, because Purple Haze represents a genuine rage and anger boiling within Fugo… Whereas Amity, while she IS frustrated, doesn’t seem to have particular fury, being more inclined towards insecurity and loneliness.

Lilith was assigned Magician’s Red. I looked into the meaning of the Magician Tarot card, and to sum it up simply, it’s about having talent and seeking out success. Our first appearance of Lilith has her making a demonstration to a bunch of young, impressionable Witches, flaunting her own talent and success, and appealing those traits to her audience, explaining that Witches who join the Emperor’s Coven are the most powerful and highest-ranking of them all. Likewise, she also has an eye for talent, nurturing the skills and abilities of Witches such as Amity. Plus, there’s also the symbolic relevance of her having a Stand with magic in its name, as well as one with a bird-like appearance; Fitting given her White Raven symbolism, and association with the Emperor’s Coven and its bird motifs. And like the user Avdol, Lilith also has a bit of a flair for flashiness.

Like Luz, Emira was tricky in that I couldn’t quite find a Stand that suited her, so I’ve gone with my next-best option; Joy Division, another very obscure Stand, from the same light novel as Luz’s assigned Stand. Joy Division switches objects around, which mirrors what Emira did to the librarian and Gary in her debut. It’s a Stand that’s perfect and ideal for her kind of mischief and clever tricks. Likewise, its user, Sogliola, has wealth, prestige, and status as a Capo in Passione- Emira herself is a member of the presumably wealthy and high-status Blight family.

As I mentioned earlier, Edric is also tricky in that I didn’t find a Stand that quite suited what personality we’ve seen from him. Ultimately, I settled on one good for mischief, Khnum- It’s a Stand that allows one to change their appearance, which fits Edric’s Illusion spells and that one spell he used to make himself look a lot more extravagant. Khnum’s user, Oingo, is also not exactly the brightest, and he’s associated with a close sibling that he’s always beside, who also has a Stand- Which can match Edric’s relationship with Emira.

I’m also considering Jail House Lock; It’s great for tricking and mentally messing with people by making them forget things and become confused, befitting Edric’s mischievous nature. Also, it making people forgetful can sort of connect to Edric being dumb in his own way, I guess- I dunno. I feel like Emira and Edric’s Stands don’t have a particularly deep connection to them individually, in part because there’s not much we’ve learned yet to differentiate the two, and the issue of finding Stands that fit, while trying to avoid repeating them for characters unless as a potential possibility. It is worth noting that Jail House Lock’s user, Miu Miu, has power and status- Another thing one can associate with the Blights.

Boscha got Goo Goo Dolls. The Stand is a reflection of the user’s possessive personality over their ‘friends’, treating them more like toys or pets to be bossed around with and told what to do. Boscha has a bossy nature, as seen with how she treats one of her friends in Episode 8, and likewise she is somewhat possessive of them- When King gets their attention, Boscha is clearly focused on getting back her control of the situation. Nothing is saying she can’t get along with King and he didn’t explicitly exclude her from the fun, but Boscha nevertheless chose to heighten the conflict. And of course, she initially meets King and wants to buy him as a pet, befitting Gwess’ desire for ‘pets’.

I’ve also considered Bad Company for her, for a few mostly speculative reasons. To sum it up shortly, I suspect that Boscha may have a bad situation at home, where an incompetent mother is relying on Boscha for emotional support, forcing her to essentially ‘grow up’ and be the responsible one in charge. Bad Company represents a childhood that is missed out on due to an inadequate parent that the user ends up having to look after, and likewise, it involves telling others what to do; Also something Boscha likes. However, because this is mostly speculative, I’m just going to have to go for Goo Goo Dolls for now.

Mattholomule has The Lock. Initially I considered Surface, but ultimately I went with The Lock because unlike Hazamada, Mattholomule doesn’t seem to have any particular envy towards Gus nor does he want to be him, insteading having a general desire for power and drama. The Lock reflects how he tries to garner sympathy from the other members of the HAS when his plan begins to backfire on him; It’s a Stand that’s entirely reliant on others’ perception and pity/guilt for the user.

Similarly, it’s otherwise pretty powerless, which goes along with Mattholomule’s general incompetence and failure in most facets of life. The Lock is either relinquished by the user’s command, if the victim no longer feels guilty, and/or if they’re given ‘reparations’ for the ‘damage’ they received- Mattholomule is all about getting status and whatnot. Also, The Lock functions as a Lie Detector, which can make sense with how Mattholomule lies for his own personal gain.

Principal Bump has The Grateful Dead. The stand’s user, Prosciutto, is someone who takes an older and more experienced mentor role, just like Bump. Likewise, Prosciutto is willing to do harsh things to someone underneath his tutelage, but ultimately he still takes his leadership role very seriously, wants to get the job done, and genuinely has it in his best interest to see the person he apprentices unlock their hidden potential. Bump may have extreme methods such as his Trouble Detectors and even brainwashing kids in detention, but ultimately he’s genuinely invested in the future success of his students, and will even break the law for their sake and that of a human, a total stranger.

It’d seem obvious to give Wrath a stand like Jail House Lock (given its user, Miu Miu, is also a warden), but in terms of personality, I ultimately went with Bastet. Bastet is defined by creating attractions, and is associated with electromagnetism- Which itself doesn’t just pull things together, but repelsthem as well. Bastet’s user, Mariah, is attracted to Dio because of how powerful he is, among other traits. Wrath is attracted to Eda, letting his attraction override his own duties as a Warden because he thinks the two of them will make a Power Couple; Both him and Mariah want to go big, or go home! Bastet lures targets in through their curiosity, Wrath lures in Eda by having King’s Burger Queen crown… Finally, while this is never expressed by Bastet itself, the theme of magnetism also relates to repellingforces. And Wrath is clearly repelled by the abnormal, seeking to contain the deviants of society, and is easily disgusted by something as simple as a raspberry because of the potential germs it could spread.

As an alternative option, there IS Planet Waves- Its user, Viviano Westwood, is a guard at a prison. He’s a cruel, brute-force jerk whose Stand allows him to physically overpower and smash through most obstacles and foes, and he deliberately looks down on prisoners as the ‘scum’ of society, taking delight in abusing his position to torment them. These all sound a lot like Wrath, so if one feels like Bastet doesn’t adequately capture his personality, there’s always Planet Waves as an alternative.

Adegast was given Judgement, for obvious reasons- It’s a Stand that toys with a victim’s heart and plays on their desires. That’s literally what Adegast does- Plays on Luz’s desires to be deemed special, to live out her fantasy, only to cruelly tear it away at the last second and mock her for it. Both his illusions and Judgement’s clay constructs dissolve into dust. And while Judgement is physically powerful, contrasting with Adegast’s incredibly frail body, the cowardice of Cameo pairs well with Adegast’s nature.

For Tibbles, I briefly entertained Osiris and Atum, especially Osiris given its association with card games (and Tibbles is good at Hexes Hold ‘em), and the idea of gambles in general. Ultimately however, I stuck with Marilyn Manson, which operates on a similar basis of the user winning a game and utterly defeating the loser as a result. Marilyn Manson is special in that it prioritizes material wealth, aiming to reap money or anything else of similar value; Which fits into Tibbles being a greedy capitalist who acts like he owns King and takes him without either his nor Eda’s consent, just as Marilyn Manson can be used to steal a Stand Disc that was never disclosed as part of the arrangement.

Finally, the Bat Queen was given Atom Heart Father. She was another difficult person to assign a Stand to, but ultimately I decided on Yoshihiro Kira’s stand. I get that there’s irony of Atom Heart Father having a paternal name, compared to the Bat Queen’s maternal status, but just bear with me for a moment. Like the Bat Queen, Yoshihiro is a parent, but he’s one who has concern for the person he’s looking after, to the point where his attempts to protect that person can be overall detrimental to that actual person’s growth; In this case, his son Yoshikage.

The Bat Queen has taken it upon herself to look after a LOT of discarded, rejected Palismans, among them Owlbert. However, in her concern for their plight and any pain they might go through, the Bat Queen has unfortunately projected some of her views on Witches a bit; When Owlbert wants to reunite with Luz, she interferes on his behalf, believing she knows best. The Bat Queen wants to do what’s best, what’s ‘safest’ for Owlbert, but in reality she’s only hurting him in the long run. Thankfully, Owlbert is able to stand up for himself, and the Bat Queen listens to reason.

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0poole · 3 years

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Humor in Writing

Most of the time I feel like dismissing what might seem like “faults” in writing because I haven’t actually made anything myself, and especially haven’t gotten any attention to what I make, but every once in a while something really ticks me off. Of course, I still try to take it with a grain of salt because of my lack of true experience in writing, but considering I’m hoping to actually become some degree of a writer I feel like it’s worth actually trying to explain what I think is a fault with things and why.

There always seems to be one specific thing that bothers me a lot when reading/watching stuff, and it’s the hard switching of tone from comedy to sincerity, or something similar to that, or vice versa.

Honestly, even though it sounds like the motive of a cartoon villain, I kinda think there’s too much humor in the world. It’s probably just entirely driven by opinion and preferences, but I feel like so many people are striving and looking for comedy that it hinders so many other things. I feel like, both in real life and in writing, having so much humor everywhere creates a pretty big gap between that tone and sincerity, which is pretty much always needed at some point. The big line between comedy and sincerity makes it so much harder, emotionally speaking, to feel good about the switch. I’ll try to explain…

First of all, this whole line of thought, even though I’ve been thinking it forever, was spawned by me watching Epithet Erased. Took me long enough, because I’ve seen some of the characters around and really loved their designs, but I finally watched it all, and I gotta say… It was interesting. Also, this is probably just going to be very ranty and opinionated but I will (hopefully) have something more valuable to say after. But, anyways, for one, it felt just barely too close to some of the premises for the stories I’ve thought of in various ways, but I guess that’s just bad luck on my part. Second, I feel like its humor really brought it down for me. Some episodes felt so long winded (although not necessarily “boring” I guess) because I felt like I got the joke they were trying to tell relatively quickly after they started it, but carried it so far. It didn’t help that, at least for a few of them, some of the characters felt like archetypes that I’ve seen a lot around the internet, or at least were simple enough that I understood what they were instantly, and when they are carried out through long character-focused moments it felt like nothing was happening. I feel like some of the characters are fine enough, even if I may not like them, but Giovanni and Indus were the two big ones that I thought had a little too much time given to them…

But more relevant to what I’m trying to say, sometimes the writing jumps way too far from the very comedic tone it’s trying to put out and into it trying to be sincere. The worst case of this was when Sylvie met Mera in the museum storage, and Sylvester tried to out Mera’s nightmares, only to see that her nightmare was the reality she was already in. With the scene change, and Indus becoming more serious with Molly, it felt like a good enough departure from the usual comedic tone to warrant the deeper motive of the character. But, then, of course, they had to trash the whole tone by adding the line about her also being afraid of ducks. There was absolutely no good reason to warrant that line and I will die on that hill. Not only was it just humor, but it was spontaneous “random” humor, and so on… I honestly hope people could just understand where I’m coming from there by how out of place it seems. I feel like the only defense they could use, apart from “just liking it,” would be that it’s comedic relief, but I genuinely feel like since practically the whole thing up until this point was comedy there was absolutely no need for comedic relief. The scene itself is like the opposite of comedic relief, like “Sit down and pay attention” or “Turn your brain back on” or whatever. The climactic point of the scenes before it were reached, meaning the sincere conflict there should be focused on, and apart from that one tiny little line it worked well enough. The fact that it was so tiny and insignificant is basically why I hated it so much. They literally could’ve just scratched it off of the script and only good things would have happened.

Something a bit similar happened before when Molly revealed her backstory to Giovanni. It wasn’t quite as bad, but when a scene goes from comedy to “my mom’s dead and my life sucks” you do feel the shift a little too quickly. I feel like it’s not as bad because it could just be Molly’s character, seeing the tragedy of her life as just sort of normal and not really that remarkable, meaning she’s more likely to just randomly bring it up.

But I definitely wouldn’t be going off this much about it if there wasn’t at least a little bit more. Zora was literally the reason I wanted to watch the show, because I saw a drawing of her a while back and thought she was just some random OC, but when I heard she was from this show I instantly wanted to watch it a lot more. I think the same thing happened with Molly, but I think I knew she was from the show to begin with. Anyway, Zora was the main character who I loved from the get-go and loved even more the more I learned about her. She’s such a perfect amount of diversion from being a generic cowboy in the little design details, while still being 100% cowboy material. Then, when I saw that her power was “Sundial,” or more generally just time powers, I loved it. The big thing that seems little conceptually is making her key term “sundial” instead of just “time” or whatever, because of how much it relates to her cowboy-ness, with it being associated with the “sun” people often associate with Death Valley and the Wild West and whatnot. Not to mention, it’s just a cool power.

But that’s kinda the thing, though. She’s so insanely strong. She could literally kill anyone on a whim. I don’t see how anyone could be cracking jokes in her presence. It’s kinda more general of a gripe, but when she aged up Howie it was borderline terrifying, and yet… right after, they’re cracking jokes again. It’s just so jarring. She could have literally reduced him to dust, and they’re so casual about it. I know Percy is supposed to be kinda blind to some obvious things, but I feel like even she could see the horror. That said, though, Percy is also one of my favorites. Her powers feel so natural yet interesting for what she is for some reason.

Frankly, the visual character designs alone for this show are all really good. Whether or not I’m into the writing, I can’t deny that the show kept me coming back just because it feels so good to just look at it, you know? The minimal animation, vocalized stage directions, and top-down scene view was really interesting to watch, since I’ve never seen it before, and seems like a perfect way to produce more content with less budget. It made everything feel super crisp and tidy, despite being animated so simply. Not to mention that the general lack of animation meant the few scenes where there was traditional-level animation felt really good. The voice acting was also amazing, (again not directly tied to the writing) especially when the voice actors carried their character and emotion from the scene into the stage directions, instead of just reading them out plainly. And, at the very least, the premise of the show is also really interesting (at least to me, mainly because I created 2 stories with a similar idea without even knowing anything about it. Simplified, specific superpowers are just perfect for character designing, you know?)

But I am kinda acting like the writing was bad, but it really wasn’t all things considered… I’m just not really into comedy, and when the comedy I don’t like is paired with writing and practically everything else I do like it doesn’t sit right with me. Considering this idea and some of the story beats were adopted from a DnD(-esque?) campaign, I feel like it’s much more fine. Frankly, I’m surprised I didn’t realize it sooner. Once I read about that, everything just fell into place. I’m not really into DnD either, though…

So, I feel like there are things to gain from thinking about this. While Epithet Erased is still on the mind, I feel like I’ve realized something about the juxtaposition of comedy and sincerity, that being that comedic characters can exist in sincere surroundings, and vice versa. Zora specifically could be one of these characters, because she’s so powerful that she probably sees everything around her as trivial, while the other characters have more sincere reactions to her obscene power. She could easily crack a sick joke that no one laughs at because she’s the only one who can find humor in whatever’s going on. By contrast, the thing about Mera’s fear of ducks was a product of the scene and not of the character, so it just ruined things. Nothing about it was made to be funny to the characters, it was made to be funny to the audience, even though the audience should be in sincere mode then.

Another character that I think works like this is Charlie from Hazbin Hotel, who is the sincere personality in a world of complete and total insincerity. She’s basically a more unique kind of straight man (despite being neither straight nor a man), who are always the grounding in comedic casts, like Squidward in Spongebob. I guess in sincere stories there are comedic relief characters, and in comedies there are straight men. You know, these are probably all things other people have figured out already… at least I can feel good knowing I sort of reached them on my own…

I think a good solution for stuff that’s primarily meant to be a comedy is to make it almost entirely comedic, at least with the inclusion of a straight man if needed. The big name that comes to mind is good ol Monty Python, the backbone of 14 year old boys’ humor style. At some point I realized why I like the humor of The Holy Grail, at least above other comedic movies, is that they don’t hold back at all. At no point whatsoever do they pull back the veil and put in a sincere moment. And, of course, since I can basically recite the entire movie from memory I think it did wonders. I think when it comes to comedies like this, trying to be too sincere at certain points makes it feel even less sincere than if it didn’t have the sincere moment at all. This might be a product of the 00s American family-rated live action comedies who all feel like they fall into that same boat, where the entire movie is hijinks, but then at the very end they pull that all back and have something really impactful happen, with the idea being having some shoehorned message about “family” or whatever. I can group so many movies into that category that it feels almost corporate how many there are like that, and because it’s both overdone and geared towards too generalized of an audience, trying to capture the comedy-lovers and sincere-lovers, it really just fails in both ways. Or, maybe people love them because they’re just barely bad enough to enjoy it in a so-bad-it’s-good sort of way. I dunno. If I wasn’t a little nostalgic for the time those types of movies might be my all-time least favorite.

But I’m a stick in the mud who hates comedy so I’m not really equipped to tell anyone how to do it right. Instead, I feel like there’s some seriously untapped potential in other forms of “feel-good” tones, like casual lightheartedness and just plain fun. I feel like those two things really work towards creating sincere stories that are still enjoyable, and not just one shot of sadness after another, while still having a dash of impactful emotion in them.

I feel like this is where Pixar really shines. People say “It’s not a true Pixar movie if you don’t cry at the end” because I think Pixar movies are great at making the audience lower their guard, and when the moment is right, hitting you right in your heart to make you feel the right emotions. For example, what I’d call my favorite movie of all time (for intents and purposes, if not for real), Inside Out, is all about emotional sincerity, where it’s trying to get across how it’s okay to feel sad, even though the world around you tends to say happiness is always what you want. For most of the movie, it’s a pretty casual romp around the inner workings of Riley’s mind, with some jokes thrown in (because it doesn’t have to be completely without jokes). I’m not really sure how to explain it, but the various jokes in Inside out feel like they’re sort of blended with the interesting workings of this fantasy mind-world, like the fact that earworms are just the little blobby workers in our minds sending the memory of the song back up to the control panel for the hell of it, or that our dreams are a product of a Hollywood-like place in our minds. These things definitely are there for humor, but something about them feels much more fun than just any kind of generic comedy.

Then, I feel like the most important thing about fun and lightheartedness is that they feel like they blend so much better with the sincere moments. Obviously if it’s too quick it’ll still be bad, but I think it’ll be much less bad than with comedy. Maybe you could think of it like a spectrum with pure comedy at one end and pure tragedy at the other, with fun and lightheartedness just barely crossing the midpoint towards the comedy side. Since there’s less of a gap between it and tragedy compared to pure comedy, it feels less jarring. Plus, it just feels more reasonable logically speaking, since comedy sort of puts up this insincere barrier to sort of suspend the disbelief that the events in question are supposed to be taken seriously, which makes breaking that barrier harder once it’s established. With fun and lightheartedness, there may be an expectation of it sort of maintaining itself but there isn’t as much to say there isn’t something hiding in the background. In Inside Out at least, throughout Joy and Sadness’ journey they are pretty determined to get back to the control panel to save Riley, but they’re for the most part confident they can do it (or, you know, just Joy’s confident), so they sort of interpret the world around them in a more casual light, but with that lower-level need still there. But when Joy falls into the abyss of forgotten memories and the hopelessness sets in, you feel it much more, because it was sort of already there to begin with, and it was just made perfectly clear at that moment. I think Bing Bong’s emotions during the scene also make it pretty emotional, since he’s being casual about his death while also being sincere about his sacrifice for Riley’s sake. Not to mention his inner sadness was outed while talking with Sadness.

I feel like if I were trying to write an actual essay I could probably phrase all this a lot better. I just think there’s a ton of value to lightheartedness in stories, as opposed to comedy, for the sake of “feeling good.” Pretty much all of my favorite things have that tone to them to some degree, like Wander Over Yonder, my for sure favorite TV show. It definitely feels fun in a way that can elicit laughs, but it’s not a lot like “This is a joke and you should laugh” most of the time (Disregarding the Evil Sandwich, my least favorite character in the show). I also think Steven Universe succeeds very well with that tone, creating an extremely comfy atmosphere when it comes to the less climactic episodes.

I also vastly prefer the lighthearted resolutions to the conflicts in lighthearted stories. Frankly, I am infinitely more likely to cry to a comfy and happy resolution than I am to the actual sad parts. I’m not really sure what it is about them, but I guess the characters finally being happy again after emotional turmoil warrants a happy-cry. I swear, if I think too hard about the scene where Riley finally admits her sadness to her parents and just sits in their warm embrace, I tear up. It feels so much better than hijinks-danger-hijink resolution.

But yeah, the stories I want to write the most will all inevitably have that sort of lighthearted flair to them, unless of course I choose to go more inherently serious with a story. There’s nothing wrong with that either.

With regard to the really big claim I made before about there being too much humor in the world, the themes of Inside Out, and what I said about comedy’s insincere barrier, I really think the world as a whole would benefit from valuing humor a little less. It feels like there are so many situations where people sort of want to maintain their good feelings with humor instead of more directly dealing with issues in a sincere mindset. For example, if people say something disagreeable (but not insane), It feels like too many people resort to making jokes at that person’s expense and not dealing with the issues directly. Obviously if someones saying some insane bullshit it’s fine, but when the more reasonable takes that are just barely put under the same umbrella as the insane shit are made fun of, it really deepens the trench between the people of different opinions. Of course, humor isn’t the only thing deepening that trench, but it really feels like one of them a lot of the time.

Apart from that, I feel like using humor as a way to distract from general negativity and negative emotions like what Inside Out sort of warns against can be pretty detrimental too. Obviously happiness can still be around, but putting up that kind of barrier between you and the necessary sincerity for emotion with comedy just makes the unpleasantness of the unpleasant stuff that much more unpleasant. I’m saying this one at least out of personal experience, since I have sort of developed to be too subconsciously against super sad and sincere real world scenarios. I haven’t personally felt too many of them myself, but I definitely feel myself blocking off some of my own emotional vulnerability, especially around other people. I can consciously talk against it, like I’m doing now, but I feel like it’s going to take a long time for that barrier to really break. Is humor to blame for that sort of thing? Maybe, with a dash of toxic masculinity and other buzzwords people often avoid for reasons I mentioned in the last paragraph.

Even though this one is much more unreasonably generalizable than the last two things, I feel like the popularity of self-deprecating humor across the internet also (probably?) takes a toll on some people. Obviously some people might just use it to their genuine benefit, but since it seems so common surely some people are putting on a self-deprecating face to get along, and eventually maybe even believing what they used to joke about themselves. Either way, it might be a product of an extreme departure from any kind of narcissism, making being self-confident and self-loving just that little bit harder for people.

But, while I’m not the most equipped to judge writing, I’m even less equipped to actually debate for the existence of all those things, so just know I’m kinda speaking with my heart and not my brain here. People obviously want and need different things, and I’m probably just projecting. Hell, maybe that’s me self-deprecating to not make me seem weird to everyone else. I dunno.

No matter what, all this reliance on humor really just shows who is and isn’t funny. Sometimes, people really need to get a grip. Frankly, I don’t think I’m that funny either, which is why I’ve kind of had the humor beaten out of me by one too many awkward silences after a weird joke in my elementary/middle school days. I guess that’s my cartoon villain origin story.

#rant #rambling #opinions #writing #humor #comedy #epithet erased #poole #etc

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natsspammityspamspamham · 4 years

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Dino Watches Anime (April 26)

I haven’t made one of these for a while, and after the first draft went and deleted itself, I wondered whether it was worth making another one (I make these primarily for myself then get really surprised whenever people notice these). During harsh times like these, I find myself being drawn to the cheesiest and the most cringe-inducing shows, but maybe I just like them because you can put them on double-speed without missing a thing because you know what’s going on. It’s like instant noodle broth: satisfying, warming, but you know it’s going to kill your insides with self-crisis. Seriously, I didn’t come to terms that I really, really like romance as a genre until a little while ago.

With that being said, I want to take a short break from romance now.

I often ask myself, “Why are you watching these when you can be watching really good anime?” Well, that’s probably because I don’t want to have my analytical brain on right now. I want to watch an anime that takes two brain cells to enjoy. I only have two. Once I garden some more, maybe then will I get into the stuff I know I will enjoy like Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Things that I just started but couldn’t get into

NHK ni Youkoso! (1/24)

For one, I didn’t want to watch this before because it would’ve hit too close to home. The show’s about a NEET aka a freeloader (not in employment, education, or training), and I’m... almost that description (but that’s mostly because of the pandemic). Really, this show is riddled with paranoia, and it wants you to really know that with its changing art styles to its cynical script lines to its main character honestly needing some help (seriously, he needs help). I read further (aka spoilers) and realized that I probably won’t have fun with this anime right now, and I will never touch the manga because that stuff is even more insane than its adaptation. NHK ni Youkoso is about people who fall between the cracks of normal standard society and their desire to seek their own normal by any means necessary, and during stressful times, I think it belongs on the backburner.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (2/12)

After seeing how much I enjoyed Kakushigoto (which will be mentioned later, I just thought, “Wow, I want to see that other really famous work!” I didn’t enjoy it at all. I forgot why I put the series on-hold. It’s about a suicidal teacher who will stop at nothing to die then ask people why they almost killed them. Through a bunch of errors, he ends up becoming some sort of a harem king to his students (and he attracts the weirdos). I enjoyed the lengths Studio Shaft went to to make this anime appear the way it does (which helps in a lot of ways), but I just can’t continue with it until a much later date.

Appare-Ranman! (2/?)

I just lost interest after looking at the rest of the cast. I’m all for being vibrant and out there, but some of those character designs imitate more of a “racial stereotype/caricature”. I’m not saying that I dropped the show only because of that (I’m quite dense when it comes to that), but I didn’t like the characters either. I can’t get behind a show that won’t let me enjoy it a single moment over two episodes.

I’ll pick it up again later (probably)

Free! (5/12)

I feel like they’re shoving fanservice a lot. I try to skip every fanservice scene, and I managed to watch up to episode 5 in less than an hour, and I didn’t even get through them all. But I will say that ending is stuck in my head now. (humming)

This show has taken me at least two attempts to watch so far. Let’s see how many more it takes before I finish/give up!

Darker Than Black (18/25)

I’ll probably finish this one for the sake of finishing it. I just find that the episodic nature gets stale after a while, and the overarching story is often disregarded. In exchange, we do get some fun side stories, character development, and world building, but I’d like to settle down too, you know?

Clannad (1/23)

Yeah, I’m doing that now. I’m going to see whether my feels bones are as strong as they were before... after I take a hiatus because I’m not sure if I’m in the appetite for that kind of romance now that I’ve watched two shoujo in a row.

Sousei no Onmyouji (20/50)

I bet you, someone was like, “Let’s throw all these shounen cliches into a pot then see what comes out!” Bruh, this is bordering that story I wrote when I was 14, and I’m not even dissing this anime. I enjoyed it but need a break now. It’s very cliche, predictable, and honestly, I can see why it has such a low rating. Studio Perriot likes cutting corners sometimes with their long-running series (*stares at Naruto*), and this anime is no exception. Sometimes, it feels like a visual novel. “We don’t need to animate anything if she’s so fast that no one can see her.” Dang, but it gets repetitive. It also has a magical girl power that only works when the main couple does it? Cool, but that also gets repetitive. I just didn’t see myself watching the same thing another 30 times (at least right now).

Maison Ikkoku

I’m actually on the fence about continuing this one. It’s really sweet, but I’ve had my fill of romance. I have been wanting to watch some more Rumiko Takahashi works though. There’s no reason for me not to continue this. It gives me strong Princess Jellyfish vibes (which I should also finish).

Recently Finished

Itazura na Kiss

Just... end my suffering. It’s not worth it. The thing about shoujo anime is that I watch it late at night when my brain is at its worst when it comes to analyzing or taking in any emotional circumstances. Then I asked myself, “Would I want any young, impressionable people to watch this?” And my first thought was “F**K NO!” This anime was an absolute trainwreck. As my Discord friend put it “It’s so bad, yet you can’t look away!” But what makes this anime unique? What sets it apart? It shows life after high school. Just like Clannad, it shows that life is more than your secondary education. There is more to life than just being a teenager. I’m not saying these characters ever grew though because that’d be a FAT JOKE.

Episodes 1-13: Girl gives boy a love letter. He laughs and doesn't even want it and goes "no thanks". Girl gets upset. Then they find out they're living under the same roof after the girl's dad made them a house out of popsicle sticks (because the dads are childhood friends). She keeps trying to push herself onto him, and his mom joins in and is plotting so much more than you'd expect. The best part is that this main girl already has a childhood friend who's like "please marry me. I'll cook for you, work for you, take a bullet for you, slice my head off if it means you won't chip a nail--" then the girl replied by chasing after the guy who calls her stupid on a daily basis and genuinely believes she can't do anything.

Episodes 14-25: Guy gets dragged to his own wedding and generally does not care for the girl unless she’s either not looking or is on death’s bed. He practically deserts her every other time, and we’re supposed to think it’s romantic when he finally gives a crap about his wife (even when she’s pregnant). The show constantly reminds you that even other characters have doubts that our main character cares about anyone other than himself and his aloofness. They have a bunch of missed affairs including a hoe that tries to leave her husband on her honeymoon to get with Mr. Aloof and a nursing student that genuinely cares about MC and the fact that her husband doesn’t care about her at all.

The moral of the story of this anime: If you chase after somebody long enough, they will cave in and marry you even if they don’t like you, want you, insult you, bully you, or generally show all the signs of an unwilling partner.

Anyway, this anime is crap. I can’t believe I watched it. I want those few hours back (I fast-forwarded a lot, okay?) I can’t believe I finished it. Looking back makes me want to press undo. Having this under my history is a shame to my family. Even if I was sleepy and generally out of it, that’s no excuse for choosing this. Sayonara

I will say that Daisuke Hirakawa and Nana Mizuki did give good character voices despite the circumstances. That, and I haven’t heard from Hirakawa besides those couple of scenes from School Days (which... is a different type of romance), Free! (which I dropped when his character joined), that gumball scene from Jojo, and that introduction to him being the new Demon Slayer villain. I didn’t realize he was that old though.

Special A

This is one of the anime that my sister watched, and I thought, “I need to be reminded of what a somewhat healthy relationship can be” I wasn’t disappointed because the last anime left such a bad taste in my mouth that literally anything could’ve soothed the aching wound which was bad decision making. Even under regular circumstances, I probably still would’ve enjoyed it, but since it came at the right time, I give it an extra nod of approval. I also never realized that the second opening was inadvertently drilled into my brain because I kept overhearing my sister watching it. Now that I’ve grown up, I realize I was listening to the voices of some of my favourite seiyuu. Go figure.

The story was really sweet with characters that I genuinely liked by the end (not my favourite cast by a very long shot, but it was slightly above average). It was slightly above average for me in a lot of ways (ironically), and it was enjoyable. The art is very fitting for its time, the music was very... ordinary, and the story was simple enough that you knew exactly what was going to happen at any given moment. This show should be titled: Special A(ppreciation for those brave people who have fallen in the friendzone; we’ll get ‘em next time).

Akatsuki no Yona OVAs

Unlike the actual TV series, this stuff actually ends conclusively without ending on the CLIMAX OF THE BIG ARC. SERIOUSLY, I WAS ROBBED. You can say, “There’s a perfectly good manga right there.” Shut up. I want my fight scenes animated with a big helping of a strong female lead. It gave me a sudden appreciation for Hiro Shimono and his character Zeno who literally just inserted himself in last minute in the anime (but these OVAs perfectly explain everything). You probably shouldn’t watch the anime without watching these OVAs because they’re canon, funny, and touching at times. It enhances the series.

According to the animation, we know it can do fight scenes. Give us another season, cowards! Actually, it’s Studio Perriot, so if we ever get it, it might be two stickmen duking it out.

Haikara-san ga Tooru Movie 2

You know, I really enjoyed the movie. The first one. This one? Not so much. Actually, I felt so done. I was looking forward to this so much. It’s like going to a restaurant, expecting really good pasta, and then being served some leaves from the weeds out back. Eventually, it tastes better when you add some dressing and cheese, but it still isn’t a bowl of pasta. This show casts aside everything I like about it (present-tense because they didn’t kill everything of it) and leaves one little inkling of its valued ideas. Instead, we get a romance-chasing movie that feels a bit more like an amnesia fiction that’s slightly higher quality than usual. I can’t say I regret watching the movie. There were some redeeming qualities, but they jumped from a 9/10 to a high 6/10 that managed to squeak itself into an overall 7/10.

(This gif is from the first movie, but I can’t find any from the second movie anyway)

Currently Watching (Not Seasonal)

Samurai Champloo

This anime is a staple of Shinichiro Watanabe, and after this, I will probably watch Cowboy Bebop, Carole & Tuesday, and Space Dandy. I did enjoy Sakamichi no Apollon and Zankyou no Terror.

Plus, after all that romance, I need some samurai slaughter. The fight scenes and the music get me every time. I don’t even need to say anything else about the anime. The fight scenes are enough to watch alone.

#dino watches anime

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manygalaxiesinone · 4 years

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Pokemon... We need to talk.

((Hee ho dood! Prinnyfrost reporting for duty! So, remember in my previous post where I mentioned that the only way I would play Sword and Shield is if one of my brothers end up getting the game for me because I refuse to spend a penny of my own pocket on it and not to be surprised if that was the case?

Yeah that happened. Earlier this month, one of my older brothers decided to get the games for both me and him mainly because it’s been many years since we last actually played one together and now would be the chance to do so again since we both have a Switch. Fair enough I suppose. After all the last time we actually played together like this was on the DS.

As in the original DS...

with Digimon!

I was still reluctant to play the game despite that due to a mix of the controversy of this gen’s games as well as loosing interest with the series as a whole, but if you knew my brother as long as I have, you’d know that it’s a tad difficult after he’s set his mind on things like this, especially since I don’t play with him often in general because I’m a salty little shit. Though now that I have played for quite some time, I feel ready to talk about what I think about it and it’s...

just okay overall I suppose. There are things I like about it and things I don’t like. I can’t really say I’m disappointed because I didn’t really have many expectations to begin with, but at the same time I can’t really say it’s a breath of fresh air either after years of playing other main series Pokemon games.

I got more excitement out of Let’s Go Eevee than this game, though to be fair it was mainly out of pure nostalgia because it’s a remake of Pokemon Yellow, the very first Pokemon game I’ve ever played back when I was a kid. Then again, I guess the simple fact that it managed to do so where I was happy for actually spending my own money on getting it makes it more of a success. Not that much though, since it has its own flaws, but you get the idea.

Before I go into everything I’m not fond of (and trust me, there’s quite a bit), let’s start off with everything I actually enjoyed about Sword and Shield.

I am sort of fond of the wild area. Looking at it kinda gives me Breath of the Wild vibes (and despite on how much I’m personally not all that fond of the game, that is a compliment, trust me). It’s a nice little open area to catch Pokemon at your leisure and it just looks damn beautiful to me, though I do wish there weren’t so many specific pokemon that you can only catch in this area in only specific sections and only specific weather conditions,

I’m looking at you Clefairy.

I also like the designs of the new Gigantamax forms. They all look pretty interesting and having some of the moves be changed to be a bit more unique depending on the form is interesting, but that’s all I can say about it since Dynamax as a whole is pretty much just the trainer going

...and that’s it. No type changes and like I said, the more unique skills are barely that unique at all, especially compared to certain Z-Moves that only certain Pokemon can do. It’s an alright addition to the series, but I won’t really consider it a replacement for mega evolution or Z-Moves.

I do like how the title for the championship became more of a contest between trainers. I mean it was already a bit like that before, but not quite as emphasized as it is here. It was actually exciting, hearing the crowed roar in the stadium outside of the actual Pokemon Stadium games. It’s been quite a while since I felt this amped up on my way to facing the champion in a Pokemon game, probably since SoulSilver.

Finally, as for the characters, they’re alright. Some I liked like Nessa, Marnie, Bede, Piers, Sonia, Leon, Allister, Oleana, and even Team Yell to some degree. Yeah, while I don’t find them nearly as entertaining as Team Skull, I do like the fact that Nintendo kinda knows that their baddie teams haven’t been all that threatening lately, so they don’t really bother in this game. Just make them a bunch of people from a town cheering on someone in hopes of getting a better life as a result. That’s pretty neat. Unfortunately, I can’t really say the same for everyone though. I’m not all that fond of Hop, the rival of the game. I don’t outright hate him, unlike my brother. I do like that despite him being the nice rival, he’s still full of himself, so sure that he’ll be the next in line to become champion after his brother Leon and thinks we’re the second banana on this journey. I’ll admit, that did give me an urge to kick his ass, show him who’s the real star of the show, but aside from that he wasn’t that interesting to me. I personally would’ve preferred either Marnie or Bede as a rival over him, but that’s just me.

Chairman Rose started off interesting to me at first, but that heel turn near the end just made me sigh. I had a feeling it was going to happen when I first saw him, but I thought “nah, it couldn’t be.” What really irritates me about it isn’t how he plans on using the “darkest day” to solve a crisis he sees coming in the future. After all, Jin Kazama kinda did the same in Tekken 6, but the fact that he was so impatient to get started on it. Like Leon said, he could’ve just waited another day after the tournament to help reduce the lives that might’ve been loss from this. It’s not like he had to carry out his plan on that specific day or wait a whole bunch more years or something, but no. Let’s risk the lives of many people right now in order to save the city from the potential energy crisis that’s estimated to occur many future generations from now. That and after you defeat him, he’s all like “eh, it’s all good. Go clean up my mess.”

Then there are these two annoying brothers that come bug everyone after you beat the champion. My brother hates them and so do I. A pair of annoying snooty wealthy trainers that says “well well well” too much that think they can get anyway with anything.

Seriously, just looking at these two makes me miss the Paradox Brothers from Yu-Gi-Oh!.

And now here come the things that I’m not particularly fond of. And no,before anyone says it, it’s not them removing half of the Pokedex...initially. If anything, having less pokemon makes it easier to fill up,

though I am still pissed off that the dratini line are among the Pokemon that were removed. No there are other things in this game that I couldn’t quite get over while playing.

One of which is a constant complaint I hear when it comes to not just this, but also other recent Pokemon games, which is the absurd amount of handholding.

Look, I don’t consider myself a hardcore gamer. Far from it actually. I’m not against the ideas of games having options to make things less difficult for newcomers who want to play and enjoy it their first time. At the same time though, my personal pet peeve for games are those that fail to make these changes just that, optional.

In the past, the experience share can be turned on and off if you felt like your party is leveling up too quick and you’re becoming overpowered as you progress. This is something that may help provide more of a challenge for players that seek them. This is a change, in my opinion, is welcomed for the series as it’s an optional easy mode for those wanting to get into Pokemon, but feel they should ease into things first. Also it makes grinding less tedious to deal with in post game. In games like Sword and Sheild; however the feature for pokemon getting shared experience is already implemented and there’s no way to turn it off.

As a result, I pretty much breezed through the game without too much issue except for raid battles later on in the game and the final battle with the champion Leon. I even practically destroyed my brother on our first battle together because of our party’s level differences.

Now I know what someone might bring up, the fact that the system in both Digimon Cyber Sleuth games make things arguably even easier since not only is the experience shared throughout the whole party, but you can you carry more digimon in your party than in pokemon, and the fact that there are items in the game as well as digimon with unique abilities that increase the amount of experience you get, which can all be stacked on each other.

Which is true. I even stated before that I managed to max out all of my digimon in far less time in my grindfest when compared to any pokemon game; however that doesn’t mean that the whole game was easy. After all, that grindfest I did happened in post game. During the game, there were still quite a few battles I ended up struggling with despite the higher earned experience and that’s down to a few reasons.

1. While you can potentially hold up to 11 Digimon in cybersleuth, each digimon takes up a certain amount of space when you include them in your party, and the higher ranking they become, the more space they take up. You can’t start the game right away with 11 mega leveled digimon since the only way to increase your party storage is to get items that specifically does so which can be found in areas you unlock as you progress. 2. Even if you do get your digimon to the required level to digivolve, chances are, it’s not the only requirement to fulfill. Certain stats such as friendliness, HP, strength, ect also need to be at a certain area before digivolving, which the digimon may not be able to once it reaches its max level, thus having to de-digivolve into a previous form in order to get stronger. 3. Even when your digimon have fulfill the requirements, in terms of this game at least, none of the digimon can digivolve straight away. You have to go inside this game’s version of the Velvet Room and select the option for your digimon to evolve. Even then, as stated before, you have to make sure there’s enough room in your party to include your digimon after it evolves, otherwise you’ll have no choice but to either bring it back to the previous form after all that work, or leave it in your farm or digibank until there’s more room made.

These reasons help balance out the easy as hell grinding to make sure the game isn’t far too easy for those seeking a challenge. It may not be a perfect setup, but it is a system I personally prefer over what Pokemon has now.

Speaking of the raid battles, I don’t have much to complain about here, except for one factor that ruins it for me. If you’re playing offline by yourself, good luck with these battles. It starts out alright, not too much trouble, but once you start going against the more powerful Pokemon, you’d better hope you have a friend to play with if you want to win these raids, because the AI here is pretty much pathetic. Their pokemon are so weak that they pretty much die in one hit unless they have a focus sash. Not to mention they sometimes bring pokemon that are completely weak or useless against the raid boss you’re going against. I recall one time when I was going against a Frillish and at least 2 of my party members have water types, one of them only had water type skills as well. I ended up failing it the first time because Frillish heals from every water attack it took, so no matter how much damage I was doing to it, at least one of my allies brought its heath back up. It may not seem like that big a deal at first, but once you die 4 times, and I don’t mean just you. Everyone share 4 lives and once you die, you wait a turn to get revived. Once you die 4 times, you’ve lost the raid battle and have to start over again, which is easy to do since your AI partners will more than likely get one-shotted and certain raid bosses can attack twice as well as use skills that hits everybody. I had to retry catching a gigantamaxed laprys so many times because of this that once my brother finally came home from work, I made him play the game with me so I won’t risk losing in 1 or 2 turns again.

Also, the TRs. Who the fuck though this was a good idea? Bringing back the skill learning items that break after only 1 use and can only be obtained from gathering wattages or grinding in raids. Not only that, but only certain skills can only be obtained depending on what type of Pokemon you fight against during said raids. I got so many Tri-Attacks that I have no idea what to do with them while at the same time, moves like flare blitz, I’ve been holding onto for just the right Pokemon, because I have no idea when I’ll ever get one again. That doesn’t make the game fun, it makes grinding more of a chore.

I was among the people that were against the idea of bringing the damn bike back instead of riding around on our Pokemon like in both Sun and Moon and Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. What the hell made bring back one-use only items that certain pokemon can only learn certain skills by using these things was also a good idea?!

Oh yeah that’s right, Nintendo or at least the Pokemon Company decided to turn the Pokemon games into a big mystery box from now on, with certain features being either added or removed with each release.

It’s kind of like what Jim Sterling said. The Pokemon business model has always been shit, ever since arguably Red and Blue, which even I have pointed out the issues in having multiple versions of one game when I made my “Everything Wrong With Pokemon: Yellow Version” parody sometime back. It’s only just recently that fans have been pushed to their breaking point to such a degree with the DLC being implemented with Pokemon that were previously removed.

Which brings me to...probably the most unforgivable thing about the game...the DLC. For those of you who still want to “catch ‘em all” like in Pokemon’s tagline, you may have to dish out some more cash in order to fill up your pokedex. And even then, if it’s like previous generations, the reward for doing so is probably going to be shit anyway, with either a certificate stating that you actually managed to do it, or an item that increases the odds of finding a shiny. Yeah, it just increases the odds, not guarantee. Anyway, for those who still want to get every single Pokemon available in the game, just be prepared to apologize to your wallet. You see on top of paying $60 just to play one version of the game or $120 to play with your brother like we did, or play through both versions of the game yourself to make sure you get all of the Pokemon, you’re still going to have to get the upcoming expansion pass which include Gigantamaxed forms of the 3 starts for this region as well as at least some of the pokemon that weren’t in the game originally, and chances are since this is Pokemon we’re talking about, some of the pokemon can only be found in one of the expansions while others can be found in the other version. I could be wrong, but I don’t think they deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point, which would cost at least $30 right now. I’m not sure if it’s $30 for both or buy one now and spend another 30 for the next one since it is a 2 parter, but that’s still at least $15 each.

Plus, with the newly announced Pokemon home it’s another $15 dollars to pay for the whole year, unlike the Pokemon Bank which was only $5 a year and the Nintendo Switch Online service in order to play online which is $20 a year.

And of course, let’s not forget the Pokeball Plus that you have to buy in order to get Mew if you don’t already have one when you got Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, which was initially about $50-$60 if I recall. Yes, you can use it as a controller once you got it, but I’m not sure if it’s compatible with anything other than Pokemon. Even if I’m wrong, I doubt anyone would pay for it outside of simply getting Mew

and the fact that Pokemon had something like it back during Heartgold and Soulsilver that came free with every copy when it first came out, so this seems really scummy to me by comparison.

My brother has pointed out that not everyone has to get the DLC and people can still get Pokemon featured via trading. Which I guess is true, but it’s still going to be difficult for those who don’t have friends playing the game to help them fill out their pokedex. Not everyone is going to help you trade pokemon in order to simply evolve the ones that can only do so by being traded or get legendaries that are exclusive to one version of the game and you can only get one of. Yeah there are surprise trades, but those are randomized. You still have to get lucky that someone else who traded a pokemon using this feature will end up giving you what you want. I’ll admit, I did managed to somehow get a freakin’ Zekrom using this feature in one of the previous titles, but I assure you that it’s a very rare opportunity.

Even if we did bring back the original GTS system, there’s always going to be quite a few assholes wanting to get low leveled shiny legendary pokemon in exchange for just a normal regular Pokemon that you can’t get in your version of the game like a mawile or something.

Not to mention even after getting the new slowpoke that came out in the new update sometime ago, you can’t even evolve it until you get an item that’s exclusive only to the DLC! That is downright shady as hell and now I feel bad for my brother buying me this just so we can finally play together in a Pokemon game after all these years.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t outright hate this game. Like I said earlier, it’s fine. It has its moments. Overall it is indeed another Pokemon game, but maybe that’s ultimately it’s main issue. The simple fact that overall when you consider everything, it’s JUST another Pokemon game, nothing more and nothing less. But hey, they’re still probably going to make money off of it anyway, so what do I know?))

#pokemon sword and shield

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phoenix-downer · 5 years

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Do you think Sora's darkness may become a serious issue that will need to be addressed in Kingdom Hearts? Though it's been left unspoken, sans certain interviews, it's been shown that Sora's power of darkness has been increasing since the first game: From him only having enough darkness to manifest as a feeble Shadow to him managing to overpower a KH-empowered Xehanort in his Rage form.

I really hope it does, because there are a lot of interesting places Nomura could go with that. It does seem like the darkness in Sora is building and building, and I thought Rage Form being able to wield the Keyblade when Anti-Form could not was a fascinating development. It’s been a while, but from what I remember about Re:Coded, the bug even manifested as Sora’s darkness, represented as a full out Darkside and not the small Shadow it was in KH1. So there is plenty of evidence the darkness inside of Sora is growing, and it’s hard not to wonder: what will happen once it reaches a certain point?

But there’s one thing I can see stopping Sora from ever going truly dark, at least for long:

Disney.

Disney technically owns Kingdom Hearts, and thus the rights to KH-original characters such as Sora. Sora is a hero, and they tend to be protective of their IP and thus their characters’ images and who gets to distribute their characters’ images.

We see this at play with how limited the Frozen world felt in KH3. No doubt they are very protective of one of their biggest cash cows and its characters, and you can really tell Nomura’s team had less freedom and had to follow the movie, arguably to a fault. The world visit and level design were visually gorgeous, but Sora wasn’t really allowed to interfere in the plot of the movie and kept getting punted down a mountain every time he tried. This is a pretty big difference from how much freedom previous KH games had with the Disney world visits, which tended to have more original scenarios.

Granted, part of this is because KH3 used a lot of recent Disney movies, and the original creators are still around and want to have a say in how their creations are represented. Some of the creators even worked with Nomura’s team to create new scenarios, like for Toy Box. But with how much money KH3 probably made Disney, they may rethink their more hands-off approach of the past and want to be even more involved in the creative process from here on out.

Anyway, all of this is to say, I feel like Disney might balk at Sora turning truly dark in a video game series meant for all ages. Riku going dark for a while was fine because he’s the anti-hero, but they might not be happy about Sora, a heroic figure, doing bad things or dark things. Even Aqua’s fall to darkness turned out to be not her fault and didn’t even last all that long, in the overall scheme of things. Nor was she playable for that part, which I bring up because I will expand on this point later on.

Plus, Riku already has the whole darkness thing covered, and they might want to keep him and Sora distinct in terms of powers and abilities. Riku is the deuteragonist of the series, after all, and will probably be playable again in the future, and they need to keep his moveset unique.

From an interview Nomura did before DDD released, he mentioned he changed the original ending of DDD:

—Will the ending of this title also be a heart wrenching one? Nomura: The ending for KH3D is a little unusual, the plan up until now had been different… But every once in a while I think, it’s good this way. In fact, the first ending I thought up quickly became no good due to various circumstances, but now the ending is something that I worry quite a bit about. As a result, we tried to do something unique for the ending this time. Incidentally, the secret movie will be shorter. Though it is short, like the Re:Coded secret movie, it will connect to the next shocking developments in the series, so please look forward to it.

This is all pure speculation on my part, but it makes me wonder if he planned on Sora getting norted but then changed it because it wasn’t working. That’s not to say that he couldn’t go the direction of a Dark Sora in the future, but in DDD at least he could’ve allowed Sora to be norted but didn’t, for whatever reason.

And from a more practical standpoint, Sora being a playable character also kind of prevents his fall. They’re not going to have him be playable if he’s doing dark stuff or morally iffy stuff. There are other games out there that have that, but KH I don’t really see becoming one of them.

Now, if we play a game as one of the other characters, and/or if Sora falls near the end of a future KH game and we switch to playing another character, then I can see a boss fight against him to save him, much like we had to fight Dark Aqua in KH3 to save her. But I think that’s the farthest KH will go, and for now we’ll just get gameplay mechanics like Rage Form, which, granted, is canon to the story as well.

I almost hate to argue against Sora going dark like this because it would offer so many unique and interesting story possibilities, but my practical side has to intervene and point out the potential blocks keeping it from happening.

But fanfic and fanart that explores Sora going dark? I am all here for that and I love seeing what people come up with (and tossing around a few ideas of my own). So even if we never see Sora going fully dark in canon, we still have fanworks to scratch that itch.

One last caveat: this analysis doesn’t account for the possibility that the Master of Masters is some version of Sora (which I don’t think is necessarily the case, just an interesting theory). If the MoM is Sora, then at some point he potentially fell to darkness and we will likely, at some point, have to fight him. But we would probably fight him using current Sora, which sidesteps all those potential issues I mentioned above. Sora having to save himself and his friends from a doomed timeline, from a version of himself that needs saving, still keeps Sora in the hero role while simultaneously allowing him to fall to darkness, and I could see Nomura going that route. But that’s only if the MoM is Sora, when in fact there are compelling arguments he’s another existing character or a character we don’t know yet. It’ll be interesting to finally find out his identity.

Thanks for the ask!

Edit: read more is still not working, argh. My apologies, I don’t know why this keeps happening :/

#kingdom hearts #kh meta #kh analysis #sora #answer #microversejimmy #long post #kh3 spoilers #kingdom hearts 3 spoilers

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camellia-thea · 4 years

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Feather Reviews: 2019 Cats

For clarification, before I begin, I am a big fan of the traditional musical, Cats, and I grew up on it. I tend to ramble a little, but I have made an effort to make this cohesive.

This will, obviously, include spoilers for Cats. I will also state that this is my personal opinion, and I wanted to share it for those who are interested. I have nothing against people who disagree with my opinions, and am open to talk about how people felt.

Quick list of terminology: Queen’s Chorus: The older female chorus - Jennyanydots, Jellylorum, Bombalurina, Demeter. Kitten’s Chorus: The female kitten chorus - Excetera, Exotica, Electra, Jemima/Syllabub, (Victoria) Tom’s Chorus: The male chorus, including, but not limited to Tumblebrutus, Plato, Admetus. Often doesn’t include Munku or other cats with their own numbers. Original: When I state the original, I mean either the stage performances overall, or the 1998 filmed performance. Both are relevant and I focus on both too.

My initial ramble to some friends:

I am conflicted - on one hand, Cats was mostly awful and they did my boy so dirty. Misto wasn't Misto, he was an anxious boy (which I have no issue with, but it wan't my Misto). Skimbleshanks was wrong, and holy shit, Jennyanydots unzips her own skin and pulls it off revealing a cat in sexy clothing underneath, before eating literal children pretending to be cockroaches. Bustopher was a disappointment, but I got shivers with Memory, and Gus (though missing Jellylorum weeps) was fantastic. My biggest issue was the fact that a whole bunch of cats were missing or simply unnameable. I pride myself on being able to name all of the cats in stage version, but none of them have the same or even vaguely similar designs. Munkustrap was bearable, but not floofy enough, but he was really really good. Victoria was two characters in one: Jemima/Sillabub and Victoria. I saw Excetera, which was good, but apparently Demeter was there, but bad? She was just-- mean? She was meant to pity Grizabella (and is the second cat to touch her???) but was nasty and snarly and grey? She's a Tortie??? Has always been? hhhh, and though I did spot Coricopat and Tantomile - who always move as one, but none of the non main cats had a big role, and most weren’t named or recognizable which was a shame.. and they MISSED the ORGY scene? WHY? it was a fantastic number, and had some great (if really sexual) dancing?

The numbers themselves:

Good Numbers and Dances:

Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats; the beat was off on it, which made me mildly uncomfortable, but overal it was well done. Not as good as the original, but I enjoyed it, and it was a good first number. It was good as something to get used to the CGI for. Memory (both); holy shit, Memory was really raw and emotional. No dancing for these, which was interesting. Gus; Ian McKellan gave me shivers. It lacked Jellylorum, which was upsetting, but he did really well, and I love this song normally, and I wasn’t Beautiful Ghosts; okay, so I wasn’t expecting to like it, honestly, but I was pleasantly surprised. Vic was very raw and sweet, but I found it a little odd - I suppose it was her telling Grizabella not to give up, but it had a little of the @my pain is worse than your pain” thing, which bothered me. It was a sweet number though, and I enjoyed it. Jellicle Ball: Um... where was the orgy? Other than that, it captured the original, but had some new choreography, which was nice, actually. Couple of bits that didn’t quite work, but overall, a good piece.

Good Numbers, Bad Dancing: Mungojerry and Rumpleteazer - the house scene was unnecessary and weird? But I enjoyed the sound - it was fairly true to the original. They missed the duo-cartwheel (is there a name for this? I feel like there is, but I don’t know it), which is one of the best moves in the entire musical, but it was missed? Whatever the reason, it was wrong. Grizabella the Glamour Cat - I liked this, though the tone felt off, and the acting was wrong. Demeter wasn’t right, and I think it was Cassandra instead of Bomba, which was also wrong? My ladies sing together. Rum Tum Tugger: I am so so so gad that it wasn't rap, holy shit - I have nothing against Rap!Tugger, but in this musical, it wouldn’t have worked. He had a good voice, and I really liked the way he held his notes, but his tone was a little off. Misto was a little unimpressive in it, where is my sassy boy? and I wasn't a fan of the dancing. It was good, sure, and I did see Excetera, which was nice, but overall, they lost Tugger’s theme. He also insulted Jenny? Which isn’t in character, I don’t think. Tugger’s an arse, but not that kind of arse.

Bad Numbers, good dancing: hhhh Skimble my boy. Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat. They tried to modernize the music, but it was badly done. His tap was really good though - they mimicked the sound of trains going along, which was good. I didn’t enjoy his voice - where’s my Scottish cat? The 1998 version reminds me of living in Glasgow, but this didn’t have that, and lost a lot of Skimble’s charm, which was a shame.

Numbers that I honestly don’t know how to feel about: Mr Mistoffelees: Okay, so before I begin, you need some context. Mr Mistoffelees is my hands down favourite character in Cats - I’ve had a cat named after him, it was the first song I ever heard, and I relate him to my grandfather who has passed, so I have a lot of feelings here, and some will be unique to my situation. This song isn’t about the Mr Mistoffelees that I know and love. This song was about a cat who was incredibly unsure about himself, and it shows in the vocals, in the dance, and in the music itself. It wasn’t sung by Rum Tum Tugger, and Misto’s character had so deeply changed that I couldn’t relate it to the original other than the lyrics themselves, and the fact that the goal of the song was to return Old Deuteronomy. However, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was the only song that furthered a character’s development, and it was enjoyable over all. It did loose the charm of having Tugger sing about Misto, though, which was a big thing for me, I think. I certainly liked it but it wasn’t right, or fitting, however it was cohesive, and Misto got his confidence through it, which was good (and he was very sweet in it too).

Bad Overall: Macavity; This one upset me. Macavity is another favourite, and I love Demeter and Bombalurina’s duet, and so removing Demeter was upsetting. The dancing was gone, which was awful. They missed a great opportunity to create a fantastic dark jazz number (perhaps on a similar line to Chicago? Something with that dark element that isn’t quite surface level), but instead we got TS nonconsensually drugging cats, and lying on a moon? There was so much that could’ve been done here, but they didn’t and it was bad. Gumby Cat - holy shit, Jennyanydots fucking unzipping her skin and eating children (dressed as cockroaches) was from stuff from nightmares.There was also an odd thing, after she unzipped herself (hhh, nightmare material), where she was suddenly in this “sexy” bikini? It was just so utterly unnecessary and wrong. Jenny is meant to be an adoptive mother for most cats - Jellylorum being the other Mom Cat. The missing Queen Chorus was missing which was also sad and wrong. Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town, James Corden is a great actor, and is normally great in musicals, but he isn't the right person? The casting was wrong, and the song was just plain weird? Where was him flirting? Where was my Queens Chorus, again? my girls? And his CGI was weird. This song just rubbed me the wrong way, and it might’ve been his pitch too, but it was just wrong and disconcerting. Growltiger’s Last Stand: This was the most unnecessary thing? Honestly, they didn’t even need to put him in. They used the first verse, and left it at that which was stupid, and also the full song is racist and awful anyway? Many companies have managed to fix both Growltiger’s Last Stand, and the Pekes and the Pollicles, but this was just lazy and unnecessary, as well as not fitting the original trackline at all? I don’t know. It was a clear bad decision, I think.

Character Evaluations:

Good Characters: Munkustrap; damn, I was worried that they'd change him a lot, but he was pretty close and I loved him. His voice was great, and I loved his interaction. He was overall friendly, but wary of Victoria in the beginning, and I loved him a lot overall. I’m sad that he didn’t get some of his numbers/lines, and that bits an pieces were changes (why did you sing Tugger’s opening in Mister Mistoffelees, Munku, why?) Victoria; great voice, great dancing, and I think that she did a very good job but I felt uncomfortable with her singing Jemima/Sillabub's piece. Gus; Ian McKellan is a fantastic actor normally, and I think he really understood Gus, which was great. Missing Jellylorum and his interaction, but I'm glad that he was cast.

Cat's I'm conflicted on: Mistoffelees - My boy, my best boy, my special boy. I actually really liked him, but his CGI made me deeply uncomfortable, but I loved the costume (top hat boy!), and though he wasn't my Misto in terms of character, I think it was a good version. My one true critisism was that he was straight. (In 99% of all shows, he and Tugger are gay af for each other, and Tugger is chaotic bi.) His design shift was off - too much white, I think. But overall, I think I did like this interpretation. It wasn’t my Misto, but I feel like they did a good job, and the acting was great, so I can’t complain. Grizabella; Griz was fantastic, but I feel like she was too young. She had all the necessary emotion, but looked to be early thirties? I’ve always felt that Griz is meant to be a glamourous signer/dancer who has been forgotten and replaced by newer cats (ei Bombalurina and Demeter), rather than cast out because of a skint with Macavity. She was phenomenal though - her voice, the acting, the emotion, all really well done. Skimbleshanks: Honestly, I didn’t like his design? A mustache? Pants? WHy not let him keep his waistcoat and watch, and leave it? The pants were odd on him, and though i liked the suspenders, they didn’t add to the charm of the character?

Bad characters: Bombalurina; um? Why? WHy? WHY? Admittedly, I am not a fan of T*Sw*ft, but honestly, I feel like she was cast into the right character, who’s characterization was them butchered so that she couldn’t perform a decent role. She's a good singer, and I respect her work, but they ruined Bomba’s character, which made her job really difficult. Bomba doesn't work for Macavity, she sings about how he is bad, and her girlfriend was abused by him? They also ditched her original design, which was a shame - I love the red based tortoiseshell that she has in the performances. Mungo and Rumple; They were done so dirty. Again, why did they work for Macavity? It wasn’t necessary, and honestly, I feel like it was lazy on the part of the creators? I did love their voices though, and their song was close to the original which was great. Jenny and Bustopher: Again, shitty numbers did these two no favours, but they lost the characterization in this. Bustopher was meant to be pompous but also an okay dude. Jenny was meant to be motherly, and kind, but nope. Not happening here. I feel like for these two, all original characterization was dumped, and then personality was stitched together from ill-fitting material. Macavity: Look, Macavity has no spoken lines in the stageshow, and honestly, I liked that? His part was convoluted, off, and also hhh? Why was his costume like that? He looked like he was going to offer drugs to young children in the back alleyways. I always thought that Macavity would have class - the line “the Napoleon of Crime” references Moriarty, and I always thought of him as being similar to the novelization of Moriarty, but he wasn’t. It felt like he was trying to be suave and charming, but failing miserably. Demeter: My lady? Ruined? Yep, they went there. Deme honestly didn’t have a part, other than to be mean to people, which was awful. She got a duet, in Grizabella the Glamour Cat, but honestly, it was a terrible piece. She wasn’t herself, and honestly, that wasn’t Demeter, that was just a grey cat who sang one of the parts that Demeter sang in the stageshow.

Cats that I straight up didn’t see: Jellylorum.

I mean, there were others, but they completely got rid of Jellylorum, who has a pretty damn big part? She’s the lead of the Queen’s Chorus

Continuing on with the list: Most of the Kitten Chorus. I actively recognized Electra but no others. Most of the Tom’s Chorus. I think I saw Admetus, and Tumble in Jellicle Cats, but nowhere else.

I was upset by the fact that most character’s original designs were ditched? We didn’t really get the calicos or tortoiseshells. Making Vic a tabby was odd? She was a plain white cat in the show, and it didn’t need to be changed? And Tugger’s mane wasn’t big enough (I weep for the loss of his floof).

Costume, Set, Prop, and CGI: Overall, the CGI was surprisingly good. The cats themselves where disconcerting at the beginning, but it was surprisingly easy to get used to. I think they should've given them noses, and made their lips less pink (Looking at you, Misto), but it was okay. The crawling was weird - human proportions with long legs and short arms was disconcerting, but I could ignore it. There were points where the CGI made the entire thing so much worse (Gumby Cat, I am looking at you) but it was bearable, and even charming by the end. It could’ve been done much better (just plain animated would’ve been fantastic, or even if they’d stuck closer to the costumes?), but it was okay, and I found myself not paying that much attention to it, which means that it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been.

There was an odd thing in terms of set, where some things were proportions as though it was made for the cats, some were proportioned as though it was for giants, and some was as though they were for a cat's perspective of humans? There was just no continuity there. Same with the props, which was odd, but overall okay.

Costume and design was mostly good. As I said, I loved Misto's garb - a top hat, with sequens but human sized sequins! very sweet boy. Tugger was odd, but it fit. His mane wasn't big enough, and was a coat instead, which was odd-- Jenny made me feel uncomfortable again, and did Bustopher. Macavity was a disappointment (he's ginger? “Macavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin,” But was brown and wearing a coat that made me think of the hey, kid, want some drugs character, as I said before? Which i guess was intentional, but I don't know. He's written as being like Moriarty? So suave and charming, but not?). I feel like they could’ve pretty easily taken a deep red-brown tabby, and gone off with that, but they didn’t, and he wasn’t scary, or creepy, just wrong, and I half wanted to laugh whenever he was onscreen because of it. Griz was pretty good. I liked her coat, but I wished she looked a bit more 'drowned rat'-ish with some torn up fancy clothes under? I don't know. . Growltiger. Huh. I wasn't expecting him, but also I really didn’t like his design. It was shady, and grimy, and his colourscheme was right, but it didn’t match the slightly majestic stage version of him, which was unfortunate.

Plot: Plot-wise, they honestly should’ve left it the way it was on stage. Macavity’s plot was frustrating, off, and overall unnecessary. Having it told through Victoria’s eyes was interesting, but not unwelcome, however and she gave the show a different angle which was welcome in my opinion. A lot of the music didn’t fit together in the same way as the original. It felt a lot more disjointed, and it wasn’t something I expected. Some of the dialogue was unnecessary and muddled the plot a little more than it needed to be (I’m looking specifically at Macavity’s part, I think.) Overall, the changes to the plot weren’t great, but what can you do.

Sound: I’ll start this section by stating that I have auditory processing issues that are normally really bad, and I rarely watch films/youtube without subtitles, so this section is a little more personal for me. I struggle with watching and hearing things at the same time - I normally only process one or the other, and so I loose a lot of dialogue normally in most films. I can cope with the 1998 filmed version of Cats simply because I know the music so well. I could listen to this, including the parts that I wasn’t familiar with (ie, spoken dialogue, and Beautiful Ghosts) without subtitles, and also I didn’t find myself overwhelmed by all the movement and musical changes, which was great, because it’s normally an issue for me. All in all, that’s a big plus for me, and I think that it was great.

Overall: I rate this film a 5/10. I wouldn’t pay to see it again, but I might borrow it from a library when it comes out on DVD. I rate the music a 6/10. There were some really great songs, but also some severely lacking ones. I rate the characterization a 5/10. Victoria, Munkustrap and Mistoffelees prevented this from going any lower, but still, it wasn’t great for anyone other than them. I rate the dancing a 7/10, overall the dancing was really well done, and I think they could’ve done a lot with it. I rate the plot a 4/10. A lot of it was unnecessary, or overly complicated. I think they should’ve stuck with the original. I rate the casting a 7/10. Mostly good, a couple I disagreed with, but I feel like they did pretty well. In comparison, I rate the 1998 filmed version a 9/10, points being deducted for the racism in several numbers (looking at you, Pekes and the Pollicles)

Would I recommend this film: It depends on the person, I think. I would say that a fan of Cats should watch it, simply so they can see another interpretation, even if there are parts that are wildly wrong in my eyes. I wouldn’t suggest it to younger viewers, simply because it’s not a simple plot, and the CGI can be disturbing. I would recommend it to people who want to watch Cats, but don’t have the energy, because even if the plot was iffy, it was easy to understand, and to follow, and is a good way to lead people into the stage versions. A final sentence summarizing my experience: I was pleasantly surprised by most of the 2019 Cats - I had been expecting much worse, and there were certainly thoroughly enjoyable parts.

#cats 2019 #cats the musical #cats the movie #cats 2019 spoilers #long post #feather speaks #feather reviews #i'm so sorry that this is so long #I didn't intend it to be #i just have a lot of feelings about this #this was an infodump brought to you by feather's special interest; cats

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years

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SpongeBob SquarePants - The Musical: A Small Memorial

Last night, as often happens, a Broadway show closed. While I wasn’t able to see it’s final performance (Though I was filled in for the details thanks to the incredible @crazy-noonoohead), I did get to see it once, and it absolutely charmed the entire way through. I’m honestly going to miss it.

That show was SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical.

I know. The jokes have all been said and done. It’s a Nickelodeon show that got a stage adaptation and it doesn’t offer even the pretense of pretending its not for kids. It’s essentially most of what makes up animated movie trailers today. But beyond the jokes, SpongeBob is one of the most aesthetically pleasing, unique, and fun shows out there and I want to give it the respect and honor it deserves here, because believe it or not, it has quite a few elements worthy of said respect and honor.

Now for reference before we begin, I have seen SpongeBob on Broadway live one time, I’ve listened to the cast recording well over twenty times at this point, and I have engaged in my fair share of bootlegs via YouTube.

SET DESIGN

To start, let’s talk about SpongeBob’s greatest accomplishment: Its set design. The set design is effectively delivered on in three ways, and let’s just say that the Tony it got for Set Design could not have been more deserved.

First, on either side of the stage of the show were two intricate mechanisms. If you’ve ever played the board game Mouse Trap, then just think about that in orange and you’ve got an idea of what they were like. One of the mechanisms went off during each act, and what it did was provide more than just a regular set piece: It provided a mystery and an adventure. Not only was it so much fun seeing the mechanisms go off, but the anticipation for them had me so excited. They were unique and gave off this feeling of both peril and comedy.

Second, the set design of the climax of the show (Spoiler alert if you wanted to either read about this somewhere else or hit up a bootleg). Ethan Slater (SpongeBob’s actor) is such a badass. In the climax of the show, he is put in a harness and while singing a powerful song (A character-defining reprise, at that!), needs to basically climb up, through, and around this big and intricate orange spider web. It’s some of the coolest staging I’ve ever seen and while I never saw Spiderman, I also never heard of a single instance of danger with this action so I feel comfortable saying that this is Spiderman done right!

Finally, I want to talk about something pretty simple: The houses. I’m going to lump these things together because the how of what they do here is pretty similar, but incredibly impressive. The houses and establishments like The Krusty Krab here are the only thing done via CGI and the pragmatic effects help to enhance it by never allowing the audience to feel confused about where they are or overcrowded by the larger than life characters.

If you want to continue and read my thoughts on the costume design, music, story, and cultural impact (However personal), please join me below the cut.

COSTUME DESIGN

There are a LOT of characters to talk about in this adaptation and I think they were all designed fabulously. However, for the purposes of keeping this a little brief, let’s talk about the most impressive one to me: Plankton.

Assuming you’ve watched SpongeBob on TV, you know that Plankton is a really small character, and that presents a problem when adapting the TV show to Broadway. How do you adapt Plankton? His size (Or lack thereof) is such an important quality to his character and to not acknowledge that would dilute who he is. While one could simply make him a puppet, none of the other characters are puppets and to make him one would take away all of his menace, something that he would need, even as a primarily comedy-focused antagonist. Additionally, it would severely limit the capabilities of Plankton to perform in musical numbers, especially in his rap number. But the creators did something really smart. In the opening number of the show, while all of the main characters were scaled against their oceanic counterparts, Plankton had a physical puppet counterpart shown in addition to his human actor, a puppet that was abandoned shortly after his introductory scene. That did the job of showing Plankton’s size in a way that the audience would burn into their memory while also allowing the actor to use his entire range of motion. It’s honestly such a smart move.

MUSIC

SpongeBob on Broadway is a collaborative musical. Most every song is original to the show AND was made a different artist. This list includes The Plain White Tees, Panic! at the Disco, David Bowie, John Legend, They Might Be Giants, and Sara Bareilles (But boy is it longer than just that). And here’s what impresses me so much: It’s so cohesive. That’s not to say there aren’t different genres. There are a couple of ballads, a rap, a few ensemble pieces, a rock and roll number, a sea shanty, and a tap number (With multiple legs thanks to Gavin Lee’s incredible talent!!!!). But it retains a flow to it that carries through the entire show. At no point does the SpongeBob musical feel disjointed and given all of that talent working on it, I can’t help but be surprised, even now. Like, how does that work? The music here has no right being this solid and cohesive! Well, I can only assume that the above talents really talked to one another to make sure that no work felt out of place, and honestly, I can’t help but adore that respect for how seriously this was taken from all of them to make sure that there was consistency throughout each and every one of the pieces in regards to the world of SpongeBob and in terms of a full musical.

My favorite piece is “Bikini Bottom Day.” In addition to being visually great, it has this nice buildup as the pieces of Bikini Bottom come together. It starts off with this very faithful-to-the-source-material ukulele and builds to encompass the orchestra, building up the beauty of Bikini Bottom and all of its people as it relates to SpongeBob itself. Everyone’s characterizations are perfectly on display here and the first beats of the characters’ arcs come into play. The motif which is revisited in the Act 1 finale and the finale of the show itself is just nice and optimistic, inviting everyone to think more like SpongeBob, and damnit, when I hear it, I feel like SpongeBob!

STORY

I think the story here is so important, and more important than most might give it credit for. While not overly serious, it does deliver a story that’s deviously more than it seems and in a way that is palatable by its target demographic: children.

SpongeBob on Broadway is about the SpongeBob characters facing the possibility of the end of the world in the face of an erupting volcano, and their various reactions to that. SpongeBob works on combatting the eruption, many of the townspeople try to run, those less committed to running focus on blaming someone for the issue (Sandy, as Plankton puts the value of being the sole land animal in an underwater town), a subset of fish seek wisdom from Patrick, Pearl and Squidward focus on completing their Bucket Lists, and Mr. Krabs and Plankton focus their efforts on profiting off of the panicking masses (Granted for Plankton, it’s in a much more evil way that involves mass manipulation and attempted murder). And throughout this story, there are various ticking countdowns, the aforementioned mechanisms throwing big balls of magma onto the stage, and even the intermission says that it will be the “last intermission...ever.” And that’s all before talking about the two numbers about the possibility of facing the end: “No Control” and “Best Day Ever,” the former of which is one of the most panicked and hopeless numbers I’ve ever heard.

Now, that’s a pretty really-real baseline story with some harsh elements, and honestly, it could’ve gotten pretty dark. But what I like is that it never really did. While not afraid to handle these storylines and aspects and tackle them fully, the show never lost sight of the fact that it’s a SpongeBob musical and being that requires a consistency of a comedic tone as well as an understanding that it’s a musical for children. There are at least five jokes per scene and the show itself ends with a parade of bubbles, a zany band performance, and strings of party paper that falls from the sky! It’s fucking bonkers! And that tonal balance is what makes it so good -- not all time classic-great, but certainly more than enough to merit its own existence.

And that brings us to...

CULTURE

Whenever I see someone picking on SpongeBob on Broadway, even from its inception, I’ve always hated it. I get that SpongeBob on Broadways was somewhat of an absurd notion, but then again, so was The Lion King or Avenue Q, an adult-themed show about puppets, and both of those offered something unique visually as well as through elements like staging, storytelling, and costumes. And in terms of animated adaptations, we’ve had again all but two of the Disney Broadway adaptations. So why did SpongeBob get mocked?

And I’m sure some edgelord reading this is groaning about that the fact that SpongeBob on Broadway is a musical for kids and that I’m unapologetically defending its right to be exactly that, but honestly, fuck that noise. Being for kids does not mean that a musical cannot be great or even tough upon hard subject matter. I mean, look at how some of the more recent Disney animated movies have taken upon harsher subject matter if you need proof of that. What it means is that there needs to be an understanding in the delivery of a message so that one can understand it from an early age without needing to sacrifice storytelling to deliver it. It’s not dumbing down theatre, it’s opening up the door for new people to come in. And there’s no reason why that’s a bad thing. Broadway, like every other medium, thrives off of variety. Just like how there are deep movies like “Citizen Kane,” comedies like “Crazy Rich Asians,” silly films like “Despicable Me,” and superhero movies like “The Avengers” (And blendings of the different genres like “The Dark Knight”), so can there be such a tonal diversity among the shows on Broadway. Hamilton and Phantom are great musicals, but they aren’t and shouldn’t be the only types out there and I like that there’s more out there for kids.

Broadway in its current state, while making changes to foster grander availability, is still a very overpriced and hard to access medium. It’s based on location and even for someone like me who lives in New York, it’s an endeavor that costs at least $50-$60 (That’s assuming I (1) win a digital lottery or have a friend do rush (thanks again @crazy-noonoohead), (2) don’t take a subway or cab, and (3) don’t eat on the trip, and very rarely do those things all happen simultaneously). To be willing to do that, you need to have some serious love or interest in the show, and because of that high bar that people already have to meet in order to just get in the door, it’s not especially approachable to new people. And that’s where shows like SpongeBob come in. Little kids and families go to see the show and come out with so much more. Shows like SpongeBob open doors for lifelong interests in the mastery of theatre and I hope that in the future, when a non-Disney show like this is announced, we remain more optimistic about its potential rather than turning it into a punchline.

While I can’t say it’s for certain intentional, I can’t help but related the song “Not a Simple Sponge” to the public’s outcry towards the show. The chorus invites Mr. Krabs, Squidward, and (by extension) the audience to give SpongeBob a chance to “give me [him] adventure, be a contender, and more” after earlier calling him “just a simple sponge.” I can’t help but see the similarities between SpongeBob’s doubters and the public itself for dismissing the idea of SpongeBob going on a grand staged adventure, as if to say “No, you can’t tell us this story.” But by the end, through the careful delivery of themes (”Everything gets better if you keep on trying”), SpongeBob proves that indeed his is more than a simple sponge and worthy of his claim to The Great White Way.

LET’S WRAP THIS UP

SpongeBob was something that crept up on me. I figured I’d like it well enough, but that it would be something that would follow me, take up about half of my Spotify history, and be something that moved me to make a fairly long post about it? Well, that caught me as a surprise! Hell, I still have a piece of the tissue paper that fell on me during the end of the show and it’s still something I’m going to try to hold on for my remaining days. I probably would’ve attempted for the finale performance alongside my friend had it not been for a car accident that currently leaves me unable to walk. Even still, I’m grateful for the chance to experience this show.

What I’m saying is, SpongeBob on Broadway is “not a simple sponge” and I sincerely wish that it had run longer (With all due respect, I was bored with the Mean Girls bootleg I found in roughly twenty minutes and I was hoping my big yellow friend would stick it out at least until after that closed). For something that was odds are less than half a risk to Viacom, it tried so much harder than anyone expected to and created a memorable show. While I don’t expect a revival anytime soon, it’s going to join some of my mid-tier favorites that Broadway has to offer, along the lines of Legally Blonde and Young Frankenstein. And maybe one day, it will get the respect and love that it truly deserves.

If you’ve never checked out SpongeBob, and by some miracle you’re able to track down a working bootleg or even if you just rock out to the cast recording and a Wikipedia article on the plot, I suggest downing an hour or two and letting the wonders of a “Bikini Bottom Day” consume you.

#broadway #spongebob #theatre #ethan slater #gavin lee #spongebob musical

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eggoreviews · 5 years

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Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Rate Their Chances #1

Hi! This is a new thingy I’m trying based on the RTC series by Smash youtuber Billybo10k where I’m gonna take 5 characters, weigh up whether or not they’d potentially make into Smash as DLC and then give them a chance and a want score out of 100. Hoping to make this a regular thing so if you’re reading this and want me to rate a character, drop me a comment!

The characters I’ll be rating in this post are:

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

Bandana Waddle Dee (Kirby series)

Rex (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

Rayman (Rayman series)

Hope u enjoy!

Geno

Okay so, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months (or depending how long you’ve been into Smash, the past 12 years or so), you probably know all about Geno by now. Geno is a character who gained an unprecedented amount of fan support after only appearing and having a major role in one game that was made over 20 years ago, Super Mario RPG.

In terms of his moveset, Geno, as far as I’m aware, is a puppet who ended up harnessing the power of a star. His main sort of ‘thing’ in his home game is the gun on the end of his hand, so Geno would likely end up being similar to Mega Man in some regards, though obviously not with the powers Mega Man uses from the various bosses in his home series.

And I won’t beat around the bush. Geno has a very, very good shot of making it in. For lots of reasons. First off, we’re now aware that the Smash ballot from Smash 4′s DLC had a direct influence on the newcomers for this game, with the likes of Ridley and King K. Rool, both major fan requests, joining the roster. There is no doubt in my mind that Geno did extremely well on the ballot and, on top of this, Sakurai has actively tried to negotiate Geno into the game before back in Brawl, but Square Enix (the current owners of Geno, considering they were the developers of Super Mario RPG) were unwilling to play ball. But now? We have CLOUD from Final Fantasy in Smash, not to mention Geno’s mii costume from Smash 4, who was the only mii costume to get his own splash screen. Sakurai knows how much people want Geno.

The only potential sticking points for Geno I can see are more on Square’s end than Nintendo’s. Geno’s inclusion all hinges on whether or not Square is going to want to hand over the rights to a dead character. That is, Square Enix could be so unwilling to hand over Geno because they want to include more marketable characters that still have relevance. For example, Sora, as Kingdom Hearts III is just around the corner. And if Ultimate is all about the most requested characters making the cut, why wasn’t Geno in the base roster? Not saying this drops his chances hugely, it’s just a thing to note, as it’s not as if Geno had the problem other characters such as Spring Man had where they came into existence too late to be considered.

With all of this in mind, I’m going to give Geno a 65% chance of making it into DLC. All of the factors in Geno’s favour, as well as credible leaker Vergeben repeatedly mentioning a new Square Enix rep, put Geno in a very good position. But hey, nothing’s certain. And Sakurai has confirmed on Twitter that Nintendo made the selections for this game’s DLC line-up, so it’s really down to both Nintendo and Square whether or not they’d want to include a character that isn’t marketable to people outside of the core Smash fanbase. But as for a want score, I’m going to give Geno a 35%. Nothing against this wooden boi, I’d just rather see Sora or a Dragon Quest character make it over Geno in terms of Square reps. Plus, I have no real attachment to the character.

Sora

Now onto the other Square Enix rep in this post, as well as my third most wanted character, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, the big strange crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. Is he a good fit for Smash? Well, he’s got his huge freakin keyblade and a whole host of spells he could utilise in his moveset, so the answer is very easily a yes. And the thing is that Sora has one big leg up over Geno in terms of chances; relevancy. But I suppose it all depends on what is being taken into consideration when characters are chosen for DLC. For the base roster, it seemed to be all about fan demand, specifically drawing popular picks from the Smash ballot. But now that Nintendo as a whole is choosing who joins the fight, I’d say we’re much more likely to get marketable characters such as Sora (Basically what I’m saying here is, don’t expect another character like Piranha Plant. As much as I love Piranha Plant). And in terms of Nintendo history, Sora’s home series has made its way onto several of Nintendo’s handhelds over the years in the form of spin-off titles.

Sora, like every character, has a couple of hurdles though. The moveset potential, the Nintendo history and the fan demand are all there, but at the end of the day, it’s all down to whether or not Disney want to play ball. Because, contrary to what some people are saying, Sora is in fact owned by Disney and not Square Enix, as Disney hold the rights to all Kingdom Hearts characters that are original to the series. While Disney are notoriously stingy when it comes to their properties, I have little doubt that they would hand over Sora if it benefited them directly. Right now, we know that Kingdom Hearts III is not scheduled to appear on the Switch, but with a sort of ‘Switch Pro’ rumoured to be around the corner, KH3 could feasibly be ported over. And with Sora being exclusively a video game character, they really aren’t going to be saving him for anything else, are they?

For me, there’s a hell of a lot of factors going either way for Sora for me to be convinced either way, as Sora is a very difficult character to speculate on when Disney is involved. But he has a good chance. Right now, with things as they stand, I’m going to give Sora a 50% chance of appearing in DLC. It honestly could go either way. But as my third most wanted character, Sora gets a 95% want score. Kingdom Hearts made up a lot of my childhood and I’d love to see him included.

Bandana Waddle Dee

The bias is alive and well in this post as we take a look at our third character, and my second most wanted character, Bandana Waddle Dee from the Kirby series. At first glance, Bandana Dee could be dismissed as a weird side character or generic ‘mook’ character that has no place in Smash among the other iconic characters in the series. But this is very, very wrong. Bandana Dee has cemented himself in the Kirby series as the fundamental player 4 in the series, making regular appearances as the fourth protagonist of most of the modern Kirby games, most recently appearing as one of the three main dream friends in Kirby Star Allies alongside King Dedede and Meta Knight. And boy, does he have a lot of fan support. In Japan especially, Bandana Dee has an INSANE amount of support and this undoubtedly would’ve shown up on the ballot. And I have no doubt that Sakurai would be able to create a moveset for this perfect boi, especially considering we’ve never had a spear user in Smash before.

However, Bandana Dee’s issues come with what Nintendo’s priorities are in this latest cycle of DLC. We aren’t sure on what goes into consideration when picking these characters but my best guess, as I have stated above, is how marketable the character is, not just to the hardcore Smash fans, but to the casual players as well. Nintendo are likely going to be looking at what characters are most likely to sell as DLC, as well as what characters are going to promote their other titles. And I’m not entirely sure Bandana Dee fits this. Sure, Kirby Star Allies recently was released and, if he came with a Star Allies stage (yes pls), this could be a good promotional push for that game and there’s no doubt that Bandana Dee would sell well as DLC considering how many people love him. But with a new Fire Emblem game coming next year, alongside other potential first party reps Nintendo could’ve prioritised, it could be that my poor lil Bandana boy fell by the wayside this time.

Overall, I’m giving Bandana Dee a 60% chance of appearing. I’m fairly confident in his chances, as he’s a well-loved first party rep with a unique moveset potential and unquestionable marketability (I mean come on, tell me you wouldn’t buy him). But it’s all down to what Nintendo wants to promote in this cycle of DLC and whether they’ll want to keep their focus on upcoming titles or try and sell more of preexisting ones. But my want score for Bandana Dee is honestly a 100%. I love Bandana Dee and his design so, so much and I really want to see the Kirby set completed. Pls let it happen Nintnondo.

Rex

Rex is the main protagonist of the recent and extremely popular Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The character has a lot of fan support, is from a relevant franchise and is a Nintendo owned series that they’re going to want to promote. So why don’t I think he’s getting in?

Let’s break it down. I can see Rex being an obvious choice for DLC, especially if Nintendo themselves are choosing who gets in this time, as first party reps with a good amount of relevancy are more likely to take precedence. But after this last Smash direct, his chances are slim to say the least. Sakurai stated during this direct’s reveal of Rex’s mii costume: ‘We decided which fighters to include when we started planning, so we couldn’t add characters from titles like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which was announced after planning had started. I hope this outfit will help you feel like you’re playing as Rex.’ So basically, I think this is an instant death sentence for Rex. Sakurai recognised how popular Rex was, so wanted to make sure the Xenoblade fans knew he wasn’t getting in so they wouldn’t be disappointed further down the line. And yet, I’ve still seen people all over the internet saying that Rex is a ‘guaranteed lock’ and he’s the most likely character n everything. And I don’t wanna kill these people’s hype but the proof is right there in that sentence. I feel like the people who are still predicting and asking for Rex didn’t see that part of the direct, or at least didn’t fully understand what Sakurai was saying. Rex isn’t getting in.

So with this in mind, Rex gets a 1% chance of appearing in DLC. While I’m confident he won’t be one of the 5 announced, the 1% is on the slim offchance we get a second season of DLC, which I don’t see happening either, as this cycle would bring us up to early 2020, which is almost exactly how long Smash 4′s DLC cycle lasted, as the game released 2014 and the last two DLC characters, Corrin and Bayonetta, were added in early 2016. On top of this, I’d say 5 more characters is plausibly our final roster for this game, considering Smash 4 had 7 DLC fighters and three of those were returning veterans. So yeah, I’m really not holding out hope for a season 2 and, in turn, Rex. But for a want score, Rex gets a 70%. Shulk is one of my mains and I love the look of the Xenoblade series, even though I haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. Rex is someone I’d like to see, though there’s another Xenoblade character I would much prefer that I’ll cover in a future post.

Rayman

And here we are, at my most wanted character, Rayman. With Rayman at the top of my want list, I have put a lot more research into him than I would other characters, but I promise I will avoid bias in my final rating. Lessgo.

Rayman is an iconic third party gaming mascot owned by Ubisoft. And bias aside, he has a hell of a lot going for him. His moveset basically writes itself, as he could utilise items and attacks from his various mainline games and, as much as I wouldn’t be too hot on this, the Rabbid spin-off games too. I have no doubt in my mind that Rayman would be a perfect fit for Smash and would blend in well among the other third party mascots in the game, as he has a notable Nintendo history considering the majority of his games have appeared on Nintendo consoles. On top of this, he’s been a fan request for some time. After the infamous ArtsyOmni leak during Smash 4′s development cycle that falsely revealed Rayman would be in the game, he surely would’ve received a huge boost in support that definitely would show up on the ballot. While this is just speculation on my part, I think it’s pretty safe speculation. But would Nintendo and Ubisoft be able to negotiate Rayman for the game? I think the answer is very easily a yes. Nintendo and Ubisoft were already working on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle back in 2015, showing a partnership between the two companies that has continued all the way through Ultimate’s development cycle. As well as this, Nintendo recently lended Ubisoft one of their characters, Fox from Star Fox, to appear in the Switch edition of Starlink: Battle For Atlas. Nintendo lending characters like this isn’t exactly common and I think it’s extremely likely that Ubisoft will return the favour by lending one of their characters to a Nintendo IP. And where better to put him than Smash? As a final lil thing, the Rabbids have been included in Smash Ultimate as spirits, while Rayman himself appeared in Smash 4 as a trophy when he had no other content in the game. So Ubisoft already have a presence in Smash.

As for what’s standing in Rayman’s way, a lot of his hurdles can be very easily worked around. Some people have been citing Rayman’s recent inclusion into Brawlhalla as a reason why he won’t make it into Smash. But Ubisoft bought out the company that makes Brawlhalla, Blue Mammoth Games, making Brawlhalla their property. So of course they’re going to put their own character into their own game. And if Ryu can be in Marvel vs Capcom whilst also joining Smash 4 in DLC, Rayman can likely do the same. And it isn’t as if his inclusion would ‘sabotage’ Brawlhalla, as he likely wouldn’t even be announced until 2019, giving Ubisoft an ample amount of time to build hype for Brawlhalla. But now we know Nintendo are choosing who joins the fight in DLC this time around, is it likely that they’d have chosen Rayman? Honestly, it could go either way. We have no way of knowing if there will even be third party characters in DLC, though my best guess is that there will be, as I think Nintendo is well aware that characters like Rayman would sell extremely well. And like I’ve already stated, Nintendo and Ubisoft are on really good terms and Ubisoft have yet to lend a character to Nintendo in the same way that Nintendo lended Fox. So with this in mind, Rayman could very easily be one of the five characters negotiated.

I promised I’d keep my bias aside for my final rating, but without considering what I want, the amount of evidence for Rayman’s inclusion is compelling. However, nothing is certain and it’s just as likely that Rayman could’ve been skipped over altogether. We have no idea how these negotiations take place or what Nintendo is looking for in bringing new characters to the roster. But taking all of this into consideration, Rayman gets a 70% chance of joining the roster. I know that’s high, but I’m confident in this rating. He’s got everything lined up in his favour, so it all depends on how the chips fall. But as for a want score, Rayman of course gets a 100%. Nothing really matches Rayman in terms of wanted characters for me so here’s hoping he makes the cut.

Thanks so much for reading! As I said, if you’d like me to rate a character, go ahead and drop a suggestion in the comments and I’ll rate them in the next post that should go out within a week or so. I’ll also be logging each character that I rate in a lil spreadsheet that you can check out here to keep track of all the ratings or whatever. Stay hydrated my dudes.

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