Tumgik
#but mostly because of the trait he shares with Sonic- doing things on his own without anyone’s help
peachypede · 10 months
Note
😶🐯🍯🔐 for Pecha and Rawst?
Ask meme is here
Tumblr media
Pecha
Tbh she doesn’t have a lot of control on what her face is doing. It’s a trait she inherited from her dad. When she tries to show an expression, such as smiling, it looks forced even if she is genuinely happy at the moment. She tries to keep a smile on her face most time because she doesn’t want to chase people away.
Often her face blanks without her realizing it. She’ll space out during a conversation and become very stoic faced or bored looking without meaning to. When she’s concentrating hard, her face goes between blank to glare that can kill. So during pokemon battles she either looks ready to murder you or completely unfazed by the battle…works in her favor though since it makes her hard to read.
Rawst
Has the same thing as Pecha and his dad, though he doesn’t try to force expressions. He doesn’t care if people have a hard time reading him or if he seems unfriendly. He believes it’s up to people to not make too harsh of first impressions of him.
He’s extremely blank faced while watching horror movies or playing horror games. His deadpan humor and inability to be phased by even the scariest of jumpscares is what attracts people to his streams and let’s plays. It’s hilarious watching a guy react to a creepy monster by saying “oh you silly little rascal! Come here…”
Tumblr media
Pecha
When she used to have a battle training schedule, her first song on the playlist would be Kick in the Door by Xenia Pax and if her Pokemon hear this song they instantly go into battle mode. (From sweet house pets into battle machines lol)
Nowadays, she needs songs that get her into creating mode. Oresama- Morning Call has a nice snappy feeling to it that helps her focus on her work whether it’s making concept art or actually creating the pieces.
Rawst
He prefers soundtracks over songs with words, especially since he’s mostly trying to get pumped during a stream. Lights, Camera, Action! from Sonic Mania is a nice one to start off the stream. Any royalty free 8-bit music would be nice as well.
For more chill, just chatting streams some soundtracks like Lori M from Night in the Woods has really nice chill vibes to hang out to. (tbh I feel like this also would be kinda Rawst's theme as well. Mellow and chill.)
Tumblr media
Pecha
Has a weakness for sweets but also a very sensitive tummy so if she overindulges, she's in pain town. She loves cakes, pies, cookies...especially home baked goods. Since she was taught by her tita to bake, it's kinda hard to avoid temptation when she knows she can just whip up her own cake or something.
ice-cream though has to take the top. So many flavors! So many toppings to add! Also romantic in a way cause you can share a milkshake with someone all cute diner style~
Rawst
Junk food eater. Eats a lot of candy. Also a freak though so his favorites are probably the extreme sour candies that would make a normal person pucker but with Rawst he has some extra citric powder that he adds to them to make them even more sour. (which if you consider that he ALSO has a sensitive stomach, he is always in pain and feeling like shit because of this)
His all time favorite is the sour gummy worms. He rolls those in the extra citric powder and eats a whole bag. Gremlin man.
Tumblr media
Pecha
Her closet holds a secret...she has a furry suit. It's her own original character called Webby whose a Galvantula. She's got sparkles in her eyes and the main arms connect to a second lower pair of arms , having four arms like a Galvantula does. And yes. Pecha made this herself after watching tons of tutorials. She's remade and redone it for years until it looks really well made. And yes. She goes to convention incognito with it. She just likes furry stuff and thinks they're super cute! All the colors! All the cute mascots!
She doesn't like showing people due to all the stigma. If a friend or lover stumbles onto it, she'll get very embarrassed...
She really wants to make a Ribombee character next, though.
Rawst
He writes songs, poetry, and also draws people he thinks are attractive. All these journals are kept in one of his drawers at his computer desk. He's only lately started sharing some of his music online, but he'll never show off his poetry or drawings to people. They, um...hold his secret feelings for some certain people that he doesn't like to show
Might someday sing a song for his lover but that might also be something he keeps hidden away forever...
5 notes · View notes
spiinsparks · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
SEND A URL (positivity meme!) / @ironbonds​​​​​ /  ACCEPTING !        ↳   SEND ME A URL AND I’LL ANSWER THE FOLLOWING;;
Tumblr media
Opinion on;
Character in general:  team sonic !!! the trio!! the brothers !! the boys !!! gosh they’re all just lovely and play off of one another SO well. they’re best friends and found family all at once and it SHOWS. i’m glad you and i decided to commit to our shared sonic brain-rot when we were both playing frontiers respectively because it’s been SO much fun!! 
How they play them: gonna talk mostly about knuckles and tails here but !!! your knuckles is so fun~ he’s just the perfect balance of fun and Serious Business, as he should be! we don’t get to see him a whole lot on your blog but I genuinely wish we did because he’s a lovely little dude and I want to see more of what makes your knuckles uniquely your own!!
And as for Taaaails~ That’s Sonic’s little brother !! :D he’s mischievous and cunning, but still kind-hearted and fiercely protective of his loved ones! And I love to see the moments when you really dig deep into specific traits of Tails and when those traits come up. IE: his fox-cunning coming out with his inventions and plans, his naivety and childlike wonder when he’s having a good time or just out to have an adventure with his bro, the doubt and insecurity that festers in him when there are big changes in his life like his kitsune heritage or the various events that stem from Forces onwards... I love to see his fierce protectiveness too??? Like, the balance between him being relatively gentle in soul but very much willing to toe the line when he has to because SOMEONE has to, and the thought process he and you have when toying around with all of these little things !! it all comes together so nicely and i love to see it !!!
The Mun:  flout my beloved !!! i love u i love talking w u i think you’re just soooo neat !! :D i love busting into your dms to talk headcanons and music sharing and so on and so forth !! it’s always such a good time !! i’m glad we bumped into each other with our byleths!! 
Do I:
RP with them: yes ! :3 
Want to RP with them: always, of course!!
What is my;
Overall Opinion:
Tumblr media
3 notes · View notes
egg-emperor · 2 years
Note
Honestly I think your connection between Bowser and Zavock as Eggman monsterfucker proof is spot on. I think Eggman would prefer Bowser more though, since they have way more in common. Sure they've got their differences, one's all brute strength and the other's a genius, but they're also both the kind of villains to build giant deadly theme parks in their own image, and have a silly side alongside their more threatening moments. At the end of the day I think the size of their respective egos could clash in such a relationship, though it's always fun to think about how they'd get along.
Thank you, I'm so happy that others can finally see my vision dbkdgknxsbkhdn Eggman really likes those beastly monstrous boys hehe 👀
I definitely think he prefers Bowser, he's known him much longer and has more of an actual relationship beyond just being a lackey that he gets a bit weird with, like I imagine him being with Zavok lol. Bowser is like the real closest he's actually had to a friendship (and judging by TSR's lines, he seems to want to be Zavok's friend too but their interactions like that aren't quite there). Eggman has a long-time consistent interest in powerful monstrous beings and after only admiring them mostly from afar/not getting to know them on a personal level because they can't talk, Bowser was the first that could and I think Eggman could make a few interesting discoveries about himself and what he likes while with him.
I'd say that Zavok and Eggman do have a fair amount in common though, such as when it comes to sharing two defining core traits. They're both strong power types and both egotistical. In Team Sonic Racing especially, Zavok took Eggman's power type place that he'd be classed as again if it weren't for his inclusion, and tons of his in-game dialogue are literally things that Eggman would say, word for word. But they tend to clash very often because of their egos, but I think Eggman takes it and keeps him around because he thinks his power is useful to him and he's hot. That's enough to keep him going after him and seeming to want to keep him around despite everything, he's too down bad shfjbskgnsmgh
But Bowser and Eggman do have more in common overall, both have great strength and ego too but also have crazy creative ideas and a silly side but can be delightfully evil and threatening too. They can entertain and bounce off each other well, they have a closer more genuine bond than Eggman and Zavok as boss and forced lackey, and know how to have fun. Zavok is just serious all the time and I can imagine Eggman wishing he'd be more fun like Bowser. They have a mutual respect they rarely have for others and are like work partners turned friendship when they team up for a shared motive in the Olympics but end up getting close enough to the point they even go on a date- I mean hang out in London. Eggman has even implied that he thinks Bowser has dashing good looks! XD
I like to joke that Eggman only likes Zavok because he's like a Bowser rip off and immediately started crushing on him in the same way because of it and it's really funny that game universe Eggman has seemed so eager to keep going after him, chasing him down like Amy with Sonic. But Bowser was the one that Eggman met first and how well they can get along in their best moments and the useful increase of power he has with him on his side is especially appealing to him over Zavok. They genuinely have a stronger bond that keeps them both being eager to team up multiple times. And Eggman's love of monstrous beings and strong guys combined really makes him his type, so he has a big thing for him and wants to explore the extent of his interest and fascination with him.
Being fascinated with him both for being the first monstrous being he can really talk to, relate to, and get know personally makes them form a strong bond and Eggman eventually finds himself feeling attraction. Especially when seeing his displays of strength with his attraction to strength and power, I imagine then he gets excited and surprises himself when his mind goes to thoughts of intimacy. Then I see them eventually having a casual thing going on where they have fun and keep each other happy, Eggman is certainly a great way for Bowser to keep his mind off Peach and that's how Eggman tries to approach it at first as an excuse for them to start messing around, so he can enjoy experimenting and exploring these feelings.
And yeah they definitely have moments of ego clashes and bickering, it's honestly inevitable when both working and being in a relationship with guys like them. Both have a fire and stubbornness in them and will have arguments and disagreements when wanting to do things their own way. But they can take it from each other in ways many others can't in more ways than one--- couldn't help myself so they're great for each other!Pissing each other off adds to the charm of the dynamic. I can see them getting rough with each other in their disputes because they're both strong enough but it soon turns playful, or they end up frustratedly kissing which eventually calms them both down because they can't stay mad at each other lol
I like Eggman with both Bowser and Zavok, they're both more pairings that allow a lot more of my funnier ideas, they have entertaining dynamics and work too well for Eggman. Plus I can really see them being his type with the evidence. But Eggman x Bowser is the best of the two for sure, they're so fun together and it's always fun to think about what they get up to 💜
16 notes · View notes
6blackfilin9 · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Wake me when I’m whole again
4K notes · View notes
Text
anyway I need to go to bed but I have too much energy so I am channeling it into headcanons. here u go species headcanons for Everyone on the Dream smp with explanations because I’ve put a TON of thought into this. They’re probably like half contradicted by canon but fuck it My City Now.
Dream- A (juvenile) stage of being a god. He, DreamXD, and Drista have become known as “dreamons” but that’s technically a separate species, all spawned from them. He's not really focused on being worshipped in his own right, preferring power in the mortal realm, though he’s not averse to pretending to be his brother (the god worshipped by Church Prime) or his sister (a minor goddess of death worshipped by many hidden cults) if it can help him get power. He’s got pure white skin everywhere except his face (which is pale but human-like), black blood, entirely green eyes, pointed ears, fangs, claws, and digitigrade legs ending in hoof-like claws.
George- A human, the only human on the whole server. Humans are pretty rare, vastly outnumbered by hybrids but outnumbering any other species, and “pure” humans (what we'd consider to be a completely normal appearing human) are all but nonexistent. For example, George has eyes with dark sclera and white irises.
Sapnap- A blaze hybrid. He’s got a few rods surrounding him and his eyes blaze with fire. It’s usually just warm but not hot enough to hurt but if he's agitated or upset it can easily burn hot enough to set things ablaze.
Callahan- A reindeer hybrid. He’s got antlers, reindeer ears, fur around his arms, and hooves.
Awesamdude- A creeper hybrid. He's tauric, with four insect like legs. His skin and is green and mottled and has a texture similar to leaves. His eyes are pitch black. He has a tendency to make hissing sounds when stressed, though he can’t explode like a full blooded creeper.
Alyssa- A mouse hybrid, with large mouse ears and a long tail. This definitely isn’t an in joke for the thousands of hours I spent browsing TVTropes as a child and the “what happened to the mouse” tROPE SHUT UP.
Ponk- A demon hybrid, with pointed ears, slit pupils, a small spaded tail, and small horns.
BadBoyHalo- A full blooded demon, with pointed ears, a tall stature, pitch black skin and hair, fangs, claws, hooves, a long spaded tail, long horns, and small bat like wings. He’s rather self conscious about how intimidating he looks. He's also a lich (with Skeppy as his phylactery) which is why he has pure white eyes (a trait the undead share).
TommyInnit- An absolute mess, genetic wise, since I’m taking Tommy's joke about being born in a lab and running with it. He's mostly angel, and was basically cloned from Phil's DNA (from a feather that fell off his wings that somehow someone got a hold of) but had a bunch of other hybrid and human DNA mixed in to make him somewhat stable enough to actually survive gestation. He has very small, dark wings that are useful for balance and little else, fangs, claws, and pointed ears. His bones are very light, making him fragile but a lot more dexterous. His blood is slightly off a human's, being slightly pinkish. His freckles, wings, blood, and eyes glow slightly and are patterned like the night sky. Technically undead as of his resurrection, and maintains the many injuries of his death permanently (bruises stay and don’t heal but don’t worsen, broken limbs can be moved at unnatural angles, ect.), pale, corpse like skin, and one of his eyes turned pure white.
Tubbo- A ram hybrid, with small curved ram horns, horizontal pupils, ram ears, a tail, and hooves. Nice and simple after the absolute mess that was Tommy.
Fundy- A limited shapeshifter, able to change his species, though he prefers to be in a fox-like form. He inherited this from Sally, who had similar abilities, though with more strength. He's always got certain features he inherited from each parent that he can’t change though- wings, pale skin, and ice-like freckles from Wilbur, and salmon scales coating his wings and cheeks, and ginger-and-white hair from Sally.
Punz- A dragon hybrid, with dark horns, dark sclera and slit pupils, wings just large enough for limited flight, a strong tail, fangs, claws, and blue scales coating his cheeks, wings, tail, arms, and legs. Has a natural inclination to sleep in a pile of his wealth he only holds off on when he feels it’s at risk of being stolen (which, since this is the Dream SMP, is almost constantly).
Purpled- An enderman hybrid, with small horns, pointed ears, purple blood, and ender particles surrounding him. Parts of his arms and legs are covered in leathery, pure black skin.
Wilbur- Half angel, half fucking refrigerator because cc!Wilbur hates us (affectionate). His skin is unnaturally, icy pale, and his blood is an icy blue. His freckles are the colour of ice reflecting. He's got wings from his father, large enough to glide, but they’re pale coloured and slightly transparent. He has fangs claws, and pointy ears. His blood, wings, and eyes glow slightly and are patterned like the night sky. As Ghostbur, he’s got the injuries of his death apparent at all times, though they don’t hinder him or cause him pain, corpse like skin, pure white eyes, and is permanently transparent.
JSchlatt- A ram hybrid. He’s got large ram horns, dark sclera and horizontal pupils, a ram tail, fur around his arms, and hooves.
Skeppy- A construct made to be Bad's phylactery. He's fully made of diamond, and appears as a moving human statue (though entirely made out of diamond), though he has limited shape shifting ability to change his “hair” and “clothes”, though he has to remain the same mass. He has some small red detailing on him out of redstone (which was used partially in his contruction). The egg flipped the red and teal in his colour scheme. Also he's smalllllllllllll.
Eret- Part ghost, due to being descended from Herobrine. She has pure white eyes, pointy ears, and under stress he becomes partially transparent. They tend to hide their nonhuman features (ears under hair or hats and eyes under sunglassses) and are often mistaken for human.
Jack Manifold- Started as a wolf hybrid, with large wolf ears and a tail. After dying, he came back from hell as a hellhound with red and blue “flames” coming from his eyes, ears, and replacing his missing tail he lost in one of his deaths with two made of this fire. The fire is chillingly cold to the touch, and not warm. His eyes are also monocolour, though in heterochromatic red and blue instead of the usual pure white found in undead.
Niki- A moth hybrid, with antennae, monocolour amber eyes, fluffy wings, and more fluff around her neck, wrists, and torso. These and her hair are patterned gold and black, though as of now she’s dyed them all pink. Idk I just feel like moths fit her for some reason.
Quackity- A duck hybrid, with golden wings and webbed hands and feet. He’s also a shapeshifter of sorts, however instead of shifting into different forms he shifts into different beings, from alternate realities that never came to be. These can be used to shift into near identical copies of those around him, to impersonate them, or to shift into alternate versions of people (like Mexican Dream to Dream). These aren’t Quackity, though, and as such they have their own pool of canon lives, and while he has lots of influence over them they can still act autonomously.
Karl Jacobs- An inter dimensional being made of time itself. While his current form is mostly human, he has technicolour rainbow blood, freckles, and patches on his skin, along with clock-shaped pupils that change with the time. His “natural” form is a vaguely humanoid mess of ever shifting colour.
HBomb- I didn’t know what to do with him at first- he was a cow hybrid in my pfp set- but I just think the idea of him being a chill cat hybrid who turns full nyaa whenever he’s in a maid dress to be funny so he’s a cat hybrid now. With dyed-white cat ears and a dyed-white cat tail.
Technoblade- A piglin hybrid primarily, but he’s definitely got some weird traces of other species. He’s got tusks, pink hair, pink pig ears, a pig tail, and hooves, but he’s also got paws from some other animal hybridisation in his blood, and has a tallness that suggests demon blood somewhere down the line. His red eyes aren’t natural, and only occurred after he was sacrificed to be the vessel of the Blood God.
Antfrost- A cat hybrid, with blond and brown fur, a cat tail, paws both on his hands and feet, and cat ears. He’s also got split pupils and blue sclerae (though a different shade to his irises).
Philza- An angel- the creation of a god or goddess to help serve them (Dreamon's would be an example of the angels the Dream's can create, though they’re primarily running wild nowadays.) The creation and servant of one of the gods of death, Kristen, to serve her in the mortal realm. He’s got very large feathered dark wings, pupilless unnaturally bright eyes, pointy ears, fangs, claws, and dark blood the colour of the night sky. His wings, eyes, freckles and blood glow brightly and are patterned like the night sky. Injuries reveal that he's fully inhuman under his skin, appearing to be a void of colour that also glows and is patterned like the night sky. His crows, who are messengers from the afterlife, have this same pattern on their feathers.
Conner- I don’t know much about him tbh but. He’s just a hedgehog hybrid. I mean he’s joked enough about canonically being the kid of Sonic and Elise. He’s got blue hedgehog ears and a tail, and blue spines mixed in with his dark hair.
Captain Puffy- A sheep hybrid, with small curled sheep horns, sheep ears, a fluffy sheep tail, hooves, and hair curly and soft like wool. The split in her hair between brown and white is natural, though she keeps a small section dyed rainbow.
Vikkstar- Another angel, though of a god long gone. His entire body, even his “clothes” (which are made of flesh) glow intensely bright and have the pattern of the night sky.
LazarBeam- A gingerbread hybrid, which I’d say is dumb but we’ve already had a refrigerator hybrid so. I don’t know what else to say here.
Ranboo- Half enderman, half god of some sort. Has small horns, pointy ears, an inhumanly wide mouth with fangs, claws, digitigrade feet ending in hoof-like claws, pure black and white skin, pure black and white hair and freckles on the opposite side of the skin, red and green heterochromatic eyes barely distinguishable from their sclera, and red and green blood. Hmm, I wonder what other character shares similar descriptions... :)
FoolishG- A more matured god than Dream. Appears to be made entirely out of gold, with his hair and freckles appearing like copper. His pure green eyes have a similar texture to emeralds. Also he’s like. Massive. He’s like eleven Skeppy's.
Hannah- A nymph of the forests. Has prehensile vines and flowers flowing in her hair all the way to the ground, and half of her face and one of her arms are entirely made of these prehensile vines and flowers. Makes flowers grow in her step, after being corrupted by the egg they wither around her instead.
Charlie- Slime hybrid. Honestly just kind of got the most impractical parts of being a hybrid, having random sections of skin changed into green slime which drips everywhere and kind of gets in the way. It doesn’t seem to bother him though.
33 notes · View notes
crusherthedoctor · 3 years
Text
Sonic Heroes: Sweet or Shite? - Part 1: SILVER
There are some heroes I like. And there are some heroes I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.
This is a series in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the heroes in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves over the course of time. Two things to keep in mind:
1. These reviews will be focusing mainly on game portrayals. Though alternate media will occasionally be mentioned, it'll be for the sake of adding onto a point if a portrayal is similar enough, or to compare and contrast if a portrayal is different enough.
2. These are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>
Anyhow, for today’s installment, I decided to challenge myself by starting off with a complicated one. Born from the future, and never content to stay put in said future, it's the saviour whose debut came from the most unfortunate game... Silver the Hedgehog.
Tumblr media
The Gist: Once upon a time, in the distant future, there was an idealistic young hedgehog named Silver, gifted with the power of telekinesis for reasons unknown. With his amazing potential, he was truly destined for a wonderful, prosperous li-just kidding, it was shit.
Tumblr media
“All two of us.”
For as long as he knew, the world was forever plagued by Iblis, the terrible Flames of Disaster. Cities stood in ruin, flames stood high, the floor was lava... it was a bitter life to be certain, all thanks to Iblis. Not even defeating the titular creature did much good, since it would simply come back to be a shitty boss fight another day. What was he - and his friend, Blaze, a character we definitely never saw before and definitely didn't have a completely different backstory before - to do?
Trust the first person he sees, of course. Even if they look like they might be related to the same Flames of Disaster that he fights so constantly.
Tumblr media
If he had eyelids, he'd be winking at the camera.
This mysterious fellow, Mephiles the Dark, informed Silver that if he were to wipe out Iblis for real, he would need to take a trip into the past, and eliminate the root of the problem... Sonic the Hedgehog? That was what Mephiles claimed, yes. What was his proof? There was no proof.
That was good enough for Silver.
Tumblr media
Oh look, it's Fleetway Sonic.
After an elaborate series of events, which should sound exciting but really isn't because it was just Silver going “Iblis Trigger grrr” in varying tones of voice, he was finally able to corner the blue hedgehog... twice! And despite having less fighting know-how than the hero who saved the world plenty of times, he effortlessly came close to killing the blue hedgehog... twice!
Tumblr media
This looks like a jobbing for...
Why twice? The first time was halted by Sonic's friend Amy Rose, who Silver had met beforehand after she mistook him for Sonic, an understandable mistake that even the keenest of eyes would be forgiven for making.
Tumblr media
The second time was also interrupted, this time by Shadow the Hedgehog. There's only room for one controversial non-blue male hedgehog in this franchise, sonny boy. Actually, his reasons were more benevolent than that: he wanted to show Silver the truth about what was going on, by time travelling to the incident that gave birth to Iblis. Why was one able to to this, so long as more than one Chaos Emerald was present? No one knew.
That was good enough for Silver.
Tumblr media
“I challenge you to a dumb-off.”
As it turned out, Iblis was one half of a sun god called Solaris, the other half being the aforementioned Mephiles. The Duke of Soleanna wanted to reunite with his late wife by harnessing Solaris' power, which succeeded from a certain point of view since he's dead now too. The resulting blunder split Solaris into two halves. One half was all brawn, with little capacity for intelligence. The other half was Iblis.
Understanding the error of his ways, and after making peace with Sonic, Silver went back to the future to try something different, which consisted of doing the same thing he always did. Luckily for him, the script decided it would work this time, albeit at the cost of Blaze sacrificing herself... Maybe? Sort of? It’s not entirely clear what happened to her, and it’s not like this was the last we ever saw of her.
Tumblr media
~La laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, heading to a better game, la laaaaaa~
But ohhhhh nooooo, turns out THAT didn't solve anything either! In the present, Sonic was killed by Mephiles, after the latter realised he should probably do that already if he wanted to make any progress at all with his plan. This incident led to Iblis being brought into the present, and they fused to become the omnipotent Solaris once more. Such power... such divinity... such devastation...
Actually, he was really easy. The antlion from Underground Zone was harder.
Tumblr media
Manchild robots - 1, god of time - 0.
With their super forms in tow, Silver, Shadow, and the revived Sonic joined forces to defeat Solaris, with Sonic in particular going the extra step in retconning Solaris out of existence entirely. Since time itself reset, meaning Iblis was no longer a memory, Silver's timeline was given a second chance. What was he to look forward to in this new, promising future?
Tumblr media
Shit.
The Design: Let's take a closer look at Silver's appearance, shall we?
Or rather, a certain thing that's wrong with it.
Tumblr media
He's holding up fifteen fingers.
Yes, you all know what I'm pointing to: the hairstyle. Let it be known that I'm very aware of the intention behind this design choice. It's supposed to be based on the Japanese Red Maple Leaf, which holds a lot of relevant symbolism for Silver's character. This is a fine idea in theory, and I can respect the intent and the creativity.
But here's the thing: If it looks like a ganja leaf, people are going to say it looks like a ganja leaf. I know some fans will gnash their teeth at me saying this, but the fact of the matter is that intentions and ideas, no matter how good they may be on paper, don't always translate well into the final product. Unleashed Secret Rings Black Knight Sonic '06 in general is certainly no stranger to showcasing examples of that, and Silver's hairstyle is no exception. There are ways to incorporate symbolism in a character’s design without making them look like meme bait in the process, and no amount of “umm ackshually” will change that, I'm afraid.
That said, there's another reason why I'm staying clean of Silver marijuana: it doesn't work for a hedgehog character. With the other hedgehogs, their hairstyles are simple and get the point across: Sonic's goes without saying, Shadow's is more angular to befit a slightly rougher hero, and Amy's is a cute bob cut of sorts. But Silver? Even without the ganja, you've still got the two tentacles making up the back of his head.
I'd rather not be reminded of hentai quills, thanks.
Tumblr media
“I thought Crusher-san would like it :’(”
I do find it hilarious that they went through numerous designs for Silver, and this was what they chose to go with. Some of his prototype designs may have fared better had any of them been used instead... but we didn't end up with any of those ones. We ended up with this one, therefore I'm judging this one.
But don’t worry, it’s not all bad with Silver...
The Personality: As far as actual character goes, Silver's personality is as straightfoward as most characters in the series, yet it's no less interesting, because it took a while for it to fully evolve to what it currently is. The seeds of his character - a good-natured yet awkward and rather insecure kind of guy, who doesn't fully understand how the present time works - have always been there, but it was often downplayed in earlier titles due to him being hungry for Iblis Trigger blood... or being an arsehole for no reason.
Tumblr media
Although to be fair, everyone in Rivals is an arsehole for no reason.
Eventually though, after the writers gave him a Snickers, these traits got more opportunity to shine. Mostly in side media admittedly, but it's been noted in the games as well. With no Iblis to angst over, he's proven to be a surprisingly bubbly chap, who just wants to know how you're all doing, fellow anthro kids. And whereas his naivety was previously used for intended tragedy to benefit the evil plan of a guy who thought taking the -istoph- out of Mephistopheles would make him inconspicuous, now it's been used for a bunch of low-key contexts that do a much better job at endearing him to the player.
Tumblr media
Finally, something I can relate to.
Hell, he even seems to have learned from the Mephiles incident, as he was quick to make it clear to the next shadowy deep-voiced anthro with demonic eyes he met that he wasn't gonna fall for any of them fibs no more, ya hear?
Tumblr media
“YouTube and Twitter don’t count.”
All in all, it works well enough, in my opinion. His personality does pave the way for some funny and wholesome moments, and since they’re no longer trying to build him up like he’s Shadow 2.0, he's nowhere near as much of a tool as he was before. So I guess you could say... I like it?
Does this mean I can say that I like the character as a whole then, design and '06-induced idiocy aside?
Well, not quite...
The Execution: This is where the complication part comes into play. We know now that I like his personality, not so much his design, but that's only the half of it. It would be more accurate to say that I like his personality... and dislike everything else.
Tumblr media
Aside from that, obviously.
For starters, the creation process for his character and story was summed up with, in their own words, “Think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z”. So he comes off as rather lazy and uninspired. Now I'm not expecting my Sonic characters to be 100% unique, there's always going to be similarities to other franchises no matter what you do, even if subconsciously or by complete coincidence. Taking inspiration in itself is no big deal at all.
But... was that it? Copying a DBZ character to such a blatant extent? Was there no other thought put into it?
Naturally, this ties into an overarching problem: the franchise's mid-00's habit of trying way too hard to be the anthro Dragon Ball Z. Sonic has had DBZ influences since the early days, with the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic, but it didn't assimilate itself into every waking aspect of his universe. It was merely an additional flavor that added to the complete package, in the same way that a Death Star with a moustache didn't mean the franchise was suddenly Star Wars the Hedgehog.
But come the turn of the millenium, nearly every main title in the series ended with Super Sonic and/or Super Shadow saving the day, while everyone else either stood around being useless, or only helping in ways that no one actually cares about. Including the in-universe President apparently, since only Sonic and Shadow were featured in the photo on his desk.
Tumblr media
Amy smiled. “I guess the rest of us can go fuck ourselves, huh?”
This reached its peak with - of course - Sonic '06, with Silver in particular being an obvious result of this then-ongoing trend. And yes, it would be unfair to use him as a scapegoat, considering it was already a problem long before he turned up. But moreso than even Shadow, it's an era that Silver is forever a relic of, for better or for worse.
But it doesn't stop there. Since Silver is considered a mainstay character, his gimmick of being from the future also creates problems of its own, because in order for him to make further appearances, he keeps turning up for little explained reason, and thus he suffers the Deadly Six problem of being shoved into places where he doesn't belong, for fanservice's own sake. Take Sonic Colours DS for example, where he went back in time JUST to check out Eggman's theme park... Okay...?
Tumblr media
On one hand, I’d visit it too, since it's made by Eggman. On the other hand, I’d stay clear of it, since it's made by Eggman.
And when there IS a justification with more weight to it? It's just recycling the '06 routine of trying to avert his ruined future, which isn't much better. The cause may differ depending on the story, but if his future is a permanent shitehole for one reason or another, he might as well cut out the middle man and stay in the present altogether, since that's where his friends are anyway. But they seem intent on not doing that, despite the future schtick being a noose around his neck at this point.
Tumblr media
In hindsight, maybe this was a hint to how the rest of the arc would turn out.
And then there's his dynamic with a certain purple cat... No, not Big. The other one.
Tumblr media
“I’m here, by the way.”
Simply put: I don't like this dynamic. At all. Or rather, I don't like how they keep milking it. Blaze's backstory was radically changed to justify her presence in Silver's future, and it really shows, since she barely even shows up half the time, as if the developers themselves forgot she was in the game. But her backstory has since been restored to her original alternate dimension interpretation, so hanging around with the grey hedgehog is all good now, right?
To be brutally honest, I probably wouldn't care for this dynamic regardless. But I would be more willing to tolerate it, and I'd refrain from groaning every time they're seen together... if they weren't intent on playing it up so much in spite of '06 being wiped out, sometimes with a bit of commentary involving their thoughts and memories, which only succeeds at making things more confusing. If Blaze is around, Silver will be nearby, and if he's not at first, he will be soon enough. This franchise does have a problem in general with restricting who's allowed to interact with who (I personally believe Sonic Heroes may have led to this, or at least it accelerated it), but I'd argue it's at its most insufferable here, with Blaze's potential and her entire world taking a backseat to being the sidekick of Ganja Man.
And you might say “Well, it's part of the franchise now, so you'll just have to accept it”. To which I ask: Have you accepted Two Worlds? Have you accepted Solo Sonica? Have you accepted Sonic's friends not doing much as of late?
Yeah. That's what I thought. “It’s just how it is” doesn’t mean you can’t criticise it.
Tumblr media
Meanwhile, Marine is lucky enough to get so much as a shout out.
So yeah, I have quite an extensive list of grievances involving poor Silver. But... very little of it has to do with him, right? They're all indirect problems that he just so happens to be linked to, as opposed to someone like Chris Thorndyke, who is genuinely a shit character through and through. This is more comparable to Tails being bitchy in Lost World, or Amy being manipulative in Chronicles, or Sonic being a smug dumbass in IDW, or Shadow not wearing a Hawaiian shirt in Boom. Frustrating, regrettable, but not really the character's own fault.
Yet even after all that, there's one last kick in the teeth... How do you fix all this? And how do you fix it when he's since gained a sizable fandom, many of whom like him for these very attributes? If you leave it as it is, you're stuck with this big, awkward mess that everyone pretends to ignore. If you try to do something about it, you'll get complaints about disrespecting the True Silver Spirit, and you’ll get questions about why you didn't create a new character instead... And if you did use a new character for the sake of a clean slate, THEN you'd get complaints about not using Silver.
It's a tough call to be sure, and it's such a shame because like I said, I do appreciate his personality, so I can't say he's bad outright. But with all this... clutter, I can only put him in the average category. So, in he goes.
Crusher Gives Silver a: Thumbs Sideways!
Well, I'm glad this one's out of the way. Putting my thoughts into words with Silver was harder than it should have been. I do slightly regret starting this series off on a rather downer note, but rest assured, it's a lot more positive from this point onwards, since while I have higher praise for some heroes more than others, the hero characters as a whole fare a lot better than the majority of villains not named Eggman.
I guess you could say that I hope to show why Sonic's friends aren't as shitty as the haters would suggest. ;)
36 notes · View notes
ordinaryschmuck · 3 years
Text
Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-4th Place
To anyone who plans on making a reboot of their favorite show in the future, you might want to take notes on this next pick. Because if you ask me, this next series that I'm going to talk about is the best example of how to do a reboot properly.
#4-Ducktales (2017-2021)
The Plot: Scrooge McDuck is the richest duck in the world, who made it big by also being one of the greatest adventurers of all time...ten years ago. Sadly, after an unfortunate accident with the family, Scrooge is forced to live the life of a normal businessman-er-duck. Up until Donald Duck asks Scrooge to watch over his nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. What starts off as a single day of babysitting soon turns into a life of adventure as Scrooge gets back into the adventuring spirit to show his new family what the world really has to offer.
Now I want to make one thing clear: As of the moment of me writing this review, I have seen a total of zero episodes of the original Ducktales. That being said, despite my limited knowledge of the series, I still think it’s fair of me to point out how this is hands down the best reboot as of late (and I’ll explain more as to why that is later). And besides, from what I’ve heard from fans who have watched the original, Ducktales (2017) is a pretty faithful adaptation of the beloved franchise. The reason is that I believe this show remembers the two most important rules of making a reboot.
The first rule of a reboot is to try something new while still being faithful to the source material. Doing something like that is simple as a writer just needs to keep what the fans love and change what they hated. And trust me when I say that the writers of Ducktales (2017) knows how to do just that. For the most part, the show is about a family going on crazy globe-trotting adventures while still learning that family is the best adventure of all, much like the original. As for the characters, most of them keep their fun personalities. Scrooge is still a stingy miser with the heart for adventure, Launchpad is still the lovable idiot who can’t fly a plane, and Donald Duck still remains the one who gets stuck with all the bad luck. Then some characters have their personalities/roles revamped into something that improves upon the original. The best example is Fenton, who is still the wannabe superhero but is now a scientist in this show, wherein the old one was just Scrooge’s accountant. This way, both the hero and the man-DUCK-who’s behind the mask are equally capable of saving the day. There’s also Mrs. Beakley, who was originally a nanny that nagged Scrooge’s ear off for putting the kids in danger. In the reboot, she’s treated more as the anchor of reality to the more oddball characters, who also used to be a kick-butt super spy in her younger years. It is still the same role, but a different interpretation.
Now, some characters receive grand changes to their original personalities. But from what I’ve heard, those changes are made for the better. And there are no characters that need it more than the children. More specifically, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. This show does something that I’m eternally grateful for, and that’s giving each of these three their own distinct personalities and quirks. For years I couldn’t for the life of me tell the triplets apart. They had the same design, the same voice, the same personality, and the only difference people had to go off of are their different colors (which really didn’t do much to help). Here, they have different designs, voices, and now defining character traits for each of them. Huey is the smart and responsible boy scout, Dewey is the annoying attention seeker, and Louie is the best character in the entire show, and I WILL FREAKING FIGHT YOU ON THAT! And let us not forget the most appreciated change: Webby. From what I’ve heard, fans hated the original Webby, as she was nothing more than just the stereotypical girl of the group. Here, she’s given an actual personality and a fun one to boot. Webby is the ecstatic thrill-seeking adventurer who is skilled in combat training (thanks to her grandma) and is (of course) a socially awkward girl who wants to make friends. Like I said, this show took the idea that the fans hated and changed it into something that they’ll love. Which makes sense why the writers mastered this because they themselves are real fans of the show.
It is clear how much the writers are fans of the Ducktales franchise as they filled Ducktales (2017) with many references. And not just references to the original series but also references to the classic comics by Carl Barks and even the NES video game from the 1980s (seriously, this show will make you feel things about the “Moon Theme” you wouldn’t think was possible!). Even the show’s animation seems to be a homage to both the cartoon and comics. Not only do the characters and backgrounds have a more comic book style to them, but the characters also work on a mix of realistic and cartoony logic. And let me just say, it is refreshing to see characters in a Disney show have cartoon logic to them since Wander Over Yonder got canceled. And it’s not just Ducktales that the series reference, but even classic Disney movies (of course) and other shows in the Disney Afternoon lineup. And when it comes to these references, it’s more than just a subtle wink to the fans. The writers actually go out of their way to write a story around these beloved characters, so people who don’t get the joke won’t be one-hundred percent lost. For instance, without giving anything away, the writers found a brilliant way to reintroduce Darkwing Duck in this universe that feels right for this famous character. And if you ask me personally, these are the best ways to handle references for a reboot. Make them work within the story, even if you don’t fully get the joke.
This brings me to the second most important rule of a reboot: Make a quality product even though it is based on something else. Let us pretend that the original never existed. Would Ducktales (2017) still be as good as it is now? Personally, as a person who has never seen the original, I think it is.
This is another show that mixes slice of life episodes with adventure ones, similar to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And just like Friendship is Magic, both are equally interesting because the characters themselves make them so. No matter what situation the Duck Family are in, the audience will care about it because the characters care about it. In fact, I think Ducktales (2017) handles the mix of slice of life and adventure much better than Friendship is Magic. In MLP: FiM, the adventure-based episodes force the characters to stick to their simple personality traits to move the story forward, and character-based ones help them grow. In Ducktales (2017), because the characters regularly go on adventures, they grow as characters no matter the situation. For example, my favorite episode is “The Great Dime Chase” where the main plot is Louie finding Scrooge’s #1 dime after accidentally spending it. While in that same episode, Dewey and Webby try to solve a mystery around the boys’ mom. We get a great lesson about the importance of hard work and a fascinating plot of an overarching mystery within the season, all taking place within the same episode. Both are interesting, neither feels as though it overshadows the other, and the characters develop along the way.
Another thing this show mixes well is comedy and drama. A lot of shows recently tried way too hard to find that perfect mix. Ducktales (2017) is one of the few examples that nails it. The comedy is hilarious, the drama is endearing, and neither feels like it’s prioritized over the other. The show starts off with this mix as well, where others that I’ve talked about seem to start off as purely comedic only to take themselves more seriously later on. That isn’t entirely a bad thing, but I feel as though Ducktales (2017) is the best way to go about the method. That way, fans won’t be complaining about how much “better” the show used to be in its first batch of episodes, much like Star V.S. the Forces of Evil.
Unfortunately, while I recommend this show, it’s not without its fair share of issues. Or rather, issue, as there really is only one problem I have with it. And that problem can be summed up with one name: Dewey Duck. For the most part, I dislike Dewy. Because he’s nothing more than a Ben Schwarts character. No disrespect to Ben Schwarts himself, but lately, it feels as though he only plays the one character from time to time: The egotistical attention seeker slowly and surely learning to be a better person who realizes that not everything is about him. That’s the character he plays in both Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), and it’s the character he plays here. And the thing about these characters is that they’re not as lovable as Ben Schwarts thinks they sound. In fact (and, again, I mean no disrespect to the actor. I’m sure he’s a lovely person in real life), every single one of these characters comes off as kind of annoying rather than as the lovable rapscallions I’m sure they’re meant to be. However, there is one thing worth mentioning about Dewey. While he’s portrayed as annoying when used for comedy, Dewey is surprisingly a compelling character when used for drama. The thing is, he’s rarely used for dramatic moments and is meant as a source of comedy. Hence why I said I disliked him for the most part.
Other than that, there aren’t really that many problems with the show. Well, there are, but they’re mostly nitpicks that the series more than makes up for. Is it weird that the kids are voiced by adults? Yes, but the actors do a great job at being sincere and have great comedic timing than any kid could have. Are there changes to characters that fans might not enjoy? Probably, but I have yet to have seen anyone that has annoyed me as much as Dewey has. Are the villains just evil for the sake of being evil? Yes, but that’s not really a big deal. In fact, a villain doesn’t need a heartbreaking backstory as to why they’ve become so evil. They just need to have a great personality that’s fun to watch, which every villain in the show has (aside from season two’s antagonist who’s basically a Disney surprise villain. And I hate them with a fiery passion). Does it feel as though the show suffers from “too many characters” syndrome? It sometimes does, but each character has such a fun and unique personality that I find it hard to forget most of them.
So really, Ducktales (2017) is the best reboot in recent memory. This is crazy, seeing as how lately it feels as though Disney doesn’t even know how to properly reboot their own movies to save their lives. This is why I feel as though people should take notes on what Ducktales (2017) does if they ever feel like rebooting something they loved as a kid. Because this is more than just a retelling of the same story that people know by heart. This is a fantastic show with even better characters, stories, and tone. Whether you’ve been a fan since the beginning, or a part of the new generation of viewers, odds are you’ll be screaming Whoo-Ooo with every episode.
(Also, a word of warning to those who haven’t watched the show yet: Beware the theme song. Trust me when I say it’ll be stuck in your head until the day you die)
13 notes · View notes
Text
How much do you weigh? what a weirdly personal question
If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? sitting in the shade reading a book
Do you think you can love someone without trusting them? yes but not in a way that will ever be truly fulfilling
What’s your opinion on people who go hunting for sport? i live in a very rural area so i grew up with hunting for sport extremely normalized but once i actually developed and used my critical thinking skills i realized how morally reprehensible it is. literally just begging these people to use their brains.
Do you have a fairly fast or slow internet connection? eh its pretty fast
Have you ever been someplace tropical? florida lmao
Are you sensitive to caffeine? somewhat. i dont really consume it that much
How do you usually get around? driving myself
Have you ever been accused of being too clingy? no bc i’m generally pretty independent unless i reallyyyy like someone
What do you think about Kim Kardashian? neutral
Can you speak any French? je parle un peu français
Favorite yogurt flavor? i’m lactose intolerant so i recently tried dairy free yogurt and i hated it sooo i guess none
How much money do you have in your wallet right now? i dont have any cash in my wallet rn lol
What bottled water brand do you like? deer park or aquafina
Your favorite way to eat chocolate? brownies
How often do you listen to country music? sometimes.
Linkin Park or Avenged Sevenfold? neither
Last surgery you had? my wisdom teeth surgery
Have you ever played guitar? no but i wish i could
Is there someone in your life whose career/life choices you find immoral/unethical? Have you ever told that person your views? Do you find it difficult to support them (emotionally or otherwise) because of their choices? um i dont think so
What trait do you feel you lack that you wish you possessed? a little more confidence
Have you ever considered writing your memoirs? maybe
Do you find it difficult to stay invested in online relationships? i dont have very many online friends anymore but when i had a bunch i loved talking to them
Are you the type of person who pays close attention to the release dates of movies, music, etc., and will, for example, go see a movie or buy an album on the date it is released? If so, when is the last time you did so? only for something i really like.
Do you have any stickers on your laptop? a bunch
Would you rather have a job for which you had to go in early in the morning or one you had to stay late into the evening at? early in the morning so then i have the rest of the day to myself when i get off
Do you use any apps to track your health or medications? i have a workout app but that’s it.
Whose opinions/recommendations do you value most? my mom, sister, and my 2 best friends
If you could’ve been at any historical event, which would you have liked to witness firsthand? probably the women’s suffrage movement or the civil rights movement
Is there something that you really want to do but are afraid of doing? If so, why are you afraid of doing it?i want to tell him how i feel but i’m afraid i’ll ruin the friendship
What is something society “expects” you to do that you don’t want to do and/or don’t plan on doing? wear a tampon i’m sorry but i can’t do it
Have Jehovah's Witnesses ever come to your door? no
Are you well-known by people in your area? eh somewhat
Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? no and i dont want to
What's your favourite type of bird? owls!!
What tv show(s) have you been watching currently? i’m watching loki, hsmtmts, planning to watch s2 of never have i ever, and i started one piece but i haven’t watched in a while
Have you ever dated a smoker? no but that might change😳
Do you share a middle name with any of your siblings? no
Have you ever been a member in a band? No.
Can you cry on command? If so, have you ever used it to your advantage? No.
Do you have separate emails for personal and business? i have my school email and personal email
Have you ever missed a flight? no
Have you ever seen a lunar eclipse? i think so.
Have you ever taken a ride in a convertible? i literally rode in my best friend’s convertible last night lmao
Why did you last need to use a band-aid? i dont remember
What fruit do you eat most often? bananas and clementines
Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? maybe my great uncle?
Has someone ever tried to start an argument with you over Facebook? What happened? no but i’ve been in a few on insta and twitter.
Have you ever had an unusual type of milk (eg. oat, rice, almond)? i don’t straight up drink milk but i love things made with almond milk.
If you could experience life as a Disney princess for a week, which princess would you pick and why? elsa i want ice powers
When you’re at home, do you spend most of your time in your room? sometimes but normally during the day i’m in the living room with my family
If you like to sleep in late, have your parents ever told you off for doing so? No.
Do you find piercings attractive? Yep.
Do you like potato chips? Loooove 'em.
What’s the most stalker-like/creepy thing you’ve ever done? If you don’t think you’ve done anything like that, what’s the most stalker-like thing someone’s done to you? i’ve looked up a few people’s houses on zillow in my day.
Do you think it’s a double standard that a woman can hit a man and expect to get away with it, but if a man hits a woman it’s assault? absolutely, you shouldn’t hit anyone
What’s your favorite old Disney movie and favorite new Disney movie? my top 3 are princess and the frog, tangled, and frozen 2. i also love the little mermaid
Name something “trendy” or popular that you dislike. idrk
“Dirty talk” in the bedroom…love it, like it, don’t care, dislike it, or hate it? it depends on what it is. it should also be mixed with some loving or praise talk imo
What is/are your favorite type(s) of ethnic food, and what’s your favorite food within that type? i LOVE italian food specifically fettuccine alfredo and i also love asian food such as general tso’s, sweet and sour chicken, lo mein, shrimp fried rice, LUMPIA 🤤
How would you describe your relationship with your hair over the years? i’ve always liked my hair color and thickness. i always go back and forth between growing it out long and cutting it short bc i can never choose which i like more also it has lots of red undertones so i’m thinking about dyeing it a deep red
How do you feel about your SO daily/regularly checking up on a couple of his exes on social media? hypothetically it would be a red flag to me. a clear sign they haven’t moved on from the past
Do you prefer your guy to wear cologne or not? a good smelling cologne on a man will quite literally make me bust a nut.
Ladies, how important is it to you that your SO wears/would wear a wedding ring? i’d want them to unless it didnt fit or something
What was the turning point that led you to decide for or against having children? i’m very close with my family so i’ve always loved the idea of having one of my own with my future spouse
Is having your “dream” wedding really that important to have? i definitely have ideas for my wedding and i would want it to go a certain way according to our plan but in the end if things go wrong or plans change it wouldn’t matter as long as i’m marrying the loml.
Do you consider it cheating if your SO goes to a strip club and then doesn’t tell you? i wouldn’t consider it cheating if he was just watching but i would be angry that he hid it from me
How old is too old for trick-or-treating? i dont think it matters unless ur posing a danger to little children
Do you sleep with your arms over or under the covers? depends but mostly under
Do you own any t-shirts of your favorite band? i have nsync and harry styles shirts but thats it
Fries or onion rings? Fries.
True/False: you’ve had an odd dream this week. all the time but most of the time i forget them right after i wake up
Do you find tattoo sleeves attractive? depends
Do you like carving pumpkins? Yeah.
What’s an animal you want to have as a pet but can’t? i think raccoons are adorable but its kindaaaa hard to domesticate them
Have your parents ever caught you drinking? no bc my parents let me drink in the house and i’ve told them abt every time i’ve drank at college
How would you react if your celebrity crush came to your door? i would absolutely piss and shit on myself.
Has your mom/dad ever walked in on you kissing or anything more with someone? no
The person you have a crush on is drunk and goes to kiss you, you know they don’t realize what they’re doing, but do you kiss anyways? i would stop it even if i want to bc i don’t want them to regret anything and i wouldn’t want them to kiss me if they don’t like me bc it would hurt too much.
What would you prefer to get from a guy/girl: flowers, a hand written poem, a picture he drew of you or a nice night out? i would love them all but something abt a guy taking the time to write a poem for me makes me melt
Do you any shirts with any kind of images of food on them? no.
Which holiday is the most fun to decorate for? halloween
What was the first website you had an email account on? gmail
Have you ever written a fanfic? YES AHSHDH.
Tattoos or piercings? tats for sure.
What’s the last gross movie/show/video you saw? the scene where alexei breaks the inmate’s wrist in black widow is SO GROSS i cringe every time
Would you rather live in a huuuge house or a little cozy one? definitely a little cozy one
Do you have a tutor for anything? No.
Who’s the best kisser you know? i’ve only kissed one person.
Has anyone ever threatened you with a knife? No. I'd like it to stay that way.
(If you’re a girl) Has anyone ever called you "shortie" instead of girl? no and i hope they dont
Do you have a deep voice? not really
Do you play games with boys/girls, like 'hard to get’? no thats dumb
Is there a Sonic where you live? yes i’m a whore for sonic
What do you like on your pizza? pepperoni or sausage
1 note · View note
sonicfanj · 4 years
Text
A little while back I made a comment in regard to Sonic’s character not being understood and pointed out that he has the potential to be a “selfish hero”. Not surprisingly I was asked about what I meant so I’m going to tray and explain.
Before beginning though, I should note that I view Sonic as an adventurer first, and not a hero like most of his fans do. This creates completely different expectations out of his character and results in me seeing things very differently from others. For example, I disagree with the notion that Sonic lives to stop Eggman. To me, it’s simply something that happens and we see so much of it because those are the stories of his adventures that we are shown most commonly (I think Eggman has only missed one game that Sonic has been in so that kind of says something).
So, for my explanation I am going to try to stick to as few examples as possible, but I get a little long winded so apologies in advance.
To begin, let’s look at Sonic’s motivation to be a hero. Well, simply put he has none. That may seem a little short-sighted, especially in light of Sonic’s heroics, but the thing is, Sonic does not present himself as wanting to be a hero. If you ask Yuji Naka, Sonic’s favorite thing to do is run, and his running is spoiled if he doesn’t get a full eight hours of sleep. If you consider this Sonic’s constant lazing around makes sense as he’s trying to put himself in a mood to enjoy what he loves best. But for as hard as it seems for Sonic to get a good night’s sleep, which supposedly also makes him irritable, he still loves to adventure. When describing Amy’s character Hoshino has stated that Sonic’s mind is always on the next adventure or challenge. This is important as it tells us that Sonic is not thinking about who to help next. He is thinking about himself. In other words, he is being selfish, or he adventures to enjoy himself and his running, not to help people like most of his fans believe.
Naturally this raises the question of why does Sonic help people. That is a very easy question to answer, but it also reflects a bit on Sonic’s nature and his selfishness some more. Out of the gate, we are told that Sonic has a strong sense of judgement and a big heart. And we know how compassionate Sonic is. In case anyone has forgotten, though he bashed the poor guy in the brain a few times over, Sonic calmed a raging God of Destruction and desired to console it so it could live in peace. It takes a big heart to do that and Sonic has it. But he is also said to have a short temper (though it is rarely demonstrated) and that he can’t stand injustice and dislikes tears. At this point I would hope that a clearer picture of Sonic’s selfishness as a hero is starting to become clear, but as I’m explaining my viewpoint I’ll continue.
Making what will feel like a sudden jump, Sonic helps people on his adventures because seeing or knowing that people are in trouble ruins his adventure for him. The moment he knows people are in trouble he can’t enjoy himself no matter how much sleep he got. His big heart and distaste for injustice spur him into action. He’s acting on his own emotions to bring himself back peace of mind. This is a horribly selfish thing to do, but we see him do it quite a fair bit, sometimes even putting himself before those he is aiming to help. Obviously, I need some examples to back these claims up, so I’ll go ahead and get started with Sonic CD.
Now, a lot of people do not know this, but Sonic did not go to Little Planet to save it. It kind of happens as it stands due again to Sonic’s short temper and reaction to things he dislikes and can’t stand. The whole reason he actually goes if I remember correctly is that he already knew the legends of it and wanted to both see it and see if he could actually time travel using his speed. When he arrived Eggman being there was a total shock to him, and seeing what the good doctor had wrought spurred him into action. In other words, he was there for himself, and saves Little Planet only because his moral compass and own feelings happen to align with what appears to be heroic. But roughly, Eggman ruined his plans and Sonic responded in kind. It’s almost petty his actions at Little Planet if not for how it is painted due to Eggman being the rather destructive villain. But CD is far from the only example.
In Sonic Adventure he gets involved because he is involved by Tails and Eggman. Stopping Chaos 0 is a matter of his evening run being ruined by the clash between Chaos and the Cops. He can’t leave the cops to be slaughtered and jumps in restoring his peace of mind. A selfish action. It isn’t much better with Tails either. With his peace of mind restored we next join Sonic chilling at the pool until Tails appears and ruins his nap. Though not Tails’ intentions, Sonic’s shrug tells us a great deal about how he feels about the situation before going off to make sure the fox is alright. If Tails came first he would not have delayed or even shrugged. He simply would have taken action. He also is later on disparaging of Knuckles, dismissive of Amy when she is trying to ask for help until he actually sees the danger, and gets wrapped up in the thrill of chasing Eggman rather than making sure Tails and Amy get away alright. Most of the game he puts himself first and displays irritation when he is needed to be heroic. It doesn’t really paint him as a hero. He isn’t much better in Sonic Adventure 2 either where he really drives home his preference for doing things his way. Then in Sonic Heroes he only gets involved because it seems like fun. Despite the danger, Sonic puts himself first. It isn’t until Shadow where Sonic is really painted as heroic straight up, but that game takes place through Shadow POV, and in relation to himself Shadow does see Sonic as rather heroic.
In 06 though Sonic goes right back to his selfishness. Yet another seemingly lost detail, even though it is repeated at the end of the game, Sonic goes to Soleanna to see the Sun Festival. It is literally his only reason for being there. If not for Eggman arriving he would have never interacted with Elise and would have been gone the next day. Yet Eggman attacks and Sonic gets involved. And seeing the mess that Elise is Sonic can’t have any peace of mind until she has some and shares a lot of his philosophies with her until she finally stops being mopey and has the strength and resolve to do what she needs to. Then, sure enough, even with the subtle hints that Sonic remembers what happened, he heads right on out once he knows everything is fine, including Elise. He made himself a big part of her life and then leaves because that is who he is and he can enjoy his running again knowing that everything is resolved.
When we get to Unleashed, we see a slightly different side to Sonic’s selfishness as he puts himself before his charge of the game; Chip. When Sonic meets Chip he blames himself for the latter’s memory loss and offers to help him restore it. Yet when he can’t resolve it and is informed of the larger mess at hand by Tails he heads right off to solve the problem. Now yes, he brings Chip along, but he has no basis on which to base Chip regaining his memories in his company. Yet he gladly exposes him to danger while thrill riding on his own adventure, where Chips memory coming back becomes insignificant to him. Chip simply becomes a friend on the adventure and Sonic mostly enjoys himself. Again he is being selfish.
Like 06 before it, Black Knight is a game where Sonic is heavily doing things his own way and for his own enjoyment. Most of that breaks later on when facing Merlina, a friend he has to save as much as her world, and of course the Knight Trials. The Knight Trials are one of the more interesting examples of Sonic’s selfish heroism as he has been tasked with saving the world but will not refuse the child in need. Worse, the Lady of Lake knew Sonic’s abilities when she put the time limit on him and the trials which would assure that Sonic would fail should he deviate at all. But Sonic has a big heart, and he hates tears, and here is this child crying due to the dragon. There is no way Sonic can have the peace of mind to focus on his quest to save the world while this child suffers and chooses the child over the world. Kind of funny that Amy gets chewed out by the fandom for this but Sonic clears his Knight Trials with flying colors for the same thing. But I digress. While it worked out for Sonic here, it could have been disastrous, but in his selfishness, he prioritized his feelings and went against what was requested of him. I may sound heartless here, but when faced with the choice of saving the few or the many most “heroes” seek a way to accomplish both, but Sonic chooses to satisfy his feelings instead. It is a selfish action on his part regardless of the outcome.
Beyond the games though you can also find Sonic being selfish in the OVA where talking him into going to Eggmanland is to stop Tails from worrying. He has no desire to go and outright refuses. It is only when someone he cares about is expressing genuine concern that Sonic is prompted to act. Even then he is visibly irritated by the whole affair the entire time. He had to go against what he desired to do, and it frankly agitates him, which implies a very selfish nature. When he does agree, it is to address something which does bother him, which is anything but heroic.
So, I’ll admit that some of my readings may seem excessively extrapolative, but as I addressed at the beginning of this explanation, I look at Sonic in a different light than most and this paints my view of his character. That Sonic’s selfishness is never really called into question tells me that most people at SEGA also don’t understand it, or as Sonic is supposed to represent everything cool about SEGA it highlighting a negative trait would be seen as unfavorable to say the least. Regardless, Sonic’s selfishness slips in and paints the character in a very unique light, but if you don’t fall for the trap of him being a hero but rather an adventurer who lives for himself first, than it starts to not be a surprise. Or at least, that’s my view on it.
52 notes · View notes
xathia-89 · 5 years
Text
One of Fourteen Million, Six Hundred and Five Ways
This is a commissioned piece by @muggzc who asked me for The Doctor interfering with the Avengers during one of the failed scenarios that Dr Strange saw. 
This is a long piece, but one I am very happy with. Just a reminder that I am open to commissions, and I believe I don’t have anything in the works either. So please feel free to message me to find out what I do! Because not even my blog holds everything. 
Angst warning. Endgame Spoilers. And introducing my OC Darcy.
When he had offered me a chance to go for a trip in his TARDIS after doing a particularly elaborate dress that even Queen Victoria would have been jealous of, I couldn’t yell ‘lunch break’ at my boss and colleague quickly enough before grabbing my bag to get in. This was my third version of the Doctor to work for, but only one of the rare chances that he didn’t have a companion already with him, and when I didn’t have any rush jobs to work on. I worked as a costumer, with a specialisation in restoring clothes. Not that many people these days had the clothes to restore, but my knowledge of Victorian and Georgian styles did mean I could make the clothing accurate. Add in the popularity of period dramas and such; we were rarely out of work to do. The first version I had met spoke with a refined accent found mostly around London, dark brown hair that was usually styled into a quiff, and seemed to have more than a few companions. He was always out and about, demanding everything almost last minute and bringing back things for repairs with burn holes, bullet holes, bloodstains along with the usual rips and tears in fabrics. Then when I met the next incarnation, it blew my mind to learn that actually, he wasn’t anything like what we usually catered to. Then he began to describe my mother and grandmother and how they had been just as talented, and it must have been a family trait when he recognised my surname. The change from suits to a tweed jacket and the bow tie was surprising, but then it wasn’t as though they were the same person. Each incarnation was a new generation was akin to how the Doctor explained it, though it didn’t change how the outfits would come back to me for repairs. My boss and colleague were more than happy to let me deal with the incidents and problems that occurred with sorting out the clothing from the man, as long as there wasn’t a higher paying customer to prioritise since the Doctor had a TARDIS to time travel about with. 
Then the grumpy Scotsman turned up, claiming to be the Doctor. It didn’t help that my first name had escaped his memory, though the bright pink hair I was partial to stuck in his head, and he started pointing and yelling at me the second I was seen from the back of my head. My boss was less than willing to hear him out until he started calling me a ruin and we all began to then ask questions about what work we had done in the past. His companion then appeared, and I would recognise Clara anywhere. 
Not that he appreciated my demands for him to settle his account before we began any more serious work as I took measurements for them both, and then tightened my tape measure around his waist when he began to object. Clara was amused at least, and we got the money we were owed. 
Something had changed, but he wasn’t one to talk about it. He was on his own, Bill was gone, Clara wasn’t there, and I wasn’t sure he wanted to go on an adventure by himself. 
Landing on a military base in the 1970s America wasn’t my idea of an adventure, but the TARDIS had decided it was where we were needed. Quite literally. 
I was tipped out and tripped all sorts of alarms. We were surrounded in seconds, and naturally, the TARDIS fled the scene of the crime. They couldn’t arrest us quickly enough, and then we were marched off to a holding cell, where two somewhat familiar faces were already present. 
“You can join back with your buddies here, while we decide what to do with you all anyway,” the guard chuckled, highly pleased with himself as the door was locked behind us and then our cuffs were taken off. 
I rubbed my wrists, the metal had dug in a little with the overly enthusiastic handling of the men while trying to convince myself that I wasn’t sharing with who I thought I was. There just wasn’t the chance of it being genuinely possible. 
“So we have you two to thank for the alarms going off then?” It was a voice that made so many women swoon, as a character that just oozed power, money and control. It would have panties dropping anywhere he went, but that was his character, not the actor. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“Well we didn’t really get to choose where we were dropped off,” the Doctor wasn’t going to let this slide. I was trying to hide behind my hands, willing to wake up at any moment and stop my brain from exploding. This was more than a crossing of times and space, this was heading for the fantasy realms, and my reality would not allow it to be true. 
“How long before the tesseract is lost to us?” The blond man stepped in, separating the other man from the Doctor, and confirmed what I knew. This was not the universe I knew for sure. 
“I don’t know, the longer we’re here then, the better chances of us being stuck here instead of going back to 2019,” Stark eventually replied, glowering with ferocity at us for the disruption we’d caused. 
“What’s happening in 2019 that’s so important? When is this?” The Doctor liked his questions. They always did as I dared to speak for the first time in an age. 
“Thanos, he happens in 2019,” I whispered, before tilting my head back to stare at the ceiling. “Thanos makes half of the planet just disappear, and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it.” 
Having the attention of three very ‘powerful’ men wasn’t something I was used to. I liked working in the back to avoid the spotlight. Then it was the usual service. 
“Well, we need to get out of this cell anyway. We can’t stop anyone from in here,” the Doctor replied, throwing his arms out as though to command the situation. 
“Great idea, how are we leaving then?” Tony Stark sarcastically invited the Doctor to inspect the door with a flourish of his arm. Not that the Doctor would remember about his sonic screwdriver being back in action anyway. 
“If you give me a minute, then maybe we could be on our way,” this wasn’t going to end any time soon as I threw my hood up to try and hide myself from the scene. “It looks like a fairly simple lock to bust, a little bit of a twist with some wire and we should be free.”
“Only this is S.H.I.E.L.D. we are talking about; nothing would be that simple. We would be triggering an escape alarm at the very least, and possibly inviting for us to all be shot on sight,” Tony scorned. 
“I don’t see you coming up with a better idea,” it was akin to watching two children as I tried to make myself a little more comfortable on the cement bench that was trying to pass as more comfortable than the floor to sit on. I was playing with the toggle of my hoodie, while Steve was watching them with a slightly amused expression on his face. But from my experience and knowledge of the man, then he was also feeling the same level of exasperation that I was as Tony was now trying to bait the Doctor into the trap. 
“Why don’t you two make out if your feelings are mutual?” I finally had enough of trying to tune them out and snapped a little, sharply tugging on my cord and snapping the plastic bead off the end with the force I used. It clattered to the floor before I stood up, and began instantly frisking the Doctor’s interior coat pockets. I held up the sonic screwdriver to him with raised eyebrows. “That should be able to override the security systems, and as much as I know, the 1970s doesn’t really have any quality camera recordings.” 
“I knew I had that,” the Doctor frowned, snatching the sonic back off me and tutting as he turned towards the door. 
It took a few seconds, but I was confident in the screwdriver if not in the Doctor’s abilities that it was all overridden now. 
“Where do we go now?” The Doctor was trying to think out loud, inviting the other men to intervene and hoping that they knew where we were more than we did. 
“I forgot to memorise the map of this place,” Tony laughed. “I knew I should have paid more attention to things,” he was playing antagonist now and agitating the Doctor. And I knew that he wouldn’t just leave things be either. 
I took a deep breath before barging out of the door and taking a sharp right turn. There wasn’t any way to guarantee we were getting far as my mind was already trying to replay the successful storyline over in my head. Tony and Steve would need to get the tesseract away in the briefcase and past Howard Stark and all of the security team. How they had gotten caught was puzzling, but it wasn’t going to be solved by sitting in the cell and listening to Stark and the Doctor argue. A quick glance backwards and I knew I wasn’t on my own at least; Steve must have felt something similar to be going with a complete stranger out of the cell he had been held in. 
It didn’t take too long before the four of us were joined up like some band of misfits, though it was a strange thought for me to possibly be seen as dressed in the weirdest of combinations given our location and timing. The Doctor could pass as an eccentric old man, and Steve and Tony were dressed for the era. Though my mind was dangerously close to exploding at processing where we were. 
“Just who are you two anyway?” Tony wouldn’t let it drop. “And more importantly, why do they all assume the four of us were together before we ended up in that cell?”
“Statistically it’s less likely that they have one group of four people breaking in than two groups of two people, so it follows some common logic to group us all together,” the Doctor rambled off as we waited in a storage room for a chance to ascertain where we were aside from just knowing it was the ‘detention level’. 
“Otherwise known as ‘Hi, I’m the Doctor, and this is my current companion, Darcy’,” I smiled extra brightly over my shoulder at Stark, knowing that the Doctor certainly wasn’t in the mood to introduce us to them. 
“So, how did you get here? And how did you get the alarms tripped to the point we were arrested as well?” Tony was persistent; I had to give him that. 
“The TARDIS decided to tip us out, quite literally in the compound, in front of all of the soldiers, I have no idea why they assumed we would be working with you,” the Doctor wasn’t here to make friends today, apparently, as I hung my head dejectedly. 
“Will you try to play nice?” I asked, tilting my head now back towards the Doctor, with a forced smile on my face. It did seem to get my message across as I began to work my way deeper into the room. People would keep all sorts in storerooms because they didn’t want to part with them, or they were too confidential to risk doing anything but burning. Not that they would handily have a bag marked ‘confidential waste’ for us, that would be far too simple and only happen in the movies. 
The vents may get us a better view; it wasn’t something that tended to be alarmed yet. Even in facilities like S.H.I.E.L.D., there was still a limit to what technology was ongoing. The sound of footsteps meant the boys were silent for once; it was the only peace and quiet I was ever going to get until we got out of here and successfully completed the mission. I had the feeling that the TARDIS had dumped us here as part of the millions of scenarios that Doctor Strange had seen. I wasn’t expecting to need to use my film-watching skills to get us through anything; it was usually the Doctor taking control and making the decisions. We were all holding our breath, anyone could quickly come in here and ruin everything we had done, but we were counting on someone having our back in some deity. Even if it was just to see how far we got before we screwed it up. 
I frisked the Doctor’s pockets again before he could stop me. I knew that coat as well as he did, I’d repaired it that many times, so I knew exactly where his hidden pockets were as I lifted the sonic screwdriver off him. 
“Just what do you think you’re doing with that?” The Doctor was getting exasperated as I began to climb on board of a dusty old desk behind some filing cabinets. 
“Getting into the vents,” I shrugged, shoving the sonic towards the screws, disabling any possibility of the system being hooked up to them already. “And I can’t see anyone else fitting into here so let me go and find out where we are and how to get out of here,” I argued, before pulling myself up into the metal ventilation system. “I would love to swear I am currently not here, and this is definitely a movie thing, but I am currently in a fricking movie!” I muttered to myself before making the decision to try the vent going in the opposite direction from where we had come from the cells. It was all worth a shot anyway. 
Every chance I had to try and pinpoint us, it was all looking the same. I was overseeing desks, or boxes and filing cabinets, there was nothing distinguishable for me to see. I could be going around in squares for all I knew as I was trying to keep any noise I made to a minimum. It was hard to shuffle about quickly without raising suspicion. I heard the occasional mutterings about the venting being noisier than usual, but no one seemed to deem it a necessity to investigate at least. I was starting to feel desperation sink in; this was a top-secret military base, why would they mark anything? It was all for the need to know, and infiltrators were definitely not need to know. 
“They aren’t in the cells,” a crisp voice caught my attention, coming from nearby as I crept slowly forward, panic began to set in. “So do us all a favour, and find them, now,” I caught sight of someone I definitely hadn’t been expecting to see. 
Loki, in that freshly pressed and neatly kept suit. He looked authoritative; no one would want to question him, ideal for him to get onto the base without a thought. I couldn’t see who he had given the order to, a lackey of sorts but we weren’t alone in this, and Loki knew what we were doing. 
I had to just forget about the part where he was a God. 
That smirk, it was swoon-worthy in the cinemas, to know that it wasn’t Tom Hiddlestone playing the part and had locked his sights onto me in the ventilation system, it was terrifying as I was frozen in place. It took him seconds to break through the metal grate; I couldn’t get out of his grasp as I tried to find something to hang onto, anything to hold to stop him carrying me off like I weighed nothing to him. 
“What’s this?” He was holding the sonic screwdriver alight, studying it with intrigue, before he smiled back at me. His eyes were black, they were pitless, and there was no hope in it for me. “Well then, I think you need to come with me,” I had been struck by fear keeping me still, but the thought of being carried off terrified me more. 
All of my struggles did nothing for me. Loki had me hoisted over his shoulder, bound and gagged with that magic of his, and strolling away like this was normal. I knew that Loki was the God of mischief, he was able to impersonate individuals from a glance, and no one would think to question one of the top star generals. Even if he was carrying a woman about in a strange manner. All I could do was not to give up. I kept pounding my wrists into his back, flailing my legs about wildly until I nearly cracked my head on the pavement. 
I couldn’t pin the other man I was facing, but I had a strong feeling that the tesseract was in the briefcase in his hands. The compound around us was intrigued momentarily; then it was almost as though we didn’t exist. Eyes would glass over us, people would walk past, and the three of us were in a one-way mirror. I would have guessed we were invisible, but I was doubtful of anyone having the ability to do that even in the Marvel Universe. But I had two sets of eyes on me, and the sonic screwdriver was in Loki’s possession. 
“Intruder alert! Be on the lookout for three men and one woman who have infiltrated the base and broken from their holding cell! Assume they are armed and extremely dangerous.” 
The speakers all crackled to life and set every personnel on fire. Guns were everywhere, but not one of them was pointed at me. I was already trying to think of what powers were available, and how I could shatter it, but the other man picked me up and passed the briefcase to Loki. The Asgardian God was looking so pleased with himself. I couldn’t let it end like this. Loki with the tesseract would bring about so much destruction; he had already proven that several years previously in bringing the Chitauri army through a portal made by it to New York. 
Then a door bust open behind us with a loud explosion, and Chris, Tony and the Doctor were all in the centre of the chaos. It removed the magic or whatever for long enough for the three of them to lock eyes onto our position, and then the TARDIS captured the attention of the base. 
I didn’t want to think about what S.H.I.E.L.D. could do with the technology of a TARDIS. I knew they were secretly Hydra, hiding out until they could gather enough power to be able to call the likes of Captain America a threat to security and freedom. The possibilities were endless. They would be able to take themselves to whenever to gather all the technology to ensure they won. The thought of that was making my stomach drop through my feet, nevermind if Loki decided he wasn’t satisfied with the sonic screwdriver. 
I wouldn’t stay still, I was fighting the magic binding me together, trying to pull my wrists apart, or my ankles now that Loki had taken the leg flailing of earlier to be something to cease. I was acting out of my terrified imagination. The three of them were trying to figure out where we were until Loki just calmly walked off base without a thought. He wasn’t concerned; it was going according to his plan. He’d even gained some extra shinies, as whatever it was keeping us out of sight was dropped. 
I wanted to scream; I was trying to break the gag. I didn’t know what it was made of, and I didn’t care right now. I needed the Doctor to know that Loki had the tesseract and the sonic. I didn’t want to think about how much power was at his disposal. I saw the TARDIS disappear, and that was when Loki had his interest in that old-looking wooden box. 
“What was that?” He asked his ‘friend’, though it was obvious who was in charge. 
“Ask her, I have no idea,” the man shook his head, gesturing wildly to me before turning to the control panels of the ship that they had commandeered.
The magic disappeared, allowing me to breathe freely, but the demanding pressure of God didn’t mean I could feel easy. 
“Answer me, girl,” Loki’s tone would have frozen Australia during a heatwave. It made me stiffen without a thought. I had been in less intimidating situations with the Daleks, and I would take the thought of the Cyberman trying to make me one of their own instead of being anywhere near Loki. “I said, answer me!” His foot stamped down straight in front of me, making the floor under me vibrate, and my entire mental system was in panic mode. 
I couldn’t even bring myself to look at him. I was ashamed of myself at the moment. I knew what he wanted to know, but I couldn’t even bring myself to think of replying. My mouth was dry and frozen shut, and I was shaking with fear. I focused on the ground, trying to pretend that if I couldn’t see him, then he couldn’t see me. 
“You will answer me when your friends are the ones under my boot, like the tiny ants they are,” Loki sharply replied, spinning around to navigate the strange man to someplace. I was left without the gag but bound up on the floor. It was easier to tilt my hips, and fall onto my side, the pins and needles easing after I was able to straighten my legs and move them a little before rolling onto my back. If either of the men cared, it didn’t show. Not that I was sure why I would think that they would care. There wasn’t much for me to do; I didn’t know where I was or where the Doctor was. I knew the sonic screwdriver was with Loki, and I dreaded to think of the possibility that it would be passed into the hands of Thanos, along with the tesseract. The thought was terrifying, and this wasn’t my timeline or story to persevere with. 
I was sharply hoisted by the back of my jacket, a gag weaving around my mouth the moment we had landed. I was being carried off the ship with no grace, and then I saw the TARDIS. Relief, the smallest of hope in me as I saw the Doctor jump out with a determination in his step I only saw when he knew he had others depending on him. Tony and Steve came out with the same expressions everyone wore after their first trip in the TARDIS, disbelief that it was that size as they both spun around to check that it hadn’t grown in size before spotting Loki with me in hand, and presumably the tesseract in the briefcase in his other hand. 
“I believe you have something of mine!” The Doctor would never let anyone get away with his things. “And I need it back.”
“The girl? I can give her back straight away,” Loki laughed back, thrusting me out, so I was dangling over the edge of the structure. I had no idea where we were, but I was not safe at this height. Hitting the ground from here would kill me, and it wouldn’t be pretty. I would have seconds of terror before a sad end. “Oh? You seem to want for me to keep her alive; she did have this intriguing little gadget in her hand. I had to take that into my possession, of course, it would have been foolish to allow her to keep it when I don’t know what it does, and she won’t tell me.”
“I need her and my screwdriver back,” the Doctor was already several steps ahead of me. “It won’t work for anyone else.” 
“So why did she have it then?” 
The scorn in Loki’s voice was evident before I was carelessly tossed to the other man. 
“Make them talk,” Loki ordered, taking the sonic out of his coat pocket to inspect the device. “I want to know what the box is, as well.” 
“Why are you doing this?” I didn’t know where my voice came from, the gag shattering against all my struggles. 
“Why not?” Loki’s smile was the most terrifying thing in existence. Being in such close quarters to it was only confirming that I had no idea about what fear truly was. This was no ordinary man; he was a God. “Mysterio is twisting all of your friends’ senses. They think you’re hanging off the edge, held by the throat and gasping for every breath, the second it looks like you’re about to pass out, he brings you back just to regain your consciousness before repeating it. I’m sure you’re a smart girl. I could have him do that for real.”
“Why don’t you then?” 
I had no idea where this bravery was coming from. I had no inclination to die, but there had to be a reason why the other man was casting illusions instead of using me as the actual bait. 
“Because I need you to keep them in one place. We are going to learn what this device is, and leave with it and the tesseract, you will be far enough away that they cannot chase us,” Loki’s plan made complete sense. “I will let you all live in exchange for the information; you could stop it right now by telling me.”
“You’re bluffing,” I croaked, trying to keep that tiniest of flames of hope inside of me. “You think that the Doctor will let you just walk away with his screwdriver?” 
“I do, actually. In exchange for your life. You, humans, are so sentimental.”
“He’s not human,” I snapped, glaring at him with everything I had. “He’s a Timelord, and he will not let you get away with this.” 
“I don’t know what a timelord is, nor do I care. I know he will give in to the sentiments of keeping you alive.”
“Please, I will tell you what you need to know, just don’t drop her from there,” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Loki’s expression changed to one of victory, a wide smirk at me as he opened his arms wide in triumph before a cackle began. It was the day the Doctor lost. 
“That is a sonic screwdriver; it can unlock anything electrical, it can tell you anything you want to know about where you are, it can hack into virtually any system. It can deflect most powers and attacks, it can interception teleportations, it can send out its own communications, it can burn or cut most substances, disarm weapons and computers, control atoms and molecules, make a force field for protection, download a person’s consciousness and transfer it to a computer, it can do so much even I don’t know the extent of its abilities. Please, don’t drop Darcy.” 
He sounded so broken; he’d needed to bow down to someone else in possession of his sonic, in lieu of a companion’s life. 
“Only if we are walking away from here with the sonic screwdriver, and the tesseract,” Mysterio finally made a declaration. I could see it was pushing him to keep going with the maintaining of the illusion. Loki had kept me close enough that all I would need is a shove off the building, and I would be plummeting to my death. 
“No, the tesseract-” I forgot that Steve and Tony were with the Doctor. 
“This is not up for negotiation. Are you willing to bet her life over this? Could you do that?” Loki was enjoying himself, basking in the glory of the moment as my tears couldn’t stop falling down my cheeks. 
“Yes, please, don’t hurt her,” the Doctor was desperate, all over me. I had caused this. 
The illusion was dropped, and I had to watch Mysterio and Loki just walk away, my binds still holding me together as the three men dashed back into the TARDIS. There wouldn’t be enough time to stop them, as the stolen vessel began to take off, and threw the blue box out of its intended stopping point. It was on its side and shattered into a million pieces, the Doctor, Steve and Tony all realising the same thing as they picked themselves out of the wreckage. 
Maybe this was one of the scenarios where Thanos wins. 
21 notes · View notes
firebirdtransam68 · 5 years
Text
Are The Names In Anime Originally Japanese Or English?  It All Depends On What You Grew Up With
I am making this post to explain what I have observed from the English-speaking community.
We know many people really like anime, right?  We grew up with shows like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Sonic X, Digimon Adventures, the Transformers Unicron Trilogy, and for much older fans, Voltron, Robotech, Star Blazers, and Battle Of The Planets.  The only thing is, these shows, originally in the Japanese language, were dubbed in English because many marketers didn’t think people in America, Canada, or any other English-speaking country would enjoy a foreign show, even if it had English subtitles.  The only problem is, many anime shows targeted to younger fans (mainly children) were heavily censored and the dialogue was changed to make it more family-friendly.  The upside is, if companies like World Events Productions and 4Kids Entertainment did not dub the shows, we wouldn’t be able to access the original shows with English subtitles, and we can fully understand how Japanese media differ from American, Canadian, or English media.
Anyway, I remember when I was younger watching bits and pieces of Robotech (a mesh of the Super Dimension Fortress Macross trilogy) with my father, who had it on VHS.  Then I remember watching a few episodes and movies of Pokemon a little later after I witnessed Robotech.  I also remember going to a now-defunct video store where Sonic X was playing (before I even knew the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise).  They all shared one thing in common; they were all in the English language.  And as I have seen the shows, I noticed at times the mouths do not match the dialogue; and I never understood why the animation was different from media like Disney, Don Bluth, or the Loony Tunes.
I did not know what anime really is until I was in middle school and high school.  I didn’t even understand the ‘fetish’ of such design.  That is, until I witnessed a few girls watching the original Sailor Moon anime in English subtitles.  As I viewed a few scenes, I noticed the characters’ mouths matched the language being spoken; and the tone was more serious and less silly like most Western cartoon shows.  Not to mention, most characters look more realistic, such as having five fingers instead of four.
And then I got curious with original Japanese anime shows (back in the olden days, anime was called Japanimation, and later was respectfully called anime), and I came across a mecha show called Beast King Golion (the original show for Voltron: Defender Of The Universe).  I watched a few episodes with English subtitles, and I noticed how dark it was compared to American children’s shows (they show blood, death, real-life situations that adults can understand, and they swear too, usually saying words like “hell,” “damn,” “crap,” “bastard,” “bitch,” and the occasional “s**t”).  Then I saw Voltron, and I noticed how much the dub changed the whole plot of the anime; violence was toned down, hardly any blood on screen, no swear words, somewhat poor voice acting with a few exceptions, and even the characters’ names were different.  The only good qualities I see in Voltron was, of course, the name of the titular mech, and the kickass soundtrack of the 1980′s.
Later, as I look up different anime clips with English subtitles, I wondered if the characters speak English in the original version; and sure enough, there were clips that showed just that (it was awesome, funny, and bizarre; or even both or all three at the same time).  What took me by surprise is that there was a Sonic X clip where Sonic occasionally throws in English in the original language.  I didn’t even KNOW there was a Sonic The Hedgehog anime, and that threw me off in a good way.  I started watching a few episodes with English subtitles, and then compared them to the English dubbed episodes; the original is the winner!  And that was how I became a Sonic The Hedgehog fan, along with the Shadow The Hedgehog (2005) and the Sonic ‘06 games.
And then, interestingly, I discovered Pocket Monsters (the original Pokemon series) when I was browsing for more anime.  I noticed how the main character, Ash Ketchum, had a different name, Satoshi, but they were the same character; they just happened to have different names in different languages.  I was used to the name Ash, but I gradually started to like the name Satoshi even more, because it is the original show in its original language.
I have been a fan of Transformers ever since I watched the live action films by Michael Bay.  It isn’t until The Transformers (1984-1987) and The Transformers: The Movie (1986) in which I started to like the Generation One (G1) Transformers because they originated in the 1980′s (which I really like, even though I wasn’t existent yet back in the day).  I have many characters I like; my favorite Autobot is Ironhide, who was a black truck in the 2007 live action film, and a red van in the G1 version.  Both of these incarnations share similar traits; Ironhide is just an awesome robot, he is trigger-happy (especially in the live action film), has a deep and gruff voice, is funny at times, is stubborn on a few things, and simply makes me smile; and in the live-action film’s case, my father owns a truck, and one of my favorite colors is black (just like KITT from the 1982 show, Knight Rider).  I was disheartened by his death by the traitorous Sentinel Prime in Dark Of The Moon (2011), and at the hands of Megatron in the 1986 movie.  And my favorite Decepticon is Starscream; who doesn’t love a backstabbing fighter jet anyways?
Now, I am sure you are probably asking, “what does this have to do with anime?”  Well, I had the realization many months ago that Transformers Armada, Energon, and Cybertron (which all make up the Unicron Trilogy) were all anime series; so I looked each of them up in AnimeNewsNetwork, starting with Armada.  (I wanted to check out the shows because I heard from many fans how this incarnation of Starscream subverts the traitorous role, and how he was the most likeable Decepticon in the whole series)  The site shows the Japanese cast first, since it is the original language, and I was happy to see that Ironhide was there, as well.  But, when I looked at the English cast, I couldn’t see the name anywhere.  Interestingly, the Japanese credits called Optimus Prime Convoy, so maybe in Armada, this particular Autobot was not called Ironhide.  And sure enough, when I started watching the show in English subtitles (the original is called Micron Legend), I was mostly right.  What took me by surprise is that this Ironhide was not an old Autobot like many traditional Ironhides from the G1 and the Bayformers films, but a young Decepticon missile tank.  Starscream is not the only Transformer to subvert the original roles of past incarnations.  Apparently, this is the only Transformers continuation where Ironhide is a Decepticon.  However, he shared many traits with his G1 counterpart as well; he is tough like how he should be, is funny (and surprisingly cute, not very many Ironhides is that lovable like this one), is stubborn some of the times, has a deep gruff voice, is trigger-happy (especially if you piss him off or cross Megatron in front of him), and instantly became a likable Transformer because of those traits; and he had probably the saddest death in the whole Unicron trilogy when I started watching Energon (originally called Superlink).  I was disappointed when Megatron (now called Galvatron) put his abandoned spark into a new, and unattractive, body, and called him Irontread (didn’t stop me from watching the whole anime series because as I watched it futher, it shared many similarities with The Transformers: The Movie, particularly Unicron’s design, and the green helicopter we know as Springer (Japan calls him Sprung; not sure why...); the only thing missing in Superlink is “The Touch”).  Next to Starscream, Ironhide is my favorite Transformer in the whole Unicron Trilogy.  And what was his English dubbed name in Armada?  Demolishor.
Ever since I watched these shows, I started to like them so much, maybe even more so than G1; probably because the Transformers had many human traits (for instance, they grunt and groan in pain more times than G1; oh and some of them actually cry, mainly younger Transformers like Ironhide in Micron Legend and Wing Dagger in Superlink), and was the first time I see them with teeth and different colored optics, instead of the traditional blue and red for the Autobots and Decepticons, respectively.
I notice many Trans-fans know many characters in the Unicron Trilogy by their English names because that was what they grew up with, or were used to seeing.  And whenever someone points out the original names, they would interject, saying something like “its X, not Y!”  (For example, “it’s Jetfire, not Skyfire!”)  However, there are people like me who will point out what the original names are without trying to denigrate mainstream fans.  Then again, I, too, get a little frustrated whenever a fan doesn’t call a character by their original name.  But, if all else fails, I just let them call a character whatever they want to call them, because I cannot change their minds if they are absolutely certain of what the character’s name is, even if it is not their original name.
Then again, even the Japanese dub of the original Transformers shows and movies changed the names of certain characters because they believed it was cooler, easier to pronounce, or they didn’t like the name for some reason.  For example, Optimus Prime was called Convoy, Sideswipe was called Lambor, Bumblebee was called Bumble, Devastator was called Devastor, Shockwave was called Lazerwave, Lazerbeak was called Condor, and Springer was called Sprung.  (And Autobots and Decepticons were called Cybertrons and Destrons, respectively, and the planet Cybertron was called Seibertron.)  In Micron Legend and Superlink, such names were the characters’ original names in the show.
Here are some characters in Micron Legend with their original and dubbed names (the rest not listed kept their names):
- Convoy = Optimus Prime
- Ratchet = Red Alert
- Hot Rod = Hot Shot
- Devastator = Scavenger
- Grap (possibly Grapple?) = Smokescreen/Hoist
- Ironhide = Demolishor
- Sandstorm = Cyclonus
- Silverbolt = Blurr (who is nothing like G1 Blurr at all)
- Doubleface = Sideways
- Wheelie = High Wire
- Bank = Grindor
- Arcee = Sureshock
- Bumble(bee) = Perceptor
- Shockwave = Tidal Wave
- Rampage = Wheeljack
- Stepper = Sideswipe
- Scourge = Nemesis Prime (Scourge’s name was not mentioned in Micron Legend, but that is what was confirmed in AnimeNewsNetwork and other anime sites)
- Megatron (Super Mode) = Galvatron
- Grid = Swindle
- Search = Blackout
- Barrel = Leader-1
- Prime = Sparkplug
- Alexa = Alexis
- Jim = Fred
- Amphitrite = not even given a name!
Here are the characters in Superlink, along with a few characters from Micron Legend (Armada):
- Grand Convoy = Optimus Prime
- Skyfire = Jetfire (I don’t know what happened to Jetfire and Hot Rod from Micron Legend; maybe they were reformatted without further explanation, replaced with newer characters, or the creators fixed Jetfire’s name to Skyfire and Hot Rod was so damaged that he had to be reformatted and was called Hot Shot, or according to some sites, matured into Hot Shot)
- Inferno V = Roadblock
- Roadbuster = Ironhide (who looked and acted nothing like the Ironhide I am so familiar with; is very unlikeable, compared to Roadbuster, who IS more likeable; and it is quite amusing to see two Ironhides fighting each other in Episode 10, with the one speaking English and the one speaking Japanese; there must be a crack fic about this somewhere...)
- Rodimus Convoy = Rodimus Prime (he was called Rodimus Convoy in the Japanese dub of G1)
- Red Alert = Prowl
- Airglide = Skyblast
- Blastarm = Strongarm
- Ariel = Arcee
- Springer = Bulkhead
- Overdrive = Cliffjumper
- Wheeljack = Downshift
- Galvatron (before recoloration) = Megatron (in Superlink, he explicitly said, “call me Galvatron-sama,” and he looked like his G1 counterpart as well)
- Nightscream = Starscream (since Starscream was killed by Unicron in Micron Legend after he used up all his energy from his spark, which is presumed destroyed.  Yeah, sadly, Starscream never came back in Superlink; although Nightscream looks a lot like G1 Starscream even more than Armada Starscream)
- Mega-Zarak = Scorponok (G1 Scorponok’s Japanese dub name was Mega-Zarak; not sure why the creators called him that, though...)
- Sandstorm/Snowstorm = Cyclonus/Snow Cat
- Ironhide/Irontread = Demolishor/still Demolishor (what, no cooler name like Devastator, Basher, Groundcrusher or Destructor for his new body?)
- Shockwave/Shockfleet = Tidal Wave/Mirage
- Lazerwave = the real Shockwave (in Energon, he is called Shockblast, which I think is silly, so I will call him Lazerwave for Superlink’s sake)
- Buildron = Constructicon Maximus (note that Buildron is the Japanese dub name for Constructicon in G1)
- Bruticus = Bruticus Maximus
- Superion = Superion Maximus
- Superion’s brother = Dauntless Maximus (I will call him Dauntless)
- Alexa = Alexis
I have not seen Galaxy Force as often as Micron Legend and Superlink, but I will list a few characters that I can remember with the sub and dub names respectively:
- Galaxy Convoy = Optimus Prime
- Dreadrock = Jetfire
- Guardshell = Landmine
- Demolishor = Mudflap
- Sonic Bomber = Wing Saber
- First Aid = Red Alert
- Nitro Convoy (male) = Override (female)
- Exillion = Hot Shot
- Chromia = Thunderblast (yes, Chromia, usually an Autobot’s name, is a Decepticon in Galaxy Force)
- Noisemaze = Sideways
- Metroplex = Megalo Convoy (I don’t really know his name; that is what I got from some sources when I was trying to find out what this Transformer’s name was)
Anyways, since I saw the original versions, it can be really difficult for me to refer them to the English dubbed names so many fans can understand what I am saying.  I am sure others feel the same way as well.
Well, that is all I will be saying so far.  I will post more blogs, pictures, and memes when I have the time.
This is FirebirdTransAm68 signing out.
5 notes · View notes
chronoscasuals · 6 years
Text
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Cauldron review (part 5: Experimental expansion)
Welcome all to chronos Casuals. I’m chronosMysty and today I’ll review the Experimental expansion (that’s the name, it’s not ‘Experimental’). I forgot to give my review on the base Cauldron, so here it is: highly recommended for those that like SotM and want more.
Additionally, here are the links to buy the relevant expansions, no I am not sponsored: Experimental:https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/175879/The-Cauldron--Experimental-expansion-BUNDLE Promo Pack 1: https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/170568/The-Cauldron--Promo-Pack-1 Promo Pack 2: https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/203550/The-Cauldron--Promo-Pack-2
The links might be a little weird but each of the things that look like addresses should lead you to the correct location. I’ll edit the previous reviews to have these as well.
Anyway, let’s start with Cricket
Tumblr media
Cricket is a damage/support character. She has a lot of one-shots and powers that can do damage, but she also has a fair amount of deck and card manipulation. She also has quite a few ways to mitigate or redirect villain damage. Unlike most cauldron heroes, she doesn’t really have a deck-specific gimmick, just a bunch of rather unique cards and a decent grab-bag of abilities, although damage and support stick out as much more common themes. Cricket is quite fun.
Character cards:
Tumblr media
Base: This gives cricket more of a Sponge role, giving the heroes enough time to set up and is very helpful. First response: Cricket has a lot of cards in her deck that provide powers and this lets you tack on an extra 2 sonic damage total to them. This is very helpful with Sonic Amplifier, which builds up cards and damage with sonic damage dealt. Renegade: this one is a lot of fun. For any other hero with card draw, this would be a good power, but combined with Cricket’s penchant for revealing cards from decks, this power can be amazing!
Titan
Tumblr media
Titan is a rather strange hero. He’s quite a tank, but most of his tankiness (and most of his deck’s power in general) stems from 1 card in his deck called Titanform. Each time a target other than him deals him damage, he gets 1 DR until his next turn. Also, He can destroy Titanform to increase one strike of his damage by 2, but I find that very rarely needed. While he does have 4 copies of Molten veins to help him out, his reliance on a 1-of in his deck makes him a bit suspect and means you might have to go a few turns without Titanform. that being said, titanform and Stubborn Goliath is plain silly, making him a wonderful Sponge when it happens.
Character cards:
Tumblr media
Base: A 2 damage option is always nice. MSS: Titan has a lot of Ongoings, so being able to set up while looking for Titanform faster is always a bonus. 2199: Basically the same idea as above of speeding up the deck but only while Titanform isn’t out. That restriction is fine because once you have Titanform out, you generally don’t need much else. The power can still be semi-useful if multiple high damage attacks are going to come at you, but it’s mostly a “use this until you get Titanform and then ignore it” kind of power.
Cypher
Tumblr media
Cypher is a support character through and through, existing only to enhance his teammates. His deck revolves around five Augments and further improving Augmented heroes in a variety of ways, generally be letting them deal damage, use powers, regain health, or even temporary immunity to damage. Despite only having five Augments, he has a lot of cards to help him find Augments. Cypher is, in my opinion, an extremely OP character, but sometimes you need that to balance out a weak team or to fight against a strong villain.
Character cards:
Tumblr media
Base: Essentially there to round out the hole left from his other Augments (which add damage dealt, reduce damage taken, heal, add play, and add power), this power adds a draw to an augmented hero, completing the full support ensemble. Very powerful. First Response: Eh? I will rarely ever say a damage option is bad, especially since this one can go up to 5 energy damage, but sometimes it’s best to keep a support character to the support role. Swarming Protocol: This makes a lot of the “augmented hero” and “destroy any number of augment” cards a lot better, spamming out otherwise nearly indestructible Augments faster and more consistently. that being said, I find it to be less powerful than I hoped but still more powerful than you might first think. It’s kind of weird.
Vector
Tumblr media
Vector is a strange fight. he starts off with 40 of his 55 and as a regular “beat this guy down”, except that he plays an extra card each time he takes damage. You might be able to beat him down really fast with high-powered strikes, and if you do that without a certain card popping up, you beat him in one phase. Just one problem: if the card Supervirus pops up, the game gets two more phases, of which you have just entered the first. Now you have to keep Vector alive but not so alive that he regains up to full and escapes. Meanwhile, at the start of his turn, he’ll deal each hero target 1 toxic damage and regain HP. Your mission is to get Virus cards from his trash under supervirus (which can only happen once per round and you need H+2 cards, so strap in for a long battle). After successfully doing so, Vector will become a desperate assassin and gain 1 DR for each villain target in play (note that he is a villain target, meaning he always has at least 1 DR) and now reliably only plays 2 cards per turn. Vector is fairly difficult, given how much damage you can deal, but if you take time to set up, he can be quite manageable.
Swarm Eater
Tumblr media
Swarm eater is very strange among villains in that his primary concern isn’t dealing with the heroes. Instead, his deck contains nanomutants that make their concern the heroes and swarm eater tries to eat his own nanomutants and environment targets to gain the nanomutant’s absorb texts and HP regen from the environment and to then go after the hero targets if they’re weak or there isn’t anything else around. That being said, don’t let him build up too much, or he will utterly destroy the heroes. Part of the battle is letting him damage the nanomutants and environment target but getting the finishing blow. Do that, and this fight should be significantly easier.
Swarm Eater: Hivemind
Tumblr media
No longer using Traits, this version of swarm eater turns swarm eater into a sort of Cypher for nanomutants, augmenting nanomutants with other nanomutants. He no longer attempt to cannibalize his nanomutants, with all villain damage that would be dealt to other villains being redirected to heroes. Overall, a different kind of challenge, but I think it’s kind of boring and loses Swarm eater’s novelty.
Jade/Oriphel
Tumblr media
That’s right, a villain card that changes its name (and some cards’ functionality) based on the current side of the character card, although they do share the same HP score. Jade is focused on “summoning” Oriphel as quickly as possible, playing extra cards as relics enter, which can happen naturally or as the result of a Guardian’s destruction. Additionally, the Relics try to speed up Jade’s transformation into Oriphel (which occur via two one-shots), a high-damaging villain with 1 damage resistance but can be flipped back into Jade by destroying two of his Relics. Overall, I find her to be a rather difficult villain but a very interesting one to fight. The Guardians are very powerful and she starts with H-2 of them, which indirectly helps her transform into Oriphel sooner as well.
The Cybersphere
Tumblr media
One of the more neutral environments, the cybersphere is generally equally hostile to heroes and villains without having too much AOE. A wide variety of Grid Viruses with different methods of dealing damage have invaded the Cybersphere and even threaten to crash the system, but the environment makes up for this with the Hologame Arena, a minigame in which the heroes can destroy environment targets to draw cards in exchange for accelerated environment plays. If I don’t know what Cauldron environment I want to play, I’ll generally default to this one.
Overall, Experimental has some nice variety of decks and I recommend it to anyone who likes The Cauldron. That’s all I have for you today. I’ll see you all next time, and remember, keep it casual!
0 notes
theseventhhex · 6 years
Text
Nation of Language Interview
Nation of Language
Photo by Marina Labarthe del Solar
Nation of Language is a band from Brooklyn that was formed by Ian Richard Devaney after rediscovering the post punk and new wave bands that had soundtracked his early childhood. Devaney’s inventive songwriting, imperious vocals, and dynamic charisma resonates infectiously throughout the band’s latest batch of single releases. The band enjoys doing their own visual design and video production, and printing shirts and patches in a style that is in keeping with their love of unrefined simplicity. All the while, Nation of Language offers an exceptional and pulsating performative stance as they constantly look for opportunities to get back out on the road… We talk to Ian Delaney about improvisation, breaking out of normal listening habits and helpful advice...
TSH: How would you summarise your personal writing style when it comes to penning lyrics?
Ian: A lot of my lyrics have to do with looking at our past for answers as to why we are where we are. I like looking at relationships to people and places, and how what may have meant so much to you at one point can be completely gone from your present life. I get a lot of satisfaction from dwelling on this kind of existential agony that the past is dead and gone and you’re never going to relive any of those moments you cherished or wish you could try a different way.
TSH: What’s the band dynamic like when new music is coming together?
Ian: It’s always really exciting when you feel like a song is ready for everyone to learn and practice together. Watching a song go from being contained within the computer to living in the real world with everyone playing together is extremely satisfying.
TSH: Which songwriters in recent times would you say have impacted you the most?
Ian: James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and John Dwyer of Oh Sees have impacted me a lot because they have these long and creative careers that I find very inspiring. It really feels like they know exactly what they’re doing and that makes me want to strive to create on their level. The National make me feel the same way.
TSH: When new music is coming together, do you embrace the improvisation and trial and error factor?
Ian: Improvisation is a big factor in writing the music. I often write by creating a synth line or a drum beat that repeats for a really long time and trying different bass or vocal ideas over it for long stretches. After doing that for a while and throwing out a ton of ideas, I can piece together something that really excites me. I got that idea from a Bruce Springsteen documentary actually - that was how he and Clarence Clemons developed the saxophone solo at the end of the song Jungleland.
TSH: What sort of motivations do you draw on to pen a track like ‘On Division St’?
Ian: I knew I wanted to centre the song around the gallop rhythm, which to me is one of the greatest and most danceable patterns but is kind of underused. The verses are meant to be very plainspoken and sparse - just thinking of moments from your life, but then you start to reflect on why things turned out the way they did. The entrance of the very loud, echo-soaked synth is meant to give this sensation of spinning and getting lost in these confusing questions about your memories.
TSH: Furthermore, what were your aims instrumentation wise as ‘Indignities’ was being formed?
Ian: ‘Indignities’ is about people who are unwilling to adapt to changing times and who see every new evolution of society as a kind of outrage that makes them more and more bitter. I wanted the beat to be pounding and repetitive, almost like you’re beating a wall with your fists. As the song goes on it gets increasingly trance-like… the anger has piled on itself for so long that it gets dizzy and feverish and kind of loses touch with reality.
TSH: How do you get around the moments of feeling restricted at times?
Ian: In moments like this I like to turn to music that isn’t at all related to the music I’m making - classical music especially. Breaking out of my normal listening habits can really help me see things differently.
TSH: When the band performs live, which aspects do your bear in mind mostly?
Ian: When we’re performing live I mostly try to let myself get lost in the songs and just have a good time. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing in regards to their instrument, so it’s really just a matter of having fun with it.
TSH: Does being immersed within music allow you to unshackle yourself from stress and anxiety hurdles?
Ian: Absolutely. Whether I’m on stage performing, or just in the audience at a show, shouting and dancing around always lets me cut myself loose from stress. One of the reasons I love being on tour so much is that I get that satisfaction almost every night. Even if the day has been really hard, I know that when the show starts I can yell all of my anxiety away.
TSH: How vital can it be when forming new music to step outside of your comfort zone to allow for new perspectives?
Ian: It’s crucial, and really how this project started in the first place. I had been writing guitar music for so long that I needed a change, so I started writing on keyboards instead, which I hadn’t done in years and it made me kind of nervous. Escaping the routines you develop for yourself when writing is the best way to keep things exciting.
TSH: When you overlook a band like Beirut which attributes and traits do you mostly admire?
Ian: There is so much I admire about Beirut! From his voice, to the creativity of his lyrics, to the way he has crafted such an interesting and well-thought-out sound. Listening to Beirut is really an immersive experience because he has built this sonic world for you to live in. I strive to create a similarly immersive effect with my own music.
TSH: As a band, what do you bond over mostly other than music?
Ian: Everything really - we’ve all known each other for so long we have years of shared experiences.
TSH: Also, are there certain counterpoints to music that you turn to - such as movies, books, TV…
Ian: I try to turn to all of those mediums when I need to feel inspired. I think it can be really helpful when trying to be creative to surround yourself with as many different art forms as possible.
TSH: Finally, what’s the best advice that you’ve been given in recent times?
Ian: To not wait for permission to move forward. When the band first started, I think part of me was waiting for someone to come along and tell me I was good enough to make better-sounding recordings or good enough to go on tour. When Aidan joined the band, she didn’t have that mental block - she wanted to tour, and so she went ahead and booked tours. That’s been hugely inspirational for me.
Nation of Language - “I've Thought About Chicago”
On Division St - Single
0 notes
crusherthedoctor · 4 years
Text
Why Jim Carrey’s Robotnik is The Fuckin’ Man™
Yep, the movie is still on my mind, and I'd say I love it even more with each passing day. Partly because it came as much relief during a time when IDW Sonic is continuing to aggravate me with nearly everything it does with its story and characters, but mostly because I just really enjoy it on its own merits (and unlike some people, I don't need to add “it's no masterpiece...” to every sentence as if I'm secretly ashamed about liking a Sonic the Hedgehog film). While the movie's portrayal of our old mate Robotnik is far from the only reason for why I love the film, he's obviously a huge factor all the same, so I felt like listing a few reasons for why - already - he's one of my favourite incarnations of the doctor yet.
A lot of it can be boiled down to how accurate he is to Eggman's character despite the face value differences, but to elaborate that little bit more:
- He's every bit as physical as Eggman is in the games. It would have been easy for Robotnik to be reduced to a Non-Action Big Bad in a live action role, given how often that tends to happen with similar villains in similar live action installments of similar franchises... But instead, Robotnik actually lives up to his character's habits and takes a very active role in his pursuits, culminating with him facing the hedgehog personally, and putting up a good fight in the process. Compare this to the supposedly more threatening SatAM Robotnik, who spent most of his time twiddling his thumbs and letting Snively do all the work.
- Also like game Eggman, he's stronger than he looks, and he's equally capable of handling himself in a fight. A much larger guy who Sonic had notable trouble with is thrown out a window like it's nothing by Robotnik, and despite getting caught off guard by Tom's attack from behind, he was quick to turn the tables enough for their brief fistfight to be considered a stalemate. And let's not get into whatever it was he apparently did to that school bully...
- While he's every bit the glorious ham you'd expect him to be, his witty remarks can be downright morbid at times. The first thing he does when he sees Sonic's seemingly dead body? Make a crack about PETA animal testing. Absolute legend.
- Not only is he funny and menacing in equal measures, but both sides of his personality seem to be working at the same time in a lot of his scenes, going from one to the other then back again in a matter of seconds. This makes him come off as unpredictable, which definitely adds to the tension involving him.
- The government is clearly terrified of him, treating the mere idea of hiring his services for the blackout investigation as though he's a Horseman of the Apocalypse, and being incredibly quick to give his existence the '06 retcon treatment when it looks like he's gone for good (spoiler: he won't be forgotten for long). But at the same time, they bring him in specifically because they know that he's the only one with the genius to handle the apparent threat that Sonic poses, and their own talk of him having helped out with numerous foreign coups in the past - probably single-handedly at that - is yet more proof that his credentials are no joke. If G.U.N. exists in this universe, they're basically admitting that they ain't shit compared to this one man.
- Despite technically acting on the government's behalf during the events of this film, Robotnik treats the affair in the same way that Blofeld treats his affiliation with Red China: Namely, it's a very transparent means to an end that will ultimately benefit himself more than them, and it's clear at all times that not only is he the one holding the reins, but that they're perfectly aware of this and are simply unable to do anything about it. Considering this is, again, the government we're talking about, that makes it abundantly clear before we even meet him in person that this guy isn't your typical basement dwelling mad scientist whose ambitions far outweigh their capabilities.
- In a Sonic the Hedgehog movie production starring Ivo Robotnik, played to perfection by Jim Carrey, the meme potential is too vast to quantify.
- His drones are essentially Matryoshka dolls of destruction, and they have the tricks and the persistence you'd expect to be saddled with that implication. They highlight the doctor's own determination in catching the hedgehog, and they also confirm his surprisingly keen sense of foresight in dealing with opposition. If only he leant some of that foresight to IDW Eggman...
- His big black truck is actually really badass for an “evil lair”, as the man himself labels it. It's equipped with the aforementioned super persistent drones, it comes with a hangar bay for his sizable hovercraft (which, by the way, just so happens to have an Egg Mobile colour scheme), he can experiment in his lab while he's on the move, and he even has wacky virtual simulators to play around with on the side... and the means to make a latte apparently. It may not have the scale of a Death Egg space station or an Eggmanland theme park, but considering this is an up-and-coming Eggman of sorts, it's a very interesting and impressive choice for the doctor's first humble abode, as it shows that even when he's just starting off, he's already thinking in a different (and cooler) wavelength than most.
- It didn't take him long at all to successfully harness the power of Sonic's quill in a manageable form, meaning he understood how Sonic's speed worked and was able to use it against the hedgehog himself in a relatively small amount of time. If Metal Sonic is ever introduced, he's likely going to be a juggernaut on par with his OVA portrayal.
- Yet another trait he shares with game Eggman: he does not cower. Sure, he might get startled by seeing Sonic for the first time, or accidentally getting creeped up on by Agent Stone, but in terms of legitimate fear, he has none to show for it. Sonic, who he thought was banished to the Shadow Realm killed, suddenly revives himself and takes back his quill by force, all the while throwing one hell of a death glare his way as he becomes supercharged with electricity. How does Robotnik react to this? By putting on his own game face (and his goggles) and staring him down for a final standoff. The idea of running away or pleading for mercy doesn't even appear to register in the doctor's mind.
- Even after going mad upon being stranded on the Mushroom Planet, he remains as determined as ever to reach his goals, and while he may have nothing else on him for the time being other than Sonic's quill, we know for a fact that his return is inevitable, and he'll be hitting twice as hard no matter what he decides to use. His final transformation into a more recognizable Eggman may be born out of isolation and insanity, but despite the circumstance, it's more strangely triumphant rather than tragic or pathetic. He even notes that lesser men would be hopeless in his predicament, and presumably that includes lesser villains as well.
- This face.
Tumblr media
I want that face on a T-shirt.
Overall, despite the expected and at times necessary differences for a live action portrayal, Robotnik hasn't actually been watered down in terms of character OR threat level. He's already dangerous enough to risk the safety of the entire planet, and if the stinger is any indication, he's only getting started.
And you know what else? While it's obviously delightful that his resemblance shifts to being more Eggman-like by the end of the film (and the full moustache actually doesn't look too bad on Carrey's face), I don't think I would have minded that much if his appearance remained the same in a sequel, because the core of his portrayal was so perfect and quintessentially Eggman that the differences didn't even click after a while, even as I kept looking at them point blank.
That's how you know the guy did well. Although it probably also helps that his non-Eggman look is considerably more dignified and cool than SatAM Robotnik falling into a vat of concentrated 90's.
622 notes · View notes
crusherthedoctor · 4 years
Text
The Lutrudis Hadeer Characterization Masterpost
Tumblr media
A while back, I made a big post about the thought process that went into the design for Lutrudis, as well as her name, species, and choice of weapons. In the midst of doing a bunch of other stuff (like the Eggman Sweet or Shite review, which is definitely still coming guys I swear, please don't leave me D':), I recently figured I could do the same for the character's... well, character, and provide some further insight into how her personality was shaped together. Cause why not, right?
Obviously, we won't be covering literally every single personality trait that Trudy has, like her hobbies and whatnot. If we went over all of that, we'd be so far into the future that Tumblr's search system might actually start working again. No, we'll just be keeping it to the central ingredients that make up the overall package.
1. A cool head? In my Sonic OC?
The recurring cast in the Sonic universe is filled with fiery, hot-blooded sorts in one way or another. Sonic might as well be the love child of Mentos and Diet Coke with how full of energy he is, Knuckles and Amy are both prone to letting their temper do the talking, Eggman... is Eggman, and the list goes on. And while there are a number of characters who are more low-key or even outright introverted by comparison, they still tend to exhibit a trait or two that makes them more in-line with the rest of the crowd, be it youthful excitement (Tails, Cream), a fiery temper (Blaze), or the odd bit of cockiness (Shadow).
So what better way to help make Trudy stand out... than by not really having anything like that at all? Contrary to most of the hot-blooded cast, it takes a lot to truly enrage her, and even then, you'll be lucky to get anything past tranquil fury. She's not particularly hammy either - flowery with her language at times, certainly, but not hammy - nor is she a cocky type, even against the weakest or most ridiculous of opponents, and although she does grow as a person over the course of the story she's involved in, all of this remains fairly consistent.
That's not to say that Trudy is not a passionate person. Far from it, in fact. She has a lot of passion. She just shows it in a different way than the average Sonic character.
2. Lutrudis? More like Unsureofdis.
Uncertain characters are also somewhat rare in Sonic's recurring cast (at least in the game universe), and just like with the previous point, even when they're there, they'll usually have something to counter it. Blaze may have been a bit insecure before meeting and befriending Sonic and Co, but as mentioned, she’s got a fierce temper, and even when she started off on her own, she felt that only she could take care of the threat of Eggman and Inferior Eggman Nega. Likewise, while Silver may have doubted himself about Leslie the Crack Dealer’s Iblis Trigger ruse cruise, he still got cocky when he had Sonic on the ropes, and he could be quite full of himself in the Rivals duology as well.
The point being, they still tend to show some semblance of the same “yep, I'm the one for the job, no questions asked” confidence and swagger that nearly everyone else has, no matter the flavor. Trudy, suffice to say, does not have this mentality. Trudy accepting Sonic and Co's help in dealing with sinister affairs in Viridonia without any haughty protest on her part isn't just because she knows they can handle it, or because they're Sonic Heroes and they'll show 'em the real superpower of teamwork... it's also because she's genuinely not sure if she would be able to take care of the matter on her own.
When she saved Cream from the wrath of the Wraith for example, she wasn't thinking “This looks like a job for Miss Hadeer!”
She was thinking “This could very well get me killed, but I have to help the poor bunny somehow...”
In other words, Trudy doesn't consider herself to be some sort of destined protector who has to do this herself. She constantly second guesses herself, and frequently believes her friends are more qualified and competent than she is. Her only reason for doing her best and helping out regardless is simply because she wants to.
3. A light at the end of the tunnel.
For the sake of tact, it's not shoved in your face relentlessly, but reading between the lines, it can be easy to get a sense of melancholy from Trudy. Particularly due to past experiences, she does indeed have an element of depression within her, and this can occasionally show in her body language and facial expressions, even if she's currently feeling positive emotions.
Tumblr media
And yet, notice how she continues being a friendly pony. Notice how regardless of her experiences, and her thoughts on said experiences, her actual behaviour is (mostly) free of bitterness or cynicism, and that she doesn't hide the joy that her new friends make her feel. She's not outright ignoring her experiences or pretending they don’t affect her, because they clearly have affected her, and she's never ignored her scars (metaphorically and literally, the latter being a permanent side-effect of her condition), but she knows better than to let it consume her, so she tries her best to look at the bright side of life even during the darkest days.
It's Sonic's opinion that Trudy's inner spirit is a lot stronger than she thinks, with or without his help. Her refusal to give into misery and lash out at the world foreshadows that he's not unjustified in that belief. That, and it ties into the franchise’s usual taste for optimism and idealism against the odds.
4. Hadeer? More like Hadork.
So, everything thus far helps set Trudy up as a mellow, down-to-earth sort of personality. So far, so good. However, it's still the Sonic the Hedgehog universe we're talking about, filled with many colorful characters of all shapes, sizes, and eccentricities. When a franchise has a larger than life cast in a larger than life world, the characters who are meant to be grounded often risk coming off as boring and could end up easily overshadowed, because the creators or writers often neglect to give them any quirks of their own, usually out of fear that it'll disgrace the character's gracefulness. In fact, I personally feel this was a common problem with Sally, in both SatAM and Archie (mostly pre-reboot admittedly).
IMO, these writers are just being plain old silly. Just because a character is quirky doesn't mean they forfeit all their dignity altogether. Like a lot of things in life, you just have to balance it out, and that's what I did (or tried to do...) with the green equine.
So yes, Trudy is elegant, but she's also a really goofy dancer. Yes, she's gentle and motherly, but she also goes back and forth between being a heavy sleeper and being an insomniac. Yes, she serves as a warmhearted auntie figure for Cream (and a big sister figure for Amy), but she also spends a quarter of her time looking like a ninja with the way her bandana covers her face (whether it be due to cold weather, strong scents triggering her sensitive nose, or doing it in the presence of villains as a mildly theatrical way of visually conveying her disdain for them).
Tumblr media
And of course, in the right situation, she can be just as much of a dork as the titular blue hedgehog is.
Tumblr media
Which leads me to my next point...
5. “You might know everything I'm going to do...”
Trudy was created with the intention of having a character who is actually like Sonic himself in a lot of ways, but it's not apparent initially.
This sort of yin-yang contrasting routine has been done before a few times in the series, with Knuckles, Shadow and Blaze being the most obvious examples. But with them, their similarities are easier to spot from a distance. Knuckles is more earth than wind, but you can tell he's as stubborn as Sonic is. Shadow's methods and outlook differ, but you can tell he's still a mirror of Sonic (cause you know, he looks like him). Blaze is more distant, but you can tell how she can easily be just as worked up and angered as Sonic.
With Trudy however, if you take her at face value, you would think she's the exact opposite of Sonic. She's an introvert, he's an extrovert. She's got a calm temperament, he can get impatient even at the best of times. She's quite fancy, he's more rough and tumble. She takes things slowly, he leaps ahead without a care in the world... You would think that, outside of them both fighting for good, they would have nothing in common, and that their dynamic would be more akin to Sonic's relationship with Sally, which although they were friends, their relationship could often be somewhat rocky due to their differences in... basically every area and opinion imaginable.
Tumblr media
But then you get to know Trudy, and the unfolding of the adventure reveals the rest of what she has to offer. The aforementioned soldiering on in spite of any depressed moments is in itself a small hint that Trudy shares Sonic's philosophy of never giving up. She believes that most people are good at their core, and while she won't excuse especially evil people or actions and will punish them appropriately (albeit with regret that it had to come to that), she's willing to give a chance to those who are willing to take it, just like with the Blue Blur. Not only does she NOT find Sonic's jokes and hijinks annoying, she actually has a similar sense of humor herself. And while reasonable people generally tend to loathe injustice and oppression, Trudy shares Sonic's uniquely intense contempt for it, and believes in one's own personal freedom just as much as the hedgehog does, let alone freedom in general.
In short, Trudy is what you get when you take Sonic's deeper qualities and general outlook on life, and apply them to a more introverted and taciturn personality. The exact same beliefs, but from a different perspective, so to speak.
6. A different kind of intelligence.
Tails and Eggman are the resident kings of scientific prowess in Sonic's world, and it goes without saying that I wouldn't want to do them a disservice by having Trudy one-up them in that department. But that doesn't mean your character can’t be talented in other areas, right? Contrary to what all those Mary Sue tests dictate, your character can in fact have a high IQ without intruding on an official character’s territory.
Therefore, Trudy is pretty good at innovation and craftsmanship in her own right, but whereas Tails and Eggman do it through technology, her field of expertise is more to do with arts and crafts, and to a lesser extent geology. For example, both her bow and her whip were crafted by the lady herself, using nothing but her decorative knowledge and flair.
Outside of that, she tends to know a fair bit about a lot of things in the world, largely attributed to her photographic memory, meaning she's bound to have a few answers no matter the subject of discussion. Granted, she's unlikely to be the absolute number one expert on any of those things, but she's at least a useful jack of all trades in that regard.
7. Feeling a little horse.
I very much approve and flat out adore the idea of Sonic characters having characteristics that remind the audience of what species they're supposed to be, so I made sure that Trudy had a wide selection of little mannerisms that would reveal her for the little horsie that she is. These include, but aren't limited to...
- When she’s fascinated or concerned by something, she’ll lean a little forward with her hands close to her chest, which subtly mimics the act of prancing.
Tumblr media
- When she wakes up, she briefly stretches her arms and legs (albeit not too recklessly so as to risk straining her sensitive limbs).
Tumblr media
- Her tail has a number of quirks. If she's happy, it might slowly swish to and fro. If she's REALLY happy, it might flick...
Tumblr media
- And if she doesn't approve of someone or something, it might stiffen and raise a little bit, as if to helpfully inform the bad guys where they can kiss, if ya know what I'm saying.
Tumblr media
- When she's being affectionate with her friends, she might give them the ol' nuzzle.
Tumblr media
- When she's in a playful mood, there might be a little skip in her walk, the anthro equivalent of trotting.
- When she's annoyed, she might humorously let out a snort that sounds identical to a real life horse snort. And while she certainly doesn't neigh in the traditional sense, when she finds something hilarious or Sonic's making her laugh with his antics, her laughter can't help but take on a neigh-like touch to it. (The latter was actually a headcanon suggested by @darklightheart​, and I immediately agreed with it because it's cute and funny in equal measures.)
Naturally, she gets all shy and embarrassed when the neigh-laugh comes out, thinking it sounds silly. At least Sonic finds it endearing.
Note that I'm well aware that some of this differs from how real life horses react to certain things. (Eg: tail swishing tends to happen when a horse is agitated rather than happy.) But I freely admit that it's more for the sake of giving the character that extra bit of soul than it is for utmost accuracy. That's the way it goes with fiction sometimes. :P
Interestingly, Trudy tends to get Sonic indulging in a funny hedgehog characteristic of his own. That being, he might curl into a ball if Trudy's being particularly... ~complimentary~ towards him.
Tumblr media
And there we are! These are the core elements that make up Trudy’s characterization. If you ever wanted a general list of what makes her tick, then hopefully this post will help in scratching that itch. And if it doesn’t, then hopefully it still proves that more thought was put into her than Scourge. :]
30 notes · View notes
crusherthedoctor · 7 years
Note
Why is Eggman a better villain than Mephiles?
-Robotnik has had legitimate successes under his belt, such as playing the heroes for fools on multiple occasions via taking advantage of their established traits, creating his ideal Eggmanland, controlling a monster who can mess with time like it’s nothing, and possibly even taking over the world as of Forces, which has been his biggest ambition since Day 1.
-Mephiles’ “successes” were only able to transpire because ‘06′s plot demanded the rest of the cast to be morons, not because he showed off actual cunning.
-No matter the plan, Robotnik has an established motive, to rule the world and be recognised and respected as the greatest genius who ever lived, all to satisfy his own ego.
-Mephiles’ motivation for what he does is hardly explained beyond vague “cause he’s evil” reasoning, which is a tell-tale sign of a villain who has not had much thought put into them.
-Despite being a common man, Robotnik never backs down even in the face of the most intimidating adversary, and is consistently capable of proving to be a match for his superpowered opponents.
-Despite being one half of a god-like entity, Mephiles is mostly all bark and no bite, and he’s often forced to let other people and/or clones do all the heavy work.
-Robotnik is a more complete character, with established traits, tastes and emotions.
-The majority of Mephiles’ entire character can be summed up with “ha ha ha this is the evil thing to do”.
-Robotnik has had his share of blunders, but they’re mostly the typical kind of mistakes that are expected from a villain with a comical side.
-Mephiles’ mistakes are inexcusably huge and numerous for someone who is supposed to be the ultimate chessmaster, and it’s only because of luck-via-bad-writing that he didn’t suffer any consequences for these mistakes (until the very end, when punting the Chaos Emeralds away as Solaris is what allows Sonic’s friends to start the plan that eventually results in his own demise). If he tried his plan in the exact same way in a game that didn’t dumb down the rest of the cast, his plan would have been foiled before it even got off the ground.
-All in all, Robotnik succeeds at being a compelling character due to having genuine intelligence, having a lot of dimension to him, and being very fun to watch.
-All in all, Mephiles fails to be a compelling character due to having his intelligence only informed to us rather than shown to us, being as flat as cardboard, and being unable to live up to the image that the game and his fans have set up for him.
75 notes · View notes