#cause it being out of the video game aesthetic that was seen throughout the video and most of ena before

[mr-erik-viking]

Blog 9: Representation - A Study of Visual Culture and Identity

Representation has existed in the world throughout history and as of the last few decades, exists in most, if not all forms of media. Representation could be seen as a strictly cultural phenomenon, where different cultures through time have established unique ways of representing themselves to others. For example, Muslim countries within the last 50 years introduced the hijab, which is how the Muslim religion represents women. Or how in all countries that do not share the Muslim views do not have hijabs.

Within the last two decades, individual representationalism has become more pronounced in the video game industry. The only group included has been the 'LBGT...' movement and all their variants in video games recently. With the significant shift in societal standards, which some may argue is a forced inclusion, video games such as Forza Horizon 5 are a great example of where this is represented. Within this racing game, a person is able to customise their human avatar in a number of ways. A person is able to change the race, gender, physical disability, and aesthetic appearance of their avatar. In modern times, this is not necessarily a bad thing. One may ask themselves why such a feature is present in a game about racing cars, where the avatar is only shown on loading screens.

To find out why the emphasis on customising avatars in a racing game is so prevalent, I believe we must look at the root cause in modern times. (Side Scrollers, 2023) attempts to describe the reason why modern video games appear to be pushing certain agendas more forcefully than others, where the host of the video mentions a company called "Sweet Baby Inc". According to their website, Sweet Baby Inc.

"is a narrative development and consultation studio based in Montreal and working around the globe. Our mission is to tell better, more empathetic stories while diversifying and enriching the video games industry. We aim to make games more engaging, more fun, more meaningful, and more inclusive, for everyone." (Sweet Baby Inc. p1. 2018)

The company acts as an intermediary for companies to look for help when it comes to writing content that is not offensive towards people affiliated with the 'LGBT...' movement and its variants. I am hesitant to say that it only applies to such communities in particular as it is not something I take particular interest in within my profession, however, this is further corroborated by the majority of consumer voices within the games industry who are not affiliated with any movements in their opinions that video games today are forcing certain views over others in what people may consider to an obnoxious degree.

So, why is there this kind of representation in Forza Horizon 5 in this way? It most likely boils down to societal norms. As times change, so do ideas and concepts. Where blatant racism at some point was considered acceptable, it is no longer so, and any inclusion of it is shunned, which is why the intermediary diversity writing company is such a popular choice as of recent. Nevertheless, the inclusion of modifications in the video game is not bad. I gave my character robot arms because it looks awesome to walk around and look like a cyborg. More so, characters are not the only customizable thing that is that this video game has to offer. Being a racing game, you are able to play around with the appearance of any given vehicle you may have access. Some examples of what can be done with a vehicle are the colours, complex tuning of the entire car and its parts, custom body wraps, nitrous, turbochargers, wheels, etc. The community surrounding the game series have also banded together to create custom skins that the developers then add to the game for free. There is, however, a downside to this as many of the custom skins are highly sexualised with cartoon pornography, pornography logos from various real websites, and much more. None of these custom skins have been officially added to the video game, but can still be seen in private racing matches hosted by the community.

The question of whether or not this is a good form of representation will most likely come up in discussions similar to this, so why don't we look at how this is affected. In an article (Chitty, 2020), she looks into whether modern video games similar to that of Forza Horizon 5 are handling the representation of various groups well. In the article, Mia Chitty suggests that representation in modern video games is not always handled well, implying that it has been a mixed bag. Mia Chitty also suggests that in Asian video games, representation fluctuates highly with stereotypes emerging and disappearing bi-yearly. Such titles would be that of the Persona franchise, Fire Emblem, Undertale, and The Last of Us Part 2. In another article written by Kristina Reymann-Schneider titled

"A mixed bag in the portrayal of LGBTQs in video games",

the subject of LGBT+ representation in video games is causing a major uproar within the larger video game community. To find out why this is, I had a look at some statistics to find out a rough idea of how many LGBT+ identifying individuals make up the industry, as chances have it that the industry is catering towards the minority and then complaining when the majority stops spending money. After researching the topic, I came across an article by (PinkNews, 2020) that stated in their article that LGBT individuals account for 21 percent of the UK games industry. Video games have for the past decade begun catering towards minority groups to increase their representation in all kinds of video games. This usually takes the form of non-heterosexual white male lead characters, and casting more females and black people to play side characters. What scares me, in particular, is how this can affect the quality of video games if the story elements on them begin looking closer at how the character is not traditionally heterosexual males, which leaves the story lacking in other areas. A great example of where the heavy representation of other groups of people has already taken place is the 'Battlefield V' video game from DICE. The Battlefield games have traditionally been seen as a down-to-earth and realistic first-person shooter. With the 12th release, DICE advertised the video game as a true-to-life, history-accurate video game, showing disabled amputee women on the front lines with face paint from 80's action classics. This caused a major uproar within the community of people who were expecting and told to expect another historically accurate addition to the roster of Battlefield games. The developers rightly argued that women fought in WW2. However, it was pointed out that the women who did fight on the front lines were in the Soviet army, and not the American army. Lastly, the soviet women who fought in the war were most likely not LGBT or disabled amputees, given the circumstances of the Soviet Union and the supposedly elite female squadron that DICE referred to.

Furthermore, the people who wanted the game to be truly accurate, or be rebranded as a fantasy or an alternate reality style story were shunned as homophobes and for suppressing LGBT rights. I do not agree with this notion, as the advertised product was true to life and historically accurate, which is a misrepresentation and a diversion of expectation. I believe the inclusion of LGBT is a good thing in moderation and in the right places. A great example of a terrible inclusion of diversity, or forced diversity as it has come to be known, was the Netflix documentary on Cleopatra. The documentary centred around Cleopatra, however, the documentary made white males exclusively the evil people and the enemy, while turning Cleopatra from white to black, including the alteration of historical events that played out throughout the documentary itself. Lastly, the lead actress from the documentary claimed bigotry, and homophobetry, among many, many other derogatory generalisations towards individuals who disliked the altered history from a factual documentary. This catastrophe led Netflix to lose millions, as well as a class action lawsuit from the entire country of Egypt for defacing their history.

Nevertheless, not everything is bad in the world of representation. A case of a successful video game release with diversity as the main selling point would be the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, Zero Dawn's sequel, and The Last of Us: Part 2. These games feature LGBT characters and are widely regarded as great games in terms of storytelling.

Conclusion:

Modern video games have been subject to what many call forced diversity for the sake of pleasing the vocal minority. Video games have included unique characters that adhere to groups of people and their identities. Great examples of this are 'Forza Horizon 5' and 'The Last of Us: Part 2'. There are negatives towards force diversity in the terms of ticking a checkbox which the movie industry can confirm is real as or recently with Marvel releases. I believe that diversity and representation of individuals' identities and cultures are great additions in the right place. As they say, everything has a time and place.

Sources:

Anon (2023). Countries Where Hijab Is Mandatory - HijabO. [online] hijabo.in. Available at: https://hijabo.in/countries-where-hijab-is-mandatory/#:~:text=Ever%20since%20the%20Islamic%20Revolution%20that%20took%20place [Accessed 14 Nov. 2023].

Chitty, M. (2020). Do Games Ever Handle LGBT+ Representation well? | the Bubble. [online] The Bubble. Available at: https://www.thebubble.org.uk/lifestyle/gaming/do-games-ever-handle-lgbt-representation-well/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2023].

Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com (2018). A Mixed Bag in the Portrayal of LGBTQs in Video Games | DW | 13.12.2018. [online] DW.COM. Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/a-mixed-bag-in-the-portrayal-of-lgbtqs-in-video-games/a-46699812.

Gritten, D. (2023). Netflix Cleopatra Controversy. [online] Bing. Available at: https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=673&q=Netflix+cleopatra+contravercy&cvid=28db7475ca2c4db7966f270ecac360be&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTEwODM2ajBqMagCALACAA&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=LCTS [Accessed 17 Nov. 2023].

Heritage, F. (2021). The ‘gay button’ in gaming: LGBTQ+ Representation in Videogames Is Often Hidden – It Shouldn’t Be. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-gay-button-in-gaming-lgbtq-representation-in-videogames-is-often-hidden-it-shouldnt-be-156694.

Kan, M. (2018). Battlefield V Faces Controversy over Including Women Soldiers. [online] PCMAG. Available at: https://www.pcmag.com/news/battlefield-v-faces-controversy-over-including-women-soldiers.

Maurice, E.P. (2020). LGBT People Make up More than a Fifth of the Gaming Industry, Landmark New Study Reveals. [online] PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, Bi and Trans News | LGBTQ+ News. Available at: https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/02/04/gaming-industry-census-report-lgbt-raise-the-game-uk-games-industry-diversity/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2023].

May, G. (2022). How Far Has LGBT Representation in Video Games Come since the 80s? [online] Metro. Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2022/07/01/how-far-has-lgbt-representation-in-video-games-come-since-the-80s-16919798/.

Mullane, R. (2022). Video Game Representation Why It Matters. [online] Overclockers UK. Available at: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/blog/video-game-representation-why-it-matters/.

Side Scrollers (2023). This Company Is Why Your Video Games Suck | Part 1. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VB-CGhTDvM&ab_channel=SideScrollers [Accessed 14 Nov. 2023].

Sweet Baby Inc (2022). Sweet Baby Inc Home Page. [online] www.bing.com. Available at: https://www.bing.com/ck/a?.

[abovebelowetherington]

one of the most popular if not the most popular game ever made Minecraft has been a timeless game that has touched the hearts of many a generation with it’s simple to learn yet incredibly complex and content rich gameplay and it’s charming blocky style

in terms of aesthetics, I mean c’mon you know it it’s Minecraft even if you’ve never touched the game in your life you’ve at least seen a glimpse of it and now how it looks, the basic and blocky look of the game while kinda basic at it’s is also a massive factor of the games charm and staying power, can you imagine people would remember the game nearly as much if it were for some reason trying to be semi realistic, it would look terrible! and way less memorable the games cubic look is a factor of the games identity and why some many of it’s enemies and characters, like asks someone to describe the design of a FPS protagonist, 9/10 they wouldn’t remember a thing about them cause most FPS protagonists all look identical, ok now ask that person what Steve from Minecraft looks like, I bet you they’d have a way easier time remembering how he looks cause of how unique minecrafts style is from the rest of the gaming industry, same could be applied to the games enemies as well, for example what does a call of duty enemy look like? ok, Now what does a creeper look like what, about an underman? more people than not will likely know what these little weirdos look like because there designs are simple and distinct, which is a summary of mine crafts looks in general it’s simple but also iconic and sticks out in a crowd which is one of the many reasons the game has such staying power throughout the years

despite that however Minecraft itself has received a variety of incredibly well made pieces of concept art for concepts seen in future updates, the art itself is surprisingly  really amazing look despite still being decently close to Minecraft's style, I think it mainly is the great use of colours and lighting, it adds a sort of painting feel to all the video game blocks and textures it gives a very distinct and pleasant look to it, I really love the look of these in particular especially the colours and shading 

Minecraft's gameplay is another large reason to it’s immense popularity of being easy to learn but incredibly hard to master as well as being a tool used to smaller new game modes or side stories using the the in game commands themselves to create such possibilities means minecraft has a seemingly endless bounds of potential in it’s gameplay and ways it can be altered for new formats or modes, though it’s gameplay isn’t getting as much attention here as it doesn’t share much with the gameplay style I want to use for my game concept, either way it was worth a mention given how crucial it is to Minecraft's longevity and legacy.

[peppermintbee]

OMORI’s poor writing (Part 2)

Once again, if you are a big fan of OMORI, this review is not for you. Treasure this game, love it, recommend it, make fan art, buy the merch, do what you will with it. I am not here to take OMORI away from anyone. Based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, I know that my opinion is in the minority.

However, just as the fans have the right to praise the game, I have the right to examine it, criticize it, and explain why it failed to provide a compelling experience. This is second part of my review where I will tackle OMORI’s problematic themes and disrespectful appropriation of mental health.

[ See Part 1: Plot Writing Lies ]

(Note: I use “OMORI” in all-caps for the game title, and “Omori” in title case for the character name.)

Spoilers and criticism below.

Part 2: OMORI’s message is mishandled and distasteful

OMORI provides a warning that it depicts scenes of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Because the game includes these scenes, I assumed these mental health issues are presented in a way that is meaningful and respectful.

However, that is not the case. 

Despite having depictions of such, this game is not really about depression, anxiety, or even suicide. It’s about committing a horrible crime, lying about it, and getting over the guilt.

1. Suicide as a game mechanic

Suicidal thoughts are intrusive, terrifying, and painful. As well as ending the victim's life, suicide wreaks havoc on the lives of those who once knew them. It is often a taboo topic, but discussing such matters is an important step to understanding and preventing it. Video games are a medium well suited to approaching such dark topics.

Unfortunately, OMORI does not handle the topic of suicide well at all.

First, suicide is written as a unavoidable game mechanic that seems to have been included for shallow reasons such as aesthetic and shock value. To leave Sunny’s headspace and wake up, you--as a player--must direct him to stab himself in the stomach. 

But why? It’s not like waking up involves some sort of major sacrifice. In fact, waking up is something that is more or less unavoidable. Reality should be something that snatches Sunny away from his headspace against his will, perhaps as an encroaching darkness that Sunny can run from, but never truly escape. But instead, facing reality is something you are forced to opt into in the most needlessly violent way possible.

Forcing you--as a player--to literally commit suicide just to wake up from a dream is a pointless, distasteful, and disrespectful action that sets a precedent for suicide not being taken seriously in this game. (And it isn’t.)

In the black space, Omori is pressured to kill a cat. In that scene, regardless of your choice, you are forced to kill yourself. However, the act of stabbing yourself has been seen so many times at that point that it has completely lost any impact. Who cares about suicide when it’s been reduced to just a means of travel?

Lastly, if you fail to defeat the final boss, Sunny commits suicide in the real world. However, this is not a cutscene, it is once again something that you--as a player--are forced to do to progress. Putting these actions in the hands of a player is not as meaningful as the writer seems to believe, because there are no other options to progress. Any weight in making that decision is lost to resignation; a frustrated sigh of “Well, okay, fine. I guess I have to click Z here.” You are then rewarded with a SLAPPING pop song and a psychedelic cutscene of Sunny falling to his death. It’s tasteless to its core and appropriates the deaths of every suicidal person as a quirky, shallow “bad end.”

(Seriously, this is how the writer decided to depict a child taking his own life.)

2. Sunny/Omori is a poor presentation of depression

Sunny/Omori does not smile. Even in past photographs before The Incident, he still is not smiling. The contrast between Sunny and his friends stands out like a sore thumb, so I assumed this was the writer’s attempt to show that Sunny is dealing with depression, where he can’t be happy even in happy situations.

Of course, if that were the case it would be inaccurate since depressed people do smile and do hide their true feelings. They are often dismissed with, “You can’t be depressed, I saw you smiling once.” However, I was willing to let Sunny’s chronic frown slide because sometimes you have to oversimplify an idea to get your point across.

Much to my surprise, there is NO evidence of Sunny having depression before The Incident and there is very little indication of him having depression throughout the game either. The evidence of this is that while looking at a family portrait, Sunny comments that he's never liked to smile. Since he's a a baby in this portrait, this goes to show that his not smiling is simply a preference -- a quirky character trait that makes him stand out so that you feel an emotion during the true ending when he finally smiles. 

Everything in the game seems to point to him being pretty happy and well adjusted up until he killed Mari. Then, even after he killed Mari, he pretty much looks and behaves the same way. Wouldn’t it be more jarring and tragic if you saw Sunny was happy in the past, but depressed now?

Which leads me to my next point...

3. Sunny and Basil are not depressed, they’re guilty (and for good reason)

In the book I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t), Brené Brown explains the difference between feeling guilt and shame.

Guilt means: “I did something bad.” Shame means: “I am something bad.”

Guilt, when attributed to bad behavior, is actually a healthy emotion. It means that you have a sense of right and wrong, that you empathize with those you’ve hurt, and it motivates you to make things right.

Shame is an unhealthy emotion. It arrests growth, destroys self-esteem, causes poor decision making, isolates you from your loved ones, and is directly correlated with anxiety and depression.

OMORI should be a game about overcoming shame. All the right set pieces are there. Sunny’s walled himself off, his sister (allegedly) committed suicide, and he seems to be struggling with lifelong depression. However, this all falls apart, when it’s revealed that he killed his sister and staged her death as a suicide to escape blame (with Basil’s help). He DID do something bad. It’s not shame, it’s literally guilt.

All at once, OMORI stops being a game about recovering from grief and depression and becomes a game that demands the player to sympathize with a killer and liar who is hiding from his crimes. Because he and Basil feel bad about what they did, Sunny and Basil are presented as greater victims than their actual victim.

4. OMORI asks you empathize with villains (with ZERO self awareness)

Games where you are playing a character with a guilty conscience has been told before, but where OMORI really fails is that Sunny is not truly held accountable for what he did to others. Instead, the game focuses on HIS pain: since killing his sister he’s been isolated, he’s having nightmares, and he’s suicidal. 

The plot of the game is focused on helping Sunny forgive himself for ruining other people’s lives. The writing barely acknowledges how his friends/family feel about what he did. When his victims’ pain IS addressed, it’s either used to further victimize Sunny (ie: isn’t it sad for him that he made his friends so sad?) or it’s used to reassure the player that Sunny’s victims have forgiven him (or will forgive him). 

In fact, the game holds Mari responsible for her own death, citing that her "perfectionism" must have been what pushed Sunny to attack her. OMORI presents Mari, through headspace, as someone who accepted death gracefully and wants Sunny to live a happy life. She is never given her own voice and nothing in the game suggests she is capable of feeling bitter over her death and postmortem desecration. She plays the role of the Madonna archetype--and the perfect victim--allowing the player to empathize entirely with Sunny while accepting that Mari brought everything on herself.

[Mari suggesting that Sunny acting out his aggression on her was her fault.]

The climax of this game is NOT Sunny telling the truth to his friends. The climax is Sunny defeating his guilt and forgiving himself. We know this because the story does not even show how his friends respond to his confession, because-- once again-- what’s most important thing is resolving Sunny’s pain, not the pain he has caused others. (Though the game does heavily imply that his friends will forgive him.)

[Pictured: the boys shedding their guilt is the true happy ending ]

Imagine, for a moment, if this game was about an abuser, who caused immense pain to someone and got away with it. Then, the whole game was about how they felt bad for the abuse they caused, and-- as a player-- you help them forgive THEMSELF for their past abuse. Then, in the last few seconds of the game, they either apologize to their victim or kill themself. The victim’s response is not shown because it is not important.

This is the plot of OMORI, except with a bunch of excuses thrown on top to make it more palatable. Sunny and Basil are just soooo cute and sad. Killing Mari was an accident. Stringing her body up like a piñata was a juvenile mistake. The boys feel SO BAD that they want to kill themselves. And because suicide is so tragic, you-- as an audience-- are manipulated into empathizing them.

5. In OMORI, suicide is used as a cheap ploy for sympathy

As I mentioned before, suicide is horrible and tragic. People struggling with suicidal ideation need help, support, and respect. That said, let’s make one thing clear: being suicidal does not automatically make someone a good person. There are plenty of examples of criminals who kill themselves to escape the penalty or guilt for something they did. It is so common in the news that I don’t think I have to list out examples.

In bad endings, Sunny and Basil’s suicides are 100% motivated by guilt for their very real crimes. Now, it should be stated, Sunny and Basil do not deserve to die. And because suicide is such an extreme, permanent end for those two boys, we-- as players-- are invested in preventing that tragic end at all costs.

However, the looming threat of suicide is used as leverage to force the audience to dismiss the severity of what Sunny and Basil did. As I’ve said before, the plot of the game is about soothing and alleviating Sunny’s guilt and stopping him from killing himself as opposed to making things right. 

The worst thing is, this tactic actually works. The threat of suicide is so strong, it has distracted many players from the truth that this story is about sympathizing with a boy who has killed his sister, with little regard for those his actions have affected (see point #4).

It’s terrible because suicide is such a serious topic worthy of discussion, but when used as little more than pity-bait, it twists your perception of what the characters did and silences those who try to criticize how this game handles such topics.

6. Mari's suicide being fake is a terrible twist

Lastly, by revealing Mari’s “suicide” as an accidental death, OMORI misses an opportunity to tell a much more powerful story. In the first half of this game, when Mari is thought to have committed suicide at the young age of 15, is a sobering moment. That tragedy is something very real.

If Mari had killed herself as opposed to being killed, Sunny isolating himself after his sister takes her own life is realistic. Mari’s death coming as a surprise is also realistic; how often have we heard people saying that they never knew someone was suffering? That they seemed like such a happy person?

Losing a loved one to suicide does not just cause horrible grief, but crippling shame as well. Those left behind will blame themselves, tormented by thoughts of how they could have saved them, how they would do anything to get them back. That shame can follow you forever, haunting you like a ghost, threatening you with the same fate. Overcoming that grief and shame is no simple task, and I truly thought OMORI was going to be about grappling with grief and letting go of survivor guilt.

Instead, Mari didn’t commit suicide, her life was cut short by her brother. Then, her body was staged as a suicide, forever changing how her family and friends perceived her. Her hanging body did not represent a devastating loss of life and horror of teen depression, but instead is a cheap twist that represents Sunny’s guilt for killing her and tampering with her corpse.

Conclusion:

As I’ve mentioned before OMORI has a lot of potential. The set pieces of a depressed kid who escapes to a dream world to cope with his unresolved trauma is one that had the makings to be very meaningful. However, it fumbles these issues, creating a sloppy plot that results in a problematic message. It’s baffling that this even happened, especially considering the length of time this was in development.

#omori #omori hate #review #words #the more I analyze it the worse this game gets #suicide cw #omori spoilers

[alexhziee]

Breaking Down: Novoland: Pearl Eclipse BTS “Season of Love” Special Edition

Please take note that I have not read the novel so I don’t know what happens on the novel and this is just my take on what I see. If you have read the novel and already know what's going to happen and if I say something that is wrong, you can just laugh it off or we can talk about this in private (I don’t mind being spoiled of the ending as long as the ending that you are going to share with me is Hai Shi and Fang Jian Ming as end game LOL if not then.............*sigh*)

Before everything else I just need to let it out that this drama is now one of my favorites when it comes to production, set to costume aesthetics out of more than 80+ Chinese Dramas that I have watched. 

This special edition BTS video features cast from Yang Mi (Fang Hai Shi), William Chan (Fang Jian Ming) , Xu Kai Cheng (Emperor Chu Zhong Xu), Chen Xiao Yun (Consort Shurong) to Wang Sen (Fang Zhouying), and the drama’s Executive Producer Gao Chen  高琛 , Costume Designer Fang Si Zhe, and Art Director Shang Chang Yong.

STORY

It has a unique worldview. This TV work is sad but beautiful love story that resonates more with female viewers. The love in this series is actually tormenting. We often use the word “tormenting”, tormenting love.

Gao Chen 

Fun Fact: Gao Chen is the Executive Producer for Novoland: Pearl Eclipse as well as more of Yang Mi’s dramas like Storm Eye, Eternal Love and Eternal Love of Dream, to Les Interprestes back in 2016. He is a Producer for some of Jay Walk Studio dramas including Dilireba’s The Flames Daughter back in 2018.

This part is where I got confused, worried yet hopeful all at same time. The love story between Hai Shi and her Master Fang Jian Ming is really something that I look forward on the show. Then there were clips of Hai Shi and Fang Jian Ming meeting again, with her now sporting a woman’s outfit and seemingly avoiding or arguing with him? and from the teasers, OST and other snippets that I have seen, this couple will definitely have a fall out and I just hope that it won’t last too long. 

“Tormenting” was repeatedly mentioned in the video and it was also the tittle for the other trailer for the show Tormenting Love Between Yang Mi & William Chan so I’m already preparing my heart for it but during Yang Mi’s interview she mentions 

Its tormenting throughout the story but if you stick to the end, you’ll find sweet love. Don’t give up. That’s life

Yang Mi

So is it wrong for me to hope that they do have a happy ending when the Main Lead herself kind of insinuates that if you stick to the end, you’ll find sweet love? like does that not sound as a happy ending?

 but this is where I kind of worried cause sweet love can mean different things and that it was not mention on which love? ‘cause there have been scenes of Hai Shi being involved with the Emperor and it seems like she will start something something with him and the synopsis on WeTV does not help at all 

Hai Shi then becomes the personal guard of the emperor and she starts to be interested in him, and some misunderstandings rise between them. When the emperor finds out that Hai Shi is a girl, he starts having feelings for her. Hai Shi will have to face her own feelings towards Fang Zhu and the emperor.

WeTV

But then again promotions were of three couples, Hai Shi-Fang Jian Ming, the Emperor and his Consort Shurong and Zhou Ying and Zhe Liu. 

COSTUME

The artistic style of this series is slightly nouveau. All the costumes are typically of Art Deco Style.

Fang Si Zhe

Fun Facts: Art Deco is known for appealing lines of nature, such as oriental cultural patterns and geometrics. It uses bright colors with strong contrast

We established effective communication with the designers since the beginning. So we follow the styles of the scenes. 

Fang Si Zhe

The costumes were definitely really good on this drama and I have a huge trust on Fang Si Zhe’s taste and designs ever since I feel in love with Lu Yi in his absolutely gorgeous Jin Yi Wei uniforms on Under the Power (2019) who was played by Ren Jia Lun

Fun Facts: Fang Si Zhe is the costume designer for dramas like Scarlet Heart (2011), General and I (2017), Under the Power (2019), and the wonderful drama Love and Redemption (2020). His upcoming dramas are also to look forward too from Yang Zi and Cheng Yi’s Immortal Samsara (2022) and Zhang Ling He and Zhai Xiao We’s currently filming drama adaptation of Heaven’s Official’s Blessing (2022). 

Every costume has its distinguished character. 

Chen Xiao Yun 

Every character definitely have their own styles and color schemes. and definitely one of my favorites are Hai Shi’s wardrobe. 

I have more than one armor of all kinds of styles such as light ones, soft ones, and heavy ones. Anyway, I'm an "Armored Warrior" . Armor Warrior Fang Hai Shi

Yang Mi

I love the different shades and tones of blue that Hai Shi wears throughout the drama. From the almost black deep blue outfit that she wears working for the Jifeng Pavilion, her disguise when she was on the streets of the capital on episode 10, the blue-green outfit when she was caught on the rain on episode 11, the light blue inner clothing on her armor before she left for her first assignment, to her official uniform as the Staff Officer on Huangquan Pass. 

PRODUCTION

Every little detail has been attended to. Hai Shi's sword is rather special. Her weapon adopts characters of her birthplace, and her background  or geographical elements. That's how the sword is made. Its handle is inlaid with seashells to connect with her birthplace.

Shao Chang Yong

Fun Facts: Shao Chang Yong is the Art Director for a lot of really famous dramas. From Cheng Yi and Zhang Yu Xi’s historical drama Stand By Me (2021), Xu Kai’s Ancient Love Poetry (2021), Seven Tan and Wallace Chung’s The Sword and the Brocade (2021), another Cheng Yi Drama The Promise of Chang’An (2020), one my favorite Yang Mi dramas Legend of Fu Yao (2018), Nirvana on Fire 1 and 2 to Wallace Huo’s Love Me if You Dare back on 2015. Definitely a veteran Art Director who has a quite a knack for Historical dramas. 

I really love the white sheath as well as the minor details on of Hai Shi sword. and then looking closely to her bow, (she is a gifted archer after all) the metal part of the bow are made of some kind of wave patterns (am I reaching? LOL)

We have built in all 200 or more scenes. 

8 indoor Studios that cover 50,000 sqm. Over 200 scenes, most built for location shooting

Shao Chang Yong

Jifeng Pavilion is my favorite. A lot of wood elements are incorporated. Its simple but from the simple style, you can find elegance.

illiam Chan

Oh my! Same, my favorite location on the drama is the Jifeng Pavilion not only because this was the most used set on the early parts of the drama but because of how therapeutic it makes me feel when watching it. 

There are all kinds of circulars, a bridge and a pond, trees and sand in the manor

Yang Mi

I think that I have seen a very similar set and correct me if I’m wrong but is this the same set for One and Only? Zhou Sheng Chen’s manor where Shi Yi lived most of her teen life? Cause it looks absolutely similar, although minor details are of course different but the layout is quite the same. 

Fabric Office is built in our original design.

Gao Chen

It rose from the ground and its built as a real building. It has two stories, the ground floor is for weaving and embroidering desks. the second floor is for demonstration. the construction took two or three months.

Shao Chang Yong

CHOREOGRAPHY

There are a lot of action scenes

Yang Mi

During the shooting, it gave me a feeling that Fang Zhu is like a fairy. the visual effect is perfect. Most are long takes. I guess its because of the costume. because its fluttering when were fighting. the action part is quite different in the series.

William Chen

The most challenging part for me is to wear armors, to fight for real.

Yang Mi

Before each action scene, I was like "oh, Were gonna do action scenes today. So tired." but when it began, I couldn't have enough.

Xu Kai Cheng

I did my best to make each move perfect

Wang Sen

MESSAGE FROM THE PRODUCER

In every one's lifetime, as life unfolds, you change at certain stages. Every single role in this series has made the right choices, I think , or has done more than responsibilities require them to do. so its a leap. I hope the audience will love the series and every single role in it. Hope you can find from the series whatever you expect or whatever you like.

Gao Chen

Link: https://wetv.vip/play/1pka1m9w1yxm0l0-Novoland-Pearl-Eclipse/v0041nxr13q-BTS-%22Seasons-of-Life%22-Special-Edition-%7C-Novoland-Pearl-Eclipse

#Novoland #novoland pearl eclipse #BTS #Behind the Scene #Yang Mi #William Chan #xu kai cheng #Chen Xiao Yun #Wang Sen #Gao Chen #高琛

[legionofpotatoes]

we decided to watch all story cutscenes from the new resident evil village videogame on a whim, since it’s not really our cup of tea gameplay-wise but seems to be this massive zeitgeist moment that made us morbidly curious. And I know how much everyone cares about my thoughts on things I know very little about, so. let’s get into it huh gamers. and yeah spoilers?

for context, I’ve only played resident evil 4 and a small portion of 5. I also read the wikipedia entry for 7’s plot recently. all this to say I was only vaguely aware of how tonally wacky the series was going in

I also completely gave up following the plot of the mutagens’ soap opera, so that paid off in spades here as you might imagine

anyway so that baby in the intro. that baby’s head is just massive. humongous toddlerdome. when ethan finds the baby’s head in a jar later on. there is no way that head would fit into that jar. bad game design. no not even game design. basic stuff. one hundred years in prison for jar modeler

if I see a single functional hetero marriage in video games I will cry tears of joy. I understand their misery is kind of The Point irt them badly working through the hillbilly romp trauma but like. sheesh. at least set that up as an emotional story goal the plot will help resolve. but nope they start off miserable and it goes nowhere

I know I know the mia thing has a huge wrinkle in it but like. not really in terms of dramatic function?? set up a happy end to the re7 nightmare (miranda can keep up appearances for all she cares) and then take that all away from angry griffin mcelroy for manpain. it will still absolutely work to set up the dramatic forward momentum. why throw in this cliche Hollywood Tension in their marriage if you’re not going to address it oh maybe because it’s normalized as automatically interesting because nuclear families are a self-propagating pit of a very narrow chance at emotional happiness relying on social stigma to preserve their empty function oops my baggage slipped in yikes abort mission

I called him griffin mcelroy because I saw his face on twitter and. yeah. I will continue to do this occasionally. my house my rules

... fuck the reason I’m hung up on this is specifically because the rest of the game is so tonally dexterous (which is a shining point to me! more on that later!), and yet they felt weirdly compelled to create the aesthetic trapping of a family-at-odds trope without following it through too well. a sign of both the good and the bad stuff to come

but listen the real reason why I wanted to talk about any of this is to nitpick the fascinating backwards-engineered nucleus of the entire thing; in that this game essentially creates a melting pot of just SO many disparate horror tropes and then makes a no-holds-barred unhinged effort at weaving thick lore to piece them all together. it is truly a sight to behold. like straight up you got your backwoods fright night situation, your gothic castle vampires, your rural-industrial werewolves, and don’t forget your bloated swamp monsters over there, with then a hard left turn into robotic body horror, and the entire ass subgenre of Creepy Doll writ large, and the bloodborne tentacle monsters, and a hellboy angel bossfight, which rides on the coattails of a mech-on-mech pacific rim bonanza, and just jesus henry christ slow down

almost all of these are textural hijack jobs that don’t really get into the metaphor plain of any of those settings but the game sort-of makes an argument that the texture IS the point and revels in it. It is kind of admirable almost. The same reason why the intro felt boxed in and unmotivated is also why the rest of the game just blasts off of its hinges to the point of complete and self-indulgent tonal abandon. I kinda loved that about it. lady dimitrescu made sure to hold her hat down as she bent forward in mahogany doorways and then suddenly she’s a giant gore dragon and you settle in your temp role as dark souls man with Gun to take her ass down. Excellent??

this rhino rampage impulse to gobble up every horror aesthetic known to man comes to head when the game wrestles with its FPS trappings in what is the most hilarious solution in creating visceral player damage moments. Since most cinematics and the entire game is in first person, that leaves precious little real estate for the devs to work with if they really want to sell griffin’s physical crucible. To wit. This dude’s forearms. Specifically just the forearms. They are MASSACRED throughout the story. The poor man lives out the silent hill dimension of a hand model. by the end cutscene he looks like a neatly dressed desk clerk who had decided to stick both his grabbers into garbage disposal grinders just a few hours prior. like in addition to everything else it manages to rope in that tinge of slapstick violence into its general grievous genre collection except this time it IS for a lack of trying! truly incredible

but wait his miracle clawbacks from everything his poor paws go through are retroactively explained away, yes, but far too vaguely and far too late to console me as I sat and watched everyone’s favorite baby brother reattach an entirely severed hand to his wrist stump by just. placing it on there. and giving it a lil twist ‘n pop terminator-style. and then willing his fingers back into motion right in front of my bulging eyes. this game just does not care. it does not give a shit. and boy howdy will it work to make that into one of its strongest suits

cause generally speaking resident evil was THE premiere vanilla zombie content destinaysh for like a decade, right? and as the rest of the world and mainstream media started encroaching and bloodying its blue ocean it went and just exploded in every single conceivable horror trope direction like a smilodon on catnip. truly, genuinely fascinating franchise moves

yeah the big vampire milf is hot. other news; grass... green. although I do love the implication that her closet is just identical white dresses on a rack. cartoon network-level queen shit

apropos of nothing I’ve said there’s also this hobo dante-devimaycry-magneto man, and I can’t believe this sentence makes sense. anyway he made that “boulder-punching asshole” joke referring to chris redfield and it was probably the only easter egg that really landed for me and boy did it land hard. I have not seen him punch the boulder in re5, mind. I had only heard about how funny it is from friends. and here this dude was, probably in the same exact mindset as me, trying to grapple with that insane mental image. with you on that ian mckellen, loud and clear

I advocate vehemently against the shallow pursuit of hyper photorealism in art direction but I gotta admit it works really in favor of immersive horror like this. the european village shacks especially gave me super unchill flashbacks to my rural countryside retreat in western georgia. I could smell the linoleum dude. not cool

faces are weird in this game. can’t place it. nice textures, good animation, but the modeling template is... uuh strange? and the hair. it has that clustered-flat-clumpy look that harkens to something very specific and unpleasant but I just don’t know what. sue me

griffin’s mental aptitude to take all this shit in stride and end every seemingly traumatizing bossfight involving some fucking eldritch being yet unseen through mortal eyes by essentially throwing out an MCU quip is just. What the fuck dude? I mean that was funny how you casually yelled the f-word at a god damn werewolf that you considered a fairy tale an hour ago but are you like, all right?? it was swinging a sledgehammer the size of a bus at you, ethan

oh oh the vampires are afraid of cold and your last name is winters. I get it haha

Pro Gamer Nitpick: boss fights seemed a bit unnecessarily long?? idk why the youtuber we picked decided the ENTIRE propeller man fight counted towards the vital story scenes he was stitching together, but man mr big daddy lite there really had some get up and go huh??

why are they saying dimitrescu.. like that. is it really how you say that word or is the english language relapsing into its fetish for ending every single word with a consonant at all costs

I’m not saying it’s a dramatic miss of a twist in context of all that’s going on, but the “you died in the last game actually and have been DC’s clayface ever since” revelation is low-key. it’s. it’s just funny to me, I dont know what to say. century-old god-witch fails her evil plan after she mistakenly removes heart from what was definitely NOT just some white guy with eight fingers after all

chris realizing he’s about to become the player character and immediately swapping out his tsundere trenchcoat for the muscletight sex haver sweater

the little bluetooth speaker-sized pipe bomb he taped to his knife was nuclear?? really??? I must have missed something because that is just too good. I buy it though I totally buy it. chris just got them fun-sized nukes in his car trunk for, you guessed it, Situations

anyway this is all for now just wanted to briefly touch on how unexpectedly funny and tonally irreverent this seemingly serious game turned out to be. did not articulate any cathartic story beats whatsoever but my god it had fun connecting those plot points. he just fucking put his severed hand back on his stump and it Just Worked todd howard get in here

#text #another one in my bulleted review series with no rhyme or reason #sorry resident evil fans this could be a painful read pls turn away #i know almost nothing about it but i am gonna be super fake familiar and critical of this one hey ho

[jacscorner]

Pokemon All-Stars: A Fan Region/Game/Alternate Universe Idea

I like watching and rewatching Original Pokemon Game/Region videos. Like Mr. Buddy's "What if X was a Pokemon Region" and stuff like that. I wanna make-or, I guess, write-my own. Since Regions are kind of a character all their own and I'm a Wannabe Character Artist, I wanted to try and make one my own.

I've got no skills in coding, pixel arts, or anything, so this will forever be just some kind of dumb fanfic that sometimes incorporates Game Mechanics to justify things if it were able, for some Godforsaken reason, 'stolen' for a game. Cause, in 2021, no idea feels too big or too dumb. And, uh, trust me, this'll be a dumb fanfic of an idea. So be aware for the subpar writing talents of some wannabe writer who doesn't know shit.

Small disclaimer though:

>This region is being made with the intention that every extra feature will be available in it. Z-Moves, Regional Variants, Gygantamax, Mega Evolutions, and maybe some things I've forgotten. This probably won't matter cause it's just a dumb fanfic plot bible with mechanics peppered in. Competitive balancing be damn! Pokemon Fans can create their own balance! That's what the Battle Simulator is for! In fact, if this was a real game, then it'd have a Battle Simulator like Showdown built into it.

>This is an open source Fanfic Bible. You can take this idea and run with it if you want. You can omit all my bad ideas even!

>I won't be making my own Fakemon. I don't like a lot of Fakemon that exists out there and, trust me when I say this: I am no better than them. In fact, I'm fucking worse.

>If this WERE a game, it probably WOULD still have to cut some Pokemon. I doubt that kinda, and I won't get into why I think dexit was dumb personally, cause it doesn't really matter. But, like, my fan game/fanfic will have a lot of shit going on in it. So, like, realistically, there would probably need to be a cut, if not for data, than just cause there's a lot of work to do as is. But, like, again, under the context of a fic, this wouldn't be an issue.

>With THAT said, I'd want this game to have a Gen 2 Sprite aesthetic. My fangame, don't care if ya'll don't like that.

>I'm probably gonna copy a LOT of stuff from other Fangames I've played. My shit memory probably won't allow me to remember what I'm biting from what, so be free to call me out whenever. Cause if I stole the mechanic, I probably liked it the game. And if not, well, I'd like the recommendation.

Fuck, this was long already. The rest is under the cut, so, like, if you're already turned off, you can stop reading. I understand. I'm kind of a windbag.

Okay, so how many of you guys have seen this picture on the internet? It's a picture of a ton of Pokemon regions all...basically stitched together, since not only could this never be canon, but this goes beyond the size of even most open world games today. But this was the inspiration for this project. The map probably wouldn't, and probably couldn't, look like this, but it perfectly sums up what I'd want out of this game. Thus, it'll be our placeholder.

Our hometown of Capricorn Town is home to Professor Chestnut, and you, her faithful assistant, are about to set off on a Pokemon adventure of your own! The Professor is encouraging you to see the region of Sidus for yourself and is even willing to give you a Starting Pokemon!

Starting Pokemon

Now, if I'm not making new Pokemon, which Starter will it be? Well, the game will have the data for all the starters and will randomly select a Grass, Fire, and Water Type for you to choose from. Those will be your starters, with the option of also choosing Pikachu, Eevee, and Riolu, the two mascot mons...and Riolu, who is kind of a mascot mon, but a lesser one.

Let's say for this example, your options are Torchic, Piplup, Rowlet, Pikachu, Eevee, and Riolu. And, uh, get used to the words 'random' and 'generator', those are our keywords.

Anyway, once you get your pick, there'll be some kind of tutorial mission the Professor will send you on. This will introduce you to two very important things;

1. One of your Rival.

2. An Evil Team Grunt.

Rivals?!

Now to start getting into why this game might still be pretty big still be big despite the sprites on modern consoles.

Each of your Rivals would be one kid from each region of the 8 Mainline Games from Kanto to Kalos. How this'll be decided is that each pair of kids will be plugging into a generator and will pick between either the boy or girl version.

Ex. Brendan and May both cannot be in the game. Instead, they'll be plugged into this generator. Let's say the generator fell onto May. She'll be one of your Rival. Repeat this process 7 more times until you have 8 Rivals sprinkled throughout the world, each one given a defined personality and better AI to make them harder trainers to fight.

May will have one of the Hoenn Starters, sans Torchic. Regardless of whether or not Protagonist-San picked Torchic, May will either have a Treecko or Mudkip, again, chosen at random per kid. Whichever Starter you picked, your first rival will have a starter that beats yours. So, let's say moving forward, May has a Mudkip and you a Torchic. The other kids will have random starters of the various regions they originally hail from.

Anyway, your rivals will wander the overworld. If they see you, they'll battle you on sight. If they lose, they'll be gone after the next time you turn the game off. They won't battle you again until they respawn, but you can hang out with them. In fact, you can even recruit them to be in your party for a few days and they'll follow you around and just generally be your friend. It'll make every battle a double battle, but they'll battle you again before their timer runs out, so be prepared!

BANG! BANG! ENTER! Team Wild!

The two of you will have to face off against Team Wild! They have a Cowboy theme to them, using a mix of Ground and Steel-Types, with a few Pokemon being added in for good measure like the Ponyta Lines, Cacnea Line, and Remoraid. Cause...it's a gun.

They're an outlaw gang, they're rough and tough (or, at least, a mild threat) and will always throw down when they spot ya. Something I'm just sniping from JelloApocalypse is that they'll appear sporadically and act as Timed Events across the map.

You and your new Rival beat them and send you packing. I'd imagine May and the other Rivals would mostly be friendly, but I'm sure there's one or two that'll just be jerks to you. Regardless of personality, they'll be pretty tough and programmed to skill with you. Your strongest mon you have on hand when you fight them will be the level their entire team.

With your tutorial done, the world is opened up! Your mom gives you your running shoes, some Pokeballs, and your...I don't know, PokeCelular or something, just the regional gadget that does a bunch of stuff. From holding your map to holding your VS Seeker.

The PokeCelular will also give you notifications on where Team Wild are! You can choose to ignore the events, but if you do, then they'll start to appear in the overworld know and will get progressively stronger.

A Balancing Act

This game will be an open world, 8-Bit Sprite Game for you to explore after you leave Capricorn!

So how do we balance that?

Well, we got our Rival out of the way already, so let's move on. Gym Leaders will have a pretty linear progression. However, regardless of which Gym you tackle first, they'll all be at the same level.

It doesn't matter if you decide to go across the map and battle the Bug Gym, he'll stay at Level 10, just like the Normal Gym. Whe you get the second badge, they'll all jump to Level 15. NPC Trainers will follow the same progression; the higher your badge number, the stronger the number of Pokemon they'll be.

Wild Pokemon will also get stronger. The more badges you get, it'll attract stronger wild Pokemon because they'll see you're stronger and will come out more.

The overworld will also have various dungeons in them that'll be Level Locked. Say, you go through a forest and you're just trying to reach the end of a maze. The Trainers and Pokemon will function the same as I've mentioned before. But, you can decide to go deeper into the dungeon. These Pokemon will be level locked, usually something of a high level, because this is a more dangerous part of the dungeon. But, there'll be some goodies down there, like rarer Pokemon and some kind of really rare and good item like a TM or something.

How will you traverse? Well, first of all, HMs? They're semi-back. BUT, instead of having to deal with teaching Cut to a Pokemon, you just need the move Cut and a Pokemon that can use the move and you'll be able to use Cut. A few other Pokemon that are reasonable candidates, but don't get cut, will be allowed to do this too. Like, Gallade can use Cut. It can't learn the move, but just holding the HM will get the job done.

Controversial opinion, but I think I've always liked the idea of HMs. On paper, they give you a reason to explore the world and go back to areas you couldn't before for goodies and make for a good way to get off dungeons until you get the needed item. Even something like Cut can be used to open up new areas for exploration for your squad of mons.

BUT, well, HMs suck. As moves, they suck save for, like, 2...MAYBE and they're only for, like, a handful of areas. You either hand them out as evenly as possible, forcing mons to take moves you don't wanna use, or you just get an HM Slave or two to use 'em all. But like they, they serve their function and all you need is the Pokemon in question and NOT teach them the move. If you need a Move Deleter just so people aren't stuck having to use Rock Smash for three towns, then there's a problem with your RPG. Imagine playing Final Fantasy and you had to give your Fighter the Bronze Axe to get through a forest and still had to fight with it, even though you got a +12 Silver Sword! It's no wonder people hated these things! But I don't think getting rid of them and introducing Rental Pokemon was a good solution either and adds a different, albeit less intrusive problem.

Gym Leaders

So, how do Gym Leaders work?

Much like your rivals, they'll be randomly generated. Let's say, hypothetically, there's a pool of 60 Gym Leaders and Elite Four members. The game will randomly generate 16 to be Gym Leaders. The generator will have some kind of complicated math (at least, too complicated for me) so that you don't have more than 2 gyms of the same type. (Example: Misty and Nessa might be Active Gyms, Siebold can't be selected for a Gym cause the Water Slots are taken).

As a trade off, some Gyms might have special conditions before you can challenge them. Like, if you got stuck with Koga as a Gym Leader, than he'll only let you in if you complete a nearby dungeon and help his daughter out cause he doesn't trust her to make it back on her own. Or, like, Claire's a Gym Leader, but she won't battle you unless you've collected 7 Gym Badges prior at least.

The Gym Leaders, as mentioned before, will get progressively stronger with each badge obtained. After the 8th badge, you can go and climb Victory Road, face the E4 and confront the Champion! You can keep hunting Gym Leaders, but just remember that the E4 will always be 10 Levels above the strongest gym you beat. And they'll just get stronger with every one you beat until all 16 are slain.

Another handful, let's say 8, Gym Leaders/E4 Members will be wondering around as NPC Trainers. The justification is that this big super region is in some Alternate Universe Pokemon Game that has all the Pokemon and other important trainers in it, hence why we can have a game where Roxanne and Lenora are hanging out at a coffee shop. They're not Rivals, more like stronger NPCs you can rematch and wonder the map. They're not here to be the very best like no one ever was.

I mean, I'd like, like, 10-20 instead of 8 extras, but let's not get TOO greedy...yet...

Elite Four

And now, it's time to flip the script. Cause if E4 members can be Gym Leaders, then who are the Elite Four?

Easy. The Rivals.

All the Rival characters will be put in a random generator as well. The four that are chosen. You can have an Elite Four made up of Wally, Marnie, Hau, and Barry and you gotta deal with it.

This is excluding Brendan and May, Blue, and Calem and Serena. Anyone else is fair game.

Champion

So, the Champion. Who would it be in this? There was a funny idea I had, but this is a Pokemon Game. So there would be two versions. We'll call them Pokemon Dawn & Dusk. The difference between these games is the game Champion!

Benga would be the Champion of Pokemon Dusk, the grandson of Alder! His final Team will include Volcarona, Garchomp, and Dragonite, Pokemon he used in Black and White. I'd also include Scrafty, Rampardos, and Golurk, Pokemon used against you in White Treehollow and Black Tower areas.

Meanwhile, the Champion of Pokemon Dusk will be Zinnia, the Lorekeeper! Her team would include the Goodra, Tyrantrum, Altaria, Noivern, and Salamence she used in her original team, with her plucky Whismur sidekick becoming an Exploud and her ace.

You would've met them in the beginning of the game and would've showed off a bit by helping you with Team Wild before. They'll pop in and out throughout the game, at first amused by your tenacity, but not wanting a rookie like you to get hurt. But if you keep bonking Team Wild, they'll be impressed with how strong you are.

The show up to chat again when you beat 8 Gym Leaders, and will pop in if you White Out to give you some advice. White Out three times and they'll feel bad for you and give you an egg. Benga will give you a Larvesta Egg and Zinnia a Bagon Egg.

EXTRAS

So I don't got a lot of ideas for the Post Game, but there is one idea I thought would be cool if, if after you defeat the champion, they give you a call. They'll tell you that there are strong trainers wondering the Overworld and to be careful.

Because dotting the overworld will be Champions passed and proper! Cynthia, Blue, Lance; all of them are rocking Lv 100 Teams and are out for blood. They won't challenge you, but if you talk to them, there will be no backing out of the battle! You come with your A-Game!

sI'm not exactly in love with the idea of Team Wild. Maybe the Evil Team should go full fanservice and just be Team Rainbow Rocket. Or maybe go half-and-half; having past Evil Team members and leaders walk around in cowboy gear and acting as Team Wild executives.

I'd also would love Tournaments. Like, maybe that could be a weekly event in some town, they'll how tournaments and the characters that aren't designated as Gym Leaders and such will attend. Maybe there's a cash prize, maybe you'll win Pokemon Eggs of rare, guaranteed shines, or maybe you'll get some kind of important quest items.

Yeah, I want quests! All sorts of side quests! And can't forget what I'd do with Legendairs;

If you know Bengal's team, you'll know he's got the Lati Twins. I don't like that personally and would prefer Legendaries to be Super Bosses. Like, you gotta do a lot to find them. And when you do, their stats are boosted and they become an Uber Boss! You catch them in a cutscene after you beat them!

There's also just a ton of characters I didn't get around to or really have a place for. Emma, Looker, N, and the Stat Trainers all come to mind. Overall, I'd want them to pepper the world as well, but don't have anything to say except this: Pokemon has made a lot of memorable characters. Both good and bad. And this is probably my dream Pokemon Game; one where you can hang out with your favorites

#Pokemon #Pokemon Dawn and Dusk #Fan Game #Fanfic Bible #Plot Bunny #JAC Notes

[thestylesindependent]

Inside Eroda, the fictional Harry Styles island that’s baffled the internet

Full Text from The Telegraph 4/12/2019

It all started on November 20. A Twitter account opened in October released its first post: “The Isle of Eroda’s rich history is embedded in daily life as the ruins of many structures from the past remain standing across the land. #VisitEroda”

It looked like a new marketing campaign for a little-visited, off-beat beauty spot. But a quick search would show it didn’t actually exist. Yet, Eroda had a website. Advertisements for the place were popping up on Facebook and Google. People interested in all manner of nerdy subcultures were foxed – it had the whiff of a clever marketing campaign about it, but what was it for?

Within hours, an Eroda subreddit had been created to discuss it. People dived deep into web hosting details, and only became more baffled as they seemed legitimate: “it ain't no kid doing a school project”. Was it a scam, a game, an elaborate prank? Some were convinced it was the beginning of a new Cloverfield film, World of Warcraft, a new Channel 4 series or even a means of human trafficking.

Meanwhile, scores of “Harries”, the sub-group of Directioners dedicated to Harry Styles, were piecing bits of evidence together. The pop star was due to release Adore You, the second single off his forthcoming sophomore album. “Adore” backwards was “Eroda”, and the video, released on November 23, looked like it had been shot in St Abbs, the Berwickshire fishing village where Styles had been spotted shooting in August. As Eroda claimed more of the internet, Harries  – some of the most forensic fans in the world – were sent into a flurry of investigation.

The goliath churn of a pop star marketing campaign is fairly familiar by now: cryptic social media teaser, excitable release date news, lyric video, full video, rinse, repeat.

Styles, who will release sophomore album Fine Line on December 13 and Adore You on Friday, satisfied many speculating fans on Monday with a near-three-minute-long trailer for the single, along with an illustration of the star standing in the ocean, surrounded by fish.

To those who had been studying Eroda for the past 10 days it was the confirmation they had been hankering for: Eroda was a Harry Styles project, and it confirmed what they had always known – that he is an artist beyond the normal realms of pop frippery (by contrast, former bandmate Louis Tomlinson spent the same afternoon releasing a video in which he sings in a bunker wearing a Stone Island parka).

Styles’ trailer introduced Eroda, showing it to be an island in the middle of the Irish Sea “shaped unmistakably like a frown, it is home to an all-but-forgotten fishing village that has had perpetual cloud cover for as long as anyone can remember”. Scenes appear of a typical coastal village, with crashing waves and brave little houses facing them. It gets increasingly weird: we learn that it is bad luck to “mention a pig in a fisherman’s pub” and to “whistle in the wind, in case you turn a gust into a gale”; the island mustn’t be left on odd-numbered days.  

The inhabitants of Eroda’s village always frown, calling it “resting fish face”. Until, that is, a beaming baby appears amidst the gloom. Deemed “peculiar” (a word that pops up a lot), the boy – who grows up to become Harry Style – was outcast, leading him to deal with his angst by screaming into jars. “He had lost his smile, and without it, the world grew darker, the wind colder, and the ocean more violent” the pan-European narrator explains. “Loneliness is an ocean full of travellers trying to find their place in the world”, she continues, as Harry finds himself bonding with a stubborn fish, before the film ends “to be continued…”

So far, so intriguing. But delve a little deeper into Eroda and you may find yourself wanting to visit. The island’s website – beautiful island views and a template dating back to the late Noughties – looks remarkably similar to those for any other charming coastal holiday destination, say Bute or Oban. “No Land Quite Like It”, reads Eroda’s strapline, before offering a familiar-enough menu: Accommodations, Attractions, Guide, Home and About Eroda. The video is similarly convincing: “Make memories for your senses at VisitEroda.com”, a dulcet-voiced woman encourages over shots of crabmeat and speedboats.

It didn’t take long for the Harries to take over the Eroda subreddit, moderators becoming increasingly rigid in ruling nuggets of unrelated Eroda flotsam irrelevant to the cause of discovery (such as the user who wanted to discuss Eroda, but without any intervention from the Harries). Tumblr users were similarly invested: “What do the ominous references to Him portend? What are they serving at those town dinners? You think it’s a cute little coastal AU [alternative universe] but upon closer examination it’s full-on Wicker Man meets Hotel California meets Nightvale in the afterlife (which is what most of those places are anyway so sure why not),” posted 1D Discourse of the Day.

The whole thing is littered with wordplay. Eroda, for one, is Adore backwards (Harry’s next single is called Adore You). But, as Directioners have pointed out, the copy throughout the website nods to forthcoming Styles songs: The Fisherman’s Pub is located on the corner of Cherry Street and Golden Way (Cherry is one new song, Golden is another); the album will be released on Friday, 13 December and Eroda recommends avoiding a departure on an odd-numbered day. Eroda’s fishermen wear a single gold earring for good fortune – a look historically sported by Styles.

Directioners went further still: the hosting for VisitEroda.com and Styles’ website, doyouknowwhoyouare.com, were owned by the same company, MarkMonitor.inc. Social media pixels linked pages about Styles with Eroda. Fans became suspicious over Visit Eroda adverts appearing not on their social channels or YouTube, but, of all places, on Wikipedia. “I'M FROM FRICKING PORTUGAL,” a baffled Reddit user posted. “NOTHING EVER HAPPENS HERE. WHY IS THIS HERE”.

Eroda had analog presence, too. A4 pamphlets – the kind of thing one could make on MS Publisher circa 1998 – appeared in the freesheet boxes on the pavements of Manhattan. At a promo event in Paris, Harry was asked about Eroda by a fan. He remained silent, but those who were there claim he “made a face”.

By November 29, more evidence arrived. A short film “advert”, which used footage from the trailer released on Monday, was screened by a new Harry Styles fan account from “Eroda”. They said the film appeared in a cinema in Kinlochbervie, on Scotland’s northern coast; the Eroda account then started to tweet about cinema screening times.  Eagle-eyed fans were swift to post screengrabs, showing similar island formations in the background of both the Eroda advert and that featuring Styles. The two were linked.

Kinlochbervie was, fittingly, a bit of a red herring: the footage shown in both the advert and the video trailer was actually taken in St Abbs, a picturesque fishing village in Berwickshire that’s no stranger to a rolling camera – it was “twinned” with New Asgard after being used as a location for Thor’s new home in Avengers Endgame.

Styles was there in August, shooting, it appears, a few things for the forthcoming album campaign. He and his crew used Angela Morris’s cottage, in St Abbs’ Sea View Terrace, as a green room during the three days of filming in the village, after Morris had responded to a note being popped through the door from a filming company. “One Thursday I was just coming home from work and there was Harry walking into the house,” she tells me. “All of the costumes were in the living room, make-up was going on in the kitchen.

“I asked if I could wait in the garden before my husband and I went out for the evening, so I just sat there when Harry came out,” Morris said. “I think he was having a coffee, and he sat down and chatted, asked me about bits and pieces about the village. I was talking to him about his Gucci clothes and we had a bit of a laugh. I wasn’t too starstruck, really, and I think he appreciated that.” Later on in the shoot, Styles invited Morris and her husband to share a glass of champagne with him and the crew.

While the shoot interrupted the sleepy pace of life on St Abbs for a few days – Morris says that visitor numbers had already been boosted by Avengers Endgame but small crowds of teenage girls began to crop up after word spread of Harry’s location – most villagers, she reckons, are pleased to see the place put on the map: “Most people I saw were embracing it and interested to see what was going on.”

A German artist named Mario Klingemann was, however, more incensed when his holiday collided with the shoot: “I didn't know who Harry Styles was until today when I learned that he's the guy who blocked off the entire St Abbs harbour and prevented us from enjoying our fresh crab rolls," he posted on Twitter, aggrieved.

But Morris found out about Eroda much like everybody else – through Facebook. “It’s really odd,” she assess. “Lovely footage of beautiful St Abbs, though.”

Long-lens pap shots from that shoot certainly seem to match up with what we’ve seen of Eroda so far. Styles gangles around in Seventies suits, befitting the aesthetic of his trailer. The smoking gun, though, is the presence of a young woman with hair that brings to mind a Dr Seuss illustration, or the hat Princess Beatrice wore at the Cambridges’ wedding. VisitEroda’s “about” page explains: “The primary occupation in Eroda is fishing, however, the island’s art scene has recently started to develop. In particular, Erodean hairstyles have become a rather bold expression of self amongst the island’s youth”. Clearly, these are scenes of Eroda that are being filmed.

There’s an unmistakably ominous air to Eroda, and some believe the video for Adore You will see some misfortune befall Styles – there were reports of a (fake) gunshot being filmed in St Abbs while he was there.

But what happens next is arguably less intriguing than what we’ve been given with Eroda so far. We are well-used to being nudged and prodded by pop stars ahead of a new release. Major albums aren’t so much brought out as “dropped” or “leaked”, arriving online in the middle of the night before their fans disseminate them through the internet. Fans, rather than critics, are given early listens – and under tight NDAs. Artists will clear their channels to mark a new direction, only to give us elaborate photoshoots and contrived poetry to create a “concept”.

Eroda is undeniably a “concept” – themes of loneliness, peculiarity, conformity and happiness have been woven into the fictional island from the off. But it’s been artfully done; look deep enough into the Reddit forums and you’ll see non-Styles fans begrudgingly accepting that this is the work of a former boy band frontman, rather than that of a somehow more “serious” game creator, filmmaker or even musician. Furthermore, it’s fun – and that’s all too rare in a pop world where things have become obsessed with authenticity, and a rogue comment can result in “cancellation”. One Directioner popped up on a thread only to add, “As someone who works in marketing/promotion... This is fucking genius. Harry Styles' team is tops”, and it’s difficult to disagree.

After a decade in which stars have had to up their social media presence to survive, tweaking and teasing their listenership in ever-increasing desperation to retain shrinking attention spans, Styles is closing out the 2010s with the greatest album campaign we’ve seen so far. As an artistic statement, it suggests the 2020s will be his to claim.

#harry styles #eroda #press #the telegraph #dec2019 #long post

[kpopcotton]

Simply Soft ~ NCT DREAM

a/n ~ i love them and can’t stop thinking about them, so here’s what activity they enjoy doing with you • Prompt: doing dishes and wanting a cute boy to help me out (spoiler) • Genre: platonic fluff, bullet point scenario, ot7 and nct member!reader • Warning(s): heartache, desire to have a friendship like the dreamies do, one curse word • Reader Gender: gender-neutral

==≎==

Mark

duets? duets.

doesn’t matter when or where, mark wants to hear your voice

either singing or rapping

sometimes acoustic, sometimes with music in the practice room where you can also dance together

basically, mark just wants to spend time with you so he is able to praise you for everything. he knows how quickly you can get self-conscious

very proud of your singing ability and always starts yelling about getting chills when you hit a note just right

loves hyping you up when you get out a good rhyme or when you rap along to his parts in songs

though with such busy schedules, you sing together more often than anything else

you both find a nice corner and he starts strumming the chords of his guitar and boom, magic

there are countless videos of you two singing together to the soft melody of the stringed instrument

one time you invited chenle (he always finds a way to bring it up during vlives) and he played the piano for you guys while you all sang a sweet love song

the amount of clips and memes made from your duets is immeasurable

you find one on your feed at least once a day 

sometimes you find cute aesthetic edits of screenshots where mark is giving you heart eyes while you sing, but most of the time they’re short videos of you and mark unintentionally being sexy while dancing or rapping 

the captions for those usually rant about you both being rude or disrespectful with the rare “i would let them ruin me” 

it always makes you guys feel super flustered in the beginning though you end up laughing it off like school girls and making the hard stan tweets into inside jokes

but all in all, mark just loves giving you the confidence he knows you deserve

“yo! dude, oh-ho shit! that’s my best friend! go best friend!”

==≎==

Renjun

you’d think renjun’s favorite thing to do with you is dance, or sing, maybe even draw

nope

honestly, people think you guys hate each other since you are rarely seen interacting

fans freak out when you give each other even the most simple skinship like a pat on the shoulder or put an arm around each other for a group picture

or when you happen to touch while posing for photoshoots

but what people don’t realize is that you and renjun are roommates at the dorms

neither of you sleeps in your own bed alone, ever

your room stays cold year-round so it’s better to give each other warmth under the safety of each other’s blankets, or at least that’s your agreed upon logic

so skinship is super common between you, though he doesn’t like to be all over you in public or in front of the other members because they love to tease

renjun’s absolute favorite thing, though he’d never admit it, is getting to stay up late with you, watching horror movies and having deep talks about time travel or aliens

he feels the safest when he is in your shared room with you, sitting on whoever’s bed seems the comfiest that day

it makes the stress of idol life melt away because he knows he can talk to you about anything

sometimes (these are your favorite moments) he gets very a little paranoid from a horror movie or is in a cuddly mood because he’s tired, and shyly asks to lay on your chest to listen to your heartbeat while you play with his hair

“can you maybe scratch my scalp?”

==≎==

Jeno

it’s no secret this boy is jacked, ripped, muscular, however you want to say it

so, it’s obvious he likes working out with you, right?

wrong

two words, video games

no matter how busy you two are, you always find time to play at least one round of some sort of video game

waiting for your stylists? just one look and you’re already pulling out your nintendo switch to play a few quick rounds

the winner of rock, paper, scissors gets to pick which game it is

which means you always get the choice and you always pick smash bros

things can get pretty heated between you both as well 

you both get very competitive when it comes to gaming together

you never yell at each other, only dance your hearts out when you get annoyed

fans find it funny because they know exactly when jeno lost and exactly when you lost before a stage

though you don’t always get upset 

you could never truly get upset with jeno and neither could he with you

he’s your puppy and your his teddy bear

jeno finds the growls you make when you’ve messed up super cute so he starts smiling

you find his samoyed eye crescents when he smiles terribly adorable so you obviously start smiling too

and, you both end up hanging off each other, nuzzling the other’s cheek and giggling like children

then maybe gag a little at each other for being so sweet

“you’re so cute! i can’t stand it!”

==≎==

Haechan

he’s the type to do the most

you know how he acts with taeil and mark? yeah, it’s at least ten times worse with you

lingering touches, flirty comments, pet names

the works

you’ve gotten so used to it that you don’t even react anymore

oh, his arm’s around your waist? when did that get there? you can’t recall

his favorite thing to do is cuddle with you or when he’s feeling extra playful, he’ll wrestle with you

hyuck is almost always laying on you and/or looking at you like you’re the only person in the world though to all the members, you are their world

one vlive, you wanted to be a brat so you started spoiling something that was coming up which caused the guys to start yelling at you to stop

you didn’t

so next thing you knew, haechan was on top of you in two seconds flat, holding you down and covering your mouth

chaos ensued shortly after

you licked his hand and retaliated, leading you two to roll around on the floor while trying to pin the other 

jeno was laughing with chenle, who’s joyous dolphin laugh was almost drowned out by the sound of him flailing his arms and legs

jaemin was scolding you both, saying you were being too loud

jisung was trying to save hyuck from your wrath 

renjun was staring into the camera like he was on the office while sighing and shaking his head

when you all finally calmed down and started talking about what you were supposed to be, you and haechan were cuddling with him sitting between your legs and your arms around his waist

“yeobo~ your embrace is so warm!~ hold me forever!~”

==≎==

Jaemin

the domestic boyfriend we all know and love

so of course, he loves doing the little things with you

like grocery shopping, or waking up the other members when you all have early schedules to treat them to breakfast

homemade of course

his favorite thing to do with you is experiment with food and watch cooking shows, however, he prefers to watch holiday baking competitions to get ideas for treats to make for the other members

it’s almost always cookies

but if the boys are lucky, you and jaemin hunker down to bake a cake

after you wash your hands, he insists on tying your apron for you like a gentleman, but he expects you do it in return

always grabs your hands when you finish tying and pulls them forward to get you to back hug him 

you always comply and bury your face in his neck while mumbling something along the lines of “you’re welcome” to get him to either let go of you or regret having initiated the situation in the first place

contrary to popular belief, you both stay mostly clean throughout the whole process

unless the other members join and help, a.k.a. the cast of chenji’s this or that

jaemin always has to swipe something onto his son’s jisung’s cheek which makes the younger boy protest and fight back

chenle cackles childishly and wants to join, but once you wrap an arm around his shoulders and praise him for being mature, it instantly convinces him otherwise

he likes seeming mature and sophisticated in front of you

you get a rag to clean both of the messy boys up

jisung will protest every time, saying he can do it himself

jaemin gives him THAT look and he quickly lets you clean him up

will move to sit down for you to clean his face, just so he can have you stand between his knees and be in arms’ reach

the younger boys cringe when he gives you his signature fan-sign stare and rests his arms around your hips, asking for a kiss when you finish

will throw a fit if you don't peck his forehead

heart cookies are a must, jaemin will never not make cookies in the shape of hearts for you and the members

not valentine’s day? who cares, the cookies will always be hearts

“it’s how much i love you in the physical form of my sweetness!”

==≎==

Chenle

chenle: my nct bias is taeyong

you: *walks in the room*

chenle: taeyong who? i only know y/n

he’s literally your biggest fan

always finding reasons to call you or hang out with you

it is hard to find him without you or you without him

chenji’s this or that needs a special guest? always you, the managers and staff have no choice

you have a specific concept photoshoot with the older members? chenle is your plus one

again, the staff and managers have no choice

he is always talking about you like you’re some higher being

he loves video chatting you while you both go about your days

he likes being able to look over and see your face or having the subtle background noise of your breathing

will cry when you haven’t talked in five minutes a while

he’s that attached to you

usually, the one to call first, but when you call first he melts into a puddle of pure joy

his favorite thing to do with you: sitting 

together obviously 

though it doesn’t actually matter because if you aren’t around he’ll just call you to do the same thing

if you have your license, he will always ask if you guys could go for a drive and listen to music

but if you don’t, the couches at the dorm is just a good a place as any

he sits right next to you and usually holds onto your arm while resting his head on your shoulder

becomes so calm in your presence, people wonder if he’s sick or feeling sad

nope, he’s just relaxing with you after an eventful day

when he has to go home, he always whines and pouts. he almost throws a fit sometimes and you have to calm him down by promising to video chat him as soon as he gets home

asks his mom to let him stay the night a lot, though she rarely lets him

sometimes, when he does get to stay, he wedges himself between you and renjun in bed

renjun complains, but you shut him up quick

the bed is already pretty small as is, but you three make it work by snuggling up close to one another

chenle is in heaven because most times, both you and renjun wrap him up in your arms and he’s just sandwiched in a loving cuddle

the sounds of your shallow sleeping breaths give him the best sleep of his life

“never leave my side, y/n. i need you to relax.”

==≎==

Jisung

the sweetest boy for you

and only you

the other members get so petty when they see him trailing after you like a baby duckling after its parent

always commenting on how he can’t stay five feet from you ever 

though they’re literally the same way?

you may not treat jisung like your baby, but that doesn’t mean he’s not your baby

always right there when you’re cooking, waiting to be your taste-tester

when he’s feeling upset, you’re the first one he reaches for

always offering to help you when he thinks you need it

even if you don’t need it, he’ll still stand by you and watch you complete the task

that being said, his favorite thing to do with you are chores

your turn for laundry? there he is, struggling to fold the t-shirts

you want to tidy up the bedrooms? has a trash bag ready for you in his hands

his favorite chore is doing the dishes

to him, you make it so much fun

you share an airpod with him and turn on some hyped playlists to dance along to

you wash and he dries

the smile on his face never leaves

will laugh uncontrollably when you start messing around with the bubbles from the soap or sing into a pancake turner

sometimes you pull him away from drying for a quick duet

most of the time it’s you spinning him around and dipping him like they do in the movies

he’s such a graceful and talented dancer, but he becomes a flailing beanstalk blowing in the wind when you dance with him

always trying to get back to the job at hand, but you don’t let him until you’ve had your fill of dancing to the music

when you finish the dishes and put them away, you always give him a high five and a hug to thank him for helping you

you think that’s why he always comes back

“a-are you sure we can dance in the kitchen like this? yah, we might break something!”

#in conclusion #these boys love you to death #also #i love these boys #i want a friendship like them ;-; #nct dream imagines #nct dream x reader #nct dream x male reader #nct dream x you #mark lee x reader #huang renjun x reader #lee jeno x reader #lee donghyuck x reader #na jaemin x reader #zhong chenle x reader #park jisung x reader

[thesunnyshow]

Name: Megan

Writing Blog URL(s): @yunocity​

What fandom(s) do you write for? NCT (127, Dream, Wayv, U)

Age: 20

Nationality: Asian American

Languages: English, Hmong with limited knowledge in Chinese and Korean

Star Sign: Sun: Scorpio, Moon: Taurus, Rising: Aquarius 

MBTI: ESTJ-A

Favorite color: Black, red, white

Favorite food: Spring rolls

Favorite movie: Miracles in Cell No.7, Love Rosie

Favorite ice cream flavor: Mango

Favorite animal: Baby pandas

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?: Tea!

Dream job (whether you have a job or not): Marketer for a luxury fashion company or a high-end makeup brand

Go-to karaoke song: Video Games- Lana Del Ray

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose?: Mind Reading!

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose?: Roaring 20s

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?: No, I think the way my life is laid out is how it’s supposed to be. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve learned from them. I think if I were to restart my life, I’d not be who I am at this moment and I like who I am right now, I like who I’ve grown to be! 

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?: 100 chicken-sized horses 

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?: The dancers/athletes!

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures?: I’m skeptical about them so yes 

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know?: If you look closely, my eyes are different shades of brown!

When did you post your first piece?: May 11, 2020

Why did you decide to write for Tumblr?: I’ve been on Tumblr for a long time, but I’ve only gotten into reading other accounts’ works 2-3 years ago. Eventually, they inspired me into wanting to make my own writing account and share my stories and ideas!

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr?: Nope!

What inspires you to write?: My emotions and ideas. Also reading old texts from people I love or used to be in my life, tv shows/movies/kdramas, vision boards, and aesthetics of different countries around the world. Most of the time, my mind just comes up with wild random scenarios.

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively?: I take a break! I’d close my laptop and usually go dance (it’s a way for myself to take a break, yet still feel physically inspired), spend time with family, grab a snack, do some digital art, or research a conspiracy theory!

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?: Yes, I write smut (legal members only ofc), angst, and general. I write those kinds of genres because those are the most common and there’s so much that you can do with them! You can write them however you want and write whatever kind of plot you see fit, there’s so much flexibility.

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc?: As of right now, I have been writing for “X Readers” because I want to be really inclusive of everyone! I don’t think I’ll go into OCs or ships (assuming idol and another idol?) because I don’t see that as inclusive. I most likely will stick to “X Readers”.

Who is your favorite person to write about?: Jaehyun from NCT

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most?: I’ve only gotten to post one kind of au (arranged marriage au), but some that I have in my drafts that I absolutely enjoy are idol au, friends to lovers au, enemies to lovers au, mafia au, fwb au, and mythology au. A genre I also love writing is angst!

What is your writing process like?: I usually write at night after I shower and do my night routine. I plug in some headphones, play some music that fits the mood of the story presently, and start writing! If I have writer’s block, I’ll usually watch some old mvs that bring back old memories!

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful?: I haven’t published it yet, because it’s still under the wraps and I want to post about other members too, but I have a mythology au with Jaehyun and it’s my absolute favorite right now! I can’t wait to post it!!

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?: Yes and no! Yes, because whenever I think of (original) prose I think of a technique of writing that flows naturally with speech and has grammatical structure, so as long as stories have those skills, I would consider them as so. We as humans actually speak, write, and think in prose because it’s seen as a straightforward language and conversational speech. No, because at the same time prose consists of many things. There are several types of prose (non-fictional, fictional, heroic, poetic), so if a story states that it is a specific prose, I would say there is a difference!

What do you think makes a good story?: Emotion 100%. The ability to write with emotions without straightforwardly telling the readers what kind of emotion is felt within a character. Also description of an environment, again, having the ability to describe a moment without stating it like it’s supposed to be obvious. 

What do you hope your readers take away from your work?: The emotion that my writing invokes from them. I want them to read my work and feel the emotion that I’m trying to provoke! Also the fact that I work hard and put a lot of thought while being realistic as I can with the plot! 

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story?: Not yet!

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand?: Ones that I love are enemies to lovers, friends with benefits to lovers, friends to lovers, different worlds (metaphorically), and I have some more that I can’t think of! Ones that I cannot stand are, stuck together to lovers, secret billionaire, childhood marriage promises, amnesia, and “If i can’t have you, no one will!!” 

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)?: Definitely my process/planning; on how I think of a story and plan it out on my iPad with a bunch of side notes and idea webs.

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you?: Oh, it means so much, I can’t even explain. I love it when I get asks that tell me about how mad they are, how much they cried, or how happy they are about something that happened in the story. It means a lot because it means that they actually read through my work and enjoyed it. I love it when my followers and anons talk to me in general!

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged?: Yes, I definitely think that we get judged for being too much in our head or having too many unrealistic fantasies. Fanfic writing is just another way of expressing our ideas simply with the person we adore from a group, it doesn’t necessarily mean we fantasize it to happen. 

Do you think art can be a medium for change?: Yes! I think that any idea from the mind that expresses emotion and inspiration visually or not, is considered an art. There’s a lot that goes into writing than what people think! Such as finding the creativity for metaphors in a story that will not only bring out emotion from the character and reader, but also a visual representation to symbolize the emotion. 

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself?: Yes, I always get asks asking me when I’ll update, but it’s not too much of a bother because I know they’re just really excited for the next part or another set of work. 

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?: Not at all, I think I do a fairly good job at writing to the point where there’d be no misunderstandings. 

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr?: No, I like to keep it private because I’d rather have them not tease or make fun of me for what I genuinely like to do. 

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers?: That I literally love them all so much and I appreciate each and every one of them. I mean it from the bottom of my heart, they’re all so nice, welcoming, and supportive. It encourages me to write more! 

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there?: Definitely go for it! You’ll never know until you try! There will be people who don’t like it, but those who truly love your writing will support you forever, will stick around, encourage you, and lift you up. Be confident in your writing, be confident that your brain came up with such an amazing plot/story and has woven so many things together to create it!

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey?: I do have a few mutuals that I talk to. One of them has read my story and given such good feedback, which I loved because I’m always looking for opportunities to grow as a writer. 

Pick a quote to end your interview with: “Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.” -Will Smith

BONUS K-POP CONFIDENTIAL

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#yunocity #thesunnyshow #featured author #nct #nct 127 #nct dream #wayv #nct u

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Top 10 Games of 2019

This was an extremely good year for games. I don’t know if I played as many that will stick with me as I did last year, but the ones on the bottom half of this list in particular constitute some of my favorite games of the decade, and probably all-time. If I’ve got a gaming-related resolution for next year, it’s to put my playtime into supporting even smaller indie devs. My absolute favorite experiences in games this year came from seemingly out of nowhere games from teams I’ve previously never heard of before. That said, there are some big games coming up in spring I doubt I’ll be able to keep myself away from. Some quick notes/shoutouts before I get started:

-The game I put maybe the most time into this year was Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I finally made the plunge into neverending FF MMO content, and I’m as happy as I am overwhelmed. This was a big year for the game, between the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and the Nier: Automata raid, and it very well may have made it onto my list if I had managed to actually get to any of it. At the time of this writing, though, I’ve only just finished 2015’s Heavensward, so I’ve got...a long way to go. 

-One quick shoutout to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that came out on Switch this year, a remaster of some DS classics I never played. An absolutely delightful visual novel series that I fell in love with throughout this year.

-I originally included a couple games currently in early access that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I removed them not because of arbitrary rules about what technically “came out” this year, but just to make room for some other games I liked, out of the assumption that I’ll still love these games in their 1.0 formats when they’re released next year to include them on my 2020 list. So shoutout to Hades, probably the best rogue-like/lite/whatever I’ve ever played, and Spin Rhythm XD, which reignited my love for rhythm games.

-Disco Elysium isn’t on this list, because I’ve played about an hour of it and haven’t yet been hooked by it. But I’ve heard enough about it to be convinced that it is 1000% a game for me and something I need to get to immediately. They shouted out Marx and Engels at the Game Awards! They look so cool! I want to be their friend! And hopefully, a few weeks from now, I’ll desperately want to redact this list to squeeze this game somewhere in here.

Alright, he’s the actual list:

10. Amid Evil

The 90’s FPS renaissance continues! As opposed to last year’s Dusk, a game I adored, this one takes its cues less from Quake and more from Heretic/Hexen, placing a greater emphasis on melee combat and magic-fuelled projectiles than more traditional weapons. Also, rather than that game’s intentionally ugly aesthetic, this one opts for graphics that at times feel lush, detailed, and pretty, while still probably mostly fitting the description of lo-fi. In fact, they just added RTX to the game, something I’m extremely curious to check out. This game continued to fuel my excitement about the possibilities of embracing out-of-style gameplay mechanics to discover new and fresh possibilities from a genre I’ve never been able to stop yearning for more of.

9. Ape Out

If this were a “coolest games” list, Ape Out would win it, easily. It’s a simple game whose mechanics don’t particularly evolve throughout the course of its handful of hours, but it leaves a hell of an impression with its minimalist cut-out graphics, stylish title cards, and percussive soundtrack. Smashing guards into each other and walls and causing them to shoot each other in a mad-dash for the exit is a fun as hell take on Hotline Miami-esque top down hyper violence, even if it’s a thin enough concept that it starts to feel a bit old before the end of the game.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I had a lot of problems with this game, probably most stemming from just how damn long it is - I still haven’t finished my first, and likely only, playthrough. This length seems to have motivated the developers to make battles more simple and easy, and to be fair, I would get frustrated if I were getting stuck on individual battles if I couldn’t stop thinking about how much longer I have to go, but as it is, I’ve just found them to be mostly boring. This is particularly problematic for a game that seems to require you to play through it at least...three times to really get the full picture? I couldn’t help but admire everything this game got right, though, and that mostly comes down to building a massive cast of extremely well realized and likable characters whose complex relationships with each other and with the structures they pledge loyalty to fuels harrowing drama once the plot really sets into motion. There’s a reason no other game inspired such a deluge of memes and fan fiction and art into my Twitter feed this year. It’s an impressive feat to convince every player they’ve unquestionably picked the right house and defend their problem children till the bitter end. After the success of this game, I’d love to see what this team can do next with a narrower focus and a bigger budget.

7. Resident Evil 2

It’s been a long time since I played the original Resident Evil 2, but I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was highly skeptical of this remake at first, holding my stubborn ground that changing the fixed camera to a RE4-style behind the back perspective would turn this game more into an action game and less of a survival horror game where feeling a lack of control is part of the experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much they were able to modernize this game while maintaining its original feel and atmosphere. The fumbly, drifting aim-down sights effectively sell the feeling of being a rookie scared out of your wits. Being chased by Mr. X is wildly anxiety-inducing. But even more surprisingly, perhaps the greatest upgrade this game received was its map, which does you the generous service of actually marking down automatically where puzzles and items are, which rooms you’ve yet to enter, which ones you’ve searched entirely, and which ones still have more to discover. Arguably, this disrupts the feeling of being lost in a labyrinthine space that the original inspired, but in practice, it’s a remarkably satisfying and addicting video game system to engage with.

6. Judgment

No big surprise here - Ryu ga Gotoku put out another Yakuza-style game set in Kamurocho, and once again, it’s sitting somewhere on my top 10. This time, they finally put Kazuma Kiryu’s story to bed and focused on a new protagonist, down on his luck lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. The new direction doesn’t always pay off - the added mechanics of following and chasing suspects gets a bit tedious. The game makes up for it, though, by absolutely nailing a fun, engrossing J-Drama of a plot entirely divorced from the Yakuza lore. The narrative takes several head-spinning turns through its several dozen hours, and they all feel earned, with a fresh sense of focus. The side stories in this one do even more to make you feel connected to the community of Kamurocho by befriending people from across the neighborhood. I’d love to see this team take even bigger swings in the future - and from what I’ve seen from Yakuza 7, that seems exactly like what they’re doing - but even if this game shares maybe a bit too much DNA with its predecessors, it’s hard to complain when the writing and acting are this enjoyable.

5. Control

Control feels like the kind of game that almost never gets made anymore. It’s a AAA game that isn’t connected to any larger franchises and doesn’t demand your attention for longer than a dozen hours. It doesn’t shoehorn needless RPG or MMO mechanics into its third-person action game formula to hold your attention. It introduces a wildly clever idea, tells a concise story with it, and then its over. And there’s something so refreshing about all of that. The setting of The Oldest House has a lot to do with it. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Rapture or Black Mesa as an instantly iconic game world. Its aesthetic blend of paranormal horror and banal government bureaucracy gripped my inner X-Files fan instantly, and kept him satisfied not only with its central characters and mystery but with a generous bounty of redacted documents full of worldbuilding both spine-tingling and hilarious. More will undoubtedly come from this game, in the form of DLC and possibly even more, with the way it ties itself into other Remedy universes, and as much as I expect I will love it, the refreshing experience this base game offered me likely can’t be beat.

4. Anodyne 2

I awaited Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s new game more anxiously than almost any game that came out this year, despite never having played the first one, exclusively on my love for last year’s singular All Our Asias and the promise that this game would greatly expand on that one’s Saturn/PS1-esque early 3D graphics and personal, heartfelt storytelling. Not only was I not disappointed, I was regularly pleasantly surprised by the depth of narrative and themes the game navigates. This game takes the ‘legendary hero’ tropes of a Zelda game and flips them to tell a story about the importance of community and taking care of loved ones over duty to governments or organizations. The dungeons that similarly reflect a Link to the Past-era Zelda game reduce the maps to bite-sized, funny, clever designs that ask you to internalize unique mechanics that result in affecting conclusions. Plus, it’s gorgeously idiosyncratic in its blend of 3D and 2D environments and its pretty but off-kilter score. It’s hard to believe something this full and well realized came from two people. 

3. Eliza

Eliza is a work of dystopian fiction so closely resembling the state of the world in 2019 it’s hard to even want to call it sci-fi. As a proxy for the Eliza app, you speak the words of an AI therapist that offers meager, generic suggestions as a catch-all for desperate people facing any number of the nightmares of our time. The first session you get is a man reckoning with the state the world is in - we’ve only got a few more years left to save ourselves from impending climate crisis, destructive development is rendering cities unlivable for anyone but the super-rich, and the people who hold all the power are just making it all worse. The only thing you offer to him is to use a meditation app and take some medication. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that this whole structure is much less about helping struggling people and more about mining personal data.

There’s much more to this story than the grim state of mental health under late capitalism, though. It’s revealed that Evelyn, the character you play as, has a much closer history with Eliza than initially evident. Throughout the game, she’ll reacquaint herself with old coworkers, including her two former bosses who have recently split and run different companies over their differing frightening visions for the future. The game offers a biting critique of the kind of tech company optimism that brings rich, eccentric men to believe they can solve the world’s problems within the hyper-capitalist structure they’ve thrived under, and how quickly this mindset gives way to techno-fascism. There’s also Evelyn’s former team member, Nora, who has quit the tech world in favor of being a DJ “activist,” and her current lead Rae, a compassionate person who genuinely believes in the power of Eliza to better people’s lives. The writing does an excellent job of justifying everyone’s points of view and highlighting the limits of their ideology without simplifying their sense of morality.

Why this game works so well isn’t just its willingness to stare in the face of uncomfortably relevant subject matter, but its ultimately empathetic message. It offers no simple solutions to the world’s problems, but also avoids falling into utter despair. Instead, it places measured but inspiring faith in the power of making small, meaningful impacts on the people around you, and simply trying to put some good into your world. It’s a game both terrifying and comforting in its frank conclusions.

2. Death Stranding

For a game as willfully dumb as this one often is - that, for example, insists on giving all of its characters with self-explanatory names long monologues about how they got that name - Death Stranding was one of the most thought provoking games I’ve played in a while. Outside of its indulgent, awkwardly paced narrative, the game offers plenty of reflection on the impact the internet has had on our lives. As Sam Porter Bridges, you’re hiking across a post-apocalyptic America, reconnecting isolated cities by delivering supplies, building infrastructure, and, probably most importantly, connecting them to the Chiral Network, an internet of sorts constructed of supernatural material of nebulous origin. Through this structure, the game offers surprisingly insightful commentary about the necessity for communication, cooperation, and genuine love and care within a community.

The lonely world you’re tasked to explore, and the way you’re given blips of encouragement within the solitude through the structures and “likes” you give and receive through the game’s asynchronous multiplayer system, offers some striking parallels for those of us particularly “online” people who feel simultaneous desperation for human contact and aversion to social pressures. I’ve heard the themes of this game described as “incoherent” due to the way it seems to view the internet both as a powerful tool to connect people and a means by which people become isolated and alienated, but are both of these statements not completely true to reality? The game simplifies some of its conclusions - Kojima seems particularly ignorant of America’s deep structural inequities and abuses that lead to a culture of isolation and alienation. And yet, the questions it asks are provocative enough that they compelled me to keep thinking about them far longer than the answers it offers.

Beyond the surprisingly rich thematic content, this game is mostly just a joy to play. Death Stranding builds kinetic drama out of the typically rote parts of games. Moving from point A to point B has become an increasingly tedious chore in the majority of AAA open world games, but this is a game built almost entirely out of moving from point A to point B, and it makes it thrilling. The simple act of walking down a hill while trying to balance a heavy load on your back and avoiding rocks and other obstacles fulfills the promise of the term ‘walking simulator’ in a far more interesting way than most games given that descriptor. The game consistently doles out new ways to navigate terrain, which peaked for me about two thirds of the way through the game when, after spending hours setting up a network of zip lines, a delivery offered me the opportunity to utilize the entire thing in a wildly satisfying journey from one end of the map to another. It was the gaming moment of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

The first time the sun exploded in my Outer Wilds playthrough, I was probably about to die anyway. I had fallen through a black hole, and had yet to figure out how to recover from that, so I was drifting listlessly through space with diminishing oxygen as the synths started to pick up and I watched the sun fall in on itself and then expand throughout the solar system as my vision went went. The moment gave me chills, not because I wasn’t already doomed anyway, but because I couldn’t help but think about my neighbors that I had left behind to explore space. I hadn’t known that mere minutes after I left the atmosphere the solar system would be obliterated, but I was at least able to watch as it happened. They probably had no idea what happened. Suddenly their lives and their planet and everything they had known were just...gone. And then I woke up, with the campfire burning in front of me, and everyone looking just as I had left it. And I became obsessed with figuring out how to stop that from happening again. 

What surprised me is that every time the sun exploded, it never failed to produce those chills I felt the first time. This game is masterful in its art, sound, and music design that manages to produce feelings so intense from an aesthetic so quaint. Tracking down fellow explorers by following the sound of their harmonica or acoustic guitar. Exploring space in a rickety vessel held together by wood and tape. Translating logs of conversations of an ancient alien race and finding the subject matter of discussion to be about small interpersonal drama as often as it is revelatory secrets of the universe. All of the potentially twee aspects of the game are balanced out by an innate sense of danger and terror that comes from exploring space and strange worlds alone. At times, the game dips into pure horror, making other aspects of the presentation all the more charming by comparison. And then there’s the clockwork machinations of the 22-minute loop you explore within, rewarding exploration and experimentation with reveals that make you feel like a genius for figuring out the puzzle at the same time that you’re stunned by the divulgence of a new piece of information.

The last few hours of the game contained a couple puzzles so obfuscated that I had to consult a guide, which admittedly lessened the impact of those reveals, but it all led to one of the most equally devastating and satisfying endings I’ve experienced in a video game recently. I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s not only my favorite game this year, but easily one of my favorite games of the decade, and really, of all-time, when it comes down to it.

#outer wilds #death stranding #eliza #anodyne 2 #control #judgment #resident evil 2 #fire emblem: three houses #Ape Out #Amid Evil #games #video games #GOTY

[j-rock101]

歌手：　　　水曜日のカンパネラ アルバム：　SUPERMAN 曲：　　　　一休さん …………………………………注釈

一休さん -- Ikkyu-san, a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet of the Muromachi Period, esteemed for his poetry in the Classical Chinese style. He believed in the importance of zazen meditation above anything else, and also a major critic of the politics of temple life, which often made him quite unpopular with the higher-ups of the temples. At the same time, he was also seen as a vagabond-figure, who drank excessively and frequented brothels, which he argued deepened his enlightenment. He was also a major figure in various traditional Japanese arts, including tea ceremony, sumi-e ink painting, and calligraphy. His flute-playing was also seen as one of the major influences on the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism, a movement known for its monks who often play the shakuhachi flute and wear a woven basket on their heads while begging. (*)

Seen as both a heretic and a saint, Ikkyu is more popular as a folk hero. For most Japanese, he is most widely known from the animated TV series Ikkyū-san, a fictionalized account of Ikkyu’s childhood. He solves a variety of problems and riddles, helping poor farmers and outsmarting greedy merchants, often in a rather tongue-in-cheek way. One of his quirks is the pose he assumes while solving a riddle, cross-legged and rubbing his fingers in circles around his head. The most famous of his トンチなぞなぞ riddles are “The Bridge” and “The Tiger in the Folding Screen.” (*)

一休 means “one pause,” and so throughout the song SuiKan plays on that dual meaning, creating an image of a procrastinating genius who claims, perhaps rightfully, that taking a quick break would improve his thinking. The phrase 「下手な考えは休むに似たり」 (“It’s hard to tell a poor thinker from a lazy one”) is an actual idiom in Japanese, used to tell someone to take a break instead of wasting their time on a futile endeavor, or even to taunt an opponent for taking too long to decide their next move in a game. Here, however, it seems to be used almost as an excuse for Ikkyu-san to slack off. In Ikkyu-san’s world, you have your wits or you don’t; there is no try.

The chorus especially deals with a lot of word play. The syllables of Ikkyu’s name are flipped from “一休さん Ikkyusan” to “サンキュー Sankyu,” the Japanese pronunciation of “Thank you.” おつかれ is a common greeting in Japanese, often used to thank someone for their hard work, but it comes from the word 疲れる, literally meaning “to be tired.” The real question is Ikkyu-san working hard, or hardly working?

Kowloon Walled City -- The setting of the music video is an anachronistically retro club atmosphere completely at odds with the zen aesthetic of a temple but probably not unlike a rowdy evening at the red light districts the original Ikkyu frequented. Filmed in an entertainment facility modeled after Kowloon Walled City, the music video captures the romantic dystopianism the now demolished city is nostalgically remembered for. A haven for drugs, gambling, and prostitution, the actual walled city in Hong Kong was a site for both triads and squatters, but has been used as the setting of numerous martial arts movies from Jackie Chan to Van Damme. (*) From the punchy KOMU-ZOU to the use of Chinese in the subtitles, the movie blends the lantern-lit vibe of Hong Kong culture with the folk story of Ikkyu, creating a lone bomber, a hero for the partying masses taking on the corruption of organized crime the way the real Ikkyu stood up for the common man in the folk stories.

「ハッとして!Good」and KitKat -- 「ハッとして!Good」is a popular single by Tahara Toshihiko from the Showa era, a softer and more romantic contemporary to the Hong Kong martial arts movies the video references. The song tells the story of meeting a woman in a telephone box on a hill with whom the singer immediately falls in love:

ハッとして　グッときて パッと目覚める　恋だから フッとした瞬間の　君は天使さ Because of this love that took my breath away, Touched my heart and fluttered open my eyes, Suddenly in that moment, you were an angel

The song was also used in a Glico Almond Chocolate commercial where the singer Tahara meets another Showa idol, Matsuda Seiko, at a telephone booth. They fall in love and enjoy Glico chocolate together. (*)

Here though, SuiKan changes the chocolate to a Kit Kat, perhaps playing on the long-lived tagline for the chocolate popular in the 80s when it was being marketed as a break time snack to get you through a long day of work, “Have a break. Have a Kit Kat.” (*) To reflect that, I veered away from a translation that mirrored the romanticism of 「ハッとして!Good」to a more playful and awkward “gulp.” Knowing Ikkyu, however, there’s no guarantee he’s retiring to his temple bed alone.

湾岸署 -- Wangan Police Department is the department portrayed in the Japanese blockbuster Bayside Shakedown (踊る大捜査線) TV and movie series. The second movie in the series, Bayside Shakedown 2 (踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 2 レインボーブリッジを封鎖せよ! 2003), is the highest-grossing Japanese live action movie, and in the climactic scene, the police block off the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo to catch a suspect. In the movie, the blockade is a rather difficult task (although one that is successfully overcome), that requires all sorts of paperwork and permissions. In reality, however, it seems police can and have blockaded the bridge quite simply, both for natural disasters and accidents. At those times, radio commentators and newspaper headlines have joked “Rainbow Bridge really has closed!” (*) However heroic the police of the Bayside series are, however, they would likely prove no match for Ikkyu.

Sutras and Pandemonium, Wooden Fish and Disco -- In contrast to the original story in the folding screen, the tiger here seems to be successfully summoned, perhaps as some kind of divine punishment for some misbehaving lords? Sutras are typically recited by Buddhist monks as a preparation for meditation or for rituals, but often in pop culture they are attributed magical powers, as seen in anime characters like Hino Rei (Sailor Moon) and Miroku (Inuyasha). Whatever the result, the lords have fallen into Pandemonium--either a literal screaming and shouting uproar over or a loose tiger, or perhaps a more sinister fate. Much like the English word Pandemonium, “阿鼻叫喚 abikyokan” has connatations with Avici, the lowest level of Buddhist hell to which those who commit the gravest sins are cursed. (*) The real-life Ikkyu-san caused quite a lot of problems for the higher-ups, and here it’s unclear whether the real source of the lords’ ire is the tiger or the degenerate priest. But ultimately, now that the tiger has been released, the only one who can tame it is the priest they so despise.

A wooden fish bell is a percussive instrument unique to Buddhism, often played to count out the rhythm for sutra recitation. Some stories say that the shape originated from one monk who, while on a journey, broke a promise to fish who helped him. As punishment, the fish splashed the priest, soaking the valuable sutras he carried with him. In his irritation, the priest carved out a bell in the shape of a fish to beat out his frustration… but with every beat of the bell, out popped another syllable of the sutra, until the priest had regained everything that was lost. While fish bells did exist in the Muromachi period when Ikkyu-san actually lived, they really began to be used in earnest during the Edo period, when Ikkyu-san Banashi grew in popularity with the Japanese masses. It is also the sound that accompanies the animated Ikkyu-san’s thinking time. (*,*)

Here, however, the fish bell is not being used for its original purpose of reciting sutras, but to beat out the rhythm to “Y.M.C.A.” As one of the most popular songs all around the world, I imagine “Y.M.C.A.” hardly needs an introduction. But I do think its selection, as one of the ultimate disco party songs that balances both unironic praise of an upstanding religious organization with the subtext of a popular cruising spot for gay men in the 1970s, was very intentional. To many, especially Westerners with a Christian background in particular, this might seem to be a contradictory, even hypocritical image, as they might be inclined to think of religious figures and organizations as symbols of chastity and restraint. (And indeed, the actual Y.M.C.A. has not always had such an accepting view of the song or LGBTQA+ identities.) But Buddhism does not actually forbid sexual relationships for priests, and many temples in Japan have a long history of musical performances as traveling musicians often used them as cheap accommodations while on the road. It would not be so unusual then, to see a group of priests singing and dancing along to “Y.M.C.A.”, and it is perhaps in thanks to figures like Ikkyu-san, who merged the austerity of Buddhist Zen and worldly revels into one harmonious world.

（音楽→） （歌詞→） （英訳→）

#一休さん #水曜日のカンパネラ #Ikkyu-san #Ikkyusan #Wednesday Campanella #Suiyoubi no Campanella #注釈 #Annotations

[fyrapartnersearch]

|| 𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊𝖗𝖘 ||

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𝐼'𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝑒 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎…

𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉…


haha ^^


To all the curious ladies and gents out here, you may call me Imp.

Short, sweet and straight to the point. ;)


I am a lady in her twenties, with a strong penchant for roleplaying, writing, and drawing. The Holy Trinity if you will. I am a huge nerd and aesthetic lover boy - plain and simple. One of my main passions being video-games, illustrations, comics, live-action films, series and anime/cartoon shows, elements that shaped me during my years of growing up.



It’s been a while since I’ve posted my first ever ad on any website, and I was very much positively surprised by the amazing people that have reached out to me.

And since I am a greedy little mf, I wanted to fish for more partners. I’ve been roleplaying for a few years now and gradually gathered a good amount of experience throughout the years, but it’s always fun to meet and learn something new.




Name: Imp



Age: 27 years



Experience: 11 years



Preferences: 1:1 Roleplaying



Partner: Should be at least [18+], but I rather much prefer my counterpart to be 21 years or older 



EMAIL: [email protected]

I am a very creative sort of individual with hundreds of ideas constantly occupying my little impish head. And I am very spontaneous too, so I can always adjust to a new setting, depending on how good and compelling the concept is.

Inspirations come from various sources and origins, be it a fandom (an already existing universe) or an original storyline. Please read through these paragraphs carefully before you decide to contact me! It’s important to avoid any misunderstanding later! And I would less likely respond to a message with the title ‘Hey, wanna rp?’, since I hadn’t had any good experiences with these said messages.  Thank you. 


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Communication: It’s certainly chill. You can talk to me about whatever occupies your mind since I am very open and always happy to listen to others. I also tend to be chatty, sharing a meme or a joke every now and to loosen up the mood. If you consider choosing me as your roleplaying partner, be sure to maintain a certain consistency. I have nothing against going on a longer break or even a hiatus, but the whole `ghosting stick´ is something I have no patience for. So if you’re unsure of upholding a stable, long term partnership, feel free to skim past this ad. 

 Plotting: Also very important to note! I am fairly quick when it comes to building new characters, concepts, premises, storylines, backstories, etc… This means there is certain flexibility available which allows me to adjust. Even though it is a hobby, I am still extremely passionate about good storytelling and interesting character arcs. I hope to meet someone who is just as enthusiastic and willing to put in the same amount of effort as I am. If it’s only me who’s pulling all the weight, I will lose interest fast, just to get it out there. Aside from that, I love going a little crazy with the possibilities and push things to their absolute limits. Of course within the boundaries of the given setting.

 Pairing & Romance: Okay, right off the bat, I am a hopeless romantic through and through. I enjoy good and strong chemistry between characters just as much as the next, and this will be no exception. I prefer the good ol’ MxF pairing because I have more experience with this. But I also like playing a FxF dynamic or MxM. Everyone is welcome! When it comes to pairing itself, I want to make sure our creations are compatible, for I hate forcing characters into a romantic relationship for the sake of progression. A natural flow is what I am aiming for. ;)

 Mature? Yes, very much so:  Adult and taboo topics are absolute. There’s no way around it because, in my stories, it is a running theme. The adult world is not easy to handle, but it’s definitely interesting to explore. That includes violence, cursing, shocking content, and all that dark stuff. My limits are few, safe for a couple of minor pet peeves that I have, I am pretty much open to some experimentation. When it comes to action-heavy scenes (be it an intimate situation between two characters or something on a cataclysmic scale), I won’t fade to black since I am not a huge fan of censoring. However, I will not force or push my partner into something they are not comfortable with. If you want to know the extent to how far I am willing to go, what sort of content or how detailed my writing will be, you can ask me directly. As for smut or lemons, whatever you call it, it will never be the focus of any of my roleplays, but I enjoy a good erotic scene with a lot of tension (if they are good). 

 Boundaries: Not a big fan of things like pedophilia, necrophilia, scat, bestiality, or those dreaded ‘futas’.

Inspirations and interests: There’s a pretty broad spectrum of what I deem interesting and inspirational. From fallen angels and demon/monster hunters, mages, criminal masterminds, cybernetically enhanced characters to futuristic dystopian settings, ancient kingdoms who have fallen against the test of time. All of it causes my heart to skip a beat. For original content, I’ll just give a brief list of bullet points of the general themes that fall in line with my current interests. 

Writing: My texts are lengthy, detailed, and elaborate. Third-person is usually my preferred way of playing my character unless there’s a special case where an exception can be made. Word count usually fluctuates, though I have a standard form of 400-500+ words per response. It also highly depends on the given situation. I don’t want to set anything in stone… just to give you a basic idea of what you’re in for. I also expect my partner to have an at least adequate, if not decent grasp on basic grammar and punctuation. 

 Doubling: Yes, absolutely! If you are prone to doubling, chances are I might accept you as my partner straight away! Although I have nothing against the simple form of roleplaying, doubling is something I’ve done since my first time joining. 

 Characters: Very character-driven with the main focus being on interaction. I take my time writing characters and love nothing more than well-structured sheets that illustrate the vision of their creator. (But!) There’s no need to write 10-20 pages worth of character information, but I wouldn’t want to limit you either. As for the depiction of the given character, I won’t be as presumptuous as to tell you what sort of medium you can and cannot use. Face claims such as photos of real models, illustrations, 3D models, drawings or descriptions are all okay. As long as it gets its point across, I am happy.

 Aversions: A few minor things that irritate me, or let’s say, aren’t really my style are one-liners, low effort responses and out of character behaviors in canon characters. We all have different takes on characters, which is totally fine by me since I basically do the same. Though if the character acts and behaves unlike their personality dictates, it will break the immersion. I hope to stay true to my own words when saying this. If it happens on my side, just let me know! Another pet peeve of mine is that one plot that has been done time and time again…. and I’ve grown quite jaded towards it, which is ‘supernaturals trying to fit into human society’ thing… I mean, I’m not opposed to borrowing from this idea, but for me, it grew old pretty fast. Speaking from experience.

 Passione: My wish is to find a partner whom I can have a good time with and develop some chemistry. After all it is a fun hobby. We both should have fun with what we’re writing. Brainstorming among other things is one of my favorite things to do. To see how things unfold and how the characters react to the given situation is the highlight of any story.

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FANDOM:



I love roleplaying fandoms just as much as I have a blast with building something original universes. Worldbuilding is my preferred cup of tea… but if we opt for something more fandom inspired, I highly welcome in on expanding on the given universe and add some original lore too!

Hellsing: Haven’t done that one before and I am curious as to how things play out, especially in such a dark and mystifying universe like Hellsing. There’s a lot of subject matter that we can delve into, plus I am a big fan of powerful vampire characters!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: I would love you for this. No, seriously, I would. This fandom has sucked me into a downward spiral and there’s no possible chance of escaping this inescapable void. The absolute insanity of this franchise had me hooked from the second I laid eyes on it and I would be forever ecstatic if you’d message me on behalf of roleplaying Jojo. I have plenty of ideas for this one, just you wait.

Full Metal Alchemist: One of my favorite mangas and animes ever made. Recently I’ve begun rewatching FMA Brotherhood and felt a small hint of nostalgia swelling inside my blackened heart. I’d be open to play it, though it is not one of my top cravings at the moment.

Justice League / Young Justice / Justice League Dark: Huge DC fan, though I much prefer the animations and comics over the live-action cinematic. Let’s just say, I like the expansive and dynamic set of possibilities and deep, well-written cast. For instance Hellblazer Constantine or Raven.  

Bayonetta: Need I say more? Let’s dance boys!

APH Hetalia: That includes the 2P version ;)

The Boys: Well.. the 2nd season came out. And I am simply stoked.



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ORIGINAL: 



Supernatural: From angels to demons, from gods to monsters, I’ve seen it all and I absolutely love it. There can be any sort of creature or being involved, ranging from vampires to sirens to elves, you have it. However, I’ve never done something quite relating to angelic beings and their offspring before. I’ve read up on Nephilim and angels and found it rather fascinating, and it’s a different approach from the usual vampire vs werewolf cliche. 


Crime and intrigue: I never stray too far from the supernatural path, but hell, there’s nothing better than some good old gritty mafia inspired stories with a complex cast of characters and a solid storyline.

Sci-fi and urban fantasy: So this could be basically anything from genetically engineered superhuman (superheroes / - villains) with a dark take on the human psyche, dismantling the idea of heroism and villainy. Or a world where mankind began their interstellar journey to colonize neighboring planets, galaxies before transcending their own humanity by merging themselves with deadly technology. I have a few plans for this…

Historical and mysterious setting: So one of my favorite eras is the Victorian time period, 30s - 40s - 80s, Renaissance or Ancient times during the rise of the Egyptian / Roman / Sumerian Empire. During these times, a dark discovery was made by man, learning that they were not alone in this world. In fact, they weren’t even the supreme race that destined themselves to dominate the world, for another race of humanoids have lied dormant deep beneath the earth, slumbering through the millennia only to be re-awakened by a cataclysmic event. These ancient humanoids are gods among men, superior in every way imaginable, and they have made it their mission to reclaim their right to rule. But their nature is not what most people think it is…

The idea: I have an idea for a plot, in which I can give you if you ask for it. It is however merely a suggestion for what we could write - not a mandatory thing. If you don’t like the idea, we can always figure stuff out and keep on home-brewing till we find something we both can enjoy. There’s no need to immediately end things if the first thing doesn’t really fire you up.



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If you’re still here and haven’t fallen asleep reading through my loooong paragraphs, then I would like to thank you for bearing with me this far. I am looking forward to your messages. 

Have a wonderful day!

#indie rp #indie roleplay #independent roleplay #oc rp #multiple paragraph #para #semipara #long term #email #spn rp #smut rp #dc rp #aou rp #submission #jjba #jjba rp #supernatural rp #mafia crime #hellsing #hellsing rp #full metal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist rp #justice league #justice league rp #bayonetta #bayonetta rp #hetalia #hetalia rp #the boys #the boys rp

[bi-bobbysoxxers]

Heyy y'all! I was tagged by @meiyanaalexia Thanks for the tag, fam!

Rules: List ten of your fave female characters from your ten fave fandoms and then tag 10 other ppl!

This list is by no means comprehensive or a ranked list, as i think all my fave characters are equally bad betches, in their own right xD alright let's get to it!

-Tamari and Lady Tsunade (Naruto/Naruto Shippuden)

Tamari's one of the more cool, levelheaded female side characters in naruto and idk, she's very much Gaara and Kankuro's rock, and idk, i like that. I view her as a very strong female character, and i think she carries a lot of badass masculine energy. Plus she's a badass fighter as well. (((And she's hot but that's beside the point lol))) I like Lady Tsunade a lot, but i admit, i wasnt a fan of her at first. But now that I'm seeing her character unfold in Shippuden, I like her a lot. I like the concept that she's kiind of a grouchy, reluctant leader of the leaf village, cause that makes her seem like a very reliable leader, in a way. I think she's hella underrated as a strong character, tbh. Plus i like that she's a healing ninja, cause it seems so opposite to her outward personality. The more i watch naruto the more i'm really liking more of their female characters, tbh.

Quotes!

Tamari: "Sharpen your karma at sunset."

Tsunade: "People become stronger because they have things they cannot forget. That's what you call growth."

-Lucy and Kiyoko (Bungou Stray Dogs)

oh wow, uh, not gonna lie, i really like this anime more for most of the male characters, but Lucy and Kiyoko have alswas been in my faves list. I didnt really understand Lucy's character in season one but as the plot thickens, so does her issues with wanting to morally become a better person, but still being fairly new to learning to become selfless. I think a lot of people can relate to her because she can be fairly emotionally erratic, and she struggles with the whole "forgiveness thing." But later on you see that all she really wanted was a true family and friends that value her. And i think that's something we all want, deep down. Also, her powers are highly unnderrated and badass and i love how she is slowly becoming a protector for ppl like Atsushi, which really shows her growth as a character.

I also put Kiyoko on this list because i think she is equally as good of a female character as Lucy is, but for dif reasons. I loveeee the whole concept of "initially bad" characters soon wanting to become good. There's a simplicity in her character that i think models Atsushi's in a way, i mean they're both damaged, but both yearn to do good and make a comeback with the chances they've been given in life. If Lucy was a Tarot Card she would be the Fool. I also love how steadfast she is in her newfound family and how much she believes in everyone in the ADA now. It's very wholesome and pure :3 also i love her and Atsushi's relationship, it kinda reminds me of me and my BFF's ride or die relationship, lol.

Lucy: "Make sure you survive...Then come back for me. I'll be waiting."

Kiyoko: "I saw a bright world. I cannot go back to a time when I didn't know such a thing existed."

-Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)

Ugh, there's so many things about this character that I have always loved and adored. Her character design, her quiet whimsical weirdness. Her determined loyalty to the people that accept her. Her lovely simple wisdom, at times. Like Harry said, Luna is just "...coooll." She kinda reminds me of me when I was a teenager but way cooler lol.

Luna: "My mum always said things we lose have a way of coming back to us, in the end."

-Lara Croft (Tomb Raider movies and videogames)

Laura is....a simple character by design. If anything, the plotlines and video game design of the Tomb Raider franchise are way more intricate. And yeah...there's her misogynistic character design (Note: the impossibly snatched waist and bOoBiEs in earlier games.)

BUT. I still stan her for a multitude of reasons. Growing up, there were may more princess characters than female warrior characters and ya know, I'm really glad I was exposed to Lara Croft movies and the Tomb Raider: Legend video games as a kid. I think Laura taught me that you can definitely embrace your feminine side and still be a badass and follow your dreams. Even now, after me finally figuring out i'm not cis, i know, that she's still an icon for most kids out there. And for me too. She was a symbol of bravery, intelligence, as well as still being a character of emotional depth, grieving the loss of her parents while vowing to continue to do what she loved, which is exploring. Cultural and moral problems with her character aside, i still find both her and her stories very inspirational, both as a bigender queer person, and as a designer.

Laura Quotes: "The line between our myths and truth is fragile and blurry."

"The extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are."

-Scorpia (She-Ra)

Oh wow, i could go on for days about how much i love thus character. If you're queer or fun in any capacity you've probably watched the final season fo She-Ra by now and spoilers aside, i just love the journey this character went on from start to finish. Scorpia is so genuine and nice, and sometimes that puts her in situations where she has to make hard decisions. And idk, those decisions just made that character so much better for me. On a lighter note, Scorpia is great queer rep, especially for butch lesbians, lesbians, trans ppl, androg ppl, and gender nonconforming ppl. She's always said things that have resonated with me as a queer person and aside from that, she's a very excitable and fun character. She just excudes so much curiosity and joy that you really can't help but like her, lol.

Scorpia: "I am brave, strong, loyal, and i give great hugs!"

-Sypha (Castlevania)

Altho I personally don't view Sypha as a cis woman, (I see her as nonbinary or agender), I think the way characters treat her in the show is indicative that in that period, they view her as a woman. So i figured I could put her on this list as well lol. Anyways, uhhh wow, Sypha is great, there's so much I love about her that it's hard to put into words. I love that she regards herself as a "scholar" of magic, but still views herself as a heretic, I just find it pretty funny and very sexy of her lol. Aside from that, I think Sypha is a great character who always seeks out logic where there usually ends up being none. I love her cheeky remarks to both Alucard and Trevor, and I love her can-do attitude. At the end of the day, she's one of those characters you love just for her great energy she carries for herself within the show. There's really no rhyme or reason to her, she just, is. She subverts many female mage character tropes as well, being a natural badass. Also her god jokes are so damn funny.

Sypha: "See?? God hates me!?

-Aunt Sarah (Derry Girls)

Okay first of all, if you havent seen Derry girls, pleaseeee watch it, holy shit it's the funniest show i've seen in a longass time. Second of all, my friend and I are still going thru the show, but Ajnt Sarah has started to become one of my favorite characters. She's one of those very aloof characters that you kinda ignore at first but then her character just has these amazing one liners and she really grows on you. Also she is very caring about her family and she's cute as hell???? I'm sorry but like her aesthetic is just on fuckin point, like??? Go off babe?? Anyways yeah she's cute.

No quotes for her since that might ruin some of the better punchlines if you end up watching the show lol.

-Marga (Cable Girls)

Yeah, if you want a really good 1920's drama that focuses on women, go give Cable Girls a try! It is very poetic in its direction lol. Anyways, Marga is one of the "new girls" at the beginning of the show and she is just, so earnest, and genuine, and pure. And I love her. She's very nice to the other girls working and she's got some great one liners. She's that timid, cute character that slowy comes out of her shell throughout the show lol.

-Kiki and Sheeta (Studio Ghibli)

I loveee Studio Ghibli films, and one of my two fave films of Miyazaki are Kiki's Delivery Service and my ultimate fave, Castle in the Sky. I adore Kiki as a character because she is your quintessential cute witch, and her journey with finding and grasping her full powers are very relevant to me, and my journey with upholding my creativity as a designer. As well as being a great movie with a great lessom for all artists, Kiki is a very passionate and genuine character, who's resilency has inspired me in hard times. I love her relationship that she has with other ppl as nd creatures, especially with her cat Gigi. She's cute, i love her lots.

Sheeta, I love for different reasons. Sheeta is one of those rare instances where a quiet protagonist, really works. I love her calm and humble, yet powerful energy surrounding her. I love her background, and how there has always beem magic inside of her, even if she's not a practicing witch. She is so very humble and a very introspective character. There's not a lot of female protagonists quite like her. Plus she's adorable as well, lol.

-Aunt Hilda, Zelda, Prudence, and Lilith (CHAOS)

I'm not gonna get into super specifics since i love all these characters equally, but I will say that all these characters absolutely MADE this series for me. I personally found Sabrina's character very annoying and slightly egotistical (i mean she's allowed to be i suppose,lol) but these characters were just so much fun!

I love Aunt Hilda for her soft personality and great revenge comebacks. I love Prudence for her aesthetic, character design, and amazing characrer development throughout the series. I love Lilith, for being both a BAMF and. MILF, lolz. And finally, i absolutely adore Zelda's character, for being so poised, calculating, blunt, and yet so very badass and loveable xD I love everything about her character, tbh.

There's so many good quotes from each character, so just watch the show, lol.

Andddd i think that's it! Sorry this was super long, I wanted to state my reasoms for why these characters were on the list, lol. Hope you liked some of my character analysis, feel free to screech with me about shows anytime lol. I'd love more good show recs!

You def don't have to go as hard as I did on this but I tag:

@heathen-beast @iquotetheravennevermore @sweet-communist @gardiewithyou @sawayakakuns @shortlady72 @thatonegirluniverse @thatlowkeyhipster @letting-and-living @beauxxxtifullies @catastrafey

Anyone else can participate if they feel like it! Have fun lol. Let's love our great women characters lol.

#thanks for the tag #tag games #elo speaks #choas #studio ghibli #harry potter #bsd #derry girls #cable girls #naruto #she ra #tomb raider #castlevania #bungou stray dogs

[migstheruler]

PLaystation 5 Event

initially great, despite the horrible pre-orders ordeal.

On Sept. 16, 2020, Sony pulled back the curtain on another slew of details regarding the PS5.

1.       The PlayStation 5 releases on November 12th, 2020 in Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States (why these states, only Sony knows even though I think it’s because of their distinct market in each of these countries).

2.       The PlayStation 5 releases everywhere else on November 19, 2020.

3.       The PlayStation 5 launches at $399.99 for the digital edition and $499.99 for the disc-based edition.

*IF backward compatibility with the PS4 is important to you, I’d recommend the disc-based PS5. Sony execs have confirmed 99% of PS4 games are compatible with their new Flagship console.

   The event also gave us a look into some new games coming to the PS5 for launch as well as games we can expect during the first year of the PlayStation 5’s life cycle. Honestly tho, I think some of those games indicating they were launching during 2021 is a lie. You mean to tell me you’re going to launch Horizon, God of War 2, Final Fantasy 16 all in one year…..really… If these games were dique going to launch in 2021, you would think they would have had at least a working demo or something, instead of a teaser trailer with the games logo…but I digress, I’ll touch on this later.

 Below are a few games showed that caught my eye and I just had to write about them.

Overall, Sony’s PS5 presentation was a good one, with all the information we as consumers were asking for since June and 10/10 would watch again (I’ve seen the presentation 4 times already (twice to write this piece 😊)).  

The presentations started with a trailer showing a slew of different games coming to the PlayStation five system, most games we covered in https://migstheruler.com/post/620830163010240512/ps5-reveal-event but just when you thought this was another trailer, boom!!!

Final Fantasy 16

A nice mix of old and new: as if the folks from Final Fantasy 11 and 12 made a 15 esque type game.

Shiva the ice goddess is back, and looking deadlier than ever throwing out chilly ice crystals sure to cause anyone level seven frostbite

Who´s a good boy? This little pup looks ready to be pet and given treats.

 It looks like our trusty steeds the Chocobos are back, hopefully, they are more useful this time around )I’m looking at you final fantasy seven episode one)

Marlboros are looking as menacing as ever.

 Final Fantasy 16 was pretty unexpected to be honest, especially given final fantasy seven episodes one releasing a few months ago. However, it’s a nice surprise to see Square Soft jk Square Enix working on a new Final Fantasy game, especially one that likes to expand upon the action RPG elements (Think kingdom hearts series or final fantasy 15 and even 7).  Aesthetically, this is giving me hardcore fantasy elements with realism thrown in there.

Either way, what a great way to start off the presentation.

  Spiderman Miles Morales:

Next up, Sony gives us a seven-minute look into Spiderman Miles Morales, which expands upon 2018’s PS4 Spiderman. Sony has said this is not a direct sequel but instead a look to further expand upon the world through the eyes of Miles Morales. The graphics and presentation of this game are sure to entice any spiderman man. The lighting coupled with Mile’s powers makes this game a visual PS5 treat.

 Last time we saw Miles, he had just shown Peter Parker he too had powers to which Peter Parker joined him upon the ceiling, it was a bonding moment the two spider-men would have. Fast forward maybe a year (I’m not sure how much time has passed since the last spiderman game) we are thrusted into the shoes of Miles Morales.

  “Mom I’m home” Can we take a moment to appreciate my man’s line up here, dam that shit looks crispy.

Walking through Harlem, music playing, and folks dancing Salsa in the street. I’m not going to lie, this made me cheese from ear to ear.

This is what I expect to encounter when I have to mediate between clients ready to rip each other apart in a gory fashion (above).  

 Okay, knowing how strong spiderman is, I fully expect the dude’s Jaw to be broken after this power punch.

I forgot to mention (above) Miles can turn Invisible and has access to electric powers (below) sure to spruce up and affect the way Miles plays. I can only imagine a focus less on gadgets and more of an emphasis on Miles’ powers.

Although I know this game stars a new spiderman aka Miles Morales, the developers sure are making sure we know  we’re not playing with Peter Parker anymore.

“Insert obligatory spiderman being pulled from different directions trope here” I’m not even going to front; this image is pretty cool.

Lastly, how dope is this launch title? It is one of the first games I plan to beat on my PS5.

-          I do want to say one thing regarding this title. I think it’s pretty great from a representation perspective to see a Black and Puerto Rican spiderman. Representation matters. I’m not Puerto Rican but am Latino and I do appreciate the flags littered throughout the trailer, folks dancing salsa and overall, Miles Morales as a character.

One gripe I have with this game unfortunately is Sony’s anti-consumer stance regarding those that purchased 2018’s Spiderman. Folks that purchase the Deluxe Spiderman Miles Morales edition for $79.99 get both Spiderman Miles Morales and a supped-up version of 2018’s spiderman for the PS5, yet Sony hasn’t extended an olive branch to those of us that supported their 2018 game (even making it one of their best sellers). IF you want to play Spiderman Miles Morales, you can cop it for a cool $49.99 which is dope but doesn’t include any type of upgrade for those of us with the PS4 version of spiderman. Honestly, as someone that doesn’t plan on playing the game again but it’s pretty anti-consumer to not even offer some type of benefit to those PS4 supporters. Here’s to hoping they offer some type of upgrade via a patch to the PS4 spiderman.

·       Turns out the game will run natively better on the PS5 given the consoles superior power but for a truly next gen 2018 Spiderman experience, you gotta pay those $69.99 duckats.  

   Looks Like we’re going back to Hogwarts and I’m not talking about Fantastic Beasts or Harry Potter. We received our first look (aside from the leak that was released last year). In Hogwarts Legacy, we go back to the late 1800s to visit the Wizards of the Waverly place (I think I said this right, I’ve only seen the Harry Potter movies once all the way through). Either way, it looks like they managed to capture the magic of Hogwatz. The walls of Hogwarts look alive, books flying all over the place and magic spewing from cauldrons of unknown potions.

 Our journey begins going back to Hogwarts with a cool looking Owl to boot.    

 The sorting hat is back babi, it seems like this is a create your own character adventure, where we as the player will get to customize our very own character, sure to get into whatever wizardly fun is to be found.  Team Slytherin all day!! JK, I’m team Gryffindor babi. But really tho, I have no idea what school I’d be assigned too.

  In both of these pictures, its quite remarkable the little details you see; the more you look, the more you see. Did you see the candles above, or the candlelight below

Looks like our boys are cooking up work in the kitchen aka cauldron. I’d also like to bring attention to the lighting, truly impressive.  Time to eat some delicious grub with my fellow wizards!! (Below)

 Looks like we’ll be facing a litany of different monsters and foes. I know with my Avada Kedavra, I’ll be blasting fools like the one below away.

 Dam son, we fighting Dragons out here too, sheesh.

Looks like combat will be a big portion of gameplay as the video showed of a created character fighting some pretty large beasts.

Looks like we’ll be playing quidditch in this game, and I honestly can’t wait.

I sure do hope we’re able to feed these little cuties and pet them.

Looks like this game is open world, as the characters are seen flying on Griffins across the vista. They draw distances in this game are spectacular.

Hogwarts Legacy launches in 2021.

 *JK Rowling has no involvement with this game and that’s a good thing given her recent problematic statements.

  Demon Souls

Full disclosure, I bought demon souls for the PS3 back in the day but unfortunately, did not stick with the game. It was fun and I would proceed to play other From Software and souls genre games in the future such as Sekiro, Bloodborne and Nioh to name a few. But here we have Bluepoint games remaking the PS3 Cult Classic and precursor to the Souls Genre. I for one am super excited to jump back in and try my hand again at Demon Souls.

 This place here is the game’s main hub that allows you to access other portions of the world map. IT’s nice to see it in all it’s HD Glory.

Our Player is borne anew: Rise from your grave!!! JK, this isn’t a Sega title.

The environments look super luscious and literal indistinguishable from concept art. The leaves, lighting, and armor are truly a beautiful sight to see.  (Below) 

Nothing like chilling by a bonfire, although if you’re new to the genre, every time you heal at these bon fires, all the enemies you spent tirelessly fighting repopulate.

Call me crazy but in the original, players from other games could leave each other messages written in blood, as a way to help each other out. It looks like this concept is making a comeback this time around.  

 Dragons are so hot right now…. (insert Zoolander Gif here)

If you have ever played a souls game, you know this is something you can expect to see even in your dreams. I remember going to bed thinking how an enemy boss had beaten me 13-times in a row, only to go to bed thinking and imaging different strategies on how I could kill the foe standing between me and the game's progress.

The gameplay looks faster than the original but the difficult elements remain prevalent. The player is seen mowing down enemies which seems a bit off given the extreme difficulty of the PS3 game. But this could be Bluepoint addressing the sometimes-outrageous difficulty by making it more appealing to casuals.

Launch Title!!!!

 God of War Ragnarök:

Last time we saw our heroes, Kratos and Atreus were shacked up in their home when they receive a visit from a mysterious visitor brandishing what looks like Mjolnir on his waist.  The game ended in a great cliff hanger and is sure to improve on the many aspects the PS4 game

Get the fuck out of here. Sony decided to drop a nuclear ton warhead on us with the teaser trailer of God of War Ragnarok, a sequel to the PS4’s God of War.  Although they did not show any game play, they did manage to build the hype with the screen below:  

And then to top off the trailer the list the following with a supposed 2021 release date which I think is highly unlikely but, we will see. Either way, “we must prepare”.

   Sadly, when the presentation ended, pre-orders went live . We were told by Sony that we would have ample time to prepare to pre-order, nothing but the contrary occured. I was one of the unlucky folks who failed to obtain his PS5 preorder despite having the funds to do so. Here’s to hoping I’m able to secure a pre-order prior to the Nov 12 launch. I did manage to get a PS5 camera which is a must for me since I like to stream games online, it’s really quite addicting. Check out my channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiazQqSufhmIGo2a7odLOpQ?view_as=subscriber.

I do want to say one thing, I am very fortunate to have the things i’ve accumulated over the years. I know there are people in the world that lack even basic necessities. If you’re reading this, please donate to  cause/fund or organization you beleive in. I know my life’s work is to improve the living conditions of everyone regardless of their creed and that keeps me plenty busy.  

  All images used in this piece were obtained from the source below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG0G44G6RI8

Credit: IGN 

#ps5 #ps5 release #ps5 reveal #demonsouls #god of war ragnarok #spiderman mile morales #hogwarts legacy #final fantasy 16 #final fantasy xvi

[blackjackcheshire]

Ranking Female K-Pop Rookies Part 1: Concept

Hi! I’m new to Tumblr and I thought I’d try it out just for fun! This is my first post and I’m going to be ranking female rookies in my opinion by different categories. I have around 9 categories planned out and I’m going to be starting off with concept. The artists I’m going to be using are (G)I-DLE, Nature, GWSN, Loona, Fromis_9, Iz*One, Itzy, Rocket Punch, BVNDIT, Everglow, Somi and Cherry Bullet. 

Part 1: Concept 

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION AND IT’S COMPLETELY OKAY IF YOURS IS DIFFERENT FROM MINE! PLEASE JUST DON’T ATTACK ME ON MINE! NO HATE IS INTENDED TO ANY OF THE ARTISTS I MENTION! I’M ALSO TRYING TO KEEP AS LOW BIAS AS POSSIBLE BUT BE WARNED BECAUSE I DO NOT HARDCORE STAN ALL OF THE ARTISTS AND IF I ACCIDENTALLY INCLUDE SOME BIAS I APOLOGIZE. 

12: Everglow

It pains me to put Everglow last on the list, however to me their concept seems to be just typical girl crush. It’s a concept that suits them very well, it’s just that girl crush is a very common and it’s well recognized throughout the industry. However, I did adore the Adios concept with the military jackets and reminded me of SNSD’s genie release. Although Everglow is last on my concept list, I do think that they should keep up this concept and continue to make it their own in a special way. 

11: Nature

I really like Nature’s concept and as I said with Everglow, it suits them very well. I’d describe Nature’s concept as a mix of experimental and cute. Their songs are very different from anything I’ve ever heard before, however, in all honesty their experimental sides don’t really click with me. You’ll Be Mine and Oopsie My Bad both have very “noisy” drops which for me, I have to be in a certain mood to listen to. As far as I can tell, most songs like that you either love them or hate them which comes across as a very risky concept. Their other songs are cute to me which I like more, however just as with Everglow, again have a familiar feeling of concept to them. They still do make it their own and pull it off very well, it’s just not something I personally click with. I am very glad that we do have a girl group who’s trying out this experimental style of music however and really hope that they continue to push the boundaries of traditional cute concepts.

10: BVNDIT

I absolutely love the aesthetics of this group. Their concept is sort of a chic girl crush concept which I adore. It gives the typical concept of girl crush a super artsy and aesthetic flair to it. It changes up the girl crush concept and personalizes it to become theirs. I’m really excited to see how they expand upon this further. I can also tell they’re a very versatile group with lots of different concepts that can be pulled off. The only reason that they aren’t higher on the list is due to me preferring other groups concepts is all. Either way I really hope that they continue on with this concept in their future. 

9: Somi

I’m really glad to see Somi having finally debuted and in a concept that suited her fairly well. I really liked the sort of hip-hop teen crush concept that Birthday had. It’s a very fun concept that results in very catchy songs getting stuck in your head. It has a very unique feel to it and really just makes you wanna get up and dance. It also has a very feelgood vibe to it which I really like. I just hope that she actually gets a comeback and we can see her further establish her own concept. 

8: Rocket Punch

I find that Rocket Punch has a very unique concept to them which is very refreshing. Their music is honestly very unlike anything I’ve ever heard in K-Pop and I hope we continue to get consistent releases with this refreshing sound to them. The concept is very fun and has a super bright energy to it which I love. I really hope they keep up with this concept and I can’t wait to see more from them. 

7: GWSN 

I really love the mythical feel of this concept and the whole “Park In The Night” trilogy all fit together very well and I loved the unique feel to it. It’s overall very interesting to me and all the songs are differentiated, however also different in their own way. I really hope that now that the trilogy has ended they continue with a concept similar. 

6: Fromis_9

I’m gonna just outright say it: I’m in love with the CF concept of Fun and honestly it’s half of the reason that they made it this high on the list. I also really like how the concept has diversified over time. It started out as a traditional schoolgirl concept with To Heart which was playing off of Idol School, a cute summer song with giant cats which I love???, the bomb comic-like concept of Love Bomb, to the CF’s of Fun. I just really find their music videos super fun to watch and really like how they’ve differentiated their concept from other cute concepts. 

5: (G)I-DLE

I think all of (G)I-DLE’s concepts are so different and they pull it all off so well. Every concept is so different from the other, yet similar at the same time. Every single release (G)I-DLE has made has had such a different vibe and it’s all so original. They’ve really made the girl crush concept their own and it’s very interesting. Just as I said with Fromis_9, it’s been interesting to watch their growth through concepts. Latata had a market type concept to it which was very unique to me, Hann had a desert concept also very original, Senorita with the bad luck concept which I absolutely adored, Uh-Oh with the motor bike street concept and Lion with the queen concept. Even their upcoming comeback appears to have an angel/devil concept which I also love. All of these concepts create such stunning visuals and proves how diverse (G)I-DLE is as a group. 

4: IZ*One

Ever since their debut, I’ve adored Iz*One’s concept. It has so much class and style to it which made me fall in love with it so much. With their first two comebacks, I really loved the flower concept and how both title tracks correlated back to that. Even the most recent comeback still correlates back to that with the album being called Bloom*Iz. The concept creates for such stunning visuals in live performances and music videos. The songs also always make you feel so happy and gives you such a good feeling. It all just has such a fancy feel to it which also creates for the best stage outfits(Seriously props to their stylists I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad outfit). They also all pull it off so well and all the girls suit the concept so well. Everything from the outfits, to the choreographs, to the vocals are all so elegant and I love that. 

3: Cherry Bullet 

I’m honestly not one bit surprised that Cherry Bullet has an amazing concept. Their sister group AOA had one of my favorite concepts in all of K-Pop. When they released a video game concept with Bingle Bangle, I fell in love. When Cherry Bullet released their debut also with a video game concept, that also caused me to fall in love. It’s just such an original concept and I think the 8-bit video games are truly the cutest thing ever. Although I initially already loved the girls with their first two releases, I fell even deeper in love when they released Hands Up. I adored the music video with all the tech design stuff and I think the new style of music suits them so well and shows how versatile their concept is. I really hope they keep on subtly using video games in future comebacks, because I just find it so clever and cute. 

2: Itzy

Itzy’s concept is so fun and experimental. Itzy songs always just make you wanna get up and dance and are all so catchy. I truly love the vibe and concept of “being different” and it’s such a good message to have. It all makes you feel so happy and empowered. It’s unlike any K-Pop group I’ve heard before, and the members all pull it off so well. I also love how every member has such a different style, yet still fits in perfectly with each other. I really look forward to seeing what they come up with next. 

AND.....

1: Loona

Oh my god, where do I even begin with this one. Loona is truly the most unique girl group, in existence. Already predebut, I loved the whole Girl of the Month thing they had. Then, Loonaverse got brought in, and it is the most genius plot line of the century. It’s all so well thought out and it’s amazing how it all correlates back to each other. Props to Blockberry for actually thinking all this up because it’s so crazy that every single Loona video, correlates to a later one just going off of little things. The Loonaverse is also such a genius way to invest fans in the group and is such a genius marketing strategy. Also, the versatility in Loona’s concept is insane. So far, all three of the main title tracks of OT12 all are so different from each other concept wise. I just really think Loona is an absolute genius group with so much to offer just by concept alone. 

Anyways that’s it for Part One! I hope you liked reading it and please remember this is all my personal opinions. If you liked reading this please go ahead and follow me and like this post as I will be posting more to it. Farewell!

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