#it has no purpose (sans filler in the anime-but even then!! some filler arcs are really entertaining!) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

demonslayedher · 2 years

Note

Hi! As you know I really love all the ideas and thoughts you put into demon slayer even after it’s completion, I deeply admire how much flesh you add to the skeleton of some of the concepts the story didn’t really dig into. Sorry I’m rambling, what I wondered was that since the manga is complete the anime is just following the canon story but if that wouldn’t have been the case what kind of filler arcs do you think the anime could have explored or added in?

Hey there and thank you for waiting so long! I shall happily return a ramble for ramble, and we'll see where this takes me. I'm of two minds about filler, on the one hand: 1. We could have benefited from extra time just hanging out with the majority of the cast 2. I love this cast and want more of them in the first place 3. The upcoming arc may need a little padding to satisfying anime-only fans who may get impatient without their favorites around On the other hand: 1. There is already so much plot to get through and I am anxious and ready to see them animate those final battles 2. The manga doesn't waste a single fight, each one has a purpose in Tanjiro's or the Corps' wider journey (though some battles had weaker contributions than others) 3. I don't trust Ufotable to write compelling filler

I mean, like, sure, I will happily watch Rengoku-san slide his sword back in his sheath if they're going to make it so--actually, no, I haven't watched that filler at all since then, the plot didn't grab me and I'm embarrassed to watch that excessively beautifully animated sequence again, for I am much too excited by, uh, swords. But as far as exploring characters is concerned in a way that won't detract from the plot too much, I think about this in terms of both added scenes and filler arcs, with more of a preference for added scenes to keep it character-focused and not any plot they need to write stakes into.

If we need a filler arc that going to serve the anime fanbase well (the fanbase that keeps buying merch and paying for this amazing production quality), then what I want most is to see what Zenitsu and Inosuke were up to while Tanjiro was fighting Upper Moon 4. They were all the same rank by the time they entered the Infinity Fortress, so what in the world were those two up against while there were no other 12 Moon Demons around? I know I've said this elsewhere on this blog, but showing what they were up to here--be it on solo missions or on a glorious mission of chaos together--would give us the opportunity to show flashbacks in context, specifically, Zenitsu punching the Corp members who talked smack about Kaigaku, and Inosuke having a pinky-promise with Shinobu and feeling something familiar about it. I'm a big fan of set-up and pay off, can you tell? But, if a filler arc is too much to ask for (and for the sake of moving the plot, I think it is), then we can still build that into extra scenes, as well as animated more and more and more Taisho Secrets. You know why I write so much fanfic? Because there is so much freaking canon content to work with in the first place. I mean, if Ufotable is going to bother animating Tanjiro slowly enjoying a cup of Tamayo's favorite tea and stating his thoughts on it, then they can totally animate more Pillar interactions too, right? I think their delivery on original content has been hit and miss, sometimes beating the audience over the head too much with stressing the characters' attributes, but the little stuff like Tengen having to the round up the boys from the busy Yoshiwara streets is gold and I want more little interactions like this. Hell, if they started "season two" with a whole episode of nothing but Rengoku-san being his most Rengoku-self interacting with common folk, then I would accept a whole episode at the beginning of the next season with content like: --Setting the scene through dialogue. Shinazugawa and Iguro shooting the breeze, talking about how that twerp Kamado Tanjiro somehow survived fighting Upper Moon 6, but is still in a coma. Nezuko's existence is still frustrating. Maybe some gossip about the other freaks in their Final Selection batch, even including how strong of a Tsuguko Kanao is already turning out to be. As, Iguro starts to point out, there's that one other boy who passed with them--at which point, Shinazugawa gets that crazed look in his eyes again and aggressively dismisses whatever Iguro was about to say.

--Tamayo composing a letter to Tanjiro here, thanking him for the Upper Moon blood and giving him a positive update on the Asakusa demon, but maybe leaving us still wondering what she'd say about Nezuko's changes. Instead of giving away that she's about to do what no demon ever has, painfully remind us of the fact that Nezuko is a demon at all, and a very unusually powerful one. --Shinobu checking in on Tanjiro, saying something about how she was out with Mitsuri at the time he finally woke up. A chance to reveal their friendship and introduce Mitsuri a little, from Shinobu's warm perspective. --Oyakata-sama meeting with Muichiro as he is about to go to the Swordsmith Village in search of the battle doll to train with. Some exposition here about Muichiro from Oyakata-sama's concerned but encouraging perspective. --Himejima seeing Genya off, leaving him with stern advice to take care in battle. After all, he can't use Breath technique. Suspense! Besides these character interactions being used to set up the arc in a way that hopefully makes we really come to care about its stars, whom the anime has given us very little reason so far to care about, this is also a chance for Ufotable to lean hard into the Nichirin lore. To really get the most out of this arc, we're going to have to feel its importance, and why this village in particular getting attacked is such a serious blow to the Corp, as opposed to any random village of non-main characters. And, frankly, Rengoku-san was a tough act to follow. Uzui Tengen was the only character capable of it, and he did a fantastic, flamboyant job. That means we are really, really, really counting on Haganezuka to have hugely marketable appeal, if you know what I mean. ............and frankly, Haganezuka doesn't care. So like... how about a little Haganezuka flashback? His childhood fascination with swords, despite all the loneliness he might had endured for being *too much* for other people, including his parents who gave him up (and then did what? It wasn't like they'd leave the village, right?). This arc is going to have more impact if we can care about Nichirin blades as much as Haganezuka does. On that note, to drum up excitement for this season, I think Ufotable needs to do collab campaigns in swordsmith villages throughout Japan, to highlight the finer points of sword appreciation. As two specific suggestions: 1. Okuizumo, Shimane Prefecture Besides this being the holy site of tatara for producing the iron ore used in making swords (baby swords! Look at this beautiful baby I got to hold!!), they also make black swords, and the village has its own local demon lore and demon related sites.

2. Seki, Gifu Prefecture Home to the Hamono Matsuri (Cutlery Festival), proud smiths parade around with open blades they produced. Also, this is LiSA's hometown.

Speaking of lore, though, we really get to dive into "originator of Sun Breath" lore in this arc, and I really hope they play up the tension, especially the "don't tell me he's Upper Moon 1!?" tension, and drive home just what a BIG DEAL it is for Muichiro to be of the same gene pool as that freaking genius. In a slightly different direction, I focused a lot of this on filler I'd like to see worked into the next season, as I think it's one of the best opportunities for it, but here's something else I'd like: expansion on the ObaMitsu .vs. Nakime fight. Specifically, I want us to worry about them as much as we worry about everyone else in their respective fights, I want us to find out that Nakime callously killed her own husband, I want this to enrage Mitsuri, and to make Iguro disgusted, and ultimately, I want Iguro's background story moved here, not smack into the fight with Muzan when no one has the leeway to lend any brain cells to it. But also, when and where is Pillar Training coming??? Will it be tacked on after Nezuko's mastery of the sun, like how the Functional Recovery arc was tacked on after the climactic Episode 19? Will it take up only a couple episodes at the beginning of the following season, before plunging us into despair? Will it be a three part special between heavy plot arcs, a television event they'll make a huge deal out of, and then pad it with online shorts, Kimetsu Gakuen style, to show all the Pillar Training shenanigans we don't get to witness? Like the light novel content of Zenitsu and Inosuke training under Tengen, or my own fanfic material of Inosuke in Mitsuri's Flexibility Hell? Or, if we extend Pillar Training to have more weight than just Giyuu's back story, conflict between the Shinazugawa brothers, and Himejima's approval, then hell, let's go for it. Don't be scared of consequences like you were with the happy Rengoku episode, Ufotable, let's go there, let's get ominous. The brighter that happy time with no demons attacking and everyone getting to spend time with each other, the worse the shadows should lurk. Shinobu up to something... and with who? Peach Boy hearing of Zenitsu's continued success, and choosing to go up against a demon that'll show everyone just how talented he is. Oyakata-sama calling a family meeting. The happier Tanjiro gets to be in this arc, the more these scenes will hurt and whet our appetites for the heart-wringer of an arc to follow. Mwehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehhhhh......... Please, Ufotable, please let me write the filler for you. This grabby hands can only be appeased with angst or swords.

#what do I even tag this as #it's not theories because it's all canon or very close to it #but I talked about swords #so #kny nerdery

36 notes · View notes

natolesims · 3 years

Note

Same anon here, thank you!!! Do you have any specific worlbuilding in your story? Are you only playing with the disney princesses or do you have other disney characters mixed up? And I loved how you made this HUUUUGE plot twist with Cinderella! Are you doing the same with the next princesses? And about the side stories!! Are there more to come? I'm sorry if I'm being annoying, but I'm so loving all you do!!

My, these are important questions xD This is way too long to answer normally, so I'm writing all you want to know under the cut! I'm sorry, It is really long. I apologize in advance :')

If you have some spare time and are curious about this stuff of my legacy story, check this out. It my explain some things, hehe.

1. WORLDBUILDING

There is a "complex and connected" universe in this, yes, but I do not limit a story to the same sim world. I imagine certain game worlds as specific areas with their own social problems, forms of government and characteristic population. Still, I jump from world to world using specific lots or scenery places thay might complement the current chapters or, if I happen to need it, I'll rebuild the whole world again for upcoming generations if I'm already done with the previous ones.

For example:

In Snow White (the H.E.A. founder) the story developed in Windenburg and Windenburg only. Not even the whole world was used for the story, only three lots (The White Manor, Eis' cottage and the flower shop).

Cinderella and The Princess and The Frog develop in Willow Creek, but it's not the same Willow Creek. The only permanent lots are the royal palace and a couple of residential lots (the Tremaine and Bonfamille manors), but I redesigned the whole world for each arc. Ella's story took place in a more high-class victorian part of the kingdom, and Tiana's will be in a New Orlean-ish, humble zone with some vip spots. The townies are different and the social situation changes as well. I'll be also using specific locations from Windenburg, implying those scenes are still having place in some other unknown part of Willow Creek.

In some upcoming generations, I'm merging worlds into a whole area. In Rapunzel and The Beauty and The Beast, Glimmerbrook, Granite Falls and Henford-On-Bagley, as well as specific Windenburg areas, share the same territory.

This is a bit confusing, but it works for me :'D So far, this is how I've organized the story world in the save (mild spoilers):

Willow Creek + Magnolia Promenade: Kingdom ruled by a strong monarchy. Population: Humans and Hybrids** Connections with: Britechester, Newcrest.

Oasis Springs + Strangerville: Emirate and local mayoralties. Population: Humans, spellcasters, undercover aliens. No near connections.

Brindleton Bay: Mayoralty. Population: Humans and Hybrids. Connections with: Henford-On-Bagley, San Myshuno (not that close, but reachable).

Mt. Komorebi: Parlamentarism. Isolated area of the mountains. Population: Humans. Connections with: Granite Falls (veeeery lightly).

San Myshuno + Del Sol Valley: Presidency and Mayoralty. Population: Humans and undercover occults (Gods**, Spellcasters, Hybrids). Connections: Newcrest.

Windenburg: Parlamentarism. Population: Humans, Hybrids, Vampires. Connections with: Henford-On-Bagley, Glimmerbrook, Granite Falls.

Sulani: Principality and local chiefdoms. Population: Humans, Mermaids, Gods. No near connections.

Forgotten Hollow: Mayoralty. Population: Vampires and Spellcasters. No near connections.

Selvadorada: Republic. Population: Humans, Hybrids and Spellcasters. No near connections.

Evergreen Harbor: Mayoralty. Population: Humans, undercover aliens, cyborgs. Connections with: San Myshuno. If there is ever a future-like pack, it will be related to this area.

Britechester: Grand Duchy. Population: Humans. Connections with: Willow Creek, Windenburg.

2. CHARACTERS

I will mainly play with the "princesses", yes! I'm following these Disney Legacy Challenge rules as a main guideline, so the heirs are related to that. Even so, they won't always have the same looks or gender like the cartoon ones, nor the spouses. Since I'm a nerd, I try to surround the heirs with familiar characters from their stories, but they might be ooc or don't have the same role as they do in the movies. I just want to create the vibes, but give them my own twist!

I thought it would be fun to create a Disney movie themed save for this challenge, and I'm stil adding recreations of a lot of characters thay may fit in the world. Since I really enjoy rotational gameplay, I thought it would be fun to create mini challenges for certain households and play them aside from the main legacy to have a little change and relax. Buuuuuuuuut every single time I play this game a story pops up in my head, and yes, so far there is one side story with some of the minor characters. I'm afraid my save has turned into a graphic feverdream disney fanfiction, but here we are :'D It is important to say I also play with the EA premade townies, so this is a weeeeirddd mashup :')

Since I have the characters roaming around freely, they also interact with the main legacy and, in some cases, they even gain some importance. In Cinderella's case, I never planned Mr. La Bouff to become Ella's friend. My original plan was to have Tia and Lottie meet at university. Also! I created two fake occults: the Hybrids (think of were!Sims. Like Werecats, Werefishes, Werewolves, Werebirds... you get the idea... it'll be properly explained in the future. No, they don't turn into animals.) and the Gods (squish vampires, mermaids and spellcasters together. Now make them OP and immortal).

So far, I've included characters from:

The Aristocats, Finding Nemo, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, Tarzan, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Coco, Pinocchio, Big Hero 6, Lilo & Stitch, Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Jungle Book, Toy Story, Cars, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis.

I had the intention of presenting them all and giving them out for download. I've been slowly makeovering them, so I hope I can manage to do so in the near future.

3. STORYTELLING

The plot twist was kind of a happy accident xD It wasn't planed at all! It's just I find it not-that-exciting to retell the same old story again and again. Cinderella is poor and mistreated, but then marries the prince and she's happy. We all know that, right? I don't intend to follow the same path... I need chaos to keep me entertained in my own game xD that's why I went like "welll.... what IF the prince is a bit of an ass?" I didn't see the whole load of drama that would come.

In the upcoming chapters, things are being similar. I don't say everything is going to be bittersweet, but I'll take elements from the main story and shape them differently. I'm taking a lot of creative liberties here!

4. SIDE STORIES

Im so glad you like them!! I get attached to my characters as soon as I start playing with them and can't help myself from giving them a story, even a little one. It's like... they're in my save for a reason, right? Not only as townie fillers, even if that was the main purpose in the beginning. It's safe to say there is one WIP side story with the Tremaine descendants involving some of the characters I mentioned before. I have another one in mind, but since it is not related with the main legacy at all I'm still not sure how to include it... but I'm working on it.

You can bet I'll keep telling these silly little stories because I really can't help it, hehe.

Thank you so much for asking! I'm really sorry for writing a lot, I hope this is what you were looking for!! And I'm so glad to have you as a reader ^^

#djsadjklasd #THIS IS LONGS #ask #anon #happily ever after extras

21 notes · View notes

sage-nebula · 5 years

Note

I hope you dont mind my asking, but wouldn't GF have decided to remove the national dex long before LGPE released? I can see those games selling well confirming to GF that "pokemon sell well regardless of cut features" but it feels strange to blame it on LGPE when the development time on the games would suggest they made this choice awhile ago. (Not to defend lgpe lack of content) Sorry if this is a bother, I just feel like I'm missing something and would really like to understand your reasoning

For almost any other game I would agree, however for Pokémon in particular:

The National Dex (insofar as the ability to transfer old pokémon over) was never going to be a Day One feature. It’s never a Day One feature in the first games of the generation. Even if they wanted to make it one, in this case they couldn’t because Home isn’t releasing until 2020. As I’ve said in other posts, if they wanted to patch in the NatDex, they’d have the time to do it. Technically speaking, they’d have the time to do it, especially since the fanbase would be willing to wait (even if there’d be a few whiners here or there) the extra time.

Since it’s not a Day One feature, it’s something that can be worked on later in the development cycle (/can even continue to be worked on after the development cycle, or at least it could be if this series were treated with the respect of, say, The Legend of Zelda series). Again, I’m not talking about DLC that’s already on the game card that needs to be activated later, I’m talking about DLC that’s patched in, content created after that you download either to the harddrive or (though I don’t know if Switch DLC works this way specifically) onto the game card itself. Given the type of content they generally want to show early in the release cycle (the general theme / concept of the games, scenes of the various areas in the region, new ‘mon), and the fact that this would be a feature added post-release anyway, we can make a safe bet that the NatDex is something they’d work on much later in the development cycle, possibly even in the last year since, again . . . they’d have that time if they wanted to use it (and if this series was treated with genuine respect).

The Let’s Go games were stated by Masuda to be the future of the franchise if they sold well. They featured a Pokédex that was limited to only the Kanto ‘Dex, plus Meltan and Melmetal. They released in November 2018, and indeed, they sold well. In early 2019 (February, IIRC) Sword & Shield were released. While of course I don’t work at Game Freak and thus can’t say for sure, I would place money on the idea that if they were even a bit on the fence about adding the National Dex, the fact that Let’s Go sold so well despite being limited to 153 ‘mon pushed them right over the edge to, “Cut the National Dex from Sword & Shield, there’s no point in working on it.” I mean, why should they expend the effort if people will buy the games anyway? Especially when President Ishihara went on record saying that long-time fans only cared about “new pokémon and features” around the time of Let’s Go’s release. Sure, they might have already been thinking about cutting the National Dex beforehand, but Let’s Go no doubt assured them that it was a safe and correct call to make.

So that’s what I mean when I say that Let’s Go’s positive sales figures sealed all of our fates. To be entirely honest, before the National Dex announcement, I was certain that we wouldn’t see the shockwaves from Let’s Go until Gen IX. But Sword & Shield having a limited ‘Dex just like Let’s Go, and having special feature ‘mon behind $60 paywalls like Let’s Go, and having core features stripped out like Let’s Go, and the fact that it’s starting to look frighteningly like the starters won’t be able to evolve like in Let’s Go . . . the effect is pretty apparent. Sure, some of this stuff was present even before Let’s Go (namely the whole “let’s ditch useful features in the name of simplifying things” tack that Masuda has been married to for years now), but in the wake of Let’s Go, it’s success, and what Masuda said would happen if it was successful, it’s really hard not to see the link.

(Note just in case anyone read too quickly: I’m not saying the starters WON’T evolve. I’m only saying that I’m starting to fear that’s the case since we’re less than a month away from release and we haven’t even seen second stage evolutions yet. Maybe they’re just trying to keep starter evolutions a surprise, that’s entirely possible, but it’s also highly suspect, and Game Freak destroyed any trust or good faith I had in them a while back.)

As a final note, the reason why I say that the Pokémon games aren’t treated with respect is . . . well, there are a few reasons:

Game Freak stated themselves that they put their B Team on Sword & Shield while their A Team worked on Little Town Hero. They also said they wanted to create something, “as exciting, or perhaps even more exciting” than Pokémon. They’re tired of working on Pokémon, and it shows. Which, I mean, I get it, it’s been 20+ years, but in that case tell Nintendo so that they can shift the main games over to another studio. I get that Game Freak was created for the sole purpose of making Pokémon, and maybe Taijiri-san is pissed at how you’re disrespecting his baby (I would be), but for the good of the series, if you don’t want to work on it, give it to someone who does. Don’t just shift it onto your bare bones secondary dev team.

These games are in a hellish development cycle where a new one is popped out every year. Contrast this to The Legend of Zelda where, while we’ve had some anomalies where assets were able to be largely reused and so games came out only a couple years apart (see: Ocarina of Time to Majora’s Mask) --- even that had two or three years before releases, not one the very next year. Most mainline Zelda games spend five or six years in development. I’m fully aware that we will likely be waiting until something like 2022 for Breath of the Wild 2, and I am prepared to wait that time because I know the game we get will be incredible. Granted, I’m going to be dying every single time they announce a release date to push it back, but it’ll be a death I’m grateful for because I will know that the end product will be worth it. The Pokémon games used to have a similar luxury. While there were a grand total of five games released during that time (with “five games” being used loosely, given that one was a slight upgrade and the other four were really two games with slight differences between versions), Gen IV lasted for a grand total of four years. We had Diamond & Pearl in 2006, Platinum in 2008, HeartGold & SoulSilver in 2009, and then finally, Black & White in 2010. By contrast, Gen VII didn’t even last three years, technically. I mean, this November would be its third anniversary, but that’s when Gen VIII officially starts instead. To be fair, it could be argued that Gen IV didn’t have a full four years since it came out in September 2006, and Gen V came out in September 2010. But even if you make that argument, it still had a full year on Gen VII, and to be honest, that showed. The Sinnoh games are far and away not my faves, but they were still full of content. HeartGold & SoulSilver are often considered to be the best remakes in the entire franchise, and considering the content that was cut from OmegaRuby & AlphaSapphire and Masuda’s reasoning for why that content was cut, I can’t exactly argue with that even though I did genuinely enjoy ORAS. And the games that Gen IV ushered in? Controversial opinion, but I think that the Pokémon games peaked with Gen V. Black & White not only initially had a ‘dex that was nothing but new pokémon (and yet STILL included the Nat Dex later, because in Masuda’s own words he felt it cruel to keep people from playing with their faves forever!), but it also introduced a METRIC TON of new mechanics, some of which we no longer get to use (Rotation Battles? Game Freak doesn’t know her). Who knows what exactly Game Freak did with that extra year, but it was clearly a lot of work given how wonderful the games were in Gen IV and Gen V. The extra dev time showed.By contrast, Gen VII got 2.5 years (or 3 if you’re being generous). Every single game released during this gen had massive content cuts, even when comparing to Gen VI, which also had massive content cuts. Mechanics were stripped away, and Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon technically didn’t have a NatDex either, but at least you could still have all of your ‘mon in them at a later date if you wanted to. Now with Sword & Shield, we don’t even have that, despite the Switch being far more powerful than the 3DS. (We also don’t have Mega Evolution for whatever godforsaken reason, even though the Kanto Mega Evolutions at the very least were already used in Let’s Go, the fuck, Game Freak). Pokémon games print money and always have, and Game Freak has taken this and their lack of interest in the series to the depressing but I suppose logical extreme of “do whatever and they’ll buy it anyway.” There’s no love here, there’s no respect here. They just don’t care anymore, and as someone who does care an awful lot, it’s super upsetting to me.

And while people have tried to argue that the games can’t be delayed because of the anime or the card game or whatever else:

The games come first. They’ve always come first. I know some people mistakenly think that the anime came first and that the games were created later, but that is 100% false. Pokémon started as a game series and the anime was created to advertise the games, straight up.

Filler episodes exist, and the PokéAni is no stranger to them. The Orange Islands arc was an entire arc of filler created to pad time between Gens I and II. The Delacora Islands (or whatever they were called) was a filler arc meant to pad time between Gens V and VI. Arguably the majority of the Sun & Moon anime was filler, given its slice-of-life genre, meaning the anime was even less of an excuse not to delay Sword & Shield. You can’t tell me people wouldn’t have been happy with another year of the Alola crew running around getting into random adventures. People would have eaten that up and loved it. We could have had it all.

I’m not even going to dignify “but the card game” with a response lmao. This isn’t Yu-Gi-Oh!. Sure, the card game makes money, and probably a decent amount of it (merch sales probably make up the franchise’s greatest source of income, and as someone who easily spent several hundred dollars in two weeks at the PokéCenters in Japan---including over $100 in one trip to a PokéCenter while I was there, and we went multiple times---I am a big part of that), but they come up with bullshit new expansions all the time and could easily keep doing it. Again, not a reason to delay the games if the games need more time in development.

So all in all, at the end of the day, Game Freak is no longer treating these games with love and respect, which makes them an awful lot like the villains in the games they create. The Let’s Go games were harbingers of disaster for the games, and we were told this very plainly, and just about no one listened. In fact, I legitimately lost friendships with people who got mad at me for making Facebook statuses about how they should buy Let’s Go used if they absolutely had to have them because how DARE I believe Ishihara when he said that Let’s Go were considered core titles, and how DARE I believe Masuda when he said that Let’s Go would usher in the last twenty years of the franchise. Clearly, I was just being an ugly bitch. (I wish I was exaggerating, but this actually happened, I got blocked over it, it was ridiculous.) And now here we are as a result, with no hope of things getting better unless Nintendo forcibly rips Pokémon out of Game Freak’s hands, which I don’t even think they can legally do given that they only own 1/3rd of the IP. (The other 2/3rds belong to Game Freak and Creatures Inc., as I understand it.)

TL;DR:

Pokémon is still my favorite fictional fantasy world, but as someone who has always loved the games first and foremost, the current state of it depresses me to no end.

#this kind of got off the original topic but i hope it's coherent at least #pokemon salt #pokemon negativity #long post for ts #Anonymous

6 notes · View notes