#mostly stuff from the trailer expanded

[bankholdup]

first off, i just want to say thank you all so so much for all of the love and support on the first part!! i have never gotten that much love on a fic before and it was so amazing to see so thank you! i have decided to expand on this, and already am working on part three. once i've finished, i'll post it here and on ao3. i'll be sure to link it here and on the original post. here is part two which is eddie's pov, hope you guys enjoy!

Part Three | read it on ao3

Part Two:

Eddie knows Steve likes him. It’s obvious, so very obvious. He had some suspicions or hope before, but ever since his birthday party Steve has been nothing but doting and sweet. Bringing him food, candy, little gifts whenever they see each other.

It makes Eddie’s stomach twist up in knots. He doesn’t know if these knots are good or bad- doesn’t even want to think about or acknowledge them too much. But he lets Steve keep being sweet on him, because frankly it’s never happened to him before. It seems innocent enough, right?

Eddie doesn’t do love, doesn’t even date. Hookups are so much easier for the most part. They’re perfect right up until someone wants more than Eddie wants to want or give. 

Maybe he’s a walking cliche, so screw it. Blame it on his old man, but he never exactly had a great example for how a relationship is supposed to go. Wayne has never dated since he took in Eddie, and Eddie mostly remembers his dad cheating on his mom. Memories of his parent's relationship featuring the yelling that would ensue and how their fights ended with stuff thrown around the house. 

So Eddie doesn’t want to date, and he never felt the urge until Harrington fucking came and tied his guts up in this uncomfortable knot anytime he came around. 

Steve asks him out. They’re just hanging out at Eddie’s trailer, movie on, snacks laid out, a typical Friday night. Steve’s comfortable in a dark green sweatshirt and jeans, but Eddie sees him fidgeting just a little bit, biting his nails and keeping his back a bit stiff. Doesn’t poke or prod, figures Steve will spit it out when he’s ready. Right after Steve gets up to leave and call it a night, Eddie behind him to walk him out, Steve spins around to ask if Eddie would maybe want to grab dinner with him tomorrow night.

The question is innocent enough, Steve could play it off like he’s asking him as a friend (Eddie is surprised he doesn't), but the tone and inflection and the way he stands conveys he means it like a date. Like he wants something more. Might as well rip that bandaid off for him now. Eddie tells him sorry, it wouldn’t work out and Eddie doesn’t do the whole dating thing. Steve looks heartbroken, just for a quick moment, before looking to the ground muttering out an apology. A good-bye and see you later is all he leaves Eddie with before walking briskly to his car and driving off.

Eddie may have done the right thing, saved Steve from heartache. He wasn’t even as mean about it as he usually has to be, but he can’t understand why he feel so fucking empty and sad about doing it.

tag list: @trashpocket (if anyone else wants to be tagged, just drop a comment!)

#dixon.fic #steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things #steddie drabble #steddie angst #steddie ficlet #steve x eddie #eddie x steve #steve harrington x eddie munson

[danielfeketewrites]

The Marvels (2023)

Not usually reviewing films but here we are. A friend of mine invited me to the cinema to see The Marvels. And so we did, two days ago.

Neither of us expected much. I haven't seen Ms. Marvel. I thought Captain Marvel was 'meh' and a bit bland. Not offensive in any way (if you discount the blatant milatary propaganda) but ultimately Just A Marvel ProductTM. And not even a fun one. At least not fun for me.

And no offence to Teyonah Parris, but her character was definitely the least interesting thing about WandaVision. That's not saying much, seeing as that miniseries was great and one of the best things Marvel did since Infinity War... But it just goes to say that this didn't seem that promising.

The trailer for it looked quite cool though.

My friend Marek, who was bitching to me about how bad Captain Marvel is for years now, invited me to see The Marvels with him in the cinema. Mostly as a joke. Although he did enjoy Ms. Marvel. But still, neither of us expected much.

To our surprise - The Marvels is really good and we both enjoyed ourselves a lot.

It's really, really good.

While I don't think it can stand shoulder to shoulder with stuff like The Suicide Squad, Across the Spider-verse or GotG Vol. 3, I still feel comfortable calling it one of the best superhero movies of this decade so far. It's easily the 2nd best MCU movie since Spider-man: Far From Home, imo. (admittedly, I haven't seen all of them, so take this hot take with a grain of salt... I just really enjoyed The Marvels)

So now I'm gonna do a wee bit of gushing about some of the reasons why it's so good. (spoilers bellow)

Carol, Kamala, and Monica are just really fun to watch? Their interaction is amazing.

Kamala can be a bit cringey but in an authentically teenage way and I really enjoyed that! Her being a huge fan of Captain Marvel never stopped feeling real. Yeah, of course she's into RPF.

Consequences! I love when things in stories have consequences. And this is all built around consequences to the stuff Captain Marvel did. She did them with good intentions... But that didn't necessarily matter. And I love that. It adds a bit of complexity and nuance that's less and less common in superhero movies these days.

Which ties into... Carol not being perfect. She's amazing and powerful but she can't save everyone.

Carol is also... really fun? With a slight nudge she just became a really well-written, interesting protagonist? I love this version of Captain Marvel and I want more!!! Brie Larson finally gets to show off a bit as an actress!

She just really gave me Xena vibes, in the best possible way.

While the villain isn't an all-time great, the actress went for dignity and it payed off. She feels iconic and you understand where she's coming from.

Monica's sacrifice was quite powerful and kinda hit me.

The "training sequence" where Carol, Monica, and Kamala are practicing the switching is perfect. I love it. No notes.

I love that while it's only an indirect continuation of Captain Marvel, it takes the best bits from that film and builds on them. For me, Goose is the best bit of that film - a cat, but make it eldritch and alien, as well as bigger on the inside? Nice, love it. So what do we do with that idea the second time around? MORE CATS!!! I got a bit excited when I saw the kittens in the trailer and they did not disappoint. (Can the next movie be set on their planet? Please?)

But it's not just "there are kittens now" though. THE KITTENS ARE INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT. It's not just there to be there, but it's an important plot point. And it's so fun!

Nick Fury is also fun.

But it's not just taking what worked and expanding on it. This movie got really creative!

For example - the worlds! Especially the Bollywood planet. Great stuff.

That's just some of the reasons to like this film. I'm probably gonna watch it again when it's on Disney+

If you haven't seen it yet, go do that it if it's still playing in a cinema near you. It's definitely worth a watch if you are in the mood for a fun, well-made superhero film.

I'm really looking forward to what Nia DaCosta does next. This film really didn't deserve to underperform and I hope she gets another stab at a big blockbuster like this in the future.

#the marvels #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #captain marvel #ms marvel #carol danvers #monica rambeau #kamala khan #dfpost

[animehouse-moe]

Bocchi The Rock, or, Slice of Life as Artistry

Bocchi The Rock came into this season incredibly quiet and sudden, with no long forecast trailers or any teasing information for what it would bring. We're now 6 episodes in, and I can confidently say it's dominating its season in incredible fashion. I mean, yeah, you can see Chainsaw Man fight crazy devils, and see Yamamoto get ready to attempt to solo the Wandenreich in Bleach, or see Mob Psycho's crazy 2d art. But none of those contain what Bocchi does. I mean, look clip above, where else will you find a pixelart fractal of a girl's imagination? The short answer is: nowhere.

So what makes it so incredible?

Well, there's an incredibly long list, but I think it starts at its simplest with the director of the series, Saitou Keiichirou, and to expand on that with only two words, faceless characters. Saitou has had a penchant for faceless characters in their directorial work for a good while, and is probably most notable in series like Sonny Boy, where it's used for creative effect. Now, it's possible to be like me and think, "well, there's not really room for that here", but somehow, Saitou, uh, finds a way. Impressively, the way faceless characters integrates with Bocchi The Rock ends up really nuanced, and places a focus on Bocchi and their personality.

Bocchi-chan is typically the only one that has a faceless character design through most of the episodes, but today's plays out different during her street performance. It all starts with Bocchi having her eyes closed when she starts playing, due to her anxiety. She can't face the crowd and so she chooses not to look at them, to revoke her sight to calm herself down. She want to blend in and just play the music without anyone look at her, but this slowly begins to change. She starts to gain confidence while playing, and partially drops her shield. Suddenly, it's the crowd that's faceless and Bocchi's the one that has facial features, most notably only one eye that's visible. She hasn't found all of her confidence yet, but she's certainly found a way to step forward into the spotlight.

You can see so many similar pieces throughout just a single episode, take, for example, the aggressive camera angle from Bocchi's guitar. We see plenty of low (or high) angle shots in a given episode that provide a great amount of variance from the typical safe and mostly flat angles you'll see elsewhere. There's just so many simple pieces to the incredible work on Bocchi that it's a near endless list. There's camera angles like I had said, but there's also the overall composition of scenes. There's pieces where Bocchi's isolated and distant in the scene, or ones where a group of people are far away but close to each other to show a contrast to Bocchi's isolation, and there's even the cramped close ups of Bocchi herself that can show her comfort in confined spaces.

There's even the incredible work on the near photorealistic (and often times essentially real photo) backgrounds. I'm sure people have seen some of the stuff posted elsewhere about it, but they integrate "real" backgrounds in to so many scenes, and it really can give some of the moments entirely different vibes.

What I'm Saying, and could say for ages, is that the prowess and incredible ability and creativity of Bocchi The Rock doesn't allow itself to get tripped up and confused. The staff know they're there to tell the story of a socially awkward girl trying to find her place in a Kessoku Band, they don't try to make it something different. Instead, they push the creative limits within these boundaries. They pursue crazy and unique ideas and approaches that don't isolate Bocchi, or take away from the message or actions of the characters. They know when to break out into their crazy ideas, and they know when to allow the characters themselves to sell the moments. The creativity stems from Bocchi herself, not the staff. Her imagination is the driving force in the insanity of the heights that the show can reach, but she's also what allows the staff to find solid ground, and provide truly incredible work. Crazy animation doesn't suddenly make a series "art" to me, in the same way that incredibly detailed pieces of work can be less beautiful than rougher ones. That's because, artistry doesn't lie purely in chasing after the sun, because in doing so you'll lose your wings. Bocchi represents an idealized form of its story, not a perfect version that pushes the limits of animation as a medium, but one that pushes the limits of Bocchi itself. And that's what makes it art to me. Seeing how far this staff takes the story while still presenting the story as the daily and normal occurrences of the group of girls named after the Asian Kung-Fu Generation.

#bocchi the rock! #hitori gotoh #anime #anime and manga #animation #ぼっち・ざ・ろっく!

[xenosagaepisodeone]

*spoken like Patrick bateman* let's see toastys review of the guro game

media that promises high sexual content (in this context nukige) attempting serious, high stakes plots will all predictably suffer from the same issue of not knowing how to cohesively develop the story aspect and the sex aspect. even a good writer that can integrate sex into plot progression will struggle with transitioning character building moments (casual interaction, isolated contemplation, monologues, etc) and the introduction of plot elements into sex scenes in a way that doesn't break one's immersion in the former two. it's a difficult issue to work around because conventional eroge will have sex scenes as a reward for story progression while with nukige, the upfront sex is the selling point. a character drama mediated by sex will be super easy to work with, but what about a globe spanning cataclysmic chuuni plot that weaves politics, religion, philosophy and multiple factions with competing nonsexual interests into its ever expanding stakes? a strange thing to want to see realized in The Sex Game Genre. it ultimately leaves titles that adopt this approach to storytelling 2 options: having a character go "this huge existential crisis can be solved with my peanus (and you have to take me seriously)", or having a family guy styled cutaway to random people having sex.

the game that the person in that review was writing about was mostly the second, so you would have the writer dumping paragraphs worth of text about eros and agape, the nature of suffering and survival before hitting you with a "Meanwhile..." and cutting to some messy thing. there were actually 2 characters who existed for sex scenes alone, simply so the main cast could continue with the plot (not that the main cast was above being subject to the family guy cutaway treatment, either). the game deeply wants you to acknowledge its story, the trailer for it emphasizes the atmosphere and gritty tone above all else; yet, I can't go "if only there was a realta nua type release where the sexual content was better balanced" because even in all it's larger than lifeness, the story still kind of only survives off of it's smaller character moments. the protagonists relationship in the true route was sweet, the raw feeling of struggle and hopelessness in the last arc are well conveyed, the fight scenes and body horror were actually cool and I was vested in the dilemmas of the side characters. at the same time, the philosophical elements meander meaninglessly quite a bit, the political commentary is trite at best, some characters werent as fleshed out as they should have been and I still am left with questions about major story elements that were just kind of left hanging. the game's thesis re: love is transparently lifted from madoka alongside many, many other elements (who could have seen that coming...), which is less a criticism and more an observation. the only reason I know of this game is because of how hard they amped up and marketed the nonsexual elements (not deceptively though lol it's quite obvious what you were getting into), so I feel bamboozled coming out of it underwhelmed. especially since a lot of it's content isn't stuff I would normally seek out -_-

anon i know you were being sillay but its not every day that i get the chance to acknowledge all of the junk i consume so. wahoo.

#asks #anonymous

[raid3r-r4bbit]

THE OC LONG LIST THAT MADE ME WANT TO CRY THINGIE!!!!!

@fuzzydreamin this was so much worse than i anticipated. IM TAGGING NOBODY BECAUSE I HAD TO GO OUTSIDE AND SIT ON MY PORCH FOR 15 WHOLE MINUTES AFTER MY COMPUTER CRASHED AND I LOST THE WHOLE THING :D!!!!!)

HOWDY! AS of posting, I'm on my way to the airport and going to be traveling to wasteland weekend, and while my posting's already been a little erratic in the last few days its about to do that again lol. I might have time to do some stuff while hanging out at the airport and while in air, not sure about actually at the air bnb and shit, but whatever. so no promises, no guarantees, treat it like a Wishlist, drop an ask or two (fr idc) and i might draw something. I will even make memes. OK Das it for announcements

(Lmao i typed this whole thing up and then my computer fucking crashed, saving none of it, so take two ig.

Fair warning, I make more drug references than probably needed in this, and made a fun little list at the end for you all. There's def a bunch of spelling errors, sorry I dont have the time to fix it all. I've also jumbled details about all of them together because of overlap, so if you really want to know you have to read the whole goddamn thing) Ok have fun reading.

JOLT ✧˖°. PERSONAL $ Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty ✚ Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable ✪ Class/Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other ✔ Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other ✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed ( The four of them aren't nessiciarily impoverished, or living in poverty, but it's hard to expand when you're either living in a small city or traveling in a small trailer, life isn't the worst, nobody's strugling to make ends meet (not that anyones charging them rent, though.) but at the same time, they arent living in some kind of mansion. Jolt mostly manages money in the group, and all together they do pretty well.

Jolt is muscular, but he tends to over do it with training and fighting, occasionally skipping meals, definitly fit though. there isn't much of a caste system within the story, you've either got someplace to stay or you dont.

Jolt, like the rest of them, hasnt had a "proper formal education", but he's the most well written of the group, able to read and write in both spanish and english, as well as being fluent in both. His mathmatical skills are enough to get by with, simple maths. He's also read a lot of history books in his free time, so he knows a suprising amount of US history, not that most of it matters anymore.

Most of the time, the crimes he's commited have been done in places where it doesnt really matter- around other raiders, killing people in arena style fights, ect. He's not got the stickiest hands, but he's swiped a few things in his life. Over all, he's intimidating and skilled enough to swipe stuff without gettign caught.)

✧˖°. FAMILY ◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children ◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased/?????? ◔ Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / found family / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable (Jolt is worried about the idea of raising children in the wasteland without a solid comunity or stable way of life, and he's also concerned about his own addiction and behavior affecting them, but he enjoy the idea of being a parent and raising kids.

Before everythign happened, his family was a very close unit, definitly closer to his mother than his father, though. His father rough around the edges, but overall a good man. His mother wanted to make sure her kids were intelligent and capable, and enjoyed passing on information from her life, and her family, history, to them. His siblings and him were also quite close, often depeneding on him when his mother passed away.

Jolt's mother died when he was around 14-15, and his father passed away a few weeks before he turned 19, after which he left his siblings. Over time he eventually found himself tangled with a few people and groups but never really found a home until he was tangled with Bux, Keres, and Rikki. The four of them make up a somewhat weird but very close family.)

✧˖°. TRAITS + TENDENCIES ♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between ♦ disorganized / organized / in-between ♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between ♦ calm / anxious / in-between ♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between ♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual ♦ patient / impatient / in-between ♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between ♦ leader / follower / in-between ♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between ♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between ♦ traditional / modern / in-between ♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between ♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown ♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown / highly contextual ♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown ((yea im not explaining all of that))

✧˖°. BELIEFS ★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic ☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don't know / don’t care / in a matter of speaking ✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don't care ✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious ❀ Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual ((spoilers?) Jolt's belief's are similar to Kere's somewhat pagan in nature, but also a bit alternative. One of his major beliefs is that most people are inherently evil, and people who claim they aren't are often far worse.)

✧˖°. SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION ❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual ❥ Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favourable / naive and clueless ♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favourable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious ❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious ⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all ⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all (Jolt is demi Romantic and Pansexual, He doesnt really have a prefrence sexually, but romantically he isnt really insterested in dating women, (on top of not already being interested in dating.) He's previously been promiscuis, having hooks up and one night stands but mostly as a result of need or drunken mistakes. He's pretty tied to keres, however.)

✧˖°. ABILITIES ☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none (Jolt has pretty extensive training and combat experience, and is likely not someone you want to pick a fight with, he does loose advantage in ranged combat, not being skilled with guns, and not being very fast and flexible, but he's pretty much gaurenteed to at least break limbs (at least ) in hand to hand combat.

There a few things he forgets how to spell, and occasionally forgets words in english/spanish, but nothing outside the normal relm of someone who's bilingul. He's decently literate though, and enjoys reading and writting.

Jolt paints fequently and paints things like aniamls and plants to catolauge them, writing down information as he learns about them, either for saftey, hunting, or foraging, sometimes even receipes. He's not super skilled at it, and struggles to draw people, but it's still a hobby of his.

He's skilled with things like cooking, construction, and he's pretty good at taking care of weapons/ maintaining them. he's not great with machinery, things like cars and what not, he is decent at wiring though, and can hot wire cars in case of emergency. )

✧˖°. HABITS ☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober ☁ Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker ✿ Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict ✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess ☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater $ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic ♣ Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gambler (Jolt isnt an alcholic in the same what your mom isnt an alcholic but drinks 2-3 glasses of wine every night, except it's whiskey or burbon. He doenst really drink to get drunk, maybe a little bit buzzed, tipsy at most, but over all just enjoys the warmth from alcohol.

Jolt smokes pretty regularly, often smelling like it too. Nicotine is one of the only things that helps his hands from trembling, but also makes it worse in the long run.

He's got pretty hardcore psycho addiction. while using he's either highly aggressive and manic, but often is subject to bad trips becoming emotional and mostly inconsolable. He also uses day tripper and marijuana, but less recreational and more medicinal, using them to manage his psycho addiction and mental health issues.

stimpacks, med x, rad away, rad x for all of them, jolt also uses buffout but like a pre-workout/training situation, often only taking half a dose. He also uses Calmex but as directed.

Jolt dies most of the cooking, cooking a lot of mexican and native dishes (or as close as he can get) so mostly things fluctiate from extremely healthy to very deep fried. He really enjoys spicy food more then sweet food, and his favorite foods are often served over rice, or fried. Some of his favorites are Pemmican (my mom made this a lot as a kid and its like a larabar with meat. highly reccomend), Tamales, and menudo (personally, i hate tripe, it makes me want to crawl in a hole and die, but my mom loves and says its very good for you.)

He's pretty stingy with money, budgeting everything, drugs, drinks, cigarettes, food, everything is included. Every so often he'll splurge on new spices or food, paint suplies, or on something as a surprise for Keres (which is usually new herbs or candles.) He also enjoys buying and trying unique cuts of food or veggies or meats he's never tried before.

as for gambling:

gambled once, and vowed to never do it again. He does do betted fights, but he's rarely lost a fight, picking his opponents carefully.)

KERES (im switchin up the placement bite my ass i dont care) ✧˖°. PERSONAL $ Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty ✚ Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable ✪ Class/Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other ✔ Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other ✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed (Keres is a little chubby, but not really over weight, just kinda thicc, but over all they are healthy.

Keres has proably had the best education of the group, learning both "traditional" subjects and also more alternative once (natrual medicines, and other things)

Surprisingly, Keres isnt really into the whole stealing things thing, and will pretty much only use violence as a means to protect themselves or their friends.)

✧˖°. FAMILY ◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children ◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased ◔ Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / found family / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable (Keres isn't sure if they want kids, or can even have them. Keres is intersex, and with their specific condition it isnt impossible, just highly unlikely. As for wanting kids, keres hasn't really been around enough children to know if that's what they want, basically raising Rikki and taking care of Bux pretty much fufills that need for them.

Keres had a close but strained relationship with their family, their parents being strict, but not rough or hateful. They chose to leave after taking in Rikki, seeing that their family wasnt really capable of feeding more people. Keres has five other siblings, none of which they're particularly close with. Over all like the rest of the group, its mostly a found family type situation.)

✧˖°. TRAITS + TENDENCIES ♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between ♦ disorganized / organized / in-between ♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between ♦ calm / anxious / in-between ♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between ♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual ♦ patient / impatient / in-between ♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between ♦ leader / follower / in-between ♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between ♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between ♦ traditional / modern / in-between ♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between ♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown ♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown / highly contextual ♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown ((yea im not explaining all of that))

✧˖°. BELIEFS ★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic ☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don't know / don’t care / in a matter of speaking ✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don't care ✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious ❀ Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual (again, very pagan like, but keres holds more beliefs than Jolt, believing things like almost anything pre war, with some exceptions (mostly the trailer and shoes if needed, other vehicles, and some simple things like abandoned tins, jars ,mugs ect.) are inherently evil and useless, and that items that are prewar are not to be used.

They spend a lot of time meditating, or crafting spells for the others, things like talismans and pocket spells.

Their over all belief is a bit similar to traditional Native American beliefs, celtic and/or norse paganism, and a few other things that have, like everything else in the wasteland, evolved or changed over time.)

✧˖°. SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION ❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual/Other ❥ Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favourable / naive and clueless ♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favourable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious ❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious ⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all ⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

(Keres is androsexual, preferring men/masculine individuals.)

✧˖°. ABILITIES ☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none (not traditonally trained in combat, but decently skilled, enough to defend themselves or others, or potentially ward off potential threats.

Keres is mostly blind, having severe cataracts in both eyes. they could read previously, and with some aid still can. Jolt and Rikki often sit down and rewrite books using extra pressure so that keres can read the indents (like braille but none of them know it.) have several books they can use. Other wise, they are literate. they also know some spanish, not enough to be considered fluent, but enough to hold private conversations with Jolt right in fron to rikki and Bux.

Keres isnt the most technically skilled, they can sew decently well, can crochet and knit at alarming speed for someone with little to no vision, and again, despite being blind, makes a decent medic.)

✧˖°. HABITS ☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober ☁ Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker ✿ Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict ✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess ☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater $ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic ♣ Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gambler (Keres drinks occasionally with the others, but otherwise rarely drinks. they enjoy the taste of alcohol, but they dont enjoy the feeling of being drunk, or getting disoriented. On occasion, they may get a little tipsy, provided someone is there to help them get back home.

They enjoy the smell of cigarette smoke on other people, but not the taste of inhaling smoke. they've smoked before, but never really enjoyed it.

Keres smokes a lot of weed, but also has a decently high tolerance to it, rarely actually getting high. They dont have a lot of anxiety but they seem to be a bit inattentive without it. They also use Jet, a lot, it helps again from being disassociated, or over stimulated, using it to regulate themselves.

Most medicinal medicines keres uses are once they've made themselves, and are usually tinctures, teas or topical ointments. Keres loves anything Jolt cooks, being unable to cook themselves, rikki being unable to handle spices very well and Bux incinerating everything he "cooks". His style of cooking is nearly identical to their families' and Jolt's curiosity for trying new receipies is exciting to keres, as it mean flavor and textural variety. They enjoy savory and bitter foods, and also fermented dishes. Keres doesn't really have any particularly favorite dishes, but anything with seafood, jerky, or fried is likely to be enjoyed. All that being said, they won't eat anythign pre-war. Probably for the best.

Keres is not allowed to buy things. They will spend all their money on candles or yarn.

Keres has never had in interest in gambling, but is inexplicably good at dominoes.)

RIKKI ✧˖°. PERSONAL $ Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty ✚ Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable ✪ Class/Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other ✔ Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other ✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed (Rikki in on the underweight side of things, being incredibly thin. her anxiety makes it oftenndifficult to eat of keep food down. She's had no education, and Keres and Jolt have attempted to teach her how to read and write, with very little success. Jolt often sits down with her, making little work sheets for her. She picked up math pretty quickly however, and enjoys doing the various math problems the pair have her work out. Rikki is a little bit of a kelpto, and her small size and bubbly personality make it easy for her to get away with taking things, caught or not.)

✧˖°. FAMILY

◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children ◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased/unknown ◔ Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / found family / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable (Rikki is scared at the thought of having children. It's not that she doesnt enjoy children, it's just the idea of the entire proccess is traumatic for her.

Rikki doesn't know if she has siblings, She thinks she has a brother or a cousin. She knows she has a father, but she knows very little about him. the relationship between them is nonexsistent.)

✧˖°. TRAITS + TENDENCIES ♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between ♦ disorganized / organized / in-between ♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between ♦ calm / anxious / in-between ♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between ♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual ♦ patient / impatient / in-between ♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between ♦ leader / follower / in-between ♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between ♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between ♦ traditional / modern / in-between ♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between ♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown ♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown / highly contextual ♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown ((yea im not explaining all of that))

✧˖°. BELIEFS ★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic ☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don't know / don’t care / in a matter of speaking ✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don't care ✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious ❀ Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual (Rikki doesnt hold an particular beliefs, but enjoys watching/listeing to Keres and Jolt talk about things, and occasioanlly participates, enjoying having her palms read, or using tarot cards with keres, or listening to jolt ramble about nature while they forage together.)

✧˖°. SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION ❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual ❥ Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favourable / naive and clueless ♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favourable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious ❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious ⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all ⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all (Rikki is Aceflux, she fluctates through various states, but over all reamains asexual, and is sexually replused. She isnt oppsed to the idea of being romantic with someone, but is often to anxious to persue a relationship.)

✧˖°. ABILITIES ☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none (She isnt the best in an actual fight, but she's a phenominal sniper.

Rikki is surprisngly good at math, but also not very great at reading.

She can maybe draw some stick figures, but enjoys doodling with Bux.

Rikki is great at sewing, and also extremely talented at maintaining and fixing guns, and other mechanical weapons.)

✧˖°. HABITS ☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober ☁ Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker ✿ Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict ✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess ☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater $ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic ♣ Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gambler (Over all, most subsance use on her end is pretty casual, rikki basically enjoying her freinds being around her and partaking a little bit here and there, or enjoying a drink on a nice after noon. She's the "designated driver" who cant actually drive.

Rikki is a very picky eater, typically subsiding off of simple sandwiches, or soups that are made specifically because of her squeamish nature to texturally adventurous foods, and she cant handle spicy foods to save her life.

Rikki likes to buy herself nice things sometimes, occasionally going overboard and buying mostly uselss trinkets.

She's a pretty decent gambler, and most of her money is made gambling people who clearly aren't great at what they're trying to do.)

BUX

✧˖°. PERSONAL $ Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty ✚ Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable ✪ Class/Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other ✔ Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other ✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed (Other than the excessive drug use and munchies, Bux's pretty active, and stays pretty thin. He's got a good bit of muscle, and he sometimes has a little chub, but he's definitley not as fit as he could be.

He was in school for a bit before his parents divorced, he father then pulling him out of school to work on the farm. Bux has probably the stickiest fingers of the group, he could steal an entire cart of stuff and not only would you not see him do it, youd have no idea where any of it went. )

✧˖°. FAMILY

◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children ◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased ◔ Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / found family / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable (He's not keen on the idea of having kids. he'd rather avoid them entierly.

He's got a complex relationship with most family members. He doesnt resent his mother, but he's upset with her for not taking him with her when she and walter divorced. Then she married Perry. Perry's great, super nice, and seems like he actually enjoy's Bux's enjoyment of machines and tattoos. But he still had two kids with his mom and didnt think to invite him over even once.

His two sisters adore him, having an older brother who got in trouble for sneeking out and hanging out with a bunch of raiders seems cool to them. He however, does not want to spend time with them. He doesnt hate them, but he feels a twang of envy and sometimes guilt everytime he sees them.)

✧˖°. TRAITS + TENDENCIES ♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between ♦ disorganized / organized / in-between ♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between ♦ calm / anxious / in-between ♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between ♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual ♦ patient / impatient / in-between ♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between ♦ leader / follower / in-between ♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between ♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between ♦ traditional / modern / in-between ♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between ♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown ♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown / highly contextual ♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown ((yea im not explaining all of that))

✧˖°. BELIEFS ★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic ☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don't know / don’t care / in a matter of speaking ✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking ❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don't care ✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious ❀ Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual (jesus himself could decend from heaven and bless this boy personally and he still wouldnt believe, but he swears up an down he's seen mothman.)

✧˖°. SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION ❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual ❥ Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favourable / naive and clueless ♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favourable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious ❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious ⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all ⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all (he's bi, leaning prefrence towards women.)

✧˖°. ABILITIES ☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none (Bux is not well trained in combat (despite Jolt's attempts.) but is still pretty skilled. Mostly melee, and using his terain to his benefit, prefering to ambush or corner people.

Bux can read, just not well or quickly; on top of needing to focus to read, he has no ability to focus, so he often seems illierate, but he's just a little stupid. He (and Rikki) only speak english, so hearing jolt constant swearing in spanish, or jolt and keres talking "serect older adult stuff" right in front of them is frustrating. Rikki's tried to pick up spanish, but picking it up from two affulent people (who aren't trying to teaching you) is harder then it looks (sounds?); Bux on the other hand, has chosen to ignore it.

Jolt is normally the one considered the artist of the group, and sure, when it comes to drawing plants and animals, he's better than Bux, but when drawing people Bux is usually better. Bux likes making more abstract desgins, anyways. He's maybe not the best with paint and paper, but he can tattoo something else.

On a technically level (on all levels except physical) Bux is pretty impressive. with machines, anyways. He seems to speak to the hardware, and know where it goes. software is a little trickier for him, which isnt saying much cause you could probably hand him a peice of technology he's never seen or heard of and be able to fix it after about five minutes of inspecting. ✧˖°. HABITS ☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober ☁ Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker ✿ Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict ✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess ☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater $ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic ♣ Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gambler (When it comes to drinking, smoking, and drugs, Bux makes the others look like they only rarely or barely use. He's so constantly high or drunk that the few times Jolt has seen him sober he's been genuinely worried. If he's able to come down from it all gracefully, he hits a major low pretty easily. Often mopey, quiet, avoidant, and typically irratable. If not, He's more likely to have a shakey, screaming meltdown. Keres and Rikki cant handle the meltdowns, and Jolt is freaked out by the mellow (even if his highs can be annoying) so the group does not prevent him from indulging in his habits. He'll pretty much drink whatever, smoke whatever, but in general, Jet is his drug of choice. Jet, weed, and maybe a little calmex (generously spared by Jolt at the request of Keres when they travel.) other than the occaisonally calmex, he's taking mostly uppers.

Bux enjoys a good bit of Jolt's cooking, but he's not a fan of the more 'explorative' dishes, and isn't quite accustomed to other culture's foods, so he can be rather picky. He however, will devour anything prewar, very happily. His favorite are the yum yum deviled eggs. Jolt has attempted to make him fresh, homemade, non irradiated, likely moldy, and properly seasoned deviled eggs, but Bux still prefers the stuff out of the box. He does think Jolt's pork n' beans is better, though.

While not quite as bad as Keres, Bux is also not allowed to spend his own money. He gets an allowance though. He enjoys gambling, too, so that adds on to the "List of Reasons Why." posted on the fridge by Jolt. He mostly spends on drugs or food, but will also spend on tattoo and pericing supplies, or bust it all gambling. He likes dice games, and betting games. He's not great at it. )

(fun fact about the various drugs of fallout; they're inspired by real world drugs/medications, and when writing stories you can apply the real world affects and repercussions :D I've seen a few different interpretations, but here are mine personally (having worked in (and currently working for) various biomedical pharmaceutical distributions or management companies, and while not being a doctor, I know more than the average person about these drugs. (I've mostly included the ones that are important story wise.) Psycho: Methamphetamine Jet: Jenkem (I've seen some people say its an amphetamine, and i think the effects of jet are pretty similar canonically, but it's definetly jekem.) Med-x: Morphine Buffout: roids. Calmex: Ketamine. Daddy-o: Xanax or adderall. (Or something similar.) Day Tripper: LSD or shrooms but bottled for your conveinence. (some people say that day tripper is weed, going off the effects it could be, but i'd rather just have my characters smoking weed. )

#fallout #fallout raider #fallout oc #RR OC STUFF #HV comic stuff #oc jolt #oc keres #oc rikki #oc bux

[h-worksrambles]

Xenoblade 3′s Direct was amazing, I think I’m gonna cry oh my god-

(takes a deep breath)...So there was a 20 minute long Direct for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and, shockers, I kinda loved it to death.

A lot of this direct was giving more clarity on stuff that mostly confined to vague tweets on Monolith’s Japanese Twitter. So on a gameplay level, it really is like someone took all the coolest parts of 1, X and 2 and mushed them into a single game. I remember seeing some discourse on Twitter back when they confirmed that some arts would recharge based on either time (like in 1 and X) or attacking (like in 2). Mostly people complaining it would have been better to stick uniformally to one or the other (usually based on which game they liked more). But given the amount of playstyles the new class system allows for, I think mixing the two should work perfectly. Characters with slow attacks or who have to move around a lot rather than stay still to attack will benefit from timed cooldown. Meanwhile, characters with quick attacks will be able to pull off the kind of arts spam that 2 allowed for. Best of both worlds. And this Fusion Art mechanic looks like it has a ton of stratgeic potential. It was also nice to get definitive proof that yes, it wasn’t just a mistranslation; you can indeed swap control of party members on the fly. That seemed like the logical next step for the series after Torna and will help greatly with the previous game’s issues with dodgy ai. Everything about battling in this game looks excellent.

And the Ouroboros fusion technique quite literally just got twice as interesting.  It looks to be fillling the same role Overdrive did in X as a timed power up. But letting them form change based on who takes the lead effectively doubles the potential this already looked to have, as we now have 6 giant mech fusions rather than 3. When you factor in that you can seemingly weave in and out of them in chain attacks, that just opens up the strategy even more. Speaking of, chain attacks also look great. I like how you seem to be able to choose which party member follows up with your next move. Plus, I'm glad that you can chain arts for more than just raw damage. I loved that aspect of 1 but didn’t like how RNG based chain links were. 2 gave you much more control but also restricted chain attacks to damage only. This version seems to have you chain arts to work up to a big flashy special which is, say it with me, the best of both worlds.

And as much as I was interested in what we already knew about the Heroes thanks to their variety of cool designs (I particularly enjoyed the new reveals of Ashera and Gray), the fact that you can use their classes makes me much more invested as they're more than just bonus party members now. Now we're looking at a class system with a much more robust number of jobs, so I can only imagine how much strategy that will allow for. X’s class system was already great, but the fact that you have this much flexibility with every party member has some fantastic potential. Plus, between camping dialogues, crafting, a full affinity chart, this looks to bring back so many different mechanics from the games, all while full of gorgeous vistas that echo the locations of the last two entries while still being beautiful in their own right. This game looks to be an absolute blast to play and I couldn’t be more excited.

Now, on to the story. This isn’t a scene by scene breakdown, more of a general thoughts thing. The story section seemed to expand on a lot of stuff that website descriptons were hinting at. Specifically the whole 'people live for 10 years' thing. The first trailer hinted at some kind of lives as fuel thing, but now we know that people literally kill other people to get more time, which sounds like a fascinatingly grim concept. Plus, it was pointed out to me by a friend that it really resembles the plot of the sci fi movie Logan’s Run. This wouldn’t be the first time Takahashi pulled a Kojima and laid on the movie references very thick, but is interesting to see all the same.

I also think I like this new cast more and more every time I see them. Their designs are all slick as hell, voice acting seems fitting all round, and all the interactions in the trailer just seem so charming. Lanz is my favourite so far because I’m gay and predictable, plus it’s just cool to see the Machina return in such a big way. Though I also enjoyed this trailer’s insight into Taion’s more introspective side. Looks like a lot of the game's emotional angst will revolve around Mio given her dwindling lifespan.  But I think we still have a lot to learn about our main character. Drip notwithstanding, Noah still seems like something of a question mark who I don’t have much of a read on, yet. So I'm really keen to see where this all goes. While I won’t go into specifics to avoid spoiling the other games, I was interested to see how this game is revisiting themes and concepts of both the Xenoblade series and the Xeno series in general. Themes of othering vs unity, and the value of other peoples lives, which I’ve already talked about previously. Themes of mortality as explored by ‘Seven’ in 1 and the Aegis in 2 (albeit in very different ways). And of course, the phrase ‘the passsage of fate’ which was so integral to the first game, has come up several times, already. We also got more of a glimpse at our apparent villains. I could point out how much their cryptic back and forth remind me of the Gazel Ministry from Xenogears. But I was mostly struck by how much their dialogue talked about the idea of fate. That’s hardly a new concept for a series where multiple characters can see the future, but given that power has always been tied to the Monado in some way, it raises a lot of questions about our new baddies, if it is they, and not our main characters, who have insight into the future. Also, their old timey cinema is cool as hell.

Put simply, this game continues to look better and better every time we see it, and I think it’s fully in the running for my game of the year. Yes, even with how good Elden Ring is. July 29th cannot get here soon enough.

#xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade 3 #xenoblade direct #noah xenoblade #mio xenoblade #trailer thoughts #also it goes without saying that the music is gorgeous so far

[cephalonserotonin]

Devstream 172

fortunately for y'all I am unemployed this summer and was able to actually watch this one live!

prioritizing recency for this one; will fill in some graphics later. after I take a nap

TL;DR: Echoes of Duviri update coming, some summer events, and we won't know what will happen at TennoCon in August but the reveal will probably be big

Last devstream before tennocon

Rebb opening her own devstream on her phone live to get the umbra forma drop... iconic

Pride campaign ends tomorrow! Grab the 1-credit pride stuff while you can!

7 Crimes of Kullervo - it's been out for a week

The prison island literally cannot be expanded any further due to storage constraints on the size of Duviri

The time-limited node (Kullervo's Hold) is to guarantee a Kullervo experience on the short term

Kullervo: 53rd warframe

Overguard for Kullervo: why? - mostly diegetic reasons, it feels non-immersive for stab man to summon shields from nowhere.

But his survivability on SP is lacking, so the team is experimenting with giving him some invuln and higher health

Some mixed thoughts on overguard vs adaptation

People want a dagger for Kullervo. it's been… tentatively teased

Captain (corrupted) Vor in the undercroft with a new monologue is popular (I haven't personally encountered him yet, and am excited to do so)

Upcoming Duviri content (next update: Echoes of Duviri)

New undercroft arenas in progress! Level design in progress shown is a lil grassland

The Jackal as an assassination game mode within the undercroft; He's a well regarded boss fight that scales well

Goal is expanding variety within duviri play

New incarnon models, which are gorgeous.

These 5 will be available for plat. There's a lot of awkward waffling here about pricing and free-to-play which has to be seen to really be understood

"We're not twisting your arm! We're not strong enough for that!"

DUVIRI ROOM FOR THE DOJO! Unique skybox for each mood Idk about y'all but I know exactly where in my dojo it's going

6th drifter weapon: the Argo and Vel, a mace and shield, similar to what the heavy Dax use Available for both Warframe and drifter (new weapon type for the drifter) The shield is gorgeous

Wisp prime coming July 27th

Teaser for her Prime trailer (I love the fluidity of it)

Fulmin + gunsen prime. The fulmin prime looks nothing like the fulmin lol

Megan's fashion frame has been called the 8th crime (oof)

More 10th Anniversary Content: the "recall 10-0 event"

will bring some old boss battles with cosmetics to earn

Starting July 19th

Dog Days returns with a hot rod domestik drone

TennoCon in person in August

Live tickets are sold out (as of before I found out I would be free that time after all, I cry)

Baro will bring all his Waros for 1 week

Broadcast schedule released

TennoLive will be 90 minutes

Helen introduces the cosplay contest ($10k prize for first place). Her hair looks amazing

The Warframe artbook content is done!

Dex operator + drifter suit by Liger! It looks like Hanzo Shimada if flowers were growing out of his back. Will be given to everyone for free :3

For the first time, reveals at this tennocon (for the "next installment" of Warframe) will be a true surprise. "It'll be our life's work" - Rebb. :o

Rebb still wants warframes starting with each letter of the alphabet. Q and D supposedly coming at tennocon

New soundtrack record picking up from the Sacrifice

Companion rework coming sometime this year

Warframe reworks won't be until post-TennoCon

Some poor lady was accosted on her wedding to ask Rebb about cross-save (bruh). More concrete news at TennoCon

#Warframe #Devstream 172 #sera's devstream notes #tumblr don't eat my formatting pretty please

[whatyourusherthinks]

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review

Ghostbusters! I feel about them the same way I feel about quit a few other nerd properties. I like it, but I wouldn't call myself a fan. I enjoyed the original two when I saw them as a kid. I didn't watch the 2016 reboot because of all the toxic nonsense around it. (Also I heard it was just okay so didn't want to waste a weekend on it.) And I enjoyed Afterlife. I thought the trailers were fun, but I was very concerned that Podcast didn't appear in any of them. Luckily he is in the movie, so the writers didn't forget about the best character. Hey, it also looks like Finn Wolfhard is actually gonna be doing something in this one!

What's The Movie About?

The crew from Ghostbusters Afterlife moved back to New York City and must face down a new threat in the form of Garraka, an ice ghost who wants to command an army of the undead.

What I Like.

I really like the family dynamic in this movie. Gary's arc of trying to become Phoebe and Trevor's new dad but not knowing where the boundaries lie was really sweet. I really like the entire Spengler family and their dynamic. Phoebe is honestly my favorite character in the whole franchise. I also really like that Walter Peck is back and is now the mayor of New York City, and he's just as correct about everything as he was in the original movie. Good to see that they kept that tradition going. I also like the new characters. Patton Oswald, Jamie Acaster, and Kumail Nanjiani are great additions and I thought they were funny. Speaking of which, the humor is better in this movie than the last one. I also like the worldbuilding. Not only is the villain pretty creepy and the Death Chill a cool power, but I like the expansion of the franchise. Literally, the Ghostbusters are expanding their franchise in the movie to include a new location where the new characters can study ghosts and invent new gadgets.

What I Didn't Like.

Finn Wolfhard is, once again, completely superfluous in this movie. He tries to catch Slimer a couple times but mostly he's just in the background whining about stuff. Nothing against the actor, but please don't bring him back for a sequel unless you're going to actually give him a plotline. Hey, speaking of things to stop doing for the sequel, stop with the nostalgia bait! It's honestly so frustrating to watch these interesting new characters and ghosts have to split their screentime with references and callbacks that purely exist for people to point and go "I 'member that!" I don't mind having Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson around doing their thing, but with the exception of Walter Peck, every time there was a call back to the first movie I just rolled my eyes. And the cast at this point is pretty huge, give some of the more interesting characters breathing room!

Final Summation.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is good fun. I enjoyed watching it and I think it'll be a hit for fans as well as those coming back from Afterlife. I continue to enjoy the Phoebe character and would love to keep watching the Spengler family bust ghosts with science.

#Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire #Recommended Movies

[handelplayssims]

Righty! We’re entering into a new household this time! The Moody & McMillan household!

We got old gays with conflicting personalities and a GOAL. Well a goal for me at least. The goal is to make friends with at least one of these guys so I can pass the house along when they die! These two old men don’t have any children of their own, which nice and all, but the Sims 4 is implicity all about creating a linage to pass down homes as dying alone gives you a game over state. That being said, I haven’t ever objected to just giving a home to someone the elderly sim has a high relationship with. That’s how Cameron Fletcher slid into my played families! And it doesn’t need to be given away soon, just near the end of their lifespans.

I will also make note that the home lot for this family was designed by HeyHarrie! I’ll likely give my thoughts on the build at the end of the turn with the household, as it does give me enough time to determine whether or not I, as someone who doesn’t build much myself but plays extensively within a build, like it.

Right, that’s enough preamble, let’s play!

Breakfast time and this is the first time I can show off the new cooking layout! Alongside the kitchen stuff pack release, we got a rebalancing of the cooking menu with subfolders! Now personally, I wish for qualifications on breakfast, lunch and dinner foods but I’ll take the dietary restrictions.

Derek McMillan is a skilled chef, Ian Moody isn’t so we’re having him cook. We also have a chicken coop around so I purchase two hens and one rooster. ...oh and both Derek and Ian have a fear of dying. I’m gonna have them talk to each other about that to clear that off. Or at least Ian will since the want to clear that fear is on him.

-snicker- Remember that Neighborhood Watch about Ian becoming a Superstar actor and retiring from it? Well, it seems that it didn’t matter much to him as he’s getting no retirement pay from it! Which fine by me, but that’ll just be amusing when I see it pop up.

Anyway, Ian’s who we loaded into so let’s look at his whims. A drink of nectar as a foodie and to call someone. ...he literally has no one to call as his only social contact is Derek and the new chickens. Let’s get to work on that! Meanwhile, Derek has much calmer whims, listening to Baroque and Classical music. Welp, might as well! First purchase in this house! A stereo!

OH MY GOD. Birds are flying around Ian as he sings his beautiful music. That was a thing in Cottage Living’s trailer but never noticed how you got that. DISNEY PRINCE!

Hey Rahami Watson! Don’t leave! I want to make friends with- and there she goes. Alas and alack. Welp, at least I can fullfill the whim.

Also, gotta say, the sunsnow around here is super-pretty! Not like the British weather I’ve experienced at all. (Then again, this pack is all about an idealized British countryside life)

Let’s see...using a bar in the Cotswolds as a reference, thanks Google Maps, I won’t have Ian go off for his nectar until noon. That leaves me with Derek and his tunes and ohp! Both are sleepy! And both are retired so they can sleep and rise whenever they wish!

I hear a negative sting in the game and we have lost a chicken AND a fox has an egg! Le gasp! I haven’t had to deal with the Wild Foxes negative lot trait in a long while, as it’s only in Henford! Our chickens need protecting! That being said, Ian doesn’t hate foxes. On the contrary, I think he actually is rather fond of them. So instead of shooing this fox, we’re going to befriend him! ...or all of the foxes around could head off. Sure fine! And it means are chickens are safe for now. To bed with Derek!

Ian is first up! His whims, still nectar and to listen to Electronic music! ...well he’s hungry so lets finally head to the bar! Compared to many other bars in game, which just have the basic food options Get Together introduces, Henford-on-Bagley does have some expanded food options! Mostly from the person who built this bar, and perhaps their own research, pointing out that many British pubs do serve as restaurants as well as bars, in contrast to the US, which most bars just have drinks and paltry food selections.

Anyway, let’s introduce ourself to the barkeep and check in on her errands! Several NPCs within Henford-on-Bagley do have small quests you can do for them. A Friendly Visit would work well with Ian’s wants and whims so let’s pick that up! What we are to do is to talk to the other Henford-on-Bagley major NPCs! They’ll pop up around the square but it’s in the evening so that won’t work out. Anyway, Ian’s aspiration is to become a Friend of the World so let’s go and chat and befriend Sara while we’re at it! This old man is certainly taking his time befriending Sara. Going to have to run around the socials so many times around. Making it worse is that I have to manually pick the socials rather than just relying on what pops up first since she’s a bartender and so it buries the socials under the menus rather than just popping them up naturally. Finally befriended her around 2AM. Now we can head home and listen to our favorite tunes...which incidentally, aren’t Sara’s favorite tunes. I would argue about that but I want them to be better friends first so it doesn’t ruin their relationship.

Derek’s whims didn’t refresh since I left mid-sleep but that works out fine by me. He wants to start writing a new book thanks to his best-selling author aspiration. That we can get to work on now! (Also would make some nice passive income in our retirement)

-sighs as Ian gets a Social Bunny notification- He would have Facebook, wouldn’t he? Ian’s a bit too social not to. I got a notification of foxes and NOPE! Let’s have Derek go pester them! ...and it’s 5AM already. Wow. Can’t believe it’s time for-

Neighborhood Watch!

Nothing of note has happened recently. Check back tomorrow.

...BOOOOOOO!

#sims 4 #blogging #moody & mcmillian #ian moody #derek mcmillian #...I know heyharrie has a blog here i keep getting recommended it #but I am in NO WAY tagging her #she has to find it on her own

[delightfuldevin]

Thoughts on the new Wonder direct?? 👀

I totally forgot there even was a direct so I had to go see it and !!!!!!! Many thoughts!!!!!

Hmm let’s see here. Well mostly it just looks like soooo much fun!! It expands on the 2D side scroller Mario games so much in terms of mechanics and it looks like it’ll be such a treat!! I don’t agree with most people saying the New Soup series was soulless as I found great enjoyment in those games when they first came out and still do, even if they did get rather repetitive. But Wonder feels so different than them. It feels like the result in the developers getting a kind of inspiration that they’ve never had before. It feels so different than anything I’ve seen before, even when comparing it to 3D games like Galaxy and Odyssey, which themselves were so different when they came out. Wonder knocks them out of the park!!

Of course as an avid explorer of Mario lore, the new power ups, species, and location are what I’m here for!! The bubble power looks so cute,, Regional species variants like Melon Piranha Plants and those Spikes that spit fireballs!! Hoppycats!! Precious lookin fellas,, I’ll be honest here, I did wish it would’ve expanded on an already existing location, namely Sarasaland since Daisy is here, but that’s alright! A completely new kingdom is nice, too. And new royalty! And maybe yet another godly power to turn into a religion hbdcjbdjdcn What exactly are those Wonder Flowers anyway? I wonder (oops lol) what info we’ll actually get on them once the game comes out. We didn’t get much from the trailer alone, but it does remind me a little bit of Bowser Jr’s paintbrush or the Dream World from M&L: Dream Team. But it seems more chaos-inducing than wish-granting, so I dunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sad that the Koopalings didn’t show up :((( There’s only 7 worlds including the final one, so they probably won’t be in this one. That’s disappointing,, I was really hoping to see my kids in a new adventure,,, But that’s okay! There’s soooo much cool stuff overall and I’m sure the lore explorer in me is gonna explode when I do finally get my hands on it!! And of course the gamer in me who’s probably gonna try to complete the whole thing in a single day gdfhjfgyjjh

#answered the thing #emotional support nerd #the badges system is so cool too im excited for that #that kinda thing is entirely new to 2d mario and will probably be the biggest difference in gameplay i think #oh how much fun ill have on oct 20 #patiently waiting :D :D :D

[artistjust]

Isaac battery buddy

ISAAC BATTERY BUDDY UPDATE

ISAAC BATTERY BUDDY PLUS

On June 27, 2018, a Kickstarter page for The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, a card game published by Studio71, was launched, and was successfully funded. The release date trailer for this expansion can be found here. It also improves the co-op mode by allowing players to use full-fledged characters rather than babies, and includes a metric boatload of quality-of-life changes to previous content. The expansion is an Updated Re-release of the Antibirth Game Mod, featuring the alternate path and expanding on it with new secondary floors, a plethora of new items (a good number of which originating from Four Souls), and a new set of alternate forms for each playable character. Repentance, another expansion for the remake, released on March 31st of 2021.The fifth and final was dubbed "The Forgotten Update" by Nicalis Inc., and you can watch the trailer here. It also received five "Booster Pack" updates throughout 2017 and early 2018, adding even more content to the game, mostly official versions of mods. The expansion not only includes even more items, bosses, and characters, but also features a detailed Monster Compendium, official developer tools and a Lua API specifically intended for modding the game. Afterbirth† (pronounced "Afterbirth Plus"), a slightly smaller expansion for the remake, released on January 3rd of 2017.Some of this new content are ideas suggested by the community this includes items, challenges, and other features. Not only does it come with the usual stuff (such as new items, bosses, and a new character), but it also features Greed Mode and even more alternative areas. Afterbirth, the remake's first expansion, released on October 30th of 2015.The expansion features its own hard mode where almost every enemy and boss receives an Elite Mook variant known as an "Eternal Champion".

ISAAC BATTERY BUDDY UPDATE

Eternal Edition is a free update to the original game, released by Florian Himsl on May 2015.

ISAAC BATTERY BUDDY PLUS

It adds a new category of collectibles called "trinkets," plus new and upgraded items, enemies, bosses, alternate areas, room types, a new character, a new ending and more.

Wrath of the Lamb is the very first expansion, released on May 28th of 2012.

Following it was the smaller Christmas update at the end of 2011, which added one new boss and item. The Halloween update released on Octoand added a new character, demon-related items and bosses, and an extra chapter with a new final boss.

The original game received two free content updates prior to its paid expansion.

Variety is the name of the game here, and the sheer volume of rooms, bosses, items, characters, secrets, challenges and endings ensures that no two runs through the basement will ever be the same. The game utilizes procedural generation to make each playthrough a unique experience, while additional characters themed after important people from Abrahamic myth can radically change how the game plays. The player visits item rooms to acquire powerful upgrades and faces off against a boss on every floor, heading deeper and deeper downwards with each room cleared. Isaac wanders the maze that is the basement and beyond, collecting items and trinkets to slowly amass enough power to survive a confrontation with Mom and eventually greater foes beyond. Gameplay follows Isaac as he descends into the labyrinth underneath his house. Isaac discovers her intentions and manages to escape into the basement, where, still naked, he goes on the run as he fights off nightmares both physical and mental (using his own tears, no less), discovers memories of his own past, and ultimately confronts Mom in an effort to survive. After his fanatical Christian mother begins hearing the voice of God, she removes all of his worldly possessions and strips him naked, confines him to his bedroom, and unhesitatingly accepts a commission to kill him in sacrifice to prove her devotion. The story follows Isaac, a young boy who finds himself in possibly the worst situation imaginable. The Binding of Isaac is a Horror Comedy, Black Comedy, Roguelike Top-Down Shooter made by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl, released in September 2011.

#Isaac battery buddy

[doodle-mole]

Once again entirely out of the blue, a series of mostly cohesive comments about the third and newest (so far) season of Love, Death & Robots. Once again, they are presented in the order I watched them as per Brazilian Netflix, for whatever reason.

Three Robots: Exit Strategies: This is probably the only sequel so far, and I guess if they're intending to make sequels for any of these shorts it might as well be Three Robots. It's a fun ordeal, as expected, composed of a few humor skits on the subject of post-apocalyptic survivalism. To be honest, the anti-capitalism sounds hollow coming from a series distributed by Netflix, of all people, but fine. It's funny and fine.

Bad Travelling: This is a damn good one that leans on the horror of this series (you know, the Death in Love, Death & Robots), with an art style reminiscent of last season's The Tall Grass. The story itself is really good psych thriller involving one man taking control of a ship housing a deep sea abomination crab after being thrown into the basement to be used as fodder. It's really great to root for this surprisingly gold-hearted asshole.

The Very Pulse Of The Machine: Very psychedelic, by narrative itself -- a story in which a stranded astronaut gets herself dosed with potentially hallucinogenic analgesics to try and survive until she can get help, while holding a conversation with her dead colleague, now a vessel for the voice of Io, the moon of Jupiter itself. The hallucinogenic angle makes it so the story is open ended and even from within the dream itself it's not clear if she survived or not her final struggle. Very trippy, very gorgeous, great voice for a satellite trying to speak through a person.

Night of the Mini Dead: This is the absolute comedy short of the season and it is kind of... pointless? What I think is notable about it is that it's animated and produced in a way that looks like it's all animated with dioramas in stop motion, which I'm almost sure is not the case, but that doesn't pay off in any way. It is just a zombie apocalypse that starts in the most edgy funny way and keeps escalating and ends not with a bang, but with a whimper fart.

Kill Team Kill: Honestly good animation and art, features possibly the best bear attack since Annihilation, but otherwise the plot and concept of this is nothing to write home about. It's well made, so it's still good.

Swarm: Gorgeous and very engaging, it's disputing the title of best of this season together with Bad Travelling up there and the two last ones. It is also based on a short story that I should track down because it absolutely sounds like my jam -- and also sounds like a story I read in an anthology, except in this one it was an AI ship instead of a giant alien swarm... Anyway, for a compelling narrative where humanity's hubris leads to its inevitable demise in the hands of a more peaceful and yet still equally fearsome version of the Zerg... dive right in!

Mason's Rats: This one is not quite comedic, but absolutely having fun with the concept of a near future where farm pests start to evolve to respond to human technology. I really like that it does not go into an escalating arms race like I was expecting, but instead the war escalates so quickly that the side that's supposed to be unsympathetic realizes that it's just not worth it. And, honestly, the character modelling in this one is quite charming, too. Great flick.

In Vaulted Halls Entombed: Another gorgeous horror piece with amazing graphical fidelity. Interesting enough, the horrific stuff starts not with the cosmic horror itself, but with the measures taken to contain the thing, and that's very twisted. At this point I feel like expanding on it isn't going to get anything more interesting out of me, the animation is standard good, the plot is very good, the horror is well executed... it's just really good.

Jibaro: The closing piece of this season is, also, a flagship of the season's trailer, and oddly enough it has a very subdued soundtrack which kept me waiting for that slow and bassy remix of Fur Elise to start playing at any moment... Anyhoo, it's a creepy story about a golden spirit being encountered by a group of what I assume are conquistadores, all the death that ensues and the twists and turns that come from one of those being deaf. The graphics on this one are so weird I can only describe them as being hyperreal, a very realistic style that subtly hints at some kind of augmented synesthetic reality. And, too boot, it's a pretty good mystic story of the dangers of greed.

#love death and robots #review #spoilers

[omgdylanobrien]

Dylan O’Brien *is* a sexy son of a bitch isn’t he?

Just watched Infinite (2021) and all I can say is.. they’re right!

#dylan o'brien #sexy sob #line from the movie really!! #as usual he gives a great performance in an overall mediocre movie #working an awful script like it's shakespeare #give him a good action movie please!!! #I just want a whole movie of him like this *sobs* #mostly stuff from the trailer expanded #not really any spoilers #I really like the script so much better they changed a lot and not an improvement #spoilers coming later today #block the spoiler tags if you don't want to see them!! #heinrich treadway #infinite #dylan obrien #dylan o’brien #tumblr blocking me from tag search for swearing lol

[orojuice]

The Source of the Static

Another comic by me and Sha-Y.

For a moment, I would like you to quiet the questions you might have of what might happen in Pibby, who she might meet, and how deep its lore and meta logistics will descend, and focus on where it’s going to be airing.

To wit, from what we’ve seen, it’s going to be a Kingdom Hearts-esque dark adventure show except with Cartoon Network properties, more blood, and probably more swearing. It’s a conflict between kids’ show protagonist Pibby and “The Static”, an antagonistic force is the Static, a black, surreal mass that snatches and corrupts everything in its path, making previously benign characters and archetypes say and do heinous things to further its own ends. And this is going to happen on the Adult Swim programming block.

Adult Swim.

The same place where all this happened:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQAHQimuef4

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49-Y8vgycss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAknYYMh_98

Now, cartoons and pastiche have always had a strong connection. Political caricatures have been around for over a century. Ditto for satirical newspaper strips. Looney Tunes and Disney stars parodied topical pop culture items like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and old fairy tales like Jack & The Beanstalk. And even they took some licks of their own with Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin and Ed Roth’s Rat Fink. Adult-oriented animation existed before Adult Swim, even adult animation programming blocks did (see: MTV’s Oddities).

But there was no brand on television whose foundations were exclusively built on parodies that specifically targeted other cartoons. And these weren’t stand-ins or substitutes reminiscent of other cartoon characters ala Drawn Together or Cuphead. These were fully realized (and partly animated) twisted reinventions of the actual properties: Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Have Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Brak Show, and Sealab 2021. They’ve expanded and experimented over the years, sometimes with outright and aggressively original content, but what tends to stick around are the programs that are provide accessible and versatile (and profitable) avenues of spoofing and deconstruction. Robot Chicken and the revived Family Guy are the most obvious examples of this, but a huge chunk of Rick and Morty, their biggest hit right now, consists of the leads lampooning and occasionally humiliating established properties like Captain Planet, Voltron, and the MCU to prop themselves up by extension.

These shows shock, sometimes horrify, and yet they often delight. If you know about Pibby, there’s a high chance you know about Adult Swim, and there’s a likelihood you’ve enjoyed some of their programming and the style of comedy therein. Has it all been in good taste? Well, it’s all been fair. Fair use, in fact. This kind of commentary/critique might not always be nice, constructive, or safe for work, but it’s always been valid legally and artistically.

Which is how Adult Swim and those they’ve worked with have managed to have it both ways. They’ve used the higher age rating and mature content umbrella to enter filthy but ultimately human territory to talk about heavy topics; you can see this in how Moral Orel talks about faith and family, or in the way the Venture Brothers tackle arrested development in an inverted boys’ adventure cosmos. Then again. they can easily have Aquaman stand by and allow a woman to be violently assaulted just because she’s being attacked on land, and facilitate other low-hanging dankness. The block picks its battles, that can’t be denied, but they’ve never shied away from cruelty, gore, pedantry, violence, and the odd bout of character assassination. Mostly for entertainment purposes, and as said before, while these can be mean-spirited, the method is technically neutral if not benign.

So imagine my surprise when the Static showed its stuff. If Pibby’s trailer had been for a regular Cartoon Network (they can get away with a lot more than you’d think) or even an HBO Max program, I would’ve been conventionally intrigued and maybe even horrified at what was happening. But Adult Swim? Transforming Fred Flintstone into an extension of a malefic alien mass isn’t even the most evil thing Adult Swim has turned him into or event (the worst thing they’ve done to him). They want us to dread the Powerpuff Girls going bad? Well, maybe they shouldn’t have inoculated us to it with that one skit where some cocaine got into their mix. The Scooby Gang are vicious killers? Again? Pibby’s cute bunny sidekick has been horribly mutated into a vicious monster? They’ve been doing that to traditionally adorable cast members for nearly twenty years. However, what transformed this moment of incredulity to one of fascination was how this Static was the - barring some twist - the villain in this scenario; the deforming, deconstructive force was the villain.

Fans, critics, and even some creators have weighed in at times to bring up how some of this ostensibly adult content has been overly cynical, vacuously vicious, or even harmful. They’ve done this with words, with videos, with comics, and even the odd video game (Toonstruck) or movie (The Spongebob Squarepants Movie). But this sentiment has never been expressed in such a lengthy and serialized fashion as a tv show, and be so directly confrontational to an artistic device that has been the cornerstone and lynchpin of the place it’ll be aired on.

Intentional or not, that’d be audacious; biting the hand that makes bank. Even daring in a way that supposedly startling works (MeatCanyon, Flashgitz, Cas Van De Pol) can’t be. Theoretically, I mean.

I know that, if that is what’s going in, it likely won’t be that clean cut. The series bible states that Pibby is going to master “the power of darkness” herself to save the day - set a fox to catch a fox - in a manner concurrent with her gradual character development. So perhaps the theme is to find a way to distinguish how deconstruction can facilitate explorations of happenings, topics, and interactions beyond comfortable archetypes and plot structures (Melira and Alloy Boy will apparently benefit from this as that same series bible hints) are distinct from glib and borderline regressive observations and cheap shots that at their lowest, seek to punish sincerity of every stripe.

I can’t say for sure.

Additionally, due to everything listed above, I probably won’t - if Pibby becomes a show - watch it as it airs, because I don't want to be wringing my hands each week waiting for the big “Adult Swim was the baddie all along” twist to happen or not. I still want to watch it, but likely as a binge affair after maybe asking some other viewers if that happened or not. So I don't get disappointed if it isn't the case and I can enjoy it for what it is, you understand.

Just to play it safe, that’s why I worked together with u/Sha-Yurigami to make this comic over the weekend and blasted out this spiel in a couple of hours. So even if this moment doesn’t occur in the cartoon, it’ll have done so here.

Whatever the case, here’s hoping that Pibby will be a fun ride if it gets the green light.

#pibby #bunbun #adultswim

[sanstropfremir]

I’d love your thoughts on BTS and their current image and music if you have them and aren’t afraid of the mindless internet hoards.

Personally, I liked a lot of their older stuff, but haven’t liked anything since I think the Fake Love promotions 3+ years ago. They’d started losing their personality and soul before that album cycle, but it feels like the sanitization of their image and artistry really kicked into hyperdrive after that. Now most of what they do seems like a sterile money grab driven by the Hybe hive mind which is a shame.

ok alrighty (cracks knuckles) let's get into it.

now that i've fully given myself a headache watching the majority of the bts videography, here are three points i'm going to cover:

performative character and the lack thereof

interesting aesthetics and the lack thereof, and

the inevitable cracking of perfection

ready, set, let's begin.

1.

idol music is very clearly definited by spectacle based aesthetics. and it's had that structure for its entire existence. so i gotta hand it to hybe for this one, because they managed to revolutionize being utterly fucking average. the triumph of bts is that they're just some guys and they look like just some guys. hybe found a niche in the system and then gamed that system to the tune of one of the largest musical acts in the world. they're not marketing bts as a romantic parasocial relationship, they're marketing them as your friends. and that is just as insidious to lonely kids as a run of the mill romantic fantasy. but that's not what i'm here to talk about today.

there's a pattern i find very interesting with bts mvs and that is that i don't remember anything about them. specifically, i don't remember the stuff that's happening IN the video; not the styling, not the setpieces, if i didn't know the members i doubt i would remember them either. what i DO remember, is how expensive the production is, and specific shots. i couldn't tell you what a single member was wearing, but i sure as hell remember that first upward angle shot of jungkook and the rusted park ride in spring day. or every single time they do that birdseye shot of jin in like every video. honestly as far as i'm aware jin has only ever worn a loose fitting beige longsleeve shirt.

it took bts a long time to establish any kind of consistent visual character. and the character they did establish.... i don't know if you can call a family-friendly-style clean aesthetic 'character'. they debuted as a hip hop group to little (comparative) success, and then made a switch to doing an early version of where they're currently at right now. if you've seen any of the mvs, you know that this is a pretty significant visual change. i don't think it is inherently a bad change, since the visual branding for hiphop based groups always tips over into iffy terrritory, but it is dramatic enough and early enough that it doesn't strike me as a natural evolution. concept switch ups are common, but they usually work because the members have established a bit of character for themselves, used their performance abilities and presence to fit into a niche in the group. the idol mould is perfect for showcasing the performers; that's its function. the groups that are the most fun to watch are the ones with stage presence, the ones who know how to perform, who can act all the parts they need to play. and bts? 4/7 actual performers on a good day. in my personal opinion it's 2/7.

i'm gonna expand on what i said about jimin here (this is technically the first part of this series), because it does apply to the rest of the group on the whole:

and i think here is where we see the main crux of the difference between taemin and jimin as performers: taemin has both an artistic and an idol persona. we know and understand him to do solo work that has a separate artistic meaning to just him being an idol. even though this performance was pre-move, i would still say this applies, because he's hot off press your number, where he's acting in a story based mv. jimin on the other hand just has his idol persona. he's not known for creating the same kind of storytelling that taemin is.

bts has been very insistent on the image of the group as a single unit. despite having the size of fanbase and the revenue that would make any official solo debut a massive success, none of them have done any substantial solo work. this isn't artistically a problem, and i think it's very admirable of them to be so dedicated to the image and the legacy of the group, when that can be an uncommon trait in the industry. i do however, think it starts to become an issue when we want to discuss what the artistic visions and images of groups are. shinee taemin and solo taemin have two distinct artistic representations, and taemin himself will attest to that. it's the same with all the shinee members that have solo careers, and the same with other groups. jackson, bambam, yugyeom, and jaebeom's solo work is all very different from got7. yixing's solo work is very different from exo's. even the subunits within exo all have their own character (cbx and sc). kpop groups all ostensibly are trained under the same system, so why the disparity with bts? mostly, it's their brand of "authenticity." it's impossible to perform authentically, by the nature of performance as a medium it is unnatural, and tragically, not everyone is naturally interesting, or suited to performing: that's why the performing arts even exist in the first place. it required painstaking training to be good at performing; it is a complex set of skills and those skills are not learnt by "being authentic." being an idol is not just the singing, dancing, rapping; that's only half the work. you need to be able to act to be a compelling performer. pulling your true self and emotions out on stage every night is a fast track to burnout and psychological issues, there's plenty of evidence. the only member of bts of whom i can say for some certainty has a persona and a stage presence is jhope/hoseok, a) because he's kept up a very specific brand in the solo work that he has done, and b) he has actual dance training, not just kpop dance training. the rest of them may have the kpop dance and the kpop vocal training, but what they do not have is the ability to market themselves as compelling performers on stage. taehyung is the only other member i would hesitantly give a semblance of persona and ability to, but i think he stumbled onto that mostly by accident. and if all the pieces don't each have a distinctive colour, how can the whole machine be visually interesting?

2.

bts may never have been able to establish an aesthetic brand, but what they did establish is an intellectual one. if you talk to a fan, the schtick they give is that "it's about the lyrics." as noble as having an intellectual or cerebral message is, what does that look like? how do you portray intellectual on stage, on film? what about intellectual is interesting to watch? cerebral, by it's literal nature as a descriptor, is very difficult to communicate in visual language because it is internal. to successfully communicate cerebrality and intellect in a short form medium like music videos requires a deft hand with metaphor that can elude even an experienced designer. and honestly? i don't know whether to applaud hybe's visual team for being the most successful subtle contemporary designers i've every seen, or to decry them as worst kpop designers i've ever seen. maybe both. regardless, i don't think they're able to cross the gap.

there are exactly four mvs where i actually remember the content of the mv and not the frame it sits in, and those are dna, idol, the singularity comeback trailer with taehyung, and war of hormone. and of an eight year career......that's not very many. these four mvs have at least an inkling of interesting spectacle and character, but even then, it's still a stretch. there is absolutely nothing to write home about in the styling for dna, other than it's well colour matched. I don't even know if I should include singularity because it involves none of the other members. idol is probably their most interesting mv because it actually has alternative styling and varies (at least a little bit) from the standard hybe boom crane shot-that-shows-off-how-we-can-afford-big-studio-spaces-and-locations. the company and the group would be loathe to admit it, but war of hormone is a well designed and interesting mv for the time it was made, with a well crafted gimmick and some actual showing of character from the members. it was the start of a potential that they squashed quite quickly because it wasn't picking up in the hiphop-group-saturated market of 2014. but the rest of their mvs? remarkably uninspired styling. like it's truly impressive how boring the styling is. and like i've said, that is the triumph in their aesthetics: they all look like normal dudes (if you had professional skin + makeup techs looking after them for the last 8 years).

all of this is a carefully crafted image that's tailored to hooking an audience, especially an international one. the mvs are boring in the relative scale of kpop, but they're just different enough from a western pop mv to catch attention. and once you do sink a hook, there's a direct clickfunnel of content that bills itself on these men being "authentic" and "self-producing," which is a huge draw to international fans, because people are racist and believe that the kpop industry is a factory that produces idols like clones, where none of them know how to do anything other than sing and dance and all the music is just handed to them by companies. and they have SO much content that there's no way a new fan can get to it all in a timely manner, so they'll never have to engage with any other kpop artists' work if they don't actively seek it out. but that's another essay for another time.

3.

that brings us to current day, in which at least the last five bts releases have been in the same aesthetic vein of positive, sanitized, and pristine. i said it in one of my txt responses and i will say it again here: money scrubs the humanity from the aesthetic of living. minimalism is for rich white people. hybe and bts may have pivoted their style and brand directly into the lane of mass appeal, but when you pair that with the amount of money funding them, there's a cognitive dissonance between the message and the aesthetics in which it's portrayed. some people do like the clean cut looks, and i won't say that they don't work, but as you've likely gleaned from this response, it isn't my style and if you've been around and reading my writing for longer you'll know that my tastes runs much closer to the messy and the weird, so very little about any of bts' visuals have appeal to me. i do find the contradiction of applying the appeal of radical relatability with the aesthetics of expansive (and expensive) minimalism interesting; it's an extremely fine line that hybe is walking and eventually they are going to tip over, the porcelain mask will not hold forever. maintaining the all ages aesthetic is going to be difficult now that all of them are grown ass men. with other groups of this member age and generation there's very obviously been a shift to a more adult tone, and not necessarily explicitly. got7, mx, nu'est, btob, shinee, 2pm, and groups that have older members like a.c.e and sf9 have all made slow shifts in tone that are undeniably aimed at a maturing audience: they know their core fanbases are aging with them and they (the fans) are not as interested in the 'boy' in boy group. and most of them have telltale visual styles, enough so that i can distinguish a specific group's mv. the last year and change of mx mvs have a very distinctive character; got7 too, since easily as far back as if you do. i can always tell an a.c.e mv by its impeccable fashion and formic styling, and although shinee has always had a more experimental aesthetic edge, their sound and voices are unmistakable.

honestly, i can't predict what bts is going to do in the future, but i personally don't believe they can keep up their clean aesthetic indefinitely without some fallout. part of the fun of following bands is watching them grow musically, and the last couple of years of bts haven't felt like growth. there are fans that have already started realizing it, and there's likely to be more soon.

---

the third part is here, which is a short followup about some of bts' industry influence.

#this is long one dear readers #a very long one #strap in #i've sat on this for probably a week now in the hopes my brain can make some interesting connections but honestly? #not a lot about bts is interesting in comparision to the rest of the kpop industry #personally i am of the opinion that lyrics do not matter in idol music and i am not interested in them in the slightest #and bts videos ARE extremely bland visually #unless you like looking at expensive production. whatever floats your boat i guess #they make a lot of sense as an entry kpop group but once you get actually into the industry there is SO much happening #which i talk about in the third part a little bit #this is way too long i am so sorry anon and everyone else who has been asking about this topic #im not entirely sure it's coherent at this point but whatever. its out there now #i wanted this to be under 1k and that emphatically did not happen #it is double that. why am i like this #875 #kpop questions #kpop analysis #group analysis #text #answers

[naviizeldablog]

Just thinking about how Ghirahim would be perfect for either Botw 2 or an Age of Calamity dlc

Before I go into this, there’s a number of reasons why I didn’t pick any other zelda villain or antagonist. And it’s mostly because all the other villains were; made for the one game they were in (Zant, Yuga), has some copyright issues (Vaati), or it’s clear that they’re not coming back. 

So it’s quite obvious that the botw triology (we can argue for days if aoc is considered canon or not, but not right now) takes a lot of inspiration from skyward sword in regards to Hylia, game mechanics (weapon durability, player gameplay, etc...), and of course, how incredibly similar the trailers for botw 2 look compared to skyward sword in general. And I’m crossing my fingers to hope for more SS references in the triology in the future. 

I’ll start with age of calamity. 

Now, Astor was an unexpected addition to the triology. His involvement in aoc leads to some continuity issues with botw, seeing as you would think that his important role with bringing back Ganon would be at least mentioned in botw. (Yes I know he was created after botw was made, and already has some weird timeline placement issues, did he and the other cultists only get involved because they saw the events of botw? Have they been active before then? Where did they even come from? It’s a bit of a mess with his backstory.) But timeline set aside, he wasn’t a memorable villain. Sooga and Kohga definitely took up the spotlight, and their change of goals was a nice touch (though I highly doubt the Yiga continued being “good guys” after ganon was defeated). 

Astor felt like this generic zelda villain, there’s no shown character motives besides “I must not let the future of Hyrule be altered,” and him being a follower of Ganon. Like why is he a follower? The Yiga had a pretty interesting reason being against the hyrule monarchy, they represent an extremist group of a rebellious minority that had an actual point when first formed. But then found alliance with another enemy of Hyrule, thus becoming a terrorist group that stands against everything the Sheikah do (followers of Ganon vs servants of Hylia). The Yiga has this amazing backstory we haven’t seen much of in the zelda series, and has a lot of potential to explore and expand on. 

But they were pushed to be this secondary antagonist, with Astor and Ganon (Ganondorf most likely as well in the future) being the main threats in the triology so far. Which, all right. Always good to have a variety of antagonists. But to be pushed to the sidelines by Astor? This guy without a compelling character drive who has one (1) significant role in aoc... even though he’s not actually needed since botw proved that Ganon didn’t need anyone to help him resurrect. 

Now, I’m not implying that Nintendo should’ve just replaced Astor entirely with Ghirahim. There’s so much stuff going on already in the main storyline of aoc, it would be an insult to him if he was squeezed between time travel shenanigans/good secondary antagonists/an already large cast of characters that needed the spotlight after botw. But to have him as this guy behind the scenes and giving out orders on behalf of Ganon? That would be cool. 

Because not only would it give some character motive for Astor and the Yiga clan by extent, he would serve as this imposing figure that wrecks shit up just when everyone thinks the calamity’s over and the fix-it fic focused plotline is done. I don’t think he would go to the lengths of completely bringing back Ganon (if I see another rendition of calamity Ganon in the same game I might lose it, they all looked alike with the malice and guardian eyes and over saturated colors, it’s a bit of a nightmare to look at and everytime he gets a redesign -see: egg guardian ganon 2.0- I cry a little). Mainly because that was his job in SS and would feel too repetitive for his character. Instead, having him as someone to acknowledge that his forces didn’t win this round; and so he chooses to avenge his master by going after those who defeated him, ultimately becoming a more dark and sinister character. That, that would be sick as hell. 

Some perks of him filling out this role; the Yiga clan would be able to be the antagonists again (if they wanted, gotta love that morality conflict when it comes to antagonists), aoc would be able to branch out more than focusing on time travel shenanigans and with the cast limited again there could be some actual focus on the champions themselves (aoc really only gave meaningful content of the main champions when they were with their descendents, which wasn’t bad it was actually a nice refresher to how they’re normally portrayed like in botw, but it would be nice to see them develop within their own cast as well), and something a lot of people had trouble with- Link’s character in aoc. 

I have many thoughts on Link’s charcter in aoc/botw/and how it will be in botw 2, and there’s just a lot to cover so I’ll keep it short. There’s not much in aoc. That’s it. He has 1 motivation, be Zelda’s bodyguard and protect her- the kingdom as well by extent. Now, I’m not going to say that botw Link was better because there is such a big difference between these two, they each have different jobs to do, it wouldn’t be fair to compare them. What I will do, is compare aoc Link with pre-botw Link, because that’s where he loses something that really puts him apart from the other incarnations of the hero. And it’s that he’s been dealing with the pressure of being this perfect standard of a knight for longer than he’s been chosen as the legendary hero. Not only is this actually canon, and backed up further more in the various translations from zelda’s diary in botw (there is an amazing post thread on this somewhere on tumblr with analysis on the translations but I can’t find it rn), but it provides an explanation on why his defining traits are being a quiet and closed off person. But unfortunately, we did not receive this same character despite them both having the same senario of dealing with a lot of pressure before taking the master sword and instead aoc Link was left rather bland and underdelveoped. 

Now who better to crack his resolve and prove to be his biggest rival and opponent than a sadistic and well skilled fighter who knows how to get under people’s skin, than one of the most iconic zelda villains of all time? Something Link lacked in aoc was something to really test him. The other champions had their blights, designed to evenly match them, Zelda had her personal connection to the egg guardian (I’m still salty about terrako but I will stay neutral for the sake of this post’s length), the champion’s descendents were tasked with a duty to help save a timeline so Hyrule wouldn’t be doomed like their’s. Meanwhile Link; had no trials, no resistance from the master sword... You could argue that the four blights combined against him was his test, but that’s ultimately debunked when you realize that 1) he was fighting to stall for Zelda to escape 2) Zelda took care of the blights too early for it to really be Link’s big challenge. That scene was more for the sake of Zelda finally unlocking her powers because of her compassion towards Link. 

Let’s switch back to Ghirahim. His fate at the end of SS was pretty vague. It can be theorized that he no longer can take a physical form bc of the scene where Demise rips out the demon sword and absorbs his essence (?), but the sword itself kinda just disappeared at the end of the final fight in SS, even Demise looked surprised at this. And it’s not like being SS Link’s rival is the most interesting part about him. He’s the counterpart to Fi, the now dormat spirit of the master sword, who had a brief appearance in the botw dlc, Proving That She Is Still Active. (more on this later for botw 2) He’s important to the overall lore of the series and honestly deserves another appearance for how iconic his appearance was in SS. I need you guys to understand that he was tumblr sexyman status in the early 2010s in terms of how popular he quickly became with the fandom, which has been reignited with SSHD recently. 

So for him to return in the events of post-aoc, so that not only can he reprise his iconic role, but also so he can provide a compelling point of conflict. Now some of you may go “well if he’s just here to avenge ganon it wouldn’t be interesting because he would just try and kill Link or Zelda and it would be too short.” Which I counter with; that’s not exactly how this bastard would deal with things. He probably learned his lesson of underestimating his opponent in SS, but that just makes it even more interesting if we saw him drag his revenge out. We know that he’s not going to be satisfied with just getting the job over quick and easy, he’s in it for the dramatics and to see his opponents suffer. Now obviously he wouldn’t actually suceed because Nintendo would never kill off some of its main plot-heavy characters but he would play a vital of fleshing out Link’s character and providing some lovely angst. My only problem with this route is that his appearance would only be in dlcs, which would suck because that means less actual screen time for him + higher chance of his character being butchered by hastily made production.

For breath of the wild... I understand why he’s not there. 

He wouldn’t fit in with the overall atmostsphere of the game, and botw Link isn’t the best character to be his main problem. His role in Skyward Sword worked perfectly because he was an amazing antagonist to ss Link, not exactly a foil (that was Groose’s job, which he also did perfectly), but just this polar opposite. This wouldn’t work with botw Link because he’s too early in his character progression (not saying he’s a blank slate, he just would be more confused and unnerved by Ghirahim than actually threatened like ss Link was) and there’s not enough stakes for Ghirahim to be an actual threat. Yet. 

Now onto botw 2

I mentioned previously that Ghirahim has an important role in SS lore along with Fi, and that his “death” was very vague. Botw 2 provides an opportunity for him to fit back into his bigger role since I highly doubt the Yiga clan is going to be a big part of this game based on what happend in botw and what direction this game looks to be taking. With the trailers showing the reapearance of Ganondorf, we can safely assume that he’s going to be a huge plot point since the last time Ganondorf was seen in canon was Twilight Princess back in 2006. Whether he’s going to be an antagonist or not, isn’t confirmed, but it would be interesting either way. Botw 2′s atmosphere fits a lot with SS already, and confirmed by developers that it’s going to be one of the more darker and serious zelda games. Now there is a chance we could really see at least a reference of him outside of this theory/hc, considering how the general setting is inspired by SS and Fi had a brief appearance in the dlc, it’s not a long stretch to say there’s probably something for him as well. 

I’m not going to theorize too hard on Ghirahim in botw 2 because there simply isn’t a whole lot of content to work with. So I’ll cut it off here by saying that if the general theory that Zelda and Link get separated during the game is true, Ghirahim could dramatically raise the stakes of how fast could the duo find each other before he confronts one of them alone. 

Also if he’s in botw 2 there’s no excuse if Fi doesn’t get an appearance, please Nintendo I miss her so much

#long post #midnavii rambles #ghirahim #sksw ghirahim #zelda theory #do not mistake this as aoc slander- i like the game's overall concept and a lot of other details about it #just wasn't always executed well #nintendo it's 2022 now. what are you planning #*puts on my clown shoes*