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hello-nichya-here · 9 months

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Why is Rhaenyra so hypocritical and dramatic about everything? Her first scene is already her trying to act all rebelious by flying around in a dragon and saying nonsense stuff about everyone caring for her unborn sibling but not her pregnant mom. How does that even work?

She is rude as fuck Rhaenys for no reason, interrupts a meeting just to show off, flies to see Daemon without permission just because he took a dragon egg and then dares him to kill her out of nowhere just to cause even more of a scene.

She throws a fit about needing to be married then demands her uncle elope with her on her wedding to someone else and is still complaining years later that he didn't, hates Alicent for secretly flirting with her dad yet had an affair with Daemon, Criston Cole, and Harry Strong, and is constantly demanding her bastards to inherit titles meant for true Velaryons instead of having kids with her actual husband or staying childless like said she wanted to be - and she never considered letting Laena's daughters inherit anything instead of their "cousins" despite still wanting to be Visery's heir.

I know she was seriously screwed over by the Greens, but it just became impossible to have any sympathy left for such an awful, selfish, stupid character. I don't understand how you or anyone could like her.

Congratulations, anon, you just got a very high ranking on my list of "Asks clearly done in bad faith." Way to completely misrepresent a character and entire plot points just 'cause you think "I find this character annoying/I think their rivals more interesting" isn't enough of a justification to root for the Greens. I'm team Black all the way, and even I absolutely adore these motherfuckers, it's fine. You don't need to bullshit an "intelectual" argument to say you just don't vibe with a character.

Her first scene shows her riding a dragon

Yes. She's a Targaryen. That's kind of their thing. Plus, HBO has to show off their new CGI effects and designs for dragons. As for it showing she has a rebellious side by just flying off whenever she pleases, the same could be said about Arya and Brienne taking interest in typically "male" activities very early into Game Of Thrones. Stablishing a character's trait is a feature of every story, not a bug that needs to be fixed.

She claims her pregnant mother is not being taken care of, even though her unborn sibling is - how does that work?

The very first episode already makes it VERY clear how that works. Aemma had a ton of miscarriages/stillbirths. She literally tells her husband that this is her last pregnancy because SHE HAS MOURNED ALL THE DEAD CHILDREN SHE CAN.

Aemma's discomfort at being heavily pregnant is not just about the regular toll it'd take on the body of any woman. It's about the painful, traumatic experience of going through that typical discomfort, feeling it turn into pure agony as something goes very wrong, and then realizing she's lost yet another child.

And let's not forget, after she of course experiences complications during childbirth - this time with it being impossible to deliver the baby - her husband betrays her in the worst way possible by gently holding her hand and simply saying "They're going to get the baby out now" in a comforting way despite knowing fully well that he just gave the maester and midwifes permission to cut her open and gut her like a fish to get the kid out, and we see her begging them to not to do this to her. After the death of Aemma AND her child, all everyone can think about is "The king needs a wife, time to throw my daughter at him"

The Viserys needed a son. That was more important than Aemma's physical and mental health. More important than her LIFE. Rhaenyra pointing that out is NOT nonsense, it's literally her being the only one to recognize just how unfair and downright cruel this is.

She is rude to Rhaenys for no reason

Congratulations, you finally made a good point! That was indeed a shitty thing for Rhaenyra to do, and Rhaenys was fully right to point out that she isn't as superior as she thinks she is - which leads us to...

Interrupts a meeting to show off

Rhaenys correctly pointed out to Rhaenyra that, even though Viserys had everyone swear they'd accept her as their queen once he passed away, he was not doing anything to make anyone respect her - in fact, he was expecting her to just be quiet and serve men drinks during a meeting, and somehow that was supposed to make them take her seriously as his heir instead of ridiculing her.

Considering that, is it really any surprise that Rhaenyra tries to go against her father to remind the men HE made swear loyalty to her that she WILL be queen, that she can and will take action? Especially since her dad's main flaw both as a king and as a person is his complete inability to take charge of anything - to the point that a war was is about to start without his permission because he's doing fuck all to address the issue that spark that conflict in the first place.

Her conflict with Daemon at Dragonstone

Daemon, a Targaryen prince with a dragon of his own, stole a dragon egg. He deliberately stole the one that was meant for Baelor, Viserys's dead son, the "heir for a day". The one that was chosen for him by Rhaenyra, the king's new heir - aka the new threat to Daemon. He even goes as far as pretending he took a second wife (who everyone knows was a whore), once again without the king's permission since Targaryens are no longer having multiple wives by that point, and lying about her being pregnant. All of this is taking place in Dragonstone - a place that belongs to Rhaenyra.

This isn't a petty fight. This is Daemon trying to spite his family, and all of Westeros, because he's bitter he won't be king. He is openly defying Viserys's authority and chosen heir, basically daring him and anyone else who has a problem with it to go face him.

And Rhaenyra does. Because she's not a doormat like Viserys. She defuses a VERY tense situation that could have easily led to a massacre by reminding Daemon that he ain't the only one who has a dragon. She calls his bluff by daring him to go ahead and get rid of her so he can be king, and thus Daemon, noticing this won't be as easy he expected AND gaining more respect for his niece, gives her the egg back.

Daemon started shit because he wanted attention, Rhaenyra put him in his place. HOW does that cast a bad light on her?

Rhaenyra not wanting to be married/have kids

In her own words "My mother was made to produce heirs until it killed her. I don't want the same fate." A pretty understandble stance if you ask me - and Rhaenyra takes it so seriously, she even worries about Alicent's well-being and comfort when Viserys drags her to a hunting trip to celebrate Aegon's birthday, even though she's heavily pregnant and the long hours in the carriage are obviously quite a pain for her. I remind you, this is while Rhaenyra is still VERY mad at Alicent. That's how serious of an issue this was for her.

"Oh but she still had pre-marital sex anyway." Yes, but let's look at the context for it because it absolutely matters.

First she nearly lost her virginity to Daemon in a brothel - because he explicitly mentioned that this would be solely for pleasure, OUTSIDE of marriage and all of it's obligations - aka he could not possibly demand her to have his bastard if she were to end up pregnant as that would be a scandal, and Viserys himself gives her moon-tea after he hears of it to make sure it will stay a secret and have no consequences.

She then goes all the way with Criston Cole. A member of the kings guard. A man that not only holds zero political power (and in fact answers to HER), but also vowed to never have a wife or father any children. Once again, offering her zero risk of ending up in the same situation as Aemma.

Viserys finds out she's not a virgin anymore (though he doesn't know the actual man she slept with) and thus FORCES her to marry Laenor - and Rhaenyra once again tries to assure her own agency won't be disregarded, by making a deal with her (gay) future husband: they'll do their duty, then be with the actual people they want to be. Once again, there's a very clear separation between marriage/duty and love/sex/freedom.

On her demanding Daemon elope with her and make her his wife

Let's not forget the context here: Daemon showed up at her wedding, obviously against Viserys's wishes, and tries to talk Rhaenyra out of marrying Laenor - something which obviously would mean a lot of trouble for her. So, she turns the tables on him. If he's going to be selfish and demand her to go against the king, then he better give her damn good reason to do so. A one-night stand or even a proper affair like what she had with Criston won't be enough. He has to prove he is not all bark, no bite. He has to fight the guards around them, take her to Dragonstone and marry her.

As for her still being upset that he didn't do it, even after all these years, and wanting to be his wife, we can't forget that:

1 - Her agreement with Laenor went horribly wrong as he is not doing his part - be it on giving her kids or keeping his private life PRIVATE.

2 - Harwin, her lover of many years, is dead, and their children are now targets since the Greens are no longer willing to pretend they're not bastards.

3 - She NEEDS a powerful ally on her side and Daemon, for all his flaws, proved he is surely more competent than the ones she had at that time.

4 - Daemon marrying her would officially remove him for the list of potential heirs of Viserys.

5 - They had a genuine connection that they were forced to ignore, and Daemon quite clearly was just as into her even after all these years.

It makes perfect sense for her to not only want to be with him now, but to think that her life would have been better if they had gotten together years ago.

Her anger at Alicent

Unlike what you implied, Rhaenyra's problem with Alicent becoming Viserys's second wife is not because of pre-marital sex (which they didn't have) or because she was expecting Viserys to just never re-marry (she full on told him she understood that it was his duty).

Her problem was that they lied to her. Viserys made it sound like he was only gonna marry a new woman out of duty, then rejects a perfect politcal match to be with his daughter's best friend. The best friend that pretended nothing was going between them. Their wedding is announced just SIX MONTHS after Aemma's death.

"Oh, but Alicent only did it because her father basically forced her to! And then Viserys also demanded her silence, and she couldn't say not to the king!" And how would Rhaenyra know? Alicent never explained it to her, not even after they became friends again - because, yeah, they made up. Then fought again. Then made up again. And repeated the cicle about 500 times through the years.

And before you go "Oh, Rhaenyra should have been aware of the power imbalance!" let me remind you that these characters don't live in our modern world, with our modern understanding of these things, AND that the Game Of Thrones is all about people stabbing each other in the back to gain power. If you want to hold that against Rhaenyra, you also have to hold Alicent accountable for shaming her friend who was seduced by a much older man that also happened to be her clearly insane uncle (and even though she had political power over Criston, let's not forget that he was ALSO an adult man that was already very flirty with 15-year-old Rhaenyra and started sleeping with her while she was still 17, a minor by our standards).

"Oh, but Rhaenyra lied to Alicent and got her father fired! She even swore on her dead mother!"

1 - Otto was very clearly trying to make his grandson the heir instead of Rhaenyra and had her followed to get dirt on her. Can't dig someone's grave then get mad that they are very willing to save themselves through any means necessary, or at least drag you down with them.

2 - Otto ruined Alicent's life. I don't care that he is her father, that she loves him, and that he genuinely loves her in his own way. That man is an utter bastard and he had it coming.

3 - That is not even on the top 50 most fucked up things that happened in House of The Dragon. Save your outrage at Rhaenyra for when she inevitably commits some war crimes.

On Rhaenyra's bastards

Like I said, Laenor did not keep his end of their agreement. They even explicitly say that they TRIED for a while, but it just didn't work - meaning either they had sex a few times and Laenor was too uncomfortable to keep trying even after these first attempts failed to get Rhaenyra pregnant, or that he hated it SO MUCH that they never really had sex. Either way, is very clear: Rhaenyra would NEVER be able to have kids with this man.

But did she need to have kids with Harwin? Yes, because if she has no heirs, be these heirs her legitimate children or her bastards, then nobody will bother to crown her just to then have one of Aegon's children reign after her. If she has no kids, she's never becoming queen at all.

But bastards are, to put it mildly, looked down on by everyone - and while their fathers are seen as just men who had a moment (or several) or weakness, their mothers are seen as no different than the cheapest of whores. OBVIOUSLY that would also be used not just to make sure Rhaenyra would never bee queen, but also for people to humiliate and mistreat her sons.

That is why she had to constantly demand them to inherit anything Velaryon, even if it meant ignoring Laena's daughters or Corlys's brother. If she lets any Velaryon inherit something that should have been meant for Laenor's sons, people will have even more reason to wonder if he ever really had any sons in the first place.

Why she didn't support other women more often

Rhaenyra was not perfect (and thank God for that, because perfection is boring). She either didn't care enough about other women wanting to have the same rights as men, or she just knew that she would already need a miracle to truly become queen and that if she tried changing the rules even more, then she'd be killed as soon as her dad kicked the bucket.

Both options would make her rather selfish, but I tend to lean towards thinking the second one is the truth. We only saw her talk down to another woman once - with Rhaenys, who put her on her damn place - and got A TON of scenes of her showing at least some compassion for Alicent, even DECADES after their friendship was officially ruined.

Conclusion

Like/dislike any character as much as you want. Just don't lie about what actually happens in the story. And more importantly, don't send people asks with the intention of pissing them off by talking shit about a character you know they like. That's childish and pathetic.

#hotd #house of the dragon #rhaenyra targaryen #team black #queen rhaenyra #rhaenyra defense squad

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babyrdie · 2 months

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Achaeans

Sketches of some Achaeans from the Trojan War. This is a mix of based on real sources and headcanons and all of these designs are certainly subject to change.

[The heights are in meters because I can't understand this system of feet and inches, not even if my life depended on me understanding it lol]

I'm still terrible at drawing fingers (whether feet or hands) and so these sketches don't have any of them well-defined. And yeah, avoiding drawing them makes my chances of progress worse, but in my defense, I just wanted to make a character reference sheet without stressing about it.

Anyway, now I start commenting on the design choices. This is the time for you to leave the post or continue if you wish. If you want to continue, prepare yourself for a long story.

Drawing Menelaus and Agamemnon first because I need them ready to get an idea of the genealogy of the Atreides, but the next ones will probably be Ajax (the greater) and Teucer because I also need them in the genealogy of the Aeacids. I intend to do Odysseus and Diomedes too, but I feel like they will be the last (Diomedes the lastest of all because I still need Odysseus to match Penelope and thus have an idea of how to draw Telemachus). And Antilochus is there simply because I like him, so I already designed him.

ABOUT SCARS: don't try to find a reason for all the scars. I admit: they were invented simply because I found it ???? to look at a bunch of warriors without a single scar on their bodies. These are designs supposed to take place before the events of The Iliad. It may still be in the tenth year of the war, but it is certainly before the events of the Iliad. So no scars were made with the intention of matching the wounds described in The Iliad. Maybe I'll even increase the amount of scars, but we'll see.

As for Achilles, I'm not taking into account the version of the myth where he's invulnerable, I just have the headcanon that some demigods have improved healing. So he was injured, probably had to stay away from some fights because of this like the others and everything, but his healing stopped him from leaving scars. But yeah, it can also be explained if you prefer to consider the version of the myth where he's invulnerable.

Characters (in order from tallest to shortest )

ACHILLES: muscular, agile type because he is very reaffirmed by speed above all else. The colors, shape of the eyes, and volume of the hair were to allude to a lion, as he is often compared to one. As for the face, I wanted to avoid making it too "masculine" so that it would be believable that a younger version of him (15 years old, probably) could pass for a girl if wearing body-covering clothes and probably a veil.

The sharp canines are not fangs, they are simply sharp canines like I saw an old classmate of mine having and I and I thought it was a cute feature of hers and I wanted to put it in some design (but yeah they are from Tethis!). I imagine that his hair, his nose and the shape of his body (including height) are reminiscent of Thetis (because I love her so much), while the rest is more on the side of Peleus. His hair is long in a very impractical way, so I imagine he has to tie it up before wearing the armor (hence why the obvious difference in hair between him and Patroclus doesn't get in the way of Patroclus pretending to be him)

He's among the youngest and that's important for his character (prophecy), so I wanted to make him look young (I imagine he was around 25 when he died?). He was also kind of inspired by this fresco. I would say that his design remains consistent, it's just the eyes that I change all the time to see if I like the format better.

PATROCLUS: He's older than Achilles, but not by much. So I still made him look young and I imagine he was about 27. His role as someone who was supposed to guide Achilles to take the right actions (which he tried…it just didn't work at the important moment) made me want him to still look at least older than Achilles. He's the same height as Achilles and not too different a body type for it to make sense for the armor to fit him. He has beard because of this iconic kylix. I was also inspired by the description "handsome and powerfully built. His eyes were gray. He was modest, dependable, wise, a man richly endowed" by Dares the Phrygian as it was the only description I remembered of him. He was also kind of inspired by this fresco. The only REAL changes from the previous design I made of him are that he now has a mole and scars (yes, he still tends to tie his hair low.)

MENELAUS: I personally think that Menelaus could benefit from red hair as I saw some people doing, but I decided to go with the traditional representation of him being blonde (but a little red). I like the idea of Helen and him being a tall couple (consequently, their daughter Hermione is too) and him being taller than Agamemnon (because I think the dynamic of the taller brother being the youngest, while the shorter one is the older and more protective brother is funny), that's why he's so tall. I imagine him taking after his mother, while Agamemnon takes after their father. From my calculations, what makes the most sense is that at the end of the Trojan War, he and Agamemnon were AT LEAST forty years old, so my design of the two was based on the idea of them being at least forty years old.

AGAMEMNON: His hair and beard came from here, his body came from here. Although in this mirror his representation shows him more as someone with belly fat, I decided to make it more balanced and make him simply a strong type without being ripped.

Also, considering how in every source I've read so far the guy has multiple kids, I wanted to make his design look somewhat like a father? Anyway, I haven't drawn Clytemnestra yet, but I'll probably follow the same line of reasoning in giving her mother-of-many vibes.

Furthermore, his height was chosen based on Priam saying that he is tall, but not that tall, but that he is taller than Odysseus. I purposely made Menelaus taller because I like the idea of Agamemnon being so protective of him when Menelaus doesn't look defenseless. I haven't drawn other Atreides besides them, but I imagine that Agamemnon looks a lot like Atreus and that Orestes has a face similar to Agamemnon's (hair and colors in general I imagine looking like Clytemnestra). He's AT LEAST 40 years old. I didn't have his design yet.

ANTILOCHUS: The body was the type that could be agile, as its speed is heavily emphasized in the Iliad. Honestly, his facial features were chosen because I didn't want to run the risk of him looking like Achilles, Patroclus, or Menelaus. They're the characters that I imagine Antilochus interacting with mainly and so I didn't want to take any risk in drawing two very similar characters in the same scene (when the characters in question are not related, of course). Menelaus mentions about him being younger, so I went with that for age.

The color choices for hair and eyes came from Nestor, who in turn inherited it from Neleus, who in turn inherited it from Poseidon. For this I have an extensive explanation about how divine genetics works in my drawings, but it's too long and the post is already long enough without it. His height was because I wanted some dynamics with a big height difference (apart from Teucer and Ajax) and considering how tall Patrochilles and Menelaus are, I simply made Antilochus smaller because of them. I didn't have his design yet.

#greek mythology #tagamemnon #digital art #epic cycle #the iliad #achilles #agamemnon #menelaus #patroclus #antilochus #sketches #Iliad #IK

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noperopesaredope · 1 year

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So I Changed Marmo’s Outfit-

The other day, I made a post that was basically me thirsting over Marmo (Doki Doki Precure), and I mention the fact that while she is gorgeous, her outfit is toeing the line between good and bad.

The other night, I decided to analyze exactly why this outfit didn’t work, and possible ways to fix it.

The first problem is the coat thing. The sleeve is a very cool feature and makes the outfit feel unique, making her stand out quite well. The collar is also shaped in a way that draws attention to her face. So when your eyes go to her sleeve, they end up traveling up to the collar, and then her face. Looking at the sleeve can also draw you to her hands, depending on the angle, and that can be very important is she uses that hand for energy blast or other fighting stuff, because your eye will be drawn there whenever her she’s in a fighting stance. So the coat appears good- at first. However, the coat should probably have ended at the bottom of her…*ahem* chest area. Instead, it goes all the way down and behind(?) her at a very awkward angle. It could have just gone straight down or even diverged at a 45 degree angle, but instead it ended up being weird and confusing.

The other most major problem is the pattern of the dress. It seems that the jacket was meant to be the biggest feature of her design besides her hat, which draw your eyes towards her face. But the stripes on the dress mess this up. It seems they were trying to highlight her breast, with two of the lines going around the edges of said breast. But then two of the other lines go downwards to draw attention to her hips. The stripes going in different directions while also not being randomized enough to make sense, so it ends up looking strange. On top of this, these lines are bright red, a very eye catching color often used to grab your attention. So instead of having your attention travel to and stay on the most important features, the bright colors and weird stripes end up confusing your brain and your eyes will go all over the place.

These three things are what makes the outfit feel weird and all over the place. I don’t think the character design is bad, nor do I think I know better than the original designers. I actually like a lot of the elements of the original design. I just feel like the execution is slightly off.

Because of this, I decided to do a small redesign of her outfit. This pic isn’t really a good drawing, it’s just me retracing her character reference sheet and changing parts of the outfit. Note that I didn’t add everything that I want to keep in there. I didn’t draw her long, beautiful hair (I really didn’t feel like putting in the effort), but I still think she should keep it. The neck up is where her OG design truly shines. I also didn’t draw her boots because they were already good and I didn’t feel like drawing them either.

So here’s the redesigned outfit:

Underneath the jacket is a dress thing. During at least one important battle, she will probably take off her jacket to reveal her sexy badass battle outfit.

The part of the dress you can see while she’s wearing the jacket may require a bit more detail, however, the main idea is drawing your eyes up to her jacket and then face, so it might be better to add more detail to the shape/coloration of the jacket in order for it to draw more attention. Then again, her side bangs are usually bigger/poofy-er, so if those stand out more, then it might work better. There’s also the possibility that because this sketch as a whole is less detailed in might be a problem. I might just consider adding more detail to the jacket and making it reach the middle of her waist rather than just her upper chest.

But I think it might all work if I actually drew her hair. So that might be better.

Anyways, that’s my basic redesign of my girl. If you think something else might work slightly better or have something to add, please feel free to comment or reblog with your own sketch. I also might put out a few alternate sketch ideas later. Hope you like it.

#marmo #precure doki doki #precure #anime #magical girl #anime villain #female villains #villain #Character Design #character analysis #redesign #character redesign #design #outfit design #character outfits #design analysis #glitter force #glitter force doki doki

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popculturebuffet · 6 months

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Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space Retrospective: Moai Better Blues (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy freelance police and welcome back to my look at the sam and max telltale games! We're onto season 2 episode 2. After a little christmas in august we're having a science fiction double feature for halloween as this review ended up behind due to a new member of the family.

This is Maddie. She's 5, she's precious, she's very loud , and she's very attached to me.

But even new fluffy good girls with spangly collars can't stop the march of sam and max.

Following up from our heroes adventures in the north pole, this ep finds our heroes dealing with an adventure that's weird even by sam and max standards. And I want to let that sink in because we spent last season stopping a child star hynosis crime ring, starring in a one episode sitcom with a british chicken don knotts, inflitrating a mafia chuck e cheese, running for president against a horny lincoln memorial, murdering the internet and finally facing down with a sentient plankton colony via psychic powers and magic tricks on the moon. And that's not even getting into that guy who would never put his hands down. What was his deal?

So what lies in the greatest mountain of sam and max madness? Stoned Moai, triangular portals, sea monkeys, ghost godlfish, baby jimmy hoffa and horny statue love triangles. So join me under the cut for the madness.

We open with our heroes returning from the North Pole a month after the previous game, with it now snowing, providing a nice atmosphere to things. Before they can get back to the usual banter some fresh nonsense comes in: A triangle chasing their beloved friend Sybil.

It has a neat design too, red, pulsating with lines... it's an excellent triangle all things considered. B+

At any rate we need to stop it, so we go to the wisest sage for weird shit there is: Bosco. It's a nice way to keep him still useful while not having him be one of your item guys. Bosco is getting ready to bunker down from T.H.E.M.

But tells our hero their new foe is a bermuda triangle, an eldtirch shape that sucks people up to another place, and can only be stopped with most of the shapes. Most.. never come into play and are just for a good joke, like blue polyheadrons making them really want to roll them dice and maybe start a live play with a dungeon master with long hair and the voice of god.

The important one is red hexagons stop them.. and the game was REALLY unhelpful with this one. I did have my hints flavor blasted up to the maximum max could do without bursting a kidney.. but he just kept saying the shape and outright told me to go back to the office.. where it entirely wasn't. WE do have a new trophy though, boxing betty. So.. that's nice?

The solution lies in Stinky's diner, where i'd gone earlier since the Cops can't do buisness over the sound of screaming. Amateurs. Stinky can though even with the racket outisde and gives us a granite sandwitch that i'm pretty sure just.. sat in my inventory all chapter. Seriously you don't relaly use it for anything even when you think it'd be obvious like replacing a stone max's ear, and it's more just to set up getting a basalt sandwich from her later. It's on the kid's menu only though.

She is useful in that she has a stop sign for you and with some spray paint from your headquaters, you can make it deep red. Before we go though another beloved supporting character makes a cameo: Flint Paper. I just love how despite being grizzly and willing to beat up random strangers for money, as are we, Flint just.. cheerfully greets our heroes with a hey fellas every time. He's just so happy to see our heroes and they have a deep genuine admiration for him. Like with Sybil in the first episodes, it's nice to see someone our heroes actually like and unlike Sybil, it's nice to see there's at least one person they haven't traumtized. Yet. He's watching Bosco for Bosco's Mom who'se understandably worried about her son because you know, his whole deal.

For now though we go to stop the triangle in the name of love... only for hilariously this all to be mostly pointless as once Sybil stops, Abe shows up , gets sucked in and she goes after him. It's off to Easter Island!

Turns out Sybil and Lincoln are fine and are just enjoying the nice weather. Once again.. this is a dead end puzzle wise as the two are just there to move their subplot along. Unlike the sandwich though, it's at least entertaning.. and mildly creepy as Abe perves on one of the moai present.

Why the bermuda triangle lead to easter island.. is not something we'll be getting into here. What matters is the moai see sam and max as their savior. Well the middle one, a kindly lady moai abe's creeping ion, is. The left one has half his face buried and is contstantly upset, projecting storm clouds when pissed off that are naturally useful, and the right one is

And is largely useless, mostly just sniping at you.

Each has a power of the elements: Rain for the buried one, wind for the nice one and earth for the pedantic douchebag. The fire one was sadly was scattered to the winds long ago, but he did leave behind a son at least to carry on his legacy

At any rate before we can use the powers of nature itself for fun and profit, we have some problems: As it turns out the nearbye volcano is about to erupt and murder them all due to some understandable but tragic errors

Problem is someone's guarding his lair... and if you haven't played the game yourself, I warn you: You are not remotely ready. I sure wasn't. So whose in our heroes way? Why it's Jimmy HOffa in the body of a baby!

Yeah... look I love Sam and Max for being so gloriously weird. Weird as hell is one of my faviorite kinds of humor as long as their's direction behind the chaos. But It's still easily the biggest what the fuck moment the franchise has thrown me so far and that's with this happening last chapter

youtube

Granted I got spoiled there is some sort of payoff to the Mariachis via a thumbnail, and there is some actual logic behind this.. but even for this franchise "Jimmy Hoffa whose in the body of an infant because he drank too much from the fountain of youth pointing a gun at yoU" is a bit much. And more to the point they NEVER explain why he's working for the episodes big bad.

I.. can't help but love it though BECAUSE it's such a uniquely stupid swing: they had this idea, found a way to have it logically make sense and then put it in the game in full, all while giving us a ton of great jokes as Sam cannot ressit teasing him on the fact he's a baby.

We'll deal with this teamster later, for now we meet the other rugrats on this island: Amelia Earheart, DB Cooper, and The LIndburgh Baby... .

Their mostly here to set up a surfboarding mini game which frustrated me. It's not the game itself, it's a fun enough little distraction if fairly hard to get the analogue controls down on my switch version. It felt like the kind of browser game i'd play as a kid.

My annoyance.. is that the game dosne't tell you that you get nothing for it until you've triggered the right story event. So I went through the whole thing for nothing. Thankfully I also enabled mini game skipping.... I still will TRY not to use it often as these are part of the game and thus need to be evaluated as much as the point and click parts, but in this case i'd already done the actual task so when it asked me to again. As for why again, the trick to getting rid of our little friend involves serving him a drink, using a tiki glass you can pick up at the bar those dumb babies are at. But he'll only take union waitstaff, so you have to play the game to get cerfitied by him. IT makes about as much sense as it sounds. Ah back to normal for this franchise.

To actually do anything though we need some fountain of youth water unfortunately there's something in it

So to take care of them we have to complete a few other tasks

First is the COPS. As i'm guessing is standard for every chapter,we have another driving VR Game from them, this time a fun rythum based one with the beats going as you drive on them. THey thought it'd change the world.. those poor dumb bastards. It's clearly a jab at guitar hero, but it's a decent challenge while still being a lot of fun.

With that we get a car horn and that's the key to our next puzzle: We need to help Glenn Miller, a wwII era band leader whose also now a baby, stage his comback by giving him that new sound he's been looking for. Since the horn plays i've been workin on the railroad, it's just the ticket. He just needs a whistle sound, which you easily get by dumping some gasoline disguised as a drink into a nearbye fire, setting off a tea kettle. He gives you a conch with the single recorded on it. Apparently The Bermuda Triangles also visited skypeia.

Using the dial, we can finally solve our pirahana puzzle.. in theory. In practice it's utterly frustrating if you can't figure out the trick, not helped by Max CONSITENTLY telling me to use the thunder storm moai.

Breaking it down: using the glen miller dial conch, you play it for the nice moai, which gets her whistling. Now when you tick off her half buried friend next to you, which naturally max does with ease and maybe too much glee.. in fact i'm starting a " Going to Hell For This" counter, for each time we ruin someone's life, torture them or what have you to progress, or just for funzies, as we did it a LOT last season and so far have done it a lot. Now I"ll make acceptions for say outright villians or people who deserve it. And even then it'/s about proportions. For example, pelting the soda poppers with urine and bleach? Acceptable, their the soda poppers. Need I say more. But even if Jimmy Two Teeth sucks a LOTTT, nearly driving him to unalive himself is a bit much, not helped by Max's reaction essentially being

He certainly thought it hard enough. So we'll count that one, still keeping leonard hostage after almost a year, sending santa to hell (even if he was possesed), and not bothering to actually help save christmas. So going into this episode we have

Things We're Going To To Hell For: 4 And we can add from this episode taunting that poor moai.

Things We're Going to Hell Fort: 5

So I assumed both from the hint ONLY mentoing the moai , who creates a little storm cloud when uspet and the wind we were supposed to blow it at jimmy hoffa. Instead... it does nothing. It just dissipates if blown too far and never gets near him. Instead we use the portals, which are frustrating as the game makes it clear the two near the entrance are connected.. but dosen't make it clear EVERY portal is connected this way.

The solution is to open one by the fountain of youth, then open another next to the underground moai, have the good moai blow the cloud and boom, a LOT of dead pirhanas and a free fountain of youth. Also

Things We're Going To Hell For: 6

And with that we can use the glass to scoop some up, give it to hoffa... and blink him out of existance. THings We're Going To Hell For: Still 6 (He Deserved It Yo) It's REALLY sad when killing someone by making them age themselves out of existance isn't the worst thing we've done today. Or even this month.

This event also moves along Sybil's subplot for the season and who boy. Strap yourselves in because I haven't seen a character nosedive this fast in many moons. So the whole episode, Abe and Sybil have been picnicking, only doing that on Abe's suggestion.. and only so he can oggle the middle good moai. Yeah after several episodes of at worst being out of touch and mildly annoying.. abe's somehow lept straight to the bottom and is perving on someone right in front of his girlfriend and THEN asks her to have plastic surgery to look more like the moai.

Sybil runs off in tears.. and SOMEHOW, SOMEHOW, this gets worse... as Abe THEN tries to hit on the moai. To her credit she shoots him down fast and we get a great response out of him, a casual "that's fair". So he's still funny he's just WAY more of an asshat. I mean granted we just committed two murders in a row, so i'd SAY we can't judge.. but those murders were to save a LOT of lives from death and were of a bunch of fish and a murderous infant man.

Anyways with this we enter our final puzzle set, continuing from the formula laid out last time. Sadly.. they also fall into a fairly trite, terrible stereotype. It's forgivable enough for the time.. but it's still pretty tone deaf. I can't blame them for fixing it as unlike the various lines corrected for save the world, this is a large part of the plot and thus really coudn't be futzed with.. but it's still not great.

Okay so for our final stretch our heroes run into your standard tone deaf "the natives are stupid and belivie anything is their god" plot only this time it's sea monkeys.

Yeah.. they.. really coudl've thought this one out a bit more. We have to convince them max is their god/chosen one/whatever instead, in order to replace an old advesary: Mr. Spatula, sam and max's goldfish whose mad he's died and thus is willing to take an island with him. Now you may recall, even if I didn't name him last time, he died. And he did. THIS IS HIS GHOST.

So to prove ourselves we have to do three tasks. The first is easy and I stumbled into accidently: We have to make the water into BANANG!, an energy drink powder bosco happens to have a lot of.

To get it away from him, we have to torment him.. again. This time we simply radio in, claim to be THEM

And Bosco goes deeper underground, there's too much panic in this town. So we got the powder.. but we also traumtized a friend for life so

Things We're Going To Hell For: 7

Next is adding an ear to a rock formation that looks like max. Once again the sandwitch is useless.. except as a clue. We finally need that basalt sandwitch for kidz, so it's time to use the fountain of youth water on ourselves.. and ONCE AGAIN the game gets frustrating as you transform back very fast from drinking it. The trick is to use a gong I honestly forgot about in Stinky's diner max reminded me of. I can't tell if I just suck at adventure games or this is poor level design.

Anyways we get the Basalt and get a really funnys equence with douchecanoe moai as it turns out dude just needed to blaze it and basalt gets moai REALLY good and fucked up. With that he casually laughs and dislodges a stalctite we use to finish the max.

We then finish this section. The stone feet of the buried moai are needed to anoit us. Also yes they have hands and arms stuck in there. We simply use the shell again, this time on a portal next to the best moai , she whistles, he taps his toes and we win. Kinda.

Problem is the island's still errupting with Mr Spatula planning to take us with it. The only way to stop it? Some clever puzzlery. We get a high preist medallion from the Sea Monkeys, dip it in some red slime, then shoot the triangle, using the portals to send the red triangle through it , eating the lava.. and presumibly murdering someone but we won't worry about that. Our ride home is gone though but Abe offers a lift while the moai celebrate.. before being sad they can't move. Then their abducted by what seems to be aliens!

Moai Better Blues... is a very mixed bag. The writing as usual is hilarious, and while it's a very

Sort of chapter, it's a FUNNY sort of what the fuck is this, from the various babies, to the black comedy shenanigans as usual, to our heroes riding out on Lincoln's head. It continues episode 1's mean streak, but the weirder setting and more over the top weird black comedy bits like unexistinsing hoffa help it feel far less opressive than last time. The deaths and what we do to bosco are way more over the top. Even abe and sybil's breakup, acompained by the mysterious maraichi's, is more funny than genuinely sad. I DO feel bad for Sybil, but abe is such a dick and he gets karmically punished for it as the moai lady SHARPLY rejects him, multiple times if you want, and he looses Sybil.

Gameplay wise.. it's a lot more obtuse. A lot more relying either on memory (Which isn't good for me but is at least fair) or hoping you figure it out and with most of the max clues being way less helpful. It's a pretty meh chapter all things considered and hopefully as we get spooky next time, we also get back to our quality. Speaking of which

Next Time: VAMPIRES! Just in time for the season. And since it's the 2000's their angsty emo eurotrash vampires! Oh BoY! Thanks for reading!

#sam and max #sam and max beyond time and space #sam x ma #sybil pandemik #abraham lincoln #jimmy hoffa #db cooper #amelia earhart #bosco #c.o.p.s.#video games #telltale games #skunkape games

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quibbs126 · 1 year

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I wanted something to draw, so I decided to continue my Favorite Cookies thing, so here’s the 3rd batch, featuring animal based Cookies

Also I was planning on having them all say things, but I couldn’t think of anything for Mocha Ray and Scorpion to say, so only Lobster says things

Lobster Cookie: I really like Lobster Cookie. First off I just like his design. Honestly I didn’t think I’d like a lobster as much as I do. Second I just think he’s interesting as a character. Despite being part of the Cookies of Darkness he’s probably one of the least evil of the group, considering he’s being manipulated. And even in the Sugarteara storyline, he doesn’t seem a bad guy, just being manipulated into thinking darkness is the way to save Sugarteara. And it’s clear he still loves the city and still takes his duties seriously

To be honest, I really want to see him interact with Dark Choco Cookie, because they’re very similar, yet different in crucial ways. Lobster wasn’t the cause of Sugarteara’s fall, and he still believes that it can be saved, though he’s blinded by that drive and doesn’t see that what he’s doing is wrong. Meanwhile Dark Choco is the cause of his kingdom’s fall, and he’s given up all hope of making things right. He knows what they’re doing is wrong, but seems to be here more as a form of self punishment than anything else, thinking this is the path he deserves. It’s kind of funny, they sort of each have what the other lacks; Dark Choco has the awareness to know what they’re doing is wrong, and Lobster has the hope that things can go back to how they once were. There’s also the fact that they both lost a physical part of themselves, but there’s a clear difference in how they feel about those things. Lobster lost his claw defending the temple, but he sees it as a symbol of his loyalty to Sugarteara and says he would gladly lose his other claw for the sake of it. Meanwhile Dark Choco lost his eye during his duel with his father, and while I don’t think we know how he feels about it, it’s likely that he sees it as a constant reminder of his actions and wrongdoings. I wonder, if the two were to team up and actually talk about each other’s past and motivations (because I doubt they’d do that normally, they’d probably both just see any mission together as a job to do and not talk much to the other), could they maybe help the other see that they can abandon the path of darkness and find a better one?

…sorry I’m in my literature class and I think it’s influencing me. I kind of want to write an essay on these two now, but I think I condensed all my thoughts here

But in any case, honestly I really want Lobster and Mocha Ray to be in Kingdom, but I don’t know how Sugarteara could reasonably fit into the narrative. I mean I suppose it could be a side story, but then Lobster is part of the main villain group, and that’s kind of important. Ah well. It would be nice, but I’m not sure if it would happen

Mocha Ray Cookie: to be honest, I love her mostly for her design. She looks so soft and squishy, I just want to hold her in my hands and like, gently squeeze her. That sounds weird. But you get what I mean? And she makes adorable noises when she slides, she sounds like an owl. I just really like her from a design perspective

And I hope she and Lobster are able to meet again and make up. To be honest I don’t know much about her from a personality perspective, but she seems interesting. It’s more about the aesthetic for me

Scorpion Cookie: similar to Mocha Ray, I mainly like her for her design. It just looks really cool and I love the colors. I also just want to know more about her. I like how she seems nice, but also I know she’s an assassin and that niceness may just be a facade, but she still seems interesting. I would also like to know more about the history between her and Lilac, and if there’s ever gonna be a confrontation about them with that

I also want her to be in Kingdom, and have a whole Yogurca update of some kind. I suppose it’s not urgent, as from what I can tell, Yogurca has no significance to the overall plot, so you can save it for after the Dark Enchantress storyline ends or just as a side story, but I’d like them to at least have some sort of update with them

Yeah I had much more to say about Lobster than either of the other two, but that’s probably because he’s been a target of my hyperfixation before, whereas the other two are more just Cookies I like looking at

Though now I’m curious what a group comprised of these three would do. Though I also imagine Scorpion would end up as some sort of third wheel here, given the other two’s history

#cookie run #cookie run ovenbreak #favorite cookies #lobster cookie #mocha ray cookie #scorpion cookie #my art #I feel like Lobster looks a bit off but I can’t quite place it #also yeah I didn’t know what to put for their funny names #so you get that

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spooky-ghostwriter · 2 years

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Sentinels Stuff from 2021 and Beyond

Sentinels of the Multiverse has really taken over all of my hobbies...

In 2018, I finished a custom hero deck for Tsukiko. Next was Gold Dragon in 2019. Then Escarlata in 2020.

I kept intending to take breaks from Sentinels and work on other hobbies, but these have been so fun and rewarding that I’ve just kept making cards... without posting them to this blog. Until now.

The Alesia Circus

My first three decks were all heroes, but Sentinels of the Multiverse also has Villain decks and Environment decks. Instead of having a player control them, these decks act on their own.

Battles in Sentinels can take place anywhere from a generic superhero city to an intergalactic prison for supervillains to crazy time vortexes. Alesia Circus is one of the most important locations in my writing, and with Tsukiko already part of the game, I figured it was a perfect time to try my hand at an environment deck.

Dressed to Kill’s story focuses heavily on the performers and their acts, but to make the environment more interactive, I added a set of circus games that players can participate in, called Contests.

Around the time I was finishing up Escarlata, the custom Sentinels community really started expanding, and in particular, creators started featuring each others’ characters in their own cards. I decided I’d use this opportunity to see just how many cameos I could include. Some were front and center, others were buried in the background. The answer, as it turned out, was twelve - there are twelve characters made by my friends among the art!

When a player fulfills a Contest’s condition, the card gets flipped facedown. The back of all cards from the Alesia Circus environment have a ticket on the back:

Tickets let you visit Circus shows and get a bonus in the game as the performer helps you out. If you can’t visit a Circus show, the villain of the game messes with it, and throws some penalty at you.

The Alesia Circus was a pretty frustrating deck to make, to be honest. The art took a really long time, and since the Shows deviate from the normal Sentinels card template, I had to do a lot of work by hand. BUT I love how it turned out.

Digital Implementation

Sentinels of the Multiverse has a digital version on Steam, and recently, the devs added workshop support. Luckily for me, I have a programming background. So I spent an inordinate amount of time coding each and every Sentinels card I’ve designed (around 80), and now all four of my decks are available for free on Steam. (Though Sentinels itself is around $10, or $1 if you can catch it on sale!)

If you’ve got the game, get Spooky Ghostwriter Comics here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2436888590

The digital implementation was ALSO a lot of work but ALSO very rewarding. Heroes in the PC game have extra art beyond the cards - a few different poses depending on whose turn it is. I wanted to keep up the pattern for my heroes, which meant a lot more drawing. But considering how disappointed I am (now) with how I drew Gold Dragon’s character card, I enjoyed seeing how much I’ve improved since then:

Tsukiko Rework

Speaking of being disappointed with old work... the deck I posted for Tsukiko was not great. Since calling that deck complete, I’d learned a lot about art and how to design good Sentinels cards.

Generally, I don’t like reworking things. I’d rather take the lessons I’ve learned and apply them to new things instead of making countless revisions to something I called done. But Tsukiko was rough, and it got to the point where even I didn’t like playing as her anymore.

Luckily, in the grand scheme of things, most of her cards were fine, or at least good enough. There were only a couple absolutely dreadful cards. I won’t dwell too much on the card changes, since I know most people looking at this blog don’t play Sentinels. Instead, I’ll just show off one of the cards that got brand-new art. Because WOW, the original version of Escape Artist was bad:

1920s Cartoon Promos

Some time ago, I posted an old-timey cartoon version of Gold Dragon, saying how much I loved the rubberhose art style and wished I could do more with it. So I did more with it!

All of my heroes will or are going to have a variant character card in this style. Or in Gold Dragon’s case, two:

These are in the digital game too! (Other than Tsukiko’s which is still in the playtesting phase)

Silhouette

And finally, my current art project is yet another Sentinels deck. I hope to have it finished sometime this year. Her name is Silhouette, and she’s an edgy goth vampire with some of the best art I’ve drawn yet:

With Silhouette, I’m switching from Flash/Photoshop to Clip Studio Paint. It’s a fantastic program and I wish I’d made the change sooner. But there are still a lot of things to figure out.

More on Silhouette later, when her deck is complete!

Wrapping Up

If you’ve read this far, thanks for indulging me! Sufficed to say, I’m still pretty fond of Sentinels and making content for it. Of all the nonsense I’ve spent my free time doing, this has been the most rewarding by far. Hopefully my creative energy keeps up!

#sentinels of the multiverse #my art #super duper long post #gold dragon #escarlata #tsukiko #dressed to kill

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wwwdenise · 26 days

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Arcane Season 2

Arcane: League of Legends, is an animated web series from the American gaming company Fighter Games, based on the company's video game title League of Legends. Arcane: League of Legends, is an animated web series from the American gaming company Fighter Games, based on the company's video game title League of Legends.

The first season caught everyone's attention when it aired in 2021, and a teaser for the second season has now aired. Expect us to be able to watch it this winter in November! Season 2 "features Caitlin and Azure", these 2 characters have a close relationship, but Caitlin and Azure have an important enemy: Ugarte. As a result, there's a high probability that they'll be battling Ugarte in Season Two.

The appealing wow factor for me is that the concept design seems to move. It's visually stunning, incorporating a stylised rendering of 2D backgrounds + 3D characters, "triple rendered". The team behind it! Produced by French animation studio Fortiche Prod, Fortiche was founded in 2009 by Jérôme Combe, Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord, who have been working ever since to develop Fortiche into one of the top animation studios in the world. Since then, they have been committed to developing Fortiche into one of the world's leading animation studios.

I watched the disciplinary film about their production, from how it all started to the production choices. It made me look forward to more animation for the second instalment, and they talked about how "Because we have a sense of responsibility to the players, it feels like we created these game characters, and then the players responded by giving their time and love to the characters, and we feel like these characters deserve a better story to back them up."

It was only when I saw Jinx's animation bindings that I realised that the animators had designed a special binding for her, which allows her to transform between young and old, and this is the source of the charm of Jinx's micro-expressions in the animation. I learnt in the documentary that the production process started with the design stage, where backgrounds and character props were designed, and that all the backgrounds for Battle of the Two Cities were hand-drawn. The sub-production department is also working on the script, but it's important to work with the director to create something that's not in the script. At the same time, the dubbing work is also going on, recording some temporary audio tracks, and eventually, getting a rough and dynamic split episode with sound effects. I was surprised that there was no motion capture used in the animation process, as the film is not motion captured at all, considering it is "semi-realistic", it's all hand-held.

Understanding the production process of such an excellent animation through the documentary behind it, learning not only the professional aspects of knowledge, but also a need to slowly polish the heart, the first season took 6 years, but the second season will soon be with us. Very much looking forward to it!

I really like the prop design in it, which is Fishbones by designer Arnaud-Loris Baudry. The exaggeration in the design, coupled with the props of the rational conception. And I did not expect the weapon so big hhh. But my favourite is his material drawing, with a thicker-than-the-touch!

In the trailer clip for Season 2, first there is the sound of ragged breathing and an arm being infused with fluids emerges from the darkness. Then the man with a bandage wrapped around the lower half of his face appears. The fluids continued to be channelled along the pipes on the floor, eventually meeting and fusing within the huge device. The man then glances at the pocket watch in his hand and clutches it tightly in his palm. As the camera zoomed away, he sat alone in the darkness, seemingly planning his next move. And will the huge mysterious figure that appears behind him bring a new nightmare.

References：

Netflix. (2021, September 25). "Arcane Season 2: Release Date & Photos." Tudum. Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/arcane-season-2-release-date-photos

IGN. (2023, December 19). "Arcane Season 2 Announced at Netflix: League of Legends." Retrieved from https://www.ign.com/articles/arcane-season-2-announced-at-netflix-league-of-legends

niiicolo. (2021, November 20). "We can't wait for Season 2 of Arcane!!!" Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/niiicolo/status/1462225669551575042

League of Legends. (2023, November 6). Arcane: Season 2 Official Announcement [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz4-38d3-AE&t=8s

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niannianyabao · 1 year

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MAKE THIS HAPPEN – Sayo Yamamoto’s Mad Max

Remember when the news broke out that we very nearly had an anime prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road? And then remember that other time we all deeply regretted clamoring for supplemental material about Furiosa and the wives, because there was that eye-gougingly horrendous comic that came out? And we were all left feeling simultaneously angry and sad, but then we watched one of the best action films of the past several decades and felt better again? It’s amazing how such a spectacular film can have such difficulty when it comes to other people trying to throw in their interpretation.

Now, one can argue that Fury Road’s success is largely down to the decades George Miller had to think about it, meaning he only returned to his series when he felt he truly had something to say and thus poured all of his energy into presenting a deeply realized world with minimal exposition and a mountain of unremarked upon worldbuilding. And the fact that it’s so deeply felt and personal a project might mean that we’re forever doomed to have lousy Mad Max material (by which I sort of mean Furiosa, much as I loved Tom Hardy’s performance) if it comes from anyone other than Miller’s hand. But just for the sake of argument, consider with me: a Mad Max miniseries as made by Sayo Yamamoto.

Bona fides first. By far Yamamoto’s most famous work (other than Yuri on Ice) is 2012’s The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (I rather liked it, I don’t know if you noticed), but she’s also done guest directing work on shows like Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, Gunslinger Girl, and Eureka Seven, with additional storyboard contribution to big names like Death Note, Attack on Titan (she designed that first end credits sequence), and Evangelion 2.0. And perhaps most importantly, her debut as a series director was 2008’s Michiko & Hatchin – a visually striking road trip that sneakily set its focus on the relationships between women while pretending to frame things through male characters.

Yamamoto, as I believe I’ve said to absolute death a time or two before, is one of anime’s most promising up and coming auteurs. Even with only three full series under her belt her work is sharp and easily distinguished, and connections between Michiko & Hatchin and Fujiko Mine have already begun to show hints of pet themes (a hallmark of any auteur, and their curse; there are X number of works to be had before you hit the height of saturation and must either retire, go in a totally different direction for at least a film or two, or become self-parody – see Hayao Miyazaki, Wes Craven, and Tim Burton respectively): sex as a weapon, women in control of their sexuality and sexual encounters, the demystification of nudity, a bit of a lurking background fascination with queerness (which blossomed and matured in Yuri on Ice), children abandoned by parents, hypermasculinity as empty performance, road trips as a central narrative device, and so on.

I expect you see where I’m going with these similarities. There’s no point in remaking Fury Road, but there’s more than enough thematic resonance to be had between this director and the ideas found in that film to say “wow, wouldn’t it be incredible to put them together?” And it would be an excellent stretch of skills as far as Yamamoto’s existing work too: perhaps as a reaction to the moe trend/general sexual passivity found in many of anime’s depictions of women, her work nearly always features female characters for whom sex is a consciously chosen and controlled part of their characters; given how sex is either of minimal importance or used to commodify human beings as of Fury Road (and particularly with a character like Furiosa, whose warmth and protectiveness toward other female characters discards the Bitchy Exceptional Chick stereotype and whose total disinterest in mourning traditional femininity raises her above the “woman playacting as a man/waiting for a man” bit of narrative nastiness – and who is also a character totally divorced from any particular sexuality).

it would be interesting to see Yamamoto’s feminist storytelling grow to include that bit more of varied female presentation. And given that both of Yamamoto’s full series have a fascination with cultures outside Japan while still retaining a not-quite-describable feel of a Japanese director, there would be room to grow there as well in a story where society has completely broken down (but is still colored by the ideas and remnants of the societal structure that came before).

Likewise, characters like the wives would be an excellent opportunity to discard the lens of focusing on male characters altogether – something in the wake of the Citadel’s recapturing perhaps, or a small look into The Dag and Cheedo’s relationship. Or, one could move away from the main focus of the film entirely, and take a look into what the Green Place was like in more idyllic times, during its slow decline, or what life might have been like for the remaining travelers before they were reunited with Furiosa. A full-on apocalypse narrative, with a visual designer from MadHouse or Watanabe’s stable to make the colors pop and the remaining human life feel vibrant against the slowly sickening landscape, could be a breathtaking sight. Yamamoto’s already an experienced hand with setpiece action as well (the roller coaster shootout in Fujiko Mine’s finale or the stalking highway assassin in Michiko & Hatchin), so both interpersonal conflict and hard action could stand represented.

Is all of this a pipe dream? Oh, without a doubt. Yamamoto seems to have taken after mentor Shinichiro Watanabe in terms of pacing her series directorial work, and while Fury Road didn’t do dreadfully at the Japanese box office (about $12 million, converted) that’s not even a sliver of the imaginations it captured worldwide. But I’m more enchanted with the idea – that a director whose work I deeply admire might both get the chance to work on another prestigious project (another, because Lupin III is quite the household name in Japan) that also manages to earn more than cult acclaim. And because I want her work to flourish and grow, and to be challenged by new thematic dimensions and character archetypes rather than settling into variations on the same old story over and over again. And, of course, because if we’re going to get a Mad Max anime I’d rather not have to bash my head into a wall at the idea of Furiosa becoming a second fiddle love interest (I love you anime, but boy do you have a lousy track record about that kind of thing).

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starryarchitect · 3 years

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Here are some Plance kisses I doodled!

(and now the last one, but with glasses:)

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spectral-kitkat · 3 years

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Miraculous Rant.

Where the hell do I begin…

Season 1:

The show was decent in season 1. Some episodes were just mindless filler and probably weren’t needed in the grand scheme of things but they helped us get introduced to the characters, we got to know the plot and the world our characters inhabit. It was good. The love story between Adrien and Marinette was cute and off to a touching and fluffy start.

Season 2:

This season was immediately better than season 1. It had character development, it went more into detail about the lore surrounding the Miraculous and we got to learn more about our characters and their families and the villian’s motives. (HM really went from “I wanna destroy the world” to “I wanna wake my wife from the coma she’s in”).

We got to see new heroes which was fun! We got new characters like Luka and Kagami.

The season finale was epic! The Miraculous team all taking down all the previous villains in the show was awesome. At the end we even got Mari kissing Adrien on the cheek. It was great! (Even though it clearly reset itself in season 3 cause it’s never mentioned again)

I really enjoyed season 2 and it’s probably my favourite out of the 4.

Season 3:

Season 3 was kinda good and kinda bad. We had some great episodes but this is where the show took the wrong turn.

Marinette lost some of her character in season 3. This was the start of her descent into being the Queen of Mary Sues. It’s also where she was crowned the Queen of Stalkers! Her character took a fucking nose dive in this season. We had so many moments that just creeped me the fuck out.

1. The ENTIRETY of Puppeteer 2 🤢🤢🤢 I could not stand that episode. When we reached the dreaded statue scene I physically had to pause it like 10 times. That scene takes about 3 minutes to watch… it took me about 20. I cringed so fucking hard because of the secondhand embarrassment I was feeling. That was not sweet, it wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t the least bit cute… it was a train wreck! It was creepy and stalkerish and it’s a wonder Adrien even spoke to her again after that atrocity!

2. LB delivering the present in Chat Blanc. Two words: STALKER BEHAVIOUR!!! I genuinely could not believe my eyes when I saw LB run her hand across everything in his room and then actually SNIFF Adrien’s pillow. Like WTF!!! 🤮 I’m pretty sure whoever was responsible for that scene clearly thought it was the equivalent of when someone gets their S/O’s jumper or something and it still smells like them. But this turned it up to the nth degree and way passed the line of sanity.

Adrien was extremely under-utilised in this season. He didn’t really do anything. The only episodes we got about him didn’t really focus on him. ‘Felix’ whilst focusing on Adrien’s family didn’t really feature him. ‘Party Crasher’ while a beautiful mess was more about Mari trying to get into the party than the party itself. ‘Chat Blanc’ again focused more on Mari trying to fix her mistake.

We got even more heroes in season 3, not in the right order but they were there. It was fun seeing everyone’s transformations.

Season 3 was also the season of destroying redemptions. The big one obviously being Chloe. Season 2 was setting up this amazing redemption for her and before it could go anywhere it was wiped off the face of the earth during the finale (and don’t worry we’ll get to that dumpster fire later). Gabriel also had any remaining sympathy ripped away from him. How did the guy who stopped Gorizilla from letting Adrien die when he only thought he was CN go from that to using his son like fucking baseball in Chat Blanc when he knew his son was CN. Like I knew you were a shit father but you still cared about Adrien in some way shape or form but after that episode I can see I was clearly mistaken!

Before we get to the finale I want to talk about probably my 2 least favourite episodes from this season: Desperada and Reflekdoll

Desperada:

I fucking hated this episode! The only good thing was Luka getting to be Viperion, other than that this episode was awful!

Marinette was a selfish cringey bitch. Completely ignoring Luka to gush about Adrien to Jagged. Brushing Luka off as soon as Adrien turns up. Immediately cuddling up to Aspik and flirting with him when she needed to focus on the akuma (something which she has told CN not to do many times before)

Adrien, I love you kid but Jesus Christ you were a dumbass in this episode! Aspik’s design was terrible! Aspik himself was awful. I know Adrien tried his best but dude you were given the Black Cat miraculous for a reason! He shouldn’t have tried to be Aspik but even when he did he should’ve called it quits after like 5 resets not 25,913 times.

The only person with a brain this episode was Luka. So well done guitar boy, gold star!

Reflekdoll:

This episode was annoying! It was basically the start of the Marinette can do no wrong streak! When they have to swap miraculous I was happy cause it meant we got to see new outfits and see how they each handle the different powers. It would also serve as a way to get LB and CN to see what their partners role is first hand. Until we actually get to it…

LadyNoire is of course amazing and needs no introduction to using this new miraculous that she’s never used before. She’s cocky and confident and basically just LB in Chat’s costume with his powers.

Mister Bug on the other hand is just useless. He struggles with this new miraculous (like anyone would!) and is stupid and goofy. He has to rely on LadyNoire to solve the lucky charm. They swapped miraculous so shouldn’t that mean that Mister Bug should get the lucky vision and the creative powers that the earrings give him.

Overall Reflekdoll is awful. It was shitty writing and the start of Adrien getting the short end of the stick.

And now the season 3 finale… Just what the fuck. That is my only reaction: what the fuck!

Chloe you poor fucking child! What did they do to you!!! So much potential SQUANDERED!!!!

What was the point in bringing in all these different superheros with unique skill sets, costumes and transformations if you were just going to immediately reveal them to the main villian so they can’t be used again. That’s stupid! If you wanted the shock value that is “Oh no HM knows some of the heroes identities!” Then keep it as only some. Have like Max, Kim and Kagami outside trying to find somewhere to hide but unfortunately they get hit. Or Nino and Alya are hiding but the windows open and they get hit. Have some of the heroes hide so they’re fine! Taking away every ally of LB and CN’s was a stupid move! (Even if they wanted Alya to become a spy have her as part of the like 4 that get revealed or something, it’s not that difficult)

Season 3 was 50/50 for me

Season 4:

So I know season 4 isn’t even halfway through yet but so much is wrong with this season already that I need to vent!

So my biggest problem with this season of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybitch and Rena Rouge, I mean Rena Furtive… shit, Chat Noir! Is that CN is basically pointless! Adrien has been flung over a rainbow and is only remembered when he’s needed as

1. Marinette’s love interest

2. Someone for LB to shout at

3. A plot device

He has basically been sidelined. Partners my ASS!!!

Adrien is being blown off by pretty much EVERYONE! It’s coming to a point where this poor sweet summer child is going to crack! And it is not gonna be pretty… I definitely feel like the writers are leading up to a big fight between CN and LB which will probably end with Chat Blanc 2.0.

I REALLY HATE MARINETTE/LADYBUG!!!! In Season 3 I said it was the beginning of her descent, well in season 4 she’s done it. She’s descended, she has hit rock fucking bottom. She is so unlikable I don’t actually care about her as a person. She has entered full blown stalker territory it’s only a matter of time before she starts killing people for even looking at Adrien! Not to mention that Miss Mary Sue here can’t do anything wrong! She never has to suffer the consequences of her actions, she is always perfect no matter what she does… it pisses me off!)

She’s the Guardian now big whoop. I know what it feels like to be stressed and under pressure so I do understand why she needed to tell someone about it all. I just don’t see why that person had to Alya! Especially considering she has someone by her side every akuma attack going through pretty much the exact same thing. I know she’s worried about CB happening again but as I said before the more she leaves him out the more she is actually pushing that to become a possibility! Plus it makes sense for them to reveal their identities now since LB is now the guardian it’s probably a good idea to know who holds the cat miraculous, she knows everyone else’s identities!

Even if she didn’t want to tell CN her identity she could still explain the situation to him. If she didn’t want to tell him anything (which she doesn’t anyway) then instead of Alya she should’ve talked to Luka! Her boyfriend for all of half an episode (thanks writers…). He’s so sweet and caring and clearly loves her so much! If she wanted someone to confide in then why not choose the person you clearly wanted to date but couldn’t because of that very reason! (Yeah I know it’s kinda a moot point now since Luka knows both identities but still). He wanted to try and comfort her so it would’ve been the perfect moment for it. That way you could still date him and he’d know why you had to suddenly leave dates halfway through! But no break the boys heart instead!

Adrien and Marinette were both such fucking idiots in the first 2 episodes. Like why would you start a relationship with someone when you know your heart isn’t in it! That’s called leading someone on and is a really shitty thing to do to someone! No wonder Kagami and Luka ended up akumatized!

Another aspect of season 4 I don’t like is Rena Furtive. Yes ok having a spy for your side is a good strategy but when said spy basically tells an important member of a duo that the 2 person job doesn’t involve them… it just really ticks me off! Alya you are the sidekick to LB and CN! Chat isn’t!

Miraculous specials:

The Miraculous World specials suck! Shanghai is better than NY but still has its problems. Both specials add nothing to the overall plot/lore of the show apart from trying to set up some weird cinematic universe…

NY special:

One of the worst things I’ve ever had to sit through! The plane scene alone I paused a few times. I want to say well done to Mari for trying to move on from Adrien (especially considering I’m pretty sure she’s dating Luka at this point) but I can’t help but think it’s just to give her character some pointless development that goes nowhere and doesn’t actually develop anything!

LB can pretty much fuck off at this point! I hate her! She put all this shit on CN (like she doesn’t know exactly how that feels). It’s like why does she get to go off on holiday but CN can’t. LB should’ve stayed in Paris for 3 reasons:

1. She’s recently become the guardian meaning it would probably be best that she stayed with the Mircle Box

2. She’s the only one who can purity the akumas

3. If she’s so sure about being the boss then she should take responsibility of Paris and the citizens.

What really pisses me off about her is what she says to CN during the big fight. “I can’t trust you”… surely you could have this conversation afterwards since you’re supposed to be focusing on taking down the villian! Plus everyone bashes Adrien for giving his miraculous up in this episode but look at it from his point of view: His partner and best friend just said she couldn’t trust him which in turn caused him to cataclysm someone and essentially kill them. That’s gonna take a toll on anyone, especially a 14 year old! He probably thought in that moment. “Ladybug needs a partner she can trust and someone who won’t mess up and kill someone. She needs a better partner.” It makes sense he renounces his miraculous! I’m just upset that in doing so he loses Plagg who is pretty much his only friend who actually understands what Adrien goes through at home.

When Uncanny gets CN to come back, LB acts like it’s not her fault in the first place that he feels inadequate! She didn’t even apologise for saying what she did! He apologised for lying about not being in Paris but nope LB wasn’t in the wrong at all and didn’t have anything to apologise for 🙄… (yes the LadyNoir hug was amazing but I just wish it was under different circumstances!)

Also are we not gonna mention Gabriel Agreste almost starting WW3??? He wanted to launch a fucking missile!!!

Shanghai:

As I said before, this special is way better for several reasons.

We got MariChat! (Best side to the love square imo). This special actually had some semblance on a plot. Fei, whilst a bit op, was a cool character. It was nice to see Wang Cheng again.

However once again there were many problems.

A big one being Marinette yet again! (What a shock! 😒 I’ll come back to this). Another was that once again HM’s motivation has changed. How is getting the Prodigious gonna help bring back Emilie??

Back to Marinette… The fact that the words “Huh?! There must be some kind of mistake! I always know what's up with Adrien! … His 5 first names and every corresponding name date, his yearly schedule, even his shoe size! If there were anything to know about him, I would know it!” come out of her mouth whilst she is flipping through his schedule that she keeps in her pocketbook is a hugh red flag!!! That is not cute or adorable! That’s messed up and Adrien needs to fucking run and maybe possibly go into witness protection… Marinette is a full blown stalker! Not to mention the GPS she has (that could just be the find my friends app on iphone but still).

It also is extremely rude of her to use not only her great uncle’s birthday but also a lie about wanting to know her Chinese heritage in order to go to Shanghai to stalk her obsession, I mean crush. This could’ve been avoided if the Dupain-Chengs were going to Shanghai for the purpose of celebrating Wang Cheng’s bday and then Adrien just so happened to be in Shanghai.

Also this means LB left Paris without telling CN! I know CN did the same but again he can’t purify the akumas. Plus he has a reason he couldn’t stay in Paris, Mari just went cause her crush did. Great guardianship there Marinette.

This was also the last time CN actually did something. Even if it was for a short while before LB and her female partner took over (the beginning of a theme…)

Other things:

There are 2 other things that I wanna say but felt they needed a separate bit.

In Furious Fu, Su-Han has a rule book that he uses to tell Marinette which rules she has broken. At the end of the episode he tells her that is she breaks 1 more rule that he will take the Miraculous and the Miracle Box off her, which fair enough but wouldn’t it be helpful to leave the rule book with her?! How can she be wary of not breaking anymore rules when she doesn’t even know what the rules are??

Now the big one: Master Fu…

Where do I even start with him. He is so fucking manipulative!! He is Asian Dumbledore!

He decides to leave these extremely powerful jewels in the hands of 13 year olds! Surely leaving the miraculous to someone in their 20s would’ve been better!

He clearly favours LB over CN even though the Ladybug and Black Cat are supposed to be partners! Wouldn’t it make sense for them both to be in contact with the guardian from the start?? He randomly started introducing rules such as if LB and CN find out each other’s identities they would lose their miraculous… what kind of bullshit rule is that? It also came out of fucking nowhere!

Final Thoughts:

But to summarise all of that: Miraculous is on quite a steep decline but I’m invested at this point and I am genuinely curious as to where the fuck this will go.

Marinette needs professional fucking help before the writers even consider canonising Adrienette cause at the moment she is not what Adrien needs!

Adrien needs to stand up for himself! He needs to pull LB to the side and tell her what he feels and what he’s going through cause he is on the precipice of a breakdown!

(Small point that’s more to do with the fandom: when searching for fanfics it’s really annoying that Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir Bashing is a tag but Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug Bashing isn’t. Why does everyone think Marinette can do no wrong???)

#miraculous fandom #miraculous ladybug #miraculous salt #adrien agreste #marinette dupen chang #marinette salt #master fu salt #ladybug and chat noir #fandom salt #thomas astruc salt #adrien deserves better #miraculous season 4 #miraculous season 3 #miraculous rant

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greysfall · 3 years

Text

My 4444-word review of NEO TWEWY (with personal illustration + heavy spoilers)

My overall critical score for the game is 7.5/10, while my personal enjoyment score is 8.5/10. This review is posted as I have 80% completed the game, got the secret ending and achieved the Angel psychic rank. I’ll first start with the main pros and cons as follows.

PROS:

- Enjoyable as a whole, still upholding the first game’s spirit in world building and sharing the same backbone - which was mostly revealed in the Secret Reports, it’s impossible to grasp the story without reading them.

- The new cast and new game is charming in their own way

- The old cast’s return is one of the biggest highlights for sure, it was fun and impactful. Everyone stays true to themselves and also had their own stories wrapped up nicely.

- Boss designs are cool, new pins are fun to use and collect

- The connection between the old and new cast is well written and executed, including but are not limited to the tension between the old and new protagonist, the weird but fun interaction between the 2 Composers, the new friendships revealed and formed

- Sho being in the main cast is something so uniquely TWEWY and uniquely Sho

- Still good music

- Still many fun side quests, some of them really uphold the same quirky spirit of the old game and some are surprisingly touching

- Many new nice stores and yummy looking foods to explore

- The map is really easy to memorize for me, it’s fun to travel around the “current” Shibuya to see all the differences compared to the past

- The social network is crazy and interesting to read through

- Has an anti-frustration system to help 100% complete the game more easily and earn money faster, so post-game is relatively managable.

- Overall, I really feel the efforts the team poured into making this as their passion project, not just during the development process but for all the last 14 years. They showed the vision of what they wanted to make, at the same time giving something to both the old as well as new fans.

CONS:

- The biggest problem with the game is scenario writing. The story is so heavily back-loaded. The director himself thought it would be better to balance out the tension flow by adding more at the beginning but gave in to the scenario writer in the end, probably due to time pressure. This results in an underwhelming execution of characterization and lots of wasted potentials for the first half of the game.

- I struggle to view it as a stand-alone game, since the backstory and the old cast both play such an important role in the core of the game. If someone plays this game without having played the OG, they can only enjoy it on surface value at best.

- The new cast is nice but most of them aren’t quite as intriguing as the old cast, maybe it’s cuz they’re all too nice deep down that they lack a little bit of an edge, of that batshit craziness that everyone in the OG used to have? I think some characters (Fret, Nagi) ended up weaker in terms of characterization because the writer is too afraid of making them unlikeable – which kind of backlashed cuz they only became likable in the most expectable way to cater for a specific group of fans. I would have wished for the other team leaders to be more crazy too, had they not suffered 30+ loops of the Game…

- The CAMERAWORK IS HELL.

- Gameplay does get tedious at certain points with all the time travels.

- Shiba is so badly written as a villain, some Shinjuku characters should be given more screentime cutting into Shiba’s– like Hishima or Kaie or even, Hazuki (though his limited presence also solidified his importance).

- Some of the main character designs, for example Beat’s hairstyle and his food reactions are hilariously bad. What’s the point of covering up most of his unique facial features?

- Some of the minor/side characters’ design are too cool for them to have such a small role (eg: Ayano, Eiru). Ryoji did get much screentime but is nowhere as fun as Makoto was.

- Overall the scope of this game is made a little too big for the team to handle as perfectly as the last game that was very compact, it felt somewhat rushed in development too so the missing pieces are clearly there in the final picture

The entry fee versus paying for it all in the end

An important difference between the Neo game and the original Shibuya game was that the Shibuya rule asked for an entry fee that is the Player’s most important asset, stated as a chance the Composer gives them to reexamine themselves. Meanwhile, the Shinjuku rule neither encourages nor allows personal growth and ultimately aims to erase as many Players as possible. It’s a pity we were never introduced to the full Shinjuku rulebook, as it seems like the system there focuses more on building up power and a grand government to compare with the individuality-driven system of Shibuya.

When you have to compare the new game and the original game (OG), this is an important factor to consider. Also, the OG has a serious storyline running through and through, locked with a different partner/GM creating unique atmosphere for each week and you don’t get to see your old partners again until the end. NEO’s team system does not allow such deep insight and communication between the Players. All of your teammates are always there throughout, the dynamic does change with each new addition but it is not as prominent as a partner change.

Another important factor is how the OG was built from scratch for a new platform as “something no one has ever seen before”, while Neo recycled a lot of old unused ideas from the previous development (check out this interview for more details). The development team for NEO lacks 2 key members and had a change of writer so the final product is not as strongly bound together as the last game.

The new cast is definitely inspired by today’s teenagers (from the view of creators), compared to the old cast they’re more sociable and always seem to take whatever works for them despite feeling unstable inside. They are all innocent and genuinely nice kids, avoiding to hurt each other to a degree that they end up keeping some sort of distance. They’re also unable to communicate at deeper levels, always stagnant at this half-baked stage of equilibrium without any motivation to get to the core of things. That is the cost of entering the game without an entry fee, without even dying or having a reason to be there/to fight seriously. These kids were stolen from the RG into a Game that was decidedly the worst environment for them to change or develop, just wandering around cluelessly to find a way “out” until tragedies started to unfold one by one and they ended up being charged the total sum of the price for their actions – ultimately losing everything in the end.

That is, I believe, a story arc which can resonate more to the youth of today rather than of my generation. If the message of the old game was to “listen”, enjoy life to the fullest and accept to trust others, the message of the new game is to “speak up” from the inside, trying to understand yourself and take actions instead of just going with the flow and finally, to take responsibility for such actions.

If Neku was handpicked by the Composer for being the special one with an all-dense soul to ensure victory of the game then Rindo was just a normal kid chosen out of random by Kubo to be his back-up plan, who just happened to have a high enough imagination to awaken the incredible power from his pin. Rindo was then officially chosen by the Composer as Josh picked up and handed the pin to him again, this time not as Josh’s personal Proxy – but as the Proxy to represent the normal people of Shibuya and via whom he could gamble if humans can fight for their own fate.

The underworld heroine and the hero with little of his own

Shoka is for me a refreshing and layered heroine. She’s the kind of character that took at least 3 trials of creators to form as a complete individual – that included Nomura who gave her the base design and Reaper background, Gen who gave a more cunning touch and the writers who made her English dialogues more punchy. Dishonesty equals “tsundere” is such a cliché, so the English writers tried really hard to avoid that trope in my opinion, while still letting her good intention come through.

She serves as the character who is informed of everything the players should have known, and there was almost nothing she could do about it. Almost. Until she met Rindo.

They were drawn to each other by sharing a state of “not having anything of their own”. They both started out with not being able to truly know themselves, Shoka even hated her RG life but also managed to mature from that stage before Rindo. She must have vibed with Shiki’s love and passion in the Gatto Nero threads, initiating her connection with Shibuya and understanding herself more. With Shoka as Swallow, they were able to open up to each other and offer mental support… but was still not getting to the centre of their problems because for all this time, Shoka could not tell Rindo the most important things about herself.

How did Shoka feel when she met Rindo at the UG? She probably didn’t want to hope that he would live the day until she witnessed the Twisters’ potentials. From the very beginning, they were both incredibly conscious of each other and also constantly frustrated that the person they happened to “notice” was such a condescending bitch/a clueless loser. The Shinjuku Reapers are overall quite drunk in power and uncompassionate to Players, Shoka included. She is also a master of dissociation, which results in her constant boredom, tone swings, haughtiness and subconsciously distancing herself from the friend – the boy she cares about – from false hope, as she judged from facts that it was a hopeless situation where nothing could ever be. Maybe she is naturally a bit of a chameleon just like her name suggests (Shoka 紫陽花 = hydrangea, the color-changing flower), so putting on an act and always dissociating herself from what’s important was easy, while hiding her contradiction was impossible. It was the ex-Reaper Beat who broke it out to her, that she should decide whether she really cared and wanted to do something for a change. He knew how it felt like to cross that line, and knew she wanted to too.

Shoka is endeared by many of the Shinjuku Reapers and has shown independent acts of kindness (the Shinjuku ghost), proving that her kind and truthful side is as real as her harsh and dishonest side – which makes her a nice mirror to the previous heroine Shiki, who also embraced a dichotomy of self-complex and self-love within her character. In the end, she was the first of the new cast to ultimately accept all that is important to her and independently made the decision to help save Shibuya despite all costs.

She was jealous at Rindo’s interaction with Tsugumi and Kanon but remained silent cuz she wasn’t at a place to have any say about it. She also didn’t reveal about Swallow because that would only add an awkward irrelevance to their current situation, as she was too ready to face erasure at the end of the Game. She only wished to “play a game” with him, be it FanGo or the Reapers’ Game. The tension that the team could only feel at the end, she’s felt it the entire time. The song “DIVIDE” is applicable to not just one bond in the game, but it always makes me think of theirs. There is always a “divide” between her and Rindo throughout the course of their journey, as the living and the dead, as a Player and Reaper, as someone who has a place to return to and someone who doesn’t, someone who knows little but wields too much power and someone who knows a lot despite not being able to do much.

“If only I had the chance to connect with you on the other side

But time goes on, and without us realizing it

The battle is getting heated

Time goes on, and without us realiazing it

Divided again”

To be honest, maybe I didn’t grow any affection for the new main cast from Rindo’s perspective but from Shoka’s. Since I started to sympathize with Shoka, I started to see the boy in a more “real” way. The real Rindo, behind his peaceful façade with others, would lash out on Shoka for her unfairly harsh attitude while none of the others cared. He could also subtly feel that mantle of unspoken secrets from her, her own contradictions, the unresolved chemistry between themselves – and not knowing what to do with it rather than to feel angry with all the unfairness he could not process. (As a Libra too, he’s triggered the most by unfairness!)

It is actually a positive development as he’s at least “reacting” to something strongly now rather than to keep evading his problems. During my replay, I clearly saw the difficult situation Shoka was in, her remaining harshness after the Motoi incident was due to her internal struggle with a mission to save her own life, versus a chance to really be with the team. Her decision was to do both at the risk of losing favour from both sides. Rindo started to accept her layer by layer, as the person who resonated the most to her contradicting nature from the start and knew that via learning her resolve, he has learnt his too.

Later into the game, she even got too much of his attention. Maybe even without knowing she’s Swallow, he’s familiar with her thinking direction and Swallow had always been closer to him than any other friend. It was only after she had to betray her important ones twice that she could start being truly honest. The scene when she died a 2nd time left a strong impression in me, the little reveal let Rindo know that he is also losing Swallow as he’s losing Shoka – and that only death could drive the last secret out of her. Her final “Later, loser” echoed through Rindo as it was the final truth, with only him remaining to hear it: they had actually, already lost everything.

Rindo was the boy who never dared to face all that matters to him until he lost it all, fighting an unfair battle in the faith that they would somehow still win. Shoka was the girl who always knew what was dear to her, but never dared to think she could be together with them ever after and still threw her all into a battle she knew was losing. I think they stir each other on naturally to fill out their gaps, similar to what the Shibuya game partner systerm would have aimed for. The end reward was a little divine intervention to help close up the divide between them once and for all.

During the game there was not enough space to process anything personal so at the ending when they officially became “friends”, it was an important affirmation of their bond. Some people complained it was friendzoning but it’s not, they just have arrived at the perfect place to start something more. “From now on, we will truly be together” – I read it as that kind of message.

The heroine from a lost battle, with her story taken away

After reading the secret reports and playing the game to be surprised of how small a role Tsugumi had in the main game despite being the “Hype-chan” thought to be a major character of the next TWEWY installment, many fans would feel sad at a missed opportunity to see the Shinjuku arc in full depiction.

It was shown clearly that, a Shinjuku arc was very carefully planned out and is a vital part of the whole story, yet it could not be made due to various circumstances behind the development scene. I would assume, that the team were not able to make a TWEWY game that ended on a despairing note, but it already happened in their mind, thus becoming a mental burden that forced them to break away from it and started the game anew with NEO. A significant part of NEO became the healing arc for the Shinjuku characters, especially for Tsugumi though I really wished more emphasis should have been placed on her rather than Shiba. We didn’t even get to see her brother – Shinjuku’s Conductor who had a vital role and instead was given the clueless Shiba, who had absolutely no idea what’s going on all the way until the last day in NEO. It’s as if Tsugumi has had her story stolen away from her, because her own battle ended with a saddening loss.

I think every time the game creators look at Tsugumi, they would feel that sadness too. Maybe to them, she is a bigger character than what is seen by the fans, as despite their failed effort to depict her story, she’s lived in their mind for all these years through periods of destruction, healing and rebuild. Though it is a pity we could not get to experience the full scope of the Shinjuku story, the creators was clear about the place they wished for it to arrive at.

Individuality, connection and the social network

The team system adapted from Shinjuku rulebook does not allow much room for personal development, as the team dynamic is closer to a work relationship forced to bear results, than a spiritual bond to max out all corners of understanding as found in the partnership system. The old Shibuya system allowed only 1 winner and 1 week limit per game, while the new rule declares for a 1 winning team and only the team at last place will be erased – the other teams will enter another loop. Furthermore, whichever team to challenge the unwinnable Ruinbringers will face the risk of ending up dead last followed by erasure. As a result, the longest-standing teams are most likely not the strongest ever recorded, but the ones who have figured out a strategy to simply survive until something changes, enjoying their newly found social constructs while they are at it. Basically, it is a system to hypnotise players into the illusion that they are still “living”.

Therefore, we as players would not get to the core of each Player individually as fast and directly as we did in the last game. The Twisters were able to stand out not because they’re powerful, they only started to have a real chance after growing enough to each form a meaningful and personal connection to another teammate. It did not come as a team, nor did it intiate from the existing friendship between Rindo and Fret. In fact, I did not find much solidity or anything truly note-worthy about the main team and new characters within themselves until they started clashing with other team members, Reapers and new recruits from week 2 onwards. Rindo found his personal development with Shoka (via a clash with Motoi and pretty much a mini dating sim between them), then via the confrontation of his role with Neku; Fret found his with Kanon then Nagi, the team learned about the real Neku via Beat, Neku entered the UG via Coco’s wish to save Tsugumi… it was not the team but their personal links that empowered them to fight and solve each of their problems.

The other team leaders may have failed because they did not form such personal links, after 30+ hopeless loops Fuya’s team all fell apart to pursue their own interest even at the cost of erasure, Motoi quit his KOL façade to work like a dog for the Reapers (probably to save just his own ass not his team), while Kanon dropped her tricks to find changes via honest cooperation in acceptance of a fair loss. The despairing note in that is huge without making much of a scene because their failure didn’t happen at their best effort to “win”, but in their last attempt to find a way “out”. Even Shiba got his way “out” in the end thanked to his personal friendship with Hishima and Tsugumi.

Something has shifted in the mindset of the game creators in the last 14 years, as both games are about “connection vs individuality” but the last game focuses more on connection between just individuals and this one on the overall network that is formed out of those individual connections.

The introduction of Beat into the main cast was truly the bridge between old and new, they helped each other out in several turns before officially recruiting him. Beat is a character whom a lot of fans including myself have felt somewhat concerned about after Neku disappeared from the RG, so when the new kids welcomed Beat with warm and organic interaction and Beat seemed happy, I started to feel like I wanted to help them out too! I think the overall team chemistry is enjoyable enough for new players, but I could warm up to the new kids more from the pov of a returning character – whom I’m glad to be Beat, as the older brother figure who is genuinely kind, fun, serious and upbeat at the same time; who is needed and needs the kids in return.

The social network is a fun and refreshing feature. You can read all of the crazy tidbits about Shibuya and the links each character have formed with the town people, it’s also fun to visualize how the characters act off screen. Characters’ profiles provide extra insight into their background too, like how it reveals Tsugumi has been friend with Coco during her time in the RG. During the game when not all characters have showed up, you can sometimes guess which empty spot will belong to whom. For example there is a 1 character linking to Neky that is not linked to anyone else, so I could guess that was Joshua, and that another character linking only to Joshua was probably Hazuki, hinting that the 2 Composers are related before either of them even showed up.

Hazuki only showed up for 5 minutes, but his presence is so vital and true to the game that I think he is the most memorable out of the new cast. The two Composers have such an intriguing bond, with their yin/yang or phoenix/dragon themes, opposite color design, the sempai/kouhai tone and the way they keep some sort of distance/work relationship as if it’s mandatory between Higher beings, yet at the same time they can talk so casually because they are truly equal – and different from one another. I have written a separate meta on them here.

Some people pointed out, that all Shinjuku characters’ names and themes are based off Hanafuda cards and the Phoenix in Hanafuda belongs to the Paulownia suit – which is Joshua’s name flower. This is so interesting because it feels like the creators somehow saw it as a sign to interweave the Shibuya and Shinjuku storylines together. Though it doesn’t come out much on the surface, it’s fascinating nonetheless considering both Josh and Haz had at some point interfered with the other town’s affairs.

“Shibuya tour with Haz” was such a special scene, as it happened between 2 characters who do not/no longer have a reason to care about Shibuya, on the subject of what is worth saving about Shibuya. Hazuki carried out the purification of Shinjuku and stepped in to restore Shibuya just as part of his job and unlike Hanekoma or Joshua who both possess profound understanding of humanity, he really didn’t know humans at all. Rindo’s irrational wish invoked in him a sense of curiosity, to try gambling on something irrationally and learning a bit of what his senior have experienced. With all the pieces put together, it provides an overview on Higher beings as a whole, and that Joshua and Hanekoma are really the odd ones out with Hazuki being somewhere in between them and the rest.

The old friends

It’s easy to have returning characters overshadow the new cast as they have already matured out of their personal story arc and stayed in our hearts for all this time. In the end, I have managed to enjoy both the old and new cast separately and altogether, and they will both find their own place in our memory of this game for the long term.

Sho is truly as crazy as ever, the game wouldn’t be the same if Sho is any less of what he is. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like Neky or Beat is younger than Nagi at all, with moments when it seems like Neky has aged 14 years instead of 3 years. His friendship with Coco surprised me pleasantly, and their interaction together with Beat was fun to watch. Rhyme’s found a new dream and her friendship with Kaie is precious too, especially considering that she can still talk to him online after the game ended. Josh and Neku’s interaction suggested that they have resolved the past and are on equal terms now, they even parted ways in good spirit and I don’t feel any worry about them like I did before.

Neku and Shiki’s reunion scene was beautiful, theirs is such a special bond that it has grown and supported them even without being able to see each other. I am so happy to see them all again and that they stay true to who they are, albeit looking more grown up, cooler and happier than ever before.

Overall, NEO can’t become a classic on par with the OG, but is definitely a good sequel and a good game in its own rights. I’m happy with whether or not there will be a 3rd game to complete the 3 monkeys theme, but if there will be – I hope the creators can really find the time to learn from the last 2 games and start over with a fresh mindset and strong core.

#neotwewy #neotwewyspoilers #ntwewy #ntwewy spoilers #neo the world ends with you #twewy #review #meta #neo twewy #shoka sakurane #rindo kanade #tsugumi matsunae

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lovee-infected · 3 years

Note

Hello! Recently I've seen a lot of twst blogs arguing on how twst characters are mischaracterized, especially Malleus. So do you have any ideas on how he is mischaracterized? Also, is it okay to ask for your general opinion on questions like a short character analysis or how a healthy a relationship with each twdt guy might be? Hope it's okay to ask!

For your first question anon, it's a GREAT thing to ask and to be honest I've been waiting for a chance to talk about him! And for your second one, yes, of course! I just love writing character analyis and it's totally okay to ask for character/personality/relationship analysis here! I've got a lot to say about Malleus so this is going to a detailed analysis about his whole personality.

There are commonly two popular opinions on how Malleus is which divides the fandom into two groups:

Group A:

Those who consider him to be an absolutely soft, baby dragon who just wants to be invited and have a friend. They believe that Malleus needs more attention and can be quite affectionate at the time, he can also be sometimes idiotic toward simple stuff like working with a computer or trying to talk with others which makes him even more adorable. "Despite Malleus's harsh and emo appearance and terrifying powers, Malleus is just a small baby inside," is also a common belief of this group.

Group B:

Those who argue that group A is totally shading everything important about Malleus's personality and true self just because he looks cute and plays with a childish tamagotchi. These group also comes up with rather strong points about his personality such as his status as a crown prince, his naturally dark personality as not only a dark fae but also Maleficent's grandchild, his maturity and cold nature and also, the aspect of his hellish powers which can make him look like an absolute monster at the time.

I believe most of you are familiar with these points of view but the question is, which one of them is the real Malleus?

And the answer is: Neither of them; yet both of them do have a point.

The main problem is how the fandom portraits him as either an emotional tamagotchi baby or an absolutely cold and heartless mister of evil, while the true Malleus is far beyond than just being either good, or bad.

Now let's discuss some of the important facts and common mistakes about Malleus's personality:

(1) Malleus isn't a baby, but he isn't a monster either

This is supposedly the main idea here which will be continued to be discussed through the rest of this analysis. This is often how many end up mischaracterizing him because: the way the describe Malleus is either too dark or too childish. What we need here, is a balance. This is the grandson of one of the most important Disney villains that we are talking about, and don't forget that Maleficent herself was confirmed to consume the powers of Hell, as she was indeed the mistress of all evil. So this dragon boy here surely isn't one to underestimate, and he clearly has inherited that hellish power of her grandmother. It's obviously seen through the story as well, from the way he was presented in chapter 2 and beans day event to how terrified other students always are to even talk about him.

But the thing is, there are softer aspects of his personality as well which prove that Malleus isn't just designed to present an undefeatable force of evil, and this is exactly what makes his personality a lot more interesting.

(2) Malleus is actually hard to approach and talk to

Let's be honest, Malleus isn't as soft and easy to befriend as many fans consider him to be. He doesn't get too friendly or chill as he speaks, and even his close allies like Silver and Sebek fail to get close to him as much as they wish to. When we talk about his dark aura, we aren't just talking about his horns and fearsome magic, it's also because of his personality itself. His calm yet cold tone always remains still regardless of who he's talking to. No need to mention that he isn't an ordinary student either, he not only comes from a well-known family but is also the crown-prince of valley of thorns. Out of all twst characters Malleus is the only one who is directly connected to the great seven by being Maleficent's grandson. His family and people on the other hand are overly protective over him, to the point of not letting him to even have a fake proposal in the ghost marriage event which means that Malleus has also got each and every of his actions under watch.

(3) He's slowly getting used to isolating himself

In his ceremonial robes story, he's obviously upset that he never had a chance to wear his ceremonial robes because he never got invited, but when Lilia says he'd one day overcome his ill fate and gets to wear them as he always wanted to, he says that he's fine. Then again when Lilia tried to bring him to the singing test in chapter 5 he avoids showing up. In his voice lines he also said: "Are you as well scared of me?" which is clearly shouting that he's no longer surprised to see people being afraid of him, he's getting used to being feared and at some point, hated. That's probably one of the bitter sides of his personality which he's slowly giving up on trying to change it.

(4) Malleus has got a great confidence and isn't shy at all

There many fanfics in which Malleus is presented as a shy boy who's scared of confessing to his s/o or asking them out, while he's the total opposite in reality. Just like Maleficent herself, he speaks calmly and in a formal tone, is very respectful as he speaks, and isn't one to ever have problem while talking to others.

It's others who always avoid talking to him while Malleus himself isn't the least uncomfortable with presenting his ideas and asking others for help when he needs to.

He isn't ever shy over his lack of ability to work with machines or asking others for help for seemingly childish issues like having his tamagotchi fixed or finding a friend for the GaoGao dragon.

The only thing left is how Lilia described him as "Kind of shy" in chapter five, which is most likely because of another reason discussed in part (3)

(5) He doesn't eat ice cream and play with a tamagotchi for no reason

Malleus explained that everything is ran by magic back in the valley of thorns and no one really uses any machines there, that's how he's pretty new to both technology and complicated tools.

I believe that the tamagotchi part was given to him on purpose, because else than showing the fact that he's bad with tools, it's great contrast to the harsh picture that his power and personality gives him!

Admit it, it's a funny and somehow, adorable contrast to see one of the strongest magicians who can burn the room to ashes in just a matter pf second playing with a children's toy. And I believe that it was given to him on purpose. They meant to give him some soft and cute features as well instead of just presenting him as an evil fae. He is indeed evil and his powers are terrifying, and that's how watching him play with a tamagotchi is rather surprising to many. If you saw Ortho or Cheka playing with one it wouldn't have gone any further than a simple "Awww" or "How cute" because it's something you'd expect to see from a kid, but when you see Malleus of all people playing with it, you can't help but to fascinated and flustered over how cute this fae's habits can be.

Ice cream on the other hand doesn't really have to do with cuteness, it's something Yana Toboso discovered while doing her researches on fae mythology which discuses that Dark faes enjoy cold and sweet foods, especially cream. So it doesn't really have anything to do with him being either a soft or a cruel boy, it's just a normal part of his nature as a fae.

(6) He might be crazily old to humans, but he's still pretty young as a fae

This one has really been getting on my nerves, come on people! It's true that he's probably been living for decades and possibly, centuries but don't forget that it isn't that much compared to a normal fae! Even Sebek calls him 'Young master' which means that he's still a pretty young one, no need to mention that he hasn't yet became the king either so he's not much different from the rest of the students in NRC.

I've seen people saying: "No Malleus won't do that he's -too old-" and I've got to say: What?

Come on even someone like Lilia who's been living for over 5 centuries can act like a nasty 14 year old at the time, so for faes at least, age isn't a limitation.

Malleus on the other hand is still a teenage fae! He needs to discover new things and talk with more people, just like a normal human being does. So if he doesn't enjoy doing anything too silly or stupid, it's because of his 'personality', not because he's too old. Even when tells Lilia that he isn't a child anymore, it's like how an 18 year old says it to his father.

(7) Malleus won't take insult easily

He is polite and respectful in general, but when he's offended, he'd seriously respond to it. Remember that a single swipe of hand from him can set the whole room on fire.

Rook and Leona were probably one step away from being burnt and when Leona really got on Malleus's nerves by humiliating him, Malleus stopped respecting him as a prince of an ally kingdom and humiliated back.

He is calm but to a specific point, and you can make sure that he won't be any soft or forgiving if you offend him, and it'll probably end in no good if he gets mad. So better not think that Malleus is one to just keep it in and later cry in a room because he's sad baby when someone dares insult him.

(8) Angelina Jolie's Maleficent has nothing to do with his story!

Nope, Malleus never had a lover who cut off his wings and sent him to a hell of depression and loneliness, and no you cannot find those two wounds on his back regardless of how romantic it may seem.

I admit it, it's a lovely Au, but it's JUST AN AU! I can still see people saying stuff like "Ohh!! Will we discover if Malleus too had his wings cut off in chapter 7?" and the answer is NO. While Angelina Jolie's Maleficent is surely a great one on its own, it needs be understood that twst's source of main information and characters designs is nothing else than the original Disney villains.

Malleus cannot be associated with any Maleficents else than the version we saw in 1959's sleeping beauty and it's an important fact to look through.

(9) Malleus is NOT Maleficent!

While they are a lot more similar than you can imagine(in both power and personality), let's not forget that Malleus is NOT Maleficent! He's a total new character on his own, and is unique in his own way.

He is twisted from Maleficent which means that no matter how similar they are, Malleus is a new character with a new personality.

Saying that he isn't soft at all and the fandom will see his true face when he overblots ( It's supposed to mean that the real Malleus is an absolutely evil and destructive one, just like Maleficent) is nothing different from denying all of Yana's hard work on designing him and his personality!

Malleus himself said that his grandmother's skills were far greater than his and most importantly: Malleus still has chance to have a better fate than Maleficent did.

Once again: He's still young! He still has a chance to be saved from turning into a heartless and isolated creature like Maleficent. No matter how cold he is, he hasn't yet got to the point of hating the whole world and losing all of his emotions. And that's why it's totally wrong to deny all the good that he might still have inside by saying that he isn't soft at all. He isn't a baby, but he isn't a monster either. Not yet.

(10) Even Lilia agrees that Malleus is still learning and his personality is in development

Can't you see? Malleus isn't attending to this school for no reason. His magic is already top notch, and his knowledge goes far greater than anything they might teach in NRC.

If you take a look at the story, you'll see signs of Lilia indirectly giving us signs of why Malleus still needed to attend to this school. In Malleus's SR robes' story, Lilia told him that he still has a lot to learn and knowledge isn't everything. And what might he find in NRC which has nothing to do with knowledge? People.

Lilia is trying to hold him back from isolating himself like Maleficent did, and is indeed trying to help him make friends and learn to get along with people without thinking that it's useless because they'd fear him anyway.

Also, he clearly wants Malleus to learn and experience new things in NRC by taking part in activities. In Malleus's Halloween SR story Lilia, who was always the one to choose Diasomnia's Halloween costumes, asks Malleus to choose this year's costume instead of him. Lilia first says that he wants Malleus to do it but later tells him that he has other reasons as well, he was trying to put Malleus into trying something new therefore he can have something learn from the experiment! (What a cute papa he really is...)

This is another proof of him not having the cold and unapproachable picture some imagine him to have, he isn't against experiencing and trying new things.

(11) He's still looking for a true friend

Malleus needs a friend, that's a fact. During his chats he mentions how Maleficent always had her loyal pet crow by her side as the only reliable creature she could always trust, and how Malleus wonders if he can ever find such a worthy ally of his own.

Even as he has Lilia, Silver and Sebek by his side he doesn't feel like he has such a friend.

People have been avoiding him through his whole life, and you can see how excited he got when Cater asked him for a selfie as he was one of the very first people who ever tried to approach him.

While he's slowly getting used to being feared by everyone, he'd still appreciate a friend and he needs one. Not even Maleficent herself could've made it all on her own without a friend by her side.

(12) Malleus isn't heartless

While he won't easily fall for anything or anyone, it isn't impossible for him to love.

We haven't yet seen anything that directly gets us to the point of love in the story but it's something you can tell through his actions and words.

When he cares for something or someone, he'd be serious about it.

Two obvious examples would be his tamagotchi and the ramshackle dorm. He'd certainly get out of his way to find someone to fix his dear tamagotchi and as we saw in the Halloween event, he furiously stated that he'd burn anyone who tries to the ramshackle dorm any harm, because he likes that place.

There isn't much he holds dear in life, but when he does, he won't let a single soul to take it away from him.

When he can be this protective over something that just entertains him, just try to imagine how far he might go to protect the one he loves. He falls in love very slowly and it'll probably take him a while to realize it if he actually does. He can begin with small interests and repeated meetings but at some point, it'll turn into a routine, an obsession. He won't easily fall in love, but when he does, he won't be able to easily let go of it either.

(13) His relationship with MC is far more important than you're thinking

Just by going through his voice lines, you can tell how MC is effecting Malleus's personality and life. I'm not saying that it's love or anything but the thing is, MC is changing Malleus nonetheless.

Their relationship has been a totally new thing for Malleus to experience from the very beginning, because MC didn't know him. Malleus is obviously used to being well-known as the infamous prince of the Draconia family by almost everyone, but MC was an exception.

He asked MC to talk to him and tell him stories, it can be clearly see that he enjoys talking to them.

He also mentioned that MC has made him feeling lots of things he hadn't felt before, which can also be connected to part (10) where we discussed how he's still young and needs more of communication and friends because he needs to learn.

Some argue that Malleus couldn't care less about MC and the only reason he shows up around them is because of the ramshackle dorm, which can be easily proven wrong by two hints:

1) Malleus sent a Happy holiday card to MC after the winter holiday.

2)What Malleus told Lilia at the end of the Halloween event stories after all the troubles that was brought upon the ramshackle dorm: "I want that human to enjoy Halloween too"

While it isn't necessarily romance that we're talking about, his relationship with MC is clearly telling us that he's a lot more of emotions and humanity inside him than what we were expecting.

At this point, it's important to see that in spite of his cold nature and mature personality he is slowly beginning to feel more and more emotions as the result of meeting newer people in NRC, especially MC. Saying that he is nothing but a heartless fae who is wrongly thought to be a soft and emotional boy is nothing different from judging him the same way as most of the people in twisted wonderland itself judge Malleus, it's important to see that he's a lot more.

His personality itself is surely amazing and as a Malleus hoe stan myself I can't wait to get more of his background in chapter 7, although it's probably going to be dark as well. They really did give his design a twist and that's how he's a balance of and menacingly powerful magician and a young boy who's just learning to deal with emotions.

For now, that's all I had in mind! Hope that I didn't miss anything. This was a general character analysis which also discussed some of the common mistakes about Malleus's personality but-

In case that you're wondering how he's being mischaracterized in reader insert fics, that'll be a totally different issue to discuss which would also need another post to be discussed through.

Small note: Just saying that there's often a dark lore to twst x reader fics (Especially for Malleus/ Leona x reader) which is usually better to be ignored while reading/writing for them...

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst theories #twisted wonderland theories #Twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #malleus draconia #malleus draconia x reader #Character analysis #answered

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calaofnoldor · 3 years

Text

What’s Mine

Characters: Sam x F!Reader, Dean

Words: 7,595

Summary: The secret you and Sam are hiding from Dean is threatened by your inability to keep your hands off each other.

Warnings: 18+ no actual smut but plenty of implied smut, pre-smut, and smut adjacency lol, secret dating, enemies to lovers, jealousy and possessiveness (exhibited by both sam and reader), slight obsession with sam’s big ass hands (i blame this largely on @walkerboy290‘s glorious hand porn gif sets), and language

A/N: inspired by and written for @thinkinghardhardlythinking bc she’s been bugging me to write smut and using her birthday as a bargaining chip, so i hope you’re happy sai. happy (belated) birthday babe! i suppose in my subconscious need to truly honor you, this became the longest one shot i’ve ever written... that and this is now also a little birthday gesture for the brilliant and beautiful @sams-sass (damn your close birthdays!) even though she never asked for smut (if you hate it, i’ll write you something else!) happy birthday to you too, darling!

also written for @superbadassnatural‘s 333 badass followers celebration with the prompt “___ and I are together.” “Yeah, right, and I’m Santa.” and @writethelifeyouwant‘s 300 follower fic challenge with the prompt “All the pretty girls like Samuel” (both prompts are bolded in the fic) i’m sorry i’m so late! congratulations to both of you and thanks for letting me enter your challenges!

[basically i have a lot of people to blame for this disaster 😂]

Square Filled: Secret Dating for @spnfluffbingo and Enemies to Lovers for @girl-next-door-writes Make Me Feel Bingo

MASTERLIST

The waffles on your plate are surprisingly good for a sketchy, 50’s-themed diner, but unfortunately your attention is elsewhere. In fact, the two distinctly masculine voices behind you have been obnoxiously impairing your ability to savor the buttery, syrup-doused carbs since their owners sat down in the adjoining booth. It’s the topic of their discussion that disturbs you, and nips at your conscience until you realize you can no longer take off without imparting a few words to your oblivious colleagues.

Turning your head subtly to the side, you try to catch a glimpse of the men you’re about to confront in your peripheral vision. From what you can see, they’re both rather burly, a little rough around the edges, and from what you’ve heard, recklessly cocksure. You know the type all too well. Being a lone hunter of the fairer sex for most of your life means you’ve long since learned that the best way to combat their kind is with a steadfast façade of thick skin and unwavering confidence.

So you sigh and put on your best smile before turning around, crossing your forearms along the top of the booth seat, “Listen fellas, I hate to interrupt, but I really wouldn’t bother with the bamboo dagger and Shinto priest if I were you.”

“And who the hell are you?” the one with shorter hair demands. He’s a bit stockier than his companion and has a face that looks like it was designed by Abercrombie and Fitch - well that explains the arrogance.

“I’m the person who’s about to save your asses evidently,” you respond with a smug grin, trying not to let their absurdly good looks deter your act.

Abercrombie’s partner, the Fabio wannabe, releases a quiet scoff, “And how are you gonna do that?” he questions dubiously.

“By letting you in on a little secret…” Throwing him a tight smile, you lean forward and lower your voice, “That ōkami you’re after? It’s not an ōkami, it’s a ghoul.” Sitting back, you await the outrage.

“What?! But that’s not possible, I checked the lore. And it’s obviously got a type.” Fabio’s glossy chestnut locks fall across his delicate features as he shakes his head in disbelief, and you almost snort out loud. How did this amateur expect to hunt with hair like that?

You look him over, taking in the broad shoulders and muscled arms, as well as the obvious height advantage he’s got over Abercrombie even whilst they’re both seated. To be honest, you’re surprised he’s referencing lore at all. Guys his size always assume they can either outman or outgun whatever obstacles cross their path, and they almost never take women like you seriously, despite your ample years of acquired knowledge and invaluable experience. It’s this experience that surmises a bit of antagonism here is inevitable, so you might as well get a head start.

“Yeah well maybe you should check again, big guy,” you glance down at his hands, your first mistake as their sheer size render you speechless and subsequently agitated at yourself for the momentary lapse of visceral lust, but the show must go on, “Make sure those giant, lumbering hands of yours don’t fumble over anything important or you might miss the connection to Isabelle Harding. You see it’s not ‘a type’; it’s revenge.”

“Wh- Bu- I looked through the files. I wouldn’t have missed that,” Fabio insists.

“Oh yeah? Why don’t you type ‘Isabelle Harding’ and ‘1987 school bombing’ into your search bar and see what comes up?” you gesture towards the laptop on their table with a raised brow. Minutes later, both men are dumbfounded by the revelation on the screen, staring between it and you with their mouths agape.

You chuckle silently at their faces, “Don’t worry, there’s no need to thank me. Although you rookies might wanna go home and let the more experienced hunter finish up here.” As you’re about to bid them farewell, you dip back in to add, “Oh and a word of free advice, maybe don’t discuss supernatural monsters quite so loudly in public spaces next time. It might invite unwanted attention.”

With that, you turn around and slap some cash down next to your unfinished waffles, before grabbing your jacket and strutting out the door.

Sam is left in utter confusion. The sudden animosity you had spouted his way seems completely baseless and unwarranted. Had he somehow offended you? Sam generally considers himself a highly respectful and fairly easy-going guy, not quite as hot-blooded as his brother, and thus not as likely to provoke such antipathy from a complete stranger. To make matters worse, he certainly can’t deny that something about you had registered within his subconscious as inexplicably attractive, despite the way you’d embarrassed him. In his flustered and slightly aroused state, it had been all he could do to remain awestruck in his seat and stare blatantly at your ass as you walked away.

The next time Sam sees you is only twelve hours later and no less humiliating. You’re mid-swing in the killing blow against what you had accurately predicted to be a ghoul as he and Dean tumble in. Despite the low lighting, Sam is once again stupefied by your raging beauty, augmented by the incredible skill you’re displaying in a much more physical sense this time around. Before he can drag his eyes away, there’s a collective shout of “watch out!” and suddenly you’re right in front of him. In a blur of events, you somehow manage to push Sam out of the way and successfully decapitate the unexpected second ghoul that had been sneaking up behind him, with only a slice across the arm to show for it.

“Didn’t I tell you two to go home?” You’re panting from the exertion and Sam’s gaze lands on the neckline of your shirt, skewed from the fight and revealing a good amount of cleavage. He quickly averts his eyes. What is happening? Sam can’t remember the last time anyone had evoked such a staggering reaction from him. He feels as if he’s a mere spectator in his own body.

Across from him, you press your hand against the wound and curse when it comes back covered in blood. At your groan of pain, Sam finally finds his voice again, “Shit. I’m so sorry! I don’t know how I missed that other one. I- that normally doesn’t happen.”

“Yeah, I bet that’s what you say to all the girls, huh?” you reply offhand, still a bit out of breath.

It’s easy for Sam to dismiss your mocking given that he feels terribly guilty for being the cause of your injury. From where he’s standing, the cut looks deep. “Here, at least let me stitch it up for you. It’s too awkward a position for you to do it yourself,” he offers, holding out his ginormous hands to you like he’s waving a white flag.

“I think you’ve done enough damage for one day, haven’t you, big guy? At this point, I’d rather Abercrombie over there be the one behind the needle.”

“Who- what?” are the first words Dean speaks since the action has died down.

You turn to face the shorter guy, “Oh don’t look so surprised. You might as well be the model for a slightly older Ken doll. Are you up for it or not?”

Dean’s mouth hangs open as he tries to determine whether he should feel flattered or insulted.

“Uh- actually, I’m better at stitches than my brother,” Sam butts in.

“With those jumbo, fumbling hands? Yeah, sure you are, big guy,” you decline skeptically.

“It’s Sam,” he states through a clenched jaw.

“OK, Sam. Since I just saved your life, you mind making yourself useful and burning those bodies while your bro puts my arm back together? You know, as a ‘thank you’ perhaps?”

Sam is stunned for the third time that day. No one has ever belittled him (whilst gratuitously attacking his size) insofar without any apparent reason. It seems as though his very existence upsets you and the arbitrariness of your contempt has caused an anger to stir beneath him, but beyond that lies bewilderment and irritation. How had he managed to accomplish two such massive mistakes in front of you in the span of so short a time? Perturbed and bitter, Sam silently sets to work on the bodies.

Meanwhile, you’ve come to a surprising realization as Dean begins to cut the fabric of your flannel away from your damaged arm, the name ‘Sam’ and the words ‘my brother’ resounding in your head, “Wait a second- there’s no way… you’re not… the Winchesters, are you? Sam and… Dean?”

“The one and only, sweetheart.” He sends you a dazzling smile that is as perfect as you’d expect, but within his eyes is an underlying poignancy that you recognize as clear as day: an indication of a traumatic past and a lifetime spent plastering on tough veneers. You notice as well how gentle his touch is and how his stitches are practiced and prudent. Perhaps you had judged him too hastily.

Through an incredulous chuckle, you retort, “Well I can’t say I didn’t expect more from you, but at least this’ll get me a free round of drinks at the hunters’ pub tonight.”

Dean laughs with you before sobering at the thought of how his baby brother must be feeling, “Hey listen, take it easy on Sammy, alright? I don’t know what’s gotten into him today but he’s not usually like this. He’s actually the smart one, believe it or not.”

Scoffing, you can’t help but smile back at Dean and soon find an easy rhythm with the older Winchester, despite your awkward introduction.

From several yards away, however, Sam looks wistfully back to see you smiling lightheartedly at something Dean’s said, the two of you huddled in close proximity as his brother’s hands drift across your bare skin. Something akin to envy bubbles within his chest although he’s aware it makes no sense, so with a frown, Sam does his best to shake it off and get back to work.

But it’s not easy to forget you. And just as Sam is beginning to think he’s rid that awful day from his memory, you pop back into his life three months down the line.

“Well, if it isn’t the overgrown hunter extraordinaire Sammy Winchester.” The sarcasm that oozes from your otherwise beguiling voice has him gritting his teeth in no time.

“It’s Sam.”

“So you here to mess up my hunt again, Sam?”

Although he wishes he could have been the bigger man instead of surrendering to the resentment you roused within him, after a couple repeated hatchet burying attempts fall through, Sam just can’t resist the little game you’ve started.

Over the next few months, you and Dean form a fortuitously close bond and the older Winchester develops a habit of calling you up when faced with a troublesome hunt, and vice versa. Despite Sam’s fabricated displeasure, a show he puts on mostly for Dean (since any other emotion would seem illogical given the way you treat him), Sam is peculiarly and begrudgingly excited to see you every time. But the match never ends. In fact, Sam lets it intensify each time you work together, always astounded by how you manage to get him so worked up.

“I’m telling you, it’s a rugaru!”

“Right, because the last time we listened to you, things worked out so well,” you remark sardonically.

“The lore says-“

“Ooh, quoting the lore again now are we, Mr. Know It All?”

At this point, Sam is about as huffy and puffy as the big bad wolf and if he were a cartoon character, there’d surely be steam erupting from his ears. “Look, Y/N, this isn’t about who knows more or who’s right; this is about saving those people’s lives!”

“You think I don’t know that? Was I not the one who saved your life the first time we met?”

“OK, alright, just shut up you two!” Dean finally shouts above you, “Would it kill you to just get along for two seconds?”

“No,” Sam admits.

“Probably,” you say at the same time, causing Sam to shoot you his overly perfected bitch face.

SIX MONTHS LATER

“What the fuck?!” Dean’s booming voice echoes throughout the bunker and moments later you and Sam come flying into the kitchen to answer his call, guns at the ready.

“What? What is it?” you ask while Sam scans the room.

A whimper is the only the way to describe the sound of Dean’s reply, as he points toward an unseen object on the floor. Edging toward him, you lower your gun in the direction of his finger until you discover the source of Dean’s distress.

With a sigh, you look toward Sam who is also exhaling in relief at the sight of the entity in question. The two of you share a moment of wordless conversation before simultaneously dropping your guns with a conclusive nod.

“Why does this feel like déjà vu?” Dean’s tone is still timid and appalled, and you nearly laugh at the idea of a grown-ass man looking so aghast because of a used condom.

“Because it kinda is…” you supply unhelpfully, earning yourself a small glare from the man beside you.

“Dean,” Sam begins with a deep breath, “There’s something we have to tell you… Y/N and I are together.”

The snort that escapes Dean is full-bodied and borderline psychotic, “Yeah, right, and I’m Santa!”

You wait till his snickering subsides, “No, it- it’s true.” Your voice is hesitant yet hopeful, “We’re not joking. We’ve kinda become… a thing.”

“A thing?”

“Yeah, well you know, I don’t wanna have to put a label on it or-“

“Y/N’s my girlfriend,” Sam declares with conviction as he reaches out to curl his long fingers around your waist and lasso you towards him.

“-Buuuut, that is the one I’d use if anyone asks,” you quickly affirm with a stiff pat to your boyfriend’s abdomen, wincing at the unversed attempt of PDA and missing the dimpled grin that crosses Sam’s amused features.

“Well, I don’t buy it. I don’t believe either of you.” Dean’s sturgeon face comes on strong as he shakes his head and points a challenging finger at you, “Kiss him, right now,” he dares with perked brows.

The eye roll you respond with is so dramatic your entire head moves with it. But then, without a moment of pause, you turn your body into Sam’s, reach up to grab the back of his neck and pull him down for a searing kiss. Now this is something you’re well-versed in. The reunion of your lips starts off relatively slow, but it doesn’t take long to escalate into something more fiery that involves tongue, the eager push and pull movements of your bodies, and Sam’s enormous hands cradling your head.

After a moment of shock, Dean objects, “Alright, alright, I get it! That’s enough of that!”

Unwilling to recede just yet, you linger in the kiss for a little longer, delaying your separation by nibbling down on Sam’s lower lip and tugging gently, only releasing it as you pull away torturously slow. When the two of you finally open your languid eyes, it’s to stare into each other’s dilated pupils and ponder the moment for an indiscernible minute.

“What th- I said, I get it! Now could please stop ogling each other before my lunch comes back out the wrong way?!”

But the way Sam’s smiling at you is addictive and you can’t bring yourself to look away until he forces a break by leaning in to plant a tender kiss upon your forehead before tucking you into his side as he faces his brother again.

Dean’s face is covered by his hand, “I’m gonna need a minute. I just-“ His features leap through a range of expressions as he tries to find the right words, “When the hell did this start anyway? I thought you two couldn’t stand each other?”

“Yeahhh, that was mostly an act. Although we bought it at first too,” you explain with a shrug.

“We weren’t pretending the whole time. It just kind of happened and we didn’t really know how else to act around each other by then,” Sam adds.

“Right, basically it turns out there’s a fine line between love and hate... and that line is hardcore yearning.” Your words bring a chuckle to Sam’s lips but his brother still looks out of sorts.

Shaking his head with closed eyes, Dean sighs, “Alright, can someone just explain to me exactly how this happened, because I’m still not computing here. But spare me the details and try to keep it PG-13,” he emphasizes with adamant hand gestures.

“How do you know it’s not PG-13?” you inquire with a held-back laugh.

“Ha. With the way you two were playing tonsil hockey just now, I can tell you’ve been around the bend way more than I wanna know. My little brother doesn’t kiss like that on the first date.”

It’s impossible to hold back a giggle at the memory of your ‘first date’ and the way Sam had kissed you, “OK well, that would be hard, considering the story involves a lot of sex... You wanna give it a go, big guy?” you pass the ball over to Sam with a quirked brow and lowered voice, to which he responds with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, a little warning glance that you’re well aware means ‘save it for the bedroom’ but you simply smirk up at him.

‘Big guy’ used to be a term you called Sam in contempt, but when the feelings between you evolved and a sexual relationship developed, it became an innuendo, such that calling him ‘big guy’ in front of Dean or in public almost always results in glorious sex. In fact, sometimes you believe the nickname has held a slightly obscene connotation for you since the beginning.

Afterall, your carnal longing for him has been present from day one, although at the time you had believed it to be purely physical. Sure, you had dreams about having him in various positions in your bed, but you figured those were merely betrayals of your subconscious mind. That was until one day, a heated argument in a rare moment alone had ended up in a violent make out session, after which the two of you had just barely gotten the last of your clothes back on before Dean walked in. One look at your worked up and frenetic states alongside the disordered condition of your surroundings, and he immediately assumed you’d been fighting again (which wasn’t terribly far from the truth), chortling as he asked if you would have killed each other had he returned a bit later.

With a clearing of his throat, Sam begins to recount the tale, “Uh, well it started in that motel in South Carolina, while you were out getting food…”

“Look, all I’m saying is there is no way he’s using the hospital as a dump site! It’s just not feasible!”

With complete disregard for the peace and quiet of the other residents within this thin-walled motel, you and Sam once again find yourselves in a shouting match.

“Oh right, I forgot! You’re Sam Winchester! How could you POSSIBLY be wrong?! Mister ‘look at me, my IQ and LSAT score match my fucking height! Oh and I also happen to have the physique of an Adonis without even owning a gym membership!’” you roar bitterly, gesticulating with your hands to help better communicate your pent-up indignation.

“Right and you’re Y/N Y/L/N, so how could YOU possibly be wrong? Miss ‘look at me, I never went to college but I’m a genius AND I can kick ass! Oh and I also happen to look effortlessly stunning through it all!’” Sam suddenly seems bigger than ever as he towers over you, that panty-soaking deep voice emanating from his diaphragm and infusing itself throughout the entire room until all you can see, hear, and breathe is Sam.

The fury takes over and you don’t notice your feet taking you closer to him, “Oh yeah because you don’t make EVERYTHING you do look so unnecessarily hot and make me wanna rip your clothes off all the damn time!”

“Fuck! And you don’t always drive me crazy when we have these stupid arguments and your chest starts heaving and you look so insanely delectable I just wanna pick you up and fuck you against the closest surface!” By now, the distance between you is essentially nonexistent and your brain is no longer run by reason.

“So why don’t you then?” are your famous last words, prompting Sam to grab you wildly by the back of a thigh, lifting slightly and driving you to climb up him like a spider monkey fleeing from a grounded predator, while his other hand pushes your hair aside to gain better access to your face. Your mouths clash in a fierce battle and before you know it, Sam’s huge hands are cupping your ass as your legs wrap around his waist and you rut into him, hands flying from his shoulders to his hair. Those divine chestnut locks that you’ve always dreamed of running your fingers through. They’re somehow even softer than you imagined and the revelation, in conjunction with the way Sam’s tongue is becoming increasingly aggressive causes a fresh surge of libidinous energy to rocket through you. As a result, you give his silky strands an irresistible tug and drink in the moan he makes, the sinful sound reverberating straight down to your core as you clench around nothing.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Sam groans as he grudgingly forces himself to pull back as much as he can, “Are you sure? Is this what you want? Cause I can’t- Y/N I won’t be able to stop myself if we keep going.” His eyes squeeze shut as if the notion of stopping or the act of keeping his lips away from yours is causing him genuine pain, and the entire gesture moves you.

“Fuck, you really are the opposite of everything I thought you would be,” you make a quick mental note to apologize later for your initially presumptuous behavior although you can’t find it within yourself to feel any remorse right now, “Yes, please Sam, fuck me. I want you so bad… I think I have since we met and I saw those gorgeous hands of yours,” you confess, biting your lip lightly.

Sam breathes out a low incredulous laugh, “What, these?” he asks, removing one of the aforementioned hands away from your butt to bring it into your line of vision.

“Yes, fuck they’re so big and beautiful and strong and-“

“Alright, I don’t need to know about your weird hand fetish!” Dean hollers abruptly, rubbing his fingers across his eyes as if he could somehow erase the image of you and his brother together out of his retinas. “OK, but that was like… four months ago. You mean you’ve been sneaking around behind my back this whole time?”

“Well at first we didn’t want to tell you because we weren’t even sure what it was ourselves,” you divulge.

“Yeah, we didn’t want to try to explain something that we didn’t understand yet,” Sam supplements, hoping his brother will understand the motive behind your secrecy.

You nod along, “But then… it got a little harder to hide.”

The apprehension behind Dean’s emerald eyes is unmistakable as he reluctantly inquires, “That’s why this felt like déjà vu?”

It’s with a grimace that you reply, hesitantly, “Remember the time you found those panties in the backseat of the Impala?”

Dean’s eyes grow comically wide and Sam ducks his head in preparation of what’s to come.

“Yeah, there’s a story behind that…”

The click of her heels against the porcelain-tiled foyer irritates you as the three of you stride through her front door. You’re posing as detectives sent to question this overdressed young woman about her late husband, but the moment she lays her eyes on Sam, you reckon she’s forgotten her beloved’s damn name.

“Oh my… lord and savior. Well aren’t you a tall drink of water?” she beholds breathlessly with a seductive bite of her painted ruby lips.

You cough loudly and Dean sniggers, thinking you’re annoyed about Sam getting such commendation and attention during a serious case.

“I know this might be the grief talking, but I would climb you like a tree,” she purrs, sauntering up to Sam with an exaggerated sway of her hips. With her half-lidded doe eyes adorned with dark, fluttery lashes and low, sultry voice, you have to admit she’s quite attractive.

Grinding your teeth as your nails dig into your palms, you glower at the woman unreservedly. She, however, takes no notice, running her hands along Sam’s forearms before gripping at his bicep to lead him toward her living room. “Please, come have a seat, detective. You can ask me whatever you want.” The wink she appends is somehow the final nail in the coffin.

It’s with zero hesitation that you feign the reception of a notification on your phone before declaring, “Oh would you look at that, the uh… Sheriff needs us back at the station, Sam. He says it’s urgent.” You try to keep your tone even, thankful that you all maintained your real first names for these aliases, “Dean, you’re good to conduct this interview on your own, right?” Without waiting for an answer, you trample over to snatch Sam’s other arm and ignoring the horny widow’s gaping mouth, proceed to haul him away.

Dean sends you a strange look but relents, “Uh, yeah I guess, OK.”

As soon as the door closes behind you, your hand shifts down to lace your fingers with Sam’s, marching him towards the Impala with a staunch and mighty purpose. Even Sam’s elongated legs stumble to keep up.

“So uh… when did you give the Sheriff your number?” There’s an edge in his voice that normally disappears when it’s just the two of you.

“Wha- I didn’t. Sam, I just made all that up,” you tell him as you reach the car and open its back door. Pushing Sam inside, you climb in swiftly after him, wasting no time as you straddle his thighs and begin to undress him, only pausing when he looks up at you in adorable, puppy-like confusion.

“Wait, what? Then what are we doing?”

That’s when it finally dawns on you, “Hold on a sec, were you… jealous?” You can’t help but smile, finding it amusing that he’s stewing in his own envy after what you just witnessed.

“No, I just- He was kinda all over you this morning.”

“You mean like the way Mrs. My-Husband-Just-Died-But-I-Wanna-Climb-You-Like-a-Tree was in there?”

“Oh, that’s what this is about?” Sam perks up, the hint of a smug grin ghosting across his lips.

“She was practically holding your hand!”

“That’s what bothered you the most?” He dips his head to catch your eyes and those variegated irises burn into you with an intense, questioning gaze, alight with mischievous curiosity.

“They’re my hands to hold,” you contend with a pout, subconsciously clenching your thighs around his as you seize one of his large hands with two of your much smaller ones, “Just like you’re my tree to climb.”

Sam’s head falls back in bright laughter, “I thought you said they were ‘oversized’ and ‘ungainly’?” he teases, quoting your previous slights.

“You know I only said that cause Dean was there.”

“I’m pretty sure you called them ‘fumbly’ and ‘lumbering’ the first time we met.”

Staring at his fingers as you play with them, you shiver at the memory of how they feel all over you. “That was cause I used to think all hunters with a Y chromosome were cocky, misogynistic assholes who needed to be knocked down a peg or two.”

“But I proved you wrong, right?”

“Fuck yes you did. So, so wrong. And now you’re mine, and I don’t like seeing other people touch what’s mine,” you growl before returning to your earlier task of removing his clothes, pouncing on him when your fingers finally land on bare skin. You kiss him fiercely, swallowing his surprised grunts with glee, and as his hands start travelling from your hips up to your back, holding you tight against him, your lips move down to his pulse point, sucking, licking, and nibbling, “Mine.”

“Fucking Jesus Christ on a cracker! You goddamn rabbits!” Dean squawks in protest as he begins to pace the floor, “Have you no decency?! And in my poor Baby! While I was busy doing all the work, saving lives!”

You roll your eyes at his melodramatics and can feel the tension in Sam’s abdominal muscles as he attempts to restrain his laughter. As if Dean had never taken a break during a case for a stress-relieving quickie before, or hadn’t been at least somewhat grateful to be left alone with a beautiful woman.

His next comment confirms your point, “Although, if I remember correctly that lady was a fox.” After a brief pondering pause and an introspectively appreciative smirk, Dean’s whining resumes, “But seriously! I can’t believe you two! Here I was feeling bad for forcing you to work and live together, hoping you’d eventually learn to get along when this whole time you were shacking up like animals and casually defiling my Baby just because what? Some girl touched Sam’s hand?!”

Feeling emboldened by the catharsis of this long-overdue airing of your dirty laundry, you decide to add to Dean’s exasperation, “Yeah and in the spirit of honesty, that might’ve happened more than once.” Sam tries to hold back his snort as he gives your hip a playful cautionary squeeze while Dean’s feet come to a full stop as he turns to give you a death glare. “Hey, it’s not my fault all the pretty girls like Samuel! And I’m pretty sure we wiped her down after.”

“I don’t even-“ Dean purses his lips and quirks his head with a dynamic expression of unbearable vexation, “You better be getting me pie every day of the week for what you did.“ He takes a deep breath before circling back, “Wait, OK so you’re telling me that a used condom ended up in our kitchen because- what? You two couldn’t keep it in your pants long enough to find a bed? You know what, forget I asked. I don’t wanna know. Did you at least sanitize the place after?? No, of course you didn’t, you left a fucking condom on the floor… I think I’m gonna throw up.”

But you hardly hear Dean’s rambling because you and Sam are far too wrapped up in each other, smiling as you recall the events of that morning.

Your eyes slowly drift open to find the most exalting sight in all the world: Sam Winchester’s sleeping face, blissful and serene. Lifting a hand to gingerly cup his cheek, the corners of your mouth curl up when he leans into your touch. It’s moments like this that make you wish you could wake up next to him every morning.

Only after you’ve traced his every feature and planted a soft kiss where his dimple would be if he were awake and smiling, do you carefully peel yourself from his side, slipping out of his hold as you quietly climb out of bed. Sam rolls over a bit and you freeze with bated breath, watching as his big arm extends out in your direction as if trying to reach for you in his sleep, before stilling again.

Mornings like this are rare and you want him to soak up all the restful sleep he can. Once you’re sure you haven’t woken him, you scan the room for something to cover your naked figure, until your eyes land on the flannel he’d worn the night before. Picking it up, you bring it to your nose and inhale deeply to revel in the residual scent of Sam. Another glimpse at his peaceful, sleeping form has you smiling fondly. God, you are such a goner for that man. It’s becoming hard to reserve your soft looks toward him for private moments alone.

You can barely remember how it happened, but over time, you’d come to learn that Sam is nothing like you originally imagined him to be. He’s kind-hearted and open-minded, the type of soul that can find hope and beauty in even the darkest of places, a far cry from the shallow macho man silhouette you’d expected him to fill. In fact, Sam routinely defies the expectations others have enforced upon him, proving his worth time and time again as he’s persisted through some of what must be the toughest challenges to ever face a single human. Yet through it all, his spirit remains intact, never once yielding to cynicism or resentment or apathy or even the building of walls as you and Dean have resorted to. He is truly the bravest man you know and infinitely more competent than your first fluke of a hunt with him had mistakenly suggested, both in the field and in bed.

Shaking the thoughts from your head, you wrap yourself in plaid and head out the door. Dean never questions your use of Sam’s shirts because ever since Sam firmly insisted on giving you his flannel after your second encounter with them resulted in Dean cutting your own top apart, you’ve grown into a habit of borrowing Sam’s clothes. You always claim they’re more comfortable than your own and Sam’s feigned annoyance over you ‘stealing’ his belongings tides Dean right over.

Half an hour passes before Sam approaches the bunker kitchen to find you with your back towards the entrance, busy prepping breakfast in nothing but his plaid. He pauses in the doorway to stare at you for a minute, licking his lips with an irrepressible smile. For some, this may seem like a stereotypical morning after, but for a couple of hunters, it feels like a dream come true.

After finally returning to the bunker last night following the completion of a series of successful hunts, you’ve got no solid obligations and very little on your to-do lists today, although Sam’s got more than a few ideas about how to pass the time, and a couple more come to mind when you stretch up on your toes to reach for something, causing the hem of his shirt to glide up until its corner reveals just slightest hint of your incredible ass. Sam can’t suppress his little grunt of approval, which catches your attention and makes you turn your head, peering back at him over your shoulder.

You smirk at the blessed view of him standing there in nothing but the pair of thin grey sweatpants you’d bought him a month ago when you discovered the viral online phenomenon, “Hey, big guy. You just gonna stand there and gawk or do you wanna make yourself useful and grab another plate from the top shelf?”

Chuckling at your false animosity, Sam stalks toward you, “Good morning to you too.” One of his vast hands falls upon your hip as he presses the maximum possible length of his body into your back side, while his other hand reaches up over your head to snatch the plate you’d asked for.

“Good morning indeed,” you concur with a silent gasp when you feel the generous bulge in his pants.

“Oh that’s not morning, baby girl,” Sam husks into your ear, “That’s all you.” His powerful arms slink around you and his lips find their way down the side of your neck, lingering in that tender spot just behind your ear whilst you tilt your head and close your eyes, contentedly surrendering yourself to the moment. “I ever tell you how good you look in my shirts?”

Wiggling your butt back to tease him a bit, you’re pleased with the hiss it elicits. “No, but you made it very clear how bad I look in Dean’s,” you counter playfully.

The man behind you scoffs, “I didn’t say you looked bad; you could never look bad. I just… don’t like seeing you wear his clothes.”

“Oh, I know,” you turn around in his arms, “I just don’t understand how Dean doesn’t know yet. I mean, I think you’ve been very obvious.”

“And you haven’t?”

“I’m not the one who leaves hickeys in very visible places all over your body!”

Sam’s eyes glaze over in lust, an idea clearly forming in his head as he glances down at you. “Dean’s a hot-blooded guy; he needs to know you’re off-limits,” he alleges before attacking your throat with his mouth.

“So why don’t we just tell him?”

Without pausing his efforts, Sam reminds you, “Because you said you thought it was kinda hot, all the sneaking around. Mmpf, and because you said you wanted to see how long it would take him to figure it out.”

You nod while running your fingers through his silken strands and leaning back to give him more purchase, “That’s true. But in my defence, we always have this conversation when we’re doing stuff like this and I can’t think straight when your hands and mouth are on me.”

“Kinda like how I can’t think straight when you’re wearing nothing but my shirt?” His kisses travel down from your neck to your collarbone and shoulder as he slides his loosely buttoned flannel off to one side, “Fuck, you’ve got me so hard.”

Without warning, Sam seizes your waist and hoists you into the air as if gravity were an absolute joke, before plopping you down on the edge of the steel counter, his thumbs digging lightly into your ribcage.

“Sam! This is where we eat!” you protest with a laugh.

“Exactly. Which is why I’m gonna devour you here.” He dives back into your neck, continuing his work on a little pink mark that’s already beginning to form.

“Oh fuck… Wait, what if Dean walks in?” It’s through a great struggle that you manage to push him back an inch.

“He’s got a date with the Impala. He’ll be in the garage all day, trust me.” Sam’s gaze sweeps over your body suggestively, “Now are you gonna let me taste what’s mine?”

With an equally lewd survey of his extensive frame, you reply, “As long as you let me impale myself on what’s mine later.”

His eyes darken and the way he’s looking at you like you’re the only person he’s ever wanted ignites a confidence within you, so in a rather swift motion, you grasp him by the shaft through his sweatpants – the delicious groan he emits at your touch is enough to turn your pussy into a slip and slide – and pull him back towards you until the clothed length of him is resting against your folds and your noses brush, while his hands settle naturally on your thighs.

Shivering, your breath stutters and for an instant you can do nothing but bask in the closeness of him. Sam seems to enjoy it too because he closes his eyes as he rests his forehead against yours with an elated sigh. For the second time today, you marvel at his beauty, whispering a string of gasping kisses along his lower eye socket and exquisite cheekbone, simply dying to breathe him in. All of him is so immaculate and sublime. Each time the two of you reconvene, you want to savor every fucking inch of him, but there are a lot of inches, so the task often overwhelms you. Still, you must try. Locking your ankles behind him, you use your legs to pull him even further into you and the friction makes you lose your mind.

“Fuck, baby girl, you keep that up I’ll be making a mess in my pants,” Sam grunts with his lips upon your cheek.

Your breathless laughter fills the air, thinking of the stain you've undoubtedly already left on his charming grey sweatpants. Nimble as he is, Sam takes advantage of your open mouth and plunges his tongue inside. After so much preamble, the kiss is heavy and full of need. When the pressure of his lips pushes your head back, your hands fly to his wrists for the sake of your balance.

From there, they journey upward across his vascular forearms to his bulging triceps, fondling his massive shoulders before sliding along his traps and up the gorgeous length of his perfect neck, until you finally reach the treasure trove of his impeccable locks. You tangle your fingers into the lush mane and yank, gently but zealously, making Sam growl into your mouth. His voice is the hottest thing you’ve ever heard and the sounds he makes always drive you insane.

Never breaking the kiss, Sam’s colossal moose paws roam up to your back as he slowly lays you down on the counter, his member somehow still notched at your entrance and the new angle rousing a quiet moan from you. When he ultimately pulls away, you pitch forward to chase after his lips, but Sam only grants you a devilish grin and a quick peck to the corner of your mouth before moving down to your jaw and neck. While one palm kneads at your breast through his shirt, the other begins pushing and pulling at fabric to uncover more of your skin for his wandering lips.

“Sam! Augh!” you cry out as your head falls back.

“I got you, baby. I’m all yours. Gonna make you feel so good.” As if to attest his words, he rolls his hips into yours and a needy whimper escapes you. With your fingers still twisted in his hair, Sam leaves no part of you untouched as his mouth travels down your body. But upon reaching your navel, he pauses, those vivid, color-changing eyes peeping up at you to check for any signs of discomfort or objection. Finding none, his thick tongue pokes out to lick a deliriously winding path from your belly button to your exposed clit. Then, pushing down tenderly on the insides of your knees to open you up to him, Sam directs you one last look that is both hungry and reverent, “I still can’t believe this is mine.”

Dean had stopped you halfway through your recollection, but it appears that was still too much for him, “What did I do to deserve this?! I feel like I need to go bathe in holy water for a week.”

You and Sam both open your mouths to respond but Dean cuts you off vehemently, “Ba-da-da-da!” His vocalized outcry is complete with animated gestures featuring an accusing index finger. “OK, before you two tell me another traumatizing story, that’s enough of the who, what, when, where, and how… I just need to know why. I mean, is this- are you- …?”

Sensing the protective wheels turning in his head, you decide to put Dean out his misery, “I’m not just with Sam because he’s an incredible lay if that’s what you’re wondering. We can skip the fatherly ‘what are your intentions’ talk. Yes, Dean, I am in love with your little brother… although ‘little’ is not exactly the word I’d use to describe him.”

“Sammy, could you please control your woman?”

“My woman?” Sam sounds mostly amused but you’re almost certain you can hear a hint of pride in his voice.

“Yeah, I admit I’m surprised I didn’t see it until now. You two are kinda oddly perfect for each other, you know, in a weird, kinky way.”

“To be honest, we’re pretty surprised too. I mean, he doesn’t look it but this guy is kind of territorial,” you quip whilst cocking a thumb in Sam’s direction.

“I don’t need to- Wait a minute, so all those bruises you told me were from hunts?” Dean’s eyebrows soar towards his hairline.

Chewing on your lip, you confirm his hypothesis with a miniscule nod.

“Yeah well that time you saw my back,” Sam chimes in vengefully, casting you a handsome grin full of mischief as he reveals, “that wasn’t a werewolf, that was Y/N.”

With eyes as round as dinner plates, Dean frantically shuts you both down, “OK, that’s it. Torture Dean time is over. I don’t wanna hear any more about your depraved sex lives! Look, I guess I’m happy for you guys, although mostly cause I don’t have to play referee anymore, but I’m gonna need you to follow some ground rules around here. Like rule number one! No sex in public places!” he starts counting with his fingers, “Always put a sock on it when you’re busy! And most importantly, no sex in Baby!”

Your laughter follows Dean as he wearily saunters out of the kitchen, an exhausted expression on his face. Turning to your newly outed boyfriend, you petition excitedly, “Does this mean we can have shower sex now?”

“Not while I’m around!” comes Dean’s snappy answer.

In contrast, Sam gives you the same look he did on that dreamy morning, “Oh trust me baby girl, I’m gonna get you wet somehow.”

“Still within hearing distance! I think I liked it better when you guys were at each other’s throats.”

As you’re giggling, Sam leans down to whisper in your ear, “For the record, I’m in love with you too.” And just like that, you’re tempted to re-enact your previous kitchen escapades.

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pokemoncreepypasta · 3 years

Text

I love you, DOLL!

[STORY SOURCE]

Author: @jesterfox6

Let me start off by saying that I’m not that much of a Pokémon fan. I’ve only played a few games in the franchise and have completed even fewer (by completing, I mean defeating the Elite Four and the Champion. I would never be able to catch every single Pokémon in any game).

If you are looking for a diehard Pokémon fan, look at my brother. He has pretty much everything related to Pokémon, I’m talking multiple sets of still boxed games, heaps of Pokémon themed accessories and consoles for those games, and enough other kinds of merchandise like plushies and figurines to fill multiple rooms!

Anyway, this story isn’t actually about him. To be honest, I’m not really sure if it’s even about me either.

See, earlier this week I had received a phone call from my mother who told me that one of my aunts had unfortunately passed away. While I was of course upset about it, I had never known her well enough to be bawling my eyes out or anything.

The only things I really knew about her was that everyone had called her “Kris” and that she was sort of the odd one out in the family, always having strange obsessions with “all sorts of meaningless objects” as my mother would say.

Regardless, the thing that really surprised me was that Kris had left some items for me in her will. I was very confused because of this, as I only used to see her once or maybe twice a year at the housing facility she lived in. Though I didn’t know her much, barely at all, I thought that any kind of gifts would be appreciated and went to pick them up.

I returned home with a handful of Items that I was sure weren’t for me until we checked multiple times. Even then I still wasn’t entirely sure that these items were really meant for me and not my brother as despite not being a Pokémon fan I had received a slightly worn but still in great condition Gameboy Color, A copy of Pokémon Crystal Version, and a strange plush toy that looked similar to a Clefairy but not exactly like one.

The plush had the basic body design of a Clefairy - if a bit more circular, black ears compared to the brown of a normal Clefairy, and only black ovals for its eyes and mouth instead of the more detailed features seen in the countless plush toys my brother had. I couldn’t even find a tag on the thing, giving me no clue as to when or where it was made. I considered asking my brother about it, but figured it wasn’t too important to know.

Letting the plush sit on a shelf that faced the door of my room, I found it a little strange that I was given Pokémon Crystal specifically; wasn’t “Kris” just a shortened version of “Crystal”…? Not putting too much thought into it, I decided to insert the cartridge into the Gameboy Color and give the game a try, as the second generation of Pokémon was not one I had played before.

After the infamous Gameboy start-up screens, what seemed to be an intro cutscene of the game loaded, showcasing features like the different forms of Unown and baby Pokémon, things that I believe were new additions to the second generation. I also recall that Crystal Version specifically was the first Pokémon game to introduce a female playable character, was this the reason why my aunt had the game on her?

After the intro, I was loaded into the main menu of the game with only two options: NEW GAME, and OPTION.

It was a little upsetting that the cartridge had no saved file on it, as I was excited to see how many and what kinds of Pokémon Kris had caught. It was fine that the cartridge had no saved data on it though, as now I could freely experience the game myself without needing to feel guilty for deleting the old save.

After going into the OPTION menu and changing the text speed to fast, something my brother always told me to do on the off chance I wanted to try one of his old Gameboy versions, I finally selected NEW GAME.

After the screen faded to black, it faded to a light blue color for a second, then back to black again. I was a little confused but brushed it off as nothing important.

Soon after this, some text appeared with an unnamed character saying that I had woken them up and asking me what time it was. I entered the current time and was then taken to the next scene.

Just like with the Generation 1 games, Professor Oak appeared on the screen and quickly described the world of Pokémon, saying that some play with their Pokémon, some battle using them, and that there were many mysteries about Pokémon that remain unsolved.

The screen faded to white and in the place of Prof. Oak was the sprite of a young girl with blue hair, which I correctly assumed was the sprite of the female player character. The text on the screen confused me, though. I found it a little strange that I couldn’t select the gender of the trainer but figured that most people would pick this version just to play as a girl. What confused me more was the lack of name choice and specifically the default name chosen for the character, the same name my aunt went by.

For some reason this similarity intrigued me immensely, and I decided that I would at least get to the end of the game and defeat the champion if nothing else. After a few more encouraging words from the Professor, KRIS and I were sent into the world of Pokémon.

The proper gameplay started with KRIS standing in the middle of what seemed to be the upper floor of a house. Before doing anything else, I decided to open the menu to see if I could do anything there.

Strangely, I found that the POKéMON option in the menu was available despite my knowledge that Pokémon games never open with you already having any party members at all.

Entering the menu out of curiosity I found a single Pokémon in the list, simply named “DOLL”.

To my knowledge there was no Pokémon with this name, perhaps it was a nickname? I opened the STATS menu for more information.

In the menu, I found that DOLL was a Level 1 genderless Clefairy with a Pokédex number of 000 and the NONE typing.

I found this very strange, wasn’t Clefairy a Normal type? I also couldn’t remember what Pokédex number Clefairy was, but I was sure it wasn’t zero. Looking closer at the sprite and animation itself, I found it to be strange as well. Instead of bouncing around or striking a pose like I imagined a regular Clefairy would, DOLL just sat there, not moving an inch. Thinking back, I also realized that DOLL had no cry when selected, it had made no noise of any kind. Perhaps this wasn’t a Clefairy after all?

Feeling slightly unnerved by this strange “Pokémon”, I closed the menu and led KRIS downstairs to continue the story of the game. After reaching the bottom floor, I was quickly stopped by a character I assumed to be KRIS’ mother, who mentioned to her that someone named Prof. Elm was looking for her and then gave KRIS some Pokégear which had just returned from the repair shop.

There I also set the day of the week and if it was Daylight Savings time. After being told of the Pokégear’s Phone system, I was on my way to look for Prof. Elm.

After searching around New Bark Town, I found the professor in his lab building.

When I spoke to him, Prof. Elm asked KRIS to raise a Pokémon that he had recently caught to help him study for some sort of paper.

Strangely, my only option here was NO, and selecting that prompted the professor to say this cryptic message.

“…Right. You already have a ‘POKéMON’, don’t you…?”.

The fact that “Pokémon” was in quotes unnerved me even more than I had been before. Was this “DOLL” a Pokémon or not? The ellipses before the question mark confused me as well, it seemed as if the professor was speaking with a hint of disrespect. Straight after that, Prof. Elm went back to his normal cheery tone of voice, stating that he had received an email from someone named “Mr. Pokémon” and asked KRIS to go and see what kind of discovery he’s made, in the Professor’s place.

He directed me to go past the next city over, which I figured would be my next destination anyway.

As soon as I was allowed to move again, I attempted to have KRIS take one of the starters. I didn’t care which one it was, I would take anything over this creepy doll.

“KRIS: (I can’t replace DOLL...)”

Selecting any of the Poké Balls on the table only prompted this message to appear though, confirming that I would be stuck to only having DOLL for at least most of the entire game.

Still feeling unnerved and now a little disappointed, I decided to leave and finally get the journey started.

After walking through the tall grass for a short while, I ran into my first wild encounter, a Pidgey.

KRIS’ sprite slid onto the screen, her arm outstretched as if ready to throw something, but nothing was in her hand.

She sent out DOLL in retaliation and again it made no sound, still not moving at all. What could this thing even do in a battle?

I decided to see what moves DOLL had in the FIGHT menu, as I had forgotten to look at its moveset earlier in my confusion.

DOLL only had one move, “LOVE”, a typeless move with 99 Power Points. Using this move prompted the familiar phrasing that noted a Pokémon using a move:

“DOLL used LOVE!”

And with this phrase, several red hearts formed from DOLL’s body, which then surrounded the enemy Pidgey. After this animation finished, the following messages appeared:

“i love you!”

“Wild PIDGEY feels cherished!”

“Wild PIDGEY fled!”

“KRIS: I love you, DOLL!”

And with that, the battle simply faded out with no Pokémon being damaged or hurt. I suppose there really were ways out of potentially harmful situations other than fighting back.

Regardless, all other wild Pokémon battles played out in a similar manner, with the only real change being the phrase said at the end of the battle.

Sometimes the text would instead pick from a selection of a few similar phrases, such as “KRIS: Great work, DOLL!” or “KRIS: DOLL, we did it!”. However, the most common phrase by far seemed to be “I love you, DOLL!”.

The repetitive nature of the battles allowed me to notice that the Power Point value of LOVE never decreased, no matter how many times I used it. I also noticed that DOLL always used its move first, even though I was sure that some of the early game Pokémon knew Quick Attack.

After travelling for a short while, I eventually reached my destination:

“MR. POKéMON’S HOUSE”

Inside the house there were two people, Mr. Pokémon himself, as well as Prof. Oak.

Mr. Pokémon gave KRIS his new discovery to give back to Prof. Elm, which was what seemed to be a Pokémon Egg. Honestly, I was surprised that KRIS even agreed to hold on to it at all.

Prof. Oak walked over to KRIS, admiring her “Pokémon”. Again, the word was in quotes, but this professor at least seemed nicer about it.

The professor also commented on the reason why KRIS was given the errand, saying that it was because Prof. Elm saw that she took care of DOLL so well.

After talking for a little while longer, Prof. Oak handed KRIS a Pokédex, and as soon as I was able to, I eagerly looked through it hoping to find more information on DOLL.

Disappointingly, I found nothing on this strange “Pokémon”, and not even anything on Clefairy itself, proving that whatever this “DOLL” was, it was clearly not a Clefairy.

However, I also found out that the Mystery Egg was an item rather than a Pokémon itself. That would explain why KRIS was willing to carry it. If they wanted her to hatch it, though, I assumed that would be a different story.

As soon as I had stepped outside Mr. Pokémon’s house, Prof. Elm called on the Pokégear, and asked KRIS to return to his lab. From this point I continued the game’s story absent-mindedly, what I was mostly looking for now was more information about DOLL, which unfortunately didn’t seem to come easily.

The next change in battles occurred when I came across my first trainer battle. The trainer, one I recognized from New Bark Town, had walked up to KRIS. In their dialogue, they said the following:

“You’ve got a ‘POKéMON’, right?”

“What a waste. A wimp like you.”

“…… …… ……”

“Don’t you get what I’m saying?”

“Well, I too, have a good POKéMON.”

“I’ll show you what I mean!””

Finding it strange that only KRIS’ “Pokémon” was referred to in quotes, I watched the battle start up.

The trainer’s name was only given as “???”. I assumed that this would be the rival character for this game, and that I would get the chance to name them later.

Everything started the same way as expected, with the rival sending out a Cyndaquil and KRIS sending out DOLL.

Again, I used LOVE, and was shown the same text as before.

“Enemy CYNDAQUIL returned to its POKé BALL!”

The only difference was that during trainer battles, instead of the Pokémon fleeing, it would return to its Poké Ball, unwilling to fight anymore.

After using the move on the rival’s Cyndaquil and winning the fight, the battle and story seemed to progress as if I had defeated the rival’s Pokémon in a normal manner.

Just as I assumed, after returning to New Bark Town, I was allowed to name my rival.

I couldn’t think of any good names, though, so I simply went with the default one, SILVER.

After the rival was named, Kris then gave the Mystery Egg to Prof. Elm as asked. It seemed like she was fine with doing things for others, if it wouldn’t affect DOLL in any way.

After a few lines, Prof. Elm suggested that KRIS should try the Pokémon gym challenge, which I assumed would be the same as the other games. Get the Eight Gym Badges, defeat the Elite Four, and then defeat the champion. The story direction was set, so I was ready to get the main part of the game started even though the gameplay most likely wouldn’t be any different from before.

Before I could leave the lab again though, I was stopped by one of the Professor’s assistants. They attempted to give something to KRIS, saying that it would help her with the Pokédex. Could I finally be getting Poké Balls?

…Of course not. The assistant seemed to mirror my disappointment as well.

“…You’re not going to change your mind, are you…?”

Regardless, at least having the ability to win fights effortlessly made for an easy game. I doubted I would need much time at all to finish this.

After the cutscene ended, I was allowed to leave the lab, and I started searching for the first gym.

At this point, I knew that this wasn’t what regular Pokémon Crystal was supposed to be like, but I was still curious and eager to continue as this copy seemed more… personalized.

The story of the game itself had started to become a bit boring at this point, though. I was never too interested in Pokémon to begin with, and when the hardest difficulty of the game was mashing the A button, it was hard to stay invested. Despite my lack of interest in any part of the game or story except for KRIS’ strange behaviour and what little I could find about DOLL itself, I stayed true to the promise I made earlier and continued.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to find any interesting things about KRIS or DOLL by just going along with the story normally, so I started to look in other places. My first destination was the Pokémon Center.

There, I was surprised to find that DOLL could be healed there just like a normal Pokémon, and shockingly it even had its own custom sprite when doing so.

Next I attempted to using the PC’s features, despite knowing the outcome already.

Sadly I couldn’t test trading as I didn’t have any other Generation 2 games myself, and I knew my brother wouldn’t want to trade with an edited game, so that was out of the question.

Next, I moved on to the Poké Mart, and was surprised to learn that Poké Balls were an available option, but…

…I wasn’t even surprised anymore.

Eventually I had reached the first gym leader, and their Pokémon went down just as easily as everyone else’s’ so far.

At this point I wondered if anyone was even trying. Even the weakest of Pokémon could take on a simple plush toy, right?

After the battle, KRIS received the first gym badge, as well as a TM. I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to use it, but I still attempted to use it anyway.

Just as expected, DOLL couldn’t learn any other moves. Because of this, I wondered how I was going to progress. HM moves were required to beat the game, after all.

Reasoning that I would find a way to progress in time, I made my way to the second gym leader, the repetitiveness of the game causing me to almost forget that I had been taking pictures.

After the battle, Prof. Elm called again, asking for KRIS to take the Pokémon Egg from his assistant who was waiting in the Poké Centre and to wait for it to hatch.

Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, but it seemed like they didn’t have anyone else to ask. I couldn’t even tell who the person in the wrong was in this situation.

The only thing I could do in this position was to continue and silently hope that the professor could hatch the Egg another way.

Soon after this I came across a dark forest area, which was where I received my first HM for the move ‘Cut’.

However, as expected, I was unable to use it. How was I supposed to progress now?

The answer was simple, apparently. All I had to do was interact with the tree, and it gave me the option to cut it down. It was a little strange to actually have a choice for once, but I needed this tree cut to continue.

Just like that, the tree was cut down and I was on my way to the third gym.

It was just as easy as every other battle, what else am I supposed to say?

I also received a new HM soon after but had no use for it at the time.

It wasn’t until after the next gym leader was defeated that I needed to use the HM move, ‘Surf’, and it worked just like before.

I was able to get the 5th and 6th badges effortlessly, though unfortunately nothing interesting happened during this time.

I managed to find a shiny Gyarados before the 7th Gym, not that I could catch it or anything. However the NPC dialogue in the area clued me into the fact that the encounter was forced to be shiny anyway.

I suppose I’m not really cut out to be a shiny hunter, though even if I did happen to have the best luck ever, I doubt I would be interested for long.

Just like always I took on the last two Gym leaders without any issue, but to get the last gym badge, I had to do a small side quest where I answered a few questions about raising Pokémon.

“What helps you to win battles?”

Well…

“Cheating” seemed to be the most honest answer here, but selecting that option only made the question repeat, so I went with “Strategy” instead. Quite ironic, but that answer seemed to let me pass.

“What is most important for raising POKéMON?”

I of course selected “Love” here, as that seemed to be a main theme with the “Pokémon” at hand. Thankfully this answer let me continue with no problems.

With the questions finished, I finally received the 8th gym badge, and I made my way to the Pokémon league.

I was only stopped by SILVER, who once again challenged KRIS to a battle, and everything went just as you would expect.

SILVER wasn’t going to be anywhere close to the greatest trainer if he couldn’t even take out a harmless plush toy, I thought. However it’s not like anyone else had done any better; was anyone even going to try at all? Was anything ever going to change?

Anyway, with the rival now out of the way, nothing else stopped me from finally reaching the Pokémon League.

…And just like with every other fight so far, I won each battle in a flash.

With the Elite Four defeated, I was now onto my final challenge, if you could call it one: the League Champion, Lance.

While most of the game had been quite boring with just pressing the A button and watching the same scene play out repeatedly, I still wanted to play to the end to see if anything would change, either from the formula of the few Pokémon games I had played or from the monotony of mashing the A button for days straight. Now I was finally here. Regardless of if things changed or not, this would be the final battle.

I led KRIS to talk to Lance, and he told her that he had been waiting, and that the both of them would battle to determine who was the strongest out of them and who really deserved the title of Pokémon League Champion. Lance accepted KRIS’ challenge, and then the battle started up.

Most of the fight was quite uneventful, something I had come to expect from the game.

As I sapped the will to fight from Lance’s Gyarados, Aerodactyl, and his three Dragonite effortlessly, I knew that once again I had this fight in the bag.

Then, the rules of the world suddenly changed as Lance sent out his final Pokémon, his Charizard. Again, I selected the move LOVE, expecting an easy victory.

However…

“But it failed!”

My heart sank at the message, and with my interest in this strange game flooding back, I wondered what was going to happen next.

Charizard then got to attack, using the move Slash. An animation played of a pair of sharp claws digging into DOLL, while the screen started to fade to white.

As it faded, I saw something leap in front of DOLL, but I wasn’t too sure on what it was.

The screen soon faded back in, and I almost let out a gasp as DOLL’s sprite now seemed to show it as torn and falling apart, with two large gashes taken out of its body, showing the stuffing inside. Overtime I had grown somewhat fond of DOLL’s strange antics, so seeing such a sudden dark turn filled me with fear and dread.

I didn’t get much time to look at DOLL’s new sprite however, as DOLL’s HP had reached one. Even though the value did not drop to zero, DOLL made a slow and distorted noise like a cry of some sort, then dropped off the screen.

The game then entered what looked like a normal losing sequence, with the game noting that DOLL had fainted, and that KRIS had no more “Pokémon” left to fight with.

As the screen started to fade to white again, KRIS’ sprite slid back onto the battlefield, seemingly shocking the game into fading back in.

I was shocked too, as instead of KRIS trying to talk with Lance, the four battle options appeared again.

I attempted to press the RUN option to get KRIS to flee, but the game only made a noise which I recognized as it informing me that I couldn’t select the option. The same noise played when attempting to access my items or look at the Pokémon menu, so my only option was to press FIGHT.

After I did so, the text “KRIS used STRUGGLE!” appeared. The enemy shown on the battlefield then changed from Charizard to Lance himself, and then the game finally faded to white for real.

…Then I waited. For about 8-10 whole minutes there was nothing but a pure white display. I had considered turning the game off but decided to wait a while to see if anything else would happen first.

I was glad I waited though, as the screen eventually faded into a scene of KRIS laying in a bed within a pure white room. As the screen faded in, a continuous beeping noise started to play; I recognized the noise as a slower, lower-pitched version of the beeping that the game would play if one of your Pokémon were on low health.

None of the directional buttons did anything here, so I decided to open the menu and see if DOLL was still in the party. Before I entered the POKéMON menu, however, I noticed that KRIS no longer had her Pack or her Pokégear on her.

In the POKéMON menu, I found that DOLL was thankfully still in the party but was still left in the same torn-apart state that it was in after being attacked by Lance’s Charizard.

This time, I let out a real gasp after going into the STATS menu and noticing that the red pixels I barely had the chance to see earlier were in fact dried blood stains. Feeling much more unsettled than before, I closed the menu.

This action seemed to prompt more story, as the textbox read “Kris: Hello?! Anyone?! If anyone’s there, DOLL needs help! Please!”. I instantly noticed that the trainer’s name had changed to a more proper capitalization; Was this trainer really supposed to represent her after all?

My thoughts were interrupted as more text began to appear onscreen, a conversation between two unnamed offscreen characters:

“???: It’s that old crazy lady, crying about that stupid doll of hers again. At this point, we should just take the thing away from her so she’ll stop yelling about it.”

“???: I don’t think we should really take it away from her, that might make her even more crazy and weird, you know? Hahaha.”

“???: …Well, what do you suppose we do about her? It’s getting annoying.”

“???: If we just ignore her, she’ll stop yelling soon enough, I think.”

“???: Right. Let’s just hope she stops soon.”

After that last comment, the voices stopped, and Kris was left in that bed alone with no one around willing to help her best friend. Here, I finally realized that it didn’t matter if DOLL was a real Pokémon or not. What really mattered was that it was real to her, that it was real to Kris…

My eyes shot open wide with one final realization, but they remained fixed on the screen as more text had started to appear:

“Crystal: …Oh, my sweet little Doll, I know you’re in such pain, but I promise it won’t last. I know I don’t have much time left in this world that you’ll feel so heartbroken when I’m gone, but I promise when that happens, you’ll be sent to someone who will love and cherish you just as I have all these years. I promise you’ll be happy in your next home, and that you can be happy without me. So for when that time comes: Goodbye, Doll, my sweet angel. Thank you for being my best friend, and always remember: I love you, DOLL!”

After I pressed the A button one final time, the screen and music both cut out, leaving nothing but a blank screen. I took this to mean that the game was over and resumed my earlier thoughts. It seemed like I was right about her name after all...

Feeling curious, I stood up and started to walk over to the shelf where I had placed that strange Clefairy plush, but stopped in my tracks as I noticed that the toy was now staring straight at me and not at the door where it had been facing earlier. I slowly approached the plush and now noticed that it looked extremely similar to DOLL’s sprite from the game.

Looking closely, I could now see the tears from the slashes it had taken, healed only slightly more than what was represented in the sprite. I even saw a few discolored patches of what I assumed to be remnants of the blood stains that had once been all over the doll in that dark event that started the end for Kris, my aunt…

I had barely known anything about her before, but now I felt closer to her than anyone else could hope to be. Doll was Kris’ most sentimental gift to me, and now after knowing both her and its story, I promised to always take care of the plush and even to attempt sewing its tears as I was sure that was all she had wanted.

As I picked Doll up from the shelf, I heard a small ring sound echo throughout my room: the noise I was now familiar with as being a noise that noted interaction with objects from the game. As the noise’s echo faded from my ears the lower third of my vision became obscured by a pure white, and in it I saw an all too familiar image: a textbox which read,

#Pokemon Creepypasta #Pokepasta #Creepypasta #Poke Doll #I love you DOLL!

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