#one thing i liked about rise was the character design they were all different but still turtle brothers and everything

[bywatergal]

I was never into tmnt before rise and always wondered what exactly was going on in the heads of people that were. I get it now.

#tmnt #rottmnt #tmntmm #teenage mutant ninja turtles #why does donnie sound like a child #why did they purposefully pause on rise before saying from the sewers #i am very afraid of a dumb point dexter joke about donnies glasses #one thing i liked about rise was the character design they were all different but still turtle brothers and everything #i think the copy paste but with different colors thing was part of my problem before

[purplepixel]

What if the turtles were in the pokemon world? And what if they were never turtles, but in fact, mutated pokemon? What if they lived in the Castelia sewers of Unova instead of New York?

Meet my Rise/Pokemon AU!! Waaaah this has been on my mind for MONTHS now. Pokemon is that one fixation that'll never leave me. I'm THAT pokemon fan that knows WAAAAY too much about the games and lore. For those that don't know,

Raph is Drednaw

Leo is Wartortle

Mikey is Torkoal

Donnie is Lapras

Yes. They are all shiny. I started with raph, since him as drednaw is pretty much a no brainer. The shiny form fit too well with him and his color scheme. Than I realized if I made him shiny, I had to make the other bros shiny as well so THEY ALL SHINY. (draxum shiny hunter confirmed?) Also dual rock typing fits well with raph's character.

Wartortle for leo was also a pretty obvious choice. I MEAN LOOK AT HIM. Long flowy tail? Yes please. I had to keep his markings somehow. Wartortle has little dark cheek spots, so I just changed them to be leo's markings. Water typing leo. Go with the flow, think on the spot, it worked out too well.

Torkoal for Mikey was another easy one. Fire turtle? Passionate, warm, also DANGEROUS (he can be a menace ok) Say no more. His powers in rise are already pyro related. Also having him shiny helped a lot with the color scheme. Torkoal is normally orange so having mikey be the yellow shiny form meant I didn't have to mess with his mask colors

Donnie on the other hand....OHHH BOI I STRUGGLED WITH YOU. I went through 4 DIFFERENT POKEMON, before deciding on the least turtle like of them all. I am aware that we do have a softshell pokemon with enamorous, but it's a legendary so thats not happening. But it was really important for me to keep donnie's soft shell and battle shell. I wanted this to be a RISE au and donnie's battle shell is pretty tied into his character. (there's also tirtouga which I almost went with, but I didn't like that both he and raph shared the exact same dual typing) Soooo, Lapras. Its more of a loch ness monster but it also draws inspiration from a placochelys (prehistoric seaturtle esque species) so IM COUNTING IT. Very unconventional but I have my reasons. Ice typing is a good offensive type, but is pretty bad defensively. Which ties into rise donnie's fighting style. If I wasn't a coward, I wouldve made donnie the biggest of the bros. Since lapras is like 8 feet tall compared to the others being like 1-3 feet. But uhhh, I swear I have an in universe explanation for why he's so small ok.

And than there's April. She is not a pokemon trainer in this au. At least not in the traditional sense. I've been with pokemon for all of my 26 years of life, and I always wanted to know what the normal people of the pokemon world are up to. Not everyone is out here collecting gym badges, travelling, or catching them all. How do non-trainers interact with the pokemon world? So that's where I'm at with April. She will get a pokemon partner, but other than that, she's just an average high schooler who befriended the turtles from a young age and takes part in all their shenanigans. I took some design elements from rosa and hilbert with her outfit, but otherwise its pretty much the same.

We'll see how far I'll take this. I've been using this as a break from my many other projects, but like everything I do, it grew too many legs and is slowly becoming its own thing.

#I have been COOKING #my children #my beloveds #me 🤝 draxum: youre... beautiful #combining my two favorite things #rise of the teenage mutant ninja pokemon #tmnp #rottmnt au #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #save rise of the tmnt #pokemon #rise pokemon crossover #pixels tortle art #teenage mutant ninja pokemon #pokemon fanart #my art #rottmnp #rise of the tmnp

[yourheart-inmyhands]

I suddenly had a idea of puppet reader

Where the orginal one died but the yan thinks the puppet is the real one (they are super delusional)

-🌮 annon

Do any character you feel fits this the best

I was actually toying around with an idea similar to this with a friend the other day but with a darling who has a twin/sibling who looks remarkably similar! it's such a fun concept :D

Warning: this post contains yandere-themes, including delusional behaviors, mentions of death, possible dehumanization of reader, and other potential topics. Please read at your own risk!

It’s already established that Raiden is gifted in the art of crafting life-like dolls, her success evident in the puppet version she made of herself. It’s almost interesting how seriously she took the craft, or at least how seriously she took it when it came to you.

Every detail had to be perfect, every little mark on your skin, every speck of color in your eyes, all of it had to be perfect or she’d scrap the doll and start over. Over and over she worked, until she was able to get the doll, no, to get you perfect.

It was scary how much it looked like you, to the point that the citizens of Inazuma almost believed you had never died. It was like you were suddenly cured of your death, the shine of light in your eyes, and the pep back in your step.

Even if the citizens of Inazuma aren’t convinced that it’s the real you, as the decades blur pass, Raiden falls more and more into the delusion of it being really you.

Paying no mind to the ball joints as she traces your arm, Raiden stares at your sleeping form lovingly. She always loved to wake up before you, if only to have a moment to admire the love of her life without interruption. The way your skin no longer holds heat, the unnatural angles that some of your limbs twist into, the way your chest no longer rises and falls with your breathing. These were all normal things, as far as Raiden could remember you were always like that. Just a little strange, that’s what she’d tell herself. You were always a little strange. But she loved that about you, liked that you were different from others. You were one of a kind after all, no one and nothing could replace you. 

 It’s nearly scary how far she pushes herself into this delusion, convincing herself that you’d always inhabited a body like this. You were never an object of flesh, you always got your limbs twisted up strangely in your sleep, you didn’t breathe like humans, and you were always cold. 

In many ways, this doll form of you was a lot like that of the Archons. And while they were made to mimic humans, you were made to mimic a specific human. You were that human. After all, the small compartment in your chest was designed specifically to hold your ashes. It was the perfect way to complete the doll, to ensure that even if your human body was no longer in this realm, whatever remained of you now would forever be bound. Caged in the confines of the doll.

#genshin x reader #genshin x male reader #genshin x gender neutral reader #yandere genshin x reader #yandere genshin x male reader #yandere genshin x gender neutral reader #raiden x readerraiden x male reader #raiden x gender neutral reader #yandere raiden x reader #yandere raiden x male reader #yandere raiden x gender neutral reader #yandere genshin #genshin yandere #yandere raiden #raiden yandere

[thirdtidemouse]

i have to do more bc she isnt rly brought to life yet.. she will change a LOT... but this is dylan :-] (hammarlund? underhill?) i couldn't not do a hilda oc and i couldnt not make it a nervous werewolf. she stresses herself out but is surprisingly organised about cooking, one of the famously stressful activities. she spends a full day planning out a meal, cooking for herself and kaisa (thank god. that nerd cannot cook) and then asks for detailed reviews.

she is very stressed out about being a werewolf though. she has just finished being a teenager and this is kind of that all over again. she does not want ANYONE to find out and confides reluctantly only in kaisa. what she fears is people fearing her, and she feels like the moment her life has been pieced back together again, she's losing grip, again. it's almost a black hound situation when the people of trolberg hear about a werewolf sneaking around. some episode centred around the mystery ensues.

she likes food + music! although she's more of an amateur at music, she owns + plays a guitar, a mandolin, a banjo, and a harmonica. very folksy. she has a swedish-welsh accent. try and imagine it please.

the default sister dynamic is kaisa getting home from work late (she probably lives in a flat in/around the library), and dylan being in the midst of homemade ravioli or something with a sauce that took 6 hours. kaisa asks about her day to be polite. dylan tells her about the sauce that took 6 hours, a long hike, 3 different invasive plant species, a lot of butter, and the use of powertools. kaisa has been re-shelving niche history of magic books but got so caught up re-reading them that it also took up 6 hours. when they have eaten dylan asks for her opinion and scribes the whole thing down in her notebook as kaisa voices her 5 star yelp review. they do not ask anything else about each others days and interact mainly through dylan slow-motion fake-punching kaisa while she is trying to just hang out in the living room or do her work and is ignored. only when she is in a very good mood will kaisa fake-punch back. dylan has a lethal case of younger-sister-that-is-taller syndrome.

sorry for my handwriting but the vague outline of her backstory WHICH MAY PROBABLY CHANGE is:

from the time she was 8 and kaisa was 21, they lived alone together. kaisa became a full-fledged witch between then and age 25, when suspicion against witches was on the rise for a short while - dylan never became a witch, but the only trusted adults in her life (basically kaisa and tildy) were, and they decided it would be best for her to grow up somewhere less troublesome. they were both pretty messed up about her having to move away, dylan holding some kind of spite toward her sister for a while, and kaisa feeling incapable, guilty and ill-equipped to take care of her.

she went to school in wales at 12, living with as-yet-unspecified family members/friends, and while kaisa almost immediately regretted sending her away, dylan adjusted quickly and spent the rest of her school career there. after a few years she forgave kaisa, because she ultimately enjoys her life, but she is stilll missed at home. at 17 going on 18 she became a werewolf (whether she was bitten or it was always in her somewhere?) and four months later she finished sixth form and called kaisa out of the blue asking if she could come and move in. since they didn't live in trolberg before, she's new to the city.

i will write more cohesively about her relationships to other characters/flesh her out more later, ESPECIALLY the werewolf stuff, but now i have to go to bed. thank you for reading :-] feel free to ask/suggest anything about her!! i love discussing hilda ocs

by the way this is i think my first ever actual OC? i've made up others before but they've just been single designs i've never really thought much about their actual selves because i suck at writing. dylan is the first one thats really stuck. part of her is based off myself and people i know, most of her is not. the main similarity between us is double-denim.

this is fun though. critique is welcome

(obviously her werewolf self is a swedish elkhound. i know the design kind of just looks like a furry im working on it)

#hilda the series #hilda netflix #kaisa #dylan #hilda oc #original character #im going to bed sorry this is not proofread

[spinji]

How old is AFO and OFA

[Mile long post incoming]

Long story short this is a theory/headcanon/thought exercise to keep my brain busy while I'm bored at work. I wanted to figure out a more precise estimate for how old All for One is since his birth is essentially the earliest moment of quirk society emerging and so his life spans the entire timeline of this story which I find interesting. And then the whole thing spiraled into a full One for All timeline of headcanons, so enjoy that.

To start though, it would be easy to guess that he's 120-and-some-change because of Garaki. Mic claimed Garaki would be about 120 (and we're just assuming he's exactly right instead of guesstimating for the sake of things) and Garaki confirms that his quirk allows him to live longer than a regular human lifespan, and when they met, All for One was given a copy so he could also live absurdly long. But I want to try a more exact method to ensure that his generations of adversaries could have actually reasonably worked time-wise. So, we can use Garaki's age to check our work but, reasonably, All for One should fall somewhere in the 120-140 range.

Right off the bat, we do have a frustrating lack of information regarding ages and time passing but there are a few things we can establish. Firstly, we know AFO and Yoichi are twins, so when determining age we can start both AFO individually and the OFA users as a collective at the same point. Secondly, Yoichi and AFO are shown to be the first people to have developed a quirk in the way we see in current time. There were vaguely quirk like mutations in people before that (like with their mother) but quirks as we know them are presented to us as originating from these two twins.

I bring this up because while Yoichi, Kudou, and Bruce are all in the same vague realm of "adult" at the same point in time, Yoichi has to be the oldest of the three. Even if it is only by a few years, Yoichi and AFO preceed any characters with a quirk. And while we're on the topic of Kudou and Bruce, we can safely say Kudou is the older one of the duo. He's confirmed to be the head leader of the resistance group against AFO and Bruce is second in command, so, frankly it would just be bizarre if Bruce was older in age but lower in rank. That being said, I don't think their difference in age would be significant.

Exact ages is where things get vague and headcanon-y. There isn't really any hard evidence I can point to other than "that sounds about right" and "I guess they look about that age" in an animation style that is notorious for just slapping a, borderline arbitrary, age on any design regardless of logic. So, rather than trying to justify it too much, my personal choices for their ages are, at Yoichi's time of death, Yoichi is 32, Kudou is 28, and Bruce is 27. At this point in the story AFO has been amassing power and followers for a while now, long enough for a resistance force to rise up against him but not long enough that he's considered it more than a nuisance for other people to handle until now. Early thirties seems pretty reasonable, possibly a bit too young but this man has also been killing people since he was 0.

For Kudou and Bruce I aimed for the older side of military age. Old enough to lead an operation like this but still young enough that AFO's rise to power was during most of their lifetime. Also, there's the issue of the age ceiling. Thanks to Shinomori (who I will get to), users 2 through 7 cannot have lived to be over 40 years old. That is a hard, non-negotiable cap on their ages as the strain of OFA alongside a different biological quirk drastically shortens a person's natural lifespan.

Anyway, back to AFO's age. If Yoichi dies at 32, this would also make him 32 (duh) and given the climate of the world at this point, I think Kudou lasted the shortest with OFA, personally. He receives the quirk immediately upon Yoichi's death after getting his blood in his mouth (Yoichi probably thought of him in his dying moments aww) and likely a week or two later is when Kudou and Bruce find out about it. The chapter frames Kudou finding out Yoichi carried on into him at the same time AFO has the same epiphany so, generously?? I give Kudou a year. Max.

All for One is now filled with seething hatred for Kudou specifically after Yoichi's death, so everything has been put on the back burner so he can both take the quirk from Kudou to get his "possession" back (ew) and to kill Kudou along with everyone he ever knew, loved, spoke to, looked at, or had any genetic lineage with. Even for a guy this powerful that is going to take a bit. A year gives AFO time to find information and strike down the entire resistance and time for Kudou and Bruce to think of a counter strategy and gain an understanding for how OFA works. So, Bruce takes the quirk at 28, Kudou dies at 29, and All for One kills him at 33.

After Kudou's death is a very big blank spot where I need to unfortunately just blindly headcanon again, so bare with me. Kudou and Bruce's plan was for Bruce to take the quirk and slip away from the massacre of the resistance to build OFA stronger and come back to finish the job. I believe that Bruce met Shinomori while he was lying low. Judging by the one image we have of Bruce confronting AFO, he did seemingly attempt to rally people together to defeat him, which would have taken a bit longer than when Kudou was leading an established resistance, since he didn't already have people under him. But he clearly thought to pass the quirk on again as a backup in case he lost, which is why he chose Shinomori to take it. With time needed to plan this attack and also get AFO's sights off him, I'd give it about five years between AFO's fight with Kudou and his fight with Bruce. It's estabished that Shinomori takes the quirk at 22 so, Bruce dies at 33, and All for One kills him at 39.

Shinomori is actually a very clear-cut piece of the timeline. He takes the quirk at 22 and dies at 40, having passed the quirk to the next user shortly before that because he realized his health was rapidly declining. He keeps the quirk for a total of 18 years, making All for One 57 at the time of his death. Judging by how the flashback panels are structured, AFO has received Garaki's quirk by this point.

Also, we have reached the point where every following user of OFA has been a professional hero, so I think it's safe to assume that each link in the chain met through either being colleagues or possibly through a sidekick internship. I doubt All Might was the first one to think of scouting hero students for successors. I'm going to assume that users 5, 6, and 7 were somewhere in the 16-24 range when they received the quirk for that very reason.

Moving on though, Banjo is the next user. I do think Banjo knew Shinomori for a somewhat significant time before his death. Banjo clearly knows about Shinomori's reclusive nature in some level of detail based on how they interact as vestiges and while it is possible for the already deceased OFA users to peer into the thoughts and memories of the current user, it doesn't appear to be the same retroactively, unless it's something the vestiges want to show the current user. All this to say I came to conclusion that Banjo was already likely a pro hero when he recieved the quirk from Shinomori. Shinomori realized what was happening and reached out to one of the few trusted friends he had to carry on the burden because he knew he could handle it. So I'm going to peg Banjo at being about 22 when he took the power as well. Old enough to be experienced as a pro with enough time to have actually met Shinomori before he died. Just like all the others, Banjo died to All for One after being trapped under rubble and gave the power to En just before he croaked. Given his bordering-on-middle-aged appearance, I'm going to put forward Banjo dying at 37 and All for One killing him at 72.

En also has very little information on him but since we only have speculation to work with, might as well stop apologizing for it. En appears to be significantly younger than Banjo, so I suspect he was an internship student to Banjo while he was a pro. Putting En at 17 when he recieved the power is both enough time for them to meet and get to know each other with En having to take the mantle from him sooner than either of them anticipated. En's appearance is still quite young, but he was confirmed to be a pro hero for a time, so he didn't have as short a run as Kudou. Nana was also already some level of hero (whether student or pro is unclear) at the time she recieved the power. Rather than mentor and student I believe they were fledgling colleagues, since Gran Torino fills the role as Nana's older pro mentor. All of this makes me vaguely place En dying at 25 and All for One killing him at 80.

I already mentioned Nana potentially being colleagues with En as their way of meeting. I still think she may have been younger than him at the time but not significantly so. En is another user that is shown passing on the power while at death's door and the following panel that shows Nana accepting it doesn't make her look significantly younger than how she does in any given scene in the series. So I don't think she was a child when she took the quirk but I'm going to set my guess at 20. But! While Nana is another character without a listed age, surprisingly, we can figure it out a good guess with actual evidence this time. Her son Kotaro, grandson Tomura, and pupil All Might all have stated, confirmed ages that we can use to make a feasible timeline for Nana.

Currently, All Might is 57 and Tomura is 21, meaning All Might was 36 when Tomura was born. Kotaro was killed at 32, when Tomura was 5, making him 27 when Yagi was 36. Nana died when All Might was in his last year at UA, making him 18, meaning Kotaro was 9 at the time. Nana gave All Might OFA when he was in middle school, judging by his uniform, so we'll assume he was 14 and Kotaro was 5. When Nana and All Might first meet, Nana states that her family is all dead, in a cold and distant manner. But that wouldn't be true if Kotaro was still in her life. This would mean that she met Yagi after the death of her husband and after Kotaro was sent away. And I'd wager to bet it was very soon after. Assuming Nana gave birth to Kotaro at around 25 years old (perfectly reasonable) then she would have passed the quirk to All Might at 30 and died at 34 after having the quirk for 14 years, making All for One 94 at the time of the transfer.

From here things get a lot less speculative. All Might is listed as 55 at the beginning of the manga, adding on Izuku's last year of middle school and first year of high school puts him at 57. We already established he received the quirk at 14, meaning he held the power for 42 years + 1 year quirkless before All for One was finally killed at the grand age of 136. Which would mean that quirks have existed for just shy of one and a half centuries now and we fit comfortably inside our estimate goal!

Now, I'm one of those bad at math gays so if you have other thoughts on this, feel free to speak up. And you're more than welcome to adopt these age headcanons if you want. Later.

#mha #bnha #my hero academia #mha meta #mha theory #mha headcanons #all for one #afo #ofa #one for all #yoichi shigaraki #mha kudou #mha bruce #hikage shinomori #daigoro banjo #mha en #nana shimura #yagi toshinori #all might #long post

[14muffinz]

You know those aus? Where the characters are combined or 'fused?'

I've been thinking about that under the circumstances of a tmnt crossover fic. Where this combination is unwilling.

So the way I can see this going means it absolutely has to involve rise, which I also like because it allows for funky designs. Some mission in the hidden city, possibly involving big mama because ✨drama✨, and each boy is fused with their counterpart.

This can be very different depending on the iteration, so I'm just gonna write down vaguely I imagine each one being:

Leo: Slightly obsessive with training. He's passionate, but maybe a bit too much. He's a great strategist, but is unfortunately bad at explaining his plans to his brothers. The more anxious he is, the more talkative he becomes, usually spouting quips to distract himself. Has knowledge with a bunch of different weapons, but prefers the classic katanas.

Raph: Anxiety. This boy is stressed at all times, and the only way he knows how to mask it is by grouching, or hitting things. The people around him are infuriating, especially because they keep asking all these questions. Like, he's just one guy, why can't they get that? Raph carries both his sai and tonfa, but will more often fight with his tonfa.

Donnie: Very smart. Their brain processes information very fast. They like when things make sense. They're also the only fusion aware that they're a fusion, which, like Raph, they are not a big fan of. Their fusion is the least stable, defaulting to we/us and preferring they/them over he/him, though both are acceptable. They don't remember what each button on the tech bo does, but they do have a staff with a taser on each end as a comprimise.

Mikey: Wholsomest boy. The only reason he doesn't know about the fusion stuff is that the Aprils and Caseys don't want to burst his bubble, but they're all pretty sure he could take it. Big fan of art, he loves to cook as well but due to conflicting knowledge they don't do it as much as they would separately. He loves the extra long chain he gets from rise Mikey's kusari-fundo, so he uses that, though similar to the Raph's sometimes they'll carry around nunchaku as well.

~~~

So yeah, the supporting cast were not on this mission and thus were not turned. They received an emergency alert from rise donnie's systems while everybody was being fused, which is the only warning that they got.

It's mostly on Draxum to make a fix, but it's unfortunately not that simple because they're from different dimensions. Casey JR (is it alr if I call him June because I'm gonna fair warning it's instinct) tries to help where he can, but his knowledge is limited. There's a big argument between the Aprils over whether or not informing the Mikeys of the situation and letting them help would speed things up or not.

The issue with telling them, is Raph's very much denying the information. They know about it, but they refuse to listen. The Donnie's took a lot of convincing as well, and the topic clearly causes them a lot of distress, though they refuse to explain exactly why.

That's all I've got for right now. But if anyone wants to help me make this a solid au, please shoot me an ask. Please. I'm begging. I really want to have more to say about this but I need someone to pick my brain.

Tag is forced fusions au!

#rottmnt #tmnt crossover #tmnt au #i'm thinking of 2012 for the other set #but i'm open to it being mutant mayhem #or maybe all three if i feel like it #ima tag both #tmnt 2012 #mutant mayhem #PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE SEND ME ASKS ABOUT THIS #I WANT TO ANSWER THEM #tmnt #forced fusion au #2012 rise fusion

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello! A therapist friend of mine is wondering if you have any recommendations for games that have 2 players with a focus on collaboration/teamwork or exploration/socialization. If it's very rules light for their sessions, that would also be super amazing. Thank you!

Theme: Duet Collaborative Games

Hello friend, I’m hoping that I interpreted your request correctly, although I feel like I’ve been able to pull up a good variety of games. I’m also including a link to Lark Brigade’s Itch.io Duet games archive, which you might be able to scroll through for more options.

Lark Brigade’s Archive

Knots in the Sky, by A Smouldering Lighthouse.

Knots in the Sky is a quiet, surreal game about a floating labyrinth and a traveller that have waited a long time to find each other. This tabletop role-playing game is designed to be played in a single hour-long session.

I like that this game has one person playing a traveller and one person playing a location - the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth playbook is very descriptive and focuses on world building, answering questions about its architecture and design. The Traveller is focused on exploring the labyrinth, and discovering what is within. This game definitely has the exploration themes that you’re looking for, and looks to be played easily within a short session.

Spaces Apart, by efarrisgames.

Everything was fine until all at once only the two of you were on the shuttle, all at once only the two of you drifting through endless space, all at once only the two of you unsure of where you'll land if you ever land at all.

This is a GM-less game for two players about astronauts stranded in space. Or perhaps it is a game about asexuality, about queerness, about finding where you belong. Things can be many things. 

While the creator made this game as a reflection of their own experiences, I think this game is flexible enough to make it meaningful for whoever plays it. The questions your characters will ask over the course of play might revolve around feelings of guilt, loneliness, regret, companionship and much more. You’ll also meet challenges as a duo, ranging from mechanical failures on the shuttle to negotiating with ghosts on the ship. If you want an intimate experience in the cold darkness of space, this might be the game for you.

shadow / giant by PsychHound.

It don’t matter how you got here. Don’t matter what the destination is. At some point, somehow, against the odds … Shadow felt safe with the Giant. And the Giant, though they mighta sworn off it before … cares for the Shadow. There’ll be threats. Always will be. But, maybe, you can get through. Find safety. Together. As long as it takes to get there. And through those long days, cold nights … the tears, the fears, the fighting … someone, somewhere … might just mistake you for a family. Well. Wouldn’t that be somethin.

Shadow / Giant is a duet roleplaying game about finding care, safety, and family amidst a malicious and unaccepting world. In it, one player will play as the Giant – a gruff and jaded adult who thought their care for the world was long gone – and the other will play the Shadow – a child with magical abilities who now relies on them for protection.

The game is asymmetrical: both child and guardian have different rules they play by, and different ways of interacting with the world. They must work together to rise to the challenges of living in a world that doesn’t seem to want them in it. But both can push their mission to the breaking point. All you want to do is find somewhere safe to go.

Even though the rules for each character are different, neither ruleset is very complicated. The Giant has a set of skills they’ve already acquired, and their chances of success depend on what they have at their disposal and whether or not Shadow is willing to go along with the plan. The Shadow, however, is in flux; their skill fluctuates between being eerie and being soft. This is a game about found family, about struggle in a dangerous world, and about reaching a safe destination. I heavily recommend this game.

Horse and Rider, by SmallRedRobin13.

Horse and Rider is a 2-player game about a horse rider taming, and forming a bond with, their horse. One of you plays the horse, the other the rider.  This game is inspired heavily by various cultures around horse-riding in Australia, from pony club girls to the modern-day cowboy.

The bond between a horseman and their horse is built on trust. Using trust-building mechanics inspired by real-world horse training techniques, two players will work together to build that bond with each other. The horseman will learn the different methods that go into training a horse while the horse reacts to these attempts and will show its growing (or falling) trust as they train together. 

I don’t own this game, so I don’t know exactly what the game covers, but I would expect that you could set up a premise for the game to be something that the horse and rider both need to overcome by learning to trust each-other. The game includes a braiding technique, representing the way a rider might braid their horses’ hair. If you want a game about learning how to interact with another creature, this game might be for you.

Into Blue Midnight, by Kienna Shaw.

The expedition was going so well, but at 3,000 feet below the surface, when the ocean turns from blue to black, everything goes wrong.

Something cracks. Water starts to fill at your feet. The crane at the surface jams. The radio line goes quiet. And now the two of you are alone, only a few layers of steel and a quartz window to keep you from death. You have one hour of oxygen left.

Conserve breath, repair the bathysphere as much as you can, record what you see in the blue midnight of the ocean…and hope that you will see the surface again.

Inspired by the voyage of the bathysphere and the world's first deep sea dive, Into Blue Midnight is a GMless two-player Wretched and Alone game that lets you play out the last hour of two scientists within the bathysphere when everything goes wrong. 

This is a game that comes with a lot of warnings, as it covers themes of death, desperation and despair. You are two members of an underwater expedition that is more likely than not going to kill you. Until that happens though, you will see things in the water around you, and take notes about how they make you feel. You’ll answer questions about who you are and what memories you carry. You’ll answer questions about what is both your sanctuary and your prison, and you’ll answer questions about your relationship with your crew-mate.

This game is designed to play within one hour. It’s about connecting with yourself and the person who you’re trapped with, but it’s also about discovery a new (if dangerous) world. If this game sounds promising, it should be introduced with the full knowledge that your characters are more than likely going to die.

Unfamiliar, by Ash Can Games.

You are a magical creature, a magician’s un-bonded familiar. You have been pulled into the underworld as soon as your magician died; you can feel your attachment tugging you forward, prompting you to journey through the underworld. As you travel, the Underworld will reveal your memories that you lost when you started down here, culminating in a question that your magician will have to answer truthfully once you find them again. What will you choose to do?

Unfamiliar is a 1-4 player storytelling game that uses a tarot or other image-based deck to guide your creature's story. The game also includes the option of playing with a personal talisman that you wish to empower with assuredness and confidence.

I listened to the duet version of this game on Party of One, and it was both touching and magical. Memories are recalled by drawing cards from a tarot deck, and interpreting the images you see. I think this game might be an interesting way to navigate confronting someone after reviewing your history with them, or exploring a relationship that you have, while placing the context in a magical and strange location. If that sounds up your alley, then check out Unfamiliar!

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #duet games

[sukimas]

maybe this makes me annoying to a degree but i absolutely believe video games need to have some Auteurship to them. you need to have a guy who has an insane and weird vision somewhere along the way or otherwise you end up with slop. it doesn't have to be about story necessarily- you could want a distinct visual style (many, many examples), a place to put your insane music you've composed (touhou, undertale, among others), or a particularly unique type of gameplay (kaga saga, celeste, etc.) but you have to have 1 or 2 extremely weird guys with Ideas.

this doesn't NECESSARILY make your game good, but it's a requirement for it to rise above mediocrity. actually, let's take a concrete example!

metroid is an interesting video game series. it's famous for a lot of things- going around places collecting items that unlock new areas, the way it encourages fast play, having an interesting setting and kickass female protagonist in an era where the latter was very uncommon.

its development teams- one r&d team within nintendo, and one subcontracted outside company- were, at the time, primarily known for ports of arcade games and some sports games. a small subteam within the r&d team, however, were the Idea Guys- they came up with character, script, and world designs even when other games of the time were not even thinking of the concept of games being IN a world. thanks to them, a great number of nintendo games that would have been, well, just "games" like mario ended up being beloved for their characters and worlds (metroid, of course, but kid icarus and others, too.)

anyway, nintendo r&d1 and intelligent systems later became known for being at the forefront of story-driven and otherwise unique first/second party nintendo games, as i'm sure you know by now if you've heard of them. all it takes is a bunch of weird guys! otherwise you end up like the poor duck hunt dog or the ice climbers- revolutionary in their time, but who wants a new duck hunt or ice climbers game?

i feel that many AAA games of the modern era are falling into that same trap of "being a good game" while not realizing that being a "good game" with all the latest features and being a game that people will remember and continue to give you goodwill for making are very different things. what's old is new again.

#you need weird guys.

[bulbabutt]

ok. elephant in the room or shit i thought about a while ago but didnt post, my going theory on the rise cancellation which idk if its a theory more-so as reading the room and putting the pieces together.

it seems like playmates fault to me on account of the toys being shit and then cancelled outright. like waves of toys ready to go in 2019, none saw the light of day.

obvs a lot of them were shit, not the point. the point being theres up to 6 waves of toys on the table at 2019 toy fair, only 1 and 2 were made. compare to the last toyfair showing the mutant mayhem toys.

playmates made both of these era of toys. do you see how much more effort went into one than the other. you can say movies are more popular blah blah blah. but playmates has made ALL tmnt toys since they ever existed, and comparing the rise toys to even the previous shows toys it seems obvious where they put the money.

anyway my theory here is playmates got told (or given or offered or whatever) mutant mayhem. they immediately went. oh. yeah this will make us money. lets start prepping moulds for this now, lets get ready to sell a shit ton of different stuff. and they just left all those rise things on the cutting room floor. they didnt tell anyone on the team they were gonna do that. they didnt say "yeah it doesnt matter what you do cuz we have this NEW thing coming" they just abandoned it. they pretended theyd give it a chance to come back if their movie went well just to appease them and us, cuz they saw more money elsewhere.

the dumb shit about that is like imagine saying that about like. batman or the avengers or something. yeah we wont make this cartoon anymore cuz we have a theatrical movie coming in 3 years. like. you can have more than one iteration YOU DID IT WITH 12.

truly this is nothing against mutant mayhem by all accounts it looks amazing, my point here is that im sick of playmates fucking over each tv show with their stupid hunks of plastic. it has in fact happened each time, rise was just faster

87 was good, then there were the 90s movies that got popular enough that the show needed to be closer in style to.

03 was good, then it got dark, told to be more fun (cuz kids like ben 10 now) so they made fast forward, which was also good but in its own way, but then tmnt 2007 came out and playmates literally said "nope nope, we want to save on moulds so change your show to look like this movie" then 07 didnt go well cuz warner bros didnt fucking market it (what i heard from a podcast w nolan north was that they were super preoccupied marketing the shit out of 300 at the time. which. ok very weird choice for kids toys)

then we have 2012 after nick buys the franchise. and 12 has the weird tonal dissonance of dark stuff and kid stuff, with the most "designed to be toys" characters in it, clearly messing w things in the show itself while it was going.

then bayverse comes out along side it and once its over we get rise, where the designs clearly take inspiration from that movie (donnie and raph specifically)

then mutant mayhem is announced and rise just. fades out of existence. planned seasons cut and cancelled. planned toys disappear.

anyway. none of those shows are bad. none of the movies that come out along side them are bad. its just the dumbassery of like. not being allowed more than one iteration at a time, and its nOT on account of popularity or brand synchronizing like youd think, its literally to not have to make as many DIFFERENT SHAPED hunks of plastic! its fucking stupid. rise's downfall seems to be POOR FUCKING PLANNING on playmates part for THEIR shitty toys and then also being cheap/unwilling to have TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF TOYS AT ONCE (proof being the 03/07 thing)

anyway. thats my theory or whatever that fills me with rage. i hate playmates and i think its insane that the downfall of rise literally comes down to two stupid companies and their desire to sell garbage to children.

#tmnt #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #thoughts #long post #sorry i got mad and i say this to other ppl but i havent posted it yet so here you go thats my theory or w/e #is it even a theory if it seems this glaringly obvious whatever

[flockofcrowsinaturtleshell]

Why I like Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

(my part of the letter from my last reblog)

Up until about three months ago, I disliked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I saw the trailer for the Bayverse live-action TMNT and quickly decided I hated it. The live-action designs and the turtles’ attitude towards April felt gross, and I suppose that I, a young teenage girl at the time, felt like I didn’t fit in the target audience.

Flash forward to four months ago. I’m scrolling through my Tumblr feed – looking for Ninjago fanart and completely disregarding the target audience for lego ninja – when I see something under the “For you” tab.

It’s a Rise comic, but I don’ recognize it as TMNT yet. It’s a drawing of a scruffy-looking teenage boy, with long black hair and a hockey stick. He appears to be underground, looking a little lost. He turns, and before him sits a giant robot, deactivated and covered in moss. It’s a turtle, I realize, but I still haven’t realized that it’s a TMNT comic.

Then the boy calls his Uncle Donnie, who’s a turtle in purple. It’s then that I realize; I’ve been tricked. I’m reading a TMNT comic and genuinely enjoying it. I begrudgingly give the comic a like and go on with my day.

Over the next few weeks, I keep seeing more of the comic. To my horror, I’m actually enjoying reading it. One month after discovering the comic, I give in. I go to the first page of the comic and read from the beginning. 

It’s the story of a family trying to survive in a world overrun by invaders. Their family is made up of four color-coded turtles who make up the nebulous concept of uncle-dad, their entirely human older sister, and the scruffy-looking teenager they-re all trying to keep alive. This family dynamic is one I quickly grow to love, and the comix earns itself a place in my heart.

And then I watch the Rise movie.

Skip ahead to the present. I just watched the Rise movie two days ago (it had me in tears). As I write this, I’m also trying to figure out a plothole in the seventh chapter of the fanfiction I’m writing. Just yesterday, I finished designing the skeleton of my yokai character (because why not. I love speculative anatomy). I’m still reading the comic, which just updated yesterday. I’m happy with my new interest.

I love Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the family dynamic. I’ve always been a fan of unconventional families, and I’ve grown a liking for color-coded squads. I enjoy how April is more like a sister than a crush for the boys to fight over. I feel a certain kinship with Donnie, as an autistic-coded middle child who loves to learn. I absolutely adore Raph, the person who’s had to step up to care for their siblings and yet hasn’t quite grown out of the stage of life where he’s just a kid. Mikey is so silly and adorable, and he reminds me of my younger sister; the youngest and somehow the wisest at times. Leo feels just like a character from the first show I ever had such an interest in (Lance from Voltron: Legendary Defender) and I think he’s pretty awesome. 

I also enjoy the show’s unique takes on some things. I find it cool how the turtles are all different species. I love how this iteration’s version of Casey Jones is an energetic young woman from a rival clan. I find it interesting how Karai is a loving ancestor instead of an enemy. I love the artstyle of the show, where each turtle’s design is unique (compared to other shows where the only way I can tell them apart is by the color of their mask). I think it’s cool how the backstory is different from some of the other iterations, how the turtles were mutated on purpose and how Splinter used to be a famous actor. I think the yokai are awesome, how they’re like mutants but were there long before. I enjoy finding the little references, like the pictures of other TMNT shows on Donnie’s conspiracy board, or the fact that the source of yokai power is a Kraang. 

I have so many questions left unanswered about the show, and I’m sure others do as well. I would love to see the return of Rise. I have no doubt that it would be awesome.

#unpause rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

– Crow

P.S. The comic I am referring to is by @somerandomdudelmao on Tumblr. I have no words to describe how much the comic means to me. Cass, if you’re reading this, thank you. 

#rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rotmnt #riseofthetmnt #tmnt #rottmnt movie #unpause rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #unpause rottmnt #cass apocalyptic series #save rise of the tmnt

[sir-subpar]

Striker redesign/reimagine!

Might tweak a few things in the future, but here he is!

I'll talk about him under the cut, because I have some things to say

Okay! So: Striker

Let me start by saying that I don't really hate his design as is. I think he looks fine. But! As somebody from the southwest, I wanted to add a little extra southwestern style influence on him. And I also wanted him to look more like a rattler.

Now if some of you might be a little confused by the blue, I do have an explanation for it. Admittedly this is more personal than logical, but here's a cool little factoid about my nick of the woods.

As I've mentioned multiple times, I'm from the southwest, and we have a local very old Superstition around here, the Superstition goes that West is the direction of evil. It's where the sun is swallowed and darkness rises. What time were evil spirits would rise and torment the living. But it was said if you painted your window sills or doorways blue, you would be safe. Blue was the color of safety and protection.

So I kind of gave Striker little blue accents, as a reference to that color of safety. I like the idea that it's a comfort color for him.

Anyway! Aside from my barely filtered Self Indulgence, here are my thoughts;

I don't like his fingerless gloves, 90% of the characters seem to have fingerless gloves, literally everybody in the main cast has fingerless gloves or something similar. I like fingerless gloves, but I'm sick of it being everywhere in this show

As mentioned before I wanted to make him look more snake-like, so I gave him a rattler Style tell, larger fangs, more orange toned, a different horn Style just a match a little bit better. And eyeball imagery on his clothing. Since rattlesnakes sometimes look like they have eyeball patterns

Gave him scars, I was just like with millie, I feel like he's got into a lot of fights, and since they're both from wrath they should both have some Battle Scars.

Speaking of Millie, I had this idea for a rewrite, let me know what you think. What if Millie was actually considered the weakest in her family growing up? Which has caused her to be very self-conscious about her strength and constantly want to get stronger. All of this leading to her currently being extremely competitive to the point where it can be detrimental. And what if, when she wasn't able to actually help around the farm, the family had Striker come over and help?

Striker could be a long time family friend she grows up with, but also goes on to resent because she feels he is, in a sense, replacing her.

So the Harvest Moon episode would be more about her feeling an internal rivalry with him rather than a cliched masculinity episode with Moxxie

Maybe he goes easy on her because he cares about her, and she notices, leading her to feel like he sees her as weaker, which is very insulting to her Pride.

This could be why she eventually joins IMP, maybe assassinating humans makes her feel strong.

Those are my thoughts with Millie and Striker. Now, to explore another Dynamic that I'm sure you guys have been eager to hear my thoughts about...

Striker's dynamic with Blitzo

It probably doesn't surprise any of you, but I thoroughly believe that they had far more chemistry in this one episode, then Blitzo and Stolas do throughout the rest of the show

Clearly Blitzo likes him, and at the very least, Striker does have some respect for him upon their first meeting

The way he talks to Blitzo, it plays into what Blitzo actually *wants*. He offers a ticket out. A way to success without being shackled to Stolas

Striker calls Blitzo: impressive, sir, above sucking on a pompous Goetia.

Stolas, on the other hand: my impish little plaything, adorable, itty bitty imp, constantly baby talks him, "Blitzy" which was established Blitzo hates.

I will get to Stolas eventually, I have some thoughts I'll Explore More with him. In due time.

Would I make Blitzo and Striker a couple in my Reimagined Helluva? I don't know, because I don't really think it's necessary. I do think however that Striker eventually could become one of Blitzo's friends.

I have a very specific scene in my head:

____

Blitzo's uncertain about Striker's offer, he doesn't know if he should actually trust him, if he should uproot his whole business for the stranger just because he's saying the right things, or if he should just do what he's doing now and see if he can get success.

They fight, for a bit, Striker keeps talking throughout their tussle, tempting Blitzo to join him on killing Stolas.

They are equally matched, both holding the blessing tipped rifle, in a tense game of tug o' war.

Their rumble goes on for just long enough that now, Striker looks out the window, to see his opportunity to kill Stolas while he was on stage has passed.

Striker sighs, dissapointed as Stolas is once again surrounded by guards blocking his clear shot.

He releases his rifle, causing Blitzo to stumble back a bit.

He composes himself, straightening his clothes and dusting himself off.

"Tell you what Blitz, I'll give you some time to think on it."

Striker takes Blitzo's hand in his own for a moment, his tone of voice more welcoming than before.

He pulls away, revealing je placed a Buisness card with his phone number in Blitzo's palm.

"And when you decide what you want, you give me a call."

____

So! Those are my thoughts!

If I were in charge of the show, I would let Striker's business card sit on Blitzo's desk, or in his wallet, showing the audience that Striker is still in the back of his mind, even if Striker doesn't make a direct appearance in a few episodes.

I had a lot of fun with Striker, as you all can probably tell, he was one of my favorites before season 2 happened.

#helluva boss critical #helluva rewrite #helluva redesign #helluva reimagine #striker #hb striker #striker redesign #striker reimagine #blitzø #blitzo #hb blitzo #blitzo reimagined

[signed-sapphire]

The Fallen Star ✨

A Wish rewrite

Cielo design 💛

The boy is here! The most ever! The Fallen Star’s very own Starboy!

So I lied and don’t have the finalized designs for King Maggie or Queen Ams yet soooooo *throws confetti at you* take this Starboy reimagining in the meantime!

Eugh boy the name gave me trouble. I didn’t want to use Aster since that’s the name of a a couple popular Starboys already (@annymation/@gracebeth3604/ @mythartist21) and while the Greek name is cool, I wanted something a bit different.

SEE-EH-LO, for anyone wondering. He/they pronouns <3

I was heavily considering choosing Estrella and making Starboy a Stargirl, and then we’d have a gay romance. But this is supposed to be SOMEWHAT of a homage to early Disney. This may not be KoW, but… idk. Cielo is a gender neutral name. Literal manifestation of light. Go ahead and draw them as a female-presenting figure and it’s still TFS!canon~

Aaaaaaanyways. Here’s the actual rewrite!

First of all! Cielo is NOT the Northern Star! He’s a baby star like… in the bottom right

However, the Northern Star? Evangeline? Yeah, she’s gonna be in my rewrite

But Cielo is NOT her

For now I’ll just say Evangeline is sort of a mentor-figure to Cielo and leave it at that

So not all stars are wishing stars, and similar to Kingdom of Wishes, a wishing star is born when first wished upon

Once a wishing star fulfills their first wish, they become Stars (capital S), and are free to help anyone that needs it

The more wishes a Star fulfills, the more powerful they become

Idk maybe it’s like a Rise of the Guardians thing, where the more people that believe, the stronger your magic is

Sparkles and hope and glitter and shit

Until, as explained in my rewrite… the Stars grew bored and started simply granting wishes

Then people grew lazy and started demanding wishes

And all this belief made the Stars go overpowered

Basically it became Wonderland, everything coming true, kingdoms burning and villages destroyed

Yeah. So Magnus god rid of them eventually

Though who would suspect that it would be the king’s own daughter that would bring back his greatest fear?

Yep, Asha brought Cielo down

Not purposely, but even if she had done it purposely, she wouldn’t have chosen Cielo

He’s a little baby, a dwarf star maybe

Only ever gotten one wish in his life…

Huh never seen that before *side eyes KoW*

Personality traits

Optimistic

Very Anna-coded

Probably ADHD tbh (autism x adhd duo unite)

Stubborn

HE’S the quirky Disney princess

Although more Flynn than Raps

Backstory

Fuck around and find out

(And by fuck around I mean wait for my rewrite to come out bc I haven’t slept in two days and I’m too tired to articulate their story accurately)

Design

Due to popular demand, Cielo now has the Charlie Morningstar cheek thingies

Also @gracebethartacc got an ask about canon!Star being marketed with a star over their right eye so… vitiligo mark, anyone?

Yeah I don’t have many colored refs but basically Cielo’s star eye mark and cheek thingies turn into vitiligo marks when in their “human form”

Uh take this

Ye sort of like this^

Heart shaped face! His part is also supposed to resemble a “V” shape to make the top of the heart

My sister said they looked like Viva and I’m crying but too late to take it back

I guess they’re both Spanish? Ajdjajhsjajajs

Thin slutty waist. Imagine Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel bc Jeremy Jordan is Yes.

Like I’m obsessed with that wet cat of a character I’m thinking about Cielo’s voice being Jeremy

Although his younger VA days as like Varian would better suit Cielo…

ANYWAYS

Design by @mythartist21 save for the Trolls hair and cheek thingies! Those were my additions

Uhhh pointy ears, poofy sleeves

Idk is the star eye mark AND the cheek thingies too busy? Lmk and I’ll try to post a colored ref of that helps

#asha #disney wish #princess asha #asha x star #star x asha #the fallen star au #wish 2023 #human star #starsha #saph doodles #wish reimagined #wish disney #wish star #wish #star wish #wish concept art

[matoroblogs]

LEGO Almost Went Bankrupt. These Heroes Saved Our Bricks.

How a brain tumor inspired Bionicle, one of the most popular toys of a generation.

BY DAVID LUMB PUBLISHED: JUN 21, 2020

The Platinum Avohkii mask, a rare one- of-a-kind piece made of solid platinum purchased by Andre Hurley, who has The Bionicle Archives collection

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

In 2003, LEGO seemed to be riding high after shrewd licensing deals brought Star Wars and Harry Potter sets to the masses. But unbeknownst to many—even those inside the company—sales were plummeting, and there were only guesses as to why.

Some blamed poor strategic choices in the 1990s—Legoland theme parks, forays into digital products—for LEGO’s hemorrhaging. All that misguided development time slashed profitability, and even Star Wars and Harry Potter sales shriveled between movie releases. It’s hard to conceive of now, but at the turn of the millennium, beloved LEGO might have been headed toward a pitiful end.

During this fallow period, one product line stood apart with startling, consistent success: Bionicle, a series of buildable action figures backed by rich worldbuilding and cross-platform promotion. Inspired by co-creator Christian Faber’s battle with a tumor at the base of his brain, the toy warriors of Bionicle wouldn’t just conquer their fictional enemies. They’d pioneer innovations that would transform LEGO and rescue the company from possible doom.

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

Today, Christian Faber looks a bit like a Danish Paul McCartney. His youthful smile pairs well with his genial nature, which one might mistake for meekness until he starts talking about his creative projects. The 54-year-old embodies the unchecked enthusiasm you’d expect from a 28-year veteran of LEGO projects. If Faber’s long-time illness dimmed his appetite for play, you wouldn’t know it.

In 1986, Faber began working for Advance, a Copenhagen- based marketing firm that partners with LEGO. But shortly after his career began, Faber’s vision began to falter. A doctor found a benign tumor inside Faber’s pituitary gland that was impeding his sight, a condition called prolactinoma. Doctors said the tumor was maybe in the least accessible spot in the body for surgery, so they prescribed Faber daily medication to keep the tumor from growing. Among the drugs’ side effects, however, were severe nausea and dehydration, effectively sidelining Faber from social activities.

Courtesy Christian Faber

“It was the strangest mix of feelings,” Faber says. “I was happy at the job, but faced the physical and mental strain of the medicine and a long-term illness.”

Faber’s side effects attacked him hardest in the mornings, so he found most of his energy for work at night. Early in his career, Faber designed brochures for LEGO toy lines. Exposure to the different products, including the undersea-based Aquazone and the sophisticated Technic series, gave him experience with LEGO’s standards and practices—a moving target in the mid- 90s, when the rise of computers and video games pressured LEGO to move from their traditional years-long R&D cycle toward what Faber calls ‘craze products,’ toys tuned to current market tastes with a planned one-year shelf life.

The craze-products movement was rife with experimentation for LEGO, and it materialized soon after a medical breakthrough for Faber. After 10 years of daily medication, Faber’s physicians moved him on to a new treatment which, in Faber’s own words, gave him his life back. The new treatment was a regular injection scheduled just once every two weeks, allowing Faber to engage with the world relatively free from side effects. He could chase higher ambitions than brochures, and he had an idea for a new kind of LEGO toy: a sort of Bionicle precursor called Cybots.

Courtesy The LEGO Group

“I was sitting with LEGO Technic and thought I would love to build a character instead of a car,” Faber says. “I thought of this biological thing: The human body is built from small parts into a functional body just like a model. What if you got a box full of spare parts and built a living thing?”

With his assistant graphic designer Jan Kjær, Faber pitched Cybots, a line of humanoid action figures with attachable limbs and ball-and-socket joints. LEGO didn’t furbish Cybots, but they would implement Faber’s concepts in craze products like Throwbots in 1999 and RoboRiders in 2000. By 2001, LEGO was testing a line called Bone Heads of Voodoo Island—masked robots with heads that could shoot off their bodies like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Most of Bionicle’s look had been seeded: masks, buildable bodies, articulate limbs.

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

Bone Heads of Voodoo Island was a bust—focus groups demonstrated kids didn’t respond well to detachable heads—so that same year, LEGO pivoted to focus on Bionicle. The plan was to take a more holistic design approach with these new toys than with craze products, but LEGO extended that comprehensiveness to the worldbuilding around the toys, too, a new strategy for the company. Faber and LEGO design manager Martin Riber Andersen were joined by former BBC film and TV executive Bob Thompson and writer Alastair Swinnerton to refine the Voodoo Island concept and pitch a new story. Faber, fresh from working on Star Wars LEGO sets, imagined something massive.

“After being on Star Wars, I was thinking that the only thing to do from here is our own stuff, but it should be as big as Star Wars,” Faber says. “It should be a big, full universe.”

For the storyline, Faber drew on his experience with prolactinoma. To him, his every-other-week injections seemed like sending in a new wave of protectors to battle his tumor with every dose. Faber imagined this group of disease-fighters arriving on an unknown beach with no memory. The story of these warriors would be called Bionicle, a portmanteau of ‘biological chronicle.’

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

“We took an episodic story line but chose not to play it out in any single medium,” Thompson told Kidscreen in 2003. “We would take that story and scatter it like a paper trail through different types of media.”

Bionicle’s in-world story evolved through comics and chapter books, written in large part by Greg Farshtey of LEGO’s promotional periodical LEGO MANIA Magazine (also known as LEGO Club Magazine, but now called LEGO Life Magazine). Farshtey followed Bionicle’s story bible from the original team, but as he began accounting for character changes correlating with new toy sets, he added his own takes. By the end of Bionicle’s run in 2010, he had interwoven the story with three feature films and shepherded the comic series that, at its peak, reached almost 2 million readers per month, making it the most widely circulated monthly comic on the planet.

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

By all accounts, Bionicle was the hit LEGO needed. In 2001, its first year on the market, the line brought in over $160 million in sales, it was declared “Most Innovative Toy of the Year” by the Toy Association.

"Flat sales and profit decline made LEGO believe the brick was passé and it needed to move to digital and virtual toys to remain relevant,” David Robertson, author of LEGO history book Brick by Brick, told Popular Mechanics. “But as Bionicle became a success, LEGO learned the difference between sufficient and necessary. It wasn't sufficient to just offer customers another box of bricks, but it was necessary. If a LEGO toy didn't have interlocking plastic pieces, consumers didn't want it. But to succeed and grow, it was necessary to embed a story in that box of pieces and tell that story through comics, books, video games, movies, and events at the LEGO Stores."

Courtesy The LEGO Group

In other words, Bionicle had all the ingredients of a fun LEGO toy, but Faber’s inspiration was key to making it a smash. “[My condition] had a direct effect on my career, and especially on the creation of Bionicle,” he says, ticking off the allegories. “A biological robot attacked by ‘illness,’ waiting for the right ‘medicine’ to arrive. Even the canisters the Toa warriors arrived in resembled the medicine capsules I had to eat every day.”

Bionicle hit its stride just as LEGO’s financials were bottoming out. While LEGO flirted with bankruptcy in 2003, Bionicle accounted for 25 percent of the company’s total revenue and 100 percent of its profits. As LEGO slashed its workforce, reduced the number of pieces it produced, and increased its range of licensing deals, Bionicle continued to diversify. Partnerships spawned. There were Bionicle-branded Nike shoes, McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, even Colgate toothbrushes. The cross-promotion paid off: By the end of Bionicle’s initial run in 2010, it sold over 190 million toys.

All the newness shook up LEGO’s tried-and-true project structure. Bionicle’s multifaceted development process blended design, marketing and engineering teams to hash out new sets, ingest market feedback, receive directives from LEGO executives, and issue their own directives to subsequent narrative and design teams. Under the new dynamic structure, development time for a new toy line at LEGO accelerated from three years to less than one. The rapidity created an exciting energy.

“We broke a lot of new ground experimenting and pushing boundaries,” Bionicle co-founder and design manager Martin Riber Andersen says. “One of the key ethos of the core team was this is a shared collaboration: We stand together. We all believed it was so in contrast to ‘the normal LEGO company’ that we might as well direct our energy to the team instead of our individual career objectives.”

Courtesy The LEGO Group

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

From 2003 to 2005, Bionicle was the reported top-performing LEGO toy line, but after that, sales dipped below expectations. The decline continued to 2009, when LEGO handed down word it was time to end Bionicle. The creators wrapped up the narrative in 2010, but it was hard to let go. Farshtey wrote Bionicle stories on the now-defunct BIONICLEStory.com until 2011, fans dissected the line’s mythology on BZPower forums, and custom Bionicles continued to appear. In 2016, Faber wrote to series fans: “The stories we hear and the stories we tell shape who we are and what we do ... through almost 30 years [of my career in storytelling], no story has proved this stronger than Bionicle. The fans were, are, and will be the true heroes of this ... great adventure.”

These days, you still see Bionicle at toy conventions, and the r/bioniclelego subreddit is alive and well. In fact, the front page of Reddit was graced in November 2019 with an essential, timeless question: “What is the appropriate amount of time to wait before showing your new significant other your Bionicle collection?”

The toys’ invigorating combination of articulate LEGO figures and intricate, multimedia story resonated with the LEGO company as well as fans. The brickmakers use the business strategy they honed on Bionicle with lines like Ninjago today, to great success.

"It's hard to overstate how important the Bionicle line was for LEGO,” Brick by Brick author Robertson notes. “Without the sales and profits of Bionicle in 2003 and 2004, the company would not have survived. Bionicle taught LEGO that success depended on the ability to hook kids on characters and story, and LEGO was smart enough to spread those practices throughout the company."

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

After Bionicle, Swinnerton moved on to write children’s books and TV scripts, Andersen took on a senior position

at a European consulting agency, and Thompson founded a media production and consultancy firm. Farshtey, meanwhile, still edits LEGO’s free fan magazine. All cite Bionicle as high points in their careers.

“We should all be proud of what we achieved individually,” Thompson says. “But in my view, more important is what we did collaboratively. After all, LEGO fans are still talking about what we did with Bionicle—after two decades.”

Faber moved on from his design job at Advance in 2014 after 28 years working on LEGO. His medical journey continues to inspire his creative work, including a post-apocalyptic world he’s designing filled with adventure, danger, and a pro- environmental bent. Looking back, Faber sees the impact his illness and treatment had on the stories and projects he’s touched. Almost 20 years after co-creating the action figures that sustained LEGO through one of the darkest times in its history, talking about Bionicle still makes him reflective.

“Biology is a balance more than a battle between good and bad,” he says. “Ever since Bionicle, balance has been my goal in the stories and pictures I create.”

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

article graphics faber bs01

#sunday paper #bionicle #2020 #article #faber

[frostbitebakery]

I'm so in love with all of your art. My favorites have to be Codywan, Cody and Obi-Wan separately, and your cursed series art.

May I ask how you came up with the idea for the cursed commanders and Boba Fett series?

Ahhhh this message was the best way to wake up! Thank youuuu 💜💜💜

The Unlucky Ones, my beloveds! That one started like all the others: I went “lmao wouldn’t it be cool” and then it grew into a monster of a concept and venus flytrapping @adiduck in the process.

TUO started because for Halloween I had already Eldritched Obi-Wan so it was Cody’s turn.

I love character design. I like to play around with the given themes or throw them into the ocean and do my own thing. So every time for character designs it really does start out like, “I want to draw that character in these clothes”. There’s no plan. That always happens along the way.

For TUO!Cody I wanted him scary but still being Cody. I thought about typical Halloween things and went with skeletons. Mainly because of the white armor and I thought how cool it would look if the armor was shaped like bones. But I didn’t want the armor to look scary, I wanted him to look scary (and badass) (and like a sexy bastard). While looking for bone refs, I saw enough skulls in different positions. Some of them looked like they were screaming, howling. And I thought, duuuuuuuuude. Duuuuuuude. A skeleton projection rising out of Cody and growing taller and lifting its arms and rushing forward with a scream while Cody stands there like 😎??? YES. LET’S DO THAT.

So the concept of the Curse was born.

It always starts as a visually appealing concept. I try to make sense of my decisions later.

For the other Commanders I thought about how to apply the Cody concept art on them. I didn’t want to copy paste the armor design. But I also wanted them to visually belong together in the same verse.

The designs should be distinct and representative of each character. Even if some details seem questionable at first glance, I always want them to make sense in context. So I add snippets to basically explain myself.

Wolffe’s armor in canon went from red to grey in grief and is rather neat with stenciled designs. For TUO!Wolffe I wanted to up that grief given what Wolffe goes through in TUO. The grey canon design turned into rotten fabric and veils. Which turned Wolffe into a banshee-inspired design. The armor design is reminiscent of those fluttering torn fabrics that indicate a tragedy happened here and the grief is ever present. Going with the banshee and with how I deformed Cody’s face, Wolffe got a deformed jaw (think The Mummy when the corpse screams) which he hides behind a bandana.

Adi suggested beauty in decay for Bly. So he’s got flowers growing out of him. And I desperately needed a reason for him to tell Aayla “General, hold my flower”.

Fox has a deformed back which is only known so far to Adi and me. He started with the little white tufts of hair bc I love that on him and wanted it for TUO!Fox. By then it was already established that their hair goes white with each death. So that meant if I wanted the Fox ears, Fox had to have died twice already. Things like that were the reasons the backstory avalanched into a monster. And suddenly you go from “aww, the white hair looks like ears so cute!!” to “actually Cody killed his brother in training because how the Curse was genetically modified and added to the Commanders makes them go into a berserker state” to “the non-command class clones have instated containment protocols for when a command clone goes berserk”.

Now Ponds. Ponds had to survive. I’m not spoiling his whole story but his character design was inspired by “rising like a phoenix out of the ashes”. So his armor has bird bones and wing bone structures. And with how he looks, his backstory makes perfect sense and is heartbreaking.

Boba was a request by a dear friend. He’s not cursed in TUO canon but my friend loves the design so much she asked if I couldn’t do a Boba design. So I did.

#frost replies #that got LONG #but man #TUO my beloved #TUO is the perfect example #of how I add details #and make them make sense later

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Cast: The Smiling Critters (or "Smiling Buddies")

Please refer to the below post as well:

(Attached link is for both halves of the art, designed by togebora)

A colourful band of friends, these are who you may (or may not) know as the Smiling Critters! Well, they are different in the IAB! continuity than you may know them in Poppy Playtime, especially over in Dimension MP-2021, where their roles are most prominent.

In this universe, they are NOT fictional characters from a TV show or toy lineup, but they are instead real characters in-universe who co-exist alongside everyone else in MP-2021. As it happened, all eight had applied for Bumper High School at the beginning of One More Hero and were getting ready to study alongside OMT!Tails and the ApocalypseTitan kid characters.

Daylight the Pup (DogDay)

The leader of the friend group and one of the most optimistic of the eight. He's shown to be very loyal to his friends, and he's one of the first OMT!Tails passes by on the open week at the school.

Bubba the Elephant (Bubba Bubbaphant)

The blue elephant member and one of the top students in classes, up there with OMT!Tails (mainly in math and science) and Max Cartwright. He's naturally smart and has a really good memory for things, and he's sometimes about to keep check on the below-mentioned petition and see how it's coming along.

Kickroyale the Chicken (Kickin' Chicken)

The yellow chicken member who is full of radical attitude for those around him and can be pretty smug about stuff. Though it does cause trouble on occasion for those around him, he's still got a good heart, and he's a bit of a softie deep down. Though he is the "cool kid" of his gang, he is pretty prone to fear, and is open to asking others for help if he really needs it.

As it happens, in One More Hero, he's the first to come to OMT!Tails and Bobby's aid when Benny starts bullying them for the heck of it (and even had the gall to mock Bobby's all-loving status), and he kept his trap shut when Richard attacked the school in More than One Universe to avoid being noticed.

Picky Patch the Pig (PickyPiggy)

The pink pig member and the big eater of the bunch. Contrary to her name, she isn't picky, but she enjoys lunchtimes at school and usually picks something filling and healthy to have for her daily meals. Of course, she can be picky about trying light snacks or fast foods, due to not wanting to be unhealthy in her life.

Picky is also one of the most optimistic and level-headed in the group, and is there to calm the others down if things are getting out of hand. And out of the goodness in her heart, when she heard that OMT!Tails was off sick, she shared some apples she had picked from an orchard for him to enjoy.

Hoppy Scotch the Bunny (Hoppy Hopscotch)

The green rabbit member and the most excitable of the bunch. She gives a lot of enthusiasm to friends around her, though can come off as loud or impatient sometimes because of this, so she does make time to slow down for her friends.

Of the bunch, she was one of the bigger fans of OMT!Sonic when he was still alive, and aspired to be able to run fast like him, hence her decision to ask OMT!Tails to give running or hopping a shot with her whenever they got the chance to hang out.

Crafty "CraftyCorn" Canvas the Unicorn

The white, yet colourful, unicorn member and one of the more shy members. She is shy around meeting new people, but especially enjoys art and the vast wonders it can create. As an aspiring artist, she finds it very important to share the art she creates with others and finding beauty in pretty much anything around her.

She's the Smiling Buddy who has the most influence in points of One More Hero's plot, as she had heard about the rising prevalence of AI in art theft and disliked the idea, so she enlisted OMT!Tails's help to go and get people to sign her petition to make AI art outright illegal in Dimension MP-2021.

OMT!Tails did find some difficulty in getting all the required signatures at first, but when the alternate crew from the Blur Gang came along, that's when he made excellent progress, and he handed the finished petition back to Crafty at the end of the story for her to put forward. She even painted a picture of him (including one with his nano-suit) and sent it to him as a thank you for what he did.

Bobby Hugster the Bear (Bobby Bearhug)

The young red bear member and the all-loving part of the gang. She's a young girl who shows love and compassion for pretty much anybody, no matter who they are. However, this all-loving status doesn't come without its flaws, as it leaves her vulnerable to bullying, which she wouldn't have made it through if not for people like OMT!Tails and Kickroyale having her back.

In One More Hero, she's the first to see how nervous Tails is about settling into his new school in those next six months, and offers him some starting companionship while he gets to grips with the place. And once she heard about what went down with Uma, she's the first to comfort OMT!Tails once he returns to the school dorms, knowing just how difficult it must be for him to cope with.

Of course, thanks to her being there whilst OMT!Tails was being comforted by the Blur Gang, it meant she also got caught up in the crazy hide-and-seek when Danny entered the room, and then pinned in the room with OMT!Tails when the Blur Gang headed out to shut down Eggman Nega's invention themselves, though she was freed once Tails got his heroic second wind.

Naksh the Cat (CatNap)

The last member of the Smiling Buddies, and arguably the one who's changed THE MOST from his original counterpart. He's not constantly sleepy, but he is selectively mute and hasn't smiled a lot, even when with his friends. He had a rough home life and finds comfort in being around people who genuinely get it.

He does show up to help comfort OMT!Tails after Uma is hospitalised, though due to being more nervous, he doesn't stick around after the Blur Gang arrive at his dorm, though does show fascination when he witnesses proof of the multiverse from them.

Through this knowledge, he saw about his portrayals from Playtime Co. and the horrors of the factory, and isn't afraid to show his dislike for BOTH portrayals, feeling they don't capture who he really is at all.

And in general...

Each of them enjoy being around OMT!Tails and have all supported him from the sidelines in his quest to protect Mobius from destruction at the hands of crazed villains. Though their roles are not as major as anyone from the Blur Gang, Quill Society or rogues gallery, they all still make sure to do their part where it counts.

Small Note

For all you Poppy Playtime fans that saw this post and liked it, welcome to my blog, where I post stuff related to a story based on Spider-Verse, but with hedgehogs, foxes and other characters from the Sonic multiverse. Be sure to stick around here to see more!

And as a side-note to you guys, the Smiling Critters (who I'll admit are my personal favourites from the game) are going to be the ONLY representation of Poppy Playtime in ALL of IAB!. That means the rest of the characters are absent in Dimension MP-2021 outright.

#sonic exe #sonic the hedgehog #spider verse #sth #sonic #sonic fandom #sth au #sonic au #spider man #poppy playtime #smiling critters

[majycka]

Hello op! I am one of those people who actually like Utahime as characters, my initial reason was her character design and name (I still think she has the best design among the female cast in jjk, maki and yuki aside). Her CT made me love her more, cause that differentiates her from other jujutsu sorcerers, where selfishness and greed is required to become ones absolute best self, Utahime’s CT does the opposite though, she as a human and also by the virtue of her CT can never really be selfish in a way. She literally powers up others (and herself), and her major strength lies in connections (again completely different from what is expected of sorcerers). If we break down her CT, she is the strongest version of herself (since her CT also powers herself) when she is with others helping them to be even stronger, almost exactly opposite of what gojo, the pinnacle of what jujutsu society represents.

I am also someone whose perception of her don't align with that of her majority fandom, I think you are one of those people, too. I would love to know your thoughts on how you personally perceive her and why your point of view is different. Cause there are times I wanna discuss something about her with my irl mutual, but then again, it never goes well. They are too deep in fanon stuff. I am someone who generally likes to keep my headcanon toned down and mostly stick to canon. I really wanted a pov of someone who actually likes her but also respects canon quite equally.

I honestly would have loved to see her more. This is not even something i am saying a fan, but even as a minor character, what she represents is just so different from everything we have been told (even her students defy that).

I hope I didn't bother you a lot with my ramblings 🙏

Nah you're all good anon! I love it when I get to ramble with other ppl about my faves and I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments of Utahime! I'll proceed to just dump all my thoughts about her as well and discuss what fandom thinks of her from what I've seen.

One thing that I've picked up from fanon of view of Utahime (in some of the fics I've read) is she's SOLELY this strict teacher all about respecting tradition/authority when it's not and it reduces her to that "respect your seniors!" dialogue. In fact, I can even argue that Gojo represents more of JJK traditional view in valuing individual strength even how much he says he's being progressive. His view of dividing people between strength vs weak screams kinda the same as those traditional clans valuing cursed techniques above anything else. Meanwhile, Utahime's value of teamwork challenges this traditional view of individual strength when like Gojo said, the pinnacle of jujutsu, all sorcerers die alone even how much allies you have 'cause the jjk world is an individual sport.

But let's break down this a bit and see what Gojo mean by jjk being an individual sport. We have seen so far that people who usually ascend the ranks are pretty selfish. Mei Mei who cites herself having a pretty weak technique, optimized her CT by using her brother. Kusakabe who doesn't have a proper CT was able to be a grade one rank because he, at the beginning of the Shibuya arc, wants to save his own skin and would rather stay behind in fighting (but dude later on helped in pulling out the kyoto kids from the Kenjaku attack, still dude can be selfish). The big clan families will kill each other over cursed techniques. Gojo himself advised Megumi to be more selfish and greedy in power when they were training together. Of course, there are outliers such as a strong sorcerers like Nanami, who cares for children, but boom ended up getting killed right at the very end while Mei Mei was able to go to her Malaysia trip. It paints this image that selfishness is a needed trait to survive the jujutsu world and rise to power.

However by Utahime promoting teamwork shown through her kids, teamwork can give up the idea of selfishness because we learn when to trust others and work together for a common goal. It can save people especially in a world where being "weak" is a disadvantage. An excellent example of teamwork from Kyoto Tech is shown through that one scene in jjk 0 how each kid has a role in their group attacks which optimizes their cursed technique no matter how VARIED their ranks/skills are. Momo usually surveys the area, communicates to others, and is like the oversees everything in a big picture. Kamo acts as the leader, looks out for everyone and keeps them in task. Mai is the long range shooter and can back people up. Mechamaru constantly backs others up like Miwa. Meanwhile, of course, there's our fun outlier, Todo.

But the funny thing is despite Todo usually going off his own, breaking the "yay teamwork!" streak of Kyoto tech, his character brings up another essential point about teamwork: connecting with others. If it weren't for Todo showing up in helping Yuuji against Mahito, then Yuuji wouldn't be able to defeat him right after seeing Nobara blown up. Todo works best/fights best with his besto friendo. Todo is the same dude who said being sorcerers means always honoring their allies/friends because they keep us going. It's still very much in line in the spirit of Kyoto kids' teamwork and also their connection with others. Muta and Miwa. Mai and Maki. Momo and her bond with Mai and Miwa. Kamo and his mom. There's also their teacher Utahime who is close friends with Shoko, and she probably influenced these kids to get along with each other and foster that teamwork skills (you know like the MANY MAANNNYYY times Uta keeps on saying that the kyoto-tokyo kids should get along during the goodwill event). I'm not saying Tokyo kids can't get along, but it's not as the same degree as Kyoto's. I think what Kyoto's dynamic different is how they can be vulnerable with others and open about their problems/feelings which helps in these kids growing closer. For example, Momo is well aware of Mai's situation and will defend her. Miwa, who's well aware that growing closer will only end up hurting them because of the inevitable death in jjk, still chose to connect with her peers, and that lead to Muta even falling in love with her. For Tokyo, let's take an example of how the first years reacted to Yuuji's "death." Both Megumi and Nobara definitely tried hard to keep that stoic front. Nobara said how she can't cry on some guy she just knew for a few months when in fact Nobara is clearly affected. In the earlier arcs, Megumi and Yuuji were keeping secrets from each other about the whole "eating the Sukuna finger actually made things worse by awakening other fingers and kills more people everyday." The second years became close because of Yuta's nature who constantly reach out to everyone and not under Gojo's influence.

Moreover, I don't think I've seen this much group cohesion like Kyoto’s compared to Tokyo because it stuck to me how in Shibuya arc, the Tokyo kids are just constantly going off their own to prove their strength like Maki and Nobara which yes is a bit understandable cuz these kids are strong, but would it be so much stronger if they work together? But Gojo, their teacher, has established that he does not really advocate teamwork (even if he did for other’s help like Nanami and Utahime, he still ended up doing things alone). If Gojo's students are all strong individually because he's very particular in choosing his kids(aka choosing them for their potential/strength), then Utahime's student's are weak individually HOWEVER more stronger as a group. No wonder she is adored by everyone. No wonder that when Miwa was at her lowest during Muta's death, Kyoto tech was there for her.

However, there are times too when Utahime is carried away by the system and her students fell victims to it too(like the time she didn't know her student were targeting Yuuji, how Mai and Muta died in cruel way) because as the opposite of Gojo, she isn't traditionally strong who has the power to defy authority. She's more subtle about it because she works around the system (shown in investigating that haunted mansion from gojo's past arc and working to find the mole within the ranks and students) and doesn't easily power through them like how Gojo destroyed the mansion and can do whatever he wants cuz of his "strongest" title. That's why Gojo asked her help because she could investigate within the system and he couldn't do something like that when he's all about being loud and throwing around his weight. There are pros/con to her subtle nature, but since the JJK world favors the strong, then she gets stuff unchecked. So, NO, I don't think she's all that "strictly respect traditions/authority" type of person. She just knows how to play politics especially in a world where they will hammer down who is weak against the system, and yet, despite that, she's able to influence her kids to do something that sorcerers struggle with.

This is why her CT is beautiful too because literally and thematically anyone who gets into her "zone" will be strengthened by her. I've seen complaints about Utahime's CT in being merely a support/buffer type. Some people had been expecting that it could be something powerful and not just buffing people up. I’m guessing that its the girlboss belief that fans can latch onto. I mean most of the jjk girls are tough as nails that the fans like which yes is understandable! But I’ve seen this happen way too many time in shonen spaces where at times the considered “weak” or "support-type" fem characters are easily non favorable for fans. I think such thing doesn’t help people actually analyze the text and for me, if such character is written well then I’m 100% in (like c’mon, Miwa’s a “weak” character and yet she’s compelling not just her fun personality, but how she struggles with grief and a world where she gets her ass kicked for being weak). As for Utahime’s case, I love it! Because the whole point of the cursed techniques is it reflects a lot like of its user’s psyche and the series establishes that Utahime values teamwork and her connections with others which is anomaly in the jjk world, and it makes her CT badass in that way. That’s why it’s no wonder she’s a natural in supporting others! It 👏makes 👏sense👏!

My next fanon and canon comparison is more within the gjhm fandom which will be a bit controversial. Like I'm a gjhm shipper myself but there are times I have some issues in how they deal with Utahime. I think at times Utahime's spunk gets taken away just so she could coddle Gojo and easily ship them together fast. Like yall Utahime actually has some genuine reasons why she hates him not just 'cause of his annoying ass but cuz of his "weak" mockery to her. And I find it very much so amazing that Utahime's doesn't take his shit and will retaliate. I think it's Utahime wanting Gojo to be accountable on shit he does (like dang man this dude been getting away from shit) 'cause Gojo does perceive people in the traditional fashion of strong vs weak lenses. I keep on saying strong vs weak lenses because how Gojo nitpicks people he wants to "save" and that's usually people with "potential." Is it altogether bad wanting kids/students that have the drive to be stronger? Well, not exactly, no but when he started spouting how he wants to raise a generation way better than the higher ups, then why doesn't he include ALL of generation whether the kids start of strong or weak. Why didn't he pull out both Maki AND Mai from their Zenin situation? Don't give me the bullshit of "I can't save everyone who doesn't want to be saved" because especially if this is kids put in a dangerous environment, then it would be the job of adults to be responsible for them.

This is where the comparison of Utahime can show up again. Even how much different her kids are, personality and sorcery skill wise (llike Mai, Momo's fiery personalities way different from Miwa's, Kyoto being quite annoyed by Kamo's leader attitude), they obviously still make their group attacks work whether one is disadvantage in some skill or not. Utahime again and again is shown to care for her students whether not they're strong or weak. She prioritize their safety when that attack from goodwill arc showed up, and she went to the frontlines during the Kyoto-Kenjaku attack back in Shibuya.

I think, just personally, the fanon of Utahime coddling Gojo is ain't it for me when in many ways, Utahime can point out the flaws of Gojo's teaching that he needs. I'm not saying Utahime doesn't have her flaws either because she's weak to a whole system against her and there are times she couldn't be there for her students.

But yeah, that's about it for my Utahime thoughts and fanon discussion. Anon, if you have any fanon interpretation that you've encounter or more Utahime thoughts and wanna share then please feel free to drop an ask! ;)

#iori utahime #utahime iori #gojo satoru #satoru gojo #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #meta attempt #jjk asks