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unpredictable-probabilities · 2 months

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Azul Ashengrotto of Royal Sword Academy || Chapter 23: Mummies and Skeletons

Summary:

After Sam's shop, Jamil's Halloween Tour for Azul officially begins and the couple first make their way to Octavinelle and Heartslabyul's booths, where their respective Prefects and Vice Prefects reveal that they haven't been the only ones facing romantic prospects and dilemmas.

Word Count: 4,828

They pass by the other Scarabia students in their costumes, and some turn to greet and wave at them.

"Have a great day, boss!"

"Swing by again sometime, Mister Azul!"

"Wear costumes next time, you two!"

Azul turns to Jamil and casually links their hands again. "When is your costume shift?" he asks curiously.

"Tomorrow and then on Friday, from afternoon until the evening.” Jamil raises an eyebrow at Azul. "Why? Is someone interested? I'm not gonna look much different from the others here, just so you know."

"Just like how I don't look much different in my RSA uniform than my other schoolmates?" Azul tilts his head and smiles.

"... Touché,” Jamil returns the smile

"Oh, hey! Is that a Stamp Booklet in your hands, Mister Azul?" asked one of the Scarabia students. "Here! Lemme go and mark our stall down for you! If you're ever in need of a snack, Sam's selling limited-edition waffles so feel free to come back!"

"Thank you," Azul nods and takes back the stamped booklet.

"Enjoy your date!" the Scarabia student says brightly and returns to their booth.

"I'm happy to see that your residents are supportive," Azul says to Jamil. "I suppose I'm just surprised because the first impression I've had of your residents was when one of them threw their lunch at me," he adds in amusement.

"A-hah, well, we don't often make for the best people to go to when you want to make good first impressions." Jamil chuckles. "It does make me curious what'd go down if you two ever chance upon each other again. I can at least assure you he won't be throwing another lunch your way anytime soon. I think it was his way of protecting my pride for that quiz bee."

"Hmm," Azul hums thoughtfully. "I'd been wondering, when some of your schoolmates and your own residents were quite angry with me after that quiz bee, why weren't you? I mean, you did look like you wanted to stab me right after the quiz ended, but you didn't seem angry anymore when the Leech twins dragged us to the cafeteria."

"I was mostly confused and just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible," Jamil admits. "And even if I was upset at you, I was mostly upset with myself, so the anger against you didn't last for too long."

"I'm glad it didn't," Azul smiles. "Because even back then I already admired you. I've competed in a few quiz bees before, but no one came as close to beating me like you did. It reached a point when I was smiling every time you answered correctly."

"Strange. I don't think I've ever met anyone who'd be happy to get closely beaten…" Jamil says as they start making their way on the path leading back to the Hall of Mirrors. "Why? Craving for a fellow intellectual or something?"

"I suppose I was," Azul shrugs. "As I've said, I only really joined because my professors suggested that I do, and I saw no reason to refuse. I was prepared to be bored out of my mind again, but you made it more challenging."

"Well, I'm glad I was able to make it fun for you. I'm definitely up for a rematch someday. Although I honestly wanna see a showdown between you and our lil' valedictorian: Riddle Rosehearts from Heartslabyul. That guy's ruthless when it comes to being a know-it-all. Their dorm's got 810 rules and he's apparently memorized all of them by heart. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him get an imperfect score, even when the test had an item about a newfound thesis or research. If you really want a challenge, there's your guy."

"Rosehearts, the president of the Equestrian Club? Interesting," Azul says thoughtfully. “He did seem rather capable and competent when we went horseback riding with Najma a while back.”

Jamil nods. “Exactly. Anyway, we're heading to Octavinelle's booth next. Any guesses as to what they've become this Halloween?" He was certain they hadn't run into any Octavinelle student in costume in the dorm last night, and Jade left for the meeting earlier without changing.

"Hmm. Scarabia is werewolves, Pomefiore is vampires… I don't suppose Octavinelle went for zombies? Sea monsters are also possible, but that might be too on the nose. Or ghosts? I can see Floyd having fun with a costume made out of a sheet with eyeholes.”

"He would, and he'd be an absolute terror at it," Jamil shakes his head in amusement. "Well, here we are. On a normal day, this is our school's laboratory."

They stand by a building that's been decked out with cobwebs and machinery, making it resemble the lab of a mad scientist. Jamil leads Azul inside where they're greeted by a spacious but crowded room full of vials, surgery tables, various equipment, and tanks filled with bioluminescent water.

A few of the Octavinelle students were milling around, looking up at them thinking that they're visitors, only to blink in confusion. They're all dressed in classy suits of white fabric and linen, complete with bowler hats and arm draperies.

"Uh..." one of them speaks up. "Can we help you?"

"Hello," Azul greets him with a smile. "We're just visiting your booth. Oh, and getting a stamp," he shows him the booklet.

"Jamil!" a cheerful voice says, and Rey appears in costume. "I haven't seen you in forever! How's your dorm? How's your booth?" He seems to notice Azul for the first time. "Oh! And who's this?" his eyes drift to their linked hands and look questioningly at Jamil, the smile still on his face.

"Ah, hey Rey," Jamil nods in his direction before looking at Azul and gesturing to the Octavinelle Prefect. "Azul, this is Rey. Rey, this is Azul, a student from RSA. I'm just showing him around. Scarabia’s doing pretty well. How are things here?"

"Oh it's been chill, Jade did a super dope job with this place, I mean look at it!" he gestures proudly around. "And— Wait, Azul?" he turns to him. "Oh! You're the one who's co-managing Jade's café! Nice to finally meet you!" he claps Azul on the shoulder.

"It's nice to meet you too," Azul smiles back. "Thank you for allowing me to co-manage a shop in your dorm."

"It's no problem, man!" Rey says, then turns to Jamil. "Uh, hey, do you know where Tacitus is?"

"Tacitus?" Jamil blinks, confused. Why is Rey looking for his Vice Prefect? "I think he's at his room in Scarabia, since today's not his costume shift. Why?"

"I wanted to show him my costume," Rey grins. "Oh and I'm gonna ask him out. See you, guys!" he claps both of them on the shoulder and strolls out.

"Wh—!?" Jamil sputters out in bewilderment.

"Good luck!" someone from Octavinelle calls out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I don't think so!" says another, walking in front of Rey. "Prefect, today's your costume shift and we need you here to help hold down the fort. There were already a LOTTA visitors yesterday—it could end up disastrous if we don't have all hands on deck with us right now!"

"Oh right!" Rey says, as if he just realized what the booth is for. "The visitors! That's why we're in costume! Smart," he points an approving finger at the student. Then he pulls out his phone and starts typing. "Just gonna send a quick text to Tacitus, asking him to visit. Hmm, he doesn't like crowds, though. I'll just ask him to meet up later when the gates close for visitors again." He goes to sit in a chair at the side, texting and smiling at his phone.

"I can stamp that for you," the first student that approached them says politely to Azul.

"Oh thank you," Azul says, handing it over and accepting it after it had been stamped.

"I see that Rey's still the same as ever," Jamil comments, watching the guy type away on his phone before turning to the costumed Octavinelle student in charge of stamping. "But hang on, him and Tacitus? Since when had this been a thing?"

The student shrugs. "I don't know. But I've seen them hanging out a few times, and Tacitus was at Octavinelle yesterday. They had lunch in our lounge."

"I see this surprises you," Azul remarks. "Did they not seem close before?"

"Well, I didn't know much about Tacitus at all, and I certainly hadn't expected him and Rey of all people to get along..." Jamil mutters, looking almost concerned. "Rey seems like a nice guy, but I dunno…"

"If it's of any comfort to you, Jamil, the rest of us haven't quite figured Tacitus out either, despite his frequent visits. It seems like the only one who has an inclination of what he's like is Prefect Rey himself."

Jamil sighs. "I hope he treats him well… Sometimes, when I look at Tacitus, he just seems like a gust of desert wind would be enough to blow him away."

"I've only known Rey for the entirety of two minutes so I can't say much," Azul says. "But he did take into consideration Tacitus' dislike of crowds, so that at least shows that he cares about his feelings. And he seemed really excited to see him."

The Octavinelle student nods. "Yeah, don't worry, Jamil. Prefect Rey can be a little forgetful and… quirky sometimes, but he means well. And Azul has a point. Prefect Rey knows that Tacitus doesn't like going outside much, so they always hang out at our dorm or in any of the buildings here."

"That's saying a lot, considering Rey doesn't like ‘being cooped up for too long', according to him during one of our meetings." Jamil mentions. "Well, I hope they have fun later, then, and er… good luck for Day 2, you guys."

"Don't worry, we'll be fine, we've got Jade filling in with us after his meeting, but…" The student conspiratorially leans in with a whisper. "We gotta keep Prefect Rey attentive to his duties as much as possible."

"He seems to listen easily when you remind him," Azul says encouragingly. "Good luck for today, and great job on the decorations."

"Thanks," the student grins and walks off to greet the other visitors that are starting to come in.

"Their mummy costumes look good," Azul tells Jamil. "Was each dorm free to come up with their own theme?"

"Yup. Jade told me it was because both he and Rey were mermen, they wanted to try dressing up as the farthest thing from that, so desert mummies they became. Dunno why they went for a mad scientist in addition to that, though."

"Perhaps it was Floyd's idea," Azul says in amusement. "How did Scarabia decide on werewolves?"

"That sounds like Floyd," Jamil mutters. "As for our decision on werewolves, we also wanted to break from our usual norm of desert themes, and then someone thought about the coyotes roaming around at night before we started delving into folktales of people transforming into wolves around the colder regions of the Shaftlands, so… there we are. How about you? If you could dress up as a monster, what would you have liked to become?"

Azul thinks about it. "Perhaps one of those undead creatures who are made of stitched up body parts of different corpses. The idea of creating an entirely new sentient being from several different parts seems like an incredible feat, and as a costume the fake stitches seem like they'd make for good decoration. Or I could just go for a Kraken and save up on costume materials," he says playfully. "What about you?"

Jamil thought about it. "I think a part of me would be the type of asshole that'd dress up normally and say that I'm attending Halloween as a murderous sociopath. Though a skeleton would be pretty cool. It's gotta be a cool-looking skeleton, though. Speaking of, that's what the next location's all about. Come on."

"Bye, you two!" Rey waves them off.

Azul chuckles at Jamil's answer and waves a goodbye to Rey. "A cool-looking skeleton, huh? That definitely sounds intriguing." Then he looks thoughtful. "What costume would you like to see me in?" he asks Jamil.

Jamil blinks at him in surprise. "Oh, um… I'm not sure. I'd much prefer you looking comfortable in what you wear, so… I dunno. I don't really have anything in mind. Why? Do you?”

"I did pick a costume for our Music Club performance," Azul says. "I partly asked that question because I was wondering if you'd like what I had picked," he smiles. "Anyway, which dorm has the cool-looking skeletons?"

"Oh?" Jamil asks, deciding to focus on Azul's mystery outfit first. "How do you find your costume, then? Do you like it? Was it your idea to wear it?"

Azul nods. "It was my idea, yes. We were thinking of what songs we could perform that would be fitting for Halloween, and I remembered one that's based on a legend from the Shaftlands. My costume is based on one of the characters in the legend, I really like it," he says genuinely.

Jamil smiles at him. "Then I'm sure I'll love it. Now, as for the skeletons…"

They stop outside the botanical garden, with guests and visitors streaming in beside them. Jamil made sure no familiar Heartslabyul members were in sight before turning to Azul. "Which dorm do you think this is?"

Azul looks around. "The options are Ignihyde, Diasomnia, Heartslabyul, or Savanaclaw, correct? I don't see any advanced technological effects, so I think we can rule out Ignihyde. I don't see many beastmen either, so I'm guessing not Savanaclaw. It's either Diasomnia or Heartslabyul," he guesses.

"Huh? Oh, hey! You two!" Says a voice, and Ace pops up among the crowd, donning the dark and white clothes and a shovel. He waves and jogs over to them. "What're you doin' here? Showin' him around, Jamil?"

Jamil, though a little cross that the guessing was cut short, nods. "Yep. He's filling out stamps for that prize. Looks like you weren't beheaded, good for you."

"Beheaded?" Azul asks. "I'm guessing that's a metaphor, or Halloween in NRC is much more intense than I had expected."

"Psh, nah. It's my Prefect’s Signature Spell." Ace grimaces, the face of someone who's already experienced it. "It basically locks all your magic away until he dispels it. If you ask me, it's just as bad as an actual beheading. So you're here for stamps? You're gonna have to find our head 'gravedigger' for that! You'll find him inside our 'cemetery'!" He gestures at the large botanical dome. "He goes by the name of 'Trey Clover'. Knowing him, he's prolly not gonna be in-character. Says it's embarrassing."

"Look, momma! It's one of the monsters!" a little girl exclaims, pointing at Ace.

Ace smoothly turns to her and smiles. "Hey there, kiddo! Heading into the spooky graveyard first, are we? Sounds like you're pretty brave! Are you sure you can handle it?"

"We should leave him be for now," Jamil says, gently tugging Azul along as the girl giggles at Ace and tells him that he doesn't look scary at all.

"I seem to remember you mentioning the name 'Trey' back then,” Azul says as they walk deeper into the booth. “Is he the one who you said might be interested in judging our cooking competition?"

"Oh, right. Yeah. He's pretty reliable. Hardly pokes his nose into other people's business and can generally be relied on as one of the nicer guys in school,” Jamil explains, opening the door to reveal the sprawling greenery of the botanical garden shrouded in fog as decorated headstones and spooky memorabilia scatter throughout the space. Many of the Heartslabyul students are found here, slinking around greeting guests or taking pictures with them.

"You really go all out with your decorations," Azul smiles, looking around.

Jamil sees Trey up ahead, wearing his costume and smiling at a group of visitors while he stamps their booklets. They take a picture with him and thank him before walking away to explore.

"Well, of course,” Jamil says. “None of us plan on losing to the others… Though admittedly, there's no prize for whose booth is the best. It's just bragging rights. And we'll all insist that our respective dorms would have won," Jamil rolls his eyes. "It's so childish. If only we can all agree that Scarabia's is clearly superior."

They leisurely make their walk along the gravestones, each one written with customized inscriptions.

One of them reads:

HERE LIES DUMMY DEUCEY.

CAUSE OF DEATH: HIS OWN CAULDRON TO THE HEAD.

While the tombstone next to it states:

HERE LIES ACE THE MENACE.

CAUSE OF DEATH: TART THEFT.

"Looks like they had fun making the tombstones," Azul says in amusement, looking down at the inscriptions. He looks at Jamil again. "Do I get a prize if I say that Scarabia's booth is superior?"

Jamil snorts before giving Azul a side-hug. "A very pleased boyfriend, that's for certain... Anyway, that's our future cooking judge up ahead." He gestures to Trey and proceeds to make his way over.

Trey quickly notices them and smiles. "Ah. Hey, Jamil. And you must be…" He curiously glances at Azul. "Oh, I recognize you from the committee meetings between RSA and NRC leading up to Halloween. We never properly introduced ourselves before, have we? I'm Trey Clover, Heartslabyul's Vice Prefect. How can I help you?"

"Hello, I'm Azul Ashengrotto," Azul smiles. "A pleasure to meet you. Jamil is just showing me around the booths, and Ace said you're the one to look for if we want to get stamps," he shows the booklet.

"Ah, of course," Trey takes it. "So, Azul, how were the cookies?" he says while stamping the booklet.

"Sorry?" Azul says in confusion.

Trey smiles and hands the booklet back to Azul. "The seashell cookies, that Jamil asked me to help him bake for the Autumn Dance."

"Oh! They were excellent," Azul smiles. "I must say that I'd never seen edible hinges on a pastry before. It's kind of you to help Jamil make them. How did you know they were for me?" he wonders aloud.

"Jamil had never approached me for confectionery help before, and he was determined for it to go well, so I figured it must be for something special. Then Riddle tells me that you were walking around NRC wearing Jamil's blazer. It didn't take much to figure out.” Trey gives Jamil a knowing look.

"AHEM! Thank you, Trey," Jamil mutters, looking away in embarrassment. "There's no point in slyly exposing me at this point. Azul already knows how bad I got it for him."

Azul chuckles, his cheeks turning pink. "I never know how to respond when you say things like that, you know?"

Trey laughs good-naturedly. "Well I'm glad you didn't remain stubbornly secretive about it, Jamil. Look at you being a changed man," he teases.

"What do you mean? Have I always been that obvious?" Jamil asks, flustered. "You don't know. I could've just wanted to give those baked treats to a friend or get myself some favors for leverage down the road..."

"Your only close friends here are Ace, Floyd, and Ruggie, and you don't seem the type to give pastries to each other," Trey says. "And your smile after we baked the cookies was genuinely happy and not at all devious. I could have been reading too much into it," he shrugs, "But then we all saw how you two were dancing at the ball, and that was that.”

Now Jamil wishes he knew more about Trey, just so he could clap back and tease him on his crushes. But he unfortunately doesn't have much to go on. Trey is unsurprisingly a very desirable fellow on campus, even attracting attention from people like Vil and Jade.

"... Fine,” Jamil relents with a sigh. "I guess I was pretty bad at keeping it all under wraps… But it's whatever now, right? How are things going over here?"

"Good, even the freshmen are handling things well enough even when there are a lot of visitors," Trey says.

"Oh, hello," Riddle appears beside Trey and greets all of them, then turns back to Trey. "I'm just reminding you that your break is in an hour."

"Oh," Trey looks at his watch. "Thanks, Riddle," he smiles.

"How are the booths so far?" Riddle asks them.

"They seem to be doing well enough, though I might have to check back on Scarabia later to be sure,” Jamil replies. “But for now, I'm just showing Azul around. We're heading to Diasomnia's next.”

Jamil finds himself squinting at both Riddle and Trey, wondering if there's something between them. They certainly have a stronger bond than the average Prefect and Vice Prefect would have.

"Ah, their decorations are certainly a sight to behold," Riddle says approvingly.

"Maybe you'll run into Yuu and Grim while you're there," Trey says. "They put on some costumes, too."

"All right, I shall go check on the others and make sure that everything is still in order," Riddle says.

"Hey, you should also take a break soon, okay?" Trey says, his tone softening. "You've been working since breakfast."

"I'm fine, Trey," Riddle says. "As Prefect, my residents must always feel assured that I am around if they ever need help."

"They can handle it, you've taught all of them well." Trey isn't backing down.

Riddle purses his lips. "Still, I should be here–"

"If you don't take a break, neither will I," Trey cuts him off, sounding a little playful but looking serious.

Riddle's mouth parts in surprise, but he relents. "Fine. I'll take a small break now, and I'll return when it's your break time, okay?"

"Sounds good," Trey smiles.

Riddle steps closer to Trey and straightens his collar. "There. All that posing for photos seems to have gotten you a little disheveled," he says playfully.

Trey averts his eyes from Riddle's face so close to him and lets out a nervous chuckle, his own face reddening. "Sorry, Prefect."

"Oh stop it, I was joking," Riddle says with a smile. Then he turns to Azul and Jamil. "Enjoy the rest of the booths," he says then walks away.

"Do you bake cookies for him, Trey?" Azul asks mischievously.

"What?" Trey looks caught off-guard. "No, I–" he laughs awkwardly. "Riddle and I are childhood friends. That's it."

"I see. I suppose that makes sense, he was on a date with that Pomefiore bloke earlier, they looked really sweet together."

"What?" Trey frowns. "Who? And when? Riddle hasn't told me anything. Was it Rook? They were probably just talking, Rook can be overly friendly to people and it can look like a date. Was it him? Blond guy, probably with a bow and arrow?"

Azul just smirks wordlessly, and understanding appears on Trey's face.

"Ah. You are dastardly for an RSA student, Azul," Trey wags a finger at him, smiling.

"Seems like it's an NRC trait to be stubbornly secretive," Azul smiles back.

Jamil chuckles at Azul's antics. "Well now… Looks like your baking for Riddle's got its own special motivations, too. Planning on telling him anytime soon?"

Trey laughs nervously, adjusting his glasses. "Well I– I mean– I don't even know where to begin, you know?" he looks at them, then furrows his eyebrows curiously at Jamil. "How did you tell Azul? Such a private guy like you. Or did Azul admit it first?"

Jamil blinks at him. Could Trey be asking for advice?

"I did it in the smoothest way possible," he playfully fibs.

Azul chuckles, smiling fondly at Jamil, but he just watches their exchange and doesn't say anything.

"Really?" Trey raises an eyebrow in amusement and crosses his arms. "And how did you do that? Care to help out an old upperclassman?"

Oh, Jamil's digging himself into a hole here.

"... Well..." Jamil glances at Azul for help and sees that he won't be getting any. "We were talking, and the talking... escalated. I made a move, Azul moved back and… we took off from there."

Trey looks at him for a few moments and smiles. "I'm proud of you, Jamil," he says genuinely, with a hint of wistfulness in his voice.

"If I may," Azul finally speaks. "If you really want to tell Riddle, then simply start by talking to him. You're already close friends so it shouldn't be too difficult."

"I'm not sure how I feel talking about this so out in the open like this," Trey chuckles and looks around shyly at all the visitors roaming their booth. "But… even if we do talk about it… If he doesn't feel the same, then we might end up being awkward around each other. I just don't wanna mess up what we have now, you know? I'm happy where we are."

"And if someone else were to court Riddle and date him?" Azul asks pointedly.

Trey purses his lips. "It'll be Riddle's choice if he wants to date someone else, I won't stop him."

"Then let him know that you're one of the choices," Azul says slowly, as if to emphasize the point. "I realize we've only met today, and I don't want to impose. But from what I've seen, I don't think there's anything you can say to Riddle that would drive him away. Jamil here knows the two of you better, do you agree?" he turns to Jamil.

"Honestly? Yeah," Jamil nods, crossing his arms and dropping the playfulness. "Riddle relies and trusts you a lot. I get how you feel, being unsure about where you both stand… But I think Riddle of all people would appreciate it if you approach him about it honestly… Though I suppose it can't hurt to be extra sure. Have you gathered any information from other Heartslabyuls about how Riddle might feel about you?”

"You make it sound like spywork or something," Trey says shyly, shaking his head. "Uh, our dorm mates like to tease us sometimes, though mostly me when Riddle isn't around. But that doesn't really mean anything."

"You don't know, maybe they noticed something in Riddle too, if they felt confident enough to tease you about it,” Jamil tells him. "You don't have to follow any of my and Azul's thoughts on the matter. In the end, the decision really is up to you. But Riddle's considerably changed since the first few weeks of school. I think you can trust that whatever you tell him, the both of you will be able to talk it out properly without jeopardizing your friendship.”

Trey nods slowly, a thoughtful look on his face, and he gives them a small smile. "Thanks, guys. I'll keep that in mind. I'm gonna get back to work now," he nods at new visitors approaching and walks over to them. The kids stare in awe at his costume and excitedly ask their parents to take their picture with him.

"Weren't… you afraid?" Azul asks Jamil as they make their way out of the booth. "That you might jeopardize our friendship if you had admitted your feelings?"

"I was... but the main reason I hesitated telling you was that I wanted to wait for the right moment to say it, though it was hard to find that with events and issues popping up here and there. What about you?" Jamil asks curiously.

Azul looks ahead as he thinks about it. "I suppose I was more like Trey. I was already happy with what we had, and I was afraid to do anything that might mess it up, even though I wanted more. Wait…" he turns to Jamil in realization. "That moment in the aviary, just before my phone rang, were you about to confess your feelings then?"

Jamil can't help but shyly smile. "I thought the timing felt right then and there, but… well, it didn't work out. So this was all a little late."

Azul smiles fondly and takes Jamil's hand, lacing their fingers together. "You did save my life that day, so I don't mind that the confession was a little late. Especially since you kissed me right after confessing," his tone becomes a bit more playful.

Jamil grins wryly, leading Azul outside of the garden and into the autumn daylight. "It was hard to keep myself away from you once the cat got out of the bag.”

“Dangerous words, Viper.” Azul's eyes glint mischievously.

Jamil chuckles and turns away from Azul's gaze, his face warming. Sevens, the guy could really flirt if he wanted to. That was deeply unfair.

“Speaking of cats,” Jamil pointedly changes the subject as they approach Ramshackle dorm. “How do you feel about a monster that particularly looks like one, but with fire in its ears and a pitchfork for a tail? Hope you're not too freaked out by abnormal creatures…”

Author's Notes:

Thank you for your patience with this update sdkjflskdfj, I hope you liked it! ^_^

<- Chapter 22

Chapter 24 ->

(Masterlist)

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blue-cheeseinmyoffwhites · 1 year

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RWBY Fight Scenes Ranked (Volume 9)

So this is a series I’ve wanted to do for a while. I love RWBY’s action, but a lot of times it’s hard to distinguish a fight scene from just an action sequence. With Volume 9, it’s been a little easier to understand which parts of the episode are full battles. I’ll be ranking them based on my standards

5.) WBY & Jaune vs NeoCat

This was just a quick teaser fight for the actual showdown in the finale. I do wish we got more fighting of NeoCat. Their fighting style & movements were very interesting. This was the last chance for a Yang vs Neo rematch, but whatever. Jaune however had some pretty solid animation, although short. He’s finally getting what I like to call the “Monty Treatment”, one on one grounded high-tempo choreography (I hope that made sense). We got a tiny glimpse of it in V8 against Ironwood but here it’s a little longer. The Pyrrha sneak was cruel but exciting.

4.) WBY & Jaune vs Jabber Walker

Another quick battle. Was expecting a little more quicker paced based on the teaser in the trailer, but it’s understandable based on the later fight against the Walker Clones. The bird was an interesting addition to the battle, wish we saw more of him (RIP). Jaune’s entry was amazing, he mostly used Juniper (MVP) but he helped a bunch. Weiss Blake & Yang have great chemistry, always following each other’s attacks perfectly. Weiss grounds the Walker, Blake restricts its attacks, and Yang deals the blows. Short & sweet.

3.) WBY & Jaune vs Walker Clones

These last three fights had amazing animation, but this one was a standout in terms of fluidity. Not a lot of people talk about this battle. The camera angles, the movement, everything was done so good. The “couples” were paired with each other, which was fine with me. Blake & Yang steal the show yet again. A lot of interesting combos. Yang’s supersaiyan switch in this fight was cool to see, the bees going back & forth with the Walkers was amazing, the bungee jump maneuver was interesting. Weiss & Jaune did great too. They made up for each other’s slip-ups. I’ve noticed by this fight that Weiss’s reflexes have increased significantly, catching Jaune’s sword almost instantly. Jaune’s gravity maneuver was pretty cool too.

2.)Team RWBY vs Final Form Cat

It was really hard to decide between this and the first pick but I chose only because I had more time with the other one. This fight was amazing. Ruby hasn’t had a consistent performance like this since Volume 4 (yes 4, not 3 like people keep assuming). I’ve always said that V4 was peak Ruby Rose action, using her semblance to zip around and slice away with her scythe. I’ve only had one request for the finale and it was to have something like this, and it definitely delivered. Weiss continuing to carry the battle being a quick support for her teammates to attack the Cat. That whole part with the glyph atmosphere was amazing. Seeing Ruby, Blake, & Yang zip around the Cat gave me huge Sonic Heroes vibes. The final strike with all 4 girls was a perfect finish.

1.) Team RWBY vs Red Prince

The infamous chess match. I was already excited for this volume, but THIS is when I was locked in. There were quick snippet matches with each girl before the actual fight, I just wanted to shoutout Blake’s part. Her quick whip movements were cool to see. The actual fight later kicks in & immediately Blake & Yang are doing their signature swinging move. Weiss handles some Red Pawns with ease & confidence love that for her. You can tell she’s starting to fight like Winter here. Always enjoy seeing her use her semblance to skate around. Blake has the least firepower of the three, but she makes up for it in movements. She does some cool flips & maneuvers around the board with her shadows. The fight really kicks in after Ruby boosts them up. Weiss really proved her statement in V1 that she would be the best teammate. She was projecting gravity glyphs for Blake WHILE activating a Nevermore summon then did it again WHILE catching Blake’s weapon WHILE activating a sword for Yang, which by the way was peak RWBY action. Yang is usually the one to deal the heavy blows, but it’s so much better when she has assistance from her teammates. This fight, as well at this whole episode, was a great callback to Players & Pieces, one of the most famous episodes of RWBY, & it’s so funny because they’re fighting chess pieces.

Alot of people thought Volume 9 wouldn’t deliver on fights because it wa said to be a more “toned-down” season, but honestly they haven’t missed on a single fight this Volume. My only gripe is that we didn’t get one with Neo, and I’m not counting the Tea Party because it was just Ruby getting her ass beat. Besides that, the fights definitely delivered for me. Can’t wait for more!!

#rwby #rwby fights #rwby meta

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rabbiteclair · 1 year

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Whose your fav among the sephirot/librarians?

okay I'm a bit late to this, but

I think if I have to go for a favorite and I'm being honest with myself, it's gotta be Gebura. she's cool. she's got a big sword. she seems like one of the people with less culpability for stuff like that time Carmen's followers killed a kid. (Hod, Tiphereth, and Netzach are the ones I'll pretty much entirely let off the hook here.) she's cool. she has the ability to spontaneously manifest guitar music wherever she goes. she seems to have just been a really solid person as a human. she's cool.

the fact that she's 'killed the entire Jae-heon/Oswald/Tanya fight in the Reverb Ensemble rematches in about three rounds' powerful in Ruina helps, but not as much as you might expect. her backstory stuff already had her arguably in my #1 spot after LobCo

the more detailed official art needs to give her more muscles though. girl wields a fucking buster sword with meat taped to it, let me have this.

the spots below her in the ranking are some combination of Hod, Tiphereth, Netzach, and Binah, probably.

this is very much a post-Ruina ranking, especially for Binah. siding with Angela during the whole Tree of Life showdown was a good start, but all through Ruina I was basically clenching my teeth at the screen and going 'okay but Binah when are you going to express your own moral opinion instead of just examining everyone else's?' I'm gonna count standing up to another Arbiter as a firm moral stance.

besides, gotta love her treatment of Ayin in LobCo. Angela tells you 'oh the lower sephirot have missed you so much' and what she means in Binah's case is 'she's getting bored down there, so I'm gonna drop a meat pumpkin into her enclosure.'

pre-Ruina, Chesed probably would've gotten this spot. but Ruina didn't just help Binah, it hurt Chesed. not even on any moral grounds, just... you know that thing in the old Touhou fandom where people would be like 'ah, the games made a joke about Meiling napping once, so that's her thing now. Meiling sleeps ALL the time. she's so fucking lazy. she's never awake. haha Sakuya stabs her because she sleeps so much'? just pick one kinda offhand character trait and run it into the goddamn ground? that's Chesed with coffee in Ruina. my dude saw that he no longer had to worry about employee welfare and traded in his other personality traits for a booklet of fun coffee facts.

#library of ruina #now with spoilers clear up to the end of the game #because i took like a week or something to answer this #sorry i was very busy (playing library of ruina)

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scarlet--wiccan · 3 years

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your ideal billy/teddy duo comic (plot, character designs, artists and writers involved etc)

One thing that I've always wanted to see is a comic about Billy and/or Teddy that was produced entirely by mlm creators. Vecchio, Robles and Gracia are all gay artists who've worked with the characters on recent titles, and I'm eager to see more from them. While none of these artists have ever shown the characters in a way that exactly suits my wants, they've each demonstrated a clear personal vision of who Billy and Teddy are that I can respect. I find that Vecchio and Robles, as illustrators, both articulate a gay sensibility in their designs and are able to represent a range of gay identities and expressions with not only dignity, but real love, which is frustratingly hard to come by. Oh, also, Kevin Wada covers, because duh.

Writers are a little bit more difficult for me. I love Anthony Oliviera and I know that he's got a lot of ideas for the characters, so I'd be delighted to see anything that he might pitch. Vecchio also does write, and his creator-owned series, Sereno, is an urban superhero story in a modern fantasy setting-- something he describes as Batman Beyond meets Sailor Moon. Based on that, I think he'd do a great job telling a story about a witch and shapeshifter from New York. I know that Sina doesn't work for Marvel anymore, but I've always wished he could've done Billy and Teddy in a sweet little rom-com miniseries, or even just a single issue special. He's particularly good at writing tender, funny, and just unapologetically gay characters who signal authentic elements of our culture and community without making them cheap or laughable. That is a quality which I find essential for Billy and Teddy, and it's part of why I want more mlm creators to work with them.

If you had asked me this question last year, I would have had an easier time pitching ideas for these characters. I'm eager to see what the future holds for them, but "rulers of an interplanetary nation" was never part of my vision for how Billy and Teddy would be spending their early twenties. I did have this idea for an ongoing series about their "college years", wherein Billy would be studying magic with Wanda and Agatha, and Teddy would work part time with Carol or Alpha Flight while attending community college or learning a trade, like piercing or tattoo artistry. The idea was that they'd often spend time apart, as they'd each be focusing on their own careers and having individual storylines, but they'd always come home to each other at the end of the day and lend each other support, in ways both mundane and super-heroic.

I used to imagine that they'd stay in that nice apartment Sunspot got them, which would act as sort of a crash pad/base of operations for a revolving cast of their friends. They could convert one of the rooms into a magical sanctum for Billy, and another into a study room or art studio for Teddy. Tommy, America, Kate, or whoever could crash on their sofa whenever they're in town or need to do a team-up. Wanda could help Billy ward the apartment so that he and America are the only ones who can portal in and out, but then Loki would find a way to get around the wards and cause trouble, and there'd be a whole dramatic reunion. The whole idea could easily be adapted as a Young Avengers ongoing if you widened the focus from the main couple and treated it as an ensemble piece with individually chunked plot-arcs, much like the original series.

Unfortunately, that idea no longer holds as much water as I'd like because, for one thing, they lost that apartment and never explained why-- it seems like it was passively retconned out in between New Avengers and Death's Head. More importantly, they now live in space, with Teddy being a busy ruler of an interstellar Alliance, and Billy his prince-consort.

I would still like to explore the idea of them pursuing separate goals and working in separate fields while never being truly apart. Empyre introduced a clever plot device wherein Billy is now able to sense Teddy's location and teleport to him instantly, no matter the distance, which, I assume, works in reverse as well. This feat of magic is made possible by their marriage, which binds them symbolically and draws on the power of their love. They can go anywhere and do anything on their own, and still be together again at a moments' notice, which is super romantic and also affords them more flexibility than most superhero couples. I would still pitch a series about Billy doing magic work on Earth while Teddy does diplomacy in space, and one can always warp to the other when they need backup fighting a bad guy. They could even switch back and forth between staying on Teddy's throne-ship, and getting cozy at Billy's little Manhattan apartment when they want to get away from it all.

I guess my final answer is that I want the two of them to be fully realized, individual characters whose love is illustrated through mutual support rather than, like, being glued to each other's hips. The things that I want to see Billy doing are very far removed from the things that I want to see Teddy doing. Superhero characters tend to lose momentum when you marry them off, and superhero couples tend to fizzle when you keep them apart, but Billy and Teddy's unique strength is that they're never truly apart, and their relationship never seems to lose steam-- they've been a pair from the start, and... they're a little obsessed with each other.

The Billy story that I most want to see right now is a full Maximoff team-up. It could go in one of two directions: A) a quest to uncover Natalya's history and finally vanquish the Emerald Warlock, in which they're waylaid by Doom and other magic villains from their past, while teaming up with their magical friends around the world-- basically a sequel to Scarlet Witch; or, B) a showdown with Krakoa and a resolution of their relationship with Erik, which, best case scenario, partially reverses the Axis retcon and proves once and for all that the Maximoffs are mutants. If we got a longer series, we could actually do both plots-- they learn something about Natalya which leads them back to Erik, and the two arcs become a larger story.

The Teddy story that I most want to see is a Guardians-esque space romp with political elements featuring Teddy, Xavin and Noh-Varr as, like, a sexy-alien-boys version of the Gullwings from Final Fantasy X. Does that make sense? I don't have a great grasp on the political landscape of Marvel Space so it's a little hard for me to come up with details, but I know that the status quo has been totally upended, so there are going to be different factions and movements springing up, and likely no shortage of villains and space monsters rearing their heads when the dust of the war has fully settled. Teddy's a monarch now, but he's also been set up as this Arthurian hero-king, so I think there's still room for him to go on adventures and fight his own battles with his magic sword and, maybe, a crew of loyal space knights.

Having said aaaallll of that, I would absolutely die for a full-on fantasy adventure story with Billy and Teddy. I mean, Teddy's a king with a magic sword and his husband is a super-powerful witch. It's gotta happen. I'd actually be into them having a rematch with Mother, who is a pretty adaptable villain, in that her abilities and motives will differ depending on how she's been summoned. I'd also really like them to have a chance to go up against Sequoia directly, and on more even grounds. Quoi is such a great enemy for them because they represent the same generation of Avengers babies, and, actually, Quoi's origins are directly tied to Billy's-- their respective parents had a double wedding together. Sequoia and Teddy's arcs in Empyre paralleled and contrasted each other beautifully, but the two characters had no meaningful interactions. I want to see thems as arch rivals, and maybe, begrudgingly.... friends? Plus, I love that they're both alien princes who live in sci-fi stories, but whose aesthetics and powers are pure fantasy-- Quoi's a dryad wizard and Teddy is King Arthur, if King Arthur was a gay anthropomorphic dragon.

Anyways, that's my Wiccan+Hulkling pitch. The first arc is Billy and Teddy facing off against Sequoia in a magic forest that he's grown on his new planet, only to find out that they've been set up by Mother.

In the second arc, the three of them grudgingly team up against Mother while hashing out their shared backstories and giving Quoi, who's literally never had peers to relate to, a chance to fully come to grips with the way he was conditioned and manipulated by his father. Instead of conjuring dead parents, Mother seems to be able to summon dead children, which makes her particularly dangerous around the Cotati, Kree and Skrull, who've just emerged from a war and have countless recent dead.

In the third arc, Mother has freed R'kll and they've set their sights on Earth. Billy heads out with America and Tommy to ask Loki for advice on defeating her, while Teddy brings Sequoia before the Avengers as his charge in order to ensure that Quoi receives provisional immunity.

Loki is able to provide insight on how Mother might have been summoned and what the parameters might be for breaking the spell that's tethering her to Earth-616. It turns out that Mother is essentially holding Anelle's soul hostage and has been appearing to R'kll in her form. Mother's hold, at this point, has spread to the entire Alliance, and Teddy will have to defeat her or else she'll use it to destroy Earth and decimate his nation in the process.

Teddy recruits Wanda to help face Mother down. (side note, I'm desperate to see more of their relationship as in-laws.) Wanda agrees to work with Sequoia but insists on calling Mantis and making them talk.

The final showdown is the three boys, plus Wanda and Mantis, against Mother, R'kll, and an army of dead alien soldiers. Mantis and Wanda are able to pull Anelle's soul from Mother's grasp, but this doesn't banish her-- Mother's true anchor was R'kll, who'd been carrying Anelle's ghost in her heart ever since the destruction of Tarnax.

R'kll believes that she's always acted in the best interest of her nation, and she thought that bringing back Teddy's mother would finally make him see her way. Anelle and Teddy have a tearful reunion, but he admits that the only mother he's really mourned was the woman who raised him.

Wanda, Mantis, and Anelle, as a trio of mothers united with their lost sons, are able to reverse and seal Mother's power, which was based on lost children. They are not able to banish her, however, until R'kll steps forward and sacrifices herself, believing now that the best she can do for her nation is to rid the Alliance of the curse she brought upon it.

R'kll and Anelle begin to dissipate, but R'kll's sacrifice has called forth the spirit of Mrs. Altman, who is finally granted some closure and dignity in death by getting a chance to see how far Teddy's come and the peace that he's built in her memory.

Lots of crying! I made this sad. I'm sorry.

#young avengers #teddy altman #hulkling #wiccan #billy kaplan #empyre #robintext

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logo-dojo · 3 years

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I love Overwatch au’s so I thought I’d try it, and all I got right now is rough concept art but honestly, Genji and Reaper look awesome! The detail of a piece of Hanzo’s ribbon is the only substantial amount of story behind this but I don’t mind. I thought Genji would be a lost soul in this au, thus this duo with Reaper Reyes, and the showdown in Hanamura in the dragon’s animatic is where he got the ribbon tear. Except it went different from the original animatic, Genji was actually going to kill Hanzo, had not finally had a uphoria while holding his sword to Hanzo’s throat. He probably took a piece of the ribbon instead, I’d like to think he said,

“Try not to drown yourself brother, we still have a rematch another time. Until then...”

Then he just casually goes and cuts it and disappear like in the animatic. Anyway, more coming soon, along with some fun stuff, probably a bunch of Genji messing around while Reaper has to deal with it.

#overwatch au #overwatch #genji shimada #reaper #gabriel reyes #au idea #they have fun #genji's scarf totally wasn't inspired by jesse's serape from 2 demons #seriously 2 demons is awesome and worth the read #trust me #i need healing #but the thing is he's a ghost boi so every time people just look at him like he's truly lost it

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theprovinggrounds-blog · 5 years

Text

The growing heat of the approaching Summer months sets nearly as oppressively upon the brow as the rumblings on the Garlean borders, and opportunities to escape such thoughts grow rarer by the day. But worry not, good people of Eorzea, for distraction and relatively viewer-safe* violence among trained combatants have not faulted in the sweltering abyss! The Proving Grounds will be running it’s 24th tourney in all of the spectacle and glory it’s fans have come to expect! Come join us for one last bounty of bloodsport before our mid-year break, which is definitely unrelated to cleaning out the blood caked sand and selling it to void cultists to off-set stolen patron money!

The first matchup of the night has the thrill-seeking warrior of the Steppe Kojhin of the Oronir facing off against one of the more enigmatic new faces of the roster, Silam ‘The Ghost’ Kisuk! Both take to the arena with distinctive Eastern fighting styles, though very much different from one another. However, each were keen enough on challenging the other to set it up even before the selection ceremony, and we now reap the benefit of two souls hunting for their best possible battle!

Next we have long time fan, first time fighter Erdenechimeg of the Kha setting his excitable fists against the De’uden’s pet feral, Dagger the combative miqo’te! Even when given his pick of the litter, the man opted to challenge the near-beastman to his first venture into the sands. Will the most recent dagger winner take the next step towards championship and gnaw off the rookie’s leg in the process, or shall he find a way to quell the raging creature?

Third in the lineup is a rematch of one of the wilder Dagger matches of the Ivory Dagger era! C’novhi Tia will take sword and shield once again against the champion herself, Bremwyda Abylnpfefwyb! The literal flames of their last match up may have died that day, but the burns they left and the fire stoked in the pit of each gladiator’s heart is very much alive and smoldering in the both of them!

And last of the pre-lims we have eccentric tactics taking on more traditional fundamentals in a Highlander showdown! Rothgar’s unique take to the arena is nothing new to long-time ‘Grounds fans, but all the showmanship in the world may not be enough to get him past Katalin Hunter and her dedicated commitment to proper combat with her polearms.

Don’t find yourself left listening to others tell the tales of glory, come watch the victors claim their glory as it happens! Bring your friends, your kids, even your pets! It’s a blood sport for the whole family! This has been Pressed Ham encouraging you all to come take in the bounty of blood on ((Saturday, June 15th at 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST)) in the 1st Ward of the Goblet, South of the Brimming heart!

* The Proving Grounds, it’s Patrons, Fighters, and Staff are in no way liable as a whole for any pain, suffering, dismemberment, or death of crowd members. Viewer discretion is advised.

#the proving grounds #PG #PG XXIV #PG Promos #mateus rp #mateus events #ffxiv rp #combat rp #Gladiatorial Combat #crystal rp

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animesavior · 5 years

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"I'll save Gon…and Alluka too."

- Killua, Hunter x Hunter (Ep. 139)

The Toonami Trending Rundown for April 20-21, 2019. It was a night of blazing as Emma and Norman begin to figure out how to escape from Grace Field House, while the remnants of the “Blood Mist Village” try to pick a fight with Boruto’s class, and Killua asks Alluka’s assistance in trying to save Gon from his injuries.

On Twitter, #Toonami and #HunterXHunter would trend in the US, while The Promised Neverland, Sword Art Online, Black Clover, and #Shippuden also trended alongside these shows, but not outright. Hunter x Hunter also produced a character trend in Alluka, as we learn the consequences of using her powers and why she has been locked away, but Killua decides that it is worth the risk.

On Tumblr, Toonami would trend alongside #BNHA, The Promised Neverland, and #JJBA. The full list including statistics and tweet counts from the twitter app and Amr Rahmy’s Fan Screening analytics app can be seen below.

Before we get to the big news of the week, here are some of the notable news of note for Toonami fans...

On Tuesday, Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabat had a rematch of the Super Saiyan Showdown. While Sean came more prepared this time around, Chris remained on top as he kept the belt with a 2-1 victory.

After many years of being in licensing hell, Discotek is planning a Blu-ray release of all 51 episodes of Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier, the first time this classic has had a full release in the English-speaking world. The set is scheduled for release on June 25 retailing for $69.95 (or $45.47 on RightStuf).

In yet another example that you can’t win em all, while it has been announced that Mob Psycho 100 season 2 will indeed have a dub, it is looking like Toonami will not be among those premiering the dub of the new season as it has been announced that the dub will be exclusive to Funimation and Crunchyroll for now. We’re not sure what happened here, though theories have ranged from whether it was because someone at Funimation or Crunchyroll had veto power, or if Crunchyroll’s previous contract with Funimation prevents Toonami joining in as well despite the present growing relationships between Toonami and Crunchyroll, or Toonami were “caught with their pants down” when Mob was offered, and they couldn’t accept it at the time. Since Toonami didn’t get to premiere Mob previously as with Season 1 and had trouble getting the show until last October, it’s pretty safe to guess they don’t have some kind of right of first refusal for the sequels, unlike what we have seen with the likes of Attack on Titan, JoJo’s, One Punch Man, and SAO. Regardless of the reason, much like the situations with Blue Exorcist and Tokyo Ghoul among others, it looks like we’re going to have to wait for Mob and his crew to rejoin the better cartoon show. Hopefully it won’t be for long this time around.

While we press F to pay respects to Mob, Lupin fans meanwhile got themselves a big W this week…

We’ve been waiting for this announcement since the new season was announced last year, and the legacy of Monkey Punch will continue to live on as Toonami and TMS have announced that Lupin the Third will be returning for Part V beginning on June 15. Its position on the schedule is to be determined, though it should be noted that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is scheduled to complete the Diamond is Unbreakable arc a week before and Hunter x Hunter will be completing its run the week after.

This season, Lupin and the gang will be headed off to France, as Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, and Fujiko continue to do what they do best and dodge Zenigata along the way. They will also be joined this season by Ami Enan, who’s voice actor is to be announced. As with previous seasons and films released recently by Discotek, the original cast will reprise their roles.

Not much else to say other than we’ll see you again next week for another round of the better cartoon show. Later.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#10]

#ThePromisedNeverland [Trended with #Toonami]

#SwordArtOnline [Trended with #Toonami]

#BlackClover [Trended with #Toonami]

#Shippuden [Trended with #Toonami and #HunterXHunter]

#HunterXHunter [#12]

Alluka (From Hunter x Hunter) [Trended with #Toonami and #HunterXHunter]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [5,402 tweets]

#DragonBallSuper [4,210 tweets]

#ThePromisedNeverland [3,572 tweets]

#SwordArtOnline [1,845 tweets]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [2,875 tweets]

#BlackClover [1,066 tweets]

#HunterXHunter [1,336 tweets]

Fan Screening Counts:

#DragonBallSuper [#6 with 2814 tweets]

#MyHeroAcademia [#4 with 3617 tweets]

#ThePromisedNeverland [#8 with 3130 tweets]

#SwordArtOnline [#9 with 1472 tweets]

#JoJosBizarreAdventure [#9 with 2183 tweets]

#BlackClover [#24 with 659 tweets]

#Boruto [#7 with 3850 tweets]

#HunterXHunter [#26 with 1175 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami

#BNHA

#The Promised Neverland

#JJBA

Notes and Other Statistics:

#Toonami: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @blumspew started the trend in the US.

#ThePromisedNeverland: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @BangZoom started the trend in the US.

#BlackClover: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @rightstufanime started the trend in the US.

Special thanks to @coreymbarnes and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.

Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

#Toonami #Adult Swim #Cartoon Network #Toonami Trending Rundown #Hunter x Hunter #Alluka #Dragon Ball Super #Dragon Ball Z #DBZ #My Hero Academia #Boku no Hero Academia #The Promised Neverland #Sword Art Online #SAO #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #Black Clover #Boruto #Naruto #Naruto Shippuden

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satoshi-mochida · 5 years

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Samurai Shodown will launch worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June, followed by Switch in Q4 2019 and PC at a later date, publisher Athlon Games and developer SNK announced. It will feature Japanese voice-overs and support English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Pan-American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese subtitle language options.

The Unreal Engine 4-powered fighting game is a reboot of the classic series set between the events of Samurai Showdown V and the original game. It will feature 16 total fighters, including 13 returning characters and three brand new characters. Additional characters will be released via post-launch downloadable content.

Here is the official fact sheet:

About

After more than a decade, Samurai Shodown is back! SNK is rebooting one of its most successful series, carrying on the legacy of past titles with a new game that retains the same thrilling battles of past titles in a graphically advanced package. Samurai Shodown’s gameplay is driven by the tense atmosphere of being one strike away from death, and the exhilaration of defeating an opponent with overwhelming power and attacks. Taking place between the events of the original game and Samurai Shodown V, the new game carries on the legacy of the one true weapon-based fighter.

Key Features

Exhilarating Weapons-Based Combat – Samurai Shodown carries on the legacy of the tense battles the series is known for, where players are always one strike away from death, and one powerful attack away from victory.

Evolving the Presentation – Using the power of Unreal Engine 4, SNK is able to modernize the unique atmosphere and setting of past titles in a gorgeously artistic package that achieves a detail and graphical quality like never before.

Unique Cast of Returning and New Warriors – Samurai Shodown welcomes back iconic characters from past iterations, including the swordsman Haohmaru, his rivals Ukyo and Genjuro, the shrine maiden Nakoruru, and fan-favorite Galford. The starting roster will include a total of 16 characters—13 veterans and three newcomers to the franchise.

All New Gameplay – Carrying on some of the key fighting mechanics that made the series popular, such as the Rage Gauge, Rage Explosion, Sword Clash and more, Samurai Shodown will also include several new techniques, including a powerful, one-time use attack from each character called the Super Special Move.

Revolutionary New AI System – Titled Dojo Mode, SNK has developed a proprietary AI system that learns from player patterns and creates a specific Ghost clone from that data. With this system, players can fight against their own Ghost or take on the Ghosts of top players in mock battles.

The public will be able to go hands-on with the game for the first time at PAX East 2019, which runs from March 28 to 31 at the Boston Convention Center. SNK will also host a panel, “Samurai Shodown: Resurrecting a Legend” on March 30 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. ET featuring producer Yasuyuki Oda, director Nobuyuki Kuroki, original Samurai Shodown director Yasushi Adachi, and several other staff members from SNK.

Get a new trailer and 44 minutes of Gematsu-recorded gameplay footage below, as well as our preview of the game and interview with producer Yasuyuki Oda, director Nobuyuki Kuroki, and game designer Joshua Weatherford.

PAX East 2019 Trailer

youtube

44 Minutes of PlayStation 4 Pro Gameplay

youtube

Navigation

0:20 – Story Mode Introduction: Galford

2:04 – Story Mode Battle: Galford vs. Earthquake

4:49 – Story Mode Battle: Galford vs. Haohmaru

8:05 – Story Mode Introduction: Haohmaru

9:48 – Story Mode Battle: Haohmaru vs. Galford

12:09 – Story Mode Battle: Haohmaru vs. Genjuro

17:02 – Story Mode Introduction: Nakoruru

18:52 – Story Mode Battle: Nakoruru vs. Jubei

21:27 – Story Mode Battle: Nakoruru vs. Jubei (Rematch)

24:35 – Story Mode Battle: Nakoruru vs. Earthquake

29:13 – Battle Mode Battle: Haohmaru vs. Genjuro

32:42 – Battle Mode Battle: Earthquake vs. Charlotte

36:42 – Battle Mode Battle: Genjuro vs. Jubei

41:39 – Battle Mode Battle: Galford vs. Charlotte

Preview

I played about an hour or so of the new Samurai Shodown and it felt good—really good. I have stated this in the past, but I am not big on fighting games. I am generally not good at them and tend to only play for fun with friends. That being said, I went into playing Samurai Shodown without really caring much about it. But after some hands-on time with the weapons-based fighter, I am actually kind of hyped?

Samurai Shodown is being treated as a reboot to the long-running series. Story-wise, it is set in 1787, after the events of Samurai Shodown V in 1786 and before the events of the original Samurai Shodown in 1789. While the Kansei reforms have been enacted by the newly appointed Matsudaira Sadanobu, a mysterious dark force is looming on the horizon, prompting the warriors of Samurai Shodown to gather and set out on individual journeys and fight for their own beliefs. Each character character has a different story.

The game has a roster of 16 characters, 13 of which are returning from previous games. They are Charlotte, Earthquake, Galford, Genjuro, Hanzo, Haohmaru, Jubei, Kyoshiro, Nakoruru, Shiki, Tam Tam, Ukyo, and Yoshitora. The other three are completely new characters who have yet to be announced. I played as a few characters during my session, including Galford, Haohmaru, Nakoruru, and Jubei. As for stages, the stage selection screen appears to offer 13 total options.

Playing round after round of Samurai Shodown, I learned that no two characters are alike and that a single strike has a ton of pull, as one hit can deal massive damage and significantly turn the tide of battle. The game is built atop various mechanics, starting with the “Rage Gauge,” which fills up the more you are hit. When the Rage Gauge is filled entirely, your attack power increases, special moves become stronger, and you can use a “Weapon Flipping Technique” to disarm your opponent. You can also deplete the entire gauge to activate a once-per-match “Rage Explosion,” which enables the use of a “Lightning Blade” attack in which the character leaps forward and uses a quick strike that deals heavy damage. Each character also has a “Super Special” attack that, like Rage Explosion, can only be used once per match. Each Super Special plays out a character-specific scene that reflects their personality or style. Nakoruru’s, for example, captures her resolution to protect Mother Nature while also illustrating her displeasure of fighting. The commands to activate these techniques are simple and the same across every character, which means that there is no need to memorize complicated commands for different fighters. Finally, there are also “Sword Clashes,” which occur when two attacks perfectly clash, prompting you to mash the attack buttons to retain your weapon and send the opponent’s weapon flying.

I picked up on the game’s systems quite fast as I played, and even went toe-to-two with producer Yasuyuki Oda. (Though, I think he went easy on me.) The systems are incredibly easy to grasp, but the real challenge comes in utilizing them correctly while timing your strikes and preventing your opponent from dealing significant damage. It felt like there is quite a lot of strategy involved, and it is something that I found myself wanting to learn and master. Playing as Galford, I got the upper hand on Oda in our first match as he was so used to Galford’s behavior when playing against game designer Joshua Weatherford that he did not expect me to react in certain ways. (Or at least that is what I was told. I still just think he went easy on me!)

In terms of game modes, Samurai Shodown offers the classic Story Mode, an offline Battle Mode (which in itself includes modes such as Survival), an Online mode to compete against players across the world, a Practice mode (which includes Tutorial and Training modes), a Gallery Mode to view player-unlocked movies, artwork, and background music, and a new Dojo Mode in which you can upload and fight against your own “ghost data” or the download and fight against the ghost data of other players.

Dojo Mode is an entirely new asynchronous online mode, which according to SNK utilizes “deep learning technology” to have the game’s artificial intelligence learn from your techniques and habits during offline mode gameplay to create a “ghost AI” character that both you and other players can fight against online. An “Ironman Challenge” mode in which players can try to fight 100 ghosts in succession is also being implemented. SNK even has a patent pending for Dojo Mode. Unfortunately, SNK is not saying more about Dojo Mode for the time being, one of the reasons being that the mode is essentially built off player data, which the team does not currently have.

Visually, Samurai Shodown is an eyeful. From graphics to menus, everything is decorated in a traditional Japanese aesthetic—as is appropriate for its Edo period setting. That setting and visual design make the fighter stand out as something truly unique from the rest of the crowd.

Samurai Shodown is by no means the most well-known name in fighting games, but with the release of this spectacular-looking reboot and its participation as a main title in the upcoming Evo 2019 tournament, I really hope that it gets more recognition. I really want to pick this one up and learn its ins and outs.

Interview

This is the first new Samurai Shodown game in over a decade—the last new one being Samurai Shodown Sen for Xbox 360 and arcade in 2008. What was now the time for something new?

Nobuyuki Kuroki, Director: “There are various reasons, one being that when I was at SNK back in the day, I always wanted to work on Samurai Shodown more and more. I did a little bit of work on the Samurai Shodown 64 series. But there’s also just the fact that there has been a major focus on eSports recently, and I feel like this game in particular is very unique and will stand out on the eSports scene. And in general it’s just an iconic series for SNK, and we’ve had a lot of fan requests from the community to bring it back.”

Speaking of eSports, I think it’s safe to say a lot of people didn’t expect Samurai Shodown to be a main title for Evo 2019 in August. With the game due out in June, are you worried there won’t be enough time for players to learn how to play at a sufficient level?

Yasuki Oda, Producer: “I’m a little worried. (Laughs.) I’m a little bit worried that it might not be the top-level play that you’d see. But I also think that the system in general is just so simple and easy to pick up that people will jump right into it. And you might see a lot of people come out of nowhere that haven’t been on the scene before, who resonate with this game that’s so different from other games, and make a new entrance.”

Joshua Weatherford, Game Designer: “I personally think that the systems are not just simple, but also difficult to master. So it’s that perfect balance for me in game design. One thing that we like to point out is that we were very careful to stay as close to the roots as possible for some of this stuff. So you know a lot of times whenever you see modern fighting games, they’ll change the move sets around, cut some of them out—almost none of that happened here. We kept everything in—we just tuned it a little bit to be more balanced for modern fighting games—but there’s very few cases where you have a character that’s lost half of there moves or something like that. So people who know Samurai Shodown from the past, who know a specific character—they’re going to be able to jump right in, in my opinion.”

Moving on to characters, The King of Fighters XIV had a very generous starting roster of 50 or so fighters, compared to the 16-character roster of Samurai Shodown. Do you feel like that might be too little?

Weatherford: “Not really.”

Oda: “We’re not really worried about that honestly, because The King of Fighters is a team-based fighting game—three-versus-three, so you need a full team of three characters. So in my opinion, when you take one-third of that roster, you get about the amount in this game, so it works. Also, there’s not really a single clone character—that’s always been one of the things about Samurai Shodown. Even Hanzo and Galford, two ninjas that should play alike, play nothing alike. A couple of motions might be similar, but very few characters are actually similar to other characters. So all of them really stand on their own.”

And you guys aren’t showing the three original characters right now, but can you give us a hint?

Athlon Games representative: “No! We’re not answering that. (Laughs.)”

Hey, get out of the room! (Laughs.)

Weatherford: “They’re really cool, that’s all I’ll say. All three of them are really cool.”

Woo, big giveaway there. (Laughs.) Anyway, while we’re still talking about characters, given the rising popularity of guest characters, is there a possibility that we’ll see fighters from other franchises appear in Samurai Shodown?

Oda: “Yeah, we’re definitely interested, especially in finding a character that really fits this kind of gameplay.”

Say there were no restrictions on which guest character you could include, who would you choose to add to the roster?

Kuroki: “Oh man, that’s hard… Luke Skywalker.”

Oda: “(Pulls up an image of a Mobile Suit from the Gundam franchise on his phone.)”

Weatherford: “For me, I’d want TOEI Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man and I want something that’d fit this, so there’s actually a tokusatsu Spider-Man—like old school, giant robots—made back in the ’70s… None of these could ever actually be in because of licensing issues. (Laughs.)”

Oda: “If I’m thinking about swordplay, I’d like to put in Aragon from The Lord of the Rings.”

How do you plan to draw in beginners or players who don’t normally play fighting games?

Kuroki: “I think it really just comes from the basic fighting system of the game. Single strikes are so useful and damaging that you could win even if you land a lucky strike against a high level player.”

I think that’s what I did against Oda-san…

Oda: “(Laughs.) Well, we also made sure that all the super moves are the same inputs for each character. So as long as you know one character, you can easily jump into another character. Which is very different from say, The King of Fighters. That’s very difficult to keep up with everyone’s supers.”

Well, that about wraps up our time. Thank you for speaking to me! I wish you a successful public debut at PAX East 2019!

#Samurai Shodown #Samurai Spirits #fighting game #SNK #PS4 #Xbox One #Nintendo Switch #Gematsu #long post

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singstall · 6 years

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THIS KILLS THE GAME: The Armada/Hungrybox Rivalry (part 1)

Hello, and welcome to Singstall, a site whose primary function is serving as a compact, chronological, searchable history log of competitive Melee. I’m still working on that. You can find the prototype here.

When you ask people their favorite Melee rivalries, you’ll probably hear about Mango and Armada, the two players that clashed at Genesis and have since defined Melee. You might get Armada and PPMD, who played three set classics at three of the most important tournaments of all time and gradually forced each other off their mains. There’s Mango/Leffen, Mango/Mew2King, even Ken/Azen and Ken/PC Chris if you want to take it back...but I contend that the best rivalry in Melee history is a matchup that has become a punchline: Armada/Hungrybox.

Long before seemingly every grand finals ended in a Fox/Puff showdown between the two best players in the world, Armada was arguably the best in the world and Hungrybox was just...a god, yes, but until relatively recently he was a lesser god, truthfully not much of a threat to take huge tournaments. But though he wasn’t exactly a demon, Hungrybox made himself the ultimate thorn in Armada’s side.

While Mango and Armada play a matchup they’ve both refined to perfection, this is mostly an extension of them being wonderful players against anyone. Armada and Hungrybox have always needed to dedicate a certain amount of headspace specifically to each other, which at some points led to them playing a game that barely resembled the Melee we thought we knew.

It’s all the more remarkable that the players involved in the game’s most infamous matchup are now the two best players in the world. We’ll explore their rivalry in six chapters, with the series hopefully concluding around Evo 2018.

Today, we begin with by far the shortest chapter, spanning only two sets. But it’s a great prelude to chapter two, which is something like the main event in this series.

I imagine that as the character matchup that we’ve become more familiar with emerges in chapter three, I’ll have less to say about moment to moment minutiae. But for now, I’ll likely squeeze out every fascinating bit of Peach/Puff, Young Link/Puff, Peach/Fox, and the rest.

Hopefully, instead of just telling you what happened, I can spin a good yarn.

Chapter 1: No One Wanna Hear Her Sing

It was a tale of Peach and Puff.

In July 2009, Armada, having toppled Amsah in two large tournaments earlier that year to establish himself as the best player in Europe, traveled to Genesis, a tournament name that would prove prophetic. Some didn’t expect him to even finish top 32.

But he kept winning and heads kept turning. He beat Lucky.

Then he beat DaShizWiz.

Then he beat Mew2King.

And then, he beat Mango.

Just like that, Armada had established himself as one of the greatest players on the planet. At times, commentators Phil and Waffles sounded resigned to his victory.

But a wrinkle quickly appeared: Mango dropped the Falco he’d played for most of winners finals and switched back to Jigglypuff, still his best character at the time. Just when it looked like Armada, up 2-1, would win the tournament in the first set of grand finals on Battlefield, Mango read Armada’s roll to the center and ended the game with an iconic rest.

Armada got rested so hard that we saw visions of the distant future. First, of Armada losing a lead on tournament point to a rest on Battlefield at the biggest Melee tournament to that point. And then, with Mango making Peach/Puff look as tragic as it feels today, of Armada trying out Fox against Puff, an idea he wouldn’t revisit against Puff until over five years later.

Armada had shocked the world, but immortality had just eluded him thanks to Jigglypuff. Like Bombsoldier before him, he destroyed expectations and instantly reinvented the character, but he would need to return to the United States again to cement himself as something more.

Armada’s second tournament in the United States, January 2010′s Pound 4, was an aberration, the very last time he would lose to anyone outside of an exceptional group of six players.

SilentSpectre upset him in winners, and to this day the only Falcon to defeat Mango remains the only Falcon to defeat Armada. Amsah upset him in losers, leaving Armada in fourth place, outplaced by another European. He would not get his rematch with Mango.

Had Armada defeated either SilentSpectre or Amsah, though, he’d have run into another headache: Hungrybox.

Half a year later, he’d finally run into that headache.

Though Armada’s and Mango’s Genesis sent shockwaves through the Melee community that we’re still feeling today, a much quieter success story would prove just as important: Hungrybox finished third, losing in each bracket to the eventual champion (after all, Mango would be his demon for the next roughly six years).

Hungrybox had been climbing already, finishing seventh at Revival of Melee, but Genesis was so much on another level that Hungrybox broke down crying when he upset DaShizWiz to make top 8.

Little did he know, he wasn’t even close to done. He tore through Darkrain, Scar, and Zhu before finally falling to Mango a second time to finish third.

The top three finishers at Genesis were all future Evo winners. To date, the only future Evo winners.

Hungrybox would continue ascending, double eliminating Mew2King at Tipped Off 5 and then winning Revival of Melee 2, his first major tournament.

Hungrybox was in the middle of a very successful year when Apex 2010 rolled around, and with his demon Mango sandbagging and exiting the tournament early, it would have looked like an obvious win for Hungrybox.

But Armada was there for his third American tournament. And, my goodness, Armada hated Jigglypuff.

youtube

No one wanna hear her sing.

Apex 2010 (August 8, 2010)

Still on a meteoric rise to godhood, Hungrybox began his bracket tearing through Tec0, Kage, and Vanz.

Armada returned after his disappointing Pound 4 performance, and was ready to make up for it and maybe, especially with Mango playing Mario during his “Scorp” phase, win his first American tournament. He made his way through Lucky, Axe, and Zhu to make it into top 8 on the winners side. The puffiest Puff and the ultimate Puff hater finally were to meet.

Winners Semis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4PDR98Y_FE&list=PLWE8jJxz4TmhZLIdUzY7BOphfbiWCTsRz

This was the only set between the two to not be accompanied by commentary.

The pair struck to Dream Land, and the tone of helplessness was set early on. On the very first stock, Armada shielded a strange rest from Hungrybox, but it was suddenly clear that the risk/reward in this matchup would be rather kind to errant rests, with Armada only putting on 28%. On Armada’s second stock, Hungrybox found a quick up-tilt into rest, and though Armada lived easily and punished the rest by taking Hungrybox’s first stock with down-smash, the 36% seemed almost worth the stock loss given the pace of the match.

Just think, using rest just to get some extra credit, giving up a stock. That’s the matchup’s struggle, right there.

Despite a solid game plan from Armada, namely walling out Puff’s back-air by frequently pulling turnips, he needed some luck to keep it competitive. Armada was fortunate enough to pull a Bob-omb, and fortunate that after a Puff up-air the bomb dropped directly onto Jigglypuff, taking a stock at 70% on an enormous stage and giving Armada a brief stock lead.

But it quickly evaporated, and though he was able to bring it to a last stock situation, a string of back-airs sent Armada into a pretty solid deficit. He managed to pull a beam sword, but didn’t do anything with it. Eventually Armada found himself offstage, floating back and getting hit off again and again until Hungrybox took the game.

Armada counterpicked to Final Destination and harshly accelerated his turnip pulls, going out of his way to find space to pull them safely before letting them rip. But this game was a lot less eventful than the last. On his last stock, Armada jumped out of an up-tilt rest setup, and though Armada found a much more optimal punish (turnip to charged down-smash) without platforms, Hungrybox connected a successful up-tilt to rest almost immediately after to finish the set 2-0.

Armada ran through Axe, PPMD (still Dr. Peepee, until April 2014), and Mew2King (a thrilling set in its own right) to make it back to Hungrybox in grand finals.

Grand Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoaIEuRlOYs&list=PLWE8jJxz4TmixkNzfDupiYbi2oDEWhS3C

“I really love up-air, it looks like Jiggs waving to the crowd, yo.” “It’s the ‘olé.’“ “Heh. ¡Olé!”

youtube

After striking to Final Destination, Armada began building a lead after Hungrybox missed another rest (strangely not noticing that Armada DI’d his up-tilt well) and eventually led by about a full stock, curbing Hungrybox’s aerial punishes and up-tilts with turnips. Over two minutes passed before Armada lost his first stock.

Thanks mostly to his improved use of turnips, which even covered a likely rest setup at one point, Hungrybox was still nearly at kill percent as Armada began his final stock. Armada’s constant projectile attack was a success (even if he again had no use for a beam sword), and it had shades of what their sets would look like for the next four years.

But Hungrybox finally found an up-tilt rest, immediately erasing the lead Armada had amassed and ending the game in devastating fashion.

Armada ran it back to Final Destination, and things immediately began terribly when Hungrybox, still only at 14%, hit a jumpless, recovering Armada offstage with a well-placed down-smash, taking a full stock lead crushingly quickly.

Peach doesn’t have any easy answers for that kind of lead in the matchup, but a missed rest (”that doesn’t matter”) and a turnip to charged up-smash punish quickly killed Hungrybox off the top (”It mattered!”), leveling the playing field when things could have been dire.

Armada kept it close for the rest of the game, lagging slightly behind and keeping up his turnip game as Hungrybox tried to constantly pressure Armada, frequently weaving in with neutral-air. We got another pretty tense game. But Hungrybox’s finisher fit the commentators’ narrative: up-air.

The third game would be both the last of theirs without commentary and the last of theirs on Kongo Jungle 64.

Hungrybox responded to Armada’s campy turnip game by taunting four times, perhaps as a nod to Peach’s infamous history on Kongo Jungle. But again, Hungrybox found an early kill, this time with up-tilt to rest. But again Armada answered without taking much damage.

Particularly during this match, both players showcased Melee at some of its very most evasive and defensive, something that would characterize their matchups to do this day. But the gap kept widening. Puff pulling ahead, as always, felt like an inevitability.

After bringing Hungrybox to his last stock, Armada was on his last legs with 119%, but managed to pull a stitch. Alas, he’d never get to use it. Hungrybox back-aired Armada off the stage, and Armada would never make it back.

With just over a minute left on the clock, Hungrybox won the third game, winning Apex 2010, winning all five matches against Armada’s Peach. It was so decisive, that in his post-tournament interview (which featured a surprise guest), the fact that he missed Mango seemed to loom larger than Armada.

youtube

Interviews: Hungrybox Armada & Aniolas (part 1) (part 2) Melee Singles Champion Hungrybox

But he couldn’t have known that it would be over four years before he’d win another major tournament – in fact, that was the next time we’d see Armada’s Peach against Hungrybox’s Puff.

He couldn’t have known that the era of Peach/Puff was over before it began.

Armada couldn’t finish Apex 2010 without creating a now-infamous clip.

youtube

Chapter Recap: Apex 2010 Winners Semis (Hungrybox, 2-0), Apex 2010 Grand Finals Set 1 (Hungrybox, 3-0)

Chapter Set Count: Hungrybox, 2-0 Running Set Count: Hungrybox, 2-0

Next time, The Kokiri Sword.

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ultimate-sword-showdown · 4 months

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The Ultimate Rematch: Holy Moonlight Sword vs. Nightblood

Holy Moonlight Sword

From: Bloodborne (and every other Fromsoftware game)

Wielder: Ludwig

One of the recurring elements in FromSoftware games, all the way from King's Field to Elden Ring, the Holy Moonlight Sword is the Bloodborne iteration of the weapon. Implied to have been created by the Great Ones (eldritch god-like beings), it is discovered by Ludwig the Holy Blade in the labyrinths beneath Yharnam, and used to fight the scourge of beasts within the city. Eventually, Ludwig lost himself to beasthood, and found his way to the Hunter's Nightmare, along with this Holy Moonlight Sword. In Ludwig's boss fight, the sword would return Ludwig's sanity to him (perhaps due to its eldritch origins and his own familiarity with it), allowing him to fight like a man, rather than a beast. After Ludwig's defeat, it would either be gifted or taken by force by the Good Hunter to use on their own journey.

Nightblood

From: Cosmere/Warbreaker

Wielder: Vasher

Nightblood is a pure black sword that bleeds black smoke when drawn. If a wielder unsheathes it for too long, they will die. When it was forged, it was given the command to “destroy evil,” but it doesn’t actually understand what evil is (to quote one of my submittors, it “approaches this with all the enthusiasm and moral nuance of a golden retriever”). It is very chipper and thrives on approval, wanting to be praised for all the evil people it has killed. The sword can possess evil people, causing them to kill the evil people around them and then usually commit suicide. It can communicate telepathically with others. Finally, it is canonically “fascinated by gender, and trying to figure it out.”

#sword showdown #sword showdown polls #sword showdown rematch #this really is the ultimate rematch #the most heated poll of round one of the original tournament #bloodborne #fromsoft #fromsoftware #soulsborne #ludwig the holy blade #holy moonlight sword #cosmere #cosmere warbreaker #the stormlight archive #cosmere vasher #nightblood

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antoninowieland78 · 3 years

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Crown Jewel is coming up soon, and there are some matches that I would love to see.

Here are my top three:

1. Brock leanar (Challenger) vs Roman Reigns (Champion) for the Universal Championship

Dominant Universail Champion Roman Reigns will go head-to-head with The Beast when he battled Brock Lesnar at WWE Crown Jewel for the Universal Title.

At SummerSlam, Reigns overcame 16-time World Champion John Cena in a hard-fought matchup, only to be surprised by the sudden reemergence of The Beast. Lesnar subsequently returned to SmackDown where he ordered his one-time Advocate Paul Heyman, turned Special Counsel to Reigns, to accept his challenge for a match against the dominant titleholder. Following Lesnar’s scuffle with The Bloodline, The Head of the Table indeed accepted the challenge from The Conqueror.

The Universal Title Match at WWE Crown Jewel will be an epic showdown between Reigns and Lesnar and absolute destruction is sure to follow.

Comparison for Top Match....

Brock Lesnar

Minneapolis, Minnesota

286 lbs

5 time WWE Champion

3 time Universal Champion

2003 Royal Rumble Winner

Money In the Bank Winner

UFC and NCAA Champion

Moves: German Suplex, F5, Armbar, coquina clutch

503 days as champ

Roman Reigns

Pensacola, Florida

265 lbs

Three time WWE Champion

Two time Universal Champion (current)

Intercontinental Champion

United States Champion

WWE Tag Team Champion (With Seth Rollins)

Grand Slam Winner

Triple Crown Winner

Royal Rumble Winner (2015)

Days as Champ: 401

Moves: Spear, Superman Punch, Guillotine

2. Drew McIntyre (Challenger) vs Big E (Champion)

Drew McIntrye is hungry to reclaim his WWE Title, and at WWE Crown Jewel, The Scottish Warrior will target WWE Champion Big E in what is sure to be an explosive showdown for the gold.

After heroically leading WWE through very uncertain times as WWE Champion in 2020, McIntyre lost his title to The Miz, thanks to Bobby Lashley’s attack. When The All Mighty seized the title from The A-Lister and began an epic reign, the Scottish Superstar stepped up, and an epic rivalry ensued. That was until Drew lost the right to challenge Lashley as long as he was WWE Champion. The All Mighty reign, however, came to an sudden end when Big E cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and defeated Lashley to claim the title.

After The Powerhouse of Positivity conquered Lashley in a hard-fought rematch inside a Steel Cage, McIntyre reemerged and pointed his sword Angela to indicate he is coming for the gold. This paved the way for the two Superstars to square off at WWE Crown Jewel.

3. Goldberg vs Bobby Lashley (No Holds Barred Match)

At WWE Crown Jewel, Goldberg says that Bobby Lashley is “NEXT!” as he prepares to meet The All Mighty in a No Holds Barred Match.

When the two intense Superstars last clashed at SummerSlam, then-WWE Champion Bobby Lashley didn’t want to just beat Goldberg, but rather end the WWE Hall of Famer outright. After MVP whacked Goldberg’s knee with his cane, Lashley twice rammed the damaged appendage into the LED ring post before flexing for the crowd.

With Goldberg unable to reach his feet, the referee awarded Lashley the victory. The WWE Champion continued his attack after the bell with a steel chair. In response, Goldberg’s son Gage, a sophomore in high school, rushed the ring and jumped on Lashley to come to his father’s aid, earning a Hurt Lock for his efforts. MVP insisted it was a mistake, but that excuse wasn’t enough for Goldberg, who promised to end Lashley.

Now, Goldberg is back for payback and wants to destroy The All Mighty. Find out if he will succeed when the two Superstars collide at WWE Crown Jewel.

#Crown Jewel #Legendary #Spotify

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starryseo · 6 years

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youtuber!seungmin

aw im excited for this one

seungmin’s such a precious lil’ bean

can you just imagine him for a sec

with these huGE overhead headphones

and a mic that comes out in front of his mouth

makes him feel like this badass pilot

but he looks so cute with them on bless his soul

starting off with his youtube stuff:

he deffo started his account off with the ever-cringey. . .

m i n c e c r a f t v i d e o s

he used to unironically play them

and make videos of them all. the. time.

he was really good at making different worlds but like

c’mon

it’s minecraft, the guys had to mock it

he still plays it

and he’ll always be like

“jisung~ can you please play with me?”

and he’ll tilt his head to the side, and bite his lip a bit

and he looks so cuTE

that jisung just can’t say no

even though that completely destroys his gaming rep.

remember changbin’s diss track stuff???

didn’t think he would say anything bad about the precious lil’ thang that is seungmin???

yeah changbin just mocked his minecraft videos

honestly though seungmin just laughed and was like “what’s wrong with my videos though??”

that kinda ended changbin so he’s never made a diss track about him again

and even though the guys mock him

he still keeps the minecraft videos up

he watched a lot of walkthroughs to make those worlds, he ain’t taking the videos down now

as he grew up, he played minecraft less and less, and after meeting hyunjin in school, started playing more FPS games (first person shooters, like battlefield fyi)

he probably had a Little Big Planet phase between that transition though

he’s still getting the hang of the shooting games

he cannot play zombies for shit in call of duty though

not because he’s scared of them

but because when a hoard of zombies comes he panics and starts spray shooting horribly

so he ends up getting attacked

as well as gaming though he has a knack for singing

as he grew up he got more confident in his singing

and so he started posting song covers

his old videos used to be SO out of focus and blurry

sometimes he would put the camera in a really bad position so half his body wouldn’t even be in the frame

but because the audio was gr88

he posted it anyways

after chan saw that video though he was like

dude,,,, im here 2 help u

so chan got down and fixed seungmin‘s entire camera set-up

so seungmin has left it exactly as that

literally

he hasn't moved anything the slightest millimetre

he even took pics in case something happened to the set-up

and he took down notes in his journal about everything that chan said as he was fixing the place

the rest of his bedroom is also really cute!!!

alongside felix, he’s the only one to have properly decorated his room and show it in his videos

read felix’s one to find out more about his mess of a room lmao

seungmin’s room is 100x neater

he hangs up pictures and fanmail that people send

aaaand since he’s 1/2 of the flower boy line!!!!!!

a lot of the pictures sent in are flower-related

a lot of flowery edits/ backgrounds

or drawings of him with flower crowns

he looks like an actual prince with a flower crown ok

he does his lil’ adorable smile every time he reads the messages ppl have written on their drawings

and he gets even happier when his mum comes into the room like “!!!! you have more mail!!!”

he’s also done a few songs together with woojin and those videos are so amazing bc???

woojin + seungmin + guitar + breathtaking vocals + good camera quality = h e a v e n

they both have such beautiful voices and they compliment each other really well

back to the gaming stuff:

this one time seungmin actually got higher on the scoreboard than hyunjin and everyone was like :000000 SEUNGMIN PLACED FIRST?????

they later found out that it was actually minho playing lmfao

and so hyunjin demanded a rematch buuuut

seungmin deadass said “nah i haven’t got time for n00bs like you”

r.i.p hwang hyunjin’s pride

SEUNGMIN FELT LIKE SUCH A BADASS THOUGH HE TOOK A MINUTE TO JUST PAT HIMSELF ON THE BACK <3333

the guys were holleringggg when they found out lmao

and they don’t let hyunjin live this down

so he’s basically sworn revenge and has made it his life’s goal to obliterate seungmin in a game now

and then the day came that seungmin was like

ok, i’ll fight you, but in a game of my choice

and hyunjin was so desperate to beat him he was just like okkkk

finally!!!!

obviously, MAJOR THROWBACKKK, seungmin picked minecraft

they had a week until the battle would commence

so both boys were playing non-stop minecraft in preparation

felix was just like “damn and you guys call me extra???”

the day of the fight!!!!

seungmin had chosen the Battle mini game

(a quick rundown: each player starts somewhere on the map, there are treasure chests everywhere in the map (and like 5 chests in the middle). you gotta collect weapons, armour, food and potions from the chests because you gotta fight the other person before the time runs out)

seungmin figured that hyunjin would run to the chests in the middle so instead

he ran to the chests near his hiding place

(yeah, he knows all the maps like the back of his hand)

and he got decent resources from there (a bow and a few arrows, some apples, 2 regeneration potions and a mixture of armour)

there was still enough time so he ran to a couple more chests before the showdown began and he had to fight hyunjin

MEANWHILE

(as seungmin correctly guessed) hyunjin ran to the middle of the map to get to the 5 treasure chests

and he racked up a lot of food, armour, a couple of diamond swords and some shitty potions

when the showdown began he moved to one corner of the map so he could try to find seungmin

and seungmin knew that eventually, once hyunjin couldn’t see him, he would get annoyed and start searching for seugmin

so he waited like 30 more secs before he saw hyunjin’s character moving around the map

almost near the end of the countdown,,,,

and neither had fought yet lmao

but seungmin was quite high up and hyunjin hadn’t managed to spot him yet (or find a way to get to higher ground)

so riiight when hyunjin was below seungmin he started shooting his arrows lmao

and hyunjin, being startled, jumped down quickly

wrong move !!!!

because seungmin could still shoot at him

and then when hyunjin had run away seungmin jumped down

and he swapped to his diamond pickaxe and

whilst hyunjin was looking up trying to find him

seungmin literally stabbed him in the back with his axe

so hyunjin quickly turned around with his sword

managed to get a few hits

but

ultimately

seungmin won

yOOOO the boys were screamingggg

seungmin had actually beat hyunjin fair and square lmfao

jeongin, felix, and woojin were with seungmin

and jisung, chan, changbin and minho were with hyunjin

yeah they were in separate houses

so that nobody screenwatched

(they took it that seriously)

felix skyped jisung just so that hyunjin could see them all partying and laughing whilst hyunjin was just there like

my gaming rep is now non-existent

minecraft boi actually beat me

he’s lowkey proud of seungmin bc damn he planned his attack so well

but still

he stabbed him in the back man

it was still hilarious to watch

they all went out to celebrate the next day

changbin amde a lil’ rap about how shit hyunjin is at gaming now

and after that seugmin actually posted the video of him slaying hyunjin’s ass

within the first minute of seugmin posting that video there was one dislike

from a certain salty hwang hyunjin

he’s now made it his plan to improve in a game that hyunjin’s great at so he can beat him at that too

but that’s gonna take a while lmao

so yeah, although hyunjin will 5ever be salty that he got beat by seungmin

he still looks out for him like he’s his lil’ bro

it’s so cute honestly

and they’re always hanging out with each other in school now

practically inseparable

&& although the guys mocked him for his minecraft vids

he knows they still love him and they’re basically all just older bros to him that are always there for him to depend on

and there’s jeongin as his lil’ bro he can be the youngster with

they pretty much always act cute to get the older guys to do their bidding

secretly evil maknaes

only one more left them im?? done??? im gonna miss this series tbfh :’(

#stray kids #sk #kim seungmin #stray kids scenarios #stray kids writing #stray kids imagines #kpop scenarios #kpop writing #kpop imagines #kpop #youtuber seungmin #youtube au #stray kids series #seungmin #sgm

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wazafam · 3 years

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Nearly every member of the Z-Warriors has battled it out with Goku in the Dragon Ball franchise. In fact, the only heroes who haven’t come to blows with the show’s protagonist at one point or another are his youngest son, Goten, the present-day version of Trunks, and Chiaotzu. Everyone else, though, knows what it’s like to be at odds with the Saiyan warrior.

Goku and his allies have fought each other for various reasons in the anime. Some of these battles happened before they became properly acquainted, while others occurring during sparring sessions and tournaments. Plus, there are a few Z-Warriors who started out as villains of Goku, and had to develop into heroes later on.

Related: Dragon Ball: Why Future Trunks Can Go Super Saiyan God Now

Across all three shows, Goku won a great many of the battles he’s had with his friends, but not all have gone his way. Here’s every Z-Warrior who has fought Goku in Dragon Ball canon, and what happened.

Yamcha, who is commonly thought of as one of the weakest Z-Warriors, actually beat Goku when they first encountered each other. In fact, their fight wasn’t even close. Goku had the Power Pole on his side, but it didn’t matter against the sword-wielding Desert Bandit. He couldn’t withstand the flurry of blows that Yamcha bombarded him with, including his signature move, the Wolf Fang Fist.

Vegeta is Goku’s main rival in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, but that role initially belonged to his best friend, Krillin. While the two were pupils of Master Roshi, Krillin trained diligently to prove his superiority over Goku, despite the fact that the latter was always several steps ahead of him. He received a chance to test his mettle against Goku when he, after defeating a series of skilled opponents, squared off against him in the semi-finals of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. Krillin put up a good fight, but unsurprisingly fell to the young Saiyan. Even though the gap between their power levels widened to a point where there was no debating who would win, the two held a rematch in Dragon Ball Super, with Krillin having no choice but to rely on a fast combination of techniques. When Goku powered up to Super Saiyan Blue and unleashed a Kamehameha, Android 18 interrupted the fight, feeling that Goku was pushing him too hard.

Master Roshi secretly battled Gohan and Krillin in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament under the guise of “Jackie Chun”, as he believed that either of his students winning could affect their confidence in a negative way. As “Jackie Chun”, Roshi saw first-hand how strong Goku had become, but he was still able to persevere.

Related: Dragon Ball: How Piccolo Could Surpass Goku

While being mind-controlled, Roshi fought against Goku a second time in Dragon Ball Super. To the surprise of fans, Roshi actually had enough strength to beat Tien and challenge Goku in his base form. It was a significant moment for the character, because it proved that he had been training in secret, and that he wasn’t as far behind the rest of the Z-Warriors as originally thought.

Before becoming a hero, Tien served as Goku’s opponent in the final round of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. After barely overcoming Yamcha, Tien engaged Goku in a heated showdown. Master Shen tried to use Chiaotzu to cheat on Tien’s behalf, but Tien was determined to have a fair fight. In the end, both were knocked into the air, with Goku landing first. Due to this technicality, he was declared the loser. Similar to the situation with Yamcha, Goku hasn’t had a proper rematch with Tien yet, but there’s no denying that he would come out on top if another fight were to occur.

Yajirobe, the laziest of Goku’s allies, didn’t have to do any training to pose a physical challenge to Goku in Dragon Ball. After a run-in in the wilderness, the two had a standoff, but the outcome was inconclusive, as Cymbal came onto the scene before a winner could be determined. In the present, Yajirobe - who has only dedicated a small amount of his time to training - is unfortunately no longer thought to be a match for any of the Z-Warriors.

After Demon King Piccolo was reincarnated, a new character was born. The new version of Piccolo emerged as an adversary of Goku for the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. Goku battled Piccolo in the finals, and came quite close to losing. Both characters used some of their strongest attacks in the match and sustained serious injuries. At the end of the fight, Goku flew for the first time in Dragon Ball history and landed a headbutt, which turned out to be the knockout blow he needed. Afterward, Piccolo planned to defeat Goku in a future rematch, but later events involving the Saiyan invaders caused them to evolve from enemies into allies.

Related: Dragon Ball: Every Z-Warrior Who Has Won A Tournament (& Which Ones)

Goku and Vegeta have had two serious fights in the anime, the first of which being the one that transpired in the Saiyan Saga. Thanks to the training he received from King Kai, Goku returned from Other World with a sizable power boost that put him far above Piccolo and the Z-Warriors. After effortlessly taking down Nappa, Goku fought Vegeta one-on-one and showed the Saiyan prince that he had truly become a force to be reckoned with by using the Spirit Bomb move and Kaio-ken technique. Seeing that Goku was stronger, Vegeta shifted the odds in his favor by forcing a Great Ape transformation. Following Goku’s defeat, he had to rely on Krillin, Gohan, and Yajirobe to finish the fight against Vegeta.

Vegeta later became a hero, but never gave up on the notion of being better than Goku. During the Buu Saga, Vegeta acquired a power-up from Babidi and finally had his much-anticipated second round with Goku. After narrowly beating his rival, Vegeta felt a degree of vindication until he discovered that Goku was holding back Super Saiyan 3 (a form he presumably could have used to win).

Goku has gone up against Future Trunks on two separate occasions. When they met in the Android Saga, Future Trunks – who had just been revealed as Dragon Ball’s second Super Saiyan – attacked Goku due to being curious about his power. They had a short fight, which lasted just long enough for Trunks to see that Goku was stronger than him. Goku remained on the defensive the entire time, and only blocked Trunks’ sword strikes with his finger. They had a similar encounter during their reunion in Dragon Ball Super, which culminated in Goku going Super Saiyan 3. Upon seeing this, Trunks realized that he was way out of Goku’s league.

Goku put Gohan through some intense sparring in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and guided him into unlocking Super Saiyan 2 form. Several years later, Gohan sought help from Piccolo so that he could regain his fighting edge. Once Gohan decided that he was ready for actual combat, he designed to test his newfound strength against the strongest opponent he could find: Goku. Gohan hit Goku with everything he had, and even managed to push him into accessing Super Saiyan Blue. Still, Gohan hung in the fight and wouldn’t go down until Goku combined this power with his Kaio-ken technique.

Related: Dragon Ball's Hercule Retcon Is Actually A Correction

In Dragon Ball Z, Goku impressively overpowered Majin Buu with his Super Saiyan 3 form, thus making it clear that if he would have won if the fight had continued. At the time, the Earth itself was at stake, but the circumstances of their rematch – which happened in Dragon Ball Super – were much friendlier. After losing a great deal of weight, the good version of Buu fought Goku (who refrained from transforming) and used tactics to ring him out.

On account of the heart virus, Goku missed out on the Z-Warriors’ conflict with Android 18 and Android 17, whose primary objective in Dragon Ball Z was to kill him. They both abandoned this goal, but 17 did get an opportunity to fight Goku during the lead-up to the Tournament of Power. In a shocking scene, 17 demonstrated that he had somehow become powerful enough to match blows with Super Saiyan Blue Goku, with one of 17’s biggest advantages being the fact that androids never run out of energy. Their battle eventually ended in a stalemate. After the fight was over, it was heavily implied that both characters avoided utilizing their full potential. That being said, the events of the Dragon Ball tournament and their respective performances confirmed that Goku was the superior fighter.

More: Dragon Ball Super: Every Z-Warrior Stronger Than DBZ's Goku

Dragon Ball Z: Every Z-Warrior Goku Fought (& What Happened) from https://ift.tt/32eU24O

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