#though I guess back then she was the only 3d princess so maybe it does make sense for lil me to have been resistant to that change lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marinaiguess · 1 year

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some thoughts evoked by the poll thingy with blaze being in the finals. It’s not about the polls, I do know these are for funsies and stuff, the thought occured to me though because of it.

I think blaze is a very mistreated and underrated character.

Wow, okay, that was loaded. Still stands though. I guess I have none other than SEGA to blame, but either way, I do wanna analyze her journey in the franchise and also share my thoughts along the way.

Blaze the cat had a great kick-off at the beginning of her career. What better way to introduce her than have her as a playable character alongside the main character in an exclusive game for the massively popular at the time, Nintendo DS. Sonic Rush sold more than a million copies and even though it was a pretty great game, it did more than that: it took care of Blaze. It established her character, her background, her story, it gave her an entire character development arc. What was there not to love about her? Sonic’s rival at first, a girl who could keep up with him in terms of speed and power, a princess from another dimension who could also control fire, having her own set of emeralds of which she was the guardian and even her own super form. So many things to consider. All those things were what made her super likeable back in 2005. Fans were actually obsessed with her. And they needed more. So, SEGA had to do something about it.

Here comes Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), changing quite a few things that we already knew about our favorite blue speedster. Possibly changing the entire franchise irredeemably. You already know where I’m going with this. We’re introduced to a new character, Silver the Hedgehog. Everyone is excited to play through his story and, right off the bat, we meet his company: Blaze. Everyone is cheering beacuse Blaze! She’s here, in a 3D game! Soooo, Silver is a character from Blaze’s dimension? Wrong. They’re from the future. Maybe Blaze’s dimension is from the future? Wrong. Blaze and Sonic don’t even acknowledge each other when they eventually meet, acting like they’ve never met before, like Sonic Rush never happened. Okay, fine, it can’t get worse than that, right? Wrong.

Blaze, for the entirety of the game is treated like a cosmetic, acting solely as Silver’s sidekick, or even as his mentor if you will, and nothing more. We rarely see through her and her thoughts and we’re given little to no means to understand her character. For some people, Blaze was a newly introduced character, since not everyone knew her existence from a year prior. What they get is not the powerful princess we met in Rush, the one who understood the power of friendship and used it in her favour despite her bad past. No, what they got in 06 was a side character, merely existing to give Silver advice and suggestions for his own journey, which she follows no matter what path he chooses to take, even if she disagrees or is not entirely content with it.

Her limited screentime used for fan-service purposes ended with a bang. Despite this huge journey of giving Silver a purpose (or helping him fulfill it), Blaze was the one who saved the future by using Chaos Control and sacrificing herself in the process, turning into a sort of Burning Blaze as she ascends to the sky. The only reason I felt bad about it was because I knew who Blaze was supposed to be, Blaze to me was the character introduced in Rush. But, given all the info from this specific game, I wasn’t really attached to this Blaze, I had no reason to. Her story felt too blank in comparison to everyone else’s for me to feel the impact of her death. I can understand Silver’s pain though.

Which doesn’t matter in the end because the timeline is erased.

So, does that mean Sonic 06 never happened or that it’s not canon? Nope. Everything happened and everything is back to the way it was. Except that the future is saved. How do we know? Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rush Adventure happened.

I will stick to the latter for the time being. Sonic Rush received a not so commerrcially successful as its predecessor sequel, picking up from where it left off. Kind of. The game released in 2007, a year after 06, the events of which were never to be brought up again, at least until Generations (2011). So, as you’d assume, Sonic and Blaze act like 06 never happened to them, continuing their story after Rush’s events. This game gave more in-depth character development to Blaze, who strengthens her bonds with old and new friends. It doesn’t really matter though because this game didn’t sell well, meaning not a lot of people bought it. Basically, no one knew that game existed so they were wondering what the hell happened to Blaze. Was she dead? Was she from the future? Was she from a different dimension? Would we ever see her again?

Uncertainty prevailed and after SEGA realized how bad of an idea it was to release 06 at its terrible state, they decided it would be best to pretend like it never happened. Iizuka (if I’m not mistaken) when asked in an interview, said that the reason Sonic and Blaze didn’t recognize each other in 06 was “amnesia”. Which doesn’t answer anything and I believe an official answer right now would differ a lot from that. Blaze went on to be a playable character in a few racing games, she got a few cameos. 2009, she appears in Sonic and the Black Knight as Sir Percival. Once again, it doesn’t change anything because, this is a storybook game and doesn’t take place in the in-game universe (this is the arthurian kingdom/world/universe).

Many fans theorized that 06 happened before Rush, making Blaze die in 06 and being transeferred to a new dimension while she had used Chaos Control, forgetting about the past, hence why she didn’t know Sonic in Rush. This was further supported by the fact that Blaze and Silver didn’t recognize each other in Sonic Colors DS (2010), meaning they had forgotten each other. Blaze forgot about 06 and traveled to a different dimension and Silver was affected by the timeline erasure. Sounds pretty solid, right?

Sonic Generations (2011). Blaze is there because she is still relevant and a beloved character to the franchise. No one knows how she got there and no one explains it but no one cares, she’s there to celebrate Sonic’s birthday, the Sonic she knows through the Rush games. But stuff happens and she gets trapped, alongside many of Sonic’s friends, into this ‘white limbo’. Sonic saves her...from Crisis City. Which is a stage from the future of Sonic 06. You may think “okay, maybe SEGA just wanted to pay tribute to 06 as well.” and that would be fine, if it weren’t for Blaze stating that she “never thought she’d be here again.” She remembers 06. Theory debunked. This is never mentioned again, in any game ever. It is still canon however.

After that, she appeared in Team Sonic Racing (2019), taking 8 years to appear in a game again...despite it being a spin-off. Nothing happens there really, she’s just there to talk to Silver and Amy who she races against for some reason.

She does appear in IDW, and we now know that the comics are canon to the game timeline. And, I gotta say, I like her there. She hasn’t appeared many times but the writers made those times count. (I think it was Ian who wrote her all of those times, so yeah).

To put it simply, Blaze is a lost opportunity. Talk about having a rough transition into 3D (hehe). SEGA could have used her in many ways and I think they were intending to, they were preparing her for something big. But they didn’t handle her as they were supposed to and this leads to where we are, where Blaze only appears in spin-offs and the comics, as if they are afraid to bring her back in mainline games. They could really capitalize on her character, if used correctly. They could use her as a playable character that uses the boost formula, as a character that has a super form. They could use her world to introduce new level designs, avoiding using Green Hill over and over again, right?

I don’t wanna see her standing on the sidelines, doing nothing. I don’t want her purpose to be mentoring Silver. I don’t want her legacy to be Sonic 06. I don’t her to appear only in dire situations (even though, now that I think about it, she didn’t even appear in Forces despite there being a literal war in Sonic’s world). I don’t want her character development to be forgotten and erased. She was a girl with a unique personality that now feels empty, as if she hides behind the face of being a princess from another dimension and nothing more, barely being Sonic’s or Cream’s friend. Mainly focused on the games right now.

It is said that Blaze is one of the fan-favourite characters of the franchise. But I don’t know if that’s correct. Because I’m not sure if people are a fan of who she is now, of who she is in their minds, or of who she is supposed to be, best depicted in the Rush games. Personally, I believe Blaze still has a lot of uncovered potential that they could take advantage of, so that they can show to everyone who Blaze is supposed to be. Strong and independant, her own character, her own hero.

Hopefully, we get to see more of that in the future. She definitely deserves it.

#how many words is that holy shit #im sorry #i just...had to i guess #it's past 1am rip my brain #i had to take this off my chest. been holding it for a while #i just care for her yknow #blaze the cat #sth #sonic #character analysis #blaze the cat analysis #sonic the hedgehog #sonic rush

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faroreswinds · 11 months

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Would the totk story come across better if Link was more expressive? I think the reason he isn't is because he has always been (at least partially) a player-insert, so you're supposed to fill in part of his personality yourself. I agree that it would be better if he had his own personality though - hell, he sort of does already, considering he has a lot of sassy dialogue options. But the lack of character animation and voice acting on him was certainly a Choice, and it certainly wouldn't have hurt to have him react a bit more to that final dragon tear.

It would have helped a lot to be sure, but it is not the only fix Totk needs.

It needed to not have a memory system. It needed to avoid constant repeat of story information. It needed more present-story. It needed to not treat its audience like they are 5.

And while Link has always been a player-insert, and I don't mind this, he has also always been decently expressive (for the 3D games at least). OoT Link expresses fear, distain, curiosity, grief, and respect across his two games. TP Link expresses joy, sorrow, anger, and shock in his games. SS Link literally cries when Zelda seals herself in a crystal, smiles with understanding at Groose's fear of the Surface, and so on. And WW Link has a buffet of emotions and reactions.

BotW Link expresses.... pain and shock, I guess. Not exactly a wide range of emotions there.

Like, let's compare some scenes between OoT and Totk. In OoT, when Link leaves his home for the first time, Saria confronts him to say good-bye. While we cannot see his face, we do see him take a step back and stare at her for a moment, before turning and running away from her. That is all that was needed to show us that saying good-bye was hard for him. He was leaving the one person in his life that truly mattered to him, and into an unknown future and world.

In totk, Link learns that Zelda has turned herself into a dragon. And his response was... to stare blankly into the sky as she passed by.

Wow. So.... emotional....

I think another problem with Totk Link is that he doesn't really have much going in his life besides Zelda.

Like, in WW, TP, OoT, and SS, Link was part of a community. He had a family or friends in his town he was part of. Maybe he was a student, or a farm hand, but he had people in his life besides Zelda.

BotW/Totk Link? Well, we barely know his life before being Zelda's knight. His two other important relationships (Mipha and Daruk) are with dead people. What community was he a part of? We don't really know. Did he have other friends? Was he a city kid or a country kid? Did he live with his father or not?

No, the only important relationship this Link has is with Zelda, and his entire life seems to revolve around her. It makes him feel like he's not really a permanent part of this world.

Yes yes, he is supposedly best friends with Sidon,but it kinda feels like it is one sided. Sidon says Link is his best friend but we never see Link, like.... look super happy to see Sidon again or anything. No big hug or a fist bump.

And his house from Botw is now Zelda's house. And consider Bolson doesn't seem to know Link, I almost wonder if canonically, that was never Link's house to begin with. Meaning... Link doesn't even have a house?! It made sense in BotW, he was sleeping for 100 years, but here?! Wtf?

I really hope they make the next Link not only more expressive, but not make him an accessory to Zelda. In fact, I want the next Zelda to play more of a minor role. Give us another Twilight Princess scenario, where the main princess is someone else.

#totk-spoilers #Zelda discourse #anon asks

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franki-lew-yo · 3 years

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I really hate 2d purists. No, not 2d animation. Not 2d animators.

2d purists.

The sad thing is it’s gotten to the point that I really cringe hearing any pro-2D sentiment at all. I hate the arguments I agree with because how often they're misused and weaponized by idiots.

Let me make my stance here clear - 2d is NOT appreciated and 3d is used for everything! The layman Karen-mom who doesn’t have an artistic bone in her body looks at stupidsmooth 3D Grubhub ads and assumes quality cause it “looks more real” (aka ‘rendered’). I know as much is true because I literally have a member of my family who told my sister and I that she thinks 3d is better (and also that she “tolerated THOSE movies for us kids”. Touching words. My sister was taking an animation course by the way). Combined that with the studios either using 2D for cheap stuff or finding good 2d animation too “costly”, I get it and I’m not even any animator. I'm just a worm an illustrator.

but holy HELL -

There’s a backlash from the artistic community that's it's own kind of insufferable and deserve to be addressed.

“(insert2Danimatedfilm) is better BECAUSE it's 2D!”

followed by: "Animation is a visual medium and the quality of the art affects how much the story means !!!!”

Yes. Totally. Animation is a visual medium and the look and style is important. Sadly, people use this excuse to really obnoxious ends, insisting that design being pretty is '' everything ''. When you treat a movie more as a special effects demo I get why you talk about the artistry at hand; but I’m sorry, visuals are not the only thing important and it’s why I’m also getting sick of the sameElsafacesyndrome rants too! There’s this attitude that's reads as "but it LOOKS better fromaproductionimage/teasertrailerwhichapparentlyisindicativeof all themovieactuallyis so it MUST BE better".

-“3D should only be used to make things look realistic!”

I think I know the logic this criticism is made in response to, and that’s the Sony + Illumination films which look just as good in 2D as they do in three dimensions. I know it feels like people are twisting this medium to try and make it like a classic cartoon when by all means people can and would love a classic cartoon being a classic cartoon. That I get- From the unsung 2D animator’s perspective, that’s more than valid !

But it’s a huuuuuuge slap in the face to 3d in saying it should only be used for "realistic animation" because

1: It’s not like realistic animation could age badly or look uncanny in the next few years. It's almost like technology is constantly improving, which I guess 2d animation never did and it was always the same technique and quality as every film that came after it.

2: The industry does treat 3d as a magic-moneymaker for this reason. Just listen to these people call the 2019 LION KING “live action” as if they’re embarrassed to call it animation. It IS animation! It would be impressive if you acknowledged that what it is, but like the CATS, you basically are treating it as just a neato tool to better your live action and not it's own artform - which it is!

3: By this “three-deeonly gud when real liek in da toystories” non-logic I guess 2d should ONLY be for flowyflowy SPACE JAM cartoons and maybe some Disney*. Just that though. You can’t do anything more with 2d. It’s never supposed to be realistic I guess. Good thing Richard Williams only did 'toons' and just toons that’s why we need 3d in the world I guess.

Wait no - that’s stupid.

"I HAVE to see the “Land Before Time 14″ when it comes out! I mean it’s a 2D animated film!"

Lost in the aether that is Youtube comment chains removed from kid's videos is a stream of this very VERY stupid argument supporting the buying of the 14th LAND BEFORE TIME film because it’s supporting 2D. My sister and I can be found on that chain arguing against this stupidity. All you have is my word, but trust me: it really did happen.

I’m sorry but...no.

Unless you have a friend or a family member who worked on these movies there’s no reason to see this and ESPECIALLY no reason to insist it’s a win for the 2D community if you buy up this crap - and I'm not judging if you do like it, but come on! LAND BEFORE TIME 14 isn't where your money should go if you really like this medium.

What’s so infuriating about this argument is you can tell it’s made by nonanimators. Real animators will tell you to support their movies cause they want some respect for their artform which is why there’s such a push from the PRINCESS AND THE FROGcrowd that you SEE and LOVE every 2d thing out there, regardless of how good it is because any recognition for it is k i n d o f what they're after!

Kiddy sequel schlock isn’t even in the same ballpark as KLAUS or WOLFWALKERS; these films DID have very limited theatrical runs (Klaus so it could be nominated; Wolfwalkers in places where theaters opened up after Covid) and should have been supported because they were labors of love made by people who love animation.

As other people have already pointed out, one of the reasons for the lack of interest in 2000sera2D animation is that the only films released alongside critical+financial 3D hits were cheaper 2D films that either coincided with daytime tv shows or should have been just direct-to-video. It’s not to say art couldn’t come out of these flicks, but dayum if it wasn’t abused as much as the texture software that era's CG used... Point being, should the world ever go back to normal: If you hear about an out-of-town showing an acclaimed 2D animated film, make time to trek out and see THAT!

Don’t give your money to see yet another made-for-tv movie on the big screen because all that tells the studio is: “yeah 2d IS cheap and only good for cheap stuff let’s just keep it cheap. Only 3d is important 8D 8D 8D !!!"

“I don’t understand how it works. So it sucks.”

This text is from an ANIMATOR btw.

“I don’t understand how it works” and “it’s just some computer rendering” is the exact same wave of logic the people who prefer cgi use.

The plebian Karen I mentioned earlier? She understands the basics of 2D animation as much as you did from one of those cruddy flash classes you took in middle-school. She 'understands' the basics cuz she watched how it was made on the DVD features or maybe back on the WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY. To her, the illusion is broken and she’s not impressed by 'just some drawings on paper'. You, an animator, know the process is more complicated and is intrigued by knowing how it’s made - not bored or disinterested -

Neither you nor Aunt Karen have really good cg-animation software at your house and unless you ARE a 3D animator you probably DON’T know all the ins-and-outs of how these movies are modeled, rendered, and animated.

Aunt Karen is bedazzled by them cause she doesn’t know how it works and the technical aspect makes her brain hurt so it might as well be magic and she can feel like a cool kid sharing Minion-memes. Aunt Karen is the nonartistic type who just wants to feel safe. You're not. You want to feel challenged.

I get it: you’re pissed off cause you’re in a field no one, including Aunt Karen, appreciates; told to work in cg which it's an artform you didn’t devote your life to and told to learn it cause THIS style sells! 3D is everywhere and is starting to look like 'garbage' even if you don’t animate 3D models yourself you just KNOW, I guess. Besides, you know all there is to know about 2d!! You know all there is to possibly know about this artform and have to fight this 'war' against "r e a l" animation! And I mean even when 3d software is there to use, it's not like you can actually make anything worth while in it, especially not anything that transcends the medium. Right Worthikids?

TL;DR: This argument is basically just " BWAAAAH I’M NOT GONNA USE IT I HAVE STANDARDS (a chip on my shoulder cuz art should be what I deem it to be) "

“PRINCESS AND THE FROG is-”

There’s a reason I can’t say I truly like PRINCESS AND THE FROG even though it's not even a bad movie! Like, stop reading this and watch PATF if you haven't it's good. It's my 'FROZEN', in that; I see a lot of potential in it I just think it needs some serious rewriting and that bugs me. Always have felt that way, tbh.

I dislike this movie because the response from the animation community seems to be it was perfect and the Academy was just Pixar-crazy with UP ((ftr, the Academy IS Pixar’s bitch and I personally advocate a sequel be made to WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY about Mike Eisner’s sabotage of the 2D department at Disney which is still in place now!- but that’s a story for another day)). I’m sorry but UP was just a better story. So was CORALINE. So was FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Honest to god it feels like poor PATF is brought up as just a talking point and never for it's own worth as a labor of love - which it was! I'd like to honestly know: had PRINCESS AND THE FROG come out now and been cg if it would have even half the defenders for it because now it doesn't "look" like how a Disney movie "should" look...

If you like PatF more than the currant Disney lineup because of it's culture, it's music, it's feminism, it's black representation? Awesome. Great. Those things should be appreciated and I never want that taken away from you. But if you seriously think PatF is better just for how it was animated and looks - I lowkey may hate you.

“ALL OF DISNEY’S LATEST MOVIES SHOULD HAVE BEEN 2D! THEY ALL LOOK AWFUL IN 3D!! ALL OF THEM!”

TANGLED, FROZEN, and MOANA? Yeah. Sure. But um, e x c u s e y o u- WRECK IT RALPH sooooo doesn’t work in 2d! It could have used different between the various worlds but it’s about hopping through different video games. I’m also of the opinion that ZOOTOPIA and BIG HERO 6 are fine the way they are. Their 3d is awesome.

The latest fairy tale Disney films are really big on their place alongside the 2D canon esp in marketing. They keep trying to mimic 2D to varying results though I don't think it works as well as the movie's I'd previously mentioned. Me personally, I would love a mix of 3D and 2D technology, like if the backgrounds in FROZEN still got to be 3D but the characters were handdrawn and shaded ala KLAUS ((sweet sigh)). But even then are they truly unwatchable just based on how they're animated to you?

MOANA would have been incredible in 2D but for the record - I don't think it feels out of place in it's style. It reminds me more of a Pixar movie with the heart of a Disney classic which is it's own just as good.

“2D is the oldest form of animation and it’s being replaced.”

Actually, if we’re talking animation in film, stop motion is the earliest form of animation. The stop motion animated THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED and TALE OF THE FOX predate Disney’s SNOW WHITE. And yes: stop-motion IS still a form of animation even if it’s a serious of pictures taken of real life things and not drawings, so don’t you dare come at me with the "but that's not animated"/"Technically it’s LIVE ACTION" crap or I’ll envoke the spirit of Sandman to get you at night.

“Every animated film would look better in 2D! Even PIXAR would look better in 2D!”

Again, Stop Motion.

No, I mean it.

Lemme ask: Would ISLE OF DOGS or FANTASTIC MR. FOX carry any of the same effect if they were generic 90s toons? I know NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS wouldn’t. Christ, don’t even get me started on Svankmajer!

Sometimes the problem is that a movie is envisioned with a specific artform in mind. Pixar started out with toys and bugs for a reason and that’s cuz they were always gonna be a 3d studio and they needed to first overcome the placisity of the models. Over the years they’ve gotten really good at effects and blending unrealistic proportions with real textures (and also not so much- ONWARD and THE GOOD DINOSAUR really needed some different character designs and yeah, I do think would have looked better with a 2d artstyle, but not the ones they had in their films. THE GOOD DINOSAUR needed more realistic-speculative looking dinos and ONWARD needed a grittier HEAVY METAL/BLACK CAULDRON appeal to its designs.) My point being that the problems with these movies aren’t even inherently the animation as much as it is a problem of style. As someone who runs a group speculating different styles and designs for movies and tv shows I’m all for envisioning a 2D ZOOTOPIA or Bluth-inspired FNAF. That’s amazing!

But that’s also the talk of fan artists and nerds and not the professional artists working on visualizing their stories!!

Since I ate, slept, and breathed NIGHTMARE in my youth I’ll use it as an example: All the concept art ever done for TNBC was on paper and 2D was used in the final film. However, even when Tim Burton was thinking of making it just a tv special it was always going to be stop-motion. NIGHTMARE’s puppet cast do work very well in two dimensions, believe me, but the film was made as a love letter to Rankin/Bass and the art form of stop-motion. Skipping to another Henry Selick-helmed project (haha), JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH was also always envisioned as a multimedia film to give it a truly dream-like atmosphere. If you know anything about Henry Selick you’ll know he’s 1) a perfectionist, and 2) loves mixed media and different types of animation and puppetry at once. That’s why he was the perfect pick to direct TNBC at the time, why JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and CORALINE are so beautiful and why MOONGIRL, his only fully 3d film, doesn’t have the same appeal.

As for what films I couldn’t imagine NOT being 3D? Probably; 9, Padak, Next Gen, Soul, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story films, Wreck-it-Ralph (as previously mentioned), Wall.E, Waltz with Bashir, Robots, Inside Out, Arthur Christmas, The Painting, Happy Feet, Shrek, Enter the Spiderverse, Megamind… just naming a few here.

“I want a traditionally animated film [and by that I mean a 90s-Disney/Don Bluth looking movie] of ‘x'-popular live action/stage thing!”

Okay I’m cheating a bit but it’s my blog and so I’m gonna stick this one in because it’s related.

When I see musings about wanting live-action or CGI shiz to be in 2d again a lot of the time this argument actually boils down to " I want this to look like a 90s Didney movie ". Or, if it’s about animals - " I want it to look like a Don Bluth film! "

Like...there ARE other styles of animation out there...you know that right?

Frack, Disney themselves tried different styles throughout the 90s it’s just that the peak of the Disney renaissance films (LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING) and the many imitators that followed tended to have the same look to them where only film/animation nerds kept watching into the era that was TARZAN, HERCULES, and ATLANTIS along with the kids. Aunt Karen wasn't singing Part of your World in the carride with you every day.

The Don Bluth argument is especially irritating because...what exact feeling do you WANT from a movie if it looked Bluthish? Each of the four ‘quintessential’ Bluth movies (NIMH, AMERICAN TAIL, LBT, and ALL DOGS) have such a different feel to them that’s complimented by that style; SECRET OF NIMH is a drama about wild animals trying to understand humans; LAND BEFORE TIME is even more squarely about an animal’s perspective as there’s literally no humans around; AMERICAN TAIL uses animals stowing away on the ship to tell a story about refugees; and ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN is ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN.

What the frack are you even asking for with that because I think there’s a certain flavor to the Bluth-styled oeuvre as well as the 90s Disney catalogue that would clash too much stylistically with some films.

Also come on! Like some Bluthian-style 2d would really fix THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS or SCOOB!, bite me.

I think this fixation solely on these two hand drawn styles and nothing else is based on nostalgia goggles, refusing to step outside the norm and discover different films and feelings than Disney and Bluth, and just preference. Goin back to NIGHTMARE there will always be a special place in my heart for Henry Selick’s stop motion, but I couldn’t imagine CHICKEN RUN or ANOMALISA in it's unique style.

Also I’m tired of every time there’s a "lets make an animatic to ‘x’ musical theater song" it’s reliably just Disneyesque or realistic. WHY envision an animated version of the show at all if it doesn’t have A STYLE to it??!?! I’m sorry but 90s-Disney does NOT fit CABARET!

“3D is so CHEAP now! Why can’t they just do 2D again?”

I think - on the cusp of the 2020s and the Grubhub hatedom, there ARE changing times ahead for 3d and 2d. The general public are starting to get tired of the same looking 3d films and wanting some 2d back, but they don’t have the best resources or opinions on animation to know what it is they want. Meanwhile, the animation community + industry is trying to figure out what to do and you have a lot of turmoil between the monopoly that is the industry, the high standards of the artists, and the mixed wants of the animation fanbase deciding what art needs to be.

It’s a tough business. And in the spirit of that tough business - maybe DON’T act like the means of a film’s production is solely your control, that you know best, and know definitively what the artists should have done....cuz you don't. Sorry my fellow criticalfanomanalysist-folks we DON'T and in an age of standom where fans and critics think it's okay to hackle indie animation studios about not getting their pitched cartoon out fast enough - we need to reserve these discussions to our circles and not treat them as gospel.

3d animation and 2d animation have to share this world. Stop acting like they’re either interchangeable in terms of budget, means of production, or artistry or that one has to be superior to the other.

The industry already says one art form is better (spoiler: it’s always live-action), we don’t need anymore of this purist garbage. Just stick to what you like while trying new things on the side. Be critical while also being compassionate. And remember:

youtube

#animation #animation on tumblr #2d animation #3d animation #traditional animation #hand drawn animation #Franki's Features

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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(non-ml asks)

Anonymous said:

So the Pokémon anniversary a couple of weeks back showed two very different takes in the future of Pokémon. What are your thoughts on the Sinnoh remakes and Legends Arceus?

I really hate the Sinnoh remakes. It’s not that I hate the chibi style (I mean, Pokemon started that way), but like--remake the game but just make it “the 2D game but 3D”???? Why? And it feels disrespectful because every other remake has used the style of the other games they were in (so FRLG looked like RSE, HGSS looked like DPPt, ORAS looked like XY, and most of the time, the remakes looked outright better than the style they were based on). It’s a shame because I really wanted to see an improvement from Sword and Shield, which didn’t engage/interest me and... I don’t know if this will make total sense, but instead of an upgrade from Sun & Moon, it feels like an upgrade of XY? Like, XY’s problems but with better proportions.

I’m cautiously optimistic for Legends Arceus, if only because, “YES, AN ACTUALLY SINGLE GAME INSTEAD OF THE DUAL STUFF THEY KEEP PULLING” (which was absolutely unacceptable when they got to console stuff). I actually didn’t notice the framedrop issues because I’m used to running games on a laptop that clearly isn’t made for them, so I’m sort of immune to it. I haven’t decided if I’ll get it for sure but the premise intrigues me and I really like Arceus.

Anonymous said:

How is Moroha the Marinette of Inuyasha?

- needlessly tormented by the narrative

- things that other people do to her don’t get addressed

- people closest to her are usually awful

- awesomely overpowered yet narrative will constantly have her screw up and put her down/make her feel worthless

- gets sidelined/ignored in favor of other characters

Anonymous said:

In one of your Askplosions(don't remember which one, sorry), you said that you can't stand the Tomboy Lesbian stereotype, which, to be honest, I kind of agree with. But what about Tomboy Bisexual? I guess it's not as bad if a female character's tomboyishness/girlishness isn't used as a clue as to her sexuality(like "you know she's a lesbian because she's BUTCH!!!"), but there aren't really stereotypes associated with being bi that are based in masculinity or femininity(due to bi erasure sadly.).

kfdngjdfgd I like how you had to had that bis don’t easily get stereotypes as much due to bi erasure because you’re absolutely right.

“Tombis” are fine, I have no problem with them. Any stereotype to avoid then are just the general bi stereotypes.

Anonymous said:

I was just reading TV Tropes' page for "Gratuitous Princess" and holy shit the sexism on display here is really nauseating. It's exactly like "Improbably Female Cast"(there are too many female characters here and it's uncalled for, despite it being okay for characters to predominantly be men), in that it's basically insulting any story that has anything to do with princesses at all by saying it "isn't needed". TV Tropes has always had a way of including underhanded sexism when talking about female-dominated/aimed works or tropes having to do with female characters or anything designed to appeal to female audiences; the more feminine, the more ridiculed it is by TV Tropes, despite claiming to believe otherwise.

Similar to how I complained about their "Improbably Female Cast" trope, Gratuitous Princess claims that stories with "more princesses than is plausible for the setting" are this trope because any abundance of princesses is somehow bad or doesn't make sense, even if it would make sense for there to be that many princesses/all the characters to be princesses.

For example, they claim that an entire school of princesses is implausible and "gratuitous", but if the school is intentionally meant to be a "royal" school for girls to learn to be princesses(whether or not they were actually born into royalty), then it's not actually gratuitous and makes sense within the setting! If the story follows a monarchy, it makes sense to have lots of princesses, especially if it's aimed at young girls.

If the main characters are a group of normal girls who wish they were princesses and the story follows "fantastical" versions of their imaginary princess selves, then that also makes sense, especially if the story has "every girl can be a princess" as their moral or something. There's nothing wrong with stories like that, but TV Tropes claims they're unnecessary because anything involving princesses(stuff little girls like) are automatically shoehorned in.

Just look at the examples, which are all written in an unnecessarily derogatory way, with statements such as "for some reason, she's called a princess", or "the rulers should be queens, and yet they're princesses"(when it COULD just be a principality; do your research, TV Tropes), or "how this has anything to do with princessing is never explained", as if the mere fact that she's a princess is something bad or worthy of scorn.

They even claim Sailor Moon is this trope when Naoko Takeuchi simply wanted the story to revolve around a group of girls who just so happened to be reincarnated princesses who ruled over their respective planet. It's supposed to be a girl power wish fulfillment fantasy that appeals teenage girls by showing all the girly things they like as implements of power!

And yet TV Tropes disses it for just that, because anything that's made to appeal to girls can't ever make sense. Now, if they were complaining about how, in aggregate, shows about princesses or in which every female character is a princess can reinforce the notion that the only way for a female character to be noteworthy in any way is if she's a princess, then that would be different, but that's not what's happening. They're dissing princess stories just for existing. No matter what, TV Tropes always finds something bad to say about female-driven storylines.

Always. Just look at their page for "Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls", "Pony Tale", and "Frills of Justice". There's always a mean-spirited undertone, as if they hate the very idea of these stories and narrative devices existing just because they're designed to appeal to little girls. I'm not saying you're never allowed to critique those stories the way you would any other, it's just the WAY TV Tropes does it. They're not critiquing, they're sarcastically mocking. They're going about it all wrong! And it's especially obvious when they never do it to boys' shows, even though those shows often do have messages that can actually be harmful and even ignore or objectify women. But I guess the latter is why they don't care. Boys will be boys, am I right?

Oh joy, internalized/intentional misogyny!

Ugh, I’ve been lucky enough to stay away from those articles on TV Tropes. I hate it when opinions clearly start seeping into the article.

For example, “Kiss Your Hand” (I think that’s the name) sums up the whole “hand kissing” thing and goes into detail about how nowadays it’s considered more uncomfortable/creepy, which isn’t necessarily an opinion but just detailing how the times have changed.

AND JUST LET US FEMALES HAVE GIRL SHOWS WITHOUT MAKING BACKHANDED COMMENTS.

It’s the same thing with stuff like “chick flicks,” y’know? Maybe it’s just been having to hang out with my father and hearing him make dumb blond jokes and talks about how chick flicks are boring/bad but UGH, I’m sick of it.

Anonymous said:

Hi, so I was thinking about what you said about how there aren't words for guys who act either masculine or feminine, and I agree, it's totally unfair, but technically feminine boys are called janegirls(or femboys, I don't know if that's specifically an LGBTQ+ term or not, so excuse me if it is, but I've heard it used this way before), or tomgirls(even though last time I checked, the term "tomgirl" referred to either a girly tomboy or a tomboyish girly girl, but I digress).

As for masculine guys, I'm not so sure there's a term for it, I guess since deviation from masculinity is less acceptable for men than deviation from femininity is for women(because, you know, femininity=lesser. ;(), although there IS the term "macho"...but that tends to be used in a derogatory sense nowadays. I've also heard "boys' boy", "manly man", etc. TV Tropes has a trope called "Sensitive Guy and Manly Man" as the male counterpart to Tomboy and Girly Girl. So I guess there are terms.

I also just wanted to add that the term "tomboy" technically was originally a male phrase to describe a young boy who was boisterous, loud, mischievous, and out-of-control; in other words, a misbehaved, trouble kid. I don't know how or when it got attributed to girls, I think there was the term tomgirl at one point(though now it's just used for an in-between type of girl), but even that is barely used anymore. Not sure where or when the term "girly girl" came about, though, sorry to say. ;(

Yeah, that’s true. I’ve honestly never heard the term “janegirls” before, but I’d prefer if a “““masculine”““ girl was just called “tomgirl” instead. It feels less like “girl acting like a boy” and--yeah, calling a girl one thing or another just makes it look like they’re “““different”““ from “““normal girls”““ and I just roll my eyes.

Anonymous said:

Hi, I know the post you're talking about(in your fourth non-ml Askplosion) about a boy who related more to female characters! It was on BoredPanda and it was by Damian Alexander(it can also be found on his official Tumblr), and it was called "Guy Illustrates How Boys Develop Sexism From Seemingly Small Interactions With Adults" and it was all about how he loved female characters like Matilda, Alice, Mulan, Dorothy, Anne of Green Gables, and The Powerpuff Girls, and was routinely made fun of and discouraged from liking them, even from the teacher, who assigned everybody a paper(I mean not really they were probably in pre/elementary school but whatevs) about a fictional character they looked up to, but wouldn't let Damian write about Matilda, even though she let girls write about Spiderman, Harry Potter, and Peter Pan. And he basically talked about how this kind of societal attitude conditions boys to see girls as inferior and not worthy of being looked up to. It's really interesting.

Thank you! Now people can maybe go read it~

Anonymous said:

So you talked about how shows for women are considered lame and overdramatic, while shows for men are allowed to sexualize women and still be seen as good because they're MANLY, and it just reminded me of how TV Tropes has a page called "So You Want To Write A Shonen Series" and one of their points was literally that since teenage boys are horny, they'll relate to a male lead that pervs on girls and peeps on them dressing, but that you shouldn't have the girl be aware or actually hit the boy, because that has Unfortunate Implications. What were those Unfortunate Implications according to TV Tropes, you ask? Double Standard Abuse: Female-on-Male. Wow. So basically they're saying it's perfectly okay for a boy to sexually harass a girl and show absolutely no respect for her privacy because it's what "all" teenage boys want to see/do, but the second a girl actually defends her agency it's a bad thing, and they have the NERVE to say it's sexist against BOYS on top of that. Ugh. I just...

S...sexist against boys...

I can’t--I just--

Also, cue the girl punching/hitting and then the girl is immediately considering “aggressive” for defending herself from being perved on, and even if people say that the girl didn’t deserve to be perved on, they’ll be like, “bUT SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO GO tHaT fAr.”

Anonymous said:

I just realized something: the term "uncanny valley" literally comes from the Japanese words "bukimi no tani", meaning we LITERALLY wouldn't have the English term without the Japanese one. So, yeah, tropers can shut the fuck up now about tropes having Japanese names because "no one will know what it means!". -_-

These people DO know that words in the English language are compromised/inspired by a bunch of other languages, right???

eggchjf said:

someone probably pointed this out but ALSO not only does Marinette have Homura's VA, but Alya is voiced by Mami's VA (Carrie Keranen)

why did you have to ruin everything for me

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

Anonymous said:

Hi, I'm the Madoka salt anon. And I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry for bombarding you with all those asks. I didn't mean to be a "monster", I guess I just got carried away because, let's face it: there aren't a lot of people who dislike this show. Almost everyone glorifies this show as feminist empowerment while dismissing other Magical Girl shows as lesser than or somehow less feminist despite being written by women for women. These people won't give female authors the time of day and so when a man shows up suddenly they jump on the Magical Girl Fan bandwagon and praise it for doing what the genre has already done.

And when you do hear a different opinion, that person gets told off, insulted, blocked, downvoted, whatever because how dare you hate this show written by men for men rather than the stuff written by women for women? I once saw someone on Quora ask why Madoka was so popular when all it did was use the cliche "time loops" concept in so many other plots, and the response was literally "You didn’t know what you were looking at, so mistook your opinion for relevant commentary."

Let that sink in. If you don't agree with people who like Madoka Magica, it's because you're simply too dumb to understand how deep and complex it is, and your opinion doesn't matter. I've also heard the similar "You have no idea what you just watched" or "You're not smart enough to understand it" or "It's too complicated for you" nonsense and I hate it. Because most of what Madoka does isn't even that twisted or hard to understand; it's relatively simple when you look at it. The show just makes it dark. Monsters stealing energy from teenage girls? Sailor Moon did that and did it better(and didn't just go after teenage girls/women, so it wasn't based off sexism and "teenage girls are hysterical"). Hardships of being a magical girl? Girls uniting against evil? Female friendships/romance? So many other Magical Girl shows did that, too.

Come to think of it, Madoka Magica didn't even have the girls fight back against the system because only Madoka found a way out and purified the girls souls? Girl realizes she's been going about being a hero the wrong way and is confronted with her own selfishness? Look at Utena, which mastered this much more skillfully. Magical girl gets in a love triangle with another girl, vies for the affection of a fragile white-haired boy, and loses? Princess Tutu, except that the other girl was also a Magical Girl, they became friends and actually rebelled against the system together, and Ahiru(aka Princess Tutu) didn't fall into the pit of despair because girls should be punished for their sexualities and compete against each other for men and if a guy doesn't like you, you're worthless.

Even the whole "these girls are liches" thing wasn't very complex and well-handled as a lot of people like to think: the gems are called Soul Gems because your soul is in a gem. Wow. So clever. And they're Grief Seeds because they're seeds released from grievous witches. Also(not) clever. Even the fact that the acronyms are reversed(SG, GS) because Magical Girls turn into witches just made me go "yawn, I get it".

The whole show is just very lazily done and designed and tries too hard to be scary and deep and complex and "not like those other Magical Girl shows" while also trying too hard to make the girls super cute but also super badass so that we both are led to think it's a traditional Magical Girl show AND feel bad when these girls die because whoops they weren't so strong and badass after all!

Not to mention the whole "Magical Girls become witches just like how girls become women" thing really pisses me off because it shits on the whole coming-of-age aspect of Magical Girl as well(strong girls embracing their agency as they prepare to enter womanhood) by instead demonizing the very concept so that "becoming a woman" is a bad, vile, horrible thing(because being a woman makes you "more powerful", so the more powerful a woman is, the more mentally unstable she is) and then topping it off by having Madoka save the girls from becoming witches, aka women, making sure they never achieve a more mature state and maintain a level of childlike naivete.

It has so many misogynistic themes and concepts(girls are emotional, girls are weak-willed, girls are impressionable, girls shouldn't be selfish, girls shouldn't try to be heroes, girls should be pit against each other especially over a guy, girls shouldn't achieve power or become women, and more, and more, and more), that are stated matter-of-factly within the story and always proven right by the narrative, and yet people gobble it up and anytime somebody points it out, they are met with utter hostility.

Some people even defend it by saying those things are true! People only like Madoka because it's written by a man and depicts women suffering, in a genre written by women and meant to empower girls, which they don't like. And also because anything a man writes is automatically deeper and more valid than anything a woman writes.

So that's why when I found out that you didn't like Madoka either I was more than happy to discuss it with you, but I realize now that I was going overboard. I was just so happy that there was someone who agreed with me and actually understood what I was trying to say and found it problematic, and the fact that you say you're not that well-versed in Magical Girl proves my point even more because you don't even have to watch much Magical Girl to know that this is fucked up.

If you want me to stop sending Madoka salt asks, then fine. I'll stop. I didn't mean to bother you with these asks, I just wanted to see your point of view on Madoka Magica when everybody else is singing its praises left and right and never stopping once to actually think about it(while also claiming that people who don't like it are the ones "not thinking".). Hearing someone who's actually critical of this nonsense show is refreshing.

Firstly thank you for the ask! It’s honestly not your fault, I’ve just been struggling a bit lately with ask overloads.

That doesn’t necessarily mean I want you to stop, but I’d rather discuss it over Tumblr DMs so things are more balanced. Walls of text can be a little overwhelming for me (that’s why sometimes I try to balance my own walls of text with screenshots).

Anonymous said:

I've been thinking of how much I hate the misogyny in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, so I decided that instead of just salting about it(even though I still do from time to time because they're legitimate critiques and boy is it fun), I'm going to start talking about what I would do to improve it. Now doing this may mean it won't be the "dark" anime many people have wanted it to be, but I've been thinking of it for a while and it's my personal opinion, so let's get to it:

First, I would still have the Incubators, though they would probably have a different name because the name "Incubator" is pretty skeevy and part of a lot of the misogyny in the show. They would still recruit magical girls(who are called "Puellae Magi" in-universe, at least in the English dub and possibly some other dubs as well), only they do it for a different reason: Incubators go after teenage girls who are leading rough, difficult lives, and the magical girl contracts help them to improve their lives and give them a reason to live. They still make wishes, but the wishes don't screw them over because of their secret "selfishness".

However, if a potential magical girl is unclear or unsure of what she truly wishes for, this may lead things to go haywire. Basically, the whole magical girl thing is more heartwarming and the Incubators truly want to help the ladies in need, not just leech off of them. There's also no Soul Gems, or at least, their souls aren't actually in the Gems. They're called such because the Gems are powered by their Souls, and rather than the girls losing consciousness and "dying" when their Gems are too far apart from them, they simply lose their ability to perform magic and their magic becomes weaker. They still have stronger bodies though, much stronger than average humans, because becoming a magical girl gives them super strength/speed/stamina and all that, just WITHOUT making them liches.

Their Gems are non-interchangeable, so you can only use your own, not another girl's. As for the witches, they still exist, but witches weren't the intention of the Incubators; they're due to a botched experiment and it's up to magical girls to not only fight and defeat them, but return them to their original selves, thus showing that hope always does triumph over despair. I would also have the magical girls fight not only witches, but ordinary criminals as well, because having them fight only witches gets a little boring and predictable.

And finally, while there would still be only teenage girls who are chosen to become magical girls, it wouldn't be because they're "the most emotional" or some Hysterical Woman shit like that. It would be something more empowering, like, maybe only teenage girls are chosen because they're the most capable of magic and are simply more powerful magically than everyone else. They would still have their powers as adult women, but you have to be a teenage girl(well, one with a difficult/horrible life) to be recruited in the first place, if that makes sense.

And maybe older magical girls(well, women) would be able to mentor and assist younger ones(which is very much in-line with the coming of age themes present in magical girl, women supporting and uplifting younger girls as they advance into womanhood). This would make the claim that women such as Anne Frank, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, and Queen Himiko were magical girls less...iffy, but I still wouldn't make it so that ALL influential women were magical girls, nor that humanity would be in caves without the Incubators. There'd also be transformation/detrasformation phrases of course.

In short, the magical girl system exists more so as a form of wish fulfillment, both in and out of universe, since it's for teenage girls with rough lives who are "empowered" by becoming magical girls and getting to live out a fantasy of fighting crime while looking pretty, as an exchange for getting a wish fulfilled that will help them improve their lives. Only teenage girls have this ability because they're the strongest magic users, not because of "female hysteria". In other words, the magical girl system exists to support and benefit the girls, rather than exploit them.

Now, since I mainly went over the magical girl system itself, I'll talk about the characters. Kyoko still loves to eat, is still relatively selfish, and still has discord with Sayaka, but they overcome it and become friends MUCH sooner and in a much more natural way. Mami and Kyoko's relationship will actually be stated in-universe, not just in some side material. Sayaka still has a crush on her male friend, but confesses to him before Hitomi does. At this point, he either says yes and they hit it off but eventually don't work out and decide they'd be better as friends, or he says no and she's sad but perfectly fine with that, and encourages Hitomi to go after Kyousuke. Hitomi may do it if Kyousuke turns down Sayaka, or she may feel bad about going after him after her best friend just got turned down, especially if she's worried about getting turned down herself, since Sayaka has known him far longer so she has even less of a chance, right? If Hitomi does confess, Kyousuke WILL say yes, but because his arm was healed due to Sayaka's wish, he's more concerned about playing the violin than spending time with his alleged girlfriend and they eventually fall out. This is keeping in line with Gen's claim that Kyousuke isn't a good match for either of the two girls. Though they may get together in the future.

As for Sayaka...well, she gets with Kyoko and it's actually made CANONICAL in-universe. I don't know about Madoka and Homura though, if she's less possessive of Madoka than she was in canon then perhaps she has a shot. Either way, I would really love if the ships were actually canon and not just queerbaiting. Regardless, Sayaka and Hitomi stay friends. Also, on a meta level, I would really love it if there were more female writers on Madoka Magica, and that the show was targeted towards a female viewing audience, which would mean toning down the fanservice(if not removing it entirely), as well as the troublesome aspects, as I've talked about earlier. And no "torturing young innocent girls and restricting their agency" since that's not what the magical girl genre is about and it never has been. This probably means more episodes though. Anyway, there's probably more stuff I'm forgetting, but to sum it up, this is how I would fix Madoka Magica. What do you think?

I think it’s a really good idea!!! Refreshing~ You know I’m all about fix-its.

Plus, all I heard was “Madoka Magica without being edgy” and I’m like, “yes please, I’m here for it.”

Anonymous said:

About Improbably Female Cast, it has come to my attention that Madoka Magica has been removed from the list. Someone in the discussion section of the trope removed it saying that since it's a magical GIRL show, it having a majority female cast isn't "improbable". The Touhou example is still there, though, because there's apparently something wrong with stories that have less men than women or have next to no men in them. Because a prominent male character is a requirement to tell a good story.

They also removed Strawberry Panic! because it takes place in an all girls' school, and Y: The Last Man, because it takes place in a futuristic world where almost all the men died. But still, the fact that those examples were there at all speaks volumes about the double standard there at TV Tropes. Even if the story has a realistic and plausible reason for the setting to be mostly female, as the examples above are, TV Tropes still considered them improbable. It's as if TV Tropes doesn't just dislike/question stories about a mostly female cast when it doesn't "have" to be, they dislike/question majority female casts in GENERAL! And the closest they have to a Spear Counterpart is Cast Full of Pretty Boys, which is a totally different trope: a cast in which most of the characters are "bishounen" aka pretty boys, because it appeals to a female demographic.

So it's "justified" but female casts aren't. And the playing with section reeks of "Stay in The Kitchen" sexism, with statements can be okay or even exist is if it's a harem or exists to titillate men who crave girl-on-girl interaction(and in fact, the main page lists this as their FIRST reason such a cast would exist, appealing to little girls and/or queer women is secondary/tertiary in their eyes), and the situations they propose in which the trope could be played with almost all involve the few boys attempting to hook up with as many women as possible or manipulating the women to fall in love with them, with the so-called justification that "the viewers just like their lesbians". And almost all their quotes(same on the Playing With page) are about people whining and complaining that the cast has too many girls in it. The Image Links section even has a link to a picture of two boys griping and bleating about the lack of boys in whatever show they're watching("They don't appeal to our demographic!" "Why are there no boys in our story?"), which TV Tropes has the nerve to call a "witty observation".

But what pisses me off even more is the fact that a predominantly female cast even NEEDS a justification in the first place. They only pulled specific examples of shows that supposedly dictated that the cast MUST be mainly female: Magical Girl shows, all-girls school settings, stories in which the entirety of men were killed off...only in extreme circumstances can you "resort" to using female characters but if the situation was reversed, the male equivalent wouldn't be considered improbable to BEGIN WITH. And this is despite the fact that the discussion page is FULL of people saying the trope should be renamed because of sexism, detailing many things I'm detailing right now, to the point where it's even gone off TV Tropes and is right here on Tumblr itself(one troper called it "PC whining", just ugh)! I just wish TV Tropes would realize the inherent sexism in calling such a cast improbable, since it makes it look like they're unhappy with the representation. Then again, they might be.

I’VE NOTICED THAT TOO, YEAH.

show: *has predominately female cast*

people: oKaY I guess that makes sense bUT ONlY BECAUSE--

And because misogyny isn’t as widely discouraged as... example, people would be absolutely crucified for complaining about a show having “too many POCs”... it means that those comments usually get ignored.

Anonymous said:

The Improbably Female Cast talk, especially the part about men complaining when stories have mostly female characters/seeing spaces that are 1/3 female as "majority female", reminded me of how I saw a study somewhere talking about the differences between how men and women dream, and it was saying that men's dreams tend to have more men than women in them, while women's dreams tend to have an equal amount of members from both sexes. Yikes. Even in their sleep men want women out of the picture.

And just in case you're curious, I found the study itself! It's called "Gender Similarities and Differences in Dreams", though if you look up "differences in how men and women dream" it should be the second thing under the link that also includes a snippet of the article. To quote the study itself: "there is a gender difference in how often men and women include male and female characters in their dreams: men dream twice as often about other men as they do about women(67% vs. 33%), and women dream equally about both sexes (48% men, 52% women). This is the largest difference between American men and women." Ouch. Granted, it's specifically talking about Americans, but I don't even want to imagine how even more skewed it probably is in men's favors for men in other countries(not gonna name drop any ACTUAL countries obviously.)! Internalized misogyny runs deep, to the point where men can't even conceive of women having a more significant role than them in anything, even in dreams.

And it runs deeper than that, too. I saw a post on Micechat called "The Smurfette Principle" by JMora. You probably already know what that is, but just in case you don't(or anyone else reading this doesn't), it's a trope describing the tendency for works to have a disproportionate amount of male characters with only one female in the group, if not the whole cast(named after Smurfette, the only female Smurf). The entire article is really well written and it discusses the gender disparity in fiction quite nicely, but what I'd really like to call your attention to is near the end, where they talked about how this effects kids, especially boys.

Movies that make most of their characters male while shoehorning females in female-specific roles are treating maleness as the default while femaleness is a special case, and this leads to films about men being seen as "unisex" while films about women are seen as "for girls" only. As a result, this leads to little girls being willing to watch movies about boys AND girls, while little boys watch movies only about other boys.

This also extends to the stories they write. Girls write stories with male and female protagonists equally, while boys almost exclusively write stories with male protagonists. Girls' stories tend to have a mixture of boys and girls, whereas boys' stories have all boys in them. It relates to what I was saying earlier about how men's dreams have mostly male characters while women's dreams are equal: how our society conditions boys to think that girls just aren't important and don't matter much. To quote the article, "Girls already know they can be the main pirates; it's the boys who aren't getting the message". Thankfully my little(male) cousin likes shows about girls and shows about boys just as much: he likes Pirates of the Caribbean, and he also likes Enchanted. But the majority of boys still dismiss shows for girls as "girly" as if girly is a bad thing but boyish isn't, and when they don't it's weird.

The best part is that this led someone else to realize their own mistakes regarding overrepresentation of men vs underrepresentation of women. A guy named Mouse Macabre realized that the comic he was working on had 8 main characters, 6 male, 2 female, and had to go back and work so that there was an equal amount. All he had to do was make two of his male characters female, and there you have it! Four male main characters, 4 female! Then why is it so hard for the majority of men these days?

Ugh, I don’t know. Like, as soon as people hear “we’re adding more characters for equality/to give women more attention,” it suddenly becomes “““forced.”““

Alright then I guess we’ll just have a bunch of white male shows then because adding diversity is forced and uNnaTuRaL.

We had POCs and more female characters and suddenly certain white males feel ignored and disenfranchised. :|

Poor things, not like there are ten millions other things they could be watching instead.

Also, inevitable response to the dream thing: men agreeing to dream more about woman... but they’re sexualized.

#other: non ml talk #other: ask and answer

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movienotesbyzawmer · 4 years

Text

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

May 4: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

(previous notes: Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

Source: UK 3D Blu-ray

I saw this at pretty much the very first available showing, and haven't watched it since. But since I had the other Disney-era ones in 3D, and I still have the capability to watch 3D movies at home, I decided to complete my Blu-ray collection by ordering the British 3D Blu-ray, like I'd done with The Last Jedi. So now I'm going to see it at home for the first time, in 3D for the first time, and take notes like I've been doing.

My reaction when I saw this on opening night was that it was a lot of fun. I didn't think it was as good as The Last Jedi. Overall it feels like a trilogy where the first priority was to avoid the mistakes of the prequels, and the second priority was to have them be fun movies. Mission accomplished, but the actual story of this trilogy is only marginally satisfying. But I left that opening night screening excited about all the neat things I'd witnessed. And now I shall press play and do some re-witnessing…

Emperor Palpatine, the opening crawl tells us. He wasn't someone we were expecting to be part of the plot of this movie, was it?

First scene after the opening shot is a slow-mo land battle, visually different from Star Wars movies in general. Dude kills 100% of everyone then plucks a mysterious relic from a mysterious relic. He's on a Tomb-raider-y treasure hunt.

It takes him to a Tomb Raider-y lair… and there are creatures in green liquid ahhh!

"…some consider to be… UNNATURAL", that line from Episode III. Very love it. Good reference.

The image of all those Star Destroyers is super super super cool.

And now after a calculated bit of lightness in the Millennium Falcon, the good guys arrive at a super neat looking planet thing. Not even ten minutes in and we've seen three inventive new planet environments.

And now a chase, "lightspeed skipping", and each skip is a cool space place, all different, one of them has a big monster! They are tuned into what's good about Star Wars movies, these Rise of Skywalker makers.

Also, Finn and Poe seem to have settled into their roles as funny supporting-character buddies. The first movie really seemed to be beginning a more dramatic arc for Finn, but it doesn't feel like that's happening any more.

0:15:36 - Rose Tico sighting! Her arc blunted as well. Be nice if she joined them on this mission they're about to leave on.

Really kind of surprising how much footage there is of Carrie Fisher, who died years before this came out.

Okay now we're back with Kylo Ren on this planet that's the equivalent of that orc-factory in Lord of the Rings. What's he doing? Collaborating with some ukky beings. Fixing his helmet. Hm.

Bit of humor in the conference room scene, again calculated.

Back to our heroes and they're on another neat new planet with color clouds & celebratory visuals, pleasant.

0:23:40 - Very cinematic Rey-Kylo cross-galaxy conversation, cool.

Lando saves them from stormtroopers, and is therefore given the honor of the "I've got a bad feeling about this" line.

0:28:00 Speeder chase in the desert, and the stormtrooper speeders launch them up and they fly! Cool!

Hah, there's a gag where Rey fires up her light saber and Poe tries to do that too but his is just a flashlight, cute.

Okay, here's this scene I like where there's a serpent monster in their Tomb Raider cave, and Ray figures out that the monster just needs to be force healed so she does it and it helps them. Sounds corny but I like it.

0:36:00 - we see the Ren gang on a plateau and here a new music theme. I'm not much noticing the new music themes in the Star Wars movies of the 2010s, but there's one.

This scene. The Kylo/Rey meeting in the desert. It was heavily teased in the trailer and it would have been more effective if we hadn't seen so much of it in the trailer. Also there's a who-can-magic-harder duel that ends up killing Chewy, except that we don't have to believe that very very long.

"Let's do that!" about wiping C-3POs memory, John Boyega's exceptional comic timing on display again.

0:45:40 - We're on this new planet now, which is so Poe can find the person that can do a memory wipe of 3-3PO, right? It's fast-paced, this movie.

"We sent out a call for help at the battle of Krait, nobody came" says Poe. Am I forgetting that drama from The Last Jedi? I know he's talking about that final battle from that movie, but I didn't remember a despairing "no one is coming", at least not like it was a huge, shocking letdown.

I like the little Babu creature but we don't get much of it, do we

Poe is all "did she do that to us" when he sees her Force-hypnotize the stormtroopers, haha

0:58:10 - Pretty unique shot, dollying backwards facing Poe & Finn shooting stormtroopers we can't see until they fall in front of the camera

"Your parents were no one… they CHOSE to be" here's where it starts to seem like this movie doesn't like where the last movie was going & made it be different. If this were an improv class the teacher would be like, "remember the principle of 'yes AND…'"

Okay, this bit coming up where General Hux saves them & says he's the spy. It's… funny? And dumb? Maybe? Sort of a tawdry end to this character in the trilogy maybe?

"You.. Are a Palpatine." Dun dun dunnnnnnn. Okay sure I guess. This isn't what I'm into Star Wars movies for; I wouldn't have had it be about this.

They get to the new planet and Rey figures out how to use the knife tool to find where to go, it's so like a Tomb Raider game that I feel like I'm reading a cheat guide on GameSpot

Now Finn is bonding with the girl on the planet who is also a stormtrooper deserter, makes that whole Finn subplot make more sense.

Rey swiped a cool watercraft to go to the wreck of the Death Star and I just want to point out once again that I like the vehicle design in Star Wars movies.

1:13:10 - overhead shot of said vehicle is the first notable example of something that looks good in 3D in this movie. I'm inclined to say you really shouldn't feel like you're missing out if you're seeing this in 2D.

She's in a vision cave on the wrecked Death Star. She fights HER OWN SELF for a second, and bad-Rey rawrs at her in a way that reminds me of when Bilbo does that in the first Lord of the Rings movie. I liked it there and I like it here.

1:18:05 - First bit of my beloved "Han Solo and the Princess" theme, so lovely

Now Rey and Kylo are saber dueling all over this wreck with waves everywhere and it reminds me of the big climactic duel in Episode III where it seems like the duelers are going out of their way to duel in a cool looking place.

Everything gets all dramatic in a way that doesn't really get explained - Leia very deliberately says "Ben", then dies, but it affects Kylo allowing Rey to kill him, but then she un-kills him with Force magic because "I did want to take your hand" and then bounces. And it's not over with this kind of thing, because Kylo has a not-really-real conversation with his played-by-OMG-Harrison-Ford father, and he symbolically hurls his awesome saber away. So where are we now? We're in some drama, that's where. I miss cool vehicles and inventive creature design!

1:27:45 - Modded-up Star Destroyer emerges from lightspeed and it's another cool 3D effect.

And then it blows up the planet where Poe's ex-girlfriend was and it looks cool, but we could have used her to be around more. Wait, does she not-be-dead later or something? Probably.

Okay, very corny sequence happening now, it's the pep talk between Rey and ghost-Luke, it ends with a smirking Luke raising up an X-wing like he couldn't do in Empire Strikes Back, so I guess that plot point is tidied up.

Okay, we got past that drama and now there's a very simple Saint-Crispin's-Day speech riling up the troops so they can go to that mystery planet for the final battle, and interest level has picked up.

1:41:28 - Hey a shot of Rey going through a wall gap is a reference to the earlier cool-in-3D shot of the watercraft & the Death Star wreck.

And here's something that internet assholes picked on - they ride horse-things on the Star Destroyers. Lighten up comrades, maybe this just isn't your kind of space adventure movie.

Rey gets in the mystery-edifice and holy hell it's creepy! There's an audience of thousands of cultists in black stone bleacher seats, chanting in perfect unison! It's downright Kubrick-y!

They really had fun with the lighting in the Palpatine room. Also, there are red stormtroopers on the Star Destroyers and aren't they pretty.

Palpatine is trying to convince Rey that she should embrace hatred and hill him and rule the galaxy in ritual hatred with a chanting congregation of hooded dipshits. Will it work? He does have a very compelling speaking voice. But here comes Kylo! He has had a change of heart or something!

"The life force in your bond," he narrates, and then bad-magics them super hard! We never could have anticipated that evil force spells could thwart their plans.

1:54:20 - very satisfying shot of a giant fleet of good guys coming to save the day. They hit us with the idea of no one coming to save them, and just like when Han Solo swooped in in the first movie, it feels good that this time someone else did show up. And yes it includes Poe's girlfriend and that charismatic little varmint!

Super cool to see Star Destroyers get blown up.

Also cool when Palpatine super-zaps lots of good guy spaceships. Sound is neat on that also. This intense visual/aural experience is what I was thinking about for a while after first seeing this movie.

Rey beats Palpatine by having that surprise second light saber. Whatever, this is a super cool looking scene with all the bad guys in that chamber getting wasted.

Other cool battle climax imagery happens up in the sky, even though it's kind of hard to see what exactly physically happened to save Finn and those guys on the crashing Star Destroyer.

Kylo… what??? Didn't die when he just disappeared into a crevasse??? Quel surprise! He's super-reformed now and heals Rey up with his tender love for her. They kiss, their carnal desires overtaking them, they are high on the most ethical lust the galaxy has ever known! And he dies and disappears, but is visibly satisfied. I feel okay mocking this because I suspect no one likes it. And then it moves on to really cool aftermath visuals that are crazy fun to watch. They are experiencing the great victory in other planets from the other movies, and to the tune of John Williams themes from movies past.

Maz presents Chewy with a special medal, am I supposed to know what that's about? They're giving it major gravity.

So the movie, the trilogy, and the Skywalker Saga ends with a scene of Rey returning to Tatooine to bury the two important light sabers, but also whip out another one she had, and then tell a townie that she's named Rey SKYWALKER, and the final moment is of her gazing at the two suns with the Binary Sunset theme playing us out. What I like about that is that it sends the message that that moment from the original Star Wars, elevated to greatness largely by John Williams stirring theme, is the pinnacle of cinematic experiences that were brought to us by this series.

I like this movie less than any of the Disney-era movies for sure, and I think after watching it a second time, it lacks some specialness that could have allowed it to hold up better against the best Star Wars movies. But I wouldn't say it's bad, and I certainly wouldn't advise against seeing it.

#star wars rise of skywalker

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askthebemorechillcrew · 5 years

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Passed out (Michael Mell X reader)

Just for fun! Plus, this did happen last year with my boyfriend, me, and my best friend and her boyfriend.

Author’s note: This takes place when everyone graduated college, and they all moved in together with their SO

What do couples do? Spend as much time as possible. Hold hands, kiss, cuddle, talk about how much we love each other. Now, what do different pairs of couples do? Hang out with each other, doing all the sappy stuff that I just listed. That’s what just happened with Me, Michael, Jeremy and Christine. It was a rough day at work, since my boss was dumping an avalanche of work on me. Look, just because I was on my phone all day, doesn’t mean that I wasn’t listening....okay...maybe it does mean that. But still! It was my first week! I went home that day, totally exhausted from my boss giving me a hard time. I flopped down on the couch, just wanting this week to end. But no...Monday’s had to exist! I heard my fiance, Michael, come out of his study, as he sat down next to me.

“Babe, you’re back. How was work?” He smiled, rubbing my back. I sighed, allowing him to relax my tightened muscles.

“A pain in the ass,” I weakly chuckled through the pain, wanting to be in his arms all week. He let out a laugh, as he kept massaging my shoulders.

“I’m sorry, honey. Work hasn’t been a walk on the beach for me either. Neither has it been for Jeremy,” He related to me, moving his hands from my shoulders to my back. I smiled, leaning into his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“Yeah. How’s the game coming along, by the way?” I asked him. Michael and Jeremy were both CEO’s of their own gaming industry. They were working hard to create a new sequel to Neverquesters: The Ice Desert. The first game was so popular, both geeky gamers decided to create a second one. Michael shrugged, rubbing soft circles on my back.

“We’re almost done with the 3D models, we just need to set up the perfect settings to move them and make them hold weapons. Other than that...well....we still have to think of the title, backgrounds, endings, player choices, and a bunch of other crap,” He snickered, resting his head on my shoulder. We both sighed in unison, wanting a break from the hell that was our jobs. Not that we hated our jobs, but we were given too much work on our first weeks, we just wanted a breather. After Michael finished giving me a massage, his face lit up, as if he had a great idea. My theory was proven true, as he grinned and told me what was on his mind.

“I have an idea! How about we invite Jeremy and Christine over? Have a little couples night?” He asked me, his eyes begging me to say yes. It has been a damn long time since we last saw our best friends. Jeremy was also swamped with work, just like his best friend and fellow co owner of their company. And Christine, being the new drama teacher at our old high school, was still in process of writing the script to a new play her students were performing in a couple of weeks.

“You sure? I don’t think I can afford a break, Mikey. I mean, I have to submit a report by Friday, and then file a paper about--” Michael cut my off by kissing my lips, allowing me to melt into him.

“See? It’s that kinda attitude that’s preventing you from taking a break. Please, princess. I promise it’s gonna be okay. It’s not gonna hurt to take one day off. All four of us need this,” He convinced me, begging me at this point. Michael was always worried about my mental health, he always wanted me to be a good mood. I huffed, knowing that he was right. I guess it wouldn’t harm anyone to relax for just one night. And what was better than hanging out with my loving husband-to-be and my best friends. I giggled and nodded.

“Alright, but we need to make sure Jeremy and Christine are up for it,” I told him. His face glowed up some more, as his smile got wider, and his chocolate brown eyes brightened up.

“Awesome! Thank you, babe. I promise, this is gonna be the best night in months!” He hugged me, letting my nuzzle into his big frame. I let out another laugh, as I wrapped my arms around his waist. Our lips met each others, as we slipped our tongues into each other’s wet caverns. We got caught into a heated make out session, as I wrapped my legs around Michael’s waist, being carried off to our room for something even more fun than kissing. He gently laid me on our bed, already eager to rip off my blouse. I shielded my chest with my arms, as Michael frowned, wanting to see what was under my shirt and bra.

“Don’t rip the shirt, Mell. It’s new,” I playfully warned him. He just rolled his eyes and giggled, gently unbuttoning it.

“Fine, fine (Y/N). But don’t expect me to go easy on you. I need you to de stress, love,” He whispered sexily in my ear, as we began to take each other’s clothes off, making love all night.

***********************************************

“Thanks for inviting us again, guys,” Jeremy smiled at us, taking off his blazer, tossing it on the couch. He wrapped his arm around Christine, as I giggled, placing four bottles of Crystal Pepsi on the coffee table. It was Wednesday night, aka, the only night where all four of us were totally booked that we couldn’t come over. Christine reached over for a bottle along with her fiance, as they opened them, creating a satisfying pssssssst.

“No problem, guys. We all needed this,” I said, as I sat down on the couch with Michael. Me and Michael planned this whole “Couples Night” yesterday, after work. Nothing too fancy: Just playing games, eating a bunch of junk food and getting drunk/stoned. Michael placed a bowl of mini oreos on the table, as he flopped back on the couch, sitting me on his lap. I blushed beet red, as Jeremy and Christine bit their lips to conceal a chuckle.

“Mi-Michael?!” I half whispered, half scolded him. He just laughed, hugging me, trapping me on his lap. I rolled my eyes, as I watched him deal out the money to my favorite, classic board game, Monopoly. We all started to pick our characters, as Jeremy began to move his character with a quick roll of the dice.

“Hey, Michael, did you talk to the designers about Monica’s and David’s 3D model?” Jeremy asked his best friend, collecting 100 bucks. Michael rolled his eyes, adjusting his position carefully so he wouldn’t let me move off from his lap.

“Jer, this night is suppose to be a breather from work. For all of us. So let’s just play the games and relax,” Michael calmly explained to his best friend, as he went this time. Jeremy nodded understandingly, still having his arm wrapped around his fiance. We spent the whole night playing old board games (and some video games), talking about our lives outside of work. After a few hours, we were all stoned and drunk...AT THE SAME TIME! I was still on Michael’s lap, my hair slightly disheveled, and hickeys trailing down from my jaw to my collarbone. There were the same red and purple marks on Jeremy’s neck, but less of them, only visible on the front of his neck. Christine giggled, as she knew exactly how to mark her fiance. As Jeremy and I were talking, Christine was cleaning up some of the board games, while Michael finally let me off his lap, getting more joints and drinks.

“So last night, I--” I was about to tell Jeremy all about how I FINALLY finished my report for my asshole boss, my head started to pound. It felt like someone was banging a hammer on my head, as I rubbed my temples, wishing for the pain to stop. Jeremy gave me a concerned look, as he apologized to Christine, rushing up to me. Luckily, Michael was still in the kitchen, so he didn’t have to worry about me.

“Hey, you okay, (Y/N)?” Jeremy asked me, furrowing his brow. Worry was plastered across his face, as Christine gave me an equally concerned look. I didn’t want my best friends to worry about me either, so I just forced a nod, smiling.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Just...my head is kinda hurting. I’m fine, though,” I reassured them, my hand still on my painful temple. Jeremy frowned, but sighed, not wanting to argue with me.

“Alright. Should we tell Michael at least?” He asked me. I immediately shook my head, the last thing I wanted was Mikey to know that I wasn’t feeling well.

“I said I’m fine. Okay? Just...don’t worry about it. I’ll be okay,” I told them, more firmly this time. Jeremy nodded again, going back to his fiance. As if on cue, Mikey came back, with more beer bottles and joints.

“Hey guys, I--(Y/N)?!” He almost dropped the stuff, as he saw my face. I gently looked at him, asking him what was wrong. He furrowed his brows, the same way Jeremy did. He proceeded to place the bottles and blunts on the coffee table, as he sat next to me, feeling my forehead. I would totally be embarrassed, since Jeremy and Christine were 2 feet away from us, but all I could think about was how concerned Michael was for me. Michael removed his hand from my forehead after five seconds, his frown getting bigger.

“Babe, do you have a fever? You feel kinda hot. I mean, you always are, but....” He chuckled, trying to add light to the dark scenario. I smiled, silently thanking him for squeezing a joke into our conversation. But I shook my head again, assuring him the same way I did with Jeremy and Christine.

“I’m fine, Mikey. Just...my head is pounding. But it’s okay! I promise!” I quickly replied, just wanting to get stoned and drunk with my friends and fiance. Michael still didn’t buy it, and kept convincing me to rest, despite Jeremy and Christine still here.

“You sure, princess? Some rest won’t hurt. I don’t want you passing out during our couples night out,” He laughed again, peppering my face with kisses. I could hear Jeremy and Christine snickering in the background, watching Michael’s clingyness for me unravel. And I swore, I could hear Jeremy say “Get a room!” quietly! I gently pulled him away by his hair, kissing his cheek.

“I said, I’m good Mikey, okay?” I said, wishing for him to give up. He was about to say something, but Christine chirped in, her worried face coming back.

“(Y/N), I really think you should rest. You’re face is also red,” She handed me a hand held makeup compact. I opened it, seeing that my skin was mostly bright red, heating up. I looked at Jeremy for support, but instead he nodded, agreeing with Michael and Christine.

“Yeah, (Y/N). You don’t look so good. Plus, you guys do have work tomorrow,” He said, defending his best friend’s and fiance’s points. I sighed, knowing that I couldn’t argue with three against one. Michael smiled lightly, as I finally agreed with the others.

“You sure you’ll be fine, my love?” Michael asked me, as I chomped down on some crackers. I nodded, kissing his cheek.

“I’ll be okay, Mikey. You just have fun with Jer and Chrissie,” I told him, as my two best friends giggled at their nicknames. Michael kissed the crown of my head, understanding, as he helped me up the stairs.

“You go rest up, love. We’ll be downstairs if you need anything,” Michael tucked me in, as he gave me one last kiss on my forehead, heading back downstairs. I snuggled against our sheets, as I let my pounding headache die down, hearing the giggles downstairs. I sighed, hating the fact that they were having fun without me. I held back my tears, closing my eyes, letting myself fall into a deep sleep.

Beep...Beep.....Beep....

“(Y/N)? Babe, please wake up!”

I felt as if someone was shaking me. I fluttered my eyes open as I saw a worried Michael, Jeremy, and Christine standing above me. I focused my eyes to my environment, only to find myself...not in mine and Michael’s room? Well, for starters, it was really white. And....like....EXTREMELY bright. I squinted, as some light shined in my face. Michael helped my adjust my position on an uncomfortable bed, as I fumbled with the milk white sheets.

“Wh...What happened?” I groggily asked my three favorite people in the world.

“You’re in the hospital, (Y/N). This morning, Michael tried to wake you up, but you weren’t responding. After an hour of trying, he called an ambulance, and they brought you here. Me and Jeremy got here about an hour ago when we heard what happened. But we’re glad you’re safe,” Christine answered me, smiling lightly. Michael was sitting next to me, kissing my hand, trailing his lips to my elbow. Jeremy rolled his eyes, tapping his fingers on the desk next to my bed.

“Michael never left that chair ever since he brought you here (Y/N). And it’s like...6 in evening,” He chuckled, lightening the mood. My eyes widen, as I checked the clock above my head.

“Holy shit, you’re right, Jer! I was passed out for almost twelve hours?!” I exclaimed. Michael nodded, still kissing my arm.

“Never scare me like that again, babe. I was worried sick when you weren’t waking up,” He half scolded me, half relieved that I was awake. I giggled lightly, seeing my lovable fiance so worried about me. I know I didn’t like to see him so worked up about me, but he was so goddamn cute! As they were filling me in on what happened, a nurse came to us.

“How is she holding up?” Jeremy asked her. The nurse checked her clip board, smiling at the papers.

“She’s just fine. There was just a huge amount of stress and pressure placed on her systems, it caused her body to shut down more than usual,” She explained. Michael sighed, knowing that my work was the cause of the stress the nurse described.

“When can she leave?” He asked her.

“We just need to give her a chewing tablet, sign some papers, and she’ll be good to go,” She smiled, before handing Michael and clipboard and leaving. Michael signed the papers, before placing it on the nightstand, walking outside. I cocked my brow, sitting up to see where Michael was going.

“Wait, Mikey where are you--” Before I could ask him, he placed a kiss on my temple, before he told me he’d be back and walked out of my room. I just furrowed my brows, as I turned to Jeremy and Christine.

“Thanks for coming here. It means a lot,” I thanked them, signing the papers. They both smiled, wrapping their arms around each other’s shoulders. After a few more minutes of us talking, Michael came back inside, smiling like a motherfucker. I crossed my arms, curious about what happened.

“Michael...what did you do?” I asked him, wanting an answer to why he left my room. He just chuckled, holding out his phone.

“Guess who’s ‘sick’ and can’t come to work for the rest of the week?” He asked me, as my eyes widen again.

“Seriously, Mikey?” I asked him, in utter shock. I didn’t know if I was happy or angry, but hey! I couldn’t stay mad at my gorgeous fiance!

“What? Now we can cuddle!” He defended himself, taking my hand again, nuzzling it with his cheek. I rolled my eyes, knowing that was gonna enjoy these next two days off with my Mikey. Jeremy rolled his eyes, about to leave with Christine.

“I’m guessing you’re taking the day off today and Friday?” He asked Michael. He nodded in response, just wanting to stay with me and cuddle. After I was given the chewing tablet, Michael and I went home to cuddle, play video games, and of course, get stoned together.

A/N: GAHH!! I’m so sorry this was short and suckish, but I just really loved this idea and wanted to get it out of the way! So...yay! Hope you enjoyed my crappy story!

@i-just-love-writing-crap @imanadultnotamatureone

#be more chill michael #michael mell #michael mell x reader #bmc musical #Be More Chill #be more chill jeremy #be more chill christine #bmc nyc

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techouspeaks · 5 years

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Toon VS Toon: The Dragon Prince VS She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 2018

Both shows have a lot of promising diversity but which one does it better?

Alright, so you’re probably wondering why I compare these two shows together? A side from being both hosted on Netflix and showing a lot of diverse characters and story elements, along with taking place in a magical universe where war is raging on and the fate of good solely relies on our heroes saving the day. There’s not too much they have in common.

Well the thing is that’s what I’m going to discuss, how they handle diversity and which one does it better.

Now if you hadn’t read my She-Ra review, I basically think the show is okay. The concept and how the characters are drawn are nicely done and I like Adora, Mermista and Bow. Some of the concepts are very interesting. I just feel it lacks a little bit, especially in animation and character development. I feel like the story and character development is way rushed including the relationships between the characters including our leading female lead Adora and her rival villain Catra.

The Dragon Prince I recently started watching and it didn’t take me too long to get invested. I liked the settings, the animation is gorgeous and the characters are very likable, despite the dufus wimpy lead that even Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon would call a dork. I kinda think that Callum was meant to be a copy of Hiccup a little bit.

The one thing these two shows do have in common is diversity as I said. The characters are all diverse. You have lesbians or hints of lesbian relationship, you have people of different cultures and different skin tones all in this world and it’s not a huge thing, but which one does it better? Which show handles the diversity much better and respectfully.

Let’s look at She-Ra. We have a lot of female leads that have different body shapes and skin tones and all that. There’s even a hint that during a dance with Adora and Catra that there might be some closer feelings. However, this is barely hinted at. There’s no real actual gay relationships as of now. It could be because the series has yet to have a season 2 and Dragon Prince has two seasons already, but still it lacks a bit.

As stated before Bow and Sea Hawk are kinda gay stereotypes. They’re obviously not gay because Sea Hawk does flirt with Mermista and has this huge infatuation with her and Glimmer kinda has a thing for Bow so it’s undecided if Bow is actually gay or not, but it’s obvious they’re stereotypes. At least Sea Hawk is and Bow is sorta that but not as bad. He’s very competent as a character and besides liking pretty things and the whole “Best Friend Squad”, he does act like a natural person would, but yeah his overall is still pretty much a dated stereotype of “Let’s put this kind of character in it because social justice is in right now!”

All the other characters I’ve said before in my review just feel like well archetypes. You have the lack of emotion, bored tough chick whom I do like and is my favorite character but lets face it, she’s an archetype. I’m not going to deny that even if I do like her. The sweet sensitive type, the geeky nerd that is totally into tech more than people so much so she’s extremely socially awkward. Aside from Glimmer, Adora, maybe Catra and sometimes Bow, most just feel like archetypes and with how the characters are design and how this show tries to be in your face with “We have diverse bodies and we have diverse this and that!”, it comes across almost deceitful with it’s premise. Especially any male character remotely masculine is one of the bad guys and that’s a bad thing. Feminism isn’t about hating or showing masculinity as a bad thing but something as equal to it or just as needed and that the role of masculine and feminine can be reversed around.

The Dragon Prince has it’s stereotypes too. Like I said, Callum is pretty much your wimpy hero that wants to find his place in the world. However, most of the characters are pretty much realistic. What I enjoy about this series is that it does show diversity but in the right way. Not only because there’s more diverse characters ranging from not only on the main list such as sexuality, breaking gender roles and races but also in other factors such as a character that is deaf and mute, a character that is blind and even at one point, Rayla was experiencing what it’s like to lose a limb, which that happens to people too. However, it’s how these characters are represented that makes this show stand out nicely.

All the diversity is treated naturally, like it’s been there for years and everyone accepts that people no matter what they are or who they are can do anything. They don’t feel like they’re just put there for the sake of pleasing the audience with “Hey we got this type of character in it! So you have to like the show!”. The characters just fit in the role. The king just happens to be black, the general just happens to be deaf, the pirate just happens to be blind, the queens are lesbian, which I don’t understand how they have a kid together in a world where technology isn’t established. I guess maybe some sort of magic, maybe one of them is transgender but okay! It’s just well natural. It’s treated like a normal thing.

The only bias thing here is just magic folk, more specifically the elves and creatures that are connected to magic vs humans.

Most of the characters in the Dragon Prince feel real, like they are people you will meet, including the villain somewhat.

In fact, when you really think about it, the Dragon Prince does feel like an old 90s - early 00s show, because a lot of shows like Captain Planet, Avatar the Last Air Bender, Storm Hawks, among other kids action shows that did have diversity. The thing is we weren’t so into social justice stuff back then that maybe people just don’t realize it now. We had diversity in kids shows back then, with the exception of an open gay character, but I guess people just aren’t paying attention.

What I say about this show being close to say Avatar or early shows is a good thing. It makes it feel less dated. Like you could watch this show years from now and not go “On this was from the mid to late 10s”. In fact, characters don’t even rely on slogans like some of the characters will say in She-Ra or talk like again “Best Friend Squad”. Okay, that’s not really a huge slogan but you get what you mean.

Sometimes the Dragon Prince will get preachy like how Ezran will say all that is right about humans when Rayla does her human impression, but over all, it’s not in your face about the diversity.

The only thing people may complain about is the lack of “diverse bodies” aka having a fat or “curvy” characters in it. I think there is only one character that I would say is on the chubby side and that’s one of the kings that Viren meets at the meeting, which I say, you’re talking about a show where most of the characters including the queens fight and know how to fight. Even if a fat or somewhat chubby or curvy character fights, they ‘re gonna lose most of that because that’s how your body burns calories. There’s a reason why if you want to lose pounds you exercise. It’s science and this show at least has some science to it’s lore! Well except, again I dunno how two queens make a baby but again, maybe one of them is trans and with no kind of surgery for that kind of thing, they still have all the male parts. Hey it’s still showing a lesbian relationship. The man becomes a woman so...that’s something! It’s showing a trans and lesbian relationship. Or maybe the girl is actually adopted, I dunno. It’s still treated as a normal thing and at least we actually do see the queens kiss so there’s something!

Another thing that kinda makes She-Ra 2018 a bit dated is the use of colors and animation. It uses the same kind of flash animation and colors that a lot of shows like Steven Universe and other cartoon network and Disney channel shows tend to use. Not much of the animation makes it stand out or different from shows that use the same kind of style and pallets. That and there’s times where it’s clear the animation isn’t so good. The characters may not move as fluently as they need to move and some scenes look a bit incomplete.

Guys I know it’s hard to do animation but if a small team of animators making a youtube show, the Hazbin Hotel, can clean up on their animation and even without the clean up is still good, there’s no excuse. She-Ra’s animation crew work at Dreamworks, the same studio behind the How to Train Your Dragon series and Voltron! Shoot, the Dragon Prince isn’t even owned by a huge company and it still does better!

The Dragon Prince is set in a more mythological time period and the animation fits well into it. The use of lighting and colors as well as shading makes it feel like genuine. It still looks similar to shows say like Storm Hawks or other 3D action shows but it still has it’s own look and it’s a breath of fresh air to see a show have such beautiful colors and designs. The colors are can be light and pretty with shading to make it easier on your eyes as well as dark in grim when the scenes need to fit that tone.

So obviously, the Dragon Prince does win over She-Ra. If you disagree or think I’m a bit bias, okay. I grew up with wonderful animation such as Disney and Nickelodeon shows. I can’t help but like quality animated shows!

I also like to point out, though this isn’t a comparison, but since this is sort of my review of the show, I must say I really do like how smart the characters including the side characters are in the Dragon Prince. Most of the time in a story like this, the people will blindly follow the evil adviser, not realizing he did it, only to go against the villain at the end when the truth is found out. Here, that’s not the case. Even his own children start feeling odd about their father and most of the soldiers don’t like him nor want to do what he says. Many of the characters suspect Viren’s nature and even the kings and queens while at first want to go with Viren’s plan to group up for war, it’s only until the child queen (I sadly forgot her name) decides, even after the heartbreaking tale of how her parents died, feels that it’s pointless forcing her people to fight in a war where they are more likely to be killed, that the other royals follow beside her and go against the war. It’s done realistic. No one is just a plain idiot! People have their own thoughts and the series never fails to show how each individual feels.

In this day and age, we know that leaders are gonna have many followers and many enemies or people that don’t agree with them even under their reign. This makes sense and I like how this show handles that. Such a simple thing like that is what makes this show a breath of fresh air and why She-Ra doesn’t remotely hold a candle to it.

I may do a review of the show, a proper one and give it my full rating. So far, you I think highly of this show and as for She-Ra, I will continue to watch it as time goes on and when season 2 finally comes out, I’ll check it out. Maybe the later seasons will fix the problems I have or stay the same. It’s not a bad series but I’m gonna act like I don’t have problems with it. I’m not gonna pretend to like something more when the series that is obviously superior does better than it.

I will say this. How you relate to each one depends on you. Maybe you do find yourself relating to She-Ra’s characters and situations. If that’s true, more power to you. You may even say I’m wrong with how I explain things. I honestly, don’t care since most of the time I don’t read notes anyway but I’m not gonna tell you what to like or dislike. These are personal opinions. Nothing more, nothing less.

So that concludes that the Dragon Prince is the winner of Toon VS Toon Battle. Highly do recommend you check both series out as much as I think less of She-Ra, it’s good for at least one viewing so you can draw your own conclusions. Naturally, I highly recommend the Dragon Prince especially if you’re hugely into animated fantasy adventure series like Avatar the Last Air Bender, maybe Adventure Time, Storm Hawks and Legend of Korra.

I’m Tech! Seeya in the next review!

#She-Ra #she ra netflix #she-ra and the princesses of power #the dragon prince #legend of korra

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khantipode · 5 years

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Frequently Asked Questions

Now that I’m getting Antipode back in gear, I figured it’s high time for an FAQ. This post will be where I handle frequently asked questions from this point on. I’ll make sure to link it in the sidebar as well. So, without further delay... Q: What is Antipode? Antipode is an ongoing Kingdom Hearts AU series that asks the ever common question: What would happen if Riku became the Keybearer as fate intended? How would such a cocky, arrogant, teen with his own inner demons fare as the hero of the worlds, and where would that put Sora? While it’s a tried and true what-if scenario, my goal with Antipode was to explore the gradual snowball effect of Sora and Riku’s choices while keeping them true to their canon personalities. Notably, Sora still ends up with Kairi’s heart, while Riku still opens the door to Destiny Islands and dooms his home. While Riku ends up with Donald and Goofy, at first he sees them as little more than a convenient means to see other worlds, while Sora ends up tricked by Maleficent and her cohorts into believing they are outcasts shunned by their worlds who merely wish to save the princesses and the worlds at large. And, as time goes on, the series moves further and further away from the original KH game plots into its own direction. If you want to know more, you can find the entire series here on AO3 or here on Fanfiction.net!

Q: When does this AU diverge from canon? That... is a good question. Technically speaking, there are two main divergence points. The first is during the downfall of Radiant Garden in order to explain why Xemnas is who he is in this AU. The second is at the start of Kingdom Hearts, where Sora reaches Riku on the island much earlier, thus Riku obtains the Keyblade before he can give into the darkness. Naturally, everything from that point on starts to diverge as well. :P Birth by Sleep is more or less the same as canon, though.

Q: What Disney worlds are included in the AU? Oh, lots! The first story features all the worlds from KH1 except for Deep Jungle and Monstro- in exchange, it includes Prankster’s Paradise- called Pleasure Island in the fic, in a much darker take that is faithful to Pinocchio, donkeys and all. As the series goes on, I move toward more and more unique Disney Worlds in addition to familiar locations. Fragmented Truths includes worlds based on The Jungle Book, Sword in the Stone, and The Great Mouse Detective in addition to returning worlds like Agrabah and Halloween Town. Monstro also makes its appearance here. The Year Between features Pocahontas, Monsters Inc., Gargoyles, and Mary Poppins, as well as many, many references to the Disney Afternoon shows and other Disney material. All That’s Left is the current story and includes worlds based on Robin Hood, The Emperor’s New Groove, Wreck-it Ralph, The Incredibles, Treasure Planet, and Frozen with a few other Disney worlds planned in smaller appearances. Olympus Coliseum also has an appearance here, as will Space Paranoids. In general, Antipode is a HUGE love letter to Disney. Even in familiar worlds, like Agrabah, I try to incorporate elements from the films that were cut from the KH games like the Sultan and Rajah. But other worlds like Arendelle will also see similar treatment. Hans, for example, will actually exist in the AU outside of a five second cameo. ;) Q: What about Final Fantasy characters? Other Square Enix properties? While the Restoration Committee and Twilight Town residents return from the original games alongside Cloud, I’ve also added some more Final Fantasy cameos from time to time. Quina, Freya, Steiner, and Beatrix from FFIX make appearances, alongside Cait Sith and Barret from FF7. But perhaps the most significant new Square character is Ringabel from Bravely Default. Though he first debuts in Side Stories (Love’s Vagrant and The Burden of Failure), he has since become a recurring character, along with Grandship serving as a sort of mobile Traverse Town. In the future, I’d like to maybe include characters from The World Ends With You and Chrono Trigger, but that’ll probably have to wait ‘til the next fic.

Q: If Riku’s the Keybearer, does that mean he has a Nobody? Is there a Sora Replica? Does Xion even exist? Since Sora still had Kairi’s heart, ultimately, he still ends up with a Nobody. However, this universe’s Roxas does not wield a Keyblade, initially still keeps the name Sora, and has a set of fake memories shared with Riku’s Replica. He, Riku Replica, and Namine form what I like to call the mirror trio. Riku Replica does later go by the name Xiruk, but that’s mostly so he can match Roxas and stick it to the Organization. As for Xion, she exists with drastically different origins, as she was created by DiZ rather than the Organization. You can learn more about her in The Year Between!

Q: What’s the deal with Kairi? Kairi, while starting off in a similar postion as canon, has a much larger role in this AU! Instead of staying behind, she joins Riku, Donald, and Goofy on their journey and becomes a competent fighter in her own right. A damsel she is not, so if you’re looking for a story that gives Kairi time to shine, you’ve come to the right place. :)

Q: How come Heartless Sora looks like Anti-Form? And why is Ven with him? The key difference with Sora’s Heartless form in this story is that Ansem had told him ahead of time what would happen if he released Kairi’s heart and urged him to embrace the darkness... purely out of curiosity for what would happen if someone so kind dove right in. Sora taking that plunge while clinging to his sense of self, coupled with Ven’s heart sticking with him allowed him to maintain a stronger Heartless form. In this form, he looks similar to Anti-Form but with a more expressive face and sharp teeth. Only those with connections to darkness can hear him speak.

Q: If Ven’s heart is with Sora, why does Roxas still look like him? Due to the shared connection between Sora and Ven, he still looks similar as a side effect.

Q: How come Zexion has so much authority? According to the Days Ultimania, Zexion was slated to be second in command until Axel killed him in Chain of Memories to cut a path to the top for Saix. This did not happen here, so Zexion has a lot more power and authority in the Organization. Saix is still near the top, though, as is Xigbar.

Q: How do you handle Chain of Memories? What about 358/2 Days? Kingdom Hearts II? Simply put, I don’t. While the first story is very close to the original Kingdom Hearts in structure, all the subsequent fics are more of their own stories, borrowing elements from the other games where appropriate. For example, Fragmented Truths takes the Riku Replica and Namine from Chain of Memories as well as elements of the memory plot, but it still features adventures across different worlds as well as the start of the Organization’s meddling in the worlds. The Year Between features elements of 358/2 Days and Coded as well as KH2′s prologue, but spun in a brand new way to suit the story. All That’s Left is thematically the KH2 of the story, but like the other sequels, it’s not a direct adaptation. After all, I’m pretty sure Kingdom Hearts 2 doesn’t have Aqua running around with the heroes. :P

Q: Does your AU include anything from Dream Drop Distance? Sort of. Ultimately, Antipode does acknowledge that Xehanort did want to gather thirteen Seekers of Darkness to battle seven Guardians of Light to do battle and form the χ-blade. However! Antipode’s Xemnas has zero interest in fulfilling this plan, and as a result, the only characters to have been implanted with seeds of Xehanort’s heart are Xigbar and Saix. Young Xehanort is lurking around, and I have plans for him eventually, but suffice it to say, the Xehanort plan introduced in KH3D has been significantly derailed. Thanks, Xemnas.

Q: Hey! How come Xemnas is [SPOILER]? Because Antipode started developing well before Kingdom Hearts 3D came out, and I had Xemnas’ whole schtick carefully planned out. I didn’t want to retcon the entire arc I had planned for him, so I stuck to my guns and decided to simply include an in-universe explanation for why he isn’t out trying to make more Xehanorts. You’ll just have to stay tuned for the full story on that detail. ;)

Q: Will you incorporate the new canon from Kingdom Hearts 3? What about the mobile game? There are many things in Kingdom Hearts 3 that I legit can’t incorporate. For example, the Guardian’s identity goes against some plans I’ve had in place for years, and my backstory with Isa and Lea differs. Keep in mind, this series has been going on since 2012, so I can’t be canon compliant with every new bit of information. I do have some... ideas involving certain reveals from KH-UX, though. We’ll see if I get to ‘em. Q: Will this AU have any ships? Antipode is a story much more focused on friendships and adventure than romance. That being said, there is some extremely slow burn Kairi/Riku and Riku Replica/Namine that’s been developing over the course of several stories. I realize these ain’t the most popular pairings, but I really want to stress that Antipode ain’t about the ships, so even if they aren’t to your liking, I hope that you’ll give these stories a chance! Sora remains extremely important to his friends as well, so no worries about the spiky-haired dork being left out. :) He may not be having a romance with Kairi in this fic, but their friendship remains ever strong. Addendum: ...I guess this is also the part where I admit that years of denial have finally made me crack. Ringabel and Aqua’s chemistry is just too good in this AU. Like the other ships, though, it ain’t a focal point. VenSo is kinda implied, too, if you squint. Both of these were purely by accident.

Q: What’s with the rewrites? To make a long story short, a lot of the earlier works in Antipode were... fairly rushed. While I had a beta or two, I didn’t have a super thorough editor to point out all the plot inconsistencies and issues like I do now. Because my editor pointed out all these faults with the fics, I saw fit to go back and fix them for the sake of my own satisfaction and out of a desire to make the series overall stronger. I have provided changelogs for those who read as the stories originally released, which you can find here.

Q: When do you update? Whenever I have the time and inspiration. I do want to try to get updates out at a more regular basis- at least once a month, but we’ll see what the future holds. I do work a job, and I have my Undertale comic @invertedfate, but Antipode is my baby and I want to see it through to the end. Got another question? Please feel free to send an ask!

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts au #kh au #kh antipode #faq

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thegreatpikminzx789 · 5 years

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Etrian Odyssey Nexus - Overall Thoughts

Amidst all of the plotting and playing of Nexus, I never done a legit review of a game, so I figured I’d give it a try with the recent entry in the EO series, Etrian Odyssey Nexus.

The following will contain spoilers for the game, so if you have not played it, you have been warned.

The favorite thing I’ve recently played the thought with, ever since I touched EOIV was creating a party that felt attached to the world they lived in, and can develop more to the plot than being nameless members who merely want to clear Yggdrasil for fame or fortune. And with a grand total of nineteen classes, along with the pseudo-class of Vampires, and it’s a combination of characters you’d never thought would happen to meet up unless told through stories.

EOV sort of felt that way to me, but even the two remakes of the first two Etrian Odyssey games have a more balanced party that makes you feel attached to them than your own in some cases.

If you wanted to recreate the Hexer, there’s a way. If you wanted to use a few of EO3′s classes even if you have not played the original game, you can do so. You can even replicate the Hoplite class if you subclass the Protector with the Highlander! The amount of classes can make almost any class combinations possible, given you set things up correctly. Heck, the Vampire can even be of use against the Dinogator, given you know what you’re doing.

The fact that this game also has NPC’s that interact with you reminds me of EOIV greatly. Sure, only one really joins you for the first floor, and for the boss of that labyrinth if you allow her to, but there’s enough interaction that makes them feel more noteworthy, even if they merely travel beside you and give you small benefits.

The story is quite interesting as well- two sides (the Seafarers and the Maginians) wanting to find the ultimate treasure that supposedly grants ‘eternal prosperity’. Only to find out said eternal prosperity may not be all that it may seem. There were legitimate moments where I thought things were going to go wrong if I didn’t do something to stop it.

Apart from a few times I gotten a game over, I had an enjoyable playthrough of the main story, especially with my first attempt at defeating the final boss after things seemed to go badly.

Heck, even Makiri and the Forest Folk were such a cool thing to have in Lemuria. And hearing the Lost Shinjuku music in their village is giving me such major EOU flashbacks, I honestly wish we can have an EO game where Forest Folk can be an actual race that can be used for classes.

Now, with every good thing, there’s always a few things I hated. Not that I have to like everything, coming from a gamer/author’s perspective, but there were things that legit bugged me a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Rob when he actually opened up more, but honestly, seeing him telling my characters to just end themselves was really making me want to just put down the game and despise him for all that he stands for. It just irks me whenever a character, or anyone really, tells another to end their life because things would be better for this particular person. That line will always bug me whenever I see him, but I persevered and enjoyed him for what he is.

Kvasir, Kvasir, Kvasir... Even with his hard to pronounce name, he turned out to be waaaaay different when I first met him. His voice is alright, but I really wish he didn’t have to have this creepy personality, and the fact that he admits a few times that he stripped his clothes and getting banned for being nude. I never hated a barkeeper before, but Kvasir takes the number one place in my characters to never mention list. If there was an option to head to a different barkeep/quest giver in game, I would’ve been MORE than content with Kirtida or Cass than listening to this lame excuse of a bartender!

Also the lack of EOV content, aside from two classes and a plethora of enemies and one boss from the game, kinda hurts me a bit, but there’s always DLC portraits to remedy the good old times of EOV. Hell, maybe even the only remaining Arken could’ve been a much more better fit for Lemuria’s Yggdrasil Tree resident, considering the almost out of nowhere reveal of the “Yggdrasil Girl” that was name dropped on ya in the credits, and only appears for the info-dump and True Jormungandr segment.

I know the Arken are considered aliens and are the most plot-confusing things ever since the revelation thrown at you after the Eternal Tyrant boss, but honestly, I find Arken to be more pleasing in terms of design, instead of having to look at a physical-almost-nude-representation of the Yggdrasil Tree itself. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever mentioned how the tree even MANAGED to make a physical form of it’s conscious. It’s just irritating to think of, and I had always wondered when she’ll physically appear whenever her voice clips played. Guess that’s another change to my Nexus series. Just change Arken to be the resident of the Yggdrasil Tree in Lemuria, and you’d have at least one character that isn’t stupid to try and explain what happened in the not-originating-from-EO3-dungeon, the Abyssal Shrine, instead of saving it all for the freaking 5th floor, like what EOV did in its sixth labyrinth. >_>

Hell, even the Abyssal Shrine IS a basic copy-paste of the Empyreal Bridge! No actual plot dump until you reach the final floor! Seriously, this dungeon could’ve been better. Even as someone who has not seen the original Abyssal Shrine, I would’ve loved to see it remodeled. Given the boss theme and the Abyssal Princess’ naming alone, that was such a missed opportunity...

Moving on... I knew Blót was going to be the antagonist the moment I connected the little bell with a class that appeared in EO1 and EO2. But the twin plot twist was something I certainly didn’t expect, and it’s a shame we only see him so much without the Hexer robes and he tries so hard to be so secretive that there’s barely any opportunities to know him or his twin brother that well (who I’m also assuming may be named Blót, considering the Hexer twin Blót dies to Jormungandr, while the Hero Blót gets thrown into the Abyssal Shrine).

Honestly, with this twin plot twist in mind, this certainly makes one idea for a saga of Yggdrasil’s Nexus to be a fun trip to write, given I am given time to do so. Blót is one of those characters that had a missed opportunity to be more explained, both in terms of his twin brother, and for the thought of reviving Jormungandr to begin with. The inner author within me is going to have a little fun with Blót, in hopes of explaining more than what the game tried to convey to its best. (Also missed an opportunity for a Hero/Hexer fight with Blót and his twin brother, like, come on, how can you play Towering Pair and NOT borrow the Ren/Thlatchga fight to make it more interesting?)

Also, Artelinde. Why was she here? I ignored her the first time I saw her and thought “Hey, that’s a nice character, I wonder who she is”. Having gotten around to playing EO2U sometime later in my life, I found myself questioning why she was even here. The game could’ve shed some light on what happened between EO2/EO2U to justify her being here, but it doesn’t... And it just begs why she had to be here other than representation for EO2.

Murdered tons of people all to protect a former guild member turned monster thanks to the Overlord? NOPE, no extending redemption arc/back story for you! You get relegated to being a martyr like character! Ugh... I really wanted to hear her struggles of redeeming herself for what she did, but I guess that idea never made it into the plot draft of Nexus... <_>

Things I disliked aside, the only thing I found myself being neutral on was Enrica.

Despite the massive flashbacks to Camilla from Fire Emblem If/Fates with her fan service boob appeal, I felt she really could’ve been different and not act like a child upon first meeting her. Heck, she’s even a freaking Farmer in-game, if her luck with finding items is any indication. How the heck does a character that has the coding of a Farmer LOOK like that, let alone have plot relevance? I was expecting a Sovereign at least because she mentions ‘becoming a queen’ once she goes back to her homeland, but nope. A freaking FARMER.

Sigh

I don’t hate her that much, she’s just one of those “meh, I can deal with this” type of character.

My overall thoughts are that there’s a strange balance of good and bad things I don’t like in this game. Sure, I wish there could’ve been more classes, some more things explained/justified, and an actual English dub to boot, but the need to get this out before the 3DS era of games come to a close is rather understandable. Even without Mystery Dungeon 2 being able to make it over to the West, this is a great dedication to the series Etrian Odyssey has made itself out to be, and I am personally glad to have bought the game and gotten myself into the series.

This is one game that sends off the EO series on a good note, and though I’ll miss mapping out the maps when the next installment arrives, I’ll be glad to see, make, and enjoy the story of the lore that goes into the Etrian Odyssey series.

#eo #eon #Etrian Odyssey #Etrian Odyssey Nexus #review #overall thoughts #spoilers

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the-sayuri-rin · 6 years

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Speculation-Reconnect: KH 3 TRAILERS AND WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR- Riku’s side:

So here, Riku still has he old haircut from before they left to find Aqua at the end of 0.2

It is thought by some that, (a la the Disney Wikia for on source) “Riku's cutting of his hair after the events of Kingdom Hearts II can reepresent a major change in his life, and is likely why he cut it. It can symbolize cutting away his mistakes and starting over, as his hair had grown very long while he was aligned with the darkness.“

So what if... after he has his “I can face the darkness now” talk with mickey, he takes way to dawn and cuts his hair to the way we saw it previously. (Mickey asks what he’s doing and he kind of goes into this edge lord explanation as to why he cuts his hair). Then after some time, they eventually come across aqua, get into a battle, and he ends up with a broken keyblade as a result.

They manage to retreat back to Yen Sid’s tower, where they explain to Yen Sid and the others what happened.

and Yen Sid, as was stated to have- gives Riku the Keyblade known as Braveheart.

Sora’s side:

At the end of 0.2, Sora was sent by Yen Sid to Olympus to train and regain his powers that he lost.

It was stated that the Sora is officially a Keyblade master and a sign of this will be his new ability to transform his keyblade.

youtube

what if Yen Sid also has his training in Olympus serve as his make up for what happened during the Mark of Mastery exam in 3D? and once he is done, they are report back to Yen where he will gain his new title?

however once he Donald, and Goofy are back, Riku and Mickey also return with the grim news of what has happened to Aqua. After hearing this, Sora volunteers to go back to the RoD with them (just because they aren’t seen in that last clip we got with Sora at TGS does not mean they aren’t there). However before they go, Yen Sid, much like with Mickey and Riku, give Sora his new clothes that we will see him in for the rest of the game.

Back in 0.2 Mickey explained that there we “points” in which one could use to get to the realm of Darkness, but as of KH 1 those “point” had become unstable.

So he had to use the alternative and wait for a world to get consumed by the darkness in order to get in.

Area they were in at end of KH 1 and 0.2 is the dark side to The Destiny Islands.Also, on the other side of the Door in the secret place, was the part of the RoD were Kingdom Key D resided.

It is unknown if those “points” that give access to the RoD became stabilized once more once Sora saved the worlds but. What if Mickey and the others use the Door at the secret place as a point to get to the RoD?

Either Mickey and Riku are with them, but are walking way ahead, or Sora, Donald, and Goofy DO go there alone, but along the way Sora comes across Eraqus’ Keyblade. (If Mickey and Riku are with them, Mickey explains who the Keyblade belongs to and guesses that why she took his keyblade instead of using the one she had the last time he saw her?) (It is also possible that the keyblade itself guides them to where Aqua is in the RoD.)

They come across here are the Dark Margin, it triggers the memory in Sora. Either out right or he thinks back to when it was triggered back in 3D when he was in a deep sleep. He says or Mickey (if he is there) something and this is her response, leading use to this moment.(keep in mind, what we see isn’t always how it will officially be in the game, the BH 6 keyblade could be used as an example and once the game is released Sora could be wielding his kingdom key or Olympus keyblade for all we know.)

They fight, at some point Sora is able to purge her of the darkness and Aqua is knocked or falls into the water. Sora walks toward where she fell in, bends down, his hand goes in the water for her to grab. Coming fully to her senses Aqua see his hand, she swims toward him and takes it, she rises from the dark waters, saved and back to normal.

Aqua’s Side:

Nomura had stated recently, that Aqua came to be this way as a result of a certain incident. In the previous trailer we she her looking completely normal, in a fight with Ansem SoD without her keyblade. What if this is leads to the mentioned incident?

She’s putting up a fight, but she has no keyblade and it’s more likely than not, Ansem SoD can sense the cracks in her heart and can immediately see how susceptible she is to the darkness in her current state. Also, given her meeting with Terra-Xehanort, his original self in 0.2. he may also known how useful she is in finding Ven. He would also be well aware that she would never tell him where Ven is...unless she was under the influence of darkness.

It was confirmed that she was indeed under the influence of Xehanort like so many others. Remember by possessing others,they can gain that persons knowledge & experience in real time as explained in 3D. Her situation is temporary, what if she was norted not to be a seeker, but for the sake of the knowledge that was passed down to her. Leaving her in the RoD would simply be their way of making things difficult for Sora and the other. Remember, even though he wants the seven guardians of light for the X-blade, they aren’t the only route he can go. The fact that if they can’t get seven, then he would just try and take the seven princesses as back up would be equally as god in his eyes. This makes having all the guardians more or less disposable to him.

Saving Ven:

Sora managed to save Aqua, they bring her out of the RoD and bring her back to the realm of light. Thinking it’s a good idea, they take her to Yen Sid’s tower to have her checked out and tell them all what happened. At some point she brings up Ven and needing to get to him. Speaking of Ven, they try to come up with a plan to try and get help him. Mickey possibly remembers what was explained by Namine in recoded regarding Sora and Ven’s special connection. What if Yen Sid or Mickey theorizes that not just Aqua but Sora as well could be the key to waking Ven up. Sora and Aqua agree to go together to Castle Oblivion and retrieve him. Unbeknownst to them they may be being watched by a certain someone.

They arrive a CO and Aqua leads the way to where Ven is. Once they get there, the decided who should go into Ven’s heart. Given what they learn about Sora and Ven, and given the fact the Sora now has the ability to awaken others from their sleep, they agree Sora should go into Ven’s heart and Aqua stands guard.

Hearing all of this, maybe Vantias makes himself known to them both or if Sora is already in Ven’s heart just to Aqua. He teases them a bit, brags that he will be the one leaving with Ven, while taunting his unconscious body. If Sora is there, they come up with a plan.

Aqua distracts Vanitas while Sora tries to save Ven, or if Sora is already in Ven, Aqua tries to protect them both with Sora wake Ven up. Either way Sora is successful in his mission, but Vanitas is able to get the upper hand and knocks Aqua out again deciding to pick up where he left off with her and wanting Ven and Sora to see what he’s done once they comeback. He raises his keyblade the same way he did all those years ago against he to take her heart. As he gets ready to do this (notice the bright light where Ven is sitting) Sora is possibly about to return and Ven is possibly about to awaken. Maybe leading to a Sora and Ventus team up against Vanitas???

#kingdom hearts

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secretagentspydetectiveninja · 6 years

Text

The Misadventures of Prince Kim - chapter 57

Ta-da! Kim gets in a sword fight and also meets a crocodile. Neither of these are even remotely the weirdest thing to have happened in this fic. (Oh yeah and a season 2 character’s in this one so, uh, spoiler alert)

Also on AO3 as always

“How are things going?” Kim asked down the phone. “Your approval rating hasn’t gone down, has it?”

“Surprisingly, it’s actually increased slightly,” Max replied. “I’ve mostly been busy working on Markov so I haven’t spent much time looking at the news, but it seems that the citizens are happy to get to know their prince a little better. Quite honestly, it wasn’t even a surprise to most people.”

“That’s awesome!” Kim said, his worries vanishing. “Oh, I’m so relieved to hear that. And how’s Markov doing?”

There was a kind of excited spark to Max’s voice suddenly. “He’s coming along fantastically! I knew robotics was fun, but I had forgotten it was this fun. I really should have done this so much sooner! Markov speaks quite a lot now, there are still bugs to sort out, but hopefully I’ll be able to fix those soon, maybe even in time for the wedding if I work hard enough, so then you’ll get to meet him too, and…”

He continued gushing about his little robot friend for quite a while. Kim just sat there with a dopey smile on his face, content to listen. This all sounded so exciting – he couldn’t wait to meet Max’s robot! He’d never even met a robot before in his life. It was so weird, really, how could a metal electronic machine actually speak? Surely magic had to be involved somehow? But no, according to Max it was all just science. That was the coolest thing ever.

“And what about you?” Max said finally. “How have your holidays been so far? Is Queen Sol nice?”

“Queen Sol is freaking awesome!” Kim said. “It’s only been a week but I’ve already had so much fun. It’s like having a cool big sister. The other day she took me bowling, but not like normal bowling, it was massive bowling with giant skittles taller than a person, and you had to throw this massive inflatable ball at them, it was amazing!”

“That does sound fun!”

“Yeah! And she took me to the 3D cinema and I watched a movie in 3D, like with those glasses on, it was so cool. I did get a headache but still, totally worth it. And there’s been this duelling competition going on over the past few days and I got to the finals!”

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks! The final match is in like an hour, so I thought I’d call you first, because I haven’t seen you in a while and I miss you…”

“Aww, I miss you too. But I’ll see you soon, don’t worry. Good luck for your match – I’m sure you’ll do well!”

Kim just wanted to hug Max through the phone. “Thanks… I mean of course I’ll do well, I’m the best at duelling. I’m probably even better than Adrien at this point. No one else here is that good, so I’m sure I’ll win. And the prize is this super cool trophy, so I’m not letting a snake take it this time.”

Max was chuckling away on the other end. “I may be all the way over in another country, but pretend I’m cheering for you! And so is Markov!”

“Max, you’re so sweet. I love you so much.”

“Oh Kim…” He sounded rather flustered. It was adorable, but all it did was make Kim miss him even more, so he changed the subject.

“Also I’ll get to finally meet Princess Penny and Jagged Stone next week, it’s gonna be awesome.”

“And you’ll meet the crocodile too, I presume?”

Kim had very much been trying not to think about that. “Haha yeah… I guess…”

“Well I hope you have fun with them. I should probably get back to my work now, but it was so nice to chat with you. Please call again soon!”

“I will! Say hi to Markov for me!”

Even after hanging up, Kim couldn’t get his stupid grin off his face. It was strange how being away from Max was just causing him to fall further and further in love, when he had been worried the opposite might happen. Even Sol could probably tell, considering how much Kim kept going on about Max all the time. He couldn’t help it! Everything reminded him of Max in some way or another.

Anyway, for now he had to get his mind back to duelling. The final match hopefully wouldn’t be too difficult. It wasn’t like any of the others had been. Looking at the clock, he decided to head down to the tournament grounds already, so that he wouldn’t be late.

The weather was warm and sunny. Plenty of the servants had turned up to watch the match, as well as some palace guests who were here for the wedding early, just like Kim was. Queen Sol herself was sitting in the stands, a large parasol over her head and a fan in hand. She waved at Kim, who waved back with his sword. This was reminding him oddly of the lacrosse match back in the winter holidays, though hopefully this match wouldn’t turn out such a disaster!

The opponent walked onto the grounds right at the last minute. They were decked entirely in red, with a helmet that fully covered their head and didn’t even leave their eyes visible, like the medieval knights from paintings in history books. Kim had never met this person before – he wasn’t even sure of their name! But hopefully they wouldn’t even be able to see out of that helmet, and then he’d get an easy win. Perfect.

Queen Sol herself stood up to announce the start of the match with a megaphone once everything was ready and everyone was in place. “Let the final match of the tournament begin!”

With that, Kim lunged forwards straight into an attack. His tactics were usually to be aggressive enough to intimidate the opponent into a quick loss.

This time, however, it didn’t work.

This opponent was ruthless. They were quicker, smarter, and more aggressive than anyone else Kim had ever faced. Even Adrien had never been this good.

Gritting his teeth, Kim forced himself to focus properly now. No more being complacent. He had to win that trophy. He was the best, and he had to prove it.

The battle was long and tough, with the crowd gasping every few seconds whenever one of them made a particularly risky attack. Kim was pulling out all the stops, and yet the opponent still seemed to be ahead of him every step of the way – why weren’t they losing already?! This was the worst!

Eventually the unthinkable happened. The opponent got the upper hand. Kim was left sitting on the ground, stunned, his own sword knocked out of his hand and the enemy one pointed straight at his throat.

Considering how brutal that match had been, he half expected the opponent to just finish things off by skewering him and ending his life before any poisoned chocolates ever could.

Instead they sheathed their sword, removed their gloves, then took off their helmet–

“Finally, a worthy opponent,” said the striking young lady now standing before him. Her voice was raspy, her cheeks were covered in freckles, and her short hair was the same odd bluish-black colour that Marinette’s was.

Kim hadn’t been expecting his opponent to be quite that young – he had, truthfully, sort of been expecting some kind of immortal monstrous abomination, thinking that no human person could have enough strength to beat him. But no, it was just a regular human, and one who looked around the same age as him too.

She held out a hand to help him up. Still stunned, he took it and got to his feet. As if from a distance, he could hear the crowd cheering. But they weren’t cheering for him, and he wasn’t going to get that trophy. He had actually been beaten.

“You are Prince Kim, aren’t you?” she asked him now.

“Yeah,” he said, wondering how she knew. To be fair, he had been bragging all week to any servants who would listen about how he was definitely going to win the tournament, so it might have been that. Or the TV interview back in spring. But then again, this girl had skin pale enough to rival Juleka’s, unlike many of the citizens here, so it was possible that she was a guest just like Kim was.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, though her very slight smile seemed fake enough to prove the contrary. “I’m a fellow royal guest here for the wedding too. My name is Kagami.”

Kagami… Princess of a distant country to the far east that Kim could not recall the name of, off the top of his head. He was sure he had read her name somewhere while doing homework for his world studies lessons, though. It was so weird to actually be meeting her.

And so annoying to have lost a duel against her…

Well, no point being a sore loser. He was far past that. Instead he swallowed his pride and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you. That was fun.”

Her smile seemed more genuine now as she shook his hand. “It was indeed. Perhaps we could duel each other again sometime.”

No way, he thought.

“Uh… sure.”

“Good. I look forward to it.”

She nodded her head at him, almost in a slight bow, before turning around and heading towards the cheering stands, where Queen Sol was waiting to award her the trophy. Kim watched and tried his hardest not to feel jealous. He really had done his absolute best, maybe not at the beginning but certainly later on, and it still wasn’t good enough. Kagami was just better at duelling. Fair enough.

Oh, but he so liked winning…

He barely paid any attention as Kagami was given the trophy, the crowd cheering for her wildly, then starting to leave as the match was over. He merely stood there with an odd feeling of humiliation descending on him. Losing was never fun, ever, even if he was better at dealing with it now. And losing a match he had been so sure of winning? In front of everyone he had showed off at? They probably all thought of him as a loser now, and in more than one sense of the word…

“Prince Kim?”

It was Kagami again, now with the trophy in her arms.

“You can just call me Kim,” he muttered.

“Right, Kim.” She cleared her throat. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Is it true that you enjoy playing tennis?”

Tennis? Of course he did. Tennis was the Marinette sport for him. The sport that he and his old friend used to play together for hours and hours every single day when they were kids. It always lifted his spirits.

“Yep,” he replied.

“So do I. I hear you can be very competitive. Perhaps, if we have a tennis tournament, you might get to win that one instead. And then you’d get a trophy too.”

“I know you’re just trying to be nice,” he said, “but you really don’t need to take pity on me. It’s fine.”

“Apologies. It’s just…” She turned aside a little. “It’s the first time I’ve been away from home without my mother with me. I thought it would be a good opportunity to finally make some friends my age. I’m not very good at it.”

She wanted to be friends? Well why hadn’t she said so before?

“Of course I’ll be your friend!” Kim said. “Anyone who can beat me at a duelling tournament has gotta be cool.”

She looked a little taken aback by his sudden change in tone for a few seconds, but quickly recovered and smiled at him. “Thank you. Anyone who can give me such a tough fight must also be… cool. So, um, what do we do now?”

The stands were almost empty by now, most of the crowd having left. Kim hadn’t really planned to do anything in particular for the rest of the day, but he had an idea.

“We play tennis, of course!” He grabbed her arm and started pulling her along, to her surprise. “You wanted to, right new friend? Well then we should! And my other friends are gonna be here in August too so I’ll introduce you to them as well when they get here, they’re really cool! We’ll make sure you’ve got loads of friends to keep in touch with by the time you go back home…”

He turned back to see that her smile was much less restrained now. Good, so his friendliness was working! If there was one thing going to school had taught him, it was that sometimes other people were quiet, or shy, and wanted to be friends but weren’t sure how to go about it. Kim, on the other hand, was none of those things. So why not use his confidence to kickstart new friendships whenever he could?

And plus, it would be fun having another friend here. Queen Sol was cool and everything, but often very busy running her country and preparing for the wedding, and anyway she was so old that sometimes the generational gap showed itself. Having Kagami around would be nice.

Over in her own kingdom, Pharaoh Alix was lounging on her actual throne for once, never usually bothering to sit somewhere so uncomfortable but feeling extra royal today for some reason. Her pet snake, as usual, was curled up around her arm. Jalil was on babysitting duty like he often was, though he mostly was just ignoring her in favour of leaning against the wall and reading a book.

“This is so weird,” Alix said, snapping shut the newspaper she had been looking through and tossing it aside. “How the hell did Max’s approval rating go up? Like maybe I’ve been over in backwards Europe for too long, but I didn’t think people were that accepting!”

“He was just confirming something his country already knew,” Jalil said, not even bothering to look up from his book. “And they’re glad to see him opening up. Royals these days are kind of more like celebrities, you know, people like it when they’re not being so mysterious and old-fashioned anymore.”

Well that was lame. She hadn’t chosen to be a “celebrity”, she didn’t want the media snooping around in her life or having to tiptoe around everywhere to avoid ruining her reputation. But it seemed that that was what the citizens wanted. Alix knew that her approval rating, though very high for an actual ruling monarch, was nowhere near as high as it could be. No one really knew much about her. It was better that way – she wasn’t sure how her citizens would react if they knew their pharaoh was a reckless little delinquent.

“Speaking of celebrities,” she said, changing the subject, “are you coming along to Princess Penny’s wedding?”

“Yes, of course. Someone has to keep an eye on you.”

“What do you mean?!”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you’ll break your arm again. Or get into a brawl with some foreign diplomat. Or use that ‘Flower Pharaoh’ reputation you told me about as an excuse to kidnap the hired flower girl and take her place. Or–”

“I get it,” she said, sinking into the throne and crossing her arms. “But for the record, you’re never there to ‘keep an eye on me’ at school, and I don’t get into trouble there.”

He finally looked up from the book, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh fine, maybe a little bit of trouble,” she said quickly. “But I’m not a little kid anymore.”

“Good point! In that case maybe the betrothal plague will hit you too this time.”

She recoiled further into her seat. It was often considered good luck around these parts to get engaged to someone on the day of someone else’s wedding, so the nickname ‘betrothal plague’ was given to the phenomenon of young people always being hit on at wedding parties. Many people just used it as an excuse to easily find a sweetheart. Alix had only been about 11 at the last wedding she attended, but she very clearly remembered Jalil having to hide under a chair by the end of it in order to avoid swarms of zealous fangirls.

Or at least, that was how he had put it. Surely it couldn’t have been that bad.

“It’s not gonna happen,” she said. “I’m not old enough.”

He grinned. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I’m only 17…”

Oh… 17. Almost 18, in fact.

In other words, old enough.

“See?” Jalil said, seeing the look of horror on her face.

“But I’m a monarch!” she said. “People will be too scared to talk to me… right? And I have a pet snake… a venomous one… so surely…”

“I wouldn’t count on that putting off everyone.”

“But then what will?”

He shrugged. “No idea. Though I suppose you could always try the Prince Max method. That might work.”

Prince Max method? What on earth was he talking about?

Wait… oh…

“I’m not coming out to everyone, no way,” she said.

“Well why not? It seemed to work fine for Max.”

“Yeah but like, I’d have to explain. No one knows what aromantic or asexual means, they’ll think I’m a plant or something. I had to go and read some obscure science journal to find out! And plus… no one will believe me…”

“How do you know?”

She hoped she didn’t sound too bitter. “Dad didn’t.”

“Oh… well then, I guess you’ll have to end up hiding under a chair the whole evening.”

She nodded glumly, expecting the worst. Of course she could intentionally try and scare people away, like she used to do by accident, but… no, her days of intimidation were over. Maybe she would end up just having to hide under a chair and hoping for a miracle.

Jagged Stone and Princess Penny returned from their Atlantican tour soon enough. It was so far away, across the vast western ocean like the kingdom of Césaire was, that they were quite tired and jet-lagged on their return, needing to rest before being introduced to anyone. In the meantime, while sightseeing in the nearby city, Kim and Kagami bought copies of Jagged Stone’s new bestselling autobiography in order to know him a little better – though Kim didn’t actually bother to read his.

They finally got to meet them on their third day back. Queen Sol had decided it would be nice if Jagged could get to have lunch with his “young royal fans” and had organized it especially for them. Kim had spent the entire previous day listening to every Jagged Stone cassette he could find in preparation, so that at least he would know some of the songs and not sound like a total out-of-the-loop moron. Kagami already seemed to know a lot of it – apparently her kingdom was just as techy and advanced as these ones.

First they were introduced to Princess Penny, who looked much like a younger version of her mother, but with shockingly bright hair that was cut so short that it didn’t even fall over her ears. She looked unlike any princess Kim had ever seen before.

“So nice to meet you both!” she said to them. “My fiancé is just on his way…”

From the corridor outside came the sound of a thunderous electric guitar chord. The next second Jagged Stone himself was sliding into the room on his knees across the slippery marble floor, guitar in hand, striking a pose.

Kim already knew what he looked like – he had seen the crazy purple hair and loud outfits on the covers of cassettes and on billboards and posters in cities. But it was still so bizarre to actually see the rock star himself right in front of his eyes, larger than life, somehow even crazier than he could have ever imagined.

“Hey kids!” Jagged leapt to his feet. “Are you ready to attend the most epic wedding of your lifetime?”

Before either of them could reply, the crocodile had pattered into the room after its owner. Jagged leaned down to give its scales a little rub, and it responded by giving him an affectionate lick.

Kim stepped backwards.

That was a crocodile. An actual, real one. He had never seen one in person before.

It was long, green, scaly, its gaping maw was filled to the brim with dozens and dozens of pointy teeth…

“Wanna stroke Fang?” Jagged offered in that iconic odd accent of his.

The crocodile looked up at them, opening its mouth in what might have been an attempt at a smile. All that served was to make it look even more dangerous.

“I would love to,” Kagami said, as polite and stoic as ever. She stepped forwards, leaned down, and very gently placed a hand on Fang’s scales.

It’s just a crocodile, Kim told himself. Crocodiles were nothing. They didn’t have venom. If Kim could get over his fear of a cobra enough to make friends with it, then surely this relatively harmless creature would be easy to deal with in comparison. And plus, Kagami had managed to stroke it. He wasn’t going to have her beating him at duels and then showing him up too. He was Prince Kim the fearless, afraid of nothing!

Taking a deep breath, he took a step closer to the monster. It looked up at him. Could it sense fear? Some animals could do that, couldn’t they?

Never mind. He took another cautious step, then very slowly crouched down until he was mere inches away from the mass of fangs that this crocodile was named after. Were the teeth the only thing dangerous about it? It had tiny little legs, surely it couldn’t get anywhere.

I could easily outrun this thing.

The thought entered Kim’s mind automatically, and he couldn’t help but smile. Of course he could outrun this creature. He was quick, and it was slow. Nothing to be afraid of.

Feeling way more smug now, he put his hand on the scales and gave them a gentle stroke. Huh, it felt a lot like leather. The crocodile now stuck out its tongue and was wagging its tail, almost like a little dog.

Why had he been scared of this creature again?

“Anyway, I’m starving,” Jagged said, standing up again and taking Fang’s leash. “Time for food! Come on, guys!” He and Fang went over to the table, and Kim and the others quickly followed.

Wow… Kim had stroked a crocodile today. An actual crocodile. He couldn’t wait to tell everyone about that. Max was going to be so proud of him.

#hmm not very much kimax in this chapter. i give it a 2/10 #miraculous ladybug #le chien kim #max kante #kagami tsurugi #(yeeeeeeee she does indeed show up!!)#alix kubdel #random stuff #aish writes #the misadventures of prince kim #royalty au

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pyropsychiccollector · 6 years

Text

Danganronpa: Another IF (Chapter 3, Part 1)

“Um… Naegi?”

It was the night following the second Class Trial, and everyone had headed for their dorm rooms. The Luckster had been moving to do the same, hand on the door handle, seeing as how Maizono had still been keeping her distance. He was worried about her, but he didn’t want to force her to say anything.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

… But seeing as how she was appearing shy again, he figured he’d be amicable and listen to her. It was the least he could do, after the hellish trial they’d gone through… and the gruesome execution they were forced to bear witness to once again.

“M-Maybe I have no right requesting this from you… Y-You’re free to turn me down. But… could… Could we talk in your room, just for a little bit?” Maizono was unable to meet Naegi’s eyes as her cheeks pinked. “I w-want to tell you something, and I just… want to make sure no one else hears…”

“S-Sure!” Naegi’s face was heating up, too, and he felt his heartbeat racing. Before he made the situation awkward, getting caught up in the moment, Naegi opened his door and gestured invitingly. “C’mon…!”

Before Naegi knew it, he felt a pair of arms wrapped around his neck, and something soft on his lips. It took the Luckster about five seconds to realize that Maizono was… kissing him… And he was fully frozen in place the whole time the idol was doing it. When Sayaka pulled back for breath, there was a genuine smile on her face, and she was blushing up a storm.

“Sorry~. I couldn’t hold it off any longer!” She giggled at his gobsmacked expression. “I wanted to wait until we got out of here… but I don’t want to leave any regrets. I want to reaffirm my feelings for you before I lose my nerve!”

With sweaty palms, Naegi took ahold of her hand and brought her inside his room, blushing just as much as she was. The idol’s tinkling laughter following them inside as he shut the door.

~*~

The next morning, only ten people showed up to breakfast. Naegi, Maizono, Leon, Kirigiri, Sakura, Mondo, Fujisaki, Junko, Celes, and Yamada. As expected, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny was nowhere to be seen.

“I suppose our first order of business should be deciding a new leader…” Sakura solemnly spoke as they all sat down.

“I guess so…” Leon agreed. “Morale’s not lookin’ too good, huh?”

“Why not appoint Miss Celestia Ludenberg?” Yamada proposed. Celes merely giggled as she folded her bands beneath her chin.

“That is very sweet, but I could not possibly lead when my subjects do not listen to me. Such as with the curfew… and the ability to adapt…” Practically everyone sweatdropped with the first example. She’d broken her own curfew, after all.

“U-Um… Leon could do it?” Fujisaki suggested. “O-Or Mondo…”

Leon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Bein’ the Ultimate Baseball Star, I guess I give off a ‘leader’ type of vibe, but I’m not really cut out for that…”

Mondo also shook his head.

“Sorry, kid… I’m still out of it. I wanna do that eventually, pick up where bro left off. But… just not now.”

“I dunno…” Junko swung her legs back and forth lazily. “Sakura seemed okay-ish with it, kickstarting this meeting. Why not have her do it?”

“I… must politely decline.” Sakura said, frowning. She cited no reason for her refusal.

Celes giggled again.

“Here is a novel idea… Why not have Makoto take up the reins?”

Makoto blinked in shock as he gestured at himself.

“M-Me? I’m not on the same level as you guys… I don’t have any… leadership qualities…” The Luckster scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Out of everyone here, Monokuma has yet to truly break you.” Kirigiri pointed out. “Moreover, you keep everyone united as best as you can. In an environment like this… we really do need undying optimism such as yours.”

“She’s right!” Sayaka beamed at the Luckster.

“No complaints here~.” Junko grinned and flashed a peace sign.

“Sounds good!” Leon consented as well. It quickly became obvious that that would be the trend. Even Mondo, who’d punched his lights out on the first day, agreed he could get behind that. If Togami had been present, he likely would have challenged Naegi’s qualifications, but he wasn’t there, so no one was opposed.

“At any rate… What should we do from here?” Yamada pressed on. “We can’t find an exit… and nobody’s coming to save us… Guh! Just saying so depresses me…”

“We just need to make friends and live here together peacefully.” The Ultimate Gambler suggested. “Forget about the outside world and embrace our new lives here. That is our one glimmer of hope right now.”

“I can’t imagine… living in this place forever…” Naegi shook his head.

“We have food and clothing in abundance, and no lack of conveniences… What is there to be dissatisfied about? I ask you, what more does the outside world have to offer?” There was something about how Celes looked as she asked that those questions that got Naegi starting to think her mantra about ‘adapting’ was a lie… Quite frankly, the gambler looked miserable… though, this place tended to have that effect on them. And just as quickly as that depressed look had flashed across her face, it disappeared. “Competition, discrimination, sacrifice, violence… As society grows in size, so too does its sadism… On the contrary, we’re better off here…”

“’Heretical Angel * Super Squishy Princess’…!” Yamada abruptly blurted out, confusing Celes and everyone else.

“What was that?” The gambler snorted out in amusement.

“Drillshop Megu, The Bunny-Eared Amazoness, Catgirl Dogboy, Galactic King Justice Robo… And, and, and…” Yamada let out a shriek of frustration. “At any rate, there is no 2D in this place!!!”

“It is because you and everyone else cling to your desires that the Puppetmaster has so much control…” Celes tsk’ed.

“Anyway…” Leon sighed as he didn’t like the routes that conversation was leading to. Yamada being an otaku, and Celes being… Celes. “Shouldn’t we be headin’ out soon? There’s gotta be new places open to us now.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah… That’s how it went last time. Trial, then exploration.”

“Very well. After breakfast, we shall split up and begin the exploration. Is that agreeable, Celes?”

The gambler giggled pleasantly.

“I’m certain there are discoveries just waiting to be made that will further enrich our lives here…”

“Yeeeah…” Junko drawled. “Clues about the mastermind and ways of escape are still our highest priority…”

Naegi didn’t feel like much of a leader just sitting there, but he supposed everyone’s decisions were sensible… He still wanted to talk to Celes again at some point, try to understand her better.

~*~

“So… the third floor of Hope’s Peak Academy opened up this time…” Naegi muttered as he reached the top of the stairs. There was one door immediately close to the stairs, but he didn’t peek into that room yet. Around a corner to the right of the stairs, there were a couple more classrooms, which Sakura and Mondo were looking into.

Deciding to leave the classrooms and windows to them, Naegi and Maizono went back to the room closest to the stairs. When they entered, they found Leon and Celes in what looked like a rec room.

“Yo, Naegi! Looks like they got a pool table! Darts, too!” The baseball star grinned.

“Billiards, darts… Othello and Shogi… They even have some magazines~.” Celes gestured to the rack. “We have no dearth of cures for boredom.”

And then, Monokuma had to rear his head…

“Dun dun-dun-dun dun duuun! I has some additional intelligence!” The bear proclaimed proudly. “While there’s fashion, motorcycle, martial arts, gaming, baseball, soccer, PC mags, and more… you won’t find anything dirty. I mean, this is a school. You’ll just have to live with a few risqué pinups!”

“When new issues of these magazines are published, will they be made available to us?” Celes asked curiously. Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“No can do~. Even if I wanted to, the magazines themselves…” The bear ‘caught’ himself, giggling. “Ack! Nevermiiind! That’s all the intel for now, buh-bye!”

“That was… weird.” Maizono mused. Leon rubbed the back of his head in aggravation.

“Always teasing out new info… Just when are we supposed to get some answers here?”

“Well... There’s nothing that can be done about it right now, I guess…” Naegi muttered.

“It’s a pity… It would quite enrich our lives if we were to receive new reading material from time to time.” Celes lamented.

After looking around the rec room a bit longer, Naegi and Maizono parted ways with Celes and Leon. And as they navigated through the halls, both the Luckster and idol realized it was a sizeable floor. There was a ton of hallway space, lots of twists and turns. They found Kirigiri loitering in the halls, deep in thought.

The next room they found looked to be an art room – canvases, statues, statues, chairs, and art tools littering the room, and a wall toward the back that was peppered with sketches that looked to be drawn by high schoolers. There were some lockers, too, but they were empty. Yamada was in this room,

“Well, well, well… what a fine establishment this is. My artsy sense is tingling!” Yamada proudly placed his hands on his hips. “Not only is there a bounty of painting supplies, there’s quite the selection of sculpting tools!”

“You’re into sculpting, Yamada?” Naegi asked curiously. The otaku fiddled with his glasses, grinning.

“Generally speaking, I partake not of the 3D world. But ah, figures are different – they’re practically 2D.”

‘Not sure how he’s defining ‘practically’…’

“I’m particularly fond of the works of Charanbo, Pumpkinhead, and Saburou Roppongi… ‘Mama Cat’ exemplifies Charanbo’s distinct style through his sublime rendering of the feline form. Pumpkinhead produces the highest-class faerie model prototypes of anyone this century… Saburou Roppongi, master of the posable figure, went overseas proselytizing about mech-girls… All of whom are perfectly suited to be named the Elite Four of the Figure World!”

Naegi and Maizono blinked.

“The Elite Four? But there’s only three…”

“’Elite Three’ simply sounds foolish! Furthermore, the reason one seat remains unclaimed… Precisely! ‘Tis for myself! Heh heh heh, and so begins… The Legend of Hifumi Yamada: Conqueror of the Apocalypse…”

“Mmm’kay… Good luck with that…” The Luckster sweatdropped. Maizono seemed to have a bad feeling about Yamada’s…. mood… and she tugged Naegi along toward the room in the back, which appeared to be a storage room. Various supplies were stored there, like a trolley and wooden hammers.

The thing that drew their attention, however, was not the tools, but a single picture lying on the floor. What was intriguing was the occupants of the picture. It looked to be some sort of festival, and there were a couple of booths depicted – booths that were run by Hagakure and Fukawa. The former was telling fortunes and laughing, while the other was doing a book signing and looking bashful about getting attention from fans.

“Wh-What is this…?” Maizono wondered aloud.

“Why the two of them?” Naegi also wondered. Question after question flooded their minds; the picture didn’t look like it was taken at the academy, and the two looked happy. It was all so bizarre…

“Give that back! It’s mine!” Monokuma suddenly appeared, swiping the photograph. He laughed at their dumbfounded expressions. “Uh-oh~! Didja see it? Them’s some nice smiles, huh? They’re enjoying the academy life… It’s like a page out of the book of youth~!”

“What do you know about that picture?” Naegi demanded.

“Not telling~!” Monokuma teased and abruptly left.

The Luckster and idol shared confused glances before they reluctantly left the storage and art rooms. They weren’t going to get answers by staying there; there was more of the third floor to explore, anyway. They eventually came across another gate, which appeared to lead to a fourth floor. And a few more turns in the hall led them to what was apparently a physics lab…

“Ya just missed him,” Junko said as the two got a look around the lab that appeared more like a research facility, “But the bear said this huge machine is an air purifier. It’s kinda the reason we’re able to breathe in here, with the academy sealed off as it is.”

Fujisaki looked a bit depressed.

“Yeah… But he was cruel about explaining it, saying it was a time machine at first…”

Junko just sighed exasperatedly.

“I can’t wait to get my hands on the jerk controlling that thing…”

Attached to the physics lap, there was another storage room that seemed to function as a prep room for the lab. But the main thing that captured everyone’s attention was the camera on a table in the physics lab; it had a bizarre anime character imprinted on it, and it was a bit dusty, but it looked like something Yamada would own.

~*~

Sometime later, they all met back up in the cafeteria to discuss their findings. As expected, Togami was missing from that meeting, too. Apparently, he’d grabbed some books from the library, and was reading in the changing room for the sauna.

“The third floor has a physics lab…” Fujisaki started them off.

“Yeah, it’s got an air purifier as its main attraction.” Junko remarked. “Supposedly provides all the clean air in the academy since we’re, y’know, sealed off.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah… On that note, the metal plates covering the windows are screwed on just as tight on the third floor… Still no way out.”

“I’m sad to say, it hardly comes as a surprise at this point…” Sakura murmured.

Yamada tried to lift their spirits up.

“Well, there’s an art room now, at least! I can finally draw my anime characters!”

“Oh yeah… we did find a camera in the physics lab.” Maizono said as she held it up for everyone to see.

“A digital camera…” Kirigiri noted.

“Does it work?” Leon asked.

“Seems to.” Naegi replied.

Fujisaki hung his head sadly.

“Yeah, but the picture quality is low… There’s only room enough to save five photos, and there’s not even a self-timer. I’m sorry…”

“Jeez, there’s no need to apologize…” Mondo tried to cheer Fujisaki up. “It looks like a kids’ toy, anyway.”

“The design looks to be some sort of cartoon character,” Celes agreed.

Yamada was clearly affronted.

“Excuse me?! That’s Princess Buuko from ‘Heretical Angel * Super Squishy Princess’!”

“Do you know what this is, Yamada?” Naegi scratched his cheek nervously.

“Do I know what it is!? This digital camera was awarded to the victor of the bingo tournament… held at the special event commemorating ‘Heretical Angel’s’ anime adaptation… It’s stupendously rare. I managed to convince the victor to bequeath it to me for a large sum… Hey! That’s mine!”

“What?!” Naegi, and everyone else, was flabbergasted.

“Wh-Where did you find it?!”

“L-Like Maizono said, it was in the physics lab…” The Luckster answered hesitantly.

“I brought it with me because it’s my treasure, but it vanished on the first day with my cell phone…” Yamada explained.

“Why would something like that be in the physics lab?” Celes wondered.

“And why…” Yamada demanded. “… is it so dirty? I feel like a stamp collector who’s come home and found his collection used on a bunch of love letters. Oh, whatever…”

“Whatever?” Maizono tilted her head curiously.

“It’s no longer pure… I have no need for it…”

“It sounded like you really cared about it, though…” Naegi pointed out. Celes smiled pleasantly.

“Then is it alright if I hold onto it? It could prove useful. And if anyone finds themselves in need of a digital camera, feel free to call upon me.”

“I can’t see a camera getting much use here…” Junko bluntly replied. Naegi shrugged neutrally.

“You’re probably right.”

Leon ran a hand through his hair casually.

“Well, the only other thing on the third floor was the rec room.”

“It will undoubtedly enrich our lives here quite considerably.” Celes remarked. “Ehehe… I would very much like to play a game of Othello with someone.”

“While it isn’t related to the third floor, it would appear the infirmary is now open.” Kirigiri reported.

“Is there any protein? Even supplements would suffice.” Sakura asked curiously. The mysterious girl shook her head.

“Only medicine and other medical supplies.”

“I see… that is quite unfortunate.”

“I guess that leaves me and Maizono…” Naegi mused. “We saw all the stuff you guys did, but I guess the unique thing we found was a photograph…”

“Yeah, that photo was weird… Monokuma ran off with it, though.” Sayaka mumbled.

“Weird like perverted?” Leon cocked his head.

“Not that kind of weird…” Naegi corrected him. “It was a photo of Hagakure and Fukawa. It looked like they were at some kind of festival, running some booths.”

“Those two?” Kirigiri asked.

“Yeah… the weird thing was they looked really… happy. I dunno, it seemed like they made it outside, somehow.”

“When could a photograph like that have been taken? With the two of them happy…” Yamada wondered.

“I never heard that they knew each other before the academy…” Celes mused.

Sayaka nodded.

“True… I mean, the booths weren’t side-by-side or anything, but they would’ve at least seen each other if they were at a festival like that. It’s weird how they seemed like they’d never even seen each other before.”

“Surely you were just seeing things.” Yamada asserted. “’Twas an illusion conjured by Monokuma’s Malignant Gaze…”

“But Maizono and I both saw it!” Naegi objected. “It’s kind of hard for two people to have the exact same hallucination…”

“That’s true…” Leon conceded. “But think about it, dude. It couldn’t have been taken before they got here, and it definitely didn’t happen while they were here. And they shouldn’t have been able to have escaped somehow, ‘cause… well… We saw ‘em, y’know? They’re definitely dead.”

“M-Maybe it was photoshopped…” Fujisaki proposed.

“I can’t see it being anything other than a fabrication…” Celes confessed, agreeing with the programmer.

“Just forget about Monokuma’s stupid pranks.” Mondo spoke frankly. “We ain’t got time to be scratchin’ our heads over that crap.”

“Yeah… We should focus on getting out of here, and getting ready for Monokuma’s next motive… That guy just won’t quit.” Junko agreed.

Fresh out of leads, the group settled into an uncertain silence. While there were new accessible areas, the fact remained none of them would help in the long run. A rec room, an art room, and a physics lab. All were interesting, but not practical for their circumstances.

Fujisaki particularly looked contemplative, before he piped up with a peculiar request.

“Hey, um… Would you all mind joining me in the changing room?” Not bothering to elaborate, the programmer stood up and shuffled off nervously. Too curious not to follow, the group left the cafeteria.

~*~

Apparently, Togami was not in the changing room anymore. And quite a few of them were happy for it.

“So, what’s up, Fujisaki?” Makoto asked. Leon scratched his head.

“Why meet in here?”

“O-Oh. Well, this is the only room I’ve found where there aren’t any security cameras!” The programmer explained. He then pulled out a laptop from a locker. “S-So… When I got this computer working again, I figured this was the best place to hide it! It’s my way of trying to help everyone!”

“That’s the laptop from the library… I see.” Kirigiri mused. “Were you able to find any information?”

“Well… I think I’ll let my program explain. It’s an AI called Alter Ego!” The programmer beamed.

“AI?” Junko cocked her head.

“Alter Ego is the reason Fujisaki is called the Ultimate Programmer.” Kirigiri explained. “Alter Ego is a program, residing on a computer, that learns and develops through communication. It’s an innovative, revolutionary artificial intelligence, built upon and refined… from the concepts of support vector machines and reinforcement learning…”

“Vector machines? Reinforcement learning?” Naegi was among the confused.

“To put it simply, it’s a way for machines to learn… As the artificial intelligence continues to grow, it becomes more than just a simple assistant… They say it can eventually be used in place of humans for the majority of tasks.” Kirigiri finished her explanation, and Chihiro seemed a little relieved to not have to say all that.

“You sure know a lot, Kirigiri! I’m impressed!” He giggled.

“So that’s why it’s called Alter Ego… An apt name indeed.” Celes complimented Fujisaki. “It develops by building memories and using them in its thought process – just like a human. An artificial intelligence raised in that manner could indeed be considered one’s alternate personality.”

“A perfect personality – one that never forgets, never weakens… That is his program… That is… Alter Ego…”

It was hard not to be impressed. Even to the people who had little to no knowledge of computers, it sounded like Fujisaki had made something incredible.

“Ah, you’ve come for me, My Lord!” Fujisaki’s smiling face was suddenly on the computer screen, and the program even had his voice.

Mondo looked between the screen and Fujisaki.

“Th-There’s two of ‘em…” He muttered.

Yamada stroked his chin excitedly.

“Mmm! She calls you, ‘My Lord’! I see, I see… That’s so unbelievably… adorable~!”

“What happened to being 2D-only, tubs?” Leon raised an unimpressed eyebrow, arms crossed.

“She is a fine specimen of the second dimension!” Yamada cheered.

“Do you not even remember the last trial? Fujisaki’s a guy! So Alter Ego’s a guy! And he’s an artificial intelligence!”

“I see no problem here~.” Yamada nodded sagely. Leon just groaned.

After a short bit of typing on the keyboard, Alter Ego started speaking again.

“There’s a large quantity of files on the hard drive that My Lord wanted me to analyze… He thinks they’re documents concerning the academy, but they’re surprisingly well-secured… So it’s taking a bit of time…”

At their inquiring gazes, Chihiro elaborated.

“I’m not sure yet, but the files might be related to the secrets of the academy! That might be why they’re so well-encrypted.”

“How long will it take you to decrypt them?” Kirigiri asked.

“It’s definitely going to take some time…” The programmer apologized. “Alter Ego just started on them yesterday, and he’s got a ways to go still… I’m sorry…”

“No need to apologize!” Sayaka assured him.

“Any information will be helpful, so it’ll be worth the wait!” Naegi chipped in.

“We’ll need to keep Alter Ego a secret…” Kirigiri decided. “Can he lie low without drawing attention to himself?”

“It’ll be fine!” Fujisaki promised. “Like I said, there are no cameras in this room, and Alter Ego will be able to call out for help if he sees anyone suspicious through the webcam!”

Celes hummed doubtfully.

“While that will be no issue during the day, I’m worried about nighttime… Do recall that our rooms are completely soundproof…”

Kirigiri cupped her chin thoughtfully.

“I’ll leave the door to my room open during the nighttime… That way, I won’t fail to notice if Alter Ego starts to scream.”

Mondo’s hand twitched in concern.

“But if you leave your door wide open like that…”

“Yes, there’s a chance I could be killed.” Kirigiri did not deny the possibility. “But… could any of you really kill me? I don’t think I’ll die that easily.”

Sayaka ran a hand through her hair nervously. There was something about Kirigiri’s tone that put them on edge, but at the same time made them confident that their newest source of hope would be safe at all times.

“L-Let’s leave it to Kirigiri… She hasn’t let us down yet.”

“Y-Yeah…” Leon agreed with a nod.

Kirigiri calmly closed her eyes and started walking toward the exit.

“Well, I think that will do it for today… If we stay here too long, the Puppetmaster might take notice.”

No one objected. Fujisaki set the laptop back in the locker and left it open a crack, as it had been before. Admittedly, that first night putting Alter Ego in the changing room had frightened him; but now that he had told everyone else, he felt he’d made the right call. Even if he had a long ways to go yet, Chihiro Fujisaki felt like he was making progress to becoming stronger – not just in body, but his character as well.

#Danganronpa #Makoto Naegi #Sayaka Maizono #Mukuro Ikusaba #Makoto x Sayaka #Makoto x Mukuro #Naegi x Maizono #Naegi x Ikusaba #Naezono #Naekusaba

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marvelandponder · 7 years

Photo

I’M SCREAMING

We’re 3 months away from this glitter-bomb and they gave us some stuff to scream about. I think I’ll do just that. I took my sweet time putting this together, I know, but there’s a fair bit to unpack and a lot to be excited about so, let’s go through it all!

Animation

Okay, so first things first: people are calling this a 2D movie and that’s not really that accurate.

It certainly has some 2D elements, like the backgrounds, but the style of animation only makes the characters look 2D, when in fact they’re 3D models.

You can tell in how they move. If I were to give you a still screen shot, you might guess that it was from a 2D animation, but in motion, you can tell what it actually is: cel-shading.

I had a hunch that’s what it was so I asked a storyboarder who worked on the MLP movie (and the show) if I was right and she said:

The program they’re using is ToonBoom, which does rigs with 2D toon shaders, among other things!

You know, I don’t often call things, but I fucking called it. Let me have this. Just to give you a quick definition from Wikipedia:

“Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades.”

3-dimensional figure with cel shading, has the effect of making it look 2D. Typically seen with thick outlines on the outside and little to no outlines on the inside:

(Team Fortress 2 itself isn’t normally cel shaded, but that’s a great example a fan made of what cel shading usually looked like when I was growing up)

Cel shading without outlines, as seen in Wind Waker.

Like I said, just seeing this still image, it looks 2D, but watching it move, you can tell there’s a 3rd dimension to the character with the features and lineart mapped out onto the models to make it look 2D

Which by the way, is really unique for a major release! I don’t know about anyone else, but I was excited that MLP: The Movie seemed to be 2-D since there hasn’t been a domestic 2-D animated movie since Winnie the Pooh in 2011. 6 damn years! While I maybe would’ve ideally liked a completely 2-D animated movie, the backgrounds and the cel shading works in really neat ways, and it will definitely make the movie stand out

The purely 3-D objects seem unfinished at the moment (but that’s not out of the ordinary, CGI seems to be one of the last processes). It needs texture or shading or something, and I can tell because most of the ship looks too soft (too much like a model) to be metal. I really think this will be fixed for the final product, but that’s probably the most jarring part of the style at the moment

Not all of the 3-D looks unfinished, but the best looking parts are still the painterly, 2-D stuff (look at those towers; they’re really stylized, but you can tell they’re 3D in a more 2D environment)

THAT DIGITALLY PAINTED VERSION OF CANTERLOT THOUGH:

The light effects are definitely 3-D in the fireworks and rainboom

Oh, and speaking lighting, so much of it looks so pretty! There are one or two times when the colours are slightly off, but the majority of the time it looks freaking gorgeous

You can kinda see by looking at Rarity that the shading is juuust slightly off here (kinda like they were for the teaser trailer), but then you look in the background and see this BEAUTIFUL background and Twilight all upset and worried about this invasion, and it feels like such a nitpick to worry about what will probably still be cleaned up before it hits theaters

We also get some really great expressions, so they’re not really limited by the 3D models underneath (if I’m right about that)

Also, just as one last little note here, the style is detailed enough to see little things about the characters we didn’t know up until now, like the fact that the spines on the side of Spike’s head are translucent, or that the colours of RD’s mane aren’t 100% perfectly separated

Overall with the animation, I’m so impressed not only by how gorgeous it is,but by how willing they were to take a risk and incorporate a 3D element in the form of (I think) cel-shading. This only really matches the creative spirit of the MLP team, though. Whether or not you agree on how well they always execute everything, they always try to step up their game with every new season and push themselves to be and do better.

And while I will say that if some of the more 3D parts (yeah, I’m talking about the zeppelin/airships mostly) aren’t fixed for the final release, I would have a bone to pick with them, but I have faith that we’ll be seeing a much smoother integration of that 3D on the big screen.

Story and Character Details

I really appreciate that they didn’t outright spoil anything too big. It’s definitely a well-cut trailer! We basically only know about the same information we did before, with just a hint or two as to things like who the true villain is.

Just based on the focus given to these characters in the trailer (and what I know of the Storm King’s characterization in the first Movie Prequel comic that was just released), seems like he’s not as big of a threat as the commander of his fleet, Tempest.

It’s a kind of villain we haven’t seen on the show or even in EQG, and not only that, but

She’s got a fantastic voice actress behind her, so she can pull off the deliciously evil vibe well without, say, reminding us too much of Chrysalis or other powerful animated villains from Disney classics

Plus her design with the broken horn and her magic sparking up out of it is instantly intriguing to me: for such a powerful presence, it’s awesome to see her weakness (and most likely shady past) is always on display---especially for a commander character, that’s just really cool

Grubber seems to be pretty standard so far, nothing he’s done has really impressed me quite yet, but I’m hoping his best stuff is saved for the movie itself

The sky pirates (or skyrates) look like a lot of fun, and in context I can see how well the bipedal birb pirate blends with the universe (the bipedal designs were the ones I had the most trouble with)

On top of that, we have sea ponies at last! And they’re far more adorable than I ever could’ve hoped

The original sea pony designs from G1 looked a lot more like sea horses, with curling tails and fins on either side, but I think the meraid-ish look is both more marketable for Hasbro and more appealing to look at (the original sea ponies always seemed like a joke in the fandom to me, I admittedly never understood why people would actually want it in G4)

And a-ha! Good queens do exist! Poor Celestia and Luna. Always a princess, never a queen.

Oh, and Seaquestria? It’s freakin’ beautiful. I LOVE the rich blues and purples here. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 360 image of the underwater palace complete with an excellent piece of background music, treat yourself.

The Mane 6′s sea pony designs are pretty dang adorable. I don’t have anything interesting to say, I just like the cute water horses, okay?

Minor Details and Incidentals

I’ll start out by saying Twilight’s narration in the trailer is pretty standard, but still heartwarming (mostly because I already know and love these characters though). It sort of reminds me of the bits of narration from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, although those had a bit more character to them.

The what could possible go wrong? line, though. It just makes me laugh thinking of all the flashbacks we could have to the series.

I guess she’s talking about that festival specifically that she’s organizing, and in that way it’s a show of character development (in a similar way to the character development on display in A Flurry of Emotions, where Twilight is told she’s late and doesn't have a panic attack or worry about what could go wrong... too much), but it’s still hilarious to contrast the idea that nothing could go wrong in Equestria to... literally all of the show.

AJ and RD protecting their friends even before the others have gotten over the shock of whatever they’re seeing tho

Starlight and Trixie get a bit of screen-time together and it’s adorable. Starlight might be stuck in Canterlot for the duration of the adventure, but I’m glad to see her included. Characters like Discord who might be too hard to explain to new audiences are understandable losses, but even if Starlight’s cameo is brief, it’s good to see her role acknowledged

In terms of music, Sia’s looking adorable so far, and Lukas Graham’s as of yet unreleased Off to See the World sounds pretty catchy (it’s the song at the end of the trailer), so they’ve got talent behind the vocals!

Jumping back to little details, it’s neat how sea pony magic has a very distinct look from unicorn/alicorn magic. Also, the bubbles are really cute

And, okay, I just wanted to take a minute to appreciate how serious this ponk is. Can we all just stop and take a look, because in this scene Twilight’s saying how she’s the one Tempest is after, and she should probably face this alone, which seems to be our Princess of Friendship’s big dilemma in this movie, and Pinkie’s clearly trying to tell her she’s crazy

Gotta love that they didn’t just go for hyperactive comic relief Pinkie Pie; they don’t seem to be boiling down these characters to just one trait (which is partially why I loved the moment where RD and AJ defend the girls; RD’s ego will no doubt be on display throughout the movie, but you’ll also see she’s ready to lay down her life for her friends)

And hey, lookie here! Canterlot got a make-over... and a contractor. There’s more pink than there typically is and it doesn’t necessarily match what we’ve seen of it in the show. Especially places like the throne room:

And you know, I’m a little torn on this detail? It’s beautiful, and I’m digging the starry night mosiac they’ve got going on back there, but it would’ve been nice to see the throne room we know and love rendered in this new style, you know? I’m gonna miss the deep magentas and the stain glass windows of the Mane 6′s accomplishments. I know that’s mostly the fangirl in me, but I like seeing continuity nods back to the show (like hey look: Cadence gets a cameo!)

Unless Canterlot gets destroyed and subsequently rebuilt in the season 7 finale, in which case I’ll shut my mouth

Speaking of which, I still have to wonder exactly when this will take place in the series, or if it exists slightly to the left of canon like the Equestria Girls movies (which, I mean, I consider canon, but still). I know there’s ties into the comics, but I wonder if/when the show will acknowledge the events of the movie... I guess only time will tell

And for now, I think that about wraps it up! All in all, I’m beyond excited to see this thing, as anyone could’ve guessed.

It should also be noted that a lot of kids movie trailers focus on the fun, comedic portions of the movie, so while I do think it’s mostly going to feel like this, I’m also looking forward to the more character-driven feelsy parts. As we well know, you can never get the full scope of a movie from just the trailer, but it’s usually especially true for kids movies.

Even just from what we have seen, it looks like we’re in for a ride. Can’t wait to get on.

Hey, if you’d like more MLP stuff, you can click right here to see my editorials or here for episode reviews. And if those links don’t look pretty enough, have the last three things I’ve done right here:

Parental Glideance Review, Celestia/Daybreaker Editorial, and LGBT+ Editorial

Year of the Pony

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rhetorical-ink · 7 years

Text

Rhetorical Ink Reviews: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”

**SEA-WORTHY SPOILERS AHEAD**

So, to preface this review, I have always been a HUGE Pirates of the Caribbean fan; the first film came out almost 15 YEARS ago (if you can believe it), and my friends and I were hooked on it from the get-go! I know a lot of people have distaste for Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, but I honestly am okay with both of these movies.

I’m eventually going to do a video response related to this, but I did not like On Stranger Tides, so I was leery of going into this movie...so, I didn’t spoil myself very much at all with this film. That said, there are things to like about this movie, and a lot I am frustrated with. These are...

MY TOP TEN THOUGHTS ON PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES:

10. I am okay with the start of the film setting up Henry Turner’s character. He’s sweet, inquisitive, and has studied various curses of the sea his whole life. It makes a lot of sense, given his father’s curse to stay away for ten years at a time. His character is determined but kindhearted and the set up of him meeting his father at the beginning sets up his motivation and helps to establish his character...it perhaps doesn’t help that he looks and acts similar to Orlando Bloom SO much, but then again, like father, like son...

9. I am also very much on board with Carina’s character set up as well! She is smart, talented, and crafty. I like the angle that she is an astronomer and a woman of science -- the idea of pairing her with a man that has grown up surrounded by the supernatural was one that I thought was a great choice. I actually liked her character a bit more than Kiera Knightley’s Elizabeth Swan; I just wish we’d had more development of her in the movie.

8. The villain, Captain Salazar, both worked and didn’t work for me. The CGI hair was something I really didn’t like in the first trailer...it looked like it was almost “unfinished” or something experimental with 3D. However, the CGI did end up growing on me, the designs and sharks are so intricate and interesting. And at times, Salazar’s character makes a lot of sense and works as a revenge story (which I will talk about below).

At times, though, Salazar, played by Javier Borden, is hard to understand...his accent, while being menacing, is also hard to understand in the final battle, which just makes his character seem more odd in those final scenes. Overall, he’s an okay villain, but I felt nearly everything about him was too rushed and not fleshed out, like Davy Jones was for example.

7. Okay, so as I mentioned above, when Salazar is given time to tell his backstory, the flashback works pretty well. I am NOT a fan of the CGI “time travel” face makeup they’ve been apply to actors and actresses (a la Princess Leia, Grand Moth Tarkin, Ego...), but man, it’s probably at its best here with “young Jack.” The voice doesn’t quite match up, but is it sad that I want movies of “young Jack’s” adventures now? That flashback worked pretty well for me.

6. What doesn’t quite work is the pacing of the story. ESPECIALLY the third act. Once we get to where Carina is leading us to the map, the story rushes SO MUCH. Part of what I like about the other Pirates of the Caribbean films is that the movie takes its time to set up the lore; it goes slowly in creating the mythos around the supernatural that it all leads to a good payoff.

Here? We get the island of the trident, the actual getting of the trident, a final....”battle?”, a death of a character, AND a resolution all in what is basically twenty minutes of a two and a half hour film. Why did they have to rush this? They are obviously setting up for another film, so why not pull a “Dead Man’s Chest” and end with them hitting the island? Then, pick up the next film with Carina, Barbossa, and Jack on the island while poor Henry is stuck with Salazar’s crew...you could set it up, spend a little more time letting us get to know the new characters, and then have a film after this that goes into the mythos more and explores the “possession” of Henry a little more too...I just think they had so much POTENTIAL here and it felt wasted.

5. Jack, at times, is himself and pulls off a good performance. When he’s more serious, it’s like we’re back in the early 2000′s, having a great ol’ time with the Captain...but especially in the beginning, he’s a little “too” Mad Hatter/ Willy Wonka in his performance and just seems....”off.” Maybe the divorce he was going through had something to do with it. It is good to see Gibbs back in this movie; Gibbs is one of those characters that never ages and always is fun to have in these movies...he’s the ultimate side character of the series! Well, almost the ultimate side character. That role mainly belongs to....

4. And yes, we have Barbossa’s character...end. I was a little bummed about that at first, because it’s Barbossa! How could we lose this titular character? And then, I got angry, because of how rushed everything with him was. We are led to believe from the getgo that Carina has “daddy issues” and wants to locate her father; lo and behold, Barbossa lets it slip to Jack that HE is her actual father...it’s a small sea after all!

That wouldn’t have bothered me if it hadn’t been so forced and obvious...Carina even looks a lot like Geoffrey Rush in the eyes. I guess that the relationship ends up okay with me; there’s even a touching moment when she realizes that he’s her father, and I was genuinely on board with it. The “tattoo moment” honestly was sweet, and Geoffrey Rush sells it for me.

But then they just HAVE to kill him off...and I’m going to be honest, Barbossa swinging in on that anchor almost made me laugh out loud...as in a Darth Vader saying “Noooooooo!” laugh out loud. It just looked ridiculous. Points to the film for emotionally investing me later on in that scene with Barbossa and Carina, but you really didn’t “have” to kill him off, especially after he just learned about his only child! Ah well, I think Geoffrey Rush was like Harrison Ford and said, “Please kill me off this franchise!” Which is sad, because he’s been such a great part of it and it’ll lose something without him...

3. Unlike Geoffrey Rush, though, Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley have BARELY aged...well, Orlando has aged, but we use cool CGI barnacles to mask all that, you know. Still, they are finally reunited at the end of the film, and it did feel good as a fan to see them together again, though again, some more set up for the payoff would have made it sweeter. Damn, Henry, you got some good genes, though.

2. There is so much visually that is great to look at; the “Island of Poseidon” is simply gorgeous and the underwater scene was breathtaking...it’s just all SO rushed that you have no real time to enjoy it. I really wish this had been two films so we could have had more character development, more set up of the plot...it’s so exposition heavy at times that you just end up checking your phone, wondering when the next scene is. And who wants to do that in a Pirates movie?! The sad thing is it’s not as long as other Pirates of the Caribbean films, which makes me wonder all the more why we didn’t just expand more in places and leave more to a later film...maybe I need to do a video to explain my thoughts.

1. Overall, I left the movie conflicted. The 10-years-ago me would have probably loved this movie, because I would have gone home and instantly wanted to write fan fictions about what I just saw. And there’s a large part of me that still wants to do that to add on to what I thought was missing...but still, there is a part of me that wanted this movie to do things more focused, to set things up with more care to lead to a better payoff.

Is this movie better than On Stranger Tides? Yes. Absolutely!

Does it capture the magic of the first or the wild fun of the other two? Not exactly, which perhaps is my biggest problem with it.

If we do end up with more Pirates movies, PLEASE Disney, take your time, craft a fun, adventurous story, and don’t be afraid to take risks...as long as you own them.

#pirates of the caribbean #POTC #Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales #dead men tell no tales #pirates of the caribbean review #Dead Men Tell no Tales Review #Rhetorical Ink Reviews #My Top Ten Thoughts #Geoffrey Rush #Barbossa #Orlando Bloom #Will Turner #Elizabeth Turner #Jack Sparrow #Gibbs #Henry Turner #karina barbossa #carena smith

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sage-nebula · 7 years

Note

Zelink for every game you've played :D

That is so many games … but CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Legend of Zelda (1):

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I mean, I guess? Haha, there was really nothing here. Since this was the very first game, character development basically didn’t exist, so like … I really don’t have an opinion one way or the other. People can do what they want, and I’m not against it, but I personally just don’t see anything there worth really talking about or shipping, haha.

Adventure of Link:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

Same deal as above. My memories of AoL are really hazy, but iirc this is the game where Zelda is asleep for the vast majority of it, but also where we see an implied kiss at the end, which … honestly feels a lot like “here, you are rewarded with a gf” to me, which is why I “nonono” that. I’m mostly neutral, but also kind of really “meh” on it as well.

A Link to the Past / Link’s Awakening / Oracle of Ages/Seasons:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I’m kind of neutral on shipping Zelda with the Hero of Worlds, because while I think there could be potential there, they spend virtually no time together and, in the Oracle games, the fact that they barely know each other shows. The fact that Link could mistake Marin, who has deep red hair, for Zelda (who is blonde) seems to further cement this to me. Yes, he was half out of it due to the fact that he had just woken up after being knocked unconscious during that storm at sea, but the fact remains that hair color is one of the most immediately obvious markers of a person’s appearance and he still made that mistake. This is no doubt due to the fact that he and Zelda have spent barely any time together, I feel. Additionally, Link did spend quite a lot of time with Marin, and the two of them even went on a date. While I’m not at all opposed to multi-shipping and while it’s clear that he and Marin cannot be endgame (I mean she might have become a seagull ffs), I’d much prefer to ship him with Marin before Zelda, hands down.

Ocarina of Time / Majora’s Mask:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

Again, this is a case where Link and Zelda didn’t really spend a lot of time together … and the majority of the time they did spend together was spent under deceit with Zelda pretending to be Sheik. I understand why she couldn’t tell him who she was (and I think that Link would understand, too) but that doesn’t change the fact that a good chunk of their relationship was spent with Zelda pretending to be someone else. And before anyone says anything, no, gender is not an issue here, especially since I am fully on-board with the headcanon of OoT!Zelda being genderfluid. The issue here is that Zelda pretended to be a completely different person entirely. Even if she had pretended to be a female different person, the same issue would exist. I think that, regardless of the necessity of the lie, Link would still have some trust issues, both in the sense of “if she lied to me about that, she could lie about other things,” and “don’t you trust me enough to tell me?” Then again, the second she dropped the disguise Ganondorf got her, so. :/

There’s also the issue of how she sends him back to his childhood at the end of the game. Link doesn’t speak, so we don’t know exactly how he felt about that decision she made, but she also doesn’t ask him if that’s what he wants, she decides that’s what he wants. And true, he does hand the Ocarina of Time over when she tells him to, but … that’s just it. She tells him to. The exact line is, “Link, give the ocarina to me. As a Sage, I can use it to return you to your original time.” Now, Link’s feelings on this are completely open to interpretation. It depends on how you characterize him and how you interpret his body language. But I just rewatched the scene (in both the original N64 graphics and the 3DS remaster), and it looks to me like he has a bit of hesitancy there—like he doesn’t necessarily want to, but technically the Ocarina of Time does belong to the royal family and, anyway, it’s a directive from the Princess of Hyrule. Can he really say no? Like, I guess he could refuse, but … mmmhh. He seems conflicted. But regardless of how he does or doesn’t seem conflicted, I do still think the fact that Zelda doesn’t ask him if this is what he wants is an issue. She decides that it’s what best. And whether the Triforce of Wisdom gives her insight that makes her right or not (and considering the timeline split, I think that’s debatable—I think that it would have been better to leave time business to the one who’s the Hero of it), I still don’t think the fact that Zelda thinks she can make huge life decisions for Link makes for an entirely healthy relationship right off the bat. I think they’d need to work on it.

That said, I do ship this in the context of Rose Zemlya’s fics (The Return and Reconciliation and all the one-shots and drabbles in-between), because in her fics they do work on it. They actually get to talk (and, well, fight) about Zelda’s tendency to deceive and lie because she feels it’s what’s best, as well as her removal of Link’s autonomy in the decision at the end of OoT. Additionally, I enjoy the way she characterizes both of them and think it works well. But outside of those fics, I’m neutral on it (kind of “ehh”), and in the end would probably rather ship Link with others (such as, for instance, Malon). I also think that, personality-wise, Zelda and Ruto could work well, though the fact that Ruto is a Zora gives me pause, as you know. XD

The Wind Waker / Phantom Hourglass:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I looooove Link and Tetra! While I do take issue with the way Tetra was damseled multiple times so that Link could rescue her (though this is typical of Zelda games), and while I also take issue with how Tetra is mysteriously and disgustingly whitewashed the second she is revealed to be Zelda (though that has nothing to do with the ship), altogether I think that Link/Tetra is a wonderful ship, and this was the first time that I undoubtedly shipped a Link/Zelda pair.

To begin with, one of the things that I really like about the Hero of Winds and Tetra is that they are both hotheaded and both levelheaded at different times. Link is provoked by Aryll’s capture and Ganondorf’s taunting; he chases after his sister and loses his temper and attack Ganondorf, both actions of which were poorly thought-out and result in him needing rescuing, by Tetra. However, Tetra likewise loses her temper when her crew is threatened, when she is captured, and acts recklessly to save Link from Ganondorf (which results in both of them needing to be rescued by the Rito lmfao). She’s not immune from thinking irrationally or impulsively, and I actually think that she would be more prone to losing her temper / getting annoyed in casual situations, whereas Link would be calmer and more level-headed. In this sense, I think they balance each other out really well.

Of course, both Link and Tetra are about twelve-years-old, so they have a lot of growing up to do! I don’t think either of them are in a romantic mindset by the time the game ends. However, they do go sailing off to find a “new Hyrule” together, and we know thanks to Spirit Tracks that they succeed (doesn’t mean they start the new royal family, of course—just means that they find new land together). I think that there’s plenty of potential there for when they grow up, and I also think that Aryll would be 100% on-board. (A shipper on deck, if you will. ;D)

Twilight Princess:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I have nothing against it, but I also don’t ship it, tbh. I say “maybe” because they could always get to know each other post-game, could grow to care for each other, could grow to have feelings for each other—but that’s all hypothetical. They don’t bond at all over the course of the game (Zelda is barely in it, tbh), and I don’t really see potential there for them in canon. There’s no real interest, Zelda is barely a presence in the story. So I’m not against it, but I don’t really ship it, either. There’s not enough for me to.

Spirit Tracks:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I only played Spirit Tracks once and I honestly don’t remember it very well, so I’m afraid I can’t give an indepth analysis on this one. However, I do remember really loving their interactions throughout the game, and that’s key—this Link and Zelda have plenty of time to get to know each other and interact, and it shows. I think that they were really cute and that, while (once again) they’re young, there’s a high probability that they could develop feelings for each other in the future.

Skyward Sword:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

This probably would have been a “MY HEART,” but then BotW showed me what “MY HEART” really means. More on that in a second, though. ;)

I really, really like what SS did with Link and Zelda. They’re childhood friends, and that shows; it’s clear that they care for each other a great deal, that Zelda is protective of him when it comes to the bullying he receives from Groose and the others, but that he’s just as protective of her when it comes to any threats. There’s an element of playfulness in their relationship, in that she teases him for being a sleepyhead, she’s not afraid to play around with him, she knows he’ll take it well. They’re honestly very sweet with each other, and I swear the scene where he takes her hand and drops into a kneel before her squeezes my heart every single time. (As does the scene where she seals herself away, tells him that he’ll have to wake her up this time, and he cries as he leans against the crystal, damn.) I will say that it does bum me out a bit that Zelda is damseled (sealing herself was an action she undertook as part of her own plan, so I’m not talking about that—I’m talking about when Ghirahim kidnaps her to resurrect Demise), but again, that’s par for the course with Zelda games, so I can forgive it.

I do think that this is the game they’re the most canon in, though. We know that this Zelda is the one who went on to form the Hyrulean royal family (and that all other Zeldas are descended from her), and I mean, their song when flying on the loftwing in the beginning is called “Romance.” I think we know who her king was, js.

Breath of the Wild:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

THE BEST ZELINK TO DATE, ALL OTHER ZELINKS CAN TAKE A SEAT PLEASE.

The best part of this Zelda/Link pair is that it is undoubtedly a slow burn. They knew each other for quite a long time even prior to Link’s near death. In Zelda’s diary, she notes that “he” has been selected to be her personal guard, with the emphasis hers. This implies that she knew him beforehand, no doubt because he was already training to be a knight, as his father had been before him. (Often times knights were nobility, so it’s incredibly possible that she even knew him from noble court prior to his entering in to be a knight.) Despite knowing each other beforehand, however, they weren’t friends. We know that Zelda’s dislike of Link wasn’t really personal—it was wrapped up in a lot of her own issues and insecurities, and how she projected her feelings onto him—but all the same, the fact remains that although they knew each other and had a history, they weren’t close. This means that we see them grow closer over time.

While I am admittedly rather “ehhh” at the way her feelings shift is carried out at first, that we see her reconsider in a “rescue romance” type of light when he saves her from the Yiga assassins, I do appreciate that despite the framing of the memory it wasn’t really shown to make her fall instantly in love with him. Rather, it opened her eyes to the fact that she should get to know him better, that he doesn’t hate her, that she should make an attempt to talk with him. And she does, and they do. They grow closer, get to know each other, become friends first after such a rocky start and then let feelings develop. And what I really, really love is that Zelda never loses her complexity through any of this. Even when it comes to the moment when her powers awaken, although we do know for canonical fact that it was her love for Link that allowed her powers to awaken, I also feel like Zelda throwing herself in-between him and the Guardian Stalker wasn’t just because she loved him, but was also because she couldn’t bear for one more person—much less the last person she had left—to die because of or for her. Like, yes, love was there, but so was survivor’s guilt. Zelda loving Link did not reduce her to a love interest. And, despite the fact that you’re told to go save her for the duration of the entire game, Zelda is not damseled. She is not a prisoner. Ganon is her prisoner and she’s waiting for Link to come pick up the slack. They are, inarguably, equals, and that is such a nice and refreshing change.

They still have so much to do, so much to catch up on. Zelda especially needs to get reacquainted with the world now that she can finally walk through it again. And, as we see in the Golden Ending, they have work that must be done and they are putting that on priority. However, they have time. They now have so much time to rekindle their friendship, grow closer, build a life together, and we’ve seen the foundation on which that can be built. This is by far the best rendition of the Link and Zelda relationship yet and I’m so glad it exists. A+++++, well done, Nintendo.

#ship meme #ryttu3k #loz spoilers #botw spoilers #legend of zelda spoilers #breath of the wild spoilers

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