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nokingsonlyfooles · 1 year

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The Dark Secret of Kung Fu Panda, Part 2...

...if you're coming from a place of Western tropes and values, you need to read Shifu as a shitty teacher, or the story doesn't scan.

Oh, and also a shitty parent, a shitty student of kung fu, and a shitty student of Buddhism.

(Sorry, little dude.)

I've already unpacked the teacher part, but all these things are a result of trying to write a story set in China, that both Chinese and Western audiences will understand. They did very well! But there's always a few folks who aren't able to keep up with a complex read like this - and they don't go, "Oh well, this story wasn't for me," they get mad at the characters and the writers.

So! Let's talk more about kung fu, Buddhism, child development, tropes and subversions - and whether that shiny piece of paper Tai Lung was after actually meant something or was just an elaborate troll.

I like to go to TVTropes and read the Headscratchers. For a storyteller like me, it's like playing Narrative Minesweeper. Let's see, did anyone have trouble with this plot point? (click) Ah, not too bad. What about this one? (click)

(Check that link! This is the page for Kung Fu Panda 2! People are really upset about this!)

KABOOM! Oh, man. Okay. Let's plant a flag in that and try to figure out why it blew up so bad.

Something I've seen across stories is that audiences have a really hard time noticing that they are being lied to when characters or narrators say one thing and do another. I think it's a mirage coughed up by the suspension of disbelief required to consume a story in the first place. We see a lot of villains who are supposed to be criminal masterminds, yet to make the plot go they have to behave like utter idiots. We're willing to put up with that, as long as it seems like they're supposed to be brilliant in-universe.

Then Rian Johnson throws a character like Miles Bron at us. The whole point of Miles is we're supposed to roll with the "in-universe mastermind" tropes, but only up to a point. The message of the film rests on the audience's ability to snap out of it, pick up their critical thinking skills and go, "Yeah, this guy never did one smart thing. Just a lot of audacious things, because he's too sheltered and dumb to understand the consequences."

But if you check the Headscrachers for Glass Onion (and if you care to look at any right-wing critiques of the film), you'll find a lot of people groping for reasons Miles is smart, actually. Maybe Blanc just called him dumb to get a rise out of him! Maybe he's smart socially but dumb with business! Or vice-versa! Maybe the film is badly-written!

No, he is very dumb. Truly. And I don't think the film is badly-written. But some people just blow right trough a sign reading "STOP RIGHT HERE, THIS TROPE IS BEING SUBVERTED, THE DETOUR IS THIS WAY" stagger off the path, and wind up dead in a ditch. Metaphorically speaking.

The above Troper - who is upset by Tai Lung's lack of a redemption arc, while expecting a nuanced story where the bad guys aren't all bad - has failed to detect a nuanced story where the good guys aren't all good.

In China, audiences need a stop sign that reads "Actually, the brilliant teacher is still learning and can do even better." This isn't too jarring, especially given the relationship between Oogway and Shifu. Shifu admits Oogway is a better teacher than him, and smarter than him. Even when he doesn't understand the lesson and loses hope of ever understanding it, he doesn't blame the turtle, he blames himself for just not getting it, and prepares to clean up his mess the best way he knows how. For his part, Oogway was clearly trying to get some hard lessons into Shifu's head - up to and including, "You don't actually need me to guide you down the path, you need to start looking around and trying to understand it for yourself..."

"Bye-eeee!"

Oogway is teaching in accordance with Theravada Buddhism, which is basically the philosophical equivalent of trying to get the dog to notice you've dropped the bacon on the ground and he's not gonna get anything by sniffing your fingers.

Tai Lung's return is an emergency situation, and if Shifu's not careful he'll be trying to reach enlightenment from the Spirit Realm (which does seem doable, given that Oogway continues to train and meditate himself). So Oogway leaves Shifu a $50, says, "You will have to find bacon without me," and buggers off. Permanently. And you know what? After three films, it works!

"Ah, you have finally mastered your Pride. Never stop learning, my most stubborn student!"

On the other hand, a Western audience has much less patience for jerk-ass teachers - and while they do have experience with Trickster mentors, it's much harder for them to see where Oogway is coming from, and why he nopes out instead of just being honest when it's important! They need a much bigger stop sign that says, "SHIFU IS ACTUALLY A SLOW STUDENT AND A BAD TEACHER AND OOGWAY HAS BEEN DESPERATELY TRYING, AND FAILING, TO CORRECT THIS PROBLEM FOR DECADES." But that's unnecessary and nonsensical in China. What we ended up with is much more subtle and open to interpretation. Some people decided to interpret it as, "Oogway's a troll, Shifu's an idiot, Tai Lung got a raw deal, nobody ever admits any of this, and this movie is stupid."

It's true, nobody ever gets called a troll or an idiot - that would be incredibly disrespectful in China, so that's a nonstarter - so you have to draw your own conclusions based on what they do. We see Shifu having a lot of difficulty in picking up what Oogway is laying down. He trusts Oogway implicity and knows there is always some kind of wisdom being imparted, but he gets impatient and tries to speed up the lesson, or he grabs for the most obvious interpretation and runs, or he just gives up and falls back to something he understands a little better.

Like when he gets sick of waiting for Oogway to blow out the candles and get to the point and he douses all of them with a cool move. Oogway is modeling the behaviour he'd like to see - Shifu really needs to slow down and learn patience. But Shifu responds as if the lesson is, "My Master needs help blowing out candles!" which is just silly, but he's going too fast and not paying attention.

Now watch Po listen to Oogway... and watch Oogway listen to Po! Oogay doesn't run in and go, "We don't have time for this! Tai Lung's coming! Get your shit together!" He lets Po set the pace, reflects back his feelings, and offers a little nudge. Which Po absorbs and thinks about at his own pace, instead of pushing to understand everything as fast as possible right now. Ideally, that's how it should go, but with Shifu this approach has about as much impact as boinking croutons off a brick wall.

So it's not too difficult to imagine that Shifu let his pride get the better of him in educating Tai Lung, while ignoring multiple nudges from his own teacher, because he was just too focused on his ultimate goal and going too fast.

In this case, his ultimate goal was a shiny piece of paper his Master rolled up and stuck in a cool-looking temple, all to give some future student a nudge to help them understand, "Self-worth isn't earned or bestowed in this way, it is intrinsic." And Shifu focused on proving his worth as a teacher by trying to turn out a student who was worthy of the scroll!

"Son, I am beginning to suspect you just ain't right in the head."

How can a friend and teacher manage this without stepping off the path of Theravada Buddhism, which a Chinese audience will recognize and expect to remain consistent? The only thing to do is back off, give your student some room to screw up, and nudge him again when he's open to listening.

Unfortunately, that took a very long time. Decades. In the meantime, Tai Lung grew up expecting to make his father proud by earning the scroll.

"What do you MEAN I spent my whole life training and I'm STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH?"

There is something that I was taught explicitly, because I learned how to teach preschoolers: it is super easy to get kids to believe your love is conditional and dependent on their ability to get good grades and perform. Like, you can swear up and down that you love your child no matter what, but if you lose your shit and take them to Disneyland when they make Student of the Month, the kid is going to draw their own conclusions. You know how Tai Lung complains about how hard Shifu drove him to train? You can do that with praise just as easily as with discipline. More easily, sometimes.

In China, that's a perfectly acceptable way to teach a child, no further explanation necessary. In the West, not so much, but the writers can't hit us over the head with how wrong it is because in China, it's fine. So we have to watch and pay attention to how they act.

In the flashbacks, we never see Shifu being anything but loving and supportive, even when Tai Lung rips off a piece of his moustache and causes him obvious pain.

We never see the leopard boy eat all of his dad's bamboo furniture and cause a freakout (presumably followed by apologies on both sides). Young Shifu seems to have two modes of parenting and teaching: "I'm proud of you" and "Wow! Great job! I'm extra proud of you!" the second of which is reserved for punching and kicking real good. If that's all his dad seems to want from him, and the solution to every problem is to train harder and punch and kick better, it's possible Tai Lung's first experience with real failure is not getting the Dragon Scroll. You know, the thing his dad named him after.

His lack of experience with failure is evident in his reaction; he has no emotional maturity, he's like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Shifu taught him how to punch and kick real good, and did not teach him how to deal with failure, frustration, and a lack of outside validation. That's because Shifu himself is super bad at all those things!

Kung fu is not just punching and kicking and going as hard as you can, it is listening and adapting and approaching situations with open-minded humility. When Shifu rolls up and presents his first student like an art project to be graded, Oogway knows he done messed up. All he can do is nudge them away from a lesson neither one of them is ready to learn yet, and back off.

"Ultimately, my stubborn student, this is my failure, but I'm not sure how to resolve this situation. And your kid is a ticking time bomb, do you not even see that?"

Unfortunately, Shifu's flawed teaching method has resulted in a student who knows nothing but punching and kicking, so all he can do is punch and kick. Real good. "Laying waste" to the village was a late add, to help the audience understand how badly Tai Lung melted down, but it makes perfect sense in this context. If he's not getting the validation he needs for his skill, he'll beat up the whole Valley trying to prove he's the best. And when he gets back to the Jade Palace, no, somehow he has still not punched and kicked hard enough to get what he's after, so he tries to beat up the people standing in his way. Maybe that's how you prove yourself worthy of the scroll!

Alas, it was not. And with a student too misguided and dangerous to teach - yet who still might be able to learn, and help Shifu learn - pausing his rampage for a few decades to allow Shifu some more time to get a clue was the best option Oogway had.

Thank heaven for plot devices!

It turns out, Shifu is capable of improving, through immense pain and suffering. After his failure with Tai Lung, Shifu's despair leads him to fall face first into teaching Tigress with Oogway's method...

...That is, at least he backs off and lets her learn she's going to get no validation from the outside, so she stops looking for it. That's enough to keep her from having a total meltdown when she doesn't get what she wants - it's not a betrayal, it's just par for the course. She goes off by herself, because she's learned to solve her own damn problems (as have the rest of the Five, who follow her), and she almost gets them all killed, 'cos Shifu still doesn't know how to teach humility.

It takes him a few movies - he expects to learn everything through hard work and suffering and so, inevitably, he does.

Just to hammer home how badly Shifu messed up, and how fundamentally flawed Tai Lung's understanding of kung fu is, when Po just hands him the scroll, Tai Lung doesn't get it.

Po is a Mahayana Buddhist. He always tries to enlighten his enemies. When they make it clear they're not ready for it, he'll do what he can to keep them from screwing up everyone else's chance to learn.

So Tai Lung gets yeeted direct to the Spirit Realm. But, it is possible to keep learning in the Spirit Realm, as Oogway and Kai show us in the third film. We just don't see Tai Lung again until the animated series, 'cos no matter how cute he is, he's not the protagonist.

Also, I think the writers can't help but noticed how badly Tai Lung's arc landed with some audience members. There is no good way to address that in under two hours of film. Look how long it took me to unpack it in text!

In the end, the Dragon Scroll isn't meant to be useless, or an elaborate troll from a Trickster archetype. It's a nudge in the right direction. For Po and Shifu, once they slowed down and thought about it, it landed. Tai Lung just wasn't there yet, and showing him that the scroll was nothing but a shiny piece of paper wouldn't have gotten him there, no matter when it happened. But respect to the Dragon Warrior for trying, that's just how he rolls. He's not wrong to try, but Oogway's also not wrong about enlightenment not being a thing to teach.

That's why ya boi gets Oogway's staff, and Shifu ends the film series still needing a little more time to learn.

#kung fu panda #po #shifu #oogway #buddhism #tai lung #dragon scroll #yikes that's a long read #let me know if you like this or if i've gone too far

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demonic-narwhale · 11 months

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Guh introduction? Yeah

Ghello I'm Eel and this is my tumblr. *Kaboom SFX* I'm 21. Japanese and Filipino.

I DRAW GORE/BLOOD AND IT WILL BE TAGGED AS JUST #guts galore

Little animations or something is just tagged as #animation

Ideas I spout will go under: #eel ideas

Doodles will just be #doodles oodles

If you wanna send some stuff to the ask or something, go right ahead (i don't wanna come off as like some cold "do not interact with" sorta person) working on it

I like drawing HS Intermission funkies you can find them in the tags like

#Midnight Crew

#The Felt

#The Exiles

#Problem Sleuth

I also will list like the individual characters in the tags

Some AUs: (totally me not being a lil ill in the membrane. Also. Will perhaps add other silly ideas AUs what? oh Eel)

#Intermission Yeehaw

#Intermission Small Town

#Intermission Hooked

#Intermission But Trolls

I have a Carapace + Leprechaun "group" they are: #Common Midnight Swing

And another Carapace focused news editorial thing yeah: #Night Times

I also have an oc that is thrown into The Felt #hk She's in a polycule with Trace and Fin and I will tag any art focused on them in #sharkbait (just so if you don't dig it, just go ahead and block it lol)

I have some homestuck troll ocs as well that I haven't really posted much here (yet)

My "main gang" will be #main10gang And the rest just #troll ocs

I have a Toyhouse as well:

Alright, Eel out

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trans-harlequin · 1 year

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Tavros is dead

AT: yA DA YA LA TA DA, AT: iT IS A GOOD DAY TO BE, nOT DEAD, AG: POW! You are DEEEEEEEEAD! AT: i AM DEAD! AG: Hehehehe >::::) *Hears Eridan coming* Oh, shit- CA: *GASP* Tavvros is DEAD! AT: yES, i AM DEAD, CA: WWHY is Tavvros dead? AG: I dunno. AT: i THINK, iT WAS- AG & CA: SHH! YOU ARE DEAD! AT: oKAY, *tunnels into the ground* *car crash* GC: WH4T'S UP Y4 TROLLS?!? WHO'S UP FOR 4- G4H! WH4T TH3 FUCK JUST H4PP3N3D? AG & CA: Tavros is dead. GC: T4VROS 1S D34D?!?! CA: Correct! GC: >:D CA: So, did you see the murderer? AG & GC: No, sorry mate. CA: *SLAM* I wwill find them. I wwill capture them. And NO ONE wwil evver die again. *clapping* GC: OH, NOW TH4T'S N1C3. AG: I am daaaaaaaamn proud right now. CT: D--> ATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENTION! TAVROS IS DEAD! CA: Wwe knoww. CT: D--> WHO KILLED HIM? CA: Wwe don't knoww. CT: D--> I will find CLUES! *sniff sniff* CT: D--> What's that? A weapon!? CT: D--> THAT thing is why TAVROS IS DEAD! AT, CA, & GC: TAVROS IS DEAD??!? CT: D--> YES! *SLAM* HE DIED! *Shocked gasping* TA: IIIIIIIIINCOOOMIIIIIIIIIING!! *Equius gets hit by a car* TA: RAU2, RAU2! MOVE, NOW! TA: *kisses Tavros* AT: *begins floating* hOHOHO, tAV- *dies aain* TA: Iin my mediical opiiniion, TAVRO2 II2 DEAD!!! GC: SOLLUX, WH4T H4PP3N3D? >:? TA: My profe22iional opiiniion? *SLAM* TA: TAVRO2 WA2 KIILLED!!! GC: OH TROLL J3GUS... *Worried murmuring* TA: Ii don't thiink iit'2 anythiing two worry about. GC: W3LL, NOW WH4T? AC: :33 <Meowity meow motherfurr-kaBOOM! AG: Oh coooooooome on... AC: :33 <Lookadis! Furreakin' Tavros is DEAD! ... AC: :33 <Whattaya think of that? ... AC: :33 <Uh- CA: Yes, yes, Nepeta. AC: :33 <Yea- CA: GO HOME. *Aradia waves from the car* AC: :33 <AWW COME ON! PFFFTfurreakinunbelievablenoseriouslyyouallsuck- *CAR EXPLOSION* CA: Okay. Let's get back to the point. AT: i THINK I AM DEAD, AG, CA, GC, TA: TAVROS IS DEAD??? TA: *GASP* Nepeta! Ii wiill heal you! *dies aswell* AT: oOH, sERIOUSLY! wHO KILLED ME? TC: *chugs a bottle of Faygo* It WaS mE, mOtHeRfUcKeRs!! Everyone: *GASP* TC: yEs! *gulp* I dId It LiKe ThIs! *Shoots Terezi* TC: WhOoP dE dOo! GC: *Is bleeding out* TC: *Gulpgulpgulp* tHaT's A jOkE, lAdS. *laff* TC: It WaS y- *burp* HeR! *points at Vriska* AG: *GASP* How did you know? TC: i DiDn'T! tHaT wAs A jOkE tOo! AG: Heheheheh.... >::::) (TC: Oh, I'm DeAd) AG: HAAHAHAHAHAHAAA! AG: THAT'S RIGHT! IT WAS MEEEEEEEE! CA: You monster! AT: bUT WHYYYYY? D: { AG: Cuz you're CRIPPLED, 8oy. And another thing? You're. Ugly *The two argue. Eridan stares into the void and shrugs* AT: v R I S K A AG: AW god DAMMIT Tavros FUCK OFF! You are DEAAAAAAAAD! AT: nO YOU, pOW! AT: hAHA! yOU ARE DEAD! nOTBIGSUPRISE, AC: Wwell, that wwas idiotic. Off to hang myself! Wwatch and lea- *neck snap* AT: i AM ALIVE! iS NICE. AT: ... AT: yEAH, tHIS IS STUPID,

#tavros nitram #vriska ser #eridan ampora #terezi peixes #equius zahhak #sollux captor #nepeta lejion #aradia megido #gamzee makara #homestuck #heavy is dead #tf2 #Heavy's meme shed

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hammysamhah · 20 days

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i made more troll fusion art cus it’s fun‼️‼️‼️ all troll combos were chosen by friends

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warning-heckboop · 4 months

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Do you guys see my vision

#trolls #trolls branch #trolls brozone #trolls archer pastry #trolls kaboom #trolls the beat goes on #trolls band together #Branch and Archer should trauma bond is all Im saying #They both deserved better :(

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umbraticstickerz · 2 months

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Stupid Crackship edit lol

#video editing #edit #my edit #trolls edit #trolls the beat goes on #trolls guy diamond #trolls archer #trolls archer pastry #trolls kaboom #crackship

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spirits-of-nature16 · 11 months

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Tiger Lily🌺

Home; Troll Village

Relatives; unnamed dad

Friends; Poppy, Branch, Dj Suki, Biggie (love interest), Guy Diamond, Tiny Diamond, Smidge, Satin, Chenille, Fuzzbert, Cooper, Creek (former crush), Skyler Lightningmist (troll), Gristle, Bridget, Barb, Delta Dawn, Trollex, Trollzart, Prince D, Hickory, the K-Pop Gang, Tresillo, Chaz, Val Thundershock, Holly Darlin’, Longnote Jones, Dante Crescendo, Synth, Demo, Gust Tumbleweed, Rhythm and Blues, Minuet Sonata, Laguna Tidepool, Archer Pastry (Kaboom)

Enemies; Chef, the Bergens (formerly), the Party Crashers, Chaz (briefly)

About; Tiger Lily is a residential pop troll who works as a teacher at a SchoolPod. Before crushing on Biggie, she use to be Creek’s love interest until he dumps her by liking Poppy, before he betrayed the Pop Trolls for working with their enemies during Trollstice, the Bergens. She’s also a personal baking teacher to her new friend Skyler.

Birthday; May 5th

#Bio Page #Tiger Lily #Trolls fandom

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junkyardisles · 1 year

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saw @/portaldisaster do this so i’m doing it too

💙 Who's your favorite skylander? i’ve got loads but cynder, drobot and pop fizz i usually cite as my top three

❌ Who's your least favorite skylander? punk shock and barbella

💚 Who's your favorite non skylander character? octavius and machine ghost!! but they’re one game only chars so uuh i love the mabu trio and arbo

🚫 Who's your least favorite non skylander character? ngl? not a fan of any npcs from imaginators

🖤 Who's your favorite villain? kaos, dreamcatcher and chompy mage

💢Who's your least favorite villain GOLDE NQUEEN

😈 Favorite trappable villain grinnade, both chompies and scrap shooter

👿 Least favorite trappable villain Krakenstein.

❔ Who was your first skylander? i got a bunch of them for my birthday but the first one i used in my files was cynder! can’t remember the og first one tho

🌐 What was your first skylander game? giants was the first i owned but i played ssa a few months prior

✨ Which game was your favorite? ssa and giants, kinda depends on my mood but i prefer doing runs of ssa ALSO I LOVE CLOUD PATROL!!!! and universe....

☔ Which game was your least favorite? imaginators is the easy answer but i am Not into swap force’s gameplay or lore

🔥Favorite fire skylander ERUPTOR!!!!!! i love sunburn, fire kracken, fryno, trail blazer and spitfire too

❌🔥Least favorite fire skylander kaboom

🌊Favorite water skylander gill grunt, zap, echo, slam bam, wham-shell and thumpback :) wham-shell has my favourite gameplay tho

❌🌊Least favorite water skylander punk shock >:(

🌱Favorite life skylander zooooook!!!! also tree rex!!!!! i love camo, high five, stump smash, food fight, thrillipede, stealth elf and tuff luck too

❌🌱Least favorite life skylander mmeh not a huge fan of stink bomb? could be more skunkish

🌄Favorite earth skylander aourgh tie between bash, flashwing and terrafin but scorp is pretty cool too

❌🌄Least favorite earth skylander barbella

💀Favorite undead skylander CYNDEEEEERRRRRR but ghost roaster, funny bone, short-cut, grim creeper, chop chop, night shift, rattle shake, and chopscotch live rent free in my head

❌💀Least favorite undead skylander roller brawl she’s so bland compared to night shift

💨Favorite air skylander whirlwind, sonic boom, jet-vac, scratch, pop thorn, blades, stormblade, swarm, and air strike are all sooo gooood!! but also thunderbolt is kinda fun?

❌💨Least favorite air skylander ngl i do not dig warnado’s gameplay

🔌Favorite tech skylander DROBOT but time for every other one i like!!! trigger happy, boomer, drill sergeant, tread head, bouncer, jawbreaker, and ofc magna charge

❌🔌Least favorite tech skylander would’ve said countdown before but he’s grown on me, so high volt

🌠Favorite magic skylander POP FIZZ but um. also double trouble, voodood, spyro, cobra cadabra, mysticat, and splat

❌🌠Least favorite magic skylander i’ve seen horrors involving wrecking ball (overexaggeration)

🌞Favorite light skylander spotlight and astroblast

❌🌞Least favorite light skylander aurora

🌙Favorite dark skylander blackout and nightfall

❌🌙Least favorite dark skylander uh, hood sickle ig?

♫ Favorite song from the soundtrack JUNKYARD ISLES BUT I CAN’T PICK A SINGLE ONE BUT I LOVE JUNKYARD ISLES

🎮 Favorite minigame ssa/giants lock puzzle

💠 Favorite level what do you think? but outside of the namesake i LOVE quicksilver vault, arkeyan armoury, falling forest, leviathan lagoon, crystal eye tower, stonetown, troll warehouse, the oracle, glacier gully and drill-x’s big rig

❎ Least favorite level creepy citadel and secret vault of secrets, i don’t have strong thoughts on swap force onwards chapters

🔆 Your strongest skylander

i can play a pretty mean slam bam

🔅 Your weakest skylander god awful w/ warnado

🔷 Your rarest skylander spotlight and blackout easily

⭕ What skylander do you want the most? chompy mage

💔 How many skylanders are you missing? discounting releases/variants, 44. idk where rip tide went but i’m not counting him

💞 Skylanders OTP? i don’t do “””otps””” but bashwing passes the vibe check

❗Why did you start playing skylanders? i saw some boys playing it and it looked fun (i was 5)

💙 How did you discover skylanders? see above

💖 Any skylanders OCs? yes

😉 Most memorable gameplay moment/moments getting to play ssa after so long

😇 Your favorite experience with the franchise honestly all the emulation stuff has been sooo fun

💛 What do you like most about skylanders? THE LORE THE CHARACTERS THE WORLD THE AESTHETIC THE MUSIC THE GAMEPLAY

🔪 What do you not like about skylanders? the lack of books and stories n stuff i want More

💎Do you hope the franchise continues? nah, unless it’d be in the form of books and things of that nature

💜 What does skylanders as a franchise mean to you? my first real delve into aus and characters

💗 Describe your dream skylander game ssa but even longer

💯How many skylanders do you have? probably close to 200

💘 Will you continue playing skylanders if the franchise continues? hard to say!

💝 If you could recommend skylanders to others what would be your points of persuasion? fun co-op experience with charming dialogue and good music :)

🕒 How long have you been a fan? 2012

#story scrolling

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