#//it's just apparent that I'm not as much of a fan as these people//

[respectthepetty]

Little crumps on Joong/Est drama. Today there was SkyNani concert and Est starred as a guest while Joong, William, and Dunk came to watch. Joong and William sat next to each other and William seems to be telling Joong about the glasses Est gave to him. Btw William and Joong were never on bad terms with each other. Then Dunk posted a pic with Est and other two on twitter. Dunk went extra careful mode this time though and also posted a pic of Joong together in the same post so Joong's fans wouldn't come attacking him as if he killed their parents like the last time. This got people talking if this will be one step towards Est and Joong reconciling. As far as I searched there was no direct interaction with Joong and Est though.

Have you heard of this? What do you think?

I once wondered if Joong and Est got into a fight because they worked together on ThamePo set, but since it involved Daou who's not in the series and other ThamePo cast are okay with Joong, it must've been a personal issue between Joong and Est and somehow Daou in the middle.

Also Joong & Dunk seem to have patched things up recently unless it's an act. But they looked sort of okay now imho.

I love this! I am eating popcorn with a cotton candy ICEE while enjoying this chisme, but I see your shade, which makes me love it even more!

Dunk went extra careful mode this time though and also posted a pic of Joong together in the same post so Joong's fans wouldn't come attacking him as if he killed their parents like the last time.

I don't know much about the Sky x Nani fancon, but national government agencies need to hire the people in charge of Twitter and Instagram fan accounts because I got a lot of information in less than a minute when I went to look up what you wrote.

I agree Dunk is being careful about his social media because not only did he post a picture with Est, he made sure this was in his story to show off Sky and Nani's mascots — it's Joong's unzipped pants.

Which kind of makes sense since Joong was at the merch booth during the con selling products like the mascot keychains.

But as you wrote, he was seated right next to William during the show, so if this was arranged seating, I love the shady ass bitch at GMMTV who made that chart.

I also know Hong debuted his pink hair (and that Mark Pakin looked hot in his plaid skirt which I don't have pictures of)

But to focus on your statement about Joong and Est's fight happening during the filming of ThamePo since everyone else seems cool with Joong, I think it happened at the beginning of it or BEFORE filming ThamePo because they were still friends in July, filming for the series happened July/August-November, and Joong and Est apparently blocked each other in September and weren't interacting at the ATEEZ concert, so me being the nosy bitch that I am thinks the filming of this scene happened AFTER their fight, so no one else was involved.

So what I'm understanding is the beef is just isolated to them.

And I'm still getting Dare You To Death.

I appreciate Sky x Nani having an event, so the Jaidee fans could focus on what matters most to us: Joong, Dunk, and chisme.

Bless.

[zeedist]

BANG, BANG.ᐟ — ALHAITHAM

summary: carnival date. sfw !! fem!reader x alhaitham, academic setting, carnival setting, short + sweet. word count: 1k proofread: nope.

Yearly, on the outskirts of Sumeru, bright circus carps and twinkling lights are mounted for the Carnival. The scent of something nutty and sweet hung in the air as you strolled through the cheerful bustle of the fair, an arm hooked on your boyfriend's. Alhaitham wasn't a fan of the chaos, the loud noises and people bumping making his nose scrunch. You expected that, what you did not expect however was how he scanned every game and booth as if they were lab specimens.

"All of these are scams," he muttered, needing to lower his head for his voice to reach your ears, "See those rings? They are too small for the bottles, but they give the ilusion that it might fit to trick people into playing."

You found his serious approach humorous, shaking your head. "I'm sure at least one person can win once a night, if not, how has someone not kicked them out yet?"

He raised an eyebrow and you already knew what was about to come — his natural talent was to counter every of your statements, "It's carnival business, as long as they profit, they don't care making a kid or a dozen cry. They make money off the excitement."

"Alright, alright, there is nothing you don't know," you teased with a light nudge, smiling at him in that pretty way that made his heart flutter. "We already are suffering enough with Calculus, do we really need to do a breakdown of the economics of this carnival?"

Alhaitham only chuckled at your comment, his silent way of caving into your words followed by a gentle kiss in your forehead.

Before you said something back, your gaze caught a small trinklet at one of the booths. You aren't sure why it did, but the cute rounded dinosaour shaped charm snatched your attention. Alhaitham noticed that sparkle in your eyes — the one you had when getting your favorite snack, or a perfect score.

Giving you a soft peck on the back of your hand, Alhaitham let go and stepped forward, his wallet already in hand. Crisp bills slipped from his fingers and landed in the owner's outstretched palm, all before he even bothered to ask what the game was about. Shooting, apparently.

The older man behind the counter barely looked up, his expression bored as he waved a hand toward the targets a few meters away. "150 points for the charm," he muttered. The rules were simple: the targets further away were worth 30 points each, while the closer ones only gave 5 points. Fifteen arrows, a ridiculously high price, and a suspiciously old-looking crossbow to top it all off.

"Wait, wait," you blinked, staring at him in surprise. "Didn't you just say all of these games are scams? You’re wasting money—"

Alhaitham shot you a quick smirk as he examined the worn crossbow. "I have enough mora," he replied, his tone soft with you as he drew back the string with a frown. Something about the weapon felt... off. He lifted the notch and took aim, squinting one eye.

Click.

The arrow missed entirely.

Alhaitham didn’t even flinch. He simply loaded another arrow, his tone unbothered. "See? A scam. The crossbow is shifted to aim lower than it should."

"So it’s impossible?" you asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My dear," Alhaitham glanced at you, "I will steal the charm if needed. But we are not leaving here without it."

Click.

The second arrow grazed the smaller target at the back, but didn’t pop it. Alhaitham loaded a third arrow, his expression focused as he adjusted the crossbow. He held it in a position that looked completely wrong — even you could assume that much.

"Perhaps we could try another game—"

Click.

This time, the arrow hit its mark, sinking into the target with a satisfying pop.

Alhaitham turned to you, giving you that smirk — the one that made you want to roll your eyes and laugh all at once. It was the look he wore when he'd cracked a tough problem or uncovered a loophole. The one that practically screamed, did you just see how brilliant I am?

Click.

Click.

Click.

Shot after shot, each arrow found its mark, all hitting the smaller targets at the back. One by one, they popped with crisp sounds. Ten targets, ten perfect shots, 300 points.

Alhaitham handed back the manipulated crossbow to the owner without a second thought. "The charm, please. Two of them."

With an unhappy sigh, the owner didn't dispute the outcome but still reluctantly handing over the charming trinkets. They were small and undeniably cute — tiny dinosaurs with delicate, colorful decorations. One was a gentle green, the other a calming blue.

Alhaitham took the two, his fingers brushing the smooth surface. Usually, when facing decisions, he asked you which you preferred — even when you would tell him to pick. But this time, he skipped that consideration and handed you the green one, his eyes drifting away from yours. His hand covered yours as he murmured, just loud enough for you to hear.

“Please take this one... You said green reminds you of me, doesn’t it?”

A soft blush flushed his cheeks. For a moment, he hesitated, finally gathering the courage to meet your gaze, his eyes soft as he confessed, "I hope it will make you think of me more."

He gulped, his voice quieter now, as though the words were difficult to get out. "As much as I think of you, all day and all night."

The charm in your hand, small and smooth, seeping coldness into your skin.

A piece of him, in a way, now for you to carry.

[vega-alphalyrae-hip91262]

So Brazil GP 1990 was kinda dramatic...

I've been thinking about this too much, but the Brazil Grand Prix of 1990 was filled with drama and I just want someone to write a fic (or multiple please) about this event.

Let me paint you the scene, it's spring 1990, Sao Paulo.

Three time world champion Alain Prost has just done the wild move of leaving McClaren (announcing it mid season and also giving away one of their trophies to the tifosi fans in a heated poduim) for Ferrari after two extremely hard seasons along Senna in McClaren. Although he's had great testing over the winter, the first race was pretty bad with both Ferraris retiring. He's desperate to prove himself (afterwards said it was the best win of his career).

Senna on the other hand was heavily involved in the redesign of the Interlagos circuit (there was a section named S do Senna, this is his hometown also) which reopened after 9 years of racing Jacarepaguá for the Brazilian Grand Prix, and despite the incredibly difficult economic panorama Brazil was facing (Inflation at 2000% and frozen bank accounts). The whole country was expecting him to win.

The week before the race Senna went of to relax in the beaches of Angra Do Reis with friend and new teammate Gehrard Berger (you've been teammates for a minute at this point Ayrton, wtf you never took Prost to the beach now did you?) and he shines in the qualifications taking pole position. In fact the Ferraris aren't even the biggest rivals for McClaren that weekend, the Williams have much better pace.

At the end of the first lap it's Senna first with Berger on second, Boutsen on third and Prost on fourth. The race goes well for both of them mostly, Prost gets third when everyone starts pitting. Berger falls behind a bit but still keeps the fight on falling to fourth and then third, then when Senna changes tyres going to second. A fairly tight race. When Boutsen runs over one of his mechanics in pits (man seemed to have been okay but was bleeding) Prost takes second, he is still 9 second behind Senna but he is getting closer.

Then on lap 42 Senna attempts to lap Nakajima and has a small collision, loosing his front wing. If you watch the video you can barely see it and it doesn't immediately looks like he is loosing much speed, but then it's pretty obvious. Now some people say Nakajima should have opened the gap, others say Senna rushed in, anyway, Senna has to go to pits to get the wing replaced 26 seconds lost.

Prost takes the lead with Berger behind, later Berger would say that he was having leg pains because apparently his sear didn't fit correctly? and he even had stomach cramps? (McClaren wtf?) Prost takes those laps to really make a gap and the manages the car. Senna is going like crazy behind them on third, making fastest time of the three but still unable to catch up.

In the end the race goes 1st Prost, 2nd Berger, 3rd Senna.

Noooow things get interesting. Alain Prost who is pretty composed through some truly horrific shit in F1 (have you seen those interviews where he is asked about all those terrible crashes and only smiles politely and replies all smiles?) is seen bawling his eyes out with Cesar Fioro on the Ferrari garage (happy? probably relieved to prove himself to Ferrari, overwhelmed? SURE, sad that Ayrton took Gehrard to the beaches before him? I'm going with definitely).

On the podium Alain Prost is crying because reasons (my money is on Ayrton's emotional terrorism but you can pick) , Ayrton Senna is crying because he probably feels like he disappointed the entire country (poor man truly) and sandwiched between two crying men Gehrard Berger stomach is still presumably upset. The entire crowd is SILENT. May I remind you that Alain (at this point on the story we are in first name basis) has said multiple times that the brazilian crowd is his favorite and he feels that racing there is like a second home, even BEFORE Senna (and he has a very complex relationship to his own country mind you); also he is coming here after being fairly criticized by Ronn Dennis who said he should have had the decency to take the season off instead of switching teams. This was the man that was in talks with Alain to get actions in McClaren (before 1988). Also this is the second time that Alain dramatically exits a team (at least this time there weren't any cars on flames), can you imagine the pressure?

Talking about pressure, the country was in it's most dire moment in decaaaades and banking on Ayrton to lift them up (he's never won in Brazil at this point), can you imagine the absolute devastation???!

Adding to the shit show btw:

-Balestre refuses to attend the podium because he thinks he'll be booed (well, yes that happens when you suck) and heads to the airport to rush back home but apparently someone pulled a prank on him (or maybe the airport staff were Senna's fans) saying there was like a bomb threat or something like and his plane gets delayed for hours.

-Xuxa and all of Ayrton's family were there being photographed at every move, also Honda executives.

So, it just feels like it was a race with so much tension, can someone please, please write about this? What happened before? What happened afterwards? Why was Alain crying so so much? (seriously I've watched hours of material on this man and it's the only time he cries like that) Did someone give Ayrton a hug? Was that someone Alain?

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Does anyone actually say that Ladybug and Adrien are fake somehow?

Yeah, people absolutely have that take. It's what spawned the original post. One too many fics and shipping poles that treated Marinette and Chat Noir as somehow wrong for their crushes. (I apparently read fast. My ML fic's read count is in the thousands at this point. It's enough to let me notice trends that bug me whereas one fic would just be a shrug and move on thing.) On the Adreinette side you get, "Chat Noir is the true Adrien! Civilian Adrien is just a mask! Marinette only loves the fake Adrien so she doesn't deserve him!"

Chat Noir gets less flak, but I've seen it enough to know it's very much a thing. There's a reason Marichat wins out over Ladynoir in almost every poll. If you ever see one, read the comments for the logic and you'll see what I mean. People with this view seem to think things like, "Chat Noir doesn't really love Marinette because Ladybug isn't stuttery and awkward around him! He has to love her when she's a mess!"

This kind of thing is so popular that I had to stop reading fics that paired Marinette with other people because the "Marinette is the true version" thing showed up all the freaking time. So many of these fics felt less like shipping stories and more like Adrien bashing where he was punished for liking Ladybug and not Marinette. It was draining. Even my favorite one has a scene to make sure Adrien feels bad for missing what he could have had and it's a freaking no powers AU!

I actually had a really lovely conversation about this topic when the blog was young because this is one that gets under my skin whenever I come across it and I occasionally need to vent a bit. The kind person who indulged my annoyance straight up said that they used to think that the square "have to fall in love as Marichat bc that's when they can be real with each other." Which was not a stance that was unique to them by any means. They were just validating my first-hand observations of the way SOME people view the ship/characters.

There is a version of the true selves stuff that's genuinely sweet though. It's the version you basically summed up where it's less about these two being the "true" versions and more about Marichat letting the two get to know each other without the pressure of the crushes complicating things. After all, the canon square is only a few hours removed from love at first sight which certainly adds pressure that Marichat removes. The existence of this version that means I don't hate Marichat or even the words "true self", I'm just warry when I see them as I never know what I'm about to see.

While I get why canon's near insta love and subsequent writing issues would draw a person to Marichat, I'll also once again argue that the issue at hand isn't the various ship dynamics, it's canon's writing as the awkward Marichat arc shows. Even though the crushes only flipped after four whole season, canon Marichat doesn't feel any deeper than canon Adrienette or canon Ladynoir. It's played incredibly superficial and doesn't even bother to acknowledge that Chat Noir and Marinette have a functional friendship as established in episodes like Evillustrator, Glaciator, and Glaciator 2. Elation writes Marichat as if they've never interacted before and Chat Noir is just going on a date with a fan he's never officially met. Passion writes Ladynoir as awkwardly as Adrienette always was. Ladybug's months of platonic partnership did nothing to change how she acts when she has a crush or how successful she is at confessing.

In a better show, canon's Marichat arc would be used to set up Adrienette as a more solid couple. Marichat would allow Adrien to see that Marinette loves him even when he's being goofy, but they'd agree to not date because a hero and a civilian dating is too risky. Then Adrienette would happen and, oh look, Adrien can occasionally crack jokes and be silly because he knows Marinette can love him even when he's at his most Chat Noir in addition to being his most Adrien. Marinette is a little surprised, but fine with it. Canon doesn't go there though. As far as the show is concerned, Marichat essentially never happened. It was a one-off fever dream both characters completely forgot. Canon Adrienette has Adrien playing the perfect flawless boyfriend who never annoys Marinette with his jokes.

In summary, that post wasn't about saying that Marichat is bad or unhealthy or that there's no version of the true selves thing that's cute. It was me venting a bit after seeing one too many instances of people acting like Ladrien, Ladynoir, and Adrienette could never be healthy because friends to lovers is some sort of golden standard when it's absolutely not. It's a neutral preference. Each side is fine. What matters is how you write it.

Why the "True Selves" Theory is Insulting

Image for a second that you have a friend who's a bit of a ditz. She's also fun, creative, and sweet. You enjoy being around her, but you've never seen her as more than a friend. Then, one day, a fire breaks out at an event that you and your friend are attending. Your lives are suddenly in mortal peril and the same goes for everyone around you because you can't find the exit. You think that you're going to die.

Then, suddenly, your friend transforms. Not in a magical way, it's just a personality shift, but it might as well be magical because it's like nothing you've ever seen! The ditziness is gone, replaced by laser focus and a take-charge attitude that has everyone following your friend without question. When all is said and done, everyone lives because of you friend. As it turns out, her tendency to get easily distracted means that she's a fantastic in-the-moment problem solver.

Going through that completely changes how you see this girl. You no longer just like her, no, you're now deeply in love with her. You tell a mutual friend about this and they laugh at you, then say, "Don't be silly, that wasn't really her! Her true self isn't that brave girl who saved your life! That was special circumstances that don't count. All that counts is the way she acts when there isn't a crisis going on. It doesn't matter that you've always liked her and enjoyed her company, if you didn't fall in love with based solely on her ditzy self, then you don't really love her."

Most people would call this mutual friend insane because of course going through crazy experiences changes the way we view people! Imagine if you had an allergic reaction and your significant other's reaction was to panic and run away, leaving you to die. You only live because you manage to grab your phone and call '911.' That would understandably lead many people to reassess if this is the person they want to spend their life with just like the opposite experience might make you see a person as a good life partner.

Marinette is Ladybug. She gets full credit for everything she's done in the suit and it's perfectly fine for Adrien to become attracted to her after he sees her in action. It doesn't mean that he only values her Ladybug side. He quite clearly cares for Marinette, he just hasn't seen her in the right light for him to fall in love. (And, if we're being frank, Marinette acts like Ladybug all the time when he's not around or when he is around, but a crisis is going on. She's really not that different from her alter ego.)

Along similar lines, Marinette isn't wrong for being drawn to Adrien's sweeter side more than his over-the-top jokey side. There's a reason why Glaciator ended with her blushing. Compare the end of Glaciator to the end of Origins and, yeah, same energy because - in that moment - Chat Noir was letting his Adrien side out by being more sincere and vulnerable, which are the things that Marinette values most in a romance and the things that he rarely shows while in the mask. It doesn't mean that she hates his jokey side, it's just not going to win her heart when Adrien's right there being sweet and sincere while Chat Noir hides his feelings behind a smile and a laugh.

In fact, it's pretty insulting to Adrien to say that someone shouldn't be attracted to his more vulnerable side. That his sincerity is worth less than his jokes. Almost as insulting as telling Marinette that her Ladybug side doesn't count and she should get no credit for being brave as that's not really her. Loving her only counts if a person falls in love while she's behaving in her most over-the-top, cringe, embarrassing way.

I don't know about you, but I would never want someone to hold me to that standard nor would I hold my significant other to that standard! It's perfectly normal to have things that you don't love about your significant other. In fact, I'd argue that part of the magic of a real, lasting romance is having someone who loves you even though you're not perfect. If you are looking for a partner who never annoys you or does something wrong, then you will never find happiness because that person does not exist.

Now that I've said all of that, I want to add that I do think that marichat, "love both sides" stories can be cute. It's just not One True Path to Real Love. It's totally fine if the square starts dating based on the things that they find attractive about each other and then just continue to be in love as they learn about the other side. If anything, that's normal. Learning about a person is what dating is all about! A good relationship is no different than a good friendship, you just get some bonus perks if you're into that kind of thing.

I'll also note that I'm not criticizing stories where Marinette feels like she's the "real" version and Ladybug is the fake because that's a really understandable thing to be nervous about. Tikki saying that shit? Hard no. Terrible mentoring.

[hils79]

Hils Watches Matz Travel Vlog - Part 2

This reminds me so much of the time I got lost at Stockholm train station when I went over to watch the hockey

Yes. For the shot...

Hongjoong explaining how train departure boards work is honestly very charming. He seemed so confused by the whole experience until he figured it out.

Praising Hongjoong comes so naturally to Seonghwa half the time it's like he's not even thinking about it

They're being very polite about it but I'm assuming most of the 'fans' at the station are people who followed them there

I hope Seonghwa calls him this a lot. In private. If you know what I mean.

God, they are so married.

Apparently you're not allowed to say Instagram either.

Like, seriously, he didn't even blink. They really do have an old married couple vibe where they just compliment each other as easy as breathing.

Seonghwa experiencing a day off from parenting

Planning the honeymoon already

Seonghwa taking credit because it was his idea to go on a trip even though Hongjoong did all the planning and organising

WHY IS HE SO CUTE?? Shit like this is why he's my bias

Whoever did the captions also thinks they are married

Hongjoong, I promise it's okay for you to take one single day off.

Aww his English is really good!

Someone from the KQ finance department definitely captioned this

I love that most of this vlog is just Seonghwa telling Hongjoong how great he is

But still talks about him like he's a baby even though they're only a few months apart in age

It must be so hard being married to Kim Hongjoong. JUST DO SOMETHING ROMANTIC WITH YOUR WIFE. Yunho would have understood the assignment.

I bet that one is in his private collection

OMG the way Hongjoong's mother's voice changes in tone completely when she sees Seonghwa. She sounds so happy to see him.

Absolutely wild to visit a relatively small town in Italy and find the a store for the brand you are an ambassador for. I think Hongjoong was even more excited than Seonghwa

Aww he's missing his son

Wow he legit lost his mind over the magnets and was heavy breathing and everything

God, Seonghwa is even mothering their manager. I love him so much.

Welp hit the image limit again and I'm still only 45 mins through. Onward to part 3, which should be the last one unless they go insane.

Part 3

[wesavegotham]

"Talia can never be redeemed and her romance with Bruce can never come back because *falls for Grant Morrison's/DC's extreme racism towards asian and arab characters in the 2000s/2010s"

Yeah, sorry, but shut the hell up. It never fails to astound me when DC actually tries to fix the mistakes they made with Talia/the al Ghuls in general these last two decades and the fans manage to be even worse than DC by clinging to the blatant racist/sexist writing of the past instead of embracing the turn for the better.

"But she did this and that!"

She's a fictional character in a fictional universe that is aware that it goes through continuity changes/retcons. What Grant Morrison did to her character was a a complete retcon of her 30 year history and characterization with zero respect for her. Why am I supposed to take Morrison's bullshit as gospel and reject any attempts to fix her from writers who know better?

[lillotte17]

..

[quasi-normalcy]

.

[decepti-geek]

for all that I love Ghosts, I've been getting a very different kind of joy out of watching uploads of a very, very similar show on youtube - The Ghosts of Motley Hall.

Like, a setup where the ghosts actually mostly like each other from the off, so that a huge chunk of the dialogue just goes towards establishing more and more of their meandering, idiosyncratic shared history (especially because the budget was clearly about £1.50 so they have to establish most things through dialogue)... that has its own kind of charm.

[atomicsuperrobot]

Oh hey does anybody know yet what the Twitter thing was about? I don't really go on there anymore; thinking about deleting in order to remove the temptation, tbh... Not a big fan of some of the fandom on there, for reasons I refuse to elaborate on; to say nothing about the site in general (prime example being that blocking has been nerfed). It was supposed to be today, tho, so I was wondering if anybody had seen it yet.

[turtlemagnum]

ok, gonna try my hand at compiling my thoughts on fist of the north star first. here goes nothing! warning, this post is gonna be Long, open the read more at your own peril.

i think the best way to go about this might be roughly chronologically, so i'll start at the start. i think it's interesting how very early on, the conceit is "there is but one practitioner of hokuto shinken and but one practitioner of nanto seiken, and they are sworn to never fight lest the world fall into Chaos..." and that degrades very quickly past the first arc. i will say that overall, the shin arc is a very fun, enjoyable and relatively quick watch, with mostly interesting fights, decent character designs and a mostly compelling narrative. i think one of the standout parts, to me, was when shin was actually defending yuria from his former goons while they tried to revolt. it definitely added a certain texture to shin's character where he had previously been just 100% straightforwardly the bad guy, instead of being 99% that. also there's the devil rebirth fight and that time ken killed The Entire United States Military in the same episode that he punched a wrecking ball so hard that it shattered like a christmas ornament. now that i think about it, the leader guy of the former US military was actually probably the first time we see nanto seiken used by someone who isn't shin, and i remember it being kind of a big deal that shin had violated their sacred traditions to such an extent, y'know? how quickly that went out the window

something that's been consistently good in the series was the music. the fight music, the ambient stuff, and especially the openings. all 3 of the openings are S tier, but i will say they never quite top ai wo torimodose, it's just that fucking bombastic and fun, y'know? at the same time i wouldn't stab somebody for thinking silent survivor or TOUGH BOY are better, they're all fuckin great even if in different ways at time. honestly i'm mostly surprised that an anime from back then had more than one opening, much less 3. from what i can tell that shit wasn't nearly as common back then as it was today, so i think it speaks to how deeply popular the series was back in its heyday. hell, OG dragon ball got just one and im pretty sure DBZ barely got two. i hope one day i'll be able to make music as stellar as the hnk soundtrack, really.

something that bugged me about early fist of the north star is how every fucking woman looked like yuria, just sometimes with different hair. this definitely got better as the series went on, and i have no idea if this was a problem in the manga too, but by god is it glaring. thankfully that seems to clear up ironically after mamiya is introduced, who is explicitly portrayed to be the spitting image of yuria. i think the first time i noticed that women finally look like unique people and Not Just Yuria was that one martial artist who fought with roses and shit. side note but i genuinely loved her design, the show got really sexist about her being a Femoid who fights but setting aside that i really loved her. i should learn to draw her. anyways, i like how the series improved over time in that regard, at the very least

one of my biggest problems in the series starts with shin's death. i remember when shin first died and he burst out crying, i had assumed it was just a fucked up manipulation tactic like the yuria doll, but apparently we the audience were expected to take it seriously? and like, this began a longrunning trend of a villain being like, absolutely irredeemably evil, like puppy crusher machine, baby eating, torment nexus evil, and then at the end they're all like "i just wanted 2 play on de play groundt...." and we're expected to take that seriously???? like, i'm all for moral nuance and complexity, and there are times where this whole shtick was done more tolerably than others, but in my opinion they never actually redeem somebody in a way that's satisfying. a redemption arc has to be, y'know, a fucking arc. and even if you're trying to do a redemption = death thing, the thing that makes that trope work is that they die doing something, y'know, actually good???? the reason anakin's redemption worked (aside from actually being foreshadowed pretty blatantly) was because he actually saved lukes life and died in the process. he did a good thing and died because of it. meanwhile shin, he still fought ken right up until the end and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary until he was literally seconds from dying. at least raoh had it built up to a little bit, like jesus fucking christ.

now, i will say that the arc from roughly jagi's introduction to the first fight with raoh is the best fist of the north star gets. if you're thinking about watching the show but don't wanna commit to 150ish episodes, i'd recommend watching from the beginning right up until the end of the first raoh fight. i feel like that's still be a pretty compelling 50 or so episodes, and it has literally all the best bits within it. honestly kinda sad that the show peaks approximately 1/3 of the way through it, but what can you do. anyways, enough backhanded compliments; jagi is probably the best all around villain in this series. he's an absolute bastard, he's one of the first characters in the entire show to just straight up pull a normal gun on people, and he inspires one of the most cathartic moments in the entire show. this is around when we first get into like, the soap opera shit, right? first it's a bit contrived but still cool as hell that rei is a new nanto seiken practitioner, aside from That One Scene he fills the deuteragonist role pretty nicely and is honestly the gold standard by which the rest of the series' guys can be judged off of. he's no ein or juza, but to be fair basically nobody is.

anyways like, that cathartic moment i was talking about. it was just after jagi admitted to ken, taunting him with the fact that he's actually the reason shin kidnapped yuria, and he's the reason yuria died. this, alongside the "actually the main character has 3 secret brothers that we just havent mentioned until now, and theyre ALSO hokuto shinken practitioners" is very like. soap opera/bad fanfic-y, right? but it works because in execution, it's still pulled off well, and we're still nowhere near the bullshit horizon we'd skyrocket past by the end of the series. so, when ken's finally killing jagi, there's a moment where he says something to the effect of "this is for yuria, and...." and you just know what he's about to say next, but he hesitates, and when he finally says it it's so damn satisfying, "and for me!" and the thing is that it's a deeply compelling moment for a variety of reasons.

so, the thing with fist of the north star is that, in a lot of ways, it's very analogous to a superman story where the question is almost never "will the main character lose this fight" because he's so insanely fucking broken, right? the real question is, "will this character protect those he cares about in time", that's where the tension comes from, and it comes from the fact that he is in fact a hero. that's how you write a compelling overpowered protagonist, you give him either people to love or just a love and respect for all life in general and so that always gives you stakes. i get that to a lot of people, the question of "will ken save this nameless chicken farmer?" isn't a very compelling one. but to me, it is, because he cares so deeply about it that i start caring about it. in the words of aphex twin, "i care because you do".

so, the thing is up until now ken is a very selfless character. it's to such an exaggerated degree that it becomes fairly evident that he has very little regard for his own safety or wellbeing. in the first arc, aside from helping whoever he happens across he's motivated exclusively by rescuing yuria. every fight he has up to this point isn't even for himself, really, and there's something almost sad about that. he doesn't allow himself to have needs. so it's actually very satisfying to see this strong, principled man admit that he has in fact been hurt, and that he's not just doing good for those around him but for himself as well. and it's a very natural character progression that you don't even realize is happening but also makes complete sense. there's something deeply compelling to me about a man so devoted to helping others that he has to actively learn how to live for himself, y'know? i feel like that's a relatable struggle to a lot of people, really

i will say i have one gripe about the jagi fight, and it's that it's almost perfect except for the fact that jagi dies laughing. at first it's seeming like he's gonna die in agonizing misery like he deserves, and it's satisfying well up until the point he starts to laugh on the way out. and like, i understand why it was done that way, and i'm pretty sure it was meant to be haunting, but it honestly just felt like it undercut an otherwise great moment, y'know? i want that motherfucker suffering god damnit, its what he deserves.

there's not much to say about the arc up until the first raoh fight, really. toki is really fucking cool, i love me my apocalypse karate jesus boy, and the fight with that uighur guy was really good setting aside the weird racial thing of having a character that's of a certain ethnicity and just naming them that ethnicity. like, imagine if there was just a guy in a show named Jew, and he's canonically supposed to be jewish but it's never really addressed, like that'd be weird right

i will say, the raoh fight was fucking precious, easily the best part of the entire series. it has this amazing and complex rhythm to it, where every character who tries to fight raoh ends up trying their own self sacrificial bullshit move only to be thwarted by the next guy, until there's essentially like 3 or 4 different fights going on at the same time. it's also nice seeing ken get straight up hard countered for once, like straight up he gets just as fucked up as raoh does and it makes raoh that much cooler of a villain. up to this point, ken is like, essentially invincible. he's basically post apocalypse aikido jesus, poking people so hard that their disabilities are cured and punching people so hard that their entire bodies explode like he's got the bloody mess perk. so to see someone even break even with him is a damn impressive thing, it instantly establishes your villain credentials y'know?

the thing about raoh is that i love him, very much, but i very much hate how he was handled near the end. the fights with him after the first one are very eh, the penultimate one is close to satisfying but then there's that whole "and then he randomly got away with yuria and now he's gone!!!" bullshit, and i get what the final one was going for and it's kind of built up to but i still didn't exactly like it, y'know? for what it's worth, raoh's redemption arc was probably the most well set up in the entire series, but it still wasn't actually y'know. good. like, the way we're introduced to him is by him being Ken-Oh, King of Fists, and he's this fucking tyrant who recruits people to be his slaves by giving them the ultimatum of "willingly brand yourself as my property and then be my slave for the rest of your short life or get burnt to death", and we're shown that his goons are inches away from burning lin, a literal baby child, to death. and we're supposed to just buy that he's actually not that bad at the end???

like, something i wish this series would just fucking do would be to have their villains just fucking own their villainy right up till the end. they do it before the end!!! one of the first bits with shin has him literally monologuing about how cool & good it is to be evil before busting out one of the greatest evil laughs i've ever heard from a voice actor in any media ever. the best villains are pretty consistently That kind of evil, like the kind of evil that'd make the average disney executive go "hey maybe we can chill a bit out here real quick", and that'd be wonderful if they were unrepentant about it!! it feels really forced!!! imagine if like, frieza, before the bitter end, went all "hmm, maybe i do regret blowing up planets and spending my days being space hitler...." that wouldn't've fucking worked!!! there is, in fact, such an intense degree of evil in fiction that it just doesn't make sense for them to immediately go "hmm yeah i'm a good guy now. right before i die. how about that :)". it's deeply unsatisfying every fucking time, like my god

there's something to be said about the queer coding in this show. i remember in one of the earlier episodes, there was this bear dressed as a BDSM cop and his two goons were scantily clad twinks, and internally i went "haha that's kinda gay" before he straight up kisses random dudes before he kills them. and it hit me like "oh. he IS gay..." and it's like. i don't think that's even the gayest thing in the series, really. there's that one scene where two fang clan dudes are checking out rei and the one with the binoculars is like "woah, this guy's real pretty!" and the other dude is all "well, not as pretty as me right bro???". and then there's just yuda, in general. relatively uninteresting villain, but him dying in rei's arms admitting that his motivation in trying to kill him was that he was the only other man who he found beautiful, like. i don't think there's a heterosexual way to interpret that, really! and that's even setting aside the hideous makeup he's always in! and that's not even mentioning yuria's brother wanting to "see what she(yuria) saw in him (ken)" and as a consequence, wanting to die by his hands. also ein is a bisexual icon who canonically thinks ken has a pretty face and i love that for him

the next bit after yuda was, i believe, souther and shu. now, i think souther might've been the only villain to outright defeat ken up to this point, and i think there's something that could've been interesting about that if souther just wasn't like, aggressively fucking boring. i think he's also the introduction to ki blasts, so that's cool, but the most interesting bits about the souther arc were the bits with shu. shu was a homie, very speedwagon-esque in terms of vibes if not functionality, i liked watching him at work. i will say that shu was probably the point where nanto seiken was wearing out its welcome, we're at like 4 or 5 guys whose main deal was nanto seiken and their entire fighting style could essentially boil down to "cut em into bits" and the only real variation was the shape of the bits people were cut into. i think this might've been the prevailing attitude at the time too, because they definitely pivot away from nanto seiken after this in favor of other, usually dumber martial arts

i will say that this series is, usually, very good about respecting character deaths. with one piss stained exception, characters pretty much always die and stay dead forever, meanwhile i feel like in series less committed to death mattering would've still had toki or rei around by the end of it. the exception is, of course, yuria. it was to give yuria and ken a happy ending, at least for a little while, and honestly while i kinda hate the concept the execution was still fairly competent so i didn't outright dislike it overall. i think it's stupid and retcon-y and at times feels like yet another excuse to make shin seem like less of a bad guy, but it still felt nice to know that yuria got the spend the last few years of her life with the man she loved

i liked ryuga for what he was, mostly just because he wasn't yet another fucking nanto seiken user. he's probably about on par with the elemental guys that'd go on to die to raoh, juza excluded. which brings me to, the man who is tied for Best Boy, juza of the clouds! i.e., my current profile pic. i like juza. he's probably the best thing to come from the series post the Peak arc of jagi to raoh. one of my first criticisms of the characters in this show was something to the effect of "look, if you're a handsome, muscular guy who's also ungodly fucking powerful in terms of martial arts in a world where martial arts is fucking magic, And you're in a post apocalypse? all i'm saying is that you could have basically any girl you wanted CONSENSUALLY, like seriously shin just ditch yuria and build yourself a harem of all the women that look exactly like her". and juza did exactly that, and i love him for it. i'd like to think i'd be like juza, in his universe, not quite the top of the totem pole in terms of raw power but still well above every normal person, saving women from being abused and letting them join my harem if they want, living in a fucking castle with a pool/bathing house? that's the dream, man. that's the fucking dream.

now, that's setting aside juza's whole "wanting to fuck his sister" thing. like, to be fair, yuria's his half sister, but seriously dude what the fuck is it with everyone in this show and yuria. ken and all 3 of his brothers were into her, juza was into her, shin was into her, if there is a man in this show and he knows yuria there's like an 80% chance that he wants her. what's the fucking appeal? like yeah, she's pretty, sure, but so are all the women in this show!!! personally i'd rather date like, a martial artist lady who could actually defend herself, but that could just be me. well, that's like the only thing wrong about juza to me, and honestly while that's a pretty significant flaw you can still say he's literally one thing away from being flawless, so that's pretty cool. god i love him

now's about when we get into hokuto no ken 2, where the main difference is that lin and bat are actually useful now and i'm pretty sure lin wants to fuck kenshiro now, which still weirds me the fuck out. my other favorite character in this show, ein, is the most american fucker on earth. like literally he wears an american flag suit, has blonde hair and blue eyes, is a fucking bounty hunter, and literally rides around on a killdozer driven by what i'm pretty sure is a slave. literally cannot get more american than that, i just hope that the slave guy is like a former bandit or something. little known fact about me, one of my biggest turn ons in a piece of fiction is when a character is a bounty hunter. something about bounty hunters just fuckin gets my brain goin, y'know? i remember when i played the GTA online bounty hunter quests, they were straight up some of the most fun i've had with GTAV and i still think i'd enjoy playing a game where that's the main mechanic. also, at first glance he's a wife guy, but it turns out he's a loving father which makes him even better. it's even acknowledged in universe that he's cool as hell!!! i love him dearly

viceroy jakoh is a decent villain. he's enjoyable to see die, at least. we also meet falco, who's a homie, and honestly i think it's pretty badass that he's a canonically disabled character who's shown to be strong and capable and yet is still clearly held back by his disability. he's a bit like a proto edward elric, in that regard. honestly one of the most sharp inhale inducing scenes of the show was when jakoh swept his prosthetic out from under him and then proceeded to beat the shit out of him, frankly that was an egregious way to make a villain hateable and it was honestly very effective in that regard. gento koken is ok i guess. at least it's not nanto seiken. honestly that whole "celestial emperor" thing felt rather contrived, but eh.

ok so, around this point in the show is when one of its worst aspects really starts to become apparent. so like, it starts out relatively normally when ken is shown to have a few brothers that we didnt know about. it's not that absurd, it makes some amount of sense, the hokuto brothers remain some of the best characters in the entire fucking show. and now all of a sudden, yuria has a brother we didnt know about, and a half brother, and now we meet raoh and ken's biological bigger brothers and after a certain point it just feels like bad self insert fanfic, y'know? and that's what kaioh is to me, it feels like somebody thought raoh was cool and thought "heh, what if i made my own OC that's raoh but even BIGGER and STRONGER and MORE EVIL", like that's what kaioh feels like to me. and then ken's bio brother is just ok, i already forgot his name despite it not being that long since i watched the final arc

but the thing is that kaioh is just like, arguably the most cartoonishly evil villain out of the entire fucking series, seemingly completely unrepentant, literally regularly talks about existing in the "Dark World", straight up kills his own sister just to make ken's brother wanna kill ken, the dude is just bitter and evil the whole way down, so when he pulls that "i just want 2 play on the played ground" bullshit it rings especially hollow even by the standards of the show. god, fuck kaioh, he's just poorly executed overall

the biggest part of hnk2 that i actually liked was shachi. i liked how he was essentially a stupid kid that lucked into being taught unearthly powers basically on par with hokuto shinken, and as such got a big head over it even though at his core he was still a good kid. hokuto ryuken sure felt fuckin contrived, it kinda felt like the writer(s?) noticed how the hokuto brothers were some of the best, most interesting characters in in the original series, and were just like "yeah let's do that but again", and while i guess it doesn't not work it also doesn't work all that well either. hokuto ryuken sounds cool though, even if "north star lapis lazuli fist" doesn't.

another thing i liked about the last parts of the show were that, while definitely not martial art wizards, bat and lin were still deeply competent fighters and put up a consistently good fight against Real Fucking Fighters, which you really wouldn't expect from bat's cowardly ass growing up. i will say that i always thought lin would make a good successor to hokuto shinken, but that might just be wishful thinking. there is a quite prevalent undercurrent of misogyny in this series, and while i understand that it wasn't exactly uncommon in the 80s, i gotta say that i still feel like they could've done better. i dunno

all of this is to say that i liked fist of the north star, very very much. i'm not sure i could recommend it without a laundry list of caveats and disclaimers, but i will say that if my interminable bitching hasn't put you off of it, it's probably for you. it's got a lot of good fights, it scratches that little kid part of your brain that thinks it's so cool to see a guy get kicked in the dick so hard that his entire body explodes, it has great music and mostly competent writing. if you think about it too hard, you will cry, so don't do that, just go along for buronson's wild ride and fuckin enjoy yourself. i probably wouldn't recommend it to someone who's not like, already an anime fan and already likes shonen though. it feels very of its genre, if that makes sense. which i guess it should, given how foundational to shonen in its modern forms as it was

[icewindandboringhorror]

my personal Media Genres tier ranking and also Neopets Species tiers. put together in the same post just due to being adjacently related because they're on the same website lol

links to the specific tier makers: Media Genres --- Neopets

[lovestuckyhatemarvel]

People acting like literally any moderation on a site is censorship is bonkers to me. I’ve seen literal porn sites with hardcore rules about content that still allow LGBT+ content and even fanfiction. Like truly I’ve never gotten anyone to be able to give me a reason that isn’t being terrified of the ghost of Anne Rice or just insisting someone should be able to post their extremely underage choose not to use archive warnings fic where H*rry P*tter/S*pernatural characters are graphically gabused into oblivion at the age of seven or whatever.

[todayisafridaynight]

confession: sometimes I come to look at your art as references because you have noted details like moles + looking at what colors u put down in my quest to find what something looks like under neutral lighting I know the shit here has been thoroughly researched

i will be normal upon learning this news.

[eviltothecore13]

lots of people in this fandom CLAIM to love Gomez but when someone makes a post with Morticia as "Barbie is everything" and Gomez as "he's just Ken", it gets likes and reblogs

like...isn't that meme essentially saying "he's bland and boring/doesn't do anything interesting/is no good at anything and has nothing special about him, and no-one cares about him that much because he's just some bland generic guy with no personality beyond being a sidekick"?

do the majority of fans genuinely believe Gomez has no personality and no interesting traits?

[poefred]

I H*ecking Hate Sonic Frontiers

How do I go decades defending Sonic endlessly only to end up in a Twilight Zone episode where everyone not only DOESN’T think this is a new low for the series, but also that it’s one of the best Sonic games ever?! Dude Forces came out coming on 6 years ago and everyone rightfully trashed on that game’s shallow, lazy level design and complete lack of originality riddled with recycled assets.

But the series goes on hiatus for 5 years and comes out with another batch of 30 levels that ALL flat out suck. Forces had 30 levels and 5 of them were green hill and 5 of them were chemical plant. But in frontiers 10 of them are green hill and 8 are Chemical Plant. It’s not even just that they’re reusing these level themes AGAIN. But that they’re less than a minute long, and are so shallow and worthless that they don’t even try to reach the incredibly muted “highs” of Forces. Frontiers levels unironically make Forces look like an exciting ambitious game in comparison. How do you have such an embarassing showing and get this jaded fanbase on your side? 

Well the game’s fans will simply respond those 30 levels aren’t the core of the game. Which, fair enough. The majority of the game takes place in the "open zones” But oh wait, the level design is EVEN WORSE here! Go play literally other sonic game, and it’ll feel like an actual adventure. But frontiers is just running around in an empty open world touching enough 5 second automatic levels floating in the sky until you’ve gotten the arbitrary number of progression maguffins. The only thing breaking this gameplay loop up is combat, and challenges. Well the combat is one step removed from the nicktoons unite type combat seen in sonic boom rise of lyric. Give sonic a couple flashy animations attached to attacks that are all functionaly identical, and people are tricked into thinking it’s more than just a mindless button masher. Sure some of the bigger enemy encounters have different things going on. But every single one of them is so heavily scripted that even the odd decent battle, is boring to fight even a 2nd time. This carries over to the super sonic battles, which just show all you need is a lightshow and tryhard music for people to ignore the fact that nothing is happening. First of all the ENTIRE point of super Sonic battles is that you have to beat the boss before you run out of rings, which always start at 50. You’re supposed to be picking up rings as you fight so you won’t die as they’re constantly draining. But in frontiers you can just run in circles and fill up your ring meter to 400 before the fight and have no worry of running out. And the mechanics are no different than when you’re fighting a low level grunt enemy, it’s the EXACT SAME button mash combat seen everywhere else. Oh yeah the parry requires no timing btw. Meaning the optimal strat is to stand there holding parry waiting for the enemy to hit you, which triggers your counter attack, which is your strongest hitting single move. And when the boss is half dead it triggers some light show that doesn’t even effect the fight whatsoever. Just put more moving lights on the screen and now it’s cooler. Jiggle the keys in front of babies face to keep it entertained! There’s one bit in the third boss where you have to grab a constantly moving blade and aim it back at the boss to hit it. Literally the only time the game ever asks you to do anything at all and it immediately stuns the boss and lets you button mash it to death.

And the challenges I can’t believe don’t get hated on. How do so many people go 20 years hating every sonic game after sa2 but when a sonic game gives you 60 seconds to hold left in a hamster wheel for 2 seconds NOW you’re a fan again? Oh maybe the first hamster wheel didn’t do it for you. You weren’t convinced until they copy pasted the wheel 4 more times. (The variety is very lacking) Bet you guys were really pogging the 3rd time it tested your ability to hold the parry button down...? Or how about those apparently super cool moments where it gives you 70 seconds to run somewhere that only takes 8 seconds to reach, with no obstacles or anything between the start and finish. Nah it must be the 7th time you did a walking puzzle that’s slightly more complex than the same ones seen in sonic boom rise of lyric, but much less complex than the club penguin minigame using the same concept.

Don’t even get me started on the story and fishing minigame. I could make another wall of text about both but this has gone on long enough so I’ll keep it short. But the story is exhaustingly boring and pretentious. Ian Flynn clearly attempted to fix the sorry state the previous writers left the series in. But he was given nothing to work with. The game takes place on a nondescript island that doesn’t resemble anything sonic related at all, and clearly no actual budget for cutscenes. Meaning all he can do is just awkwardly reference past games about as smoothly as a family guy cutaway gag, to sloppily establish pretty much everything is canon. But that just does more damage to the series continunity than ever. There was a very clear intended reboot, ignoring that makes it all a complete mess. Sonic’s voice direction makes him sound like a tired old man who doesn’t want to do it anymore. One of the only major events in the story is that Sonic is getting weaker and weaker as he saves his friends and uncovers the history of the island. Already lame enough that it doesn’t fit in with gameplay at all. Sonic could be about to keel over in the cutscene, barely able to even walk anymore, but the second it fades out into gameplay you’re gonna be running at full speed like nothing’s wrong. Worse than that though is the second Sonic can’t take it anymore and it becomes a real problem, it’s cured in the same cutscene. This shows me the mandates that say Sonic can never lose, and if he’s ever behind must immediately regain the upper hand, is stil in place. Meaning no matter how they dress it up, any dramatic moments are going to be as impactful as the null space bit in forces. Y’know that bit where sonic’s sucked into the void of nothingness forever only to escape literally 20 seconds later effortlessly. Except at least that played into a style over substance appeal and was very quick instead of dragged out throughout the entire game as a major plot point. Even Eggman’s character is unfun to watch here. Usually an inherently charming, charismac character, reduced to a direction that’s dreadfully melodramatic, and frankly kind of gross.

The fishing is just playing into *it’s not a good game if it doesn’t have fishing* and also *ecks dee big the cat*  memes and has no depth and is actually so broken you can fish for ten minutes and be overpowered for the rest of the game. And mechanically it’s THE most embarassing fishing minigame ever put into a game. Sonic fans will go *oh well it’s just an optional side mode who cares*. Bro that’s not an excuse, everybody’s golf has a more robust fishing system all around. It’s being outclassed by a GOLFING game. Comparisons don’t get better against anything else. Especially not when Ocarina of Time had a pretty decent fishing hole back in 1998 on the n64.  Like look, I’m not expecting an actual simulator here, fishing is usually very simple in many of the games its featured in (which is a LOT of games these days). But this flat out NOT a fishing minigame. It’s literally just functionally a loot box. You don’t have to aim for the fish, there’s no care given to what kind of fish would be in the same ecosystem, THERE’S NO DUPLICATES.... You press A, press A again, and you pull out a random object, half the time not even a fish. You very quickly realize that it’s just giving you items down a list until you’ve gotten them all. You’re not fishing, you’re opening loot boxes with a fishing skin. And to make absolutely sure every corner of this game is devoid of any substance whatsoever...The coins you have to find to be able to pay for fishing....are given to you in the hundreds for free every few nights during an event that’s impossible to fail.

This isn’t the extent of my complaints, that’s enough though. I’ve literally played every single sonic game and frontiers is the only one I absolutely hated. Free Riders on Kinect is a better experience by a long shot. This game is the definition of “My expectations were low but holy f*rick!” How did perception on this game go from “This game looks like trash” when it was first shown off to being THE most universally well recieved game in the entire series?!?? NOTHING CHANGED. The world still sucks, the level design sucks, the story is stupid and boring....Every single thing it does is just something that was hated in Forces, or taken from MUCH better games and done as bad as possible. Why do people like this game? I literally say “I’m begging you to explain why you like this game” to people and they can’t do it. “oh it’s the best sonic game in years!” BRO IT’S THE ONLY SONIC GAME IN YEARS THIS SERIES IS DEAD. WE’VE WASTED 10 YEARS ON FORCES AND FRONTIERS. Forces took 4 years to make for some reason, frontiers took another 5. They’re going to be updating forces with likely filler worthless content for the next year instead of making another game. This series was putting out better content when they were releasing 2-3 games a year every year. It’s crystal clear to me that Sonic boom did an obscene amount of damage to Sega financially and they were out of money for Sonic. The last few years were literally just desperate fund raising to make enough money to even finish frontiers. How are people so pessimistic and down on the series to say there hasn’t been anything good since sa2, yet this bottom of the barrel unity asset flip garbage got EVERYONE back????? Like dude even other games I flat out hate, which mind you is honestly not that many in the grand scheme of the industry...I at least understand why a certain audience might like it.  Even my most despized games I can go *well this audience is into it and I understand why their taste makes them find it enjoyable and that’s fine* But there’s NOTHING here. Frontiers is EVERYTHING people hate about Forces/modern sonic and more. The music isn’t even good. There’s a select few tracks that are cool but a major majority of the ost is the cyberspace levels. Kind of hard to make any stand out iconic tracks worthy of Sonic’s musical legacy when you have to write 30 songs that play over the same 40 second long green hill zone level over and over again.