#(or even just what wizard101 is)

[extravalgant]

i love that dasein was kind of meant to be the closest thing we get to seeing the wizard in "canon" bc its like. imagine being the wizard and teaching the ''nothing'' how to ''be'' and having to watch in horror as everyone and everything around him tries to twist him into something he doesnt want to be and taking advantage of his kindness and genuine urge to help and having to be like. holy shit. this is what its like to be on the outside of all that

dasein just wants to BE in the similar way that the wizard wants to be i think. and both of them are "outsiders"—they dont well and truly belong in the spiral, and give themselves away to the detriment of their own health and sanity. so when dasein understandably gets stressed out and starts malfunctioning, thats also a reflection of the wizard

[balanced-but-falling-apart]

The whole plotline of Morganth, (especially in Azteca and Krysalis) has such a sharp narrative turn it's actually insane.😭

It's one of the biggest turning points in the game. Not only narrative wise, but for the player as well. It's the first time we actually to see our character fail at their literal life's purpose.

You're literally brought into this world to be THE hero. You were told you were the chosen one, and you stayed in this world being touted as such, and never being told otherwise.

So arc 2 comes, and Morganth is here- cool. YW must think this is gonna be the same as it is everytime: They're gonna be the one who saves the day again, like they've done every single time, every single day up to this point.

But instead they go through hell and back, always arriving just too late, and getting foiled at every turn. They try for so long, and so hard to stop Morganth from destroying Azteca- one of the longest world of arc 2... Just to witness an entire world, and thousands of it's inhabitants DIE... on their watch!

But wait, we're supposed to be the hero...the infallible hero who saves the spiral and everyone in it...

They had an ANCIENT, PRIMORDIAL, TREE GOD and the HEADMASTER OF THEIR SCHOOL telling them for years that they're the only one who can save the ENTIRETY OF THE LITERAL UNIVERSE AND THEY FAILED!!

Can you imagine what an absolute mindfuck that must've been for someone like the YW.

To say she 'humbled' the YW would be an understatement, because it might imply some sort of mercy or care on her part.

She treated the illusion of their infallibility with the same cold callousness as one of the thousand of Aztecan inhabitants.

And that's when it clicks just how real this shit has gotten, because it's not just "fun, cute, little wizard game where we fight the evil bad guy" no more.

They're not some kid fighting ghost, goblins, and cats on the streets no more. They're not just up against a Malistare 2.0.

And despite all of the strange monsters the YW has defeated, you realize they've never actually fought a real monster before. 😭

[anxiously-sidequesting]

I personally love and obsess over disillusioned and self-isolating protagonists which is one of the reasons why I advocate for a Young Wizard who just leans so much into their role as the Savior that they're now just this broken down individual who now genuinely shares everyone's fears and legends of them of being this Ultra Powerful, Non-Human, Above-All-The-Peasants Legend Amongst Men. Being picked apart and analyzed (INCORRECTLY might I add) by strangers and people who fear/hate/revere you, no matter where you go or what you do, over and over and OVER it just literally whittles away at who you used to be, what used to make you happy and now you're replaced with what everyone made you into. Not You, but a Hero.

But you know what's even better 😈😈😈 a wizard who cracks in a different way and is now just baaaareeely holding it together. A wizard who just is not All There anymore. A wizard who's Good Maybe, but someone who genuinely gives you a GOOD REASON to fear a switch in allegiance. Someone who reminds you that your entire life depends on their mood

Give me Harley Quinn YW, give me a YW who cackles and shrieks in joy as they batter the evil to the ground, give me a YW who pushes at the very edge of the EXTREMES even when they don't need to. I want a YW who doesn't carry around a gleaming sword, or a mystical staff, but a bat with nails studded inside or a rusty machete; I want poems and songs of not a Hero but a wolf in sheep's clothing who just barely gets by in masquerading as the Commoners. An unhinged YW is the second to best Bad Ending you could ever get from this situation and I want everyone to think about this actually

[thewizardpoliceareafterme]

Does anyone else think about how the lore would have been if hero101 never got scrapped. Like. I think the lore would be wild

[ecogirl2759]

I am posting to literally every Fandom rn and I'm sorry but I neeeeed to get this out

I LOVE looking at Malorn Ashthorn through a very literal lense. Because that makes him literally one of the most tragic characters in Wiz <3

(Came back up after writing this whole post and realized it's kinda sorta very long. So, full rant is under the break ^w^)

Edit: Please forgive any spelling mistakes, I wrote this all on my phone, which sucks lol

Every time you go to Ravenwood, he's there. Malorn, without fail, is always standing by the crater at all times. (This is what I mean by literal lol, since his sprite just wasn't put in any other locations.) Other students keep coming and going throughout the day, able to take rests in their dorms and occasionally go on field assignments, but Malorn can't do that. He just has to stand there. Waiting.

He's practically forced to be there, too. He's "Acting Professor Ashthorn" after all. He has to be there just in case a student drops by, and everyone works on their own schedule. That includes all the other Death students, especially since they're on independent study and literally have no time table to work off of. So, to make sure he can actually do his job, he needs to be ready at all times. He needs to always be on the clock. He can't leave.

What's more, he can't even go to the headmaster's office. He can't leave his station, so he can't go negotiate with Ambros. He can't ask for breaks. He can't catch up on news. He can't give or receive progress reports, assignments or updates. Unless he's deliberately called, he is, quite literally, trapped in this catch22 of seclusion.

Malorn also can't further his own learning in any meaningful way. All his other fellow students are off on assignments, doing practical work and honing their spells. Not to mention that it seems--based on Penny's side quest--that Ambros is the one who gives them their work. But Malorn can't move. Even if he got assignments, he would never be able to complete them. He's literally not allowed to learn.

Also, no one really ever shows up to Malorn's little corner of Ravenwood anymore. The other students don't actually need to go to him for anything, since they know most if not all the same spells he does, as well as not needing to turn their assignments in to him. New lore suggests that studying Death magic is wildly unpopular now that Malistaire is dead/evil/dead again, and old lore states that the already existing Death students are actively being discouraged from continuing their studies / persuaded to study different schools. Considering how few Death students you come across in-game, (keeping in mind that they have to be out and about since they have no classroom to congregate in,) it's probably safe to assume that many of the previous Death students were successfully deterred. I can't imagine Malorn sees much traffic anymore.

Even after the Death School is found by the Wizard and classes are said to resume, (even though the connection to Nightside is unstable? Eh, anyway,) Malorn is never seen outside of his usual spot. He literally cannot go to class anymore because he's too busy being Acting Professor. He now has to stand there in his usual spot, directing students to the actual Death School. (Because no one can put the building back, I guess. -_-)

And Malorn isn't even recognized for his hard work, either! Despite always being as helpful and friendly as possible, doing a pretty great job at being Acting Professor (if you ask me), he's never rewarded. The Wizard graduates, and Dwargyn is promoted to Death Professor. AND MALORN STILL HAS TO JUST STAND THERE!

Though, that also calls into question whether or not he actively wanted the role of Acting Professor or not. Sure, he's great at it, and yeah, he makes the most with what he can. But is he Acting Professor because he genuinely wanted to take up that mantle, or is he Acting Professor because he was the best of the Death students at the time? (I mean, I imagine it's because he wanted to, but we technically don't know for certain.)

Last but not least, no one likes the Death School kids. Both in old and new lore, some of the kids express how creepy the Death School is to them. They think the Death students are weird and freaky. The kids are ostracized by the rest of the Ravenwood student body simply because necromancy gives them the heebie-jeebies. So for Malorn to be stuck in Ravenwood, all day every day, surrounded by people who other him and look down on him not only because he's a necromancer, but because (I imagine) some of the kids would see his title of Acting Professor as him "sucking up to Ambros" or "thinking he's as great as Malistaire was" or "looking down on other regular students" or any other number of uncharitable assumptions. It would be hard for anyone to handle that kind of treatment for an extended period of time, including Malorn.

Malorn probably feels an immense amount of pressure from everyone's expectations of him as a Death student, an honor student, and as Acting Professor. Even though there's nothing for him to do most of the time, he still has to do it perfectly. He can't afford to fail his classmates. His friends. He's now in charge of their education, so if they fall behind, he'll be the one to blame. He has to show Ambros that Death is still worth studying, even if Malistaire might be gone. He can't make the Death School seem weak in the eyes of the other students by slacking off or being inhospitable. So he keeps a smile on his face as he stands by himself, forced to play Professor without ever getting the recognition or power of one, all while still being a student actively in school, unable to grow and get stronger with his peers due to being secluded and forbidden to leave.

"Acting Professor Ashthorn" isn't even a Professor. He's just a lonely school boy, trying to do his best, yet always coming up short.

It's sad.

[valerian-riverheart]

My disdain with the british dogs grows exponentially for each world they're in

[vampwiz]

LEMURIA SPOILERS ‼️

idk if i still need to do this considering this world came out in like what 2021????? but just incase i’ll start tagging my posts abt lemuria from now on…

I FEEL ILL 🫠🫠🫠

when will it be MY turn??????? god… please help a gay out

[destiny-moonforge]

tomorrow!

feb. 29th @ 9:00 PM EST!

[shining-scion]

Destiny Realized

[meursaulty]

spare malorn found in my house… up for grabs

update: he has been claimed but I may order a few more with improved colors and silver charm <3

[a-casual-dragonkin]

ok, so i didn't know about the newsletter that came out for Wallaru, but believe me when i say that i am. not too fond of the phrasing

i am fully on the side of "the young wizard is Far From Okay." (indeed influenced from @/stormbreaker101)

so to see that the writers went down the path of "the player is happy about being the hero, despite their actions" doesn't. sit right with me. it's prolly just to keep the ESRB rating to be like E10+ or whatever, but it jus. doesn't make sense to me

[astral-schools]

proper ref now that orion finally has a permanent fit :] some fun facts below the cut

he's ambidexterous!

while Millie is the pet he brings to fights and such, he also has a whole collection of pet octopuses who stay at home

no seriously there's zero relation to grandmother raven, his wings were a gift from artemis. he needs to spend time around stars to be able to fly-- if he spends too long indoors/underground or in a world with permanent cloud cover they're basically useless

his freckles glow :]

sometimes he does artemis's job when she's busy with beastmoon, and uses his brush to paint the night sky

in terms of biological age, he's the oldest of my wizards! technically not immortal but he does age MUCH slower than the average human.

he keeps his hood/mask down most of the time, only putting it up when he's going to be flying for a long time. it gets cold up there!

[anxiously-sidequesting]

Hey so I'm curious, if y'all have ever thought about this reblog/tags/notes with your favorite spell casting sound (the little music notes/sounds that play as you cast a spell)

[puffyducks]

Puffy's Really Comprehensive and Cool Review of PK Out of the Shadows for the PS2 (not emulated guys I didn't emulate it I bought a really legal copy for my PlayStation 2 console that I own)

Ok guys I just did a really epic playthrough of the Paperinik video game (that was streamed on Discord thank you to everyone who watched me scream and struggle for like 6 hours) and I'm here to give a review for the other PK fans or perhaps even people who really like playing old niche PS2 games for some reason (get a better hobby)

First of all this game gets a 10/10 rating from me because this game has Paperinik in it and there are no other games with Paperinik in them.

Paperinik's English name is "the Duck Avenger" but I guess there was too much PK logo branding in this game for them to bother to change it so they kept his name as just PK and tried to explain it by saying it stood for "really cool duck" or something in Latin. Which I'm pretty sure was just a fucking lie.

I'm really happy that Uno was there, I love him and he's my best friend even tho he was FUCKING USELESS like this whole game. Sorry he just kinda grabs Donald, turns him into a superhero, then throws him into an Evronian base with 0 explanation and is like "go kill" and like who am I to say no to the giant floating orb?? Like he gave me a gun which is really nice but I'm out here getting fucking jumped by the Evronian empire and Uno isn't even there to cheer me on or NOTHING. He only occasionally shows up to explain when you get a weapon upgrade like FUCKING DO SOMETHING UNO THEY'RE BEATING MY ASSSSS

The little collectibles are just tiny floating Uno heads so that also gets a 10/10 from me I really enjoyed running around and collecting my army of Uno PNGs. The SECOND collectible however- Ok so there are like these scientists that are tied up by the Evronians and you're supposed to save them right? Well for whatever reason (they don't really explain why this is happening) every time you get close to a scientist it starts a big menacing countdown in the corner and you're supposed to save them before the timer goes down or else THEY JUST FUCKING DIE?? I THINK?? LIKE I SAID THEY DON'T EXPLAIN IT SO I CAN'T REALLY TELL WHAT'S HAPPENING, BUT IF THE TIMER GOES DOWN AND YOU REACH THEM TOO LATE THERE'S JUST LIKE A PILE LEFT BEHIND FROM WHERE THEY USED TO BE, I THINK THEY GET FUCKING VAPORIZED OR SOMETHING? AND LIKE I WAS REALLY BAD AT SAVING THEM BECAUSE I GET REALLY STRESSED WHEN THE TIMER STARTS. I HAVE SO MUCH BLOOD ON MY HANDS. anyways.

I like totally didn't get stuck on the same section for 10 minutes because I kept comedically sliding PK directly into a big pool of evil pink goo. Like evil Evron goo I guess, don't remember THAT from the comics. If you so much as touch it with your little pinkie toe he dies instantly, it's very troubling. Like I said um that didn't happen to me though because I'm really good at video games. Idk if you knew I'm level 102 on Wizard101 which is like pretty high. Like it's not max level I'm pretty sure max level is like 180 right now but it's still cool I'm still cool and also really good at video games.

Oh yeah also something that was really amusing to me is the way that PK is just fucking Stanced Up the entire game. Like he's always kinda menacingly crouching and shuffling around everywhere he goes like a little superhero cockroach. Love him.

Can't believe I haven't mentioned this sooner but for the English dub of this game (which is what I was using because I am, in fact, an English speaker) they made the huge brained decision to get Rob Paulsen to do Donald's "superhero" voice. Rob Paulsen of course from Yakko Warner fame... and Steelbeak 1991. Donald sounds goofy as shit the whole game it lowkey kills me. I guess they assumed people wouldn't wanna sit through his regular scratchy voice for however many hours of gameplay but trust me, I would WAY prefer regular Donald over the weird 90s protagonist Crash Bandicoot wannabe thing he has going on. Uno sounds great tho, zero complaints.

At one point PK walks out of the level and he's like "haha who knew this superhero stuff would be so easy!" and I took that as a deep and personal insult. That was not easy Donald I was fighting for my fucking life in there. You have like 13 bullet wounds and I dropped you into Evron goop like 6 different times. Stop making me look bad.

I got stuck standing around like a fucking idiot for 10 minutes because I got an upgrade for the X-transformer and Uno was like "you see that hole? Go over and press □ to send the X-transformer through it!" and I was like oh ok. Except there was no hole I couldn't find the hole. I was only able to progress past this part because I pulled up a youtube video of someone else playing the game, and the guy in the video ALSO proceeded to get stuck in the same spot before realizing you have to backtrack to find the hole like 15 feet away from where Uno gave you the instructions. I can't tell if it's bad game design or if I'm just stupid.

I'm ngl I got to the end and heard Zondag start talking and he lowkey sounds hot as fuck. I mean WOAH that's crazy who said that??? (he's also British for some reason)

Wrapping up my final thoughts with some simple questions:

Does this game have Paperinik in it?

Yes.

Is it a good game?

No.

What's the best part about the game?

Uno is in it.

What's the worst part about the game?

Everything else.

Would you have been able to beat this as a child?

Absolutely not.

Why did they think it would be a good idea to get Rob Paulsen to do the voice of PK for the majority of the game?

Hell if I know???

Would you recommend this game to other people?

Probably not.

It took me a total of 6-ish hours to beat the game (it can be beaten in like 2 hours I'm just slow) but in that amount of time you could read PKNA chapter #34 "Nothing Personal" like 6 times which I think would be a way better experience.

Anyways like I said 10/10, would maybe think about playing again. On like a really depressing rainy day where I have literally nothing else to do.

[sleepyisnotagamer]

wizard101 worlds in sort of order but I tell it how it really is

Wizard City - you've been isakai-ed off of Earth by this old man and his owl and suddenly you're like the chosen one who has to save the city and fix everybody's problems. you get the feeling that this theme will continue.

Krokotopia - the kroks sure are here but it ain't a utopia, it's a takeover! and also these archeologist dogs are here. you don't know it yet but you hate them.

Grizzleheim - your scandanavian sanctuary against the evils of the world(s). also there's evil in this one but you're having a good time about it. only little bits of saving at a time.

Marleybone - this is where those dogs are from and yeah, they suck. cats are the enemy for no good reason and you'd prefer not to save the smog-ridden sky but you're a good person.

Wysteria - aren't you supposed to be speedrunning through the worlds so you can catch this necromancer dude? why are you suddenly asked to take part in a wizard school competition that feels depressingly like cleaning up yet another set of messes (because you are. cleaning up other peoples' messes. again.)?

Mooshu - this is a breath of fresh air, and you feel cheered by the color in the world. you're really not into how many miles you have to run to save it, though. also is like all of asia here? accidentally?

Dragonspyre - this is where the big baddie you've been trying to apprehend this whole time comes from. it's in ruins now but you can judge the architecture anyway. after tromping through far too many red-bricked streets you stop the man from resurrecting his dead wife and surely you will never see him again.

Celestia - so apparently some aliens (in a universe of separate worlds that are inhabited by mostly anthropomorphic animals and sometimes humans are here too) invented astral magic and you should team up with those blasted archeology dogs to learn it. so you do, because you are but a pawn in this game. it sucks.

Zafaria - you explore africa at large to rescue some students and along the way meet an archnemesis, learn to loathe elephant tombs, and don't catch the new baddie on the horizon: goth lady.

Avalon - you're stuck in an entirely unfunny version of monty python and the holy grail and it's just young wizard and the quests that you didn't sign up for. this sword you get doesn't make up for the dragons you have to slay.

Azteca - this is a beautiful world and you know what? you're rather keen to save it. there's a comet looming and as the chosen one you're destined to save the world from the apocalypse. that doesn't happen. you don't save the world. you don't- you don't save the world. also dead wife guy is a zombie now?!

Khrysalis - welcome to bug world, please don't state your name for the record and: infiltrate the shadow ranks, save a precious deermouse bean, spend way too long finding all kinds of new bugs for your monster collection, meet this totally harmless hermit guy and finally squash that goth lady.

Polaris - so it turns out the harmless hermit guy was actually a super old cosmic entity named grandfather spider, very estranged husband of grandmother raven, who by the way has been in your ear from time to time during your questing. anyway spider is bad so let's go join a couple entirely separate revolutions and don't freeze out there in the snow. also. Ratsputin.

Arcanum - oh by the way, even though you spent all your time doing extracurriculars (saving the spiral), you've still managed to graduate wizard school! so you get to go to wizard university! yay.

Mirage - you get the distinct impression that you're in a very extended reference but, gee, idk, whatever could it be? anyway you cross the deserts and fight the spider guy and he gets away, taking a new friend that you just made with him. dang. you just can't have nice things.

Empyrea - you get to use a space ship! unfortunately it comes with annoying pigs. but you get to experience top pop culture, and there's a bat! man. you labor throughout this endless world until you finally get to...sing songs and get the most ancient couple in the world back together. hooray? the spiral is saved. probably.

Karamelle - what if. what if candyland was not, in fact, a wonderful magical place, but a bureaucratic nightmare? it would not be fun.

Lemuria - it's a good time! there's a neo-noir detective mystery to solve, and also this guy that isn't anything is becoming something! and he is your friend. this is very important.

Novus - so the colonizers are colonizing and you are not a fan of that. and the nothing-something guy that is your friend is having an existential crisis but that makes sense because he kinda just pseudo-exists. sort of. he's like. um. becoming a world!

Wallaru - the dreaming! is bad. and the combat wombats! are uncanny. and. and you have to defeat this frog. and deal with petulant spiky balls that lowkey drive you to drink...dreamwater, maybe. but uh. you do it! wait, did you just save it all? everything? that's kinda chosen one-core, babe.

Selenopolis - what if - and hear me out - you went back to krokotopia. but this time you went to a section where you got to learn new magic skills and learned how to cheat at cards? well. learned how your enemies cheat at cards, anyway. and! it was. nice looking. eh?

presumably you acquired some sort of dwelling place where you have lots of nice couch potatoes growing and your pets scamper about and you can just chill where nobody can bother you. and your achievements only have to happen on a volunteer basis. and you can make stuff. and show off your stuff. and not save the world. again.

[balanced-but-falling-apart]

I think the content creators roundtable was very eye opening and an overdue but necessary conversation to have.

Problems that even I as casual player was noticing was being talked about and I'm glad it is. I think the community needed this: a roundtable where wiztubers and players can talk freely about their problems with this game without devs ignoring what's wrong.

Players have been voicing their complaints about this game with KingsIsle/Gamigo putting their fingers in their ears going "Lalalalalala perfect game, nothing wrong."😊

The more I listened to that phone call, the more you realize just how bad a lot of things in this game are sometimes. Like holes in the wall of a house being patched up with duc-tape.

Here are a list of problems I was jotting down while watching those streams. And some of these problems have problems within themselves:

- Petmaking is literally insane.

*No way to re-roll pet talents

*Expensive right of the bat.

- Little to no catering to casual players or new characters.

- Players not feeling like their time is being respected or incentivized; like their time and money are being wasted.

* Predatory monetization

* No pity system for packs

* Meta gear being locked behind packs

* VERY Pay To Win

-Gamigo's shady history of buying out gaming companies, squeezing as much money as they can from player and abandoning them.

- No casual PVP

*PVP implementations effecting PVE

* No low level pvp

- Cards being to hard to understand for new players

- Archmastery effecting the casting of other players in your team.

- Unlocking spellements for a certain path just for the card to get changed again. Speaking of...

*Cards changing over and over and over and over and over bc they don't know what they're doing.

- There is STILL a paywall/membership fee in 2024.

- Impossible to get gold keys

- Cool and interested new ideas being implemented POORLY.

- Lack of School Identity

- The game straight up breaking over and over again.

- No new side worlds

-Since the community is so niche, toxicity stuck out like a sore thumb. Cheaters, snipers, racists, all the ists and isms are waaay to noticable.

-No Roadmap for content

-A lack of Transparency from KingsIsle

One thing Ultimate Speedster brought up was how player's time/money is valued by comparing Wiz to other mmos like Genshin and Honkai.

Everytime you explore a new area you get primogems. Everytime there's an update: primogems, Side quests?: primogems, daily tasks?: Primogems. You spend money on a character banner, there's a pity system to help you get the item/character you actually want.

Wizard 101 could implement something similar for crowns and items! They are so slow to modernizing this game! Names and gender changing took 14 years to arrive. That color palette thing that was leaked is still not in the game. What are they even DOING with our money?!?!

This company and game demands so much of our time and money without listening and have the audacity to ignore things players have been saying for years? Meanwhile this game is not mainstream and there are other games people can go play? KI/Gamigo can miss me with their BS.

I think the Glassdoor reviews on KigsIsle also speak volumes. Multiple people who work there have stated that things players want implemented are ACTIVELY being ignored by higher ups and if spoken about will get you FIRED! Even THEY believe it's a sinking ship.

I think this conversation is so important because these are things people have been saying for years, and people love this game.

It's been around 15 years and has a dedicated fan base. If they don't listen, it only looks bad on KI's part (higher-ups) not the creatives, and if this game crashes and burns it will be KI/Gamigo's fault.

I know it's not the dev teams faults and I love them so much. I just hate that I feel like my favorite game is being held hostage by greedy corporate higher-ups. I want a private server/remake of Wiz similar to Toontown Revamp.

The creators where thinking about boycotting if things don't change and honestly I think they and the rest of us should do it bc companies don't listen until you hit their pockets. This game is niche with a small dedicated fanbase. With many people wanting to leave and few people coming in, you have much more power than you think.

Please go watch the stream(s) from these amazing creators if you haven't yet. They care about this game just as much as we do: