#AND like that art isnt just the most popular character from each game????

[agalnamedlunasea]

I love not going on to twt for a lil bit and then right when I do I just see people being wrong about komaeda again

[selamat-linting]

continuing my last liveblog, this time focused on the characters.

-vriska is. amazing. she is THE CHARACTER EVER. i enjoy her a lot but when it comes to morality, she's... i dont know what to make of her. like, from all the fandom drama i heard secondhand, she was made to be this mass murderer. like yeah, she is responsible to a lot of fuckups in plot, she is ableist to tavros and used aradia's boyfriend sollux to kill her, and sabotaged jade's attempt to get into the game but i think at her core, she's just a 13 year old bully. if she was in a normal human environment, raised by an ordinary family, at worst, she'd be the kind of girls who spread mean rumors of the outcast kids at school. still bad but, garden variety shittiness that can be fixed with age and growth. its the condition she's in that drove her into such terribleness. alternia let kids kill and maim each other, eliminate people who defy the law and customs. its a tyrannical empire and of course the kids produced in that kind of environment are vicious to each other. its not wrong the other kids dont want nothing to do with her and seeing her gets her shit kicked by aradia was cathartic but. man, i still feel very sympathetic to her.

-also, if im not wrong, her romantic relationships now would be :

nicholas cage - one sided matesprit(?)

kanaya maryam - moirail / auspistice (?)

tavros - the most unhealthy kismesis i have ever seen

-also, poor tavros. im waiting for the scene where he gets to kick the shit out of vriska like aradia but alas. its nice that he and vriska seems to get on better terms later on. i have to admit, vriska taking the time to dress up and set the mood to kiss tavros is kind of endearing while also being yikes what the fucking fuck my guy. but anyway, tavros being disabled as only a fodder for stair jokes, and then getting his legs forcibly replaced when the wheelchair jokes gets old, and then making him the butt of the joke again, good god. i want tavros's narrative arc to be treated more seriously. andrew hussie you are an ableist piece of shit you know that right?

-and kanaya! its so interesting how space aspects players are all very aesthetic-minded. they always have the cool pretty stuff. also she had a crush on rose isnt she? the way she admired her gamefaqs playthrough guide reminds of that tumblr fairytale where cinderella reads aurora's diary and fell in love. haha! right after i have that suspicions, i check tumblr to see if theyre a popular ship and apparently theyre also canon? cool. its so nice to be proven right. theyre both unhinged weird girls but in a very subdued way. also, i think karkat have been underestimating how much she helped on cooling down the group's animosities. not just between tavros and vriska, but eridan and feferi too, to an extent.

-speaking of feferi, ugh, i feel so bad for her. i cant believe someone as positive as her could be corrupted by the horrorterrors. one moment, she's the only one preventing a trollnazi and a doomsday lusus from destroying the shit out of everything, and suddenly shes twisting squibbles into cthulhu. "dont you get it, im dead," baller fucking quote but im so sorry girl. she has always been someone who is resigned of the fate of everything, but she never stops trying to make the best of it, unlike aradia.

-Also, why is equius so horny all the time? my god he is so fucking rapey.

-terezi!!! terezi!!! she's my favorite troll. her friendship with dave is so adorable. i like how they start out as enemies mocking each other but end up as (shitty) art buddies. but man, she is just as extreme in her trolling effort like, she did kill john in a timeline. anyway, back to dave and terezi. they both think theyre so cool but theyre actually cringe. also, is the drawing of the guy above the his tyranny writing in her room, meant to be karkat? ugh, i wish im her.

-i dont have much to say over sollux but as a gemini, he has the coolest design. literally the coolest shade ever. twin signs represent!

-karkat is... *grits teeth* self recognition through the other (derogatory). i hate that i shared his classpect. he ruined an objectively awesome title just by being himself. but i never really know what kind of guy he is, just his notoriousness as a grumpy anime boy slash tumblr sexyman. i hate him even more after knowing him btw, because he really is just like me! on the surface, he's just a 13 year old version of jean vicquemare from disco elysium. but seeing his memos, seeing his... everything. oh my god. i hate myself. his constant bitching is my inner voice everytime i have to deal with [redacted] and [redacted]. only that im now old enough to know i shouldnt unleash that to everyone indiscriminately. also, i too did the future writing thing. like, i would actually look at my old diary entries, and wrote a response as if speaking to my past self. but, is it weird that seeing him makes me a bit more confident in my own leadership skills? I dont know. anyway, he's funny. god even him just living his life and breathing is hilarious. i want to see you suffer little man (not in a whump way i want to see him get mad, eat shit, and react to ridiculous shit)

-JADE!!!! i miss her a lot. finally she's in the game. she's one of the nicest and the coolest of the beta kids. and i envy her house a lot. im sick of her being out of the loop. also, just from her science alone, she's pretty OP. she dont need powers to defeat the imps. she's very much my favorite out of the beta kids

-i cannot believe dave resorts to ruining the stock market. he would have liked nfts. cant believe that plotline exists and it was actually an elaborate troll plot. i cant wait to see him blossom to his cool future selves. caw caw motherfucker was impressive as hell despite being ridiculous. i have no idea how his sprite make that cool. also, his bro's dead? its kinda sad. like, i know the training and the smuppet shit wasnt exactly healthy and sane but, its still a tragedy that he never really get the chance to understand his parent or get closure. bro's dead. thats it.

[transfemlogan]

6 and 20 for the fandom ask!! :DDD!!

positive fandom ask game

something you see in art a lot and love

how creative people get w/ side designs !!! im not entirely sure why everyone gets so creative with how they draw the sides, im assuming it's because they shapeshift & also bcuz it tends 2 be a thing with youtube egos or like... those minecraft smp guys who have block skins, but for whatever reason this fandom draws the sides so fun and i think its great.

i know i hate a lot on fanon designs, bcuz the most popular ones can be ... unison & boring ("janus has long blonde hair" "patton is blonde & blue eyes" "logan has black hair" "patton is fat & everyone else isnt" etc etc) but when people get creative and stray away from fanon, it's the coolest shit ever !!!! i once saw a janus who didn't have a face because a clone stole his face. literally what the hell where does that even come from & also thats the greatest thing ever .

i love seeing sides of colour & disabled sides & seeing all the different ways people draw remus & romans outfit on & queer sides & just how creative people get with headcanons . its beautiful. i love hrj3i2iwiueuwiehuwke BLOWS UP

your very first fandom!

my very first fandom was the powerpuff girl fandom. i used to draw ppg fanart like CRAZYY. my fave character was buttercup & also i kin her & i had 2 million ppg ocs & like 20 million personas & boy versions of each. idk why the ppg was so obsessed w/ boy versions of themselves, maybe i should have realised i was trans way before then. based on how many boy versions i had of myself.

[funkin-news]

ninjamuffin ama summary - 9/28/2021

you know the drill, purple text is me paraphrasing, everything else is direct (or almost direct) quote, FNF-related stuff only

Q: What is one common misconception about FNF or its development that you wanna clear up?

A: im not the sole creator, im not some sole director. Each of the boys have very important roles with the game. This isn't just 1 dude having tunnel vision about a game, its generally all us coming to similar conclusions on where we want to take the game and what we wanna do wit it

Q: why

A: because I love video games and I love newgrounds

Q: Do you or the team plan to go back and make the older weeks higher quality?

A: that will definitely happen. both for general polish, and things leading up into future weeks / story or whatever

Q: Why did everyone think Week 8 was gonna come out on the 22nd?

A: accidental "teases" (Dave's MC-related doodle), madness day, general anxiousness bc the devs haven't been sharing much

Q: What kind of QOL changes are being added in the future?

A: charting editor improvements is one

Q: What is the most insane, most likely impossible to happen person you would like to collaborate with, could be Funkin related, could be just a personal project

A: the girl reading this

Q: Is Cassette Girl week 8?

A: no

Q: Is there concept art for the characters, or did they look the same during development?

A: GF looks exactly the same as the first ever drawing PhantomArcade did. There's a few small lil variations for a good chunk the other MAIN characters, one day u will see all them

R: can you explain the old bf icon? or is it just a dumb placeholder?

A: just a cool ass lil icon evilsk8r did during the game jam weekend

Q: Are you letting yourself getting inspired by more different genres of music for future weeks?

A: i think that more a Q for kawaisprite, but that man loves music, and can and does get inspired by anything he listens to in regards to music

Q: Why has the team been so silent about update progress?

A: They do better working in silence than hyping things up; when Week 6 was teased working on it became really stressful for them. Also, element of surprise

R: but youve been silent abt week7 on desktop for months, half a year. & week 8 is like….. nonexistant

A: week 8 isnt nonexistant, we just absolutely do not want to talk about it whatsoever. i said all the week 7 stuff will come with week 8 update

Q: what do you genuinely think about the people thinking you guys scammed people out of $2 million? just curious is all, i’ve seen lots of people talking about it rn

A: i think people are a bit wary about kickstarter, and makes sense when people's coin is on the line. if u want a breakdown of what we used KS coin so far, we spent maybe 2K of it on some development stuff we needed, most other expenses been paid from our savings / donations, etc.

Q: When does the OST come to the backers?

A: Kickstarter vinyl OSTs still need to be manufactured, which would take at least 6 months because of a global PVC shortage, completely out of our control. what is in our control is that we also still need to finish up and finalize artwork for it, the boys wanna make it all perfect. Same goes for CDs, but those should be done way sooner

Q: You got a date range of when Tshirt / Poster / or Pin surveys will be out by any chance? 👀

A: kickstarter tshirts / poster / pin stuff have been coming along nicely and hopefully those surveys should be coming soon, prob next few weeks

Q: Do you guys think you'll experiment with other artstyles in future weeks?

A: yes, cuz we've already done that (week 6) theres a lot more where that came from

Q: if you could isolate one part of the game and say it’s your favorite what would it be

A: the fact that FNF is our pure creative vision, with absolutely nothing getting in the way of that. Open source free Newgrounds rhythm game with crazy zany kawaisprite music, and stylish and charismatic animation and art style. and game been successful because of all of that.

Q: what do you think about people compiling the full ass game and playing it without paying anything

A: that makes me happy

Q: what do you think of all the mods and stuff people has made about your game

A: mods make me happy

Q: any inspiration from doki doki literature club for the weird stuff in week 6?

A: no, but some of the cool lil programming things DDLC did do interest me

Q: How do we know you're working on the game

A: you don't, and really it doesnt matter all too much. we being productive and things are moving forward, and people not believing that doesnt change that

And now, a speech:

i think trying to focus on keeping hype and keeping game popular can very easily be hollow. We have no worry about trying to keep hype or relevancy or anything like that. If FNF popularity shrunk to 0.1% of it's size, we'd be content, cuz that's still like 1000% more than before

"before" referring to anything we did before FNF.

you can lose success just as easily as you got it, and for FNF, it got successful INCREDIBLEY fast. With that in mind, it's just the nature of things if it all loses relevancy.

So far FNF doing good through the year, but if it wasn't, it's no real sweat off our back.

Although it's uhhh easy to look at it that way from our perspective. Get back to me and see if my thoughts on this has changed if FNF is forgotten from all memory.

Q: will there be a sequel to the full ass game? Like 'the full a2s game' or something clever like fast & furious movies do

A: friday night funkin: tokyo drift

[spacesnaill]

Holds you at gunpoint. Every question for Jupiter. (you can skip some if you want-)

i love you, you motherfucker 🔫

1. what is your character's relationship to the traveler?

jupiter is aether’s and lumine’s big sibling, so they all get along very well. i like to think aether and lumine are way more brash and “act before you think” kind of people, while jupiter usually is the one who takes lead (both because of the big sib energy and because they are way more analytical). that being said, jupiter is aware that the twins are very much capable of surviving on their own and fighting if there is any need for that, which is why even after losing touch with them in tevyat they know that the twins will manage somehow, they just need to find them

2. is your character proud of, ashamed of, or indifferent to their feelings towards members of a certain gender?

i’d like to think that the species/society the trio comes from doesnt give a fuck about gender and sexuality so jupiter would never feel ashamed or upset about their feelings towards specific genders. i dont think they would rlly label themself but they are definitely not straight. as to having feelings towards others: they are usually straight forward in their approach

3. what is your character's relationship with themselves?

jupiter knows their purpose and objective very well, but that often clouds their true desires. i like to think that they havent really been thinking for themself up until they were stranded in tevyat and had to rely on themself. they came to realize their own opinions and perspectives that they carry with themself everywhere they go. tho, their views are rather flexible, because they are very much willing to learn if an oppoturnity arises. that being said, they dont quite know themself well just yet, they are still learning after all

4. what is their favorite region? why?

with how much of the game is available rn, liyue is definitely their favorite so far. it’s culture is incredibly rich and full of fascinating stories and legends. i personally am looking forward to the release of sumeru, but what will come out of it is yet to be seen

5. what is their relationship with Zhongli? do they have one at all?

oh they very much do. while his charm and politeness are qualities that they very much enjoy, what originally drew them closer to him was his vast knowledge over liyue’s traditions and customs. at first during their stay at liyue harbor they would wait to catch him during his afternoon and evening strolls around the city to ask him things and carefully listen to everything he has to say. id like to think that zhongli appreciated having such an active listener and even a conversation partner at some point. eventually their little friendship grew into fondness for each other and they would seek each other’s company, until jupiter straight up confessed. id like to think their relationship is fairly innocent and very much founded on mutual respect and admiration. they both value honesty and communicate with each other rather well. and even though, zhongli hesitated before agreeing to travel with them, leaving liyue behind, he doesnt regret doing it

6. who is their love interest? If they do not have one, who is their closest friend?

while zhongli is both their love interest and their dear friend, venti is their first close friend. during the events of chapter I they both bonded. venti seemed like someone containing a vast amount of knowledge that jupiter was eager to discover. it quickly became apparent to them that the bard doesnt particularly like to talk about the past in detail, but venti still would surprise them with how much he knew about art and the culture surrounding it. they are both pretty light spirited so they always enjoyed each other’s company and their bond only grew stronger during their travels.

7. what do they think of Mona?

they are curious about and intrigued by her methods. they can also very much relate to her pursuit of lost/forgotten knowledge. they like to ask her about astrology and theorize with her, asking her to teach them little things for an exchange of a hot, homemade meal

8. what do they think of The Knights of Favonius?

their opinion on the knights is mixed. they can very much see that most of the people working for them are underqualified and not cut for the job or only doing it for the renown. while the idea of a city without a ruler is appealing, in practice the knights are the ones ruling over it and jupiter was left feeling sceptical when thinking about their methods and the possible future. they dont have anything against the individual people in the organization, but they do think their approach is highly flawed

9. wine is Mondstadt's most popular drink. do they drink wine?

while they do indulge in alcohol from time to time, they dont seem to be able to get drunk or even tipsy. they’ve concluded that since their body is built differently than a person of this world’s, its very probable that they dont react to certain foods and products the same way. alcohol is like any kind of a drink for them and many people are terrified when they see them consume it in large quantities

10. what do they think of Kaeya?

they like his playful nature and think he is a highly intelligent person, who doesnt show anyone what he is truly capable of. his methods, while very  cunning, seem rather brash, which somehow reminds them of their siblings. while they are very much curious about his motives and history, they dare not to pray if it isnt welcomed. during their stay in mondstadt they would often times catch kaeya lurking in the tavern and spending time with the local gangs and bandits in order to extort information from them while drunk. in the rarer occasions where he would be alone, they would sometimes keep him company, filling the night with talks about nothing in particular

11. if they were forced to make the choice between killing their love interest/friend or killing themselves, what would they choose? why?

that very much depends on when that would happen. pre-separation with their siblings, they would very much operate on the hard logic of “whoever has more information/more important information should survive”. however after spending time in tevyat and meeting its people, jupiter learns to greatly value life and their inicial stance would change to a more selfless one. the more they get to know about the world the more they are willing to put their life on the line to preserve life in it, especially if its the life of someone they hold dear

12. what do they think of Childe? 16. is there a canon character your character hates? why?

at first they were open to the idea of being childe’s friend, however with time they started noticing that something was wrong with his overt friendliness. when he revealed his true intentions, jupiter was not surprised, but learning what he had chose to do made them absolutely despise him. staying in liyue has taught them a lot and made them care about the people living in this world. however childe seemed to have no disregard to them. they will not hesitate to fight him if their paths do cross again

13. do they carry a lot of Mora?

having a large amount of mora is basically a requirement when travelling with zhongli and venti. jupiter does take on a lot of jobs and comissions, though mora is mostly a secondary issue for them. they do find themself owning quite a lot of it at times until they overspend with their companions and are forced to rely on their survival skills in order to save up enough to get a roof over their heads

14. does your character side with Kaeya, Diluc or neither?

when it comes to the family feud: neither. jupiter doesnt like to pry into family matters and they understand both kaeya and diluc never talking about their issues with one another. while they cant imagine siblings behaving like that, due to their own experience, they dont feel like its their place to judge.

when it comes to the knights of the favonius: jupiter slightly leans more on diluc’s side, recognizing the many weaknesses of the organization as it is, however they both come from different places when critiquing it.

15. what do they think of Venti?

venti has become their best friend and they value him deeply. they worry about him sometimes, aware of the origin of his appearance and the history behind it. they like how venti seems to perceive life in a very poetic way and are fascinated by it. they get along very well and venti often fill their time during their travels by his songs, both known and not yet named

17. how did they acquire their vision?

they seem to be blessed with the same ability as their siblings when it comes to being granted powers without aquiring a vision themself

18. what is your character's weakness?

their curiosity and hunger for knowledge

19. what is their strength?

they utilize the knowledge they have gathered into things they can use to their advantage be it in battle or daily life

20. what is your character's theme song?

pure gold by half·alive

21. what weather do they love the most? why?

they love when its sunny. jupiter very much enjoys the feeling of sunlight on their skin

22. what do they think of Paimon?

jupiter would be Ecstatic to get to meet paimon. her vast knowledge in all matters would make her a valuable companion. in the current story they have no idea who she is as of now though

23. what do they think of the Fatui?

while they do not approve of the fatui’s methods, they cant help but think that something much deeper must be going on. jupiter wants to believe that the tsaritsa cant be simply evil and that perhaps she has some other, hidden motivation for her actions. having spent time with and got to know the fatui in liyue, they also know that not all of them are cartoonish bad guys

24. what do they think of the archons?

overall the concept of archons seems very new and intriguing to them. they do try to get as much information about their godhood out of venti and zhongli. they wonder whether this world really needs the archons as much as it claims to

25. what is the worst thing that could happen to your oc?

either losing their siblings or losing their memory (its a great fear of theirs)

26. what does your oc want the most?

their long term dream is to write down all the knowledge they’ve gathered so far and make it accessible and understandable to anyone willing to read it

[skyphile]

prime numbers! ((emberoops))

Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?

THIS IS SO SAD BUT NO...... he would DIE for a sibling, and his parents dont have siblings either so he doesnt even have cousins,,, he longs for that kind of relationship so much??

he ended up projecting being a big brother to many people over the course of his life instead, and it embarrasses him so much when he notices it happening, it makes him feel so silly

i would say the biggest tugs of that kind of dynamic rn are maybe with colin especially with all the dumb fake animosity, while adrien is almost a legit Parental/mother hen feeling of being protective of him

What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like?

ive talked about this a bit before, but graham was the product of an arranged marriage. his grandfather made his dad marry a woman from a prestigious family so they could keep their popularity and prestige and important connections themselves, especially as immigrants in a very racist country

his parents ended up caring deeply for one another, but not in a romantic way, and his mother was extremely depressed and anxious throughout her pregnancy, and after graham was born. she was nearly suicidal and grahams grandfather was only making things worse, so it was grahams dad who basically. decided to say fuck it to his father, bring grahams mother somewhere safe, give her all the money and resources and protection she needed to get better and pursue her own life, and he was super attached to baby graham and wanted to raise him all by himself

this early turmoil traumatized graham and when he grew up it was something that made him feel othered in relation to his peers, in addition to his race, his culture, his budding gender identity and sexual & romantic orientations. it made him feel deeply unloveable, broken, and incapable of love himself, it was one of the things that made him grow up very wary of the concept of marriage, and it took a lot of vulnerability, respect and genuine care and hard work between him and his dad to understand that the circumstances of his birth were not his fault, and that this was the best solution for everyone to be able to experience their love for each other the best way possible

graham has met her several times, writes to her regularly, and he treats her like a dear friend rather than a parent. hes happy for her, her art degrees, her girlfriend, and in turn shes expressed a lot of pride and joy in getting to meet this boy she helped bring to the world

What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?

graham loves his dad to fucking pieces

hes such a humble, emotionally intelligent and caring man, who from early on caught onto all the outdated and damaging aspects of the traditions of his family and fought against it time after time after time

he is completely different from his own father, who had very specific plans for him, and he just foiled them all!

with grahams birth, he did the best he could raising him by himself, thwarting his fathers enduring influence, and making sure this kid had all the tools to be true to himself and follow his heart no matter what. he isnt perfect and of course he made many mistakes, but he is always humble enough to admit when hes wrong, apologize to his child, communicate his feelings and figure out solutions together. graham has always had an amazing role model in him

the circumstances of grahams disappearance and then return after the trials of his own jumanji esque adventure are still difficult for him to understand, but he still believed graham, and he was the biggest force in bringing his son back from his damaging self isolation and motivate him to cook, to live, to carry on

he still remains ever supporting and adoring of his child, adoring of his new child in law, and just an all around amazing dude

On an average day, what can be found in your character’s pockets?

what pockets....

Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?

if theyre not horror movie or game induced, then theyre related to his period of isolation, to being trapped in an endlessly dark, silent, quiet cold place

he may see himself as he was when that happened too, close to starvation, hollow and alone

In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?

during the time they were in their own jumanji esque adventure, completely by himself, unaided, trapped in some reality away from his own so he could put it together and slowly solve this lock puzzle until he got to come home again

Is your character bothered by the sight of blood? If so, in what way?

hes usually ok with handling himself with crises, even when theres a lot of blood

What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?

bunnies! lots of sweet stuffies, including rabbits, pokemon and marine creatures

his gameboy and his tamagotchi too

What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?

i would say his biiiiiiig repulsion/aversion to dating culture in general? this is related to his family history but is also a big consequence of his aromanticism

he has huge trouble understanding all the rituals of people jumping into commitments and weird expectations and fleeting obsessions when most of the time they dont even have a solid foundation of time, vulnerability and trust to even call themselves a good friendship, especially in people who he sees jump into the same pitfalls over and over?

ultimately he understands that his own circumstances are important differences in how people shape their relationships, but it still makes him extremely secondhand anxious, especially because in his experience as an observer rushed things and pushed expectations make for very volatile and intense disappointments that end up hurting him a lot too, and hes kinda very tired of that

nonetheless, this has made him grow distant of friends in the past, and while he regrets some of it and wishes it was easier to compromise and be more comfortable about it, he also knows that he was right about many situations and ultimately it was a better idea not to get involved and trust his gut

What does your character dislike in other people?

nonsensical violence, general assholery, unwillingness to listen, lack of consideration for others, being treated as someone useful for stuff he knows or tools he has or things he can give and then being discarded, he also feels very peeved when people sexualize him when hes talked about his nudity before and how it relates with growing comfort with his self image

What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true?

i would say so, yes!! working on video games, pro cuddling and cooking for others are definitely pinnacles of things hes always thought would bring others joy

Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable.

home... close to kes, taking a deep breath in their little home, with their little family, and feeling wholly, intrinsically belonging...

similar locations are for example when his dad throws a party and graham gets to invite all his best friends and everyone just has a lovely time laughing and eating together. game streams are a similar venture too!!

but at the end of the day, coming home, kicking off shoes and clothes, snuggling up to his starlight and their babies? pure bliss

Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status?

i still dont understand what this means,,,,

he does not have honor OR status SOBS

Does your character feel that they deserve to have what they want, whether it be material or abstract, or do they feel they must earn it first?

oh it is a constant cycle of tremendous happiness and having to pinch himself bc hes so scared hes still in the silent cold dark alone... hes always trying to do better to keep earning this. hes a bit better about it now, he understand ppl are here bc they want to, but yknow. brain trauma still does things sometimes.

Has your character ever had a dependent figure who was not related to them?

nope! but his dad moods are soooo big now. he just wants to protect kids and be a good influence...

[mha-pokemon-zine]

Interest Check Results

Hello! The interest check has come to an end and we have received a lot of interest! Meaning that the zine is proceeding forwards!  Thank you very much to everyone who submitted a response!

We are going to display the results as well as responding to comments and questions received! We will also be making an information page for this, however it will be much shorter, so if you’d like to see more in depth responses, feel free to read the rest of the post! If you have any questions that aren’t mentioned in here also, feel free to send us an ask!

Since the first question is to just get a general idea of who may apply, we’re skipping straight to this one!

 The zine will include both written works and art based on this, as it is clear that so many people would like to see both! 

Based on the results, we will definitely be requesting that writers and artists try to include the 1-A and 1-B kids as much as possible! Additionally, we will not have main drawings focused around civilians in the BNHA universe as they were not as popular as many of the other results. If any writer or artist does want to include a civilian in their piece though, they are free to do so if it is not the main focus! For example, if someone is writing a Shouto piece and they decide to include Fuyumi and Natsuo that is totally fine! 

(Also 1-B had way more votes than 1-A right up until a week before it closed which was super surprising! They had 100% until people started excluding 1-B from their votes. I guess 1-B is always on the sidelines, sorry Monoma-)

We received a wide array of pokemon for this question! We will be making all the pokemon we received on here into a list and allowing contributors to choose from them if they would like to, especially with the pokemon mentioned multiple times! Since we did receive a lot though, we can’t really guarantee that all of the pokemon mentioned will make it in, however we will try to get as much in as possible, as well as pokemon that weren’t mentioned as well!

We also got a few super specific requests for pokemon coupled with BNHA characters! We will be giving these as suggestions to the person creating for them, however if the contributor doesn’t want to include that specific pokemon because they had other ideas, we will not be forcing them to!

Now! Onto the Comments/Questions section!

I'm wondering what the general tone of the zine would be and what kinds of stories would be requested of writers

 We would like the overall tone of the zine to be focused around friendship/bonding between trainers and their Pokemon! So overall, a more lighthearted zine. Writers and artists will be free to make their piece as they please as long as it doesn't go into NSFW territory or themes that are too dark for the Pokemon universe.

-Don't make it a free digital zine. I, and many others, would love to buy this. If it's free/digital only, I will not be interested in participating or downloading. -Not digital online only,,,, Iinterested in real zine book w/ merchandises and bundl

Since my last response (found here) I have gone back and checked again, and unfortunately I still do not feel comfortable making this a physical zine. My original concerns were due to issues with Nintendo claiming on other platforms, and since then I have found a zine Nintendo shut down despite it being a charity zine (something that I had actually considered prior to making the zine free) and especially due to all the issues in regards to zines scamming, I really do not want to say that the zine be charity or even for profit and end up having to cancel the zine completely. I hope that you can understand!

Will there be a physical copy of the zine?

There will not be a physical copy of the zine for reasons mentioned above.

Will there be merch?

As of right now, we do not plan on doing merch, however if any artists are interested in doing free digital merch for the zine like wallpapers etc, we will leave that option open to any artists who may be interested in creating them!

There are so many zines out there that don't deliver or are scams @m@ I hope this isn't one isn't one of them. I love pokemon! I'd also apply as a writer but thats for the apps process....

We intend to see this zine out until the end! We received quite a lot of interest so we will definitely be proceeding forwards! We hope you still apply as a writer!

I want to ask whether there's a overall time frame of when the zine will take place as I'm currently working on other BNHA projects as well. But aside from that, can't wait to see this come to life! Keep up the amazing work! :D

We will be posting the schedule for the zine shortly! 

What is the stance on ships? What's the desired maturity rating? If you use a mix of artists and writers, what ratio would you be looking at and roughly how many total contributors would you be trying to find?

Our stance on ships will be that there is no romantic ships allowed, however if you do want to draw two characters as friends in the image you are free to do so! The reason we have decided no romantic ships is because there are a lot of ships that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but with platonic stuff most people will enjoy it, even if they do or don't ship them romantically!

The Maturity rating will be mostly PG, however for characters in canon who are perhaps foul mouthed, we will allow writers to still make use of curse words if they would like to.

Overall, because this is a free zine, we do not have a set amount of contributors we expect to accept as it mostly depends on how many applications we get in the end. Overall, I'd like to have at least 30 contributors overall, but there may be more or less depending on who applies and how many apply to each category. Because of how writer to artist ratio normally goes in apps, I'd say there will probably be an 8 artist to 1 writer ratio, but again, if a lot of writers do apply in comparison to artists then the ratio will change!

Is this zine gonna focus on the individual people and MHA and thier pokemon or is this also gonna be relationship focussed? and by relatioship I don't just mean shipping, I mean partnerships, friendships, maybe people who travel or work together.

We intend for the zine to be focused more around individual characters from MHA and their Pokemon, however if an artist or writer would like to include perhaps friends or rivals into their piece they are free to do so as long as it is not something romantic.

Generation 9. The game isnt out yet amd the list of all pokemon. How will the zine show the new generation?

For Generation 8, we will be allowing contributors to include Pokemon revealed so far. Additionally, we will not be allowing contributors to make shiny versions or even evolutions of the Pokemon revealed so we can avoid any inconsistency in canon.

[mirroroftheworld]

SERIOUSLY HOW COME THE TWO GIANTS THAT ARE LITERAL OPPOSITES YET IN COMMON DIDNT HAVE A CANON INTERACTION OR MORE THAN JUST ONE-SIDED?! GIVE ME GALTROX CONTENT

yeah im surprised that nowhere during aatroxs development they didnt think of giving him some more connections with galio? like they do have a lot of opposite similarities and stuff. i guess this was still before the time riot games really put effort into giving characters 120 voicelines for each champion they encountered (dont mention his extremely long voicelines im well aware), plus he was in development hell for like, oh, what, 2 years? so i guess they couldnt cram it in. the fact we dont have anything else makes me upset, like no skinlines together or whatever, but im used to it.

of course though there IS a reason why this hasnt happened... its because aatrox isnt galios foil. its sion. sion and galio are foils, aatrox is barely an after thought. even their splash arts are foils to each other - sion is looking down upon an injured soldier whos probably going to get crushed by him (or sliced), and galio is looking down at the citizens of demacia with glee because he defended them from invading warriors. as much as i hate to say it (and i hateeee itttttttt) theres not much reason for riot to give us any real galtrox content in the lore, even though i sure damn wish we had it. (i wouldnt doubt they could probably put the two together in a skinline or those 'the communitys favorite ships' post if it gets popular enough, but im not holding my breath)

also theres the fact that galio is just. ignored completely, for some reason? like yeah lets just ignore the character that redefined and rewrote the entirety of demacia, lets just ignore one of the most important characters in the citys lore, lets just fucking ignore that guy. barely a passing mention in the lux comic (even though it was a fucking magic vs anti-magic lore, which youd imagine would be important to galios character????) and they just give us one of durands scrolls, implying that he intended for galio to come alive from the very beginning and he also knew of swains fucking demon companion, and never elaborted further?????????????????? all we got was a small appearence at the tail end of season 2020s cinematic? are you fucking kidding me. they just set up all this shit for galio and never give us anything at all. im used to it because ive been a galio fan since 2017 and i have inhaled enough copium to not really care anymore most of the time but i think about it and its just

(doesnt help that the fandom doesnt give two shits about him either)

[surprisebitch]

What are your anime suggestions, I’ve been trying to get into it but I don’t really know what to watch

Hey there! and yeeesss, i’m so glad you’re gonna give anime a try! there are so many good stories and plots in anime which dont exist in western media so it’s a great mode of entertainment! so as for recs, lemme copy and paste my previous answer to this similar question and update it to answer yours!

As for starter anime, I think these are good ones you can start with and have received widespread acclaim:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Hunter X Hunter

Gakuen Babysitters (feel good anime that has babies!!)

Yuri! On Ice (gay anime)

Madoka Magica

Cowboy Bebop

—–

You can keep track of what I watch and watched through following my MyAnimeList account:

https://myanimelist.net/profile/carlowesome

I do my best to update that one. It’s kinda like an active anime journal where you can document the anime you watch, plan to watch, and completed but here are individual links for each

watched - https://myanimelist.net/animelist/carlowesome?status=2 

watching - https://myanimelist.net/animelist/carlowesome?status=1 

to watch - https://myanimelist.net/animelist/carlowesome?status=6

If you need to read like some opinions about all the anime I watch and have watched then click ‘Read More’. I put a mini paragraph next to each anime and also categorize them. However, i don’t want to overwhelm you too much but I’ll just put this down for your reference anyway.

[last updated: 28 Apr 2018]

Currently watching:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - i admit it has a slow buildup but be patient because you will really find it intense and see how it’s not your typical mecca anime. so far, i think it seems to be a deconstruction of the genre and has alot of psychological themes

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - i dont know why my memory about this anime is somehow a blur. i’m sure i finished it but also not so i’m rewatching it and honestly i think this is a good starter anime. i know many people who do not normally watch anime and watched this

Boku no Hero Academia - it’s a recent anime and it’s really good! i think it’s on course to becoming a really big anime that will last many seasons at this rate. the story is about a world where majority of the inhabitants are heroes cause they have quirks (powers).. and the premise is that the main character doesnt have one but he wants to be a hero so watch and see how the story unfolds

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures (currently on Stardust Crusaders) - macho anime with an excellent plot! the guys are hot haha and many of the memes are in japanese so watch the original subbed but if you prefer not to read, the dub isnt bad. it’s very memey but the story is really entertaining and has unpredictable moments

One Punch Man - a parody of a superhero anime. tbh this isnt really binge-watch material cause it’s like a running gag and the story unfolds after episode 5 so i’ve just been watching this during my cardio days in the gym. but it’s a parody of a superhero anime

Hunter X Hunter - this anime is popular and it’s about hunters. so the beginning has the protagonist wanting to be a hunter and then he meets some fellow hunters along the way. it’s one of the highest rated anime in MyAnimeList (the RottenTomatoes equivalent of the anime world) so yeah check this out!

Tokyo Ghoul - the opening song is what captivated me to watch this tbh. although i heard the manga is better. it’s interesting though

Anime currently airing and I’m caught up on (just waiting for the next season to air)

Gakuen Babysitters - super feel good anime about babies!!!!! 

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - super funny anime. if you need a laugh, this will really lift you up. i watched the first two episodes in sub and dub back to back.. and i can vouch that the voice actors for the English dub are excellent. it’s actually even funnier.. but if you prefer subs, then that’s fine. it’s just the lines are more humorous, expressive and have more variety :) Nozaki’s voice is also attractive in the dub.. it’s still very Nozaki imo. this anime pokes fun at the shoujo manga yet still has romantic elements. it’s mostly comedy though 

Shingeki no Kyojin / Attack on Titan - it’s the Game of Thrones of anime imo.. like it’s so GOOD.. it will just make you gag after every episode!!! it’s so intense and there are really badass characters. and the plot is really brilliant. like if you think season 1 was like WHAT THE FUCkk.. wait til season 2! this anime is crazy and exciting. not for the faint-hearted tbh cause it can be graphic and disturbing (also dont get attached. they could die!) but yeah, this anime is popular true and some say it’s overrated but that’s because it really deserves all the recognition and success it has for its amazing plot

Anime watched/finished:

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Battle Tendency) - SONO CHI NO SADAMEEE JOOOOOOJOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the type of anime that’ll get you wanting to go to the gym and lift. that being said, it has a really amazing story

Kimi no Na Wa - universally lauded and recently released! it’s the best film released in 2016 imo. i swear it’s really next level storytelling

Rurouni Kenshin - i think i watched this anime twice/thrice.. It’s so suspenseful. it’s about samurais. and this anime made me interested about Japan’s history. it’s kind of a period drama with amazing fight sequences. and it’s critically acclaimed. it’s my father’s all-time favourite anime

Rurouni Kenshin OVA - it’s a prequel. also more violent and tragic than its anime counterpart.. like it’s really different from the series. but it’s so good. you’ll find out how Kenshin got his iconic X mark from here!)

Ghost Stories - THE DUB IS A MASTERPIECE! THE SUBBED IS SHIT. TRUST ME. the DUB is the popular one too cause it’s the superiour version. You really have to see this one. the anime bombed in Japan so the english dubbers got all the rights for the anime and they gave the go signal for the dubbers to do whatever the fuck they want and the end result is fucking hilarious. it shits on the Scary Movie Franchise tbh

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - i swear do not be deceived.. it is a really intense and surprisingly dark anime with excellent plot twists

Jigoku Shoujo / Hell Girl - angst, tragedy, philosophical anime analysing humanity’s hatred, need for vengeance, and suffering. Futakomori or the 2nd season is my favourite but it’s worth finishing the entire series. 3rd season is very painful to watch though and you dont have to watch that one tbh if you dont want to lol

Love Live! School Idol Project - i honestly just watched this like out of curiosity and just for kicks. i was not expecting to love it but after episode 3, i was like wait??? wasnt this anime supposed to be fun?? why am i crying?? so yeah, it’s super good, touching, entertaining and sweet! and the songs are really catchy and good.. TBH this anime is like so gay since there are no men (except Honoka’s dad) so yeah it passes the Bechdel Test with perfect score

Love Live! Movie - the conclusion to the anime!

Love Live! Sunshine - i watched this like a few months after finishing the original series cause i loved the original girls and i was worried i wont like these girls.. but honestly, you will appreciate them. and it has more gay subtext. btw tell me who your fave girls/best girls are after watching Love Live and Sunshine. my best girls are Umi Sonoda and Kanan Matsuura :>

Yu Yu Hakusho - occult, spirit world, ghosts, and fighting. you most probably have heard of this

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters - 1st series starring Yugi is iconic. it might seem juvenile though so i’m not sure if you will like it but the anime is really good if you love the card games

Digimon - can be very intense! better than Pokemon imo

Cardcaptor Sakura - this is also suspenseful. like the premise is essentially that Sakura has to catch all the “monsters” that were freed from this book. and it’s up to her to “capture” them and put into cards. magic, fantasy, and beautiful animation

Ranma ½ - this was so funny but the ending was disappointing cause it got cancelled apparently.. i really hope this will go out of limbo and give us a proper ending like InuYasha did but i doubt it

Danganronpa (murder plot twists, intense and despair-filled storyline. click this to know more about the premise. it’s like Battle Royale meets CSI meets How To Get Away With Murder. btw i highly suggest you play this game (it’s available on Steam) instead of watching the poorly condensed anime. so buy it on steam or you can download it how you like cause it’s one of the best games ever. and if you plan on watching this, there is no Danganronpa 2 anime so yeah just play the first game tbh. here’s a trailer of the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwJeZPMhdUk. if ya dont wanna play the games then you can watch the anime. and after watching this, here’s a link of the playthrough of the 2nd game. it’s super fun, full of plot twists, and interactive) 

Yuri On Ice - it’s a really cute gay anime. people will argue it isnt and its queerbait but i’m gay and alot of the things which happen are too much for just bros to do so yeah, i believe it’s canon gay or mlm. and i enjoyed it so you watch it and be the judge

Blood+ - vampires and sword fighting

Ghost In The Shell - it’s a sci-fi movie

Yakitate Japan - baking and cooking!

Getbackers - still up to debate if the duo are gay but if you google art of them, there have been official art released and it’s so gay lol. but yeah it’s shonen genre and it’s not canon gay

Cowboy Bebop - a CLASSIC. the dub is great!!

I don’t remember if i finished these but I watched a lot of episodes enough to recommend it and will rewatch them soon to relieve memories. I’m pretty sure I tuned in though and watched like 80%:

Fushigi Yuugi (i think this is shoujo but it has a nice adventure storyline)

Gundam series (i think i finished the first Gundam and the second)

Tsubasa Chronicles (it’s like a spin-off of Cardcaptor Sakura but they’re like all grown up and the plot is different)

Naruto

One Piece (i watched like the first four seasons)

Bleach (i remembered watching until episode 40 omg)

Great Teacher Onizuka (this is so funny tbh. i think i watched almost all of it)

Studio Ghibli films I watched:

Spirited Away

The Wind Rises

Ponyo

Tales from Earthsea

Anime I plan to watch (many suggested this to me and i plan on watching them so i’ll write them down here) :

Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice)

Anohana The Flower We Saw That Day

Re: Zero

Your Lie in April

Shin sekai Yori

Gintama

More of Makoto Shinkai’s movies like 5 centimetres per second, etc.)

More Ghibli films too

Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive (after i finish FFXV game im watching this one)

Persona 4

Here you go!!!! I know it’s an extensive list. I’ll probably make this a masterpost of anime recs and will update this list, and add more soon. If you have any questions or anything, don’t be shy to message me! :)

[musicallyinclinedgay]

(PLAUSIBLE) BMC AU’s

Y’know I gots me a hankering for some bmc au’s so why not make a post of plausible au’s that’ve been sitting on this thinking noggin for a bit now at 2 AM, shall we?

Siren au, or like, encantados/selkies oh shit oh man ima just put selkies in a section all by itself, lemme calm down here - something like sirens and humans or pirates and mermaids and sirens or sirens are guardians of a lake/body of water, that type of thing

Selkie/Encantado au - where one character is a selkie/encantado/shape shifter who is tied to a skin of their animal i can already imagine an adorable dolphin Michael

angels or literally anything with wings au - i love me some birb boys

arts or video game creators au - now jeremy and michael make the industry, following their passion of wha they love most; video games! and each other

ooh something like sao au - stuck in a video game (because that isnt overdone HA) everyone could be a different rpg class while still having lives outside of the game

reverse au (probably for those only dedicated to one of the gals) - christine wants to become more popular so that Jake will notice her, her best friend; Jenna heavily encourages her. Christine gets a SQUIP from Chloe, your typical high school bully and dates Michael to get to Jake. Jake however is falling in love with brooke. sadly Jeremy’s jealousy gets in the way, trying to win back brooke, the most popular girl in school or get his best friend’s attention back, who knows in the end Jake and Brooke break up and Christine almost squips the entire school, thankfully Jenna saves the day. (honestly this could be easily switched up but i liked the idea of Michael and Jerm as Brooke and Chloe)

now, kinda reverse auish not really - michael takes the squip with jeremy, both are then squipped WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?? idfk that’s for me to ponder aand you to maybe make

flowers - just, flowers

time traveler/ magical stranger au - one day a magical stranger whisks a character or two into the world of magic and time manipulation

kinda sorta more off of the last one only Michael takes the squip, maybe trying to convince Jerm that he shouldn’t have it (research beforehand? paranoia?) idk, what would happen next? would michael ditch jeremy for popularity (like a certain someone we know) or would he fight the squip? or would the squip be there to help his desires, lordy knows what those are tho

TIME LOOP AU either=

madoka magica loop

spn loop

mekakucity actors loop

or the cult classic; groundhog’s day loop

your typical coffee shop/flower shop and tattoo store set up

BROADWAy - just go full fledge; the bmc squad now works at a thatre company, putting on performances; drama ensues both on the stage and behind it im really liking this one actually 

cross overs - literally bmc with any musical or any other fandom is just amazing now let’s consider a few, eh?

cabaret - just. imagine.

aladdin - now im just being biased

next to normal - ive actually thought about this one and i have no fucking clue how it’d work

warehouse 13 - THIS WOULD BE THE BEsT SHIT EVER WITH EVERYONE BEING DORKS IN EACH OTHER’S GENERAL DiRECTIOnsS

highschool musica- wait shit it practicaly is uhhmm, fuck it, high school musical - wouldnt it be adorable?

DEH - obviously the superior choice, maybe having connor saved at the beginning? ;w; my sweet baby boy

GROUNDHOG’S DAY - I DONT KNOW HOW ITD WORK ALL I KNOW IS ITD BE GOOD SHIT

Urine Town - yes

sweets au - this can either be two things

each bmc character is an anthropomorphic sweet, ex: Jeremy is a twinkie, Michael is a cinnamon roll, Christine is an angel’s food cake

OR it’s where they’re all in culinary school/own/compete in the confectionery industry (maybe have one of them like tea, i really like tea)

[superemeralds]

my take on forces

this is gonna be a long and complicated read but bare with me.

I tried to make this as accessible as possible, using images for visualization and very generous spacing between topic paragraphs.

The question I ask is...

Who is this mysterious villain that people call “Infinity” or “Infinite”? What are their powers? What are those cubes? What may have caused Forces to have happened? What will happen in Forces?

I’m going to present multiple theories that I have come up with in the last few hours since the trailer was aired.

Check TLDR at the end of the post if you are unable to keep up with my thought jumping or the way I type. This theory is about 10 or 11 pages long on word.

Going off physical resemblance this villain looks a lot like proto-blaze (as shown with this redraw of the original prototype art)

(the picture shows the villain in comparison to proto-blaze and current blaze)

They have the exact same eyecolor when color-picked, they have resembling hairstyles, they both have a gem located on their chest. The markins on the tail resemble blaze to an extend, but the tail of the villain is broader. Moreover is Blaze not confirmed for forces yet, maybe that would be the big plot twist?

Why would Blaze suddenly be a main villain? Does this even have to be the real Blaze? I mean. The weird hair/quill thing on the head is white, and the mask has bat ears. White fur, bat ears? That is rouge. But it can’t be rouge because of the missing wings and the fluffy tail.

wait. Big ears. Fluffy Tail.

(picture of a fennec fox)

It might be a new character, perhaps a fennec? Huge ears. Typical canine tail. The face shape fits almost too well.....

oh shit guys I’m. I’m onto something here.

Set was a god associated with chaos, storms and the desert. Originally, he served as a powerful protector deity of Upper Egypt. [...] When Egypt was unified and the worship of Horus became dominant, Set was increasingly villainized, particularly after Egypt was invaded by a people who identified him with their own chief god. The most famous story about him is his killing of his brother Osiris for the throne of Egypt and his contests with Horus over it.

Animal Motifs: [...] Possibly a Fennec fox, otherwise it's just called the 'Set animal'

Adaptational Villainy: Originally a protective deity, he was demonized into a God of Evil [...].

(source: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/EgyptianMythology )

But wait.... Gods? Chaos??? The sonic world is made up of Chaos Energy! And who else is a God? Solaris and Mephiles!

Hold on guys.... Please hear me out on this one, because I might’ve figured this out to an extend.

When i first saw them I immediately got a Mephiles and Solaris vibe. Why? Because of that red eye and the what seems to be green iris. Another hint to Mephiles and Solaris in general is the shape of the quills/hair or this character which looks a lot like a popular perception of the sun vriewed frontal.

and (thanks to @sh4dzi for the hint) who do we know is the sun? Solaris the sun god. Mephiles is one half of solaris. And he said it himself!

He is the sun. He is a being that stands above time. A bridge to other worlds? Mephiles is probably very similar to dark matter. We can’t grasp it, its beyond our capabilities to comprehend because it probably exists within another dimension. As time itself is “the forth dimension” we live in. We can notice the effects that dark matter has on our universe by space time disortions like curved spaces. And as we know, Mephiles is capagle of time travel! Just like that. No chaos needed.

Those cubes that the villain is holding up remind me a lot of the shadow of a four dimensional cube: The Tesseract, also called Hypercube.

(image of the shadow of a tesseract)

(image of the cubes the villain is controlling)

You can clearly see that there is a cube within those cubes, but it is reflected on each side. The confusing part is, that even though we see 3D reflections on each side, we dont see the rest of that 3D object beyond the face of the cube they are reflected on. This is a way to symbolize the fact that there is another dimension within this three dimensional object.

But wait! Didn’t I say it was called a tesseract? Have you heard that somewhere before? I bet you did!

(image of the MCU tesseract)

In the MCU there is an artifact called the Tesseract! What is the tesseract? Simple! It holds the infinity stone of space!

This cube is pure energy, which a mortal cannot hold without crumbling to ashes by the sheer amount of force this relic possesses. This cube controls space itself. It can be used to warp to another place. It can also be used to defend oneself off of enemies energetic attacks. Moreover can it be used to achieve visions from the past, present and future.

How is this possible? Time itself is not a physical dimension, but a dimension of itself. It flows in only one direction and it is ever present. The past present and future exist all at the same time! Does this sound familiar? I hope it does!

(part of the script of the final story in 06, summary below)

Silver wants to destroy Solaris, a creature existing in the past, present and future, a creature standing above time itself. A creature that sees more dimensions than we can comprehend, a creature that sees the multiverse unfolding before themselves. (Hence it wanting to destroy “all existing timelines” ! )

Yes, the multiverse! There is one theory that says that every possible timeline in the universe is possible. every second another alternate universe, and alternate timeline is split from the one you are currently in. Each and everyone of us exists infinite times, in infinite different scenarios, no matter how small the differences!

(the infinity symbol as shown in the trailer)

Infinity. the symbol shown in the trailer. isnt that the name people give our mysterious new villain?

Our villain has access to the multiverse. Their powers reselble the tesseract, they surpass the power of chaos control. This villain has Solaris’ power. to warp and bend space time at their whim. To access the infinite different universes.

This is how they were able to summon all the death egg robots into the city, despite eggman only ever having made one of them!

The time eater only had the power to travel through time, much like Mephiles. I theorize Mephiles to be the god of time itself, and the time eater may perhaps be a part of him. An alternate form? His shadow? We just don’t know. All I know is that Iblis must be the god of space, for iblis and mephiles to fuse and create solaris: The God of Space-Time.

HOLD YOUR HORESE I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING

(jet holding the cubic key of babylon garden)

Look at what Jet is holding. The symbolic of the tesseract has been in the games before! The babylonians were an ancient civilization with immense advanced technologies. perhaps they had the key to unleashing the manipulation of space-time? As we can see in riders the babilonians managed to create an infinate space in a castle.

In zero gravity, we see that the Babylonians had the power to defy gravity. We get to know that they had built an engine (the ARKs of Cosmos) that was rendering their Babylonian Garden afloat. (We would know more if Jet had not told wave to shut up)

The ARKs or Cosmos have enormous powers, which the ancestors of our rouges possessed. These powers are: Direct convertion of Mass-energy into other forms of energy and the control over gravity itself.

Together they induce a black hole. Black holes are immense amounts of mass converted into minimal space, making a force so strong that it destroys time itself...... It Destroys space time by compressing everything into a single point in space, into a single point in time. Basically stopping time.

So to think....

Space-Time is the very fabric of our observable universe. If you control space time, you control every possible time line, every possible outcome, every possible universe. Everything.

( “I will be able to control everything and rule the world.”-Eggman)

and

( ”Capture mephiles, you must bring him to me” - Eggman )

This is why Eggman wanted both, iblis and mephiles, in order to complete his machine in 06. To be able to fully control space-time.

He can’t use chaos control himself, and chaos control would never be able to aid him in the massive way he wants things to go down. No. He needs the power of a god.

It is very clear that Eggman has a liking for mythlogy and ancient creatures, possessive of immense powers. (just like his grandfather.. huh)

Eggman is trying to find a way to control space and time. He’s been doing so ever since the beginning of the franchise.

Ever since Sonic 2 he was eager to get the chaos emeralds. In sonic 3 he first learned about Chaos itself and just how much energy it possessed. In sonic CD he already wanted to conquer time and space, hoping that the time stones would aid him.

in every big title that follows, eggman is always out to gain access to mythical power in order to fulfil his wish. Perfect chaos, chaos energy, solaris, dark gaia, wisps, the zeti (or in the end just life force itself). The ARKs of the cosmos from te babylon rouges......

But he always needs someone or something else to control that power for him, because he is unable to himself, being a mere human being.

Hold on. He needs someone else to control the power. He can create the means to control, but he lacks the certain something. Thats what the villain is for....

Did Eggman straight up create them? Did he follow into Geralds footsteps and created his own ultimate life form? Or did he manipulate another being?

I just got a message reminding of those “clues” the sonic social media posted and was reminded of the myth of icarus (thanks @auranon )

(image of crypic message )

The secret lies in the Empire; the Eggman Empire. Which is now the world. Its real. Eggman is the emperor of the world.

We can get it back; the world. The world will be freed from eggman.

The son of Daedalus is Icarus. The Man that used Wings made of wax and featers to escape prison. He was so blinded by his euphoria that he tried to reach the sun. His wings burned away and he fell to his death.

What id this is what happened to our villain? What if this is the point this game is leading to. They are blinded by the power eggman (the father in this analogy) gave them (or improved), trying to either unleash solaris’ full potential, or reach solaris’ level of power.

Even if Solaris was not involved, the Sun symbolic (their head being shaped like the sun) makes sense, because of the analogy to Icarus.

I dont remember the numbers the sonic social media is referring to but if you can find that please add on to this post!!!

You might think: hold on! What does this all have to do with sonic forces?? How does this all make sense? How does this all add up?

Alright my unknowing children i’m gonna present you a summary and a conclusion here.

TLDR; only related to what this all has to do with forces.

I’m strongly going off symbolism here. The villain resebles a fennec fox a whole lot and that mgiht be the key to understanding them and the story, also leading us to the clues as to who that might be, or who they might’ve been inspired by.

Them being a fennec fox might be very well symbolic for their evil being, as Set was later seen as god of Chaos and Evil. Maybe this is foreshadowing what will happen.

Eggman is onthe throne, he rules the world, and that villain is his pawn. He was somehow able to convince this creature to work for him, perhaps by granting, or improving, the incredible power to control the multiverse, and aid him with his goals.

Assuming they derive their power from solaris, or any other ancient relic that would be able to grant this immense power of maybe advanced/enhanced chaos control, they can warp space-time and access the multiverse to retrieve multiple items, such as death egg robots and villains that are not meant to exist anymore, not in the way they are presented in the trailer.

But if we go by the symbolism of Set and Icarus, then the villain will throw Eggman from his throne and claim it for themselves, blinded by power, essentially having used Eggman for their means by obeying him just long enough to reach their goal.

But following the myth of Icarus, something will go wrong. Something is going to go terribly wrong. How? Maybe it’ll end in a black hole, like it did in zero gravity; maybe there will be a space-time rift like in 06. We don’t know yet.

What we know is that we can look forward to this story, if my theory turns out to be even just somewhat true.

Wow that was a lot. Thank you so much for reading! I’ll gladly appreciate to have everyone engage in a discussion by now. I’ll be very happy to answer any questions you might have concerning my totally all over the place theory.

Sources: (in case you want to read up/check the facts or just understand what im saying and where im coming from  better)

(some sources are in german im sorry but you should be able to change the language of wikipedia articles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dprxYd_16Ck (the trailer itself)

http://de.marvel-filme.wikia.com/wiki/Tesserakt

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/EgyptianMythology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywn2Lz5zmYg

http://www.sonic-cult.org/dispart.php?catid=3&gameid=18&subid=1&artid=4

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikarus

[trickstarbrave]

yugioh gx is a crafted masterpiece. it doesnt have the best animation (lower budget and trying to tackle changing the art style a bit did that and i can forgive it). it succeeded as a spin off that had more spin offs not because “ygo dm was popular” it was crafted not to ride the hype, or ‘continue the journey’ it was made with everything in mind to be a spiritual successor. the spin off fans wanted and deserved. 

most DM fans were in middle school. they made their way slowly (and some still in middle school) over the three-four years DM aired to high school and high school is a big transition and the part in your life you have to enjoy everything you can and also learn what it means to be responsible, mature, and how to handle concepts like ‘adulthood’. (at least, speaking in the culture and pop culture of japan. it wanted to be its own thing and it did everything it could to build off the success of dm and make its own path and it did it really well. the card game’s success changed everything in the universe it existed in. now there isnt just entire cities taken over by tournaments run by rich CEOs, there are entire schools to churn out the best duelists! but its also not yugi. the pharaoh is gone and thats good. the ending of DM was justified (and the movie still has atem stay in the afterlife happy relatively) GX has an entire god damn super meta and comedic episode in season one where a guy steals yugi’s deck and pretends to be yami yugi, basically telling the audience “we’re not going to try to be DM. we can’t be DM bc if we pretend everything is okay and yami yugi is here or have a totally fake rip off yami yugi, it will be hallow and empty”

but GX gets the bad rap it does in the west because, despite this show being crafted specifically to comfort DM fans who are probably a bit lost now that their long time running show is over, despite it being about mature themes like adulthood responsibility and being adults, despite it saying outright it wont pretend to be DM bc every fan knows nothing could replace DM, despite it doing all of this through god damn western comic book heroes and hitting fans over the head at every second how much the show itself adores and respects DM,

western fans are too fucking angry to accept it. DM ended and they got upset but instead of understanding and working through the disappointment and conflicting emotions, they decided that GX was the problem, not them. and thus since they had negative emotions around GX, it must be because GX sucked ass. combined with the change in tone of GX compared to the end of DM, western anime fans rejected it because it ‘wasn’t DM’. despite the very fucking core the show and how plan and clear the show explains why ‘pretending to be dm’ would be one thousand times worse. 

and you can see it in the stupid gx abridged series following LK’s lead, except this one doesnt borrow ANYTHING from the source material expect the rough plot of each individual episode and character names. everyone hates judai bc he isnt yami yugi and every trait that makes him unlike yami yugi is dumb, therefore all the characters in the GX abridged hate judai bc of those characteristics bc STUPID NERD MEN WANNA JACK THEIR GIANT HATE BONER OVER THE FACT DM ENDED AND YGO MOVED ON 

“well what abt the other spin offs” people only gave 5ds the time of day bc season 1 (and parts of season 2) were super edgy and ‘dark’ and every nerd asshole with an internet connection was in their edgelord phase. they thought yusei was ‘cool’ and ‘ruthless’ and ‘tough’ despite the fact he’s a nerdy hacker living in a subway station coming to take his shit back from his ex-boyfriend. 5ds is about classism and systemic abuse and multiple forms of interpersonal abuse (at least in the beginning, give it a break it had a huge scandal) and no one talks abt that just how ‘mature’ (edgy) it is and how ‘cool’ yusei is 

[annieoftheshitposts]

this post used to be a link to the old canons page but i’m turning it into a text dump of the revised one for people on mobile [or who have bad wifi/computers that the fancy schmancy script on the canons page wouldn’t play well with.] theres a lot sorry not sorry. here we go.

Canon Info

 Much more is said about Annie in external sources than the game itself, here's copypastes of all I know of and go by.

From the 3rd DLC Character Voting page:

As popular figures in nationwide folktales, a children’s television adaptation of Annie and Sagan’s adventures was inevitable. The show’s success lies in its pair of live action hosts, who are as convincing as their cartoon counterparts. Though what the public learns about the real Annie might surprise them. Annie is a seasoned fighter who has been around for a long time, acquiring many skills and powers along the way. Her sword is forged from a meteorite and can channel the power of the stars in its sweeping cleaves. Her right eye bonds her to her Remote Parasite and partner, Sagan, who grants her powers of a galactic motif. While some of her abilities carry more of a sparkly magical girl motif, Annie tries to execute them with the same sternness.

From "The canon info thread" on Skullheart Encore forums:

-Annie is several-century-old. Her immortality was gained when her parents wished on the Skull Heart so that Annie would never have to experience the hardship of adulthood, thereby making her forever a child. -She has had many different weapons and abilities throughout her life. - Sagan, her remote parasite. keeps her right eye in his mouth. - She’s physically not able to swear due to her condition - She is familiar with Double due to her experience fighting Skullgirls - Annie has encountered a lot of Skullgirls and has killed a lot, but not the same a lot. She’s seen the cycle multiple times and seen how they become stronger each time and is looking for the underlying source now. - The Annie of the Stars show is very similar to the Super Mario Bros. Super Show with live action segments with cartoons and PSAs and commercials in between. - Sagan can talk. Somehow. - Annie hides her immortality by getting a new hairstyle every few years. The show tells the audience that they have simply changed the actress. Eliza also pulls a similar trick

and finally some other misc. scraps that weren't covered above:

-annie has some kind of "super" or "powered up" form, in which she seems to fuse with sagan. it can be seen on her

move concept sheet, in the end of robo-fortune's story mode, and as a very tiny feature on one of robo-fortune's merch posters, but to my knowlege it's never really been talked about.

-she's been depicted with an "incognito outfit", presumably for going out in public and not being recognized by fans.

-sagan is named after renowned astrophysicist carl sagan. this isnt really relevant to anything but it's not on the wiki so i figured i'd share :b

-and this random pic of annie in the past with a different look, plus gun and minus eyepatch, apparently official art from the "digital art compendium". i haven't seen the source for this one myself though, and count this one more as speculative canon since that ingame image up there with her eye uncovered doesn't show a scar or any kind of damage from this.

-another canon fact about annie is she is strong and brave and i love her.

Headcanon (Annie)

this is pretty disorganized bc i come up with and revise random shit on a fairly regular basis, but the very least it should be all here and up-to-date. [though on this text post version i may forget to keep it updated oops.

she can still only normally see from the one eye in her head [and likewise probably has terrible depth perception lmao], but she can “project” her vision into the one sagan has if need be, during which time both he and her main eye are blind.

even though sagan’s vision is his own and she doesn’t actively “see” through that eye most of the time, the stuff he sees still becomes part of her memory and she can recall it if need be, though it’s far less tangible and kind of a surreal experience trying to do so.

the space where her other eye was is now just...space. like empty starry void stuff. yes, TECHNICALLY, you could put stuff in it but why would you. sagan can feel when something interacts with it and it’s really just weird and uncomfortable for both of them.as sagan is the source of their powers, the strength of her abilities is slightly dependent on her distance from him. something like long sustained flight is really only capable if they’re touching, but she still has ample firepower and ability to zip around for a pretty good range otherwise.

Not interested in anime

absolutely hates being called her full name; hasn't gone by anything other than "Annie" for longer than anyone that should be alive today should know.

part of her curse of eternal youth is remembering everything up until the point it kicked in and she stopped aging [i.e. when she was Actually a kid] exactly as well as if she hadn’t aged.

from that point however, a lot of it is hazy as shit aside from more recent times [as you’d expect from someone who’s been around hundreds of years]. this one's gonna be angsty as shit when i address it and you can thank @sandstriker for that. fucker.

also hates being restrained. by the concept sheet and beo's story, her fighting style is very kinetic and relies heavily on mobility; take that away and you get one very uncomfortable and very angry starchild. [this one's 'cause of y'all with the handcuffs asks. this is part of why she's so agitated rn.]

what's in the pouch? whatever is alternatively convenient. is it snacks? is it a quick incognito disguise? is it her whole entire sword? who knows. i think it might be infinite hammerspace in there.

i haven't put much though into this side of her story yet, but i've decided part of the mythos of the "annie of the stars" character as a figure of legend is that she literally lives, among the stars.

if there's enough folktales about her to base an entire show off of, i'm willing to bet she used to be less elusive when she was just about fighting skullgirls before dedicating herself to the whole "looking for the underlying source" thing.

Headcanon (Sagan)

tl;dr: as far as things go here, he's essentially a cat and/or younger sibling.

Sagan's canon information and characterization is basically nonexistant, so i got to do pretty much whatever i wanted with him lmao.

simply put, he's a little gremlin of a partner, but he is genuinely good-natured and a happy-go-luckly little dude. mischevious, loves to get up to Shenanigans, go off and hide/disappear to fuck knows where for several hours, climb and sit on tall things[or failing that, annie's head], etc. @sawkinator has described him, regrettably accurately, as "the Token Disney Animal Sidekick". he has a lot of mannerisms like an animal, but is still very much a being of at least average human intelligence. he's also surprisingly indestructible. far from invincible of course, but in canon he's been shown to be quite stretchy and...possibly have minor shapeshifting capabilities?? he's pretty much immune to being squashed and feels very little [if any] pain from most things. really, as far as i can tell he's pretty much a weird sentient plushie. like, if it's not going to damage a plushie, it's not going to hurt him; examples being: getting knocked back really hard or falling a long way? not a problem. fire? problem.

Sagan tends to be somewhat nonverbal and generally only uses a few words or short phrase at a time when he does speak, which sounds something like the voice clip below. that being how it is, he can be kind of inscrutable and more than a bit jarring to most people--though at this point annie's been with him more than long enough to be completely desensitized to it and doesnt quite get why anyone would be perturbed. fortunately, with that familiarity also comes understanding, and she can easily "translate" and articulate more from his expressions. this understanding is a two-way street, and on its other side is sagan's sensitivity to her moods. annie's not particularly...communicative of her emotions, but sagan can always tell when she's having an off day or something's bothering her, and is far better than anyone at helping her feel better. all things said and quirky antics aside, he and annie are exceptionally close and fiercely protective of eachother the moment it comes to it. they don't make a big deal of showing it outwardly, but they know they've always got eachother's backs.

he's taken quite a liking to beowulf as well, and beo defintiely shamelessly enables sagan's shenanigans.

as i see it, annie may be the passion and power of their operation, but sagan is the heart and soul. beowulf is like....comic releif and emotional support. not entirely necessary, but certainly welcomed to have around. yeah. listen im a big sap i just want them all to be good friends ok. i love them.

also sagan does like and watch a lot of anime.

Blog Canon

miscellaneous happenings that either have continued relevance/significance, or y'all just won't let die. there's not a overarching plot to this thing at all, but geez we’ve kinda gathered some history here huh?

taught sagan to say fuck [and other swears, in her stead]. he used to have to do it on command but he's gotten really good at filling in for her.has a

stoat fursona that beo helped her make. she thinks it's neat/cute but has no real attachment to it.

attempted to sue the crystal gems for ripping off her entire shtick [it didn't go well]

beowulf also taught her how to dab.

@sparkeletran is a nuisance and must be stopped

the 70$ pile of high school musical merch. sagan and beo both wear the t-shirts sometimes. she hates it. don't let her attitude fool you though this is actually the best and most important ongoing joke in this whole damn thing.

the first handcuffs stint. they’re gone now but they had a good ~30-post run, and she did take to learning lockpicking because of it.

this.

hey. guess fucking what lads. handcuffs ROUND TWO 'cause y'all just don't fuckin' quit. the first mini story arc sorta thing, in which she visits the cirque des cartes and has an aggravting encounter with taliesin. [currently ongoing][hopefully soon ending]

[[redacted for ""spoilers""]] due to said encounter with taliesin

sparkeletran is a nuisance,

"the official annie of the stars instagram is just cat memes but with sagan" it's canon but i haven't decided whether it's something she would have had already or a recent thing. [either way, hasn't been touched on yet due to the arc taking so long]

badart annie is sorta like her own thing at this point but nothing that happens with her is canon; she p much just shows up for exceptionally dumb posts. we did give her noclip though which is terrifying. on that note i may as well include the things that are Not canon but y'all won't let me forget

beo's animated belt thing. look. it doesnt talk.

spray-on boots.

the lawnmower weapon

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh homestuck

[magalamantle]

HEY HERES some longass fucking shit!!!! about my settings for ocs for a p5 continuation/sequel/etc!!!!!!!!! just kind of. expanding on stuff i guess lol!!! the first one is the longest and the one im most interested in expanding on ideas for ocs on but anyway :Y

IDEA ONE:

'palaces': garden, zoo, restaurant, temple, courthouse, funhouse, bunker, garden, graveyard, safari, library, museum(not art gallery)

an emphasis not so much based on heists or stealing or treasure. instead the intention is to destroy the heart of it to reveal what the place "actually is". the whole intention becomes revelling in the large-scale destruction of different chunks of the bases, before eventually defeating the person at the heart of it.

not knowing the exact individual whose construct it is, has to infiltrate and work way into the place in order to follow clues - more like a detective than anything else.

characters access nav not through going to a specific location but via "dreams" - peeks into the human unconsciousness, cant really control when they go into or come out of constructs, are just kind of dropped in whichever location is selected in a list on the app before they sleep. therefore, players are lead into dungeons without fully knowing what theyre doing - theyre kind of placed into more of a mystery detective thing, trying to figure out why theyve been placed in each area, kind of what they have to do in order to escape cause like otherwise theyre placed in the area literally every night and cant do much about it lol. basically as long as theyre contributing (according to some unspoken rules) theyre fine in terms of sleep, but if they refuse to cooperate theyre basically sleepless, which really really impacts some of them until they end up basically having to act.

each area basically introduces a new playable character via waking a construct version of them in someone elses palace. like literally waking them up.  

it takes like the first full dungeon for them to register that it isnt just a weird same dream that theyre having and that like. the real person whose cognitive world they broke is affected, and in the wake of the whole "shadow thieves of hearts" thing its kind of terrifying because theyre like "oh god we destroyed that place what if weve killed someone" but it seems to have a different effect on individuals than previous, but its still. really weird.

eventually they kind of register that the worlds and people presented are getting bigger and scarier for them to have to deal with, and that its kind of like. training them??? especially since the targets theyre being given are getting more grey morally, and more just given to them because the task is just more difficult rather than more important.

anyway on their journey thats eventually mementos that they end up in when theres really no big mission for them to do, and they like explore it n shit. it feels totally different from the other worlds, cause its kind of this... weird mishmash? and as the plot continues theyre basically. kind of. its more or less revealed that this mementos isnt the general consciousness as the general consciousness of a select group of individuals - the people who basically set them up in this situation. individuals who used the research on the cognizant world to basically force the protagonists to do their dirty work - starting them with easy missions against people that they would agree with fighting against, and slowly working more into individuals that they wanted to get rid of, tying up loose ends, etc. basically training up a little army to get rid of people for them. this group thats controlling them isnt sending them into their mementos though, that would be a Higher Power

the uh. the group in this has a mascot thats a cute little cartoony puppy!!! that claims that theyre a wolf and cant remember how they got there etc etc. anyway basically it was made as a weird rude parody of morgana, and theyre pretty much a sleeper agent that kind of. gains consciousness as the team applies traits to it pretty much??? either way puppy is pretty much just the shadow council things way of calling the protagonists their dogs lol. something to sic on people they dont like.

IDEA TWO:

the palaces are all... literally different kinds of palaces: from different ages and aesthetics, but all definitely castles and mansions. includes roman palace, victorian mansion, funhouse/theme park castle, gothic mansion, classic medieval castle, etc

more of a kidnapping thing. have to find the master of the house/king/baron/etc and extracate them from the construct - whether a rescue or kidnapping depends on the particular target. this one features a pair of antagonists who only want to use the palaces' treasures for monetary gain - or at least it seems so at the start?? but its actually for a person theyre working for with the intention of studying the cognizant world in order to access the public conscience for what is essentially mass demoralization leading to global shutdown

this one in particular probably features the protags from p5 in a weird way, like. theyre all kind of younger adults in the city, doing stuff, and the new protags kind of interact with them and subtly try to figure stuff out about this whole world and everything about it from them.

IDEA THREE

more of an emphasis on the internet and incredible popularity therein - palaces are all based on internet sensations, big personalities who are secretly doing unsavory things. accessed through whatever website/social media whatever that they use the most.

PALACES in this world are based on VIDEO GAME TYPES. rpg, fps, puzzle games, etc etc etc. still in the kind of stealth, heist format of the actual. u kno. persona 5. but the aesthetics and enemy styles, dungeon setups, etc, npcs/cognitive humans etc are all based on the respective video game type. IMPORTANT: theres a rogue person wandering into peoples cognitive worlds who considers it all genuinely a game, has fun "competing" with the players team to get to the "end boss" first. unfortunately his aim is always outright to kill the boss lol. playable characters' outfits in the palaces change to fit the video game, but follow a general theme for each character.

the way that palaces are accessed more or less through the internet opens up possibilities about the new protags meeting through exclusively the palaces, not knowing each other in real life, etc.

every world contains a specific npc that sort of guides them around n stuff. its literally just akechi. like thats just him. still young. hes just there, in a shitty prince outfit or equivalent, and my excuse is that 1. he die in a really weird way in a really weird place and 2. as an incredibly public figure that was so prevalent in the publics eyes their perception of him kind of kept him floatin around in the sea of human etc etc etc. it might not be FULLY him but hes definitely. there. thats definitely just him standing there, telling them about game stuff. weird af.

[tumblunni]

Also HELL YES FOR CASUAL PLAYER LOVE

Im so happy to hear that Let's Go is indeed INTENTIONALLY designed to be "more casual" and everything these super anti-casual conpetitive players are complaining about was intentionalky put in there cos the developers legit think its better. THANK YOU!

i dunno man it just seems like we NEVER heae about the developers doing anything for the fans unless its enablibg competitive play or iv breeding or whatever. Like those are the only definitions of "fans" that interviewers seem to care about. And Its hard to know what the developers really think when the questions that are asked leave out a huge componant of the fanbase, yknow?

And uhh.. I mean its just good to specificially know that theyre okay with casual fans existing, like not just "its for kids" but "hey you are not bad if you are an adult who also enjoys the game for its intended appeal points and not for a huge mega complicated mathematical metagame people made up to be 'more mature'". I was really surprised to see that written interview with masuda specifically mentioning IV breeding as the place where conpetitive goes too far and makes the game not fun anymore. "Pokemon wasn't meant to be a game about hatching eggs and nothing else." Like.. Playing competitively itself is not bad, i dont wanna sound like i hate hardcore fans and im a big ol jerk. I admire the dedication because it all seems so super unattainable and mathematically magical to me! Im not into that stuff but i can admire that you have to be a damn genius to achieve all that stuff. BUT i also get what he's saying. Because it sucks when you HAVE to be a damn genius to EVEN START PLAYING! Whenever high level competitive strats become the goddamn baseline it makes competitive completely inaccessable to everyone except the most hardcore of the hardcore, and its like damn man how do you even become that if you have no way to start practising? Iv breeding is so INSANE in retrospect! Like when you think about it, its wild that people even cracked the code for how to game the system and get the highest possible randomized stats for every ridiculously minor thing. Like how the fuck did they even figure out any of this?? And then all the further madness into figuring out how to attain it and how to raise odds of shinys and hidden abilities and how they keep figuring out new ways to do it with every new system each game brings out. And then people will spend friggin LITERAL DAYS OF REAL TIME running up and down the same road in the game, hatching thousands of eggs just to get the one mathematically superior pokemon from a confluence of random events. And this is treated as fuckin REQUIRED to play the game! You can't touch competitive if you dont do it. And these bad sorts of competitive players will try and force this requirement onto other non-competitive parts of the game, and shame casual players for not doing it even though its literally not what they want to play the game for.

Seriously, man! Individual values were just designed to make individual pokemon more random, so the play experience would seem more unique to each run. It was literally invented for a "casual" reason! It just really sucks that they implimented it in a way that had an objective "best" value to get, so people ignored the whole point of "adding personality" and just wanted that one. Tho i mean at least they patched out the early issue where gender and shinyness were linked to these values so you couldnt get certain types of pokemon as the "best" version and it was even more limiting. Glad that GSC didnt have online metagame yet, lol! (Tho it makes it possible for people to more easily predict which pokenon will become Shiny when transferred from rby to gsc, which is neat.)

ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Oh yeah! I appreciate that each generation of games lately has made it easier to see your IVs and EVs and to get them to their "best" versions, with even the FUCK YEAH feature pf being able to "fix" bad IVs on level 100 pokemon. I carried my Sneasel named Reaper since RSE and he's been completely unuseable for so long and bottlecaps fixed that! Kid me just played the game like he was my starter and i loved him. I didnt know about IVs or EVs, so i took this terribly-statted dude with a bad ability and made him fight all the wrong pokemon because he is my best friend and he needs to win every gym battle and i will buy him lemonades afterward. Also he wore the Blackglasses item forever cos i thougjt itd be cool if you could put accessories on your pokemon. So yeah i did Everything Wrong and thus all the pokemon i actually cared about were made weak and useless by my love and i had to spend 48 hours running down a stupid road to hatch and abandon 1400 new ones just to get one that was "useable". Thanks to bottlecaps, this is no more! Decade old weasel pals can be revived! Tho still it sucks that i hit level 100 before this mon's evolution came out. Alas!

BUT

Like.. Even tho now its slightly less hard to make a "perfect" pokemon its still tedious as hell and really takes you out of the moment and you have to already know beforehand that its necessary. Kids are just gonna blunder in and not even know why they keep losing due to no fault of their own. Adults are gonna also do that. Seriously this isnt a "kiddy fans vs mature fans" or "non fans versus FANS" thing, this is just "fans who have one very specific skill for memorizing a bunch of numbers and steps and enduring hours of boredom doing it vs..people who think that kinda ruins the game". And even if nintendo fully streamlined the process into sonething easy, itd still feel like an unnecessary roadblock in the way of just getting to play the damn game. We really need to add some sort of hardcore/casual or iv breeding/no iv breeding thing to league divisions, as well as the tier lists. This is why im so hyped for the current "Spooky Cup", since it actually seems like a "just for fun" multiplayer experience, and its kinda dumb that we have to rely on nintendo actually programming limitations into a tournement cos the players refuse to allow anyone to just do it normally. I did a big whoop at "no mega stones" and "everyone gets a participation prize even if they lose"! And the limitations being a random event based thing rather than a skill cap! Yay ghost types!! Reminds me of the baby pokemon only tourneys in the n64 games. That was a kind of hardcore challenge that had a bit of creativity to it!

So anyway anyway what i'm getting at...

I'm just happy that the devs are saying "yes this is a casual game with more of what casual players want, and less of those hardcore limitations" and THATS NOT MEANT TO BE A NEGATIVE!! Actual developers sitting on a couch hugging giant pikachu plushies and saying this game is for people who just want a fun game about..well, hugging pikachus! They changed the way you catch pokemon because they wanted it to be more fun. They brought back following pokemon because fun. You get all these new features for your starter because they wanted you to really feel like a kid going on their first pokemon adventure and sharing all these special moments with pikachu! They talked about how the art style was decided upon because it was the closest to "how you imagined it in your head when you played pokemon yellow", and "if it was photorealistic it just wouldnt feel right". They picked eevee for the second option because they actually paid attention to the fans and which pokemon was the second most popular and had a similar "both cute and cool" appeal with all audiences. And they put the most effort into the visuals and the cuteness and making everything just feel like a good and fun adventure that recaptures everything you wanted as a kid playing the first game.

And they just act so unapologetically HAPPY about all these parts of the game! These are their favourite parts! They're the goddamn DEVELOPERS and even they say that they prefer the story and the characters and the relaxing childlike whimsy to the concept of refining gameplay to a ridiculous hardcore perfection and throwing out everything else in pursuit of that. And man, seeing them hugging the big pika and eev plushies in EVERY PROMOTIONAL VIDEO and just enjoying playing their own game so much!! And babbling on about dressing up your pokemon!!

God its just SO GOOD to see this as a fan who's been here since the very beginnibg and is starting to feel quite self concious about being an adult fan who isnt doing it "properly". Like man the pressure of hardcore competotive being the "only right way" started even when i was just 11, like seriously THE AGE THE ACTUAL TRAINERS ARE IN THE GODDAMN GAME. Before you even hit your teens you already got stuck up older kids telling you you were too old to just enjoy a game cos you enjoyed the damn game, noooo you have to make it as unfun as possible and only derive enjoyment from defeating other people. It took me until ORAS to actually even be able to try competitive at all, i found it so overwhelming until they added other methods to EV train. And even then i still felt like the blandness of the preparation outweighed any fun of playing these "higher level" battles. Like sure maybe some people like that stuff but it felt so dissappointing after all these years of being pressured to try it...

Sometimes its just good to enjoy a game cos you legit like the world and characters. Sometimes its just really validating to see the developers talking about enjoying making those things, cos it gives you permission to be less embarrassed about it. Sometimes its good to also see them hugging a hundred dollar giant pikachu while you hug your hundred dollar giant mimikyu. Cos seriously what is the point of being an adult if youre not allowed to buy these adult sized plushies? What kid could ever afford those! Im not letting my childhood dream pass me by just because ~maturity~ when im finally able to slap a fat wad of cash on the table and yell GIVE ME THE BIGGEST CHU

I will embrace all my pure childhood love and enjoy this game of just huggins and nothing else! And i really like this concept for the series, if they continue doing Let's Go as a spinoff so we'd have a set of games appealing to each of the casual and hardcore demographics. I always feel bad complaining about hardcore when really my actual opinion on it is just "its not for me" and im actually only complaining about the rude fans who tell me im not a real fan unless i like their genre of stuff. Dude i was three years old when pokemon came out, i think ive earned my right by seniority to hug a plushie or two! So itd be awesome if hardcore doods could get their super hardcore game too, and we could just argue less cos we'd each be able to enjoy what we enjoy. Tho i mean the main series games already have a pretty clear divide between story/fun being the main game and hardcore competitive being a postgame thing. And yet we still get all this fandom fightibg over "ignore the actual 90% of the game, skip the plotline and only play competitive" apparantly being the "real" way to play it. Like man im worried that attitude is still gonna stick arpund even if they do give us separate games appealing to each side of the fandom?

EHHH WHATEVER! Im just gonna sit here in my corner of casual hugs and work on my self confidence to be able to stop feeling bad about not being someone else's idea of a "real" fan. If real fans can't have pikachu in a little hat, then that is not the life i wanna lead!

LITTLE GODDAMN HAT, MY GUY

[maelien]

stupid dumb Blizzard/Overwatch discourse below the cut

okay so i never thought i would ever post about discourse, but here i am. but since literally nobody wants a giant thing on their dash, im gonna put this below the cut. i apologise to anyone on mobile who has to scroll past this. anyways this post is about this:

by @yubird​

btw im in agreement with the statement of this image, so if you dont care, feel free to scroll by. i dont expect anyone to read this tbh.

first of all, i want to preface this with the fact that while i do not play Overwatch, nor do i follow any of the lore or news, i still want to present some criticism because by being a public company, Blizzard is showing their creations to the world, which are therefore open for all kinds of feedback, positive or negative or even constructive. this isnt me bashing on Blizzard; i think theyre doing great things with the amounts of diversity in Overwatch, and from what i know, they pay a lot of attention to detail when it comes to game design and extra assets and whatnot. i just want to critique the same face syndrome that a lot of people have been pointing out lately.

so earlier today i got in a debate with some friends of mine about the idea that all Overwatch women have the same face. im gonna compile some of my friends’ arguments and my own arguments here, as well as some counter-arguments which were presented to me by my friends or by people discussing this topic online.

this is just because i feel like everyone who points out this same face syndrome doesnt really know why it bothers them, so here are some points i want to make.

first of all, upon asking my friend what they thought of the debate, they said they agree that all the Overwatch women’s faces look the same, stating that they knew this because “i have eyes,” as they put it. i just thought this would be a funny thing to put here, and it in no way is meant to derail the legitimate arguments which they or i have.

some other things this friend said (slightly edited for grammar or missing context from previous statements):

“the female hero that looks the most different is Zarya but her face is just wider, they still all have very similar nose and eye shapes, their facial designs are very plain in-game”

“it’s similar to frozen in how yes they look different but they all look very similar”

“in the cinematics the women look very different but in-game it’s almost like there was one basic model that was slightly tweaked for each character” (this is a point that i will mention and address later on)

“like damn if youre gonna have ‘em look different for the cinematography you cant adapt even just a little more of that into the game itself?”

“did u notice how small the noses on the black characters were” (this is addressing the models which Blizzard released, which are seen below)

another friend of mine had these statements to offer (slightly edited for grammar or missing context from previous statements):

“Okay, like, how many paintings or images or films or books have been about ugly females? The answer is not whole hell of a lot. Art, in general whether we’re talking about games, books, paintings, poems, films, they all have a problem with making ugly female characters. Even characters that are supposed to be “ugly” are often just a different shades of beauty and people find that beauty later. Meanwhile, a man could use his ugliness to his advantage, like Shrek, or the Beast, two ugly characters that frighten and intimidate people. I can’t think of any other “ugly” female character in the popular culture other than Fiona [from Shrek], maybe you have one?”

“Overwatch is guilty, yes, but it’s more indicative of a systemic problem overall. When humans tell stories about females, their beauty in some form or another has to be addressed” (i appreciated this friend’s application of this issue to the bigger picture outside of Overwatch because it definitely needed to be addressed alongside Blizzard’s same face syndrome)

a third friend had these things to say on the topic (slightly edited for grammar or missing context from previous statements):

“I suppose they do only add traditionally beautiful girls on there. It’s totally fair to say that they put more effort into the model design of the dudes than the girls.”

“Yah there is definitely a focus on accessories and ensuring feminine traits in the girls.”

“In general creating more variety in the way people are presented helps everyone.”

some counter-arguments i received were (slightly edited for grammar or missing context from previous statements):

“Mercy has shallow cheeks and a long face, Mei has a short face with chubby cheeks, Ana has a distinct grandma face” (i personally feel like Ana looks about 35 at most)

“Mercy has a pointy chin, Pharah has a flat square chin”

“Tracer has a flatter round chin”

“Even that overlay of Mercy’s face onto [Brigitte]… The jaw? Different. Mercy has shallower cheeks. The chin? Not even close to the same shape. The nose? Mercy has a much thinner, longer nose.” (referring to the image below)

(from @arimarushunya​)

i received other counter-arguments that were made during a verbal conversation, but i dont remember them. however, i will provide counter-arguments below during my argument.

i am pulling the next part of this post from a long discussion i had with a friend about this matter, and they provided good counter-arguments that are very important to include during my argument because i do not want anyone to think that i am not aware of other ways that people may look at this, nor do i wish for anyone to think that i refuse to listen to other views.

i agree with some of the counter-arguments, but i still stand by my criticism that there could be more effort put in. do i expect that, though? absolutely not. this is just my opinion and nothing more. just a commentary on some person’s irrelevant blog.

first of all, the fact that many of the men’s faces look literally so different from each other needs to be addressed. each one is very unique, or at least a good portion of them. for example:

Roadhog has a really round head.

Junkrat has a banana-shaped head.

McCree has a square jaw.

Hanzo has a very strong brow and jawline.

Torbjorn has a very compressed face.

Winston is a fucking gorilla for chrissake.

many of the male characters in Overwatch have something very unique and discernible from the other male characters. while i do concede that some male models are similar to each other, and some male models wear masks or are not even human (my mention of Winston is half-joking, as i know many people consider him to be a different category, but i also think it should be noted that there are no non-human (or at least, non-human-like) women in Overwatch), i think that the amount of distinctly different male models in comparison to the amount of distinctly different female models is….. annoying. lazy. boring. embarrassing, even.

my biggest point is that the people who have an issue with this same face syndrome is that we’re tired of seeing the same model with tiny changes made to it. you can only look at the same woman with slightly different features so many times before you start to ask, “is this it?” give us something new to look at, Blizzard!

now, a counter-argument i received was that you dont really look at the face much in game. my friend said, “faces, in a game where faces are barely seen, barely matter. in the cinematics they matter a lot.” while i acknowledge the truth behind the argument that you dont look at the characters’ faces much while playing, i still think that the faces do hold some significance, because otherwise all the male models would have the same faces in-game. Blizzard has taken the time to carefully create these incredibly unique models for each male character, but when it comes to creating the female characters’ models, Blizzard sort of gives up and barely changes the default model they seem to use. this isnt a matter of unimportance as it is a matter of laziness.

the best example of this is with Brigitte, who is the most recent addition to the heroes gallery. in her cinematic, she is seen as broad-shouldered with a round face, round eyes, olive or tan skin, a round chin, thick lips, green/hazel eyes and brown hair. however, when it comes to her in-game model, well… she doesnt exactly live up to that. her in-game model has reddish hair, brown eyes, a slender face, a pointed chin, light skin, almond-shaped eyes, and a thin upper lip. she almost doesnt look like the same person! you can see the differences in the image below.

(from @flambxyant​)

now, some people commented on the post that this image is from that the engines used for the cinematics and the game are different. and while i concede that these arent the same, and therefore it would be difficult to make an exact replica of the cinematic version of Brigitte in the game engine, i feel like she still falls short of what could be accomplished. if the problem was truly the difference in the engines, then you would see a similar change in the male models between the cinematic engine and the game engine. however, Blizzard seems to have no problem replicating models in both engines, except for when it come to the female models. thats the problem that people have; they arent being nit-picky, as some may argue – this is an actual issue that many people are noticing.

as seen in previous images, Brigitte has been compared to Mercy, who is a popular support character in the game (Brigitte is also a support character), as well as to D.VA and Tracer, who are not support characters (im not really sure what the categories are other than support tbh). the issue which is being presented is that many of the Overwatch women have very similar faces; even if they have some unique features, the female models in Overwatch still do not stray too far from the base model which is clearly detectable in all of them. you do not really see this as clearly in the male models, as each of them has been changed to express the character’s personality or background. it is more difficult to pick up on a character’s personality or background when looking at the female models; you can kind of gauge that Ana is older and may have been in a war because she has vaguely wrinkled skin and an eye patch, but other than that, the women of Overwatch arent exactly telling their stories unless you read their lore.

another issue i have to address is that, while all of the characters have a unique backstory, not everyone playing Overwatch is interested in that; some people just want to play the game. and when you have a heroes gallery with a plethora of unique male models to choose from, and then basically the same face on all of the female models, it feels kind of…. lacking. like, “oh wow, a new character!” but how new is the character if youre just looking at the same model with slight changes in the face and a repaint? you might as well just be getting a different skin and slapping it onto one available option.

my issue here is that having unique lore doesnt counteract the fact that the female models all look very similar to each other. when youre playing the game, youre looking at the model. sure, you get different weapons and armour, but it’s the same figure. and honestly, i kind of get the feeling that Blizzard tries to give each female model a sense of uniqueness by changing their armour or clothes instead of their model shape or size.

it just doesnt feel right when you compare it to how unique each male model is. you feel refreshed when looking at each male character because they all have a unique silhouette; theyre easily discernible from the others. however, the female models all have rather similar silhouettes: tall and slender. this isnt to completely disregard Mei and Zarya, but really, those two are essentially the only unique silhouettes out of all the of female models.

while im not disparaging the fact that Blizzard has created unique lore for each character, i still feel like having as much model diversity in the female models as is in the male models would be nice. like, i think everyone can agree that having different silhouettes in the male models is really refreshing to look at, and in turn, having different silhouettes in the female models would be just as pleasant. 

i feel as though Blizzard is apprehensive about going out of their comfort zone when creating female models. they kind of seem to default on slender, attractive faces with thin noses. this isnt to say that non-slender faces or big noses cant be attractive; i am saying that Blizzard sticks to western beauty standards when creating their female models. my friend made a counter-argument that the target audience is men, and therefore the women characters are often going to be designed to appeal to this audience. while i understand the reason why Blizzard would do this, as appealing to this audience will likely raise their profits and positive reception, i still feel like they are missing out on a lot of potential that the company has. like, let’s be real here……. if there are people who will main Junkrat and want to bone down with his nasty ass, then im pretty sure that there would be people who would enjoy a less conventionally attractive female character.

i have an issue with the fact that Blizzard wont even attempt to create a unique female model. it’s almost as if they made Zarya and Mei and were like “thats good! no more!” but yet they will make a gorilla; and a really fat guy; and a skinny, unkempt, hunched over dude. but they wont even try to accomplish anything like that when creating a female model. sure, Ana is sort of hunched over to indicate her age, but she still maintains a relatively dainty posture.

Overwatch gets praise for the diversity seen in their characters, and while my friend made a counter-argument that it might just be for national diversity – or racial diversity, or whatever you wanna call it when people come from different parts of the world –  i still feel like this diversity is lacking in the women of Overwatch. the men of Overwatch have all sorts of body types: short, tall, skinny, fat, muscled, disabilities, etc…… but the women have significantly less body types: you have Zarya, who is broad-shouldered and has muscles; you have Mei, who is plus-sized – or fat, or thicc if you prefer; you have Ana who is old and sort of shows it; you have Sombra who is slightly shorter than the rest of the characters, but not by much; you have Moira who is slightly taller than the rest of the characters, but not by much….. but generally, all of the women of Overwatch look pretty much the same. theres not much diversity seen there.

now, again, do i expect Blizzard to change the way they design female characters? no, because as my friend stated, “…their current formula is working out quite well…” i just wish that when people look at the characters in Overwatch, they could have something new to see in each and every character. it’s tiring to see pretty much the same woman with different clothes when the men of Overwatch are so distinct from each other.

and yes, while i do not play Overwatch, or any video games for that matter, that doesnt mean my argument is pointless. sure, i dont expect anything to come of it, but it’s at least food for thought, you know? and if you think about it, the lack of diversity in the female models in Overwatch doesnt do much good in showing the creative abilities of Blizzard, which is a public company and therefore trying to sell their product to an audience who very likely wants to buy something unique and impressive. thats not to say Overwatch isnt impressive – i actually find the art style to be extremely attractive, and the fact that it is such a popular game goes to show that the company is doing something right. but that doesnt mean that the game is flawless; it just means the flaws are often overlooked or just accepted by the consumers and creators.

you see, when i look at a character and see how unique and detailed their physical design is in comparison to other characters that it is associated with, i am able to tell that the person who made that character put a lot of time, care, and thought into that character in order to make it stand out as its own individual. when looking at how similar the women of Overwatch look to each other, i cant help but feel that there is a lack of time, care, and thought going into them. you can tell the creators thought a lot about each man in Overwatch, as they all look like individuals compared to one another; however, this isnt very present when looking at the women of Overwatch.

you see, you need to put care and effort into all of your characters in order for people to take your diversity seriously. if youre presenting all of the same models for the women, but really unique models for the men, sure, you have representation for women, but it kind of feels like you see women as identical and incapable of being as unique as men can be, which is just lazy and kind of sexist. and im not trying to get into a really stupidly obnoxious “this is sexist!” argument, because tbh i hate those, but like…. i just wanna see some new stuff brought to the table. something to really make you go, “wow, that character really stands out from the others!”

i dont feel like my opinion of the game – or really anyone’s opinion of the game – would change if Overwatch were to have more diverse female models, but i do think that people, no matter what their opinions of the game were, would at least be able to look at the character and be able to tell that at least the creators put thought and care into each character. while there definitely is care and thought seen in each character, i dont really see an issue with some people wishing there was just a bit more for the women of Overwatch.

anyways that basically all i have. if you made it this far, i appreciate you reading all of this. feel free to message me or something about this (on @nuketowncryptid since i dont have any messaging system set up on this blog because it’s pointless) if you wanna talk about it. anyways, thank you so much for reading what i have to say. you dont have to share this if you dont want to, and again, i really dont want to have anyone feel like im pushing my opinions on them; i just wanted to share my thoughts on the subject. overall, im just glad to see people are at least enjoying the game because in the end, thats what really counts.