#At this point I probably would have saved time just watching the video but I'd know less

[cartoon-cass]

Comprehensive breakdown of MURDER DRONES - Episode 7: Mass Destruction

I saw a breakdown of this episode on youtube and it was just clearly rushed so I want to do this episode justice so here's my comprehensive breakdown.

New intro, look at them! They look so happy, that is not the case in the episode, to say the least. With how much rubber hosing this animation has I would not be surprised if this was done by Kevin Temmer Tunes with what he learned from amazing digital circus Edit: N was animated by Micah Preciado and Uzi by Zachary Preciado

Bad day to accidentally grab the wrong uniform, I do wonder where the actual Dr.Chambers was in all this. Wonder if it would have made a difference... probably not.

Not actually important but having the shadows of the claws that aren't actually there be the thing to interact with the world is fucking cool as hell. This whole scene is a cool twist on an exorcism with robots and science.

Like look at this, it's a pentagram magnet, a normal pentagram from my basic pop culture understanding it's meant to not only summon a demon but also keep them from leaving the circle. A strong magnet is so smart for this case as it's used to keep Nori in place, I mean it doesn't end up working in the end but it's the thought that counts.

It took my second watch of this episode to realize why the lights got turned on, it revealed the tentacles and claws but it's sun light, the same stuff that burns the Disassembly Drones and Uzi. It even has the same effect as in the end of Episode 4

Can I just say how extra it is making the USB a crucifix, I love it. Also I just notice that on the end of the crucifix the detailing is actually in the shape of a USB symbol, the details in this show is amazing, you can see all the love that went in to it.

This is probably the most terrifying way to hold these robots. I couldn't blame any of the robots for wanting to kill the human good god. Also Yeva playing Tetris, the game has a lot of ties to Russia so wonder if she spoke Russian too, she doesn't speak in this episode and not sure if we'll get more flashback with her so not sure if we will ever find out.

Not sure why Mitchell stop Yeva from entering the church but I like to think he thought Yeva was like a kid, look at him holding her hand in the scene before, and was trying to keep her save and knew something was off. That being said I'd love to hear what you think is his reasoning, sound off in the comments/reblogs.

Pulling back we can see Nori, specifically her core, looking at a crucifix comparing it to the USB crucifix in the video to see if it's the one with the patch, it's not, so she goes out for the hunt to see if she can find it.

Like daughter, like mother, honestly cool little details that lets us know what kind of character Nori is with the very little time we have with her. Drawing made presumably by her of herself as a human cat girl, twice, motor oil cans everywhere, a fricking ninja star, nightcore music, a anime statue that might be a reference to something but I have no clue, also magnets which have been used in the passed like drugs so that's um... something.

was originally just going to point out the funny little animation errors in this scene, as the paper goes through the Ipod and the crinkled paper is mirrored but then I wanted to check what was on the paper and...

It's a missing poster of all things? it uses the exact posters used in episode 3 it's probably just reusing assets but I thought it was a cool thing to point out.

Uzi bleeds blood in these scenes and it's not necessarily mentioned out loud, clearly something AS related, but there might be more to it, or it just looks cool.

This man is in some serious denial, but credit where credit is due, when "Tessa" tells N to stop he turns around, and when Uzi apologized for not being able to help he immediately apologized for Snapping at her. Also look at Tessa's little pointing, thought it was funny.

N: "We're not going to hurt you."

I can't blame Uzi for taking this the wrong way, he's clearly telling Tessa off but all Uzi hears is "hurt you", hence why she only parrots that part.

Thad: "Aaand you won't tell me why we're wandering around 'cause...?" Lizzy: "I'm a good friend, and secrets are blackmail. And it's not about football." Thad: "Okay. Does your secret friend want to know about football, or...?"

Anyone else wondering who Lizzy's good friend is? The only 2 characters we know are good friends with Lizzy are Doll and V. It's possible that through everything Doll sent a text to Lizzy asking her to do something but I feel like V just makes more sense. This does assume V made her way away from the sentinels, if I had to guess she's just a core at the moment which might be why she couldn't do it herself, no wings nor weapons as a core, also makes the blackmail line make more sense.

N: "I deserve this. I deserve this. I deserve this."

Baby girl NO! no you don't, your too hard on your self

That scream. That cut. *chef's kiss* perfect.

This scene just shows us why Uzi went towards the church. Also note when she's the most stressed her eye turns yellow so it does seem stress is the deciding factor whether she can be possessed.

V/AS: You know, you're one of the main reasons... [voice glitching] ...I wanted your team to retain your personalities.

This quote I think has some interesting implications, I mean it obviously confirms that the DD squad was influence by AS but it might also be why it keeps a bit of the personality of which ever host it's using.

This scene holy shit, the music, the lighting, the sound design and animation, that's how you do horror! You don't even need detailed gore, in fact most of it is just off screen. like look at the DD's off in the distance one catches the pilot of the helicopter mid air then they fight over it like hungry animals.

Ok so I hit the image limit and it's almost 1 in the morning so I'm gonna go to bed and continue this tomorrow

~to be continued~

[kaypeace21]

[The future of this BLOG]: SHOWS I'm planning on analyzing here & on YouTube

Interview with the vampire

Invincible

House of the dragon

The boys

Umbrella acadamy

Bridgerton probably (still haven't had time to watch part 2 yet)

stranger things: I have mixed feelings about reviewing it given what certain staff has said and done. I oscilate between wanting to review the final season or wanting to boycott it (especially as someone who has been part of the BDS movement for 1/2 her life). But, on one hand, It's not the fault of the underpaid (and talented) writers and staff who don't have these views. And I do believe some of the writing staff may have good intentions and want to give us a positive and powerful message to the audience about healing from childhood tr*uma. However, other members of the writing staff may just want to go down the stereotypical and popular-easy route. We'll just have to wait and see what happens in the last season. If I hear the ending isn't simply another re-hashing of prior seasons and it's more like s1-2 (without the cliches of s3-4). I'd be more inclined to review it by *cough* and watching it elsewhere. Once I was logged back on to tumblr: I did have a whole draft saved about my politics since I was a kid and why I still feel so strongly about such conflicts, today . But, I shouldn't make the topic about me- and I'm not sure anyone wants to hear my life story XD. So, the big point (to my followers) is regardless of whether I chose to watch it or boycot it-

I'm not deleting the old ST content: so do what you want with it (like, reblog, add details to reblogs I didn't notice). Have fun :D !

Analyzing ST certainly helped me improve in terms of media literacy (and it'll be beneficial for the future content I make). So even if it sometimes got messy here, I do appreciate all the positives the ST blog and followers brought to me.The kind words meant a lot. For those who want to unfollow me for my political beliefs , that's totally fine. That's your prerogative. For those who want to unfollow cause again ST was pretty much my whole blog: again I TOTALLY understand and I wish you the best :). I'm not going to judge, take away, or guilt anyone, for their choice of media they like. Enjoy it (I truly mean that).

For those who continue to follow my blog . I appreciate you SO MUCH! I've been gone from this blog for such a long time cause of school (and I appreciate those who stayed and were excited to see me again). The positive words meant a lot over the years. Everyone have a lovely day. Take care of yourselves.

Sincerely, Kay

ps: I'm open to other media suggestions too so you can drop them in my message box (recent films/ shows, mini/limited series, animation, heck i'm open to comedies and foreign media too).But, analyzing them will most likely be after the shows listed above .Right now I'm focusing on my national exam and my mental health. My first video will probably be in late August or early September. My test is August 20th. Hope everyone is doing well .I'm feeling much better mentally. Hope everyone is feeling the same way :)

for my 1st video I’ll just post it to youtube . But for other videos I may make a early access patreon (like a week before the next video comes out free on youtube). Have to google how all that works (or if there's better alternatives) . Totally fine if you can't afford it (you'll get to see it for free on youtube regardless :D) . I'll be honest . I'm primarily thinking of doing it cause I need to pay off those student loans and I'm trying to hopefully move out of state in a few years. Plus, I love analyzing media anyways (so making it a part time job would be a dream come true .

[tenebraevesper]

Shadow in TailsTube

I'm probably late to the conversation, and I wasn't really going to address this in the first place, but this was on my mind lately (mainly after re-watching SonicHub's video on the matter) and I was left wondering - do people really hate Shadow's portrayal in TailsTube?

Because I will be honest, I was completely fine with it... which might come as a surprise to some, because you're probably aware just how much I hate the idea of Vegeta!Shadow.

Except, I re-watched the whole Tailstube episode again, and while Shadow does have an edge to him, it's not that bad as people imply it to be. In fact, I found Shadow banter with Sonic charming, and it genuinely baffled me when I saw comments about how this episode supposedly shows that Shadow ''hates'' Sonic.

Nowhere in the episode did Shadow say that he hates Sonic. In fact, it's Sonic who points out they never really get along and Shadow agrees that from the moment they met they've been at odds - which is TRUE! We saw it in Sonic Adventure 2 and canon establishes, even in shows like Sonic Prime, that Sonic and Shadow will always be at odds even when they work together due to their differing approaches to a situation.

I know that there was also Shadow's comment of ''And yet when you're near me, I feel repulsed.'', but that was a response to Sonic's comment of ''I don't know. I think my magnetic personality is quite attractive.'', which frankly reads more as Sonic flirting with Shadow and Shadow just firing back a response.

As a matter of fact, the whole Tailstube episode really reads more like SEGA is leaning into the Sonadow relationship, especially with Tails' comment of ''opposites attract'' and the fact that, despite their banter, Shadow and Sonic have a lot of respect for each other and Sonic even trolls Shadow a bit.

Not only that, but we also saw Sonic and Shadow agreeing with each other that they would work together for the sake of saving the world, as well as a bit of their rivalry/competitiveness when Tails gets them to compliment each other. Furthermore, Shadow's the one who challenges Sonic to a race, meaning that he's fine with spending time with Sonic.

In the end, my conclusion is that SEGA's direction of Shadow's character is to write him as a tsundere - being aloof and irritable on the outside, but also caring and kind on the inside, which is a direction I'd agree on... so long as they show a bit more of his deredere side, because we already see plenty of the tsuntsun side of him.

#Sonic Cyber Revolution (Masterlist)

[oblivionbladetd]

The Fatal Flaw of Lily Orchards Entire Body of Work: Immersed like Wearin' Combat Boots on a Floor that has been Mopped at Some Point in the last 24 Hours.

I was saving this, but Lorch showed her whole ass again, so I moved it up.

Now, just the other day, I was playing Cyberpunk 2077. Despite being two dashes from the nearest fast travel station, I summoned up my personal favorite car and proceeded to cover 2/3rds of the map to my next job I felt like doing. Nothing really happened on the way there either. I was not bored, though. I was still having fun. I loved the subtle shifts in the environment, the sound design of the world, just existing in the wonderful world CDPR had made. I was immersed in the experience.

I bring that up because I am getting the feeling that Lily... Kinda just can't. Or, at the very least, doesn't 90% of the time. For even when she likes something, she doesn't seem to look very deep in it.

It goes all the way back to that Steven Universe video. A lot of stuff that is not directly plagiarized is her own very surface level takes. Like the Diamonds as Nazis comparison only works if you don't open your mind to the fact that they are inhuman beings that do actually need to be taught humanity, they don't have being reasonable people.exe on board, for gems are a made to purpose race. The show does even spell it out for you in a song, specifically What's the Use of Feeling Blue?, Yellow doesn't ever try and wave away depression, she's literally asking her "sister" what the point of emotions are as they were never made to ponder them until very recently. Because even they are purpose made Gems.

It becomes quite obvious in her fanfics. Niva gets to be measured in giga-Kyoshis because?... she actively despises the cultures that she'd need to fully internalize to use the bending styles with any level of efficiency? Sure fuck it, who cares about living breathing worlds when FACTS AND LOGIC say it's possible therefore she can! Losing childhoods to bloodbend without a full moon? Sounds like a skill issue, Fucko! There's no reverence, no respect, not even a token gesture of balance. It is possible so she can just do it despite it being straight up improbable.

Her streams and retrospective on pokemon even paint it as somebody that can’t be assed to just let themselves IN! Dragon Age is a very high fantasy game. The game wants you to be part of its world! Meanwhile, we have Lily charging an unwavering, perfectly straight line to the next set of end credits in each game, and from what I can tell of her pokemon retrospective does so with most rpgs. She made it sound like Gen 2 ends at the elite 4, and the other half of the game is a waste.

Now, despite these humongous paragraphs... in a vacuum, all this is fine. Like fuck it play how you want, watch how you feel is right, write what fucking ever. I can't be assed to stand watch as a holy arbiter of how to enjoy things. Though in a vacuum, this is just your everyman just chilling and doing their own thing...

Lily is, in her own words, a career critic. There are expectations I am not wrong for having. I do not expect the world from Lily, but it has to be asked what Lily actually adds to the conversation of Critique! She refuses to experience stories as a fantasy to get lost in. It's swimming advice from somebody who has never been in a body of water. Asking a social recluse how to best socialize. Asking the illiterate to write an award winning novel. Taking culinary tips from someone who would happily fucking starve if not for the chicken nugget and French fry combo. She likes to attack fandom all the time but probably couldn't comprehend being that genuinely invested in fucking anything.

I'd probably even feel bad for her if she wasn't such a vile human.

[fierceawakening]

So I was poking around YouTube and I came across a vid from someone I used to watch periodically entitled "How I Stopped Being Anti-Woke" (or something to that effect).

It was fascinating.

Those of you who've known me for a long time know I used to be an outspoken atheist who never missed an episode of The Thinking Atheist and watched presentations from cons with envy.

(Influenced in part by some things I read by Jews on Tumblr about how you can find meaning in religious practice without believing God exists, I ultimately went back to the church I grew up in. I still think God is a story, but I always liked the way they used that story to tell you to be kind and patient, and only left because I thought they didn't want people around who didn't think God was real. Since I went back I've mentioned I'm not sure and I tend to just get shrugs, so I figure I'm welcome until someone gets mad at me.)

I had a bit of a... I won't say front row seat, as by that time I wasn't as intense about consuming everything anyone put out, I was mostly just a fan of Seth and sometimes watching things he recommended because I thought he had good judgment, but I did kind of observe the shift rightward from the sidelines and not like it.

The video I watched the other day brought up the whole brouhaha about Anita Sarkeesian, and how a LOT of the people who were offended by her very existence happened to be content creators in the YouTube atheist community.

I don't have my dates exact here, but around the time Anita was big, I'd been part of and left a feminist online community that I now feel was leaning pretty culty. I'd been in a community that was very aware of Messages in Media, and there was still a bit of me that thought they had a point, but I was also very aware of how people could use what fandoms you were in or what you said about them to get you shunned and purged. (People may or may not believe me on this, but there was one LiveJournal communiy, feminist_rage, where when someone got banned an announcement went out to the whole community, and people would frequently make fun of that person in the comments to the ban announcement. When you think you're saving the world, you do terrible stuff very routinely.)

So I didn't like Sarkeesian much. I loved video games and nerd shit, and as a (probably?) girl I'd been sad at the lack of playable women all my life so I couldn't despise her utterly, but I did sometimes just feel tired and like "sure it's not ideal, but please stop telling people I can't abide playing as a grizzled taciturn white man whose wife was killed. It's not THAT bad."

But I noticed something in my YouTube recs that was... distressing and confusing.

It used to be I'd watch the Thinking Atheist episode for the week or catch up on some I'd missed and get recommended videos I really liked about critical thinking or logical fallacies or how you could spot when someone trying to Help You Find Jesus was saying something that sounded convincing but wasn't rational. I'd watch these with great interest. I liked thinking about thinking, and I'd been taken in by religion when I was too young to feel comfortable asking the adults when THEY'D seen Jesus, but also taken in by high control feminism when I SHOULD have been old enough to feel comfortable asking how we'd be able to tell when the patriarchy started ceding ground. I wanted to be as rational as I could make myself.

But I started seeing recs for people... talking about Sarkeesian.

They started out using that magic word rational and rationality, arguing that Sarkeesian wasn't demonstrating it. And I'd kind of agree. Some of her vids annoyed me too!

But then a funny thing would happen. The guy in the video would lose his temper. He'd start screaming, and he would not stop.

And I'd sit there thinking, "Toto, I don't think we're in Rationality anymore. "

I was shocked and horrified. We were supposed to know betetr! We were the ones constantly making, reviewing, and putting into practice guides to critical thinking! We were the ones who didn't want comforting stories about gods "as a crutch!"

(Nota Bene: I now absolutely think telling yourself comforting stories is fine, and am baffled by my former belief that there was something wrong with them. I came closer to suicide in 2016 than I ever have before or since, and I ABSOLUTELY went to church EXPLICITLY BECAUSE I knew I needed someone to tell me a comforting story and needed it too much to let my pride get in the way--and I don't believe I'm any weaker today than I was then.)

And yet here we were screaming for 45 minutes at a go because some lady wanted more playable women in video games.

At first I thought it was just this one guy, Thunderfoot. Erotically obsessed with someone he couldn't have, I figured, as he'd have to admit feminism had a point or two to have a chance and his pride wouldn't let him do that, so the next best thing was letting his rageboner overflow on camera.

But there started to be more and more of them.

To the point where, by the time I bothered to look back... they were MAGA. The most irrational, social herd, emotion driven, movement I had ever seen in my lifespan.

I dunno. I feel like I should have a lesson here. I don't have one.

Years ago I would've called it "don't lose your empathy." Or "don't forget that if you try to turn off your emotions, they start messing with your reason and making what they like look rational."

But people pushed back so hard on those things and mistreated me so much I'm just tired now.

I guess the thing is: look out for the angry people. If you keep them around, make sure they're the catalysts, never the brains of your operation.

[batsplat]

hi batsplat this is marquezian.. as our resident casey scholar i was wondering if you have casey race recs !!

boy do I ever have recs! here's a (hopefully) fairly comprehensive list, drawing from more or less all the stages of his grand prix career and featuring races notable for a bunch of different reasons

casey is quite defensive of the 'boring' racing of the alien era (in particular the 2010-12 years)... but it is a shame his time in motogp overlapped so heavily with the 800cc era, which did lead to some tough watches for fans of 'overtakes' and 'close racing' and 'unpredictability'. so a lot of these race picks aren't necessarily reflective of how casey racked up the majority of his wins, plus presumably don't always match up with what his own picks would be. but well, whatever! I threw in a few of the ones I know casey likes

warning: the race descriptions generally spoil the results of the races. since this list is pretty long, I've put an asterisk next to the races I'd particularly recommend, and double asterisk next to my personal faves

my tldr spoiler-free top five faves list is catalunya 2007, donington park 2007, laguna seca 2008, sachsenring 2010, and laguna seca 2011. my five next-off most notable/fun races are assen 2004, turkey 2006, qatar 2007, phillip island 2009 and silverstone 2011

and here's the actual list, in chronological order:

sachsenring 2003: first podium in grand prix racing! big disclaimer: the recordings of the 2003 125cc races you can find on the videopass are poor quality and don't feature any commentary, so not the easiest to watch. this race is also not great to follow on the colour front: the three main protagonists are *squints at notes* casey (yellow bike, number 27), perugini (mostly black and white but with a few greenish highlights, 7) and de angelis (mostly green, 15). but well it's a really tight fight that goes until the last corner, good fun... casey's talked about how nervous the track made him so he wasn't racing his opponents hard enough at the end. which is kinda sweet and revealing

brazil 2003: another tight battle, this time with jorge (green/red, 48) and de angelis, another time he doesn't QUITE make it. jorge's first ever victory! y'know the one where he overtakes everyone on the outside and starts the whole x-fuera thing

valencia 2003: first win! 125cc/moto3 racing being reliably good fun is a time-honoured tradition and it can even make that middling karting track exciting to watch. it's a good fight - quite helpfully, casey's nicely visible yellow bike contrasts well with the blue bike (hector barbera, number 80) and the red bike (sic, 58) (at some point steve jenker, 17, shows up on a black and white bike). that being said... the bloody video on the motogp website cuts off around two and a half laps to the end, which is a shame because those laps were (apparently) filled with drama. very close finish, not helped by the spark plug of casey's bike breaking RIGHT before the end, which is a very casey thing to happen to him. he thought he was screwed but ended up being saved by barbera running wide trying to overtake him in the last corner. here's a cute lil feature with casey discussing the race that you can probably just watch instead of the race. also ofc him saying how good it felt to beat the spanish at their home circuit (clip here), king of spite

^look at him in evil gross luminous yellow

**assen 2004: I'll admit, this race is one of my faves in large part because of the terrorism jorge does on casey on the last lap, which casey was NOT happy about. (in a funny coincidence, the same event features jorge's future teammate doing some last lap terrorism on gibernau that gibernau is also decidedly not thrilled about.) featured in the autobiography - he really wasn't a fan of jorge at the time - and when he's being sulky in the interview they have in the post-race broadcast. but another great fight and, with my apologies to casey, the last lap is fantastic. excitingly includes commentary!!

jerez 2006: casey's first motogp race! you don't reallyyyy see enough of him on the broadcast for it to be completely worth it, but it's still a proper good ride. he starts in fifteenth, makes a great start and then gets a lil lucky at the first corner when toni elias attempts to murder barrels into valentino and opens up a gap for casey. gets all the way up to fourth and finishes sixth!! also ofc a starring performance by dani at the front of the race

qatar 2006: second race of the season. after the first race, casey had been ill with a bad fever, plus there'd been a fuck up with the flights that meant he only got to the lusail circuit ten minutes before the first session. he topped the first practise session and qualified on pole, even though he was still recovering from illness and was massively sleep-deprived. his first battle with valentino, eventually drops a few places but still <3 also features some fun vale/nicky hayden battles

*turkey 2006: the third race of the season (look he front-loaded his good races that year) and my girl's first premier class podium!! but... bit of a heartbreaker as he did come VERY very very close to winning. also he said apparently he was pleased with his podium but when he got to parc fermé his team was acting disappointed he didn't win :( still a fantastic race, the highlight of casey's troubled rookie campaign. (casey was fast from the get-go in the premier class, but was dealing with major tyre issues that the team around him didn't do a good job at helping him with. by the end of the season, he ended up acquiring a somewhat unfair reputation for being a crasher, with the lovely nickname 'rolling stoner'. still, for young talent it's generally the peaks that matter most and you could really see his ability shine through here)

*qatar 2007: obviously of Great Narrative Significance, casey's first race with ducati and when he announced his arrival at the top of the sport by getting his first premier class win. good solid fun casey/vale fight, though it does feature the classic 'ducati blasts past everyone down that very long lusail straight' syndrome. people were kinda mean about that - which in turn made casey very irritable, arguing that if your bike is a nightmare to ride everywhere else then it's an accomplishment to be close enough to blast past down the straight. unfortunately I do agree a lil bit with the naysayers in terms of the actual racing, but still a pretty good fight

^the last year it was a day race

**catalunya 2007: probably my personal favourite? (of the ones casey won, anyway.) just something about a great battle at that track - obviously valentino had about a million, but this was really the only race-long one that he lost. important in the context of the 2007 title campaign - even though it was only a ten-point swing - because it showed casey wasn't just about horsepower dominance. fantastic riding from both of them

**donington park 2007: my fave of his wet weather performances because he actually has to work his way through the field. he started fifth but was outside of the top ten early on after an uncharacteristically poor start. fun race with plenty of good shake-ups of the order

(he sealed the title in motegi and won his home race for the first time that year, but since he finished sixth in the former and won the latter by a few lightyears, they don't make the cut)

*qatar 2008: more fun than qatar 2007!! imo!! obviously it's also jorge's first race and he's on pole and dani's a bit injured and those two have their whole thing™️ going on... and vale has just switched tyre suppliers and is trying to prove he's not washed and casey is starting his title defence... so a big significant race for all four of them, and unlike many races in that era has a fair few twists and turns and almost all of them actually get to fight each other a bit. okay eventually it settles down and gets dull but until then it's fun (and there's also some very late excitement involving dovi/vale)

**laguna seca 2008: I feel a wee bit bad for including this one and casey would throw something at me, but well it obviously belongs on here. ignoring casey's complaints for a minute about vale's aggression, it really is a fantastic battle - and vale only goes as far as he does because casey's so good! (also unsure whether casey would appreciate this line of reasoning.) probably the one everyone's most likely to have already watched, and for good reason since it slaps. sorry casey

estoril 2009: only for sentimental reasons, after the first few laps it gets boring fast. still, it's casey's first race back after the mystery illness-induced break, he immediately has a cute lil battle with vale (which he wins, slay) and... okay then it's basically a procession but it's also nice and sweet when it's over and he's on the podium and he's shown everyone he's still got it. maybe skip like. 20 laps

**phillip island 2009: casey's first win in only his second race back!!! warning that it's a little light on actual overtaking but it's still tense and close most of the way through and casey's so great to watch on this circuit. (he's literally too good at it for most of his races there to be all that interesting, this is probably the best one.) plus it's another one included partly for sentimental reasons. here's my pitch:

sepang 2009: so he's been slandered for months, he's been written off, ducati have been fucking him over, he comes back and immediately gets a podium finish and wins the next race... what does he do after that? win again obviously! another neat little wet performance (partly helped by vale having a bit of a shocker off the line lmao, though he seals the title that day with a p3 finish)

valencia 2009: if you want to see the pole sitter crash on the warm up lap and dani almost miss the start in confusion

**sachsenring 2010: vale's first race back after the broken leg. usually that's the time when everyone would pretend to be nice to each other... but all three of vale, jorge and casey had gone to efforts during vale's absence to make things worse <3 anyway cracking race including a good fun spite-fuelled battle between casey and vale for the last podium spot, one of their better scraps with a dramatic ending - after which both of them are charmingly bitchy about each other to the media (see below). shame it was basically their last notable battle in the dry (I didn't include either jerez 2011 or le mans 2012 on this list because I wouldn't really recommend them as good casey races, but they do more or less conclude casey and vale's on-track story. and the latter is also the last podium they share, plus it's the race right after casey announced his retirement. fave presser moment)

^😭😭😭😭😭 you guys are AWFUL oh my god. people always talk about laguna 2008 but the vibes got way more rancid post-2009 when their actual on-track rivalry was basically over

motegi 2010: this one's kinda marginal on whether it qualifies for this list. casey was really proud of this win and felt his 2010 wins were particularly impressive given how much he had to override a bike that was objectively shit by this point.... BUT in practise once he shakes off dovi, it's quite a dominant win and the real fun is watching valentino experiment with whether he can make jorge lorenzo the first person ever to die of rage alone while riding a motorcycle

*silverstone 2011: one of the truly great wet weather performances. this is a personal taste thing - I don't mind dominance as much in the wet because it's just cool sometimes seeing somebody drop a masterclass on the field in those conditions. but obviously not necessarily the most exciting victory fight once he hits the front after like. a lap. still, good battles going on behind him

^a fan of british tracks, not a fan of the british

*sachsenring 2011: great three-way battle with jorge and dani, with the lead exchanged several times - also plenty of other good battles down the order. not one casey emerges victorious from, but definitely one of the best races that season

**laguna seca 2011: okay look corkscrew this corkscrew that but there's an argument to be made that casey makes a pass in this that's better than anything marc and vale can DREAM of. well no I won't go that far - but it's still an incredible overtake, insane thing to do at a blind corner, and casey just looks fantastic riding on that circuit. in his autobiography he says something along the lines of 'oh it looked scary on tv but I knew I'd make it'. which. okay casey!! not gonna say more than that, one of those where you'll know it when you see it. one of the best races of his career and also a key race in that year's title fight

phillip island 2011: marginal inclusion, but it's sweet he sealed the title on his 26th birthday by winning his home race (even though he mainly sealed it there because jorge lost half a finger and couldn't start the race). conditions got treacherous when the rain showed up but well casey stayed on the bike, just about

*jerez 2012: casey's first and last win at jerez! this is the one that casey called his greatest career win at the time and... sure, fair enough, especially given he had a weirdly bad record at the track. he didn't enjoy the experience much because of his arm pump issues, which makes the performance all the more impressive. fun first few laps in particular, after that it's maybe a bit more tension than actual action. still a proper good race

estoril 2012: another win he's very proud of... another one that's maybe even more skewed towards tension than actual action, but still an unmistakably impressive performance given jorge's strong record there and casey's physical issues. that and jerez completed his set as they'd been the races he hadn't won yet, which made him feel more certain of his choice to retire

phillip island 2012: listen it's his last win and it sealed the title (for jorge), so was at least somewhat exciting. but also according to his autobiography, casey deliberately rode slower for a bit before expanding the gap again just to keep his focus up, which I think gives you a sense of how easy he found winning there

^his penultimate race and sixth consecutive victory at phillip island. he also finished on the podium in his last ever race at valencia

[snorkling-in-sodasea]

Establishing Couples in Hazbin: Stolitz Season 1

Finally got around to this. I decided to make this post just season one and save the post for season two until January, when season two should be over, if that schedule's right. But it's just amazing how much material I got to work with in just one season in how much of a mismatched pair they are. I think I'll split this topic up in a post per season, in fact, because of the sheer amount of what I got to work with. Also, I'll be bringing up at some points of my post the whole 'Stolas is autistic' thing that plenty of fans like to go with; I'd like to say that I don't mean any insults to anyone when I mention it. And I don't know if this will amount to anything but it might be important to inform you all that I myself actually am autistic. Also, I'll probably derail a little bit here and there because I'm a spontaneous typer here. Now for anyone and everyone okay with a Stolitz/Stolas roasting, let's get started.

I might as well go in order of appearances that Stolas and Blitz make together, including phone calls. That's probably good because the only interaction that they have in the pilot (maybe the pilot's non-canon but, as far as I know and feel, it's selective which parts of a pilot are canon and which ones aren't) The phone call was funny to me at the time but that was probably before Stolas's woobifying process or whatever it's called. (Yeah, there's bound to be people who don't like that type of humor but at least it was for sure a joke instead of a back and forth double standard kind of bullshit). Still, Blitzo showed how much he didn't like it, even getting Loona's help for it

2. Starting up the series proper, there's Murder Family. Specifically, the scene when Blitzo is being hunted down by Martha and a little detail when he's talking to Mayberry.

First up, Blitzo has an alarm system for his employees to intervene when something gets too much for him. One of the buttons is for Stolas. For. STOLAS. As in, Blitzo would press that button if Stolas was there and made him feel too uncomfortable and/or unsafe thanks to this damn owl.

Then there's the bigger scene with being chased down by Martha. Stolas is watching Blitzo through the bubbles. He can see what's happening. His arm wound is even visible to Stolas. Even if not, it can't be that hard to figure out something's wrong when the person you're calling is whispering 'now's not a good time'. This damn owl decides none of that matters and makes a phone call. This is the biggest damning moment that all those claims that Stolas didn't realize what he was doing really does become impossible, or at the very, very, very least, get so improbable that it's almost impossible. (Although for the second thing, I still don't get how so I'm probably giving this too much credit by even entertaining the thought)

Anyways, I'll get into more detail about this specific moment because it's relevant for Apology Tour but, should I watch the bathtub scene, I can't see how Stolas is completely oblivious to what he's doing. Especially if Stolas initially let Blitzo just have the book at first and would still have ensured contact if Stolas bothered to just flex his social position and go wherever he wants, whenever he wants. It's not like Viv gives Stolas a lot of responsibilities in the show anyways. (Seriously, the Full Moon Festival in episode 5 and the paperwork in a fucking music video, which people can easily miss if they're not compelled to watch it, is literally the only two times we ever see Stolas do anything resembling a job). I can't see any reason whatsoever as to why this just had to be sexual

There's also the part that Stolas managed to talk for hours without Blitzo ever responding back to him. I would have expected someone who loved me to eventually want to know if I'm listening to him and ever say something to them sometimes, especially over a fucking phone call. Yet Stolas just went on and on and, considering he purposely picked when Blitzo was being shot at to propose the sex deal. That says to me that Stolas is so focused how horny Stolas himself is that he can't even be bothered to see if Blitzo made it out the whole 'being-shot-at' thing alive so that Blitzo can fuck him at a later date

3. Next is Loo Loo Land. To be honest, I loved this episode when it came out but, just like the phone call in the pilot, this was before the woobifying and this was the first time Stolas has done his disgusting shit. As a result, I didn't think about it that hard and I didn't expect Stolas to keep repeating his mistakes since you normally expect fictional characters to mess up in a certain way once and never again. If it is going to happen again, then it either needs to build up to something or be executed differently than the first time.

Anyways, Stolas was being yelled at by Stella, looking like it was for the cheating. Eventually, that specific fight comes to pass and Stolas tries to talk to Octavia. He gets the idea to go to an amusement park she used to love but makes it obvious that she has no desire to go now that she's a teenager. I heard that someone made the argument that, believing Stolas to be autistic, it meant that he couldn't tell that Octavia didn't want to go because she's a sarcastic teenager and sarcasm is hard to tell apart from sincerity and Stolas rarely interacts with anyone. I'm not buying that. I'm not saying it's impossible but it's highly improbable. It's incredibly rare for anything to truly be impossible so things are just improbable depending on what you're talking about. So I find it highly improbable that a thirty-something year old man would still not recognize that Octavia isn't excited to go, autism or not. Even if you can't tell by words, you can at least tell by attitude and demeanor so Stolas still should've been able to tell, especially by the time he reaches adult age. (Sorry, ended up going off on a tangent but the next paragraph shows that I felt the need for extra context and I provided that to some degree)

Besides, autism or not, it's still a damn stupid plan that Stolas has. He seems to want to have Blitzo there to flirt with at any moment he pleases and to have a happily distracted daughter that he can sometimes give attention to, because at least the first time ends up happening. Thing is, considering what has made Octavia so upset in the damn first place, then Stolas wasn't going to accomplish or obtain both things that he wanted, especially in the way that he tried. It's obvious in how it failed for Octavia but it failed with Blitzo, too. Stolas simply didn't have to deal with that like he had to deal with Octavia because it's her who reached her limit, not him. Still, how it failed with Blitzo is that he was not receptive to the the touches and he didn't look happy at any point of time. What's more, it's a bit of evidence that goes into Blitzo's ultimate feelings as revealed in Full Moon

4. Next is Harvest Moon Festival, starting with Blitzo and Stolas having sex in his palace, mansion, whatever. The point is - and this is another tangent about something else entirely so feel free to skip this paragraph if you want - it's Octavia's home, not just Stolas's, and Stolas is still having sex with the guy she's afraid would leave him behind. Maybe Stolas thinks that Octavia is fine with him having sex with Blitzo because she's reassured that he won't abandon her. Except it comes off as disrespectful towards her if Stolas is continuing his affair in their shared home because he thinks everything's hunky-dory now that they had all that crap in Loo Loo Land sorted out and it'll never be a problem again. (Considering how little Octavia shows up in the series, only ever showing up for extra angst on Stolas's part, then maybe it somehow really isn't a problem. It's not like the characters are typically written like how people logically react to specific shit, anyways.)

Anyways, Blitz only ever looked happy talking to Stolas when thinking about going to the Harvest Moon Festival, something that he easily could've heard from Millie or even Moxxie. So it's not like Stolas was all that special in this instance of anything resembling happiness in Stolas's presence. Not to mention, Blitzo immediately gets to a more agitated state when he feels the need to tell Stolas to not get kinky with him. It's kind of telling that Blitzo legit feels the need to tell him that. Like he can't trust Stolas to restrain himself otherwise

After all, Stolas is already so fucking horny just by watching Blitzo. Blatantly sending flirtations to him in the audience, announcing him the winner with the not preferred name which pretty much embarrassed him, and it got to the point where Blitzo didn't want to stick around much longer if there's gonna be nothing but a thirsty-ass owl on stage. Blitzo couldn't make his discomfort any more obvious throughout the entire time he's at the games, should it come up, so Stolas has to be willfully ignoring all of it or is the stupidest fucker in all of their universe to not notice anything wrong

5. After this is Truth Seekers, when Stolas came in to rescue I.M.P. He started it off with 'impish, little plaything'. No matter what the reason he had for saying it, it's a demeaning phrase specifically pointing out race so how else is Blitzo supposed to see it? Does Stolas genuinely think it's a cute, little pet name?

Then there's Stolas actually chewing out Blitzo for getting in trouble with D.H.O.R.K.S. Stolas is the one who has been watching for who knows how long and just let them handle it until they couldn't. If Stolas is gonna let I.M.P. deal with the against the agents and take his time helping, if he's gonna do it at all, then it feels like he's in the wrong for chastising them. Even though I probably can't explain that very well, Stolas definitely doesn't have the right to lecture Blitzo about carelessness when he's the one who just lends the all important grimoire for sex. If anything, Stolas is a hypocrite for getting upset about carelessness when lending out the book for sex to an imp is its own brand of carelessness. After all, the damn book is supposed to be Stolas's responsibility and no one else's. The point is, Stolas is basically blaming Blitzo for something that's more Stolas's fault than anyone else's and it's not good for their 'relationship' if Stolas's go to thoughts for anything wrong is that it's all entirely Blitzo's fault and that Stolas himself never contributed to any of it. Let's not forget how Stolas just touches Blitzo however he wanted and Blitzo just glares. I also read or heard a good point somewhere that Blitzo doesn't protest but still looks unhappy, highly likely because he gave up trying to establish boundaries. He knows that Stolas won't listen. I thought initially that Blitzo knew that he's in trouble with Stolas so he just takes whatever Stolas wants to do to him because protesting against it just makes him more upset. What I thought was sad but giving up establishing boundaries because you know they won't be respected is even sadder

Finally, Stolas asks for a reward for saving Blitz. That's so as fuck not a thing that 'kind' people do. Kind people don't even think about an award for what they do. At best, they just wish to not be given an attitude by the people they attempt to help. People who genuinely love another person also don't expect anything from the person they love to give any awards; it's already award enough to see them happy and well. Stolas doesn't refuse the offer for sex, either, so that's another thing against him for that 'relationship' he wants later down the line

Oh, and I guess there's the trip that Blitzo ended up going on thanks to the truth serum. Particularly the part where he sees Stolas being on his fancy-ass throne and pulling Blitzo by the chains and collar. Wouldn't be surprised if he feels trapped. Really, the only 'romance' that be detected as if you had kink or a fetish for, at best, dubiously consensual situations. But for an actual relationship, I doubt it's normal for someone to feel trapped and needing to serve the other. Stolas's actual actions after the trip is bound to not have helped that perception in the slightest, either

6. Finally, there's Ozzie's. Blitz first thinks of using Stolas to get into Ozzie's to spy on Millie and Moxxie. (So weird how no one ever brings this up when holding Blitzo accountable for what he did to Stolas. Other than seducing him for the book and stealing it, this is the only other thing that comes to mind on the actual shitty things Blitzo did to Stolas). Blitzo never worded it like he wanted to go on a date, though. He just asked to go to a club. It was Stolas who decided to interpret it that way. It is douchey for Blitzo to never correct it because it's apparently that important for him to not even give Millie and Moxxie a single night to themselves (I really hate that this never amounts to anything)

Things get bad, though, when the heat is on Blitzo and, by extension, Stolas when Blitzo tried defending Moxxie. Not only did Stolas never do a single, solitary thing to defend Blitzo when he was being harassed like how Millie did for Moxxie but there was a point where Stolas legitimately tried to run away. Then, of course, the well-known menu scene.

You see, everyone brings up the menu scene, and it is important, but it's also important to point out how Stolas hid his face behind the menu because Ozzie pulled him back in his seat and didn't let him run. Yeah, Blitzo never saw the 'trying-to-run-away' part but, considering Apology Tour and the crap Stolas says in the beginning, that whole thing here is important. Seriously, Stolas may be said that he's a pacifist, but the writing obviously goes too far and makes Helluva's Stolas seem like a coward who will undoubtedly make his 'loved ones' suffer just for the sake of taking the path of least resistance. Because this Stolas only ever cares about taking the easy way out in any given crisis

Finally, when Blitzo drops Stolas off at his mansion. Stolas has the freaking sheer stupidity to try inviting Blitzo in after Blitzo's obviously in a bad mood. Again, Stolas has to be socially braindead to witness how the evening went for Blitzo and still think it's appropriate to spend time with him, especially after mentioning that Octavia's with her mom. Really, Stolas already seems socially inept to not pick up that Blitzo's struggling not to cry and at least stop trying to invite him in. God, it's annoying to recall how shocked Stolas looked when Blitzo called him out for their relations with each other because it's like, 'how is this a surprise to you? It's not like Blitzo was ever not direct about how things are'. But yeah, even when Stolas is 'kinder', he's still not considerate, what with witnessing his loved ones being bullied right in front of him and still trying to carry on like things can still be fun in the end

The cherry on top is when Blitzo is looking at the pictures in his phone. He's so much happier with Fizzarolli, Verosika, and Barbie and Tilla. Stolas, though? Blitzo may be smiling but he also looks tired. What's more, Stolas is asleep.

As in, literally the only time in the entire show that I can think of that Blitzo is smiling in Stolas's presence is when Stolas himself is asleep.

And yeah, I'm going up all the way to Apology Tour. The photo that Blitzo secretly took of himself and Stolas is literally the only time I know of where Blitzo is actually happy when Stolas is nearby and he's fucking sleeping.

Seriously, how sad is that? That the only time your partner is even remotely happy around you is when you're not talking to each other or interacting with each other in any shape or form or when you're not even awake to look at them? And again, Blitzo looks tired as he smiles so that means, even at the height of happiness that Stolas brings him, Blitzo will just be too drained to properly enjoy it

*

And that's all the interactions that Stolas and Blitzo had together in the first season, including the pilot. At least, what comes to memory, because I'm already rewatching episodes for rewrite fanfics and I don't want to do it for more than I already do.

Anyways, just by the first season and even the pilot alone, there's no grounds for even a decent relationship, let alone a good one. For the most part, Stolas keeps doing whatever the fuck he wants and Blitzo looks pissed off by all of it. In turn, Blitzo only cares about what he can get from Stolas, he never shows any interest in Stolas himself. I guess to Stolas's credit, as little as he can be given and as undeserved it might be, Stolas did try some small talk to really get to know Blitzo, even if it's extremely surface-level. (Although it's probably not good that it took seven episodes for Stolas to ever even try surface-level learning about Blitzo, given that the first season is eight episodes)

Even with just that, it's already shitty for a relationship because one party really is just being treated like a plaything by the other. And to think, season 2 manages to make everything worse... until next time, when that season's finished

[yannig]

So. I've finished binge-watching Pit Babe.

and I have opinions. (yes I am aware it came out like a year ago. who cares) so, with very little order :

Tony died!! Yeah!! ngl, at one point I hoped Babe's father would come in to kill him, but Kenta doing it is even more satisfying so i'm happy with it. also those knife sounds were great. 10/10 no notes.

Babe's father was very obvious as Babe's father the second we met him. it's not necessarily a problem, i just found it funny that they were trying to create a mystery around him.

i didn't know it was an omegaverse when i began watching the show, but it was a pretty sanitized omegaverse, all things considered. no mentions of heat/rut, knotting, mate, pack, mating bite, bond, nesting. the mpreg was only implied. the word omega was uttered exactly once. beyond Tony wanting only alpha kids (with no explanation of what an alpha is), the plot to get a child from Babe, and Babe's fixation on his partner's smell (and most likely, Babe and Charlie's fixation on each other's neck), i often forgot it was an omegaverse. i understand not wanting to scare newbies, omegaverse can be wild, but i was surprised with how little we got of the common tropes. its not a flaw, i was just surprised.

Sonic needs to tell North he loves him. the guy is clearly ready to die for you. just because he's too stupid to realize he's in love with you doesn't mean he isn't.

also this two idiots were still in the building!! i thought they got the USB and then got out to publish the videos! but no! these two idiots were still in the building! thank fuck Kim was close by!!! (he was probably there on purpose, yes, but still. they should have gotten out!)

Way stays a walking red flag until his very last breath and I hate that for him. don't get me wrong, I saw his death coming. he was unredeemable, and we don't want the audience to hate him, so of course he was gonna die. i really don't like this trope, I'd rather he left Babe and X-Hunter behind and got a new chance with Pete, who was clearly ready to give him one and also who he hadn't betrayed and hurt in the worst way possible. but no, that's not how the trope works. he dies. because we don't know how to redeem characters without killing them. and to make the matter worst, he dies having one of his most fucked up interactions with Babe yet, and that's saying something considering his track record, confessing his love for the nth time which was understandable but already awkward on its own, and then asking if Babe ever loved him back when he has made very clear several times that he saw Way as his closest friend and nothing else, begging for forgiveness for trying to rape Babe, i swear to god!! the correct thing to say at this point was "i'm sorry i ever hurt you, i hope you get to be happy with Charlie, don't blame yourself for my death". instead, he gave him enough therapy material for the next decade! with one conversation! how the fuck is Babe supposed to grieve Way, or make peace with anything he has done to him, after that kind of last breath!

(seriously, i probably have enough to say about Way to write an entire essay. the man was fucked up)

Kim has now been officially adopted in the family, he's even invited to the funerals! (i am aware he was still Tony's prisoner during Charlie's funeral, i just found it funny.) we did not see enough of Kim after Tony imprisoned him btw. he is one of my favorite characters in this show and he deserved more screen time!

Did Charlie stole a power that just- teleport him to Babe when he's in danger? this is a least the second time he just appeared out of nowhere to save Babe with no explanation, and with a perfect timing at that.

Babe deserved to scream at Charlie for faking his death. Or a least have a breakdown the like of the one he had with his father. The reunion scene was great and emotional and shit, and it was adequate for the context, but i needed them to have a real conversation about it later. will look for fanfics on the matter.

my man Babe is gonna have so many trust issues it's not even funny anymore. like mate. both his fathers betrayed him (and sold him, though for different reasons), his best friend of 10 years betrayed him in one of the worst way possible, one of his other teammates betrayed him, and his boyfriend has been lying to him the entire time the have known each other, to the point of faking his death without telling him he was alive. listen, i was berating him every time he pushed Charlie away at the slightest sign of dishonesty because I don't like that trope, but I think in this case he was justified. it's going to be fun to get him to trust anyone ever again!

also that man can cry! and make me cry with him at that! like, i knew Charlie's death was a fake out, and i knew it was coming, but episode 10 still got me in tears because Babe's grief was fucking real. giving him his senses back just for him to hear his lover flat-line on the operation table was incredibly cruel. also "He's still warm. Maybe he's not dead yet". are you trying to kill me? also also : did he say "i love you" for the first time at Charlie's grave? because i think he did.

overall, pretty good execution of the fake death trope, they gave us time to feel the grief before revealing he was alive, it worked. (did the plot around said fake death make sense? not... quite? but the feels were there and that's what matters)

Jeff is my baby and i love him. he got a lover and a support system and that's great, though they could do with better communication and still have shit to learn about respecting boundaries. which is saying something because Jeff tends to be pretty fucking clear about his boundaries. i'm watching you Alan. also i've decided he's autistic. for obvious reasons.

the whole "papa and mama" thing Babe and Charlie have going on is not my thing, but it is particularly weird in a context where the last two men Babe called "Papa" betrayed him and hurt him terribly. i get that what they have going on is different, like it's not a daddy kink (which would have been even weirder), but it still left a weird taste in my mouth. i just - i don't know what to make of it. i don't think they got the implication of it when making the show?

Babe and Charlie both need therapy to a desperate level, and i do not trust any of them to try to get it on their own. let's hope the rest of the family team manages to get them there. i'm mostly counting on Jeff to start the movement on this one. and then the others can nicely bully them into getting professional help.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for making my friend kill her friend?

So. I (15-18 NB) found myself in an alternate reality, you could say, along with a couple of friends and also B (15-18 M). B is... friends? with N (15-18 F), who I've known for almost all my life, so I guess we're friends. B got manipulated into supporting the reign of this incompetent villian Q. N got kidnapped along with him, but she escaped and joined me. The other people with me had split up with me, so it was just me and N.

Here's where things get... Bad. So, for two days now I've been... Not myself. There's something else puppeting my body. It hadn't proven to be especially malicious before, even doing some potentially world-saving things in a different alternate reality (it's complicated). But as far as I know, that's just because they couldn't make me do that stuff- anyone they tried to attack ran away immediately, and there were always people around to see it. But now there's only me and N, and N has the ability to... Let's say totally incapacitate and potentially kill others.

So, uh, the thing in me decided to go around and order N forcefully inkillpacitate everyone we came across- and even backtracking and such to find more people to inkillpacitate. They even bought this magic jewelry that made N more susceptible to their command and possibly made N kill the storekeeper. At this point N, who was naturally very timid, had kind of started repressing the fact she was hurting others and acting like they were just enemies in a video game or something.

Then we came across B. B was wary of me, rightfully so, and initiated a fight to free N from me. The thing in me tried to make N kill B, and at first N resisted, but after repeated prompting she gave in, and likely killed or otherwise incapacitated B. After we got out of the alternate reality (long story), B remained unresponsive (maybe dead, but the thing never thought to check). N passed the whole thing off as a bad dream, but I was wearing her watch, so she got creeped out over that.

Here's the thing, though. I could have prevented this. I've escaped its control, I've done it before. I would have stopped this. But I didn't. The only other time I escaped its control, all I did was eat all my mom's pie because the thing didn't let me eat all day. I could have WARNED someone. I probably could have escaped its control during the fight with B if I'd just tried harder! But I didn't, and now he's good as dead.

AITA?

[mandoratheevilchaser]

For the 2 ships thing: Bruce/Talia or Tygra/Cheetara?

…

Well, I see I've played my hand if my weaknesses can be so easily identified. Rip my heart out while you're at it, why don'tcha?

The thing is Brutalia and Tychee both represent two very different flavours that I love in shipping dynamics.

I love angst. I LOVE it. I thrive on it. I'm also a sucker for star-crossed lovers – my favourite movie was and is Pocahontas; this was inevitable. And Brutalia is a healthy mix of both. They're just so fucking tragic. Because they genuinely love each other but they can NEVER be together. They can snatch little moments of love and happiness here and there, but they can never bask in it, never live in it. That's partly because of the status quo (even though Talia's has changed fucking three times, which is like a comics-faux pas, smh), partly because of the cyclical nature of comics and the fickleness and shittyness of writers, but also just partly because of their in-universe situations. They love each other. They can't be together. Too bad, so sad. It's fucking delicious.

Brutalia is my favourite comic book couple and one of my favourite couples of all time (possibly even second?). But Tychee all but changed my brain chemistry as an eleven year old. It was actually the reason I even watched ThunderCats in the first place. They featured ninth (way too high) on Lewtoons' (miss him 😔) Top 10 Cartoon Couples video and honestly tween me just thought they looked really aesthetically pleasing together. Aesthetically pleasing enough that I checked out ThunderCats 2011 on a whim. Which became my new favourite show. Until I watched the original, at which point, it got bumped down to my second favourite show. Over a decade later, ThunderCats is still my favourite franchise. Thanks, Chad. Anyway, point is: I came into the show already rooting for them and I also came into the show already knowing how the love triangle would play out, so I probably wasn't as blindsided as some other people were. But boy, did they exceed my expectations.

Another thing I'm a sucker for is couples whose relationships are based on loyalty and friendship, rather than just chemistry and Tygra and Cheetara just THRIVE in that space. I know I said I love angst, but I can appreciate some fluff when it's got some substance to it. And Tygra and Cheetara just genuinely bring out the best in each other and clearly make each other happy and I just think that's fucking beautiful. I know a lot of people dislike the „I have to stick with him” scene in New Alliances and I'll admit I have some misgivings about it myself, but I'd be lying if I said a considerable part of me didn't love it as well. And don't even get me started on the cave scene: „You're fast enough to get out of here. Go!” „You know I'd never leave you behind!” It’s the LOYALTY. FUCK. They are just. a healthy, functional, compatible, supportive, loyal pair and what more can you honestly ask for? Also, I love meet-cutes and didn't Tychee just have a meet-cute for the ages.

As for their relationship in the original show and the comic books, I love that just as much. Maybe even slightly more, since the friendship aspect of their relationship is way more pronounced and friends-to-lovers is another trope I love. Of course they were never confirmed in the show, but. My dudes. The vibes were there. One of my favourite moments is when a villain's got Cheetara trapped and calls her helpless and Tygra saves her and she calmly replies with „But not friendless. Thanks, Tygra.” Shoutout to the reboot for continuing the tradition of Tygra and Cheetara constantly saving each other to the point of ridiculousness. And yeah, the comics didn't do a lot for them, but I love WilyCat and WilyCub and I'm happy they all got to be a happy little family :).

Tldr; Brutalia has my whole heart. But Tychee has my heart and my soul and has already rotted away most of my brain. They're my favourite couple of all time, in anything, ever. Thanks for your question. Sorry about your braincells if you read all that ^.^’

[tenthdocter]

For the ask game: 12, 56, 62, 64, 70, 71, 72, 98, 108, and 112 (sorry I know that's a lot, but there were lots of interesting ones 😝)

12: What time were I born I actually don't know tbh! I guess I should ask my mum one day 56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? Atm probably david tennant or ant & dec tbh :) 62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? See both can make me nervous the first time but I probably would slightly prefer talking on the phone. But i'd have to be pretty close to the person to do it regularly tbh 64: Do I believe in magic? Eh a little. Idk. I just think I believe in things like aliens more lol 70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? I've never actually broken anything before! I mean I wouldn't call this an injury but I once tripped up so badly when I was a kid that I thought I could see the bone on my little finger. But you know I was super young then so I could have over exaggerated it lol (the scar is kinda still there a little tho)

71: Do I spend money or save it? Save it! I'm massive saver lol!

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue?

No I can't 98: Played on a sports team? No. But I did play amateur football at a local club once (Just for fun tho. Not like actual competitive football against other teams) 108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? Probably at some point yes lol 112: Broken a bone? No never!

[myrandomscribbles]

2024 Recap

Two days into 2025 and I just realized that I've forgotten to wrap up my year. Though uneventful, there have been a few notable moments and some glimmers here and there that helped me get through it. So without further ado, here's another [long-ish] personal post, my own "2024 Wrapped"!

First of all, let me start by saying Happy New Year and I hope that everyone had a lovely & safe celebration! (Fingers still complete, I hope) Now this would be the first time I'm doing a recap of my year as a blog post, but one of the things I wanted to revive is my passion in writing. I have been spending a lot of time in the drawing & video editing department - don't get me wrong, I love it in there - but I kinda miss my first love, writing. With that in mind, I (re)started this blog not just to fill it with thoughts & rambles, but also to oil up my rusty writing gears. At this point, I want to thank those who have somehow found their way here and either liked, reblogged, or simply read my posts ❤️

This year has, unfortunately, been one of the worse ones. I spent most of it just at home, watching the days pass by and waiting for something I wasn't sure was going to happen. And sadly, I lost more than I gained. In 2024, I lost many of my beloved pets. The pain I had to go through each time is immeasurable because to me, they are my children. To pay tribute to them, I'm currently working on a painting of all of them at the rainbow bridge. It's still a long way to go, and I hope to share it here soon. I also lost a loved one, my career (or professional life, rather; I wouldn't consider virtual jobs as a career per se), and towards the latter part of the year, my health - slowly. The severe stress that I have undergone in the months of 2024 has caused me show symptoms of a likely aneurysm. As I am not yet financially capable of undergoing an MRI of my brain, I have to take extra care of my health and hit the breaks whenever I am about to burst into the Hulk.

Despite all of that, I still have a few things to be thankful for. I'd like to highlight two of them though - probably the happiest I've been the entire year. First is my trip to Vietnam in September, where I also celebrated my 30th birthday. It was a first time experience for me because not only was it my first time in the country, but it was also the first time that I got to travel with a group of friends so that was really fun.

Another highlight of my year is an actual dream come true - my all time favorite boyband, Big Time Rush actually came to Manila. I grew up with their music and it has saved me many times. It felt so surreal to see Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James get up on that stage because never in my wildest dreams that they would think of coming to visit my country since their fandom was not as big as One Direction over here. Boy was I wrong - and a good thing that I was! One of the most memorable nights of my life for sure.

So that's it for my personal side of 2024; there wasn't really much to tell there, like I said. But in spite of all that, I'm still thankful that I got to reach a new decade of my life, and well, my family and I have made it to a new year. ✨

But hey, what's a post on this blog without going through my favorite bits of pop culture? :D For the next part of this recap, I'm gonna list my top five favorites from various categories this past 2024! And hey, quit with the judging because our likes and preferences are always subjective :D

Favorite Movies

Dune: Part Two

At this point, I don't understand how this is not getting more recognition this awards season. Just because it came out earlier this year should not be the case! And I don't know if I'm with the majority on this one, but this was loads better than Part One.

Wicked

I have an entire blog post review dedicated to this film, so you can just go check that out. :D

Challengers

This film was as steamy as the bloody sauna Art and Patrick were in. Not sure if anyone has made that a one-liner review in Letterboxd yet, but here it is for you lol. My favorite thing about this film though is that they literally executed the film and the three characters' relationship in the form of a tennis match. Whenever Art wins a set, he has Tashi. And likewise when Patrick wins a set, he also has Tashi. That last scene was also insane it deserves Best Editing.

Greatest Hits

This was one of the films that went under the radar this year. I remember someone on Twitter calling it a romcom, MY BROTHER IN CHRIST IT IS NOT. Lucy Boynton is so good in this and David Corenswet, well, there's a reason he's Superman. Such a touching film about grief and acceptance, please go and watch it.

Twisters

The amount of times I will show up to the cinema for a Glen Powell? The limit does not exist. That man is a MOVIE STAR! Including this one, his last three films were all hits in my house. Like I literally went to a last screening on a rainy Sunday evening just to see a movie about tornados LOL

Favorite Performances

Zendaya in Challengers

Definition of girlboss. Who's doing it like Tashi?!

Ryan Gosling in Fall Guy

Ryan Gosling has become one of my favorite actors in recent years. He's just so naturally funny, especially in this one, and he needs to be in every film I'm so serious.

Ariana Grande in Wicked

Ariana went to the Kristin Chenoweth School of Pink Popular Squealing, she told me herself.

Rebecca Ferguson in Dune: Part Two

Not gonna lie, if you look up the word "mother" in the dictionary, one of its definitions is just a photo of Rebecca Ferguson in Dune: Part Two. Lady Jessica, what can I do for you on this fine evening?

Maya Hawke in Inside Out 2

When they first introduced Anxiety in the trailer, I did cartwheels. I can't believe that 1) they actually included the one thing that keeps me up at night and 2) they got the perfect voice in Maya Hawke to bring her to life.

Favorite Songs Released

Fortnight - Taylor Swift ft. Post Malone

Not gonna lie, TTPD is one of her lowest points in her discography (and yes, fight me on this! It can't always be good!) However, there are gems on this album. And the first time I heard Fortnight I was left in awe because who knew Post Malone sounds so good harmonizing on that outro that I can't get out of my head?!

Only One - Big Time Rush

They released a lot of new songs this year considering they went on tour but this has got to be my favorite! I had this on repeat before the concert and after the concert that it stayed atop my On Repeat playlist on Spotify. I'm actually surprised it wasn't my most played song when Spotify Wrapped came out lol.

Guilty As Sin? - Taylor Swift

This is another one of those hidden gems I was talking about, second out of three. One of the reasons why I love this song is because it instantly reminded me of Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney from Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey". Yeah, you're welcome :D

The Black Dog - Taylor Swift

This is the third of my favorite songs from TTPD. The lyrics of this song is just so painfully beautiful, the thought of being forgotten by someone who used to love and know you so well. Goddamit, Taylor. Also that bridge kills me everytime, UGH

Steal My Thunder - Conner Smith ft. Tucker Wetmore

Let me just put it out there that I obviously loved Twisters so I'm obviously a fan of the soundtrack too. Country is not really one of my top genres, but this film's soundtrack made it so likeable! I particularly love this track because of the scene where it was played in :D

Okay, I obviously need to still see A LOT of the films released in 2024, so this list is curated as of this recap and it will likely change later on. As I mentioned before, there was a huge bulk of the year where I was just severely stressed and had no such time to catch up on new releases. But I will! I will likely have another post in the future for every film that I loved and feel deserves one :D

As for the music, well, I said subjective!!! I'm not a huge music fan in terms of the artist - there are only a few artists like Taylor & Big Time Rush whose entire discography is in my Spotify. But in general, if I like how the song sounds, it goes into my liked songs playlist. End of story.

Anyway! That's it for my 2024 recap. What a year it has been. I'm actually going to try to go into 2025 with a new mindset of really just going with the flow. I'm going to try to not plan anything so much in the fear that it might fail and I'll just end up disappointed. Whatever happens, happens I guess!

[aspaceformbf]

7 December 2024 Live Charity Stream Transcript - Part 1

Link

---

22:21

(milk - please add save button to the game its so tiring to replay routes from the beggining)

Natalie

Don't worry chat, there will be a save button.

I know it's been long asked for.. for technical reasons basically we have to keep, you know, going in, doing edits, changing things here and there.. it makes it quite awkward to do a save.. to have a save button

Because like say if you do a path where you chose, you know ABC option and then you saved it.. and then we end up putting out another update and B isn't an option anymore because we made changes to the script..

When you would then download the new version and then try to load that save, it would be corrupted and you would have all kinds of issues and the game just wouldn't work.

So we wanted to like really kind of hammer down and get the script nailed before we then implemented a save feature just to make it easier for you guys basically, not to give you all corrupted files and stuff.

The other option would be like, we had a button with every update that says, you know, delete all your saves which we didn't want to do because we wouldn't want to be messing around with files on your computer.

Fuboo

-shakes head-

No!

---

24:05

Natalie

Unity is a lot more kind of flexible in what it can do and it can do a bunch of other stuff that Renpy is a little bit limited in.

You can add, you know, things like uh, the mini games that we are trying to add in and stuff like that. And it's also just an engine I'm more familiar with so that's why we chose that rather than Renpy.

---

25:00

Natalie

So here's a question Fuboo, someone's asking

"Will patreon subscribers get access to the whole game?"

Fuboo

Yeah. What was that? Auto mode.

Natalie

Will Patreon subscribers get access to the whole game is one of the questions.

Fuboo

Uh.. what was it.. I think so. We're still uh, still muddling around in those waters.

25:45

Fuboo

Patreon will get first access for sure.

---

30:50

Fuboo

I have to ask, I'm curious.. of all the lines of Don you've done, which is your favourite? 

Andrew (Don)

Oh that's a hard one. It's uh.. I think it's a matter of like remembering some of them again, it's been a while since I've looked at it.

I think it's just some of the lines when he gets like, really sincere. He's very aloof at first I noticed but then like when he starts recognizing that the player character is kind of in a bad spot or things not going well, he kind of shifts into a parental figure for them.

That's where you get that unexpected sincere side to Don. I really like those.

Fuboo

I just, I really like that uh what you see is not what you get, you know, with people.. you never know so.. yeah. That's kind of what I was aiming for with all the characters in general really so..

And Don's definitely like, oh yes there's this toughest brick guy but he's actually pretty sweet.

---

32:15

Natalie

Here's a question. Have you actually played uh, played a lot of the game, Andrew?

Andrew (Don)

Uh I have not. I have watched some Youtube videos and such so I've seen parts of the game uh.. I don't play a ton of visual novels honestly so I'm more of a

"I'll watch this and see how it goes".

I think I'm kind of the same with first person horror games where it always feels like they would be pretty fun to play and then you just get to those moments where you're like "uh, nope".

33:20

Fuboo

Well, hopefully we can get you a uh, newer build so you can play and test it out yourself. I know you're saying you're not a huge fan of uh, play novels but since it's starring you *twiddles fingers and chuckles*

Maybe just play all the routes.

Andrew (Don)

I'd absolutely give it a try. I'm not well versed in them so it would take uh, it would take some time to get uh..

I guess I would probably liken it to like how old school games are, like I played a decent amount of those so I probably like, just like

"Ah it's just like little point and click games".

34:00

Natalie

You should draw um Don playing Phasmophobia on the couch and getting spooked.

Fuboo

That would be awesome!

Andrew

He doesn't have the newest computer so it's just like an old 486.

Fuboo

Have you seen how old his computer is? You can barely run Windows XP.

Andrew

If it runs Doom then that's probably all he needs, that's all that matters.

Fuboo

That's all he needs, he just needs Doom.

Andrew

Yeah, can I just run Doom, I'm fine.

Natalie

He's like "Phasmophobia? Can I get that on my Commodore 64?"

Fuboo 

What do you mean X-box? Who were they dating before?

Andrew

One of my delinquent renters left behind so I just kept it.

---

35:10

Natalie

Someone's asking

"Are any of the cast of characters currently in the cast Nero-divergent coded?"

Fuboo

Uh.. what's that? *laughs*

Natalie

I don't know. Could you clarify what that means, if anyone-

Fuboo

Could you help us be more trendy?

35:55

Natalie 

Does anyone have the autism?

Everyone

Ah!!

Fuboo

Likely Peter *laughs*

37:54

Kat (Moderator) / in comments - Fuboo didn't explicitly say Peter had austim, please keep that in mind

---

38:11

Fuboo

I'm not sure if everybody knows this but.. originally, I was going to be doing the voice of TK but I do not have the vocals, like.. at all.

And I can't remember who but somebody recommended this super sassy, super talented uh.. individual here amongst us. I was like

"Alright let's well let's listen to them, see what they got"

And it was one of those

"Okay, this is so TK. No one else can reach these notes like TK can" so..

Natalie

Well I believe, wasn't the intention that- yeah it was Tyra that suggested it, and it was because uh..

Magic's voice, you can kind of interpret as possibly being of a male or a female so it's perfect for TK who is genderfluid so it leaves it open to interpretation.

Fuboo

Yeah it does.

---

39:30

Fuboo

I forgot how long Peter's hair was, his senior year of high school.. more like his held back senior day in high school. He had to repeat his senior year twice.

---

So what did you think when uh, we gave you um, like the description of TK and everything like that.

Was it one of those things like uh

"Not sure if I can deliver this"

Or one of those "I'm gonna make this character my own" like what was the thought process?

Magic (TK)

It was just more of "Okay I'll just read and go from there"

Fuboo

That's usually how you do it.

Magic

Yeah.

Fuboo

Well, reading worked.

---

40:50

Fuboo

Let's see..

"How old is the cast?"

Well I'm 41. That's a good start.

42:00

Fuboo

I think some of you should be showing Don some more love and appreciation, I'm just saying.. *laughs*

Listen, he's my favourite character, okay? It was one of those things where I was drawing him and then it was just

"Oh no he's hot"

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

YOU GUYS JAMISON LIKES UNDERTALE!!!

TELL ME EVERYTHING PLEASE /nf

I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH

I do! I've actually liked it for years. Um, I'm going to be kinda cringe for a minute before I get into the actual game it's self. Spoilers?? Do I need to warn that?

I actually fell into the game when I was in 5th grade, I couldn't even play the game and it still managed to get a grip on me. I watched every video I could find about it, mainly getting sucked into videos reading comics about the game. Me and my friend at the time both loved the game so we would talk about it for hours and real fanfics on Quotev and Wattpad. I actually remember seeing "Down To The Bone." When/ around the time dropped, I listened to it on repeat. I also watched the "Undertale If It Was Realistic." A lot too. ALSO, the undertale parody of "Stronger Than You" was quoted a lot. My friend was a huge fan of Temmie and they used to talk like her and I remember always thinking that was cool. I was always a huge fan of Papyrus, Mettaton, and Sans. Mettaton specifically (more on that later). And I guess I just remember, wanting so bad to be able to be apart of the fandom, but not being able to. I begged my mom to get me merch for the game while trying to hide how I knew so much about the game. (I wasn't allowed on YouTube or social media so I had to tell her I loved it bc my friend did.) I did not get the merch I wanted btw, but um, I guess it's just, it's my childhood in a way. I also used to try and draw the characters but I couldn't draw so I ended up just imagining scenarios in my head. I used to swing on the swing set at recess and just imagine stuff about the game.

Okay so the fun not cringe stuff but still cringe in a way.

So, when I finally played undertale for the first time, oh my god??? It fixed something in me, what it fixed, I don't know. I remember being super confused and trying to look at a guide for everything. I also felt so bad because I killed a few monsters in my first run and when Undyne told me I was killing them I cried. I also cried at her fight because I was dying over and over and I didn't know what to do. And also at the time I thought there were two endings, Pacifist and Genocide, and I cried when I couldn't save Asgore because I thought did something wrong (because at this point I had reset the game and killed no one). Fun fact, I have never played the Genocide route because I can't kill Papyrus. I can't do it man. I'd rather die. I love the sound track, and I love all the characters. And I love the game. I want to get an undertale tattoo at some point I love it that much.

I guess the last thing I want to say is that the game probably made me realize I was queer, in some way. Like it might not have been an instant thing, but it definitely opened my mind to queer ideas when all I had been fed was gay people bad, trans people evil. I think Mettaton was a huge thing to me, I wanted to be like him, I thought he was so cool. I didn't know men could be feminine and be cool, that it wasn't some joke. I just, I think it made me realize something some how. Also seeing a lesbian couple made a little switch in my brain flip, like oh, I like them, and they're gay, so why don't I like other gay people? (I had a LOT of internalized homophobia and transphobia and it was somehow fixed by undertale go figure 😭)

I don't know, maybe this isn't the best breakdown or what you were looking for, and to be fair it's probably unintelligible rambling. But it did give me a chance to look back on my past and how much this game really changed me and made my life better. So thanks! Um and sorry I suppose.

Also! Shocker, and probably insane to admit, but... I never thought I'd find a game that made me feel like Undertale did and then I found TF2. TF2 is my new Undertale and that's horrific </3

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: Have you ever watched Edward Scissorhands?

And have you read the IDW Sonic Comics?

I have seen Edward Scissorhands, but not recently. I would fail a pop quiz, but I know the general premise and plot. As for the IDW Sonic Comics, I am aware of them, and the Metal Virus Saga was a big enough thing that I have a few reviews and summaries of it in my Watch Later on Youtube because everyone was talking about it. But no, I've never actually read any of the Sonic Comics. The closest I've gotten to reading them independently was reading some of the pages from that notorious comic by Ken Penders where Sonic wasn't allowed to be properly devastated that his children got erased from existence, same comic that is also notorious for being the jumping off point for Ken Penders' Lara Su Chronicles comic that took a bajillion years and a giant middle finger to Sega to get published. And I only read the pages that were shown in a devastating roast of Ken's material in a sort of "this is why you need to 'Kill Your Darlings'" type post on Tumblr because, like, on the one hand I 100% understand the appeal of exploring what domestic life is like for the cast once they're able to actually grow up and have lives. But when the overarching plot is badly explained timey wimey nonsense that comes out of nowhere, isn't allowed to have a proper emotional impact anywhere that it should, and gets resolved in a handful of too-short and yet way-too-long issues, yeah. A story like that isn't going to do any of its elements well.

I've heard good things about the Sonic comics, and even the ones Ken Penders got his mitts on have some good in them. You can tell the Echidnas were Ken's Special Little Guys, and honestly, as a Knuckles fan, I 100% understand. I've just never actually had the time to dedicate to reading them. Hence why video summaries are my current go-to for whenever I do have the time. It's amazing but a bit bittersweet that there's so much art out there and so many stories, but I'll probably never get to all of the stuff I want to get to. There's just too much cool stuff for one human being to experience. Homestuck was a massive thing, and I have quite a few friends who were into all of it. And I tried picking it up once. But it's such a massive undertaking that I might just have to settle for a synopsis if the interest ever hits me again. Hell, One Piece is a massive big deal now, with the Live Action version on Netflix roping a lot of first time viewers in, and I think the main appeal is how much it truncates. You definitely miss out on the finer details and elements of story-telling with the live action version, but for a manga with chapters and episodes in the THOUSANDS, I 100% understand why the Live Action series or even the movie arcs are a much more appealing way to get into the behemoth of One Piece than reading or watching the whole thing. I was into One Piece back before it was "cool" here in the states and even I'm so massively behind on One Piece because it started becoming more important to save up and not spend money buying the physical manga, so I stopped reading, and the availability of the anime was locked behind crunchyroll or funimation's own service for a long time, so it became harder to watch too. Because back when I was watching it, it was a 4Kids Dub that was free on over the air broadcast. So I'm only able to catch up on anything now because it became such a massive success that it's easy to get to the stuff I need now.

That said, the Sonic Comic dub you sent my way with the Halloween story was cute. A little simplistic story-wise, but, hey, there's only so complex you can get with a Halloween Story. Especially in a comic that targets all ages. So if you're asking because you want to hit me up with some stuff, I can try to keep up. No promises. But I'd be willing to take a look at a few of the good IDW Sonic Comics if you've got some to recommend.

[theprodigypenguin]

Thank you @mugiwara-rosewolf for this question omg I'm almost certainly going to rant so I hope you're alright with that! I'd like to preface this by saying the only Pokémon game I've played through is Legends Arceus, and it's been ages since I watched the show, and the only card I have is Piplup cuz it's Piplup, so I am by no means an expert. Anyway let's goooooo!

I'm only gonna do one Pokémon for each character rather than an entire team! Many of these I chose after training them in game, watching YouTube videos about them, or purposely looking up their pokedex entries and lore. Some of these were chosen purely on vibes. Note: you can generally have a team of up to six, so these are only ONE of these characters Pokémon from their teams.

Lets start with Babo!

Sabo: Umbreon

So imma be real I gave him an Eevee because I Love Eevee. And because I wanted to give him a familiar Pokémon. The real decision was what his Eevee would evolve into. I decided on Umbreon because they evolve from high friendship, and friendship/family is insanely important to Sabo, so it made sense to me that his Eevee would evolve from that. Plus I really like Sabo having a dark type.

Koala: Swampert

Koala meets her Swampert when she's still pretty young, probably soon after returning to her home island. She's sitting at a stream when she hears crying and follows the sound to a trap where a Mudkip is stuck. She frees him, of course, feeling a strong understanding because she too had been trapped until recently. She names him Fish (after fisher tiger, duh) and they grow up together. She makes the decision to join the revolutionary army when he evolves the first time into Marshtomp. Swampert fucking adores Koala, that is his girl. He has a thin scar going around his back foot from the wire trap she saved him from.

Hack: Gyarados

Hack met his Gyarados by pure chance during a mission. He was traveling back to Baltigo under the water since he was alone, swimming to avoid marines or pirates. At one point he stops to enjoy his lunch, and notices that there's a weird looking fish floating nearby just staring at him. He doesn't realize the fish is a Magikarp, and when he greets it he gets no response (because it's a Pokémon, not a fish), so he just assumes it's shy and offers it part of his lunch (cuz Hack is a good guy). After finishing his lunch he starts swimming again, not realizing or maybe not caring that the Magikarp had taken a liking to him and was following him eagerly. At some point he crosses paths with a Sea King, but before he's able to get into a fighting stance, Magikarp swims in front of him, willing itself to evolve into Gyarados to protect Hack. That's when he realizes it's a Pokémon. Gyarados follows him back to Baltigo, and he just ends up with it as his Pokémon partner.

Betty: Espurr

So my thought process for Betty’s partner was that I really wanted her to have a psychic type, because I thought it matched beautifully with her Devil’s Fruit ability to encourage and pump people up simply by speaking. That's kinda psychic, right? What made me settle on Espurr was the lore that it's a Pokémon who struggles deeply with controlling its powers, is rather lonely and oftentimes on its own. It made me think of what Betty said about the revs being there for people willing to stand up for themselves. Espurr is trying super hard to control itself, and Betty sees that, so she's happy to encourage it and help it become stronger and more capable of controlling its powers. I think they'd mesh really well as partners. Plus, cmon, look at that face. There's something endearing about an adorable lil guy being able to fucking YEET your ass.

Morley: Sableye

Reason one why I chose Sableye: he's fucking adorable. I think they must have met when Morley was imprisoned in Impel Down and digging the tunnels that eventually became level 5.5. Sableye had gotten stuck there somehow, but when it noticed Morley digging it decided to follow. Sableye would pick through the dirt and rocks that Morley pushed aside, and when Morley realized it was scavenging, she started to purposely look for tasty looking rocks and would hand them back to Sableye, who followed her through the entire process of tunnel digging. When Morley finally escaped, she brought Sableye with her. They've been friends for a VERY long time. Sableye likes to just sit on Morley's shoulder, but will hop down if Morley is digging/pushing the ground around, because that means TREATS!

Lindbergh: Heatmor

Heatmor is a fucking vibe, okay. The blend of organic and mechanical really made sense for Lindbergh, because I see Heatmor using its fire to help him when he's making one of his gadgets. Oh, you need to melt some metal? No problem Lind, Heatmor is here! I was torn between giving Lindbergh a fire type or a steel type and Heatmor's appearance really won me over for this one. The vibes are simply perfect. Here's a bonus fact, Heatmor is 4'7" and Lindbergh is 4'11" 🤣 I just love that they're basically the same height. Heatmor is Lindbergh's partner as well as his assistant when preparing gadgets. They have a really good dynamic I think.

Karasu: Corviknight

I mean *waves* duh. I wanted Karasu to have a flying type because I thought it would be sweet of them to fly together. Then I realized Corviknight existed. Initially I thought it was a little TOO on the nose, but Corviknight is literally perfect for Karasu both aesthetically and lore-based. Karasu met his Corviknight when he was just a tiny Rookidee. He raised the little guy by hand and even taught him how to fly. Corviknight is more like Karasu's child than his Pokémon partner tbfh. He enjoys perching on Karasu's shoulder and will nest in the feathers of his cloak when it's tired. He gets along with most of the other Pokémon as he's quite friendly, but he's got beef with Inazuma's Tinkaton.

Ivankov: Ditto

I dare you to tell me this isn't perfect. Genderless and able to perfectly change into a duplicate of its enemy, its ability to transform itself parallels unbelievably well with Iva's devil fruit ability. I think they met when Ditto chose to reveal itself to Iva voluntarily after seeing Iva transform. Maybe it thought Iva was also a Ditto, who knows? Either way it liked Iva's company and chose to travel with her, happily working alongside her. Iva of course has other Pokémon on her team, but Ditto refuses to be confined to a pokeball and Iva respects that, so just let's it follow her around freely.

Dragon: Smolive

"Prodi why did you give Dragon a smolive?" This is why ->

Anyway, they met one day when a lonely Smolive crawled onto Dragon's plate following the scent of food, and Dragon, not realizing, picked him up thinking he was part of the meal. It begins shrieking, alerting Dragon that this is a Pokémon, so he sets it back down while apologizing for almost eating it. After that Smolive decides to dedicate it's very tiny life to Dragon and they become friends. I genuinely believe Dragon gets along really well with grass types. Idk why, the vibes just fit. He has other partners more suited for battle, but the image of Smolive on his shoulders helps to trick unsuspecting enemies into thinking it'll be an easy fight. Meanwhile he's got a legendary on his team or something, idk, Dragon exists to surprise us.

Kuma: Blissey

I wanted Kuma to have a Pokémon with the same gentle, no nonsense personality. Something healing but willing to beat your ass, basically the exact same as Kuma. Blissey is literally perfect for him. Compassionate, hard working, gentle. Genuinely do I have to say anything else? Blissey was the one who was first drawn to a young Kuma back when she was just a Happiny because she could sense his good nature and quickly became attached to him. When Kuma leaves to join the warlords he leaves Blissey at Baltigo, much to Blissey's distress. She hates being apart from her partner, but Kuma knew from the beginning that this mission probably wouldn't end well and didn't want his beloved Pokémon to get caught up in it, so he entrusts her to Dragon and the other revs. She misses him very much and is often sad, but will brighten up when given the opportunity to take care of someone. Her full attention is on Sabo after he gets his memories back, because she can sense how distressed he is. She'll offer him her egg to try and help, but he swears he's okay. He does hug her a lot, though, because they both miss Kuma.

Ahiru: Bronzor

Another choice made by vibes. First of all I love that both Ahiru and Betty have psychic types, and I wanted Ahiru to have a partner that matched her aesthetic and her mechanical arm. I also think the legend its inspired by is incredibly powerful and fits with the overall theme of the Revolutionary Army. Bronzor will allow Ahiru to polish it, but only for a little bit, and won't let anyone else touch it.

Inazuma: Tinkaton

I really wanted Inazuma to have a steel type, and I loved Tinkaton for them but wasn't sure about the clashing colors. Then I read further on her lore. So yeah Inazuma has a Tinkaton. She's got mad beef with Karasu's Corviknight, but Inazuma is pretty good at keeping her from doing something murderous. Tinkaton doesn't like disappointing Inazuma and will droop her head when Inazuma scolds her for trying to commit homicide against the poor Corviknight who is just minding his own damn business. In a fight, Inazuma and Tinkaton are fucking TERRIFYING together. She gets along insanely well with Sabo, who can lift her ridiculously heavy hammer and is about as crazy as she it.