#Base Game Reno

[claraplayssims]

🌎 Willow Creek  📍 Crick Cabana 📬 20x15 💵 18,500 🛏️ 2 🛁 1.5

As you might remember, I set out on a mission to revamp the Base Game worlds, starting with Willow Creek! After the Municipal Muses and Streamlet Single, this is my Crick Cabana Reno, which is exactly $20,000 (terrain included). Perfect for a couple or a single parent with kids! No cheat, no Cc, no mod needed. Just an easy peasy base game starter house, equiped with everything you need to level up base skills. Let me know if you use it!

Gallery download: LINK

[polly-pancakes]

Still very much a starter but much homier than the original and has lots of green for Miss Bea! She has a whole 33 simoleons left to her name.

I put it up on the gallery if anyone wants it. ID: PollyPancakes

[silvercrowbar]

Renovate Series: Riverside Roost! (The Ashby Residence!) Please Enjoy! ^_^

"Once a multi-family home, Riverside Roost is now owned by one family! When the Ashbys welcomed their new baby June, the elderly couple upstairs gifted their space to them (paid for 2 years) and moved out. Today, June is a happy and healthy 8 year old, and the family has managed to finally pay back the old couple for their kindness." - Gallery Description

Part of my ‘Renovate’ series where I remake EA homes without changing the exterior walls. You can find the houses easily in the Gallery and on Tumblr under the hashtag “#SilverRenovate,” if you’d like! These same posts are also up on my Reddit, posted to r/thesims! Enjoy! :-)

P.S: If you’d like to try this challenge for yourself, I’ve been calling it the “TS4RenoChallenge” for now. Feel free to use that to tag your own builds; I’d love to see other simmers’ takes on this!

(The Ashby Family will also be posted soon! ^_^)

[nightfal1n]

Someone got a great idea out of Reno figure...

(Bonus puns if you understand Japanese. So many funny phrase you can end with his name)

[whoredmode]

everyone shut up i wanna hear kinzie’s reno story

[lecliss]

The thing that irks me so much about Cloud's va is that the guy doesn't sound like he's voicing an "emotionally stunted socially awkward secretly incredibly traumatized" character. He just sounds like he's bad at voice acting. And I can't tell if it's better or worse than in part 1 cuz he had the exact opposite problem there where he sounded like he wasn't good enough at sounding emotionless and kept letting emotion slip through in his lines like he sounded like an amateur actor that still couldn't sound convincing.

[17020]

THE SECRET (LOVE) LIVES OF JAKDF OFFICERS

It can get boring sometimes at the Ariake Maritime and Tachikawa base. This is KAIJU NO. 8 and their social media presence, and how the internet found out about you. Inspired by my BLLK piece! This is complete crack (and a lil suggestive)! gn reader!

STARRING . . . Gen Narumi, Soshiro Hoshina, Reno Ichikawa.

GEN NARUMI, A.K.A. NARUMON3000

FOLLOWERS . . . 100k CATEGORY. . . GAMING HE GOT FAMOUS BECAUSE. . . He was doing a Pokémon let's play and suddenly got called for a mission, and since his microphone was connected to his phone, the whole stream heard the extermination of a kaiju.

Narumi was already famous for being the First Division's captain, so when he started a streaming account for his gaming, fans were instantly tuning in. In every stream, he proved to be extremely skilled both in the battlefield in real life and online.

When streaming one afternoon, he read the comments on the chat, which were mostly about his crazy good looks, his amazing pokemon catching skills, and questioning how he had free time as a captain.

Until the comments pointed out something strange.

gennarumifan123 Yooo what's that purple mark on his neck??

hoshina Damn the cap getting 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂

narumimarryme Who's the artist behind that grimace shake lookin ass spot?

"Relax, I was fighting some honju and it left a mark" he smirked, his eyes stuck onto the screen in front of him. Everything would have been fine, except for the voice which people heard from behind him.

"So, guess I'm some sort of honju now!"

Narumi choked on his own spit as he accidentally pressed the wrong move, leading to him losing a battle. He turned his chair around, wide eyes looking at you while he mouthed 'I'm streaming' in hopes of shooing you off.

The comments went insane when you brought a chair and sat next to him, "Oh really? What are we playing tonight?" Millions of questions surged in the chat, asking your name, rank, how you managed to tolerate Gen, and most importantly...

"Are you dating Captain Narumi—I don't know! Captain, what do you have to say to that?" you smiled, your boyfriend's face now a blushing mess.

"I—I'm gonna end this stream, thank you for watching. I'll save the game so we can resume from Esmerald city gym tomorrow."

You pouted as Narumi ended the stream, closing the tabs he had opened on his computer, as well as saving the game on his console. He sighed, burying his face on the crook of your neck.

"Baby, do you know how many fangirls I'm gonna upset if they find out I'm not single?"

You smiled at his childishness, "Oh, I know! Here's something the fans are gonna love."

He raised his brow in confusion.

"I'm gonna start stripping and you'll turn the camera back on, so I can show these fangirls who you belong to, Narumi."

SOSHIRO HOSHINA, A.K.A HOSHINA

FOLLOWERS . . . 101k CATEGORY. . . LIFESTYLE HE GOT FAMOUS BECAUSE. . . He did a tour of the base and his reflection was seen on one of the mirrors. He was wearing a black compression shirt and grey sweatpants.

Hoshina started his own public social media in order to annoy Narumi, as his goal was to surpass the First Division captain in followers. Luckily for him, it took him around one month to achieve this legendary achievement!

From the start, he knew he wanted to introduce you to his newfound fans, but not completely. That's why he settled on showing your hands and lower body instead of your face. It's adorable, the way in which Hoshina records his tours of the base, and when he passes by a certain office, he stops and says "and that's my spouse's office" as if it's nothing.

Fans were incredibly curious, because since when was Vice-captain Hoshina married?

In response, he slowly started showing you more and more in his videos. After Mina found out of his socials, he was forced to make informative videos on what to do when you encounter a kaiju, as well as safety measures one must take. You were the one filming him, your laugh present in his videos as he imitated different types of kaiju and instructing the camera on safety positions one could do.

Then, he made a video of him gaming (to piss off Narumi even more), with your left shoulder being visible in the frame. Your arm was wrapped around his, and people noticed the shiny wedding band on your ring finger. Soshiro Hoshina was truly a fan of private but not secret.

Finally, he did a training vlog to show off his skills in the training room, and he sensed what the comments would be about, so he took care of it in post-production.

"And I know what yer thinkin', but this body belongs to my one and only spouse. Love ya, angel."

RENO ICHIKAWA, A.K.A. RENOCOOKS

FOLLOWERS . . . 75k CATEGORY. . . FOOD/MUSIC HE GOT FAMOUS BECAUSE. . . He and Iharu snuck into the cafeteria for a late night snack, and found themselves getting smacked in the face by Hoshina instead.

Reno started out on social media way before he joined the Defense Force, with him doing cooking tutorials and album reviews. He also, started dating you a bit before that.

So, he had to find a way to keep making content, and also to keep contact with you.

He started doing food reviews of the cafeteria, featuring Iharu, Izumo, and even Kafka. They each had their lunch trays displayed, and with each passing day they shared their opinions on the cafeteria food. Fans loved their realness, as they showed what the life as a Defense Officer was like.

But fans commented on the fact that they missed his recipes.

So what did he do? He started a segment called "Cooking with the Ichikawas" in which he recorded your facetime calls with him, with you trying out recipes and him guiding you every step of the way.

You became the it couple of the internet, with Reno being known as the best boyfriend in the Third Division.

He felt a bit betrayed when his fans stated that they were there for you, and they wanted to see more of you. Thanks to that, Reno shared his password with you so that you could post videos to his account, having your own little segment in which you tried out recipes and even tried recreating the dishes your boyfriend ate at the cafeteria.

You and Reno made history as the most iconic couple there ever was: A Defense Force officer, and the world's best foodie.

taglist (open, yippee!): @stunie @kaiser1ns @nyxypoo @karasuglazer @littleplantfreak @maruflix @heartkaji

[missnancychavez]

So I am on my third rewatch of Twisters. So here are some of my own personal headcanons and theories for the movie and some parallels that may add weight to those theories.

1. The original 5 friend group dynamic: Jeb and Praveen have known each other for years and are each others best friend. Javi and Kate are the dynamic duo (basing it on the fact that they were the only ones to do the handshake together). And Addy is everyone's little sister. Her and Kate were extremely close, but in a different way than her friendship with Javi.

2. Tyler Owens is the nephew of Bill and Jo on Bill's side (As we knew Jo didn't have any sibling). He spent his summers with them as a kid, and then as a teenager, he moved in with them full time. He started chasing with them around then, too. He even pays homage to that as he is driving a newer model of Bill's red dodge ram.

3. Boone and Lily have something going on. The way Boone screams her name as she gets picked up by the wind. And their personalities are perfect together. You can't convince me otherwise.

4. Kate and Tyler kiss in the truck after the chase they go on straight from the airport at the end of the movie. (Refer to point 8)

5. Kate puts in her resignation almost immediately, and Javi cuts ties with Riggs and Scott. The wranglers and Kate join StormPAR. Kate and Tyler spend the off-season working with Javi while the others do their own gigs, but during the storm season, they are all chasing and gathering data.

6. Cathy is so encouraging of her daughter because she's been through loss before. They called her Mrs. Carter, meaning she was married. Kate's dad died when Kate was a little girl. Cathy had to learn how to navigate being a young mom and tending a farm on her own. But she also knows that it could stop her from living her life. So she didn't. She grieved, and she learned to live with the grief and still do what she loves. It's why she is so encouraging of Kate getting back out there.

7. Kate stayed in OK for another couple of weeks after the tornado (neither her nor Tyler appeared injured in the final scene, and the truck looks great, all things considered, so clearly they had time tp heal and fix the truck.) They all were forcibly invited back to the farm by Cathy after Tyler and the wranglers went to drop Kate off post El Reno. Cathy took one look at Tyler and forced him in the house. Kate gave herself a headache from laughing so hard. She was then sent inside alongside him. Cathy made everyone stay for as long as they needed. But she did, however, get some free labour from it. It was an unspoken agreement that Kate's was now home base.

8. By the credit scenes, Kate and Tyler are together. Their first kiss was immediately after the two of them went chasing from the airport. Something about their adrenaline rushing, and it being just the two of them. It was electric. It was immediate. It just happened, and when they pulled back, they both started laughing. It reminded him of the first time they chased together, just the two of them. Kate delayed her flight for another two days. She was back home within the month. Tyler quickly realised he would have to start bribing Boone afterwards on the days he and Kate went out.

9. Kate and Boone will play card games at night to see who gets shotgun the next day, when Boone isn't riding with Lily, of course. Turns out, Kate's damn good at playing poker. On the rare occasion that Kate drives, Boone automatically hops in the back of the truck. He won't tell anyone, but he loves it when she drives. She gets this manic energy about her in the drivers seat and his adrenaline always ends up pumping. Tyler loves it, too, but he has no qualms verbalizing his affections toward her.

10. Tyler has nightmares now. Of watching Kate drive into the tornado. Of finding her body, discarded and broken by his truck. Of her slipping through his fingers during a storm. He wakes up sweating and panicking. And it's only when he sees her that he can calm himself down. The two of them, those first two weeks after El Reno, would spend hours each night, sitting in the barn, going over formulas. Or sitting outside on the tree swing, talking until they were both too exhausted to have any nightmares. When she left to go back to New York, she wasn't particularly surprised when one night she awoke to her phone ringing, Tyler close to having a full blown panic attack as he tried and failed to reassure himself that she was okay without her help. They would always call each other before bed after that, usually falling asleep over facetime.

[cupellia]

THE MONOTONE | SIMS 3 HOME

here's a cute little renovation of the sims 3 sunset valley starter home "the monotone"! i needed this for an upcoming lets play on my youtube channel (and you'll see some more sunset valley renos soon!)

come and watch me build this (and other builds!) over on my youtube channel

1 bedroom, 1 bathroom

this build only uses base game

this build uses custom content (included with the package file)

built on a 20x30

furnished : $68,904

unfurnished : $27,656

download this build!

download .sims3pack (does not include cc)

download .package (this includes cc, will also need to download the library folder)

download library file (does not include cc)

place the .package folder with [mods folder] in your electronic arts/the sims 3/mods folder and the .package with [library] at the start into your electronic arts/the sims 3/library folder (create one if you don’t have one!) and you can install the sims 3 pack through your launcher!

[claraplayssims]

🌸🏠 Streamlet Single Reno 🌳🔨

🌎 Willow Creek  📍 Streamlet Single 📬 20x15 💵 18,500 🛏️ 1 🛁 1.5

Update! This Base Game Simmer (often, if not mostly) is renovating Willow Creek, Oasis Springs and of course Newcrest, hoping to help those among you who might have JUST started The Sims, or are Base Game Simmers like me. Streamlet Single might not be my cutest creation but, when you look where it started, it’s a vast improvement. In case you need more convincing, I’ve included some pictures at the bottom for reference. Sad house was sad. Now it’s better.

Gallery download: LINK

[nusims]

Crick Cabana Reno (base game only) 20 x 15 2bd, 1bt $ 28 097 cc free (moveobjects, debug, live edit) Download on gallery: NuSimsYT or SimFileShare

[silvercrowbar]

Renovate Series: Daisy Hovel! Please Enjoy!

"A quaint, small house adorned with daisies and shades of yellow. Perfect for that first home all to yourself in a nice, quite neighborhood!" -Gallery Description

Part of my 'Renovate' series where I remake EA homes without changing the exterior walls. You can find the houses easily in the Gallery and on Tumblr under the hashtag "#SilverRenovate," if you'd like! These same posts are also up on my Reddit, posted to r/thesims! Enjoy! :-)

P.S: If you'd like to try this challenge for yourself, I've been calling it the "TS4RenoChallenge" for now. Feel free to use that to tag your own builds; I'd love to see other simmers' takes on this!

[gojosatoruwifey]

kn8 men as type of kisses

✑ a bit late for a christmas gift hehe (◕∀◕✿) | fluff / obviously-not-bias for hoshina / let me know if i missed something! |

aoi - top of the head/air kisses

due to his tall height, whether you’re small or taller than him, he will never fail to press his lips in that one special spot! if he’s in a hurry, he settles for a quick top-of-the-head kiss. large, warm palm guiding your nape toward him as aoi cherishes this moment where he can smell your comforting smell and your arms wrapping around his torso.

air kisses are his to-go kiss when you’re out in public. loving how he greets you with your cheeks rubbing on his, arms side-hugging you as you enthusiastically greet him back with a smile as he smiles back to you because god, how he loves your presence beside his.

hoshina - neck/shoulder kisses

inside the comfort of the four walls, your shared bedroom—lies a rare and lazy high-ranking officer refusing to get up no matter what you do. hey, he can’t help it, ya know? it feels so soft and warm. the thick blanket covering both of your bodies from the skin-nipping cold wind, his arms embracing into a tight cuddle, feeling his toasty skin beneath his clothed chest in your back as he plants wet kisses to your neck with an intent to persuade you to stay in the bed with him a little longer.

hoshina loves how you don’t stiffen when the door on your side opens without a sound and a hand gently grabs you to enter the room. the second you finish your cup, walk to the nearest bin and wander back—-only to get attacked sneakily by your significant other. you narrow your eyes towards the culprit who only grins at you as he showered your exposed shoulder loving kisses just before you start your routine in the training room, reminding you to not overdo it as once he’s content showing you his affection, he squeezes you once more into a hug—a lingering kiss hidden by your dark sleeveless top.

iharu - corner of the lips kisses

typical iharu and his chaotic energy bursting through the third division’s base when you help him retrieve his water bottle from the lockers and it’s lunch hour, majority of the people gathering at the cafeteria or choosing to take out but here you are, with your boyfriend who tells you about what happened during his training in the morning with his rival, reno. you can practically see how his loud voice vibrates in the metal walls and so, with a little tug on his arm, you shut him up with a kiss in the corner of his lips. poor boy places his hand where you kiss him until you find his water bottle.

kafka - cheek/nose kisses

cheek kisses with kafka happen more often! be it a greeting or random, this soft giant here smooches your cheeks with no warning, laughing at your glare as you repeatedly scold him to give you a warning next time. they also tend to be a good encouragement for him if you give him one, lifting his spirits up as he was just down a moment ago.

nose kisses always end up with giggles, especially since this type of kiss only happens when kafka is teasing you. most of the time, he spoils you, thus, you huff as you recognize the mischief in his eyes and the corner of his lips curling up, making silly and goofy faces as you chase his screaming, running figure.

narumi - forehead/temple kisses

have you seen how tall this cat-like person is? yeah, kisses with narumi are 80% forehead kisses bc as he leans over to your side, eyes staring at the screen with his hands occupied with his gaming console—blindingly puckered up lips meeting your skin and you let him stay there for a few seconds. you don’t know if he’s aware he is doing that intentionally or not but you will have your answer once you conduct an experiment.

the said experiment? it’s diverting his lips to your temple instead. you want to know if he will notice the difference so when you visit his office, you see the idiot playing again. narumi glanced at you from his seat, not even bothering to pause the game, he welcomed you in his arms, lips ready to kiss your forehead—moving a bit to the side, your temple was given a peck. you think narumi didn’t notice as he continued playing but oh, you know he did as you catch him pouting and glaring at you with his red, feline eyes.

reno - knuckle/finger kisses

ahh, our resident gentleman of a boyfriend, reno, and his kisses at your knuckles. no matter how long you’re in a relationship with this man here, this habit of his will never and never go away. there’s a possibility that you’re his first s/o and he doesn’t want to mess up bc he likes you so much. before your first kiss with him, reno asked you in a soft voice if he can kiss you—bashful purple eyes peering at you as he lifts your hand to his lips, brushing your knuckles. how can you say no to that cute face?

moments when reno wants to express his affection to you, he begins with the tip of your fingers as he sleeps in your lap. you lightly chuckle at his sleepy state, obviously in his dreamland as he clasped your fingers together, sighing at your warm touch.

[skrill999]

I just finished the first season of Transformers prime. And overall I liked it.

The human characters are fine. I don't hate them but I am not too invested in their story. (But you would not believe how much I said to tue TV "No... Mikko... don't do it...") but some of their shenanigans are rather funny

As for the cybertronians. I like them a surprising ammount.

Starscream:

I mostly prefer starscream more higher pitched voice but I do like what Steve Blum does (also I kept hearing heatwave)

As for his character he is a wet cat which keeps running out into the rain crying, not quite sure why he's so wet. Like he has my sympathy from the abuse he goes through under Megatron (to be fair Starscream did try to kill Megatron on multiple occasions) but a lot of it was his own doing. He keeps getting in his own way.

There is a curious moment that stands out to me: in the episode where breakdown was captured by humans, the autobots try to rescue him because they thought decepticons wouldn't and Megatron didn't want to but Starscream did try. (They couldn't have known Autobots were there before leaving base)

Now I won't go so far as to say that this means Starscream cares for Breakdown. At first I was thinking he probably needed him for a plan of his but so far I have no clue what that would be so it really left me wondering why.

With Starscream defected from the decepticons and hiding I am curious to see what future awaits him in the upcoming season

Soundwave:

Soundwave is my favourite deception and in this show that is no different. He's still super cool. He's quiet loyal and no one messes with him. I liked it when he beat Airachnid (who definitely underestimated him)

Also Laserbeak is also super dope

Breakdown:

A surprise entry for me. He was actually quite interesting. At first I thought nothing of him then the episode where he's captured by the humans came. I am not surprised he sided with the decepticons but I could tell Bulkhead coming to rescue him did shake his perspective. He might come to see how ridiculous this all is. Maybe

The rest are fine and so their job well

Now some Autobots:

Optimus Prime:

He is my favourite autobot no question(idk about charcter as he would be facing Soundwave). Peter Cullen nailed it as always. The sword and gun arms are very cool.

His very strict no nonsense demeanor does work well with the dynamics of others and he does clearly care a lot about his team and the humans living on earth.

Though he might be a bit too eager at playing martyr for everyone else to escape.(I don't remember specific examples but that's my understanding)

(This is not a critique on his character just really amuses me)

Him losing his memory is definitely not good for the autobots but let's see how that plays out.

Bumblebee:

He is very cute. Love his eyes, face shape and voice. Also he really seems to look up to Optimus and Optimus seems to have a soft spot for him. I remember the last scene where Optimus looks back at him.

Him and Raf are buddies, chill to play racing games together and it is cute. Also he seems to be the youngest of the cybertronians.

Ratchet:

Another surprise entry. I certainly enjoyed his presence on screen. His banter with everyone was rather funny.

An episode that stood out with him is the one with fake energon. He did go a little nuts with the fake energon but I did like that his reasoning in general wasn't just nonsense but based in the truth and his own feelings that he might not have been expressing. (He was definitely being hot headed though)

Again the others were fine but their stories didn't stand out to me too much.

I did like the episodic nature of the show. The little shenanigans of the show were very funny and enjoyable to see. I liked the racing episode.

Also another funny note: this show reminded me of tmnt 2012 (another favorite childhood show of mine) in that there are no people. In tmnt 2012 New York had like 5 people at a time. This show took place in Reno Nevada and while we only really saw a school, there was like no one at the school.

I know why it's like that but still it quite funny to me.

[bltngames]

A Better Late Than Never Look at "Knuckles"

Note: I get pretty casual with spoilers as I go.

So after consuming 5 out of 6 episodes of the Knuckles show when it was new, and then waiting two weeks (I was busy with other things!) to watch the finale, I think I'm finally in a place where I can talk about how I felt about it.

From the earliest adopters, I'd heard that this show was trash. Some went so far as to call it one of the worst things in the Sonic franchise, period. 

It's not the worst thing in the Sonic franchise. I don't even necessarily think it's bad. But I would also struggle to call it good. It's... a little more nuanced than that.

The story brings us back to Knuckles the Echidna in the weeks following the end of the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Having helped in the defeat of Doctor Robotnik, Knuckles finds himself restless. He's a big mish-mash of different barbarian, viking, and warrior stereotypes, and he can no longer quench his thirst for combat, something that's starting to drive his friends crazy.

Knuckles convenes with the spirits of his ancestors (Pachacamac, played by Christopher Lloyd) and learns he must take on an understudy and train them in the ways of the warrior, much like his father did with him. However, we also learn that Knuckles is now the last of his kind (something the movies never elaborated on, I don't think) and thus his understudy has to be someone from outside his species. 

Pachacamac tells Knuckles to seek out Wade Whipple, the dopey deputy of Green Hills, Montana, and educate him in the ways of the ancient Echidna warriors. Wade recently lost a bowling tournament to a particularly snarky 8 year old girl scout, and so Knuckles and Wade go on a road trip to the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada so that Wade can reclaim his title, conquer his battleground, and become a true warrior.

Right away, there's a lot wrong with the Knuckles series, and most of it happens in the first three episodes.

Though we should be used to it by now, how fast and loose the movies play with Sonic game lore is pretty annoying. In the years since that second Sonic movie, we've seen the release of the Super Mario Bros. movie, and while that's not exactly a perfect movie in itself, it is maybe one of the most faithful and respectful game adaptations ever released. 

The Knuckles series building a twisted Frankenstein of Sonic game lore now feels increasingly frustrating by comparison, especially as it rewrites the movie's own history in order to borrow from the more story-heavy games. The first Sonic movie shows us a whole tribe of Echidna warriors trying to capture a young toddler Sonic for unknown reasons. Though it's been almost two years since the last time I saw it, when Knuckles is introduced in the second movie, I don't think it's ever mentioned he's the last of his kind. We just know he's looking for Sonic for the same nebulous reasons the rest of his tribe were hunting him down in the first movie. The "Last Echidna" stuff comes from the games, and now it eventually gets mentioned in this series.

As a sidebar: I'm aware there's an off-hand piece of dialog in the Sonic 2 Movie Prequel comic that mentions Knuckles is the last Echidna, but that's a flimsy promo comic and none of it feels canon to me. That comic also has a cameo by the Chaotix and features way more Sonic environments than the movies ever will, making it feel disconnected to the actual movies.

Like it's fun, don't get me wrong, but it's also like when the Spider-man games based on the Sam Raimi movies would bring in characters from the comics, like Shocker or Mysterio. You KNEW if the movies ever dealt with those characters for real, they'd be completely different from what was in the games. The promo comic casually mentioning Knuckles is the last Echidna may as well have been nothing more than fluff for all anyone knew. 

In fact, it gets mentioned in the Knuckles series that The Owl Tribe -- the same creatures who we saw protecting Sonic in the first movie -- have apparently exterminated the entire Echidna race. It's only been, what, seven years? Eight years? So what's going on there? Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys?  The Echidnas apparently wanted to kill Sonic, and the Owls were willing to commit genocide to protect him, and this all seems like some pretty heavy stuff for a series that still refuses to define what this "power" everybody has actually is.

It feels extra obnoxious considering the proximity to the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, which is openly an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2. There's more than a little Echidna lore that needs to be set up in order for parts of that game to make sense (if it ever did), and it's obvious they have little interest in carrying that forward in the movies, content instead to make up their own lore. And what we've seen of that so far doesn't necessarily seem to be better, it just seems to be different. Like they dug themselves into a hole and now have to dig back out in a different direction -- more damage control to cover for that first movie twisting up the source material.

Ultimately it ties back around to the fact that I don't think this is what Sonic fans were hoping for. There were a lot of directions to take a Knuckles solo project, and they made it into a road trip buddy comedy between two of the weakest characters. Movie Knuckles is a one-note Klingon stereotype and it feels like Idris Elba is sleepwalking through a lot of this chest thumping "heart of the warrior" stuff.

And Adam Pally as Wade Whipple was okay in small doses, but he wasn't exactly breaking new ground as the bumbling small town deputy. Putting these two guys in a box together is kind of a bad idea.

And for the first three episodes, it is. Wade and Knuckles have absolutely zero chemistry together. Most shows would have a little hint that these two guys like each other, but it's more that Knuckles wants to train Wade for selfish reasons (satisfying his ancestors) and Wade is kind of a dumb puppy who does what everyone else tells him to, sight unseen. 

We also get new B-tier villains for our B-tier show, who swagger in like they missed the audition for their gig on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (no shade meant towards my sentai fans in the audience). They're GUN Agents, either current or former, and have apparently been selling weapons tech to a genuinely dangerous killer only known as "The Buyer."

Actually, another small sidebar: it was kind of strange to see Knuckles rated "PG" (for some mild swearing), but Paramount+ constantly inundate me with advertisements for Dora the Explorer, Minecraft, and The Loud House. This is actually my first, real, honest exposure to The Loud House, both in its cartoon and live action form. It feels like a show made for the whitest children on earth and if I have to see that little girl with the shrimp bowl fart again I'm going to throw my TV into the street.

Anyway, Knuckles: for the most part, the villains only really exist to remind us that this ties to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie universe while also providing goons for our heroes to fight. 

If I'm being real, I was actually a little confused by the presence of the GUN Agents. The Knuckles show is kind of bad at establishing whether they still work for GUN or not. We do get a scene where they go rogue, but it's never clear if they're just overachievers who get results, or if they are actual card-carrying bad guys who are breaking off for a solo career. I just figured they were here as a flimsy setup for the third Sonic movie.

Mostly, though, it's a lot of fluff. Knuckles or Wade gets into trouble, and they accidentally stumble out of one bad situation into another, over and over, for a good 90 minutes. Very few jokes land, it doesn't feel very funny, it's a confusing mixture of new lore and stuff borrowed from the games, and it feels like the show is a mess that's constantly spinning its wheels. 

Wade, now branded as a fugitive for being seen fighting GUN Agents (again: current or former?), accidentally and conveniently finds himself at his mother's doorstep seeking asylum. On the jewish holiday of Shabbat. Now, I'm not jewish, but it seems like Shabbat can happen on literally any Friday, yet the Knuckles series treats it like an annual holiday like Christmas or Halloween. Regardless, it seems like Wade happens to catch his mother on a Shabbat where she's already preparing a big meal, since Wade's older sister, an FBI agent, also happens to be in town. Which is also weirdly convenient. Wade, feeling like he can't disappoint his mom, sits down and they have a meal together, only to be assaulted by bounty hunters looking to claim the price on Wade's head.

This episode starts a kind of turning point for the Knuckles series. Over an hour into this three hour ordeal, and it finally provides some threads of character development for Wade Whipple. We learn his estranged father is a legendary bowling champion, who will also just so happen to be at the big bowling tournament Knuckles is ushering him towards. Knuckles has a cozy moment with Wade's mother, and we learn more about how much she hates Wade's father for breaking up their family.

The fourth episode finds Wade facing down yet another bounty hunter. Earlier I mentioned Wade lost a bowling tournament to an 8 year old girl -- specifically, he lost a placement match for a bowling team known as The Renegades. The captain of The Renegades is a man known as Jack Sinclair, and when he rejects Wade's entry into the team, he casually mentions a bounty hunter gig he runs on the side. Now, Jack's back to claim the $100k bounty, and Knuckles has decided that it's time for Wade to solve this problem on his own.

Ultimately, this means Wade is forced to convene with Knuckles' ancient ancestors for himself, leading to, of all things, a rock opera in a spectral bowling alley where we learn more of Knuckles' origin. If the Shabbat dinner episode finally budged the needle a little bit, this rock opera episode is the kick in the pants this series should have opened with.

We get Wade in a Knuckles costume, a puppet of Knuckles' dying father that's definitely a reference to Archie's controversial Sonic writer Ken Penders, dancers in owl costumes, and a genuinely impressive prop of a "Fire Demon" (Iblis from Sonic 2006) operated by an entire squad of bodysuit actors. It's a lot of fun and I even found myself starting to laugh at the jokes! It only took, what, two hours?

As the rock opera explains, after Knuckles watched all of his friends and family get slaughtered by the owl tribe, Knuckles wandered the galaxy, hopeless. Knowing he was the only one who could protect the master emerald, he challenged this fire demon to claim the power of The Flames of Disaster. The demon nearly killed Knuckles, but by keeping the warrior's spirit in his heart, he summoned the strength to defeat Iblis once and for all and claim The Flames of Disaster as his own. Thus, Wade learns that a warrior's true strength comes from within, giving him the push needed to have a final showdown with Jack Sinclair. 

And then something else weird happens: the final two episodes of the show turn into something completely different. 

In my opinion, the more the Knuckles show gets away from Knuckles himself, the better it gets. Even though I thought the rock opera origin story was great, the less we have to worry about their jumbled up lore, the better. And these last two episodes of Knuckles get about as far away from the Echidna as they can get, turning into a late 2000's sports comedy in the vein of something like "Balls of Fury", "Hot Rod" or "Blades of Glory." Except here, the stand-in sport of choice is bowling.  

It's actually pretty funny how much the previous four episodes just stop mattering entirely. Like, the bounty on Wade vanishes. Being a wanted criminal (former or current) has no bearing on his ability to attend the bowling tournament despite apparently being national news not even 48 hours earlier. It's never mentioned or brought up again. 

Knuckles almost exits the show entirely. He spends most of the final two episodes relaxing in a hotel room, leaving Wade to carry almost literally everything else by himself. We get introduced to Cary Elwes as Wade's father Pistol Pete, who summons the same level of ham and cheese we last got from him in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. 

And... It works. It's not the greatest thing on earth, but compared to where this show started, once the bowling tournament kicks off, it's literally the best part of the whole series. The jokes get even funnier. We get all these different themed bowling teams, everybody in special costumes, with dumb names like "Ball Busters" and "Split for Brains." The editing gets really energetic and creative, too, with lots of flashy split screen cuts set to music. 

It feels like somebody had been sitting on a decade-old bowling comedy script and dusted it off for these last two episodes. It stops being the Knuckles show and starts being the Wade Whipple show, and is surprisingly better for it. 

But then, that's not entirely true. It's still the Knuckles show, and almost begrudgingly, they have to make up a reason for Knuckles to have a big fight at the end. It's almost funny how blatant it is -- there's so much focus on Wade's showdown with his Dad that when they cut back to Knuckles it feels kind of forced. Like they realized Wade is getting all of the pathos and character development but they still needed to show Knuckles doing something, anything, so here's a big robot that needs punching. 

It's not terrible, and Wade eventually joins him, tying into his overall journey of believing in himself and becoming "a warrior", but it does feel kind of tacked on regardless. There's this general vibe of the show getting lost in the bowling tournament and then going "Oh, right. That guy."

Listen, I'm not here to evangelize this show. It's kind of an inconsistent mess. It's jammed full of obnoxious needle drop musical interludes, there's tons of REALLY blatant product placement, and just like with the previous two Sonic movies, whenever it makes direct references to game lore, it feels more pandering (and increasingly sloppy) than anything else. It takes its sweet time expanding on both its title character and his poorly chosen side kick. A lot of it made me cringe more than laugh. 

But it does eventually hit a stride and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the back half of it. You can really see the show start to find its footing once you hit that Shabbat episode, and by the end of the rock opera, Knuckles had finally won me over... by getting further and further away from Knuckles himself. 

And... that's not really a great endorsement, now is it. 

[getvalentined]

More Pokémon Holy/Meteor stuff. Nero's little profile isn't here because I have a whole picture of him on the same vein as Vincent's that I'd like to finish eventually. I am missing a handful of characters that would be in the "game," most notably the title's Professor (for which I am still torn between two options and may never settle) as well as Grimoire and Veld, who are both in the story but not technically integral to the main storyline(s).

There's a lot more than this bouncing around in my head but it's a lot so I'll stop with these and the notes below unless people are interested in something specific not covered here. (If so, drop me an ask and I'll happily answer! I love talking about my needlessly complicated crossover AUs, but they are so needlessly complicated that I don't generally just infodump about them.)

Other notes under the cut!

Cloud is the player character; the starting age for a Pokémon Journey in the Midgar region is 14, and he was 16 at the time of the accident, making him 21 during the main story. The storyline reflects this, as Cloud is much older than a standard protag for this series, but he's been out of the world recovering for long enough that he's still got a unique sort of naïveté. (Tifa would probably be the female protag but Cloud is the default here sorry.)

Sephiroth is the main "rival" in Pokémon Meteor, Genesis is the "rival" in Pokémon Holy, although they both appear in both titles and serve the same overall function for the narrative. They are not antagonists.

The Legendary for Meteor is "Jenosynthe," a reference to Jenova Synthesis; Holy has "Omegaia," which is a reference to Omega and to Gaia/Minerva. They have particular connections to Sephiroth and Genesis respectively, and Grimoire's contribution to the plot allows the player to obtain the other title's Legendary post-game.

The Midgar region is the only one to have "Variant" gyms, which focus on regional variants rather than a specific type. This is a new, secondary path with badges that can be mixed and matched with standard type-based gyms to reach the required number of badges to take on the League.

Other gym leaders: Kunsel (Psychic, he battles blindfolded), Reno and Rude (Electric), Yuffie (Hisuian variant), Rosso (Fighting*), Sonon (undecided on his gym but he's here), Weiss (Ground, because I love a stupid reference), and Chadley (secret unlockable Shiny variant gym, only accessible if you beat all the other gyms on both paths, bestows the Shiny charm), as well as others. *Veld's gym used to be Fighting-type but Tseng converted it when he took over following Veld's retirement, allowing Rosso to move out of her previous position with the League and set up a new one.

Other members of Team Helletic: Azul, Rayleigh, Gillian and Angeal (the "multi-generational multi-battle"), Sebastian and Essai (who are under the control of Something), and Shears, as well as others. Hollander was a member until the incident five years ago, which is implied to have led to his death.

Other important NPCs: Cid (the fast travel guy, may work with the Professor), Barret (runs the Pokémon breeding center), Cait Sith (a navi system that shows up through a specific set of sidequests and is revealed to be Reeve's at the end), Shelke (appears in the same sidequests as Cait Sith), Dio (runs a facility for fast EV training), and Johnny (nobody knows why he's here but he sure is), as well as others.