#He has his own adventures fitting his personality and attitude

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Prime Season 3: Final episodes, final thoughts

Well, here we are. The final seven episodes of Sonic Prime are out on Netflix, concluding the story of Sonic's adventures in the Shatterverse. I've previously shared my thoughts on the first and second seasons, which I was pretty mixed on, but there were still glimmers of hope. The fluid animation, Shadow being fun in all his appearances, Nine being fairly interesting as a jaded alternate version of Tails, etc. There was enough to make me believe that after some highs and lows there was still the possibility that this show could end on a high note - or at least a decent note.

This did not happen.

Sonic Prime's final season sucks. The ending sucks, and the road to get there sucks. It's left me wondering what the point of all this even was. There are still moments I like that I'll try to highlight, and the animators and voice cast are still clearly giving it their all, but these efforts sadly don't outweigh the overwhelming mediocrity of the story. I would barely even recommend other Sonic fans who are on the fence go out of their way to finish it. I won't begrudge people who got more out of this show than I did, but I think overall I just really, really dislike Sonic Prime.

...The problem, of course, is that all other discussion of the show has been overshadowed by needlessly hostile arguments over its place in Sonic's canon. So we've gotta talk about that, too.

(This post will contain full spoilers for Sonic Prime.)

The show's out of ideas but they've gotta stretch that shit out to hit the 23 episode mark somehow

Season 2 ended with the big twist that Nine decided to betray Sonic and Shadow, taking the Paradox Prism for himself so that he could go turn the empty world of the Grim into his own little paradise, since he doesn't believe he'll fit anywhere else. Nine has made himself the true big bad of the show.

The main impact this has is that now, instead of fighting endless identical Eggforcer bots and members of the Chaos Council over and over, the good guys and the Chaos Council have to fight endless Chaos Sonic-style robots sent by Nine while he goes "grrrrr I need Sonic's energy to stabilize the Paradox Prism." This continues for six whole episodes until the series finale, when the show decides it's time for Sonic and Nine to quickly make amends, fix everything, and send Sonic and Shadow home.

That's pretty much the whole season.

I cannot emphasize enough just how much of this final season is just fight after fight after fight against Nine's bots, and how fucking boring that gets. The season feels like one long, drawn out final battle that did not need to be nearly this long, but Nine had his big heel turn 2/3 of the way through the show and we've gotta fill up the rest of the time somehow. The novelty of the bots being based off of Sonic's friends (including the Chocobo-sized Birdie from the jungle world) really wears off quickly when they're just used as generic, silent mooks that the good guys have to fight by the dozen like it's the climax of an MCU movie. The first episode of the season with Sonic and Shadow fighting the new bots is pretty good, especially because Sonic and Shadow's dynamic is one of the few redeeming aspects of this show's writing, but after that it just gets boring. Three full episodes in a row are spent showing all the characters fighting robots in an empty wasteland while Nine scowls next to a big beam of energy. I found myself missing the in-your-face attitude of Chaos Sonic so much. He truly was one of the best parts of this show.

While the cast is busy fighting all these robots for what feels like an eternity, various things of varying levels of interest happen. There's a halfhearted attempt to have some kind of rivalry between Shadow and the main Grim Sonic throughout the final battle, but it completely falls flat because Grim Sonic has no personality whatsoever. It's like Shadow beefing with an above-average Egg Pawn. (Actually, no, that would be funny.) There's also a death fakeout with the two other versions of Tails, where they make a makeshift bomb and throw it a little too close to themselves on the battlefield and seem to get vaporized. If they had actually died there they would have had the funniest, most pointless deaths in the entire franchise.

I also realized at one point that they were trying to do the Avengers girl power fight thing with the three versions of Amy fighting a bunch of Rouge bots. This was very funny to me. Actually, so much of this is just following the tired MCU formula to the letter. Fighting over a macguffin, two armies just kind of running at each other and clashing in a big empty field, constant one-liner quips instead of actual jokes, the need to take out key targets to make the whole enemy army disappear, a villain who has a point but has to randomly hurt people so that there's an excuse for the heroes to fight him. When combined with how shit the multiverse stuff is, this whole show really is just Man of Action tackling some of the most played out storytelling tropes in modern pop culture in the most bland way possible. What a bunch of hacks.

By far, the one truly fun thing that happens in this protracted final battle is when a giant robot based on Big appears. It doesn't have arms or legs, but it can swing itself around to use its tail like a giant mace, and it can also shoot Froggy-shaped missiles out of its mouth. I wish the rest of the show was even half as fun as this. Again, Sonic Prime has just enough good moments to make you mad that the rest of the show isn't better.

The thing is, all this repetitive (but well-animated) action and the thin excuse plot would be totally serviceable if I just gave a shit about the characters involved. But I don't. I don't care what happens to the pirate version of Amy who goes "arrr." I don't care about what happens to Hipster Eggman. And unfortunately, by the end, I didn't really care about Nine, either.

Nine as a villain

It's hard to criticize the story here without it coming off as a broad condemnation of the tropes at play. The thing is, I like many stories that try to do similar things. I love clashes between heroes and villains that are really just fantastical exaggerations of more personal conflicts. I love stories where a tragic, sympathetic villain lashes out at the world as an expression of the pain they feel, and a compassionate hero just has to get through to them. I eat that shit right up. Undertale is my favorite game ever made. Shit, I love other Sonic stories that do these exact things. And Sonic having to fight an alternate timeline version of Tails also has so much potential for drama!

So I can very easily imagine a version of the show where all this works for me. That just isn't the version we got.

Like I said last time, Nine's motivation is just too sympathetic and understandable for his sudden turn to supervillainy to make any sense. He just wanted to start over somewhere where he can be happy after a childhood filled with bullying and loneliness. Nine betraying Sonic and stealing the Paradox Prism to go make his own world? That tracks! Especially since we don't even know if Nine will still exist if Sonic goes through with his plan to restore his original world! But trying to kill everyone in New Yolk City by tilting the world 90 degrees, intentionally targeting the civilian population because it'll get to Sonic? Nope! Sorry, that's a bridge too far. I don't buy it. He's jaded and antisocial, but he doesn't strike me as cruel. Writing in an excuse about him needing Sonic's energy to fix the Prism does not make this make more sense.

This was really just one of those conflicts where it felt like everyone should stop and talk it out. Instead we got six episodes of fighting before one of Sonic's many, MANY attempts at reasoning with Nine throughout the season finally works. This isn't me pulling some Cinema Sins bullshit where I complain about characters in a work of fiction not always behaving rationally - the real problem is that it's just so damn repetitive waiting for this conflict to resolve. This could have been wrapped up in two or three episodes and instead it takes seven.

A brief aside about that weird Dorkly-ass Sonic Advance 3 flashback scene hacked together with mismatched sprites where Gemerl happens to be present, presumably just because he's a part of the sprite for the Sunset Hill boss, and seeing him briefly makes me remember the extended cast from the games and how much I wish they had just made a cartoon about them instead of a bunch of stock characters wearing the skin of Sonic's friends, but then Gemerl just explodes with the boss machine at the end while Eggman is shown to get away so I guess Gemerl just dies in this flashback

Yeah that sure happened huh

The ending

Despite having a final battle that felt like an eternity, Sonic Prime is a show that just kind of... ends. And that ending is weird and haphazard.

The understanding I had was that Sonic's normal world had "shattered" when the Paradox Prism was destroyed, and from those remnants these new worlds were created. This is why they use terms like "Shatterverse" and "Shatterspaces" and why there's shattered glass/crystal/whatever imagery everywhere. This is a broken, fragmented version of the real universe. Right? Right?? Isn't that the entire premise of the show? And therefore, if the universe has been shattered, then fixing it means putting all the shattered pieces back together. Which I would assume means that the Shatterspaces cease to exist.

So, in the ending... Sonic's world seems to just exist as another Shatterspace. Restoring the Paradox Prism doesn't seem to combine the worlds or anything, it just fixes the broken portal to Sonic's world that exists alongside all the others. So... what exactly was the point of all the shattered glass symbolism?

Things only get more confusing as the ending progresses. Shadow brings Sonic through the portal before the draining of Sonic's whatever energy makes him disappear, and they're transported back in time to right before Sonic broke the Paradox Prism. Only Sonic seems to remember what happened (Shadow might remember, but he doesn't say anything), and with the Paradox Prism never shattered, it's unclear if the Shatterspaces exist now.

I'm not particularly hung up on the time loop ending. It's very much in line with all sorts of classic morality tales like A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life, where the flawed protagonist goes through some kind of magical experience and then returns home with a new appreciation for the people in their life. It's always been pretty obvious that was the type of story they were telling. I'm more bothered by the fact that there's no time whatsoever spent on whether or not the other worlds and the characters in them continue to exist. Sonic seems to act like the worlds will go on without him before he leaves, but it's not like we get an ending scene that shows how the other worlds are doing, so they really truly might as well not exist anymore. Sonic just wraps up the adventure from the first episode when he gets home, and before he can explain what happened from his perspective he's interrupted by a mysterious energy wave from off-screen and it's off to the next adventure.

(Despite this odd cliffhanger ending, the show is extremely over and not coming back. I have to imagine this is just a "the adventures never end" type ending and not a hint that more shit is going on with the Paradox Prism.)

This ending is also a terrible resolution to Nine's whole arc, despite him being the driving force of so much of the show. The way I see it, there are are three possible fates for him:

The Shatterspaces continue existing, and things go as Sonic expects them to go. Nine is allowed to make the Grim into his own little utopia, and everyone else leaves him alone instead of punishing him for all the trouble he caused. Instead of finding love and acceptance so he can heal from a lifetime of bullying and loneliness, Nine is allowed to run away, isolating himself from every other living being in the multiverse, and live alone as the god of an empty world with only his own creations as company. Sonic was his only friend, and he's gone forever now.

The Shatterspaces continue existing, but because of the time travel ending, most of the events of the show never happened. Sonic never helped defeat the Chaos Council, so they still control New Yolk City. Nine is back to living in this dystopian city with no friends. He never met Sonic.

The Shatterspaces have been erased. After fighting so hard for his right to exist as his own person and not just a "wrong" version of Tails, when the timeline is altered, he just... stops existing. Along with almost every other character in the show.

Do I even need to explain why these are all unsatisfying?

Misc. thoughts

I skimmed over this, but a lot of the final season is just spent seeing Sonic's friends bicker with the Chaos Council and then Sonic has to beg them to get along to save the universe. It gets old.

We also never really got an explanation for why the Chaos Council exists. They can't have come from other Shatterspaces because there ARE no other Shatterspaces. If the original Eggman was just split into five guys or time travel was involved or whatever, it never comes up. I can live with this, but it seems like an odd omission for a children's show that's constantly bogged down in technobabble explaining the mechanics of its extremely small and finite multiverse.

I have no idea where Shadow was for the first part of the final battle. I figured Nine must have captured him off-screen after Sonic first left the Grim, but Shadow was just... hanging around until his cue in the script, I guess?

Sonic saying "help a brother up" to Shadow was funny

Hipster Eggman pointing to one of the few nameless extras who tagged along for the final battle and going "Who are you? Seriously, does anyone know who this is?" was the only funny thing he did in the entire show

Mangy Tails randomly pressing buttons on the Chaos Council's generator like a curious animal and managing to improve its output was cute

Rusty Rose randomly realizes that the Birdie in her chest actually isn't being used as a power source, and that the Chaos Council was just... using that to manipulate her, somehow? I don't really know how that works but whatever

The Sonic Advance 3 flashback uses the actual boss music from the game, but they can't use the real Sunset Hill theme because they didn't wanna pay Masato Nakamura for using the Green Hill motif, I guess

To my fellow fans of bad games: did you know that Man of Action wrote the story for the bizarre Square Enix game The Quiet Man? The one where the lengthy FMV cutscenes play out with muffled audio and no subtitles because the protagonist is deaf, so you can't tell what's going on? And you had to do a New Game+ playthrough to actually hear the audio and understand what's going on? The worst-reviewed game of 2018? That one? I only learned that recently and it blew me away

So yeah, that's the end of the show. I didn't like it, and I don't think I liked the show much as a whole. I am far from alone in this sentiment, but the reasons why people dislike the show... those vary a bit.

The canon conundrum

More than anything else, it seems like most other discourse surrounding this show has been consumed by one talking point:

How can this be canon? Why is it canon?

I want to state very clearly up front that I, too, am a person who's noticed and complained about the inconsistencies with the games in Sonic Prime. Some of the characters are a bit off - or, you know, completely unrecognizable when discussing the writing of some of the AU counterparts. I think it's lame to say Sonic and friends all live in Green Hill and act like that's the entirety of their world. That sort of thing. But if Sega says it's canon to everything else? Sure. Fine. There's weirder shit in the canon.

Really, most of this can be explained away pretty easily. The show was written at a time when Sega was still figuring shit out and there were looser restrictions. Why does Sonic act a little more immature? Probably just because Prime is aiming for a slightly younger audience than the games or the IDW comics. (And also it's, y'know, written by Man of Action, who people have accused of only knowing how to write one kind of protagonist for years.) Why do Sonic and friends live in Green Hill? Because that's the most recognizable location from the games, and the game world doesn't get enough screentime to justify modeling multiple different environments, so they just focus on Green Hill. Why is this considered canon to the games? Because this is the first Sonic cartoon that outright references events from the games as things that have happened to Sonic in the past.

But announcing early on that Prime would be canon certainly let fans' imaginations wander. It was one of the few things we knew about the show before it premiered. People wondered if characters from the games and comics who had never made any appearances in Sonic cartoons might get their time in the spotlight. We wondered if it would tie into the lore or any existing storylines in interesting ways, like the IDW comics do. But above all else, we hoped that its canon status would mean that Sonic Prime would finally be the Sonic cartoon that was faithful to the source material with no catches. We've literally never seen the actual world of the games brought to life in a TV show. Sonic X came the closest, but that still took its liberties. And so hype built for this Canon Sonic Cartoon.

And then it actually came out, and after a brief intro in Green Hill based loosely on the games, it spent most of its running time focusing on things like "what if there was a version of Eggman who was a bratty teen who just wanted to play video games?" The disappointment among fans is understandable. I am disappointed. Look at how much I've bitched about this aggressively mid cartoon.

Some fans, however, came up with an elaborate theory about the series. You see, when asked about the show's place in the game timeline during a live Q&A, Ian Flynn (who only served as a consultant on Sonic Prime and did not write any of it) said this:

"I cannot answer because I know the answer, and you haven't finished watching the show yet."

A couple days later, when answering another question about Prime's place in the timeline and also about a writing discrepancy, he said this:

"As to where it fits on the timeline, I can't speak to it because that would spoil the show to a degree. So you're just gonna have to wait 'til it's done. Towards the other point, I don't know how much I can say, so it's probably better that I not comment. That's a really dissatisfying answer, I know, I'm sorry, but my hands are kinda tied on that one."

I feel the need to quote Ian directly here, because these very basic statements about how he can't talk about behind the scenes shit or anything from unreleased episodes was GREATLY misinterpreted by the fandom. People clung onto Ian's claim that we had to keep watching like a life preserver. Some took it as Ian saying that the ending would explain everything. Finally, we'd have a definitive answer for every little discrepancy and the apparent differences in worldbuilding. An explanation for why Sega and the producers repeatedly insist this show HAS to be canon.

And to these fans, the only explanation that made any sense... would be if the ending of Sonic Prime pulled a Flashpoint.

As this theory explained, the Sonic we were following in Sonic Prime wasn't the Sonic we know from the games and the IDW comics, and likewise the world he comes from isn't really the game world. This is a different Sonic who fights a different Eggman in a world that's literally just Green Hill. It was a hint that something was off all along! But in the end of the series, this Sonic would sacrifice himself to merge all of the Shatter Spaces together and form a brand new world, and that would be the more visually diverse world of the games and comics. According to this theory, Sonic Prime was canon because it was a new origin story for the entire franchise.

I want you to really stop and think about how asinine of an origin story this would be. Really drink this in. The idea that there was another, slightly different version of Sonic who went on a kinda shitty multiverse adventure and then sacrificed himself to create the real Sonic that we've known since 1991. People convinced themselves this made more sense than the simple explanation that a different team of writers got some stuff wrong and Sega didn't make them change it. Interviews where producers talked about drawing on Sonic's "mythology" (ie: they reference the games in the show) were taken very literally - they must be saying that Prime's story is mythological in nature, and that this show would be integral to the games' mythology. Why bother making a show that's canon if it's not going to be crucial to that canon, after all?

The final episodes dropped, and none of this happened. Because of course it didn't. It was all Sherlock fandom-level copium. But fans were left confused by the lack of a grand reveal of where Sonic Prime fits in the timeline, believing they had been promised this, and they turned to Ian for an explanation. Ian's answer:

It doesn't matter, b/c Prime wipes itself out. It's sometime after Advance 3*, but otherwise, it's moot. I didn't want to sour anyone's expectations or investment by spoiling how Prime resolves, that's all. If you enjoyed it, awesome. Savor it. If you didn't, then you can safely ignore it. Simple as that.

* About a trillion people have um, actually'd Ian to point out Orbot and Cubot briefly appear in the show, but if we're really being pedantic here we don't actually know how long before Colors Eggman built Orbot and Cubot, so it wouldn't be fully accurate to say a story featuring Orbot and Cubot couldn't be set before Colors. Either way, a story set anywhere around Colors, or at any point later than that, could still be described as "sometime after Advance 3." Advance 3 is just the most recent game that has specific in-game events referenced in the show. Yes I can feel myself morphing into the nerd emoji before your very eyes

Anyway, this is the latest reason Ian is getting death threats on Twitter. This time it's over a show he barely even had any input on!

I'll cut to the chase. It is truly wild to me that people are getting this heated over canonical inconsistencies in a series as historically inconsistent as Sonic, to the point that they think threatening Ian is justified. The aesthetics of the entire world Sonic inhabits change every other game. Sonic Chronicles may no longer be canon due to the Penders lawsuits, but it was canon at one point, and it took huge liberties with Sonic's world, moving Green Hill off of South Island and reinterpreting Station Square as a tiny outpost in a snowy alpine forest region. Characters' personalities change from writer to writer and based on what Sega wants at the time, with some being WILDLY different across different games. One game Sonic will be stoic and cool, the next he thinks "Baldy McNosehair" is the funniest thing ever. Sega's STILL trying to figure out what Amy's personality is supposed to be. We still don't have the explanation for how the two seemingly contradictory backstories for Blaze can fit together. There have been multiple huge, sweeping retcons, and retcons to those retcons. Sonic Forces claims that Classic Sonic is from an entirely different universe than Modern Sonic, and the plot only makes any sense if that's true - otherwise, Modern Sonic would have already known Eggman was going to beat him and take over the world when he did, because his younger self had already lived through that war. All of that makes no sense in the newly reunified timeline, but Forces is very much still canon.

For fuck's sake, we're talking about the series where Eggman blew up half the moon and then it looked completely normal in every other game after, explained away as "the moon just rotated so we can't see the destroyed side from Earth." This has never, ever, ever been a franchise where everything lines up perfectly with no issues. It's not that serious.

The real core problem with Prime isn't that things don't line up 100% with our current understanding of canon, or that Sonic's characterization means this can't be the real Sonic, or anything like that. The problem, as I've been saying this whole time, is that the story is bad. None of these discrepancies would truly matter if the story was better. They'd just be nitpicks. The fact that Sonic and friends live in Green Hill would be the farthest thing from my mind if the drama was more engaging, if the villains were better, if the jokes were actually funny, if more of the alternate universe counterparts of Sonic's friends had more than one generic character trait each, if the multiverse was more creative and varied, if the final seven episodes of this show didn't devolve into the third act of an MCU movie and then just arbitrarily end, if Nine's character arc actually had a satisfying conclusion instead of ending with either isolation or nonexistence. Maybe we'd be seeing people talk about more than just whether or not it should be considered canon if the writing was any good.

"Canon" is not real, and it sure as hell isn't worth sending people death threats over. It's a storytelling tool. Real human beings decide what does and doesn't go into that canon, or how much they do or don't want to draw on past stories, when creating a new story. Serving that canon is secondary to creating a story where the emotional truth resonates with the audience. And Sonic Prime failed to do that. That is its true failing.

And finally, to close out...

Since people will ask, here are my current ranking of the Sonic TV shows, now that Prime is finished.

Sonic Boom

Sonic SatAM

Sonic X

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic Prime

Sonic Underground

Yes, I'd say Boom is my favorite. It's far from my ideal Sonic cartoon, but it gets a lot of points for being as funny as it is. But the top four are all shows I'd say I like, more or less. They all have their pros and cons.

So now, uh... I guess let's hope the live action Knuckles show coming to Paramount+ is better than the underwhelming synopsis of "Knuckles helps deputy sheriff Wade train in the ways of the echidna warrior" would imply? Maybe we'll get lucky?

[mermazing-art]

The real name of the Furious Five 

After the Kung Fu Panda 4 movie I started thinking about what Zhen's first conversations with the Furious Five would be like. I imagined her nervous about making a good impression but fitting quite well with her group dynamic given her mischievous attitude and enjoying their adventures with her, establishing a relationship of trust. Which led me to a thought "Would she, wanting to know them more, ask them what their real names are?"

This theory has been circulating in the fandom for years since it is said that their names actually refer to their fighting styles or their species (as well as Master Ox, Crocodile or Rhino) since those who retain their own name within this discipline are those who have a superior role such as Oogway, Shifu or Po and those who do not have a title such as Zhen or Tai Lung.

Well, I decided to look for a suitable name for each one, one that fit their physique or personality, that was easy to remember and that would distinguish one another, let's go!

Mantis: Xun Yu ( fast jade )

With Mantis I was clear that I didn't want to look for anything that had to do with his size but I did want to highlight his most powerful abilities such as his speed.  That's where his first name, Xun, comes from.  His middle name, Yu (Jade), is because of his green color although this can also mean ''insect'' depending on the kanji with which it is written.  My idea is that Mantis calls himself ''the green lightning'' referring to his real name.

Crane: Zimo ( refined ink )

At first I wanted his name to be related to the sky or the air due to his avian species or his techniques, but it made me think that one of the things that catches my attention about this character is his interest in Chinese calligraphy.  Therefore, I decided to name him Zimo (ink or writing) to reflect his beloved hobby in his name.

Monkey: Wong Sang ( yellow mulberry )

For Monkey, I researched his voice actor, the one and only Jackie Chan, born Chan Kong-Sang. I wanted to take it as a reference by changing the name Kong since it is the name of the Monkey's brother to Wong (yellow), relating it to the color of his fur. I wanted to make a reference to his comic side but I couldn't find a suitable name for the guidelines I had assigned to it.

Viper: Jia Ling ( beautiful tinkle )

As with Monkey, I researched on her voice actress, Lucy Liu, whose full name is Lucy Alexis Liu Yu Ling. I wanted to reflect her charming and sweet personality, so I took the name Ling (tinkerbell) as a reference of the hiss' snake she produces, as well as her happy attitude.  But her first name would be Jia to emphasize the beauty of this character.

Tigress: Xia ( sunrise )

For her, I thought I would delve deeper into her story and her development as a character in order to give her the appropriate name.  This is her story:

When Tigress lived in the orphanage, she received the name Xian ("who lives in seclusion") from the other children perpetuating their contempt and fear of her. When Shifu finally decided to adopt her, after He heard that name many times, almost always accompanied by the word "monster", he asked her what new name she would like. She simply accepted Tigress because she didn't believe she could deserve a name. Shifu pondered and decided to call him Xia. Tigress at first didn't like this idea because it sounded similar to the previous one, but Shifu explained his choice to her. Both names, although similar, did not have the same meaning because now she would no longer be in the darkness, secluded and alone, but rather she had the opportunity for a new life, a path marked by the light that emanated from her, a new sunrise.

So yes, Zhen would ask the furious five their names, giving the situation that Po would find out right then and there about this. Everyone except Tigress would answer this question since for her it is still a very personal matter related to her past and Shifu and she still doesn't feel comfortable sharing it with everyone. Could Tigress talk to a certain panda about this?

[yaoyaobae]

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for following me, its my first time sharing about my twst ocs so I’ll give it a shot ✊

Warning: Hallucinations 🙇‍♀️

Alison Wondre

School: Royal Sword Academy

Favourite food: Cookies

Pastime: Reading children’s books, Daydreaming

Family: Mother, Father, Older sister

Role: Head of Alice/Wonderland dorm

Alison is a second year student at RSA and dorm head. Unlike Riddle who upholds rules, Alison is the polar opposite of him in every way.

Alison adopts a carefree and playful attitude, he enjoys teasing uptight people until they blow (like Riddle).

He tends to mention strange things like how he saw some singing flowers the other day or his craving to take a bite out of a bread-and-butter-fly. From the way he dresses to his wild, childish imagination its no surprise that many students believe he’s gone mad. But it is agreeably fitting for someone who is head of the Alice/Wonderland dorm.

Backstory:

Alison has an older sister whom he adores greatly and spends most of his time with. When he was a young boy, he didn’t listen to his sister’s heeding to not stray off from the path and ended up falling into a deep hole in a forest. He slowly started hallucinating monsters and cried himself to sleep, wishing he had listened to his sister. Thankfully, the authorities found him a few days later and he was sent to a hospital.

However, it was clear that Alison became an entirely different person after the incident. He began telling his sister stories about funny creatures he had met during his “adventure” which was rather worrying to her. While Alison was in the hospital for a few months,he picked up several children’s picture books which he still brings around with him in school till this day. As he grew older his imagination became wilder as he forgets the fine line between reality and his “wonderland”. He takes afternoon naps to “meet his friends”. Its a given rule to never wake him up.

Of course despite his eccentric character, Alison is still a caring and reliable leader when he needs to be(just that he conveys it in his own ways). He will not hesitate to listen to a fellow dorm mate’s worries and give vague advice, hoping they can figure out the riddle. He encourages them to “stay curiouser and curiouser” as life becomes a little more colourful that way when you experience new things. When it comes to thinking out of the box, no one can beat Alison to it.

Relationships

Riddle

Alison finds joy in teasing serious individuals, namely Riddle, until they throw a tantrum. He doesn’t mind getting the magic collar so as long as he can poke fun at the red haired queen. In serious situation, Alison would cooperate with Riddle and provide creative solutions.

If both of them share a similarity, it would be the fear of being held back and stuck in a dark place alone. Like Riddle who grew up having to follow his mother’s rules and forbidden to see his friends, Alison can somewhat share the same pain as he is still afraid of not waking up and/or seeing his sister again because of his ignorance in the past.

Chenya

Alison is generally carefree around others, but when it comes to this cunning cheshire cat he will not waste a single second to curse him. Many students find it strange how two eccentrics from the same dorm can never get along. Alison finds Chenya a nuisance who disrupts his afternoon naps, often pestering him. In addition, Chenya always gives Alison close-to-useless advice even when the latter didn’t ask for any. Guess its like a taste of his own medicine 😂

While the two do not get along, they are always seen together in school bickering nonsense. Sometimes Chenya would purposely wake Alison up from his nap to share about the strawberry tart he stole from his two childhood friends, the sleepy blonde would just doze off back to dreamland while nodding his head.

End

Well, I think that is all I can share about Alison! I hope you will like him too, thank you to those who have loved him since the beginning!! Talking about my children is fun ☺️

Until next time!

[divineerdrick]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon Upd8 for August 11, 2024

So I've heard we have an upd8 today! And we've got a news post too! Right off the bat, we'll have another chapter "a little later in the month." Guess I'll have to keep my ear to the ground. Not sure there's an extension out there that can determine when the team upd8s a Ren'py game attached to their website.

I haven't been able to support the Patreon for a bit, so I'm unaware of the music previews James mentions. His little spiel makes me worried he might go Grimdark at some point . . .

We've still got another collab in the works, but we don't have the details yet. And yeah, I've been experiencing heat where I live that definitely slowed me down a peg.

On to the upd8!

Holy crap! Year 4!

Even with the realizations she made before, apparently this is still really slow going.

Nanna!

Oh wow! She's literally growing up! Wherever she is, she's physically aging in what is probably real time. Here's a shot from the last blog for comparison.

Her hair and horns are both longer, she's taller in frame, her neck is longer, and her eyes and mouth sit smaller on her face. Somehow though, she's still fitting into her outfit. Wonder if they're letting her alchemize new clothes?

Oh man! We've apparently missed some reconciliation with Eridan, John, and Kanaya! I feel especially robbed about missing out on the Kanaya portion. But we all know who the "HER" is. Though it would be a hilarious fake out if it was Nepeta or Feferi!

Hah! We apparently have both Nannasprites here!

Vriska does not say no to cookies!

We get another callback to Vriska's previous adventures as she remembers talking to John about their relationships with their ancestors. But she apparently doesn't understand how humans can have family ties. At least she seems more curious about it now.

Of course Nanna would have to describe having a child as having "novelty". It's nice to see a little bit more background on this version of Jane.

Vriska just cannot get past the idea why anyone would put up with a baby given the unavoidable accidents.

Nannasprite has apparently seen everything Jane has accomplished and is, at the very least, curious how things might have turned out if she hadn't settled down.

Wow. That had to really suck. Nana never felt loved or even wanted before she settled down. That might have been why finding someone who did love her and want to start a family with her caused her to change all her plans.

This is another attitude that Vriska previously would never have considered. She was always certain she had to be best, had to surpass every expectation, and very much felt she had a destiny to fulfill. The idea that someone would just "give up" on all that and do their own thing is more alien to her than humanity itself.

Wow! Vriska was actually mindful she might have lost her cool and genuinely apologized! She is learning!

And some genuine affection here too.

Wait! That's broken Paradox Space! Is Vriska facing Game Over Terezi?

And these are Vriska's typing quirks! Wait! Does she have to come to terms with Game Over Vriska? AKA (Vriska)? Does she have to reconcile with herself?

Wait! Mindfang? Does she have to come to terms with her relationship with Mindfang? If that's the case, no wonder she's not getting anywhere. Everything else has probably been about figuring out what the other person wants. But Vriska's problem was she was always trying to live up to Mindfang, an extremely poor example and role model. In this case, she almost certainly need to stop caring about what Mindfang might want.

Oh! It's not Mindfang! It's Vriska's idea of her, all wrapped up in her relationship with her lusus. It's basically both of Vriska's parental figures rolled into one.

She definitely needs to not give a shit about what this entity wants! While there is value in understanding who her lusus was and who Mindfang was, there is no value in engaging with them. This is all about Vriska learning how trying to live up to their needs and expectations, instead of living up to her own desires, caused her so much pain and heartache.

Heh! "Momfang."

Wow! They really are wrapped into one!

Also I can't decide if this reminds me more of the Venom symbiote or Conceptual Hair.

It is important that Vriska recognizes that these two entities were formative to her. But I really feel like that's all there is here. Understanding who they were and the impact they had on her life. The next revelation is that this doesn't need to define her.

Momfang's words echo a lot of Vriska's own thoughts and words on death and murder. Whether she, or indeed we, like it or not, Vriska does need to forgiver herself for her past. But not by accepting the violent environment as justification. She needs to understand that while she has extenuating circumstances for what she did, Vriska still did those things. She has to come to terms with that and forgive herself for it.

Vriska has learned from Vrissy! Suffering is not what makes you strong. Just as the muscles of a body builder tend to be weaker, more limited, and even useless compared to those of an athlete, suffering often comes with just as much that weakens you. Strength always has to come from within. Someone's strength who gets there through finding something or someone to be strong for is just as valid as someone who gets there through pursuit of an ambition is just as valid as someone who gets there through hardship is just as valid as, well, any path that gets you there. It's a bitter pill if you're the one who's suffered. But it is the truth.

Even on Alternia, none of this was ever fine. Even by their standards, her childhood was full of abuse and violence.

Man! The team is determined to make Momfang's twisting form as creepy as they can for mostly still images!

I don't know if Beforan Lusus could be like this, or if this quirk was part of Scratch's work. But we clearly see that some Lusus just weren't good guardians, despite coevolution. "But so are some parents!" I hear you cry! That's still different. While it's possible in the vast variety of humanity to be raised by a true monster, most abusive parents are still human. There are paths victims of abuse can take to find comfort or even peace and understanding because of this.

Vriska's "mom" is literally a spider, an animalistic predator. "HUNGRY. KILL. FUCK. EAT. FEED." On earth, even when spiders demonstrate sentience and intelligence, it is from an entirely different evolutionary path. We could not relate to the mind of a spider. And neither can Vriska.

There are many reasons why a parent may become abusive.

Vriska's was abusive because that helped it find prey.

Yep. This is not about what Momfang wants. It's about what Vriska wants. "And wasn't considering it now, to 8e clear." Again. Spider!

Huh! But that doesn't stop Vriska's image of Mindfang from being curious.

Vriska knows part of what's wrong. But as most of us know all too well, knowing what a problem is only the first step in fixing it. All you can do is try to catch yourself when "you're doing it again," while also trying to not make that become something you're constantly on guard about.

"Oh my god. Tavros was right!!!!!!!!!"

As was Nannasprite! You're supposed to learn form each of these "sessions" and use that to help with the next.

Now I'm sure that "h8r" is talking about Terezi.

We've often believed that what we read of Mindfang's journal was tame. Homesmut Mindfang is apparently canon.

No Momfang! No! You do not get to use Mayor callbacks!

"What will you do?"

Vriska knows what she wants. How does she prove it? Killing or being eaten seems like it's just more of the same. This could just be as simple as walking away.

Only way to win is not to play. It was always a false binary. There was always another option, it was just a case of seeing it.

Happy Vriska is best Vriska!

Yep! Just walk away!

Yeah, no! No hug for you!

Can't decide if I like "Gestalt of Rivia" or "Hierarchy of Arachneeds" more!

Let's not stop there though! I feel like we know enough now about how this works to start making some predictions.

So the Cueball suggests Scratch. He also played a great role in Vriska's life and actions. How Vriska needs to grow past him is trickier. Scratch was only ever using her, and I'm pretty sure Vriska knows this. Now she's dealt with Momfang, though, I don't think she'd get hung up on him. He is considerably cannier than Momfang, but this still feels like a misdirect. It could potentially lead to Rose. She's the other Hero of Light after all, and she and Vriska have both Scratch and the Cueball in common. I'm willing to bet Vriska didn't take enough advantage of Rose's presence on the meteor. This might create a scenario where she just has to learn from her fellow Hero.

Then we have a feather. This is probably the hardest to draw any conclusions from. The only character in Homestuck connected to feathers is Dave. Another potential hero to learn from. It's just hard to imagine not having to reconcile with Terezi, and I'm pretty sure she's not the 8ball. But I also can't think of how the feather connects her to . . .

Scales! It's a bit of a reach, but scales and feathers do have a connection. Also, why would Vriska have a feather? Maybe it's a quill that she used in her FLARPing days? Either way, I'm gonna say the feather is Terezi. Mostly because it's what I want.

The 8ball will be (Vriska). Vriska needs to come to terms with her Game Over self. She needs to realize that it not only was she wrong to look down on her, but that (Vriska) was always right to just look for happiness. (Vriska) was always valid and deserves to lose those parenthesis. Even if they are really convenient.

[valkyriexo]

Divergent x Stray Kids

What faction would they be in ? | OT8 Headcannon

A/N : these are my own opinions! Feel free to leave your own in the comments

Bang Chan

Faction : Abnegation

I feel like this one is such a no-brainer. Chan is naturally selfless and considerate, always prioritizing others before himself and ready to make sacrifices for the greater good.

In the Abnegation faction, where selflessness is the top priority, Chan would fit right in, gladly giving up his own wants to help others and make the community better without any complaints.

I think he feels a strong calling to serve a greater purpose in life, striving to make a positive impact on people and the world around him.

Even in challenging situations, he never backs down from doing what's right.

Chan is a natural leader, inspiring others with his passion and charm in all aspects of life, including their relationships.

Helping his friends and loved ones become their best selves brings him the most joy.

Lee Minho

Faction : Dauntless

This one is a little bit of a tricky one in my opinion. Truthfully, i think he would be divergent. Although, assuming he wouldn't want to be outed as divergent, and would have to choose a faction, I think he would be in dauntless (Hear me out!)

Minho's personality aligns perfectly with the Dauntless faction's values and lifestyle due to his adventurous and exploratory spirit.

Driven by a sense of fairness and open-mindedness, he moves through life with an encouraging attitude, motivating others to follow their passions.

His relaxed demeanor and "live and let live" attitude make him likable and popular, traits highly valued in the Dauntless community.

Beneath his quiet shyness lies an intensely feeling heart, driving him to embrace challenges and leave everything else in the dust when caught up in something exciting and interesting.

HOWEVER, I think that he could also belong to the amity faction because I wouldn't necessarily call him a fighter ykwim?

Seo Changbin

Faction : Dauntless

Muscle man???! WHAT CAN I SAYYYYY

Binnie is very adventurous by nature

He is willing to seek out thrilling experiences.

He thrives on physical challenges and eagerly faces his fears head-on.

Binnie's social nature makes him well-suited for the communal atmosphere of Dauntless, where shared activities and camaraderie are highly valued.

He enjoys being the life of the party and knows how to bring people together for a good time.

With his keen fashion sense and eye for aesthetics, he adds his unique style to the Dauntless community, making gatherings feel like celebrations.

Despite his outgoing nature, Binnie is observant and sensitive to others' emotions, always offering support to his friends when needed.

However, he may prefer to avoid conflicts if they involve him directly, prioritizing peace and maintaining a positive atmosphere.

Binnie's athleticism and dedication to fitness further emphasize his suitability for Dauntless, as he spends significant time honing his physical prowess in the gym.

His commitment to self-improvement and fearless attitude make him a valuable addition to the faction.

Hwang Hyunjin

Faction : Amity

Art= Amity

Although he has a quiet demeanor, he possesses a rich inner world filled with creativity and imagination, traits highly valued in Amity.

He finds solace in daydreams and storytelling, demonstrating a deep sensitivity to art, nature, and the emotions of those around him.

Idealistic and empathetic, Hyunjin longs for meaningful connections and feels a calling to help others, aligning perfectly with the core values of Amity.

In a fast-paced and competitive world, he may sometimes feel out of place, yearning for a community that appreciates his unique qualities.

Hyunjin's sincere curiosity about human nature and his compassionate, nonjudgmental nature make him a perfect fit for Amity's emphasis on understanding and empathy.

He cherishes deep conversations and feels honored to listen and offer support to those in need.

Although Hyunjin may sometimes struggle with internalizing the world's troubles and negative emotions, his desire for peace and kindness aligns perfectly with Amity's values.

He understands the importance of setting boundaries to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the injustices of the world.

In Amity, where peace and kindness reign supreme, Hyunjin would thrive, finding fulfillment in creating harmonious relationships and fostering a sense of unity within the community.

His ability to connect deeply and initiate positive change makes him a valuable asset to the faction, embodying the spirit of Amity's ideals.

Han Jisung

Faction: Candor

Jisung follows the beat of his own drum

His direct and straightforward approach to problem-solving aligns perfectly with Candor's value of honesty and truth.

Jisung prefers to tackle issues head-on, seeking straightforward solutions rather than relying on convoluted methods.

He is authentic and genuine,

Does not conform to societal norms.

While Jisung may not be inclined to socialize beyond what is necessary, he values sincerity and authenticity in his relationships.

Although his reserved nature may make him seem steady and predictable at times, he also possesses a store of impulsive energy that can lead him in bold and unexpected directions.

Candor values willingness to challenge the status quo and embrace change.

In Candor, Jisung would find an environment where his need for freedom, space, and unpredictability is understood and respected.

He would thrive in a community that values honesty above all else and encourages individuals to speak their truth without fear of judgment or deceit.

Also he's a yapper, and Candor's love to talk.

Lee Felix

Faction : Amity

100% no questions ask. Like, do I really need to explain myself?

He's the sunshine boi

Felix excels at creating and maintaining a warm and friendly environment for himself and those around him, fostering harmony within the community.

For Felix, life is all about shared experiences and forming deep connections with others.

He thrives in social settings and enjoys opening his heart and home to friends, loved ones, and neighbors, reflecting Amity's value of hospitality and inclusivity.

In Amity, Felix would find a supportive and nurturing environment where his dedication to creating a peaceful and inclusive community is valued and celebrated.

His ability to foster connections and maintain a friendly atmosphere would make him a cherished member of the faction, embodying the spirit of Amity's ideals.

Kim Seungmin

Faction : Candor

He is too honest lmao

Chan, you're half 52 next year??

In Candor, Seungmin would find a community that values his honesty and straightforwardness, where his dedication to maintaining honesty and integrity would be celebrated and appreciated.

People in this faction are very unlikely to show emotion, and let's face it neither does Seungmin

While forming close bonds with those who share his values and opinions, Seungmin believes in the power of hospitality and good manners, but he also isn't afraid to say what's on his mind.

Yang Jeongin

Faction : Abnegation

He's just like his dad (Chan) fr

His innate selflessness and loyalty shine through in his dedication to supporting and helping those around him.

Whether it's lending a listening ear or offering a helping hand, Jeongin is always there for others, embodying the essence of service over self.

Moreover, his reliability and commitment to excellence align with Abnegation's emphasis on putting others' needs before his own.

Jeongin's ensures that tasks are completed to the highest standard.

He has a keen eye for detail and genuine eagerness to make a positive impact highlight his selfless and caring nature.

He takes pride in going above and beyond his responsibilities, finding fulfillment in serving others rather than seeking personal gain.

ઇଓ A/N : these are my own opinions! Feel free to leave your own in the comments

ઇଓ M.LIST | Ko-Fi | Taglist | Thank you for your support ♡ | Consider leaving a comment, reblog or like ♡ | © 2024 Valkyriexo 

[inbarfink]

I already talked about, like, the Obvious Symbolism of Simon reaching his lowest point literally dressed like the Ice King and then gradually gets back to his old outfit as he starts climbing out of his depressive spiral, at least somewhat.

But it’s also really interesting, maybe even more interesting, how Fionna’s outfit has been gradually shifting and changing with basically every adventure.

My first thought was that it really shows Fionna coming into her own as a character. The more she grows and also the more character development she gets - the more the audience learns to see her as more than just Girl Finn - the more her outfit moves away from just being a slightly girlier version of Finn’s classic look and into being its own thing. 

Because Fionna is her own character. 

But my second thought was more about the first time Fionna’s classic outfit got an update in this series.

This wouldn’t really relate to my first reading, since it just kinda makes her outfit closer to Finn. But it does relate to the most important Theme that her character arc revolves around - Fantasy versus Reality.

Fionna starts out the story interacting with the idea of magical adventure and heroism via the lens of fantasy. She compares everything to video games and just thinks about everything in terms of it being cool and fun and she literally tries to chase down a person from her dreams.

And her mindset was probably only reinforced by discovering she was literally created to be the Main Character in God’s little fantasy universe literally created out of self-indulgence for his silly little stories.

And because of that, she starts out the story with a huge Protagonist-Centered-Morality blind spot where she can’t recognize when she and Cake are in the wrong

And she rushes into action and violence just thinking it’s ‘cool’

And, like, in general acting without thinking of the consequences.

And at basically every step of this adventure, these kinda actions clashed against the reality of her situation. And it all started when she pointed out to her own creator that the outfit he designed for her is cute - but extremely unrealistic for an adventurer like herself

And from there we move to Fionna experiencing more and more of the harsh consequences of assuming everything should fit into her fantasies of heroes and villains 

And that she should punch first and ask questions later 

And in general that it’s always better to trust her guts over her head. 

And with every one of her experiences, the bright and adorable outfit that is a reminder of her origin as God’s Most Self-Indulgent OC gets tweaked in more way - turning it into something that looks a lot more, for the lack of a better word, gritty. And also turning it further and further away from the outfit of her own literal fantasies.

And all of these horrible traumatic experiences and the general dangers of the magical and very different world she’s in have all weathered down Fionna’s original optimism and eagerness and brashness that originally defined her and turned her terribly overprotective and scared instead. And it really reminds of how Simon’s own trauma weathered him down. 

Turning him from a kind man with a passion for adventure and the fantastical and a powerful parental instinct to a miserable jerk who aches for mundanity and made a little girl cry

Until he got to his very lowest point.

So I’m guessing next up for Fionna is getting to see her regain some of her old identity that the Trauma has been tearing away at - getting back some of that cheerfulness and brash attitude and adventurous spirit. Because while it has put herself and her teammates and others in serious troubles - it’s also been a huge help at other times (especially as she's a good counterbalance to Simon ‘slow but dependable’ Petrikov)

She needs to find the balance, learning the lessons from her multiverse adventure without losing all the things that made her Fionna Campbell in the first place.

And I wonder if this development is gonna be paralleled with a return of some of the more ‘classic’ elements of her look - or if her outfit is instead going to diverge farther?

[okaystoptellingmetomakeanaccount]

Pwease elaborate on the following points, I beg this of you:

UltraHeroes Paperinika is best Paperinika?!?

Martina's Duckburg is closer to Barks' than Rosa's is?

DT17 leaked documents about Cimino? :O (Is there a way to read them?)

Sincerely thanks from a lurking lurker who lurks.

Omg no thank you i love elaborating about ducks lol

• Paperinika in Martina’s first few stories was great satire, but the character has since been stuck like that. (We’ll ignore Martina’s subsequent attempt to move away from this by making her fight the evil queen from Snow White and beheading robot clones of herself) Most writers kept her ridiculously ‘feminist’ attitude and personality, or changed her hating men into hating PK specifically. And they generally kept a lot of her negative character traits. So the character became a bit hateful. (Now that i think of it i haven’t read enough Brazilian stories so this is like from what i’ve gathered from Italian and Danish stuff) I’m personally not that much a fan of a hero who’s most defining quality is that she’s a narcissistic prick.

Paperinik moved away from a lot of his own negative character traits (he was a bit of a villain at first after all). But Paperinika did not. Probably a lot of writers still deemed all of those things as ‘funny’ because haha woman mad. On the other hand, Paperinika also fell out of use in Italy, so maybe they didn’t think it was that funny. But they never thought to like, y know change her character.

UNTIL ULTRAHEROES HELL YEAH. So like yeah Ultraheroes wasn’t good or something (though i gotta say i’m personally quite fond of it) but they did reinvent Paperinika’s character. Decided that she’s actually likable now! Moved away from all the sexism and gave her a fun personality that fit modern day Daisy and created one of the most fun love triangles between Daisy, Donald, PK and PKA. Too bad that it didn’t really stick outside of Ultraheroes. So it remains one of, if not the best version of the character for me. The end of the chapter where they go against Spectrus and Zafira is just a fav of mine.

• Rosa’s Duckburg is really un-Barksian. It might all add up in continuity and references, but tonally it’s a whole different universe.

The entire thing is too serious. I might even say it all makes too much sense. Barks never cared much about making sense. Scrooge had a different bin every other story.

Guido Martina was always the king of not making sense. He probably contradicted his own stories more than anyone else. Both hik and Barks never cared about continuity. It’s about the story. Duckburg could change into whatever they wanted, as long as it served the story they wished to tell.

Martina’s Duckburg is pretty different from Barks’. It’s a more cynical, one could say almost parodic version of it, where everything and everyone is terrible. But with that it goes way further in those satirical elements of Barks. Something Rosa rarely did, who told more straightforward consumer friendly epic Hollywood stories.

Like uhh we could take a look at Scrooge. Rosa Scrooge is ultimately a good man. He doesn’t even actually care about money, but about the way he got it! It’s about earning the money and the adventures! And secretly he’s a good person who does give money away.

Martina Scrooge is a bad man. Oh oh oh so bad. Scrooge is used to critique and make fun of the rich that Martina saw around him. He has a comically long list of debts that other people owe him. He got rich by lots of illegal manners, and can get others to do whatever he wants, simply because he has money.

Barks Scrooge is in the middle, but I’d say it leans more to Martina. Scrooge is just a person. Does bad things and good things. He’s full of human contradictions and complexities. But more often than not, even when he’s more neutral, Scrooge is used to make fun off. The stories he tells about how he got rich are ridiculous. They are meant to be laughed at. It’s this difference in tone which is prevalent in most of their writing.

Rosa simply doesn’t use the characters that way. That’s it kinda. Hope this explains my imo a bit lol

• okay shhhh but dont tell anyone

(Sorey, removed the link. Just to stay safe. If anyone still wants it don’t be scared to dm :))

(Kind of scared of getting banned so excuse me if i remove the link in a few days. I recommend you download it to read later. I wrote the longest wall of text to hide it under but the drive i downloaded it from is gone because of disney so like yeah tad bit scared)

And just want to say wow. Thank you for the ask. Like the idea that there are people lurking around reading my posts, like i used to do (and still do) by so many others is insane honestly. Hope you’ve had fun reading my ramblings here, anon :)

[cartoonosaurusrex]

Made some fan concepts for @rocketwithapocket's funny Burbank AU.

Max Mehta - L'Enfant Terrible

Max is just about the opposite of your average kid: jaded, pessimistic, and mature. He doesn't like a lot of things, and in fact takes delight in snuffing the joy out of people, or to cause trouble. He's not a very cheery kid, he'll be quick with a snide remark or a grim reminder of the reality he's in. Much of his cold disposition stems from his familial situation, as his parents don't seem to care much for him. The most they do are feed him and buy him clothes, everything else he has to take care of on his own or with the help of his Toondroid, Pomni; they hardly ever even talk to him. Neglect like that will take its toll on anyone.

Of course, even with such a tough outer shell, inside sits a heart of... well, gold is the wrong word. Bronze fits better. He knows who his friends are, and he knows they have his back, and he has their backs in kind. Plus, he likes really cute things like puppies. Rumor has it he still sleeps with a teddy bear, even.

Emilia Feltro - The Ragdoll with a Mouth

A ragdoll made by one Aunt Nastacia and brought to life through a talking pill, Emilia will say just about anything on her mind, and she's just as enthusiastic as she is naive. Her best friends are Narizinho and Pedrinho, who live with her on the Yellow Woodpecker Farm. She goes on plenty of adventures with them, but you'll just as often find her hanging out with Max and Pomni.

With Max, Emilia's headstrong nature and upbeat personality tend to clash with his sour attitude and cynical nature, and the two can butt heads from time to time. However, things usually calm down pretty quickly, and they genuinely enjoy each other's company (even if Max won't admit it). They are prone to throw the occasional wisecrack at each others' expense, but that is to be expected from the kind of comradery they share.

Pomni - Toondroid Model TADC-7

Pomni is Max's Toondroid, adopted by his parents to keep him company so they wouldn't have to pay much attention to him. She's very anxious and timid, likely brought on by her one nagging problem: her R.A.G.E. mode doesn't work. She can read a bad situation of course, and even act accordingly, but whether it be a bug in her system, a faulty update, or someone straight up disabling it, something prevents her from being able to activate her RAGE when the situation would normally call for it. In fact, it's been said that this is what cost her her initial role at The Amazing Digital Circus, a popular family entertainment chain akin to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Truth be told, she can hardly do much of anything on her own, at least without the accompaniment of Max and Emilia. Lord knows what she would do without them. It gets to the point where she fears she's a burden on them, when that's not the case. Max and Emilia absolutely care for Pomni, and they will stand up for her if need be.

[anim-ttrpgs]

A.N.I.M. Adventure Art: The Seedtown Party

Meet the Seedtown Party. This is a cast of investigator PCs from one of the earliest test runs for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, back in late 2021. It didn’t even have any sort of combat system when this campaign started, that was written hastily somewhere in the middle of the campaign, somewhere around February 2022.

This campaign is maybe the longest we’ve ever done with Eureka, lasting 6 months with a session nearly every week, and it was amazing.

Four investigators find themselves one way or another in a small town in the mountains of Arkansas, coming together by chance due to shared interest in a series of seemingly related missing persons cases.

It pains me greatly that I cannot remember exactly what was said, but the way that this group of characters came together and agree to work with each other to locate these missing persons in the first session was the single most natural and organic way I’ve ever seen a TTRPG party form.

Eunica, an actual professional private investigator from the big city, here on a personal mission, as one of the missing people is her own nephew.

Joseph, an extremely friendly local bartender who has been manning his brother’s establishment since his brother’s death more than ten years ago.

Sarah, a moviestar who sought to disappear from the spotlight and run away to a quieter life, only to find that some of the missing persons posters feature *her* face, and did before she even arrived.

And finally Alice (pronounced in the French way, sounds more like “Elise”), a cheerful and energetic young Cajun-French biker claiming to be a friend of one of the missing people. She was definitely the youngest of the party, appearing to be in her early twenties, with the next youngest investigator being Eunica in her late thirties. Alice had the rest of the party in love with her sweetness, energy, and optimistic attitude, as well as many weird but endearing quirks like how sarcasm and jokes always flew right over her head, her insistance that her food never have any spices whatsoever, and the fact she wore the same part of sunglasses day and night. In fact, they never actually even saw her sleep, she was always awake when they went to bed and always awake in the morning when they woke up. Alice was “the baby of the group”, and all of the older investigators went out of their way to protect her and curb her bold and reckless actions, despite her insistence that they didn’t need to.

Art by @theblackwarden

This art has been posted here with permission as part of A.N.I.M.’s Adventure Art initiative in our TTRPG book club.

All of these characters are PCs from Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by A.N.I.M.

If you’d like to join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club, you can find the discord invite on our website.

If your art fits he parameters outlined on this post, and you’d like it featured here, tag us or post it in the book club’s Adventure Art channel on discord.

If you’d like to support us and get a prerelease copy of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, check out our Patreon! Our Kickstarter is planned for launch in April 2024!

This group of investigators followed what clues they could through local urban legends, organized crime, police corruption, and finally occult ritual among the state’s wealthy elite in a remote manor in the mountains, ending in a high-stakes shootout as the gang attempted to flee the premises after disrupting a plot that could’ve brought the world as we know it to its knees, and then a confrontation with the source of the aforementioned urban legends. For the most part, the investigators got out unscathed, except for Alice, who caught three bullets during the shootout, way more than enough to kill an investigator, or most any character, in Eureka. She also did most of the killing in this shootout.

Alice near flat-out refused medical attention, instead sneaking away as soon as the others’ backs were turned, leaving a farewell message at the bar before getting on her bike, and riding away. There was no way to track her or find out where she went, who she was, or if she was even still alive. They never even learned her last name.

Not only was this a test run of Eureka in general, but also the origin of its unique approach to supernatural characters, wherein not even other players sitting around the table know which members of the party are supernatural or not. With exceptions that I’ll get to in a moment, none of the IRL people playing this game except the Game Master knew that there would be any supernatural element to this mystery, let alone within the very investigative party itself. Nearly all of the players were relative strangers to each other before the group was brought together for session 0, not knowing each others’ interests or original characters, so there was little chance of guessing anything was amiss before the session even began.

Eunica shocked everyone about a two-thirds into the investigation, after the involvement of occult ritual started to become apparent, by revealing that she was no ordinary private detective, but really one of a more magical variety, capable of more than a little magic herself, and the person you’d go to if you needed someone to, say, hunt and slay a vampire. This took some time to process for everyone and Alice had what seemed like a hundred rapid-fire questions about the truth or the supernatural.

Alice, on the other hand, didn’t shock anyone, no one suspected a thing. No one, not PCs nor Players, ever guessed that sweet “Alice”, “the baby of the group”, was actually the oldest of them all, an 800-year-old vampire named Yvette Preux. The other players didn’t find this out until a month after the campaign ended. In between regular sessions, secret one-on-one sessions between GM and player were being run while the rest of the party slept, wherein “Alice” did some investigating, and other things like drinking blood, on her own during the night, the findings from which she would sprinkle in casually during discussions of the case the next morning, subtly enough that no one ever asked where she got this information or why she was so sure of it. On a few occasions she even did a lot more than investigating during these nights, like when a crime boss, who had told the investigators that he would have them disappeared if he saw them in town again, mysteriously turned up dead the next day, never seeing any of them again. What a lucky coincidence for everyone else.

Alice actually clocked Eunica as some kind of vampire hunter or the like right away, on the very first day they met, which didn’t really concern her at all. If so-called vampire hunters were any good at their “job”, she wouldn’t be around to laugh about it, would she?

Really, in hindsight, she could hardly have been more obviously a vampire—the sunglasses at all hours; avoidance of garlic, onions, and any other spices on food; hoe she never seemed to sleep; how she always seemed to have something in front of her mouth when she talked; her avoidance of mirrors; taking risks like she was invincible; and always running ahead every time the party was about to enter a private domicile so that she could directly ask to come inside. She even at one point when the party needed to disguise themselves as occultists, revealed that she just *already had* a fine hooded cloak with black on the outside and bright red on the inside in her luggage. That was all pretty weird, but it turns out, when nobody tells you to look for vampires, they actually become extremely hard to stop! This isn’t even a massive failing on Eunica’s part, if it weren’t near impossible to identify them, vampires wouldn’t be considered just a silly superstition in the modern age.

In truth, “Alice” reveled in just being herself right under a wannabe vampire-hunter’s nose, feigning shock when Eunica revealed this, and going out of her way to ask as many questions as she could about real vampires and what they’re like.

This is the ultimate Eureka experience, what starts as a mundane investigation spiraling into sprawling madness, and if what the people you thought you knew could reveal about themselves will shock you to your core, imagine what they keep to themselves. They might not even be playing by the same rules as you, it’s always who you least expect.

[ravenbloodshot]

Dean (Krnb Artist) Reputation Reading

I feel like dean has a lot of "yes men" or enablers that surround him. People view him as moody and the type to act like a asshole when he doesn't get his way but people around him also excuse this aspect of him. Like if Dean walked out of a restaurant him and his friends were hanging put at bc he was in his feelings about something petty,his friends would be the type to say "ahh, someone go get him, let him know we didn't mean what we said" kind of coddling him and appeasing him. If somebody was to question why Dean acts like a child and why his friends put up with it, they would get a "boys will be boys" response

People view him as an emo, loner boy. Like a person who wants to be left alone and isn't open to new adventures or doing anything outside of his comfort zone.

I think a lot of people try to get Dean to put them on and help in their careers, but Dean doesn't help these people. And his reason may be that he doesn't know how to, he's like "man, I barely know how I did it myself". So people could view him as kind of "know-nothing artists", like an artist that may act like they know the ins and outs of what it takes to make it in the industry but in reality they don't know shit. The good thing about this is people think he's also just a naturally gifted artist, seeing as how he doesn't have the "know how" so his talents seem more organic and is respected amongst others.

People view him as a guy who uses a lot of dark humor at his own expense and others (says self depreciating and depressive jokes). But also, he's quite sensitive about ppl joking about him or teasing him (he doesn't care for this, could catch an attitude if he thinks someone's gone too far with joking about him). Like the example I gave in the beginning, he could storm out if he starts feeling a way. And he probably does that often.

People like the way he sings and also the way he speaks. He sounds very lyrical and angelic, his speech is quite lithe. People feel as if they could listen to him for hours.

Ummmm....I think Dean may have a child (an unexpected child). I was already getting a vibe that people, even in his close circles, don't see him often. And then I kept pulling, and I got the energy of a woman that loves him dearly and thinks of him as her soul mate. Then, I pulled a card called "children." I just assumed at first ppl thought he's childish and petty (which is still likely true). But the next card after called "pregnancy," this speaks for itself. The man has a secret family somewhere

That's probably why he takes so long to put out new music, preoccupied with his girl and kid.

I doubt he wants the public to know. Bc I struggled for about 2 weeks to tap into his energy. I think he was guarding himself to keep his situation quiet. I guess I should stop here then, leave him and his secrets alone

There Goes My Baby by Usher is a song that fits this reading

[jediknightjameslunagazer23]

Did a drawing of what Kira Kalveria, the secondary Jedi protagonist alongside James Lunagazer, looks like in the Hyperforce Reignition crossover fanfic universe, alongside the Monkey who will be a major supporting character in her development, the reckless red-maverick himself, Sparx.

I did consider having Otto, given that he and Kira share the same colour, and he was the first Monkey she took an instant liking to upon meeting, (barring the massive freak out they had when they understood each other without a translator.) But the more I thought about it, her personality more or less meshes more with Sparx.

I'd imagine Sparx would start to see some of his own traits in Kira, and so he'd begin to mellow back his reckless nature and become a sort of father-figure to the young Jedi Apprentice sort of like Chiro and Antauri's dynamic, (Not to say it won't be difficult, given Kira's impulsive and reckless attitude!)

I'll probably do one for James Lunagazer and the other members of Flarren Squadron who join the two Jedi in their adventures on Shuggazoom overtime as soon as I figure out the characters.

Kira's design is one that I actually tweaked from an old design, evoking her Green Jedi heritage and her energetic wise-cracker attitude, including gold shoulder armor which was inspired from the Mighty Morphin' Green Power Ranger, the Jedi Credit was rough due to it using the old Jedi Order symbol, but I got there.

But if anyone is knowledgeable about the old Legends lore, you may have noticed Kira is an apprentice, and Jedi Credits are usually given to those in the Corellian Jedi who ascend to the Rank of Knight, there's a reason for that which will be explored later...

I actually did consider making Kira an Togruta species to set her apart from her TC OC counterpart, but I felt it would have been too similar to Anakin and Ahsoka with how she and James are intially, though another Togruta character might appear later down the line, but to be blunt it won't be Ahsoka as she's straight up dead in this universe.

I don't hate her but she has been getting over-used in Star Wars, so yeah, and this universe is a mix of both Canon and Legends, at least from what knowledge I do have, but it won't come up much as I decided to leave that vague so that it could fit in either universe, and for if I decide to make a prequel series.

See you for the next one!

[kharmii]

Here me out, -I spent a bunch of time thinking about this at work- but I think that Julius Novachrono gave Captain Yami a nudge to recruit Zora Ideale to the Black Bulls. He didn't come right out and order him to, but this is how it went down.

-So in an act of savage evil, a member of the Purple Orcas murders Zara Ideale because he's a commoner not knowing or caring that he's a single dad with a son who is now an orphan. Julius knows about Zora and even says, "Is that...?" when the child runs by him while he's visiting Zara's grave.

Despite knowing about the existence of Zara's son, Zora slips through the cracks and has a tough childhood. Revenge fantasies are constantly cycling in his thoughts throughout the years, and he is clever like his dad focusing on traps that use others' power against them while honing his magical technique. When he's in his late teens, he seeks revenge on the people who killed his father. While he successfully injures them, there's blow back that severely injures his face. It's unclear the details, (because I haven't fleshed it out in my mind) but it could be that his Uno Reverse Card spell got messed up causing some of the attack against him to get through that burned his lower face and neck. It could be a spell went wrong forcing him to draw runes on his own body spur-of-the-moment which caused him to injure himself. IE: His ash nature almost made himself ash.

Either way, he ended up injured on the point of death, and only an accidental tapping into forbidden magic saved his life but left him disfigured and forced to wrap part of his face, neck and chest to hide it. Years go by, and he gets better at exacting his revenge without any pain coming back on him. He is really, really careful and will only attack when he's 100% sure of success. He's very grounded in reality and has a good concept of his own mortality after that traumatic incident where he almost died.

Fast forward to Zora's early twenties when he has violently put a lot of corrupt magic knights in their place. Since anyone has since failed to apprehend Zora, complaints about a vigilante eventually get to Marx and through him, the Wizard King. The corrupt magic knights don't want to admit they were targeted for being dirty, so they frame it like they were approached by a male prostitute in a slutty little crop top who offered to turn tricks for cash. When they refused -they are pure magic knights who would never give into such temptation- Zora in a rage beat them up and ripped them off. "You'll know him when you see him", they claimed.

Julius, through a spirit of adventure, looks into it personally. At first, he believes the lies he was told, mainly that Zora does look like a typical street worker who's a perfect ten from the neck down but sort of a butterface. He eventually works out who Zora is and the motivation behind his actions. He feels sorry for him and doesn't want to punish him for doing them a useful service, albeit something illegal. The corrupt among them have it coming and should be kept on their toes.

One day when Yami is in the area, Julius tells him about Zora -his circumstances behind why he does what he does- and asks him to deal with him how he sees fit. He doesn't come out and ask Yami to recruit Zora, but he hopes that he will at least talk sense into him, even if he's not interested in letting him join. Yami finds Zora hard at work beating the crap out of some magic knights he believes deserve a comeuppance, and in a rage, Zora attacks him thinking he's part of their group.

Zora finds himself outclassed by Yami. He thinks....well, it was good while it lasted...... He believed death was imminent only to be taken by surprise when Yami throws him a Black Bulls cape with the 'take it or leave it' attitude.

Zora stews on this for weeks-months-years, like he wants to be a magic knight like his dad, but it would be awkward as frick to just show up at the Black Bulls base and confront a room full of strangers who might be evil people who'd chew him up and spit him out. They'd probably expect him to ditch his super awesome look modeled after the doll his dad gave him and make him dress up all classy and sheeit.. It didn't quite click that maybe the Black Bulls wouldn't care so much about appearances when their captain is a crusty chain-smoking guy in a wife-beater. He angsts over the expectation they'd look down on him for not being nobility, and they might not respect his abilities or take him seriously. Finally, he decides it's best to confront them on neutral ground to feel them out, but where to do it?

His chance comes when he finds out Xerx Lugner is invited to the Royal Knights Selection Exam. Since nobody knows who that even is, the usually level-headed careful Zora goes on a suicide mission to impersonate Xerx under the threat of capital punishment. Fuck it, his life is in shambles at this point with the fact he was given the opportunity to be a magic knight but is too messed up emotionally to take Yami up on it. It's better to go out with a bang while putting a bunch of them in their place right in the Wizard King's face.

Lucky for him, the Wizard King is a fun-loving guy who appreciates a good prank. He knows who Zora is but doesn't let on. Still, he was startled by Zora rocking up out of nowhere impersonating a magic knight whose whereabouts are unknown. When Zora puts an arm around him, he was repulsed by his injuries, his look that doesn't appear fully human, and the pungent nose-hair burning stench emanating off him because a stink bug went off in his pocket. Still, since they are vying for selection to fight a powerful unknown enemy, Julius thinks it would be good for the others to be exposed to an enigmatic person like Zora who might teach them out-of-the-box thinking.

Everyone else wonders why 'Xerx' calls himself the "Saint of Pure Ice" but they quickly come to the conclusion it's because he's a stone-cold douche. Even though Julius likes a good prank, he has regrets because he's more of the light-hearted prankster with a child-like spirit, whereas Zora is bitter and mean-spirited roasting the others in a way that cuts to their souls.

They also wonder why he has his tiddies out and wears low riding pants that shows most of his happy trail. After all, the doll his dad gave him (that he shows everybody like a weirdo) is fully clothed. "Because I have to draw runes on my own body sometimes," Zora eventually reveals, "It's easier to draw runes on my own body when there is a lot of exposed skin!"

[galaxsims]

🌊 Koa Kahue for @king-tower's KISS & TELL 🌊

Koa has spent most of his life on the beach, a real child of the ocean. When he isn't on the beach, you can find him driving his late father's boat (and living on it). He is a free spirit and has always been a little childish, believing in magic and merfolk.

He doesn't trust "city folk" and his self-absorbed attitude has him believe that he's better than those who conformed to the 9-5 grind.

Koa is a people person and he meets all kinds of people around the island of Sulani. One of those people is his closest friend, Malia, who has been hellbent on getting Koa married. Koa himself has always had a passive view of romance, spending his twenties on unmemorable flings with sims whose names he can't remember, but ever since he turned 30, he began to wonder what it would be like to find someone to settle down with. When he mentioned this in passing to Malia, she immediately signed him up for this up-and-coming TV show, KISS & TELL. Koa is a little wary about being on a TV show (he seldom watches himself; mostly, he listens to podcasts and radio shows), but he's always down for a new adventure!

⭐QUESTIONNAIRE⭐

name: Koa Kahue

age: 30 years old

pronouns + gender: he/him, cis male

romantic/sexual orientation, if applicable: pansexual/panromantic

hometown: sulani

occupation: beach™

likes: high-energy, enthusiastic sims who would be more than happy to stay outside in the sun for as long as possible, affection, physical intimacy, fitness, island and metal music, and the ocean.

dislikes: fishing (he sees all fish as friends), loud noises, snobs, and cold weather.

a "secret" you want to share with the world: When Koa was a child, barely more than six years old, he encountered what he believes was a mermaid who saved him from drowning when he fell off the side of his father's boat. All he can remember of them is their blue scales, but he's 100% sure a mermaid (or merman) saved his life that day.

Private download

Fun facts:

He's never been in love before

He's not the smartest person in the world (his best friend, Malia, once called him a himbo, but he didn't know what that meant)

He isn't tied to a job and will pick up odd ones when he parks his boat.

He's kind of flirty. Loves to make other sims swoon.

Literally has no knowledge of pop culture or slang.

He's not afraid to speak his mind and oftentimes has no filter at all. He will let the world know when he dislikes something and, in turn, when he likes it.

He isn't great at understanding others' feelings and putting others above himself. He'll always put his own well-being first.

[ouatnextgen]

Get to Know: Leo

I stole the character template used in this fic, because I thought it was really thorough, and a good exercise for character building. So thanks ao3 user StarkPark!

Name

Neal Leopold Nolan. Named in honor of Neal Cassidy, and Snow’s father. Started going by Leo in middle school, when he fully found out about what Neal Cassidy did to Emma.

Nicknames

Leo (primary nickname)

Squirt (by Emma)

Uncle (by Hope, to annoy him)

His Royal Annoyingness (by PJ)

Snowflake (by Snow)

Kiddo (by David)

Appearance

Thin, straight dirty blond hair

Pale skin

Brown eyes, inherited from his maternal grandfather

He wears shirts and button ups, jeans, sneakers, and his letterman jacket from football

Face claims

Azriel Dalman (younger)

Lucas Till (older)

Personality

He is rather uptight, but cares very much about his friends, family, and his people. He tries to mold his personality to be like his father’s.

Is very much like his mother however, in his resourcefulness, hopefulness, and can-do attitude.

He is practical and resourceful, but can come across as stuck up or a goody two shoes. He’s the most responsible out of his friends, which leads to him both keeping them all safe, and hindering their adventures.

He’s the heir to the throne of Misthaven, and acts like it. He never lets himself stray from his golden boy persona, making certain that the student body, his friends, and even his family see him as infailable. Only in private does he let go of this persona, and becomes who he really is: an anxious wreck.

Likes

Playing football

Reading

Sword fighting

Solving puzzles, crosswords, and riddles

Teaching and babysitting little kids

Country music

Dislikes

Plain food

Bullies

Being unsure of himself

Magic

No magic, but wishes he did

Health

Physically very fit and very healthy, except being allergic to cats. 

Mentally…he has an anxiety disorder. It hits at random times, and can be almost crippling. He’s supposed to be on medication for it, but he insists that he doesn’t need it, and that he’s fiiiiine.

Sexuality

Bisexual. Romantically and sexually attracted to all genders

Fears

Everything man, he has anxiety

But specifically, not living up to expectations, letting people down, breaking apart and not being able to put himself back together, to name a few.

The dark (yes, seriously)

Habits

Bites his knuckles

Runs his hand through his hair

Hand movements. Tapping his fingers, twitching, wringing his hands, ect.

Favorites

Movies: Nerd shit. Star Wars, MARVEL, anything scifi basically

TV Shows: Nerd Shit. Star Trek, X-Files, anything scifi basically

Music: If asked, he’ll claim to like indie. In actuality, he loves country music

Books: Is a fan of the classic sci fi/horror novels like Frankenstein

Parent: Tries to emulate David’s personality, and make himself more like him

Family member: He looks up to Emma a lot

Sport: Football. He’s a guard on the school football team, and is very good

School subject: Math, because there’s a “right” and a “wrong” way to do things

Food: Spicy nuggets, spicy tacos, spicy chips, just anything with a kick

Sweet treat: Mexican hot chocolate

Colors: Indigo, blue, purple

Animal: Lion

Toy: He still has his first toy sword his dad got for him when he was two

Game: Owns quite a few of the Star Wars spin off games, and likes to play checkers

Least favorites

Movies: Mindless action flicks

TV Shows: Sitcoms

Music: 80’s music, which almost caused a civil war among his friends

Books: Romance

Parent: Loves both his parents equally

Family member: Hope annoys him in her attitude and her actions. Still loves her, though

Sport: Swimming, as he’s never been a strong swimmer

School subject: English. He hates how there’s no “right” answer

Food: Plain foods he can’t make spicer

Sweet treat: Pound cake, it tastes like nothing

Colors: Red, green, orange

Animal: Cats, as he’s mega allergic

Toy: Creepy dolls

Game: Doesn’t like games of chance

Career aspiration

Future king of Misthaven

Social life

He’s more introverted, and likes to spend time by himself (he does count spending time with PJ as being by himself)

He’s the Mom Friend of the group, and has to stop them from doing stupid shit all the goddamn time

While he scolds them constantly, he really does care about his friends

Pets

Has three family dogs: Jake, Goldie, and DJ.

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

In hindsight, I think one of the reasons why DD feels like such a weird follow-up to AJ is that it borrows vibes more from the PW Trilogy than AJ.

You have the parallels to significant cases from the Wright trilogy - DL-6, SL-9, and Matt Engarde's case spring to mind. It's been said that Simon has parallels to Godot and Means is a carbon-copy of Manfred's personal philosophy. The general focus on Phoenix and how he affects the world around him also make DD feel more like a PW game than an AJ one.

I've always thought Athena and Simon's plight was a darker twist on Phoenix and Edgeworth's story in the grand scheme of things; a dear friend losing himself to the corrupted legal system and fighting tooth-and-nail to see them again, to save them from that darkness. How the trauma of losing one's parent causes one of them to lose hope and accept their guilt, the only salvation being a ridiculous leap of faith that somehow lands on its feet. Dual Destinies is, at its core (and I do consider their story to be the core of this game), irrevocably seeped in PW's ideas and narrative beats. Not AJ's.

I do love this in isolation, bringing the things we know from the series prior and twisting them into something different. Hell, it could even be a fitting return for Phoenix post-disbarment to rear up a new student going down a similar - if darker - road to his own... if AJ didn't already exist with ideas-galore to follow through on. A game that has a notably different vibe to Phoenix's own adventures, one that doesn't quite carry through to DD (which feels more in-line with the tone established in PW, just taken to extremes in places (for better and worse)).

I can see why people would prefer it to follow a hypothetical AJ trilogy instead of being smack-dab in the middle of the one we have. It could have been a return to form in that way, similar to how Phoenix returns to the fray in that game (one that can be earned over the course of a trilogy instead of in-between games). It's not that it doesn't have its ties to AJ - Apollo's attitude to Phoenix makes more sense with it, as well as his descent into paranoid doubt. Defense attorneys like Means being bolstered by Phoenix's fall from grace, that it would contribute to people's growing doubt over the (frankly abysmal) legal system, is literally in the text. It's the focus on Phoenix, his return to the defense bench along with vibes more in line with PW:AA, that makes people feel like it doesn't connect at all. If it was focused on Apollo and his new whacky assistant and Phoenix filled a more Mia-esque mentor role, the two may have stuck together in people's heads better. It already has a worthy follow-up story in exploring his growing distrust of the people around him (partly thanks to Phoenix himself if you can believe it); the body is there, but the heart feels like its in the wrong spot.

To say nothing of how people feel that Athena and Simon's story is plenty on its own given room to breathe.

[verynormalaboutkinnporsche]

Food in KP

Springboard off this post because I don't want to hijack the whole thing with a lengthy braindump on the subject.

One of the reasons I like this show is there's a lot of stuff to unpack. (This bad boy can fit so many thematic elements in it.) If you had to boil KP down to one thing it is "about," I would argue that the thing is connection, and food makes an excellent tool for showing how the connections work.

One of the coolest things about the theme is that due to how intimately food is bound up with our actual existence, you can use that one element to show a lot of different things. It's used to spotlight relationships of control vs ones of nurture, and as @aeternallis pointed out to draw attention to the pressures of hierarchy among the characters.

Provider/Dependent

As early as E1 we have Porsche bringing home dinner for Chay and Thee, highlighting his role as family provider. (No I will not shut up about the idea that he goes without food himself when he considers it necessary.)

The E2 setting introduction goes to some length to show us the extent to which Korn wants to be the sole provider for everyone in the organization. This is replayed from a different angle later in the season with the meal at the minor house; the style is more familial and less hyper-controlling, but it's in line with the genre idea of the mafia as an extended patriarchal family. The soup lunch late in the season uses the specific type of food served to link and contrast Porsche's relationships with Korn and his own father.

The restaurant scene deftly underlines the participants' status differences, not just with how everyone's attitude shifts as soon as Vegas joins the group but the attention the camera pays to who interacts with the food itself.

Again as others have noted, characters' avoidance or refusal of this dynamic illuminates their particular personalities. Pete might be the most go-along-to-get-along character in the show, but he also sneaks in food. That food is supplied by his grandmother and is noted as being better than what Korn provides, a nurturing supplement that mitigates the control. Porsche finds his way around the rules for a midnight snack (he's chaotic) and Kinn ignores it (an early sign of how his romantic interest in Porsche undermines his own adherence to the hierarchy).

Late in the season, the Vegas/Pete relationship has food as a central element. I'm sure reams of meta have been written on this aspect of the show. The story moves from Pete's initial refusal of all food to his acceptance of it, dwells on the specific and changing nature of the food provided, highlights Vegas' pleasure in taking the provider role and Gun's destructive influence on that, all with impressive economy.

The original post noted that alone of the major characters we never see Kim consume anything at all. (Unless you count smoking.) That could just have been the pressures of screen time, although I note that for as brief as his scenes are, Khun shares snacks with his bodyguards while watching TV (Porsche is specifically excluded from the sharing, to point up his frustration with his new assignment). There's often a manipulative element to Kim's interactions with food--using delivery of Korn's favorite snack as a means to get access to his sanctum, sending Chay out for lunch so he can search the house, sidestepping the pressure of a love declaration.

Reciprocity

When food is used to illuminate hierarchy, it also invites us to examine who is allowed to reciprocate. There's a moment of Chay bringing some of the leftover pizza to Porsche in their later E1 scene. Since Kinn and Porsche start the show at drastically different status levels, the cooperative nature of the fishing scene in E6 highlights the equalizing nature of the adventure. When they go on dates later on, it's Porsche taking the lead with respect to food, to maintain that equalizing force once they're back within the hierarchy.

The dinner scene at the Kittisawats' house calls back to the restaurant scene with an even higher degree of contrast, because we can see the change in these characters from E2. We went from an intensely status-conscious interaction full of lethal threat to communal meal preparation, jokes, and genuine friendship. It's free of hierarchical pressures until Korn arrives to enforce that, subtler than Gun as usual, but no less inimical.

Finally, what started this whole train of thought-- Kim and Chay offer each other food in different scenes, but no one eats it, so let's everybody go off on what that first moment of connection might have looked like. :)