#I like to think that Nintendo did this on purpose

[mari3with3]

👑🐉💧

Drawing without movement below ↓

[kirby-the-gorb]

[waywardsalt]

my general reaction to that new trailer is mostly just the same slight exhaustion with some new irritation towards the voiceover guy explaining the new stuff

[jamesbranwen]

this is not me trying to defend nintendo's business practices or say that either of these games don't have flaws, but I think a lot of the comparisons people are making between breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are a little unfair and don't really take into account that they are different games with different purposes.

"breath of the wild feels so empty compared to tears of the kingdom" ... yeah? with breath of the wild, one of the game's main themes was isolation. you wake up in the future far after the apocalypse you were trying to prevent has already settled. you have no memories, very little strength. just like hyrule, just like zelda, all you have is your will to continue. breath of the wild is the quiet moments, the secret spaces, the weight of the world that has continued to turn without you still resting on your shoulders.

tears of the kingdom is not like that. hyrule is no longer the wild. it is no longer quiet and lonely. there's community. every sidequest is intertwined. your friends fight alongside you. this isn't "fixing" breath of the wild, this is it's natural continuation. as time goes on the world continues to heal and rebuild. if breath of the wild was clawing hope, tears of the kingdom is direct action.

like yeah there are things tears is doing better and (imo) things breath of the wild did better. but i don't think either one is a replacement for the other.

[oatmealthighs]

𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐡 | 𝐠𝐨𝐣𝐨 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

A simple proposal to play Smash turns into something more devious.

contents: nsfw. 18+, minors DNI. afab!reader, gojo lowkey (highkey) got a god complex, oral (fem & male receiving), penetration. illustration belongs to @momoya348 on twt!

“Wanna play smash?”

“Sure, after I finish this.” Gojo motioned his head towards his laptop, which wobbled unsteadily in its place atop your ass. The two of you were in a peculiar position: you were both on his bed, his upper back against the pillows he had fluffed nicely against his headboard. You were laying on top of him, your upper body resting in between his long, spread legs and your pelvis resting against his stomach.

A clean 69, if you will.

“Alriiight,” you sighed heavily, thumbs jerking the control sticks to your Nintendo switch controller tiredly. you looked at the tv with a bored look, not even phased by the flashing lights and eye-strains that the bright screen gave off.

Although Gojo was busying himself with a last-minute essay for his composition theory class, he always took breaks in between each sentence to grip the backs of your thighs, the pads of his soft fingers massaging the tender skin of the insides of your legs. It seemed as if he would get closer to the middle of your legs with each stroke, a thumb brushing dangerously at your groin before quickly pulling away and setting his hands back on his keyboard.

Unbeknownst to you, he was barely getting anything done, his crystal eyes unable to look anywhere but at your clothed pussy for the past fifteen minutes. You only being clad in one of his stretched T-shirts and your favorite-colored panties when you crawled into his lap was worse than salacious, and he was sure you were doing this on purpose. He noticed the way you’d roll your hips whenever you’d win a round, or how the goosebumps against your skin would protrude every time he’d lay a finger on you.

“Are you winning, sweetheart?” Gojo asked curiously, moving his laptop from on top of you to his crowded nightstand, pushing some things toward (and over) the ledge in the process.

You hummed a yes in response, eyes trained on your character’s movements as your brows were furrowed in concentration. The white-haired man let out a breathy chuckle, large hands engulfing your thighs once again and digging playfully into your sensitive skin. You seemed to relax at his touch, a small curl playing at the end of his lips as his long fingers slowly skated north.

You decided to not think much of it-- maybe he’d just play with your ass like he always did when he was bored. You purse your lips, frown deepening as you fell and lost a life. “Damn,” you cursed, watching your character respawn at the top. “My dumbass fell.”

“Oh? You better win,” Gojo reprimanded lightheartedly, his thumb gently brushing the outside lip of your dressed pussy, making your breath hitch. “don’t disappoint me, my dear.”

“‘Course not, do you know who I am?” You bantered, trying to overlook the rising heat in between your legs and fight your instinct to close them. However, your arousal was more than evident, your slick already beginning to soak a small spot into the cotton fabric of your undergarments. Gojo smirked cheekily, tongue dragging over his top lip hungrily as his thumb moved again. He applied more pressure, the pad grazing your moist slit teasingly as his other hand gripped one of your cheeks, pads digging into your flesh.

You looked back at him with a warning look, but he knew it held no weight, your expression clearly wavering. He responded with a cheeky grin, pearly whites showing as he questioned, “What?”

You chewed on your bottom lip, your grip on the controller beginning to slip as a result of hands becoming clammy. Your character fell again, resulting in you losing the match and sending you to the results screen, but you didn’t care, instead instinctively pushing your ass back to meet Gojo’s now still thumb. He loved making you work for it, no matter how subtle the matter was.

He didn’t let you play with yourself for too long. “Hey, let’s play a game,” he broke the lust-filled tension, head tilting playfully as he looked at the T.V. screen. You craned your head over your shoulder, looking at his cyan irises through his wispy white bangs with questioning eyes.

“You don’t wanna play Smash?”

“It’s something related to that.”

“... I’m listening.”

He chewed at his lip, a furtive expression painting his features as he cut his eyes back to your crotch. He took the courtesy of rolling his thumb compassionately over your neglected clit, making you drop your head with a shaky sigh. You shuddered as he rubbed tight, slow circles around your bud, him relishing the small mewls you let slip through your gritted teeth.

“Gojo...” you breathed, eyebrows crinkled together as you rocked your hips harder, grasp on the controller turning into a death grip.

“This is how it will go,” he chirped as if nothing was happening, removing his hands from your lower body to grab your waist. With a simple pull, he tugged you upwards, your ass now brushing the tip of his nose, his cool breaths making your cunt twitch. “You’re gonna play the game while I make you cum. Sound fun?”

You blinked, weary eyes looking back at your boyfriend with perplexity, readying yourself to complain about how unfair this was. “Gojo-,”

“But, you have to win. Otherwise,” he blew a slow, chilled breath against your pussy, making you shiver and attempt to buck your legs closed, but to no avail. “there will be a punishment.”

“Punishment?” you echoed unsurely, looking at him from the corner of your eyes with a growing hunger. He glanced right back at you, half-lidded eyes making butterflies break from their cocoon in your stomach.

“Start the game.” He disregarded your question, instead handing out demands. It was simple and held no weight, but you moved with a purpose, selecting “random” and letting the game select a character for you. Palutena. Okay, you could make this work. You quickly chose a stage.

“3, 2, 1, GO!” The announcer boomed, and Gojo seemed to work on the same accord, his thumb hooking into the fabric and slipping your panties to the side with ease. He didn’t spare a second, his long, wet tongue gliding in between your slicked folds with a heavy lick.

“Hah!” You choked out a gasp, moist hands nearly losing grip on your controller almost instantly. Your hips bucked upwards, but he had beat you to it, strapping you down with his long arms as he enveloped your swollen clit with his pink lips. He smirked against your pussy, finding it hilarious that you thought he didn’t have you and your tactics figured out by now.

“Focus.” He growled, the bass in his voice sending intense vibrations throughout your entire body. He hummed huskily, frosty eyelashes fluttering closed at your saccharine taste along his tongue. “Damn, it should be a crime for you to taste this sweet.”

“Gojo, I— fuuuuck,” you sighed greatfully as the tip of his tongue flicked your bud wolfishly before pulling it in between his lips, swirling generous circles around your hardened bundle of nerves with a groan. You let out a lengthy moan of ecstasy when you felt a slender finger sink into your heat, probing at your insides with practiced movements. Gojo watched his finger repeatedly curl in and out of you, your essence coating his finger with no problem. The smacking sounds of your wetness made his dick twitch under you, but you were far too wrapped up in erotic euphoria to take note of it— which was okay. “I don’t think this is for me...”

“Tapping out already, gorgeous?” Gojo teased you with a smile against your dripping cunt, slipping a second finger inside of you without a hitch. You gasped at the burning stretch, but it soon faded into something more pleasurable, making the coil in your stomach already beginning to spiral and tighten. “I haven’t even fucked you with my tongue yet.”

You whimpered as a response, reluctantly guiding your character across the screen through lust-clouded eyes. You’ve already fucked up twice, if it happened again, you’d be fucked. Literally.

A sharp crack against your ass quickly brings you back to reality, making you yelp and squirm under Gojo’s deathgrip. “I asked you a question, [name]. You’d best answer me.”

“No! I can take it, please… keep going, shit!” You scolded yourself internally for being so desperate, but you knew it always winded up to you being in this same predicament; trembling under his soft touches and racy gestures. Gojo hummed in approval, curling his fingers in search of your special spot that he usually found within seconds. He proved you right, the pads of his fingers pressing against your spongy spot, warranting you to release a cry. You were beginning to regret your declaration of accepting this “challenge” in the first place, because you felt your orgasm steadily approaching, less than minutes away.

You didn’t even notice that you died and lost, opening your eyes to see you were back at the character selection menu. Your eyes widened in horror, and you began praying to the gods that Gojo hadn’t noticed, but who were you kidding? He never failed to pick up on the details, no matter how minor.

“Tsk, tsk,” he sighed, a mocking tone of disappointment present as he pulled away from your lips. You whined at the halt of his ministrations, attempting to rock your pussy against his face to get a rhythm back in swing, but to no avail. He nudged you off of him, standing to his feet with his arms crossed. His shirt rose up his waist, exposing his excessively-toned stomach and light happy trail wisping under the band of his sweatpants. His arousal made itself known, a thick erection straining at the baggy material of his sweats. “I’m disappointed, sweetheart. I didn’t even get to make you cum.”

You dropped your controller, the object making a loud clatter as it hit the wooden floor, but you didn’t quite care. You crawled towards your boyfriend who loomed over you with a let-down, yet teasing look, dainty hand reaching out to grab at his sweatpants. Before you could yank them down, he caught a grip on your wrist, tilting his head to the side. “Aht, aht, aht; do you really think you deserve to get stretched out by me when you can’t even play a simple game correctly?”

You pouted, straining your strength against his own while adjusting your position on the edge of the bed. You decided to settle on your haunches, looking up at your lover with pleading eyes. “Gojo, please, let me taste you.”

“Is this compensation? Trying to make me overlook your failure?” He lilted, voice dropping lower an octave as his eyelids began to lower with lust. You nodded, a hungry gleam in your wide eyes as you reached your free hand out to tug at his bottoms. He let you, also releasing your other hand and letting you do as you pleased. You didn’t bother to waste a moment, letting his pants drop to his ankles and only being left with his briefs constraining his thick length. Before you could go any further, Gojo cupped your chin, making you look back up at him with a squeeze of your cheeks. “Hey,” he breathed, perfect eyebrows pulling together in concentration as he stared down at you with a prurient intensity. You nodded, informing him you were listening with an attentive look. “You better not leave me dissatisfied, am I understood?” With that, he dipped his thumb into your mouth, pulling it slowly down your bottom lip. You nodded again, batting your lashes as you busy your fingers with freeing his dick from its restraints.

Gojo’s impeccable size never failed to impress; his girthiness was what you liked most about it, its thickness always stretching and rubbing your walls in all the ways you loved. His length wasn’t bad at all either, nothing excessive about it, and always was sure to get the job done. Your fingers brushed against his shaft caringly, admiring the thin veins that decorated it perfectly and the occasional freckle here and there. You glanced at his flushed tip, precum already beading there, and you flicked your tongue out to catch a taste.

Gojo’s breath hitched, quad muscles contracting for a quick second. You didn’t feel like playing around anymore, going for the kill and wrapping your lips around the head of his dick with a moan. He let out a lengthy sigh, running a hand through his soft hair as he swallowed. You took him in deeper with each suck, the sloppy sounds of your tongue running repeatedly across his length and the background music of Smash an odd combination. Gojo let out a deep groan at the feeling of his tip finally reaching near the back of your throat, the simple sound music to your ears and making you want to squeeze more reactions from him.

You squeezed your eyes shut as you bobbed your head at a mildly quick pace, the sounds your throat was emitting almost comical, but you didn’t care that much. You were too focused on making Gojo release in your mouth, wanting to taste his essence just as he did you a few minutes ago. Your pussy contracted around nothing as you thought about how he might fill you to the brim after this, ramming you into the bed like he hated you.

Gojo’s noises of pleasure were becoming more apparent, his gasps and sighs morphing into groans and grunts. “Fuck, that’s right, mhm. Suck it like you mean it.” You let out a mewl as you opened your watery eyes, staring up at him with blurry vision. You could make out the reddening tips of his ears and the developing flush spreading across his cheeks, his bangs beginning to cling to his moist forehead. His pupils were blown wide, and his vivid electric blue eyes seemed to be illuminating. Beautiful, you thought, but your admiration was short lived when you felt slender fingers gripping at your tresses. With a push, Gojo’s dick was sent to hit the back of your throat, making you widen your eyes as you let out an embarrassing gag. He retreated, slipping out of your mouth with a string of spit keeping his tip and your bottom lip connected. You let out a short cough, gasping for air as you blinked harshly.

“You okay?” He questioned, and you quickly gave him a yes, reaching back out for him. He shook his head, pushing your arm away before giving you a nudge to make you fall back onto his mattress. “No. I’ve had enough, I’m pleased. Your reward now, yeah?”

You let out a squeal of glee along with a nod as Gojo rolls you on your stomach, using both large hands to hook your hips and manually pull your ass up. You got the gist, making a curve in your spine and poking your ass out in the angle that he loves. He hummed, teeth pinching his bottom lip as a heavy hand palmed your ass, tightly gripping the flesh there. You yelped at the stinging sensation, fisting the sheets and leaning forward as if trying to get away from the fiery touch. Gojo clicked his tongue, soothing his engraved handprint with a gentle palm, the other hand busy playing with your clothed pussy. He furrowed his brows, annoyed with the barrier and kneeling to yank them down your thighs.

The string of arousal linking your underwear to your cunt made Gojo let out a breathy moan of excitement, frosty lashes fluttering at the sight of your slicked pussy. The way he had you dripping like a broken faucet was just fueling his already gigantic ego. He wasn’t planning on tasting you anymore tonight, but he couldn’t resist, using both hands to spread your cheeks and leaning in to lick you once more. He generously french-kissed your pussy, lovingly grazing over your swollen clit as his heavy eyelids fell closed. You twitched, mouth falling agape and letting out a keen at the feeling of his soft tongue against you once again. Your orgasm seemed to rise like nothing, this time boiling over. You didn’t dare warn him— knowing him, the asshole would pull away and leave you hanging. A white hot feeling burst in your stomach and spread throughout your limbs, your pussy pulsating and your back arching deeper than it’s ever had. You let out a cry as you felt your release hit you like a wave, thighs trembling and Gojo letting out a hum of approval, clearly not dissatisfied with you cumming in his mouth.

“Sweetheart, why didn’t you tell me you were cumming? Are we keeping secrets now?” He queried in, standing up to his feet and using his thumb to scrape any excess slick from his chin up onto his tongue. You looked back at him in amazement, eyes widening at his lewd behavior. You narrowed your eyes, brows furrowing defensively at his comment. “Well, if I did tell you, you’d just ruin it for me.”

A playful smack to your sensitive cunt shut you up, making you turn away and stuff your face in the covers with a gasp. You said something into the sheets, immediately being ruled intelligible since you were muffled. “What was that, gorgeous?” He teased, gently massaging your ass as he teasingly slid his shaft against your soaked folds. He hissed, eyebrows pushing together at the feeling of your warm pussy constantly rubbing at him. As much as he wanted to slip deep inside you and fuck you into his mattress as if he’d never see you again, he refrained, his ego not letting him submit to anyone, including you.

“Just fuck me already, dammit,” you came out with it, temporarily lifting your head to say what was needed before shoving your face back into the same spot. Gojo usually would have corrected you with a sharp ass slap, or chastise you for asking so rudely, but he was just as horny as you, wasting no time to position his tip at your entrance. He slowly began easing his way in, his tip pushing past and already stretching at your tight walls, making him furrow his brows in concentration and let out a shaky sigh.

The stinging stretch was something you never got used to, the familiar burn of tears brimming to your water-lines also nothing new. You turned your head to the side, attempting to keep your breathing steady and collected as Gojo slowly worked the rest of him into you, bottoming out sooner than later. He let out a sigh, rubbing small circles into the small of your back while craning his head to look at you. “You okay? Want me to start movin’?”

You nodded, eyes screwed shut as a tear slipped and ran across your nose bridge. He cooed, reaching forward to brush it away with a tender thumb before giving you a sensual roll of his hips. You gasped, fisting the cotton sheets for moral support as he gave you baby strokes, his eyes gauging your face in search of accommodation. He soon felt you considerably loosen around him, your small whines of pain morphing into something more erotic, breathy. This was his green light, his hands moving to dig into your love handles as his thrusts gradually picked up pace and power.

“Fuck, yes!” you cried, shifting your face into one of the pillows in attempts to muffle your sounds, which Gojo decided to let slide for now. He placed an arm on your back, pushing your stomach into the mattress and hooking your hip with his other to keep your ass up, beginning to snap his hips into you rather aggressively.

“That’s right, I’m the only fucking one that can make you feel like this, understand me?” He growled lowly, his arrogance oddly making you squeeze around him like a vice. He chuckled at your reaction, a moan slipping at the end of his laugh as he dragged his dick out to the tip and plunged back in you with a snap of the pelvis. You let out a scream of satisfaction, which was constricted by the pillow you were biting, making him frown in annoyance.

“Why are you hiding your sounds? What, you don’t want anyone to know that you’re getting the best dick of your life?” He leaned down, his clothed stomach stacking atop your back, hand moving from the middle of your back and slithering under your shirt to your tit. He gave it a grip, immediately fiddling with the hardened nipple as he flicked his tongue out to lick the shell of your ear. He continued to scold you, “You always worry about my neighbors. Let them know who’s fucking you brainless.”

Your mind is too hazy to process even a syllable of what he was saying. Your face was starting to sweat from the heat of your heavy breathing and you keeping your face shoved in the pillow below you, one hand furiously gripping at the sheets while the other flexed and unflexed over the edge of the bed. The sounds of skin slapping skin, your pussy squelching with each thrust, your suppressed cries of pleasure, his headboard unforgivingly bashing the wall behind it, the background music of your damn video game, it would have been ruled perfect if you weren’t being shy.

Dissatisfied with not warranting any type of reaction from you, Gojo took his hand from your perked nipple and smoothed it over your perspiring skin and up to your hair, slender fingers latching onto your locks and yanking your head back. You let out a wail at the fiery feeling of your scalp being tugged at so roughly, but it only made you continue to flutter around his thickness, which made him push his white brows together and let out a sharp hiss. “Stop hiding from me,” he huskily demanded, his strokes seeming to gradually plunge and probe you deeper as he angled your eyes to meet his hovering figure above you. “Let them hear what I’m doing to you.”

“Gojo, I’m gonna fucking…” you trailed off, growing too overwhelmed with everything. You were trembling, unraveling from his touch, coming undone like a ribbon under his moist body, but was it anything new? He let out a lengthy groan, pressing your face back into the pillows and keeping his hand in place, but making you turn your head to the side so he could successfully dip his thumb into mouth. You managed to recuperate yourself enough to the point where you could wrap your lips around the digit, giving it a courteous suck before your jaw fell slack once again from Gojo’s ministrations. He was pounding you at this point, your arch evanescing, you just laying on your stomach and taking it as Gojo plunged into you from behind. He was getting close too, the occasional faults and stutters in his hips becoming more frequent and his thrusts getting downright sloppy, but you loved it all.

“You gonna cum for me?” he inquired, his voice wavering from his own pleasure. You nodded with a cry, eyes closed at this point. Gojo smiled, a breathy chuckle managing to escape him as he egged you on, “Good, make a fucking mess, will you?” He didn’t have to ask you twice.

With a guttural groan tearing from your throat, you came, this orgasm hitting you much harder than the first. You shuddered rather violently, eyes almost getting stuck in the back of your head as that same scorching heat overwhelmed every bone in your body, leaving you completely in euphoria. Gojo let out a moan of approval at you finally coming undone, your orgasm very much apparent on his dick. The white coating you left behind made his toes curl. He relished in it as much as he could until he felt himself tittering on the edge himself, his eyes fluttering closed and rolling back as he slammed into you a couple more times before he let out a growl of his own, sighing and hissing as he rode out his own orgasm inside you.

“Jesus, that felt like a lot,” you commented with a tired laugh after Gojo unsheathed himself from you, kneeling and spreading you to watch his excess ooze out of you. He hummed in agreement, tilting his head at your pussy before standing to his feet and flipping you over. You gave him a quizzical glance, soon yelping as you felt him squirm his fingers under your sides and scoop you up bridal style. “Gojo, quit it, I can walk by myself, dammit!”

“Can you really, though? You always trip and fall when we’re done,” he snidely retorted, giving you a teasing look as he escorted you to the restroom. After nudging the door open with his foot, he nodded your head to the lightswitch for you to flip it on, which you complied to. He then took the initiative of plopping you onto the sink before rummaging through his linen closet, receiving a brand new rag and soaking it with lukewarm water. You spread your legs, already knowing the procedure like the back of your hand as you watch Gojo ring the towel and make his way in between your straddled legs. With gentle hands, he began cleaning you off, softly running the rag over your overstimulated crotch with care. You sighed at the relief of it being freshened up; bodily fluids weren’t half as appealing post-sex.

“So,” Gojo started, his chipper voice slicing through the comfortable silence of the bathroom. “You still up for getting your ass beat at Smash?”

“You wish.” You retorted, giving him a challenging smirk as he finished cleaning you up.

“Okay, let’s make a bet,” he hummed, wetting and ringing the rag once again before tossing it over a metal rack. “Loser has to make dinner. And I’m talkin’ a full course meal.”

You gave him a playful shove, scooting off the counter and falling to the tiled floor on both feet. You gave him a testing grin, skipping -- albeit shakily, back into Gojo’s room. “You’re on.”

oatmealthighs ©️.

[theholypeanut]

HIORI YO X GRUMPY AND SUNSHINE

Peanut's Wheel of Fortune Event

Plot: Hiori, The Ice Prince, and you, the school Sunshine: you couldn't be more different - and yet, it works, your friendship. Or should we call it what it is: two dum dums in love.

CW: 2k words, Hiori tsundereeee (fight me), clueless!reader not getting any signs,two idiots in love, friends to lovers, stupid x even more stupid, teasing, flirting, reader loves gacha, fluff, gn!reader, Hiori has game at the end, pulling uno reverse on reader

Event Masterlist

On the first day of high school, you sat next to Hiori. When you saw him for the first time, your immediate thought was how extremely gorgeous his face was: he looked like a precious porcelain doll. He was so beautiful, that, to be honest, for the first month you wondered if he was just a tomboy who refused to wear a girl's uniform. He never talked to anyone, just sat on his Nintendo Switch or looked through the window his headphones on. You barely exchanged a word during the first semester.

But after a certain incident just before the summer holidays, your approach changed. It was a hot day, you could almost feel your uniform melting into your skin, and you just wanted to die. You already had a reputation at school for being the "sunshine" of the class, always cheerful and loud, cracking jokes and sometimes talking back to the teacher in a way that made the whole class burst out laughing. Even though you sat next to Hiori most of the time, he was probably the person you talked to the least - not by choice, he just seemed to ignore you on purpose. At first the girls in the class tried to get close to him, obviously smitten by his beautiful face and promising football career, but when he barely noticed them and rudely ignored their attempts, they let it go and it fuelled his reputation as the „Ice Prince”. But you didn't mind. To be fair, apart from being a quiet person, Hiori was never really mean to anyone. He was not a bad person. You chose not to bother him, not to push him out of his comfort zone, and he ignored you. 

But this time, as you lay down on your desk during your break, as you always do, you couldn't help but take a long look at your classmate. He was playing a game on a console, with headphones on. His eyelashes were ridiculously long, and his features were so delicate that he looked like a flower, like a...

"You're not very subtle, are you?" You heard his voice as you noticed Hiori taking off his headphones. He looked at you with a visible frown. You made eye contact, feeling like a summer heat was already scrambling your brain, getting rid of any possible embarrassment. „Have anyone told you you look like a periwinkle?” He blinked. „Like… what?”

„A flower. You look like this pretty blue flowers you can sometimes see in botanical gardens.”

He sat there, stunned, his expression hard to read. Without an answer from him, still with your face on the desk, you didn't look away. 

„Honestly I didn’t know people as pretty as you are even real” you said without thinking, seeing that his face getting visibly red. He looked away, which made your heart beat a little faster. Was he...?

"Did the sun fry your brain?" He mumbled, trying his best to stay out of your sight. But you knew what you saw. Hiori Yo, an Ice Prince, was blushing. And that was the moment, you made an unconscious decision, to start actively bother him for the rest of your high school career: if it meant seeing that expression again.

And that was also a beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

In your second year of high school, you ended up in the same class again, seemingly thrown together by fate. Everyone at school speculated that you two had been dating for months, The Sunshine and The Ice Prince: isn’t it the cutest combination? Hiori never bothered to explain that you were not dating, and at best you were "very close friends". This was because of two things: firstly, you were his close friend, but every now and then he doubted that he was yours. You were always so bright and smiling, so nice to everyone, with so many friends wherever you went. Sometimes he wondered if something happened to you, or if you were in trouble, would he be the first person you'd call? He wanted that to be the case, but he couldn't be sure, which made him... jealous. And that was the second reason: Hiori Yo, the Ice Prince, would never, ever admit that he never denied having a relationship with you, because he simply wished it to be true. Was he stupid? Naive? Maybe. But to be honest with himself, he couldn't imagine not falling in love with you. 

What was even more annoying, though, was that you couldn't have been more dense. Hiori was never the type to show his affection in a straightforward way, but he had his moments: he helped you when you were struggling with heavy things, he helped you with quests in a game (you started to get into it just to have more topics to talk about), he bought wired headphones just so he could listen to music with you: nothing. You just smile and comment on what a softie he is, which makes him blush, and you can't take a damn hint. You were hopeless. Sometimes he felt you liked him back, just by the teasing words you said or the casual touch of his hair (the day you tucked his hair behind his ear without warning is still fresh in his mind and makes his heart skip a beat before he falls asleep). The worst part was when he was embarrassed, all Hiori could come up with was some mean or sarcastic comment. But you read so many romance mangas, how could you not understand that? The day Hiori saw a random guy from the basketball team confessing to you was the day he decided he had to do something. You politely rejected that clown, but that didn't let the blue-haired prince relax for long. The idea of confessing scared him, but the thought of you seeing someone else made his heart sink. However, he knew far more about you than any other boy ever could: and he planned to use that to his advantage. If he was too embarrassed to confess, perhaps he could charm you into falling for him and confessing first? The plan wasn't that simple, but it was worth a try.

When you got back to class, having answered all the embarrassing questions about your confession, you sat next to Hiori with a sigh of relief. On days like that, you were grateful for how cold Hiori was. He wouldn't even look at you, let alone ask for all the details about the poor basketball boy. But to your surprise, in the middle of the lesson, you felt a small piece of paper slip close to your hand.  "Are you free after school today?" It was written in familiar handwriting. You smiled.  "I'm always available for you" you drew a tiny heart at the end. Since last year, of course, you enjoyed teasing Hiori with flirtatious lines whenever you got the chance. At this point you couldn't even stop yourself if you tried, it was like breathing.  "There's a new gacha machine in the arcade. Want to go?" He wrote back, not even blushing at your message. A bit disappointing, but Hiori rarely invited you first, if you ever hung out it was at your initiative, so you were still excited. Not to mention that you really enjoyed gachas. "It's a date" you wrote back without thinking any further.  You couldn’t hide your excitement for the rest of the day.

When you came out of the school gate, you looked at your friend. 

"It's something new that you don't have football training today" he just looked away when he heard your words.  "Practice was cancelled" he mumbled in a tone that clearly showed the conversation was over. You walked in silence for a longer second before he started: "So... the basketball guy, huh?" He changed the subject, which only made you sigh. 

"Please, don't even start. I'm not even sure what that guy's name is. I don't think we've spoken more than once. It's embarrassing."

Hiori looked at you carefully. 

"Yes, but have you ever thought that maybe that's enough?"

You looked at him in surprise.

"Enough for what?" You raised your eyebrow.

"To fall in love with you" he said without looking away. No matter how you looked at it, Hiori was a different person today. Saying something like that in such a serious tone and not looking away in embarrassment did not seem like him. He never really wanted to talk about romance or love. Just games and football. He left you speechless until you saw the entrance to the familiar arcade. 

It was surprisingly crowded for a Tuesday evening, and at certain points you had to squeeze in between sweaty boys of all ages. You felt someone grab your hand. Before you could scream 'pervert', you realised it was only the blue-haired boy. 

"Don't get lost" he said in a neutral tone and pulled you out of the crowd. The gacha area was still mostly occupied, but the target audience had changed drastically: now you were surrounded by teenage girls. Hiori pointed to one of the machines further back. As you followed in that direction, you gasped in surprise. 

"No way!" You said as you approached the machine. It was one of your favourite series of all time, one of those niche things that were not popular enough to deserve a proper merch. Still holding your hand, Hiori, finally a little embarrassed, handed you a coin. For a second, you seriously considered that maybe you had forgotten your own birthday, because everything felt too perfect. 

"Are you going to get one too?" You asked, spinning the wheel to get your beloved little trinket. 

"What?" He asked, distracted. 

"We should get matching ones" you said with a smile, taking the ball out. „I’ve always wanted to have matching keychains”

He smiled softly and took another coin out of his pocket. "You better not cry later that mine's cuter" he teased. 

It felt so wholesome and cosy, just perfect. The bickering, the teasing, the little gestures he made to you always made you feel warm inside. And here you are, laughing and comparing the keychains you got, so close you could smell the detergent on his uniform. You were much more aware of his presence because you couldn't help but feel shy, Hiori still holding your hand all the time. You tried to remember the last time you did it, but your mind just went blank: it was the first time you had held hands since you became friends. And even more surprisingly, on his own initiative. But you couldn't complain. Considering his constant training, you expected his hands to be more calloused, but they were soft and large, and you just realised that you really wished this moment wouldn't end. „Do you want to get out of here?” His voice brought you back down to earth. You raised an eyebrow.

"Where do you want to go?" You asked, moving towards the exit. To your surprise, he grinned. 

"Where would you like to go? It's your date as much as mine" he said calmly.  "Good question, would you like to get something to eat? There's this…" you stopped, processing his words. You turned to face him, only to notice that he was looking away awkwardly. "You…" you started, not knowing where to go with the sentence. You felt your face grow hot.

"If you don't want this to be a date, maybe you should let go of my hand, you know" he said, still avoiding your eyes. You two must look so ridiculous: two people, holding hands, avoiding each other's eyes, all blushing. After you didn't answer, the blue-haired boy started to gently pull his hand away from yours, which only made you grip it tighter. 

"Stop it" you said, unable to control how red your face was. You cleared your throat. "Let's get some ramen, shall we?" 

Hiori finally looked at you, with the softest eyes. Too bad you were still too embarrassed to look back and notice. 

"Sounds perfect to me."

[surgepricing]

Why RWBY can't come back

The last news we got of RWBY was all the way back in July, when it was acquired by VIZ Media.

This much serves as a hard letdown for anyone who was hoping Dillon Goo and his studio could acquire the property, as VIZ Media is owned by freaking Shueisha, aka the guys who run Shonen Jump. It is unlikely to be sold back to a smaller studio.

VIZ Media buying it was a baffling choice to begin with, as RWBY isn't nearly as eternally-profitable as some of the other ventures it's been focusing on, such as Bleach and animating its Thousand Year Blood War arc. I suppose RWBY doesn't make for an ill fit when considering that it can simply languish on a shelf generating endless merch sales at a slow but steady pace over the years--VIZ Media is in charge of many, many series, and all of its biggest properties are surrounded by a haze of particle-sized smaller properties whose only real purpose is to add to the cumulative money flow in towards the studio.

But it does mean that Volume 10 of RWBY, in sharp contrast to what diehards crowed about when the acquisition was announced, is almost certainly not coming. VIZ Media's main practice is taking control of works that start in serialization form, usually manga, and adapting them, not generating whole new content. If VIZ Media even did feel like continuing the RWBY Saga, it would depend on:

other writers being welcomed into the room, because VIZ Media is a large corporation and is very unlikely to adhere to any fandomized purist idea that only Miles and Kerry should write for it and be credited with it,

other writers actually wanting to be associated with a series that is so badly stigmatized on the internet now. If you're Rooster Teeth, it won't be hard, you can pick from a pool of fans who will sell their souls to do so (and who cares about any quality), but VIZ wouldn't even glance in the direction of a tactic like that.

And if so, there's no real telling what it would look like, which is the axe coming down for the remaining RWBY fanbase, who are volatile and hostile and protective of what they think RWBY should be (i.e., Miles and Kerry). If VIZ Media is stupid, they'll plow ahead with this anyway, generating almost no profit because RWBY's tiny remaining fandom won't associate with it and RWBY's very large ex-fandom also isn't interested in it, thus falling into that Nintendo-style hole of making something no one asked for and then wondering why it didn't sell.

It would be much more in line with VIZ' profit-lined goals to maximize the revenue trickling into RWBY with another spinoff series like Ice Queendom or the manga series, which won't actually advance the story forward but will sate people expecting a Volume 10 at some point and merely needing any form of content to assure themselves it's inevitably coming.

Unfortunately, that means RWBY as a rebooted series with actual writers is also probably off the table, because VIZ Media are unlikely to do something they view as risky even if they think profit could be generated from it; the safer option is the trickle rather than hoping to strike a renewed spirit in fans.

And so RWBY is very likely to have the ultimate fate that I had naively thought we'd avoided back in May: spinning its wheels on the shelf of anime limbo for eternity rather than rebooting or dying peacefully.

[dr-spectre]

"callie cuttlefish and all the octolings/octarians were mind cont-"

If Octo Expansion was a person i would kiss them on the lips for giving more to the Octarians and disproving the stupid claims that "Octarians are all mind controlled and brainwashed by Octavio."

Literally that dlc as well as the sunken scrolls from Splatoon 1 and 2 explain that Octarians are a struggling race on the brink of collapse. Octavio uses music as a tool to motivate Octarians, not fucking control them. Acht is right there to disprove it, they weren't brainwashed or mind controlled, they didn't wanna join the army.

Octavio had to pick to either let his people die, or do the really tough and bad decisions that he did like raising child soldiers and manipulating Callie to join his side. He's not pure evil, he made mistakes and he tries to fix them by the end of Splatoon 3. And i hope he continues to rectify those errors in Splatoon 4 before he eventually passes away due to old age.

Octo Expansion takes the black and white thinking of "Octarians bad, Inklings good" and turns it gray WHICH IS GOOD! IT'S SO MUCH MORE COMPLEX! The interactions between Cuttlefish, Agent 8 and Marina have so much racial undertones and themes to them, it's so well done. Hell look at Agent 8's main skin color that they use in all marketing material. They did it on purpose to tell the story that they wanted to tell. Marina's skin color was picked on purpose as well, they knew what they were doing and what themes they wanted to explore in this franchise. Splatoon 1 to 3 was about black and white thinking and how truly damaging it is. That was the main underlying theme of the "Splatoon saga." Splatoon 3 was the finale to that saga as Octolings and Inklings are finally living together in harmony and don't care about superficial traits anymore. Something that some people in the community need to learn....

People trying to ruin this depth and make it a simple black and white tale because "it's a kids game series made by Nintendo" makes me really mad. Guess who made those stories? ADULTS! NOT KIDS! ADULTS!!!!!!!! It applies to Callie too but i digress. Sorry if it was a bit scattered, I'm just so passionate about this that I'm on the brink of exploding lol.

[ickyarson777]

Ooooh requests! I have one! I am dying for gamer boyfriend iii. Maybe playing games with him? Or just snuggling up with him, playing with his hair, while he slaughters digital zombies? XD Whatever you think!

GODS YES PLEASE

ahem anyway, of course love i can definitely do that for you! and thanks for the request! i hope it lives up to your expectations!!

content warnings: none!! just fluff and games today. tried to stay as gn with the reader as i could. only things used for them is 'love,' and 'lovely.'

notes before we start, this is about *not* about the actual people in the band, just the characters they’ve created on stage.

that being said, here you go! it's a bit short, wish it was longer but this was fun to write :)

Word count: 843

I curled up in bed, scrolling mindlessly through my phone, glancing every now and then at III, back facing me as he played his game. Since he’d downloaded Skyrim, he’d been playing it every chance he got. He talked a lot while playing, so I now had my own fair share of knowledge about the game.

“These damned draugr,” he’d mutter every now and then. “Fuck, dragon’s gonna eat my ass!” he’d groan as his character got snatched up. 

He was never one to scream angrily while playing, something I appreciated. He would, however, get very worked up, shaking me around and celebrating when he finally would pass a section of the game that was giving him trouble.

He’d lean over, ask if I saw how many times he’d died trying to pass that specific section, I’d tell him, laughing, ‘yes, I did see you die over and over, you sure you didn’t do it on purpose?’ He’d gasp in mock offense, ‘Seriously love? You think I’d willingly get fucked over by that shit over and over like that?’ then he’d lean in for a kiss, something to make up for the lack of focus on me, and get right back in. 

Tonight however, we played together. He’d recently bought a Nintendo Switch, and we’d spent the past couple nights staying up playing Mario Kart. We sat next to each other, leaning forward on our knees, deeply focused on the race. I’d hit him with a shell, he’d throw a banana peel. Each time I overtook him, or vice versa, the other would cry out in both frustration, laughter, or an attempt to rile the other up. Eventually after we’d played for a few hours, we’d lose count of the score and take a break to go get some snacks from the kitchen. After making our way back to the room, arms full of snacks and drinks, we’d lay back in the bed and he’d talk my ears off about anything and everything he could think of. 

“There’s a new Zelda game that came out, a sequel to Breath of the Wild! Supposed to have two whole new maps and shit,” he’d tell me, running his fingers through his long hair. “Can’t wait to play it.” 

I smile at him and yawn softly. 

“Getting tired, love? Or tired of losing Mario Kart,” he said with a stupid smirk. 

I scoff at his question, “You’d like to think I was losing wouldn’t you?”

He chuckles at me, “Of course I think that, ‘cause it's the truth.”

“Whatever,” I say , rolling my eyes. I lean back in the bed and slip under the covers. “Think I’m done for the night.”

He sighs dramatically, “Guess we’ll have to settle our score tomorrow then.”

“Mhmm,” I hum in agreement. I watch him as he picks the controller up again, and closes the game. He turns the tv down a bit, and opens Skyrim again. I watch through eyes fluttering, trying to stay awake a bit longer as he begins his in-game trek across the map, trying to reach new locations, every now and then stopping to fight some monster, creature or enemy in his path. Carefully, I nudge him with my foot and he glances back at me. 

“What’s up, love?” he asks.

I hold my arms out to him, wanting to cuddle up to him. He smiles at my gesture and crawls across the bed, leaning back against me, head on my chest, still facing the screen. I kiss the top of his head, and run my fingers through his hair, and listen to him talk. He’s always so loud, but now he mutters queitly to himself, perhaps trying to mind my tiredness, perhaps feeling his own tiredness start to take over. 

“Love you,” I murmur sleepily into his mess of red hair. 

“Love you too, lovely,” he mutters and then exclaims loudly, “Motherfucking dragons!”

“III,” I groan, having been snapped out of my almost sleep. 

He chuckles, “Sorry love.”

I smile, taking strands of his hair and braiding them carefully. “It’s ok,” I tell him. “What are you doing in the game?”

And then it begins again, his nonstop talk about the game. Eventually his accent gets thicker with sleep creeping into his voice, and I have no idea what he’s saying anymore. I drift off into my own slumber.

At some point, he’s gotten off the game and shifted to lie next to me, because the next morning, I wake up to him, arms lazily wrapped around me, mouth hanging wide open, soft snores excaping his mouth. I smile at his goofy expression, his messy hair tangles and spread over his pillow, over his face. The quiet moments with III are rare. Odd but not uncomfortable. 

I curl up next to him, and drift off to sleep again, knowing the moment we both wake up, its back to the games again.

‘Gonna need my rest if I’m gonna beat his ass at Mario Kart,’ is the last thing I think before drifting off again. 

---

how do you end stuff like this :')

anyway pls y'all give me more

[mylonelydreaming]

For me, Link being "unhealthily obsessed with Zelda and finding her to the point Ganondorf is a footnote" isn't something that I think is "bad" at all, but precisely what makes this version of him remotely interesting (to me) when Nintendo is otherwise so adamant about keeping him a stoic knight most of the time.

It adds a different layer to him, turns him from this perfect, bland stoic boy into someone who only outwardly appears that way, appears like he has everything together, but is in fact flawed inside and a little broken from what has happened to him. A little off. That makes him much more interesting to me. It gives him a major character flaw that can be exploited by his enemies, and what do you know, Ganondorf and the Yiga Clan do exactly that (they even remark on what good bait she makes).

I also find it interesting to think about when he became this way. Was it the years he spent with her in-between games? Was it well before that, when he was aimlessly chasing that "beautiful voice" even before he remembered who he was? Was it some point before the Calamity? Did he become a knight in the first place not merely to follow his father's footsteps, but to one day protect her? I find this compelling to think about. Is making a specific person your life's purpose unhealthy in real life? Yes. It's also very interesting in a story.

And also on that note, isn't him becoming at least a little too obsessed with her a completely natural thing to happen?

For me, if you take away Link's (yes, I'll admit, unhealthy although I kind of like that), obsession with Zelda, then all that is left is the exact ways that people who hate not only zelink but Link himself describe him as all the time: A robot who feels nothing but duty.

And sorry, but I just find that very boring. Dull. Unexciting. I also, then, can't see why on earth Zelda would have feelings for Link if she's just a duty to him and her acts of affection, like sewing him a new tunic, are never returned. Frankly, I think she deserves a lot better than that, to have her feelings reciprocated and a happy ending after all that she's been through.

And to be honest, why would any writer make her feelings unreciprocated when she's basically the main focus of these two games? How does that make any sense? I also doubt any professional game dev working on a deadline would waste precious time writing and coding dialogue about it into the games if it supposedly wasn't meant to mean anything? I honestly rather dislike people brushing off things like Kass's song, because it ignores that it was purposefully written by the game's creators to tell the player something. It not only feels disrespectful to whoever wrote it, but ignores an extremely common convention of video games. I don't think it's really very fair to call it "bad writing" simply because it delivers the information like a video game and not like other visual mediums would have. Video games have always demanded the player to read things, investigate and read between the lines. Especially so when they are more focused on gameplay, which is exactly where Nintendo's focus lies.

And when it comes to "it should have been more obviously shown", well, look how people complain even when it's subtle? If you're someone who hates it, why complain about the romance not being overly blatant? Isn't that good? I mean, clearly an even bigger fit about it would have been thrown if they had been even more obvious, so personally, I think that the way Nintendo went about it was perfectly fine.

[sakuraluna01]

Headcanons

now normally i'd sit here and say i've been working diligently on chapter 3 but honestly I haven't been able to sleep properly in 4 days and i'm really tired so no lmao

so instead imma do smth easier and shares sm of my hcs for the already debuted blorbos + twilight

i'm also detailing stuff about their kits again inspired by how hsr works

Time

He has no clue what he's doing, he hasn't been on an adventure in years and he hasn't traveled with other people like this so he's out of his depth

He always knows what time it is even if he's only been awake for 5 seconds

He's a heavy sleeper if he's in a house or inn, but if he's in an outdoor camp he has a lil more trouble settling down.

He has a resting bitch face plus he's old and stuff so the other links assume he's a wise old man, but nope, hes still a gremlin lil shit and a clueless dumbass most of the time, wars is the only one who sees that lol

As Mask he was a pretty angry teen, bitter at the world for everything that happened to him and those around him, he still has problems with his temper, but he's better at controlling it, Malon helped

Kit details: imaginary, his ult gives him a power up for a certain duration based on your trace lvls, hint hint, its basically fierce deity mode

Sky

he gets motion sick a lot (this is just me projecting ngl)

incredibly heavy sleeper, will only wake up after the sun is long up. even when he wakes up he's not fully awake until he's eaten something

He is the most self care conscious of the bunch, especially with other people. hes an empathetic person, if someone else he cares about is in pain he is too and he wants to whatever he can to help them feel better

Skys like the mom from little women, angry all the time but rarely shows it in front of the people he cares about, but he will fully blow up at anyone who dares harm them

Kit details: He's an ice element. he has shit stamina but he can land multiple strikes at once, an AOE hit. the stamina cost is big for both his skill and ult

Twilight

Twilights built different, he's strong physically without the help of artifacts or magic.

people think sky gives the best hugs and he does give good hugs but twilights the best

Twiight cant look like a kicked puppy on purpose but unintentionally has the best puppy eyes, he just can't use them at the right time aka when he needs it XD

He's a big sweetie, big brother energy, very good with kids but he has temperment issues, rather hot headed that one. comes with being related to time i suppose

Kit details: I gave him the quantum element in hsr, imo it was the closest to twili magic i could get. but the only time he's able APPLY quantum is during his ult, which in the concept art i did has him turn into a wolf

He interacts with magic the least of the chain. I was debating giving him phys dmg instead of quantum? but i needed to incorporate the wolf in his kit smhow. however he doesn't apply quantum dmg with any of his attacks, cept his ult

any questions or clarifications can be asked in my ask box

An AU spinoff based off of Jojo’s Linked Universe at @/linkeduniverse and Nintendos Legend of Zelda, inspired by Honkai Star Rail

[weirdmarioenemies]

Is Birdo the only member of her species?

"Yes!” you confidently proclaim. “You included an image of multiple Birdos right there in the post, silly!”

I know I did! I did it on purpose, because it is relevant to the subject matter! But it does not mean all that much, ultimately. Look. Here are five Luigis.

Luigi is not a species. So allow me to explain why I am reasonably confident in believing that the existence of multiple distinct Birdos has been retconned!

It all started with Wave 4 of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass. When Birdo was finally added to the game, her alts were named strangely! With Yoshi and Shy Guy, we had, for example, Light-blue Yoshi, and Light-blue Shy Guy. Birdo, however, gets Birdo (Light Blue)!

This is how basically all the alts in Tour are named, just like our dear brother Luigi (Lederhosen). So did they lazily just port these alts over from Tour, without bothering to make the formatting consistent with what was already in 8 Deluxe? But wait! Yoshi and Shy Guy are named with their colors first in Tour, just like in 8 Deluxe! Were THOSE ones hastily ported into TOUR? What’s going on here!!!

Well, let’s look at the trends that already exist in these naming conventions!

-A character simply wearing a different outfit than usual has the name format of “Character (Descriptor)”. Example: Luigi (Lederhosen)

-A character who is in a different FORM than usual has the name format of “Form Character”. Example: Penguin Luigi

-A character who is a member of a species that has been seen in multiple colors has the name format of “Color Character”, not counting the default colors. Example: Light-blue Yoshi, Light-blue Shy Guy

One other thing of note is characters like the Koopa Freerunners and the Pit Crew Toads. These fit into both the first and third categories! For example, we have Blue Koopa (Freerunning), who is a Blue Koopa wearing a Freerunning hat, and Light-blue Toad (Pit Crew), who is a Light-blue Toad wearing a pit crew uniform.

With all this established, Birdo’s conventions fit into the first category! I am inclined to believe that, if these were meant to be distinct individuals, they would be named like the Yoshis and Shy Guys, yet they are named as the same individual in different outfits. Maybe she can change her color like a chameleon, and uses it to complement whatever bow she wants to wear at the time!

The real question is why in the world they would retcon Birdo as her own species... but it is not actually that weird, to me. As awesome as it is to have an entire species of glamorous transfem dinosaurs who all share the exact same fashion sense, maybe Nintendo decided that was where they draw the Weirdness Line in Mario’s world. Birdo’s current design is very much a design for a distinct character! It’s like how Donkey Kong Junior was used in contexts where many of him appeared for a while, until he himself was removed from memory. And don’t get me started on Toadsworth! They can and will alter anything from character intricacies to the existences of entire characters, is what I am saying here.

Also, as a little Grammar Tidbit, it is entirely intentional that “Birdo (Light Blue)” and “Light-blue Yoshi” coexist, and it is not inconsistent! “Light-blue” is a compound adjective, and as a result is hyphenated if it is written before the article it describes. I have learned this purely thanks to the funny dinosaur, and now so have you!

So do you agree with my findings? How does the concept of Birdo being the only one of her kind make you feel? And how did it get this way? Maybe she just invited herself out of the dream world and established herself! Maybe she is a mutant Yoshi, not in the realistic genetics way, but the cartoon toxic waste way. Maybe she just hatched from an egg that was there one day. Whatever the case! I think she is really great.

[powdermelonkeg]

I’ve noticed that a lot of people have some problems with the Totk narrative and was wondering what you thought about it! I’m personally pretty neutral but I can see why people don’t like it. Have a wonderful day!

Okay so controversial opinion here from me:

TotK > BotW

WITH A CAVEAT

I enjoy games IMMENSELY more when I'm not spoiled on them. Skyrim mesmerized me because I flat out was not expecting an actual execution in the first five minutes. I love exploring things for myself.

I went into TotK with ZERO proper spoilers, on purpose. All I had was my own speculation from my trailer breakdowns, and the barest glimpse of Sonia from a leak. The world fascinated me. The physics engine was insanely fun to play with. I got super excited with the return of caves and dozens of collectables. I loved discovering new recipes. I LIVED in the Depths. And the slow horror of figuring out what exactly Zelda did to herself—I saw Tear 3, felt a sinking feeling of dread, rushed into the Depths of the castle to break down that last mural, then panicked as I raced around Hyrule trying to get the rest of the memories. I got the final memory, and I stood on top of Zelda's head for half an hour in shock.

BotW, on the other hand, I spoiled myself on, and was let down by in terms of what I expected out of it. I think the story would have captivated me had I stayed off of Youtube and actually bought the game (was broke at the time, didn't get it until 2019) and experienced it as intended. But I KNEW all the cutscenes, so I didn't have a drive to chase them. Which left the mechanics of the game on their own for me to get used to; I liked cooking, I loved getting a house. I hated how few enemy types there were, I missed my pieces of heart and secret caves and collectables. It's a secret to everybody? Wrong. 85000 shrines.

I started Zelda with Twilight Princess. That's been the bar for me since the beginning. If lighting two unlit torches doesn't give me a secret chest, or beating a challenging minigame doesn't give me a better quiver, it doesn't feel like Zelda to me.

Everything in BotW felt samey because I'd taken the narrative out of its natural habitat and experienced it as a movie rather than as a game, and the most variation enemies really had was a color or elemental difference. No Redeads in the desert, no Toadpoli in the lake, no Freezards in the ice. Also the bosses had no individuality.

Now, I 100% understand why people who love BotW don't love TotK. A lot of what was set up in BotW was undercut in favor of telling the story of Ocarina of Time again. There's no moving past the cycle like BotW implied there would be, and the refusal of the devs to so much as show the ruins of the last game's pivotal pieces feels like they didn't want to commit to anything. It's like if Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures were said to be direct sequels; they've got the same flavor, the same mechanics, but why does NOTHING have continuity?

(I've kind of microdosed on this frustration myself in regards to the timeline; all that effort to say BotW was at the end of all three timelines and do away with the mess they released in Hyrule Historia, and they add Zonai tech in on top of the Sheikah tech with no continuity??? Rauru and Sonia vs Skyward Zel??? Rito existed at the dawn of time. What)

As a continuation of BotW's narrative, it fails. Not egregiously enough for fans to be able to disconnect them and call them their own stories, but badly enough that the overall story feels like it was meant to be two, not one. That's a frustrating point to be in; too much is intertwined between them to break them off and create for them separately, but it's also not intertwined enough that you can't see that it's fraying at the edges.

Anyways...

I liked it. A lot. I think the whole dragon plotline and worldbuilding is fascinating. I have my gripes with dialogue, as one always does with Nintendo games, but you know.

[animalcrossingshowdown]

now that I've been running this blog for nearly a year and it's starting to wind down, I think I can have little a self promotion as a treat

first, this blog will most likely start back up again if tumblr is still around whenever the next AC game comes out. what tournaments I run and how I run them will depend on what new stuff is added, but I at the very least want to do the new villagers, since the villager tournament was really the main thing of this blog

@isitinacnh was a blog I ran that compared the furniture catalogue from NL with NH to see how many items were cut or changed, but in the new year I think I'll repurpose it to show how items have evolved through all the games. don't expect to see new posts coming out of it for a good while though, because the most efficient way for me to make the posts would frontload it with all the interesting stuff, so I want to get a pretty big backlog started so I can shuffle the queue up before it starts posting. I have all the images downloaded to my computer already, I just need to post them

@villagerdetails gave in depth looks at all the villager models and expressions, mostly for the purpose of art refs. again if tumblr is still here when the next AC game comes out, I'll start this back up with the new villagers if I am able to. there is a good chance this might need to wait for like new amiibos to get released or something idk we'll see

@angiestown and @angiestownart are my main and art blogs respectively. angiestownart is just my art, usually with some extra commentary that I didn't want attached to the main post. angiestown is a personal blog, but I post all my art and a lot of the cakes I decorate at work and other dessert things I make. I'm also hoping to maybe next year on my main blog design and post screenshots of every single house in happy home paradise, just like I did with happy home designer in 2019. seems like a good time to do it since nintendo appears to be winding down the switch and I doubt any games I care about will come out for a good while

also if you guys wanted to reblog this post specifically that would be very niceys sorry it is long lmao

[darlingseraa]

GUYS I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE TO HAVE NOTICED, RIGHT ???

Ok so, I had this epiphany the other day and wanted to share it, but like, I forgor because if I don't do something I think of immediately in the moment, then I forget to do it. BUT, here we are.

I'm just gonna mark this down as a huge spoiler for The Legend of Zelda : Tears of the Kingdom, so if y'all don't want to be spoiled on some (albeit small) details from the game's canon, please do move on lol.

Okay so, as I was rewatching the cutscenes in Tears of the Kingdom the other day, I noticed that both Rauru and Mineru have this tear-shaped white mark on the bridge of their nose. Quite innocent, right? Maybe just a Zonai trait?

But then– then I realized they also have a third eye. On their foreheads.

Now, what really baffles me is, if you look closely at these screenshots (I believe Rauru's is taken from the official Collector's Edition Artbook, and Mineru's is straight from the game itself), then you'll also realize that both Rauru and Mineru's third eye have exactly three lashes.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, hear me out.

You know what other "race" in Hyrule displays these traits or make use of that sort of symbolism?

Yeah.

The Sheikah.

They're also the only "race" in Hyrule that doesn't appear in the flashbacks where we see all the Sages.

Now, it can and will certainly be argued that the Sheikah are not a seperate race from the Hylians and yeah, I completely agree with that (it's even stated in game in the profiles of the Sheikah characters, like Paya or Impa, that they are "Hylian (Sheikah)"). In a sense, even if they are the same race, they still belong to a different people or culture than the rest of the Hylian characters, and can therefore be considered "seperate". It was the case in Ocarina of Time where the Six Sages included both a Hylian (Zelda herself) and a Sheikah (Impa, as the Sage of Shadows, I believe).

So why not include a Sage who was part of the Sheikah tribe, like Nintendo did in Ocarina of Time?

Sure, I'm going off a super subtle detail here, but I have a theory and I will die on this hill if I must : I think the Zonai were actually the ancestors of the Sheikah tribe (and of the Royal Family of Hyrule, as Sonia mentions a "blood connection" between her and Zelda, as well as the fact that she sensed both her power over Time and Rauru's power over Light within Zelda).

Now, as I said, this theory of mine is based off a few small details, as well as off of the absence of the Sheikah in the distant past of Tears of the Kingdom. However, even if Nintendo haven't done this on purpose and the marks on Rauru and Mineru's noses are only meant to be decorative, I still think there's something there that we're just not seeing.

Either the Zonai are meant to be part of the Sheikah tribe's ancestry (which would, in turn, explain why the tribe has always been close to the Royal Family as they share common ancestors in both Hylians and Zonai), or the Sheikah were just like "Oh hey, that's a really cool idea for a logo. Wanna make that our tribe's symbol??" and their leader at the time was like "Yeah, let's go boooiiiiis" and that's that.

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Sorry for the long post! I just absolutely had to share. I can't be the only one to have seen this detail, right???

[blueskittlesart]

any thoughts on how once again zelda was robbed of her agency because her "father figure" didn't listen to her? even if rauru was kinder to her than her father. and that she had sonia who was patient and loving for a little while before she died (just like her mother). i know rauru apologizes for his hubris but still, i wish we saw zelda be upset about it. and even if zelda was such a big part of the quest she still literally sacrificed her humanity once again because of someone else's mistake- because rauru literally didn't listen to the girl from the future that warned you that shit was going to go down. o know nintendo just loves putting zelda inside crystals and stones but i wish we got something better. even if it was her decision to become a dragon... did she have any other choice? it really just feels like they robbed her of agency again just like botw and the games before

i've been trying to figure out how to answer this one. because there are two ways i could analyze this plot point, either from a writer's perspective or an in-story perspective, but neither of those lead to me fully agreeing with your interpretation? I think there's definitely something to be said about zelda consistently being pushed aside in these games, but. well. ok let's get into it ig

from a writer's perspective, I do honestly have quite a bit of sympathy for the zelda devs as they attempt to navigate the modern political landscape with these games. The cyclical lore, though canonized relatively recently, holds them to a standard of consistency in their games in terms of certain key elements. one of those key elements is that there has to be a princess, and that princess must somehow be the main macguffin of the game. The player must chase her, and the end goal of the game must be to reunite the player and the princess. In 1986 this was an incredibly easy sell. women didn't need to be characters. players were content with saving a 2-dimensional princess whose only purpose was to tell them "good job!" at the end. but as society advances, that princess becomes a much more difficult character to write while adhering to the established overarching canon. (as a side note: i don't necessarily believe that the writers SHOULD be held to the standards of that canon. I think deviating from it in certain areas would be a good change of pace. but i also recognize that deviations from the formula are widely hated by the loz playerbase and that they're trying to make money off these games, so we're working under the established rule that the formula must be at least loosely adhered to.) Modern fans want a princess who is a person, who has agency and makes decisions and struggles in the same way the hero does. but modern fans ALSO want a game that follows the established rules of the canon. so we need a princess who is a real character but who can ALSO serve as a macguffin within the narrative, something that is inherently somewhat objectifying.

the two games that i think do the best job writing a princess with agency are skyward sword and botw (based on your ask, our opinions differ there lol. hear me out) in both games, we have a framing event which seperates zelda and link, but in both games, that separation was ZELDA'S CHOICE. skyward sword zelda runs away from link out of fear of hurting him. botw zelda chooses to return to the castle alone to allow link the time he needs to heal. sksw kinda fumbled later on by having ghirahim kidnap her anyway, but. i said BEST not PERFECT. botw zelda I think is the better example because, with the context of the memories, she's arguably MORE of a character than link is. we see her struggles, her breakdowns, her imperfection, specifically we see her struggle with her lack of agency within the context of the game itself. when she steps in front of link in the final memory, and when she chooses to return to the castle, those are some of the first choices we see her make almost completely free of outside influence; a RECLAMATION of her agency (within the narrative) after years of having it stripped from her. from an objective viewer's standpoint, this writing decision still means she is absent from 90% of the game and that she has little control over her actions for the duration of the player's journey. however I think this is just about the best they could have done to create a princess with agency and a real character arc while still keeping the macguffin formula intact--you're not really SAVING zelda in botw. SHE is the one that is saving YOU; when you wake up on the plateau with no memories, too weak to fight bokoblins, let alone calamity ganon. the reason you are allowed to train and heal in early-game botw is because SHE is in the castle holding ganon back, protecting YOU. When you enter the final fight, you're not rescuing zelda, you're relieving her of her duty. taking over the work she's been doing for the past hundred years. in the final hour, you both work in tandem to defeat ganon. while this isn't a PERFECT example of a female character with agency and narrative weight, i think it's a pretty good one, especially in the context of save-the-princess games like loz.

as for totk, you put a lot of emphasis on rauru not believing zelda and taking action immediately, which, again, from an objective standpoint, i understand. but even when we're writing characters with social implications in mind, those character's actions still need to... make sense. Rauru was a king ruling over what he believed to be a perfectly peaceful kingdom. zelda literally fell out of the sky, landed in front of him, claimed to be his long-lost granddaughter, and then told him that some random ruler of a fringe faction in the desert was going to murder him and he had to get the jump on it by killing him first. the ruler which this girl is trying to convince rauru to wage an unprompted war on has the power to disguise himself as other people. no one in their right mind would immediately take the girl at her word. war is not something any leader should jump into without proper research and consideration, and to rauru's credit, he DIDN'T ever outright dismiss zelda. he believed her when she said she was from the future, he allowed her to work with him and he took her warnings as seriously as he could without any further proof. but he could not wage an unprompted war on ganondorf. that's just genuinely not practical, especially for a king who values peace among his people as much as rauru seems to. as soon as ganondorf DID attack, giving rauru confirmation that zelda's accounts of the future were real, he began making preparations to confront him. remember that zelda didn't KNOW that rauru and sonia were going to be casualties of the war--she didn't make the connection between rauru's arm in the future and rauru the king until AFTER sonia's death, when rauru made the decision to attack ganondorf directly. I think the imprisoning war and the casualties of it were less an issue of zelda being denied agency and more an issue of no one, including zelda, having full context for the events as they were unfolding. if zelda had KNOWN that sonia and rauru were going to die from the beginning and was still unable to prevent it that would be a different issue, but she didn't. none of them did.

I think another thing worth pointing out with rauru and his death irt zelda is that rauru is clearly written specifically as a foil to rhoam. this is evident in how he treats both zelda and link, with a constant kindness and understanding which is clearly opposite to rhoam's dismissiveness and disappointment. consider rhoam's death and the circumstances surrounding it. He died because, in zelda's eyes, she was unable to do her duty; the one thing he constantly berated her for. Rhoam's death solidified zelda's belief that she was a failure, a belief which she KNEW rhoam held as well. his death was doubly traumatic to her because she knew he died believing it was her fault. Now contrast that to the circumstances surrounding rauru's death. Rauru CHOSE to die despite zelda's warnings, because he wanted zelda and his kingdom to live. rauru's death was not agency-stripping for zelda; in fact, it functioned almost as an admission that he believed her capable of continuing to live in his place. With him gone, the fate of the kingdom fell to her and the sages. he KNEW that he would die and still went into that battle confidently, trusting zelda to make the right decisions once he was gone. where rhoam believed zelda incapable of doing ANYTHING without link, rauru trusted zelda COMPLETELY with the fate of his kingdom. several details in totk confirm that when rauru died there was no plan for zelda to draconify, that all happened after rauru was gone. it was HER plan, the plan which rauru trusted her to come up with once he was gone. and I think it's also worth noting that zelda's sacrifice with the draconification parallels rauru's!! Rauru gives up his life trusting the sages and his people to be able to continue his work in his place. Zelda gives up her physical form trusting link and the sages in the future to be able to figure out what to do and find her. these games in general have this recurring theme but totk specifically is all about love and trust and reliance on others. zelda relies on link, link relies on zelda, they both rely on the champions and the sages and rauru and sonia and they all rely each other. reliance on others isn't lack of agency, it's a constant choice they make, and that choice is the thing which allows them to triumph.

The draconification itself is something i view similarly to zelda's sacrifice in botw--a choice she makes which, symbolically & within the confines of the narrative, is a demonstration of her reclaimed agency and places her at the center of the narrative, but which ALSO removes her from much of the player's experience and robs her of any overt presence or decisionmaking within the gameplay. again, I think this is a solution to the macguffin-with-agency dilemma, and it's probably one of the better solutions they could have come up with. Would I have liked to see a game where zelda is more present within the actual gameplay? yes, but I also understand that at this point the writers aren't quite willing to deviate that much from their formula. the alternative within the confines of this story would be to let zelda DIE in the past, removing her from gameplay ENTIRELY, which is an infinitely worse option in my opinion. draconification allowed her to be present, centered the narrative around her, and allowed the writers to reiterate the game's theme of trust and teamwork when she assists the player in the final battle, which i think was a REALLY great choice, narratively speaking.

In any case, I don't think it's right to say that zelda was completely robbed of her agency in botw and totk. Agency doesn't always mean that she's unburdened and constantly present, it means she's given the freedom to make her own choices and that her choices are realistically written with HER in mind, not just the male characters around her, and I think botw/totk do a pretty good job of writing her and her choices realistically and with nuance.