#Spike the stag beetle

[sparlax]

[cemeterypet]

beetle friend ♡

[dragqueenstarscream]

How about 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 15, 16 and 19 for armada megs please 👉👈

Also sorry if this is too many-

oh no, you don't have to apologize! i love answering asks! also, armada megs! he's a new one for me, but i'll try my best! (i can't blame you for asking for him. who can resist the voice of david kaye?)

2 - multiple orgasms/orgasm denial. definitely. not for himself, but for you. he hates being denied what he so rightfully deserves, but when it comes to you, he can be kinda mean, either refusing to let you come or making you come so many times that you start shaking. it really depends on his mood.

he also has a thing for cockwarming + exhibitionism together. it's not uncommon for cyclonus or demolisher to go looking for megatron only to see him on his throne, with you seated on his spike but being unable to move. he likes seeing the looks on their faces and the blush that spreads across your cheeks.

4 - dom. all the way. he doesn't submit to anyone, and that includes to you. he tried subbing once and hated it.

5 - without a doubt. it's more rare that he doesn't kiss with tongue, actually. he likes feeling just how small your mouth is against his, as odd as that sounds.

9 - he doesn't. why should he when he's got you right there? he doesn't need to use his imagination to get off when he has the real deal right there with him.

11 - megatron's a little weird with aftercare. he's not a fan of receiving it himself because... he's megatron. he can handle anything. he doesn't need to recover from something as simple as interfacing.

however, he is very aware that it takes more out of you, so he's willing to put a lot of effort into aftercare for you. he can't have his favorite little toy getting too tired on him, now can he?

15 - he's loud, but not in a screaming way. he's definitely a dirty talker, and he's absolutely a growler. he loves dirty talking right into your ear, figuring out what makes you squirm and whine, but he'll eventually start growling wordlessly as he gets closer to his own overload.

16 - so you know those things on the sides of his head? the sawtooth horns that look like stag beetle jaws? play with those. it'll have him purring like a giant kitty.

19 - he himself won't tolerate the idea of being tied up. he won't do it. you, however... remember when i said he can be mean during sex? double that if he decides to tie you up. he gets cruel, tormenting you by not letting you come and teasing you with the idea that he might just leave you there and let the other decepticons have their ways with you.

we both know he won't. he doesn't share. but that doesn't mean the idea of seeing you completely fucked out doesn't turn him on like crazy.

[peach-moths]

Hims pasta spilled :(

Spike the stag beetle digital painting I made today based on this video

And the specific clip from the video I used

[adobe-outdesign]

Well since you reviewed Pinsir, how about Haracross too?

Heracross is the counterpoint to Pinsir, though ironically the two couldn't be more different design-wise. Pinsir is very much a monster that looks vaguely like a stag beetle, while Heracross is pretty straightforwardly a rhinoceros beetle (stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles being some of the most popular pairings in Japanese bug fights, which is what Pokemon is based off of). Sure, Heracross is bipedal and there are some anatomical differences here and there, but it's not quite as wildly different from the IRL insect compared to Pinsir.

Visually, Heracross is a fairly rare example of an almost completely monotone Pokemon, being a nice shade of blue with only its white claws and yellow eyes to break things up. The body has a plated look to match actual beetle exoskeletons, and includes details like the spikes on the forelegs that actual beetles have. I like Heracross' face in particular—the face is divided into its own section that looks around and under the eyes, creating a short of :3 mouth shape. It's both cute and a unique way to handle the tricky subject of how to stylize bug mouthparts for Pokemon in a way that isn't just humanoid. Overall, a very straightfoward design, but a pretty decent one.

The degree to which Heracross' design is straightforward is a bit of its time, so Mega Heracross adds a ton of detail, some of which works and some of which I think just clutters things. It also progresses the rhinoceros beetle idea by making it into a Hercules beetle specifically, one of the biggest beetles out there, as emphasized by the particular double horn shape.

I do really like the addition of the red bands around the body, which is now a slightly darker blue for higher contrast. I don't mind Heracross being monocolor, but the red bands add just the right pop of color without being too much. The progression of the theme and the overall changes to the body shape make it very distinct and give it a good sense of progression. There's also a few neat mechanical things in there, like the way it can pop open its arms to fire things like seeds

However, there's also some parts of the design that feel a bit overworked. For example, I don't get what that giant red splotch across the forehead is supposed to be; it's pretty distracting and really doesn't add anything to the design. (I also miss the :3 expression, but that's not the point.) Likewise, it has yellow on its back, which feels like too much color—yes, it looks like a Hercules beetle, but I feel like it gets that across perfectly well without the unnecessary color.

White it's less of a problem, I also don't love the vents on the stomach. It's probably supposed to look a bit mech-like because bugs are a big superhero thing in Japan, but I feel like this pushes it too much into looking mechanical instead of insect-like. I think if the vents were just changed to straight line divisions and the yellow elytra and red on the forehead were removed, you'd have a much more cohesive and less busy design.

As a whole, Heracross is a pretty straightforward but nicely designed rhinoceros beetle. Mega Heracross has the right idea, but has just a few too many things going on with it that bog down the design a bit.

[mousetoe-wc]

I Got bored one time awhile ago and made a list of every prefix plus some into organised sections so I thought I might as well share.

All the ones that aren’t cannon to warriors, yet at lest are bold

Describing names

Colours: red, russet, copper, golden, amber, yellow, green, blue, violet, pink, white, gray, black, ebony, dark, pale, silver, brown, tawny, fallow

Pattern, Texture + Size: spot/ted, dapple, speckle, freckle, brindle, patch, mottle, ragged, tangle, kink, bristle, fuzzy, curl/y, wooly, soft, sleek, little, tiny, small, slight, short, tall, long, big, heavy, crooked, broken, half, stumpy, shred, torn, jagged

Actions + Character: flip, pounce, bounce, jump, hop, crouch, down, low, drift, flail, strike, running, fidget, mumble, whistle, snap, sneeze, shiver/ing, shining, flutter, fallen, lost, rush, fleet, quick, shy, sweet, brave, loud, quiet, wild, hope, wish,

Other: claw, whisker, dead, odd, one, spike, fringe, echo, song, hallow, haven

Elements

Time + Weather: day, night, dusk, dawn, morning, sky, sun/ny, moon, storm, lightning, thunder, cloud/y, mist/y, fog, snow, blizzard, ice, frost, dew, drizzle, rain, clear, wind, breeze, gale, shadow, shade, bright, light,

Earth/Water/Fire names: stone, rock, boulder, slate, flint, pebble, gravel, sand/y, dust, mud/dy, meadow, hill, rubble, river, ripple, whorl, float, rapid, shimmer, lake, swamp, marsh, wave, wet, bubbling, splash, puddle, pool, creek, fire, flame, flicker, flash, blaze, scorch, ember, spark, ash, soot, cinder, smoke

Plants

Trees: alder, aspen, birch, beech, cedar, cypress, pine, elm, willow, oak, larch, maple, bay, rowan, timber, bark, log, wood, twig, acorn, cone, seed, spire

Berry/Nut/Fruit/Herb: juniper, elder, sloe, holly, yew, mistle, bramble, hickory, hazel, chestnut, nut, apple, cherry, cranberry, olive, pear, plum, peach, chive, mint, fennel, sage, basil, mallow, parsley

Flowers: aster, poppy, primrose, rose, bluebell, marigold, tansy, pansy, briar, cherry, daisy, dandelion, daffodil, tulip, violet, lily, myrtle, thrift, yarrow, heather, lavender, blossom, bloom, flower, petal

Other: leaf, frond, fern, bracken, sorrel, hay, rye, oat, wheat, cotton, reed, pod, cinnamon, milkweed, grass, clover, weed, stem, sedge, gorse, furze, flax, nettle, thistle, ivy, moss, lichen, bush, vine, root, thorn, prickle, nectar

Animals

Mammals: mouse, rat, mole, vole, shrew, squirrel, hedgehog, bat, rabbit, hare, ferret, weasel, stoat, mink, marten, otter, hog, wolf, hound, fox, vixen, badger, deer, doe, stag, fawn, sheep, cow, pig, lion, tiger, leopard, lynx, milk

Birds: robin, jay, cardinal, thrush, sparrow, swallow, shrike, starling, rook, swift, dove, pigeon, crow, raven, duck, goose, heron, wren, finch, swan, stork, quail, gull, lark, owl, eagle, hawk, kestrel, buzzard, kite, hoot, feather, bird, egg, talon

Fish, Reptiles + Amphibians: pike, perch, pollack, trout, tench, cod, carp, bass, bream, eel, minnow, fin, snake, adder, lizard, turtle, frog, toad, newt

Bug type Names: bug, lady or ladybug, moth, spider, ant, snail, slug, beetle, bee, wasp, dragon or dragonfly, bumble, worm, maggot, cricket, fly, midge, web, honey

Skyclan + Warriorclan: Bella, Billy, Big, Harry, Harvey, Snook, Ebony, Monkey

[ygoartreviews]

Stone Machine Gareking

Am I the only one who keeps looking at this guy, baffled that he's not an insect type monster? Those horns and shoulder spikes keep making me think he's supposed to be some sort of armored, stag beetle man. Additionally, he's straight up built like a Transformer (semi reflected in the "Gareki" part of his name being used for model kits in Japanese). Like, tell me this guy doesn't look like a low tech, earth themed Shrapnel. He even has a big green jewel right where a Transformer's insignia would go!!! I do concur with this guy's trivia page about the Gundam design inspiration, mainly because I would recognize that very specific pelvis design anywhere. Regardless of any of that, Gareking's design is pretty cool, even if his pose is a little boring (though I do think the flying bits of rock and the background that actively looks like its burning help distract from that).

Rating: 7/10

[ophiocordyceps]

new fallen bug gabby description just dropped for all those who observe

gabriel in his fallen state is a hulking insect-like presence, standing well over 8 feet and with a heavy build. his armor doubles as a carapace and as such is physically part of his body, with tarnished metal and more organic seeming patterns and joints.

the front plate of his helmet is broken off, save for the cross that decorated it (usually), revealing a dark void underneath. a pair of large, layered antennae like those of june beetles conceal this exposed 'face' in a way that gives them the appearance of wings. this void can manifest any number of eyes within it.

The bottom golden trim of the helmet is split and grown apart into stag beetle-like mandibles, and the broken remains of his halo have fused with the rest of the helmet into slightly branched horns that roughly correlate with the original shape of the halo (structurally, its similar to the horns of banescale dragons, with a couple extra prongs growing off the back of the base portion)

the relatively unarmored sections of his body, such as his neck and torso are thickly scaled in a way similar to fuzzy moths, and from his waist sprouts a pair of raptorial limbs similar to that of a mantis or mantis shrimp. the fingertips of his main arms sport claws and his pauldrons have grown somewhat more form-fitting as part of the carapace. his once-pauldrons and forearm plating sport small spikes.

his legs are bug-like and superficially digitigrade, with two hooked claws on each foot. the patterning of his once-knee guards are somewhat visible still.

the tassets around his hips fuse together in the back, extending into a sharp scorpion-like tail, though it holds no venom. the base of the tail is wider and more akin to a lobster or mantis shrimp before tapering off into the more scorpion-esque anatomy.

his wings are shattered apart into four sharp, wicked-looking, vaguely spidery appendages that are not particularly conducive to flight.

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Smooth Black Stag Beetle - Lucanus placidus

It looks like this week has turned into large garden Beetle week! While walking from work, a smooth male specimen was found crossing the sidewalk, and admittedly he was doing so very slowly. They are well equipped to walk, but the additional bulk from their armor takes some getting used to (as can be glimpsed from the many videos found here). With more people following behind me, I picked up this big guy for a closer look and got him of out reach of an errant foot. With mandibles raised, he was ready for a fight but did not bring one against my finger when they were lightly poked (disclaimer: please don’t prolong annoyance to any Beetles). He flipped over of his own accord while exploring my hand, hence the pictures of his magnificent underside and a chance to closely examine how each pair of legs connects to the abdomen. Moreover, it can be seen that each pair of legs are structured differently than the other. The front legs are covered in armored spikes, while the back legs have altered curvature to better move and slide beneath the abdomen. 

Each leg extends from the tibia to a slim, flexible tarsus and ends with a grappling-hook like claw (known as a pretarsus). As would be expected, those tarsal claws are handy when climbing up surfaces and for gripping terrain, but against human skin they won’t slash at all. At most, they’ll tickle. When flipped, he didn’t flail those legs around very much, nor his body in attempt to re-orient to the right way up (my hand tilted to flip him back to normal) which is most strange. Generally the Beetles I’ve seen go mad when flipped over and use any means at their disposal to right themselves. When a Stag Beetle exposes their soft underbelly to nature, it can be a death sentence since they’d be put in a position where their armor couldn’t protect them. An exposed underside is also the ultimate defeat when males fight each other, aiming to grip and flip each other with their curved, toothed mandibles. It sounds a little silly, but it’s no easy feat to grab a rival by your mouth, hoist them above your head, carry them and then flip them over!  The mandibles are big help of course, and while they are the most prominent mouthparts, smaller mouthparts are beneath the head to manipulate sap and vegetation into the insect’s mouth.

Pictures taken on June 15, 2023 with a Google Pixel 4.

[augustheart]

its so fucked up that there's never a scene in any blue beetle comic where jaime has to lock "mandibles" (the stag beetle-like spikes on the "backpack" part of his costume) with black beetle and hurl him off a bridge. where is the beetle realism

[ad-ciu]

Hello! When researching Conall I read some description of him (can't remember what or where) where they described his one black eye as being completely black (as in, the iris and the sclera are both black), but in all other descriptions (mainly thinking of Da Derga's Hostel, the retelling of Conall's death by Candlelit tales pod, and the Championship of Ulster) where he is described with one black and one blue eye (just the iris I assume?). What are your thoughts on the completely black sclera?

(I'm sorry if this post is a bit stifled or weird, I had a few reflexive Ctl-Z's that have had me rewriting chunks of this post several times) Heya!

As far as I am aware, that description of Conall is only found in that portion of Togail Bruidne Da Derga (which, for those unfamiliar, I provide an excerpt from Stoke's translation) that you mention. ‘There I beheld in a decorated room the fairest man of Erin's heroes. He wore a tufted purple cloak. White as snow was one of his cheeks, the other was red and speckled like foxglove. Blue as hyacinth was one of his eyes, dark as a stag-beetle's back was the other. The bushy head of fair golden hair upon him was as large as a reaping-basket, and it touches the edge of his haunches. It is as curly as a ram's head. If a sackful of red-shelled nuts were spilt on the crown of his head, not one of them would fall on the floor, but remain on the hooks and plaits and swordlets of that hair. A gold hilted sword in his hand; a blood-red shield which has been speckled with rivets of white bronze between plates of gold. A long, heavy, three-ridged spear: as thick as an outer yoke is the shaft that is in it. Liken thou that, O Fer rogain!’

Now, this is a very interesting description. What stands out to me is the description of his curly hair catching nuts, which is obviously connected to descriptions elsewhere of warriors' hair (or in one instance, a boar's razorback) being so spiky that falling apples are spiked on it. And then, a similar description appears in Fled Bricrenn (which I'm assuming is the Championship of Ulster you mention there?) which I will provide the incomplete ITS translation (which you can read in full here).

The scribe of Fled Bricrenn is probably borrowing from Togail Bruidne Da Derga or from another earlier source (which Togail Bruidne Da Derga would also be drawing on), because we know that whoever composed this story originally was very well versed with Ulster Cycle material. For example, the description of Bricriu's Hall is based on the description of Conchobar's Hall in Tochmarc Emire. If we look at the death of Conall Cernach (Aided Ailella 7 Chonaill Chernaig, which has been edited and translated by my Academic Big Sister for her PhD right here) we can see that there is no reference to Conall's eyes (similarly, the older translation by Meyer also doesn't have this detail). So, what appears to be the case is Candlelit Tales was expanding on the actual source material by incorporating elements from other stories. But, on to your question: What do I think about this eye? Well, because I am an academic I will apologize that before we get to my thoughts, we must cover the previous scholarship on the topic. This has only been discussed once, in an article entitled 'Portraits of the Ulster hero Conall Cernach: a case for Waardenburg’s syndrome?' in Emania 20 (2006) pages 75-80, by William Sayers. As you likely can guess based on the title, in this article Sayers argues that this description of Conall is modeled on Waardenburg's Syndrome. Now, of course, this isn't impossible. However, I am generally of the opinion that attempting to diagnose historical or literary figures is a very challenging thing to do. While it can certainly be done (particularly when combined with archaeological finds), when dealing with a literary figure we would need to take into account contemporary medical knowledge, and I'm unsure if we have any examples of medieval Ireland being aware of such a syndrome. If they were, we should be interpreting it through their medical knowledge rather than our own. That aside, I actually do have my own opinion on the matter. I think this is an artistic flourish intended to communicate how terrific (in both senses) Conall is, which I would argue is apparent when we take into account another notable example of a described heroic body. As mentioned above, this description of Conall is already incorporating visual elements from the 'Apple Hair' scenes in other stories. And then, we can take into account descriptions such as this of Cú Chulainn from O'Rahilly's Translation of Táin Bó Cúailnge Recension 1: ‘In the chief place in that chariot is a man with long curling hair. He wears a dark purple mantle and in his hand he grasps a broadheaded spear, bloodstained, fiery, flaming. It seems as if he has three heads of hair, to wit, dark hair next to the skin of his head, blood-red hair in the middle and the third head of hair covering him like a crown of gold. Beautifully is that hair arranged, with three coils flowing down over his shoulders. Like golden thread whose colour has been hammered out on an anvil or like the yellow of bees in the sunshine of a summer day seems to me the gleam of each separate hair. Seven toes on each of his feet; seven fingers on each of his hands. In his eyes the blazing of a huge fire. His horses' hoofs maintain a steady pace.'

Now, this scene (another example of it is found in Recension 2 but it is different in some elements) often confuses people I am teaching this material. This is supposed to be a description of how wonderful or beautiful Cú Chulainn is, but his body appears strange or different. Burning eyes, seven toes, seven fingers. In Recension 2 he has four multi-coloured dimples, seven pupils in each eye, so on and so forth. This doesn't seem beautiful, it seems... awesome, both in the more recent positive sense, and the older more 'overwhelming' sense. I have been asked before if Cú Chulainn always looks like this, or if this is a transformation, or something else. And, well, it is not entirely clear. We have descriptions of Cú Chulainn where this clearly isn't the case and others where it isn't established. For Conall, we don't get many descriptions of his complete body (as an adult, we have one of him as an old man which is quite different). What we can say, though, is it clashes with the idealized flawless heroic body discussed by McMannus (McMannus, Damian, 'Good-Looking and Irresistible: the Hero from Early Irish Saga to Classical Poetry,' Éiru 59 (2009): 57-109). With this in mind, I think that these scenes aren't really literal, but more figurative descriptions going into luscious, awesome, terrific depth to establish the seriousness of the moment, the glory of the hero, and so on. The hero isn't as much transformed as being cast in a different light to communicate the moment. And this! I have a great analogy for. In animation, artists often distort or change a character to similarly communicate 'feeling' in the moment. Take three examples from the television show One Punch Man, all of the same character, Sitama.

In these scenes, the character Sitama isn't 'transforming'. These changes in his body aren't something 'seen' by people inside the story world. It is a visual effect intended to communicate things to us, the audience. In the first, we have a standard illustration of Sitama. In the second, a serious moment where we see him putting his complete effort into something. In the last, a comic moment. I think these descriptions of Conall, Cú Chulainn, and other ones for other heroes are similar to this. They're intended to communicate the feeling, the sense, and the emotion in the moment, rather than something we are intended to understand is how they 'always' look. However! What remains in this is to ask, if this is some sort of literary trick to communicate tone or feeling or the like, what do the individual parts mean? What's with the Apple-Hair stuff? Why the fire in the eyes? Why the seven fingers? So on and so forth. Well, a lot of this is lost to us, but parts we can identify. Personally, I think the Apple-Hair thing is a reference to Boar's Razorbacks (in the scene with Conall, this is being riffed on and changed to work with curly hair) connecting warriors to boar. The 'fire in the eyes' thing is just an Indo-European motif for warriors (see: McCone, Kim, 'Warrior's Blazing Heads and Eyes, Cú Chulainn and Other Firy Cyclopes, 'Bright' Balar, and the Etymology of Old Irish Cáech 'One Eyed',' Zeitshrift fur Celtische Philogie 69 (2022): 183-200). Exactly what the situation with Conall's eye is, I'm unsure. But, I think it exists within the broader literary tradition as a 'tone setter' rather than necessarily a literal fact of his appearance.

And all of that to say! What do I think of the difference between Conall having a black Iris v. a fully black eye? The one text of which I'm aware where it is mentioned doesn't clearly state what it means in regards to the eye. In the original language (Knott's edition) it reads: duibithir druimne duíl in t-súil aile. I think both interpretations of the eye are valid, but I expect that it is just intended to be 'iris' based on the description of Étaín's blue eyes at the start of the text using a similar grammatical construction (glasithir buga na dí súil, compare with the description of Conall's blue eye, glaisidir buga indala súil).

[kaiga555]

Finished raph! I had to trace his plastron T^T. It's to spikes for me to draw. I also had to use a diffrent art canvas. I normally use a 720 × 1280 but this time I used a 1280 × 1280. If you put all the pictures side by side you can really see there height differences lol. Raph is the only one who can't fly as shown on this picture

Yall voted stag beetle so this is what he's based off of. I just wanna know why they have wings...IF THEY CAN'T FREAKIN FLY!!! Why give them wings?! Any wizzle...yeah.

Update: turns out they can fly. The picture is a lie T^T I don't know what Google means when it says they only fly between a certain time or whatever so if anyone knows please tell me.

[vulturereyy]

Shade, the Hollow Knight, Cloth and Nosk for the asks?

Shade: Did you make many mistakes in your first playthrough? Did you regret some of the choices you made?

Oh, PLENTY. The one I remember the most was I accidentally got down to Ancient Basin VERY early. Like, i think i only had one extra mask, I had only the dash, etc. I could NOT get up that stupid ass elevator shaft with all the spikes and wood, and I could not beat BV at the time. I also couldn't get any more upgrades or tools to help me with BV because i was literally stuck in the Abyss. I am not kidding when I say I spent more time on that gap you normally crystal dash through trying to nailbounce off the fucking teensy little corner spike an then mantis hopping on the tiniest sliver of wood then nailbouncing again to get up, than any other boss. I play on KBM and almost had to restart.

The Hollow Knight: What was the saddest part of the game for you? Which ending is the most sad to you?

Ough, this is hard ; ;. For me, there's three moments. Obviously the Hollow Knight fight itself. It took me a while to get to their second phase, so right when I was feeling a sense of accomplishment and adenaline, they... Turn on themselves. And all that adrenaline immediately dropped into the most emotional dread because i realized they were trying to help me.

Obviously, Quirrel Blue Lake has been talked to death about, but I also got really upset for him when you depart the Teacher's Archives. With age finally creeping up on him, and his memories returning... Poor Quirrel. I wish it didn't have to end that way. Don't Siegward of Catarina me and give me a little toast and then I reload and you're gone. ; ;

As for endings, Sealed siblings is honestly up there. And it's the one I currently have because I can't beat Radi :sob:

Cloth: Which character would you fight to protect?

The Last Stag with all of my being. He deserves to live out the rest of his silver years knowing that maybe Hallownest, or at least her people, will rebuild. He deserves to pass on with dignity and hope. And he deserves a lot of grace for how long he's been in service. The Last Stag is arguably incredibly important to saving Hallownest. Idc whatever canon route is decided, the Stag delivers Ghost wherever it needs to be. Big 'I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you' Samwise Gamgee vibes. I'm not biased at all about this old man beetle.

Nosk: What part of the game scared or shocked you the first time you experienced it? Anything surprise you?

THE SOUL MASTER'S FUCKING SECOND PHASE IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO GODDAMN BEAT THE GUY AND THEN WHEN I THINK HE'S DEAD I MOVE MY HANDS FROM THE KEYBOARD TO TAKE YOU KNOW A FUCKING BREATHER AND THE BASTARD EXPLOES ME AND I HAVE TO FIGHT HIM ANOTHER GODDAMN 5 TIMES

also the first time i encountered the fluke splitting up in the waterways i genuinely made an inhuman noise and closed my laptop.

[unwell-friends]

oh wow you guys liked the ttrpg stuff huh? uh. ok.

here's my handwritten character sheet for a friends ttrpg playtest called 'monster wrangler'. im not a big fan of pokemon/monster trainer games in general, but i had a lot of fun with this one. lots and lots of fun little options and neat little monsters. i ended up making a bug-obsessed kid named milo and his lazy stag beetle with wind turbines, spike. it was my friends first time being a game master and im so proud of her for doing such a wonderful job

[wyverewings]

Wyvere Reviews All the Monster Hunter Monsters (Fanged Beasts)

Welcome back to me reviewing all the monsters of Monster Hunter! (Well, most of them) Today, I'm reviewing the Fanged Beast class! Why so early? Well... I prefer reptiles over mammals, so I'm gonna get this over with so I can finish with my favored monsters.

Something kinda funny about Bulldrome is that its weaker counterpart, Bullfango, was originally a Herbivore class monster. With the advent of Fanged Beasts, it progressed to a more prestigious class of monster. Anyway, Bulldrome is a pretty bog standard bull monster, but those big tusks are cool. 5.5/10

A more fantastical looking monster, Blangonga is the first of three monkey monsters introducing the Fanged Beasts. And they're a pretty cool monkey monster! I like the whiskers and face spikes. 6.5/10

Congalala kinda takes a toilet humor direction, as it attacks by farting. Whether that is a boon or flaw of this monster depends on how much you like toilet humor, which for me, I think it can be funny sometimes. The design does work with the abilities, with the hippo face adding to the goofiness of the monster (also, that makes the potency of the farts worrying, considering the dangerousness of hippos). 6/10

The third of the monkey trio, Rajang is one of the most powerful monsters of Monster Hunter aside from the Elder Dragons. And they're a pretty intimidating monster! Again, I prefer the more reptilian monsters, but this is still a pretty dang cool monster, 7/10.

We have another trio, these ones being bears! Arzuros is the most bear-like of the bunch, but they've got some lovely reptilian scales for flavor! 7/10

Lagombi is supposed to be a rabbit-bear (a rabbear?), but they've got some nice armored plating as well! It's a pretty weird design, but that's what makes it shine! 6/10, no lizard elements, but still neat.

My favorite of the Bear Trio, however, is Volvidon, mainly because the bear elements are obscured by elements from other creatures, namely armadillos, crocodiles, and stag beetles! All those details make the design so interesting and fun, and I love it! 7.5/10, probably my favorite of the Fanged Beasts!

We're taking a break from bears with Gammoth, a furry armored elephant monster! It's quite a majestic beast, which of course is fitting with real world elephants! 7/10

If you've been missing the monkeys, Kecha Wacha has you covered! They're even weirder than Congalala, with a tapir-like snout and arm membranes allowing them to glide. But my favorite part are those wonderful ears. Those spikes give of such a unique vibe! 7/10, my favorite of the monkeys by far!

...and they aren't even our weirdest monkey! The wyvern-like appearance of Bishaten (which... kinda sounds like bishonen, which is kinda funny) is quite common in Monster Hunter, but not one that the Fanged Beasts has played with yet. It almost makes me wonder if this is the result of convergent evolution. Not only that, but they also have an extra arm with their tail! It's bizarre, but a good kind of bizarre. 7/10

Bombadgy is probably one of the cutest Fanged Beasts, as well as one of the least mammalian. I suppose they're heavily based on a tanuki, but they've got no fur, and also some spikes all over their body! 6/10, I wanna hug it.

We have yet another bear monster with Goss Harag! And they take that archetype in an interesting direction with an oni motif and also the ability to form their arm into an ice sword. Overall, a pretty badass monster! 7/10

Last but certainly not least, we have Garangolm, who only really appears like a Fanged Beast because of their gorilla face. The rest of them resembles a Brute Wyvern much more, which of course is a boon with my tastes in monsters. 7.5/10

[adobe-outdesign]

Pokemon review: Pinsir

(I don't have any Pokemon review requests right now and I actually think we're getting close to reviewing all of them, so here's one that hasn't been done yet.)

No Japanese game inspired by bug collecting and Japanese beetle fighting would be complete without a stag beetle Pokemon. Pinsir here delivers in a pretty interesting way—its counterpart Heracross is still reasonably bug-like with some monster attributes, but Pinsir is the exact opposite, being more of a monster with some bug attributes.

Having a bipedal stance, it only has four limbs—two freakishly long forelimbs and two incredibly stubby legs. The body is just an oval with a few segmented lines (the segments not resembling those of an actual beetle, if anyone was wondering), and it has this really cool gaping mouth full of horizontal teeth, as opposed to standard beetle mouth parts or the more traditional Pokemon way of giving bugs regular human-ish mouths. The horns are white in contrast with the brown body, and are covered in little "thorns", kind of a nod to how stag beetles have spikes along the inside of their mandibles.

Overall, it's a pretty neat design and I like how unique of a monster design it is. Sure, it doesn't really have a concept beyond just being a stag beetle, but the unique design really helps it to stand out. My only issues with it are that I wish the horns were even more oversized, but to be fair Gen 1 did have sprite size limitations. I also kind of wish it was just a little more colorful—stag beetles come in beautiful colors, like black and the maroon one above, so something a smidge higher contrast would've been nice, especially because there's so much brown in Gen 1.

While mega Pinsir exaggerates the horns slightly, making them longer and extending the spikes on them, it mostly adds a pair of wings. This might seem a little random relative to the horns for those who don't know what it's based off of, but actual stag beetles do in fact have wings, and given that there's only so much that can be done with the horns I think this is a logical enough direction. And look how happy it is about it!

Visually, the body makes a few adjustments that I really like. The lines on the body now match the eye shape, which feels much more natural and fills the space around the head. The mouth shape has changed subtly, and the eyes have been changed from the generic Gen 1 triangle eyes to a really cool ringed design that matches the body segments and a yellow color to match its new wings. The feet claws now face downwards (for grabbing things) and I really like the way the horn spikes are both longer and less erratic in terms of placement. The only arbitrary change is the fins on the arms, but they don't hurt anything. Great stuff here.

The wings themselves add some much needed color to the design, and are a good bug-like shape. I will say though that I think they're just a little too detailed considering how busy the body is. The random spikes go through the elytra, raising the question of how it closes its wings (I guess it doesn't necessarily need to as this is a battle-only form, but still), and the veins are hard to make out under the arms. I think the spikes could've just been dropped, and the veins greatly simplified.

Something about the wings also feel ever-so-slightly disconnected from the rest of the body—I think it's just because they're so colorful compared to the rest of it. I kind of wish the horns had just a bit of orange or yellow at the tips just so the color could be pulled through somewhere that isn't the eyes, and I also think a deeper, richer brown for the body would've accented the orange color better. However, as a whole, this design's pretty decent.

Overall, Pinsir has a pretty unique monster design that gives it a lot of flavor. Mega Pinsir improves on Pinsir's basic design quite a bit, with the only issue being a few too many details and a few minor color issues. Good stuff all around.