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oneweekoneband · 4 years ago

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Vacation

There’s a lot of clichés about artists burning out just as they come through with their brightest work, and in some people’s version of this story, that might be the frame for Vacation, BTMI!’s final album before breaking up. Personally, I’ve never bought into those monomyth-esque narratives about bands’ inherent career arcs, and so I’m not inclined to view the album this way. I will say that while I absolutely love it, I don’t think it’s necessarily the band’s best album. It’s also just not accurate to think that this was a point of “burning out” for BTMI!, since Jeff started writing for his solo career almost immediately following the band’s dissolution.

Still, Vacation does hew eerily close to a lot of these rock ‘n’ roll archetypes. It was a momentous album, it was probably the most publicized release the band had seen, it represented a new musical direction that seemed to present itself as the summary of Jeff’s experimentation with genre and songform over the rest of the band’s career, and the band very much did break up after its release (although, as with ASOB, it took a few years for that to become official).

About that publicization: while I’m somewhat sad that I missed out on most of BTMI!’s career (being, you know, too young to go to shows or even think much about punk for the first 5-ish years), I’m still glad I found them when I did, because the build-up to the release of Vacation was a really interesting time to be a fan. In 2010, almost a year before the release, the band began a roll-out of singles to get people excited about the new material, and it worked like a charm on me: the boisterous first single “Everybody That You Love” seemed like a sign of great things to come if its electrifying lead guitars and dizzying vocal hook were any indication. “Hurricane Waves” and “Can’t Complain” showed even more diversity to look forward to when the band released them in 2011 ahead of the album. In addition to that, Jeff launched a whole new label to sell Vacation (and much of the other stuff released through Quote Unquote) through, Really Records. Clearly, he was trying to communicate something about the step forward he wanted Vacation to represent.

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And fans like me, despite knowing that “Side Projects Are Never Successful” and that Jeff was never in it for the fame, had reason to believe not only that this might have been the band’s big shot, but that they might actually make it big – or at least to become big enough to continue to exist as a full-time touring band that played music for a living. The Vacation singles were getting media coverage like no other previous BTMI! release had, and they marked a direction for the band’s music that, while retaining the punk integrity and musical ambition of the earlier albums, also proved more melodic, cleanly-produced, and accessible to a broader audience. While previous albums got recognition in the punk scene, Vacation looked like it had “crossover potential.” And when it finally arrived, there were even more positive signs: within half a year of the release, “Can’t Complain” made an appearance in “The Office.”

Of course, for all this to work, the album had to be good, and thankfully it was better than that – despite what might have sounded like my talking it down, it definitely represents a new high for the band. It’s Jeff’s own favourite BTMI! album, and I can see why: its complexity is something to be proud of. He had always been influenced by artists falling outside of the punk spectrum, but here those influences are more pronounced than ever, and the band finally breaks free of its ska-punk chains with a sound wholly its own. Brian Wilson-esque harmony arrangements and multi-part songs abound, and in a similar fashion to To Leave Or Die In Long Island, a couple motifs from individual songs (“Campaign For A Better Next Weekend” and “Sick, Later”) turn up in multiple places on the album for thematic cohesion. If SMiLE was Wilson’s “teenage symphony to God,” Vacation might be Jeff’s “adult symphony to punk rock.”

Many of my favourite songs off Vacation stand completely alone in the BTMI! catalogue, with little stylistic precedent. “Why Oh, Why Oh, Why (Oh Oh Oh Oh)” is a brash, thunderous fusion of Elvis Costello’s melodic sense and Bruce Springsteen’s maximalism, with a wealth of memorable melodies and lyrics that are all Jeff’s own. “Can’t Complain” is that rare song that manage to “rock quietly” – it’s both hushed and urgent in its muted acoustic chords and slide guitar lines, panicking at the pace of everyday life while simultaneously realizing how much there is to be thankful. And of course there’s the glorious, dynamic opener that slowly builds from a nostalgic piano riff accompanied by subtle, emotionally-charged chord changes into an explosive hardcore-punk charge, with vocals ranging from Jeff’s cleanest, quietest-ever singing to his more characteristic shouting to a group chant at the end.

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But even when Vacation retreads familiar territory, it still feels like it’s moving forward. “The Shit That You Hate” stands in a long line of 3/4 5-6-minute slow-burn songs appearing on BTMI! albums, but it feels like a perfection of that particular type of song rather than a simple revisiting. Jeff’s weak, warbly falsetto note when he sings “Hold onto your hope” always gets me a little choked up. “Hurricane Waves” might recycle a melody from To Leave Or Die In Long Island during its bridge, but the rest of the song is all new, providing that melody with a fascinating recontextualization to great effect. The aforementioned “Sick, Later” has a zig-zagging riff in an unusual time signature combination that still manages to be incredibly hooky, as well as some of my favourite lyrics on the album:

The first time that I took you to the hospital,

I was tired and you wanted to die,

I drove off, and I couldn't understand at all

Fuck, I didn't even walk you inside,

I thought we all wanna die, we all wanna die,

And I thought that was fine, I thought that was fine.

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One of the album’s most instantaneous joys comes from “Vocal Coach,” the shortest true song on the album. Jeff’s vocals were probably the most consistently difficult factor in terms of getting listeners outside of punk to take BTMI! seriously; they’re somewhere in between the traditionally-expected “bad” vocals of classic punk and the cleaner, more melodic style of singing dominant in pop-punk. Either way, they definitely don’t play to mainstream ears (perhaps this is why “Campaign For A Better Next Weekend” starts the way it does, and for that reason, Vacation might be the best place for a listener that’s not well-versed in punk to jump into the band’s discography). On “Vocal Coach,” Jeff takes on this problem with a healthy dose of irony, penning an ode to the imperfections he loves in music, the “dirty covers, dusty grooves and deep scratches.” But with a melody reminiscent of Pinkerton-era Weezer, he also expresses his own frustration with his inability to transcend the ugliness of his own singing: “I get embarrassed when my voice pops out and it’s not like in my head, / If I got a new vocal coach and I could hit the notes, you’d fall in love again.”

I understand that frustration – I’ve sung in more than one band, but before I even started playing in a band, I never thought I could be a singer because I thought I wasn’t good enough. But over time, I slowly realized that the reason I thought that was because I was comparing myself to singers who were already considered to be superhumanly-gifted, and that not every singer needs to be that way; there are thresholds of “good-enough,” and realizing where you fall in that can be a very freeing experience. I learned to sing by imitation Johnny Rotten and Billy Corgan, singers with definitively “bad” voices that nevertheless managed to communicate pretty much exactly what they wanted to in their songs. And Jeff Rosenstock was another big inspiration to me in that respect: he was a “bad” singer who nevertheless sang his songs defiantly, against popular tastes, because who else was going to do it for him? (Not to mention that as a “rock ‘n’ role model,” Jeff seems like a much better guy than Johnny or Billy.) But like Jeff, I know that there are times when singers wish we could do more with our voices than what seems to be within our natural ability, and we start wondering if it’s just a matter of putting in the right amount of work to “perfect” that voice. “Vocal Coach” brilliantly captures the nuances of this feeling in under two and a half minutes in an unforgettably catchy tune.

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It couldn’t last, though. Even Jeff seemed to know it, as he sang on “Vocal Coach”: “ I'm aware that I'm kind of getting scared the love that I thought had no bounds is coming to an end.” Vacation proved that BTMI! could be made more accessible and reach a wider audience, but there were limits to that growth. Just what reasons lay behind those limits will always be a bit obscure, but after a while, it became clear that despite being their most successful album to date, Vacation wasn’t going to be a true “commercial breakthrough.” To be fair, I don’t even know if that’s what Jeff wanted. I haven’t been fully clear on why the band broke up, and strangely, Jeff even seemed a little vague on it in this interview, citing one member’s moving to Australia as part of it. It didn’t have much to do with a lack of commercial success (Jeff claims the band wasn’t even on as much of an upswing in popularity as fans had come to believe at the time), and I doubt he would have soldiered on with his solo career the way he did if it had. In fact, I suspect his solo career is probably more well-known by now than BTMI! was even at their peak.

In the end, I’m just happy the band go to do what they wanted to for as long as they did, and that BTMI! brought so much to my life and the lives of other fans like me. I’m also incredibly grateful I got to see them at least once, on their last tour before they broke up in what turned out to be my first real punk show. It was, in some ways, kind of a fluke: I was 16 and the band had planned some tour dates in Canada, including Ottawa, which was truly shocking, considering that almost no one big (outside of the Wu-Tang Clan – look that one up, it’s a strange story) comes to Ottawa. But it was even flukier than that, because it turned out that my parents had planned a road trip to Toronto for our family over the date BTMI! was playing! Of course, I checked the tour dates and sure enough, they were coming to Toronto too, so I got the tickets for that show instead and saw them for the first and last time at the loft above Sneaky Dee’s with my sister. It was an amazing experience, and I can’t think of a better way to have been introduced to live punk. I was caught off-guard by the mosh pit, but it was a friendly one, and I ended up spending most of the show in it. The band played almost every song I could have hoped for (“25”! “I Don’t Love You Anymore”! Every great song on Vacation!) and I ended the night a sweaty, dehydrated mess. As Jeff came down from the stage into the crowd after the show, I gave him a big hug and told him how awesome I thought it was. And while I hadn’t brought a blank t-shirt for the band to spray-paint their name on (a tradition from the early days they were still doing at that time), I bought one of their special “bilingual shirts” that I assume were made specially for the Canadian leg of the tour. I still have it:

#Bomb The Music Industry!#BTMI!#Punk #Punk rock #Vacation

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glorious-blackout · 4 years ago

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Self-Indulgent Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino/Simulation Theory Crossover Epilogue

@rock-n-roll-fantasy Aaaaaand it’s over! This is technically more of an optional ending as I suspect you’ll prefer the conclusion to Part Seven, but a certain character would never have forgiven me if I didn’t let him get the last word... 😉

Thank you so much for all of your lovely feedback and sorry for making you wait so long for these last two chapters! And now it’s time for me to finally start listening to Arctic Monkeys/Muse albums that *weren’t* released in 2018 😅🥰

Also I would like to thank Matt for unknowingly writing the perfect end-credits music for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8tpkpoSW5I

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven

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A million miles away, on the desolate remains of the planet once known as Earth, a lone observer watches silently as a pair of retreating figures on a cramped TV screen ride off into the unknown.

Surrounding him on all sides are thousands of similar screens, stacked atop each other like building blocks, though for the moment he only has eyes for one. Only a week ago, every single screen was proudly lit up, showcasing the intimate details of his subjects’ mundane lives and thus allowing him to observe with unrelenting scrutiny. Now, however, a worrying proportion of those screens are fizzing with broken static; the worlds they once displayed forever lost from his grasp.

The sight should enrage him, and perhaps one day it will. Every barren screen represents the loss of constant hours of effort and imagination, and as the aftershocks of Matthew’s assault continue to ricochet, he imagines he will lose countless more over the coming weeks. Nevertheless, for the moment he cannot bring himself to mourn the loss of realities which brought him little pleasure in the first place.

Murph, or The Creator, or whichever title he chooses to wear on any particular day, does not consider himself a cruel being. Contrary to the vile accusations his peers have levelled against him, his games are not designed with the intention of torturing the subjects within them. In fact, one could consider his efforts to preserve the collective consciousness of a dying species to be a noble one. Humanity would be nothing more than a distant memory had he not intervened at the opportune moment. And yet, despite his good intentions, acting as a benevolent observer often fails to bring the satisfaction he desires. Sometimes boredom settles deep within his bones and he cannot help but interfere with the idyllic lives his subjects have created for themselves.

And he cannot deny that the thought of these two particular playthings discovering hope which will ultimately be torn away does put a smile on his face.

Most of that satisfaction lies in the prospect of punishing Matthew, though he has no doubt that toying with Alexander’s heart further will provide its own brand of levity. Where bitter vengeance is concerned, however, the former is the one he truly has unfinished business with. That particular human has been a thorn in his side from the very beginning; his knack for slipping into paranoia at any given opportunity had made constructing a believable reality for him an almost insurmountable challenge. The temptation to simply banish the man’s mind into the void had flared up once or twice, but in the end Murph had been somewhat successful. Matthew had bought the truth of his reality with relative ease for the first few years, to the point where any cracks that appeared were easily ironed out with a simple rewrite of code.

Until one day, Murph’s interferences were no longer sufficient to sustain the lie. Matthew’s conviction shattered and his mind with it; without warning, he set about tearing the carefully constructed world around him to shreds and treated his lifelong friends with open hostility. Murph could easily have given him up for lost at that point. Matthew had always been an infuriatingly willful creature – incapable of appreciating Murph’s efforts even after stumbling upon the truth of his feeble existence – and killing him would have been as simple as swatting a fly.

And yet, Murph had allowed him to live. Not out of any form of mercy, heavens no, but because the promise of a challenge was far too compelling. Matthew’s resistance made him special, whether he realised it or not. Most of his subjects were docile creatures; passive participants in a charade they refused to acknowledge. The ones who had come into his care willingly were the worst offenders, having subconsciously convinced themselves that they were caught in a blissful afterlife preferable to the miserable future they would have endured on Earth. Perhaps they’re right, but humans living in quiet contentment have always made for boring viewing. In the form of Matthew, Murph had finally stumbled upon an active participant he could slowly unravel at the seams, and after years of steadily building ennui, the thrill of the chase had been downright intoxicating.

In contrast to Matthew’s blatant rage, Alexander’s resistance had been... unexpected. The strength of it even more so. Murph cannot help but wonder if the sheer force of his suspicion – his feeling of utter wrongness in a place he’d once willingly called home – would have reduced his world to dust even in the absence of Matthew’s influence. Perhaps this shouldn’t have surprised him. For as long as he can remember, he has always had more trouble maintaining the lie when the subjects have been unwillingly brought under his control. The same is true for all species he has salvaged; it is the same factor which no doubt played a role in Matthew’s refusal to accept his own reality. Murph can manipulate their memories all he likes, but the inherent desire to escape their miserable fate is forever latched onto their souls.

The new identity had been an inspired touch in the beginning, keeping Alexander’s naturally insightful tendencies at bay for a while. Mark had been a more amicable creation while still retaining plenty of Alexander’s attributes, and the latter’s imagination had always made his reality one worth visiting. However, the line between the two identities had grown considerably blurred over time. Memories had melded together in ways that no longer made logical sense, and Alexander’s yearnings for home had translated to a bitter exhaustion and loneliness which Mark simply couldn’t overcome.

The fact that everything Murph had built had ultimately been derailed by a bottle of scotch and a friendly conversation was as clear a sign as any that Mark’s world had been hanging by a thread far longer than he had appreciated.

It probably took more effort than it was worth to salvage Alexander’s mind from his dying world and place it in an entirely new one - costing countless other simulations in the process - but he cannot bring himself to regret that decision. It hadn’t seemed fitting to let such promise fizzle out with a mere whimper. Entertainment is a rare commodity in these trying times, and he’s learned to take what he can get.

Matthew has certainly contributed his fair share. Having decided that killing him outright would be a waste, Murph had invested a lot of time in their frantic game of cat and mouse. While his plaything remained confined within the limits of his own reality – a frightfully boring seaside town on England’s coast – Murph had upped the ante by unleashing a horde of mutated creatures, using them as vectors to introduce a virus which reduced the population to rabid monsters driven solely by bloodlust. If Matthew had been particularly shaken by this new development, he’d masked it well. If anything, he seemed to glean a sense of bitter enjoyment out of receiving confirmation that his reality was little more than a façade, and had risen to the unspoken challenge admirably.

Before long it had occurred to Matthew that an absence of limitation placed upon the imagination could also apply to him. He learned not only how to play the game, but how to adapt the rules in his own favour. Murph had quickly come to rue the day he placed Matthew in a technologically inventive time-period, for his opponent had taken advantage at every opportunity; fashioning makeshift weapons and vehicles out of little more than scrap metal and a vast imagination. No particular engineering prowess was necessary. Before long he was summoning technology out of thin air with an ease that almost rivalled Murph’s own.

Even then, Murph had been unconcerned. Despite Matthew managing to slaughter any mutated creature he crossed paths with, the threat he posed to Murph himself seemed so miniscule as to be easily dismissed. At least at that point Matthew had mostly been sticking to the rules. Once the penny dropped that his reality was merely one of thousands in an intricate web, however, he’d accomplished the unimaginable and injected something which might have been fear into Murph’s long-decayed heart. Disbelieving eyes had been glued to the screen as Matthew fashioned a portal from scrap; one which should, by rights, have been unable to accomplish anything of merit. And yet, once its construction was complete, Matthew had stepped into the blinking red void without a trace of fear, smashing his way through the walls of one reality and emerging into another, whole and seemingly unscathed.

Quashing his efforts had become a much greater priority at that point. Treating Matt like a dog-eared chew-toy in his own reality was all well and good, but the man had gained far more intelligence and influence than Murph could tolerate. The prospect that he could potentially infect other realities with his schemes threatened to send Murph’s entire empire crumbling to ash if he wasn’t careful. In the more futuristic settings, he had been able to station guards designed in his own image, with the sole intention of blasting Matthew into atoms if he dared worm his way into their reality, but rather predictably Matt had dodged their attacks with a wry smirk, bending the rules to his will with an expertise that was almost frightening. Despite the seriousness of the man’s objective to track down his loved ones and rescue them from an existence he naively deemed to be diabolical, Murph got the distinct impression that Matthew was enjoying himself far too much. He was still treating his escapades like a game, long after Murph’s own objectives had darkened.

Well, if he insisted on playing dirty, then Murph could resort to that as well.

He’s still proud of his next trick. The brutal reaction it had elicited had been nothing short of delicious. With vivid gratification, he recalls the momentary spark of hope in Matthew’s eyes as his gaze settled upon the avatars of his friends, during a visit to a simulated reality which almost resembled Earth. He remembers the moment his opponent had allowed longing to override logic; remembers the point where all thoughts of the chase were abandoned and, with a cautious smile, Matthew had fooled himself into believing that he’d discovered the true forms of the men he’d loved since he was a teenager.

What must it have felt like to see them again, Murph cannot help but wonder? The Christopher and Dominic of Matthew’s own reality had been dispatched early in their charade, infected and mutated by the same creatures Matthew evaded with relative ease. No doubt the only reason Matthew survived their losses was because he’d already accepted that they were nothing more than sorry substitutes for the real thing. A part of him must have wondered, however, if that was truly the end. If the last association he would ever have of his two best friends would be the sight of them clawing their way towards him in a mindless rage.

The cold mix of terror and heartbreak that crashed upon Matthew once the blatant hatred in the eyes of his friends became crystal clear is an image Murph still treasures. For one bittersweet moment he’d honestly suspected that Matthew would surrender and let fate carry him away, rendering Murph the victor and granting fleeting satisfaction in the aftermath.

Alas, survival instincts had kicked in at the last possible second, and Matthew had fled the scene at a sprint before his familiar assailants could shoot.

The temptation to do the same to Alexander had arisen once or twice, on the occasions where boredom reared its ugly head. It would have been a simple enough task. The avatars for three of his best friends were already buried in the simulation; a simple rewrite of their code would have turned their inherent fondness for Alex into hatred in a heartbeat. He could even have added one additional ghost into the mix, just to twist the knife until the pain would never stop. Alex had never done anything to warrant that level of torture, however. Playing with Matthew’s heart had been entertaining - not to mention earned - whereas playing with Alex’s would have been like kicking a puppy just to see how it would react. Momentarily thrilling, perhaps, but ultimately predictable.

Besides, Matthew had made him pay for his cruelty, albeit not quite as successfully as Murph has led him to believe. His constant hopping from one reality to another had rendered Murph’s creations vulnerable. His brutal smashing through virtual walls left aftershocks in the wake of his adventures, although that in itself was easily fixable. Murph had quickly grown tired of his continued insolence over time. Not so much his continued survival, though he did make a point to send the morphed versions of his friends after him at every given opportunity. However, Matt had an unfortunate habit of forgetting that, in the wake of Murph’s towering influence, he was little more than a cockroach waiting to be squashed underfoot. The lack of respect had forced Murph to step in, to confront this tiny creature and remind him that he was simply an insignificant plaything in the grand scheme of things.

Matthew’s lack of fear when faced with him for the first time had almost been impressive, though Murph had been able to sense his feeble heart racing with adrenaline. The human had stood impassively on a steep cliff-edge while Murph towered over him, revealing his true form for the first time. From a distance Matt must surely have looked like a blot on the horizon and nothing more.

Such a meeting had no doubt been Matt’s intention. Murph allowing himself to become invested in the game rather than erasing Matthew from existence in the first place had been a mistake borne of arrogance, and he now knows it would serve him well not to make the same mistake again. The mind-numbing aftershocks stemming from the moment Matthew powered up a metallic glove and aimed a colossal, fiery beam of energy at his tormenter serve as a bitter reminder that he must learn to be more careful.

Physically the assault had done nothing at all. Even if Matthew’s corporeal body were standing right in front of him at this very moment, any attempt to attack would have the same effect as a mouse trying to destroy a mountain.

The mental assault, however, had been far more powerful than Murph could ever have anticipated.

Perhaps Matthew himself believed the weapon he’d designed was a physical one; he seems willing to accept the possibility that it killed its target after all. What the beam had truly unleashed, however, was a sheer, unrelenting wave of emotion. All of Matthew’s simmering rage and heartbreak had drowned Murph under its weight as his consciousness was overcome by burning sparks of light. All of Matthew’s love for his friends and family - which had become so intertwined with grief during his entrapment - reduced Murph’s mind to a blank haze, and beneath it all the sheer power of hope and determination had shattered the reality they’d both been standing in.

A similar feeling of powerlessness had overcome Murph not long before, when Alexander somehow anticipated Murph’s attempts to erase Matthew from his mind and erected a mental block so formidable that his very reality had trembled. This was different, however. Alex’s attempt had been powerful but clumsy, like batting his arms against an unseen enemy in the dark. In contrast, Matthew’s assault had been the direct attack of a man desperate to burn Murph to the ground without a care in the world for whether he himself survived the aftermath.

Murph had awoken in his nest, surrounded by screens and caught in a daze. In a moment of madness, he’d spared Matthew’s dying mind from the crumbling reality he was trapped within, fashioning a new one in the blink of an eye. One with considerably less tricks and theatrics. One that resembled the home Matt yearned for so desperately, recreating it so convincingly that his insightful mind appears to have taken the bait.

Murph cannot help but wonder if it would have been easier to let Matthew die. Alex too. The latter’s knack for questioning his authority will no doubt prove troublesome, now that he knows to be distrustful of the reality presented to him. For now though, Matthew remains his greatest concern. His mind still aches in the wake of the man’s assault. With each passing second, he can feel more and more worlds fade into nothingness, leaving only static in their wake and claiming the souls of thousands in the process. Losing them all is not a possibility he wants to comprehend. He has not spent enough time on Earth to justify heralding humanity’s extinction so early, and alternative dying planets are harder to come by than one might expect.

He wonders how Matthew would feel if he knew he’d disrupted and destroyed the minds of so many people. People who were once as human as him and Alex, who are now gone without the faintest trace that they ever existed in the first place. People who had no say in their fate, nor any stakes in the game they’ve both been playing for far longer than necessary. Would he be so overwhelmed by guilt that he would no longer be able to function? Would the realisation be the final straw in snapping the man’s mind like a twig once and for all?

Or will he consider those people to be liberated from their prison like the naïve fool that he is?

No doubt Murph will find out the answer to that eventually. This particular ammunition is too valuable to waste.

That can wait until later though. Matthew and Alex still need to be eased gently into believing that their current reality is real; there will be time for twisted revelations and sacrifices later. Besides, regardless of the eventual outcome, Murph can take comfort in knowing that his ultimate victory is inevitable.

He wonders how long it will take for the penny to drop. For those final, fearful memories to return. For the realisation to sink in that, for all their struggles to return to their beloved realm of flesh and bone, they’ve chosen to embark on an endeavor which is entirely futile.

They have no physical bodies to return to. No means of roaming the Earth as living creatures. Any vessels they may have previously inhabited sputtered and died when their minds were pulled from their heads; their bodies buried long ago, having been wept over by the same people they insist on mourning now.

As for their minds? Well, they’ll remain in Murph’s capable hands until the moment he tires of them and blinks them out of existence. No doubt it will be a long while before he’s driven to such extremity, of course. These two are fortunate that they’re as entertaining as they are annoying, and tormenting them further will certainly be one way to pass the time.

As it stands, time is all he has.

So for now, he’ll gladly let them indulge in their fantasy. He’ll construct a small band of survivors five miles from the beach, offering food and shelter and an explanation for their ruined earthen surroundings which somewhat mirrors the truth. He’ll offer campfires and music; will allow pleasant recollections of their previous lives to return to them in the form of dreams. He may even offer whispers of other survivors closer to the city, with descriptions matching the loved ones whose arms they wish so desperately to return to.

There’s no rush. No need to pull the rug from under their feet too early and spoil the fun.

It’s only a game after all.

#honestly i probably should have watched the ST movie before writing this thing #this chapter really was me trying to piece together some semblance of a story from the music videos/gifs #hopefully it's not completely incoherent 😅#Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino #Simulation Theory #Arctic Monkeys #Muse #my fic #writing

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tammyhybrid21 · 4 years ago

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Do you think that in the Tadeo Jones universe, some people (average or rich people) think living mummies aren't persons but some creatures they can capture and claim as their own 'cuz they have no rights? (as mentioned by Tad in Movie 2) Kind of like the Apex's view of denizens in IT. I think this could be adressed in Tad 3. But I'll be sad because Mummy is going to find the hard way that for powerful people, his feelings and opinions doesn't matter (Twice, if we count the Spanish conquista)

Ohhhh man!

I have been-- stewing over how best to answer this since I saw it yesterday, because part of me has IDEAS-- the other part has a rant that has kind of been building for a while in general when you just examine the movies and the setting and even the actual community represented in reality(that being Archaeologists not-- well)

And LOOK-- I have TEA!

Frustrated, frustrated tea regarding other aspects of how this all could play out that basically boils down to the one major issue that a lot of those groups has is the issue of "But WE all know!" and the we've boxed this in already.

Which-- Debatably, Tad isn't the only one with some issues... But Sara has-- at least insofar as her reactions to Mummy in movie 2, come to terms past her more nebulous in concept repeated line.

"Mummies can't be alive, it's a contradiction in terms"

Which-- actually might be an issue that's just on the question of the life/death binary more than it is actually a question of whether someone is human/a person or not. And we ALL know she's definitely got Major Respect over Tad--

Like, I will write a proper analysis over their "Mummy gives advice/pep talk" scenes later-- but--

Sara doesn't just take it and run how Tadeo does-- and she doesn't get hyped about it either. It's soft and subtle and just ARGH--

Which, okay beside the point, but I have-- so much on this idea of how people view Mummy-- Because let's for a moment consider what Tad actually says-- in answer to Mummy's "What is with you?" and I want to also talk on what people tend to associate with and call monsters... and how... that might also factor into this whole mess.

"Listen you're a mummy, you scare people. In my world you're a zombie!"

Which-- okay, on the surface this is just an on the nose point about how well, Mummy is undead. Ahahah, the living dead and I suppose living mummies are their own form of zombie-- although really it's more like they're cousins as zombies are usually more... in process of decay while mummies are preserved/petrified... Buuuut in any case... not the point here really.

But rather...

Let's talk about how "Monster Movies" come in here. And what zombies tend to be synonymous with nowadays. You know-- for the most part. Mindless, brainless, sometimes killers though not always-- But ultimately-- Does... anyone actually watch zombie shows for in-depth exploration of zombies ever anymore? Aside a few exceptions, and same in games-- Zombies are relegated to just brainless/mindless monsters.

Which--

On the other side of that-- monsters.

Tad never quite uses that word but--

"First, you're not human"

Mummies-- are monsters. In stories and fiction. Used to scare, used to awe, used to add scenery dressing, spooky, freaky, creepy-- and when they're not-- well it's rare. But if they're not the villains, they're not "human". Which think about that for a moment, in all the monster stories we have but a few where the monsters aren't outright put in that position.

But a monster is usually in a story put into one role and box. And if they're not outright there just to be spooky, or the whole new misunderstood monster trope-- which well, that's a whole other thing. But we all know the usual "monster shtick".

Violent, scary, simple, dumb, driven by base impulses, nonhuman, Very, very often as lesser, other, and something to be feared/hunted/destroyed.

And while modern day does move away from that--

ISSUES still prevail.

And I have-- just got to aside here, but like, thinking on this but-- the Phone Mummy sign outside of Tad's window as a child has some... other weird things. Because as a wild aside, my dumb brain has decided to A - B link this with a series I watched on television from 2005-2007

Because of THIS stupid Mummy Scam Artist character. And it's dumb, has nothing to do with the issue of mummies(and other potential beings and creatures of myth and legend) having less rights. But this whole phone billboard-- with the Mummy, it's legit right up this character's kind of scam alley and I may or may not one day just rewatch his two villain episodes to get his personality clear in my head JUST to do a dumb crossover.(And for nostalgia, but that's not news)

BUT--

Advertising does tell us some things already. In how people possibly think and could respond/react.

Yet still-- there is something more I think that we're missing in this conversation on how people will potentially treat the discovery of a living mummy. Or really any supernatural being. If not with fear(which look-- fear the unknown, fear different, fear of monsters), arguably those who're intrigued, interested could be far, far worse.

Also-- I just have, much tea on other responses for even those who might briefly "respect" him. Because look-- Mummy would be a priceless artefact in a way, treasure and discovery all on his own-- BUT also a new potential source of information of a culture that for the most part has been lost and erased by history.

People could and would ask questions.

Whiiich is where I have doubts about how they will accept the answers to those questions. Because here's the thing, for all the Archaeology community loves to act as if they let discoveries speak for themselves, and even I suppose historians-- There are just-- so many times I watch and listen to documentaries and get SO FRUSTRATED-- because they're stubborn IDIOTS, who actually refuse to take in the evidence in front of them of any truths outside of what they're SO SURE has to be the TRUTH!

For those who speak of learning all about history and it's secrets, they're so damn high and mighty to reject anything that doesn't immediately fit with already established "facts". It must be an anomaly, aliens, can't be what we're actually seeing right--

And well even people today interacting-- Like-- I've seen people try to correct someone on the pronunciation of their own name before.

So I am almost certain there would be at least one idiot who'd be all high and mighty and just-- Mummy has LIVED it. It's his culture he grew up in and some idiot speaking over him saying his lying, which I just-- I am certain would happen(but probably not in canon because who would DARE?!)-- Just "EXCUSE ME?!"

Which is it's own kind of disrespect and hell, crash Tad's pillars again. Yes please!

Which... on that account--

I kiiiind of want to talk about how Tad needs a smack on this... and that wake up to the truths of the high and mighty and bloody prideful issues of the community. BUT more than that-- I actually want to think about that point you made about how Mummy's supposed transformation in movie 3 comes across and the further themes of this question of humanity and rights is in regards to this whole issue.

Because yeah, there's the issue, front and CENTER.

The question/implication of this resembling Ammut, and implied loss of humanity. Along with the fact that Tad's the likely TRUE CENTER of the curse-- since he's the idiot who opened the sarcophagus in the first place...

WHICH CAN I JUST SAY--

There's a very good possibility in regards to that issue-- potentially having to do with some of Tad's more... subtle issues. Or even the ones that are close to the surface and yet not. I've screamed already on Tadeo's Internalized Ableism... along with some small nods to Mummy's own less severe cast with that but-- This is directly playing into that image of monsters and nonhumanity--

And I could probably add an additional few pages of speculation onto this but--

I actually am... also worried for the pets. If only because uhhh, have you seen the original two Tadeo Jones shorts from before it become movies? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XxhNMbpE2A & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoJBzI2AUOw

I mean not assuming anything, but I can definitely believe they wouldn't be above having that threat present at the least.(I mean just that second one... with what I guess is concept-Jeff) Even if Mummy is most definitely going to be the one at the MOST RISK. But with that-- comes the question of humanity.

And while yeah-- I do imagine, all too easily there will be many people more focused on the discovery-- I think there's an interesting mess that Tadeo is going to be FORCED to confront with this-- in how he has that displaced view.

Because here's the weird thing.

I've kind of mentioned it before but not really expanded or explained very clearly-- but for all of Tad's issues... he cares about Mummy probably more than he even really realizes. It's in small to big things as well. Again-- for all his trash behaviour in movie 2, I do think a lot of it is very, very misplaced attempts at some form of protection...

Which I also really want to at some point make a post that's just...

"Tad's I'm Helping moments and how they made things worse for everyone"

But that's for later... For now...

I kind of want to grab a few things.

"You're already dead, RUN!"

I also actually counted how quickly he ran back to Mummy for this moment, and it's LITERALLY two seconds, from when Mummy collapses to Tadeo's check on him. Also I'd like to mention with this-- he's supposedly tunnel visioning on Sara(and he ruins it within the next scene pretty quickly)

...

And for all they're kind of dumb decisions.

DEBATABLY-- when he's trying to hide Mummy.

"Hide"

Ugh-- BUT Tadeo has a very... complicated issue here really. Because yes-- Tad very much has that nonhuman issue, but he CARES. And then-- there's how the whole Ammut thing feels set and the symbolic meaning there(ALSO INTERESTING SARA SEEMINGLY ISN'T CAUGHT BY THAT). But here's the thing--

With Ammut kiiind of come those scales and the feather.

It's not like that mythology isn't unknown-- but more to the point-- it feels kind of like force Tad to confront his mixed up view. On Mummy's humanity or lack of-- But really as the audience Mummy feels the most human at this point in time-- whiiich we can get into a debate on what even is human nature later-- but--

I am kind of hoping that we get a callout of a number of things regarding Tad's behaviour.

With some primary focus on this dynamic between him and Mummy and really seeing how he responds to that idea that Mummy is nonhuman to really be thrown into full view and scope. And listen...

You cannot cheat the scales.

...

As an aside generally, if he is turning into a form or version of Ammut even if initially the community is a danger because he's a living mummy that creates a whole other issue of how he'd be viewed as a danger due to the role that's possibly growing more and more of an instinct.

But yeah... I will probably now make a more formulated rant on this later, or like, minor expansions on the topic but-- yeah.

I have been CHEWING on these thoughts, ideas and concepts for a while.

With additional tea. Because when people think they know something too often they refuse to see differently.

(Also at some point I am going to make a personal rant on duality verses binary due to insistent terminology issues I have but ugh)

#THybrid Responds #THybrid Jones #Tadeo Jones #Mummy(Tadeo Jones)#Sorry about making this a rant #But I literally mused ALL DAY #So you get 10 pages worth #although I still theoretically have more #because this is a nuanced concept #and I have a lot of feelings #but I don't want to get too deep into some of my theories with movie 3 yet #because plunnies #araminakilla20 #Life and Times of Juniper Lee

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the-awful-falafel · 5 years ago

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Rick and Morty - S4E6 "Never Ricking Morty" Podcast Summary/Breakdown

So y'all probably expected this based on how often I've been talking about these official companion podcasts. I recommend listening to them yourself either on the official Adult Swim YT channel or the official website, but I thought I'd go ahead and make bullet point breakdown of some key points for this particular podcast, because trivia and behind-the-scenes knowledge really appeal to me. And this episode is pretty divisive in the fanbase, so I think this podcast will assuage some fears even if you still personally dislike it in the end.

For some reason, the title of the podcast calls this S4E7 instead of episode 6. It wasn’t commented upon, so I assume either it was a typo or it was 7 in the production order and got swapped shortly before release.

The interviewed staff involved in this episode were Carlos Ortega (character design lead), Erica Hayes (director), James McDermott (art director), and Jeff Loveness (writer)

The idea of this episode was conceived in October/November 2018 as a "one-up" of anthologies and clip shows. They didn't want to do a straight anthology because many other TV shows had already done that, so they tried to go more experimental and bold and basically went balls-deep with the metanarrative as a result

It was a substitute for Interdimensional Cable (which they were going to do instead but it fell through for unknown reasons)

"We had to go so far up our own ass, because if we didn't go far enough, people would be mad that we didn't."

The writers intentionally mocked themselves as much as the fans, pretty much, and it was meant to be all in good fun

The artists really enjoy designing all the weird aliens in the show, as well as getting to reuse/repurpose them when applicable. Apparently next episode (Promortyus) is going to be reusing a lot of designs for something (but they obviously can't say due to spoilers)

Compared to other episodes, "Never Ricking Morty" went pretty smoothly once it got to the art stage. That doesn't mean it was easy, but there weren't a ton of revisions they had to do

There was a joking spoiler about Rick becoming pregnant later this season. At least I think it's joking.

While writing this episode, the writers came up with a huge whiteboard list of complaints about the show, misconceptions about the show, etc. to consult for the meta jokes. Loveness later clarified that it wasn't quite about attacking "complaining" though, and it wasn't meant to be mean-spirited

The Bechdel test skit came from them realizing they hadn't done much with Beth and Summer this season, which definitely can be considered a flaw. Therefore, as part of their self-mockery, the writers decided to force them crudely into the episode as a joke, while also making fun of men who write women characters poorly and reductively.

The Jesus Christ / Rick suddenly being Christian part was written in response to the writers asking themselves "what would kill Rick and Morty as a show?"

Jeff Loveness said this in the "Inside Never Ricking Morty" video as well, but he really loved the "old man is really ripped and ready to kick your ass" trope and is partially responsible for it becoming a running gag this episode along with "cum gutters". Apparently cum gutters return in season 5 (also said jokingly, so who knows)

One of the Q&A callers called multiple times, with different phone numbers, and kept asking about potential crossovers for some reason

"A lot of people are saying that the show is fucking with their fans. Is that accurate?" "I think some of those fans deserve to be fucked with a little bit."

They point out how some fans feel entitled to the idea they should be pleased by the show all the time, and the writers feel like the show should ideally surprise the viewers in a good way, but you still may not like every episode and that's alright

At the same time, the episode wasn't meant as an attack on the fans, it was more of a "we'll do this our way, be experimental, and push the envelope of what we can do" message they were sending. Jeff Loveness promises that there's "good stuff coming up" that he thinks the fans will be happy with, presumably in late Season 4 or even Season 5

"Just because we showed it this way and you'll probably never see it this way again, that doesn't mean we're dropping these storylines completely." There you go, everyone! The ongoing story threads are still happening at some point, and the message of the episode wasn't about dropping continuity or mocking people for caring about it. Although if you were hoping for resolutions similar to what was shown in this episode (Evil Morty w/ a giant army, Tammy VS Summer with lightsabers), those scenarios are almost certainly not going to happen canonically based on this statement. Let's hope that what they do come up with is both unexpected and awesome.

The episode is intended to be non-canonical, similar to past once-a-season clip show episodes like Interdimensional Cable

Story Lord was inspired by characters like Mysterio and Q, and the writers created him late in development as a type of villain they hadn't done before. Dan Harmon also put a lot of self-mockery into the character with how much he loved narrative structure and the story circle. The character artists even initially asked if Harmon could be the design for the character but that received an immediate "no", as it was perceived as being too on-the-nose.

Jeff Loveness was surprised the Rick/Birdperson musical made it to the final episode since it seemed like the sort of thing that would be cut or lost in development. He was also surprised the Jesus thing stayed in mostly untouched

The Story Train was intended to be an actually purchasable product by the time the episode aired-- the writers were emphatically excited about that being the culmination of the joke in the writers room-- and they were surprised that it didn't go through by the time the episode aired. They guess it's due to the coronavirus pandemic interrupting merchandising plans, but they're ultimately unsure because the decision isn't discussed with them

The artists do receive some limitations on how much gore they're allowed to depict, but they can show as much blood as they want, so for the most part they can still be creative with gruesome violence (like the Tickets Please guy ripping in half in this episode)

The artists are credited for elevating most of the fight scenes in the show, sometimes with only vague script direction which they use to be very creative

In response to a viewer calling in and asking the question about whether Pickle Rick will return: "I think there's a conversation to be had about: do we want these things to return or it better to do a one-off story?" So my take on this is that not literally everything will factor into the continuity-- they put thought into what ideas have more long-running potential and they build those up. Which is kind of obvious but the question was silly anyway. (They're still ambiguous about whether or not Pickle Rick will come back, by the way)

They aren't going to do an outright Star Wars parody in Rick and Morty because other shows have already done that, but they can still parody what Star Wars represents rather than doing a "branded commercial" for it. Apparently there is a lot of that specifically coming up this season (although indirect in the way they're describing). I assume this is referring to the upcoming "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri" episode, so I’m curious about how they’ll reference Star Wars in that one.

The COVID-19 reference this episode was thrown in last minute, presumably with just alternative dubbing and changing the lip sync animation. They say that sometimes episodes are still being worked on up until the moment they release on television. Referring to a previous episode as an example, the character of Shadowjacker from the dragon episode was thrown in last-minute

With the exception of James McDermott, most of the staff interviewed had no control or participation over the commercial product placement work, such as the Wendy's/Pringles commercials. They don't mind them for the most part and find them funny

The writers try to avoid being too topical because the scripts take so long to turn into animation that any references will become outdated by the time it releases. Therefore, they try to be "timely" in the sense that they're writing about things that are happening in the world, but in a more abstract/thematic sense. Jeff Loveness implies that the next episode Promortyus will have a lot of that

In response to another viewer Q&A: There is no Rick and Morty movie currently planned. They wouldn't mind one, but nothing is really in development at the moment

The staff say they're excited for the next batch of episodes and seem pretty proud of their work on this season

They don't plan on making a Rick and Morty musical episode at the moment, as they feel like other shows like South Park and the Simpson have done it excellently and don't feel like they're capable of doing it better. The Rick/Birdperson bit in this episode was the most we're going to get

The code inside the broken-off throttle lever was intended to just be a bar code decal (to show it's a toy) and doesn't actually mean anything. James McDermott jokingly said it's "where the bodies are buried"

The Rick army / Evil Morty scene was huge from an animation standpoint and they almost couldn't do it due to how ambitious the shot was. They were going for a "Lords of the Rings", faux series-finale vibe, where they "give the fans what they THINK they want". Justin Roiland insisted they do it

There are definitely more big animation setpieces planned for the future

And that’s it! I’ll probably do more of these for the future episode podcasts, if anyone is still interested.

#rick and morty #never ricking morty #companion podcast #q & a

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kg2hub · 5 years ago

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Rules for mobile users

[[here’s a google doc for the updated list of rules, applicable for all my blogs]]

anything under this cut is from my outdated rules.

[rules updated: 08/15/2019]

–STUFF YOU SHOULD DO–

• No godmodding. No sending (implied or explicit) homophobic/transphobic/bigoted messages to me or my character either.

• Please don’t over-pester me for replies. I promise I’ll get to them. Feel free to drop me a reminder after at least a week of no replies, though. In return, I usually give you a week too, unless otherwise specified in your own rules, until I remind you if it’s your turn to reply (or more often, I chicken out and trust that you’ll eventually respond/want to drop it and end up never bringing up that particular thread ever again). You’re always free to start multiple threads with me, that is greatly encouraged because I love having lots of threads with people.

• If you start getting bored with the roleplay, feel free to drop it and/or end it. We can always start up another thread in the future.

• However, please let me know if you want to drop a roleplay thread! It can give me major anxiety when I’m waiting for a response that’s never going to come, and I wonder if I did something wrong and assume that’s why you’re not replying anymore :’) I’m not forcing you to let me know if you want to drop a thread, you can drop it without saying anything too. But I personally really appreciate being told about that sort of thing.

• Don’t reblog a thread you’re not part of. This should go without being said, of course. Personals will be hardblocked immediately, rp blogs will receive a warning.

• If you can trim your threads, please do! It’s fine if you can’t, though, because I will most likely trim the thread for you. If you don’t trim threads with other people, however, I’ll be less likely to follow you since I don’t like scrolling through long posts.

• Please don’t claim any of my art as your own. If you post it somewhere, the least you can do is credit me by at least including a link to my blog or something. Bonus points if you ask me first before reposting my art, but I understand if you’re anxious because so am I :’)

• If any of your art is featured on my blog, as an icon or something and you don’t want me to use your art, please tell me!!! Message me privately or contact me in some way and please let me know that you want your art taken down. As a fellow artist, I understand wanting other people to not use your art (although I am personally fine with it as long as proper credit is given,) but if you’re more strict about it than I am, that’s totally okay too! Just let me know, and I’ll stop using your art immediately, will delete all icons I have of your art, as well as delete every single instance of your art being used on this blog.

• That being said, if you’re following me, please let me know if I’m doing something that’s making you uncomfortable or is breaking one of your rules!! I do read the rules pages of everyone, but I’m human and forget things, and I’m not a mind reader either ;~; I care, so please tell me if I’m ever doing anything bad

• You can reply to any of my open starters at any time! Even if they’re a year old! Even if other people have already replied to it! My open starters are open for a reason, and we don’t have to be mutuals for you to reply to them either :’)

—

–STUFF YOU SHOULD KEEP IN MIND–

• I am of age to do smut, but Ted is literally in kindergarten so that is a no for this blog! There might be occasional references to adult stuff, given the mature nature of the canon game, but that’s about it. No explicit smut in this house.

• This blog is not a spoiler-free one. I will not tag roleplays with spoilers, but anything else will be tagged with Kindergarten Spoilers

• I’m alright with roleplaying nsfw in general, minus smut. Gore, violence, and generally dark roleplays are cool with me. It should be, considering the game this character is from. I love angsty things just as much as I love fluff ;w; Speaking of gore, you’re more than welcome to fight/harm/injure my muse to any extent! You don’t even have to ask! If you want to do a rp where he dies, however, please dm me first.

• I prefer not to roleplay with personals, unless you are someone I know from school or something like that. Personals in general are allowed to follow me too! However! Personals are not allowed to reblog roleplays, in character posts, or ooc posts especially if I say in the tags that I’m going to delete the post later. Only things that are tagged with my “musings” or “art tag” tags are okay to reblog. Headcanon posts are not okay to reblog unless I say otherwise.

• Like spamming is okay! I very occasionally lose roleplays, and getting lots of notes from likes are never a factor for that, for me personally. If I lose a roleplay, it’s mostly just because I forgot, so that’s really a “me” thing. I’m usually very good at keeping track of who I’m roleplaying with and how many ongoing threads I have, and I reply pretty consistently, so just remind me if I haven’t responded after a week or more days (as stated in one of the above rules)! And I like it when people like my posts! It lets me know that you like my blog and the stuff I post, and it makes me happy :’)

• If you are an OC, I will assume our muses have never met unless you plan ahead with me what their relationship is like.

• That being said, characters who have already interacted in canon will know each other. Unless the roleplay takes place in a different point of time and we are staging their first meeting, of course.

• Doubles are welcome to interact too! Although currently I don’t know of much other Ted roleplay blogs lmao. I’m also cool with interacting with and following duplicates of different characters than my own muse!

• This blog will not have mains. Ted will not have any specific version of a muse that he’ll talk about in threads, unless the thread is specifically about that one muse for some reason. For Kindergarten blogs, he will typically be the Ted in your muse’s timeline in serious roleplays, unless your muse is part of an AU/UA/canon-divergent universe, or there are things about your muse’s backstory that would contradict Ted being in your timeline naturally, or you talk about it with me beforehand.

• I’m pretty lenient with short replies. Don’t feel pressured to match the length if my reply gets long! Multi-para (usually 2-5 paragraphs) is my go-to for roleplays, so I usually do long replies by default.

• Adding onto that, I honestly don’t mind one-liners. Of course, in crack/online roleplays it’s fine but I’m okay with it in serious roleplays too. I prefer it if you don’t give me one-liners, but hey, as long as I’m still having fun with the roleplay anyway, it’s cool with me! I understand not being able to think of anything to write, so just as long as you don’t give me one or two words as your reply like ‘He smiled.’ or ’*laughs*’, I’ll be cool with it. Put at least some effort even if you’re only gonna give me one sentence, otherwise I’ll drop the rp once it becomes a repeat offense.

• I will not change the formatting of my roleplays to fit yours. I’m comfortable with sticking to only paragraph style roleplays, thank you very much. Feel free to keep formatting your own posts though, because I think formatting looks really cool! I just don’t want to format my posts, however. I will not go all out with formatting my own posts with all that cool ‘small text’, and indents, and bolding and all that. The most I ever do with my formatting is italics for emphasis on certain words, and using icons.

• I tend to move roleplays from asks onto its own post. If I send you an ask meme and you answer it, I’ll respond by making a new post, tagging you, and linking to your reply.

• I accept any sort of asks! If they aren’t answered after a while, either I don’t know how to answer it or I might be drawing it out and I am a very slow artist- Sorry-

• Feel free to tag me in any of those tagging memes! I don’t mind and I think they’re pretty fun to do! ^^

• Adding onto the above rule, you’re more than welcome to send me those chain asks like “send this to 10 roleplayers you think are really great!” because it’s super duper nice that you would think to send one to me! But don’t expect me to send them to other people, because I won’t :’) my anxiety won’t let me, so I’m sorry-

• If I follow you, that means I’ve already read all of your rules. I might not send the codephrase, though, because most of the time I get very anxious over having to send things like that. I’m very sorry–! But if I follow you then chances are that I have definitely read them before following- If you choose not to trust me on this, I understand.

• I generally follow every rp blog that follows me, but I might not follow some people back for a few reasons. Some might be for the type of content you post on your blog, but I am still non-selective! I will roleplay with anyone who asks (unless you wanna rp gross things or you’re a mean person,,,, like your muse can be as much of a dick as you want, that’s no problem but don’t be gross to other people as yourself) and if I do roleplay with you, I will be more likely to follow you as well.

• Adding onto the above rule, however, please respect that it’s nothing personal if I ever unfollow you either! It’s not that I hate you or anything, but if you haven’t followed me back and you’re a private rp blog, or if we’re mutuals but never really roleplay, our muses just don’t click, you spam stuff that I don’t want to see on my dash, or you’ve become inactive for years and/or don’t interact with me anymore, there’s nothing wrong with that! We can still be friends but I prefer to have all the people I follow be potential rp partners. Feel free to follow me on my personal, Briightskies, if you still wanna keep in touch but not rp :’)

—

–ABOUT THIS BLOG–

• This blog is OC, multiverse, and crossover friendly! I love OCs and have many of my own tbh, you’re all more than welcome to come rp with me!!

• I’ll also rp with fandoms I’m not into either, as long as you have a good about section for your character, which also indicates how you portray them (any headcanons or AUs you have that aren’t canon, or whether you portray them as canonly as possible, unless they’re OCs of course since a regular about page is a given) and I’ll probably look up other things about that fandom in its wiki if I don’t know what something is anyway.

• This blog is multiship and will only ship with other child muses! Kid crushes are adorable! I used to have many crushes as a child, and the game does depict children crushing on each other or outright ‘dating’. So any relationships my muse is involved in, are in different timelines unless specified. Poly relationships aren’t bad though, just saying. I ship pretty much anything unless it’s incest or if they’re children paired with someone a lot older. Because Ted is a child, he won’t really get intimate with his partners, but romantic stuff is okay.

• I also only ship with chemistry. My muses need to get to know yours first, so don’t get disappointed if he only sees you as a friend/acquaintance at first and has no intention of pursuing a romantic relationship with your muse. Give my muse reasons to care about your muse and let the feelings develop naturally, and don’t ever force your muse on mine. Unless it’s to mess with him, or whatever other reason. Unrequited stuff is absolutely okay with me too!

• I will tag common triggers and such, but don’t be afraid to tell me if you have something you want me to tag! I promise I’ll remember to tag it from then on. I do not have any known triggers myself. Any trigger warning tags will be written as “tw; ____” with a semi-colon, not a colon. If I feel like something should be tagged as a trigger but I’m not sure what to tag it exactly, I’ll just tag it as “tw” as a sort of catch-all tag.

Requested tagged triggers:

none right now

• I will only talk through the IM system ooc. If you send me a message through there, I will not respond with ooc brackets ((these things)) because I will automatically assume you know that you’re talking to the mun. I do not do roleplays on there.

Thank you for reading this really long list of rules! It means a lot if you did!

There’s no password, because I’m also anxious with those for other people’s blogs as I said above. But if you would like to interact with me, you can shoot me an ask directed to my muse, or like one of my starter call posts at any time (also feel free to re-like those posts so I can make another starter for you at any time!) for me to write you a starter!

#links for mobile users #rules #|| I Did A Thing! || Blog updates.

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eggoreviews · 6 years ago

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Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Rate Their Chances #1

Hi! This is a new thingy I’m trying based on the RTC series by Smash youtuber Billybo10k where I’m gonna take 5 characters, weigh up whether or not they’d potentially make into Smash as DLC and then give them a chance and a want score out of 100. Hoping to make this a regular thing so if you’re reading this and want me to rate a character, drop me a comment!

The characters I’ll be rating in this post are:

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

Bandana Waddle Dee (Kirby series)

Rex (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

Rayman (Rayman series)

Hope u enjoy!

Geno

Okay so, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months (or depending how long you’ve been into Smash, the past 12 years or so), you probably know all about Geno by now. Geno is a character who gained an unprecedented amount of fan support after only appearing and having a major role in one game that was made over 20 years ago, Super Mario RPG.

In terms of his moveset, Geno, as far as I’m aware, is a puppet who ended up harnessing the power of a star. His main sort of ‘thing’ in his home game is the gun on the end of his hand, so Geno would likely end up being similar to Mega Man in some regards, though obviously not with the powers Mega Man uses from the various bosses in his home series.

And I won’t beat around the bush. Geno has a very, very good shot of making it in. For lots of reasons. First off, we’re now aware that the Smash ballot from Smash 4′s DLC had a direct influence on the newcomers for this game, with the likes of Ridley and King K. Rool, both major fan requests, joining the roster. There is no doubt in my mind that Geno did extremely well on the ballot and, on top of this, Sakurai has actively tried to negotiate Geno into the game before back in Brawl, but Square Enix (the current owners of Geno, considering they were the developers of Super Mario RPG) were unwilling to play ball. But now? We have CLOUD from Final Fantasy in Smash, not to mention Geno’s mii costume from Smash 4, who was the only mii costume to get his own splash screen. Sakurai knows how much people want Geno.

The only potential sticking points for Geno I can see are more on Square’s end than Nintendo’s. Geno’s inclusion all hinges on whether or not Square is going to want to hand over the rights to a dead character. That is, Square Enix could be so unwilling to hand over Geno because they want to include more marketable characters that still have relevance. For example, Sora, as Kingdom Hearts III is just around the corner. And if Ultimate is all about the most requested characters making the cut, why wasn’t Geno in the base roster? Not saying this drops his chances hugely, it’s just a thing to note, as it’s not as if Geno had the problem other characters such as Spring Man had where they came into existence too late to be considered.

With all of this in mind, I’m going to give Geno a 65% chance of making it into DLC. All of the factors in Geno’s favour, as well as credible leaker Vergeben repeatedly mentioning a new Square Enix rep, put Geno in a very good position. But hey, nothing’s certain. And Sakurai has confirmed on Twitter that Nintendo made the selections for this game’s DLC line-up, so it’s really down to both Nintendo and Square whether or not they’d want to include a character that isn’t marketable to people outside of the core Smash fanbase. But as for a want score, I’m going to give Geno a 35%. Nothing against this wooden boi, I’d just rather see Sora or a Dragon Quest character make it over Geno in terms of Square reps. Plus, I have no real attachment to the character.

Sora

Now onto the other Square Enix rep in this post, as well as my third most wanted character, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, the big strange crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. Is he a good fit for Smash? Well, he’s got his huge freakin keyblade and a whole host of spells he could utilise in his moveset, so the answer is very easily a yes. And the thing is that Sora has one big leg up over Geno in terms of chances; relevancy. But I suppose it all depends on what is being taken into consideration when characters are chosen for DLC. For the base roster, it seemed to be all about fan demand, specifically drawing popular picks from the Smash ballot. But now that Nintendo as a whole is choosing who joins the fight, I’d say we’re much more likely to get marketable characters such as Sora (Basically what I’m saying here is, don’t expect another character like Piranha Plant. As much as I love Piranha Plant). And in terms of Nintendo history, Sora’s home series has made its way onto several of Nintendo’s handhelds over the years in the form of spin-off titles.

Sora, like every character, has a couple of hurdles though. The moveset potential, the Nintendo history and the fan demand are all there, but at the end of the day, it’s all down to whether or not Disney want to play ball. Because, contrary to what some people are saying, Sora is in fact owned by Disney and not Square Enix, as Disney hold the rights to all Kingdom Hearts characters that are original to the series. While Disney are notoriously stingy when it comes to their properties, I have little doubt that they would hand over Sora if it benefited them directly. Right now, we know that Kingdom Hearts III is not scheduled to appear on the Switch, but with a sort of ‘Switch Pro’ rumoured to be around the corner, KH3 could feasibly be ported over. And with Sora being exclusively a video game character, they really aren’t going to be saving him for anything else, are they?

For me, there’s a hell of a lot of factors going either way for Sora for me to be convinced either way, as Sora is a very difficult character to speculate on when Disney is involved. But he has a good chance. Right now, with things as they stand, I’m going to give Sora a 50% chance of appearing in DLC. It honestly could go either way. But as my third most wanted character, Sora gets a 95% want score. Kingdom Hearts made up a lot of my childhood and I’d love to see him included.

Bandana Waddle Dee

The bias is alive and well in this post as we take a look at our third character, and my second most wanted character, Bandana Waddle Dee from the Kirby series. At first glance, Bandana Dee could be dismissed as a weird side character or generic ‘mook’ character that has no place in Smash among the other iconic characters in the series. But this is very, very wrong. Bandana Dee has cemented himself in the Kirby series as the fundamental player 4 in the series, making regular appearances as the fourth protagonist of most of the modern Kirby games, most recently appearing as one of the three main dream friends in Kirby Star Allies alongside King Dedede and Meta Knight. And boy, does he have a lot of fan support. In Japan especially, Bandana Dee has an INSANE amount of support and this undoubtedly would’ve shown up on the ballot. And I have no doubt that Sakurai would be able to create a moveset for this perfect boi, especially considering we’ve never had a spear user in Smash before.

However, Bandana Dee’s issues come with what Nintendo’s priorities are in this latest cycle of DLC. We aren’t sure on what goes into consideration when picking these characters but my best guess, as I have stated above, is how marketable the character is, not just to the hardcore Smash fans, but to the casual players as well. Nintendo are likely going to be looking at what characters are most likely to sell as DLC, as well as what characters are going to promote their other titles. And I’m not entirely sure Bandana Dee fits this. Sure, Kirby Star Allies recently was released and, if he came with a Star Allies stage (yes pls), this could be a good promotional push for that game and there’s no doubt that Bandana Dee would sell well as DLC considering how many people love him. But with a new Fire Emblem game coming next year, alongside other potential first party reps Nintendo could’ve prioritised, it could be that my poor lil Bandana boy fell by the wayside this time.

Overall, I’m giving Bandana Dee a 60% chance of appearing. I’m fairly confident in his chances, as he’s a well-loved first party rep with a unique moveset potential and unquestionable marketability (I mean come on, tell me you wouldn’t buy him). But it’s all down to what Nintendo wants to promote in this cycle of DLC and whether they’ll want to keep their focus on upcoming titles or try and sell more of preexisting ones. But my want score for Bandana Dee is honestly a 100%. I love Bandana Dee and his design so, so much and I really want to see the Kirby set completed. Pls let it happen Nintnondo.

Rex

Rex is the main protagonist of the recent and extremely popular Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The character has a lot of fan support, is from a relevant franchise and is a Nintendo owned series that they’re going to want to promote. So why don’t I think he’s getting in?

Let’s break it down. I can see Rex being an obvious choice for DLC, especially if Nintendo themselves are choosing who gets in this time, as first party reps with a good amount of relevancy are more likely to take precedence. But after this last Smash direct, his chances are slim to say the least. Sakurai stated during this direct’s reveal of Rex’s mii costume: ‘We decided which fighters to include when we started planning, so we couldn’t add characters from titles like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which was announced after planning had started. I hope this outfit will help you feel like you’re playing as Rex.’ So basically, I think this is an instant death sentence for Rex. Sakurai recognised how popular Rex was, so wanted to make sure the Xenoblade fans knew he wasn’t getting in so they wouldn’t be disappointed further down the line. And yet, I’ve still seen people all over the internet saying that Rex is a ‘guaranteed lock’ and he’s the most likely character n everything. And I don’t wanna kill these people’s hype but the proof is right there in that sentence. I feel like the people who are still predicting and asking for Rex didn’t see that part of the direct, or at least didn’t fully understand what Sakurai was saying. Rex isn’t getting in.

So with this in mind, Rex gets a 1% chance of appearing in DLC. While I’m confident he won’t be one of the 5 announced, the 1% is on the slim offchance we get a second season of DLC, which I don’t see happening either, as this cycle would bring us up to early 2020, which is almost exactly how long Smash 4′s DLC cycle lasted, as the game released 2014 and the last two DLC characters, Corrin and Bayonetta, were added in early 2016. On top of this, I’d say 5 more characters is plausibly our final roster for this game, considering Smash 4 had 7 DLC fighters and three of those were returning veterans. So yeah, I’m really not holding out hope for a season 2 and, in turn, Rex. But for a want score, Rex gets a 70%. Shulk is one of my mains and I love the look of the Xenoblade series, even though I haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. Rex is someone I’d like to see, though there’s another Xenoblade character I would much prefer that I’ll cover in a future post.

Rayman

And here we are, at my most wanted character, Rayman. With Rayman at the top of my want list, I have put a lot more research into him than I would other characters, but I promise I will avoid bias in my final rating. Lessgo.

Rayman is an iconic third party gaming mascot owned by Ubisoft. And bias aside, he has a hell of a lot going for him. His moveset basically writes itself, as he could utilise items and attacks from his various mainline games and, as much as I wouldn’t be too hot on this, the Rabbid spin-off games too. I have no doubt in my mind that Rayman would be a perfect fit for Smash and would blend in well among the other third party mascots in the game, as he has a notable Nintendo history considering the majority of his games have appeared on Nintendo consoles. On top of this, he’s been a fan request for some time. After the infamous ArtsyOmni leak during Smash 4′s development cycle that falsely revealed Rayman would be in the game, he surely would’ve received a huge boost in support that definitely would show up on the ballot. While this is just speculation on my part, I think it’s pretty safe speculation. But would Nintendo and Ubisoft be able to negotiate Rayman for the game? I think the answer is very easily a yes. Nintendo and Ubisoft were already working on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle back in 2015, showing a partnership between the two companies that has continued all the way through Ultimate’s development cycle. As well as this, Nintendo recently lended Ubisoft one of their characters, Fox from Star Fox, to appear in the Switch edition of Starlink: Battle For Atlas. Nintendo lending characters like this isn’t exactly common and I think it’s extremely likely that Ubisoft will return the favour by lending one of their characters to a Nintendo IP. And where better to put him than Smash? As a final lil thing, the Rabbids have been included in Smash Ultimate as spirits, while Rayman himself appeared in Smash 4 as a trophy when he had no other content in the game. So Ubisoft already have a presence in Smash.

As for what’s standing in Rayman’s way, a lot of his hurdles can be very easily worked around. Some people have been citing Rayman’s recent inclusion into Brawlhalla as a reason why he won’t make it into Smash. But Ubisoft bought out the company that makes Brawlhalla, Blue Mammoth Games, making Brawlhalla their property. So of course they’re going to put their own character into their own game. And if Ryu can be in Marvel vs Capcom whilst also joining Smash 4 in DLC, Rayman can likely do the same. And it isn’t as if his inclusion would ‘sabotage’ Brawlhalla, as he likely wouldn’t even be announced until 2019, giving Ubisoft an ample amount of time to build hype for Brawlhalla. But now we know Nintendo are choosing who joins the fight in DLC this time around, is it likely that they’d have chosen Rayman? Honestly, it could go either way. We have no way of knowing if there will even be third party characters in DLC, though my best guess is that there will be, as I think Nintendo is well aware that characters like Rayman would sell extremely well. And like I’ve already stated, Nintendo and Ubisoft are on really good terms and Ubisoft have yet to lend a character to Nintendo in the same way that Nintendo lended Fox. So with this in mind, Rayman could very easily be one of the five characters negotiated.

I promised I’d keep my bias aside for my final rating, but without considering what I want, the amount of evidence for Rayman’s inclusion is compelling. However, nothing is certain and it’s just as likely that Rayman could’ve been skipped over altogether. We have no idea how these negotiations take place or what Nintendo is looking for in bringing new characters to the roster. But taking all of this into consideration, Rayman gets a 70% chance of joining the roster. I know that’s high, but I’m confident in this rating. He’s got everything lined up in his favour, so it all depends on how the chips fall. But as for a want score, Rayman of course gets a 100%. Nothing really matches Rayman in terms of wanted characters for me so here’s hoping he makes the cut.

Thanks so much for reading! As I said, if you’d like me to rate a character, go ahead and drop a suggestion in the comments and I’ll rate them in the next post that should go out within a week or so. I’ll also be logging each character that I rate in a lil spreadsheet that you can check out here to keep track of all the ratings or whatever. Stay hydrated my dudes.

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aparticularbandit · 6 years ago

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returning to myers-briggs discussions, i’d previously pegged rose as an intj (and hadn’t liked it because it fell into the general “your sociopath character is an intj” trope which i really don’t like - although fun fact, i don’t think hannibal is an intj. but also he’s technically not a sociopath or something that can be defined by psychology etc. whatever). but despite my efforts, it seemed to fit.

intj has the primary ni function and the secondary te function, which means the main function for self-saving is the subconscious aha! moment and the secondary function that deals with other people is graphs and bringing external order to thought.

i don’t necessarily think this is still accurate. mostly because i don’t think rose is a te. i think elena is a te, and i think the plan rose mentioned to luisa in episode fourteen was elena’s plan, not rose’s, and i think the primary reason rose decided to stop working with elena and kill her (and derek) instead was elena’s kidnapping of luisa. (if she didn’t leave her over being with emilio for five years and instead stuck to a plan that put her in a situation she hated, which may have made her want to leave but she didn’t, luisa becomes a primary factor here.)

however, i think my original reasoning for having rose be a te stemmed from s2 and her out-thinking and outmaneuvering elena, as well as keeping michael off of elena’s trail until he could put elena in prison where she wanted her, as well as allowing derek time to escape.

but this doesn’t necessarily have to be a te action.

and where we have very clear moments of luisa showing herself as an e, f, and p, we might have moments of that with rose as well. but rose, for me, is harder. ish. because we don’t see as much of rose, and as a character, that makes her more fluid and more open to interpretation, or more variable in interpretation. but there are some things that tend to stick, and that’s interesting to me, so.

first and foremost, i tend to peg rose as a t. this gives a strong conflict to luisa’s f, which is good for story-telling and if you’re into mb for relational purposes, having the opposite here tends to be beneficial (although this is one where having the same is fine - relational best match mb isn’t something i tend to get into much, but it’s fun to look at. that said, an intj’s best match is enfp or entp, neither of which is luisa, although I suppose a case could be made for enfp if you make her ne instead of se, but that’s the brainstorming function that i really don’t think she has. anyway). i also think this is where a lot of the conflict we see in rose and luisa’s reactions to their external conflicts comes from, as exemplified with eileen and everything to do with raf in s3 (which, admittedly, i haven’t seen all of. i mostly skipped s3. don’t judge me).

rose threatens eileen because, logically, this works, this has worked, this should continue to work. rose doesn’t trust raf because, logically, she has no reason to do so. she is given evidence that he might be onto her, and raf has consistently worked with the police. logically, this makes sense.

luisa doesn’t like rose threatening eileen because you don’t treat people that way. luisa trusts raf because he is her brother and she sees no reason for him to lie to her. her thoughts and decisions are based in her emotional relation to eileen and raf. emotionally, this makes sense.

but the difference creates conflict between the two of them, one which we see both catering to when the need is pressing enough. luisa relies on rose’s logic when they leave, and rose relies on luisa’s emotions when they return.

but also rose outmaneuvering characters throughout s1 and s2 (and would have in s3 if she hadn’t returned with luisa) is a very t thing.

the main discrepancy with making rose a t is her actions in regards to luisa, which are very much heart-based, not head-based. and this is the interesting thing because rose, as a sociopath, lacks empathy. not as completely as a psychopath, but that aspect is still there. when she relies on luisa, she’s relying on luisa’s overabundance of what she lacks (in the same way that luisa does with rose, not in the form of intellect (because luisa is a genius) but in the form of logical common sense (which, notably, luisa does not have much of); it’s an interesting form of conflict and resolution).

anyway.

rose also tends to be an i to luisa’s e. again, this works well for conflict and compatibility. woo! but really, that shouldn’t be how you type a character. we also see rose clearly acting as an i throughout the series, most notably the submarine, which is a huge recharge moment for her (although i suppose the caymans could be considered one as well, we just don’t see that). rose keeps very much to herself, she doesn’t talk about herself, but then most of the time she isn’t herself. (that said, i think as emilio’s wife, the rose solano mask, rose had to appear more extroverted than she truly is.)

this is interesting, though, because clara, as i’ve been writing her, feels more extroverted. she likes being with people, she likes communal things because even though she can’t connect with people on an empathy level this allows her to connect on a mob mentality level (ish, i don’t like that term), but even then, she does pull away and is by herself frequently. it also looks like the introvert aspect is something that’s fairly well accepted, so sticking with that.

rose is definitely a j (again, conflict/compatibility bonus). i don’t think she’s a strong j, because her organization and scheduling (and keeping to the timeline)—

hm.

see, and this is interesting because although i do think rose is more of a j than luisa is (and fandom seems to also paint her as a j), i can see an ambivalence here. rose mentions a timeline and is organized, but that feels like elena’s influence more than natural rose. we see rose most in the moments where she steps out of that - when she kills emilio, when she sends luisa to the mental institute, when she kills tom the bellhop - all of which are antithesis to the timeline itself. this is even more poignant in relation to sleeping with heidi prior to the series (or even going to the girl bar where she met luisa), which were likely impulsive decisions made that could potentially have jeopardized whatever elena wanted her to do (particularly in regards to their argument overheard by heidi).

but perhaps that is more rebelliousness and a need to be herself than an indication of a p vibe. rose’s actions in s2 (and in s4, to some extent) show a very organized vibe (particularly in regards to having an escape plan provided luisa deposits the funds - this is a very j thing to do).

so still on the side of j vs. p.

now, this is more interesting, because in the side of n vs. s, i think rose might actually be an s, and it’s part of what makes her so interesting as a villain and as an opponent to elena (even though we don’t really see that). as i mentioned in luisa’s analysis, s is more concrete and n is more abstract, but s is also more little details and n is more big picture, and Rose excels at the small details. it’s the little details that cause her actions mentioned in the j vs. p discussion (killing emilio and tom, sending luisa to the mental institute), and it’s the little details she can catch that elena can’t that lead to her success. rose is able to set things up under elena’s nose - with derek, no less! - and get away with it because elena trusts her to take care of those details. and rose does until she doesn’t anymore. it’s the little details that make her suspicious of raf, the little things adding up to a bigger picture.

but it’s also a lack of the little details with susanna that get her caught by michael (and also a complete ignorance of them by buying powdered donuts when she left with luisa like seriously rose - but even then, that’s a little detail for luisa that she wanted, so).

the problem here is this: istj still leaves the te that i don’t think fits with rose, and the above examples of s that i give fit more with se than they do with si, which would be the istj function. further, if you read the description for the ti function, that fits fairly well with the s and t descriptions given - the actions rose takes during s1 are ones meant to make the least changes to their overall system.

but se/ti leads to istp or estp - in which case, i’d argue rose as an istp (ti to help herself (because making the smallest changes to keep the system in place would protect her from elena) and se to help others (very grounded in the present moment, etc.)) which leads to something interesting:

rose and luisa both have a crossover essential function, and that is that se function, that being grounded in the present. while comparatively rose is definitely more j than luisa is, she can be flexible and impulsive and spontaneous, and that’s complementary to luisa. but their main conflict, then, is that ti/fi conflict - the internal logic vs the internal feelings. (and where luisa uses her se to help herself, rose is using it to help others - interestingly enough they would both be using it for luisa and this grounding her.)

#rose solano #musings #bandit brainstorms #luisa alver #roisa #and while yes rose could be ne and have the brainstorming function #and that would also work well with her because she could be more abstract #ish #i don’t think necessarily that’s a thing i think she’s more concrete than abstract #making rose ne and introvert would make her an intp #and as an intp #her mind doesn’t work like mine does

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xb-squaredx · 6 years ago

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A Rebuttal to Waluigi in Smash Bros.

During E3 2018, Nintendo finally unveiled Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a new entry in the series that made headlines with the statement that every single playable character would make a return, alongside some new faces. With Inklings, Daisy and Ridley making the jump to playable characters, many fans were crestfallen when Waluigi was confirmed to once again be an Assist Trophy and wouldn’t be joining the roster as a full-fledged character. For some fans at least, this quickly turned to anger and lead to harassment directed at Masahiro Sakurai himself. But I’m here today to show that Waluigi simply cannot be playable in Super Smash Bros….but not for the reasons you might be thinking.

When looking at just who makes the cut in Super Smash Bros., there are a number of criteria, unspoken or otherwise. As the series has gone on, just about every corner of Nintendo’s stable has seen representation in one way or another, with even cult hits like Xenoblade Chronicles getting a playable representative with Shulk. Of course, that has since been established as an ongoing series, with two games being released afterward and gaining quite a bit of acclaim, so maybe that’s not the best example. But look to some of the more obscure fighters in Smash and you’ll generally have a good reason for why they were included. For some, like Ridley, it is due to overwhelming fan demand, while for others like Little Mac or Duck Hunt, these are meant as nods to Nintendo’s classic days. It helps that in Little Mac’s case, the Wii Punch Out! game was quite successful. Characters like R.O.B. or Mr. Game & Watch similarly might not be getting any new games anytime soon, but they have historical significance. Since Brawl Nintendo has even extended olive branches to characters from outside of their wheelhouse, and looking at them now, they’re real somebodies in the industry, icons even. Snake comes from a series famous for its cinematic look and stealth mechanics, while Sonic and Mega Man are platforming icons on par with Mario. Ryu is probably THE most well-known fighting game character ever, and Cloud can be considered one of the most well-known JRPG protagonists bar none. As Sakurai has said in the past, “Not just ANYONE can be in Smash.”

So with that in mind, what are Waluigi’s credentials? Being a part of Mario’s cast, he’s in just about every spinoff game, be it a sports title or the Mario Kart and Mario Party series, so with that alone he’s hardly obscure. He also does have quite a bit of fandom behind him, if the recent attacks against Sakurai haven’t shown that; there are simply a LOT of people that have grown to like the guy over the years. I think as far as that criteria is concerned, Waluigi has a decent shot, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle.

Looking at Smash’s roster, you have to consider that this is a fighting game, and with it, characters need to be able to fight. There have been many characters that simply didn’t make the cut due to problems creating moves with which to fight, famously an Animal Crossing rep and Miis. However, as we can see with Smash 4, Sakurai found a way to make them work, but they clearly took some time. There are also technological considerations as well. Ice Climbers didn’t make it into 4 because the 3DS couldn’t handle them, and up until Ultimate, Ridley’s size was a big factor in axing him from the list of potential newcomers. I wouldn’t say that Waluigi has that many problems when it comes to putting him into the game, though. I’ll be honest in that his list of games doesn’t really give him much to go on in terms of a cohesive moveset at first glance, but plenty of characters in Smash get moves and powers thought up just for the occasion. Most of Ness’ PSI moves are from his other party members in Earthbound, for one, and Samus has never had rocket boots in any Metroid game, that’s for sure! So really, the sky is the limit for a potential Waluigi moveset, and with how zany of a character he is he could definitely be someone that could spice up the game…but really, I think there’s a deeper reason why Waluigi can’t make the jump to a full-on fighter: it’d go against his very character.

Go on a journey with me here, back to the year 2000, where the Nintendo 64 Mario Tennis saw release. Waluigi was also birthed here, out of sheer necessity. Each character in the game needed a doubles partner and with everyone else paired up, Wario was all alone. It was here that an “evil Luigi” was created, and he’s been with us since. I think that Waluigi’s creation here is quite telling; of the core Mario characters, he’s the only one who didn’t debut in a core Mario platformer. Even the likes of Birdo was a common enemy in Super Mario Bros 2 USA, a game that might not “count” to some fans, but has nevertheless had elements integrated into the Mario series since. He is the eternal outsider, someone who always seems to exist on the sidelines. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. This has since become a core component of his character.

Of the core Mario cast, Waluigi has never even gotten his own spinoff game, while his…friend Wario has had TWO spinoffs after debuting as a rival for Mario. Toad has even gotten his own game in the form of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for God’s sake! Even though he’s guaranteed to be in most spinoffs, he’s one of the few characters that are often omitted. He wasn’t in Mario Kart 7, famously, and he’s never starred in any of the Mario RPGS (barring a Rabbid version of him in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle), and that all seems quite deliberate. Going off of his character, as we’ve seen primarily in the spin-off titles, Waluigi seeks glory and recognition, and as described by his voice actor, Charles Martinet, he wallows in self-pity. To give him a starring role in his very own game, or even make him playable in the video game world’s largest crossover…why that just wouldn’t work!

If you so much as glance at Super Smash Bros. you can see that Sakurai puts an insane amount of work into each and every facet of the game, making sure all the littlest details are right. Sakurai really strives to make sure every fighter is as faithful as physically possible. Inklings need to refill ink, Ryu has Light, Medium and Heavy versions of all his attacks like in Street Fighter, and even Ridley, while scaled down a bit, is still designed as a powerhouse who throws his weight around like the boss monster he is. So in enters Waluigi, a character defined by being an outsider, someone who dreams of glory that he’ll never gain, who constantly asks for others to pity him, and what does Sakurai do? He gives him what he deserves.

I don’t think Nintendo, or Sakurai for that matter, hates Waluigi. In fact, I think Nintendo’s grown to love the lanky guy, but they’re committed to the bit at this point. I mean, he’s nearly 20 years old, so if they were going to give him his own game or have him star in a mainline Mario game, or even Luigi’s Mansion or one of Wario’s games, they would have done so by now. He exists in a strange state of limbo, created out of necessity, not really belonging anywhere and lacking any real link to Mario, when you think about it. It reminds me of a critical essay taking a look at Waluigi in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone that’s since gone viral. The author in question, Franck Ribery, states that “Waluigi is the true nowhere man, without the other characters he reflects, inverts and parodies he has no reason to exist. Waluigi’s identity only comes from what and who he isn’t – without a wider frame of reference he is nothing. He is not his own man.” Waluigi can be there whenever we need a funny villain, but he is forever denied an entrance point to the big time. That feeds into his popularity as an Internet meme, really. People love him, root for him, but him getting his way would betray his character, so really an Assist Trophy is the best he can hope for when it comes to Smash Bros.

Or maybe Sakurai is really just trolling everyone. Yeah, even I don’t think he’s that malicious, but people can dream!

Until next time,

-B

#xb-squaredx #blog #waluigi #smash bros #smash ultimate #masahiro sakurai #sakurai #assist trophy #waaaah #nintendo switch

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internetandnetwork · 4 years ago

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How to Set Goals for Every Piece of Content You Create?

Are you feeling guilty for creating and posting content just for the sake of it?

Perhaps somebody told you once that publishing 800-word blogs regularly is a foolproof way to boost your presence on the SERPs because ‘search engines love fresh new content.’

Or maybe you are just used to creating as many content pieces as possible just to check a box against an essential from your list, emphasizing more on the quantity of the published posts instead of quality.

If this sounds anything like your ‘content strategy,’ then you need to put it off right away!

The reason being is that you are just wasting your time and resources.

More likely than not, creating content without any goals is doing little to no favor to your brand. Also, there’s a good chance that most of these are ranking as thin content without any unique value.

But it’s time to change your old habits and plan out a real and solid content strategy that will do something good for your brand. All you need to do is understand how you can set goals for every piece of content you create, and in this blog, that’s precisely what we are going to discuss.

The Purpose of Your Content

First of all, you need to ask yourself that as a brand, why are you creating content. And then just write down whatever answers you can think of at the moment. Prepare a list (hopefully, there are enough answers). Some common answers can be:

….so that our blog looks active

…because Google likes seeing fresh content

…because our manager wants five posts going out weekly

If these are the kind of answers you have come up with, then you are just creating content for the sake of doing so.

Your content has no real purpose and clearly, no goals. This is a big mistake and a waste of your time, effort, and resources.

Each and every content you create must have a purpose. It should be seeking one or more bigger marketing goals.

You should be able to explain to anybody who asks why you wrote that blog or crafted that infographic.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common purposes of content creation, but remember there’s always and will be exceptions.

4 Common Purposes of Content Creation

In most cases, content is typically created to:

Earn more links

Rank better on SERPs

Educate the audience

Drive social media engagement

The key lies in understanding what a particular content piece can do for your brand.

How can it work towards achieving your bigger marketing goals?

Is it actually good enough to accomplish them?

Does it have to be in a specific format to serve the purpose?

Let’s dive in-depth on these four purposes of creating content.

Earn More Links

Link building is one of the most crucial aspects of SEO, and a lot of brands use content marketing as a link building technique.

If you are also one of those brands, then your content should be made in a way that it is easily accessible to journalists and top-tier publications.

Keep ‘linkable assets’ in mind, and you will probably be on the right track. Some of the most common types of content made with the purpose of acquiring more links are:

Infographics

Guest posts

Surveys

Interactive tools

Offering expert comments

Remember, there is no single content format to acquire links, and nobody is expecting you to stick with one form of content throughout. Right when you are at the planning phase of your campaign strategy, keep in mind that ‘earning links’ is your ultimate goal.

Also, we are not talking about a 5000-word long blog post here; instead we are talking about a linkable piece of content that is capable of adding a new unique data-driven value to a specific topic.

Besides being in this field, we all must be aware that links are one of the key ranking factors that Google uses, and without strong links, you will most likely struggle to acquire site visibility.

Having said that, every business, whether they are an eCommerce giant or a brick and mortar establishment competing on a local scale, needs to create content with the purpose of earning more quality links.

Moreover, content created with the intention of gaining links has to be fabulous – not just good or great, fabulous!

Among this cut-throat competition, link building is becoming harder day by day. But with the right idea and understanding of your goals, both ideation and creation process can align and deliver content that serves this purpose well.

Rank Better on SERPs

In order to earn traffic organically from search, you need to obtain a top-ranking position.

That’s it.

Ranking with trash content has become a thing of the past now. Gone are those days for good.

When your purpose is to rank higher on the SERPs to gain organic search traffic, you will have to build content totally different from what you would make to earn links.

That’s absolutely okay.

Once again, it’s all about understanding the content purpose and aligning the content format and creation to your goals i.e., rank better on SERPs.

Let’s understand it better with an example.

If you have conducted keyword research and found that you can potentially acquire high-quality traffic by earning a top-ranking position for the search term “best places to eat in Spain.”

Now when your content purpose only is to rank higher, it is self-explanatory that your content should be the ‘best content’ around that specific topic.

Keep this in mind while working on your content, and you will already be a lot ahead of most competitors. But this is also the area where most of them fail.

Let’s see why.

If you want to acquire a leading ranking position for the search term “best places to eat in Spain,” you will probably struggle unless you build the best of the best content piece available online.

Think for yourself. Every search engine wants to display the best, detailed, and most relevant results for any search query. So why would they even rank a content in a prominent position that is not up to the mark?

That’s right; they won’t.

When it comes to producing the best content, you need first to realize what makes a content better than other pieces. Surprisingly, you can do it simply by taking some time to analyze the SERPs for the keywords you want to target before you proceed with the content creation.

Particularly, analyze the web pages holding the first three positions in the SERPs (those are the most important ones). This will help you in creating content better than them or at least equally good as theirs.

Also, another misconception around this is you can snatch away the top spot from a content by just increasing the length of your piece.

We wish it were that easy.

However, it goes way beyond this. You need to consider the user intent, user experience, and various other factors.

Imagine this: let’s say you have successfully found 100+ best places to eat in Spain. But think about it, who would actually want to read a bulleted list straight away? Does that sound like a piece of content deserving the ‘first’ ranking position?

Here you need to understand what the user came looking for in the first place. What do they want to know through your content?

On the other hand, let’s suppose you create a comprehensive guide, mentioning the location, images, contact details, menu, reviews, and popular tourist destinations around it. Now, this is the kind of content that deserves a prominent ranking position in the SERPs because it satisfies the user intent and query.

When your content purpose is to rank, your focus should be on delivering quality, not quantity.

Educate the Audience

Typically, content is created as a marketing material.

Meaning content will always be made with the intention of educating the audience and helping the potential leads and customers move through the sales funnel.

In a lot of cases, there are many crossovers between content created with the intention of educating the audience and that for ranking. However, there are also cases where they are created individually.

When it comes to building content that educates the audience, make an effort to find out what questions are crossing the readers’ minds, and carry out a comprehensive content gap analysis against your competition.

This will make sure that:

When a prospect searches for information related to the product or service you are offering, you have created content that properly answers their questions, and it is ranking on SERPs.

Once the prospect lands on your websites, there should be content that further helps them move smoothly through the sales funnel.

Remember, informative content can take many different forms. As long as you can explain how it helps you achieve your broader marketing goals, every content format works well.

Drive Social Media Engagement

Living in the era of social media, you just cannot ignore it.

Many brands have realized its importance and are already utilizing it to boost their brand awareness and engagement.

However, to enjoy true success, you need to build content with the sole purpose of driving social media engagement.

Well, we all know that interesting content formats like videos, quizzes, polls, images, and other fun content works wonders on social media platforms. And that’s what exactly brands should focus on building.

A 5000-word long blog post built to rank better on the SERPs will perhaps fail terribly on social media because that’s not what the social community members want to engage with unless there is something exciting that can create a lot of buzzes, likes, and shares.

But a poll and quiz competition can work like a charm across these platforms.

Focus on creating content with a purpose and make sure it meets the goals. As long as it serves its purpose, everything’s cool.

Conclusion

Marketers often tend to try and create a piece of content that serves multiple purposes – that can rank better on SERPs, educate the audience, acquire more links, and also drive social media engagement. But that’s not likely to happen.

Remember, content is in no way a one-size-fits-all type of thing. Trying to tick all the boxes with one content piece will get you nowhere.

As a brand, you must realize this. Content creation requires an investment of time, efforts, workforce, resources, and money. Targeting too many things with one content will make things messy, and it will be all just a waste of all these resources once again.

It’s better to focus on a single purpose, create a dedicated content around it, execute it well, and enjoy greater rewards. Sometimes, there might be a crossover of different purposes but always focus on identifying one reason you decided to make this content piece. So, take your time to educate your team and ensure that every member is on the same page. Understanding and setting each content piece’s goal will help you drive real success and make sure your resources are not wasted.

Hariom Balhara is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles for Tireless IT Services. Tireless IT Services is a digital marketing, SEO, SMO, PPC, and web development company that comes with massive experiences. We specialize in digital marketing, web designing and development, graphic design, and a lot more.

SOURCE : How to Set Goals for Every Piece of Content You Create?

#Content #SERP #content strategy #Tireless IT Services #digital marketing #content marketing #Social Media

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halvatir · 7 years ago

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Hello mizu! Its okay if you're too busy/don't want to do it but could you do the more detailed character ask for flanel and randel? Curious anon here, have a good day!

hey there anon, hoping you’re having a good day too ( ᐛ )و - are you talking about this ask??? i’m not sure what you’re talking about but bless these kinds of tumblr blogs, here u go

btw the likes/dislikes are in reference to my interpretations for them, the fav/least fav moment are in reference in-game since y’know… these guys don’t exactly have ‘moments’ minus… idk, whoever the devs decide to feature in the updates (゜▽゜;)

flamel (… flanel lol i thought u were referring to another chara)

what i like about them: perfectly self-aware of himself: knows what his strengths + capabilities are and also his weaknesses + flaws, along with his morals + ideals + character. nope, any form of psychological bullshit won’t work on him. he’s absolutely aware of what he’s capable of doing and he’s not in denial about his shortcomings at all… what he does with that knowledge and what he plans to do about it is more of the question.

what i dislike about them: while flamel has a condescending air about him, he actually does not look down on people and he acknowledges others’ capabilities + character, even if they’re better than his own. that’s the problem: he knows or at least he has a general idea of a person’s capabilities + character, and what he dislikes the most is if it is not put to good use. without mercy, he can really say stinging observations about one’s failures and fears straight to their faces - the worst part is? it hurts, bc it’s true. he’s insensitive, but you can’t exactly deny his words either.

favorite moment: when i get his card lol bc i really like his card art??? not the mvp + biochemist one, the regular one - like… daMN??? i dig, he probably has the best regular card among the bio mobs imo

least favorite moment: ??? have u fought this fucker in-game??? no??? lucky u then, cecil’s still the queen bitch but mAN is flamel also a pain to fight, the last time i played ended up with my party dying partially bc of him and his clones

a situation with this character that i want to see explored more: not exactly a situation but his backstory??? or okay, something with his family - i know he’s nicholas flamel’s son but what about his mom? or what if: his parents announce that he’s about to have a sibling like??? what, i’m like around my 20s already then u tell me i’m gonna be an older bro i am questioning ur nightly activities??? cue a much needed slap from his mom lol

an interesting au for this character: lol i’d probably like to see flamel in a soulmate au where he feels the same emotions his partner does like wow he’s really irritated at it at first bc really why is this person so damned emotional / feel so much but eventually he’s able to compartmentalize his partner’s emotions from his own and he also takes note of the emotions his partner experiences in a journal daily, complete with time frames/lines??? that’s sort of sweet??? it also becomes a habit for him to look at the journal at the end of the day and think of reasons why his partner may have felt this way at each of the recorded times??? what’s funny tho is that despite the fact that he’s been taking note of his partner’s emotions for so long (probably middle school up to college?), he’s never gotten the urge to discover who his soulmate is, or to try find said person. sorry soulmate, you’re the one who’s gonna take initiative.

a crossover: top of my head, probably a fullmetal alchemist one lol - he’s probably some big shot alchemist then surprise surprise, one of his transmutation attempts fucked up him up pretty badly leading him to the gate of truth. he wakes up feeling ‘empty’ only to figure out that somehow his parts of him have taken the form of homonculi… and not just any kind of homonculi - they introduce themselves as a part of him, the sins in him that has made him the man he was today. they even call him father and take different human forms (lol, aka they take the form of his floormates, take a pick who represents each sin) - the revelation is in his travels tho while he’s trying to get to the homonculi, is that flamel himself embodies a sin, the seventh sin that completes all of them (try guessing what, lol). ooooh, this could probably be good if i actually fix this but yeah, there u go, it goes somewhere along those lines.

otp: none, actually.

other ships: kathryne // trentini

brotp: randel // alphoccio

notp: lady tanee hahAHAHA jk no seriously idk just ignore my first entry pls it was supposed to be a joke… maybe…

assortment of headcanons

surprise bitch, he’s the best chef in the biolabs but he ain’t gonna cook for anybody but himself - the only time he isn’t hung up on precise measurements + time is when he’s cooking

has a pair of reading glasses, uses them often and keeps them stored away neatly in his desk complete with a wipe - he always makes sure there’s adequate lighting + his reading glasses are present when he reads stuff, he sure cares for his eyes a lot

he… surprisingly follows a lot of good health practices - he always takes 15 - 20 min break if he’s been doing something for a straight hour (patrol + battles are exempted), drinks 8 glasses of water daily, sleeps early, etc.

his hands are always gloved - takes ‘em off only when he’s about to sleep. his right hand is pristine but his left hand has a strangely shaped burn mark that runs diagonally across his palm - it looks old.

he looks prim and proper but honestly his room is nuts - what’s more confusing is that he isn’t bothered by his room’s state at all + he knows exactly where his stuff is when he needs it, like… dude… how do u even know where to find ur shit in a warzone called ur room, teach me ur ways master

randel (oooh this is new)

what i like about them: he’s a very resolute yet flexible person: definitely not the type of person who’d go second-guessing on his decisions or would waver in times of crisis, but he’s not also the person who’d insist on pushing on with the initial goal/objective when difficulties or contradictions arise - he takes in the present situation + other factors & encountered facts and weighs them against the supposed goal/objective. from there he determines what he thinks would be the best course of action to take, and it takes him only a short time to do so even under pressure.

what i dislike about them: true to his class, he’s too self-sacrificing??? which is like… dude c’mon it’s probably an honor for the crusader line to die in the act of protecting others but still if u die, who’s going to protect those who can’t protect themselves? like yeah, he understands that too but he’s more inclined to believe that it’s better for him to be left behind/sacrificed/die in exchange for the lives of the majority. well - it’s either he’s that self-sacrificing or sadly, when weighed against the lives of the people he must protect, he doesn’t place that much value on his own life.

favorite moment: the feel when u don’t get his attention, seriously. pls let me sneak about ur floor in peace - i swear i went to church so pls stop with the grand + holy crosses

least favorite moment: fighting him is torture bc if rms data is right, 478,745 hp, man - he has the longest hp out of his floormates… and that’s just a regular randel… the paladin one has 3,870,000 and the mvp one a whopping 6,870,000… since his life is that fucking long, say goodbye to trying not to be mobbed by the other ghosts bc ur still busy trying to kill him, damn

a situation with this character that i want to see explored more: same like flamel, knowing his backstory would be A+ but… hmm, maybe something way back like his origins story or something, the story of why and what made him decide to be a swordsman/crusader. y’know, that’s if we’re assuming that he’s not from a family line of swordsmen/crusaders or something. idk, sometimes the thing is with characters who are in line with a faith/ideal is that i’m interested in what made them devote their lives to that certain faith/ideal in the first place.

an interesting au for this character: oooh, just… idk, a modern au where he suddenly ends up taking care of the bio2 kids who are orphans. he’s never mentioned it to anyone, not even to the people of his workplace who happen to be his friends/co-workers like for 4 years already. therein lies the problem: his friends on separate occasions have seen him with at least 2 or 1 of the kids. they all know randel isn’t married. the hair colors (cenia and laurell) + other features don’t match up. some distinctly heard a kid call him dad/daddy/father (see: wickebine, armaia, the rest respectively). conclusion: it’s either a) he’s babysitting as a part time job bc goddamn rekenber’s a cheap son of a bitch that won’t give him a raise, b) those kids are his cousins or something and are probably so fond of him that they see him as a father figure, or c) illegitimate chiLDREN FROM SOME ONE NIGHT STANDS ALRIIIGHT SCANDAL IN THE OFFICE. chaos ensues even before poor randel has a chance to explain himself.

a crossover: lol, idk… a shingeki one maybe where randel’s probably the head of the survey corps, watching over our fated trio (probably flamel/celia/chen for his floor, bio2&3′s are a mix&match). for some time, the trio don’t see him but strangely enough when the trio get old enough to join the corps, they discover that randel is considered a scum and a traitor to humanity by all three army regiments (survey, garrison, & military) which is strange bc randel is very well known and respected by humanity within the walls, wow. when the trio get deeper into his case, it turns out that randel vehemently fought against a group of scientists that were looking for human subjects for the ‘sake of saving humanity by using present resources’ - the three of them were seen as part of those potential resources and were eyed upon by the scientists were they were already young, along with other people from different parts of the walls (the other bio mobs). what happened to randel, however, is left in the air… was he even still alive, or had something important happened leading him to be branded as the traitor of humanity? politics, religion, science, drama, and titans (removers maybe lol) ensue.

otp: again, no solid one.

other ships: ????? surprising revelation is that i don’t exactly ship randel romantically, wow even i just discovered that now

brotp: his floormates - although honestly i think that one way or another, randel could be on everyone’s good side once they just get around to talking, probably

notp: zealotus oKAAAAY no seriously pls make me stop placing random mobs in this section

assortment of headcanons:

very, very religiously open + tolerant. he shows a lot of interest on other faiths and is knowledgeable even of various religious practices asides from his own. of course, he’s still steadfastly loyal to what he believes in first and foremost, but he feels no need to impart his beliefs to those who don’t / are reluctant to believe. he isn’t the type you’d see to be preaching about his faith either, that is unless you ask.

in line with the hc above, his tolerance also extends to people and their character + personalities, but he isn’t too tolerant to the point that he’d rationalize questionable actions + motives. he may have the patience of a saint, but no one’s so sure if they want to see him snap / test his patience to see what makes him tick. throwing bullshit about his faith doesn’t work on him, actually.

he’s pretty crafty - he pretty much taught himself other ways to help people, from practical stuff like sewing to more complicated stuff like woodwork + metal works, wow. he’s basically the ideal useful guy in survival crises… minus the fact that he can’t cook that well lol

he has the worst drinking tolerance among the bio3 + bio4 residents - the sign that he’s drunk is when his face shows more expression than usual + his posture breaks (the paladin randel card art lol). nobody knows bc damn son, he has a pretty good poker face and he can hold it for a really long time

... the only reason he grew his hair long is bc of a promise to his mother. he vowed that if ever he was to fall in love (and it was reciprocated) / find the person he would devote his life to, that would be the only time he would cut his hair, and his mother would do the honors... but... yeah... wow, i made myself feel sad

this was a lot of fun - thanks a lot for the ask anon, and i welcome your curiosity anytime! (　＾∇＾) i’m always in for a distraction from work lol

#anon #askdfghjl #hmm those aus tho... not bad #maybe i'd plot them out sometime lol

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godrive · 6 years ago

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Not all SUVs are born equal—so to help you pick your ride wisely; we’re going to look at the top sports utility vehicle (SUV) models available in the Philippines. Regardless of the worsening traffic conditions on Metro Manila roads, having a SUV in the Philippines can be advantageous. These vehicles perform excellently in any condition and they are ready for any challenge on the road.

Top SUV Models In the Philippines Although they’re pricier than the more famous sedans and hatchbacks, the SUV is unparalleled in terms of performance, power, and comfort.

If you’re still in the market for a heightened ride, we’re here to give you some tips on how to pick the best SUV for you, what are the pros and cons of getting a unit from the said segment, and which among the SUVs in the Philippine market suit your needs best.

For our SUV picks, we chose units based on two factors: the most affordable ones and the most popular models in the Philippines.

Why should I buy an SUV? SUVs aren’t just for politicians anymore. In the most recent years, the market has been flooded with a good variety of units as well as newer, more customer-friendly subsegments such as subcompact SUVs and crossovers.

To help you decide if an SUV is the vehicle model for you, we’ve covered some of the most common reasons why people who picked SUV’s found them a good investment.

1. To have a ride that can withstand flooding In a country as flood prone as the Philippines, even light rains can cause water levels to riser and roads to become almost impassable. Your average family car or subcompact hatch may easily turn into a submarine during a flood, but not your trusted SUV.

To measure a vehicle’s flood-busting capabilities, you need to understand two factors that affect it: ground clearance, which is the distance between the base of the tire and the axle, and wading depth or the maximum water height a car can withstand with going inside sensitive components such as electronics, engine enclosure, and air intake.

On average, your typical sedan only has around 120 millimeters of ground clearance and its wading depth only a little over it due to its body style. Meanwhile, SUVs are specifically designed to have high ground clearance of at least 200 millimeters and a wading capacity of up to 800 millimeters due heightened suspension, large wheels, snorkel, and other features.

(Read: How To File An Insurance Claim When Your Car Gets Flooded) 2. Space is king If your job requires you to carry lots of items or equipment every day—in style, of course—then a sedan’s trunk or subcompact’s hatch is not enough for you. With an SUV, not only do you get bigger cargo space, but you can also configure your car’s space to suit your carrying needs.

For starters, SUVs have an average of 650 liters of boot space, which is more than enough for your needs. However, folding the rear bench will expand it further to more than twice its normal capacity. If length is all you need, then you can put down your truck’s rightmost seats (including the front passenger seat) for maximum carrying capacity.

Are you worried that your cargo may to heavy? Have faith in your car’s engine to do the heavy work. While some smaller SUVs have a minimum of 2.0-liter engine under their hood, more gigantic rides can have 6.2-liter V8 engines that can crank out at least 400 horsepower. That’s enough power to pull a mini dump truck with full load every day.

3. To own a people carrier City cars like sedan and subcompacts are good for, well, city driving. If you own one, you can ferry up to five people without a hitch. However, those who have bigger families may tend to look at the SUV as their top vehicle choice for people transport—and we have a few good reasons why.

For starters, your midsize SUV can comfortably carry up to seven people with the 2-3-2 seating configuration. For full-size versions, the third row can accommodate up to three passengers, raising the seating capacity to eight people. A family of five can be comfortable with a midsize one and even carry enough cargo with them on the go.

Even compact SUVs have been trying to carry as much people as possible, with some units’ high-end trims offering a third-row seat as part of their package. Although it’s not as comfortable as the bigger ones, it can come in handy if you have kids on board.

(Read: Vehicle Classifications Guide: Which Segment Does Your Car Really Fall Under?) 4. Comfort, safety, and freedom If features like performance or carrying capacity aren’t your priority, then there are other reasons why an SUV is a compelling drive for you.

For starters, SUVs offer higher ceilings and bigger legroom for their occupants, giving them a better onboard experience. If you have someone else driving and you want better seating amenities, you can convert middle seats into captain’s chairs for top-notch comfort—and leg rests. Who doesn’t want that?

For safety features, your typical SUV comes with all the features that can help your everyday driving secure: anti-lock braking system, airbags, and others. In addition, they also perform great during crash tests due to the distance between the impact and the front passengers being mitigated by the engine compartment. Other extra features that are offered to more top-spec brands include blind spot detectors, parking cameras, and other safety systems in place.

Finally, its ability to navigate any terrain offers the ultimate freedom wherever you go. Whether you want to do a weekend off-road challenge, or you just need to survive the hellish traffic in the country, the SUV is well-suited to do the task you need it to do.

The downsides of getting an SUV Like everything else, SUVs are not perfect. Although they come with great advantages, some of their downsides might turn off potential buyers, especially if the latter outweighs the former. Since making decisions require you to also see the cons, here are some of the disadvantages you need to consider before deciding on an SUV:

1. They are expensive Unlike smaller vehicles, you cannot own a brand-new mid-size SUV that is below the P1-million mark. For that amount, you can get compact variants and you can only snag one if you pay in cash.

2. They are heavy gas consumers What makes city cars great is their fuel efficiency even during ¬a standstill traffic. SUVs, since they have bigger engines, do not have this advantage. There’s a reason why the term “gas guzzlers” is still latching on to the variant even with better technologies.

(Read: Fuel-Saving Tips: How To Save Gas On Manual And Automatic Cars) 3. They cost more to insure Even when they depreciate, SUVs tend to have a higher fair market value than other vehicles. Vehicles with higher price tag have a heftier insurance premium. And for those who carry more than five people—the standard number of passengers covered by the auto personal accident coverage—you need to also pay for the rest of the passengers to make sure everyone is covered.

4. There are risks inherent in their design SUVs are pretty hard to maneuver. Couple that with a high center of gravity and trying to avoid crashing into something and you have the perfect recipe for a rollover. It may not be common but there’s a possibility it might happen to you.

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Vehicle Brand * on higher-end vehicle models What should I look for when buying an SUV? It’s easy to get swayed by sales talk if you don’t know what you want from a vehicle. To help you become more discerning with your search for your dream SUV, we’ve prepared some questions you should ask yourself and your salesman:

Size: Should I get a five-seater subcompact SUV? Compact? Midsize? Full-size? Seating: Do I need only five seats? Seven? Eight or nine? Maybe the captain’s chair? Cargo: Do I want a huge compartment size? Should the back seats fold to the floor? Am I fine with split design for the third-row seats? Drivetrain: Should I get a two-wheel drive? Four-wheel drive? Part time? Performance: Do I prefer fuel economy over power or the vice versa? Safety features: Am I fine with basic features? Or do I want top-tier safety protocols like forward collision warning, parking assist, and others? Other features: Do you want a more expensive trim with other features like sunroof, more stylish body kits, upgraded tires, more safety features? (Read: Secondhand Car Buying Guide: Tips To Find The Best Used Cars In The Philippines) Top SUVs by price 1. Mahindra Scorpio Floodbuster Price: P975,000

Mahindra Scorpio Floodbuster The Mahindra Scorpio may seem like a loving throwback to 90’s SUVs. However, don’t let its outdated aesthetic fool you. Its 2.5-liter turbodiesel engine is more than enough to take you where you need to go. This rugged ride has a ground clearance of 180 millimeter and can seat up to nine passengers.

2. Suzuki Jimny

Price: P975,000

Suzuki Jimny The Suzuki Jimny is well loved not only by the kids who grew up watching Shaider but it has a certain unbeatable charm that most modern SUVs cannot get correctly. Powered by a 1.5-liter K15B engine, this four-seater subcompact cutie can go through any punishing its driver wants.

3. MG ZS Price: P998,888

MG ZS MG’s subcompact SUV may not be as popular as other entries in the division but the SAIC-owned vehicle can go toe-to-toe with others. Underneath its hood is fuel-efficient 1.5-liter inline-four engine that is powerful enough to create a thrust of 114 horsepower and 150 Nm of torque.

4. Isuzu mu-X Price: P1.286 million

Isuzu mu-X Compared to its competitors in the midsize subsegment, the mu-X is the cheapest you can buy without compromising quality and style, it’s also great when you need to navigate a flooded area. The cheapest variant you can get is a no-frills version that is powered by a 2.5-liter 16-valve engine that has excellent durability and performance the brand is known for over the years.

5. Foton Toplander Price: P1.388 million

Foton Toplander What can the Toplander’s 2.8-liter turbocharged Cummins ISF engine can do? Not only that it can push out 161 horsepower from its core but it can also be a great hauler thanks to its three-ton towing capacity. Although it is basic, the Toplander can is a cheap alternative to more famous midsize SUVs.

(Read: Switching Your Car Insurance Provider: 4 Important Questions To Ask) Top SUVs by popularity 1. Mitsubishi Montero Sport Price: Starts at P1.499 million

Mitsubishi Montero Sport Despite being marred by controversy of the past few years, the Montero Sport still sells like hotcakes and is touted as one of the best SUVs in its segment. The third-generation version of the model has a more aggressive styling with its “Dynamic Shield” grille, with its chrome-coated details giving its sportier look over others. Other features included are blind spot warning system, hill start assist and descent control, eight airbags, and forward collision mitigation for top-spec models.

2. Nissan Terra Price: Starts at P1.504 million

Nissan Terra Although it is new to the party, the Terra doesn’t pull its punches in terms of features. This Nissan SUV borrows the same wide profile the Patrol and Navara are known for. Underneath its hood is a 2.5-liter engine that can propel your vehicle with 190 horsepower and 450 Nm of torque. Although the basic model only comes in manual transmission, more expensive trims come in automatic transmission with manual mode.

3. Ford Everest Price: Starts at P1.521 million

Ford Everest You might peg the Everest as a nice family SUV given its durability and prevalence in the city. However, you can still slug it out against the horrendous traffic and it can carry you easily through sudden rainy day floods. The base version is equipped with a 2.2-liter inline-four engine that can produce up to 160 horsepower. If you’re not satisfied with the Ambiente 2.2L 4×2 MT, you can get the top-spec line for P2.288 million.

4. Toyota Fortuner Price: Starts at P1.597 million

Toyota Fortuner The Fortuner has always been one of Toyota’s top-selling units ever since it came out—and for good reason. This all-around midsize SUV is everything you can ask for: a robust 2.4 or 2.8-liter engine, a powerful dashboard, comfortable interiors, and Toyota’s unmistakable styling. There’s a reason why the Fortuner still remains as king even when its prices go up.

5. Chevrolet Trailblazer Price: Starts at P1.618 million

Chevrolet Trailblazer Unlike other SUVs within its category, the Trailblazer tries to get away from the whole “macho” image of bigger rides. Its more angular lines provide a sleeker contour, yet it has a commanding presence thanks to its 253-millimeter ground clearance. You can choose between the 2.5 and 2.8-liter variant and the latter comes in four trims.

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