#Whelp. Guess we'll see

[shikan0in-heizou]

∞ genshin impact aesthetics

fontaine, land of justice, nation of hydro

[imaginariumwanderer]

So I finished the latest story...

This is pretty horrifying from a cookie's perspective. One of cookiekind's main forms of happiness is their ability to express their various colorful flavors/personality. I suppose it's the same thing as tripping a living human of their sentient and individuality. Ego death. Leaving behind hollow flesh

We be committing unspeakable crimes against nature with this one✨

We be crumbling our colleagues while slowly losing our mind with this one✨

On another note, "eyecing" make its glorious return. I have no memory of it being used before the Mystic Flour update. Can anyone point out the other times it was used, if there's any?

????!!!!! OMG HIIII

MORE CJ PAWLIKOWSKI VOICE ACTING YES YES YES

Don't do it, don't give me hope...

I know he's the last to be released u don't need to tease me like that

So the other-space here clearly refer to the Dark side of the Moon, right? Is there any other-space I don't know about? Also, I guess this confirmed Shadow Milk is the only one able to do this astral projection thing. On one hand, it increases his chance of appearing a bit more before his own update, on the other hand, we most likely won't see the other Beasts having any talking-role any time soon

The implications here...

So the Beasts may likely have their own voices of their Light just like the Ancients does. And "Soul Jam"... Without an (s), Shadow Milk is specifically referring to his Soul Jam here, I can't believe my headcanon of the Light of Deceit/Knowledge whispering things to him is becoming true

It's a thing unique to Shadow Milk and not the other Beasts too. Interesting how both the voices of the Light of Truth and Deceit operate differently from the other Lights' (referring to the theory that the Light of Truth have never make an actual appearance since all instances of it in-game were all Shadow Milk's disguise)

... Clownage. Whelp! time to integrate that into my daily vocabulary!

Alright, so we got confirmation Smilk is not only aware of Dark Enchantress' plans but he's actively helping her out. Whenever he's oblivious to her other, secret plans (stealing the Beasts' Soul Jams) or he's aware and already have a counter measures to it though, is still up in the air.

My money is on the latter. Shadow Milk have shown time and time again he's way more knowledgeable than he let on. The way Dark Enchantress was depicted in his previous "play" does show us a certain level of... Appreciation(?) but who's to say he actually trusts her? It really does feel like a "I rub your back if you rub mine and then we'll backstab each other" kind of deal. Now I'm curious about the other Beasts' opinions on Dark Enchantress as well.

Where's Dark Enchantress anyways? We haven't seen her make any on-screen appearance in a while. I, um, I missed her a lot actually. I missed the diabolical meema

Laughing at Wind Archer cookie repeatedly telling Smilk to stfu from the moment they've met. He's saying what we've all been thinking

Also laughing at Shadow Milk basically only here to make cryptic riddles and mocks our Wind Archer. He really does have nothing better to do lol

Yeah that's right, FRIENDSHIP will save the day!

For real tho, tons of intriguing implications about the Ultimate Cookie with this one. I gotta mulls over them for awhile...

GUYS NEW SMILK'S SPRITE JUST DROPPED

HE'S ROLLING HIS EYES. HE'S SO DONE I'M DEAD

"In conclusion, this changed nothing!"

Kidding, kidding! I was getting real worried for Wind Archer there despite knowing full-well it's not crk's style to let something happen to a character unless they're a minor villain or an elderly *grinding my teeth trying not to bring up Elder Faerie again oops too late-*

The unexpected yet sweet moment of empathy Wind Archer have toward the Ultimate Cookie combined with the stunning animation toward the end were definitely my favorite part of this little adventure. Although I half-expected for him to have his magical girl transformation like White Lily and Dark Cacao right then and there-

"Beast-Yeast EP 5 coming soon to theaters near you! Remember to stay tuned, mkay? Okie dokie? Pinkie promiseee?"

[astaroth1357]

My Incredibly Spoiler Heavy Thoughts on Nightbringer

TURN BACK IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN PLAYING THE GAME AT ALL. I MEAN IT.

Hello. I have completed all 10 lessons on the Normal difficulty. These are my thoughts:

First, a disclaimer. All of this is my opinion. If you feel differently about a character or plot point, that's fine. This is all just as I see it.

Holy hell, I love the setup here so damn much. The Nightbringer story so far is truly more than just a rehash of the OG plot, largely because of all the small stuff that keeps happening in background. Yes, we're befriending the brothers again, but we don't know WHY. Why are we in the past? Who sent us there? What do they want from us, or... what do they want out of somebody else?? 👀 I have to hand it to the writers for coming up with this premise, it's soild. Will they stick the landing...? We'll see.

The New! (Old) Cast

Lucifer:

Whelp, Luci is being colder to us than ever... But far more openly involved with his brothers than we saw previously. You can really tell that this is fresh off of the War and he's just trying his best to keep everybody corralled and (somewhat) comfortable.

He still holds onto his Celestial Realm prejudice against demons, so he doesn't trust MC at all which is an interesting turn on the dynamic from before. As a human, Lucifer saw us as weak and insignificant so he didn't give us much time of day. But as a "demon," and someone more knowledgeable about the Devildom than himself, he has to suck it up and rely on MC even if he wants them to stay away.

By the end of Lesson 10, it's safe to say whatever trust he had in MC is going to be shattered. MC has talked their way out of a lot, but even Dia looks shaken by their abilities this time... I'm curious to see if they can reestablish a relationship with him when he was already keeping them at arms length to start with.

Mammon:

Ah, Mammon... Once simp, forever a simp across time and space. Bless him. I guess he's just doomed to always fall first when it comes to MC. It DOES NOT take long for him to be down bad even if you don't romance him specifically (I would know because I'm trying to stay mono-Levi this go around).

Aside from his tsundere-ness, though, we do get a look into more of his insecurities. I find an interesting pattern developing in him where he just tends to latch onto a person and follow them unfailing. He did that with Lucifer before the Fall, he didn't even think about the consequences before going through with it. You could see him doing much the same with MC. I think it stems from a lack of confidence in himself and his own abilities, constantly relying on others to guide him through big decisions and provide him with validation. Add another poor thing to the list...

Leviathan:

I swear to God, the devs realized that Levi's charm lies in his pathos, so they went out of the way to make him EVEN MORE pathetic than normal. I still love him for it, of course. But seriously, Levi starts out practically afraid of his own shadow when the story starts. It makes sense, Levi would have probably one of the more negative impressions of demons of the seven, having fought them head on. He was a shut in before the War and now he's even more terrified to leave the house, let alone his room... (I can't be the only one who's wondering how the hell Dia's going to look at him and go, "Ah yes! I see Admiral material right there!" right?)

I do like that the writers took the time to show that he's one of the more empathetic brothers, right alongside Asmo and Beel, even if he's bad with people. Levi is quick to sympathize with beings and creatures who don't fit in and it's always very sweet to see. I also guess that Simeon wrote TSL in secret or after the War? You think he would know of it at least having lived so long with the author... Anyway. I digress.

There's a lot of... small things around Levi that I think hint at the inner feelings of the brothers, though (of all seven of them, he has the WORST poker face I swear). I may touch on those in another post because I need time to gather my thoughts on how it all connects there... Anyway, he's still my favorite and I'm going to try to see if there's any truth to this "you get a deeper connection if you stick to one brother" thing. Wish me luck.

Satan:

Okay, load your guns now because I think Satan is the real star of the show here. They're actually pulling way more than the "He's mad because he's seen like Lucifer" card. We're at a point where Satan doesn't even consider himself associated with the brothers AT ALL. That means something and has consequences on the story. He didn't even go with them to check on Beel, despite having enough fire power that he could have probably helped a lot.

Now before someone goes screaming at me that they've devolved him into comic relief, I'd first like to ask what did you think he was going to be? OG Satan told us himself that he used to feel nothing but anger. He's going to be pissed, irrational, and violent. He's Wrath.

What truly they're giving us under all of that is a look into a vulnerable guy who doesn't know anything about the world around him and is trying to pick it up on his own because his brothers can't (and maybe won't) teach him. They keep chaining him up (which I hate btw) and talk about him like he's a beast. But it's partially because they're such terrible communicators that he flies off the handle so often to begin with.

Satan is more alone than really anybody else is the Devildom. His brothers already have all this history together and memories shared during their time as angels, stuff he has no context for and could never experience himself. He's still an outcast among demons for his association with them, despite being a fully fledged demon in his own right, and he doesn't know why he has to be linked to them because he barely knows them anyway. He's taking baby steps to understand the world, but when he goes to his brothers to ask questions they lampshade him for even having clear thoughts. All they see him as is a roaring beast. This version of Satan is fascinating to me. How does he start here and end up the eloquent, emotionally-controlled bookworm with a planet's worth of connections? I gotta know!!

Asmodeus:

They FINALLY started giving Asmo his proper flowers! I still think it could have been more, but he's gotten way more depth than he had before. I know that Asmo part technically involved MC's input the least out of all of the brothers, but I think that was by design.

Asmo is a surprisingly introspective individual under his urge to perform. MC didn't have to give much input because he just didn't need as much. He knows himself very well (unlike some of the others). He's an emotionally intelligent guy who can sort out his own inner problems and remain empathetic enough to want to help his brothers in his own way. I wanted to hear more from this side of Asmo, honestly, but the game seems to make it clear that he's content with his spot of being the family's brightest smile. I hope it makes more appearances as we go on.

Beelzebub:

This one is tricky, because lesson 10 leaves off on a cliffhanger related to Beel... So I think Beel's feelings will have more consequences than the other brothers' on the story. Most of all that we see of Beel is, unfortunately, him being hungry or off being wholesome with Belphie but lesson 10 did give us some eye-openers regardless.

First, apparently if he flies off the handle, Beel is quite the challenge to handle. It takes Dia himself to restrain him, which is pretty insane for the sixthborn in the line-up. It's possible some outside magic is cranking up his power somehow, but we won't know until the next lessons are out.

Secondly, I find it very interesting that Beel's "heart-to-heart" moment with us is being saved for last... It was definitely the most surprising one of the secrets in the teasers (in my opinion). Beel and Belphie are glued to the hip and share everything together so for him to have a secret "not even Belphie" knows is pretty shocking. I hope it's not just that he saved Belphie instead of Lilith since we all already know that. It'd be a pretty cheap pay off to all this buildup... Not that I haven't been disappointed before or anything.

Belphegor:

Similar to Beel, Belphie doesn't get much attention until the end and it isn't much that we haven't heard before, unfortunately. You kind can't blame them, since plumbing out Belphie's inner trauma about the War was the entire climax of the first game. It's nothing we don't already know. That being said, I think there's some more interesting things that are being said about Belphie or left unsaid by the others that I find more fascinating to keep track of.

TLDR, I think there's some weird distancing going on between Belphie and the others. It doesn't seem super apparent, but Levi dropped some weird bombshells early on and I can't help but notice how he just never seems to be without Beel. Those two are close, yeah, but in this game they're practically a unit. I'm pretty sure Belphie is using Beel as a security blanket of sorts. He's also the ONLY one to mention Lilith in any great detail. Unsurprising, but it's worth noting that the others haven't really brought her up despite it (supposedly) starting the War.

Diavolo:

Somebody give this guy a vacation and a raise... So apparently, the brothers were cast down, the old King took one look at them and counted to seven, then conked out. Now our boy has to rule the kingdom. He's... the same really. As far as I can tell. You can really see how much he's taken to the brothers' antics though, which checks out in the other game too.

WAAAY more fascinating to me is apparently there's some kind of body called the House of Lords who think that Dia is too young for the job. What's the House of Lords?? Who are they? Are they like a council or advisory board...? Or is this a UK setup? Is there a Parliamentary board?? I dunno, could just be my Poli Sci talking but I'm now so lost on how the Devildom operates now...

Barbatos:

Oh my God, if there is any character I could live vicariously through, it was Barbs here. For whatever unnamed reason he is NOT having any of Solomon's shit right now and I'm living for it. Setting my delight aside, we don't get to see very much of him and what we do see doesn't really differ from the norm, which only makes his detest all the more shocking.

Through Barbs, we also see just how potent the power of the pacts can be when Solomon summons him and more or less forces him to do as he says. Nothing seems to stop him from retaliating after the fact, as he sent Solomon off who knows where, but seeing that kind of power wielded over a being who's almost unattainable to us is... Well. I feel bad for Asmo.

Simeon:

There's a lot to unpack with Simeon... and a lot of it is in the stuff that goes unsaid. First, I already found it strange that he didn't seem surprised to see Satan in the House. Or if he was, he didn't say it or bother introducing himself which is... telling for a guy like Simeon. He's back to being Luke's minder in front of demons, but I can't help but notice that he doesn't do much to counter Luke's tirades. He only indicates that it's impolite to say them, so he may still harbor the very same feelings.

Simeon and Lucifer have something of a heart to heart together that they never would in the OG title where Simeon admits his biggest regret. It isn't that he didn't follow Lucifer, as we might think, but that he doesn't feel like did enough to reach out to him before he made his decision. Lucifer dispells this, but I think it goes to show that Simeon stands behind his decision to stay and that it was the better option. Lucifer also confront Simeon on why he didn't take a high position (seraph) and instead settled for archangel. It's left open ended what his real motives for that would be, but I suspect that it has something to do with Simeon's troubling streak of going against the grain, even in subtle ways. Or he has too much anger about what happened to accept taking Lucifer's old position.

I found it interesting how easily these two seemed to talk about intimate topics together here where Lucifer barely even acknowledges Simeon's attempts to reach out in the OG story. I wonder what may have happened to sour their relationship so severely...?

Luke:

Luke the Racist Chihuahua returns!! Okay, I'm being a little mean but he's pretty much just self-righteous little kid the whole way through. I will admit, it is a little funny that the person who came up with the nickname was actually Lucifer. I think it's now retconned and confirmed that Luke and the brothers never knew each other before the Fall... though Luke seems to know OF their former selves in some capacity. I could be misinterpreting things though.

The Rat Bastard Solomon:

I swear to God this was me playing through the whole game tied to this guy.

He's lying. A lot. Constantly. And it pisses me off to no end. I was wondering why things he was saying and the stuff he was doing weren't lining up and OF COURSE it's because he's either working his own agenda or being outright deceitful. I hate him so much, y'all, you don't even know...

That aside, as an impartial observer Solomon is pulling a lot of work to support MC and you can TELL how down bad he is for them, which actually has significance for the plot I think. He's keeping them in the dark about something, but considering his feelings I say we can at least be charitable and assume it isn't to hurt them or cause them any suffering... intentionally. He's also as unscrupulous as ever, considering how he ordered a very angry Barbs around and more or less took advantage of a life or death situation to make a pact with Asmo.

So. At the end of the lessons, we're reintroduced to the mysterious Nightbringer. The character who actually sent us back in time at the start of the game. Yeah, it wasn't Barbatos... probably. At least not our reliable neighborhood butler anyway. They seem to be different entities but I THINK they might share some connection....

I have to wonder who disguised MC when they first arrived. The marketing made it seem like it would be Solomon but the marketing has been hit or miss on actual accuracy about the game we're seeing. If it was Solomon, then he had to have known where the MC was before he called. If it was Nightbringer then... well actually. We need to touch on that first.

Nightbringer:

Now, much of this is just me speculating so take things with a grain of salt. Nightbringer's name is blocked out, but it seems like it identified itself to us in the beginning before sending us to the past. It appears like it wants something from Solomon.... to fully corrupt him maybe? And it's using MC as leverage against him.

I suspect that all of the weird stuff that has been happening is tied to its meddling in some way, but to what end is unclear... Sending Levi and MC into TSL, tricking Asmo then trying to feed everyone to a spider, and, likely, whatever is going on with Beel. I can't tell if it's trying to push MC and the brother's closer together, or just making vaguely comical attempts at homicide by fictional characters, spider, and Gluttony incarnate.

The situation with Adam does give us a hint into its nature. It appears to be some kind of dark, trickster being that gives a person what they desire, but never the way they intended. A walking monkey's paw, if you will. Solomon says that Nightbringer made him what he is today, so perhaps he worked under it or is simply under the influence of one its "deals." Their relationship is adversarial, though. When they're speaking, they talk about the two supernatural sides, Angel and Demon, and Nightbringer seems to want to force Solomon to make a choice between them. Lose his humanity, maybe?

I'm not quite willing to say that Nightbringer is a demon just yet, at least not one of the ones we normally encounter. Something about it seems... older. More powerful than that. But we'll have to wait for more info.

My crackpot theory?

Solomon has made a deal with Nightbringer in order to go back in time and do... something. He's after something. Nightbringer agreed, but dragged MC along as collateral for Solomon to get it done within a certain amount of time or makes sure he honors his part of the bargin. Barbatos knows this, either because he is linked to in some way to Nightbringer or saw it happen in the doorway, and is disgusted by his actions but unable to speak about it due to the pact. Or, you know. That's our present Barbie also dragged along for the ride and he's pissed that he's been essentially hijacked and taken away from present Diavolo, but forbidden to speak about it.

[radish-club]

Whelp, I guess she's a goner and this is the last we'll see of this Victoria girl.

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Some panels from the new Flash writer that I really liked:

Wally's imposter syndrome! It rears its head once again! Man, Wally was working on a PhD in Physics and yet he still thinks he's an idiot. He's the Flash and he's saved the world a million times and yet he still thinks Barry hung the stars.

Wally casually being really fucking smart and downplaying it. This fills me with joy to see.

Wally is often played off as the 'dumb one' in the Flash family because Barry and Jay are scientists, Bart's a certified child genius, Jesse has a doctorate and Ace was valedictorian. Hell, Wally often plays it up himself! He's really good at pretending that he doesn't know what's going on (like how he played the idiot in front of the 'hot' scientist and got her to explain the 'big words' to him when he was a Physics student working on his PhD) but man! He really does know what's going on. He really really does! And that doesn't get noticed very often.

I love to see a deep understanding of their powers! Wally's aura got stripped? Whelp. No air, no sound, a lot of friction burns and injuries, ect. Without his aura Wally is subject to the real world implications of superspeed and that's INCREDIBLY PAINFUL!

And finally! Wally being in such deep denial over his powers developing yet again. Love it. That's such a classic Wally West thing. It's great.

Anyway, I have to say, from this issue at least, that the new Flash writer understands Wally's character and Wally's powers. I like that a lot. However (and this is a whole different post) I have a lot of concerns about this new writer not understanding Linda's character. But we'll see with time i guess.

[chuckeroo777]

Frieren Liveblog- Chapters 13-16

Last we left off, our trio of weirdos managed to get past customs without much issue, much to Frieren's chagrin. What will happen next? Let's find out!

Remember, this is a first read-through, so no spoilers please.

Huh. So Flamme isn't just a legendary mage, she's THE legendary mage. Frieren may have watched humanity develop magic from the very beginning. Not escaping the Paleozoic accusations, is she.

Stark did not sign up to be a surrogate father.

I suppose it's hard to figure out what level of respect people want when you've been traveling with someone as laze fare as Frieren.

I wonder what happened? They wouldn't exist in the first place unless they had a stable population at some point. What drove their numbers down to such dire levels? Is there still a small elven civilization, or is it all nomadic wanderers like Frieren?

What did she see in this idiot?

Ah. That's what she saw in that idiot.

Follow-up questions, my dude.

A precious image.

She absolutely didn't have her staff two panels ago. Guess she has hammerspace magic. I'm guessing that suitcase is bigger on the inside too.

I dunno, you seemed to respect Qual to some degree, and the dude clearly developed new forms of magic. Demons seem pretty sapient to me. Evil, but sapient.

Frieren exudes a frighteningly powerful aura of IDGAF.

Oh, hey. It's her. The last spoiler I know of. I mean, not that it was much of a spoiler. "There is a demon lady somewhere in the story" is pretty vague. I only know of her because I saw someone shipping her with Frieren. I'm going to hazard a guess that they never actually meet in the story and/or have zero romantic chemistry.

Hmm... This is all pretty tragic. I wonder what the truth will end up being. Can demons peacefully coexist? Or are they truly bound to their monstrous nature?

Whelp. That moral nuance didn't last long.

Whelp. Those negotiations didn't last long.

Good lord, these guys are practically AI chatbots. All context clues with no deeper understanding.

Dude, she's an elf who's unflinching at the threat of death, and you're just a doofus in suspenders.

This is badass and everything, but the mood is sort of ruined because it reminds me of the last scene I read involving wires.

God I love these goof-balls.

"It's symbolism" No, you're just a slob Stark.

It was at that moment they knew. They f***ed up.

Frieren is never one to ignore the path of least resistance.

Oh dear. I don't think I've seen Frieren grin like that before. Guess we now know what really gets her going.

Gah, a cliffhanger! Alas, I'm out of time for tonight, so it will have to wait for next time. I'm curious if we'll actually defeat Aura, or if she'll be a recurring antagonist.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

made it past black flames... gunter fans know what that means. :'))))

et iz emotional pain time!!

anyway it was cool the description text for the chapter said "descend on valla" while it had "floating isle" right there on the location box.

whack geography there you have, fates!

i suppose it makes sense in terms of "descending down into the bottomless canyon" but since i'm doing an unsubtle amount of parallels to [valla = the underworld] for Symbolic Fic Reasons it was neat to see the game itself nod towards that versus an ultimately less descriptive word like "fell down the canyon".

you ever think how that sky was likely the last thing gunter thought he was going to see the first time he fell down? :') and then what he must feel like to be kinda forced to do it all over again? :'))))

speaking of the literal devil....

[internal screaming]

god this second rev playthrough is going to emotionally wreck me WORSE than the first playthrough, and that one pretty much broke my brain as is!!!!

anyway this is the first shot you see of gunter in-game since... I think it was right before the wind tribe chapter where you fought the "faceless"? i'm pretty sure I would have screenshotted it had there been another one.

i also think it's really interesting you don't see him next to azura, which feels like it'd make sense considering both of them, you, and jakob had already been down in the bottomless canyon. (ngl jakob got shafted in these little map scenes, he feels like he should be there more.)

anyway, very subtle yellow flag number one for what's coming up.

the royals have their one obligatory moment of sane 'wtf we ain't jumping down no canyon' reasoning. gunter gets this kind of random 'hey i'm alive still remember me' line for the players who aren't single-brain cell'd gunterfuckers (:P) :

corrin reveals she's prepared to sacrifice herself to valla's curse (you die if you mention anything about the otherworldly kingdom) to reveal to everyone exactly who the enemy is----

(....OUFFF can you imagine gunter's moment of panic there.)

-- everyone trades a few lines about trusting corrin, after wanting her to order them to jump.

they jump. first, hilariously enough.

so this is probably the clearest shot we'll ever get of Scarlet's flower. hold that thought for future Plot Reasons.

(i also do think it's a little interesting / a flub that the cinematographers had gunter already jump in the bottomless canyon--Scarlet and Corrin trade 3-4 lines before they jump too. then again i suppose if he was still sticking around at this point the whole "who killed scarlet" jig would be up way before it was actually resolved.)

speaking of, i still can't believe i fucking called it with possessed!gunter killing scarlet the first go around. :') all i knew beforehand is he got possessed somewhere and there was something whack with his family.

here we goooo......

whelp whelp whelp

THIS REALLY HITS DIFFERENT WHEN YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHO IT IS

GEE I WONDER

control your kinky af boytoy corrin!!! safe word is anankos!!!!!

(if you squint, you can see how the game uses anankos' cloaked model -- privately i think they should have used the great knight model since it would have been an infinitesimal 'blink and you miss it' hint but an absolute genius bonus the second time. just stick the helmet on if you don't want to give everything away. )

something exquisitely painful: guess who targeted corrin first, before scarlet dives in to save her?

:')

... whelp. nice seeing you.

damn even the game ships ryoma/scarlet hardcore.

corrin gets all of 30 seconds to grieve/freak out about scarlet dying and then enemies show up, thankfully followed by allies.

gunter's in the third wave of sprites that show up, the first being corrin, then xander&ryoma.....

... aaand i just noticed he's right next to corrin. :'))))))))))))))))))))

time to roll valla!

[autumnrory]

whelp looks like all but one of the lipid tests are IMPROVED from last year but still not in the ideal range which ya know. figured. guess we'll see what the doctor wants to do but i guess i won't hear from her for a few days so that's fucking superb

[dollsonmain]

Whelp, I've done salon stuff, done some diamond painting, watched a movie that made me sad, didn't get a call nor email about that job, guess I'll go see if this warping method worked out for me... I don't think it did because one side string kept going slack more than the others. But we'll see.

[unfortunate-adventurer]

Treasure chest open! Rogue has acquired the Boots of Streak- Sneaking. A pair of enchanted boots that massively boost one's stealth rolls. Unfortunately they can't be activated unless the wearer has no other clothes on. (Pouches, satchels, and other accessories are still allowed)

"Ooooo, and they're thigh high too! Whelp, guess there's no helping it~" And of go her clothes as she stuffs her outfit into her bag, slipping on the enchanted boots. "Alright, time to take these babies on a test run~ Hmmm, we'll see if I can get from one side of town to the other without getting spotted~"

[rule-number-3]

Do you have any thoughts on Skaras relationship with trolls like Draal, Vendel, ballustra, Blinky, aaarrrgghh, kanjigar and maybe Bagdwella?

I've answered a few of those from time to time but I'm constantly going back and forth on some things in my mind. So I guess we'll call this the definitive Canon for Skára for right now.

Draal - she likes Draal. She thinks he's a good warrior but very childish and too eager to prove himself. He reminds her of another she knows. She's known about him since he was small and comments on it whenever they're around each other, however rarely that is. Draal, however, does not like her. He thinks she's condescending and doesn't trust her motives because she has a bad habit of being cryptic (more on this later).

Vendel - also doesn't fully trust her. He's seen his fair share of fights against Gumm Gumms. Skára likes that about sassy old goat. But, much like all of the "good" trolls, she finds it hard not to give him some trouble. Vendel isn't the type to be intimidated, though, and has more than earned Skara's respect.

Ballustra - is one I've been back and forth on. As warriors, they've met on the battle field more than once and have a semi-mutual respect for one another's battle prowess. She's the one who gave Skára the crack on her cheek.

Blink and Skára do not get along well. She absolutely loves bullying him because it's funny. Blinky has insulted her brutish nature and doesn't like when she gets involved with anything.

Arrrgh - She's known Arrrgh since he was first brought to the Gumm Gumms. He was feisty and playful. She's trained a few whelps in her day, Arrrgh being one of them. She always says she doesn't like kids, but can't help having a soft spot for him. She doesn't blame him for abandoning the Gumm Gumm ways. She says he was always one of the softer ones. Probably one of the few she can and will be genuinely nice to until she starts bullying blinky, then he has to stop her.

Kanjigar - another frequent victim of Skára's antics and bullying. She doesn't much like trollhunters on principal but as she has softened over the years (something she will never admit) she's decided to offer her assistance. However, as she is very much in denial about getting softer in her old age, she disguises whatever help she gives as taunts, riddles or subtle clues - if even that. I have a whole thing that goes into that I just haven't finished writing. On Kanjigars end, he has his apprehensions, but she has actually helped him with some things and he knows she's nicer than she let's on.

Bagdwella has canonically fought in at least the battle of killahead and those skulls aren't just decorations, I've decided. She doesn't really like seeing another old gumm gumm around, but trusts Kanjigar to keep her in check. As for Skára's opinion, she'd say smash.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 - Disc 7

There's a mysterious tamer/partner on the inside of the cover of this one. Will there be another crossover omake or are those just new characters...?

Ch. 41

-Neo really reminds me of Yami Bakura with his heavy eye liner and white hair. (Except he's less interesting cuz he was rotten from the start).

(God, Yu-Gi-Oh! could get ugly...)

-Omegamon powering up via the "power of hope" and then the other side characters conveniently being like "we still have things to do here, so we can't go with you, Hideto" felt pretty contrived. I guess whoever wrote this likes to handle a small amount of characters at once and I can respect that.

-Yaoi anatomy spotted. Neo's waist is literally slimmer than his neck. What is this Winx Club!?

Ch. 42

-I stand corrected, we're now cutting back and forth between Hideto and Taichi and the rest of the gang. I like this, keeps the pace quick and the plot interesting.

-Neo's henchmen (Neo Devimon) beating up Omegamon when he was already half dead felt pretty dark. Are they called Neo Devimon because of Neo or is that just an awkward coincidence? lol

Ch. 43

-Jijimon kinda looks like a little furry penis lol. In black and white it's hard to distinguish where his head ends and his body begins.

-What was Birdramon there for (next to Jijimon)? Literally served zero purpose...

-Suddenly they threw all these new digimon at me at once! I had to look up where Callismon's name comes from and apparently it's supposed to be a reference to Callisto. All the new digis are boring to me because they're the buff, robo-cop-esque variety. Meh. (This is why I prefer Pokemon designs, more animal-like and cute compared to digimon's human-like and manly)

Ch. 44

-Whelp, that explains why I've never seen Callismon before, Neo created him! Whenever they introduce these man-made digis, I wonder what their fate will be in terms of reappearances. Will we never see Callismon in another part of the franchise since Neo wouldn't be around? Guess we'll see...

-Not much happened this chapter, just some predictable battling -yawn- a lot of padding in this manga.

Ch. 45

-Boring end to a boring battle. Once again, this just felt like padding.

-Demon's castle looks more like a factory plant than a castle. Ooglay

-Neo is such a sore loser. Every time his minions lose he's like "no, you see, I MEANT to do that. All according to keikaku."

-Digimon Frontier Generation Omake

-This volume ends with a one-shot Frontier cross-over omake. Why did they just skip over Tamers? Oh well...I've never seen Frontier so this is my first exposure to it. Feels backwards...

-What time period is this supposed to take place in? Taichi and Takuya just get yanked out of their own adventures and into a new one. Realistically, shouldn't they be like "uh, I'm kinda busy!" Especially Taichi who was on his way to Demon's castle lol. Maybe time freezes when you go to a parallel world tho...

-So Frontier has humans digivolving? Do they all digivolve into human-like digimon? I hope not...that sounds boring. Also, I guess that means way less characters and higher stakes for the kids? I think I would miss the digimon-human relationships...(Edit: apparently they have a human form and a beast form, but the beast form looked pretty human-like to me so meh).

-So is Babamon parallel world Jijimon or does Babamon also exist in Taichi's world? I bet we'll see them paired up at some point lol

-They really said "I know, brown hair and goggles!" for Tamers' protagonist. -sigh- groundbreaking...

-Zero uses Dragon Impulse, but wasn't that the attack he was supposed to never use again? Fuck his lifespan I guess...

-This manga had some kind of barcode gimmick that I can't use without a toy. Wonder what they do lol...I do think it's a clever gimmick that I would have enjoyed as a kid. It'd probably be a QR code nowadays.

This felt very similar to the Digimon Adventure 02 collab. Fluffy little filler omake where two worlds collide and the kids learn to respect their differences. I'll always enjoy a crossover, even if they are kinda low effort.

[duhragonball]

Whelp, I've ended up finishing Part 6 as well and while It's a clever way to start a new continuity I can't help but feel a bit unsatisfied. In any case, have you any desire to cover all of JoJo yourself in the coming years? I am interested to hear what you think about the end of part 6, maybe years from now lol. Also, will you be picking up Sparkling Zero when that comes out? I'd like to hear your thoughts on that and it's what if shenanigans as well (and if you will cover games in general)

I'm planning to liveblog Parts 3, 4, and 6 in 2025, then Part 7 in 2026. We'll see if I can actually pull that off, but that's the current schedule.

I guess it's been long enough that it's worth going over Part 5 again, but I dunno, I already went through it twice, then watched the anime as it aired. I'm not sure I have anything new to say about it.

Sparking Zero is supposed to be available on Steam this Friday but I'll be away from my computer for the following week, so I won't be able to play it very much until I get back. I doubt that I'd have much to write about it anyway. The Tenkaichi Budokai games are fun to play, so I'm sure Sparking Zero will be great, but I can't see there being much to write about.

[eldritchgray]

whelp. I started writing a fic for this

It'll probably just be a one shot, but I guess we'll see how it goes

I've been thinking about Mikey as a character, specifically how we see him in SAINW and The Last Ronin, and it's so interesting to me how he turns out really cynical and honestly kinda mean when his family is no longer there.

Obviously an apocalyptic setting would affect anyone, but Mikey's change is something I can't stop thinking about. How he goes from an optimistic goofball to a bitter, cynical, old man.

I'd be interested to see how Mikey might change with his family still there, and how they'd react to it. Like if Mikey had an arc similar to 03 Leo's and ended up the same, though probably to a lesser degree, as he was in SAINW or Ronin

Basically what I'm saying is: what if Mikey got an antihero arc, because you KNOW that turtle is capable of incredible violence. And how would his brothers recon with it

[bylightofdawn]

Whelp, I am writing a quick outline of this Post-Order 66 Grey-Depa-Caleb fic and am re-watching TBB ep1 as well as planning on re-reading the Kanan comics.

I guess this fic really is gonna happen now. Pffft. I rarely write actual outlines for fanfics, I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants and go with the vague string of scenes I have circling around in my head sort of writer.

I want to be more organized as a writer but my brain really doesn't work that way most of the time. So we'll see how this goes, I guess.

I kinda lowkey want to slip some of my pro Depa/Grey bias in there cause I do love that pairing but the evil part of my brain is like "'But what if Grey and Styles are both in love with her from afar but don't think they don't stand a chance because she is a Jedi and therefore as far beyond their reach as the moon is in the sky and they settle on a two sad clowns afair where their longing for Depa draws them together. And then Grey has to kill Styles to protect her?"

And I am finding it difficult to come up with a counterargument for this and very-well may lose to my own evil side. I've never actually written clonecest though and I'm high-key unsure if I want to deal with the potential flammers that inevitably come from that.

I have always been pretty neutral on it but have never really written it unless you cound Waxer and Boil in my modern AU where they are definitely not relatec thing. Of course I feel like Waxer/Boil is the gateway cloneship pairing. Pffft. We all love our gay clone dads who adopt their adorable twi'lek kiddo and love to say fuck canon they get to live happily ever after. So I've definitely always espoused a sorta 'do whatever you want' mentality when it comes to clonecest pairings but actually writing it is a little fraught with anxiety for me.

Of course, I'm also a grown-ass woman who has zero problems with telling people they can kindly fuck off if someone does come at me for writing it. But man the shit I've seen in this fandom at times it can be so horribly toxic and wrapped up in pearl-clutching where they are willing to demonize other people just for writing a pairing they don't like.

It's fucking wild. I don't put up with that shit and don't engage with people who do that but even I see it in my little bubble and it blows my mind cause it's fucking pixels and fictional characters. Ya'll do know that, right?

So I dunno, do I go for the painful gut punch here? I guess I'll see when I'm writing this.

I also need to edit the next chapter of Seeds For the Future but uggggggggh I don't wanna.

[zumpietoo]

Has Amy told people in dm's what happens in the first 2 episodes yet? If there are leaks, we'll know exactly who they came from.

Oooohhhh....touche!!! Whelp, guess we should see what Rose is posting, huh???