#a lot of stuff happened since the !! climax events

[redhoodieson]

As someone who has been brainrotting about a lot of stuff, I'm in a specific dragon ball hole where I keep on thinking about the Son Family, specifically Goku's thought process throughout Z and oh my goodness I want to dissect his mind so bad because most of the fandom focus on powerscaling, fights and forms so like, this is me wondering in my little chaotic wonderland why he decided to do the thing in the climax of the Cell Saga and how it impacted the rest of the plot, most especially on fighting involving his children.

The main thought that keeps creeping into my mind is: Goku is passively suicidal, and the events of the Android/Cell Saga and Bulma's comment on how he attracts trouble for everyone involved cemented his belief that he's better off dead than alive, which he uses as the main reason for staying in Other World during those seven years.

Now, of course, this is just something I headcanon, but I think about it all the time because while he doesn't make his actual deeper feelings obvious despite being usually blunt (he is a simple person after all), imagine that your family and friends died/almost died, all because of him?

Pre-Z, he was living peacefully with his family for five years. Then the Saiyans came. He learned he is one and his mission was to destroy Earth (in reality his parents sent him there so he can live), and the Saiyan who informed him of this is his brother he didn't know he had. At this moment, even though he didn't know it before, the trajectory of his and everyone close to him changed.

Gohan got kidnapped, he died protecting his son, and since then, the thought of "I need to get stronger" is permanently etched into his character. Yes, it is wired in his genetics to seek fighting and get stronger, but I can't help but think that he also thinks that he wants to train to get stronger so he can be powerful enough to beat his opponents to protect his loved ones.

But also, his enemies keep getting stronger and stronger. The Saiyans. Frieza and his forces. The Androids. All of them are linked to him one way or another. The Androids in particular were created to kill him because he defeated the Red Ribbon Army.

And then that scene in the Cell Games where he sacrificed his life and died for the second time, you can see him completely accept his impending death, as if anticipating that he would die in the aftermath of the Cell Games one way or the other, that's why he spent the remaining days before the Cell Games with his loved ones.

And unlike before, he did remain dead. For seven years, because he believes that everyone would be safer if he's dead than alive.

Was he proven right? Honestly, I don't know (actually no he's wrong because in Future Trunks' timeline, Buu Saga still happened). During the seven years of peace, there was no world threat, which for Goku, means that he was right. Nothing bad happened. Then, the one time he decided to return to Earth for one day, the Buu Saga happened, which eventually caused the end of the world (that was eventually saved).

Imagine his thought process throughout the saga. He just wanted to participate in the tournament and spend his remaining time with his family before he returns to Other World, but no, a lot of shit happens after he gets back.

I can't also help but think that he feels that he always put his family in danger, and when his sons had no choice but to fight, he apologizes, like with Gohan during Moro Arc. Goku absolutely loves his family, so imagine his turmoil when enemies keep on appearing even in Super because of him (Frieza again, Goku Black).

Does he think of himself as a burden to his own family? No, of course not. But like, what if he does, even subconsciously/he doesn't know? His family died because he wasn't there, wasn't quick enough/stuck in a hard place (in the case of Gohan and Goten, but it's either them or Dende and Mr. Satan, which makes this also a sadistic choice). I think Buu Saga in particular must have been a very bad time for him mentally.

That's also why he keeps on finding his successor as Earth's protector. From Gohan, to Goten and Trunks, to eventually Uub. He doesn't force his children when they express the lack of desire to fight (in fact, he always supports them no matter what). He feels he needs to find one so Earth would have people to protect it once he's dead for good. That's why he left at the EoZ to train Uub.

But, since this is a shonen series and Goku is the one doing most of the pep talk (particularly for Gohan, hence why he's always more confident when Goku is around than without), it's just, ahdkdkdkdj what goes inside your head man I want to know 😭😭😭

[12am-motivation]

HIHI Mo!! It’s so nice talking to you again 😊😊 Even though I don’t keep up to date with any big lore or plot from Enstars or Obey Me I still casually stay in the loop so feel free to let me know about anything big 😉 like I saw there were new Enstars characters?? after HOW LONG?? I was so shook

(Also the Triworlds song is such a classy banger they have been COOKING)

Heya, Avery! Thank you so much for the ask! Nice to see you too~ ^^

Now that you ask me about recent Enstars and Obey Me developments, I have... much to say about them so I'll put them under the cut; brainrot time!!

I have a massive, MASSIVE Enstars brainrot to the point that I even made a sideblog to dump my RyuseiP stuff because I don't wanna overshadow my Obey Me stuff here lol

In case you missed it, there are new albums per unit with new songs and solos

And YEAHHH HappyEle really went and had us adopt 5 new kids just recently and they're adorable! I found myself immediately attached to Yume (the purple-haired one) when he was first introduced in the 9th anniv livestream because we share a birthday, not to mention he also plays piano and does cosplay??

It made me a little giddy about it like did they put my OC on Enstars or something /j what are the odds I suddenly have a buncha things in common with an Enstars character— (Plus coser representation!!)

I haven't read much but based on a few simple translations, the new main story arc involves certain ES idols auditioning for a worldwide(?) dream unit in a show called "4piece" and we even have a new producer!

I think what's interesting about this arc is that it would focus more on the idols' individual strengths outside of their respective units

Also, I think Chiaki's also part of the audition based on how he appeared on the PV they showed in the 9th anniv livestream so I'm looking forward to it~

I'm not sure if you've seen this one too but JPstars' April fools gag this year was so WILDDD they even have a full song for it

They basically collaborated with Yagami Chitose, who is an actual shoujo mangaka artist, for the story and illustrations in the MV

The story itself involves a ton of shoujo manga tropes (including Hajime / the MC somehow bumping into 4 people at once) and it was a fun read lol

You can even change the characters while the text and their voices change accordingly so imagine the opportunities for both yumes and shippers 👀

Unfortunately for Obey Me Nightbringer, I've yet to catch up to the Main Story again because of the card grinding ;w;

But aside from Anniversary and All the Feels, they've been cooking with cards too! It takes a toll on players' funds because you need card dupes for them but the new Premium Picture feature looks so divine?? Don't even get me started on the shower pics—

Even though I was a bit iffy about the sudden story reboot in the new game, I still appreciate some of the details they changed, including MC living with Solomon at Cocytus Hall instead of them staying with the brothers (since it makes a bit more sense that they'd be closer to Sol as a fellow human), and Satan's more evident wrath compared to the OG game

We even get to enjoy random domestic moments with Sol like this one~ Since we pretty much live together with him, we sound like a married couple (though a lot of those moments involve banning him from the kitchen)

sorry for the really long answer— here's a niki beena

[kalpeavaris]

HIII can we have more info on the beastars au?? more specifically like j and tessa and how the entire manor era went down ^_^ i love all of your aus & your writing and art is phenomenal!!!!

Thank you!! And sure, I don't have all written out or planned yet but I got some lore in mind :]

Tessa is similar to how she lives in the OG canon - she has a very rich family that is entangled with the Horns Conglomerate which is in the hands of Rui and his dad (since Tessa's family is also made up from deers/cervidae).

She's a little spoiled, but good-natured and is fairly convinced that herbivores and carnivores could live in peace, a social stance her parents do not share.

Both Louisa and James are very pretentious, rich assholes that hate Carnivores or even hybrids with a burning passion (but this isn't about them /lh).

Jane also comes from a well off family, and while not rich-rich, they're doing well money-wise. She's close friends (and love interest) with Tessa due to them running in similar circles.

I imagined her personality to be very snobby and stuck-up, only letting Tessa close emotionally. Deep down, she's battling some self esteem issues, but that doesn't take away from the fact that she is indeed quite horrible around people she doesnt like or respect. She's pushing people away and fears being killed a lot. It's one of her worst fears next to losing Tessa.

For the Gala incident, I wouldn't really call it "the Gala incident" and more like "many small incidents that lead to bigger outcomes over time" since Cyn in this AU is a hybrid and all her motivations are her own (the Solver is a drug sold to Carnivores in the AU) - so she pesters and bullies Tessa and Jane for their involvement with the Horn Conglomerate and their attitude towards Carnivores (since Cyn is a grey wold hybrid).

She has her eyes set on especially Tessa because she's the daughter of the main investors into Horn, to a kind of obssessive point (referencing the fact how in the OG canon Cyn takes on Tessas looks and all) - constantly teasing her about how easy it is to just devour her and no one could do anything about it, since Cyn's family is also quite rich and powerful on their side of the city and in both groups (Carnivores and Herbivores).

Won't spoil how this all goes down in the climax/the eventual outcome of the whole ordeal, but it's not nice. Especially not for Tessa and Jane. >_>

A lot of the AU is following the canon Beastars storyline, just shifting some stuff around or playing in their own secluded "areas" instead of going along with the timeline of events for the main story.

As for the other characters, a lot of them retain their OG personality or job. Uzi, N and V are also students in the Academy - V is a cat, N is a dog and Uzi is a Bat (similar to the Furry!AU lol)

Nori was meant to be sold on the black market, having been Number 2, but she was able to flee before being purchased, essentially growing up between jobs and living on the streets until she was old enough to work a fulltime job where she met Khan.

Uzi, N and V eventually catch wind of the stuff happening with Cyn and the way she behaves around herbivores, following the trail to the "Absolute Solution" drug being produced and its effects.

[turboacek-blog]

Trying to make Agents of Shield work in the MCU now

So they said they want to reintroduce Quake in the MCU

And iirc they said they’re going to make Agents of Shield Canon as previously like most shows wasn’t canon before

But due to events happening at the end of season 5, it’s going to be weird how they try to fit the show now

Summary Agents of Shield is a show that mostly followed S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were running parallel to the MCU movies from post-Avengers 1

At the end of season 5, it was supposed to be parallel to Infinity War but due to how secretive Disney was being with the Thanos Snap and the five-year-jump the show was forced to be original which created some weirdness

So the general consensus is that Season 5 is the end of canon to MCU and seasons 6&7 is a different timeline due to things like time travel being in those seasons

So to make Agents of Shield work it’s either going to have to be a lot of retconning of those last couple of seasons

Or seasons 1-4 are canon but now there’s a hypothetical season 5 that makes sense with Infinity War knowledge mainly the snap that we have never seen

And like at the end of the show, most characters are still doing agent work now while others retire and Daisy/Quake is one still working so it’s feasible she’s a potential hero/character/agent as she’s inhuman

(Which might get changed into mutant like how they did Ms. Marvel )

So I don’t know if they're going to go into the whole Coulson explanation and the whole history that Shield is still active especially with them shifting to Sword in the recent phases

But I think introducing Quake is relatively simple especially if it’s the actress Chloe Bennett for the general audience that has that kind of recognizability

Most wouldn’t have watched the show so she can give a quick explanation she’s an agent or former agent of Shield trained under Coulson and most will accept it that alone

As for the nitty gritty for those who watched the show and are very particular over the continuity and timelines and such

I think the simplest explanations are…

Time Travel

Basically, while the lack of reaction to the snap happening is weird and weird how no one from the main cast was snapped (there’s theories why they weren't)

The MCU time travel rules of going to a different branch in the timeline make seasons 5-7 make sense as they just weren’t there for some of the snap and when they come back at the end of season 7 they’re back in the MCU

There was a cut line about them being in the quantum realm to jump through time, which protected them from Thanos in a sense similar to Ant-Man

The Multiverse

I know some are tired of it or think the multiverse stuff isn’t working but it’s probably the simplest explanation without completely overwriting the show

Basically AoS world is its own earth/universe still, but a parallel story did happen up to season 5 in the MCU but instead of what happened in the show the snap happened and you go from there

As at that point the potential is endless as you can still have some elements of season 5, 6, & 7 but the show does diverge with the Thanos effect instead of where they went

Incursion

Or you do the yet to happen incursion idea from Doctor Strange 2 where two earths collide and combine, this is how people think the Fox X-Men will join but this can work with any non MCU marvel world such as Fantastic Four, older marvel movies like the first Hulk’s and Spider-Man and marvel shows that weren’t original in the sacred timeline which can be AoS among others

What if

Just going to go off a ramble to see if I could make something up

So they elude to Thanos a lot and even say his name so honestly a lot of season 5 can stay but that climax scene of Quake vs Gravitron is fine but the snap happens and half the character gets snapped away

Who gets snapped is literally up in the air, I think since a character like Fitz was going to die anyway and Coulson also slowly dying can mean only a couple get snapped like Elena and Mack along with some of the notable side recurring agents and you never get characters like Deke since that storyline I imagine is gone

This way I imagine we get a “season” of some characters dealing with the snap and characters like Jemma still go for the frozen Fitz like in the show, May and Coulson live out his last days, and so on…

Now the details of how they handle the five years is its own story but the general idea is that Daisy needs to stay alive through this

Maybe kinda like Endgame we just jump five years and have a scene that shows Daisy and May fighting some of Thanos’s army and when everything is fixed and snapped back have a scene with Fury about still needing Shield etc which allows storylines like Mack being the next head, Jemma finds Fitz, Daisy is now the character she needs to be when they reintroduce her and etc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: I had an old draft I think I deleted right after I finished binging AoS as I figured no one would care back then since even shows like Daredevil weren't being canonized

So I had probably had better recollection and thoughts and theories then sadly so sorry if this isn’t the most thought out

Does make me want to rewatch the show now that

[blackjackkent]

All right, bit of a late start on liveblogging tonight but let's see if we can make a little more progress on Rakha's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

How you doing, Rakha?

Yep.

Some meta points to start off:

Point 1: We're reaching the point in early Act 3 where a lot of things start happening very fast for a little while. We have two back-to-back pretty important long rest things that can happen here - Orin's infiltration and Wyll's showdown with Mizora. As I learned on Hector's run, Wyll's showdown takes priority on the next long rest if you have talked to her after the coronation, but for Rakha I think I'd like to have Orin's shit happen before anything else.

While I am mostly trying to be pretty loyal to in-game events for Rakha without manipulating things too much, I am going to do a little metagaming here to line everything up in the order I want it to happen.

The ficlet I posted earlier today is set the night after the Gortash business, which implies at least a night's rest before everything else starts going off the rails. So we're going to do a few extra things before actually LR-ing and, for story purposes, say they're happening the next day, and then trigger Orin's invasion afterwards. Then we'll talk to Mizora so that all of Wyll's stuff unravels afterwards.

There's no way to get to the Lower City without talking to Mizora, which limits our options somewhat. So I'm inclined to say that after everyone's pretty uncomfortable night post-Gortash-revelations, Jaheira makes the executive decision that they're heading straight to Danthelon's the next morning to get Harper backup before anyone can get into more trouble.

So we'll do that first. Maybe also Sharess's Caress, since we currently have two short rests to play with and there's only one bit of combat in Sharess's that I can think of. And then we're off to Orin Crazytown.

Point 2: With regards to the actual kidnapping - Hector had Lae'zel taken, so in an ideal world I would want to have someone else taken with Rakha. However... I really don't think Halsin or Gale or even Minthara would have nearly the same impact for Rakha as Lae'zel, so I'm going to once again do some metagaming to make sure that happens.

Because basically Act 3 is going to be about heaping more and more bullshit on Rakha and everyone around her. XD

Point 3: I don't know exactly when Wyll's romance scene pops, but the timing might end up being rather strange. I suspect his Act 3 romance is probably sweet as hell, bc it's Wyll, but as things stand right at this moment, neither Rakha nor Wyll are very much in a sweet mood.

So there is a non-zero chance that, when I reach it, I will go through it, save all the necessary caps, and then hold onto it and drop it into the story later in Act 3 when it fits better tonally. We'll play this by ear.

Point 4: The final point is that, with Hector, I definitely beelined straight for Minsc and then Orin pretty much as quick as I could, because I wanted both of them settled in camp ASAP. But with Rakha (especially since with Florrick rescued we're not under a time clock on anything), I'm going to try to be a lot more deliberate about letting her just wander into things and go where she would be inclined to go based on her own knowledge. There are three reasons for this:

I'd like to try to experience Act 3 in a slightly different order.

There's a LOT of random side crap happening in Act 3 and the easiest way to rationalize Rakha bothering with most of it is her being lost and stumbling across it while looking for something else. (That said, some less important stuff still might end up getting skipped.)

The showdown with Orin feels like it's probably a (if not the) climax point for the Durge storyline, so it seems best not to rush to it more than necessary.

So yeah. That's where my head is at on Rakha's story. :D So let's get rolling.

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon

4.25/5. Releases 12/10/24.

vibes: arranged marriage--what now?, awkward super powerful virgins falling in love, falling in love with the one you're meant to betray

Heat Level: 7.5/5

The Basics:

Now that she's married to Alaric, the Night Emperor, Talasyn wants to keep it purely political--especially since she's secretly a part of a plot to overthrow him. Unfortunately, their attraction to each other has already caused problems. Now more than ever, they need to remain strict and remote, with the Moonless Dark, a catastrophic, potentially apocalyptic event approaching. But the encroaching doom could make their feelings even more apparent, even as outside forces pit them against each other.

The Review:

This was the best thing the second book in a trilogy can be: better than the first (and the first was already good). Though I enjoyed The Hurricane Wars, it did at points feel very much like a set up, both in terms of the fantasy plot and Alaric and Talasyn's relationship. In a lot of ways, you get payoff on both aspects in this installment... while at the same time leaving some tantalizing threads hanging.

Well, like. A lot of tantalizing threads. Remember--this is a trilogy. We're going to have to wait for that ending!

Really, the last book ended just as Alaric and Talasyn's relationship was beginning. Here, we find them in the midst of this alliance marriage that isn't supposed to be even vaguely real. Yet they've already--well--gotten each other off. And that should be it! No repeat performances! No feelings!

Sure, Jan.

What I loved about this is that both Alaric and Talasyn are incredibly powerful beings, skilled fighters, and even growing politicians. But when it comes to their emotions--and their sexual experience on both sides--they're really just a couple of babes in the woods. It gives a delicious vulnerability and awkwardness to their interactions. I mean, of course Alaric has mommy issues (and so does Talasyn, for that matter). Of course Talasyn has the ability to beat his ass in a fight while at the same time lacking the social experience to know how to flirt. They're basically a couple of gawky, traumatized losers together. Especially Alaric. And I love that!

Y'all, he's so obsessed with this girl. And sometimes it comes out in a "I want to write her name over and over in my notebook" kind of way, and sometimes it comes out in a "MINE MINE MINE OM NOM NOM" kind of way. Both ways are good.

I'll admit, sometimes the political stuff can still be A Lot for me, but I found it a lot easier to follow this time around. Additionally, the focus on the Moonless Dark itself really allowed me to sort of... zero in on this cataclysmic moment. It's a great way to amp up the pacing and push us towards as climax.

Speaking of climaxes...

The Sex:

WELL DAMN. There was very little sex in the last book, and I suspected that would change this time around. I don't think I suspected it would change this much. We have the build up with "I'm so aroused against my own will" shenanigans. We have actual consummation, and like... a lot of stuff after that.

Alaric is pretty dirty, y'all! I was proud of him! I had to reread one of those lines to be like "Well fuck, he sure did perk up." There's some good shit here. And it really does serve the relationship. You have a really fantastic progression of physical intimacy aligning with the increasing emotional intimacy.

Another thing I so appreciated--the sex isn't like, constant smooth sailing. There's some awkward stuff in the beginning, befitting a couple of virgins figuring it out. Hell yeah.

Anyway--I really enjoyed this, and I'm super excited to see what happens next. It ends on quite the Moment.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[smash-64]

2024 Game of the Year Countdown #4: Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War Sony PlayStation 2, 2004

AC5 is almost certainly the fan favorite of the franchise. It has a very complex story that focuses on characters and politics more so than just destroying targets. In a lot of ways, it’s a very “anime” story and game. 

The game starts out with a lot of Big Events™, tossing you into the role of squadron leader. You can’t even change the garbage plane you get for the first four levels, which definitely makes getting an S rank more difficult, but also works well with the story since your base and squadron are struggling and being overrun as well. I think three missions occur on the same in-game date!

With the addition of Dolby Pro Logic II, the game also has an option for surround sound and it’s amazing. The music has a depth to it that wasn’t apparent just coming out of the regular TV speakers, or even stereo, and sounds are dynamic. Firing a missile to destroy a jet in front of you, and then flying past the subsequent explosion creates a very real feel that makes me wish I had surround sound years ago. It also makes me wonder what AC7’s VR gameplay would be like on the PS4…. Even if DPLII isn’t true surround sound, as it merely interprets certain music and sound cues, it does a really good job to make the music and sound effects stand out prominently. This is a 10/10 experience in the sound department.

Ace Combat is well known for having great music, and AC5’s soundtrack was so big, it took up 4 CDs. Some favorites include the remixed “Free Flight,” the super chill “Four Horsemen,” the first track performed by an actual orchestra for an Ace Combat game, “Razgriz” by the Warsaw Philharmonic, the grand finale and titular track of “The Unsung War,” and lastly, the licensed rock tune used in the trailer and end credits, “Blurry” by Puddle of Mudd. This would be the best soundtrack by far for an Ace Combat game, had it not been for a little prequel released less than two years later.

After playing dozens of JPRGs since the last time I played AC5, I see heavy influence from the genre. Ace Combat 3, the Japanese version at least, leaned heavily into the sorts of storytelling methods and plot twists that are more common in RPGs or story-focused games, and it’s obvious that they learned what worked there and combined it with what worked from a gameplay standpoint in AC04, combining them perfectly for The Unsung War. My replay has honestly been eye-opening as I was really getting a lot more out of it than I had in the past. While the big twist to the story comes a bit late in the story and makes some of the earlier levels feel a bit like “what’s the point?,” it also really thrusts us into a prominent position within the plot. Once that twist happens, everything we do feels just so much more significant and impactful, whereas stuff before felt like we were just a part of the machinery. 

The only real critique I have of the story, aside from how the twist felt a bit late in the game to be able to enjoy it as much as possible, is that a few levels stand out as really uneventful. AC04 had one objectively boring mission, with another one I’d consider borderline. AC5 has a number of boring missions that feel like filler in both importance to the plot and in actual gameplay. However, the highs are so high, these boring missions are forgiven and nearly forgotten as well.

One small thing that has always bothered me about AC5 involves the superweapons. There were only two superweapons and one superplane in AC04. The superplane there doesn’t have any special weaponry or features; it’s just highly maneuverable and fast. The superweapons also are integral to the story, with Stonehenge being of utmost importance to the politics, timeline of the conflict, and gameplay in numerous levels. Megalith might feel tacked-on to some, but it is at least rumored in debriefings earlier in the story, and serves as a great climax to the game.

The superweapons in AC5, however, often spring out of nowhere. There are two submarines with devastating anti-aircraft weapons that show up out of nowhere with no fanfare and no lead-up, and then are dispatched immediately without causing any significant turning point in the story or the conflict. Then, we get two space-based superweapons. At least one of those has a bit of lore surrounding it, but in the level where we shoot it down, it feels much more like a boss fight from the game 1943 than it does an Ace Combat enemy. It also has magical lasers that one-shot you and an unending stream of UAVs that are unreasonably maneuverable and quick. The superplane also looks like it was made for a space arcade game, with the laser and overall design looking very sci-fi. These don’t exactly follow the general mood of AC games, imho.

One somewhat controversial choice by developers, something that has since been almost lost to time, was the inclusion of novice controls. Normal controls on AC games require you to roll your aircraft before pulling up in order to turn. This is how an aircraft would execute a turn in real life, and AC5 added an option to change the controls to allow for pushing left to make the plane roll to the left AND pull up at the same time. So instead of handling like an aircraft, it handled more like an Arwing in Starfox. A lot of people saw this as the game going soft and being made too easy for people who couldn’t take “real” controls. I was relatively indifferent to the inclusion of such an option, although I would never use it. There was a true downside, though, in that the novice controls wouldn’t roll the aircraft completely upside down. Who doesn’t want to fly upside down?? Anyway, this has been a standard option ever since and I can’t recall anyone being upset about it in years. It’s nice that people can have this barrier to entry removed, so overall, I think it was a good choice.

Rant on superweapons aside, AC5 is THE fan favorite Ace Combat game and I have a new appreciation for it after giving it a replay after so many years. Truly a masterpiece on the PS2 and in the franchise.

[color-cacophony]

I was going to make a Big Official Review Post about Rayman in the Phantom Show but I don't really have enough complete thoughts to make something comprehensive and organized, but I still want to share some points from my experience with it so uhhh without further ado, here's a bunch of thoughts on what dazzled me and what I thought could have been done better.

Here I go...

I'll start with the stuff that bugged me first because I don't like to end on a bad note:

I think the biggest issue is that giving the player the option to complete each set in any order diminishes the opportunity to have a linear story. Without a series of events building up to the finale, the actual climax doesn't feel as grand or substantial as it should be (it definitely feels like a few lines were cut from the moments before Phantom's first verse with how abruptly it starts). It would have felt more immersive to see actual scenes of the heroes trying to play their roles and have more varied quests based on puzzles or even characters and dialogue (like the search for Sweetlopek's stolen axe), all whilst gradually putting the pieces together that they were led into a trap.

Speaking of putting the pieces together, it would've paid off to have Beep-0 learn from his own arrogance in the past instead of repeating his assertion that he knew what Phantom was up to all along. That part made me kind of sad because I really like Beep-0 and it seemed like they were setting him up to eventually become less uptight and more open to admitting his mistakes, which would be more satisfying and obvious!

As we all know, Beep-0 isn't the only one who repeated himself. I remember an exchange I had with @randomrabbidramblings about our predictions for what would happen in the climax; they were hoping the final showdown with Phantom would not be redundant with his first encounter, having the same battle gimmick as before. Unfortunately that is, in fact, what they ended up doing. While framing it as Phantom being unoriginal or making a callback helps it a little bit, ultimately it made me feel let down (although I love Beep-0's delivery when he reiterates his line from Kingdom Battle. he means business).

As for the aftermath of the battle, I want to know where Phantom went. There doesn't seem to be any sign of him anywhere in the studio. It's really odd, given how this was supposed to be his grand comeback (alongside Rayman, of course), but we don't get even a simple explanation of what happened to him after he was defeated for the second time, unless I missed something. I presume this is his last major appearance in a game (unless they decide to do something completely different with him in the distant future??? wishful thinking but not ruling it out!), so it's a strangely underwhelming and mysterious send-off to our beloved ghostly diva. I would have been bummed that we didn't get lore paintings for him, but the memory entry summarizing his surprisingly short-lived career actually made me laugh and honestly, the thought of him only releasing one album and becoming so well-known just because he's notoriously a huge jerk and a producer of incredibly terrible films is so in-character for him.

Another choice I found unusual was the lack of any explanation as to how he got his voice back, since it's been established that he screwed it up by overdoing it. Although, they must have dismissed it knowing that not everyone is going to find the mural containing the only source of that detail. His voice could have healed over time anyway, but it just doesn't entirely make sense that they don't acknowledge it at all (I did see @bramble-scramble 's post mentioning a detail @randomrabbidramblings pointed out where a gramophone can be seen in a box in the studio's control room and it is supposedly the one Phantom replaced with a new one when he messed it up, but even if that's true, it's still a bit easy to miss).

I understand that a lot of these issues were due to restraints since it's only a DLC and they could only fit so much in, but that goes to show that this concept is a little too big for a DLC, but not quite big enough for a full game.

Now, for the things I loved...

I must give massive props to the artists and animators for taking reference from multiple Rayman games and essentially making the pinnacle of his goofiness. Rayman was HIGHLY entertaining to see (and listen to, thanks to David Gasman) and very lovable in this! And the way his dynamic with Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario changes up until the end where he becomes friends with them and realizes that he can work with the Rabbids now instead of against them it's just 🥺 awgh... It feels cheesy to talk about it but it really does make me happy now that Rayman has a chance to be an equal to the Rabbids and have something resembling a mutual understanding.

I appreciate them bringing back characters from the main game and giving them their own sets. Fittingly enough, it's like a curtain call for the final installment of SoH.

The return of Beep-0's swearing. SERIOUSLY IT'S SUCH A SMALL THING BUT IT DELIGHTED ME

The studio's lobby is gorgeous. Absolutely STUNNING I love all the details and the music notation motifs on everything.

Honestly the rest of this is just going to be me gushing about Phantom hehehe...

First of all, I was completely awestruck at the decision to give him a swing/jazz sequence because I love the aesthetic of the whole sassy big band musical number kind of thing so when I saw that Phantom was going to do that I went INSANE. The animation in the song sequences is absolutely top tier. Phantom is ALL OVER THE PLACE, very charming, very energetic. The swing bit made me realize just how unbelievably coordinated he is. Like when he's zipping and spinning around the stage and it doesn't affect his singing at all? Holy crap. Then, I went even MORE insane when rock/metal Phantom showed up. I would have wanted a verse in that style too, but I get that it was cut because it would mess up the pacing of the battle.

I love Phantom's inability to contain his excitement at the start of the battle, his annoyed lines when you destroy the lights, his smug remarks even when he's taking damage. He's just so- I'm just gonna say it- so freaking cute in this! His line deliveries in general made me fall so hard for him, especially "were you EVER a thing, Rayman?". The way he drops his voice sounds so cool...

Regarding his abilities, I thought they were going to explain why he could turn people to stone in Kingdom Battle, but they simply took that detail away. I don't have a big problem with this, as the Stone Deaf ability could have been part of the Megabug's influence (and it makes him at least a bit less OP lol). I'm also satisfied to finally know that he can indeed phase through things like any other ghost and isn't limited to just teleporting.

His death acting has definitely improved since last time, in that it's silly and makes me smile instead of just making me feel embarrassed lol.

So uummmm yeah that's all the noteworthy stuff I can think of! Overall I thought the DLC was delightful during my playthrough, but after I finished it I felt kind of sad because it just didn't feel "thorough". However, given that Sparks of Hope generally improved on so many aspects from the last game, I'm confident that they'll keep adding and experimenting with more characterizations and scenarios and make something even better if they decide to continue with Mario + Rabbids. And even if they don't, we'll always have the amazing fans to continue the story and put even more wonder into this wild crossed-over universe!

Anyway, thank you for reading through this highly disorganized rant/gush! And while I'm at it, thank you to everybody in the Mario + Rabbids community for making such amazing art and just being here to share our love for the series. That means thank you to @randomrabbidramblings @bramble-scramble @salamifuposey @hostess-of-horror @phandrow @pastelprince18 @critterzone13 @hostdoozy @majorpepperidge and more! You guys are super cool and I appreciate you even though I've never directly interacted with all of you, hehe. I suppose all I have left to say is goodnight, so goodnight/day everyone! Until next time I decide to dump more nonsense onto your dashboard :D

[stevetown]

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Playtime: 59h 29m Completed: April 17, 2024

I put off writing this entry because I didn't want to admit to myself that I really did not care for Rebirth. Remake was my favorite game of the last decade, and I rarely get hyped for new titles nowadays, so to swallow the bitter pill and admit the last four years of hype were wasted...hurts.

It happened sometime around Costa Del Sol. After a lengthy chapter involving a card tournament, which itself was followed by a chapter whose climax hinges on a rhythm game parade segment, here was another chapter where you had to complete multiple required mini-games to get tickets to dress our favorite cast of destiny defiers for the beach. On its face, Rebirth should have been exactly what I was looking for. I love these characters so much that just hanging out at the game's equivalent of Atlantic City should have been an easy slam dunk for me. And there are good, if fleeting, character moments to be found here!

But at this point in the game, it became apparent there's no pathos and no forward momentum pulling the party forward other than "I guess we'll bumble around looking for black robed figures." It's a confusing approach to the middle chapter considering even the original was so clear about the stakes for each character and what they were after once they left Midgar. Remake was also so keen on engaging with our knowledge of the original's plot. "You can't fall in love with me" sent me reeling. Rebirth offers no such assurance that it knows nor cares about what's coming.

Emotional catharsis is nowhere to be found. Character moments like Barrett and Dyne's reunion and Red XIII's Cosmo Canyon homecoming are offensively brief, having little to no lead up and no follow through indicating those events had a lasting impact on anyone. The few beats where the game does take swings and add new material are almost never talked about amongst the cast, leading to narratively clashing moments that left us scratching our heads and screaming at the screen for anyone to talk about anything of importance. Whenever the game begins to build any kind of emotional crest, you can count on it falling short of a satisfying conversational resolution if it wasn't interrupted by Yuffie screaming about materia for the thousandth time this chapter.

It's not all bad. There's good stuff here with Cloud and Tifa's relationship. Vincent and Cid's character introductions are highlights that got some good belly laugh's and felt like old school Remake character magic. The second visit to the Gold Saucer got the waterworks going. The combat is more of the same, which is to say fairly good, but it's hard to keep all of the character play styles straight in your head and the Folio system is the worst character upgrade system since Final Fantasy II.

Then there's the climax, which I'm honestly too exhausted to get into. It's not that I hate the idea of what they're going for here, but during the moment where the game needed clarity the most it decided to muddle the message and leave us shrugging more than salivating for part III. It's clear this Final Fantasy VII remake experiment wants to have its cake and eat it too, offer titillating change and remain faithful to the original, but instead offers neither. I'm not left with confidence that Hamaguchi, Nomura and co. know how to wrap this up and deliver a satisfying conclusion to what they kicked off with aplomb and intrigue in Remake.

I did have fun with Rebirth! I put a lot of hours into it, despite the game's incessant efforts to make me hate it at almost every turn (I never want to hold down triangle for three seconds every time I need to do anything in the environment, thanks). There are good nuggets buried deep within the expansive nothingness that is the game's take on Ubisoft map design. But this is a game that is impressively all fat with little meat to chew on. Golden moments are spread too thin, not explored to satisfaction, and at worst become utterly confusing. I know in a year I'll still be pining for the last installment, which is more of a testament to how enduring these characters are than anything Rebrith itself did. I might as well see this through, but I'm left feeling disappointed that Square has shown this experiment to be what I wasn't looking for after all.

[dreamerdoesthewritething]

More Leon S. Kennedy headcanons. This time I think they’re mostly going to do with relationships of the romantic and/or intimate variety. But these things get away from me, so we’ll see.

Think about original RE4 Leon, or I guess original timeline Leon since I might reference events outside of that game, when you read these.

(Also Ada is an outlier for lots of things lmao. Maybe. Woman is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.)

---------

Leon Relationship Headcanons:

He values honesty and stability. Too many people in his life lie or obscure the truth. He doesn’t want his partner to do the same. As for the stable part, it’s about having someone to come home to. Something normal. Something that remains when everything else is so messy, so chaotic, so unstable.

That said, there's stable and then there's boring. His partner can't be too boring.

Appearances don't mean much to him. He doesn't fall for people solely for their physique. Personality matters much more.

Prefers commitment over one-night stands. Doesn't mean he never has them. Just means he'd rather have a solid relationship than a meaningless fling.

If given the chance to actually show it, he is very physically affectionate. Likes touching just about anyone he cares about, but especially his partner. (Get your head outta the gutter; these are platonic touches.)

Shameless flirt, as we all know. Ramps up when he's smitten, because he loves watching his partner's reaction. Always finds it so cute when they're flustered and/or blushing.

Likes to think he doesn't get jealous easily. Reality doesn't always agree with this thought.

More under the cut, particularly the ~spicy~stuff. If you're a minor, you know better than to venture further. Even though I don't get too explicit. You've been warned.

Unless it's a one-night stand, he won't have sex with his partner until at least the third date. Would rather get to know the person before sticking his dick in 'em, you know?

Is open to experimenting in the bedroom. Roleplay, however, cannot relate to police work, the government, secret agents, or doctors/ scientists. Also not huge on inflicting pain or being hurt during sex, but can do so if he and his partner are comfortable with it.

No choking the poor man! Tyrants and other B.O.W.s do that to him too much for it to be anything but traumatizing. He won't choke his partner, either.

He's fairly average as far as size/length and girth are concerned. But it's not the size that matters; it's how he uses it ;P

Has some serious stamina.

Makes sure his partner cums first. He's definitely not a selfish lover.

Won't tell his partner any of his kinks unless they're a serious couple and if asked directly. He thinks his are kind of embarrassing, even if they're not that weird. Can't have someone knowing how to manipulate him in any way, you know? lmao

Sex in public and/or a place where the risk of being caught is high is definitely one of them. As is his partner being loud because he's fucking them so well. As is his partner being just loud enough that only he can hear them. Paradox? Maybe. That happens with these things sometimes.

Couldn't care less if his partner screams his name or if they don't. As long as they're making noise and seem to be enjoying themselves, then he's golden.

If there's time, he absolutely enjoys foreplay. Good opportunity to tease his partner for as long as possible, edging them and bringing them closer and closer to the climax only to hold them there. Begging for more. Begging for him.

Aftercare is a necessity in his opinion, even with quickies. The rougher he is with his partner, the more time he'll spend on it. If he gets too overbearing, his partner will have to call him on it. He just wants to be sure they're really okay after what just happened.

I mentioned this on my other headcanon post, but Leon needs to sleep alone. It's because of his trouble sleeping. He doesn't want to disturb their rest with his issues. Doesn't just get up after sex and go to the couch and fall asleep, though. Will stay and cuddle until they're asleep and then he slips away to the living room. Sometimes he'll sneak back in before they wake up to give the illusion that he was there the whole time. If the relationship is solid enough, he might try to stay in the bed and may learn to actually sleep with another person beside him, but it'll take time, patience and understanding.

[emeraldspiral]

Been thinking about how they could adapt the Zimvoid arc into a film, because I think it works really well as a finale. I think Zib is a perfect villain to make Zim and Dib realize ugly truths about themselves and challenge them to be better. But there's no way they'd just do a straightforward adaptation. They'd have to make major changes to the story so it'd be something new and exciting and not spoiled right from the start, just like how they started ETF as an adaptation of the first comic and then veered off into something totally original.

I like the idea of playing it like the comic story is canon and the movie is actually a stealth sequel. Like, Zib used time travel to go back and do everything over and he remembers how everything went the first time and is making changes throughout the story to take it off the rails toward a different end goal. Maybe he was even the one who made Zim forget "Phase 2" and caused the events of ETF to happen.

I'd really like to see Zib introduced a lot earlier or at least for the story after the twist reveal to go on for a lot longer because I feel like in the comic everything happened pretty quickly and there was so much more that could've been done with Zib. Like, he doesn't really do much outside of exposition. Even at the end, all he does is sit on his throne holding Dib captive while the Zims battle his giant robot for like 2 pages before main Zim merges them all and Zib's plan falls apart. I'd really like to see a big horror movie chase sequence with Zib as the monster, relentlessly stalking Zim and Dib through multiple realities and tearing through every obstacle like cardboard, like Wanda in Multiverse of Madness. Would also really love to see Zim and Dib tag-team against Zib since the climax of the original comic has Dib doing nothing while everything Zim does to achieve victory happens off-screen and it feels like kind of a missed opportunity to not have them work as a team against a being that is a combination of the two of them.

There's also a lot of sequences in the comic that are just kinda skipped over that I'd really like to see in some capacity. Like, we don't see much of Zim's battles in the arena so we don't know how he managed to beat 166 opponents in a day while supposedly being the worst Zim. We also don't see the rebel Zims battle against the top 99 elite Zims or #2 fighting his way through the Massive to get an audience with the Tallest, so I feel like we missed out on some potential for really funny and exciting action sequences.

I like that Zim and Dib had parallel arcs of being confronted with the idea that there are better versions of themselves out there and maybe they're actually the worst, before ultimately coming out on top to prove they're actually the best, at least by the logic of "I'm only failing because I've had it harder than anyone else". So I'd like to take the natural next step and have them become self-aware about how much they validate each other.

Like, in the comic the alternate Zims openly admit that they're happy to see a Dib and express admiration for their own Dibs, which makes sense because they've had time apart to realize their true feelings. But we never see if this gives Dib pause and causes him to reflect on how his Zim might feel about him, so that's something that could be added onto the original arc. I also really like the idea that while main Zim was imprisoned with the other Zims they were talking the same way about their Dibs in front of him, and because he hasn't had that time apart to reflect and come to terms with his feelings he's uncomfortable with the thought that he might actually like Dib. Plus, I think adding a scene like that would give extra context to why Zim refuses to work with Dib when he breaks them all out. I also like the idea that in general, because they've had no one but themselves to talk to in the void, the alternate Zims have been able to work through stuff that main Zim hasn't. Like, they all know that their mission was fake, the Tallest never respected them, and they're a joke to pretty much everyone but Dib, but main Zim's still in denial about all of it.

Meanwhile, Dib wouldn't just take Zib's explanation for what he did at face value. He's convinced no Dib would be stupid enough to attach Zim's PAK to themselves and not expect to be corrupted, and he can't bring himself to believe it was just the lack of recognition that drove him to it. He'd demand to know the real reason so he can avoid making the same mistakes and eventually Zib would admit he did it because he missed his Zim.

"You never really know what someone means to you until they're gone. Until you destroy the only person who ever respected you, who understood you, for a world that doesn't even appreciate the sacrifice."

Zib attached Zim's PAK to himself because he wanted his Zim back, but the PAK had been damaged and all that was left of his personality were his final thoughts and feelings. Fear, anger, regret, sadness, resentment, and shame. The Zim part of Zib's mind is just a malevolent ghost in the back of his head, and the Zimvoid is nothing more than a hell of his own creation. The Zim part drives Dib to commit atrocities to get back at him for killing him and the Dib part torments the alternate Zims and plots to destroy all the Irkens to get back at the Zim part. Both sides want to punish each other and both sides allow it because they feel like they deserve it for being failures.

Learning all this is hard for Dib to swallow because it means there's seemingly no good outcome for earth no matter what he does. Either Zim wins and earth is destroyed or he wins and destroys earth himself because his life is empty without Zim.

What makes all the difference to the story's outcome though is that because ETF happened Zim and Dib are in different headspaces than in the original story. Dib has already realized that proving Zim is an alien was just a means to an end to get what he really wanted, which it turned out he already had, and now that he knows it he can see that it's exactly the same for Zim with his mission. Meanwhile, Zim's walls of self-deception have already started crumbling since he realized he "lost" the Tallests' respect, which makes him desperate to reinforce them even as they grow more fragile.

So maybe instead of trying to get rid of all the other Zims to prove he's the greatest of them all, he'd try to hijack Zib's plan and turn it into a plot to conquer all earths in every reality to really show the Tallest he isn't a joke. But Dib would realize that there's an alternative to the no-win scenario he thought they were in; making peace. And he does it by echoing his father's words to Zim, "You're always trying to prove to your leaders that you're amazing. But you never needed to prove that to me, Zim. I've always thought you were amazing."

And Zim realizes that as often as he's said it himself, no one's ever called him "amazing" before, and Dib shows Zim how much he matters to him by risking it all just to save him from his own reckless stupidity.

And then I like the idea that it's kinda like a Sylki situation where even with all the universe's infinite possibilities they're still supposed to be enemies in every reality so them becoming friends kinda breaks reality and gives them the power to resolve everything and get back to their home universe when it seemed like they were trapped with no hope of escape.

And then that would be like the ultimate perfect ending for the series. Zim gives up his mission and Dib gives up trying to expose him because they both realize they don't care about winning anybody else over as long as they have each other.

[collectorcookie]

fandom/game vent

tw: csa

Uuugghgggh. Idk why but nothing feels right lately.

On one hand, the enstars fixation died down A LOT. Great for my bank account tbh, i don't wanna spend another cent on gacha games. My brain is free🎉🎉🎉

And rather than feeling this pressure of "omg i must grind new events and get new cards" or "omg there are so many event stories i missed out on" or "i must grind every single new song on all difficulty levels for dia" i just. Don't do that anymore lol. I actually just play the songs whenever i actually feel like playing any and i read only the stories that actually interest me. Which definitely aren't a lot tbh. (still waiting on that knights climax tl) but yeah i'm basically reading 0 stuff from engstars.

So if you wanna break free from a gacha game sucking your soul, I think the reason why the enstars fixation died down so much for me is a combination of

burning myself out trying to get cards

getting bluetooth headphones (which basically make it impossible to play the game with headphones)

turning the BP game notification off

Engstars TLs getting worse than fan TLs

Obviously i still have basic but since i can't read japanese, i can't stress myself over reading new stories because i can't read anything at all. Yaaaay. I have evolved into a casual player.

Now. On the other hand. The new fixation. My beloved wizards. Mahoyaku.

I'm gonna be so honest, i kinda hate it here.

Don't get me wrong, i love the game, i love the story, i love the characters. But the fans. The fans man.

Like with enstars fandom, i started out with tumblr, and sure, i had to occasionally block some people and filter out some stuff, but that was it. That was enough for me to be able to chill and actually be comfortable in the enstars fandom space on tumblr.

Now, there are basically no mhyk fans on tumblr. Ok fine. Guess i'll go on twitter instead. So i made a twt account.

I truly cannot explain to you how much i should not have done that.

Like, ok, LOTS MORE fanart which is great. Fantastic. Lovely. However, a lot of proshippers. Many many proshippers. Like i do not have that much experience in fandom spaces in the first place but i swear the amount of proshippers is disproportionately large in mhyk fandom, on twt at least.

Ok another warning for talk about csa if you somehow didn't catch the one above

I think it's obvious from my blog here alone how much i like northfam, especially Snow and White. To be so honest, Snow and White were the biggest hesitation for me to NOT get into mhyk because we all know the "child looking character is actually over 2000 y.o." is NEVER handled well in fiction. Well, i ended up reading mhyk anyways, and to my relief, s&w's child forms do not get sexualized ever. Thank god.

But like mentioned before, this is not the case for the fandom. Not only do i always end up finding people shipping s&w together, but also many other of my faves, like oz and arthur (foster father and son) or mitile and figaro (student and teacher). Which i do not want to see ever, and the thing with twt is, you can't tag and filter stuff like on here. And even after being on twt for...idk how many months, i STILL end up seeing stuff i would like to stay 4869761093 lightyears away from.

I've been trying to do everything, from blocking to muting words to clicking the three dots on each individual post i don't want to see for the "please don't show me stuff like this". AND IT STILL HAPPENS.

Idk man...as a csa survivor myself it feels so hopeless...like is it really worth it here if i'll just keep finding stuff that triggers me? Is it worth meeting new people and constantly being on edge if this new fan thinks being proship is ok?

I really did like making fanart for fandom purposes, it made me draw a lot more, but between my dying interest in enstars and mhyk fandom thinking the stuff that has and will put me in therapy for decades is hot. I don't feel like interacting with fandom that much anymore ngl....and that makes me genuinely sad. Idk maybe this is a depressive episode that will go away but i feel so tired for now....hobbies are supposed to be fun....

[teatraps]

IDV game 5 lore rant

I heard tumblr is good for discussing analysis and theories and stuff, so a little game (group?) 5 ramble since I love them. I feel like people focus on the poison part a little TOO much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a key event in the story, but it’s not the ONLY event. From what I hear, games usually last about 10 days and the poison only happens on day 3. That’s a whole week of unexplored story, since we have almost nothing talking about those other days. With the exception of Jose’s 2nd letter, which seems like a full 180 from what we’ve been told about this game so far since he makes everything seem like they’re all unified and ready to win. The poison is described as one of the triggers for the rest of the game, not the climax. We still know very little about the effects Jose’s hypnosis has on how he interacts with the others and the rest of the game, what happens to Vera on the 4th and 5th days since her experiment file says something big happens with her, or literally ANYTHING about Edgar. There’s a lot more to this game than the poison, and even then people don’t look too closely to how that whole thing played out. For example, the fact Vera didn’t even really want to do it and only followed along in what Jose was doing so he wouldn’t target her often gets skimmed. It also leads to ppl making non-central themes into central ones. I’d argue that racism isn’t a central theme in game 5, given Vera and Edgar don’t seem to have a problem with Patricia or Kevin based on their races. It really only comes up with Jose. However, with the way ppl have centralized the racism as a key point of everything, Vera and Edgar have gotten mixed in with Jose (even tho Edgar in specific has been stated to be separate from Jose and Vera’s 4th letter shows she doesn’t want to associate with Jose that much) and now the three of them are treated like symbols of racism during the late 1800s early 1900s from Europeans. A little ironic, considering both Vera and Edgar have expressed their dislike of European society. I don’t fully know where I’m going with this except to say, game 5 is still a developing story that we know VERY little about, so just keep that in mind when interacting with this group.

[farlynthordens]

V9 post-reading thoughts

i enjoyed the book a lot. i was all for seeing bisco's wholesome and happy family life as well as red's absolutely soul-crushing and lonely existence. when i started reading, I was surprised that bisco and red get along so soon since i was expecting her to play an antagonizing role for most of it (and possibly try to do things like steal milo away). the cover and pre-release advertising kinda gave that vibe lol

it started off great then fell off for me at certain points in the middle, but then the ending saved it. we also yet again had a last minute plot twist/reveal of the true villain.

n'badu's identity was probably the most confusing part of the whole book and i did have to double back to make sure i understood what was going on. if he's the manifestation of bad timelines, is he a god of spacetime who can consequently only create negative events? it seems that way from when you look back on what n'badu had done throughout the book and what he threatens to do at the ending.

i thought this was going to be the end of the series, so as i got closer to finishing i was very confused how this was going to wrap up. i was pleasantly surprised that there's still going to be one more book. red's character arc is more or less resolved, but she obviously has multiple stakes in the new issues that have arisen so i hope she still plays a notable role in v10. i'm worried there's a good chance red will disappear for good when they inevitably defeat n'badu (see meta section).

i wrote down a couple of gripes/critiques prior to reading the final chapter, but many were resolved by the fact that there will be a continuation + the things cobkubo mentions in the afterword. ex:

i was sad that bisco/milo had zero scenes of just the 2 of them since those were generally the highlight of every other book. however, 9 essentially made red the protagonist and bisco/milo were more there to be HER support rather than the other way around like what we've seen in every other book. cobkubo mentions tho that v10 will be more about bisco and milo's bonds.

we never concluded what happened with milo and he's still stuck in another timeline, so that's yet to be resolved. as well as... like.. you know, everything else... I'm still sad that he wasn't there for the final battle tho.

Meta stuff

Early on we learn that red has never used the choushin bow, but its wish granting power was what I had thought to be the main thing that caused sugar's birth and why she turned out as a literal god, since sugar's powers are the highest form of the choushin ability. So in red's universe, sugar turned out as a normal baby bc red and blue never had that ability. Never being able to use the choushin bow ties into what red realizes at the climax, which is that she never truly believed in [loved] herself. She only fought and kept going bc she thought that's what everyone expected of her. She thought of everyone's love for her as obligations she could never fulfill, rather than seeing that everyone just loved her for herself and wanted the best for her regardless of what that meant in the end.

Because of this, red put the weight of the world on her shoulders and wouldn't accept losing or running away from what she thought was "her destiny". But she failed to save her universe at every opportunity she could have technically had, bc she didn't trust in herself or she doubted the love of those around her (like when she chooses to not kill blue). the timeline could have been saved had she gained the choushin bow, realized her true powers (and thus removed her achille's heel of the souls's power burning her when she used it), and/or if sugar was born as a god, etc.

when we learn at the end that red's timeline was just a copied reality and that she, everyone she knew, and everything she ever experienced were "fake"... my question was then "WAS it really all fake?" n'badu doesn't explain why he made the dark timeline, but i felt the implication was just that it satisfied his own desires of seeing 'bisco' suffer, since that was never able to manifest in the main timeline.

even if red's reality wasn't meant to exist, i don't think that makes her or her experiences any less real than bisco's. she is still a living, tangible being. and as we saw towards the beginning when n'badu tried to overwrite the main timeline, bisco too had begun disappearing in a similar way to how red did when she attacked n'badu. if all timelines are subject to be rewritten like that, then i don't see why one would be lesser than the other.

HOWEVER. framing red in this way makes me worried that she is going to disappear. i expect that in v10 she'll be around as a deuteragonist to bismilo, but in the end they're going to defeat n'badu and cause her to stop existing. it would be a very bittersweet ending, since bisco had invited her to be part of his family. another bit of evidence for this is the v8 epilogue... where in which red of course doesn't show up (cobkubo had not even thought of her character yet at that point).

there is a possibility tho for v10 to end well for red. since the antagonists are gods who can rewrite spacetime, sugar (freed from n'badu's control) may be able to completely remake red's timeline herself and allow her to live happily without rust/n'badu's existence.

re: the "do you love yourself?" bit from cobkubo's afterword:

milo is very confident in himself, bisco is unsure. i think this is exemplified by the parallel scenes of them trying to summon their special bows with only their own power. milo is able to summon it because he is extremely self-assured in who he is and what he believes he can do (thanks to bisco always believing in him/learning from bisco that he is a capable mushroom keeper). HOWEVER, this sometimes leads to moments of over-confidence that rebound negatively on him in some way. summoning the mantra bow completely exhausted him and put him in potential danger because he didn't have someone to share the burden of it with.

bisco was not able to summon the choushin bow at all because he needed someone else there to believe in him. he even specifically says "I can't do it without milo" because milo is the only person he's used that bow with/knows milo is the one who believes in him most of all. having red - functionally, himself - be there and say she believed in him opened up a new path to strength. it showed what he could do if he simply had the heart to believe in his own self.

Final thoughts

my initial impression upon finishing the book is that it probably ranks somewhere in the middle of my overall favorite volumes (maybe between v6 and 8?). i definitely enjoyed reading it a lot, the events felt more coherent than 8, and it surpassed my expectations in multiple ways. i'll prob have a more solid placement once i think on it for a bit longer.

positive/high points:

I think v9 has one of the strongest openings of any volume. the first 4~5 chapters were really good. I think the middle was a bit weak at times, but then the final battle saves it.

Has a pretty big cast of characters, both new ones and old ones who are brought back, but it was handled well and it didn't feel confusing. i think my summary probably made it seem more confusing

Red was overall a good and very enjoyable character. I liked getting to see/learn her backstory in pieces, because each new bit of info is a new sadness gut punch. she's also badass in the final battle.

I thought rust was a good antagonist. you could say there's not much dimension to him since he's just a ruthless and (literal) robotic murder machine who loves to see people suffer. but i like it. the whole point of red's dark timeline is that everything has gone to shit and is as terrible as could be, so rust matches that mood pretty well. not every villain has to be DeepTM

Continued the themes seen in 7 and 8 well, such as the idea that you should feel free to live your life the way YOU want and not feel burdened by others' expectations.

From re-reading thru the summary post and thinking back on the events, i felt like there were a couple hints to n'badu being the Real Bad Guy sprinkled throughout the book that i didn't notice during my initial read. in hindsight, this was not a complete surprise like the v5 ending's kurokawa reveal for example.

negative/low points:

I really disliked having bisco nerfed for most of the book by being turned into a kinoko. I feel like this detracted from the emotional impact of the conversations he and red have during this time. there surely could have been ways to showcase red's character than by eliminating bisco's usefulness to the plot for anything other than talking.

Related to above, while in kinoko form bisco often felt uncharacteristically goofy.

N'badu's speech pattern is annoying

Bisco self-cest hint at the end???? red isn't cool being kissed by milo but kissing her alternate reality self is just fine. it isn't cheating if it's with yourself.... i guess.......

other things of note:

This vol brings back citymaker, lifemaker, AND mantras with lots of new skills showcased for each one. i wouldn't say it was confusing, just maybe excessive.

We get a new tidbit of jabi lore

Domino comes back and gets to have a scene where she fights and is very cool. it was also fun learning her personality a little more since we don't really get to in 3

Salt is mentioned a couple times but literally does nothing the entire volume. i know he's just a normal kid in a story full of god-like powers, but they didn't even give him a single spoken line

[starswallowingsea]

this might be sooo late already but im here to ask for any enstars story recs... Go off if you'd like 🛐 thank you user starswallowingsea

OH i feel you on that anon I try to keep up with all the event stories as they release in engstars so i can really get a feel for all the units and that's kinda how i ended up falling in love with some of the characters I wasn't expecting to ehehe. And since my favorite unit is exclusive to the !! era, I kinda just poke around ! era for what seems interesting. I'll throw some recs under the cut though for both eras!

! Era

Steampunk Museum: Focuses on 2wink and Valkyrie and is where the line where Shu says he can tell the twins apart by their hair length comes from! It's just about the two units doing a live to help out with a museum that has undergone renovations and is doing a grand re-opening basically. It's cute and light and really sweet.

Duel: Trickstar v Knights ROUND 2 I think this was a continuation of Sakura Fes which was the first event and I have not read it but it was still pretty easy to understand either way. It is from like 2015 though so fair warning for canon typical transphobia towards Arashi. Another pretty light event.

Kabukimono: Akatsuki v 2wink! Mostly a focus on Akatsuki's developments post-war but there were some really cute moments for Shu and Kuro's relationship as well, and some brief moments with 2wink, as well as Yuta and Souma interactions.

Aquarium: I so wish I read this before Meteor Impact. It does come after MI chronologically but it does a good job of like. Laying down all of Kanata's problems and relationships. If you haven't read MI yet, read this first it will make a lot of sense I promise.

Obligatory Reminiscense stories here. They're all good I haven't read all of them yet but I have read Meteor Impact and Checkmate and it's made me wish I waited to read them for the first time. Spend some time with the units before reading these is my advice.

!! Era

Okay full disclosure, I've only read the events and scout stories that have been released in Eng (and even then, only the scouts they did the auto unlock for the stories + like. Honey Bee and parts of Vagabond and Tales of the Moon) and Crazy:B events so this list is gonna be a little less diverse.

Any Crazy:B story: Literally my favorite unit of all time I cannot even tell you. My suggested reading order is like. Spider -> Hot Limit -> Night Club -> Ariadne -> Obbligato. The only one I haven't read is Sudden Death and that's only because I am Trying to Be Patient and wait for it to come out in Eng <- suffering greatly. Lumping them together so this part doesn't become Crazy:B infodump

Conquest: Hiyori's song event. The song is fantastic and the event did a good job introducing their dynamics in this era imo. Drop a like if you want Ibara to swear more often.

Twin Peaks: 2wink event! If you liked Night Club you should definitely read this since it expounds on a lot of stuff touched upon in Night Club (I really like Night Club can you tell). All about Hinata coming to terms with actually starting to grow apart from Yuta and become his own person along with one last hurrah as identical twins.

A Dark Night's Passing: Double Face introduction! Although DF stories tend to put a lot of focus on Madara, I did still enjoy this event for them. They both have people they want to protect and keep their darker sides away from and really set up some potentially good dynamics. I haven't heard that Spring Evening's Respite (Kohaku's center for DF) was great for them, since it continued to focus on Madara, but their intro event was great and it's pretty timely to read it with their Climax coming out in a few days.

And this will be a scout stories section! The scout stories tend to mix people from different units together for their interactions which is always really fun to watch how those play out. I particularly enjoyed Reloaded which was the Tomoya Izumi feature with the "Zombie Apocalypse" happening while they were handcuffed together. It's very silly but also has a really good Izumi Senior Advice moment at the end. Also shout out to Honey Bee and ASOBI-- *I am forcibly removed from the post*

[kittyandco-archive]

KITTYYYYY 📝 for whoever u wanna talk abt my friend 💝💘💗

-cherrypieships 🍒💕

@cherrypieships I'M ANSWERING for my BOP s/i too 👀 (our s/is should be friends ...... Despite Everything) (and i'm answering for the heart emoji too since it's in there 😌)

📝: How would your story in canon go? How would you influence the events of the original story?

my s/i feels very... devoid of purpose, sick of people seeing her as cowardly, whose fate will never move beyond domesticity, not knowing what to do with herself after everything in her life completely falls apart; so, she turns to a life of crime. mostly petty stuff at first, but it feels good. and now she wants something big. it has to count. it'll feel so good. she wants to feel something, anything. and that's where roman comes in.

she hangs around the black mask club pretty often, mostly because she feels like she can blend in there. but mostly, she wants to watch. she knows there's more than meets the eye there. yeah, she has kind of a cute crush on roman, because it's so easy to... but she uses that as a front to get close to him, to make herself seem more unassuming, because she can't hide from him for long. he notices her sitting all alone and of course he just has to entertain (i'm trying not to blush i hate it here 😭)

but she wants to take everything he has. that's her big thing she wants to do, the one thing that'll give her some kind of fulfillment. there's no one above him in the gotham hierarchy at this moment, and she wants to change that. not because she craves the power or wealth; she craves something in the first place

so she's playing with fire here, right in the thick of it, whereas harley & co. keep a bit of a distance until the climax. diana just thinks i'm roman's girlfriend of the week, but i become much more than that have more up my sleeve!

a lot of what happens between us in the enemies stage would probably not fit into the film well since it's mostly harley-focused (as it should be), so that stuff is kinda off to the side canon-wise

the mask starts to slip near the end. my s/i doesn't want cass so involved. she has a couple of limits, especially being new to this whole career criminal thing. roman isn't that surprised. mostly disappointed. she escapes, assuming he's going to kill her (he wasn't going to, but not because we love each other yet... that comes after the Real Betrayal), and that's the end of that as far as actual canon goes

💘: Why would people love your ship? Why would people dislike your ship? How might it start debates?

SNDFNDJFN PROBABLY NOT 😭 we definitely wouldn't be The Most Popular Ship (that would be you, harley, and helena, obviously). i don't really hang around DC fandoms as it is, but i would understand why ppl would be wary of roman & i and it's 100% because of him 😭 like no he does NOT deserve me but i don't care

on the other hand... enemies-to-lovers enjoyers would rally behind us big time 😭 the way he slowly falls for me despite knowing i tried to take everything away... the way we understand each other: despite seeming invincible, we know that we aren't. i know that no one else would want me... and i don't want anyone else to want me now.

‘Imagine Your S/I Was Canon…’ Self-Ship Asks