#also not joking when i linked my anime waifu

[sappho-knight]

I don’t know if you’ve been asked this before, but what would your ideal type of girlfriend would be? 😳

oh gosh okay let me think; thank you for the ask, anon!

my shortform answer is my anime waifu; to be vague using concepts of astrology stereotypes, someone who's a virgo or capricorn lean? there's a whole list under the cut though!

my longform answer is that:

it's got to be someone i feel like i could get comfortable/intimate with physically, and someone who wasn't afraid to offer critique when asked for it.

someone who might think about differing ways to pamper me; any type of love languages would be accepted tbh?

someone who thinks of or about me when i'm not around (with some material proof; a letter or poem or gift would be nice...)

someone who's willing to communicate to me their desires and try their best to adapt as i do for their too

someone i could argue with on disagreements, but drop all grudges at the end of the day if it's not a deal breaker;

someone who would consider my viewpoints and try to understand where i'm coming from, as i do for their, in pursuit of proper resolution

someone who's willing to let me visit them and vice versa for casual meetings (i love dropping by with gifts or for a short hello!)

someone who i can work out a schedule with; sometimes for dates, but also for ease of home planning (and i also think scheduling sex is really hot)

someone who's in it for the long haul, despite the possibility of it not working out. someone who has time and space in their life to try co-living situations, maybe prepared to discuss bigger life decisions, etc

someone who's my biggest cheerleader despite everything would be nice...

someone i could also hold an intellectual conversation with! i'm not fussy about credentials or knowledge, just someone whose values and logic/reasoning skills are sound

someone who's willing to try! at things they're not comfortable with or great at

someone who's willing to be patient with me

someone who's proactive in the bedroom? 🥺 (i'm the most audible bitch in there amazon would be ashamed. also having someone push me around while they're doming is hot... and someone who's willing to direct me on how to pleasure themselves would be great!)

(whoever this imaginary girlfriend is: please tell me you love me 🥺🥺🥺)

physically it's someone who's:

butch/gnc

short hair, lithe build,

sharp eyes, asian; but that's because they're usually the type of girls i see irl that i crush on haha :0c also foot note that asians can have wider eyes too!

height doesn't matter too much! (somehow i end up finding shorter women though???)

lives nearby, minimally in the same country; i'm not okay with long-distance relationships anymore!

[tetsunabouquet]

I just realized, I have a type (when it comes to husbandos). With KNB, I like Midorima but I just keep returning to Akashi for some reason. Akashi being one of the richest boys in Japan. Akashi has a white horse. Akashi is struggling with mental health issues because of the trauma of losing his mom. His dad is a dick. The anime/manga that really appealed to my YA-fried brain as a teen and got me into the husbando/waifu rabbit-hole is Vampire Knight. A problematic series with a few iconic side characters who deserve a better series (Zero also deserved a way better fate).

As the main love triangle exists of Yuki, the main heroine who turns somewhat Mary-Sue like as the series progresses- Zero, her foster brother who refuses to see her as a sister and is both a vampire and vampire hunter- And piece-of-shit Kaname, her ancestor who is posing as her dead brother, has been essentially grooming her since childhood and orchestrated the murder of Zero's parents. Zero is from one of the richest, most accomplished vampire hunting families and is basically a knight who technically becomes a prince through being with Yuki after she became vampire queen. Zero has a white horse. Zero is struggling with suicidal thoughts and self-hatred after the vampire who killed his parents turnt him into one. His parents were loving but they held some merciless views in regards of Zero's younger twin and were the kind of vampire hunters who never asked questions about the vampires they were assigned to kill (at least 1 had been innocent and framed). My first anime series, and the first series of which I also owned the manga, is Shaman King. I was like 8 or 9, when I had my heart stolen by Tao Ren. I can go on and on about the cringy things I did as a little girl, like practising how to say his last name with a proper Chinese accent to these elaborate fantasies in which I was his sidekick. Tao Ren will always have my heart, even 16-17 years later. Ren is from a rich family, considered an aristocrat with the Tao family pretty much having a gigantic historical reputation in the Chinese society of Shamans. Ren has a white horse. Ren is struggling with self-hatred and some low-key mental issues after his family basically brainwashed him to become a killing machine at a tender age and now regrets the many people he killed. His parents and grandfather, are utter shit as they literally will torture him, joke about poisining everyone and his grandpa literally holds him at gunpoint when Ren is acting like a brat. See? I clearly have a husbando type: Coming from a rich important family, owning a white horse and struggling with their mental health because of trauma linked to their family (plus being overall attractive).

I swear, fairy tales have started a certain brainrot in me as a child (in Dutch, the stereotype of Prince Charming actually is referred to as De Prins Op Het Witte Paard - The Prince On The White Horse). But why my brain prefers broken princes who have some deeply rooted trauma and coming from dysfunctional families, is a mystery to me.

[talesfrommedinastation]

Your favorite member of TBB is:

Tech!

Because:

He reminds me SO MUCH of my (neurotypical but very logical) husband! So much so that my youngest pointed him out on the screen when I first turned the TV on, screamed ‘DADDY!’ and that’s how I got sucked into this show. He is one of the few ‘nerd’ characters that is also caring, kind, and reflective–just a treat of a character. I refuse to let my daughters watch the finale, but the oldest one got told the ending by a friend (she had no idea what ‘sacrifice’ really meant, until that moment, I found out 😣)

You identify the most with:

Echo!

Because:

I’m not only a mom to an Omega and a teeny-tiny girl version of Wrecker (PLEASE HELP ME), but I’ve taught a couple of classes on ethics and robotics. Being able to keep your humanity while in incredibly hard, tough situations is no joke, and Echo does it beautifully. Also as a woman in academia, a program director and a writer, I’ve had to deal with my voice being ignored or belittled, and seeing Echo deal with it makes me love him so much. 

Your favorite minor character from the show:

Fennec Shand.

Because:

Loved her in the Mandalorian and Boba Fett, loved that I used a screenshot of her in TBB to convince my buddies that there was an animated version of The Expanse and she was Camina Drummer.

They were not thrilled, but I thought it was funny. 

A TBB-centric piece or post of yours that you are most proud of:

I feel weird putting my longfics aside, but writing up my redneck neighbor Doug and his hot takes on the Bad Batch, especially how he described the main cast.

Because:

Because Doug truly doesn’t care and makes fun of EVERYTHING. But most importantly, that it’s made so many people smile and laugh (and be inspired, see further below) when we’ve been unhappy a lot recently. 

Link so that we can appreciate it:

A TBB-centric piece of art that slaps so hard you enjoy (and why):

Of course it’s inspired by Doug! @amalthiaph did this 9 piece that is amazing. Hilarious but adorable!

https://64.media.tumblr.com/9e8de219217877e5b743dee5fa451fa0/debe30dcc808a98f-4c/s640x960/65328be1074050b6c3a3066488fc9a4f34423d9b.pnj

A TBB-centric fanfic that gives you life you enjoy (and why): 

A one shot by @skellymom based on Doug’s interpretations, of course. I actually woke the dog up, I was laughing so hard reading this (especially Crosshair being the Gross Brother). 

https://www.tumblr.com/skellymom/727626634459529216/redneck-dougs-bad-batch-oneshot-background-bad?source=share

A TBB headcanon or trope that is 100% canon to you:

Crosshair is in a very weird, but very committed, relationship with his rifle, which has a lady’s name like ‘Jessica’ or ‘Cassandra’ or ‘Christina’. It’s his weaponized waifu. 

Color(s) you think would suit if Crosshair gets "Mercenary" armor:

Green, silver, and black. Partially for camo, mostly because Crosshair has raw Philadelphia Eagles fan energy. Win or lose, he’ll happily burn Broad Street to the ground. 

One thing you NEED to see happen in Season 3:

Echo going absolutely APESHIT. Everyone’s going on about Hunter’s Joel Miller era coming up, but after the intro scene of ‘Tipping Point’ and seeing how a turnt up, focused, angry Echo can obliterate a whole damn Imperial vessel in the time it takes me to reheat leftover Chinese in the microwave…well, I need more of that. 

Let's go @eyecandyeoz @commander-sunshine @moosethren @amalthiaph

Fellow Zealots of The Bad Batch, Unite!

Please share your answers to these questions and pass them on to some of your Bad Batch-loving buds!

Your favorite member of TBB is:

Because:

You identify the most with:

Because:

Your favorite minor character from the show:

Because:

A TBB-centric piece or post of yours that you are most proud of:

Because:

Link so that we can appreciate it:

A TBB-centric piece of art that slaps so hard you enjoy (and why):

Link:

A TBB-centric fanfic that gives you life you enjoy (and why):

Link:

A TBB headcanon or trope that is 100% canon to you:

Color(s) you think would suit if Crosshair gets "Mercenary" armor:

One thing you NEED to see happen in Season 3:

@wwheeljack @wrenkenstein @floundrickthewayfarer @raevulsix @enigmatist17 @slenderboo @echojedis @nika6q @zaana @wiseowl18 @toastyrobos @eclec-tech @jigget @destril @niobiumao3

[yan-twst]

♡masterlist II♡

-> apparently there is a 100 link limit on tumblr posts, and i hit that on my past masterlist! so this will be the second page for it to continue ^^ masterlist I can be found here: [x]

✧individual characters✧

ruggie with a darling who grew up in poverty

ruggie cuddling with his darling

floyd + RSA basketball team darling

floyd + cuddling after a bad day

leona having dinner with his family when cheka brings up his darling

cheka asking leona why he hasn’t married his darling

leona with a darling who likes meat as much as he does

malleus with a darling who owns a tamagotchi

malleus with a part-dragon darling 

malleus celebrating his darling’s birthday

sebek with an affectionate darling

sebek + breakfast in bed

azul taking his darling to a school reunion

ace and his darling’s first date

epel with a supportive darling

ortho hyping idia to propose to his darling

lilia general relationship headcanons

deuce accidentally slipping into delinquent mode in front of his darling

floyd with a darling who cooks

lilia with a busty darling

✧various characters✧

beast tamer darling (lilia, floyd)

characters with a darling who treats their wounds (jade, floyd, jack, ruggie)

characters with a darling who clings to them when scared (floyd, jade, malleus, lilia)

characters with a darling who's scared of bugs (leona, malleus, floyd, jade)

characters with a darling who falls off their broom (floyd, jade, malleus, jamil, lilia)

characters with a little sibling who attends nrc with them (malleus, leona, azul, jade, floyd)

characters with a darling who’s decided to stay in twisted wonderland (malleus, ace, floyd)

characters with a darling who shrunk due to magic (malleus, riddle, floyd) 

characters with a darling who uses a wheelchair (jamil, jade, trey, deuce, jack, idia)

going to the waterpark! (ace, deuce, grim)

characters when their darling proposes to them (jade, floyd, jamil, lilia)

playing mousetrap (cheka, ortho)

characters when their darling is late to their date (jade, floyd, jamil, vil, riddle)

characters with a fae darling whose wings were cut off in the past (sebek, malleus, azul)

characters with a darling who doesn’t talk because they dislike their voice (jamil, kalim, jade, floyd, malleus)

characters with a darling with terrible luck (vil, riddle, malleus, azul, jamil)

characters with a darling who teases them for being serious (deuce, riddle, malleus)

characters taking care of their sick darling (ace, trey, leona, lilia)

characters when grim turns into a human and hangs around their crush (azul, jade, floyd, ace, deuce)

short characters waking up one foot taller than they used to be (riddle, epel, lilia)

characters when rook follows their younger sibling around (leona, malleus, azul, jade, floyd)

✧dorm leaders✧

dorm leaders with a touch starved darling

dorm leaders + a laid back darling who likes to prank others

dorm leaders + their darling having an anime waifu / husbando

dorm leaders + their darling stressing over their future in twisted wonderland

dorm leaders + finding out their crush is a lesbian 

dorm leaders + a darling who has to return home because they’re the family’s breadwinner

dorm leaders + an usually cold and inexpressive darling smiling at them

dorm leaders + fragile and soft reader (platonic headcanons)

✧first years✧

first years + their darling using their clothes 

first years + their darling sending them anonymous gifts

first years + receiving friendship bracelets

first years + a crush who can change their appearance at will

first years + sleepover at ramshackle

first years + lesbian MC

first years + their darling dealing with a human grim

✧dorms✧

heatslabyul + insecure darling

heartslabyul + a vampire darling who needs blood

heartslabyul + a darling who eats the “eat me” cake or drinks the “drink me” potion

scarabia & diasomnia + darling who covers their eyes because they change colours with their feelings

heartslabyul + temperature soulmate AU

diasomnia + a darling who uses pet names

octavinelle + bartender darling

octavinelle + a darling who can sing to heal

scarabia & pomefiore + a darling who is immune to poison

octavinelle + sushi chef darling

savanaclaw + a darling who likes to pet their tails to relieve anxiety

✦yandere individual characters✦

yan!malleus with a selkie darling who willingly gives him their pelt

yan!malleus (and non-yan malleus) with a winged fae darling

yan!malleus who turns into a small animal and his darling has to care for him

yan!leona with a darling who acts caring for cheka

yan!epel headcanons

yan!kalim with a darling who puts up with being locked up

yan!trey general headcanons

yan!cater yandere alphabet A, E, J, K, N, T, U

yan!kalim with a gold digger darling

yan!idia marriage scenario

yan!azul with a darling who was bullied

yan!leona with a darling who doesn’t care he’s possessive

yan!leona with a tiger beastman darling

yan!lilia with a reincarnating darling

yan!malleus with a darling with a bad home life

yan!trey getting jealous of his darling paying attention to idia

yan!azul (and also regular azul) being pampered by his darling

yan!jamil with a darling who faints due to iron deficiency

yan!vampire vil scenario

yan!rook general headcanons

yan!azul with a darling who refuses to give him attention

malleus + yan alphabet (a, e, k, l, v, y)

✦yandere prompt stories✦

yan!azul with yandere prompt 3: “in the end... you’re only good for being with me. you’re useless at anything else, aren’t you?”

yan!kalim with yandere prompt 4: “i’m sorry for stealing your personal belongings... now that you’re here forever, i can return them!

yan!leona with yandere prompt 5:  “you have no idea... the things i’ve done while thinking of you, darling...”

yan!azul with yandere prompt 7:  “it’s cute how you think you have a choice!”

yan!azul with yandere prompt 9: “if you think of leaving, i’ll make death seem like a blessing to you.”

yan!rook with yandere prompt 10: “aah, forgive me for what i must do... i just can’t live on without you...!”

yan!jamil with yandere prompt 11: “feeling dizzy? well, it’s too late to realize: you already ingested what i slipped in your drink.” 

yan!lilia with yandere prompt 12:  “sure, i’ll let you run away. but if i catch you... then it’s fair game for me to do what i want.”]

yan!malleus with yandere prompt prompt 18: “i tried my best to be a normal lover… but it simply won’t work. you understand, right?”

yan!kalim with yandere prompt 19: “the outside is so dangerous, don’t you see? if i wasn’t here to protect you, who knows what would happen to you...”

yan!malleus with yandere prompt 22:  “you’re so sweet... i’m addicted to your presence.”

yan!trey with yandere prompt 23: “i don’t care if it’s the drugs making you speak; say you love me, again.”

yan!riddle with yandere prompt 24: “don’t look at me like that... you know i do everything i do because i love you.”

yan!leona with yandere prompt 25:“those bruises... did i do that...?”

yan!jamil with yandere prompt 28: “don’t you get it? i’m in charge here- you’re basically a glorified servant.”

yan!sebek with yandere prompt 31:“i ordered you to stay quiet. stop crying.”

yan!malleus with yandere prompt 33: “i didn’t mean to- no, god, i love you so much…! how could i have done this?”

yan!azul with yandere prompt 34:  “that’s right, just accept me... you’ll be so happy with me...”

yan!malleus with yandere prompt 35: “i wish i could love you the normal way.”

yan!lilia with yandere prompt 36: "your fear is so delicious to me"

yan!malleus with yandere prompt 37: "you look beautiful when you sleep... i'd know- i watched you, after all"

yan!riddle with yandere prompt 39:  "don't you dare think of anyone other than me"

yan!vil with yandere prompt 40: "i wish i didn't need to make you drink love potions for you to act caring, darling" 

yan!sebek with yandere prompt 42: "this is your last warning. either you're obedient, or i'll make you obedient"

yan!silver with yandere prompt 43:  "all i ever asked was for you to love me back... are you so selfish you won't even give me that?"

yan!azul with yandere prompt 47: "did you think you could escape me...? don't you know we're meant for each other? you're destined to return to me"

yan!epel with yandere prompt 48: "i never claimed to be a good person. if you didn't want this to happen, you shouldn't have made me fall in love with you"

yan!jamil with yandere prompt 66: “i like having power over you, don’t you get it? there’s no way to get out of this.”

yan!rook with yandere prompt 112: “i’ve been watching you for a while. i know your routine, your habits; i fell in love with how you act when you think nobody is looking.”

yan!ace with yandere prompt 117:  “ah, it’s ok to be angry at me… kick me, yell at me…! i don’t care what you do, just being near you is heaven!”

yan!deuce with yandere prompt 118: “i’d do anything for you. and i mean it; the law means nothing if it’s something you ask of me.”

yan!jade with  yandere prompt 119: “ah… you punched me- that’s ok, too. i hope it bruises; i want a mark to remind me your lovely hands were on my skin.”

✦yandere various characters✦

yan!characters reading their darling's diary and finding their secret (riddle, azul, leona, jamil, malleus)

yan!characters with a darling who has difficulty sleeping (leona, azul, floyd, jade)

yan!characters when someone is getting too close to their darling (leona, jamil, vil)

yan!characters when a secret admirer sends their darling a gift (riddle, ruggie, azul, kalim, epel, malleus)

yan!characters when their darling jokes they love someone else (leona, azul, idia, malleus, jade, floyd)

yan!characters with a darling who collects venomous snakes (azul, malleus, vil)

yan!characters when their darling escapes back to their world (azul, floyd, rook)

yan!characters with a darling who likes to go to parties (malleus, leona, vil)

yan!characters with a winged darling (lilia, azul, malleus)

yan!characters with a darling who wants to love them back (ruggie, trey, kalim)

yan!malleus falling for lilia’s spouse / yan!lilia falling for malleus’ spouse

yan!characters bullying their darling to get their attention (ace, floyd)

✦yandere dorm leaders / vice dorm leaders✦

yan!dorm leaders when another yan!dorm leader’s darling comes to them for refuge

yan!dorm leaders with a darling who refuses to eat any food they didn’t cook

yan!dorm leaders celebrating their darling’s birthday post-capture

yan!dorm leaders when their darling begs for them to kill them

yan!dorm leaders when their darling asks them to kill someone

yan!dorm leaders celebrating their darling’s birthday

yan!dorm leaders with a darling who they can’t wake up with a true love’s kiss

yan!vice dorm leaders general relationship headcanons (includes nsfw for 18+ characters)

✦yandere first years✦

yan!first years seeing their darling have their first kiss with someone else

✦yandere dorms✦

yan!savanaclaw working together to catch a sneaky darling

yan!octavinelle with a darling who can overpower the tweels

yan!scarabia + yan!savanaclaw with a darling who has a nightmare of them leaving

yan!pomefiore + yan!savanaclaw with a stockholm syndrome darling

yan!scarabia + yan!octavinelle with a genie darling

pomefiore yan alphabet (a, c, n, o)

♡nsfw stuff♡

[NSFW] idia + darling in thigh-highs

[NSFW] yan!trey + male darling

[NSFW] cater + blushy darling

[NSFW] lilia + breeding kink

[mannatea]

Excuse me I want the opinions about the apocalyptic humans are the real monsters please!

>Are you sure you would like to board this train?

Anyway, sure! I have a lot of thoughts. And opinions. And considerations. Hopefully this train of thought is worth the trip. All aboaaaaard!

Part I: This Mentality Doesn’t Exist in Just Fiction!

I take issue with this phrasing as a general rule because humans are still human. Calling them “monsters” for their evil deeds—something everyone is capable of performing, by the way—is just...asinine to the nth degree. Sure, we’d all like to imagine we’re not capable of Great Evil, but WE ARE. 

I don’t want to dive into Purity Police Politics here, but here’s a question for (general) you: where is the line drawn? What makes a “bad” person “a monster” vs. just being a bad/thoughtless/careless person? 

I think we can all agree that objectively some acts are evil. If you’ve been following the news this year, you probably have a million examples, but (TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS LINK) here’s a particularly terrible one; they even call the abusers monsters in this news article. Why? I think you know why. They want to emotionally distance themselves. They want to believe that these people are unique in their ability to cause harm and suffering to another human being.

But WOWEE!!! Spoiler alert: the writer is just as capable of abuse as the people who committed the crime!!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I think most people are UNLIKELY to commit a crime like that, or even hurt another person with malicious intent or hatred in their hearts. But to pretend we are not all capable of it is putting yourself on a pedestal above the rest of humanity, and...I dunno. That’s awfully cocky.

Tumblr in particular loves to talk about toxicity and abuse, and they love to paint themselves as “better than” or “above” that behavior, but 1) we are all capable of toxicity, have been problematic in our lifetime, and have probably done something abusive to someone else at one point or another, and 2) we must remember that this is true of everyone else as well as ourselves. The important thing is that we strive to behave better, to learn to recognize when we are hurting someone else, to CARE THAT WE MIGHT BE HURTING SOMEONE ELSE, and to actively work to just be better/kinder people.

I totally get the desire to call a cruel, abusive, or evil person “a monster” but THEY ARE NOT. They are people. People are not infallible. Monsters by definition are imaginary creatures, but the abuse these people inflict is real. The crimes are real. The hurt is real. The effect these people have on those around them is as real as they themselves are, and to pretend for even a moment that it’s not, that they are somehow separate from  you and I, that the rules apply differently for them than you and I, is just...harmful? 

Because again, where do you draw the line? 

Part II: Using Monster as an Insult

Monsters are creations, always, as they are by definition imaginary creatures. I think some might look to the Nature vs. Nurture Debate when it comes to criminal acts to try and justify their use of the word “monster” to refer to people like the abusers in the link above (aka: “society shaped them into that, it was never their natural inclination”) but that feels vaguely like cherry-picking to me, and I don’t like it.

Also, “Monster” is used as such a joking insult online these days (you’re a monster for dissing my anime waifu headcanons) it’s lost its bite if it ever had it to begin with. My beloved cat CiCi’s nickname was ‘Monster’ because the first Christmas I had her she rolled around on the Christmas presents and hissed at anyone who tried to move them. We also have an energy drink named Monster. Cookie Monster. Created ‘monsters’ with their own lore like werewolves and vampires and kelpies and Bigfoot.

So you risk one of three things by calling someone a monster: 1) it comes across like a joking insult/cute pet name, 2) you’re putting them on par with beings that literally do not exist except in fiction, and that half of this hellsite wants to fuck MANY people actually enjoy talking/reading about as part of an entire literary genre, or 3) you’re saying they’re literally not human beings and therefore not worth being considered as such.

None of these options are good.

Part III: “Humans Were the Real Monsters All Along!™”

Maybe when literacy levels were super low and only the wealthy had the leisure time and access to literature they could read for fun, this kind of reveal was Intriguing, but I’m here to tell you that it’s never been interesting to any person who has lived in the real world, like, ever.

I feel like for children this may be different (I dunno, as a child you don’t always understand what’s going on around you/are more likely to be sheltered from these kinds of truths outside of fiction), but I highly doubt that, say, peasants in 1620 weren’t well aware that humans were capable of evil.

Sure, they did the same thing we like to do and called people who committed particularly heinous acts ‘monsters’ (probably for the same reasons we do as well as because they wanted to believe they were safe in their communities and that their neighbors were also different and not capable of doing that sort of thing) but again you see the general level of denial:

This person is not like me.

I am different.

I must call them something else.

Which, yes you are different, but the difference is NOT in WHAT you are, it’s in HOW YOU ACT and the emotions you act upon!

Society has a history of doing this separation, and of revealing in fiction that humans are actually the real monsters, but again, those of us who exist in the real world already know that human beings are capable of great evil. Even if we are surprised by the level of vileness or not is irrelevant; we all know that logically this kind of thing happens in the real world and that human beings are responsible for it.

Part IV: Bad Reveal. BAD!

In some pieces of media, the writers go out of their way to be like, “THE MONSTERS WE’VE HATED ALL THIS TIME AND HAVE BEEN FIGHTING WERE ONCE HUMAN LIKE US. WE COULD BECOME LIKE THEM! OH NO!”

Which...lol.

Let’s look at zombies, a monster created for the sake of this kind of narrative. They were “once human” but are now mindless beings completely unaware of the hurt they are inflicting, even on those they might have known in their lifetime. Zombies can infect living human beings, turning them into zombies. The humans in these stories don’t want to become zombies, so they fight the zombies (with varying results, depending on the particular piece of media you choose to consume).

Zombie stories have a huge cult following; people love this kind of thing. On the surface you might think zombie stories fit the above narrative, and they do, but like...literally. “They were human once but aren’t anymore!” is almost never a reveal in these stories; it’s something everyone already knows and is actively fighting against.

"Humans are the real monsters” rarely has much to do with the zombies. It almost always occurs when a human in the group of survivors betrays the others in a big way.

The betrayer is then painted as the REAL monster here, the REAL threat. You might notice that lot of post-apocalyptic and/or humans-vs.-monsters fiction follows the same pattern: humans fight monsters, (optional ingredient: the monsters were once human!), and then they find out that Actually, Humans Were the Real Monsters All Along!

Again, anyone reading this post already knows that. They go out in public and see people who can’t be assed to wear a mask. “Wah it itches.” “Wah I can’t breathe.” “Wah it’s inconvenient for me and I’m not infected I know I’m fine!”

These same maskless fools would tell you to your face that the betrayer in these stories is a monster. They themselves, however, are not capable of hurting other people! They’re better than that! That person is a monster! They would never betray their allies. Except they do, every day, by refusing to wear a mask to protect other people from themselves. “Just in case” isn’t a good enough reason for them because it’s an inconvenience and they don’t like how it feels.

Sure, wearing a mask during a pandemic seems like such a small thing compared to, you know, betraying your fellow survivors in the apocalypse, but you have to consider context. If wearing a mask during a pandemic that has literally killed huNDreDS oF thousands is so inconvenient they won’t even wear it for the 3 minutes they are in the gas station...would you trust this person in a post-apocalyptic setting? Would they gather food for a physically disabled survivor? Would they literally fight to protect someone ill? Share resources fairly? You know if they can’t wear a mask for three minutes in a whole damn day they wouldn’t step up like that. They could easily end up being the betrayer in a situation like that. They’ve never been desperate enough to do something like that before, and they probably don’t think they’re capable of it now, but we know what they do when something is a minor inconvenience to them. Imagine a major inconvenience. Imagine their whole life being turned upside-down!

My issues with the reveal of “Humans are actually the real monsters!” are many, but the biggest issue I take with it from a writing perspective is that it’s almost never accurate when you look at the scope of the story.

Tens of thousands of zombies vs. one (1) betrayer: and you’re telling me the betrayer is the real monster? The bigger threat??? BULLSHIT. Sure, it takes a real asshole to betray people during the literal apocalypse, but that act doesn’t take away from the fact that they are human, LET ALONE the fact that using this particular point as a Big Important Reveal tells me you’re a shit writer who thinks you’re smart.

(For the record, you might have a character who will prioritize this and consider that betrayer the bigger threat, but we’re not talking about character development/motivations so much as overarching narratives the writer includes in the story separate from that.)

Anyway, I’m not saying stories with this premise in them are shit, I’m saying that this concept as a big plot reveal/climax of a story is shit. How can this even be a reveal worth revealing? Has anyone ever turned on the news?

Part V: Drawing the Line and Other Particulars

I definitely do not have the expertise or the experience to make this a detailed point, so please forgive me for that, but let’s talk about that line again, because this point absolutely cannot be overlooked.

Where is it? What makes one person who commits a crime or evil act a monster and not another? Is it the act committed? Their mental state? What about the mentally ill? What about neurodivergent people? What about children?

As an extreme example: is a woman who throws her baby off a building a monster? NO!!! SHE’S HUMAN and she did something terrible. We might like to say we’re different and we would neVeR do that, but we don’t know because we have never been in her shoes. We are missing context even the courts will never have or fully grasp. We do not know or understand her mental state no matter what the doctors say. Calling her a monster doesn’t do anything but put her in a separate category from the rest of us, which is harmful on SO many levels, starting with the fact that it means nobody talks to her, nobody gets her side of the story, nobody listens, and so we have no perspective, no understanding, no desire to learn.

Things like this are why it took so long for PPD to even begin to be understood, and why EVEN NOW women are afraid to talk about it and all related issues. I follow a ob-gyn on YouTube and the amount of women in her comments who thank her (oftentimes VERY emotionally) for openly saying it’s normal to not immediately feel a connection to your baby when they are born is mind-blowing. Not everyone will feel that! Sometimes you have to get to know your baby because they are an individual person and that is how love works for some people! But 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 100 years ago: that was unthinkable to admit. You lied about it and you felt like a terrible person instead. What kind of mom doesn’t love their baby instantly? You must be the worst. Meanwhile, the woman you’re getting your information from doesn’t feel that bond either and is lying about it because she feels pressured and just as bad as you do. All this suffering, and for what?! Stigma. Being told you’re not human if you don’t feel like that.

Don’t you know the bond with that baby suffered from this issue, too? Don’t you think it affected the parent/child relationship for the rest of their lives?

Not everyone who commits a crime falls into a category like this, and maybe the woman in my example doesn’t either, but I hope your takeaway is that calling people monsters keeps them separated from other people to the point where their story becomes just as fictional as the monsters they are called, and when it is heard it is enjoyed as fiction, rather than seriously considered.

Let’s not pretend that this separation of humanity into “human” and “not human” based on the way someone acts hasn’t hindered progress in the mental health/medical fields for everyone. When people are not considered human they are not given human treatment, rights, consideration, or empathy.

Part VI: TL;DR:

we are all human and capable of doing bad things.

the difference between a bad person and you or I is a lot more complex and multilayered than “they did a terrible thing and I did not do that terrible thing.”

calling people ‘monsters’ for the bad things they do dehumanizes them and may:

strip them of responsibility for their actions by insinuating they were born that way or they aren’t actually human like you and I, and/or

prevent them from getting the help they need/from others who have not done anything bad yet getting the help they need

it’s not a good reveal in fiction

because most of us already know people commit evil acts,

and it is oftentimes is presented in a way that doesn’t actually make sense for the story.

--

Sorry that it got long and probably isn’t very well organized! I wrote it in bursts at work. But anyway yeah...

I don’t mind when characters feel this way about other characters, but to see it used as a narrative feature/reveal/et cetera in fiction is like, so tiresome. No shit, Sherlock. I turn on the news. I followed true crime for a while. WE ALL KNOW PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF DOING TERRIBLE, AWFUL THINGS TO OTHER LIVING THINGS.

Having *that* be your big reveal in a story is so childish it embarrasses me to see it. Wow, congrats on figuring out something at 47 that the rest of us learned on the playground before we turned 7!

:(

[nataliesewell]

monster prom pop quiz results

I was bored, so I decided to try and record all the questions and answers in Monster Prom’s Stupidest Pop Quiz Ever(tm). It’s really likely I haven’t found them all, so I’ll come back and add to this from time to time.

The pop quiz consists of three questions; the first two go towards determining your highest stats at the beginning of the game, while the third chooses your possible prom date (this isn’t set in stone; you can still try to pursue a different character in the actual game). The order of the questions is randomized.

Other links: Vera Walkthrough

You can find the questions and their results under the cut!

stat questions

What is your spirit emoji?

a. Caucasian guy with a turban because fuck stereotypes. +CREATIVITY

b. Octopus emoji. Best animal on Earth. I know 5 mixed drinks, 3 drug cocktails, and 17 sex positions that involve one or several octupi. +FUN

c. Snowman, because that motherfucker is in the middle of a blizzard and he’s fuckin’ smiling. He doesn’t give a fuck about blizzards. And he has a kickass hat. +BOLD

It’s your chance to fix global warming. Go ahead!

a. Global warming isn’t real. I invented it, and now science is claiming authorship because science is a lame copycat with no original ideas. +CREATIVITY

b. Nah, the world is doomed. But I’ll start investing in ships and start a profitable business for the “soon to be covered by water” world. +WEALTH

c. It’s time to be a real hero: I’ll lead a mission to the sun in order to... invite the sun to the party of its life! We’ll have so many hilarious misadventures that the sun will eventually become... cooler. ;) +FUN

Be a visionary: what will the next big social media craze be?

a. Bull$hit: it’s Facebook, but each time someone shares news that isn’t supported by real facts, they’re taxed, and the money goes to the people exposed to that bullshit. +WEALTH

b. Greek Agoras: like literal Greek agoras re-instated in our cities. Places where philosophy and arts are discussed by the greater minds. That’s the social media I want to log into! +SMARTS

c. Rbert: from now on, a socially awkward guy named Robert will do everything he’s commanded to do through the app by its users! +CHARM

You wish you were raised by...

a. A mysterious old man who saved me from the streets in order to raise me as his disciple in the ancient ways of rad DJing! +FUN

b. A pack of wild wolves... who also happens to be tech moguls who own some of the most profitable companies of Silicon Valley. They would be kick-ass role models AND wild wolves! Sick! +WEALTH

c. A really progressive marriage between a kick-ass venomous snake and... actual fire. I love fire and I see no issue with being raised by it. +BOLD

You build a 100ft statue commemorating an event so that in 1000 years archaeologists can learn something about the people of our time. What does the statue represent?

a. That glorious instant when your friend stopped you from texting embarrassing stuff to your ex while hella drunk. +FUN

b. That mind-blowing twist in your favourite TV show that clearly changed the life of everyone forever, unlike all that boring stuff they show on the news. +CREATIVITY

c. Your least favourite political figure... being devoured by rabid rhinoceri... which are also covered in badass tattoos. +BOLD

Which is the coolest mythological creature?

a. The invisible hand of the free market. +WEALTH

b. A sphinx... who’s super turnt up and ready to party! And she raps all her riddles (she still kills you if you don’t answer them correctly... but she raps the riddles)! +FUN

c. This weird creature I drew when I was six and which is clearly super derivative from other mythological creatures... but it’s super cool and it’s my OC and my spirit animal, okay? +CREATIVITY

You’re elected president for a day. What’s the first law you pass?

a. You can deduct taxes by writing sonnets instead. Amount of taxes deducted are calculated based on the beauty of the sonnets. +CREATIVITY

b. Trivia fact: presidents don’t pass laws... so is this a trick question or are you just being an idiot? +SMARTS

c. One dollar bills will now include a picture of me and the inscription “Beware: Too Much Awesomeness.” My presidency might last a day, but my fame will last forever! +CHARM

A radioactive possum just bit you... what superpowers did you get?

a. The superpower of always choosing the right combination of emojis to get the desired reaction from all people: seducing my loved ones, burning my enemies, settling an argument, and even conveying complex emotional thoughts. +CHARM

b. Uh, probably rabies? I’d go to a hospital immediately. +SMARTS

c. The incredible power of writing fanfiction so compelling that the actual creators of the TV shows decide to go with my ideas and crazy ships. +CREATIVITY

School is outdated and lame. We need a new school subject asap!

a. Critical thought. I mean... damn, this country could really use a subject like that in schools. +SMARTS

b. Turning people into your puppets through emotional warfare and deception 101. +CHARM

c. How to correctly punch a crocodile without terrible consequences. +BOLD

If you had to have sex with animal... which animal would it be?

(You don’t get six answers; the three answers you get are randomized.)

a. A great white shark. I have to fuck an animal, let’s at least make it a story worth telling! +CHARM

b. A swan. They’re classy. Plus it reminds me of that myth of Leda and the Swan, so at least by bestiality standards it has a certain chic appeal. +CREATIVITY

c. A human being, because I’m the kind of douchebag who loves to find loopholes in stupid questions like this one. +SMARTS

d. A purebred horse. At least I can keep his semen and sell it. It’s worth a lot! Who said there was no silver lining to bestiality? +WEALTH

e. A dolphin. They’re the only other animal that fucks just for pleasure, so at least we can both do our best to have a good time, right? +FUN

f. No on can make me fuck an animal. If I fucked an animal, it’d be of my own free will. As a matter of fact, I already have fucked an animal, so the joke’s on you, pal. +BOLD

The coolest reality show would be...

a. Twelve experts on the various arts of seduction live in a house where they must face a common challenge: seducing a potato into marriage... somehow. +CHARM

b. Eight rich people fight in weekly challenges to see who’s the best at giving money to you. +WEALTH

c. People in various positions of power must face all sorts of questions relevant to their field, and if they fail, they lose their jobs... and society wins. +SMARTS

You get the chance to produce a movie. It’s based on...

a. The most influential Russian novelists of the XIX century... have gone nuts! They don’t remember anything about last night and now they can’t find the manuscript of The Brothers Karamazov; and Dostoyevsky has to deliver it TODAY! +FUN

b. Two cool guys walking away from rad explosions. And they don’t look at the explosions. THEY DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE EXPLOSIONS! They reflect on life and love... AND IT IS SUPER DOPE AND KICK-ASS BECAUSE THEY DO SO WALKING AWAY FROM NEVER-ENDING EXPLOSIONS! +BOLD

c. Something about superheroes, but with a love triangle between a beauty yet somehow relatable girl (maybe she’s always stating she’s a mess?) and two of the super hot superheroes, which are also like vampires or pirates or both. Instant hit! +WEALTH

Democracy is just broken. What would be the best way of choosing the leaders of modern society?

a. Whoever can play the most heartbreaking violin solo wins. +CREATIVITY

b. You put all the candidates in an empty room... with a wild grizzly bear. Whoever kills the bear should be our president. If everyone dies, then it’s obvious: the bear should be our president. +BOLD

c. We create a reality show called “America’s Next Top President” where the candidates compete in all kinds of physical and mental challenges. Voter turnout would increase and we would turn a profit on it! +FUN

If you could put a curse on your worst enemy, what would it do?

a. I’d curse them to fall in love with a wonderful person and be happily married before they realize that all this time... their partner was a wild panther in disguise! Then the panther viciously devours my enemy. Classic! +BOLD

b. The curse of always meeting obnoxious people at parties who are super into new fad diets that feel the need to explain them in detail. +CHARM

c. You can’t rely on the effectiveness of a curse. I prefer to take care of my enemies the old-fashioned way: by exposing them to unsafe doses of radiation over the course of several years. +SMARTS

What would be the coolest prize you could find in your box of cereal?

a. A tiny piece of sharp metal, so every scoop will be full of thrill and danger! +BOLD

b. The phone number of the sexy tiger on the front of the box. He’s so passionate about breakfast and health that he’s surely also a grrreat lover. +CHARM

c. A sample of a more nutritious breakfast option, so people are encouraged to stop eating that colorful crap. +SMARTS

What inanimate object do you think would make the best girlfriend or boyfriend, provided you went criminally insane?

a. A human-size pillow depicting a character created by myself. As a matter of fact, I have all the needed paperwork and I’m only waiting for the conservative narrow-minded laws of our country to finally step forward into waifu and husbando territory, as was clearly intended by God. +CREATIVITY

b. A dildo, duh. +FUN

c. An ATM. Sugar baby life, here I come! +WEALTH

Which god do you pray to each night before sleeping?

a. Praying is kind of lame. I have a group text set up with some deities: Dionysus, Bastet, Loki... coolest cats in town. +CHARM

b. Praying is for fools. I took some compromising pics of a god molesting a tree, and now I blackmail him for whatever I want. A lot more effective. +SMARTS

c. Oh, I pray to all kinds of gods. I have this business where people pay me to deliver their prayers every night. I’ve even started to look for a Chinese factory to outsource the prayers. +WEALTH

prom date questions

What is the sexiest type of knowledge a lover can have?

a. How to set stuff on fire. ❤️DAMIEN

b. All the principles to build a financial empire. ❤️VERA

c. Lyrics to all Disney songs. ❤️MIRANDA

d. Obscure 80s movie trivia. ❤️LIAM

e. Sports things. ❤️SCOTT

f. How to make a killer cocktail out of anything. ❤️POLLY

Your partner just gave you a cool gift for your anniversary but you totally forgot! Quick, come up with an idea for a great gift!

a. The head of their fiercest enemy. ❤️VERA

b. A silly toy that makes silly noises. ❤️SCOTT

c. The abstract concept of gratefulness. ❤️LIAM

d. A pony. Always a pony. ❤️MIRANDA

e. Anything on fire. Or a weapon. No, no: a weapon on fire. ❤️DAMIEN

f. Anything capable of leading them to an overdose of some sorts. ❤️POLLY

What would be a deal-breaker for a potential lover?

a. The person lacks taste. ❤️LIAM

b. The person is mediocre. ❤️VERA

c. The person is a coward. ❤️DAMIEN

d. The person is boring. ❤️POLLY

e. The person hates the outdoors. ❤️SCOTT 

f. The person lacks manners. ❤️MIRANDA

What would be a killer accessory?

a. Sunglasses... at night. ❤️POLLY

b. A fabulous purse made from the skin of your worst enemy. ❤️VERA

c. Coolness itself. ❤️LIAM

d. Fancy brass knuckles. ❤️DAMIEN

e. A necklace with your own name... in case you forget! ❤️SCOTT

f. Shiny armor. ❤️MIRANDA

The world will end tomorrow... What will you do today?

a. Nobody ends the world but me! I’ll end the world today. ❤️DAMIEN

b. It’s okay! We invented the apocalypse to take care of the overpopulation of commoners. ❤️MIRANDA

c. I’ll finish my novel... whoever comes after the end should know my legacy! ❤️LIAM

d. 100 push-ups... no, no 200 push-ups! ❤️SCOTT

e. They always tell you the world is ending... I’ll profit on other people’s hysteria. ❤️VERA

f. I always party as if there were no tomorrow... so who cares? ❤️POLLY

Which criteria would you use to name your children?

a. Meh... no name? It’s just too much work! ❤️POLLY

b. I will research for a name that is pun-proof and joke-proof. No one will pick on them. ❤️VERA

c. A non-heteronormative name to give them freedom to define themselves on their own terms. ❤️LIAM

d. Just a swear word. ❤️DAMIEN

e. My name + “II” (the Second). ❤️MIRANDA

f. Something simple and friendly, like Bobby or Mary. ❤️SCOTT

If you were an ice cream... which flavour would you be?

a. Double creme de la Gruyere and meringues. ❤️LIAM

b. Spicy chocolate. No... chocolate on FIRE! ❤️DAMIEN

c. Success. ❤️VERA

d. Tequila and coke. ;) ❤️POLLY

e. Rainbows and gummy bears. ❤️MIRANDA

f. Meat! ❤️SCOTT

What would be your dream first date?

a. An art exhibition experimental enough to give you a seizure. ❤️LIAM

b. A sweaty and manly wrestling match. ❤️SCOTT

c. A professional meeting where you charm your date with some astonishing business advice! ❤️VERA

d. A wild party in international waters. ❤️POLLY

e. A lovely walk in the forest... after rescuing your date from a dragon! ❤️MIRANDA

f. Crimes. ❤️DAMIEN

You find a genie in a bottle. You can ask for whatever you want. What do you ask for?

a. A rainbow that you can eat! ❤️MIRANDA

b. I don’t ask for anything. I drink the genie from the bottle. I can grant my own wishes! ❤️DAMIEN

c. Before asking for anything, you try to negotiate up to the three standard wishes. ❤️VERA

d. Infinite confetti! ❤️POLLY

e. ...His friendship! ❤️SCOTT

f. Him to not be so cliched. Genies and wishes... so mainstream! ❤️LIAM

What would be the most appealing in a love partner?

a. A big... horn. ❤️DAMIEN

b. Sharp wits. ❤️LIAM

c. Kawaii eyes. ❤️MIRANDA

d. A very tsundere personality. ❤️VERA

e. Soft fur. ❤️SCOTT

f. A taste for party. ❤️POLLY

[secretbranch]

LRR OF THE SPARK

Okay, so in a recent live TCC, LRR was asked what planeswalkers they associate with “everyone in LoadingReadyRun”, and they gave some great answers, so I wanted to compile them as well as add my own opinions, so without further ado....

(also note that race/gender don’t factor here) Graham (Garruk)

Graham has cosplayed as Garruk for videos before, and you can totally see it. They also threw around the idea of Angrath, which I will admit I like better, but I also know that, for better or for worse, due to recent developments, Graham has cemented himself into the mono green man of the wild. (Plus, I wanted to use the stained glass art versions of all the walkers, and then I realized Graham was Garruk rip #whereareyougarruk) Paul (Karn)

You could argue that Paul is some sort of blue mage because of his endless experimentation in Friday Nights, but while Karn may not approve of some of Paul’s designs, he would appreciate the effort. Also, I mean, Paul’s card in Friday Nights is colorless for a reason, right? James (Angrath)

Alright, so a bunch of names were thrown around for James (Nicol Bolas, Gideon, Ajani [because he’s so supportive {sarcasm}]), and I personally didn’t think any of them fit. I then remembered a conversation I heard on stream (can’t remember exactly when, otherwise I’d link it), but someone referred to James as “Kind of a dick, but still has a heart of gold”, and that made me think of Angrath’s story from Ixalan, and I realized he was the perfect fit. Also, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard someone in chat say that James would make a great dad, I wouldn’t be yet another broke millennial, hahah. Ha.

Kathleen (Sorin)

This is one where you may have a different opinion than the LRR friends. Whether or not you consider it low-hanging fruit, you may have thought of Liliana first. While I do admit there is some merit to Kathleen being our goth queen, wielding her horde of Brave New Faves listeners against the forces of evil, a helpful, totally extra edgelord is not far off either.

Alex (Saheeli)

Alex was the first of a couple people whom I almost gave Tibalt. Early Friday Nights had him pinned as some sort of Rakdos Madman obsessed with explosives, sort of like if a goblin was a person. But, frankly, I don’t think the Demon Prince fits Alex very well. Alex is super creative, which you know if you’ve seen his art or his comics. He’s also been referred to as a “meme nexus”, and has a lot of information stored in his brain (which paved the way for the discussion of “Alex-isms”). His ability to create and appreciation of the world around him s very reminiscent to me at least of Saheeli. Plus, Alex doesn’t give a shit about your gender norms anyway. Fuck ‘em.

Cameron (Tamiyo)

Books? Notes? Yep, that’s Cam. Also, without a doubt, some of the deepest cuts and references you will ever hear on LoadingReadyRun have been from Cameron. He is the longest running co-host of a show where they analyze video games as art. Come on, the similarities keep coming. Also, Cam would totally be down to say “fuck your gender norms”. He is beauty, he is grace, and yet he will trip and fall and somehow find a way to land directly on his funny bone.

Ian (Daretti)

As discussed in the video, Ian is absolutely the tinkering goblin madman that turns into an evil genius in the sequel. Like, the show is LITERALLY called TINKER Tailor Solder Fry. Not to mention Daretti’s other quality: D E C A D E N C E. Some goblins will settle for any trash. Daretti only settles for the highest quality of trash. I feel like this statement highly resonates with Ian. Plus, there’s probably some “waifu is trash” joke that I’m missing since I don’t watch anime, but regardless: perfect fit.

Cori (Huatli)

They almost said Vivien, but then Cam pointed out (and I totally agree) that Cori would have red or blue in her color identity. So, here is Cori! She’s super helpful and friendly and wholesome, and she also reins Ian in when he goes a little too off the rails. That being said, Cori has been known to go off the rails a little herself, and is super creative, so Huatli seems like a nice match.

Beej (Sarkhan)

So this was what the LRR folks picked at the panel, and it catches a lot of people offguard. The universal first response I think is Tibalt, E̻̻͙̭̼̅́ͯ̒ͅX̸̠̫̟̙̣̮͔ͬͯ̈́ͤͤP͌ͨͫ̄́͏̠͉Eͦͨͨ͊͂̓҉̱R̷̠͔̮̲̥̘͚̄̈́̅ͧ̇̃I̲̙̗͇͌ͮ̃́̚E̢͇̝͆ͪ̑̌ͧͮ̎NC̓̒̐͆͐͂ͭ҉̥̺̞E̐��̠͖ͬ̔̐͊̎̕ ̮̪͒ͣ́͗͆̆̏͠B̥͍̳̲̠̳̀̓̏ͥͮ̈́ͣE͇̳̫͙͕ͅͅE͈̱̜͈̱̱̲J̼̉̔ͅ and all that. But, after thinking about it, Sarkhan is a rambling madman who turned out to know more about the universe than almost anyone, and isn’t that in the spirit of E̻̻͙̭̼̅́ͯ̒ͅX̸̠̫̟̙̣̮͔ͬͯ̈́ͤͤP͌ͨͫ̄́͏̠͉Eͦͨͨ͊͂̓҉̱R̷̠͔̮̲̥̘͚̄̈́̅ͧ̇̃I̲̙̗͇͌ͮ̃́̚E̢͇̝͆ͪ̑̌ͧͮ̎NC̓̒̐͆͐͂ͭ҉̥̺̞E̠͖̐͊ͬ̔̐͊̎̕ ̮̪͒ͣ́͗͆̆̏͠B̥͍̳̲̠̳̀̓̏ͥͮ̈́ͣE͇̳̫͙͕ͅͅE͈̱̜͈̱̱̲J̼̉̔ͅ?

Heather (Jaya)

This was another personal pick of mine, and I really like it. Cute but fierce is something I can totally see describing Heather. Like, Heather definitely has this very loving, innocent mindset, but anyone who has seen enough Rhythm Cafe knows that that statement isn’t entirely true. She also seems like someone who will fiercely protect her friends, and that’s something Jaya can definitely get behind.

Serge (Yanggu)

You knew it was coming. How could you not see it coming; the adorable doggo-wielding cinnamon roll who can surely kill you with his boyish smile while simultaneously actually killing you? Everyone in chat always protects Serge when bullies like Adam or James show up, even when Serge was sassing them seconds before. Also, Yanggu is a green mage, and we all know how Serge feels about lands.

Ben (Chandra)

In the words of Kathleen: “THIS ONE IS MY FINEST HOUR!!!!” Think about it. Ben has always said he’s most closely aligned with Red and Green, and here’s this planeswalker that can be both a wild child and super wholesome. Also, canonically a member of the LGBT+ community. ALSO, you KNOW Chandra is super supportive of people when she’s not immolating them. I didn’t even think of the Zippotricks McEdgelord thing until I was halfway through this. His individuality, his creativity, he is Chandra in disguise.

Adam (Koth of the Hammer)

Beefcake of the Mountains? Adam Savidan??? Absolutely. I will admit, this is what LRR said, and I would have gone for someone a little more studious since I know that’s a lot of the Adam we don’t see on camera, but as for what we DO see, hell yeah. I also find it hilarious that the guy acting as the conductor for the WE’RE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE train wasn’t even in War of the Spark. Rip in pieces, Koth. Matt G (Ral)

I’ll be honest, at time of posting, Matt is still fairly new to streams, and I haven’t seen a lot of stuff he’s done, but I’ve seen his personality through his editing (which is always amazing btw), and his creativity and very open personality is expressed greatly in Ral. Plus, I mean, when there’s low-hanging fruit, sometimes you’ve just gotta give the gay boi the gay boi.

(Bonus Friday Nights A-LRR-mni)

(Note that this is mainly their Friday Nights Personalities) 

Jer P. (Teferi)

Super organized, methodical, intelligent. Who the heck is WILLING to sort their cards, let alone OTHER PEOPLE’S? Jer has had to since move on from LRR, which is sort of like Teferi retiring from planeswalking.  And I mean, come on.

Matt W. (Ob Nixilis)

Hear me out. I’m not saying Matt is a demon. I am saying he is absolutely Ob BEFORE he broke the contract. Throughout his episodes in Friday Nights, he is ob-sessed (don’t you love my puns?) with winning. Furthermore, like Ian, decadence is a word that comes to mind when you consider the way he talks. A very sinister villain is Wiggins who returns every time we go back to Zendikar (or have a Desert Bus, but you get it) And that’s it!!! This was a fun homage as well as a much needed trip down memory lane. Hope everyone enjoys, while I know folks will disagree with my picks. Don’t forget to check out all of the links I hid in here. Big thanks to LRR for existing and being so wholesome and good. You guys rock.

[yourwannabekpopidol]

DIY - Cosplay!

Captured by PlaySomething Cosplay Photography Yes, that’s me! ^_^ Hope I got your attention now. This is a picture of me cosplaying Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6! I started cosplaying long time back. Around fall 2012 when Comicon first started in Bangladesh. As you know I love animes, I wanted to be an anime character. I wanted to let my inner weeaboo come out. And long time back when I was a kid, I saw cosplayers on the internet. They were international cosplayers and they looked so good! Their cosplays were too on point! This is one of my favourite cosplayer because she cosplayed my anime waifu (Toga-chan) and she nailed it! Not only her cosplay was on point, the acting counts too!

Cosplayer:  Sandy サンディ (please give her some love) She may be my favourite but I did not start loving cosplays because of her. The cosplayers who inspired me were Jessica Nigri and Liui Aquino. They were so cool and they put so much effort into their cosplays that it inspired me to do mine the same way.

COSPLAY SESSION

Cosplay is something that seems easy and fun but really hard to do. You just gotta know at first that there are many different types of cosplay. There are genres like genderbend cosplay, crossplay cosplay, own-concept cosplay, etc. (I swear am not making these names up). And then there are different category for cosplay like fabric costume, heavy costume with foams, latex costume. There are several steps to do before you finish your cosplay: 1st - Choose a character. 2nd - Brain-storm on how to make this character (your own idea or too realistic) 3rd - Buy the items and materials that you need. 4th - Measure your body size. 5th - According to your result, make the costume. 6th - Make-up to look like your character. 7th - Be happy being the character until you take and wash it all off. :) You just have to remember to start easy. If you are really new to it, start with the easiest cosplay like I did. I started with L.) Trust me, L is the easiest cosplay in the world and it’s like the first choice for everyone’s first cosplay. Here’s a picture of a cosplayer cosplaying L:

Cosplayer: Rusmat Safin Pracchad. (His link is given below) Now, look at it properly. Basic materials are: Black short wig. Black eye liner. White make-up powder. White shirt. Blue jeans.

See? It’s still not that easy. Now let me give you guys an example on a cosplay of mine. I won’t show the steps of Hiro Hamada because it’s not an anime character. Let me show you guys a picture of an anime character that I cosplayed.

T-A-D-A! It’s Usui and Misaki chan. ^-^ For doing this cosplay, I had to make plans and make a list right? I followed the steps but I made it in my own way because it’s my cosplay.

See? I draw them out on a note copy first and decide on the items and budget later. This is my way of brain-storming (Yeah I know, it’s silly ;-;). It pretty much turned out great to me! Thankfully, I didn’t have to sew anything for my costume. Some costumes need lots of sewing! Get someone with a sewing machine if you can. For the make-up (eye lenses, powder), my friends helped me out.

NOW YOUR TURN!

There is this thing about cosplay. When I first found out about it, I felt so much better and had so much fun. The thing is that after you wear your costume and make-up, you will feel this enormous feeling coming out of you! No joke! The reason is that, you will start acting like that character and that will give you so much encouragement! It’s very empowering. When I first cosplayed L, I felt like L. I am weird, I know haha. Anime brought that out for me and I don’t regret it. Cosplaying is also a part of the aesthetics of anime and now you know why. Now I want to see you guys having that much empowerment too! Just follow my steps and go out there and cosplay!

Here are some of my favourite cosplayers from my friend circle who deserves all the love for their effort and passion! I specifically chose them because of the way they work with fabrics! They did their sewing and make-up perfectly! Their cosplays look so real. Check them out when you can:

Cosplayer:  Pracchad Cosplay

Cosplayer: Francis Chakma YuKio 

Cosplayer:  Haruwen Cosplay 

“Be the inner otaku you were meant to be.” - Thio, 2019

[doubleddenden]

Den Reviews Let’s Go Eevee

So I’ve officially beaten Let’s Go Eevee. I’ve gotta say, the last bit Blaine’s Gym onward really turns the game around for me a little. The catching is still shit and the dex is bad but I’m actually pretty happy with certain characterizations and a certain twist at the end. Still a 6.8 for me and not quite up to par with official core titles, and way too easy in most places with bizarre difficulty jumps to get to some of the good stuff.

Basically if you’re the people this game is aimed for, go for it, other than catching you’ll have a good time. Long time fans like me that have been around for a WHILE (I’ve been on board for 20 years basically) may want to approach with caution.

I’ll give a bit more of a descriptive review below. Warning, these are just my opinions and some of my negatives might be considered nitpicks.

So we all know that LGPE are remakes of yellow with Pokemon Go tossed in. It’s a mixed bag of good and bad. I’ll just try to summarize it as good as I can.

Basically It’s Yellow, but it reboots into yet another AU where Red, Blue, and a girl named Green started their journeys years before you and your friend do, yet you and your friend are the ones who go through the Team Rocket events of gen 1. It adds a touch more story and drama to some moments, such as the infamous Cubone’s Mother from Lavender Tower and a few more spots thanks to your starter. It also reimagines some things, like Blaine being a gameshow host, but it’s basically an easier Kanto remake.

Pros:

The Pokemon and world art style look great

Music is a great orchestrated remake of the originals, often times sounding a bit like the original anime

Your Starter is like the cutest fucking shit. I cannot even understand how they fit so much cute and spunk into a tiny creature. The Voice Acting is so great and sounds so animal like. I’m going to be so sad when I won’t be able to bring him to the next gen (you can’t trade him and he is essential for HM’s so)

Creative reimaginings of Kanto, great jokes and creative ideas

Megas and Alola forms are nice to break the monotony

Green is waifu, please make her a recurring character I love her so much

Cons

Go sucks, ergo the elements added into Let’s Go based on GO sucks. You can’t weaken Pokemon properly to catch them and you’re just flinging balls hoping they stick.

Motion controls suck

Gen 1 pandering has reached critical, even for a remake. FRLG did it better and at least had gen 2 pokemon post game. still salty about it, moving on

Go Park sucks because it takes forever to link accounts and you have to use your own balls to catch your own pokemon using the shitty catching mechanic

Difficulty is frustrating because it’s monotonously easy for the most part then weird difficulty spikes appears out of nowhere. I do appreciate it when I’m given an appropriately challenging battle like Koga and his toxic stall tactics but it sucks when you have to beat 6 master trainers that are magically way higher level than you with the pokemon you want to use.

Exp is not distributed correctly. It’s either too much when you don’t need it or not enough when you do, such as post game.

I’m not a fan of the style they used to create the characters. It reminds me too much of 3rd party or illegal mobile apps and I keep thinking I’ll be charged a microtransaction.

No Safari Zone, where go catching mechanics would be most appropriate

Character customization took so many steps back. It’s even less than X and Y. Everything is just a reskin.

Post game is honestly bland other than rechallenges and Green and Blue (haven’t fought Red yet).

No pro controller support

Really short

The rival isn’t a real rival tbh

Has soul in some places, lacks soul in others

Becomes tedious

Meltan and Melmetal are annoying to get

The Pokemon Box is shit. Just stick to PC’s, less cluster and honestly easier to use.

Not enough Green, probably doomed to obscurity like Zinnia

How to improve the game

Add difficulty from easy, medium, hard

Include some popular later gen pokemon like Lucario, Zoroark, especially evolutions and pre evolutions to Kanto pokemon

Get rid of this atrocious catching system and stick to normal catching. Oh my god this is bad.

Use the catching system for the Safari Zone, which would replace Go Park

Bring back the Sevii Islands, add a bit of post game there with exploration and a battle frontier or a new campaign, or just add some interesting post game episode

Honestly do more with Green. I’ve known her not that long and already she’s like top tier. Let’s get to know her a lot more.

Go back to regular backpack stuff and PC systems

Either use X and Y’s level of customization or go beyond it. This is just pitiful

Make the rival more challenging, less friendly, more competitive

Scale the Pokemon better size proportionately

Use an art style for characters either more realistic or more like Sun and Moon and less mobile-game or chibi looking

Make more references to other regions to keep it from feeling so closed off. Alola got love, and there are some silent mentions like an Ecruteak painting, but it just felt a bit stifled at times.

Add more hints to the next game, at least an item like the souvenir from X and Y

Bring back the online from X and Y or at least bring it over from Sun and Moon

Add more Pokeballs

Basically make it an actual game instead of a Diet Kanto

Quit relying so much on Nostalgia to sell, you’ve been doing this since 2014 and it needs to stop

So with all that said, this game gets a 6.8. Game Freak, Let’s (not) Go through this again. Restore my faith in the games next year please. Understand I’ve been a fan since Silver and love every gen. I stan Gen 5 AND 7 and their Ultra editions, so I can say with full confidence that these games are so-so and can be better.

At the least these are the martyr games where they figure things out before making the real debut generation (like Diamond and Pearl was before Platinum or Heart Gold and Soul Silver). I believe in you Game Freak. Learn your lesson from the mistakes of this game and give us a great traditional game next year with less gen 1 pandering.

[tsff21]

randomly found ur post in the vshojo tag and So True. i enjoy hololive but its always the unhinged holoworshippers who violently hate vshojo. I've seen a weird amount of hate about the concert thats coming up soon and im so ?? specifically i've seen people say they don't deserve to be there, and that it's an insult to "real hardworking idols" but nyanners, mousey, and silver are all very hardworking in my opinion. i think it's also a dash of east asian fetishization because the vshojo girls are more transparent abt their irl selves existing and are Very Western so they aren't "uwu anime waifu who only exists in my screen"

strange that the same people who loved coco shit on vshojo when kson is friends w several vshojo girls... not like there's any link between the two 🤔

Exactly. The complaints I've seen regarding Vshojo (mainly about their mature humor, swearing and sex jokes) make NO sense considering that nearly everyone at Hololive except Sora, AZKI and MAYBE Botan are guilty of doing the same type of humor at least on one occasion.

On an unrelated note, when did the character cap for asks increase??

[hanaby-3]

TransformFriday

Okay, this is an idea that I've been meditating for a long time but I think now is the perfect time to carry it out. Because my favorite comic book (Transformers MTMTE-LL) will soon come to an end, I have decided to carry out this idea: my own Top Ten of favorite transformers... drawing version! The truth is that the end of MTMTE and LL generates me many mixed emotions: on the one hand I am happy because at last I will be able to know the end of the story and I will not observe how my favorite series becomes the next infinitetale (I will not say names ... but we all know who they are ...) but on the other hand I'm so sad about it. This is a story that has marked me and I know that when the comic ends I will no longer be the same person as before. This (at least for me) is a special moment, comparable to when Inuyasha, Death Note and Evangelion ended. I remember fondly when I started reading it: back then I still had the hype of transformers prime and I was looking for more things about it and then a friend in a forum recommended Transformers More Than Meets the Eye and I started reading it (specifically I got it in chapter 18, the house of ambus) and I was speechless with what I found. All the characters were so similar and at the same time so different from everything I already knew. I remember how I was surprised by the lore and all the mythology that had been assembling around the transformable robots and seeing how a world was created so unique and credible with such a cliche premise and yet I fell completely in love with it. I hallucinated with neurosurgery and empurata, I loved how action and psychology were balanced in about 20 pages in such a harmonious way, and the characters ... my god, the characters! I love how James Roberts takes you by the hand and makes you walk the halls of lost light with his characters, I remember being so sad with Tailgate's disease, getting excited about the battle between cyclones and Starsaber, to love and hate the same time to Tarn for his personality, to be moved for the scavengers, the evolution of rodimus and Megatron. For my Transformers it has not been another series of my childhood. James Roberts and Alex Minle have taught me what someone can do with dedication, hard work and a lot of imagination and their comics are not an empty reading. Thanks to this story I have learned so many important lessons from life and myself, I have come to learn how strong and courageous I can be. Thanks to MTMTE I was encouraged to write and draw my first comic, I learned that the hardest It is forgiveness to yourself, I have learned that it is not bad to ask for help and how powerful teamwork is, thanks to TMTMTE I wrote my degree thesis ... My God I can say it, Thanks to Transformers I got graduated! And finally, thanks to MTMTE transformers I still find the strength to continue doing what I like, which is to draw. That's why I decided to celebrate these last months of Transformers drawing my ten favorite characters and of course explaining why every Friday (of course the position 1 and 2 already know them, I'll leave you below the links if you're interested) because the end of this wonderful saga will also mark the end of a stage of my life and is that the truth, without TMTMTE I would be a completely different person and that is why it is and always will be one of my favorite series.

Top Ten

1.-Prowl    

If you have read any of the wreckers comics then you know that Prowl is a bastard. He is not a noble, kind, or honest hero, I can not even call him good. Actually Prowl is a villain who "fortunately" plays for the good side. If I had to define Prowl in a word that would be hate. He hates the decepticons, he hates the new cybertron, he hates his leader/friends for not listening him, even I think that sometimes he hates himself, his life and especially his failures and that's why I love it. I love the contradiction and the final message of Prowl: hatred has turned him into what he most detests. Ironically, Prowl is more decepticon than many cons and at the same time that hate is the fuel that drives him to improve every new plan and fight for a future and a peace that may get to destroy him. He is cruel, manipulative and ruthless but also has moments of weakness and even compassion ................. although he is still a bastard and has not been able to overcome his ex-boyfriend. I love Prowl because he is not a character, he is a person, he is very real and very human and the world and his own decisions have made him into what he is today.

2.- Starscream    

    Leaving megatron aside, my favorite decepticon is Starscream. Either in comics or in the animated series Screamer always amuses me and always manages to make me smile ... basically because I love to see him fail in everything he does. I do not joke, either bad luck or his own ambition always make him fail. If Prowl is hatred, Starscream is ambition. he reminds me a little the homuncle of FMAB Greed, he wants it all, power, wealth, fame, fear, respect and especially the decepticon leadership.

He knows he is the best option to be the leader of the decepticons and he is an incredibly ruthless person who does not hesitate to lie, murder and manipulate everyone to meet their own whims but like Prowl Star is much more than just ambition. I'm not going to say that he's not so bad or he can redeem himself or some stupidity of the style (I really hate that) but Starscream has a reason to be like that. He is an incredibly lonely person who has struggled to survive before, during and after the war. He has learned that he can not count on anyone because sooner or later they will betray him and that is why he only sees the people around him as pawns. He's logic: if you do not approach or attach to anyone they can not betray you. deep down he knows that sooner or later his bad deeds will overtake him and he must prepare himself.

And yet Starscrean has virtues as great as his flaws: he is incredibly determined and hardworking, when he wants something he does not skimp on resources, time or effort in getting it, he is extremely intelligent (probably not as much as Prowl but he is a force to have in account) and he always learns from his mistakes. I would say that's why he has had such a long reign in comics and even has moments of humanity and genuine compassion. Maybe he really wants to redeem himself ... but he knows that he is beyond all salvation and that for him it is too late.

3.-Cyclonus

The truth is that this is a character that I find it hard to talk about, basically because he is someone I love so much and I identify so much that I block myself. 

I will start strong: Cyclonus is my perfect waifu, he is a revision to the classic stereotype of the solitary warrior and constantly reminds us that every age, however dark or terrible it may have been, created beauty. Fuck, Cyclonus loves any form of art: music, writing, architecture and also he is a killing machine that can slice just about anyone, what else could you ask for? And in spite of him being so cultured he has a huge darkness inside him, of course Cy is fully aware of that and always tries to channel it ... with mixed results.

But the truth is that the feature with which I most identify with cyclonus is his sense of honor and loyalty, that is something that resonates a lot with me. The moment that I see Cyclonus is willing to do him on the side in order to ensure the happiness of the person he loves the most is something that makes my throat tighten. Besides that his relationship with Tailgate is the best yaoi I've read, let's be honest and he has the best sentence ever written. you want to know? You will have to read the comic because the spoiler is not from God.

4.- Megatron

Of course Megsi was to be in my topten, he is almost a god in my pantheon (sorry optimus). I love all the incarnations of Megatron except for the transformers prime novel (seriously, a revolutionary who hates the primes but he wants to be a prime …. what the hell?) But my favorite so far is the IDW Megatron , he is a very complex character that goes through different stages: fallen, self-discovery, acceptance, temptation, redemption … all a carousel of emotions. He pass from being a ruthless murderer to a pacifist in constant conflict with himself. Although my favorite aspect about megatron is its moral: we all deserve a second chance … but redeption is not as easy as bowing your head and apologizing. Throughout MTMTE and LL Megs works every minute of his life to redeem his mistakes even when he knows they are too big and as he advances towards his death he knows perfectly well that there is a possibility that no one will forgive him but that does not stop him. Megatron words always resonate strongly within me: We are all work in progress.

5.- RungMy second perfect waifu and a cinnamon roll too pure for this world. Rung is the most adorable autobot ever drawn … until he takes off his glasses and becomes the greatest latinlover ever created. But leaving aside my inclination for robots, Rung is an incredible character, I know that many joke about the theory which says that Rung is the self-inception of Roberts, but I think that rather Rung is the connection with the reader. He is a character that has been kept at bay from most problems by having a very convenient good luck, he is skinny, short, lovable, sometimes too much kind and he prefers conversation rather than confrontation but he is not weak On the contrary, Rung has incredible mental and emotional strength. he has not only endured that everyone, absolutely ALL mispronounce his name at least once, Rung listens to the problems and confessions of others around him to make a living; he literally knows the worst of all, he knows the darkness that dwells within each of his companions … and that never stops him from helping or comforting others. If I had to define the role of Rung in some archetype that would be the maternal one. Of course there are parents in fiction who are loving and protective, but the mother figure always ends up being kinder, the comforter and the one that drives you to improve and that is precisely the raxon for which I love Rung.I have met many maternal characters but what makes the difference with Rung (besides being male) is the moment in which (spoiler alert) during the kidnapping of Fortress Maximus, Rewind reproduces a part of the torture in Garrus 9 and Max, realizing that he is doing exactly the same as Overlord and reliving those horrible memories, he throws himself to the ground to mourn and Rung, with a patience of a saint, despite the kidnapping and even though Max had yanked his thumb out… he surrounds him with a kind arm and tells him that everything will be fine and everything ends for today. That’s something my mother could have done.Because deep down Rung is that, he is kindness and he teaches us the strength found in compassion and as the functionalist universe demonstrates, Rung possesses incredible strength of character and determination and he is capable of giving his life to save those who he care … and that’s a large number of people.

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[terrible-tentacle-theatre]

The Bestiary Revamped: Wyville’s Crownjelly

Disclaimer: While this article is founded in scientific fact, it contains hyberbole and conscious exaggerations for the sake of comedy. Do not take my ramblings at face value. You can find the sources at the end of the article and tools for scientific fact-checking under the “Learn more” link on my blog.

The old article can be read here.

At long last, today we finally return under the waves, and while we’re at it, why not go full fucking overboard? Here at the Terrible Tentacle Theatre, we pride ourselves on not having any idea what “moderation” means. If we return to the sea, there is only one place to go: down. Way, way down.

Say hello to the bathypelagic zone, the expanse of watery void stretching from 1000 to 4000 meters. Our passengers might want to look out their windows and observe the breathtaking scenery below:

Oh no, you’ve got it all wrong. That’s not your internet being shit again. That’s genuinely how it looks, in real life, when you descend to a depth of 3000 or so meters. Nature documentaries like to put more bioluminescent flecks of organic matter in it than a love-starved grandma does lights on the Christmas tree when her grandkids are visiting. However, in reality, making a 24/7 lightshow out of yourself is a preeeeetty bad idea, since it attracts the immediate attention of pretty much everything with huge fucking teeth in the vicinity. Hint: you’ll get eaten, pretty fast. In fact, this is the actual reason why anglerfishes do their little thing with the glowing lures, because anything and everything bigger than said lures will be attracted to it, allowing the anglerfish to basically pull a “gotcha” and eat them in turn.

My point being, if you see something shiny in the deep sea, do not go to investigate. Whatever is shining that light wants you to go there.

And that is also the prime tactic of today’s specimen, which takes the incredible freedom that comes with living in a realm of eternal darkness and emptiness and uses it to fulfill it’s lifelong dream of being a goddamn Pokemon master. Come with me on today’s adventure and you’ll soon see what I mean by that.

I often joke around about how some particularly strange species we review here look like aliens. However, if aliens did decide to visit Earth, Wyville’s crownjelly (Atolla wyvillei), also known as the atolla jellyfish or coronate medusa, wouldn’t be one of the aliens. It would be the fucking spaceship.

I mean, look at this damn thing. I can’t tell where it begins or ends, but I sure can tell where the fucking cockpit is. That is not how a jellyfish should operate; they should be controlled by a decentralized nervous system, not little green men from Planet Piss Off out to steal our hotdogs and happy thoughts because their planet doesn’t have any.

Of course, the scare factor of a glowing organic UFO mothership straight out of Roswelltunguska, Arizona swimming around in our oceans is somewhat mitigated by the fact that it’s tiny as shit. Standing at a diameter of about 15 centimeters (~6 inches), it’s either not a serious harm to humankind at large or the mothership of the smallest aliens ever. I’m inclined to believe the latter.

*squeaky helium voice* BOW DOWN TO ME PUNY EARTHLINGS

AND STOP LAUGHING DAMMIT

Of course, there is a very good reason for the crownjelly being as small as it is. In the deep sea, you can’t throw a brick without hitting absolute darkness and empty water. You take two steps to the left and BAM- you’ve just ran headfirst into fucking nothing at all. The bathypelagic zone where this thing hangs out on the regular is a really food-scarce place is what I’m getting at. And big bodies being as expensive to upkeep as they are, most deep-sea creatures are actually much smaller than nature documentaries would have you believe.

Another aspect of the deep ocean besides being empty also being darker than a Morlock’s asshole inside a cave. Therefore, any light sticks out like a sore thumb, drawing attention like Kim Kardashian did with that one photoshoot of hers. (Doesn’t matter which one, actually. All of them drew attention.) Wyville’s crownjelly exploits this to show us that these particular aliens aren’t interested in meeting our leader, only in playing Pokemon Go.

The whole entire process of capturing a shiny begins with the jellyfish carelessly frolicking across the deep sea, like all of them youngster with their fancy phones and smartwatches. For some inscrutable reason, this movement is accompanied by a steady red pulsing on the underside of its bell. For what reason, I cannot determine seeing as most creatures at that depth are completely fucking blind to the color red. The one species that can actually see red is one that you really don’t want to attract the attention of. In fact, messing with this guy is such a bad idea that its existence was literally what prompted me to start writing this blog in the first place and it served as the subject of my first Bestiary article.

Wyville’s crownjelly swimming, also known as Local Suicidal Idiot Takes a Walk. I mean seriously, you can’t even say that it doesn’t live in the same place as the loosejaw because both species are cosmopolitan. The only saving throw for the crownjelly is that it lives an average 2000 meters deeper than the loosejaw, otherwise this blaring red light would be the evolutionary equivalent of putting a big flashing “KICK ME” sign around your neck.

The first method of capturing sea creatures to train them and become the very best (like no one ever was) is the series of tendrils hanging from its bell, which the jellyfish uses to filter out and capture small prey animals that have the supreme bad luck to be in its vicinity. The alien abduction parallels are uncanny.

However, a second and much more impressive weapon in its arsenal is the long, trailing tentacle that is clearly visible on the above gif. This is coated in enough adhesive to make a hagfish gag, and the crownjelly uses it to its full extent to sate its rumbling belly. Streaming in the water like the latest shit-tier waifu harem show on Crunchyroll, it becomes an effective hunting tool for the benefit of the jellyfish. Anything snared by this appendage will be subjected to similar treatment that one might expect the villains in a Conan the Barbarian movie to do, being dragged after Wyville’s ruthless motherfucking crownjelly, sometimes for minutes, before it does an acrobatic little pirouette and swallows its helpless, snagged prey. Lovely feeding tactic.

Pictured: Wyville’s crownjelly on the hunt. Sadly it can’t really go “YEEHAW” under the water. Even if it had a voicebox all it would be good for would be gurgling.

However, that is not the most unusual feature about this cruel little cnidarian. There is yet one more trick that this deep-sea flying saucer holds, a trick which catapults it from “moderately interesting predator” right into “Kanto Elite Four” position. And that thing is its lights.

See, vicious as it is towards smaller animals, the crownjelly is actually a dirty, dishonorable coward, being equally afraid of bigger predators. Apparently this tiny creature composed of somewhere around 97% water counts as a delicious treat for some reason, seeing as even large active predators such as deepwater sharks munch on it regularly. (Then again, it is also possible that they’re simply too hungry to care about their record as gourmets with refined taste. This is the desolation that is the abyssal zone, afterall.)

Running from a sufficiently large and starved predator in the middle of a flat-empty expanse of water is, of course, hopeless, especially if you’re small as shit and your method of locomotion is the jellyfish equivalent of flapping your arms really fast to try to fly. Clearly, a different tactic must be employed here since this one is a one-way ticket to the town of Stomach, United States of Shark. And employ a different tactic it does.

Oh, boy, does it ever.

I have previously mentioned that the crownjelly is bioluminescent, and employs this attribute for some nefarous purpose. Of course, this is not the red pulsing I already mentioned, this is a whole ‘nother can of worms entirely. This is one of the most ingenious methods of defense I’ve ever seen.

If some foolish predator gives the atolla chase and inevitably catches it, the jellyfish activates its second, blue set of lights. Once again the UFO analogues become eeriely appropriate as the slightest touch sends the saucer-shaped animal into a frantic siren-like light show.

Recommended listening

This strange eruption of light is no mere panic response. It is a powerful and weird weapon of self-defense, carefully evolved to be as tacky and eye-catching as possible. It’s like a ganguro girl, only bioluminescent.

Of course, you might ask “why would the jellyfish want to be eye-catching? Isn’t being devoured by one predator a big enough problem for it already?” Well obviously it is, but this lightshow is actually its own circuitous path to freedom.

To understand this, picture the following. You are some big mean motherfucker making a living in the deep sea by eating as much as you can find. One day while taking your regular stroll through the absolute crushing darkness, you catch sight of a distinct, circular light in the distance; very flashy and very tasty-looking. You approach to investigate, and find a small jellyfish being caught by a larger and meatier animal.

What do you do?

Eat the jellyfish like a fucking idiot.

Eat the meatier, tastier predator.

If you answered “eat the predator”, congratulations! You’re at least as smart as a fish. And that is, in fact, exactly what Wyville’s crownjelly is counting on. While you’re busy making a meal of its predator, the jellyfish quietly and sneakily fucks off into the abyss before you could think about having it as dessert. And so, Wyville’s crownjelly will live to swim another day, thanks to the power of summoning a big tough animal and pitting it against another ani- OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE IT’S A POKEMON TRAINER.

Do you see why I thought that? If you sail out to sea with Pokemon Go open on your phone, and all gyms on the world oceans are captured by Team Instinct, you know who to blame.

Wyville’s motherfucking crownjelly.

Sources

Encyclopedia of Life

WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species

Ocean Biogeography Information System (OBIS)

Global Biotic Interactions

Widder, E. A. Eye in the Sea, NOAA Operation Deep Scope 2005.

Hunt, J.C. & D.J. Lindsay, 1998. Observations on the behavior of Atolla (Scyphozoa: Coronatae) and Nanomia (Hydrozoa: Physonectae): use of the hypertrophied tentacle in prey capture. Plankton Biology and Ecology, 45, 239-242.

Herring, P.J. & E.A. Widder, 2004. Bioluminescence of deep-sea coronate medusae (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa). Marine Biology, 146: 39-51

[persephone-damnedqueen]

Beginning Thoughts of the Fall Anime Season 2017 . . .

Welp, fall is here, and as usual, it is time for me to do my annual first impressions of the season’s anime titles.  My gods if you thought the amount of shows I checked out last season was a lot, this season’s amount is insane.  This season, so far, I have checked out 22 shows thus far and plan for at least 7 more to pick up.  Insane, right?  So how do they stack up so far?   Let’s see.  Also, please keep in mind, that these are solely based off of the first one or two episodes, and are purely my opinion, so if my opinion is different than yours, then I’d love to here it.   Also, I will try to remain as spoiler free as possible.  

Netojuu no Susume:  Studio Signal.MD

Dropped.  Alright, so I feel like I have to mention this.   I’m a serious gamer.  More specifically, I love me some MMOs.  How much you ask?   Well, so much so that I actually met my husband on World of Warcraft.  Insane right?  I mean my god you do not want to see our /played time on that game.  So, needless to say, I am a bit critical on gaming anime because of this, because I know what it’s like.   This anime was just. . . . cringey.  I found myself sighing every chance I got and by the 20 minute mark, completely turning it off.  Everything about the first episode was just  . . . bad.  There’s really just no redeeming qualities. . . well, one line said by the Guild Master which was something along the lines of “you have no idea what her irl gender is.”  I laughed.  It’s accurate.  85% of female toons you see on wow are actually guys. Anyways, moving on.   

Evil or Live:  Haoliners Animation

Dropped.  Mmmm  I had such high hopes.  After reading the summary, I will admit, I was hyped for this show.  On Paper, this show sounds wonderful.  I thought it was going to be some horror psychological thriller that at the end of it left you questioning the very meaning of the world around you or something.  Instead, what happened?   I . . .don’t even know.  The series starts off with massive amounts of Live Action, which, while being completely unexpected, I didn’t mind so much; the series became an instant drop for me when the MC and Co were clearly showing a break from reality and needed actual mental help, was beaten instead.   It wasn’t “horror” or “edgy” it was just poor writing.  Needless to say, I have dropped it.

Just Because!: Studio Pine Jam

Dropped.  For no other reason that fuck it’s boring.  I fell asleep watching it not once, but twice.  It was that boring.  This series proves that even the prettiest of shows can bore you to death.  

Omiai Aite wa Oshiego Tsuyoki na, Mondaiji:  Studio Seven

Porn.  With Plot.  Alright, so this is an actual hentai series.  Not like Soft-Core either like Hajimete no Gal was last season.  This is an actual hentai series, and if you could believe it, it’s actually more plot focused and semi-interesting than 95% of hentai out there.. . . Well, as interesting as a hentai series about a female teacher and a student banging and “engaged” can be.  Don’t get me wrong here, it’s totally trash, but hey, each episode is only four minutes, so I’m going to keep watching this trash just a bit longer to see where it goes.  

Sengoku Night Blood:  Typhoon Graphics

Mmmm Still waiting for the day with they make a good anime based off of an Otome Game.  Alright, so here’s the story.  Girl gets sent back into another world and gains a harem.  A vampire harem.  That’s it.  I’ve saved you the trouble of checking this series out.  You’re welcome.  

Urahara:  Studios Emt^2 and Shirogumi

Dropped.  Instant Drop.  Jesus Christ that animation is fucking trash.  You have two studios working on this series, and the animation still looks that garbagey?!?!  How?!?!?!  I can’t even with this. . . Ugh, nope, moving on.  

Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte kara:  Creators in Pack

Yet another series that will probably be dropped halfway through.  Honestly, there’s just nothing that really happens in this series, and I know it’s really hard for anything to happen in a four minute long series, but literally nothing happens.   Wife comes home.  Husband makes her drink.  Wife gets tipsy.  Thank you husband.  I mean the main reason why I’m going to be sticking it out just a bit longer is to keep getting cocktail recipes haha.   

Imouto Sae Ireba Ii:  Sliver Link Studios

Will probably be dropped.  Is it just me or is this series like Silver Link’s answer to A-1′s EroManga Sensei?  Honestly, this show is meh at best so far.  The art is nothing too great, and the story screams EroManga, and since I wasn’t a fan, I really don’t see myself watching more than three episodes.  

Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Sho-Bitch na Ken:  Studio Diomedea

I started watching it with hopes of it doing two things.  One, fill the hole in my heart that was left when Hajimete no Gal ended; and two, explain what the hell a Sho-Bitch is.  In all honestly though, this show is probably going to be dropped.  While the art is generic, the characters are bland and too common; I also the comedy too forced at time and repeatable.  Yes, we understand main waifu really just wants to figure out what Haruka likes, and obviously misinterprets everything, but does that really have to be the joke every single time?

Inuyashiki:  Studio MAPPA

Ah, the latest from Studio MAPPA.  I have one question:  MAPPA, what the fuck?  Let me clarify.  The opening few minutes of the first episode made me feel.  Fuck, I almost started crying.  It was depressing and yet the story was just relatable and beautiful all at the same time.  I was feeling feels I didn’t want to feel.  It really kept true to the Drama tag, which I love.  I’m a sucker for some hardcore drama filled series.  Then. . . .it got weird.  Some weird like mecha space alien thing weird.  So, again, MAPPA, what the fuck?  Don’t get me wrong here.  I will be continuing to watch this solely because despite the series taking that weird turn, in no way did that make the actual tone any less enjoyable.  Plus, the art style is so unique to the show, I’m curious as to where it can go from here.  

Mahoutsukai no Yome:  Wit Studio

Alright, I’m a fan.  This has to be a contender for Anime of the Season, and we aren’t even three episodes into it yet.  It’s wonderful, and not only one of my favorites from this season so far, but my favorite thing Wit Studio has ever done, (and yes, that just brought me a ton of hate from SnK fans haha).   I can see and agree with the hype this series has had.   Honestly, check it out.  It’s good  and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.  

Blend S:  A-1 Pictures

I found my Moe-Blob for the season, and I’m so happy.  I actually really like this series so far.  It was adorable, and literally just what I want in my seasonal moe-blob.  It’s nothing too driven plot wise, and definitely won’t be anime of the season or anything like that; it’s literally just Cute Girls waitressing in this cute cafe.  Regardless, I’m definitely going to continue to watch it for a bit longer at least.  

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou:  Studio White Fox

Keep your eye on this one this season.  It’s probably going to be the Dark Horse of this season.  In all honestly, I became instantly hooked watching the first episode.  The tone at the start was so eerie and grim that I found myself getting literal goosebumps.   Maybe it’s the high I’m on after the Made in Abyss ending, or just wanting to find something to fill the void that series has left me with, but I’m getting serious MiA vibes.  I’m hoping this series is even half as good as MiA was.  Also, I’m a major fan already of how unique the art is for this show.  

Ousama Game The Animation:  Studio Seven

I’m biased.  Period.  I will be watching this show no matter how terrible it could ever get solely because my favorite Seiyuu is the lead.  Mamoru is a God, and I will watch it religiously every week.  That being said, I can tell you that this show is edgy as fuck, and with it being one of two survival game anime out right now this season, this one is definitely the weaker, edgier of the two.  It is a pretty cool concept though, and I’m already a fan of the survival game concept, that I don’t mind watching this one until the end.  I would also like to warn that this one is definitely gory so if you don’t like that than this isn’t for you.    

Konohana Kitan:  Studio Lerche

CUTE LITTLE FOX GIRLS.  I REPEAT, CUTE LITTLE FOX GIRLS.  Having read the summary for the series prior,and seeing both the Seinen and Shoujo Ai tag on it and that it would be done by Lerche, it became an instant check out at least, and I’m glad I did.  This series is the calming pallet cleanser.  It’s the show where you can turn off your mind and just watch the cuteness.  Plus, did I mention cute little fox girls?  What more do you need?   

Black Clover:  Studio Pierrot

Alright, I’m split in two for this.  Part of me wants me to look at this show for what it is:  a stereotypical shounen series, with decent animation, predictable plot and bad voice acting, if you saw the first episode you’d know what I’m talking about.   This show screams Naruto, Fairy Tail and Bleach rip off; and hell, since I hate Naruto, never got into Bleach, and am still VERY pissed at Fairy Tail, combining the three into one really just makes me both cringe and glare at the screen.   Evil Glare.  A glare that if I could, would totally shoot lasers out and everything.  I mean hell, it’s even done by the same studio as Naruto.  Regardless, the tons and tons of shounen I’ve seen makes me just feel like this is repeating it all.   That’s one part of me.  The other part of me enjoys this show, solely for the fact that my husband LOVES the Black Clover manga, so watching it with him makes me at least want to give it a chance.   I do however doubt it will be as big as people hype it up to be, and if it does get big it will be nowhere near as good quality wise as a lot of other shounens, and will take a lot for me to become a fan.  

Juuni Taisen:  Graphinica

Without a doubt, my favorite from this season.  I’m hooked.  This series has it all:  unique character designs, well executed art, and a killer story line, (pun intended).  Mmmmm this story is wonderful.  It hooks you from the start, which is to be expected since the original source is written by the same original writer for the Monogatari Series.  There’s plot twists and betrayals and just epicness.  It also has one of the best openings and closings of the season.  Side Note:  THE PSYCHOTIC LITTLE USAGI BOY IS BEST BOY AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE, AND IF HE DOESN’T WIN I WILL RIOT.  

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru:  Washio Sumi no Shou:  Studio Gokumi

When I first saw that Yuki Yuno was getting another season, I was fucking thrilled.  Yuki Yuno was a magical girl series that I fell in love with not only because of the Madoka Magica vibes it had, but because of the beautiful art and animation and vibrant colors it used.  It’s visually stunning.  So, how is the prequel turning out?  Still just as stunning.  In all honestly, I’m going to love this series provided it stays true to the themes and tones of the first season, and if the opening episodes are anything to say about the rest of the series, then I know it will.  Plus, who isn’t up for Magical Girls this season?

Osomatsu-san 2nd Season:  Studio Pierrot

I actually genuinely missed this show.  My gods this show is a gift.  This has to be one of the underapprieciated comedy gems to come out in the recent years, and it fills me with joy knowing that it still shines just like the first season did.  I enjoy watching the episodic skits of everyone’s favorite sextuplets.  Seriously, why have you not started this show?  

Shokugeki no Soma:  J.C.Staff

DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE WAITED TO SEE MY SON KUGA ANIMATED?!!??!  TOO LONG.  This is hands down the best season of Food Wars yet, and we are barely a couple episodes into it.   I love the pacing of this season, and having being a manga reader, I can confirm for you that it’s completely accurate with the manga thus far.  J.C Staff is clearly showing that they still care about Food Wars and aren’t rushing with the season.  Also, thank the gods for the 24 episode season.  THAT’S MORE EPISODES OF MY PRECIOUS KUGA.  

3-Gatsu no Lion 2nd Season:  Studio Shaft

I cried.  I fucking cried.  Hard.  My god I missed this series.  Everything about the first episode was fantastic.  The music and animation were spot on, but of course nothing out of the ordinary for the phenomenal Studio Shaft, but what did I love most you ask?  Character Development.  MY FUCKING GOD.  Compare Rei to the start of Season one, and you’d never think it’s the same person.  I can’t stress that enough.  If this first episode is a sign on how amazing the rest of this season is going to be then I’m beyond fucking happy.  This is the series I’ve been waiting for since the start of the year.  

Gintama.  Porori-hen:  Bandai Namco Pictures

Has there ever been like a bad season of Gintama?   Like Ever?  All this season has proved to me is: one, life is boring and dull without Gintama.  Two, Gintama is the king of comedy series.  Three, Gintama is without a doubt one of the greatest series of all time.   This season is hilarious and easily makes me burst out laughing from start to finish.  Thank you Gintama, I’ve truly missed you.  

Ballroom e Youkoso:  Production I.G.

How is the second half of the season you ask?  *Insert Pouting Face Here*  Fuck you, Chi-chan.  Worst Girl 2017.  THERE I SAID IT.  YEAH, I SAID IT.  WHAT YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?  #BRINGBACKBESTGIRL2017  Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Tartara has a partner now, but like seriously why her? -.-  Why couldn’t Mako just be his partner forever and they could live happily ever after?  

 So, yeah, those are my thoughts so far on the Fall Anime 2017 season.   Let me know yours, and if there is anything I’m not watching, and should be, then please tell me!  I love recommendations, and I already know of a few that I need to pick up. . . .

[wendiuh]

Hey hey hey question! 😄 I've been wanting to start the fate series for awhile, and there was one I had watched some time ago, but I've realized there is multiple series? I've noticed you like it so I was hoping you could help me figure out where to start, what order to go in...? Thanks in advance dearie!

You have no idea how happy i was to see this ask omg girl I’m in Fate hell. This will get lengthy, so beware haha. If you have any other questions, feel free to come to me! If it becomes too much reading (I think it’s like 1.5k words oops) just scroll to the bottom for the summary XD. I’ll put my essay explanation under the cut:

If you’re completely new to Fate, then allow me to explain how the story is set up structure-wise. It is split into 3 separate routes that start off from the same point. Each route has a set heroine/love interest and explore different aspects of the story and characters. These routes are viewed in the order of Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel. Fate focuses on the character Saber, UBW focuses on Tohsaka Rin, and HF focuses on Matou Sakura.

Now the first thing all faithful Fate watchers would say is to read the original visual novel. I, however, did not start with this, but it is easy to see why people recommend this first. The Nasuverse (the world of Fate and other related series, named after creater Kinoko Nasu) is a very, very detailed world that has so many aspects to it. Reading the original story will definitely provide the most helpful context. I am currently reading the VN now to get a better understanding of the universe, and it is pretty enjoyable, but can get pretty slow.

Fair warning, though. The original VN is an adult game, meaning it is somewhat gory and deals with adult themes (aka sex). There was a re-release of it without any sex scenes called Realta Nua. I wont provide any links on this post on how get the VN, but there’s definitely YouTube videos out there to help.

If sitting through 80+ hours of reading isn’t your thing, and I don’t blame you if it isn’t, then we must turn to the animes. That’s where things get complicated.

There are 3 currently accessible animes out there set in the Fate/sn universe. There’s the orginal anime from 2006 that “covers” the 1st route, Fate, and was made by Studio Deen. I’m going to refer to this as Deen/stay night. I put the word “covers” in quotes because many Fate fans view this adaptation as a disgrace. I didn’t watch it, but many say it tries too hard to cover the story of the visual novel and somewhat combines the routes. Basically, it tried to adapt all of the visual novel but under the cover of the route Fate. However, it does seem to serve as an okay introduction to the Fate universe in general since it is the first anime adaptation out there.

In terms of release date, next comes the famous adaptation of Fate/zero by ufotable. This is a prequel follows the events prior to the beginning of Fate/stay night, and is hands down a phenomenal series in general. Many view FZ as a classic and a wonderful story, but it does have a few spoilers in terms of some big revelations that happen in the Stay Night routes. If you want to watch an amazing series and you’re okay with some spoilers for the main series, start here. As for me, I didn’t start here because I wanted to save it for last because of how many people that praised it.

Finally comes the UBW anime (the series by ufotable. Not the movie!). Commonly known as Unlimited Budget Works for its beautiful animation, this series focuses on the VN’s second route. This was released after FZ, so I do think ufotable made this series thinking fans already watched the prequel. However, I did start with this series first. Though there were some confusing points, I was able to understand most of the anime and it was pretty good. It took a second watch for me to fully understand the plot, but that’s kind of how a lot of animes work. You never enjoy the full scope of the series until you rewatch it. Both this series and FZ got at least 3 times better when I rewatched it, and that is saying a lot considering how much I liked them the first time through.

So, which one do you start with and what order to watch it in? For the sake of chronology, watch Deen/stay night, then FZ, then UBW. If you want to skip Deen/stay night (which is okay to do), then it is up to you what you want to watch first.

In my opinion, watch UBW first, then FZ. This saves the more serious and dark series for last, which will make the transition to the tone of the upcoming Heaven’s Feel adaptation movies more smooth.

But I think either way you watch the series will still get you a good amount of exposure to the Nasuverse. It’s complicated to start, but once you’re in, it gets better. Heck, even if you don’t fully get immersed into the universe, the 2 ufotable animes are still stellar and carry heavy messages as well as are pretty much eye candy thanks to that animation quality.

But what about all those other things with “Fate/” stamped onto it?

There are a couple of other major Fate installments out there, but they are NOT taking place in the Stay night universe. They are AUs that overall expand the lore of the Nasuverse (and also give the creators some more money lol). These include:

Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA - A magical girl AU that is extremely different from Fate/sn. I think one should watch this after they finish the Stay Night series, but don’t feel forced to watch it, for it is completely non-canon.

Fate/apocrypha - This anime is currently airing as of my writing of this post. It follows a parallel universe “what if” situation. If this one certain event in history happened differently, then the events of Stay Night turn into this. This deals with completely different characters and set up. I only watched a few episodes of this anime and found it is probably most enjoyable to those familiar with the Nasuverse.

Fate/extra - Another parallel universe series coming out. Just like Apocrypha, this deals with new characters in general.

Fate/hollow ataraxia - A sequel Visual Novel to the original Stay Night story. Same characters and world, but 6 months later. It is another adult VN game, so it’s pretty much half-lore expansion and half-fanservice. 

Fate/prototype - This is a 1-episode OVA of Kinoko Nasu’s first envision of the series. There are some minor differences lore-wise, and the characters are mainly the same, save for a few design differences and gender swaps.

Carnival Phantasm - Ever watch those “crack” videos on YouTube? Like “Fairy Tail Crack” or “Boku no Hero Academia Crack”? These videos take an anime and make jokes out of its content and have many, many memes. Well, Carnival Phantasm is exactly that. It combines many series of the Nasuverse (mainly the Fate/stay night series and Nasu’s other work, Tsukihime) and makes it into a joyful, cute, hilarious, and downright amazing anime. It is filled with inside jokes of the universe and has some spoilers, so save this anime for last. I did skip the Tsukihime skits simply because I didn’t get the jokes, but there’s a montage of all the Fate skits on YouTube here. This series is the source of many, many fandom memes. You don’t have to watch it, but it is so funny.

Fate/Grand Order - A 1-episode OVA that adapts the first storyline of the famous mobile game with the same name. It is another parallel universe of some sort. New characters with some familiar faces of the Stay Night universe. The game is currently released in Japan and North America on the iTunes and Google Play store. It may be a waifu and husbando collector, but it is so addicting…

To conclude, there really isn’t a right answer that I can give you. But here’s my suggestion (aka the way I watched the anime):

1. Watch the Unlimited Blade Works anime by ufotable.

2. Watch Fate/zero.

3. If you want to rewatch then watch the first season of the UBW anime again, then watch FZ again, then watch the second season of UBW. Totally optional, but a fun way to watch the 2 series imo.

4. If you are okay with spoilers for Heaven’s Feel, watch Carnival Phantasm for the Fate sketches. By spoilers I mean there are some jokes from that series that rooted from Heaven’s Feel, but you may only catch them if you squint. It never explicitly spoils the story.

5. Watch the Heaven’s Feel movies. Only 1 out of the 3 is currently out/coming out internationally in theaters, so I guess just try to watch the first 1 if it is available to you at this point?

Feel free to start the visual novel if you want. In regards to the other series I mentioned, they are optional as well.

If you watch UBW and FZ and feel that there are a lot of unanswered questions, then expect Heaven’s Feel to address those issues. Remember that even though the 3 routes are all different stories, they are written in a way that you don’t get the whole picture until you have completed all three routes (too bad the Fate route anime is completely butchered and unreliable plot-wise. But I think you can manage without it. It’s more of an introduction to the story than anything else.)

Hope you understood what I was saying! Again, please message me if you have any questions or just want to talk about the series with me! I am in absolute hell with this universe so don’t hesitate to talk to me!

[kukotte]

Ocs question things

Stole it from @nekro-led​

1. Your first OC ever?

I’m going to go with MLP ocs only and that would be my Ponysona Cloud Dust, followed by Skyline (Originally Thunderstorm.)

2. Do you have a personal favorite among your OCs?

That's like asking about choosing a favorite child and I can’t. I’d say my most loved ones are Tequila Shots, Dawn Breaker, Moonshine, Onyx Melody, Toffee Paste, Wolf Fangs, Jet Lag and Gold Rum. (Not sure why they’re all mares, I usually like male ocs better.)

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

Nope.

4. A character you rarely talk about?

Newer characters? Guess those who doesn't have much of a purpose yet.

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

That's a thought one. My first thought is Tequila Shots but she bare a too great resemblance to Applejack and I wouldn't want that to be a problem. Although she is usually well liked as I got a few compliment for my badge at Bronycon.

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?

Skyline and Cirrus Stream who share similar pallet.

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

I wrote slice of slice about most of them. Or at least they're always potential writing material.

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!

Do I really need to get down a list? Again all my ocs are potential material for rp. Although Skyline, Jet Lag and Gold Rum were created for Rp purposes specifically.

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?

If they weren't designed to be given up at first then no.

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design?

I think Wolf Fangs has my most complex design with her full on prosthetic leg and multiple scars.

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a "sunshine"?

Onyx Melody? Despite living in a fucking wasteland.

12. Name an OC that isn't yours but who you like a lot

Fuck again I need like to chose only a few but um, Lola, Quick Draw and Raven.

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs?

Jet Lag was kind of one but she matured. But Tequila is possibly the biggest one. like by a mile.

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory.

Omg who do I even choose? Although Toffee Paste life is not too joyful so far.

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?

Too much.

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?

Dawn Breaker or Ironclock. Possibly Heartbeat.

17. Any OC OTPs?

Jet Lag and Steam Powder all the way. If the question is only my ocs then idk, possibly Aquarelle and Compendium.

18. Any OC crackships?

Omg here I go!

Tequila Shots/Dawn Breaker

Onyx Melody/Iberion

Skyline/Crème Choice

Moonshine/Alonzo

Wolf Fangs/Senna

Cloud Dust/NekroLED

Dawn Breaker/Dunreyrr

Gold Rum/Quick Draw

Dawn Breaker/Lucky Shots

Did I forgot anyone?

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

Cheesy but they all mean a lot to me.

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

Well Onyx Melody is a singer although I didn't go through details. Although the song she sing are all soft songs.

21. Your most artistic OC.

Aquarelle, I mean her name is literally water painting.

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how?

Onyx is not as pure as you would think.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Skyline definitely, even changed name. Went from a shy awkward good guy with amnesia to a sly pony with a love for teasing and making sex jokes.

There Peach Schnapps who I kinda mellowed down. She was supposed to be absolutely insane but she kinda just a freak with a short fuse.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

Not sure I want that, lots of them had sucky life due to being Fallout characters. I guess… Jet Lag? Could at least fly on her back if ponies aren't that small compared to real life human.

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

Cloud Dust, duh.

26. Have you ever had to change your OC's design or something else about them against your will?

Some of them had minor tweaks like Sweet Cider and Heartbeat because I found them to be too close to canon characters colors. I can't say it's against my will but it displeased me.

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?

I have sorta of a main song from some of them by directly inspired by one? Can't say I have.

28. Your most dangerous OC?

Peach Schnapps can be dangerously unpredictable. But her mother, Pomegranate, is my most adept fighter so would be likely win in a fight against any of my ocs.

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they're going?

Probably Moonshine.

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection?

Hard to pick someone from Fallout so I’d go for Starry Night.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

But I kinda already have blogs about them...

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why?

Pomegranate would definitely make her way trough.

33. Your shyest OC?

Sheridan I think.

34. Do you have any twin characters?

No. I’m considering making Tutti Fruiti and Iron Barb daughters twin.

35. Any sibling characters?

Sheridan and Moonshine.

Onyx Melody and Steadfast although not blood related.

Midnight Blue have an unnamed older brother.

Aquarelle have three unnamed sisters.

Otherwise I have a LOT of only child.

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)?

Let's see…

Jet Lag/Steam Powder (Lovers)

Aquamarine/Moca (Friends)

Peach Schnapps/Contraband (Lovers)

Cherry Bomb/Toxic Waste (Siblings)

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human.

*Coughcough*

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?

Dancer? Shit I have no idea… Starry Night possibly at best?

39. Introduce any character you want.

Sepia Tone in on my list of next to be designed.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

I like how my main 2 are fusions of applejack and other ocs, always crack me up.

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)

I have like a folder with tons of it <3

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods?

How specific but definitely Compendium. Well like greek gods ponies.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It's time to confess

Piercing and facial hair. Also I tend to go for less vibrant color then the show.

44. Something you like about your OCs in general.

I’m usually fond of the back story I have for them, I’m always trying to balance with good and back. The Fallout ones tend to be more tragic obviously.

45. A character you no longer use?

A few have no purpose yet but If I can, I’ll try to give them one. (There a lots of none mlp I don't use anymore… like all of them saved for Elliot.)

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?

Lime like to say #DawnAbuse... and he’s not wrong

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?

Umbreow try to steal some of em. Rosy had claimed some as waifu.

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure.

DAWN BREAKER ESPECIALLY FOR FALLOUT OMG.

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes.

Shit idk… Skyline probably.

50. Give me the good ol' OC talk here. Talk about anything you want.

This was more tired than I thought. Also I have about 10 ocs that exists but have no design/name yet.

[miragablog]

Top 10 Mahou Shoujo Shows for Babies (Part 1)

I’ll be the first person to admit, getting into Mahou Shoujo is hard.

With the lacking amount of accessible critique and over the top presentation shows of the genre adopt,

It can be genuinely uninviting for many anime fans to get a foot in the door that is Magical Girl.

After my last video, I received a handful of comments asking about what I’d recommend as great gateway shows for a newbie.

While a recommendations list is all good and well, giving context to why these shows are worth your time is what i’m more interested in talking about today.

Before getting into the list I’d like to clarify that the choice being presented arnt tiered based on quality nor personal preference.

Some of these shows I love more than others and others not so much; However when recommending shows to try in a sub genre like Mahou shoujo, I find it counterproductive to introduce ratings when breaking down audience bias.

Also I’m judging the viability of these shows on their first five episodes, maybe a few chapters of the manga.

With that out of the way, let's get into the first section….

Kill la Kill

In a world where facism has taken hold of Japanese government, scissor blade wielding badass Ryuko Matoi is on a quest to avenge the death of her father. This brings her to Honnouji Academy, a school run by the iron fist of Satsuki Kiryuin. 

For the sake of finding her father’s murderer, Ryuko must demonstrate pride in her body and fighting spirit with the help of a bloodthirsty seifuku known as Senketsu.

Let's say you made a magical cheesecake. Amongst the common choices, of strawberries, banana and cherries you dig through and find the tangy lemon that is Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Kill la Kill.

Trigger has done some fantastic work in its six years as a studio, revolutionizing modern anime as we know it. 

However what I never hear ANYBODY talk about is how Imaishi and co.’s work has pushed the concept of the Magical Girl.Kill La kill is a bombastic, stylish addition to the genre and a fantastic entry point for introducing others to Mahou Shoujo. 

It has a really fresh, fun take on the Magical warrior, in its most literal form. The use of a mascot character being the transformation item is rare enough, but including symbiote-esc elements to the costume as a whole is something i’ve never really seen done outside of comic books stateside. 

While some may critique the shows use of “Fanservice” to be pandering or perverted, I don't think it should be a roadblock in trying KLK out. Most of the nudity presented serves into a message about confidence and having pride in who you are.

It's not trite BS like what you see in Queens Blade or (shudder) Master of Martial Hearts.

If you’re trying to get your little brother or a friend to try Mahou shoujo without having to preface starting crunchyroll with a disclaimer- about how your a real man, throw this on with a bowl of popcorn and a pitcher of lemonade. You’ll have a blast.

Shugo Chara

Amu Himamori is, for all intensive purposes, popular.

Or is she feared?

The “Cool and Spicy” character surrounding Amu pervades the relationships she tries to make with others.

Despite her crushingly shy nature, classmates interpret everything she does in a rebellious lense, perpetuating rumors without making the effort to get to know Amu outside of her reputation.

But in a miraculous turn of events, she is given the chance to rectify her social standing with the blessing of three strange eggs known as Chara, portions of Amu’s buried personality that act as guardian angels.

Originally watching the show while airing in 2008, I can say that Shugo Chara is a contender with the likes of Pretty Cure when it comes to presentation. I’m surprised I don't hear more people talk about the series to be honest.

Transformation sequences are minimal but catch the eye.

The concept of having multiple characters to change in and out of when needed lends to keeping the audience guessing, especially when paired transformations with new Chara come into play.

In combination, Peach-Pits colorful art design and Kenji Yasuda’s directing kept me glued to the screen.

While the shows premise isn't horribly original, Shugo chara stands out for it’s “heart on it’s sleeve” approach to character development.

Overall Shugo Chara has a very child friendly plot while addressing overlooked themes in most bishoujo.  

Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt

Keeping this one nice and sweet as i’ve already mentioned Hiroyuki Imaishis contribution to the genre with Kill La Kill.

If you want to test your expectation or others of Mahou Shoujo while indulging in some vulgar toilet humor, then Panty and Stocking is worth checking out.

While shows like this may not be everyone's cup of tea, Gainax has definitely cranked out a fantastic parody addressing the more sexual undercurrents usually glossed over in Magical warrior.

You don't see many studios that have the confidence to implement pole dancing into their transformation sequences.

Atsushi Nishigori, Masahiko Otsuka, Yoh Yoshinari- Shit even my girl Sayo Yamamoto is here. With the diversity in staff, you’re bound to find something you like whether its the experimental realism in “Vomiting Point” or a saving private ryan homage with sperm ghosts in “Pulp Addiction”.

As someone who's watched all of Panty and Stocking through in both Japanese and English; I’d highly recommend the dub.

Not only does it help jokes stick but stays really close to the original intent while implementing some Adult Swim level humor.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably be swept away by the shows poppy, powerpuff girl-esc art and Teddyloid’s contributions to the OST, introducing punchy playlist worthy electronica. Just don't listen to it with your mom or anything.

Cardcaptor Sakura

Sakura Kinamoto is your typical fourth grader.

She's outgoing, participates in sports at school and is beloved by her fellow classmates.

One day, when returning from class Sakura hears a strange sound from her father’s study. Investigating the bookshelves, she opens a strange tome containing “Clow Cards”,

a magicians tarot deck imbued with the powers of aspected spirits.

However, with a gust of wind the cards are lost and with the help of the books guardian, Kero- Sakura must recollect the deck and discover her true self.

Cardcaptor Sakura is by far one of the least abrasive gateways into long form Magical Warrior.

I’m 20 episodes into the series and while I know I dont have the free time to watch another 50 I kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddaaaaaaaaa dont careeeeeee?

The scenery is beautiful, pacing is mellow and everybody, whether it be top tier camcorder waifu Tomoyo to the cuckoo lander childhood crush Yukito will find a way to melt your heart.

When others talk about the typicality of magical girls, I find that Sakura presents many unorthodox takes on commonalities to the subgenre.

The show doesn't have transformation sequences, but rather invests its runtime on  inventive fight scenes and dynamic character development.

On the Manga side the series is much more compact read, with about 12 volumes not including the newly announced Clear Card Arc. Mokona and gangs luxurious, carefully laid linework are in the forefront, taking a less hi-scifi approach than their other titles.

When it comes to wholesome, genuine Mahou Shoujo- Cardcaptor Sakura is a great series to snuggle into a blanket and watch with a friend.

Sailor Moon

YOU DON'T NEED A PLOT SYNOPSIS FOR THE DRAGON BALL Z OF MAHOU SHOUJO. IF YOU DO, YOU’RE EITHER LIVING UNDER A ROCK OR TOO YOUNG TO BE ON THIS SITE. FUCK.

Yes, the Dic dub is borderline horrible if you didn't grow up with it and the shows a popular prototype for what we now consider the Magical warrior, which for some is pretty stock. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T FANTASTIC AND WORTH THE BINGE.

As far as Magical Warrior goes, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is a staple introduction to modern Mahou Shoujo.

While early sections of the series do contain buckets of filler, the show makes up for it with a lovable, diverse cast, Beautiful transformations and a fun premise.

Season three alone, Sailor Moon S is arguably one of the best installments in the genre and worth every second of your time as it showcases director Kunihiko Ikuhara, of Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum fame.

The story is nothing too crazy mind you; but if you’re interested in Sailor Moon manga-wise, Naoko Takeuchi’s illustrations are TO DIE FOR, drawn with meticulous detail and colored with a mixture of ink and translucent watercolors.

Look i’ll even make it easier; because I have no life and completed the show six times. A month or so ago I put together a “Abridged Viewing Guide” for people wanting to cut out useless filler so if you’re interested the link will be in the description.

Sailor Moon broke ground in the 90’s for what is now considered a “typical magical girl”. Truly, You would be doing yourself a disservice passing the series up.