#and might even be part of the reason why we haven't gotten any dragons with stuff like turtle shells for the secondary gene yet

[here-there-were-dragons]

judging by the "fixes" they've applied to fern and i'm fairly sure also to a few other genes, they likely intend to flatten and generic-ify EVERY gene that does anything interesting with especially the top feathers portion of the wings. :/

[the-ninjago-historian]

Ninjago Dragons Rising Season Two News! Sets and Plot Info!

HELLO EVERYONE! I have some great info for you guys on the new Dragons Rising Sets and Seasons! I worked REALLY hard on this article, so I hope you all enjoy it. There's a lot to talk about so let's just jump in. Below the cut. SPOILERS!!!

Our Sources for all this info are these two interviews here.

Now, let's get started.

First off, the mechs. The third wave will be for Part Two of Season Two! The mechs have interchangeable parts. So you may mix and match different sets to build your own mechs. The suits in the first wave the Ninjas are wearing are called the mech suits. There are only for when they are specifically in their mechs. They wanted to make sure everyone had a mech suit. So even though Zane doesn't have a mech, he got one anyway. The mechs did best in testing. They aren't as relevant to the story as the other sets.

There is also a short series coming that will showcase Sora building the mechs from the first wave. (It's important to note, that since there is a Cole mech, perhaps we can expect to see him in the shorts.👀) Also, Cole's golem form from the show was based off an early version of this Cole Mech.

I heard people asking why Sora and Arin haven't gotten any new suits yet. This has been addressed. The reason is Sora hasn't gotten a new suit since she's only been present for one wave. This means she might eventually get new variants. On a side note, Arin had a new hood now. Maybe not a full new suit, but hey. It's a start!

Also, there is a new sword Lego piece. So if any of you guys for some reason collect Lego weapons, nows the time to add to your collection. Lol.

And the dragon in the Wyldefyre set is just called a Source Dragon. It's not actually one. This is possibly for marketing. On more thing to remember is that there will be January, March, Summer set wave. So more sets ARE coming.

Now, the villains. Cinder is confirmed to be the new Elemental Master of Smoke! The designers don't know if Cinder is actually Ash. Or what happened to Ash. We can only assume we'll find out in time.

Second, the wolf army and Lord Ras! The wolf army is called the Wolf Clan. Ras's wolf warriors are humans in Wolf Masks. Not werewolves or anthromophic wolves. It is also interesting to note that The people that worked on Chima worked on designing the Wolf Warriors. And the Wolf Mech is based on a scrapped Nexo Knights Malware Wolf model.

Now for Ras, we now know that Ras's Shadow Dojo is located in a place called The Shadow Forest. It's where he uses the BloodMoon's power. The Gong of Shattering is apparently ANOTHER tool Ras uses to power/command his wolf army.

As for this Shadow Forest, the designer stated that the highly anticipated climbing suits will be for when they are climbing in the forest.

Last but no least, we have Egalt. The Master Dragon Not much is said about him other than he will take on a mentor role, much like Master Wu.

For our last topic, we have this very exciting news about Pixal! She has been confirmed by the designer to be returning to the series! Her name is on the storyboards and everything!💜🤍💜🤍💜🤍💜🤍

Well, that's all the news for now! Also, you like this newsletter format, let me know, as I am considering setting up a weekly Ninjago newsletter that will publish either every Wednesday or Sunday.

Bye! - ✒️🐉

[eerna]

ok so its been a couple weeks how do u feel about totk zelink now

(context: here is part 1 of the ask, and also SPOILERS AHEAD!)

For reference, I am currently done with the dragon tears and sages questlines, but still haven't finished the Kogha one. Whatever happens after this point, I have no idea, I'm chilling and doing side quests and leveling up.

There is a difficult line to draw between "this is what the game is saying" and "this is what I am projecting onto it", but to me, this game is about how well Link knows Zelda. BotW was about trying to remember her and why she mattered, and TotK is about trying to figure out her plans and what she was trying to tell you, as she is no longer able to guide you the way she did in BotW. It's listening to what people are saying about her and deciding if it sounds like Zelda or not. It is beautiful, and shows how close the two of them are now! BUT. It would have worked even better if we saw traces of their relationship in the plot. This is a three-pronged feature: 1) In the main quest everyone calls Link "Zelda's swordsman" or "Zelda's chosen protector" and are surprised when they see him without her, but the NPCs STILL don't mention him. The way I almost screamed when I stumbled upon that Lurelin NPC who is like "oh yeah the princess would disguise herself and go on vacation and hike up to the Lover's Pond at sunset!" and I was READY to hear about the person accompanying her. But there was no one. Zelda was alone as far as this guy was concerned. Like pls. 2) Link should have revealed his thoughts on the mystery of Zelda's identity for this theme to work, at least by being the one to figure out the Zelda prancing around Hyrule is an impostor. In fact, the way they didn't try to incorporate the tears quest into the main storyline is pretty disappointing - sorry but Link would NOT just ignore knowing where Zelda is. They should have hidden the last few memories until you're done with the fifth temple to make sure he doesn't look like an idiot. 3) We are STILL in the "Link doesn't react properly to Zelda" era. I'm not even talking about animation, I would have settled for a "Don't look so concerned, we will figure it out!" or a "I know you wish to bring her back right away, but leave the research to me and focus on beating Ganon first!" from Impa at the end of the tears quest. Sure, I choose to interpret his mad dash through Hyrule Castle to get to the sanctum Ganon fight as him completely forgetting any caution or reason in his desperation to get to her, but is that really it? EVERYONE ELSE cares so so much about Zelda as a person instead of a princess, they are constantly talking about her, so Link could have gotten some moments of that too. I'm glad the game stated that Link's duty ended with the Calamity and he CHOSE to stay with Zelda, so it's not that he only cares because he has to, but I wish it was shown outside that one line in a secret diary.

In conclusion, I still stand by my previous claim: Skyward Sword did this same dynamic better, so if I hadn't played that game I might have been elated over this one, but alas. I am still hoping for an earth-shattering emotional moment towards the end of the game that is gonna render all my complaints wrong, I haven't lost hope, but wow my imagination is working overtime to keep me happy

[felassan]

Snippets/speculation etc of interest from Mark Darrah part 2 (in parts due to Tumblr character limits. Part 1 link), from his co-stream of The Game Awards, under a cut due to length:

"[BioWare] did have a trailer just 4 days ago [the new cinematic], it was a trailer that wouldn't have gotten, Geoff would not have put that on TGA, so it was too small for TGA and too big to be [inaudible]". He said it would have been a lot at one time to show the new cinematic on DA Day, Absolution releasing and to be at TGA. On why that video was chosen, he said probably because it was done, or close to done

When another game was announced and gave a date in its announcement during the world premieres, he said "Yeah, see, they're literally dating and announcing at the same time, Dragon Age might be thinking of doing the same thing"

When asked in chat "​does this mean we're getting DA:D in 2024 tops? Not even late 2023?" he said "no, it doesn't mean that, it means they're keeping their options open and they're just planning to spend their money over their summer, like they're just compressing their marketing so they can have a louder campaign, it doesn't mean anything. It means you're not gonna see it [it's not going to release] in the summer [of 2023], but you were never gonna see it in the summer. 'Cause they have one more big beat. They could drop a big trailer at E3, that's June, if they come out in November that's still tons of time. We'll see something from them in the summer, unless something goes horribly wrong they would have to do something in the summer. I still think they're targeting November 2023, like, eleven months from now. They would do it [push to 2024 if they had to], their financial year ends at the end of March, but the reason they would delay it is for quality reasons, EA wouldn't push it for any other reason"

He said "I don't know, but I doubt DA:D will have a multiplayer at all". Chat asked "the mandate from EA to make DA4 MP when you were running it, did you think it would eventually shape up and work, or was it a bad idea from the start?" and he said "it could have worked, but it was the right choice to move away from it. [...] It could have been made to work, there was work yet to be done there and definitely there wasn't perfect alignment on it. [...] The team wasn't really on-board with multiplayer so it would've been uphill. If the team doesn't wanna do it, it's basically a virtual impossibility to get them to do it effectively and make it good"

He doesn't think the temporal gap between DA:I and DA:D matters really, if the game is good, though "you're definitely not building on momentum. It's a standing start, for sure". "2016 was the best time to release another Dragon Age, but after 2016 you largely lost that moment". Mass Effect is going to have the same situation obviously - "there's enough time between them. [though] it can actually work in your favor because you don't have any drag either"

When asked in chat "wonder if BioWare could have afforded to release DA spin offs in between DA:I and DA:D. Heck why not have some other studio make something? Lack of resources?" he said "EA doesn't like spending money"

"RPGs are expensive and they take a long time". "Probably we need to get used to long development times, but I do think the industry knows, we haven't figured out a way out the other side yet. I think the answer is more true sequels and more [asset] reuse, but there is an active [gaming] community backlash against that sort of thing, so". Not reusing assets much between DA games has happened "for stupider reasons than concern about fan backlash" though

"You just have to treat Frostbite with respect. BioWare has not built upon itself [re: Frostbite] as effectively as it could have unfortunately"

When asked in chat "what did the Dragon Age 'finalling team' do in Mass Effect: Andromeda?" he said "lots of things. The DA team helped shipped ME:A, they came up pretty late, helped with triage, helped with bug-fixing, some level, I think one level was made by that team"

The Alpha phase is much later than two years out from release

"I don't know what it's gonna be like playing DA:D [himself], because there will definitely be stuff in there that was there when I was working on it, so it'll be really weird, I think"

He's not covered by any NDA from BioWare about any upcoming news, but he doesn't ask them for things that he wouldn't want to talk about, because otherwise they would stop telling him things

One of his pitches for Joplin was "no DLC and to make another game in 18 months"

Expansions and DLCs are things you can have devs working on while you're waiting for the next franchise to pick them up. When asked in chat "​why were DAI DLCs so short compared to games like The Witcher 3 DLC? Any reason in particular?" he said that the DA DLCs were trying to be more focused, while The Witcher 3 DLCs were stretching up towards expansion packs and CDPR had/has different terminology for things like patch vs DLC vs expansion pack

When asked in chat "has the origin of the Blight plot been modified since DA:O or did the team stick with the original vision?" he said "the idea is always to leave those threads as open as possible so that they can be tied into a lot of different places, so. Broad strokes are still the same, yeah"

"If we don't see DA:D today we won't see it til EA Play or E3, because that would be as late as you could go in date for pre-orders. I doubt we would see anything between now and then, anything like a trailer at least"

Mark and Matthew Goldman were working together on the DA:D teaser trailer from 2018. "More Matt than me, because I was already taking over Anthem at that point". Mark's talked a few times to Matt since he left BioWare. Matt was only on Twitter because of his role in BioWare and is still in game development

For voice acting in DA, Kate Mulgrew became expensive after Orange is the New Black (which released in 2013)

When chat said "I think it would be a bit late to change DA4 based on Absolution's reception" he said "they wouldn't change it based on its reception but they could change their positioning"

When chat said "maybe they want to give some time between showing Absolution and the trailer for DA:D just in case, since new fans may judge DA:D by Absolution" he said "yeah, that's the thing, they might be holding, they might be keeping some powder dry in case, if Absolution stinks they have something to, a palate cleanser. I think that's reasonable thinking"

[source, part 1]

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

Late to the party but making an entrance, Murder Drones Episode 5 is finally out so at long last I can stop with the memes (for now) and share my thoughts on Dragons Rising so far.

Okay, first things first, I'm gonna be 100% honest with y'all: I low-key do not care about any of the new characters. I know, I know, BURN THE HERETIC, I can't really explain it myself. Maybe I'm just too attached to the OGs or haven't gotten to know the newbies well enough yet, but so far all I'm seeing is Average Shonen-Esque Protagonist, Nya 2.0 Catgirl Edition, Cute and Easily Marketable Dog-That-Is-Not-A-Dog, The Only One With A Mildly Interesting Backstory, and a bunch of generic cookie-cutter villains. It's not gonna make me stop watching or anything, it's just that they could all randomly vanish by the next episode and never be brought up ever again and I'd be totally fine with it. Certainly wouldn't be the first time this franchise has completely dropped something out of nowhere and hoped no one would notice.

A'ight, got that out of the way, now to start nitpicking: I don't understand why they're pronouncing Riyu as "Rai-yu." I thought it would've been "Ree-yu," like the dude from Street Fighter, and I'm not gonna say it any other way. And why do they keep trying to convince us that Lloyd had to be trained for years when in reality he mastered Spinjitzu within, like, a month at most? I'm going to assume that either A) He's just blatantly lying to make Arin feel better, because there is literally zero chance that Season Two took place over the course of multiple years, or B) Lloyd himself has absolutely no concept of time and can't even remember that he's, like, an eighteen-year-old in the body of a twenty-three-year-old by this point.

BTW Lloyd please do not try to be like Wu, you of all people should know what being like Wu entails. You're already in the "training child soldiers" phase, you can not go further or else you are going to hit the "keeping way too many things to yourself" stage and you know what always happened when Wu didn't tell anybody jack squat until it was too late. Heck, there is still a very real possibility that the Merge wouldn't have happened in the first place if he'd just been like "hey so all the Realms might start trying to fuse together soon and as per usual you're the only ones with a chance at stopping it" instead of sticking to his "The Apocalypse™ is coming for like the seventh time and all I'm gonna do about it is be needlessly vague and cryptic for no real reason" schtick.

They should not have given Ras and Rapton such similar names, I'm going to inevitably mix them up. Also Rapton you will never be Iron Baron. I never thought I'd say anything positive about Iron Baron but I could actually tolerate him, whereas I just wanna see Rapton get run over by a bus. And not even in a cathartic "I want she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household to be brutally murdered onscreen in such a horrific and violent manner that it'd never be allowed anywhere if they weren't Legos" way, just in the most apathetic "please remove this character from existence" way you can imagine.

I'll give them this, tho, the show itself is gorgeous to look at, and the concept is pretty nifty. And while I may not be completely in love with Sora and Arin, I'm still glad they didn't go the braindead babymode easy route of making the "next gen" series revolve around the OG Ninja's kids (even if it is mostly because it completely avoids the possibility of being forced to endure the timeline where Lloyd actually thought getting with she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household was a good idea). I'm definitely gonna stay tuned for Part Two, even if I'm admittedly not the biggest fan of what we've got so far. Hopefully it's all uphill from here.

(More spoiler-y stuff under the cut)

Wow I can't believe they somehow managed to make a Cloud Kingdom character more punchable than Fenwick. The scrollworms are pretty cute, tho. Also, uh, Euthanasia or whatever your name was, Morro would like to know your location.

DING DONG, THE WU IS DEAD! BAGELS FOR EVERYONE!

So on the one hand it seems like we might be getting slightly more focus on Lloyd's dragon side this time around, but on the other hand we've already had multiple instances where it could've been brought up but just wasn't, which could mean that it's all just more of the same token Chosen One™ nonsense we're used to and this post got hit by Quanish's dodgeball of prophecy. (Seriously, surely at least one of the super-mega-ultra-powerful Source Dragons should've been like "Kid what is wrong with your blood," right?)

But, on the chance that the former is the case...

What if the Imperium finds out about it and decides the weird little Oni-dragon-human grandson of literal God is a far more valuable prize?

Also this is how we can still get Garmadon's dragon half to show up please I am begging on my hands and knees

[autumn-foxfire]

I've had an absolute blast playing Tears of the Kingdom, really I have. I've spent the past couple of days in game just farming for materials and I haven't gotten bored. However I do have a big complaint with the game:

With the storyline it had, it should have been linear. Before people jump at my throat about how that would take away the charm and gameplay of TOTK, I know, but that doesn't mean I'm not aware how much the story suffered from it.

Spoilers going ahead!

Like in BOTW, Link is tasked with going to the four corners of Hyrule and meeting with the people both to help them with their issues and to find Zelda. This part of the game isn't the issue I have a problem as such with but it does lead to one that I do:

The Dragon Tears.

We're guided to go to Rito first (though that is very much a personal choice that not everyone followed) and the path to Rito you encounter a geoglyphs and Impa who is investigating them.

The Dragon Tears quest is basically a similar mechanic to the photos from the first game: they give Link a memory of Zelda, though in this case it's not Link's memories but Zelda's memories, specifically of her being in the past

Moving on from that now, as we explore each domain/city, we get in game hints with Zelda too: specifically with her being extremely suspicious and potentially causing harm to Hyrule. After completing each domain/city, they also learn that (and you if you had not done any of the geoglyths), Zelda appeared in the past.

This leads the characters in the game to wonder if the Zelda they have been seeing is the same Zelda as the person they see from the memories of the past.

So what is my issue with the The Dragon Tears? Well they reveal two pieces of important information that should affect how Link handles the domains/cities he hasn't gone too yet: One is that Ganondorf has created a puppet of Zelda before to do his bidding. Two is that Zelda makes a huge sacrifice that basically erases her as a person.

How is this an issue?

Well, Link never tells people he saw that Zelda made this sacrifice beyond Impa who was investigating the Geoglyphs and two he allows himself to fall into a trap in Hyrule castle with Zelda and the game acts like he fell for Ganon's puppet when he should know that it was a fake (as he knows that the Zelda he knew no longer exists).

I also have an issue with Link's reaction to Zelda's sacrifice (or really a lack of a strong one considering Zelda is supposed to be such an important person to him) but that's another issue.

It makes the game lose the shock factor it was trying to go for with the reveal. In fact, at that point of the game we should be asking ourselves "what happened to our Zelda" and then that's when I believe that the Dragon Tears should fall to Hyrule and create the Geoglyphs, instead of being available from the start.

Instead it just rolls over to "where is the 5th sage and maybe they can reveal what Link already knows at this point but isn't sharing for some reason!". Which you can actually get before you even get the other sages too so that makes the game lose some more of its draw and tension because again you might already know as Minaru hints at it (my brother did so).

BOTW worked so well because the game didn't require you to do a specific order to experience the game to it's best potential. Even with the memories, if you got them out of order, the purpose was to share Zelda and Link's past and character before the fall of Hyrule.

In TOTK, the memories are used to reveal what happened to Zelda in the past. It turns it into a mystery that you want to unveil however with the choose your own route you get in BOTW, it ruins some of the experience with the main quest because the mystery in those quests are already ruined if you do the Geoglyphs first.

It also makes you wonder why Link isn't telling anyone. These people are supposed to be his friends, people who he trusts his life with, who are helping him find Zelda. But he stays silent that he knows what happened even though they could put their heads together to see if they can reverse what happened to her? It just doesn't make sense and it definitely made me feel that Link didn't even really care. This plotline could have definitely been handled better in game to get the max engagement and enjoyment from the user. It's still a great game but I definitely have some major grieviences about it.

[popculturebuffet]

Theevan Review (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

It's been a long year. While we're almost at the end and film has never been better, a combination of Disney being homophobic, warner bros burning the house down, and the worry the republicans would hyjack the goverment (they haven't.. for now).. it's been a LOT. I"m fairly exausted coming out of it and I STILL have a month to go. It has not been great. So naturally finding out what Emma intended for my patreon review, the Looney Tunes Special carnival of the animals, gave me almost nothing to work with wasn't great. Thankfully Emma, one of my patreons and closest friends, is a VERY understanding person, so she was fine with switching and since we were well past thanksgiving, that mean ti twas a free for all.. and that meant I got Theevan instead. And boy was this a nice early christmas present. Theevan... is what was as far as I can tell a student project done in blender by Indian Animated Danan Thiakanathan about ten years ago, that he turned from a student film into a full film in 1 and a half years. And that's part of the problem: that's a fairly short time for an indie animation, and it's clear Danan was so eager to get the film out. .he didn't really beta test it enough. As such it is one of the most memetically jank peices of animation out there: characters move their arms weird like their being posed, theevan's mom I guess meena has hair that looks like she hsaved all but a few strands off and never flows right, and theevan himself has expressions that look like an alien is going to burst from him and reveal it's true form any moment. It's not great and while I can't falt Danan's inexperince, I can fault him for getting a bit too eager. Trust me I know what it's like to want to get your project done now and some reviews i've regretted because I sent them out too soon or didn't have the time. It's why when you have al lthe time you need you should treasure it, use it well and use it wisely. That said even if Theevan was beauitfully animated... it's still a fairly simple story of a child who looks about 34 going on a quest to revive his mom after she leaves on "the ship" which I thought was you know going to be a metaphor for death or something but is an actual ship.. only for a dragon to kill it. Except the dragon might be her? Oh and he gets mugged by goblins because why not, meets a giant dragon being that looks like him, the dragon who may be his mom is killed, he get shis wish.. then falls off a cliff and falls into the water opening some kind of egg. My exact reaction

I didn't even mention the paper mache dragon he just flies around on. I get this was a university project.. but even for an experimental film it's pretty nonsensical. It's just kinda danan doing random shit. It's why THIS was hard to review too:

It was a fun bunch of stuff. I haven't gotten to bring it up a ton but I fucking love goblins so if you give me a bunch of goblins mugging a bald 12 year old whose clearly going through a big type situation for no reason, i'm going to love it. And honestly I can't mock the guys passion. I love animation, and love reviewing it and while critisims of "well then make your own thing then" don't hold weight with me, I can respect someone going out and doing it. Theevan may be weird, it may be majestic, but this man went out, made his vision, and put it out with no fear or shame. It's what makes the best so bad it's good stuff to me: when the creator isn't doing it to make it bad on purpose, or isn't a dick, but simply has genuine passion, heart and dedication. Theevan is a mess. I could barely make this much sense of it.. but it made me smile in a year where this medium's been in deep shit and my anxiety and workload has been getting to me. And that.. that's worth something.

[astrowonder98]

Turning 25, and about time for a quarter-life crisis.

What a mess social media has found itself in. Facebook and Twitter are either seen as a joke or in disrepair, Places like DeviantART want to experiment with AI art and it has hindered the site, and no one is in a prime position to take over and be the new place we can all hang out. The internet is going though a major painful metamorphosis and I am not sure how to feel about it... cause who the heck knows the result? Not me!

It's probably a fitting time as ever. This month will mark the big 25 (specifically July 7th, give Ringo Starr my birthday cheer, too.) and I have been doing a lot of thinking in my life about what I want to do and how I can do it while still being able to survive. And the honest to goodness fact is that I haven't come up with any answers, at least not any good answers that I can work with.

I'm going to try and make my thoughts on what is going on with me as simple as possible.

I've worked in the same dead end part-time job for the past two years. It's above minimum wage, sure, but it's not a living wage either. It's also a highly physical job. Most of the time I'm in the parking lot outside. In the burning sun. Lifting heavy objects and pushing carts. Despite it being part-time, I feel wiped out after the fact and not want to do anything else. This has frustrated people who wonder why this can possibly happen (my workplace and a couple of my close family.) The only reason I am still here at this point is because I need the healthcare.

In spite of a degree in Computer Science, virtually every application sent with using it in mind has never been acted upon, not even getting to the interview phase. Just rejected. What's ironic is that applications sent to other retail places have gotten quick responses back. People look at my resume with my degree and see more readily a sales representative than a software developer and it doesn't make me feel great...

All of this culminates in coming back home without feeling a thing. Completely emotionless. I'm in therapy for this, but it's been a slow progress to get to this point. And unless I do something drastic I might be stuck in a loop for a while longer, which stinks.

It was a mistake thinking that making art and creating stuff for people to enjoy would do anything to change that and hoping, somehow, it could turn into an actual career. I really held out hope in this avenue but have now reached a conclusion that it will just be nothing more than a hobby I do on the side. The fact that any original material (Always Lagging Behind, Rocket Board, and other original character art) I've created has gotten less attention and praise than fanart does not help in me reaching this conclusion (especially with my involvement in Pokemon Mystery Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Heroes.)

By extension, I accidentally made things I like to do for fun or should be relaxing as work I must do, and that's just not good for my mind, let alone anyone's mind. It's probably why I don't feel happy when trying to relax and try to enjoy things, but it also might be more complicated than that...

All of this has made me reach this conclusion: I need to make a change immediately. There are a number of things I'll be doing, but here are three things that are relevant to the internet world specifically:

Howie's Convenience - Clean Up After Yourself! will continue as I planned before making this... post? monologue? snapping point? I'll let you pick. I will pick the voices for the characters in late July, record with the cast, and then animate the thing whenever I get a chance to do so when I'm not doing whatever I can do get myself out of this hole I dug.

I'm now only going to use social media to post things I want to post. That's it. No looking at what everyone else is doing and liking and sharing.

Twitter and YouTube are now considered cold turkeys. YouTube will only be used for when I'm uploading something to the site. My Twitter accounts will just not be used altogether and will be closed July 31st.

I know those of you who care about what I do might find it very sudden. It honestly is. I have a bad habit of putting things off on most days and then somehow finding the will in me to actually make a drastic step to change my life. With how I worded some of this stuff, you might come to the conclusion that I hate my audience or other people for just liking what they do and they don't match up with what I want them to like. I do not. I hate myself for even wanting to humor that notion. It's not my fault people just have different tastes and likes. It just means I should just keep drawing what I like in that moment and be proud of what I make.

I'll keep posting here on Tumblr to keep you updated on that Howie's Convenience project I've only just now told you about on this site (another bad habit) but for the most part, consider this post as me acknowledging the mistakes I've made and doing what I can to get out of it.

I'll be seeing you around.

Erin Strouder (HeyStrouder/AstroWonder98)

[ashes-writing-corner]

Life update

Aka life sucks and I hate it

Tw for dark/suicidal thoughts (don't worry I haven't and will not do anything)

I'm trying so fucking hard to try and do better for myself. I've dedicated myself to a writing project, and one that I love, and I'm not getting anything for it. I don't know what to do for it. I get nothing. I get no likes. No reblogs. No followers. I actually lost one...out of SIX! Five followers on my writing blog and that's it.

I'm gonna try and keep things as organized here as I can because I am really damn emotional right now. I have had some really dark thoughts this morning and I don't know what to do.

For folks who don't know, I work at build a bear as my primary job. And I love it. I absolutely love it. It's been a big part of helping heal from some pretty bad stuff. The problem is I don't get a lot of hours. I get paid more than what I did when I was working fast food, but I don't work as much. I'm pretty sure you can see how this is a problem.

This is part of the reason why I started a patreon. I eventually do want to make writing content my full time job. I know it's not easy. And maybe I'm being a little hasty and expecting too much too fast, but I am in a pretty serious financial bind. I have a phone bill due, I have to put money on my bus pass so that I can continue to go to work. I also have a bearded dragon who I still need to get food and supplies for (no matter what he comes first. Mostly food. Little man eats better than I do). All the while I am struggling to feed myself and struggling to help my mom and my sister with bills. My mom's boyfriend is an abusive prick who barely does anything for her. He brings junk food to the table and that's about it.

I earn so little now that I practically can't even afford to put money away. I put any spare change I have away in a lock box so I can turn it in at the end of the month. But it's all getting to be too much.

And today it's just really hitting really hard. I can't get a second job because I can't handle two jobs that I can't control at the same time. I can write whenever I want so thats why I can handle juggling my job and this.

I thought when I moved my life up here to the north that I would get far more support. And it would seem so to anyone on the outside looking in. But since I announced my patreon launch, no one has supported me. No one has asked me how my writing is going. No one has asked me anything and barely given me any encouragement. I feel like no one actually cares. I feel like no one gives a damn except to make themselves look/feel good. And that sucks beyond words. It makes me feel used if I'm being honest.

My situation has actually gotten so bad that I seriously considered this morning trying to find a way to end it all. My parents down south hate me. My older sister doesn't speak to me even to check on me. And I thought that it was okay, that I didn't need them. I have my biomom and my sister up here and we help each other but it's just...not enough. I just feel very dark about everything right now. I'm not gonna do anything crazy, I don't have a means to and right now I'm just sad and feeling worthless and like I'm putting all this work in for nothing.

Essentially I'm working on two books at the same time. In addition to In the Heart of Winter, which I post here, I'm also posting lore on my patreon for my story to sort of help fill in the blanks for things I might not get around to in the story. And it's a lot of work. In addition, I also make the collages at the beginning of each new chapter, and I post those to my Instagram. Basically the only things I post there. I just...I feel like I'm doing all of this for nothing. And a part of me is wondering why the hell I'm even bothering.

And I tell that part of myself that I'm doing it because I want to. Because this is my dream. And dreams aren't easy. They're hard work and dedication. Even though I feel like my world is crashing down around me, I can't give up. I won't. It's not easy, but I've never needed easy. All I need right now is possible and that's what I'm going for.

If you can, if you read this far thanks, but if you can, please, please donate to my patreon, it's in my pinned post, and please follow my Instagram. Should also be linked or at least it's got the same name as my blog here. When/if I make a YouTube channel, I intend to link that too. I feel pathetic for this but I really feel like I don't have a choice.

Thank you

[enchantedscribblings]

I recently finished reading Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria and let me tell you it was a ride

Spoilers and thoughts under the cut. My thoughts are very scattered and I apologize

For one my favorite character didn't die which is weird. Kudos to you, Newt. You made it. RIP to Cassa tho. It was hard being sad over her death because I was too in shock that it wasn't Newt

For context my favorite character always dies. Always. If anyone dies its gonna be my favorite one. This is probably the first time that rule was broken, ever. I have a post on my main blog talking about this for a show I watched recently.

Anyway so this book's concept of prophecies running your life is very good. I don't know why I referred to it as a concept. It's already a thing on real life. Just consider christianity and the contents of the book of revelation. They have cryptic stuff talking about a 7 headed dragon and the antichrist which have been used to jump to horrible conclusions. The concept of people in power hoarding those who have the capability to divine such futures is a fantastic display of the lengths that corrupt people will go to in order to remain in power.

I also kind of love that the heroes didn't get their full victory in the end. Sure, they managed to get rid of the council, but it wasn't in the badass rebellion way they were trying for. Instead they killed the last seer and got the council abolished in a legal way. Ansel Dane killed it with his little coup. They definitely completed their goal, but it wasn't in a way that I expected, and I really appreciate the deviation from the norm there.

I really enjoyed the characters. I've already said that my favorite is Newt, but I haven't talked about the rest of them. Usually when I like characters I can't really voice into words why I like them, but I'll try my best here.

First we have Evander. He's simultaneously confident and cautious. He's the most likely to follow Cassa's leadership, but he's not reckless with it. He follows because he believes in what they're doing. I truly believe if he didn't that he wouldn't be with them, even though people he cares about are doing the stupid things. I relate to his independence and his desire to help his friends and city.

Next we have Alys. She's clever and level headed even though she doesn't have a lot of faith in her abilities. She believes in her cause because, like her brother, she's seen first hand what the council will do to quell any and all rebellion. Every group needs the brains and she fills that role beautifully. I envy her wits. Additionally she's the ace representation that was the reason I initially considered reading this book, and she was so well written.

Third, we have Vesper. I love that she's not afraid to do what she thinks is right, even if it might hurt the people she loves the most. She cares so much that she is willing to walk alone to help her friends and the city she's called home since she was a child. Vesper wasn't portrayed as the smart person in the group but she's so incredibly intelligent. She managed to keep her powers secret while working for the council for fucks sake. If you don't think she's smart and unbelievably cool then you're wrong. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. (Also she gave me vibes that she should have gotten with/had a past with Cassa, and I'm sad it didn't happen). Vesper is probably my second favorite from this story

Fourth is Chancellor Ansel Dane. His tragic backstory is part of what made me like him so much. He comes off as curt and uncaring, but then you get to see what his past looks like and you understand that he's putting on a front of sorts with the council. That he took his own bad experiences and let them open his eyes to problems around him. I genuinely believe he's a very caring person, who was hindered by the council. If he didn't have them (like what he set up at the end) then I believe he wouldn't have ordered the massacre of the rebellion and that he would've put a stop to Solan Tavish much sooner.

Fifth is Solan Tavish. He's an excellent example of what happens when you have someone with power with no one to answer to. Luckily for the characters he never got to unleash his power, but they knew what he would do if that happened.

Coming in sixth we have Newt. He's sweet, clever, and he has a desire to help the people of his city and free them from the council, even if it means going against his own father. He gave me blorbo vibes from the second he was introduced and his desire to be better for the rebellion and Eldra than his father was resonated with me. I also find his flexibility and ability to pop his joints out to be pretty cool.

Last but not least comes Cassa. Full disclosure here, I found her annoying in the beginning. I found her cockiness and 'im the leader' mindset kind of annoying at the beginning of the book. As the story progressed, she began to think a little more for herself rather than following her parents' ideals blindly. She began to actually believe in the prophecies and the power of those with the blood of the Slain God, even though she still didn't believe in the deity. By the end of the book Cassa became a character that I grew to like.

I really enjoyed the world building that went into the religion of Eldra and the background on why certain people had abilities. I loved the skepticism from some people on whether or not the Slain God was ever real. However, I wish that we got to know more about the world that Eldra was a part of. It was mentioned briefly a few times when we were told that Eldra was isolated from them, but I wish we knew some stuff about it. Where has the best drinks? What's the weather like everywhere else? What are the people like? Do they have their own religion now that they've turned their back on the religion of the Slain God? I have so many curiosities about the people out there.

If Destiny Soria ever wrote a sequel to the book, or even another book that takes place in the same world, I'd love to read it. Especially if it features the world outside of Eldra.

I'm rating this book 8/10. The world building and the characters were fantastic (I especially enjoyed the queer characters and the poc representation), but it wasn't as action packed in the climax as it could have been. Overall this was a fantastic book, and I'm adding Destiny Soria's other book, Iron Cast, to my reading list.

[siren-virus]

ok, It's been a long while since I've sent an ask, and though that can be atributed to life being life, that can only go so far and these previeous 3 days I've been lazing around mostly XD So, in order to compensate, here's the asks for Free and SWUP that have entered my brain and I haven't filtered out yet that I'll send you. Answer as you see fit for I might send repeated questions or some that have already been aswered before in another form.

For SWUP, would SWUP (Does she have another name? I can't remember) ever try a work somewhere? She has to get money somehow if she wants to be able to buy food, clothes, a home, and pay for all the medical expences she might have to go through. What other friends would she have other than wine aunt and coffee barista? I remember you said there might be a third one who's not really relevant, but whos father is, and you were still unsure on wether to include them or not. Also, the humans in this Earth, how much do they know about aliens? The Unicorns and Dragons? I imagine that considering the amount of damage they can do when they fight, and considering that apparently their experiments on abducted humans that they leave on Earth for like a month before taking them forever, would make them fairly known, and have something like a world agency looking out for different cases or something, however succesful they actually are.

Now onto Free, Is there any chance that we could get to know of any of the friends that the rag-tag group would make along the way of the travels? Like, there HAS to be someone who they befriend without any shennanigans involved at the very least, or with minimal ammount of them, just as there HAS to be a friend made after a disaster of cataclismic proportions happens that inebitably onvolves the found family. Also, how long was Leo outside on his own before bird friend (forgot his name) found him and started to get them back to the Domes? Considering that they have a long adventure, I imagine that he spent at least a month outside without an idea of any direction he was going, and getting lost along the way because of course he gets lost, before he was found. Would the team find anyone else who was part of the Domes but left of their own volition too? Another traveler similar to Leo, but that doesn't want to return to those places for X or Y reason? Would there be anyone from the Domes that they meet that DIDN'T want to leave the Domes in the first place but got out regardless? This could be for whatever reason, from kidnapping to exhile to attack to the Dome to simply escaping from a bad situation.

oop sorry for taking a bit to get back to you,

youre questions make me realise how under developed my stories are wheeezee so i rlly appreciate your questions!!

SWUP aka Vicky her human alias. or I guess the unicorn is the alias. AH SHIT I DIDNT EVEN THINK OF THAT!! Originally when i made SWUP she was supposed to be in high school. But as i grow I also like my characters to grow with me. Maybe I'll get her a job as one of them gym buddies (it has to be a job that allows for some form of freedom, enough to like be able to do th vigialnte thing- (i forget the name) Medical expenses aren't too bad, I'm basing it off aus medical- which means medicare! Plus she doesn't need the hospital all that often, she can regenerate.

In terms of friends she doesn't have many not because she socially inept (like myself)- she was very popular in highschool, but there isn't many people she can relate to. Her best friend James (pending name) comic book nerd that loves super heroes is all she's got. And some gym bros, but they're just friends at the gym, outside complete strangers. I really do want James to be relevant to the plot and not his dad and daddy issues, but he's a bit hard to squeeze in. Maybe if I sat down to actually do some writing, maybe--- ALAS I am but a creature of laziness, and poor attention span. (im barely focusing on Flee atm and I rlly wanna try developing GECKO again fml)

Humans know little to nothing about aliens (excpet for like the government and so wackos who a really into scifi) So even though SWUP is doing her best to help ppl, she's seen as a horrifying villain that is stage one to an alien invasion. (the scifi wackos play a part in that.) Although most Police officers appreciate the help... most.

Suprisingly no, most humans who were mutated into unicorns almost seem to disappear, SWUP is an exception. Why is that hmmmmmmmm? this is kind of a big moment, if I ever plan to push this idea to the webcomic/animation stage, youll see.

There's not really an official .org agency or anything like that, but some wackos who love space, and an actual scientist or 2. So far they have deducted that unicorns are evil space creatures who prey on humans and consume their flesh to get stronger so they can lay eggs and take over the world. There's not a lot of truth to that. Some parts tho... but which part? At the moment I'm really into mystery- so maybe I'll add some mystery elements, or I'll give it to GECKO. first i gotta redesign Mac, poor lad is not a looker I'l tell you that.

FLEE I barely know their friends either- haven't gone about developing them. HOWEVER. I do have a villain in mind. I remember making him for my illustration class back in uni (sigh uni days...) I dom't have a name, but I have a face. He's a big leader of this village known for killing the hybrid/mutants. He and his crew, a rag-tag gun loving, truck driving, share-a-brain-cell, lot. How they've managed to become successful hunter bunch is unknown.

But one the friends I have developed enough is Bolt, who also comes with their own shennanigans and an old rusty bus. Techincally they don't need it because they're fast as fuck, but it helps to have around incase you get a goliath sand bobbit on your hands.

Tristian is the human, Leo is the bird friend. Actually Trisitian was out on his own for three days, he didn't cover much ground when he finally met Leo either- dumbass didn't bring enough food and water to last. He didn't even have a plan, just wanted to go out. The only reason Leo didn't send his ass running home was because something- or someone- pushed them far. far away. Oh my who could it be?

Tristians kind of a rarity, not many people leave the domes unless it's through underground passageways to other domes. Most people are blissfully unaware of the outside world. Not to say Tristians the only one who escaped, but he's the only one who's survived outside for so long. (dome people don't have any survival skills) The only reason Tristians gotten so far is dumb lucks and a hot headed bird friend.

[kuriboo]

Hey I haven't really cared about Hunter x Hunter for a few years now but I just saw your Leorio for President post and like. What???? The fuck??????????

i don’t think i’m super far into this arc. i’ve never read the manga or watched the other anime, my brother and i are watching the dub on toonami as it airs (we dvr and watch a fair amount of toonami) (he has read a good portion of hunterxhunter though, and knows some things that are coming that i haven’t seen yet. he hasn’t really spoiled me on anything.) so because of that there might be more to this whole leorio for president thing that i haven’t gotten to yet. so this might be an incomplete explanation. but i’ll do my best. i’m not sure what you haven’t or have seen but i’ll try to be thorough on the relevant facts

probably some of your confusion on that is sometimes when i’m talking about the plot for a show or a game i get kinda shitposty about it and refer to certain things as something else. like. i called killua’s one sibling shenron from dragon ball z, but that character isn’t actually shenron from dragon ball z. which is fun for me. but for people who read/hear me talk like this and don’t have the full context of what’s going on, that can be confusing, i’m sure. i apologize.

so way back in hunterxhunter, like, gon’s whole thing is he wants to meet his dad. that’s why he becomes a hunter. and along the way meets good friends kurapika and leorio and killua. that’s the cast of main characters i meant whenever i refer to “our group of main characters”. kurapika and leorio are kinda in and out. kurapika’s busy trying to get revenge for his clan’s death or something like that, and he’s still a main character but disappears for long periods of time (which, he’s not really around in the “leorio for president” arc or the arc before, the chimera ant arc). leorio’s studying to be a doctor so he’s kinda in and out too but i think has been showing up more often than kurapika. killua’s like “i only came here to make a friend and i made a friend so i’ll just hang out with gon” and gon wants to find his dad so killua has been hanging out with gon and helping gon find his dad. the states of these characters in the leorio for president post is: leorio’s sticking kinda around gon (which i’ll get into more detail about in a bit), kurapika’s probably doing something, and killua went home and is on his way back from being home to help gon with something (which will get some more detail).

gon and killua ended up playing this game called greed island because it would maybe help them find gon’s dad, ging. they won the game or whatever and got a way to meet gon’s dad in the form of a transportation spell that would send them to wherever ging is now (which is a mechanic of that game they were allowed to take outside the game). but because ging is an asshole who apparently doesn’t want anything to do with his son, he made it so the spell would instead them to this guy named kite, who ging knew awhile ago. and gon and killua ended up hanging out with kite for awhile which got them involved with the chimera ants.

the chimera ants arc is this big whole long thing but i’ll try to just stick to stuff strictly relevant to leorio for president. neither kurapika nor leorio really do anything here either. but. the chimera ants were these super dangerous bugs that got really powerful, ate people, and wanted to kill a bunch of people, which was like, super bad. gon and killua got involved through this whole thing through kite, who was researching the ants when they met him. the whole ant thing gets so dangerous and crazy though that more powerful hunters and people in general get sent down to deal with them. this includes the chairman of the hunter organization. if you’ve seen anything of the chairman from when the gang was taking the hunter examination thing, it’s the same guy. really old super powerful guy. as part of the effort to stop the chimera ants, the chairman nuked the chimera ants’ leader. literally nuked. but the chairman had had the nuke implanted inside of him so he could set it off so this killed the chairman, too. the chairman of the hunter organization is dead, so we need a new chairman! so it’s time for an election! that’s what the chairman wanted to decide the new chairman, which he let everyone know in a video he made for if he died.

at the same time, gon, killua, and kite were also fighting the chimera ants so. there’s a point where the three of them were fighting them but kite let himself get captured to save the other two. the chimera ants then killed him and turned him into some kind of puppet thing to fight people. once they stopped using him as a puppet he was dead. i’m not really sure how kite got turned into a small child? i don’t think anyone in the show knows how that happened at this point. but gon was super pissed about this because of what they did to kite, and how they were only able to capture kite and do that because kite was protecting him. so gon was like, yeah, the chimera ant who specifically grabbed kite and did this? i’m gonna kill ‘em. that ant was one of the really powerful ones. so gon ended up doing something that made him extremely powerful, something strong enough to make him able to defeat that ant, but at the extent of i believe his own lifespan? or maybe just his life in general? but either way doing that super destroyed him. gon’s been liking barely clinging onto life in a hospital since, super unconscious, and no one’s been able to do anything yet. killua’s sibling alluka has the ability to grant wishes, with a large set of rules and consequences involved. so killua wants alluka to use that wish power to help gon get back to normal. but because of the consequences + rules involved, killua’s older brother is pretty sure that that a lot of people are going to die, including killua, himself (killua’s older brother), and hisoka (because hisoka is friends with killua’s older brother, kinda). so there’s a lot of stuff going on with killua trying to get alluka to the hospital to help save gon but other people being like, nope! so that’s the gon situation that i kinda referenced a couple of times.

back to the election, though.

the chairman of the hunter organization is dead, so they need a new one. so it’s time for an election, because that’s what the chairman wanted. there’s a group of people in the organization called the zodiacs who are pretty high up and are helping to run the whole thing. gon’s dad, ging, is one of the zodiacs. he’s kinda helping the whole thing. some of them are candidates to be the next chairman, some of them not really. but as far as the election goes. every hunter can vote, and every hunter can be considered. you can vote for anyone. but for the results to be counted, a certain percentage of hunters need to vote. once that percentage is reached, the winner of the election needs to have a certain percentage of the votes. if not enough people vote, the whole vote is redone. if the winner doesn’t get enough votes, the votes are redone, but now you can only vote for the top however many people that got votes from the previous election. so you get a lot of people who are voting for some really popular powerful well-known hunters. and then there’s a few characters like gon getting a couple of votes for some reason. two people voted for hisoka once.

ging is apparently universally a piece of shit. not just like not spending time with his own son even when his son might be dying. no one likes ging. leorio, after the chimera ant arc, is back because gon’s in the hospital! holy fuck!! and he’s really pissed! and trying to figure out what happened and what’s going on. he’s stressed. which is understandable. since ging, gon’s actual dad, has nothing to do with him, leorio and kurapika might as well be gon’s dads at this point. leorio cares a lot and just wants gon to be okay and also know what the fuck happened and why certain people aren’t here at the hospital when gon is not well. so he figures out ging is going to be at this public event and bitches him out and punches him and everyone loves it. because ging refuses to go see gon even when leorio confronts him about it. and everyone hates ging.

this happened after a few votes where not enough people voted for the results to count. the next vote after this happened, enough people voted. implying that leorio’s brutal takedown of ging inspired a lot more people to vote. the person with the most votes didn’t get enough of a majority to win, so now people can only vote for the top 16 people. ging just barely squeezed himself in there but i’m pretty sure he also doesn’t care about winning or not winning, so that’s whatever. gon just barely got less points than his dad but i’m still losing my mind that people are voting for gon at all. he’s in the hospital. he’s unconscious. but the thing is, leorio got the third most votes in the election for chairman of the hunter organization. leorio i don’t think really got any votes before that. he’s super unknown. he’s only there because of gon. so people hate ging so much and were so glad to see leorio just brutally take ging down, that they voted for leorio. leorio got in 3rd place, which is in the top 16, which means he’s still in the running to become the chairman for the next vote that takes place. he’s a lot more popular than ging and is currently more popular than a lot of hunters who have been around, doing things, for quite awhile. leorio’s been a hunter for like....a year or so maybe in the show now? he’s not trying to run any kind of campaign. he’s just trying to become a doctor and be there for his friend in the hospital and do what he can to help. leorio probably doesn’t even want to be the next chairman. but he’s gotten a lot of votes and support for it, it seems. killua watched the video of leorio punching ging on loop and sat in his car like “holy shit this is incredible”. killua still hasn’t voted in any of these votes he’s very busy right now.

but anyway, yeah. leorio might become the next chairman of the hunter organization and i far one am all for it.