#and turn into into the plot of the game

[sadagios]

self indulgent doodle of scarian as characters from a comic i made in 2022 to cheer myself up

[secretmellowblog]

Everyone talks about the tragedy of animated media getting reboots that replace their excellent art direction with uncanny realism —like the Lion King and its “live action” reboot—- but there’s one series that embodies that tragedy better than anything else. And I need to share it with you all because I can’t be the only one Haunted by it day and night. Please let me tell you the Sad, sad story behind this image:

There was an early 2000s video game trilogy called Sly Cooper, whose main appeal was its super unique art direction, style, and atmosphere. The trilogy had a unique tone focused on a cartoon Phantom Thief who did Moody Atmospheric Heists in a comic-book-inspired world.

The trilogy integrated 2D animation into the game for cutscenes, and the characters-- while low-poly-- were designed to look as much like those flat 2D cartoons with cel-shaded outlines as they could within the limitations of the Ps2.

It took heavy influence from comic books and anime, especially Lupin III. The first game even had alternate anime versions of its 2D cutscenes that you could unlock!

Nearly all the levels took place at night, but the designers talked often about how their goal was to create the illusion of night time through vivid color palettes rather than darkness, taking inspiration from the vivid nighttime cityscapes in Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge.

As a result of their stylized art direction, the visuals-- primarily in the second one, which is the one that focuses the most tightly on Thieving & Moody Atmospheric Heists-- still hold up today.

And then Sly Cooper started appearing in “brand crossover games” and “reboots” and Oh god. Oh no. so that's why no one talks about it anymore.

I am haunted by this. People talk about their favorite cartoon character getting hit with the Uncanny Hyper-Detailed Beam and I instantly think of the sad fate of poor, poor sly cooper, who I am very nostalgic for, and his now-dead franchise that hasn't had a new installment in over a decade.

But to me this really emphasizes how strong art direction is far more important than polygon count, realism, or level of detail. Because there have been similar franchises rebooted in ways that manage to elevate the old 2D-inspired art styles with more modern graphics. Toys for Bob's new takes on Spyro and Crash Bandicoot both had stellar art direction!

But that kind of thoughtful art direction can be difficult to achieve. It's not even the fault of the artists or developers; these things are often beyond their control. But I am glad we're in an era where stylized 3D animation is becoming more popular. I hope more creators continue to realize that there is actually a big demand for media with interesting, unique art styles! also you should play sly 2: band of thieves

[sunlight-shunlight]

melinoe hades 2 is such a good protagonist. like the writing is so.... they're not afraid to show her as both a really single-minded, callous, somewhat black and white morality person, as well as showing how she can be kind, or uncertain of herself under the pressure she's under, or a bit silly at times. she's so endearing, and you can FEEL that she's going to have such a neat arc whenever all the set up with the olympians and mortal stuff pays off

the fact that you have to have these arguments with prometheus, where she's just willfully denying that he has a point bc her entire identity is based around never questioning her mission... i love her so much, in conclusion i'm this cat

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Always a bit puzzled by people saying that anyone who wanted long-term consequences for TotK Zelda's sacrifice are "edgy".

I'm not even particularly in the camp that she should have remained a dragon forever (I think this should have been Ganondorf's fate, it would have been sooo much more impactful than to explode him and move on but anyway). To be honest, I wish the rules for turning back would have been 1) clear 2) active gameplay on the player so that it feels like it's something we have earned, and 3) not make her have amnesia about it and/or at least having her gain some crucial insight because of the experience.

(also: doesn't she crave knowledge? isn't that insanely mean to have her watch over every civilization and every bit of history ever and then take it away from her? kind of dislike how totk privileges the comfort of the player's feelings over what the characters would actually want or need tbh)

To be perfectly honest, I fully expected us needing to turn her back before engaging Ganondorf so we would fight him together, especially since Zelda as a compagnon exists in the game code already (though in a very subdued state). It feels very very strange to me that all of this mechanic of Sages following us existing and yet we never have the very climactic cool Zelda-staple moment of facing Ganondorf or Ganon together (OoT, WW, TP, ST and probably more that I'm forgetting all did this in some way --even BotW had Zelda more involved than in TotK). I'm not sure Mineru was a compagnon that was needed over Zelda honestly, especially given the kind of non-insight she gives us on the zonai (even if the idea of the mecha is cool, it really could have been Zelda using her zonai + sheikah knowledge to pilot one for us or something).

But anyway: yeah, even if this isn't what I would have wanted personally, I think wanting Zelda to remain a dragon is kind of arguably more respectful of her relationship to Link, in a way, that what the game ended up doing. When she enacted this sacrifice, Zelda decided to trust him to such a extent that she lost herself, reciprocated his trust in her and his devotion to her, and now the future of Hyrule exists beyond her and beyond what Hyrule once was, but she trusts them to follow through and be happy and she will watch over them from the stars moving on. It's fine if we manage to save her from that fate, but even if we don't, honestly this sounds like a beautiful story/tragic romance to me, if you want to read it that way. Tragedy doesn't necesserily involve edginess. Fictional pain isn't always mean, or out to get you.

[boxheadpaint]

I just need to know is that Cackletta paired with Peach? If so, fascinating, I wish to know more - if not, I entirely understand the coincidence of two people standing next to each other in a dynamic does not equate to them being A Pairing

yeas

Reasoning: funny

[soybean-official]

The parts of you that support me

[spiderh0rse]

remember that the moral of look outside is that blue people live in montreal

[saturnisfallingdown]

please im sooo drunk @ arinaaaa … arinaaaaaaa

[ID: Two pencil sketches of Arina from Game Gyaru. In the first, she’s posed mid-jump with a huge challenging grin on her face. Her hands are in wraps and balled into fists, as if ready to fight. Over her hands, are massive transluscent boxing gloves-style gloves, with three spikes on top to make them look like cat paws. The second sketch is of a chibi Arina in a manga panel, holding up her paw gloves and going “Kitten loves you too, meow!~” Text above her reads “二ヤー” End ID

[mooneriee]

The fact that 'anti-homeless benches' are even in the game sucks, of course, but I'm quite amused that despite Game Freak's best attempts to whitewash/sanitize countries to make them more presentable for the general audience, this got through somehow.

[r7inyz]

finally played this game after hearing about it 3 years ago.. some stuff...yeah

[eyndr-stories]

Last Line Challenge

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote/drew and tag as many people as there were words (or however many you want to tag).

Hi @trees-can-draw!!! Thank you for the tag :] <3 I've been getting back into the Monty centered fic i started writing ages and ages ago dfhkjgfhjf (which is actually why i'm up at , 5am ,, ahem anyways)

"The repairs had gone well, and even with the social nightmare they'd agreed to looming on the horizon, Lark felt a sturdy sort of comfortable feeling deep in their gut that had settled in like a home cooked meal."

I do not know as many people as there are words for this fkjgfhkgf so instead i will shrimply tag @shirajellyfish, @victarin, and @lavenoon (very no pressure tags, feel free to ignore <3)

[malleefies]

'Of deeds done then, both good and ill, of the leadership of Maekar, the actions of Aerion Brightflame, the courage of Maekar’s youngest son…we know well. The pretender Haegon I Blackfyre died in the aftermath of battle, slain treacherously after he had given up his sword.'

I am a staunch supporter of the Aerion-killed-Haegon hc. Very in-character. I can almost hear Maekar groaning in the background.

[mamawasatesttube]

i had a dream about some weird dreamlike connorkyle hurt/comfort scenario........ is my subconscious trying to tell me something here...?

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[utakatadancefloor]

thinking about subtle kai and kanna parallels, and the fact that his attack on miley is the only time kai is ever openly said to look angry

in the first trial, kanna was forced to watch her adoptive older sibling die, was presented the illusion of being able to save her, and had to shoulder a feeling of guilt and accountability for it even though it wasn't her fault — which is exactly what happened with kai and sei in kai's minisode, and probably at about the same age as well. it stands to reason that seeing miley torment kanna and stir up her guilt about kugie's death would make kai so angry.

compounded with a general inclination towards helping and protecting people, i like to think that kai seeing his younger self in kanna was also the motivation behind this scene in ytts where he comforts her when she feels homesick

they're such different characters at a glance that you wouldn't expect them to have so much in common, but i think they really do, hehe

[reddamselette]

just realized while rewatching aot that before i had jean and jeremy, i had jean and armin and i think that says a lot.