#and if it does its the best thing to come out of the franchise besides the computer game for the second book

[httplilyyy]

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 || 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑

pairing: tara carpenter x reader

summary: after a violent night involving ghostface, feelings rise to the surface.

warnings: blood, descriptions of violence, knives, guns, character death, swearing, bad writing

word count: 3.5k

a/n: this is my first fic for tara and the scream franchise so i hope its up to standards and that you’ll like it :)

scream masterlist

If somebody was to tell you a year a go this is where you would be, you would’ve laughed in their faces. Yet here you were, sitting in the back of a car with your best friend, Tara, beside you, frantically looking for her inhaler.

You had known the Carpenters for your whole life, living next door to them came with pros and cons but you couldn’t have been more grateful for the friendship that had formed between you and Tara.

However, it was only as of lately, you had started to grow feelings for the younger Carpenter. Yet you decided it was best to bury those feelings, even if it hurt you in the process.

You were falling in love and you were falling fast. Whilst you were so caught up in your own thoughts you missed the way that Tara looked at you. Her inhaler was long forgotten, only the thought of you was on her mind.

Sam made Richie drive to Amber’s house to see if she had Tara’s spare inhaler and she noticed the two of you were very quiet in the back.

The both of you were pining over each other, however, the only thing stopping the two of you from telling your true feelings to each other was the fact that you were best friends. As well as a certain murderer trying to kill Tara and Sam.

You weren't actually sure when it all went wrong. How you went from getting Tara’s spare inhaler to you being chased through Stu Macher’s old house, trying to escape Ghostface.

Sprinting up the stairs, you found a room and made a beeline for it. After managing to close the door just in time you pushed a dresser in front of it, making sure that no one could get in.

You grunt as you let your back hit the wall, sliding down it until you come to a stop when you meet the floor. Your tense body goes limp as you sit there, heavy breaths falling from your lips.

Finally managing to catch your breath for only a second, when you heard grunting coming from a closet. Heart rate increasing at the possibilities, you cautiously got up from the ground and made your way towards the sound.

Hand resting on the handle, you contemplated whether you should open it or not. That little debate didn't go on for long and you swiftly opened the closet door.

To your surprise, Tara was sitting on the floor, bound and gagged, eyes wide with fear.

“Tara.” You muttered quietly, shock written on your features.

You searched your pockets for anything sharp when you felt the knife you had tucked into the belt of your jeans. Carefully, you cut through the duct tape on Tara’s wrists and she was quick to get rid of the tape around her mouth.

“W-what the hell is happening?” Tara rushed out. “And why do you have a knife?”

“Oh! I took it from the kitchen amongst others.” You smiled, but soon realised that may not have been the best thing to do.

“Why do you need more than one? If you’re going to kill me-”

“No! No, of course not.” You cut Tara off. “Not you at least.”

“What does that mean?” Tara questioned, a slight tremble was heard in her voice.

“What’d you say we kill these fuckers, huh?” You whispered, tilting your head a little.

“And how exactly is that going to work?” Tara wondered, gesturing to her broken leg.

“I have a plan, do you trust me?” You asked, holding your hand out.

‘Do you trust me?’ The question runs laps around in Tara's mind. Does she trust you? Of course she does, you're her best friend after all, but in this situation, she’s not so sure. How can she trust you after everything she has been through? How did she know if you weren't the killer?

Hesitantly, she took your hand, letting you pull her up from the ground.

“One wrong move and you're dead.” Tara mumbled, a stern look on her face.

“I wouldn't doubt it,” you smiled, “if you don't kill me then your sister probably will.”

“Okay, so how is this going to work?” Tara asked as she pointed between the two of you.

“You’re going to play the helpless victim, whilst I play Ghostface.” You smirked.

“This is how I die.” Tara said quietly, which you didn't miss, but she nodded her head, agreeing to your plan.

“I’m going to need you to be really quiet. Can you do that for me?” You questioned, placing your knife under her chin, tilting her head to look up at you.

Tara wordlessly nodded, a slight flicker of fear behind her features as she looked into your eyes.

“Good girl.”

Retracting your knife away from Tara, you frantically looked around the room for one specific thing. That of which you found in the same very closet Tara was in only moments ago.

You pulled out a Ghostface mask and costume, turning to Tara, you held up the item of clothing, the smile on your face only growing wider.

“Would you like to play a game, Tara?” You asked and what you said seemed to trigger something inside her.

“W-what did you just say?”

“Are you ready?”

“N-no y-you said-”

“I’m just messing with you.”

“I don’t- I-”

"I've got this handled, okay? Stop worrying so much”

“Yeah, okay.” Tara breathed.

“I’ve got to make it a little believable, don’t I?”

“Right,” Tara trailed off, “so what do you want me to do?”

“Follow me.” You smiled before pulling on the Ghostface mask.

“Thank God you’re okay…” You heard Richie say, a trembling Tara rested in your arms. “Because I really wanted to be the one to kill you.”

Richie stabbed Sam in her side and you had put a hand over Tara’s mouth to stop the scream that threatened to fall from her lips.

Sam stared at her boyfriend in disbelief, sinking to her knees as the second ghostface revealed themselves as Amber.

Richie leaned down next to Sam, taking the gun from her, gently, before handing it to Amber.

“I know. It’s a bummer, it's me." Richie said before he held up the Ghostface verbalizer, “But it’s really the best twist for the movie.”

“No…” Sam trailed off.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“This isn’t... a fucking movie…”

“No. But it will be. And that’s the point, right Amber?

“Right, hon.” Amber agreed, looking around. “Third Act bloodbath, check. Killers revealed, check... Time for the big finale. Let’s get ‘em into the kitchen.”

Amber forced Sidney to her feet, pushing her with the gun as Richie carried a bleeding Sam into the kitchen. All whilst you and Tara stood watching the whole thing.

Tara was desperately trying to get out of your arms but you held a tight grip on her. At one point she nearly escaped but you pushed her into a nearby wall.

“Stop.” You said, placing a hand back over Tara's mouth. “We have to wait.”

“Fuck you.” Tara spat, pulling your hand from her face.

“I’m flattered, really, but not now, maybe later.” You teased.

“You’re a dick.” tara mumbled, punching your arm, not having any malicious intent behind it.

“I’m trying to help you.” You whisper-shouted.

“By making me watch my sister get stabbed? How is that helping me?”

“I’m your best friend! I'm always going to help you.”

Those words, although they were reassuring, felt like a knife to the heart for the both of you. Best friends. Nothing more. Never.

“Enough with this secret shit! Tell me what you are going to do!”

You were about to reply when you heard Amber shout, ‘she’s not here’ from upstairs.

“The fuck do you mean she’s not there?” Richie yelled back, turning to face Sam.

“I guess you are finally going to see what I am going to do.” You said, placing a knife in each of her pockets, one for her, the other for her sister.

You pulled Tara by the arm, dragging her into the kitchen with your own knife pressed against her neck.

“Of course she’s not up there.” You said, the Ghostface vocaliser changing the tone of your voice. “She’s right here.”

Richie turned around to face you and his eyes rose along with Sam’s, Sidney’s and Gale’s, all in complete shock that there was another Ghostface.

“A third?” Gale questioned, hand tight against her side. “You've gotta be shitting me.”

“Oh, I am going to enjoy this.” You laughed tauntingly as you pressed the knife harder onto Tara’s neck, but not enough to hurt her.

“Tara…” Sam gasped, her eyes darting between you and her sister.

“W-who are you?” Richie asked, pointing his knife towards you.

“What you can’t be.” You shrugged.

“And what’s that?”

“I guess you’ll have to find that one out, won’t you?” You said, tilting your head.

“Is this some shitty little game you’re trying to play?”

“Possibly.”

“Right, and who dies first?”

“You.”

“Amber?” Richie yelled, desperately trying to find the girl.

At that point, Amber returned and stopped in her tracks once she saw you. Confused as to how there was another Ghostface, she watched as you looked over your shoulder, slowly, as if you were teasing her.

“Hello, Amber.” You said. “What a lovely surprise. I must say I expected more.”

“I’m sorry?” Amber asked incredulously.

“Oh it's okay, you can still redeem yourself.” You chuckled.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Now, now, let's not get angsty here.” You said, pushing Tara towards her sister carefully.

“Who the fuck are you?” Richie questioned again.

“If you don’t tell us who the fuck you are we will slit your throat” Amber sneered.

“Oh, no.” You said sarcastically. “I’m sooo scared.”

“Tell us who you are!”

“Fine.” You shouted, throwing your hands up in the air. “I’m a big fan.”

“Of who? Us?” Richie asked.

“No, of course not,” you chuckled, “of Sidney and Gale, duh.”

“So why are you dressed as Ghostface?” Sidney questioned.

You turned to face the older woman, but you were actually looking at Tara. The younger Carpenter gave you a discrete nod which you returned.

“So we can kill them.” You replied, turning back to face Amber whilst Tara placed the knife you gave her in her sister's hand as well as taking the other for her.

“We?” Richie wondered out loud and before he could even think, you had tackled Amber to the ground, Sam doing the same to Richie.

Sidney, Gale and Tara watched on as the four of you rolled around on the floor, trying to kill one another. Both Sidney and Gale, helped Tara get out of the kitchen and make their way out of the house.

You were straddling Amber, using some, but not all, of your strength to push the blade of your knife between her eyes. Behind you, you could hear Sam struggling to wrestle with Richie.

Grunting, you pushed the knife down onto Amber, however, it only went through her clavicle on her right. With one final punch to the face, Amber was knocked out unconscious which left just enough time for you to get to Sam.

You watched as Richie placed the barrel of his gun to Sam’s forehead but before he could pull the trigger you tackled him to the ground. The sound of the gun went off and a searing pain was felt on your bicep.

“That actually hurt. Wow.” You said, ripping off your mask, revealing your face.

“You?!” Richie exclaimed, standing back up.

“Yes, me. Don’t seem so surprised.” You replied, holding your hand over your fresh wound as you stood up too.

“Why?”

“For shits and giggles.” You deadpanned as you slowly stalked towards Amber once again, but before you could get closer, Richie stepped in front of you. "Move."

Richie did and he circled around you, waiting for your next move. Once you took a step forward Richie attacked you from behind.

You had expected for Richie to try and hit you so you easily dodged his fist. You grabbed his arm and threw him over your shoulder trying to get him to fall to the floor but he just did a forward roll and got up again. This time you were face to face.

“Sam get out of here.” You shouted over your shoulder, receiving a punch to the gut from Richie, causing you to stumble backwards.

Sam listened to you and she scrambled to her feet, she bolted out of the kitchen and made a run for the front door.

“Saaaaaaam! Where you going? Your big scene’s coming up!” Richie yelled, forgetting about you and following the older Carpenter out of the kitchen.

“Looks like it's just you and me.” You said, standing over Amber's body, watching as she came back into consciousness.

Before Amber could get up, you shot a hand out and wrapped it around her throat. The girl desperately clawed at your forearm, trying to get you to release your grip.

You pulled her up so she was standing on her feet and threw her over the kitchen counter. But before you knew it she had gotten up, taken a knife from the counter and charged towards you.

Before you could even comprehend what was going on, another gunshot was sounded throughout the house, then a thud. As Amber's body fell you saw Tara stand behind her, gun in hand as she leaned onto the door frame.

“Tara, what the hell?” You exclaimed, rushing over to her.

“Stop!” Tara shouted, holding the gun up to your head.

“Tara-” You said, voice a little quieter than it was before, holding your hands up in surrender.

“Stop.” Tara said again, this time however her lip trembled as her voice broke.

“I have, I'm not moving until you want me to.”

“Where’s my sister?”

“She went off to find you, I presume, but other than that I don't know.”

“Come with me.” Tara said, walking off into another room but as soon as you were going to follow her, Amber came up behind you and stabbed you in the back.

You let out a low, pained yell. Hearing as Amber laughed behind you, you felt her push the knife in deeper.

Crumpling to your knees, you felt as if your senses had been dialled to a thousand. You could suddenly feel everything, from how fast your heart was beating to the bead of sweat falling down your temple.

“Shit.” You heard someone whisper from behind you and then you felt the knife being pulled from your back.

Falling to your hands, you looked to the side and saw Sidney and Gale fight Amber. You watched as Sidney crashed a bottle over Amber's head, the girl losing her footing and hitting the floor.

Not wasting any more time, you stumbled to your feet and looked at the women in appreciation before stumbling as quickly as you could to find Tara.

“I’m introducing a new rule…” You heard Sam mutter.

You rounded a corner and saw Tara watching from afar, stuck in her spot as Sam crawled away from Richie.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Richie taunted, watching as Sam inched forward but not noticing her wrapping her fingers around a knife.

“Come here and I’ll tell you…”

Richie kneeled, grabbing the hair on the back of Sam’s head, wrenching her face to his.

“Well?”

“Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer.” Sam whispered as she stabbed Richie in the face. The blade went through his cheek into his mouth before coming out the other side.

She didn’t stop there. She continued to stab his chest and stomach. Richie fell backwards, grouting blood, stunned. Sam straddled him and continued her onslaught.

“But... I can’t die... Who’s gonna be the villain in the sequel..?”

“That’s the sequel’s problem.” Sam grunted before she slit his throat.

Sam rose unsteadily, dropping the knife to her side when Sidney and Gale appeared from the kitchen.

“Be careful, they always come back-” Sidney said as Sam took the gun from her hand and emptied the entire clip onto Richie's body, the last one going straight through his skull.

A beat goes past as Sidney and Gale exchange a look.

“Okay then.” Gale uttered, in complete shock.

The silence is quickly interrupted by Amber screaming, a knife raised in her hand as she advanced on the three standing above Richie's body.

But before she could even get close, Tara had pulled the trigger of the gun she was holding, the bullet going through Amber's head as she fell to the floor for one last time.

You stood behind Tara, watching her in shock, not thinking she had it in her but soon noticed as her fake exterior broke down as she stumbled over to her older sister.

The two of them embraced in a long and much needed hug. You stepped closer, tripping over your own feet, mainly due to blood loss.

Tara sniffled, lifting her head from Sam’s chest before turning to you. Tara didn't say anything as she walked towards you. She just put her hand around the base of your neck and brought your head towards hers so she could place her lips on yours.

The sudden action had stunned you, breath catching in your throat. You did not expect her to kiss you, especially in front of her sister. But as your brain started to register what was going on, you finally kissed back, putting your hands on her waist pulling her closer.

The kiss started out slow, almost hesitant, but quickly began to build. You grinned into the kiss, tightening your hands on Tara’s waist. As the two of you were pressed against each other, Tara moved her hands and wrapped them around your shoulders.

You pulled away reluctantly, resting your forehead on Tara’s. Letting out a small chuckle, you placed one last kiss to her lips before pulling her into a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.” You whispered, feeling as Tara tightened her grip around you.

“All because of you.” Tara replied, pressing a kiss to your cheek as she pulled back to look in your eyes. “Even if your plan was utterly stupid.”

“It worked though, didn’t it?” You grinned.

“Luckily.” Tara scoffed, teasingly as she rolled her eyes.

“What’d you say we finally get out of here?” You questioned.

“I would love that.” Tara smiled, leaning against your side as she turned to look at her sister.

“Let's go then.” Sam said, replicating her sister's smile, opening the door for everyone.

The sun crests over the horizon as police cars and ambulances line the street. EMT’s rushed each of you to an ambulance to get treated for your wounds.

You sat beside Tara, holding onto one of her hands as Sam held the other. An EMT stitched up the stab wound on your back having already treated the one on your bicep.

The whole time you didn’t look away from Tara, exchanging smiles every now and then. Once you were fully patched up the EMT went off somewhere leaving you with the Carpenters.

“So.. are you two a thing now then?” Sam asked, a teasing smile plastered on her face.

“Sam!” Tara groaned, leaning into you, hiding her face in the crook of your neck.

“What? You did kiss them in front of me.” Sam said, chuckling at her sister's reaction.

“That’s up to y/n.” Tara mumbled into your neck and Sam raised her eyes to you, eyebrow quirking in question.

“Well, Tara? Would you be my girlfriend?” You asked, smiling as you felt her cheeks get hotter due to your question.

“Yeah, I'd love to.” Tara replied, removing her face from your neck to answer your question before pulling you into another quick kiss.

“You better treat her right, y/n.” Sam said, her protective side coming out.

“I will.” You said, smiling down at Tara in your arms.

“Good.” Sam nodded.

“Do you want to come with us?” Tara asked, looking between you and her sister, silently asking if that was okay, getting a nod from Sam.

“Of course, I'd go anywhere with you.” You said, squeezing Tara’s hand.

“Can you take us to a different hospital this time?” Tara asked the EMT that walked up to you three.

The EMT nodded and walked to the front of the ambulance, Sam noticed Sidney and Gale sitting in the back of another ambulance and told the two of you she would be back in a second.

Whilst Sam went off to speak to Sidney and Gale, you helped Tara get onto a stretcher. Once she was lying comfortably you sat beside her, holding her hand once again.

Sam hobbled back to the ambulance where you and Tara were in a deep conversation, the two of you talking animatedly.

She smiled at the sight and climbed into the back, taking a seat beside you. The two of you quietened your conversation and started a new one with Sam.

An EMT shut the doors and started the ambulance, turning on its sirens before finally pulling away from the dreaded property of Stu Macher’s old house.

[mochamoth]

Hi here are some cringey ooc headcanons of Samarie because she's my favorite character.

(Ever. Like out of every franchise to exist.)

-She's autistic and has BPD.

-Her voice is very quiet and deep. She often speaks too softly to be heard unless the person is fully paying attention.

-She's picky with food because growing up she mostly ate the same food every day. That being said she is more opened to try sweet food, she likes sweet flavors.

-She's surprisingly decent at makeup, she just doesn't like wearing it (besides her lipstick). It's mostly because she's insecure about her face, plus she fears it'll draw attention.

-Very sweaty and clammy. It's her constant state of being it can't be helped unfortunately.

-She has a special interest in bugs, specifically moths.

-Despite hc she has a deep, creepy voice I think it'd be funny to make her sneezes overly loud for no reason.

-She likes reading, art, and collecting weird shit. She has a collection of (humane) taxidermy insects, bones, stuff Marina left lying around in the open, gifts from Marina (she cherishes those), and TONS of books about moths.

-This mf can't smile to save her life. They always either looked way too force or downright creepy.

-She didn't fully speak until she turned around 14 maybe 15. She knew how to speak she just didn't see a reason to do so outside of spells. She only started speaking because she planned on greeting Marina properly (never happened, she freaked out last minute and couldn't go through with the plan).

-She enjoys doing seemingly immature activities. Like making friendship bracelets or playing field games. She didn't have much of a childhood (if at all) so she's grown fond of the idea of doing all those fun, childhood related things.

-I see her and Abella being friends. This is mostly related to OC stuff I don't feel like yapping about, but basically I think Abella helps Samarie get more confident in herself.. Or at least give her the nerve to speak up (and actually say hi to people instead of oh idk following them around cough COUGH).

-She sleeps a lot. That's all.

-Rip Samarie you would've loved Monster High 😔🙏.

-I doubt this is a hc becuase pretty sure its canon, but she has an asymmetrical face. Which I love.

-She enjoys singing. It's not a hobby or passion of her's, more just something she does whenever she's painting or showering, even writing.

-Oh yeah speaking of she has a diary. She's been writing in it since she was very little and it one of the few things she managed to keep after (eventually) getting out the Ninth Circle.

-Best case scenario she gets the help she needs and slowly heals. Ik she is dying and that canonly she WILL be dead soon no matter what. This is MY out of character headcanon list, let me be cringe and stupid in peace 😔‼️

-She's a light weight. Just a feeling.

-She can be extremely paranoid alone in public places, she's either worried she'll get taken or worried people are judging and staring her down. Either way not a good time.

That's it for now, I'll make more if I come up with more and if I feel confident enough to post them 🙏

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

I’m looking forward to your thoughts on Transformers One when you get the chance to see it on your side of the pond. Speaking as a non Transformers fan, I’d say it’s one of the best films to come out of the franchise in the 21st century, and very much accessible to those who aren’t as familiar with the lore. Without going into spoilers, I definitely enjoyed the slow but inevitable tragedy of seeing Orion Pax and D-16, best friends and partners, turning into lifelong enemies, Optimus Prime and Megatron. You knew it was always going to happen, but you so wish it didn’t.

//Okay, your message is very well timed, because the film finally came out, and I got a chance to watch it.

//Now, let me make it clear that I am not a Transformers fan, at least not traditionally. I think it may primarily be because of the Bayverse movies, but I've never found those films to have much in the way of entertainment besides seeing giant robots smacking the shit out of each other.

//Which...well, at the end of the day, that's all it really needs to be for simple entertainment purposes, but the big issue is that there's far more to the Transformers than being giant robots. There are genuine stories and characters there, but the problem with the live action movies is that those stories aren't memorable or deep enough to get you to really care about the characters.

//Transformers One fixes that, and does so much more.

//The film is still relatively new, and I don't want to go too deep into it, but I am going to go into spoiler territory, so I'll put my thoughts and feelings on that film under the cut for those who have seen it/don't care about spoilers, but this is my basic review of it:

//Okay, so first things first...IGN should never be allowed to review shit again.

//A Mediocre score of 5, fucking turn it in.

//Okay, so tdlr; I thought this movie was fantastic, in case I hadn't already made that fact obvious. The basic premise alone is enough to grip me, because it's clearly a character driven movie as opposed to one that's about, as I said before, big bots slapping on each other.

//Transformers One was directed by Toy Story 4 creator, Josh Cooley, and it's the untold origin story of two Cybertronian Minors named Orion Pax and D-16, who as the movie progresses, completely change the fate of their homeland Cybertron, and go from being best friends to sworn enemies as they respectively become Optimus Prime and Megatron.

//And even without its plot, the film is excellent. The CGI animation is the greatest in any Transformers movie to date, and the voice acting by Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and everyone else was outstanding.

//As I said already, I'm not a big Transformers fan, but this movie alone has the potential to change that, because this is easily the most peak piece of Transformers media I have seen in my whole life. This might sound corny, but this movie really gives you the heart of what makes Transformers cool.

//It's really easy to empathize with the struggles of what Optimus and Megatron go through in this movie, and that empathy makes you so emotionally gripped by the story in a way that a lot of modern movies, especially Transformers movies, can do to you.

//Speaking of which, the film's standout character is D-16, who eventually becomes Megatron. He is a really well-written character, and it's amazing to watch him spiral into lunacy. It's enthralling to see the hatred he displays after realizing the harsh realities of his society, and it's even more thrilling when he finally admits that he is Megatron the destroyer.

//It's like one of those stories where a child who has been tormented turns into the bully himself in order to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. It's a sympathetic, frightening, and bizarre tale.

//(Also, I know many people pointed this out after the movie, but I love the fact that as D-16 progressively gets worse and worse in the movie, his eyes progressively go from yellow to red, and I think that's really clever)

//In contrast to the Bayverse combat, which only feature sparks, machine blobs stabbing and pounding, and the sound of metal scrapping on itself, the action scenes were also incredibly colorful and well-organized. It's surprising, fast-paced, and enjoyable.

//To be honest, I don't see many negative aspects of this film. If you have the opportunity, please go see it; I believe it is still showing in UK theaters. This movie is a masterpiece of cinema, and aside from IGN's, all of the reviews have been positive, and well-earned.

-Mod

[wishiwould]

Too explain a bit about the fic if its alright. Of the Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem cast, only Marth and Elice were good guys and regulars, as well as to a much lesser, extent Jagen.

Marth had a different personality, though to be fair this was based off long running Smash headcanons.

However Elice as nothing like Marth's older, motherly andkind sister, being a spunky and immature tomboy that is much younger than Marth. An early picture revealed Callistohime designed her after a picture of Sheeda (now localized as Caeda, the name is either Persian or Gaelic) from an anime picture. She found out Elice was older, Sheeda/Caeda was Marth's love interest & didn't like it, but lightly designed Elice to look different from Sheeda.

Whilst Callistohime didn't bash Caeda/Sheeda in the fic, same for Merric Marth's best friend & Elice's love interest, they weren't included & she made negative comments about them sometimes.

Similarly Jagen went from Marth's fatherly and elderly vassal to a man not much older than Marth without a fatherly relationship.

Basically every other character with an FE name that wasn't evil was a nothing character, usually a red shirt.

And every other one of Marth's allies or friends was a villain and the only one that was important was Navarre, whom, is depicted as a pure villain.

Unlike Zelda, Fire Emblem is almost always a story about multiple characters & there's alot of important & sympathetic central characters from all sorts of kingdoms in Marth's games.

Similarly none of the Kingdoms in FE matched & outside of Altea/Aritea, were just background decor or just a place that the villains were from. Like Akaneia (Archanea in the localization) is the most important kingdom in the games, the sub-franchise is known as Akaneia & there's also a game with Akaneia in the title.

Altea is a small place even though its Marth's kingdom, you could compare it to Link coming from Kokiri forest, but Hyrule is central. Marth says at one point, Altea is nothing without the other kingdoms.

Similarly whilst the antagonist forces rule Akaneia in the second game, you could compare it to Ganon taking control of Hyrule & its military in games like "A Link to the Past". In Time Cannot Erase, only Altea was important & Akaneia only showed up in the first part as the enemy.

But people get very attached to fictional characters, which is why so many FE fans, especially of Marth's games got upset. I guess think of it like "Impa", "Malon", "Linebeck" and "Ruto" being the names of villains in a fanfiction labeled as a Zelda crossover, I suppose?

I feel besides some hearsay of the anime, I think most of the info on the fanfiction was based around Marth's trophy in Melee and to be fair there, Marth's trophies in Melee & Brawl are very badly translated. I do wonder where she got the character names or decided to use them though? And several of the characters did show up in the short lived OVA.

BTW, one of the videos critiquing the fic is still up on youtube if you want to read it? This one is focused on constructive criticism and not any attacks to be clear. Its called "Callistohime Rant"

Hey Nonnie,

I've really enjoyed the exchange we've had so far, but I have to be honest: rehashing the details of CallistoHime's fanfiction is actually a bit triggering ^^; In the literal sense--it brings me back to those times, and brings back symptoms of anxiety I haven't really experienced since then.

I do appreciate the opportunity you gave me to apologize, and to hear your apology and explanation! That was nice. And, even though it's a liiiiiiiittle close to triggering territory, I'm actually fine hearing about other FE titles and things like that--or anything else under the moon!

...Well, maybe not ANYTHING else under the moon. For full disclosure, unfortunately Zelda in general and Zelda fandom in particular does still trigger me, and it's hard for me to read fan-fiction because of my experiences with Callisto.

All this to say, whether on anonymous mode or not, I'd love to keep speaking to you! But not about Callisto's fanfiction.

[shihalyfie]

So uh...Digimon Seekers being a web novel will be interesting.

It's an interesting format for sure. I'm guessing they're trying to find a way to keep "constant content" going in light of the loss of the anime timeslot and all that (the card game's doing well, but there's only so much it can do by itself).

Speaking of which! Let's talk about the elephant in the room, which is Digimon losing its timeslot and Ghost Game not getting a follow-up anime! In previous occasions, every time Digimon lost a timeslot and the anime went on hiatus again, that meant the franchise was in danger of dying (again), but...as of earlier this year, Digimon is now Toei's third best-selling IP internationally. So it is highly doubtful that the anime is going back on hiatus simply because things aren't doing well.

So, what's actually going on?

We're used to the idea of "Digimon should run back to back if it does well," and that's true of series that are explosively popular (which Digimon is not right now, even if it's not on the verge of dying either), but in actuality, the Fuji TV 9 AM slot is a high-demand one to the point most franchises don't get to run for three years on it consecutively. That kind of thing is rare enough that Japanese fans familiar with the timeslot have commented that Digimon has probably accomplished a lot getting to keep it for the last three years. There are only two IPs that have ever gotten to run for four consecutive years or longer on that slot: one is Dragon Ball (I think "not being as profitable as Dragon Ball" is hardly something to freak out about), and the other is Digimon itself.

That financial report I just linked says that Digimon is Toei's best internationally selling IP including overseas sales. While we've had a lot of reports recently about Digimon's financial success, they all specifically note that it means internationally and not just Japan -- and, granted, that's still important especially because Toei and Bandai have been trying to aim for more of an international market in recent years, but that's what's telling us that the video games and card games are what's carrying Digimon now, not necessarily the anime, which currently has very little influence outside Japan besides the Crunchyroll simulcast (and probably some East Asian language dubs), and I imagine that doesn't contribute very much. And the Adventure: English dub doesn't seem to be coming out anytime soon...

Like I've said, the card game is doing great, and sets have been coming out in Chinese and Korean as of late.

So while I'm no financial analyst, I'm guessing they've decided to put a hold on the kids' anime right now because it's not a very good outlet for their current best option, which is to focus more on building an international market and solid base. That doesn't mean kids' anime will never come back, and it also doesn't mean the franchise isn't already in a much better situation than it was when Frontier, Savers, Xros Wars, and Appmon ended, because the recent success of the video games and card games gives them a lot more of a foothold to do more business ventures, and maybe they can funnel that into actually getting partnerships to dub future kids' anime if they want to do that again. Moreover, it's true that in the past, the franchise would hit life support every time the anime stopped, but that's because the franchise was dependent on having a running anime for attention, which is not the case now because the card game has been doing fine independently of the anime. So I think it's pretty easy to understand that having an ongoing kids' show won't be the best option for them at the current moment, and meanwhile Digimon Seekers is coming out in multiple languages at once, so you can see what the strategy is here.

Of course, I think much of Digimon's best content is in the kids' shows, so I hope it comes back (and I'm certainly not a huge fan of the idea of the only anime we get being from that pipeline that's focusing on nostalgia stuff with Adventure branding), but that's how I see it for now.

[bigblueoctoling]

Splatoon 3 did Deep Cut dirty to an absurd degree: An Analysis

So, for starters, context on my general opinion on everything in splatoon 3: They kind of did everything dirty besides Side Order.

It isn't to say that Splatoon 3 only had bad ideas- Looking through the art book, they were cooking like crazy, and moreover, there's stuff in the final game that feels like, yes, this is really a step up for the franchise!

Splatsville itself is a GORGEOUS town. Moreover, it's easily, with NO competition, the best plaza. Frankly, the Inkopolis plazas always just left me feeling a little disappointed, wishing desperately to be able to explore the city, but you're cooped up into the absolute smallest space necessary. This doesn't feel like the heart of the town, this feels like a sad little strip mall. But SPLATSVILLE finally really lets you feel like you're in the heart of the city, surrounded by massive buildings, kinetic movement everywhere with the train overhead and the waterway in the back.

That being said, it's... not really utilized. At all. Like... There's one more store than normal, with Hotlantis, but that's really it. You can't sit in chairs or buy stuff from the stands and such. Splatsville is great, but it's kind of just going unused, underappreciated. Not strictly to say that adding little actions in particular would mean everyone would love it, but point being, it only just meets the mechanical standards of the series without feeling like a step forward, despite there clearly being a desire to make a larger, more meaningful area.

Tableturf Battle is a HUGE deal- splatoon gameplay that is going out of its way to diversify itself and spin off from the traditional shooter gameplay. I've been starving desperately for splatoon spin-offs, this was a huge deal to me in particular.

...But tableturf battle itself is genuinely an unbelievably boring game to me, this coming from someone who LOVES card games, and especially this abstract kind of card game. But there's no variety to the gameplay- there's very very little variety in deckbuilding strategy, the core mechanics are extremely straightforward and don't exactly leave much room for different game experiences, and there is virtually no room for skill expression because the entire thing is just a combination of card-drawing RNG and the RNG of where your opponent will place their turf.

Lockers were a huge deal- one of the things I want more desperately in this world than anything is a splatoon life sim, ever since the splatoon 1 loading screen I've wanted a little apartment you can buy stuff for and decorate and this is VERY close to being that.

...But, of course, it's not that. You have a microscopic amount of space, there's not exactly any reason to keep coming back and redecorating it- once you're satisfied with your locker you're kinda done, you can't save it and there's not enough room to really have multiple areas of your locker to any significant degree.

I have more examples, but my point is, these things are all great base concepts- they make me excited for the future of the series. Excited to see bigger locations, excited to see more spinoffs to splatoon gameplay, excited to be given my own space in this setting- but Splatoon 3 itself feels like it's not dedicated to actually making the things inside of it matter.

Case and point, Deep Cut.

Deep Cut are genuinely my favorite idols design-wise, and that's a stunning feat when I have ADORED every other set of idols. They are so unique looking, and they're deeply culturally inspired, and they bring that into everything they do, they are FANTASTIC.

But Splatoon 3 does NOTHING with them.

I was speaking with my friends on this- the way I put it was that the power balance of the idols are RIDICULOUSLY out of wack. In this context, "strength" refers to their overall impact as characters.

Callie and Marie are obviously enormously strong- the Calamari Inkantation is, bluntly, THE song of Splatoon. It means everything, both to the players, and to the setting, being a folk song of calamari county, and being the song that inspired so many octarians to fight for their freedom. They have all of Splatoon 1's campaign to be characterized, and that continues in Splatoon 2's campaign. The final splatfest of Splatoon 1 was the first titanic battle of the series- Bomb Rush Blush and Tide Goes Out were the encapsulation of their entire identities, it was perfect. I won't tell you that Splatoon 2's campaign is a masterpiece, I'll never stop complaining about fighting the same Octavio fight over and over- but Callie and Marie are perfect within it, the perfect resolution to the divide that the final splatfest split between the two.

I'm a total sucker for this, so pardon me gushing, but like... as Whatever as the fight was, the song was EVERYTHING. Callie's silly peppy song twisted by Octavio's usual desperately-imposing style of music to create this twisted mirror of Callie's song, taking her energy and turning it back on you in a childish tantrum.

And then Marie is there- After that, the entire energy of the song changes. The daunting backing of Octavio's contribution is warped back into a triumphant orchestra as Marie sings, her mature, calming voice settling what broke and making everything okay... And then, after all this time, the two songs join together, these songs that are so different existing side by side again, like they always should have.

(And then they get EVEN MORE SPOTLIGHT in Splatoon 3's campaign. It's not particularly amazing because Splatoon 3's campaign is terrible, but I'll get back to that later.)

What I want to highlight here is that one of the things that makes a group special in Splatoon is having moments like these; titanic, legendary moments that permanently take the song and imbue them with great importance in the history of the game. Splatoon songs don't have actual lyrics- their meaning kind of needs to be given to them by context, and songs like these, Calamari Inkantation, Bomb Rush Blush, and Tide Goes Out, have extremely moving context.

Off The Hook has a RIDICULOUS amount of importance. I mean, obviously, right? You aren't a splatoon fan if you do not care deeply about Off The Hook. They're core to the entire message of the franchise. They have Splatoon 2, and then Octo Expansion, and then Side Order- each of these layers onto themselves over and over. Ebb & Flow, their introductory song, has been given so much importance as time has gone on. Octo Expansion shows Marina's demo for it- the part of Ebb & Flow in particular that hits me is that, this is Marina's song. It perfectly encapsulates Marina and Pearl's relationship- The final song doesn't exactly include a *lot* of Pearl. To me, it feels like the point of Ebb & Flow isn't merely that it is Marina And Pearl's Song: Pearl in this song feels like a hype man. Pearl didn't make Off The Hook just to make herself famous- she would phrase it like that, but Ebb & Flow feels to me like it's Pearl saying: Look at how talented this girl is! She's going to rock this world and I'm taking her to the top no matter what it takes!

And that continues with the later versions of Ebb & Flow- Fly Octo Fly will genuinely always make me cry listening to it. Fly Octo Fly is Eight's song- In the same way that E&F was to heighten Marina, Fly Octo Fly is there to hype up Eight- She's gone through hell and back to earn her freedom, no apocalyptic force is strong enough to deny her of that.

And while I'm on the topic of Octo Expansion, there's also Nasty Majesty, that song that ripped through that legendary trailer for Octo Expansion- the song emanates unstoppable force. Nothing can stop Eight, she's going to tear this place to the ground.

Into The Light is such a gripping song. It's so warm, gentle, smooth, after the chaos of fighting for your life... it represents to me the warmth of Eight, finally on the surface, finally able to see the sun. Finally able to live in the world you fought so long to achieve.

And frankly I could be here all day talking about the songs in Side Order with immense gravity- Maybe I'll go through them at a later date, but, while Fly Octo Fly is still my #1, Side Order manages to have even more massive dynamic song-moments like this.

Point being, Marina and Pearl are fucking insanely stacked. They make Callie and Marie look like fucking nobodies in terms of how much impact they have had on this series. And, for the record, this isn't a complaint to say that they have too much attention- I fucking LOOOOOVE them. They deserved every moment, and quite frankly, I still want more. I will never not love them. They are everything.

Deep Cut exists

Like. It's heartbreaking. It's really not the fault of their music- Anarchy Rainbow is a gorgeous song. But like... It doesn't carry the weight of the other idol 'intro' songs; it doesn't feel as though it really stands for anything in particular, and that's not because of the song- it's because Deep Cut has never really stood for anything in particular.

The story only really tells us one meaningful thing about Deep Cut, and that's that they are looters, for the sake of helping the many, many less fortunate people in this injust world. And that angle is fucking awesome- like the other positive things I've said about Splatoon 3, this is a GREAT first step.

And that's just kind of the only thing we've heard on the matter.

Like... yes, there is a general sense of pride, togetherness, and that's great, but that isn't really "context", those are just general positive vibes. I don't listen to Anarchy Rainbow and think about how this song ties into Deep Cut, because Deep Cut has never done anything.

And this goes for all of their songs. Like, they're mechanically great songs, but they don't make me feel anything. The only thing I really associate Deep Cut with is how fucking toxic people in the Splatoon 3 fanbase are about splatfests. It takes a lot to make me have a negative association for a Splatoon song, but Deep Cut are just like... totally pointless.

I think it really, really speaks to how truly fucked Deep Cut are by Splatoon 3, that these are the only idols that have THEIR OWN FUCKING BOSS FIGHTS, but they don't even get their own songs for the fights. Like, the Deep Cut boss fight theme is a good video game song, but it's not a meaningful song in any way. This is amplified by the fact that Deep Cut's entire presence in the story feels like it's solely out of pity. Like, they couldn't be in Side Order, And they already set up Callie and Marie as your main companion characters, so they just needed to have Deep Cut in there SOMEHOW. Like... There is nothing there. Their entire motive is just that they want to steal the Ambiguous Things. This isn't a fight with any meaningful stakes at all, they don't even know what these Things are, they're just taking them because they are an object that they can take.

And they don't even get to sing their own fucking song in the final boss! THIS is the most aggressive robbery in the entire series; it's just fucking Calamari Inkantation again. I love the Calamari Inkantation, but it has literally zero relevance to this fight at all. This fight has literally nothing to do with it. And, for the record, the fight has nothing to do with Deep Cut either, but they don't even get to sing their fucking song! They just sing a song that's been recycled in every single game up to this point! Like, no, the context of Calamari Inkantation is not going to be about how Neo 3 went to space to fight Mr. Grizz, sorry- this moment isn't even important enough to leave an impact on a new song, how the fuck could you ever think it could leave an impact on literally the most important song in the franchise?

Shit's just fucked. They really really really deserve so much more. Like... it's bad enough you got stuck having to deal with being in Splatoon 3, you don't even get an ounce of attention in your own game, and half of the fanbase hates one of the members for dumbfuck reasons. It's truly miserable.

Despite how much I don't care for Splatoon 3, I really, really, really, DEEPLY pray that the final splatfest gives Deep Cut... SOMETHING. Whatever happens, I just pray that they get to have their own spotlight for the first time. But, since it's a splatfest, I can't help but fear it'll be bogged down by how fucking toxic this fandom is about the splatfests in this game. It's such a shame...

Deep Cut simply needs to have an enormous focal point in the next Splatoon game. Like. I will truly weep if Splatoon 4 comes and passes without Deep Cut getting the justice they deserve.

[blindrapture]

I was extremely tired and rambled to a friend about Mario and Sonic as mascots.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:01 PM] also. I am marginally upset that Yoshi in Mario Wonder is playable but only as a Nabbit-style character, with no power-ups. but at the same time I am kinda happy as Nabbit is my preferred way of playing NSMBU, so I'll get to do that as Yoshi now. but. best world would have been if all characters were the same as each other and there was just an Easy Mode toggle.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:03 PM] I am always gonna be curious about trying to play through a Mario game as intended. and admittedly the fact that I am forced to play as Mario or Luigi (or a Toad) has been a significant reason why I could never commit to it. getting a choice to play as Yoshi is a big, embarrassingly substantial, incentive.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:03 PM] if I could play as Yoshi in all Mario games I'd play them a lot more, I think.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:05 PM] I think I actually secretly don't care about Mario. or Luigi. as playable characters.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:05 PM] they fall into the Sora trap for me.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:06 PM] where, like, Kingdom Hearts would probably appeal to me way more— it has, as a franchise, everything in its favor for my tastes— but for the fact that you have to play as FUCKING SORA

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:06 PM] and this isn't a "oh, it'd have been cooler if I could have played as some goofy mascot character," this is a "oh that's a shame, I don't want to play this"

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:07 PM] like Playstation Exclusivity, which is also a "oh that's a shame."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:07 PM] ("Playstation Exclusivity," to me, is exactly the same as "game didn't release")

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:08 PM] (it's a shadow-cancel. game still has marketing. still gets talked about. game was finished, by the developers, is entirely playable. you just can't play it.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:09 PM] (and this is coming from a guy who didn't have VR when Half-Life Alyx came out!!! VR exclusivity is not as much a dealbreaker to me as Playstation exclusivity!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:09 PM] (but the Playstation point is beside the point.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:10 PM] (the point is, Sora and Mario are both a really specific kind of Regular Guy character I am turned off by.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:13 PM] (they would be fine— they would be immensely hilarious and compelling— if their Regularness was played up. I mean, they are Regular Guys in a world of Cute Mascots. in Sora's case it's even more so, the whole point is Kingdom Hearts brings a charming amount of Seriousness to a world of Cute Mascots. Sora being there makes Goofy more serious, makes Donald more serious, and that makes the tone fucking surreal and Amazing.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:15 PM] (but they only went halfway. Sora still looks just slightly cartoonish. I mean he looks, frankly, fuck ugly and awkward, but I can tell he's not supposed to, he's supposed to look charming and representative, appealing to kids. if Sora looked like…. like the humans in Mario Odyssey's Metro Kingdom!!!!! then I'd be okay with it!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:15 PM] (and the same with Mario!!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:16 PM] (fans often wish the humans in the Metro Kingdom looked more cartoony. I'm the opposite!!! I sincerely wish Mario looked like them!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:18 PM] (it's a tonal thing!!! Mario's a human, a Regular Guy in a wacky world!!!! if he looks cartoony then that takes away from the fact that he's a Human!!!! he's not a Human, he's just a non-mushroom Mushroom Kingdom Fella! he fits in! which is alright if the story says that!!! but it doesn't!!! the story is, Mario is a Human!!!! but the art style and presentation says he's not!!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:19 PM] (this is the core of why "story doesn't matter in Mario" gets as much mileage as it does!!!! this is why Miyamoto can get away with it!!!! it is rooted in this fucking tonal dissonance!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:20 PM] (because it's only a dissonance for the story!!! it's otherwise professionally-executed aesthetic consistency!!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:22 PM] (but it doesn't win me over!!!! I cannot unsee it!!!! I can forgive and excuse it, there is so much about Mario games that I can love, it outweighs it!!!! but then when I have to play as Mario…… that's when it becomes a factor!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:24 PM] (and for the 3D games, I am usually looking at Mario's back, and how my brain works is really I'm "playing as" the camera. Mario's just a means to an end, I move him so I can move the camera. so I can look at everything else.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:24 PM] (but 2D games, Mario is front and center in a different way.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:24 PM] (also Mario 3D World.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:25 PM] (I can forget Mario in the sandbox 3D games. I haven't yet figured out how to forget Mario in the 2D-based games.)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:27 PM] where was I going with this one.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:29 PM] well I can stress here that I'm feeling out my own tastes. I cannot claim any of this is actually objective. not even the bit about "this is WHY story doesn't matter in Mario." I am not coming from a rigorously analytical point of view here. I can very easily be off the mark on all of this.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:40 PM] thinking about it, I may be onto something with Mario. the Sora thing is much more just my personal taste.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:44 PM] but Mario. Mario isn't average-looking enough for the Idea of him to appeal to me. the Mario movie on the other hand, that handled it well. Mario was an outcast to the humans. he was mocked, he was clearly doing his own thing. that's why he still looks goofy, for a human.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:44 PM] if the games follow the movie's approach, I can warm up even more to it.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:45 PM] that adds context. that tells me why Mario stays in the Mushroom Kingdom. it's not just "Peach is in danger and Mario has a sense of Duty," Peach being kidnapped becomes a pretext for "Mario gets to spend more time in this crazy world, and he likes being here, he feels it fits him in some way."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:47 PM] just. y'know. up until now, with just the games to work with, I've had no reason not to see it as "Mario is The Everyman. he is the Average Dude who doesn't fit in here, exploring the wacky Mushroom Kingdom, in over his head."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:47 PM] which just. that doesn't…. feel right!!! with how Mario looks!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:48 PM] (and acts!!! Mario isn't in over his head!!! he is the hero we count on!!! he is the reliable savior!!! he runs and jumps in a world that requires running and jumping!!!)

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:51 PM] …..and that also gets into my view of Sora. Sora isn't in over his head. he looks like he belongs there. yeah, he doesn't fit the art style of the Disney worlds he visits, but guess what, it's a mega-crossover, the art style changes frequently, you get used to that mismatch!!! Sora's "difference" blends in!!! because he still fundamentally looks like a cartoon!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:51 PM] contrast all this with Yoshi! or Sonic!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:52 PM] Yoshi is the ideal Mario game protagonist, because Yoshi is from the world he's in! Yoshi has an excuse to look cute and goofy!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:53 PM] Yoshi in real-world situations then looks funny! Yoshi in the realistic Mario Party games! that's funny! a wholehearted laugh! Mario in the realistic Mario Party games looks funny at first but then you start thinking about it and it's like, hey, he's supposed to be a human, this isn't supposed to look funny!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:53 PM] and Sonic!!! Sonic is just… aesthetically on-the-ball!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:55 PM] his own world is all cartoon characters and cartoon animals! he fits in! the Adventure games have realistic humans, Sonic looks out of place, but he's supposed to! and then Sonic 06 takes it to an extreme but that game's story is Actually A Fucking Masterpiece and the more you put thought into it the better that mismatch gets!!! Sonic becomes a walking metaphor! the story isn't about Sonic, it's about everyone else!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:57 PM] what about Eggman!!! let's contrast Mario with Eggman, as that's more relevant! Eggman looks strange next to realistic humans, so why does he get a pass? Eggman gets a pass because he's a well-defined villain character! he's such an extreme example of a human! he's fucking nuts and if he looks ridiculous then he comes packing heat and forces you to respect him!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:58 PM] if Mario carried a gun and acted edgy, that'd actually be better, aesthetically!!! he'd be a lot less popular a mascot, but as a character, I think he'd be seen more like Waluigi!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:59 PM] who is also Legit!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:59 PM] …………Waluigi has never carried a gun, no, and he doesn't ever act like a serious villain, no

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 4:59 PM] but Waluigi is closer to Eggman on this "ridiculousness spectrum"

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:00 PM] put Waluigi in the Metro Kingdom and the mismatch makes more sense! people will laugh at Waluigi looking so different from normal humans, but then they'll laugh harder and say "well, he's Waluigi."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:01 PM] Mario gets less of a laugh!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:02 PM] maybe what I'm trying to say here is "I find it difficult to care about Mario because I can't help but feel like Nintendo doesn't really care about Mario. Mario is just a mascot, an excuse, an enabler."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:04 PM] and that ultimately brings me back to Sonic 06 again. my theory of why the story is so fucking good. Sonic looks jarring next to Princess Elise, everyone knows that, but most people just stop there because it was a rushed game, they don't feel they should put more thought into it. I do. I mean, I don't even think Sonic Team intended for the extra thought I see in it, but that doesn't matter, because the line of thought makes the whole game better without requiring fixing the game.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:08 PM] that is. Sonic looks jarring to Princess Elise, in the same way that Mario looks jarring next to Metro Kingdom humans. because that's what it is. it isn't Mario And Peach. it's Mario And Some Metro Kingdom Woman Who Was Sheltered Her Whole Life And Mario Is The First Person To Ever Care About Her So She's Developed A Naive Infatuation With Him. imagine that scenario. Mario doesn't reciprocate, but he also doesn't not reciprocate. he doesn't do anything. he's not a deep enough character, and that's Okay, that's his Thing. he's literally just a Mascot. he would say platitudes like "You Can Do It, I Believe In You" and "If You Have Time To Worry, Then Run!" and she'd treat it all like he's Prince Charming saying completely personalized things to her.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:10 PM] imagine that. in that scenario, the point of the story isn't Mario. the point of the story is the One-Sided Infatuation. a good story would go above and beyond, go out of its way, to explore that Infatuation, not through giving us tons of examples of it, but through showing us where it comes from, what it's a side-effect of, what the consequences are of that greater Reason. Sonic 06 does exactly that.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:11 PM] Sonic 06 shows us a goddamn tragedy in Princess Elise. it brings gender into it, it brings class into it, it even brings religion into it.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:14 PM] Sonic 06 is all about a Realistic Woman who has to bear the responsibility of never crying, whose entire life shapes itself to keep her away from things that might cause that. and she FUCKING DIES. she tries to count on Sonic to save her, and he LITERALLY CAN'T, he FAILS, she DIES and Eggman dies too!!! how the FUCK do people not find this INCREDIBLE??? imagine Mario!!!! imagine it!!! imagine Mario doing that!!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:15 PM] then Sonic himself becomes a greater point about Mascots, about Fiction, about the Responsibility That Corporations Have.

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:17 PM] Sonic has a responsibility to protect Princess Elise, to let her be infatuated with him, to brush that off and just run in a field with her and let her have that moment. he looks ridiculous doing it, and he knows it won't work out because he's always gotta run off somewhere else in the end, but Sonic has a responsibility to live in the Now, to Protect people in the Now! that is the position a corporation is in when a corporation creates a Mascot!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:20 PM] and in the end, in the very end, the end of the story, the only actual way out of the nightmare Hate-God time loop is…. to make the whole story never happen! to forget it! it's like Sonic Team knew the game would be a failure, knew gamers would hate the story, so they gave us an Out! "hey. this game isn't canon. we're cutting our losses and will try something else from now on. the game just didn't work out. but in exchange, you've gotta let us have this moment Here and Now, you've gotta let Sonic 06 exist in its own little space. you've gotta let us run in a field with Sonic."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:21 PM] "because we still put a ton of work into this game, and we had ambitions with it, and it's perfectly fine for you guys to forget that, but we can't. so let us have this moment."

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:22 PM] that's!!!! that's what I get from the game!!! just from Sonic's story specifically, at that!!! Silver and Shadow each have their own themes and they're fucking brilliant too!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:22 PM] that's what I see in it!!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:23 PM] that's what Mario exists in the shadow of!!!

Jordan Dooling, [9/2/23 5:23 PM] raaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh!!!!!! I fucking rambled!!!!!!

[dubiousweirdo]

Games I played in 2024 (plus an extra thing)

Sonic Generations (8/10) January: Sonic Generations is a great game. It’s practically the definition of fun. Whether it be the decently well designed and fun Classic Sonic stages, or the almost roller coaster-like Modern Sonic stages, the game is just a blast. Each of the individual stages were recreated perfectly, with the theme, stage design and music being on point. My only issue with the game is because of its use of previous stages, it doesn’t really feel like it has an identity of its own. All of its cool moments, cool themes, good music, are borrowed from the past. It makes a good anniversary game sure, but coming back to it years later leaves it feeling just the littlest bit hollow to me. Still a great game, just feels a little odd to go back to.

Undertale Yellow (9/10) January: Undertale Yellow, when I originally played it, fell victim to the classic “I was in a very bad mood and didn’t feel like giving the game I was playing the benefit of the doubt”, so I had a very negative, unenjoyable time. I didn’t even end up finishing it. Then after letting the game marinate in my brain and watching a few videos, I gave it another chance. This time I really, truly enjoyed myself. The characters, while not to the quality of a true Toby Fox game, were still extremely endearing and enjoyable in a similar way. The writing does a very good job also of replicating his style while also bringing its own sorta spin to it. The visuals are a perfect replication of undertale’s as well, although the battle backgrounds now have much more detail during important moments such as boss fights. Speaking of which, most of the boss fights were extremely enjoyable and fun, although a bit disorienting at moments. Finally, the music was also amazing. Like practically exactly what I’d want and expect from an undertale adjacent game. Overall, I loved undertale yellow on my most recent playthrough. In spite of being a fangame it does an amazing job at replicating Toby Fox’s style and putting its own spin on it, and while it obviously isn’t as good, I think it serves well as a substitution or partner piece for undertale and DELTARUNE. Especially considering how long DELTARUNE is taking like I know it's gonna end up being the greatest video game ever conceived but like still come on. :(

TS!Underswap (8/10) January: (Disclaimer, this game isn’t finished yet, what I played was version 2.0 of their demo, so take whatever I say here with a grain of salt cause things could be changed when the final version comes out) TS!Underswap, similar to Undertale Yellow, is a fan game I played back in 2020 in its version 1.0, that has gotten new content now years later. Compared to Yellow, TS!Underswap makes a lot more visual changes to base undertale, with larger sprites, larger color palette, and a lot of quality of life changes. If you don’t know what an “Underswap” is, it’s basically an alternate universe rendition of Undertale that switches around the characters, for fun. TS!Underswap is a version of this concept done by Team Switched, and in my opinion, their version is the best. They still switch around the characters and their roles within the story, however they also still keep them somewhat in character and don’t just go “oh now sans acts like papyrus and papyrus acts like sans”. Alongside this, I think the new characters they introduce are a fun time, and fit in pretty well with the actual undertale characters everyone knows and loves. Koffin K for life ♥️. Either way just like Undertale Yellow, its free on gamejolt, so its worth a try if you like Undertale style games. Definitely a recommend from me.

WarioWare: Move it! (7/10) February: WarioWare is one of the most interesting Nintendo franchises in my opinion. I havent’t met a single person besides myself that is a “WarioWare fuck” (aka someone who really enjoys it and would call themselves a fan). However in spite of that the games keep selling, and they keep making em. Not a bad thing of course, WarioWare is a very odd game but it’s also really fun. It plays towards one of the simplest and oldest game design techniques, “number go up brain neurons activate keep number going up”. Playing the game and getting better and better at the minigames, to the point where they end up disgustingly fast to play, is extremely satisfying and fun to do. Move It! preserves that same fun challenge, and is great because of it. The multiplayer is also amazing, as not only are the modes very creative and fun to play, the simple idea of watching your friends do stupid poses to solve incredibly dumb games just works. It never gets old, no matter what group I play it with. The only issue I have with the game really is just a flaw of the switch. The game substitutes normal motion controls with the gyro controls of the nintendo switch, which certainly works, but if you don’t make the exact pose the game requests before the game starts, the game could start bugging and not properly read what you’re trying to do. Although that could be just seen as another part of the chaos.

Persona 3 Reload (9/10) March: Persona 3 Reload is, quite obviously, the best way to play Persona 3. I don’t like using the word “objectively”, but at the end of the day P3R is a complete modernization of the Persona 3 experience, keeping the same spirit of Persona 3 alive while also making it a much more palatable experience for those who aren’t completely insane. That doesn’t mean FES or Portable aren’t like, “outdated” or anything, they’re still worthy versions of Persona 3 that could and should be experienced alongside Reload at some point, however as a first time player, I’d recommend Reload 100% of the time. Man I spent like this entire paragraph not even talking about why Reload is so good 💀. To start, the visuals are obviously incredible. The new character models, portraits, and environments are just absolutely beautiful, especially when in comparison to the original Persona 3. Alongside this, I find that while the new VA’s aren’t as silly or as quotable as the old ones, they also can actually voice act professionally. Makes the game a lot easier to get immersed in, at least for me. The actual gameplay itself is a clear improvement, even over Portable which included full party control. The addition of baton passing from Persona 5 (now called “shifting”) is pretty awesome, and brings the fast pace and flow of the battles from 5 into 3. Theurgies are pretty cool, although extremely broken. They’re much like the showtime moves featured in P5R, although with the ability to actually tell how to activate them and when they’re gonna go off. A definite improvement over Showtimes, but also I would tone down their power a bit as they trivialize a good number of fights. Especially with the Protagonist’s final theurgy that just does 9999 damage towards an enemy 💀. The music is surprisingly great. I thought after playing P3D and P5D that Atlus forgot how to remix or remake their own music, however this game definitely proves that thought wrong. Especially alongside the new tracks they made for advantage battles, the intro itself, and nighttime walking around. Persona 3 Reload isn’t a replacement for Persona 3. I don’t believe any remake could be. Even if a remake is incredible and fixes all of the issues of the original, the original will still have its own appeal and style that is worth playing for. Persona 3 Reload is no different, however with how antiquated the original versions of persona 3 can be, with their slower, more archaic battle systems, lack of party control in some versions, and the voice acting in general, Persona 3 Reload is the version of Persona 3 that I feel people should play first, to have the easiest time being eased into it. If they end up enjoying it, maybe they could go back and enjoy the older versions, and what unique strengths they have.

Super Mario RPG (Remake) (8/10) April: Super Mario RPG is a game that means a lot to me. I played it a lot when I was younger on the Wii U and in spite of my usual lack of skill and direction that made RPGs a nightmare for me when I was younger, the game did stick out. With its unique visual style, original characters, and gameplay (especially when compared to the Paper Mario’s and M&L’s modern battle systems). So when a remake was announced I was pleasantly surprised and mildly excited. Especially considering the fact that no one ever thought we would ever see anything about this game ever again (besides a rerelease here or there), it really did feel special. The remake itself is very good. I really enjoyed the modern graphics and sound, I felt they served to modernize the experience while also keeping a similar charm. It keeps the same level of quality and polish within the writing and gameplay that the OG version had, so everything that was good about the original is intact here. Overall if you’re looking for a good way to experience Mario RPG, or just want a simple beginner RPG with satisfying combat and memorable characters, then this game is perfect for you.

Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door (Remake) (10/10) June: Let me start this segment by getting on my knees. PLEAAAAAAAAAAAASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE PLAY THIS GAME I PROMISE YOU IT'S SO PEAK I ABSOLUTELY ADORE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!! Ahem, okay now that that’s out of the way, Paper Mario TTYD. Genuinely, this has been something I have been dreaming about for my entire life. Consider the actual dream that I had one time in which the entire thing was just somehow owning TTYD and then playing it for a few hours before waking up. Even before I played it I was insane about this game. To start, the characters and story within TTYD are the 2nd best in any Mario RPG, only losing the top spot to my nostalgic favorite, Super Paper Mario. The character designs are extremely unique and different from those found in as usual Mario games, paired with variations of existing Mario enemies. Alongside this, the gameplay is just so fun. Never a dull moment with this one. The overworlds are so alive and fun to walk around in, with tons of secrets and rewards for paying attention or backtracking. Alongside this, the actual battling system is super engaging and satisfying. The way it iterates on the system presented within Paper Mario 64 is just so perfect. It perfectly blends the average turn based RPG combat with fun action commands that never overstay their welcome or end up convoluted. This isn’t even mentioning any of the benefits the remake brought. First of all, TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION!!!! IN REAL LIFE!!! IN MY MARIO GAME!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Many of the localization changes that toned down some of the topics discussed within the original US release have been altered to more represent the PAL release, which is definitely a change for the better. If you know you know. Alongside this, many issues people had with backtracking in the OG version have been completely mitigated with various conveniently placed pipes throughout the game, which is very cool. The music, while not exactly an improvement, is a new take on the classic soundtrack, and can be replaced any time with the old soundtrack, which is also very cool! Overall TTYD is a peak game made even peaker with its 2024 remake. If you decide to play any of the games I discuss here, make it this one. Even if it's the OG version it's still TTYD. Absolutely peak.

Slay the Princess (5/10) July: Slay the Princess is a game I really wanted to like. I mean I adore choose your own adventure games, and games in the style with multiple endings. Slay the Princess seemed right up my alley in that regard, with an amazing art style to boot. I just feel for me it didn’t really hit the nail on the head. While the main game itself is very entertaining, always providing new scenarios and interesting outcomes that directly correlate with your actions, the actual overarching plot and themes really didn’t click for me. To be honest at a certain point it just felt like the game was throwing big words at me to make me feel like it was smarter than it actually was. I’m sure this is 100% a me thing, I understand that sometimes we just don’t get pieces of media and they actually probably are extremely peak. In fact I really hope people find value and joy within Slay the Princess, however to me it just kinda felt mildly interesting with nothing to make it stick in my mind.

In Stars and Time (10/10) August: “You know a game is good when it completely changes the course of how your life is going, and for the better(?)” - DW (2022). In Stars and Time was a game I didn’t really understand upon first playthrough. To get the point across without spoiling the entire thing, the protagonist Siffrin is stuck within a time loop in which, alongside their party members, they have to defeat the King who threatens to freeze the entirety of the kingdom Vanguarde within time. Siffrin is the only one aware of the loop, and that’s all I’ll say. But to get back to the main point, my initial playthrough of ISAT was filled with lots of frustration, boredom, annoyance, and quite honestly? Anger. It was that classic, “I was in a very bad mood and didn’t feel like giving the game I was playing the benefit of the doubt”, that I spoke about early. I really just didn’t allow myself to absorb the meaning of everything and how it all correlated, and while I still definitely enjoyed my time, it didn’t really touch me like many other indie RPG games had done in the past. That was until I did more research on it in September and decided to try and go for all the steam achievements. This experience was enlightening, to say the least. I gained a whole new appreciation for a game I considered to be “just good”, and almost every second I spent absorbing its contents just made me love it more. And now here we are. Another game for me to spend all my time gushing about to people who have never heard of it before. Except this time absolutely NO ONE I know has played it. So please, I implore you to try it for yourself. Available on steam, Playstation and Switch. Gets my highest recommendation. Subverts the entire way we consume video games alongside telling a story that really could only be effective within a game setting.

Persona 5 Tactica (8/10) August: Folks, we found it. The first Persona spinoff that I would actually say is, “good”. Yeah it's crazy. In spite of my extremely low expectations going in, I was surprised about how well put together the entire game was. To start, unlike most Persona spinoffs, the game is actually fun. It's a strategy game, most closely resembling Mario + Rabbids oddly enough with a grid based structure featuring a simple cover system and melee+ranged attacks for each character. Alongside this, the characters and story were actually bearable. The main cast was accurately portrayed within, though obviously not having much development or “things to do” considering it is a spinoff. Alongside this the new characters were definitely cool and interesting. Erina is a fun addition to the cast, sorta adding to the chaotic/childish nature of many of the characters, alongside Toshiro being a genuinely great character who gets a lot of development and screen time that really makes him shine. If anything, he and Erina are the main characters whereas the Persona 5 cast is just there to facilitate their development and story together. That doesn’t mean the P5 guys feel out of place or anything, they just sorta are there to continue the plot and development of Toshiro. I also enjoyed how the game canonically takes place after P5, as I really dislike spinoffs that just choose a random point in the story to pick up on, kinda makes me feel even more like the games tread on old ground *cough cough* PQ *cough cough*. Either way though if you enjoyed base Persona 5 and see the game going for like $20, I don’t see the harm in trying it. It’s a quality strategy game with a good artstyle and a compelling story. Lots to love here.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (8/10) August: Gonna be honest, I don’t have much to say about Ace Attorney. Like it's an amazing visual novel with memorable characters, an extremely well written narrative, and lots of charm. Game is good if you haven’t played it, please do. I just don’t have much to add other than what’s already been said.

Monster Road Trip (8/10) August-November: This is where the 10 point rating scale kind of lacks tbh. Like I definitely wouldn’t say Ace Attorney is on the same level as Monster Road Trip, MRT is a game I would recommend to much less people. It's a raunchy, silly, borderline idiotic multiplayer visual novel where you and/or a bunch of friends assume the roles of different characters, and have to survive long enough managing your resources through crazy scenarios all to try and get an ending. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you get a group that's crazy/stupid enough to actually find stuff like this funny, then it's worth your time tenfold. Gpd really quick, funny writing, a great artstyle, and a whole lot of heart that surprisingly can be seen through it all. If you have a group to play it with, I would highly recommend it.

Now it's time for what I like to call, the Pokemon Round Up! I did a playthrough of both Pokemon X and Sapphire this year, and while they were enjoyable games they were also very, “In one ear out the other”, so yeah! Just wanted to mention I did play these games. Probably gets like a 7/10 for me, nothing crazy just fun stuff to do.

Mario Kart Double Dash!! (8/10) November-December: For most of my life, I thought Mario Kart Double Dash was an overrated title. I still do to a certain extent, though I also realize that that stems from most people’s favorite Mario Kart games usually being their first. Double Dash just seemed middling, to me. Poor controls, horrid item balancing, cheating CPUs, and a main mechanic that didn’t do much beyond just character exclusive items. It really just didn’t click for me. That was until I played it again with my roommate from college (I know you’ll be reading this hello Aidan), in which it all sorta clicked. The controls were weird because they had a certain learning curve, and once I figured it out they became extremely responsive and fun. The item balancing and cpus made it really entertaining and funny to play with friends, having to ward off blue shells and certain CPUs in order to win cups. The gimmick also made more sense, with the exclusive items being a fun little boon for choosing certain characters alongside the 2 item gimmick actually having some depth with having to protect items from getting knocked out of your hands. Overall Double Dash is still not my favorite mario kart by a long shot, but I understand and appreciate what it brings to the table now more than I ever did.

Sonic X Shadow Generations (10/10) October-December: HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Sonic x Shadow Gens is genuinely peak sonic. Like not only do we have the already fantastic normal game of Sonic Generations here, but it also features a brand new campaign featuring the coolest character ever conceived, Shadow. Also featuring the best writing Sonic’s had in literal years!!! Like they capture Shadow’s character to a T. It's fantastic. Alongside this, the level design on display in Shadow’s levels is just fantastic, showing that when they’re put to the task Sonic Team can still cook really well when making linear action platforming stages. (That ability was sorta put into question after Forces’ shitty 2 minute levels and Frontiers’ middling cyberspace levels). Overall if they continue this formula for Sonic, I wouldn’t mind. Sonic Team has proved to me that they can make fantastic linear stages contained in a fun open world hub, alongside great writing and character moments. Honestly, it just makes me more excited for the next original game, considering how well they can look back at the past. I'm excited to see them move towards a brighter future.

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (7/10) November: I enjoyed my time with this game. I learned a cheese strategy to beat every night really easily, and so I was able to finally experience more than just the first 2 nights. It's very entertaining. Character designs are good, obviously the story is pretty awesome, and the lore reveals are done well. Kinda hard to speak about considering this is far from my first time seeing all of this, just my first time playing. Overall good game though obviously.

Mouthwashing (9/10) December: Mouthwashing is a fantastic game that deserves all the praise it gets, although personally it was just that for me. I wasn’t absorbed into it as much as others, obsessing over the themes and characters. Obviously that isn’t to discredit what was done here, cause as you see I gave it a 9. Still an amazing game everyone should experience one way or another. Just probably won’t be going back to this one any time soon, nor thinking about it as much as others. Do play it though.

Honorable Mentions (Games I played a lot but haven’t finished/Non games)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven (7/10) November-December: The absolute definition of slop. Like a mildly fun arena fighter with a serviceable story held together by the IP it comes from. Didn’t stop me from playing it a ton though. Slop can be fun, and Eyes of Heaven is goodass slop. Got a lot of fun references and characters moments, and delivers a lot of what I want to see out of a fun extended media crossover. (Unlike All Star Battle R). Overall a fun time if you’re a fan of JJBA (me), but if you don’t care for the IP it won’t do much for you. Though that could be said about most licensed games.

Metaphor Re Fantazio: (9/10) December: I’ve only played around 12 hours over the past 3 days, but from what I’ve played so far Metaphor captures the exact spark that I felt when playing Persona 5 for the first time, while also being its own unique entity. Feels very much like a fusion between every single Megaten game, which sounds like a recipe for something bad but honestly it's been really great so far. Tons of fun to play, and the story has been pretty entertaining so far. Looking forward to playing more in the future.

Mario and Luigi: Brothership (6/10) November: November just so happened to be the busiest month of college I had by far, and so I didn’t get a chance to really sit down with Brothership. What I played though really didn’t do much for me. Like it was totally fine don’t get me wrong, but like just really boring oddly enough. I hear the game picks up after its slow start, but after putting 5 hours in it hasn’t given me much of a reason to come back really. Disappointing so far to be honest but I’ll finish it eventually.

Fire Emblem: Awakening (9/10) December: Sadly started right before my Metaphor binge, but like the good chunk I played was fantastic. It's like a fire emblem with a good story AND good gameplay! Who woulda thunk it! After Engage’s disappointing story but fantastic gameplay, and 3 Houses’ good story with the most boring piece of shit gameplay I’ve experienced, it's fun to have the best of both worlds sorta (in a game from almost a decade ago jfc) Solidifies me as a Fire Emblem fan I think.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Parts 6 and 7 (9/10) October-December: I’ve never reviewed a non game thing for this before, but I thought I’d give it a try considering how much Jojo’s has consumed my recent life. I really enjoyed both parts 6 and 7. I honestly don’t understand most of the hate behind Part 6. Like I understand some fights can drag and the ending is convoluted at times, but like that’s just a part of the ride for me. Many fights from Part 3, or 4, and 5 overstay their welcome as well so I don’t see why that could be such a big deal here. Alongside this while the ending wasn’t perfect, I don’t think it’s bad at all. Honestly I thought it was kinda sweet and the stakes being so high was really interesting for a change. No Golden Experience Requiem to come in and take away all tension. Obviously someone not liking Part 6 is completely fine, I just feel like this negative stigma around the entire thing is kinda silly. Even if it's not the best of Jojo’s imo, it's just as good as Part 5 to me, if not a little better for its actually present villain with a clear motivation. Part 7 however, just as good as everyone said it was. Like holy shit it was peak as hell. Great pacing, creative fights, stretched what they could do with the main character’s simple stands so far. Even if I found the ending to be a bit depressing honestly, I still think it served its purpose and tied everything back around together. I definitely see the hype and can’t wait till it's animated so everyone can see it. Overall though JJBA is probably my favorite anime now tee hee.

[3dafmmodelling]

emotions of sound in video games and behaviour from players

silent hill 2 is the master of immersion in horror games with an exceptional set of white noise to go along with it this is evident right from the get go when you are walking down the forrest on your way to silent hill the white noise with abnormal things stepping around you mixed with muffled screeches of something speaking to you not only does this set the tone for the whole of the game it also feels like a descent into madness which makes sense since silent hill 2 is all about mental illness and psychology of humans

the forest walk begins at 4:10

i still remember my first time playing this game way back in the 2010s dont ask why i was playing this at a young age but i still remember everything about the atmosphere it really sets the tone and makes you wonder what are you about to enter if the forest creeps you out with its white noises and somewhat peaceful footsteps you make as you are running along fun fact about the sound design in silent hill 2 akira yamaoka the sound designer for almost every silent hill game made over a thousand footstep noise to make a unique sounding footstep why would he do this well to set a memorable sound for walking of course almost everything from silent hill 2s sound is iconic and memorable for its time and atmosphere you wont here the end of it from video game dummies speaking about this games sound design and they are right this game can also do melancholic sounds right after james meets angela back in woodside apartment the music sets a melancholic tone of sweet piano solos funny enough melancholic sounds seem to follow angela everywhere almost as if it resonates with here character alot like i said this game is about mental illness and from her interactions with james you'll see she isnt the most stable character

and there is another part that links in with how players feel with sound design which is just before meeting angela again when you enter the woodside apartment and wonder around get the room 202 key and come back you'll here a man screaming with even james commenting on it as you walk back youll see what can only be defined as terrifying as on the side a long bar pipes you see pyramid head with red aura surrounding it paired with industrial loud noise clogging your ears this is described to be what hooked most players into the game

besides from the monster encounter prior to this this game was pretty mellow until you encounter pyramid he feels intimidating despite being behind bars this encounter is so memorable to players til this day it inflicts terror unto players despite posing no actual threat is makes players question why this is happening and since the music is clogging there ears you cant actually process anything so you just stand there confused scared and reluctant to continue all these emotions from a simple spooky figure and industrial noise its a perfect set up in an already claustrophobic area

as well as being the best gaming franchise ever not opinionated this is factual the beginning and mgs1 sound design is fantastic and is the beginning of many iconic sounds but id like to say the alert sound is easily the most iconic and you absolutely have heard this before

this is the noise we hate to hear when playing especially the game on a no alert and kill run what follows for casual players or first time players when they hear this is a sudden hit of dopamine as you frantically run away from oncoming guards and gun fire as the top right fills with an alert meter 100 being they are onto you as it drops lower it will go into an caution phase which means they've lost sight of you but they are searching then when the caution phase is over your in the green as evident your top right screen goes green and ding sound goes off after your in green which sets a sigh of relief the adrenaline pumping sound of the alert status is also followed by a theme sound of noise that's basically telling you to run

this is also the sound of frustration from players as you are playing as an elite super solider / agent spy solid snake which i consider to be the best gaming protagonist you want to play the part

the last iconic sound in mgs1 that also has been a common thing in the series is the death sound it starts by hearing snake/big boss screaming presumably in agony as you hear otacon/campell/mei ling scream "snake , snake? snaaaaakeee!!" this is also route of anger as i dont want to hear otacon screaming after ive been screwed over by annoying combat from grey fox

this is very sinister in all fairness as the screams come from distress and terror and music that plays alongside it gives you the "yeah game over man" type of sound

[cryomancers-orb]

Wow. Reading all this was just like.. who is this character? What were the writers trying to achieve with him? Why does he share a name with one of the franchise's most sympathetic characters?

I would understand if he were meant to be this duplicitous figure set up to be an antagonist, but I highly doubt that's what they're going for with Scorpion. It would truly be something new, which is exactly why they would never do that. Not to mention all the people it would piss off, including Mr. Boon himself.

From his bio, from the way other characters react to him in his intros and the arcade endings featuring him, it's obvious he's meant to be in the same respect as Kuai and Hanzo were in MK11. (Which makes no sense considering they both earned that respect over many years and MK1 Scorp is just starting his fledgling clan. I don't care how good of a fighter he is, that alone doesn't grant him prestige.) And this tracks, because again, he's Scorpion and this is NRS.

But then.. why didn't they write him that way? It's not like they've never written all the traits fanon MK1 Kuai has before. Humility, integrity, a tangible code of honor... these are all things that were present as recent as MK11's Kuai Liang. Of course, that iteration has its own issues, but they are on the large easy to ignore or explain and his arcade ending pretty much makes up for them. So why? The logical answer is they didn't want to have two Sub-Zeroes, which I can understand because despite being different characters they do share many traits, so they had to make him a composite character with Hanzo in the mix. No matter how much their personalities conflict.

Except. MK1 Kuai's many character flaws don't correlate with Hanzo's beyond Mythologies. And even then it's not a total match. Arrogance? Last seen leading to his first death in Mythologies. Which I doubt is even canon anymore in the NRS timeline. NRS Hanzo Hasashi is short-tempered, and that temper tends to make him short-sighted and easy to manipulate. Besides that, NRS has stereotypically made him a sympathetic, good man. Sure, there's that thirst for vengeance, but where Hanzo's mind gets genuinely clouded by it from his trauma, MK1 Kuai seems much more... sinister(?) in comparison. Because he's not Hanzo. His revenge will be a planned out thing, not some moment of passion.

So. Are these intros the way they are because we're meant to simply look at them and think "wow, Scorpion is so cool!"? Because that's the only way I can make sense of it all. Like, whoever wrote these wasn't looking at who exactly would be saying them, or what it would convey as a whole, or how it even comes across by itself. Which is just sad. We go from three line intros to two, and they somehow make at least one of their characters more unlikable than before. That's so sad.

The weird thing in all of this, though, is that it accidentally gives us a very interesting thought (that NRS will never expand upon): While creating this timeline, Liu Kang set out to redeem as many characters as he could, and did his best to give his prior allies better lives. This meant a kinder, more honorable Lin Kuei. Ironically, this resulted in The character shaped by his traumas and pain into a genuine force for good turning into a two-faced arrogant man with his own obscure agenda.

Sub-Zero Kuai Liang believed in redemption because he had to claw his way out of the dark. MK1 Scorpion turns his nose up at everyone because he was always on the side of "good", and he's quick to write off any doubters. Even his own brother.

SZ!Kuai practiced forgiveness and worked to end the cycle of violence he was in, because he understood the value of peace after not having it his whole life. MK1 Scorp was born and raised in a time of peace, and he's only too quick to start his own cycle of violence.

SZ!Kuai never gave up on Bi-Han, and redeeming him was always his end goal. His brother was all he had. MK1 Scorp grew up with his whole family around, and the rest is history.

These are just a few parallels I dug out. I'm sure exactly 0% of it is intentional or will ever get explored.

But yeah. I resent what's been done to my favorite character and I don't think the story expansion nor the next game will fix that. Sadly, I almost think the best thing they can do with him at this point is Noob-Saibot him and put Hanzo back in his place, but that's even sadder because it'll be the third hand-me-down title he'll have. And Noob-Saibot as a character is even less him.

Kuai Liang is not "nice"

This is technically the second part of my character analysis for Kuai Liang, so be sure to check out the first part focusing on Kuai Liang's personality, goals and his relationship with his brothers and Harumi.

This part will focus on how Kuai Liang treats other characters and upon closer inspection, the image of the "sweet wholesome guy everyone adores" that the fandom crafted for him starts to crumble very quickly.

Kitana and Mileena:

Mileena: My bond with Kitana can't be broken. Scorpion: I'd once thought the same of mine with Bi-Han.

Why exactly is Kuai Liang trying to make Mileena doubt Kitana's loyalty to her? We have all seen Kitana's tower ending. She has gone out of her way to secure her sister's reign, she defends Mileena fiercely and is genuinely worried about her. It upsets her to see other members of the court conspiring against her sister. Kitana is nothing but loyal to Mileena, in a way Kuai Liang was never loyal to Bi-Han.

"I'm disappointed in my brother's decisions and therefore everyone else's siblings suck too." That's not a healthy or mature mindset. He's projecting his own family issues onto Mileena and Kitana, who actually share a wholesome bond, and tries to create distrust and dispute where there is none. And why? Out of jealousy? It's hard to tell, but this was uncalled for.

It's particularly awful because Kitana is actually trying to help fix Kuai Liang's relationship with his own brother while it seems Kuai Liang is trying to ruin hers with Mileena.

Kitana: You've broken Kuai Liang's heart. Sub-Zero: It won't be the only part of him I damage.

Kitana: I understand congratulations are in order. Scorpion: How did news of my marriage reach Outworld?

Kitana: Weapons. Soldiers. Whatever you -- Scorpion: I have all that I need to defeat Bi-Han.

She's also offering him her and Outworld's support and is really just being nice to him, yet he never once shows gratitude and even tries to plant doubts about her in her sister's mind behind her back.

Nitara:

Scorpion: If you would only feed on lower species -- Nitara: Humans are a lower species.

"Lower species"? What species exactly is Kuai Liang talking about here? What's his definition of a lower species? Tarkatans? Netherrealmers? One could assume he means animals, but then why doesn't he say so? Instead, he's using a term that's often used in f*cist language. Who or what he's referring to isn't specified either, but it's definitely a questionable choice of words regardless.

Let's be honest, the mindset that there's "lower species" that are not deserving of life, as Kuai Liang basically implies by claiming Nitara should feed on them instead, says quite a lot about the kind of person he is. No matter what he's speaking of here, I still think this is pretty fucked up from any standpoint, especially because Kuai Liang doesn't explicitly say that he's talking about animals.

This is just my opinion, but even if he were to "only" be talking about animals here, I think it's downright wrong to say any animals are a "lower species", given the fact that we very much depend on certain animals for our own survival. Even if we give Kuai Liang the benefit of the doubt, he still sounds incredibly uneducated and ignorant. To not value the life of other creatures is not a good look on him, but then again we've seen how much he values his own brother's life so the bar is quite literally in hell.

Raiden:

Scorpion: Liu Kang's revelation has shaken my faith in him. Raiden: Understandable, given what he chose to hide.

Reptile: Am I right to put faith in Liu Kang? Scorpion: He's always proven worthy of mine.

Oh, has he now?

Kuai Liang is beginning to sound two-faced. He's certainly not conflicted because he still continues to follow Liu Kang and advices others to do the same. He also doesn't openly criticize or doubt Liu Kang like Tomáš and Bi-Han do. But he himself has lost some of his faith in Liu Kang, yet he judges Bi-Han for having done the same thing? Where does any of that make sense?

Bi-Han:

Scorpion: You would shed your brother's blood? Sub-Zero: Because you choose to stand in my way.

The first blood shed was Bi-Han's, not Kuai Liang's, but because Bi-Han doesn't bear a visible scar, no one acknowledges that.

Kuai Liang is once again showing manipulative behavior here. Blaming everything on his brother and pretending he did nothing wrong. Guilt tripping Bi-Han for something he himself has done.

Kuai Liang's actions are not even the biggest problem here. You can somehow justify what he did with him being hurt/angry when he found out about the true circumstances of his father's death. It's the fact that he refuses to take any responsibility for what he did and acts completely innocent although he's anything but, that shows he's not who the fandom makes him out to be.

Even Bi-Han stands by what he does. Kuai Liang can't even own up to his actions.

Liu Kang:

Liu Kang: You allow vengeance to consume you. Scorpion: I should not punish Bi-Han for his crimes?

So, Liu Kang seems concerned with Kuai Liang's thirst for vengeance. What's even more noteworthy is that we have Kuai Liang, a mortal, speak to Liu Kang, a literal god, about punishing someone else as if he's entitled to do so? Should it not be up to Liu Kang to decide whether Bi-Han deserves forgiveness or punishment? Do we need to add a god complex to the list of Kuai Liang's flaws?

There's nothing honorable about vengeance. It's honorable to be the bigger person and to forgive.

As Chinese philosopher Confucius said:

“Love thy neighbour as thyself: Do not do to others what thou wouldst not wish be done to thyself: Forgive injuries. Forgive thy enemy, be reconciled to him, give him assistance, invoke God in his behalf.”

Kuai Liang has none of that honor he claims to value.

Tanya:

Tanya: Liu Kang says we can trust you. Kuai Liang: As long as Outworld's goals don't conflict with Earthrealm's.

Let me translate it: "No, you can't. I'll stop being a reliable ally and might betray you as soon as our interests no longer align." Which is fair enough, he doesn't owe Outworld his loyalty. It's, however, funny that that's exactly what Bi-Han did with Liu Kang/Earthrealm too, but for some reason Kuai Liang is still delusional enough to think he's a more honorable man than his brother?

Kung Lao:

Kung Lao: I bet I could be Shirai Ryu. Scorpion: First, you must learn humility.

Also Scorpion:

Ashrah: I'd do well to follow your example. Scorpion: Then start by studying my kombat.

Quan Chi: Your brother told me of all your weaknesses. Scorpion: A short conversation, sorcerer?

Kuai Liang is a hypocrite who doesn't practice what he preaches. These are just two of many dialogues in which he comes off as overly confident and boastful. He will try to force his own values and ideals onto others but will not uphold them himself. These dialogues are not even the only example of his hypocrisy, but more of that to come later.

Smoke and the Shaolin monks:

Scorpion: Was it worth it, training with the Shaolin? Smoke: Let me show you what I learned.

Yet another example for Kuai Liang's arrogance. "Was it worth it?" What's that even supposed to mean? Admittedly, this might not sound as bad compared to everything else he's said but I invite you to go and listen to this specific intro and pay attention to the tone of his voice. To me, it very much sounds like, as a former Lin Kuei, he thinks there's nothing the monks can teach him and Tomáš anymore and therefore he sees training with them as a waste of time. Overall, Kuai Liang seems to hold little respect for his allies. He might not outright say it, but there's definitely a superiority complex there.

Johnny:

Scorpion: Your mansion was unduly extravagant. Johnny Cage: It came with the megastardom. Package deal.

What gives Kuai Liang the right to judge Johnny for what he does with his money that he's earned from his movies? Judging people and acting like he has the moral high ground over them in any situation is something Kuai Liang does a lot. That alone might not automatically make him a bad person, but it's tasteless and impolite nonetheless.

Johnny Cage: With your skills you'd be a hit, Kuai Liang. Scorpion: Do I look like an entertainer?

Again, if you listen to the actual intro, the distaste in his voice is obvious. He seems to not have much respect for Johnny's profession or for most of his allies' professions, really. Remember his reaction to Tomáš training with the Shaolin monks?

Rain:

Scorpion: Like a dog, you bit the hand that fed you. Rain: You've no right to judge me, Earthrealmer.

He doesn't -- because did Kuai Liang not do the same to Bi-Han? It doesn't matter that Bi-Han chose the wrong side, Kuai Liang's oath was to his grandmaster, not to Earthrealm. Bi-Han broke his oath to Earthrealm and by breaking his own oath to his brother, Kuai Liang is no better. And as I already explained in the first part of my analysis, Kuai Liang always meant to overthrow Bi-Han, even before Bi-Han abandoned his duties to defend Earthrealm. Bi-Han gave in to corruption and became a traitor, Kuai Liang was always a traitor in disguise. Kuai Liang is yet again being a hypocrite in this situation and displays double standards.

Kenshi:

Scorpion: Do not let Sento become a crutch. Kenshi: I could win this fight with or without it.

Does anyone else think this comment sounds a lot like ableism? Who is he to tell a disabled man how to handle his disability? Kenshi is a badass, he's proven that countless of times and he doesn't need Kuai Liang's advice, but Kuai Liang has a habit of acting like he knows better than others.

Bi-Han (again):

Shang Tsung: It was all too simple, pulling your brother's strings. Kuai Liang: It sickens me that he was so easily exploited.

Bi-Han fell victim to Shang Tsung's manipulation, yet here Kuai Liang is, blaming the victim. Meanwhile, Tomáš:

Smoke: I rue the day I ever met you. Quan Chi: No sense dwelling on the past, Tomáš.

Tomáš regrets ever meeting the sorcerers because he rightfully blames the people responsible for this whole mess, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, not Bi-Han. Kuai Liang is miles away from the same level of emotional maturity Tomáš has.

Scorpion: "Bi-Han's trail has led me to Sun Do." Li Mei: "I'll abide no vigilante justice, Kuai Liang."

Scorpion: If you know where he is, tell me. General Shao: As if I would spill your brother's secrets.

Scorpion: I need help to find Bi-Han. Johnny Cage: Y'know I was only a TV detective, right?

Kuai Liang is making his own family feud everyone else's problem.

SPOILERS: At the same time, when Bi-Han will crash Kuai Liang's wedding in the dlc according to leaks, Kuai Liang will "apologize" to those who attended that they got dragged into his war with Bi-Han, once again painting his brother as the villain. Could he be any more duplicitous? I think the main reason why Smoke is not mentioned in any leaks is because the writers might deliberately not want him to be there because the way Kuai Liang acts (wanting to kill Frost, leaving Bi-Han to suffer and die) would go against everything Tomáš believes in and they can't have someone make Scorpion look bad, so they decided to just have Tomáš not be there at all. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what will.

Kuai Liang:

Scorpion: I won't be consumed by vengeance. Scorpion: How can your father's death not burn you.

You know it's bad when your own alternate self starts judging you and criticizing your ways.

Geras:

Scorpion: I want to see the moment my father died. Geras: You are not ready to receive that knowledge.

I wonder why Geras denied Kuai Liang's request. Is he concerned that actually witnessing the event will make Kuai Liang lose his mind completely and he will make even more of an effort to kill Bi-Han? He surely seems to think Kuai Liang is too unstable to receive that information. But then again, Kuai Liang already wants to kill Bi-Han, he already tried to do it and he already knows what happened. When will he be ready in Geras' opinion? Once he already forgave Bi-Han (which seems like it won't happen at all)? Would that not just reignite his old hatred? Could it be that there's more to the death of Kuai Liang's father than we know? Is there something Geras is trying to hide from Kuai Liang on purpose?

Ashrah:

Ashrah: Bi-Han can be redeemed. Scorpion: I don't see how that's possible.

It sounds a lot like Kuai Liang doesn't want it to be possible. He wants to deny his brother a chance at redemption. He's also once again acting like he knows better than everyone else. It's getting to the point where he seems self-righteous and out of touch with reality.

So, tell me again, after all that, why are we calling Kuai Liang a nice guy?

To conclude this, Kuai Liang only appears "nice" in direct comparison to Bi-Han, not necessarily because he's a better person, he's just the more agreeable one of the two. Take Bi-Han out of the picture and it's plain to see Kuai Liang is really not that nice. I also don't see how Kuai Liang is the poor, traumatized victim that never did anything wrong in his life, as fans like to describe him as. Yes, he suffered as well, but victims can also become aggressors. There are plenty of situations in which that's the case for Kuai Liang. Again, this is not hate or an attempt to completely demonize him, just to show that the fandom has a wrong idea of who Kuai Liang is and what he's like.

[simptasia]

I heard they're making Final Destination 6 and I'm scared.

Final Destination is a really solid franchise that didn't overstay its welcome. The franchise ran from 2000 to 20011 (new movie every 3 years) and 5th movie technically happened before the first one. A time capsule for the 2000s. The Final Destination, movie number 4 is where it ends. Movie makers have 2 options:

Disregard movie 4 as the true ending and make the 6th movie in modern times. Which is lame. Also, I don't want to see what ''modern'' death they come up with. If somebody dies doing a TikTok challenge I will not watch it.

They will set the happening of the movie somewhere before movie 4 in the 2000s. Yet again there are two possible outcomes. Filmmakers will capture the feel of the 2000s just perfectly. No over-the-top flanderization but you can tell when the story is taking place. Or they're so out of touch they will completely butcher the portrayal of the time which wasn't so long ago and logically should be pretty easy to capture. People will come out of the woodwork and analyze how inaccurate the costumes are, and point out all the anachronisms (Everybody has iPhones in 2004, really?). We will be like those historical buffs! ''She can't wear that, in her school at the time was a rule about not showing your midriff.'' ''They're going to see a concert but the said band has broken up 2 years prior.'' I would watch those videos!

This premise is so easy you could make a million movies about it. Some accident that kills a lot of people happens, it was a premonition, some people survive but they start dying one by one anyway. Rinse and repeat. Don't even acknowledge previous movies. But that's not what the filmmakers did. They made a surprisingly coherent world where every movie naturally connects to the other. I really don't want them to fall into what the general public thinks and what movie 4 perpetuates. There is no story. It's just people dying in gory, physics-bending deaths with bad effects (3D and CGI). People who watch it do it to laugh at other people's misery, like Hunter (from movie 4).

What do you think?

Well, I appreciate the long message about something I'm into!

Yeah, right on all accounts, wow. It does frustrate me when FD is treated just as a gore/death fest, I do want the filmmakers to at least Try to make interesting characters. The problem with FD4 (besides hooorrible effects) is that all the characters were boring. Nick is the most boring visionary, so much so that for a while my brain misremembered what he looked like and I remembered him looking like Sam from FS5?? Like a copy and paste kinda thing.

I don't have an inherent problem with it being set in the modern day, tho yes there is a chance it'll be cringe. It is possible they'll go for early 2000s, cuz I've been watching netflix movies with my mum and early 2000s nostalgia is all the rage right now.

I dunno which I'd prefer.

But I do have an idea. Bloodworth mentioned in FD5 that he's "seen this before" and it's implied he's a survivour who killed to live longer. I know it's better to just leave it at that. But I'm saying it is an option for them to set an FD movie in the 70s when William is a young'un.

Technically an FD movie can be set in any time. I dunno if it would hurt the franchise if they went into lore or whatever, so... [shrugs]

Really, I'm not sure what I want for FD6. I just know I like FD1 and 3 the best because the mains were engaging to watch, with Alex and Wendy being the best visionaries. True this is due to the low bar of Expressing Emotions Good, but hey, it's a good bar to cross.

Anyways, I'd like an opening premonition set on a boat, like a cruise ship. This franchise loves the opening involving vehicles and boats are scary. There's a sense of helplessness there.

Thank you for your time.

[xxarmchairphilosopherxx]

Why we love Five Nights at Freddy’s a tribute to an unexpected fandom

So, Five Evenings at Frederick von Ferdinand’s…

 Ok stay with me here guys I swear it will be ok. No convoluted lore timeline analysis here… Though I can’t promise that one day I won’t throw my hat in the ring and complete my insanity completionist speed run. But until that point inevitably comes, I wanted to take a step back from all the games, comics, and hot topic merch to ask that all important question. Y?

           No seriously how is this franchise so popular? It’s not just with the older audience either but with its apparent core demographic of kids. Which to be fully honest with its release being almost 10 years ago now all us technically started this journey as little ones, so I guess that’s not as surprising. Hm somewhere between Fazbear and today we all grew up… But I digress.

           Let me answer this question by asking another, Why is Harry Potter so popular? Some of you may say “oh it’s the world building or the characters or this that and the other thing lengardium LEveOsA!” No that’s not good enough, 10 vbucks away from Snuffleclaw house!

These are not unique to Harry Potter, these are qualities that almost any franchise needs to become popular. But what was key to harry potters success?

It’s not a fantasy novel, it’s a mystery novel.

Seriously it may not seem like it but almost everyone likes mystery stories. Look at Sherlock the brilliant Brit is one of the most famous characters in all of western media even though most people haven’t even read the originals. Crime tv is the only thing keeping cable tv alive, and the funny kiwi man tells me this mystery box is all he needs to make a good star wars movie! Ok maybe not all of those are the best example but that’s where the magic (heh) comes in. JK “rolling on the floor” hid the mystery series under a fantasy story about wizards, dragons, and all that actual fun stuff. But what made us stay there and not head over to re watch Lord of the rings for the 20th time to tell our friends that Viggo broke his toe, was that human trait so deadly to cats; curiosity.

           We just love what we can’t understand. We need to know it and that’s what keeps drawing us back, not only to the escapades of the least dangerous school in England. But with the recent happenings at old Freddy Foozler’s Italian Cuisine. You know a mystery is good when not even the sharpest minds of Reddit can figure it out… Ok, another bad example, but still this shit is cray just look at these timelines.

 I can’t even tell how many kids are dead anymore! Just like Nancy Drew gets the kids’ reading, so does Harry potter, but more importantly Freddy FazeClanBear get those nerds out of them books and into gaming like God intended.

           Oh, and an aside to this is the pure fact that kids, despite all signs saying no, the little munchkins love to be scared. You know how it felt right? When you watched that episode of goosebumps with the pig head kid with all the lights off? You felt a little braver when it was all over. And it’s the same reason why we all loved to play those violent games or raunchy episodes of family guy when we were kids. When a youngin sees the ratings anything over their given age that’s a challenge. Adult stuff has been and always will be seen as cool and edgy; and gosh dang it if there’s one truth in this world besides the indisputable fact that blue is a flavor and can be only distilled in the 7 eleven slushie machine. It’s that kids want to be cool, and the Possessed Chuck e Cheese Copyright Infringement Brigade got the keys to that all so coveted cool kids club.

           Another aspect that’s gonna get a bit strange is the idea of Character…

Now logically you will ask “how can a bunch of possessed animatronics with a vocal range of distorted child scream to guttural groan from the depths of hell, have any actual character?” Well, My good friend take a trip with me to the forbidden forest of the human subconscious: The internet!!!

Well mainly one aspect I’ve noticed through my many hours spent trudging the coded catacombs in search of the dankest and rankest of memes. That is, when faced with fear we usually try to make it funny. The following are in cannon possessed by a dead kids.

This comedic-fication of Freddy and the Gang came form two sources. First of course was wanting a sense of relief. You can’t be afraid of something when it’s got a mouth full of blunts dancing to snoop doggy dog’s Cremate Cannabis Customarily. And also it was just a natural consequence of the game itself for example. You in the back what is the equation for comedy?

(Pause for your stuttering response)

         That’s right!

          Misery + Time= Funny

          Exactly! Good job gold star for you champ see me after class and maybe you’ll get a little treat~ Wait sorry wrong script hold on (shuffles papers).

          Ahem here we are... These games while also being scary were at times insanely difficult to the point where even the man behind the game itself was unsure if its higher difficulties could even be completed. But from the misery of fear and rage, came the memes of dank and WANK… No no stop no nsfw here! Gosh these scripts are all over the place hold on.

           Ahemx2. Now these comedic bits also happened to mix with some of the core gameplay behaviors of the animatronic animals which lead to some odd things starting to rise to the surface. A Character.

           Take Foxy for example. An aggressive gameplay loop, mixed with his implied solitary nature in Pirates Cove made him generally a grumpy kind of guy who hates the night guard. Maybe he’s even more aware of the situation than the others. Then the big Faz himself with a more strategic code and being the main cheese himself, maybe he’s like the begrudging ring leader of the group and just too tired for this shit. And Bota Bing Bota boom in the primordial soup of Tumblr and deviantart… and hint of furry. You have characters! and characters need stories, and drama, dynamics, backstories, and ships! Oh the ships, the ships like FEDEX!!! And since these primordial soup characters are 50% meme by volume, there is no cannon! But then also, everything is cannon!

        So just like that weird doujin writer taking a bunch of legendary characters and making some weird dating sim and taking up whatever lore he wanted because that’s what everyone did before him (ie Fate Stay Night). So too did Xxgoldenshadowfreddy1987xX using MS paint make his series of comics detailing the break room shenanigans of Freddy and Co. And also inspired the likes of Thisaccountismine23 to write the most poetic story about the end of life, the eternal essence of the soul, and how it can be seen in the eyes of a child. Which just so happened to be set in the Fnaf 2 location with Mike Schmidt and his oddly attractive robot furry friends.

           You see what I’m getting at here? This is why it’s so damn popular. It’s this weird combination of memes, murder, and mystery; it creates a beautiful canvas that’s both as blank and as filled as any creative person wants it to be. And its self-feeding loop too. Fanon affects how one sees the cannon, and with a canon in constant flux and a fanon that shouldn’t even exist, you got yourself a recipe for a once in a lifetime Super Fandom.

           And to wrap this up in a nice little bow you could show your therapist this Friday, I wanted to take a moment and say a few words. 434 to be exact. If there’s one thing I learned growing up and working with kids allot, especially as I got older myself, is that there’s nothing worse than seeing yourself become that adult whose not just out of touch but who mocks a kids hobbies and interests and makes them feel bad for what they’re into. I knew what that was like and I’m sure anyone watching young or old knows what that’s like too. It hurts and it can make that thing that you liked, that gave you a bit of joy or comfort, have a sour taste in your mouth. And that can hurt all the worse. So when I caught myself being like that to these little ones, I didn’t like it. So I swore to be better than that. Now I joke about ‘fuck them kids all the time’. But it’s only a joke pure and simple. I don’t call any of these things cringe anymore even if it doesn’t jive with me, even if I feel cringed by it, I try not to be that way anymore. I don’t like shitting on what could be a kids first forefronts into art, music, or writing. I sure as hell don’t want them looking back on their old work and feel ashamed. If they moved on or not it doesn’t matter, they should be proud of their work, any work, if they gave their all. Hell, you can take a good look at my YouTube channel (@lazyboywiseguy) (#shamelessplug). I know damned well some of that stuff could be called cringe today but I’ll tell you what. Some those vids did some numbers and that means that someone somewhere enjoyed them. To that someone and to me they are not cringe. I like those things and the things I made with them. I like FNAF and the weird ass community it made for itself. And I just want to say to you at home, don’t worry about cringe or based, just be, for that is based-est thing of all. And kids don’t let some old bat say the stuff your into is wack yo. And to any older readers don’t be ashamed of anything that gives you joy. In reality that’s a lesson for young and old. Life’s too short for that, be happy and be good, that’s all you need.

           Sorry to end this on a less than memey note but I think that’s enough out of me. This FNAF lore script won’t put me in the insane asylum itself. So back to my mad ramblings I go, until next time. Smell ya latter.

[wprowers]

i want to talk about sonic boom characters.

Long post warning.

First of all i would like to say that i really enjoy sonic boom !! I think it has a really healthy and silly humor that for me it's always welcome, so i like this show and its characters. But don't take my opinion as something biased bc i don't really think it is, i can't be biased towards a piece of media that holds little to no value to the true canon mainline games.

I have seen people dragging this show to hell, and at the time it came out it recieved a LOT of criticism for VALID reasons, valid when it comes to comparing them to the actual canon personalities of these characters (which varies from media to media but its mostly the same concept, but you can't say they haven't fucked up in the characterization of certain characters in mainline games but thats for another day).

But neither sonic or amy or tails or whoever in boom actually have any meaning at all, do they have a backstory? a purpose? any serious fight? is eggman even their enemy? Absolutely not!!

BECAUSE THIS SHOW IS NOT MEANT TO TAKEN SERIOUSLY !!

If we are talking about knuckles, he is not smart !! he doesn't have a life mission to protect the emerald !! There's nothing going on for him !! he doesn't even remember anything, in one episode he suddenly realized he didn't have a family and started to look for one, getting manipulated into an "evil" complot and that's he most arc he has ever gotten in boom (found family trope at the end of the ep, rlly cute)

And i did see some worries about the franchise being influenced by the boom! characterization. Mostly for knuckles and amy.

As for knuckles i think that some of you watched the scu shortfilm and immediately thought that they were bringing boom!knux into the mix, i disagree wholeheartedly with this (if s3 comes out and it is like that well then...) i think that scu!knux is just someone who gets represented by his pure heart (as every good representation of knuckles) and lack of knowledge of his surroundings and the people who came into his life. He gets easily manipulated and doesn't know what icecream is, bc he has been a loner for so long !! and he does not know earth, that does not mean he's stupid in any way, and i dont think that's what they would go for in s3.

And for Amy I've seen the discourse that boom! generated around her, some claiming that it was the best amy, for her not overly girly attitude maybe or for the fact that her affection towards sonic was hidden and she didn't show it at all, even though it was stated that she liked him.

So I've seen people saying that due to this amy being well received, it has influenced on how they made her in modern media, which i don't think is that much of a true tbh??? Like besides twitter takeovers, i haven't seen much of boom!amy influence in any other thing, perhaps yes they took a different take for her in frontiers or other modern games, but she has always been true to what really her character is, sonic or not Amy is Amy. Its not about how they made boom! canon suddenly but what is the path they want her character to take while she is still connected to her emotions and love for sonic and everyone.

And no i don't think boom!amy is the best version of amy, i don't think any boom! character is the best version of themselves and they will never be, because there is nothing that conveys their true selves in this interpretation, so it's impossible for these characters to be that.

LETS NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT BOOM!SHADOW because that boy is not shadow at all, then again this is a character that suffered a lot of misinterpretations from his own creators so,,,

So im not making really any point in here?

just simply stating the obvious !! sonic boom is a show that you watch to have fun ! it does not have any action or true emotional moments, never has the team gone through a serious situation. You watch it because it's silly and you don't expect much else from it! Everyone is loveable in their own way if you look at them with the right eyes, so maybe you could enjoy this show without thinking about how out of character most things are.

love you sonic boom i will always defend you

[avhies20]

2022 has been such a great year for tv and movies for me. So to wrap it up, here are my top 5 favorite movies for this year! Long post ahead, because I want to gush about this films.

5. The Black Phone

I loved this movie because the focus was more on the victims themselves. The film humanized them. They showed that they had lives and they had so much ahead of them. Oftentimes, these kind of films glorify the killers, but this film thankfully did not do that. They did not even try to show a backstory for The Grabber that will make us sympathize for him. We were just given some hints. Doing that highlights the fact what he is, which is a child killer.

Also, the performances by the child actors were so good, especially Madeleine McGraw (Finney's determined and brave little sister) They really did such a phenomenal job. I hope they get to be in more movies.

4.The Batman

Initially, I thought this would be the best film I've watched this year but still this movie has a special place in my heart. Emo bruce wearing eye make up, played by Robert Pattinson. I can't believe that happened, but wow I am so thankful for it. In all seriousness though, this movie was marketed as an incredibly dark and violent film. It was, but I did not expect it to have such a hopeful message. That was something that I really needed at the time that I watched that film.

Another thing that made this one of my favorites is how they did Seline Kyle. They did not oversexualize her and we got to see more of her vulnerable side. Besides that, I also love the parallels between her and Bruce/Batman.

Lastly, shout out to the soundtrack. When it first came out, I replayed it over and over.

3. Nope

Jordan Peele did it again! This is such a thrilling sci-fi horror film. I'd like to appreciate the clever and gorgeous design of Jean Jacket (that's such a cool name too). There's a lot of sequences that were incredibly memorable for different reasons and it would be too long for me to talk about. But my favorite scene would probably the showdown between Jean Jacket and OJ. I think that scene showcases the main theme of this film.

Another reason why this film is a fave of mine is because it's a film where you can come up with a lot of interpretations and theories. Seeing all the Chekhov's guns paying off was so satisfying.

Before I end this part, I'd like to say that this is my first time seeing Keke Palmer's work. And wow she's such a fun to watch. She brought a really enthusiastic energy to the film that made me love it even more.

2. Glass Onion

This is my most anticipated release for December (December for me because I could not watch it during its theatre release in November) and it did not disappoint. I just want to say I want a full on movie franchise of Benoit Blanc's mystery adventures. Give me MORE. I love murder mysteries and whodunnits and this ticks everything I always wanted in a mystery story. The social commentary it does is also so on point and done in such a fun way. We get to see it come alive through a variety of crazy fun characters with an interesting ensemble of actors.

Half way through, this movie went into a direction that I did not expect. Props to Janelle Monàe for making such a convincing performance, which helped in really selling that twist. I also loved their dynamic and chaotic chemistry with Daniel Craig's Blanc. Them working as investigating partners was such a delight. Lastly, I appreciate that in the end, Blanc was more of just a "helper." It was Helen who was ultimately the "hero," it was her actions that ultimately brought Miles down.

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once

Finally we're here, this movie was the best for me. This movie made me laugh out loud (that d*ldo scene caught me off guard, not gonna lie), made me cry, made me sob, and made me rethink certain aspects of life. After watching this film, I just had to sit back and process everything for a while. The themes and messages from this film felt a little too close for me.

I feel like the editing needs a paragraph of appreciation here, because the editing of this film is WILD! I cannot believe how they even did this. Round of applause for the editors and I hope they got paid wonderfully for their amazing work.

Moving on to the performances, I just want to say that Stephanie Hsu is a talented actress. Go watch her audition tape too because she needs to be booked in more projects. Of course Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and all the other performers were amazing.

I hope more people get to watch this and see for themselves how much heart and thought was poured into this film.

That's all for for now. I hope 2023 would give us an equally interesting and fun set of films to enjoy. Have a great day to you all!

[avatar-news]

Avatar Studios masterpost!

Here’s absolutely everything there is to know about the big Avatar news from today’s ViacomCBS Paramount+ Streaming Event and investor day!

Summary of facts

Avatar Studios is a new studio at Nickelodeon. Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra co-creators and showrunners Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino are the co-Chief Creative Officers of Avatar Studios.

Avatar Studios will create original movies, series, and shorts set in the world of Avatar.

The first project is an animated theatrical film set to start production later this year.

One or more Avatar Studios Paramount+ Original Series will be among the 50 original shows coming to Paramount+ in its first two years.

The above image has been included in many articles and official social media posts. It’s presumably the current official logo of Avatar Studios.

That is a distilled list of the cold, hard facts from the whirlwind of news that has come out today, from many different sources. With that out of the way, the rest of this post will delve deeper into everything we’ve learned, including full-length quotes from the people involved.

Today’s event

Today, ViacomCBS (the company that owns Nickelodeon, and thus Avatar) held their “Streaming Event” and investor day. ViacomCBS is launching their big streaming service, Paramount+, on March 4th. It’s a rebrand and relaunch of their current streaming service, CBS All Access. Paramount+ is meant to be their big push to compete in the streaming wars with Disney’s Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+; WarnerMedia’s HBO Max; NBCUniversal’s Peacock; Apple’s Apple TV+; and, yes, Netflix’s Netflix by Netflix in collaboration with Netflix.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are already on CBS All Access in full, and they, like all the rest of the content on the service, will automatically transfer over to Paramount+. (Currently we know absolutely nothing about when or if either show will leave Netflix. They’re currently on both Netflix and CBS All Access, so it’s possible they’ll remain on both Netflix and Paramount+ for some time.)

Here’s my livetweet thread from today’s event. Below, I’ll cover the notable stuff:

The first big mention of Avatar was when it was called out by the CEO as one of the ViacomCBS properties that were big hits on other streaming services last year.

It’s notable that it was mentioned among a list of exclusively adult, live-action series.

This is totally in line with the earlier stuff where the CEO mentioned it as having potential for Paramount+ original content.

The presentation also included something along the lines of: if you helped make one of our properties popular on another streaming service, there’s a good chance originals will be coming to Paramount+.

Basically, they saw how huge Avatar was on Netflix last year, and that visibility was up to the highest levels of the company.

And of course, finally they announced the creation of Avatar Studios. This was actually a few minutes after the news went up officially online, so at that point I lost track of the stream as I covered the news. But, I do know they didn’t show/announce anything else in the event besides the news that went up online.

Official quotes/statements

Here are the official quotes about Avatar Studios sent out today:

Joint official statement from Bryke:

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years since we created Avatar: The Last Airbender. But even after all that time, there are still many stories and time periods in Aang’s world that we are eager to bring to life. We are fortunate to have an ever-growing community of passionate fans that enjoys exploring the Avatarverse as much as we do. And with this new Avatar Studios venture we have an unparalleled opportunity to develop our franchise and its storytelling on a vast scale, in myriad exciting ways and mediums. We are exceedingly grateful to Brian Robbins and Ramsey Naito for their enthusiasm and respect for the Avatar property and us as its stewards. From the start, they’ve supported our ambitious plans and created a positive, proactive environment for us. We’re excited to be back at Nickelodeon where Avatar began, doing what we do best in the biggest way possible. We can’t wait to build the great teams and productions to make all of this fantasy a reality.”

via Entertainment Weekly

Bryan on his Instagram and Tumblr:

“Bryke is back at Nickelodeon in a big way. ⚡️💙⬇️💙⚡️ Mike and I are heading up a new studio dedicated to expanding the Avatarverse.”

Mike on his Instagram:

“BIG announcement! @bryankonietzko and I are returning to #Nickelodeon as co-chief creative officers of Avatar Studios to develop new animated projects in the #avatarverse and oversee the franchise. Couldn't be more excited and inspired!”

Brian Robbins:

“Avatar: The Last Airbender and Korra have grown at least ten-fold in popularity since their original hit runs on Nickelodeon, and Ramsey Naito and I are incredibly excited to have Mike and Bryan’s genius talent on board to helm a studio devoted to expanding their characters and world into new content and formats for fans everywhere. Creator-driven stories and characters have long been the hallmarks of Nickelodeon, and Avatar Studios is a way to give Mike and Bryan the resources and runway to open up their imaginations even more and dive deeper into the action and mythology of Avatar as we simultaneously expand upon that world and the world of content available on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon.”

via Deadline

Brian Robbins was referred to as the president of Nickelodeon on Entertainment Weekly, and “President, ViacomCBS Kids & Family” on Deadline. Ramsey Naito is the president of Nickelodeon Animation.

Press release

The post-event ViacomCBS press release mentioned Avatar in two places:

First, right up at the top:

“Over 50 original series to premiere on Paramount+ over next two years, including Halo, Frasier, Criminal Minds, iCarly, The Real World, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, shows from the Avatar, Yellowstone, Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants universes and more”

The wording makes it unclear if it will be multiple shows from each of the final four franchises mentioned, or if it’s plural because it’s listing multiple franchises. It’s talking about the first two years specifically, so it’s likely that in that timeframe only one Avatar show would be ready, but in general it’s basically guaranteed that there will be multiple in the coming years.

The second place it’s mentioned is in the “Expansive Slate of Upcoming Paramount+ Original Series” - “Kids & Family” section:

“Avatar – Nickelodeon’s new animation studio division dedicated entirely to creating content based on the wildly popular world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Led by the series’ original creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, in partnership with the Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Avatar Studios will produce for Paramount+ a wide-range of Avatar-inspired content, ranging from spinoffs and theatricals to short form.”

Info from news

Across the many news sources today (sites, social media, etc.) this info has sort of coalesced:

What is Avatar Studios?

It has been referred to as a studio, a venture, a division of Nickelodeon, an animation studio division, etc. etc. etc.

As far as we know, it’s not an animation production studio and so doesn’t employ animators who draw the frames of animation themselves.

What does Avatar Studios make?

The various sources have said they’re making series, movies, and short-form stuff. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. The third, shorts, remains to be seen what it is. I could honestly see official TikTok videos or something, but that’s just my speculation. 😂

Right now it has been said that Avatar Studios will be making Avatar stuff only. Various wordings like “based on” and “Avatar-inspired” and “in the Avatarverse” have been used.

The question of live-action has arisen. Some places, including Mike’s post, specifically say animation, while Bryke’s official statement also says “myriad [...] mediums”. It’s highly likely there will be both animation and live-action at some point. Currently it’s probably animation-focused, with the first project being an animated movie.

Where will Avatar Studios content come out?

Another case where there have been various wordings used throughout the different news sources.

It has been said that Avatar Studios’ content will be made for Paramount+, Nickelodeon’s “linear” (meaning old-fashioned live TV) and digital outlets, third parties, and theaters.

Paramount+ is self-explanatory, that would be Paramount+ Originals streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

Nickelodeon complicates things a bit. I find it a little hard to believe that within a few years, new Avatar shows specifically for Nick’s TV channel will start being made. It’s possible statements to this effect are indicating the content will also end up aired on TV. ViacomCBS’s Star Trek universe’s first Nick show will be taking that route: first on Paramount+ and then later airing on TV on Nick, so I’m guessing something similar could be the case here. As for Nick’s digital side, they have episodes to watch on their website and apps, so I’m guessing that’s what that refers to-- I wouldn’t read into it too much. Nick itself is one of the sections on Paramount+, which also just makes my head spin a bit more.

Mention of third parties is also a little weird at first. ViacomCBS does double-dip a lot, so maybe Avatar Studios will also end up making shows for, like, Netflix and others, but it just seems like a weird business decision when they just announced Paramount+. One thing this could be referring to is potentially other mediums like books and games, for which it would make sense to be for other companies.

Lastly, theatrical. In their movies strategy, ViacomCBS announced that Paramount movies like the Mission: Impossible franchise will still be in theaters, but go to Paramount+ exclusively after a reduced 30-to-45-day theatrical window. (Some movies will also have the regular window, also a little confusing.) Some movies will also just be Paramount+ Originals in the first place, like the newest SpongeBob movie. Avatar Studios’ first project has been exclusively called a theatrical animated film. This seems to suggest that it will be in theaters at first, then a Paramount+ Original shortly after (probably the shortest, 30-day window if I were to guess). This is interesting because if it’s theatrical, that could suggest a big budget, especially if this is their first project they intend to make an impressive splash with. It could also potentially suggest 3D/CGI animation rather than 2D, but I personally don’t find that super likely. However, it could mean fancier 2D animation than we’re used to, and that’s saying a lot because we’re used to some pretty good animation from the Avatar franchise! The wording of “theatricals” could also just be used as a synonym for “films”, to indicate prestige, theatrical release quality and budget rather than made-for-TV or direct-to-DVD vibes.

In summary, it seems like right now, they’re covering all the bases, but if Paramount+ is as successful as they want it to be, it’s likely they would eventually (maybe quite soon) move more and more stuff into it exclusively. Currently, there’s also still a lot of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so the new state of the theatrical, linear, and streaming marketplaces hasn’t really crystallized yet either. The world does seem to be moving to streaming quite hard though, so while they’re covering all the bases right now, again, it’s likely most of this stuff will end up mainly as a Paramount+ thing.

And again, I mentioned TikTok as a possible experimental place for short-form content. Maybe. Especially if they make the next Avatar after Korra modern day?! Ok, let me not get ahead of myself...

Who will work at Avatar Studios?

We only know about Bryke so far. They’re the co-Chief Creative Officers.

Brandon Hoang, who was working with Bryke on live-action ATLA at Netflix, has confirmed he’s not involved. He also left Netflix at some point; not sure if it was at the exact same time or for the same reasons as Bryke, but he’s neither here nor there, as it were.

No, I don’t have anything to tell you about Jeremy Zuckerman. :)

Given that there will be multiple shows and movies, it’s likely that lots of different people will end up working on them. Bryke’s official statement said that they will “build [...] teams and productions” at Avatar Studios, and Mike also said that they will be “oversee[ing] the franchise”. Right now, we don’t know what exact role Bryke will have. They might write/direct/showrun some stuff themselves, or they might oversee other creatives they hire for those roles, or, likely, both-- different levels of involvement for different shows and movies.

As mentioned previously, Avatar Studios (probably) isn’t an animation production studio. This means they will still hire animation production studios, like Studio Mir, to do the animation itself. I say “like” Studio Mir, because I’m not sure if Studio Mir itself is free right now. They recently officially partnered with Netflix and have plenty of things on their plate there. So, it remains to be seen who will be doing the actual animation for Avatar Studios’ projects.

Lastly, this is an awesome opportunity to have the “culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast” assurance Bryke originally made for live-action ATLA both on and off the screen at Avatar Studios!

Netflix and live-action ATLA

There has been no news or updates on the live-action adaptation of ATLA being developed at Netflix, which Bryke was originally showrunning but left (to do all this!) over creative differences.

No, it’s not cancelled.

I suppose this makes it a little more likely that Netflix would choose to give up on it, but right now there have been no changes. The existence of Avatar Studios almost definitely has no effect on the licensing rights Netflix obtained to make a live-action ATLA adaptation-- that stuff is usually pretty iron-clad. Again, maybe in light of all this Netflix will choose to not go through with it, but they also might want to make it even more now to compete with Paramount+ on Avatar. We don’t really know the stances of the decisionmakers at Netflix, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Personal note

Over the last few months I’ve gotten a lot of, err, rude comments and messages whenever I said there could be new stuff coming. I’m really not here to say “I told you so”, because I don’t care-- I run Avatar News for fun.

But, I hope this goes to show that I wouldn't be posting things if I didn't have good factual reason to believe them, and that very much panned out very correctly here. Sometimes it’s directly or indirectly based on stuff I can't say publicly. I always have and always will post in a trustworthy, fact- and reason-based manner.

In light of that, and for just a bit of “I told you so”, here’s a timeline of all the Avatar News posts that led up to today. Definitely had a lot of fun re-reading these just now:

August 12th, 2020: Bryke left the Netflix live-action ATLA series two months ago. It’s not the end of the world.

September 15th, 2020: ViacomCBS is relaunching their streaming service next year as Paramount+, the future home of Avatar shows and movies?

September 17th, 2020: Anonymous asked: Do you think now that the original creators left the live action remake that they will make a new avatar animated series?

November 6th, 2020: CEO says Avatar franchise has potential for new original series on Paramount+, the new streaming service launching next year to compete with Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max

January 4th, 2021: “This also brings up another interesting point, which is that Bryke actually originally pitched this storyline to Nick as an animated movie after the show. That obviously didn’t happen, but now that Paramount+ is coming and teasing potential new Avatar content…”

January 5th, 2021: Investor day announcement

January 21st, 2021: The Fire Nation Awaits 🌺 An in-depth look at the ever-elusive islands in the era of Korra and when we will finally pay them a visit. See section: Are they saving the Fire Nation for an animated movie?

February 12th, 2021: All seven seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are coming to Paramount+ on March 4th!

February 20th, 2021: The musical themes of Avatar: An Avatar News interview with Jeremy Zuckerman. See section: “So, another streaming service: Paramount+.”

February 24th, 2021: Avatar Studios masterpost :)

[shihalyfie]

About the Adventure: reboot, the likely reason why it exists, the question of target demographic, and whether I would recommend it or not

I think this reboot has been kind of a strange outlier in terms of Digimon anime in general, in terms of...well, just about everything. I also feel like everything surrounding it has kind of been giving us mixed signals as to what the intent and purpose behind the anime is -- well, besides “cashing in on the Adventure brand”, but looking at it more closely, that might be a bit of an oversimplification.

I’m writing this post because, having seen the entire series to the end for myself and thinking very hard about it and what it was trying to do, I decided to put down my thoughts. This is not meant to be a review of what I think was good and bad, but rather, something that I hope will be helpful to those who might be on the fence about whether they want to watch it or not, or those who don’t want to watch/finish it but are curious about what happened, or those who are curious as to why this reboot even exists in the first place, or even maybe just those who did watch it but are interested in others’ thoughts about it. I'm personally convinced that -- especially in an ever-changing franchise like Digimon -- how much you like a given work is dependent on what your personal tastes are to the very end, and thus it’s helpful to understand what kind of expectations you should go in with if you want to watch something.

With all of this said and done, if you want to go in and best enjoy this series, I think it is best to consider this anime as a distinct Digimon series of its own. The relationship to Adventure is only surface-level, and by that I mean it’s very obvious it’s doing things its own thing deliberately without worrying too much about what prior series did. Of course, I think everyone will have varying feelings about using the Adventure branding for something that really isn't Adventure at all, but we are really talking about an in-name-only affair, and something that’s unabashedly doing whatever it wants. So in other words, if you’re going in expecting Adventure, or anything that really resembles Adventure, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. But if you’re able to approach it like yet another distinct Digimon series, and the other aspects of it fit your fancy, you’ll probably be able to enjoy it much better. And, conversely, I think it’s also important to remember that this series seems to have a writing philosophy with a fundamentally different goal from most Digimon series, and since it’s understandable for most long-time Digimon fans to have their tastes built on those prior series, it’s fine and completely understandable that this reboot may not be your cup of tea, for reasons that probably don’t actually have much to do with whether it’s an Adventure reboot or not.

There are no spoilers in the following post. (Although I use some emphatic language for the duration for it, these are mostly just my personal thoughts and how I see the series and the overall situation.)

On what exact relationship to Adventure this series has, and why it’s an “Adventure reboot”

If you ask why they did an Adventure reboot, the easiest answer to come up with is “Adventure milking, because it’s profitable”, but that’s kind of an oversimplification of what the issue is. This is especially when you take into account a key fact that official has been very well aware of since as early as 2006: most kids are too young to have seen Adventure, and therefore have no reason to care about it.

That’s the thing: Adventure milking only works so well on today’s children, and Toei and Bandai know this. This is also the reason that the franchise started going through a bit of a “split” starting in around 2012 (after Xros Wars finished airing), when the video game branch started making more active attempts to appeal to the adults’ fanbase with Re:Digitize and Adventure PSP. (Although they were technically still “kids’ games”, they were very obviously aimed at the adults’ audience as a primary “target”.) The generation that grew up with Adventure and other classic Digimon anime was getting older and older, and targeting that audience would require tailoring products more specifically to them -- ultimately culminating in 2015 and the solidification of “very obviously primarily for adults” media in the form of both games (Cyber Sleuth and Next Order) and anime (tri.). Note that Appmon ended up getting its own 3DS game, but since it was targeted at kids, it seems to have been developed by a completely different pipeline/branch from the aforementioned adults’ games, so even that had a split.

So if we want to talk about full-on nostalgia pandering, that’s already being done in the adults’ branch. In fact, Appmon development specifically said that they felt free to not really care about the adults’ audience because that was tri.’s job. Of course, the hardcore Digimon adults’ fanbase is still keeping an eye on the kids’ shows, and it’s good to not upset them -- and, besides, even if we’re all suffering under the hell of capitalism, people who work in kids’ shows still tend to be very passionate about the content and messages they’re showing the kids, so they still put an effort into making good content that adults can enjoy too. But, nevertheless, adults are still the “periphery demographic”, and a kids’ show is not a success if the kids (who have not seen and do not care about Adventure) are not watching it or buying the toys. Appmon ended up being extremely well-received by the adults’ fanbase, but that all meant nothing since the kids didn’t get into it.

Most kids are not super incredibly discerning about so-called writing quality (it’s not like they don’t at least unconsciously know when something is good, but they’re much less likely to be bothered by little things adults are often bothered by), so there’s a certain degree you have to get their attention if you want things to catch on with them. Critical reception does matter a lot more when we talk about the adults’ audience, but for the kids, the more important part is how much you’ve managed to engage them and how much fun they’re having (especially in regards to the toyline). Moreover, there’s the problem of “momentum”; Digimon’s sister shows of PreCure, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai have sometimes had really poorly performing shows (critically or financially), but have managed to recover it in successive years to avoid getting cancelled. Digimon never managed to get to that point, with sales nearly dropping to half with Tamers and again with Frontier. So in essence, Savers, Xros Wars, and Appmon were all attempts at figuring out what was needed to just get that “kickstart” again -- but things just never lined up for it to work.

So if kids don’t really care about Adventure, why would they do Adventure nostalgia pandering? The answer is one that official has actually openly stated multiple times: they want to have parents watch it together with their children. Both Seki and Kinoshita said this in regards to watching the reaction to Kizuna, and it was also stated outright as a goal for the reboot, but, believe it or not, there’s reports of this having been stated back as early as Savers (followed by an admission that maybe 2006 was a little too early for people who grew up with Adventure to be old enough to have their own kids). So the little nostalgia references in Savers, Xros Wars, and Appmon aren't really meant to magically turn the series into Adventure as much as they’re supposed to be flags waved at the parents to get them to pay attention, so that they can introduce their kids to Digimon and watch it together with them, until the kids eventually take an interest on their own and they don’t need to rely on that kind of standby as much. (I say “as much” because of course PreCure, Rider, and Sentai all are still very indulgent in their anniversary references, but they’re not nearly as reliant on it to the point of life-and-death.)

This is also why Kizuna’s existence and release date two months prior to the reboot is a huge factor in this. The reason tri. wouldn’t have done it is that it never actually reached a properly “mainstream” audience. It’s a huge reason I keep emphasizing the fact that tri. and Kizuna are two separate things with completely different production and release formats, because tri. being a limited OVA screening released in six parts over three years means that, although it was a moderate financial success that did better than the franchise’s other niche products, in the end, it didn’t actually reach the “extremely casual” audience very well. We, as the “hardcore Internet fanbase”, all know people who watched all six parts, and the difference between tri. and Kizuna’s release formats doesn’t hit us as hard because of international distribution circumstances, but even on our end, if you talk to your casual friends who barely remember anything about Digimon except what they saw on TV twenty years ago, you will almost never find anyone who got past Part 1, maybe 2 at most. (That’s before we even get into the part where a good chunk of them got turned off at the character design stage for being too different.) Sticking with a full six-part series over three years is a commitment, and if you’re not someone with a certain level of loyalty to the franchise, you aren’t as likely to put aside the time for it!

Kizuna, on the other hand, was a full-on theatrical movie with full marketing campaign that was aimed at that extremely casual mainstream audience, including a lot of people who hadn’t even heard of tri. (due to it being too niche) or hadn’t bothered to commit to watching something so long, and thus managed to “hype up” a lot of adults and get them in a Digimon mood. (Critical reception issues aside, this is also presumably a huge reason Kizuna isn’t all that reliant on tri.’s plot; Adventure and 02 both averaged at around 11% of the country watching it when it first aired, but the number of people who even saw tri. much less know what happened in it is significantly lower, so while you can appeal to a lot of people if you’re just targeting the 11%, you'll lock them out if you’re overly reliant on stuff a lot of them will have never seen in the first place.) We’re talking the kind of super-casual who sees a poster for Kizuna, goes “oh I remember Digimon!”, casually buys a ticket for the movie, likes it because it has characters they remember and the story is feelsy, and then two months later an anime that looks like the Digimon they recognize is on Fuji TV, resulting in them convincing their kid to watch it together with them because they’re in a Digimon mood now, even though the actual contents of the anime are substantially different from the original.

So, looking back at the reboot:

There’s a huge, huge, huge implication that the choice to use Adventure branding was at least partially to get Fuji TV to let them have their old timeslot back. Neither Xros Wars nor Appmon were able to be on that old timeslot, presumably because Fuji TV had serious doubts about their profitability (perhaps after seeing Savers not do very well). This isn’t something that hits as hard for us outside Japan who don’t have to feel the impact of this anyway, but it’s kind of a problem if kids don’t even get the opportunity to watch the show in the first place. While there’s been a general trend of moving to video-on-demand to the point TV ratings don’t really have as much impact as they used to, I mean...it sure beats 6:30 in the morning, goodness. (Note that a big reason PreCure, Rider, and Sentai are able to enjoy the comfortable positions they’re in is that they have a very luxurious 8:30-10 AM Sunday block on TV Asahi dedicated to them.)

Since we’re talking about “the casual mainstream”, this means that this kind of ploy only works with something where a casual person passing by can see names and faces and take an interest. This is why it has to be Adventure, not 02 or Tamers or whatnot; 02 may have had roughly similar TV ratings to Adventure and fairly close sales figures back in 2000, but the actual pop culture notability disparity in this day and age is humongous (think about the difference in pop culture awareness between Butter-Fly and Target). 02, Tamers, and all can do enough to carry “adults’ fandom” products and merch sales at DigiFes, and the adults’ branch of the franchise in general, but appealing to the average adult buying toys for the kids is a huge difference, and a big reason that, even if they’re clearly starting to acknowledge more of the non-Adventure series these days, it’s still hard to believe they’re going to go as far as rebooting anything past Adventure -- or, more accurately, hard to believe they’ll be able to get the same impact using names and faces alone.

This advertising with the Adventure brand goes beyond just the anime -- we’re talking about the toyline that has the involved character faces plastered on them, plus all of the ventures surrounding them that Bandai pretty obviously carefully timed to coincide with this. One particularly big factor is the card game, which is doing really, really well right now, to the point it’s even started gaining an audience among people who weren’t originally Digimon fans. Part of it is because the game’s design is actually very good and newcomer-friendly, but also...nearly every set since the beginning came with reboot-themed Tamer Cards, which means that, yes, those cards with the Adventure names and faces were helping lure people into taking an interest in the game. Right now, the game is doing so well and has gained such a good reputation that it probably doesn’t need that crutch anymore to keep going as long as the game remains well-maintained, but I have no doubt the initial “Adventure” branding was what helped it take off, and its success is most likely a huge pillar sustaining the franchise at the current moment.

Speaking of merch and toys, if you look closely, you might notice that Bandai decided to go much, much more aggressively into the toy market with this venture than they ever did with Savers, Xros Wars, or Appmon (Appmon was probably the most aggressive attempt out of said three). They put out a lot more merch and did a lot more collaborative events to engage the parents and children, and, presumably, the reason they were able to do this was because they were able to push into those outlets with the confidence the Adventure brand would let them be accepted (much like with Fuji TV). Like with the card game, the important part was getting their “foot in the door” so that even if it stopped being Adventure after a fashion, they’d still have all of those merchandising outlets -- after all, one of the first hints we ever got of Ghost Game’s existence was a July product listing for its products replacing the reboot’s in a gachapon set, so we actually have evidence of certain product pipelines being opened by the reboot’s precedent. (The word 後番組 literally means “the TV program that comes after”, so it’s pretty obvious this was intended for Ghost Game; in other words, the reboot’s existence helped ensure there be a “reservation” for this kind of product to be made.)

I think one important thing to keep in mind is that Toei and Bandai have as much of a stake in avoiding rehashing for their kids’ franchises as we do. Even if you look at this from a purely capitalistic perspective, because of how fast the “turnover” is for the kids’ audience, sustaining a franchise for a long time off rehashing the same thing over and over is hard, and even moreso when it involves a twenty-year-old anime that said kids don’t even know or remember. Ask around about popular long-running Japanese kids’ franchises and you’ll notice they practically rely on being able to comfortably change things up every so often, like PreCure/Rider/Sentai shuffling every year, or Yu-Gi-Oh! having a rotation of different series and concepts, or the struggles that franchises that don’t do this have to deal with. And, after all, for all people are cynical about Toei continuing to milk Adventure or any of the other older series at every opportunity, as far as the kids’ branch of the franchise goes, this is only capable of lasting to a certain extent; if they tried keeping this up too long, even the adults and kids would get bored, and there is some point it’ll be easier to try and make products directly targeted at the kids’ audience instead of having to rely on the parents to ease them into it.

So it’s completely understandable that the moment they secured a proper audience with the reboot and finished up their first series with this, they decided to take the risk with Ghost Game right after. And considering all that’s happened, this is still a risk -- they’re changing up a lot (even if not as much as Appmon), and there’s a chance that the audience they’ve gathered is going to shoot down again because they’ve changed so much and they no longer have the Adventure branding as a “crutch” to use -- but they’re taking it anyway instead of going for something at least slightly more conventional.

Which means that, yes, there’s a possibility this will all explode in their face, because the Adventure branding is that huge of a card they’re about to lose. But at the very, very least, Ghost Game is coming in with the “momentum” and advantage that Savers, Xros Wars, and Appmon all didn’t have: a brand currently in the stage of recovery, all of the merchandising and collaborative pipelines the reboot and Kizuna opened up, a fairly good timeslot, and a premise somewhat more conventional than Xros Wars and Appmon (I’m saying this as someone who likes both: their marketing definitely did not do them many favors). There are still a lot of risks it’s playing here, and it’s possible it won’t be the end of more Adventure or reboot brand usage to try to keep that momentum up even as we go into Ghost Game, but it’s the first time in a long while we’ve had something to stand on.

Okay, so that’s out of the way. But the end result is that we now have 67 episodes of an Adventure “reboot” that actually doesn’t even resemble Adventure that much at all, which seems to have achieved its goal of flagging down attention so it can finally going back to trying new things. This series exists, we can’t do anything about the fact it exists, the period where its own financial performance actually mattered is coming to an end anyway, and we, as a fanbase of adults hanging out on the Internet keeping up with the franchise as a whole, have to figure out how each of us feels about this. So what of it?

About the contents of the reboot itself

One thing I feel hasn’t been brought up as a potential topic very much (or, at least, not as much as I feel like it probably should be) is that the reboot seems to be actively aimed at a younger target audience than the original Adventure. It hasn’t been stated outright, but we actually have quite a bit of evidence pointing towards this.

Let’s take a moment and discuss what it even means to have a different target audience. When you’re a kid, even one or two years’ difference is a big deal, and while things vary from kid to kid, generally speaking, it helps to have an idea of what your “overall goal” is when targeting a certain age group, since at some point you have to approximate the interests of some thousands of children. Traditionally, Digimon has been aimed at preteens (10-11 year olds); of course, many will testify to having seen the series at a younger age than that, but the "main” intended target demographic was in this arena. (Also, keep in mind that this is an average; a show aimed at 10-11 year olds could be said to be more broadly aimed at 7-13 year olds, whereas one aimed at 7-8 year olds would be more broadly aimed at something like 5-10 year olds.) Let’s talk a bit about what distinguishes children’s shows (especially Japanese kids’ shows) between this “preteen demographic” and things aimed at a much younger audience (which I’ll call “young child demographic”, something like the 7-8 year old arena):

With children who are sufficiently young, it’s much, much more difficult to ensure that a child of that age will be able to consistently watch TV at the same hour every week instead of being subject to more variable schedules, often set by their parents, meaning that it becomes much more difficult to have a series that relies on you having seen almost every episode to know what’s going on. For somewhat older kids, they’re more likely to be able to pick and pursue their own preferences (the usual “got up early every week for this show”). This means that shows targeted at a young child demographic will be more likely to be episodic, or at least not have a complex dramatic narrative that requires following the full story, whereas shows targeted at a preteen audience are more willing to have a dramatic narrative with higher complexity. This does not mean by any shake of the imagination that a narrative is incapable of having any kind of depth or nuance -- the reboot’s timeslot predecessor GeGeGe no Kitaro got glowing reviews all over the board for being an episodic story with tons of depth -- nor that characters can’t slowly develop over the course of the show. But it does raise the bar significantly, especially because it prevents you from making episodes that require you to know what happened in previous ones.

The thing is, the original Adventure and the older Digimon series in general didn’t have to worry about this, and, beyond the fact that their narratives very obviously were not episodic, we actually have concrete evidence of the disparity: Digimon has often been said to be a franchise for “the kids who graduated from (outgrew) a certain other monster series”. Obviously, they’re referring to Pokémon -- which does have the much younger target demographic. That’s why its anime is significantly more episodic and less overall plot-oriented, and Digimon wasn’t entirely meant to be a direct competitor to it; rather, it was hoping to pick up the preteens who’d enjoyed Pokémon at a younger age but were now looking for something more catered to them. This is also why, when Yo-kai Watch came into the game in 2014, that was considered such a huge direct competitor to Pokémon, because it was aiming for that exact same demographic, complete with episodic anime. When Yo-kai Watch moved to its Shadowside branch in 2017, it was specifically because they had concerns about losing audience and wanted to appeal to the kids who had been watching the original series, but since they were preteens now, they adopted a more dramatic and emotionally complex narrative that would appeal to that audience instead. So you can actually see the shift in attempted target demographic in real time.

Adventure through Frontier were aimed at 10-11 year olds, and here’s the interesting part: those series had the protagonists hover around the age of said target audience. We actually have it on record that Frontier had a direct attempt to keep most of the kids as fifth-graders for the sake of appealing to the audience, and so that it would be relatable to them. You can also see this policy of “matching the target audience’s age” in other series at the time; Digimon’s sister series Ojamajo Doremi (also produced by Seki) centered around eight-year-olds. Nor was Seki the only one to do this; stepping outside Toei for a bit, Medabots/Medarot had its protagonist Ikki be ten years old, much like Digimon protagonists, and the narrative was similarly dramatic. The thing is, that’s not how it usually works, and that’s especially not really been how it’s worked for the majority of kids’ series since the mid-2000s. In general, and especially now, it’s usually common to have the protagonists of children’s media be slightly older than the target age group. This has a lot of reasons behind it -- partially because kids are looking to have slightly older characters as a model for what to follow in their immediate future, and partially because “the things you want to teach the kids” are often more realistically reflected if the kids on screen have the right level of independence and capacity for emotional contemplation. Case in point: while everyone agrees the Adventure through Frontier characters are quite relatable, it’s a common criticism that the level of emotional insight sometimes pushes the boundary of what’s actually believable for 10-11 year olds...

...which is presumably why, with the exception of this reboot, every Digimon TV series since, as of this writing, started shifting to middle school students. That doesn’t mean they’re aiming the series at middle school kids now, especially because real-life 13-15 year olds are usually at the stage where they pretend they’ve outgrown kids’ shows (after all, that’s why there’s a whole term for “middle school second year syndrome”), but more that the narrative that they want to tell is best reflected by kids of that age, especially when we’re talking characters meant to represent children from the real world and not near-immortal youkai like Kitaro. In fact, the Appmon staff outright said that Haru was placed in middle school because the story needed that level of independence and emotional sensitivity, which is interesting to consider in light of the fact that Appmon’s emotional drama is basically on par with that of Adventure through Frontier’s. So in other words, the kind of high-level drama endemic to Adventure through Frontier is would actually normally be more on par with what you’d expect for kids of Haru’s age.

But at this point, the franchise is at a point of desperation, and you can see that, as I said earlier, Appmon was blatantly trying to be one of those “have its cake and eat it too” series by having possibly one of the franchise’s most dramatic storylines while also having some of the most unsubtle catchphrases and bright colors it has to offer. Moreover, one thing you might notice if you look closely at Appmon: most of its episodes are self-contained. Only a very small handful of episodes are actively dependent on understanding what happened in prior episodes to understand the conflict going on in the current one -- it’s just very cleverly structured in a way you don’t really notice this as easily. So as you can see, the more desperate the franchise has gotten to get its kids’ audience back, the more it has to be able to grab the younger demographic and not lock them out as much as possible -- which means that it has to do things that the original series didn’t have to worry about at all.

Having seen the reboot myself, I can say that it checks off a lot of what you might expect if you tried to repurpose something based on Adventure (and only vaguely based on it, really) into a more episodic story that doesn’t require you to follow the whole thing, and that it has to break down its story into easy-to-follow bits. In fact, there were times where I actually felt like it gave me the vibes of an educational show that would usually be expected for this demographic, such as repeated use of slogans or fun catchphrases for young kids to join in on. That alone means that even if the “base premise” is similar to the original Adventure, this already necessitates a lot of things that have to be very different, because Adventure really cannot be called episodic no matter how you slice it.

Not only that, even though the target audience consideration has yet to be outright stated, we also have interviews on hand that made it very clear, from the very beginning, what their goals with the reboot were: they wanted the kids to be able to enjoy a story of otherworldly exploration during the pandemic, they wanted cool action sequences, and they wanted to get the adults curious about what might be different from the original. Note that last part: they actively wanted this series to be different from the original, because the differences would engage parents in spotting the differences, and the third episode practically even goes out of its way to lay that message down by taking the kids to a familiar summer camp, only to have it pass without incident and go “ha, you thought, but nope!” Moreover -- this is the key part -- “surprising” people who were coming from the original series was a deliberate goal they had from the very beginning. They’ve stated this outright -- they knew older fans were watching this! They were not remotely shy about stating that they wanted to surprise returning viewers with unexpected things! They even implied that they wanted it to be a fun experience for older watchers to see what was different and what wasn’t -- basically, it’s a new show for their kids who never saw the original Adventure, while the parents are entertained by a very different take on something that seems ostensibly familiar. 

On top of that, the head writer directly cited V-Tamer as an influence -- and if you know anything about V-Tamer, it’s really not that much of a character narrative compared to what we usually know of Digimon anime, and is mostly known for its battle tactics and action sequences (but in manga form). In other words, we have a Digimon anime series that, from day one, was deliberately made to have a writing philosophy and goal that was absolutely not intended to be like Adventure -- or any Digimon TV anime up to this point -- in any way. And that’s a huge shock for us as veterans, who have developed our tastes and expectations based on up to seven series of Digimon that were absolutely not like this at all. But for all it's worth, the circumstances surrounding its production and intent don't seem to quite line up with what the most common accusations against it are:

That it’s a rehash of Adventure: It really isn’t. It’s also blatantly apparent it has no intention of being so. The points that are in common: the character names and rough character designs, some very minimal profile details for said characters, Devimon having any particular foil position to Angemon, the use of Crests to represent personal growth, the premise of being in the Digital World and...that’s it! Once those points are aside, it’s really hard to say that the series resembles Adventure any more than Frontier or Xros Wars resembles Adventure (which are also “trapped in another world” narratives) -- actually, there are times the series resembles those two more than the original Adventure, which many have been quick to point out. The majority of things you can make any kind of comparison to basically drop off by the end of the first quarter or so, and trying to force a correlation is basically just that: you’d have to try forcing the comparison. The plot, writing style, and even the lineup of enemies shown just go in a completely different direction after that. So in the end, the base similarities can be said to be a marketing thing; if I want to criticize this series, I don’t think “lack of creativity” would actually be something I would criticize it for. (Of course, you’re still welcome to not be a huge fan of how they’re still guilty of using Adventure’s name value to market something that is not actually Adventure. We’re all gonna have mixed feelings on that one.)

That they don’t understand or remember Adventure’s appeal: Unlikely. All of the main staff has worked on character-based narratives before, which have been very well-praised while we’re at it. The producer, Sakurada Hiroyuki, was an assistant producer on the original series, and I would like to believe he probably remembers at least a thing or two about what they were doing with the original series...but, also, he’s the producer of Xros Wars, which definitely had its own individuality and style, and, moreover, was more of a character narrative that people generally tend to expect from Digimon anime. (Still a bit unconventional, and it has its own questions of personal taste, but a lot of people have also pointed out that this reboot has a lot in common with Xros Wars in terms of its writing tone and its emphasis on developing Digital World resident Digimon moreso than the human characters.) All signs point to the idea they could make a character narrative like Adventure if they really wanted to. It’s just, they don’t want to do that with this reboot, so they didn’t.

That they misinterpreted or misremembered the Adventure characters: There’s been accusations of said characters being written in a way that implies misinterpretation or lack of understanding of the original characters, but the thing is, while I definitely agree they have nowhere near the depth of the original ones, there are points that seem to be deliberate changes. (At some points, they’re actually opposites of the original, and certain things that operate as some very obscure references -- for instance, Sora complaining about having to sit in seiza -- seem to also be deliberate statements of going in a different direction.) The lack of human character depth or backstory doesn’t seem to be out of negligence, but rather that this story doesn’t want to be a character narrative to begin with -- after all, we’re used to seven series of Digimon that are, but there are many, many kids’ anime, or even stories in general, where the story is more about plot or action than it is completely unpacking all of its characters’ heads. In this case, this reboot does seem to have characters that are taking cues from or are “inspired by” the original, but, after all, it’s an alternate universe and has no obligation to adhere to the original characters’ backgrounds, so it stands to reason that it’d take liberties whenever it wanted. (Again, the head writer outright stated that he based the reboot’s Taichi more on V-Tamer Taichi than the original Adventure anime Taichi. He knows there’s a difference!) Even more intriguingly, the series actually avoids certain things that are common misconceptions or pigeonholes that would normally be done by the mainstream -- for instance, the Crest of Light (infamously one of the more abstract ones in the narrative) is fully consistent with Adventure’s definition of it as “the power of life”, and, if I dare say so myself, Koushirou’s characterization (emphasizing his relationship with “knowledge” and his natural shyness) arguably resembles the original far more than most common fan reductions of his character that overemphasize his computer skills over his personal aptitude. In other words, I think the staff does know what happened in the original Adventure -- they just actively don’t want to do what Adventure did, even if it’s ostensibly a reboot.

That it’s soulless or that there’s no passion in its creation: Well, this is subjective, and in the end I’m not a member of the staff to tell you anything for sure, but there are definitely a lot of things in this anime that don’t seem like they’d be the byproduct of uninspired creation or lack of passion. It’s just that those things are all not the kinds of things that we, as Digimon veterans, have come to develop a taste for and appreciate in Digimon anime. That is to say, there is an incredible amount of thought and detail put into representing Digimon null canon (i.e. representing special attacks and mechanics), the action sequences are shockingly well-animated in ways that put most prior Digimon anime to shame, and the series has practically been making an obvious attempt to show off as many Digimon (creatures) that haven’t traditionally gotten good franchise representation as they can. Or sometimes really obscure “meta fanservice” references that only make sense to the really, really, really, really hardcore longtime Digimon fan (for instance, having an episode centered around Takeru and Opossummon, because Takeru’s voice actress Han Megumi voiced Airu in Xros Wars). If you follow any of the animators on Twitter, they seem to be really actively proud of their work on it, and franchise creators Volcano Ota and Watanabe Kenji seem to be enjoying themselves every week...so basically, we definitely have creators passionate about having fun with this, it’s just that all of it is being channeled here, not the character writing.

So in the end, you can basically see that this series is basically the epitome of desperately pulling out all of the stops to make sure this series lands with the actual target demographic of children, dammit, and gets them into appreciating how cool these fighting monsters are and how cool it would be if they stuck with them even into a series that’s not Adventure. The Adventure branding and names to lure in the parents, the straightforward and easy-to-understand action-oriented narrative so that kids will think everything is awesome and that they’ll like it even when the story changes, and the merchandise and collab events booked everywhere so that they can all be reused for the next series too...because, remember, they failed with that during Savers, Xros Wars, and Appmon (I mean, goodness, you kind of have to admire their persistence, because a ton of other kids’ franchises failing this many times would have given up by now), so it’s a bit unsurprising that they went all the way to get the kids’ attention at the expense of a lot of things that would attract veterans, especially since the veterans already have a well-developed adults’ pipeline to cater to them. This does also mean that this series is more likely to come off as a 67-episode toy commercial than any previous Digimon series, but it’s not even really the toys as much as they’re trying to sell the entire franchise and the actual monsters in the hopes that they’ll stick with it even when the narrative changes.

Nevertheless, here we are. The series is over. Ghost Game -- which, as of this writing, is looking to be much more of a conventional Digimon narrative, complete with older cast, obviously more dramatic atmosphere, and pretty much everything surrounding its PR -- is on its way, presumably thanks to the success of this endeavor. It’s hard to gauge it; we have it on record that they also intend it to be episodic, but remember that this doesn’t necessarily prevent it from having an overall dramatic plot or nuanced drama (especially since the abovementioned Appmon and Kitaro were perfectly capable of pulling off this balance). Nevertheless, it seems to be a lot more of the conventional kind of Digimon narrative we usually expect, so, as for us, adult long-time fans of the Digimon franchise (many of whom don’t have kids anyway), what exactly should we make of this? Well, as far as “supporting the franchise” goes, you’ll get much more progress supporting Ghost Game than the reboot; I highly doubt view counts and merch sales relative to an already-finished series will do nearly as much for the franchise’s health as much as the currently airing series, and, besides, it’d probably do us all a favor to support the endeavor that’s actually new and fresh. So when it comes to a “past” series like this, it’s all just going to come down to a question of personal preference and taste: is this a series you, personally, want to watch, and would you find it entertaining?

For some of you, it’s possible that it just won’t be your cup of tea at all -- and since, like I said, the majority of us here have based our expectations and preferences on up to seven series of Digimon that were not like this, that’s also perfectly fine, and in that case I don’t actually recommend you watch this. Of course, I’ve never thought that it was ever fair to expect a Digimon fan to have seen all of the series released to date; the more series we get, the more inhumane of a demand that’ll become, and I think this franchise becoming successful enough to have so many series that most people won’t have seen it all is a good thing. (It’s actually kind of alarming that the percentage of people who have seen it all is so high, because it means the franchise has failed to get much of an audience beyond comparatively hardcore people who committed to it all the way.) But I think, especially in this case, with a series for which adult fans like us were probably lowest on the priority list due to the sheer amount of desperation going on here, it’s fine to skip it, and if you’re someone who lives by a need for character depth or emotionally riveting narrative, the fact this series is (very unabashedly and unashamedly) mostly comprised of episodic stories and action sequences means you won’t have missed much and probably won’t feel too left out of any conversations going forward. That’s before we even get into the part where it’s still completely understandable to potentially have mixed feelings or resentment about the overuse of the Adventure brand for something like this, especially if Adventure is a particularly important series to you.

But for some of you out there, it might still be something you can enjoy on its own merits. I’ve seen people who were disappointed by the limited degree of Digimon action sequences in the past or the fact that the series has gotten overly fixated on humans, and had an absolute ball with the reboot because it finally got to represent parts of the franchise they felt hadn’t been shown off as well. “Fun” is a perfectly valid reason to enjoy something. It’s also perfectly possible to be someone who can enjoy character narratives like the prior Digimon series but also enjoy something that’s more for being outlandish and fun and has cool Digital World concepts and visuals -- and, like I said, it does not let up on that latter aspect at all, so there’s actually potential for a huge feast in that regard. I think as long as you don’t expect it to be a character narrative like Adventure -- which will only set you up for disappointment, because it’s not (and made very clear since even the earliest episodes and interviews that it had no intention of being one) -- it’s very possible to enjoy it for what it is, and for what it does uniquely.