#and the new ones have all been really cool and have interesting evolutions and games and ahh!!

[imwritesometimes]

finally able to activate my Bit Bunny Giga Pet sooo this is what I'll be doing all weekend 🐇💖🥕

[jadeazora]

Honestly tho, this is years off, probably more than a decade, but I hope just because we're getting a Kalosian Legends game, that they don't skimp out on giving Kalos an actually GOOD remake when the time comes.

Especially as far as Team Flare-centric characters go. They had the most potential as a villain team, and XY dropped the ball so bad with them, I would hate for a BDSP-esque remake to do the same. No joke, these guys were most of the reason I wanted Z back in Gen6.

Like, Lysandre is pretty much at the forefront of Kalos' tech and communication, and is a very influential person there, they could do something with Malva running cover-ups for Flare in the news media, the entire organization is probably full of politically powerful people given the wealth of their members (Kalos could be quite corrupt for all we know), they have this secret stranglehold on the region, and it's scary, like no one in Kalos really had any idea how fucked they were until it was (almost) too late. Even the Champion was likely completely in the dark, their strongest line of defense was a total no-show, even when the Ultimate Weapon had been raised.

We can definitely pin that on Malva tho, since she keeps all of Kalos in the dark with her job in the news media, and as a mole in the E4, she likely keeps any sensitive information from Diantha too. And she gets away with ALL OF IT. Diantha never even knows, like even as far as Masters, she doesn't seem to be aware of Malva's true allegiance. And Malva never shows any regret or anything for what she did, she tries to justify it. She's even actively hostile to the player for taking them down, and routinely threatens to burn them up where they stand. (And this is before she becomes an accessory to murder in Masters, like, this woman smiles as Lysandre prepares to have Volcanion flash-boil a couple Rocket grunts. What is wrong with her.)

Even the grunts, they're essentially a genocidal secret police of elitist fuckheads who don't give a single flying shit about throwing everyone else under the bus so long as they survive, listening in on Holocaster conversations and having some implicit plainclothes agents (showcased more in Masters tho), and given how wealthy the organization is, it would be very easy for them to make problem people disappear. Imagine if they played up that paranoia factor they have, like, you're on their radar getting into battles with them and interfering with their plans on the regular, Lysandre calls you at multiple points (and definitely knows you're the one causing trouble before the player character finds out he's their leader), you're definitely not safe.

Also, it would have been neat if Sycamore had been in on it too somehow, maybe a joint leadership with Lysandre or something with how he plays off the man's blatant bloodlust as just him being "passionate"? I was side-eyeing him my entire first playthru. But even tho that turned out to not be the case, it would have been cool if one of them tried to save the other, be it Lysandre kidnapping Sycamore to try to spare his friend from the culling, or Sycamore joining you on the front lines to try to talk some sense into his friend. It was such an interesting dynamic at the time, and it was always such a waste it barely got any development. (At least Masters and Evolutions have made steps to fix that complaint since, but still.)

[digi-lov]

I'm gonna be honest with you... I misread an ask and spent all day yesterday putting way too much effort into the following visuals to respond to an ask, that didn't even exist I guess. Cool cool. Now if that doesn't scream I got a concussion idk what does

So in my brain, I thought I got an ask about what I would like future sets to be based on.

!!! - Spoilers for the evolution lines of Digimon World -next 0rder-, Digimon ReArise, and Digimon Survive, in that order. - !!!

First of all, generally, I'd love more game based sets, especially based on games with relatively large casts of characters and Digimon, to really fill up the set thematically!

Example number one:

Digimon World -next 0rder-

Now, what speaks against this is that most of these Digimon have been featured in the Card Game before, many of them thoroughly. But I feel like we will always keep getting cards if franchise favorites like Agumon, Guilmon & co., so I'd appreciate at least the variety in Tamers.

What I'd like out of a next 0rder set would definitely be another Mastemon, especially since despite Mirei and her Angewomon and LadyDevimon having been featured in the Re:Digitize focused set BT-11 Dimensional Phase, there was no new Mastemon. (I get it, Mastemon wasn't in the game, but come one, I mean-)

Also would love to see Analog Youth / Hiro / Mameo return! I feel like they could do interesting stuff with him. Luche also has potential for some special mechanics.

I highly doubt they'll create a new Digimon, but with official art featuring Shiki with Biyomon and Palmon instead of Agumon and Gabumon, I always wanted to have a Fusion of their ultimates, like Omegamon!

Next up,

Digimon ReArise!

Now this, this would be great. Not only will I personally jump at any chance for more Bearmon- this game had a large cast of characters, with quite a few uncommon evolutions, as well as completely new Digimon! And don't we all want more people to learn about NoblePumpmon?

Third example,

Digimon Survive

I feel like there is a lot of potential in a Survive themed set. I'd really love for all these characters to get Tamer cards! While I only have the basic evolution lines in my graphic, with there being branching paths for Takuma and a few other characters, this could easily fill a set! Even though Agumon, Gabumon, Lopmon and Renamon are pretty common and popular, there are many "unusual" Partners as well. I'd love to have a good Floramon card finally, as well as Ceresmon Medium!

What are your thoughts?

[atari-phantom]

Hey there man! How's it going for you?

I recently got Fallout: New Vegas for my XBOX, and I was wondering if you are familiar with those series! If you are familiar with Fallout, do you have any favourite games from there?

I was also thinking how would it look like if Pokemon were there, probably would look interesting

Hey dude! It's going, honestly. Haven't been on tumblr a ton the past few days, coming back though. Fallout New Vegas is awesome! I've played it before, it's pretty fun! I just... haven't played it a lot. I have most, if not all of the Fallout games (except for 76, never got that one.), but I just haven't really gotten around to playing 'em all. I need to sometime or another. New Vegas is my favorite, though. I'm pretty sure it's a bit different from most of the others too, but eh. My younger sibling is far more into the Fallout games than I am, they could go on for hours about Fallout I'm sure. They'd definitely recommend playing New Vegas, and probably Fallout 3 and 4. I'd love to see some Fallout-style pokemon. Special mega evolutions / mutated pokemon would be cool as hell out there in the desert. Mutated flygons would be scary af.

[basedkikuenjoyer]

A Tale of Two Hannya: Flowers Without Names

Last time we dabbled in this area we made it clear we were just scratching the surface. I have a lot I want to say about how Kiku & Yamato play off of each other and how it plays into manga’s long history of playing with gender. We’ve already brought up the classic series on the right, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and how Yamato sorta falls into some of the same pitfalls of the iconic princely lady. But I don’t think this discussion is complete without acknowledging another very important landmark shoujo that still casts a long shadow today. The Rose of Versailles, an iconic 70s series starring the dashing Lady Oscar. Raised as a man to inherit her father’s spot in the royal guard and her “Anthy,” fitting for a story told with the backdrop of the French Revolution, is none other than Marie Antoinette.

So here’s our thesis. Famously the intent of Rose wasn’t initially Oscar. Antoinette was supposed to be the protagonist but was upstaged by such a novel heroine for the time. Utena was the deconstruction of what spawned in her wake. Wano’s Hannya duo? A wickedly smart evolution that’s actually quite responsive to contemporary social changes.

Oscar really does seem like she ended up being this accidental icon, but for all the glory and passion her story is so often wound up in how she can never really escape being sucked in to “women’s games.” It’s a solid recipe; she’s remarkable as a guard & soldier but situations force her to deal with things as a woman. Contrast between battle and courtroom intrigue. It’s a very old school type of feminist work. Similar tone if a different structure than Kozue in the slightly earlier Attack No.1 and a lot of our Pinkie Violence heroines. Deep down there’s always that “A woman is still a woman” element. That’s fallen out of fashion as more feminist depictions have become normal, but there’s a certain power in that internal dynamic. 

The appeal was just seeing a female lead doing cool shit. And this parallels a lot of world media from the 60s/70s. Still pretty old fashioned gender expectations but seeing women buck them at all was fresh. Thing is...give it twenty years and new issues crop up. By the 90s we have a generation that grew up on things like Rose of Versailles and analogues to the point this action girl tomboy is just a trope. A trope bordering on cliche. A trope that allowed how we write most women to stagnate. Love interests, mothers, etc. didn’t have to get with the times. Just toss in a girl that does cool guy things and you’re golden! Most copycats lacked the balance that made Rose so iconic.  Enter Utena, so far ahead of the curve. I’ve heard her described as revolutionary even.

The titular Utena is a fairy tale character in the real world. She is a perfect lil Mary Sue, but the more the story matures the more it becomes obvious a fairy tale character lacks the sense to pick up on real issues. That’s Utena’s magic; juxtaposing the uber cool main character with the actual scary forces in the world. Leading to an ending that lets seemingly useless, docile Anthy drive the point home. A character like Utena can inspire strength...but most girls are going to have to learn other tactics. “Utena” is the Japanese word for Calyx, the outer part of a flower bud that protects it. Smash the world’s shell...

Revolutionary for the time, ahead of the curve in so many ways. But its 30 years old now. We’re at a point it isn’t rare to see casual critique of leaning on the action girl tomboy as a crutch. Nothing new under the Sun, we’ve been here before. It’ll swing that way until a new generation thinks Peppermint Patty is subversive again. And that’s the landscape One Piece got to have fun with.

Which brings us to our pair of breakout new faces in Wano. One of the biggest changes to stories that play with gender roles in this day and age is the reality we pay more attention to why some people organically feel that way. Yamato’s still playing this trope straight. Very straight actually. Background is totally on par with Oscar and the way you go about it feels very similar...for the most part. Could say the same about Utena, Yams is someone who kept that spark of nobility equivalent well into adulthood. There is definitely not a “woman is still a woman” angle with Yamato. The bath scene is a great example. No, you just don’t have that modesty. 

Kiku has that element though, in spades. Her story runs on it. What was old fashioned becomes forward thinking now by combining two tropes. Let the girly trans woman have that old theme if it isn’t as relevant anymore for most women. Same logic I’d use to say she makes a great quartermaster template. It’d be an eyeroll to make most female crewmates the one swabbing the deck or doing laundry in establishing shots...not so much if it’s Kiku. Which gives a cool edge, what’s stifling for some is liberating for others. 

That said...looking at the two together I can’t unsee the gentle repudiation of the very extreme end “all that matters at all is what you say your are” mindset. We’re not getting into discourse here, I’m just identifying trends that exist regardless of how you may feel about them. One Piece is far, far, far from the only reflection the pendulum is swinging the other way even within the community. Yamato’s treated more on the same tier as like, Bon & Iva. He does feel a little more like a caricature at points. And I do think part of the way they’re used together is making a statement about their relative journeys. How certain aspects can feel like Yamato gets the best of both worlds and Kiku the worst. Yamato doesn’t have to care because at worst you’ll think he’s silly instead of creepy and for meeting that impossible bar of being the perfect lady as good as anyone in Wano...Kiku’s “prize” is having to juggle two sets of lofty expectations.  

I feel like Oda really knew what he was doing here. Knew teenage battle shonen fans would bend over backwards to make excuses for Yamato and aggressively ignore Kiku. If OP Academy’s pulling the same trick this was clearly the intent. Both play with the expectations of that generic Strong Female Character archetype One Piece has generally avoided. Oda’s great at writing women but seems to feel that action girl tomboy is a crutch too. We’ll probably revisit this one down the line. It’s a deep well and one that’s delicate to talk about. But I wanted to end this tour of my drafts page for the last year with a bang.

[autobot-ratchet]

earthspark episode 9+10!

hfgdjs I love how they've been building up ghost as this super skeevy morally grey organization that's using the autobots to further their anti-con agenda but they're all just cringefail losers, including that one dude from earlier who was hunting Twitch

"it's been 30 years! well, 15 for you." okay so I'm completely justified in feeling weird about everyone being so cool with Megatron lmfAO he was absolutely doing decepticon shit on earth within recent memory

THE BUMBLEBEE SUIT........

I love how we're slowly but surely playing with the idea of gender-swapping more and more bots (in particular, swapping from male to female since yknow. there's like 1000 male bots and like maybe 20 females if you really scrape for the obscure ones lmfAO)

I barely have anything to say about this scene, this is just some good, good action lmAO

as much as I poke fun at Dr. Mandroid, I am immediately interested in his villainous angle here, especially in tandem with ghost's deal and Optimus and Megatron's moral dilemma, I'm seeing the overarching themes, I am the noticer

fhdsjak come on Op you gotta pinky-swear

aw I'm glad Optimus arranged things so that he can still go with the Terrans, I was fully prepared for him to have to be like "eermmm sorry, I know I pinky-swore, but actually I gotta go do ghost things you know how it is." also more Megatron-Dorothy time hell yes I'm so ready

oh I LOOOOOOOOVE how Dorothy holds onto Megatron's leg as he walks, like it's a practiced motion they've done a thousand times oughgjdsfgu I forgot how much I love human/bot relationships my fucking neurons are ACTIVATED

oh shit these spider droid things can do it all

GET HIS ASS DOROTHY

ooh tell me the LORE mandroid, he hates literally all parties involved and I wanna know why, spill the teeeeaaaaaa

there's that spidery symbol again (edit: I was playing Earth Wars and saw that symbol again in that game, it's Quintus Prime's crest lmAO I kinda thought it was gonna be Tarantulas-related since I know his ass is in this show somewhere)

"go ahead, kids, you got the touch." and the fuckin synth music kicking in shut uuuUUUPPP

the ember stone, huh? I did call it a matrix rock before but it looks absolutely nothing like the matrix lmAO so yeah that's fair that it's an entirely different object

I love that they wrote Alex to just. have transformers as a special interest, I love how it works in both canon and meta, I love transformers lore lmAO

once again crossing my fingers and praying for the cyber sleeves to equip the human children with weapons to protect themselves

uhhhgfhdsj I'll come back and edit this post with what the cybertronian writing says later, I wanna watch right now lmAO besides I'm willing to bet it says the same thing the wall did, "in times of need, help shall rise to your call," that fits for this situation (edit: it does not lmfAO it says "Evolution of hope.")

OH NEW GUYS, THAT ONE'S NIGHTSHADE RIGHT THAT'S MY FELLOW THEY/THEM USER HIIIIIIII

oh shit they actually caused a cave-in

happy birthday kids, now escape mortal peril lmAO

oh of course Nightshade's a little fruity with it lmfAO also I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the masculine voice, usually when an agender individual shows up in a piece of mainstream media, they're very clearly feminine/afab since the general cis population thinks that agender people are just weird and quirky women and have a hard time grasping the concept of amab folks being anything other than Male so I'm happy to see this

I love that everyone else in the show also just calls this dude Mandroid lmfAO like even during serious scenes, they're not even dunking on him like I am, he really did just fuck up his introduction forever

"he or she just doesn't fit who I am" oh it warms my heart to hear that in a mainstream transformers cartoon aaaAAAAAHHHH..... and I was afraid they'd handle that in a really clunky way, especially when I heard that a character literally says the words "Nightshade's pronouns are they/them" in the script, but that felt natural enough in its canon context. also I do feel a tiny bit of vindictive glee at them specifically saying "he or she" is not correct, cannot TELL you how many times I've seen people use "he or she" to refer to a group of people when "they" would've worked just fine, just REALLY letting me know you think there's only two options

ohhh hearing Optimus prime respect someone's they/them pronouns has my heart soaring lmAO it feels like my veins are filled with liquid sunshine, feels good feels right feels organic!!! literally every time I start doubting my gender and thinking I should just go back to presenting as cis, I hear someone refer to someone else with they/them pronouns just casually like it's not even an issue and the gender euphoria goes DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!! and like truly what choice do I have but to be more of a they/them than ever lmAO

I said it before but I love how involved Dorothy is with the action in this show. It always made me happy that June got to be part of the team in transformers prime but she was a doctor, not a fighter. I am specifically glad that Dorothy is fucking shit up in this cartoon lmAO it rules

ooh interesting, his base moves??? or is it invisible, I know he's got that kind of tech

aww Alex...

omgdhfasjk the seven billion text messages...

I am a fucking sucker, that whole "the color purple" thing got me good lmAO

fghsdjksa good fake accent, Hashtag

DFGADHJSFDGHDJSF THE SPARKLY ANIME YURI FLASHBACK..... purple is apparently also the color of lesbian airplanes, first Slipstream now Skywarp lmfAO

this man's lips are so fucking dry y'all gotta stop zooming in on them

OH THE BASE DOES IN FACT JUST FUCKING MOVE LMAO

oh hell yeah, love the heart-shaped explosions while they kiss lmAO

oh my god Mandroid really does have history and beef with EVERYONE, how the FUCK does he know Alex???

Twitch is just collecting dads like it's a hobby

ooh shit we got spilled energon

girl you better know what the fuck you're doing, I actually like you you better not die

YEAAAHHHH FUCK HIS WHOLE DAY UP

"is every day like this for you?" FOR REAL LIKE Y'ALL HAVE BEEN ALIVE FOR HALF A DAY AND ALREADY YOU'VE SEEN ALL THIS SHIT

aww I'm glad Optimus finally got a dub, he's been getting yelled at this whole dang show and now we finally got some tangible progress on the kind of thing he's trying to achieve, good for him, good for everybody

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group L Round 2: #L1 vs #L2

#L1: Normal Girl™ accidentally joins Kansai’s biggest criminals

#L2: Girl turns into a tanuki and learns about racism

Details and poll under the cut!

#L1: Akudama Drive

Summary:

After the fall-out of a war between the Kanto and Kansai regions of Japan, citizens of Kansai now live in a dystopia. Criminals are bigger and badder than before, resulting in a specialized Execution Division rising to combat these ‘Akudama.’

An ordinary person accidentally wedges herself into the midst of a gang of the worst of the worst, and now she’s on the run with Kansai’s top Akudama to fulfill a cryptic mission. Her goal was to get back to her normal life, but one thing leads to another and she gets trapped, bound by her sense of morals to stick with her terrible team.

The team in question consists of a Brawler with a need to find the toughest opponent to fight, a Doctor who toys with lives, a Hacker who has run out of games to play, a Courier who always gets the job done, a Cutthroat with a kill count of 999 bodies, and a Hoodlum who was set for a prison sentence of 5 years. Joining them is the Black Cat, their mysterious recruiter, who promises great wealth to the Akudama.

Propaganda:

Akudama Drive is an anime produced by a video game company, and it’s amazingly a single standalone piece, unlike their other projects. The three people who lead the creation of the Danganronpa series (character designer, story writer, and music composer) came together and produced something so different from their usual pattern and it pays off.

The character designs are so fun, the music vibes hard, and the story is better than anything seen in DR before since (no offense meant) the cast all get fleshed out as individuals beyond a single trope. Everyone is depicted as morally grey, and it’s such a fun experience to watch the madness break out and root for the bad guys or the bad guys.

Every scene is so pretty, and you can see the color theory SLAPPING THE SCREEN, it’s so pleasing to look at. The voice acting is also top tier! The character evolution can literally be heard in the voices 🛐 The anime is a fun show with cool stunts and epic battles, but it’s still got some interesting social commentary if you’re the type that loves dissecting that madness. There’s a little something for everyone!

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Rape/Non-Con, Self-Harm, Constant Flashing Lights and Screaming

#L2: BNA: Brand New Animal

Summary:

Throughout history, humans have been at odds with Beastmen—a species capable of changing shape due to their genetic "Beast Factor." Because of this conflict, Beastmen have been forced into hiding. Anima City serves as a safe haven for these oppressed individuals to live free from human interference.

During a festival celebrating the town's 10th anniversary, Michiru Kagemori, a human who suddenly turned into a tanuki, finds that Anima City is a far cry from paradise. After witnessing an explosion in the square, she is confronted by Shirou Ogami, a seemingly indestructible wolf and sworn protector of all Beastmen. As they pursue the criminals behind the bombing, the two discover that Michiru is anything but an ordinary Beastman, and look to investigate her mysterious past and uncanny abilities. Could she turn out to be the missing link between Humans and Beastmen?

Propaganda:

This is one of the first few anime I watched when I was getting into it, so I'm rather fond of it. Though the show is only one season, overall it's pretty solid and ties everything together at the end. I also really like how they utilize color in the animation (it especially makes fight scenes more interesting to watch). The worldbuilding they have with the beastmen is pretty neat as well. This anime is good if you're looking for something quick to watch.

Trigger Warnings: There is some violence, and since the characters are animals, that may fall under animal cruelty. There are a few parts in the show where the colors get pretty intense, so that could be considered flashing lights. There is racism, as the beastmen are discriminated against by humans.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[aurheatum]

toa anniversary mun day

under cut

Name: 

Nel, i mean it’s Sarah technically, but once you start getting multiple notes in the mail with Nel on them I think it counts. Nelfes works too. I respond to most anything tbh

Pronouns:

she/her or they/them

Birthday (no year):

Dec 6th Saint Nicholas Day : )

Where are you from? What is your time zone?

Chicago. CST [GMT-5].

Roleplay experience:

Over ten years, started on Neopets and other forums. Moved to Gaia Online and then Tumblr indie space some time in 2011.

Got any pets?

Baby boy

Favorite time of year:

Springtime or Autumn

Some interests and things you like:

I’ve always been super into mythology, all of them. I used to think that Carl Jung was onto something with the collective unconscious but then Anthropology and the reality of multilineal evolution ruined that for me (college will teach you things); but that’s alright because humans their ability to create and interpret their surroundings with equal parts love and fear is still pretty cool.

Some funfacts & trivia about you:

-Agnostic but i work in an occult library (it’s pretty quiet; the new age bookshop across the street has all the events)

-One time on Gaia Online I was kicked out of an Okami RP bc I didn’t make my posts aesthetic enough, and I thought it was just the most heart wrenching thing -I’m not sure what people stand to gain back in Ye Old Runescape luring new players out into the wild and PKing them but I was gullible enough to follow some other players at like 7 yrs old and this would have happened to me if i wasnt SUPER good at clicking my mouse and running out of there. Surviving such a harrowing experience made me think i was truly invincible.

-I was supposed to write my final paper for my Japanese Buddhism class on… surprise, Japanese Buddhism but I really wanted to talk about Kenji Miyazawa’s writings instead so I spun it through a lens of his Nichiren conversion and its impact on his poetry. My prof saw right through me but I still got an A.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play?

Tales of RPG series raised me as a person so u know. I like Persona 1-2 era SMT though I’ve played Nocturne and IV as well. What else? Okami, LOZ: Twilight Princess, farm sims and visual novels. Genshin, on and off.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon:

Psychic; wooper family (clogsire im so glad u joined us)

How did you get into Fire Emblem?

My neighbor would bring over Path of Radiance so I could play it on my gamecube with my own save back in the day

What Fire Emblem games have you played?

Tellius duology. Sacred Stones, FE 13-16; currently doing Blazing Blade. Archanea one day.

First Fire Emblem game:

POR

Favorite Fire Emblem game:

Tie between 3 Houses and Radiant Dawn

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 

It’s rhea okay. I wont lie and i wont pretend it isnt evidence of my spectacular taste either

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Tiki (first S support was olivia bc i wanted a pink haired kid)  - Fates: honestly i’d have to revisit, i know i first married niles as m!corrin - Three Houses: I married each lord on their route tho it’s much funnier if you dont i think (First route was Crimson Flower but I saved at the split so I could marry Rhea first lmao) - Engage: Saphir 🥰

Favorite Fire Emblem class:

War Cleric or Qi Adept

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class?

I’d be the mage you have to drag around and treat with baby gloves only to learn like a single good spell I think

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation?

Leicester Alliance tbh

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with?

Based purely on mechanics bc i love them all prob Soren dlc, Sigurd, Celica, and Lyn.

How did you find TOA?

End of 2020/beginning of 2021 I was really trying to get back into rp but couldn’t get into the various systems on discord. One community that I was trying was affiliates with The Officer’s Academy and an active tumblr community rly caught my interest. The rest is history!

Current TOA muses:

Rhea 3H, Micaiah Radiant Dawn, and miss Hortensia engage

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again?

This blog right here! I put her down for a bit and probably will again but. It’s not like she ever leaves, instead of brain there is Rhea u see (i bear this burden so u do not have to)

Have you had any other TOA muses?

I played Sephiran for a hot sec and Ingrid for around a yearish iirc. Both very fun

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards?

Not really? I need to be able to connect with them on some level obviously, and I tend to prefer characters who have like a clear childhood or background for why they are That Way. Micaiah was actually p difficult for this reason but being able to really shape her based on what little we know also made me ever more fond. ♥️ I love to stare at pegasusknight and serenesforest supports pages late at night tehe

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most?

I don’t particularly plan ahead but I really love when threads reflect past character development whether in a thread with the same muse or different. TOA extended universe… I’d like to do that more I think but first I have to actually make a support page huh? Since Rhea’s back she’s made more bonds though and that makes me happy.

Favorite TOA-related memory: Definitely Unlocked 2021! It was my first event after really starting to warm to the TOA community and i was an awe of the scope of the events. The mods thought this far ahead?! We can do this?! Every event since has just been even more fun but the surprise and intrigue i felt then really stayed with him

*How do you pronounce TOA?

Toe-uh. Like Dee-En-Dee. you know.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? 😉 

I think I mentioned I muse Hubert before, and also that I can't really seeing myself maintaining a blog for him? So other than that, no. I do think Nimh could be quite a bit of fun though *laughs*

[ddddd-pixels]

Did another tier list on Zan Evolution Butouden, since I'm more familiar with the game now, and a few new characters have been added since my last one:

(Also I based this one more off my personal ability as the characters, rather than competitive viability. This is because I know nothing about competitive viability and was talking complete nonsense in my last list.)

Explanations/unrelated ramblings below:

S Tier – My Mains (and just good characters)

Fran and Sinkage are both bosses (and the final two at that), so it's not a surprise that they're tough. I've actually figured out some TODs as Fran against the lower health characters (i.e. Fanhua, Ranmaru and Fran herself), and while Sinkage's Rise Cutter loops no longer work as well, the addition of an elbow drop output from it makes it still a very deadly move.

Ahh, Ciara, my true main... How I love spending two meters to take an enemy's entire healthbar just because they dared to jump in my presence. Her chain grabs are just really satisfying, too, and unlike anything I've seen in any other characters I've had. (and not a full-circle motion in sight!)

A Tier – The ones I'm comfortable with

A few of these characters (Zanryu, Renmia and Jacob) are shoto-like, and therefore quite easy to learn and get good as. They're all still pretty interesting to play in their own ways: Zanryu's got enough extra tools to distance his playstyle from the typical shoto, making him more of an aerial dominator (his Air Nova Strike especially, makes his air play very hard to challenge), and Renmia's moveset is like a fusion of a shoto and Terry Bogard, making her more familiar to play, and a good beginner character.

I feel like, if I gave him more time, Casben could be in S Tier. A lot of his kit feels very powerful (in earlier builds I remember his jumping knee being able to loop into itself very easily), and both of his supers are very good (his handspring is always a very tricky cross-up when the CPU does it, but a complete whiff when I try -_-). The only thing holding him back is that I play more as everyone else, lol.

Taka is in a weird spot, where I feel like he as a character isn't that strong, but my skill can kind of make up for it? I don't know, I've had a tendency to accidentally main low tiers in other games (the first character I picked up in Sm4sh was Little Mac, and I also mained Ganondorf), and with his smaller moveset and limited combo potential, Taka feels like this to me. But I'm actually pretty competent as Taka – he's one of the few characters I can chain both supers into without an OTG, and I win most fights where I play as him.

B Tier – ...I'm okay, I guess.

I know I used to main Fanhua, but the more I play as her, the worse I get, it feels... I think my main struggle are that her Elbow Reach isn't a special move anymore, and that her rekkas don't combo (or I just can't get the timing for them :P).

Ranmaru is a character I wish I was better as, because her moveset seems so cool, but all of her inputs are half-circles, and I play on keyboard half of the time (and I'm inconsistent with half-circles even on controller). She even influenced Uta a bit (Hissatsu Shinobi Cho was very much based on Ranmaru's Elbow Dive – before I played Ranmaru, Uta was going to have "Zan'eichu", which was basically just Andy's Zan'eiken).

C Tier – Yeah... I'm losing this one

wendy I'm so sorry I love your design so much I just can't play charge characters pls don't hate me...

Leo's pretty neat, I guess; his moveset is like a Joe Higashi/Sagat fusion, with an added TC and rekka. I just never really played either of those characters much, so I don't know what to do with him.

D Tier – I have no idea what to do with these people

I've not played as any of these characters much (except for Warsnite), so I'm not at all familiar with their movesets... I tried to fight Zanryu (the person, not the character) as Feng Yun once and got folded in half immediately. I've never even attempted Spike, Antbyte or Ninewave.

I honestly can't believe I used to main Warsnite... His airdash is cool, but he's otherwise the complete opposite of what I usually go for in a character – he's got the smallest moveset in the game (which is okay, I just like having more options), and is the slowest, heaviest character. I've seen him do, like, one cool combo, and even then; it was the CPU doing it on me, and it spent one meter for damage I can outmatch with Fanhua for zero.

[bluekat12345]

Pokemon Scarlet DLC: Teal Mask review

(This will contain spoilers for the Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet. So if you don't want to be spoiled, do not read this! Also, warning: This will be long.)

I've been playing for a few days now, and I couldn't wait any longer to share my thoughts. (I've never been a patient person.)

Overall, I loved it! I think the scenery was cool, the town was cool, and I really loved the Pokémon you could find there, and I enjoyed the characters and the storyline of the game. Not everything was perfect, and I will point out what I thought were weak points, but overall, it's still fun to play.

So many great Pokémon from previous were there, and I really like the designs of the new ones in the game. I really like Poltchageist and I think its evolution looks cool too and I cannot wait to catch, evolve, and learn more about it. Though, I will admit I'm not too impressed with Dipplin, I feel like it could've been better as a regional form or a regional fake. I heard there's supposed to be another evolution for it that comes out in the second half of the DLC, I hope its true. And, as mentioned before, I really like the Pokémon that returned for the DLC, makes me really wanna catch all.

Ogerpon was so cute! And those masks are awesome! I want an Ogerpon plushie now! The 'Loyal' Three designs were cool (still don't like them), and I was actually surprised they were part Poison, I thought they would be Dark Types.

However, I will admit, I don't really care much for that little berry collecting minigame, didn't really enjoy it. So, I don't imagine playing more of it anytime soon.

I really enjoyed exploring Kitakami, the scenes were beautiful, and I always find something interesting when I explored. Seriously, wherever I go, there is something to find on the ground, it got to the point where I had to stop myself from collecting everything I noticed on the ground.

I also like the new bags and hairstyles that style card grants me. Not really my real life hairstyle, but I might give one of them a try. I really enjoyed the new hairstyle and bag were given when we change into that green festival outfit.

The characters were definitely interesting to me. I enjoyed spending time with Kieran and found myself able to relate to the shy little guy, and throughout the journey, I genuinely felt bad keeping secrets from him and beating him in battles. And I really felt bad when Ogerpon wanted to go with me instead of him. And the way it ended, gave me major future antagonist vibes, hopefully he'll just still be a friend that motivated to get stronger. I don't want him as an enemy.

Carmine was honestly frustrating to deal with, at first. I found her a bit frustrating to deal with and enjoyed beating her in battle if it meant knocking her insufferable ego down. But by the end, I found myself liking her a bit more. She's not my favorite character, but I felt I understood her better and I don't dislike her so much now.

As for Briar, I am honestly suspicious of her. She seems nice and its cool that she is the descendant of Heath, the guy who wrote the Scarlet/Violet book, but something about her screams secret villain/antagonist to me and while she claims to want to prove Heath's theories true, I feel like she has less than benevolent ulterior motives. Guess we'll just have to see in Part 2.

Overall, the story was great, but it kind of reminded me of the Team Star story, where the innocent party is treated as a villain while the true villains are treated as heroes. When I learned the truth, I was deeply frustrated how the people were treating those three villains like heroes and shared Carmine's frustration. I was glad the truth came out, but I feel like it was resolved too quickly and easily, where Kieran just tells people and they automatically believe him, I feel like they should've seen how evil the 'Loyal' Three truly were and see for themselves how Ogerpon is not bad. But I was happy that the truth is out. I knew Ogerpon would go with me, but I still felt a bit bad, since Kieran wanted nothing more than to befriend the Pokémon and I felt like I robbed him of that. I might bring Ogerpon to Blueberry Academy when the second part comes out.

Overall, I'd give this a 9/10 score.

[sapphire-weapon]

i think that's why i enjoy your meta so much as a baby RE enjoyer!! like, personally i don't think anyone needs to know the full extent of RE lore to be a fan and it's dumb when older fans gatekeep the series like that (def not saying you do! just speaking generally), but it's just as dumb for new fans to act like they know better than people who have literally grown up with the series. i don't think my first impression of leon was wrong, but it's been really interesting seeing leon through the lens of a long-time fan, reading your meta on the evolution of his character and how it's influenced his portrayal in the remake, etc.

I don't think your first impression of him is wrong, either. Now that you've said it and I've been thinking about it, I think that's exactly what Capcom was going for. I think they wanted new players to see Leon the way that my generation saw Leon when OG first came out. We unironically thought Leon was cool for a long, long time. It wasn't until Chris punched a boulder into a volcano in RE5 that we all sort of looked back on RE4 and went "that was some silly bullshit."

But there was no one in video games who was quite like Leon at the time OG came out -- with the exception of Dante, who literally had been Leon originally. RE4 OG was kind of the genesis of the hypermasculine, wise-cracking video game protagonist that dominated the 360/PS3 era. Nathan Drake owes a lot to Leon Kennedy.

But because Leon's personality archetype became such a played-out trope in modern video games, Capcom had to do something different with him in order to capture that same sort of "wow, there's no one quite like him" feeling for the new generation.

And for them to do it in such a way that it was not only successful with new players, but also multi-layered for old fans is kind of fucking genius, and I have to tip my hat to the writing staff at Capcom for pulling something like that off.

And that's why I love talking to you new folks. You're teachin me stuff, too.

[braintapes]

been playing a metric shitload of pokemon these past few weeks and its got me cooking in my mind. the kinds of battlers i think the hotel podcast characters would be:

First, overall, I think the Staff would all have weak teams at first in different ways, but then later on you battle them a second time (maybe after fighting the New Crew) and they've got beefed up 'Mons that you have to actually work to beat.

The Lobby Boy's first team is frail. I'm talking like, Wimpod, Magikarp, Slakoth, stuff like that. Litwick. First stage evos or Pokemon that kinda hinder themselves more than they're useful. Golett with Klutz or smth. The first battle's a cake walk. But these are Pokemon with pretty powerful evolved forms once you get there - Slaking, Gyarados, Golisopod...you get the idea. You fight him the second time and he hits you like a truck with highly powerful mons.

The Manager's team is designed around entry hazards. The Manager manages, she adapts. She knows she's going to take a hit, but she's going to make absolutely sure you get punished for landing it. Bulky, defensive mons that can take a beating long enough to set up spikes, stealth rocks, etc. Maybe also a Sharpedo for Rough Skin and to tie into her fish/ocean creature theming. Middle evos for the first battle maybe, full evos and more type coverage the second time? Also a focus on status setting, just to be extra painful while you slowly lose

The Owner's team has plenty of decently powerful Pokemon...but they are horribly set up. Bad abilities, poorly applied movesets, the works. Mons with Intimidation but which don't take advantage of it, ones that get Heavy Slam but aren't, uh, heavy enough to make good use of it. A team that would be kinda scary to go up against if he knew what he was doing. Which he does figure out by his second battle. Maybe he gets to use one of the cool gimmick features like Mega Evolution or Gigantamaxing or something. Idk about specific Pokemon, but I do know for sure he should have a Dusknoir. It's just right to me.

The New Crew, overall, take advantage of different battle formats. So while you don't rematch them, they come out of the box with strong teams focused on good synergy. If you could rematch them, they'd probably do some of the fun stuff the battle facilities in the games do, imposing restrictions and interesting limits.

The Bellhop and Concierge are fought as a unit in a double battle. The Concierge plays defensive and support, with bulky/hard-to-hit mons that set up screens, boost ally stats, and weaken enemy stats. He probably also enjoys taking advantage of things like confusion and infatuation/immobilization. I like the idea of him using normal types and 'regular' seeming Pokemon, perhaps.

The Bellhop has the strike team. She hits hard and fast with strong physical and special attackers. Favors moves that hit multiple times or have additional effects, although with all the stat boosts the Concierge is stacking her with it's really just overkill at this point. Pokemon with abilities that boost their stats maybe, or with abilities that nullify moves of certain types? Need to think on that more.

The Auditor's team is designed for support, but...a little too much. You fight her in a rotation battle, which (iirc) play like single battles but with some advantages. Still, I don't think she'd be a complete wash and she can keep her own Pokemon healed up throughout the fight and stall you out (again i dont remember rotation battles as much as double battles so i could be wrong on this. will have to research). Bug and ghost type user I imagine. I think she should get to have Aegislash, I know it's a sword and not a knife, but it's still a wicked blade. Also she gets a Banette bc I thought it'd be fitting for either her or the Manager.

Madam Hotel's first fight is a wash. Full of seemingly random and seemingly useless gimmick Pokemon. Chimecho absolutely has to be on her team because I need it to be on someone's team. Mimikyu, Eiscue, Zorua, a focus on disguises and damage absorption, but fairly easy to deal with once you've figured the gimmick out. Until you get to the very end of your team and thBLAM. BLACEPHALON BLAST!!!!!!!!!

The Hotel Herself does not fight fair. She rotates constantly between Ultra Beasts, Legends, Pokemon from the Staff and New Crew teams, thematically appropriate mons, she'll switch out a Pokemon from the box mid-battle because she can. She's gamebreaking and she knows it, and she's really just toying with you and having her own fun.

Her strategy is high risk, high reward. Fun, explosive plays in a literal sense - self-destructing moves, extremely powerful but low accuracy moves, anything relying on luck to hurt you. All of her team has accuracy and critical hit boosting items and she spams healing, revives, pp, constantly. It's an endurance game, like the most unbalanced and poorly designed of romhack battles cranked up to 100.

If you can outlast her somehow and win, she just kills you out of battle anyway

thank you for coming to my ted talk . smile :]

[jadeazora]

XY had such a conceptually cool character cast with its more important characters, and it kills me they never got the opportunity to really do more with them within the games themselves.

We got a immortal 3000yr old king wandering around, the inventor of a machine that could bring the dead back to life (albeit at the cost of the lives of many other Pokemon), and later, converted it into a weapon so strong, that when fired to put an end to a war, it literally tore the fabric of space-time. I want more on this. I need more on this. Give me Legends: Kalos.

The main villain is a descendant of the ancient king's brother, but we don't see them taking AZ into custody or really any interactions between AZ and Lysandre. (I mean, I presume AZ was begging Lys to not go thru with it, that he'll only come to regret it just like AZ has, but it'd be interesting to see them interact.)

The Professor and main villain are implied to be good friends, but they only get one on-screen interaction and that's Sycamore playing off a clearly suspicious rant. (Literally a 3sec scene in Evolutions gives us a better interaction between the two.)

One of the E4 was a mole for the villain team, and pulls double duty for them in censoring the news since she works as a newscaster. We only find this out in the post game. She kept the Kalosian populace up to its strongest Trainers in the dark until it was almost too late. (Also, where in the fuck was Diantha when all that was going down?)

Team Flare is basically a genocidal secret police and we don't talk about that nearly as much as we should as a fandom. (Always see them getting shit when they could have been easily one of the scariest villain teams, like they have a lot of paranoia-inducing traits like their eavesdropping on Holocaster calls and some implied plainclothes agents that make them super interesting, but the games dropped the ball with them by not really playing those aspects up. They're so underrated.)

Honestly, if I'm still a Pokemon fan when it's time for XY remakes and it gets the BDSP treatment, I will be so fucking mad.

[crow-caller]

Finished Pokemon Violet

storyline, npcs : 10/10 best pokemon has had

poke designs: 8/10 generally really really solid generation, some great ones. fck the duck tho for real

catching/battling: 7/10 solid, fast, better. the fighting gimmick this gen is very underwhelming tho

enviromental design 2/10 a lot looks nice enough but it's extremely barren, not enough variety or big set pieces, cities are pretty but empty. No interior buildings, only sandwich

Gimmicks: 5/10 open world feels nice but half baked. Running and climbing and gliding is fun, exploring is fun. Raid battles are still meh. the hats are silly. The novelty is refreshing for pokemon

snom: 10/10 very glittery in this game

world design: 1/10 minor NPCs are sparse and you can speak to very few of them, none of them particularly interesting. pretty much no non story activities. pokemon spawn in groups but have no unique actions or interactions and don't feel natural. There's no secrets or hidden lore worth looking for

pokedex/collecting: 8/10 About 400 (100 new), which is a lot, but in a world this large and free roaming, it starts to feel repetitive. You enter a new area and only see one new guy max, as most of the new ones are put directly at the first few towns. I like the book style of the dex with nature photography pics a lot. Collecting feels very fun when you can snipe the ones you want rather than random grass search for hours. Lots of evolutions spawn, so you also need less grinding

Post game content 3/10 Mostly many harder battles and rematches as typical. annoying side quests to find 999 coins (so you can get an ugly pokemon) or some ominous stakes (so you can get cool legendary pokes). Not much extra story or content (haven't done it all yet)

Glitches .../10 I've had very few issues running the game on the cartridge but the amount still isn't acceptable for a game of its cost. It's force quit twice, the camera very often clips through the floor, pokemon get stuck, lag sometimes happens. It's been rare for me but not cool.

fun 8/10 maybe I'm just autistic and love pokemon and collecting things, but I had a blast playing it overall. I can imagine replaying being pretty fun too, honestly. Part of this is the novelty. A kid would enjoy this, someone wanting more (and we deserve more!) won't really.

Overall: the strict math is a 5.7 but this is not a good scale. I'm gonna say 7.5 "It could be way better and you're lucky it works for me"

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 8- Part 4

Ooooh- aww, I actually really would like to do that for the party, but…ough, it’s so expensive, it’s too expensive right now. Maybe another time, when we’ve got some spare money and aren’t in need of actual battle-related resources.

Ah, the obligatory friendship rater! Interesting, but we’ll give that a go another time, maybe.

Wow, okay, that’s a contrast to how these other ladies have been acting. She wants to see a truly friendly Pokémon, huh? I’m sure Xera’s got at least one Pokémon like that. Let’s try it with Riptide first- he’s the starter, he’s got a good chance of having high friendship, right?

Oh wow, that actually worked? That was quick-

Ooooh, a Soothe Bell! That’s gonna be really helpful in case we’re trying to do any more friendship evolutions.

Will do, nameless lady! Again, Xera’s people skills and feelings may need some work, but when it comes to Pokémon, she’s great.

Now, further down this street, there’s this blonde guy who is in a perfect position to challenge us to a Pokémon battle, so let’s walk over and prepare for that-

Oh- nevermind, he’s just a regular NPC.

Given the dark nature of this game, I doubt it as well- I mean, we all know what happened to the unchosen player avatars on that train…

But enough about that, let’s see what’s in the Poké Ball store!

Oh- huh, I guess this really is a Poké Ball shop, okay.

Critical Capture…didn’t that one guy in Grand Hall say something about this place? Something about a…Sticker in relation to it? Or maybe that was a Department Store thing, I don’t remember, let’s just see what they have to sell here-

Ah, it really is just specialized Poké Balls, that’s cool! I’ll have to come back and buy more once we have some more money.

Outside, there’s another crossroads, with a new street sign to examine-

Incredible!

Also, that building there- “Devon Corp”...why does that name sound so familiar? I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before, but where?

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[a-bit-too-much-of-a-pokemon-fan]

Another Ice-Cold Take: Platinum is better than Diamond and Pearl

I think everyone agrees with me here, but after playing all the way through Brilliant Diamond, I need to vent about these damn games.

If it's any consolation, GameFreak obviously realized these were problems, because they fixed them with Platinum. It's just baffling that they made the mistakes in the first place. Even more baffling is that BDSP recreated them despite GameFreak themselves learning from them.

The DP Sinnoh Dex sucks ass. Why the hell would they design so many cool new evolutions for old Pokémon, then lock them all in the postgame? It makes no sense.

It's not just the Dex could have been better, it's that you can really feel those missing 60 Pokémon. One of the most felt effects for me is Route 214 missing Rhydon and Houndour, Fuego Ironworks missing Electabuzz and Magmar, and the Great Marsh missing Tangela.

Fire types where? Hope you like Ponyta.

I Nuzlocked Brilliant Diamond with dupes clause, meaning I couldn't catch more than one of any evoluntionary family. Near the end of the game, I was straight up denied encounters in some areas because I had already caught everything in previous areas.

Mt. Coronet doesn't have any unique Pokémon. As central defining feature of the Sinnoh region and the setting of the story's climax, it's fitting that it should have Pokémon you can't catch anywhere else during the main game. In DP, there's nothing unique. Platinum adds in Nosepass and--at the summit exclusively--Absol. Finding an Absol on the summit is thrilling. Rare, powerful late game Pokémon, especially ones as mysterious as Absol, richen the experience. DP completely miss out on it.

The gym leaders and elite four teams. Poor Flint being out here with a Lopunny, Steelix, and Drifblim kills me. If I can say one good thing about that mess, it makes the battles more interesting to plan around because you can't monotype sweep. But it's still lame as hell when the Fire type Elite Four member only has two Fire types.

I never experienced this personally because I've only ever played Platinum and Brilliant Diamond for the Sinnoh games, but I know that there are some technical issues like HP bars draining really slowly, odd pauses between actions, and the bicycle not being able to be ridden through gates.

I also really felt Cyrus's relative absence in the early game. It was such a good idea to add a battle in Celestic Town for Platinum, plus Barry and the player's encounter with him at Lake Verity. He's the Big Bad, we should get to know him better than two fights in the late game.

I miss Looker and Charon, man.

I also miss Cynthia giving you a Togepi egg, then having a Togekiss in the champion battle. That's a nice touch.

The Pokétch. One button versus two. Completely inferior.

Not having snow in Twinleaf Town and the early routes is a minor thing, but it adds just a bit of character of the early game.

The gym progression. What the hell were they thinking putting Fantina after Crasher Wake and Maylene? Why let us access her city but not battle her, while also not explaining that you have to go to the next two gyms first? At least RSE explained that Norman wouldn't fight you until you had more badges.

I'm sure I could come up with other things, but I just needed to get that out of my system.