#barrel bomb

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Barrel Bomb

Debut: Mario Kart Tour

I gotta be honest, all this time I thought this thing was just called Obstacle. That was much funnier to me. Is it ok if I start this post over and you all pretend its official name is Obstacle? Thank you so much.

Name: Obstacle

Debut: Mario Kart Tour

Yep. That sure is an Obstacle if I've ever seen one! They really named this thing Obstacle. I can't say I disagree! It has a bright red Bowser face, and best of all, its metal rims have spikes like the spiked bands Bowser wears. This barrel isn't just designed that way, it's wearing accessories! It's wearing spiked bands, and technically, it has a face, so I think Obstacle counts as a member of the Koopa Troop. It hangs out with them, and one day, hopes to maybe even drive a kart of its own...!

Obstacle is like the evil version of the DK Barrel. Donkey Kong? Now that guy is my funny friend. If one of HIS barrels is in the way, it's probably not too intrusive, and might even have goodies inside! It might also have him inside! Remember the recent confirmation that Kongs are not apes? That makes it more likely that wooden barrels are their eggs, and they are full of albumin. Be careful breaking them... you might be in for a Wet Surprise! Don't act like it's weird, Yoshi's whole brand is eggs and we let that happen!

Don't even think about crashing into Obstacle. You'll be obstructed if you do! Maybe you'd think "This obstacle is a bad guy and I should kill it by running it over with my car" (and you would have a point because this barrel is clearly the moral scum of the earth, quite frankly), but impact with Obstacle will cause you to Explode. It will also explode if it from afar with something such as a shell, which is utilized in some challenges to defeat large groups of Goombas. You might think Obstacle was just trying to hang out with the Goombas, but remember what an utterly reprehensible villain Obstacle is. I bet it stationed itself there on purpose, so that it could sacrifice itself to destroy its supposed friends. Irredeemable!

My favorite thing about Obstacle is that they are Bowser-branded at all, here in this game where Bowser and his cronies are playable. A Bowser face to communicate "Bad! Stay away!" when you could easily be playing as Bowser. It makes sense from a game design standpoint, but it's still silly! Obstacle will make no exception for its boss. Maybe the Koopa Kingdom is the most notable exporter of obstacles in the Mushroom World, and Bowser provides the Obstacles like BaNaNa Boy provides the bananas! He should have given them a better name, though. "Obstacle"? That's so vague!

[astral-herald]

Uncritically Enjoying Mage Viktor

sometimes when i turn off my angry (logical) brain, i achieve some very sentimental mage viktor clarity that i would like to share <3

this is a lot different from my other Thoughtful "Analysis" Posts. my plan is as follows: address my understanding, slim though it may be, of mage viktor; bullet-point all the less than critical/theory driven reasons why he makes me happy; make a somewhat melodramatic point about reading/viewing for fulfillment over critique. mage-tor enjoyers, unite!

What is Mage Viktor's Purpose?

Try as I might to turn off my thoughtfulness, I am typically critical of the media I enjoy, so I'll be among the first to admit that Mage Viktor was certainly a retcon. That seems to be the fandom consensus, so I won't reiterate too much on that point. It makes shots like this especially funny, though, because that is simply not the Viktor we know, interdimensional or otherwise:

But something I would like to push back on is a pervasive "favorable" read on Mage Viktor as we come to know him in season 2. I fully disagree with the idea that Mage Viktor sought Jayce out in every timeline because he loved Jayce, rather than as a means of saving the countless innocents Viktor in other timelines would inevitably kill thanks to Hextech, the Glorious Evolution, etc. Hear me out for a second!

Bestie @arowyn-m pointed out to me that Necrit confirmed that Hextech is THE canonical event, the linchpin, so to speak, that ignites the chain of events we see culminate in season 2. These are the same events that Mage Viktor seeks to prevent. It takes however many lifetimes and iterations of mass destruction for Mage Viktor to gather two vital facts about the universe: Hextech is the inciting, inevitable incident, and Jayce is the complementary indelible constant. Hextech is inevitable, but only Jayce can show Viktor how to stop it.

Viktor's love for Jayce is not what motivates Mage Viktor to seek him out - it is the inevitable result of their being "inextricably bound." Reducing Mage Viktor's manipulation of time/space/what have you to his desperate need to protect Jayce in every timeline morphs him into a very out-of-character Genocidal Eldritch Being when he's supposed to be the antithesis of OUR Machine Herald Viktor. By taking up Mage Viktor's quest to kill Machine Herald Viktor under these very specific circumstances - acceleration rune in hand - Jayce can end the cycle. He trumps the inciting incident. His love for Viktor reigns supreme.

The fact that this is so awkward to explain speaks to the severity of the retcon. I guess what I'm getting at is that Mage Viktor was not acting out of selfish, obsessive love (as romantic as that may seem to some); he was searching for a way to right his wrongs and found it in Jayce, his inseparable other half.

"Only you could show me this."

MORE TO THIS POINT: even Mage Viktor, for all his implied wisdom, having seen countless lifetimes wherein they failed to stop Hextech, still does not anticipate the depth of Jayce's love for him. He (presumably, because don't see this exchange, because Riot made egregious cuts) tells Jayce that the Viktor of this world must die. Jayce "can't fail." As far as I can tell, he never tells Jayce that he has to die along with him. Jayce rejected Viktor's bid to be partners again, after all...

Mage Viktor, like the true Viktor that lurks within the Machine Herald, still believes that Hextech is fully his fault. He still believes in his own weakness and his shortcomings and is so reliant, obsessed with independence that he refuses to share this responsibility. When Mage Viktor reveals himself to Machine Herald Viktor, and he's confronted with the depths of his own feelings, he shoves Jayce away in a last-ditch attempt to preserve his isolation.

Jayce does not allow this.

The love that keeps Viktor "inextricably bound" to Jayce is not one-sided. Viktor, in all iterations and timelines, does not bear the responsibility for Hextech alone. In his dying moments, when he finally understands that LOVE is what has kept he and Jayce together all this time, his humanity returns to him. They save the world - literally. Love literally conquered all. No Viktor, not even Mage Viktor, anticipated this. All Jayce really had to do was kill this Viktor, but he couldn't bear to part ways.

TLDR: Mage Viktor found a way to save the world, but Jayce found a way to reignite Viktor's humanity. Neither of things could coexist without the other.

Smaller, Less Important Reasons Why I Like Mage Viktor

I'll never forget the breathless whiplash I felt upon Mage Viktor's reveal. I feel pretty alone in that experience - oh well! I'll be the pariah! - but here are the reasons why he's made such an impression on me.

Seeing an aged Viktor hit me like a bus. I know he's still stricken with the arcane, but there's so much wisdom and kindness and life experience in his expression. I never thought we'd see that. I doubt he did, either.

BEARD VIKTOR TRUTHER.

It gives Viktor some agency back. I wrote in an earlier post that Mage Viktor being the one to liberate Viktor from his own tragic narrative is pretty awesome, and I stand by that.

Mage Viktor's vulnerability. I feel like Mage Viktor, finally realizing that this Jayce is the right one, that this moment is the pivotal one, says a lot of what Viktor in all timelines longs to say to Jayce.

The question of lifetimes - how many times did Viktor search for Jayce? How many times did he watch a timeline go by without him? How much loneliness did he endure (for the greater good?). What was it like seeing that in-universe Viktor had killed Jayce?

Reading Uncritically (I Swear This is Relevant)

Rita Felski, a very cool literary critic who we all should read, said the following about reading critically (the way that lots of us engage with Arcane on tumblr): "It is a mode of interpretation that adopts a distrustful attitude toward texts...that remain inaccessible to their authors as well as to ordinary readers" ("Suspicious Minds" 216). Even though she's writing about academia/literary criticism, I think her point still stands. We engage with media with the intent to expose, unearth, and problematize. We eagerly search for moments where the text fails us at the expense of the "superficial" that would otherwise uplift us. We are practicing the "hermeneutic of suspicion," which can be exceptionally draining.

It's pretty melodramatic of me to apply this kind of theoretical work to Arcane, of all things, but this story means a great deal to me. It is deeply flawed - the Mage Viktor retcon is kind of appalling if you stare down the barrel of suspicion. But, in looking through a reparative lens (Eve Sedgwick's word, not mine), I see Mage Viktor as a agency-ridden Viktor, an aged Viktor, a vision of the future Jayce and Viktor together make possible. I'm enriched by that.

Felski asks us: "How else might we venture to read, if we were not ordained to read suspiciously?" (232). What can we derive from Arcane by putting the pieces together with the goal of harmony and fulfillment? In the smallest sense, we may feel a bit better about the ways in which season 2 seriously let us down. In a larger, more hopeful sense, moments like Viktor confessing an ultimate love and attachment to Jayce, and Jayce returning it in kind, may fill us with an even deeper appreciation for unconditional love as the culmination of human connection, a world-ending and world-renewing thing that stares down the BBEG of Arcane and wins.

You could probably read all of this as my apology for enjoying what so much of the fandom has condemned. That's alright. There are so many pieces of Mage Viktor that fragment under the critical microscope, but I can't shake the emotional impact of his reveal, so I'll live in that space for the time being. Had Arcane allotted for any explanatory conversations, flashbacks, and/or given up their soft world build to account for Mage Viktor, we'd be in a better place plot-wise. Alas, here we are instead. Everyone can point and laugh at me if they did all this just to bring back God/Made/Eldritch Being/Whatever The Fuck Viktor in future projects. That'll be my penance!

And, finally, if you really didn't like Mage Viktor, I fully respect that, but this is my self-indulgent post and I'm not overly interested in debating...there's little anyone could say that I wouldn't agree with. I'm just avoiding the suspicion of it all :)

[quirinah]

ummmmmmm guys this dungeons looking a little dark here..........................ummmm..... hello??? guys??

[uwudonoodle]

Zelda taught him how to science. Gotta try it to see what happens.

[girl4music]

You know how the Earpers were annoyed that they wouldn’t let Wynonna f-bomb on the show but she and eventually everyone else did in Season 4 when they changed the age rating but Waverly wouldn’t?

Waverly was the last character to f-bomb in the show because she saved all her f-bombs until the very end which was hilarious and one of the highlights of it.

Well, it turns out Waverly actually had the first f-bomb in the show before even Wynonna in Season 2’s finale.

[kindercelery]

Da barrel bomb

[dangans-ur-ronpas]

im freakin sick.................

[goopysoft]

Latest design for my OC Crystal Snowfall, who might be included in a future ᓵ𝙹ᒲ╎ᓵ

(Credit to @echolepzy for the open species used here. {please check tags for the species name} I still own the character, I just don't feel comfortable leaving the usage of a fictional species without credit to its creator.)

Alt under cut if you want to see the markings covered by her clothes (it won't show anything that'll make the Purity Worshippers™ mad)

Hid this under a cut because i might just be overthinking, but I can't be too careful in the minefield that is the internet

[howidiedinbotw]

I started a new file and made enough progress to feel confident in fighting the Lynel of N. Akkala Valley, and I won by the slimmest margin. Immediately after that, I rode down to Skull Lake to look for Kilton and climb up to the Shrine of the right eye, stopping along the way to get a picture of the sleeping Black Hinox on top of Tempest Gulch (for my compendium). As luck would have it, a thunderstorm blew in; lightning struck the Hinox, waking it up, and it decided to come after me. I thought at first to fight it, but I had depleted all my good foodstuffs battling with the Blue Lynel, and being low on hearts, I decided to run. Even in the rain, I managed to climb up to a place the Hinox couldn't reach, but I made the mistake of turning around to look at it.

Over the last five years, I've spent around a thousand hours playing BotW, and I never knew the Black Hinoxes carried bomb barrels.

That MF blew me sky high.

This is a series of unfortunate events

RIP

[starfish-comics]

I originally meant Artemisia to mainly be a necromancer spellcasting type but it turns out she hits stuff good so I'm letting her follow her bliss

[basilhomebrews]

Can you guess what game I've been playing a lot of? That's right:

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless

On an unrelated note, I've been chipping away at converting the "important" items from Monster Hunter for use in Fabula Ultima. Pic related, it's basically one of the ways I'm choosing to emulate ammo from MonHun into FabUlt. This is maybe the biggest homebrew project I've undertaken? Like, I'm writing up several methods of simulating MonHun items for FabUlt in varying degrees of complexity, so people can pick and choose how crunchy they wanna get.

All from me for now, real life has been kicking my ass recently. Stay frosty, o' ye internet stranger.

[invinciblerodent]

holy fucking hell finally

(had to do it twice because my cat stepped on my computer's power button when it was on 7 HP 🙃)

[gidianthe]

oh my god the mace u get for killing redacted increases strength score to 18.... barrelmancer shadowheart time!!!!!

[draculas-tits]

for valentines day next year i'm organizing a viewing of the 12 minute long deleted music video for peculate's arrangement of Love is a Bourgeois Construct

[precognitiveignition]

fun fact

some large bore flareguns can handle 37mm shells

theres an 18th century artillery cannon that fires 37mm shells

pocket mortar

[girl4music]

The tonal shifts of ‘Wynonna Earp’ never fail to whip lash me with it’s back and forth drama and comedy.

Especially in the 4th season where they just drop f-bombs like it’s nobody’s business even in scenes where it’s not even necessary and not expected.

For example: You have this scene in the final episode of the show, ‘Old Souls’, where Waverly and Nicole are Mulder and Scully-ing with investigating Waverly’s haunted wedding dress. Finishing off each other’s sentences, seamlessly bouncing off each other… and you can see exactly why they’re getting married.

Then suddenly Nicole drops an f-bomb out of nowhere. I was like “Well, that didn’t happen in The X Files. That I can recall...” 😂 The scene goes like this:

WAVERLY: “My purgatory historical kills file actually has a buttload of weddings that ended in bloodshed. When your town has forty times the murder rate of a normal borough, you don't always connect the dots.”

NICOLE: “Here's another one. 1968. The bride axed her groom to death on the foot of the chapel right after she'd-“

WAVERLY: “-Just axed her family to death? Then killed herself?”

NICOLE: “Slit her throat.”

WAVERLY: “With the axe?!”

NICOLE: “Wanna see her beautiful wedding dress?”

WAVERLY: “Ooh, wait, don't tell me. Vintage lace, inlaid sapphires in a heart?”

NICOLE: “Bingo.”

WAVERLY: “So, we know the dress is haunted, so it's gotta be the dressmaker, right?”

NICOLE: “There's an old wedding announcement. Check this out.

*sits next to Nicole to look at the laptop*

‘The bride will be wearing a creation from Cursey's Bridal Boutique, designed by Ms. Brigitte Hogback.’”

WAVERLY: “That's definitely the weirdo who sold me the dress. Also!

*runs back to the investigation board*

First wedding massacre, 1922. Ah! A Miss H, left at the altar, killed her guests.”

NICOLE: “Well, that is a terrible way to be dunked on.”

WAVERLY: “Awful enough to want to destroy every future wedding in town?”

NICOLE: “Baby, if you left me at the altar, I would fսck shit up. I might kill Nedley.”

WAVERLY: “Nicole!”

NICOLE: “I'm kidding. I think.”

WAVERLY:

*gets all flirty, walks back to Nicole smiling*

“What else would you do to keep me around?”

For a moment it was like watching the The X Files but I’m fairly certain there were no f-bombs in that show. I mean from what I’ve seen of it I hadn’t heard any. But ‘Wynonna Earp’ just drops f-bombs every other scene.

It just completely took me out. In a very funny way. But yes, Waverly and Nicole were very Mulder and Scully in that little scene. It was adorable to watch how they were just in the same mental space one moment and the next things suddenly got spicy between them. I’m the same. Mental stimulation gets me going. If someone can stimulate me mentally, they suddenly have all the power to stimulate me sexually. Intelligence is sexy. Especially when it’s two females.