#because that's why the og series is so formulaic

[my-pjo-stuff]

Given the opportunity to write Luke's redemption arc, how would you do it?

Frankly said, I wouldn't.

I, in my honest opinion, think that Luke's type of character in a story is someone that should not get a "redemption" arc in the classical sense. And that getting one actually hurts them in their narrative.

Now, hear me out. At this point, I think we all know for a fact how horrid the gods and CHB are. Genuienly that's an unsalvagable system in its current form. Luke as a character directly goes against it, his whole personality and identity within the PJO story is quite literally built upon these two simple facts.

My issue with him getting a redemption arc in the classical sense (and also how it happened in the books) is the fact that it fundamentally damages these core parts of his characters. Due to the fact that our heroes- and this the good side- are on the side that fights FOR this inherently harmful system means that Luke would have to switch to them (aka, The Good Side") for his redemption arc. And even if you do what the books did- aka, "This side may suck but the other is worse" it would still mean that Luke somewhat embraces the Gods' as the lesser evil. Which frankly said, just isn't in-character for him if you ask me.

The reason why I personally enjoy Luke and the TA so much is because at the core, they are surprisingly realistic. This may sound hard- but revolutions and overthrows of unjust and evil systems are always incredibly bloody. And you will always see some degree of atrocity from both sides. I mean...we have accounts of lynch mobs of innocent women and children in the French Revolution which is the most famous revolution in the Western world and generally seen as good and justified. The American War of Independence was equally as justified and also saw a lot of dead English ppl. WW2 in my opinion is one of the few wars where there was a clear good guy side, and yk what the Allies did? Killed a few millions of innocent German women, children and old people in their mass bombings. And I am not even getting into the atom bombs debacle.

Now, am I saying those things are somehow justified because they were done by the good guys? No. Hell no. Those are crimes and should be treated and recognized as such. But that doesn't mean that the Good Guys in that conflict suddenly aren't good anymore. The reason I brought this example up is because I want to explain that in these sorts of fights, fucked up shit is just bound to happen no matter what you do.

Luke definitely did bad stuff, and he no doubt is the antagonist of the books, but his ways were still ultimately understandable and also..well, realistic. He wasn't a villain who went around killing for fun, he was a military general in a war where he was on the backfoot for most the time. And as such he employed what he could and sacrificed if he had to.

That's why I think giving him a "redemption" arc like the books did was a bad idea, as it takes this inherent moral greyness and realism present in him and turns it into the classical villain that needs to be redeemed.

But to get back to your question- if I had to write Luke's arc for the books, instead of a redemption arc I would lean into this aspect. A lot of the OG PJO books are really just formulaic road trips while fighting monsters for the gang, so if I could I would cut some of the monster encounters Percy and co. have to instead give it to Luke and his side. To actually explore what it means to live under a harmful system, and the way it affects people.

That way we could teach kids that there isn't always a "right" or "wrong". We could even turn it into bit of a cautionary tale- that people can be brought to their extremes by these systems. And that's just another reason to avoid them. Yes, it's a middle school book series- but middle schoolers aren't dumb. And they deserve good books and arcs too.

Kronos, for all that's worth, could be shown to be the type of person who takes advantage of these kinds of revolutions for his own gains. Instead of Luke, I'd make Kronos the primary villain of PJO while he remains the primary antagonist. (Antagonist doesn't equal evil after all).

The end of TLO would remain the relative same, but Luke would come in to overcome Kronos. Not due to realizing he did smth wrong or due to main emotional appeal. But due to recognizing that Kronos himself has become a threat to the ideal Luke fights for and having decided to put an end to it. The fight would then be given over to Percy, who sets out for actual changes in negotiations with the gods he managed to enter due to the leverage Luke managed to get them. And with changes I don't mean the half-assed promise we got in canon instantly broken in TLH, I mean actual change.

Luke would not have a redemption arc due to constantly having been shown as someone who isn't evil, thus not needing any sort of "redemption". The TA and him still would have been the main antagonists, but the story would have shown them as morally grey and complex instead of just "villains with no or a cursory sad backstory." And Percy alongside the other MCs still would have had their victory by actually achieving good changes. While also getting more depth, as they would have come to the slow understanding over the course of the story instead of all that just stuffed into TLO.

[uraberika]

AreOri and nostalgia

I read a hot take the other day on Twitter that said something along the lines of "AreOri isn't worse than all the other series, y'all all just blinded by nostalgia", and after a lot of pondering, I have to agree. I have not seen the later part of Ares, nor Orion but I think the way they utilised nostalgia was what made it kinda flop. Objectively speaking Ares does a decent job at being a soccer anime, but by so heavily bringing in elements that aim to make fans nostalgic and then fails to handle this nostalgia well is what makes the series lag behind all the others in the franchise.

Ares wanted to do too much all at once by making it into an alternate universe with the og cast included. While at first I was very excited about the reappearance of some of my faves, they did a poor job at handling characterisations. The og characters became bland and uninteresting because obviously the plot had to favour the development of the new main characters. This also ruined many Ares characters since it immediately invited the viewers to compare and contrast Asuto's gang with the og guys; and not only Asuto's team had more personality (which made fans who were hoping to see the og characters disappointed) but they seemed to have eerily similar traits to guys in the og series. Asuto, the sunshine boy, Haizaki with his anger issues and sick-loved-one-in-the-hospital problems, Nosaka the genius, emotionless tactician etc. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with using a formula that seemed to work in previous installments, but the development of Ares characters 1) came at the detriment of the og character's development who just seemed to be background actors standing around without any real advancement of their own character or of the general plot and 2) was impossible not to compare and contrast the two groups of characters and find way too many similarities which makes the viewer (i am myself included xd) unable to appreciate the Ares characters as their own.

While this was going on, Ares also tried to use some tropes and themes that were already familiar to the audience. Yet again, a great move if executed correctly. My biggest issue with the execution here is that these tropes never fully made use of the full potential of Ares being in an alternate universe. We learn of Akane pretty early on in the series, Akane and Haizaki basically being the equivalent of Gouenji and Yuuka (or Gouenji and Yuuka with a different sort of relationship). Making a slight change in the trope of having a loved one in the hospital (like Haizaki and Akane being childhood friends) should have been enough, had Ares been a series on its own. The audience would have acknowledged that "haha this is a nod to the og series, how clever". But when Gouenji is right there, having gone through the same thing (especially if we considered how similar Akane is to Yuuka and Haizaki to Gouenji) the opportunity for these to bond (or hate, or whatnot, just to interact in any way) over this fact offers itself on a silver a platter, yet the series does not do anything with it, depriving both Haizaki and Gouenji from a potential character development.

The anime decided to create an alternative universe yet it was hesitant to harness the full potential of its alternative universe-ness. They could have used og characters to help them build the main character's personalities through interaction which they seemed to be doing, but at the same time, the og characters only seemed to be hollowed out shells of themselves, only there for a three minute appearance to draw in fans who started watching only to see this one character.

I think that's why I like Victory Road's premise so much. It seems to handle nostalgia much better than Ares did: the characters seemed to be very distinctly unique so far, no og characters to compare them to and a change in the protagonist's general attitude will also serve the game well, in my opinion. It alludes to previous series just enough for it to make fans want to pick it up while also introducing new, unique characters and a plot that replicates but also goes against the established story arc of Inazuma series. (I am aware that the fact that all the charas of previous series will be playable is also a big drawing force and that is the main reason that ppl are excited about this game haha).

So, in my opinion, the main reason people find AreOri the worst series in the franchise is because it establishes that it is going to rely on nostalgia and then does an abysmal job at making use of this nostalgia of the audience. It relies solely on the fans' dedication to their og characters - putting in og characters in the series as dummies with no real purpose, just so fans can say that their fave is in it - and completely forgets about the potential that fans can grow fond of new characters, can appreciate a storyline that is different from what they are used to.

I have to make it clear that I don't hate Ares, I just think that it was not well executed, due to in part in the way it relies on nostalgia, but I myself had enjoyed some parts of it when I was watching. And at the end of the day, it is a soccer anime which is mainly concerned with fancy hissatsus and high-stake matches and not the intricate details of their characters' personalities. I am also grateful for Ares because it was successful in making me nostalgic and indeed pulled me back to the franchise. Despite all the issues I think it has, a lot of characters turned out decent and I was very invested in the story when it first came out. What I also love about Ares is how it revived the fandom here on tumblr: the sakka fridays of watching the new ep without understanding anything, the long analysis posts, the fanarts and fanfics, I will always be thankful for its community-building.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. xd

[sapphire-weapon]

im really confused how RE5 and RE6 despite poor critcal reception still sell well, like shouldn't there always be a correlation between sales and quality?

RE5 did not have poor critical reception. i don't know what you guys think counts as "poor" critical reception, but 83, 84, and 86 on metacritic is good. it's not great. capcom obviously would've liked that to be higher, but you know what other games scored in that range?

cuphead

dragon age: origins

tomb raider

the SH2 remake

SH2 OG

mortal kombat

beat saber

inscryption

among us

life is strange

kingdom hearts

amnesia

silent hill 3

devil may cry 3

resident evil 7

resident evil 8

and i don't think you'd find anyone saying that those games had poor critical reception.

don't let any fucking dumbass neckbeards try to convince you that the 80s range on metacritic is bad ok they're fucking stupid ok they're morons.

i've explained this before, but generally speaking, game sales are predicated mostly on the success of the game that came before it, with sales going higher and higher and higher with every subsequent successful release. the same can be true in reverse. if a title sucks, then the sales of the following release will suffer, and sales will continue to decrease more and more with every new release. the only way to break a cycle is with an anomalously fantastic or anomalously awful title. and there is no better example of this than RE.

RE sales were stagnating and mikami's job was in danger following the disastrous flops of RE0 and REmake. so he completely changed the game formula, and RE4 became a cultural phenomenon that changed video games forever. RE5 came in riding the high of RE4, pitching itself as "RE4 that you can play with your friends" -- and RE5 enjoyed being king of the mountain at the highest-selling RE title in the series's history for 15 long years until RE2make dethroned it just last year.

so you'd think that RE6's sales should've eclipsed RE5's -- and it was on track to -- until word got out that the game was dog shit. and then sales just... stopped. that's why RE6's lifetime sales are almost unbelievably high -- and yet still falling short of RE5 by millions.

RE7 suffered from RE6's failure. when RE7 was first released, sales were painfully low and slow, and then they plateaued for a long, long time at the piddly little 3 million mark, and capcom was ready to write it off as a failure -- until word got out that the game was exceptional. then sales started to pick up and spike. and so when they released RE8, RE8 sold all the way to 5 million in the first two months.

so, yeah. RE5 was a success because RE4 was a success, and RE6 was almost a success because RE5 was a success -- until it shot the series in the dick. and then RE7 was almost a failure because of how shit RE6 was.

[meret118]

I love Agatha's dramatic twirl of the coat each time she tries to get the others follow her down the road. She definitely tried that out in a mirror before buying it. :)

Alice: What spell did we cast?

Lilia: Why is the print so small?!

LOL! I hear ya, Lilia.

I loved the first two episodes, but I'm finding the trials episodes a bit boring. It's a little too formulaic for me.

The leaves on the Road match the challenge - blue leaves last week for the water trial, and flame colored ones this week.

At first I thought the pictures on the wall were just of witches being burnt, hung or drowned like was mentioned when Agatha and Rio were arguing earlier in the series, but perhaps Lilia was crying at scenes of the spanish inquisition, or they at least reminded her of that. Is that how her coven died?

Beautiful message from Alice's mother. Ali Ahn is a good singer!

Rio: I get the pleasure of watching you do what you do best."

Agatha: "Which is?"

Rio: "Kill all the witches around you. One by one."

Agatha: "Then what?"

Rio: "You get your power, and I get my bodies."

I'm going to be pissed if Agatha ends up being EVIL at the end of this, rather than gray. We also better get more than unresolved sexual tension from Agatha and Rio. I don't expect an actual sex scene on Disney+, but at least a real kiss.

The male doctor in the lab coat bound Jen, a midwife, like women healers were eventually prohibited from treating people by male doctors who thought bleeding people was scientific. While some women accused witchcraft were midwives, most of them weren't according to records.

I kept expecting something to attack during the scar scene like in Jaws.

[lilmissasap]

percy jackson brain-rot as i begin the books again

as someone whos hopelessly devoted to the workings of rick riordon i absolutely never understood percabeth

like,

they're literally 12, children, CANNOT LEGALLY DRIVE OR CONSENT TO SEX at the end of the og series (chalice of the gods) and niggas really out here shipping the fuck outta them

shit dig hard enough on a03 and there's prolly smut of the two of em

never understood it, like i get a cute lil mutual pining thing where they both like each other but a whole ass ship never made sense. like no, the two don't make babies. why? CUZ THEYRE BABIES THEMSELVES

edit:

okay to clear things up cs people are in the comments saying i don't know what a ship is (i'm literally a fanfic writer on here but okay)

i'm just saying that these are literally little kids in middle school. i'm not saying that middle school kids don't have relationships, but it's still weird. and from, i'm boutta geek out about this incredibly obscure topic i'm sorry, a developmental standpoint middle grade children are nowhere near psychologically ready to be in a relationship which is why it's extremely rare to see couples who have been together since middle school (that one episode of abbott elementary). if you go on tiktok and look for people who broke up with someone they were in a relationship with from middle school- high school, those breakups are traumatic

all breakups are traumatic in some way, but there have been several people who have developed traits of borderline personality disorder because they broke up with someone they had been romantically involved with since middle school.

also let's not forget how warped your view on intimate relationships go (fucking. imma say it the way you think about fucking is skewed). the people i've spoken to who broke up with their middle school partner in their older parts of high school have recounted just how awful their view on sex was, some have even pondered if they were asexual because they couldn't picture themselves up under anyone else.

like i get it, it's cute to see little kids who like each other, but most of this fandom are of age to drive, to study for the SATS/gsces, some are able to legally drink in the united states, or applying to college. these are little baby children that high school students and young adults should not be playing match maker for. ALSO WALKER SCOBELL IS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL/ HIS FIRST YEAR IN HS HE WAS BORN IN 2009.

anyway,

i get it, we all have head canons, but shipping two middle schoolers who a) may or may not have started puberty b) did not stay at one school for too long c) don't know trig formulas d) may or may not have had their first period/ voice dropped/ you get the picture.

SO

i don't understand percabeth as a whole romantic ship, but mostly as a fluffy little middle school flirty thing (prolonged eye contact, stealing hats, asking if they can hug/kiss at a certain time, etc.)

i love love love the concept of seaweed brain and wise girl, smartwater, percabeth, whatever, I THINK THEY'RE ADORABLE but i don't understand the draw of why people feel the incessant need to make it extremely romantic. like why why whyyyyyyy. can we js let them be kids, because lets be real a lot of the newer additions to this fandom only know about the show (and its okay we love you guys anyway its just that some of us have read the books too, its not required for you to love the show that you need to read the books) and are already talking about 'annabeth and percy need to just kiss already' no they don't. cs percy just lost his mom (i know something you dooonttttttt) and our cutie patootie annabeth is still lowkey a mystery (i'm guessing?? idk i haven't watched the show yet i think im gonna pirate it soon or smth, im js assuming because idk what point the show is at in relation to the first book), etc. can we maybe not make them a whole ass ship until the show is in relation to the last few books of the series. lets js let them be kids for now.

AND THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT I DIDN'T LIKE WHEN THEY WERE AN ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP IN THE LATER BOOKS OKAY ITS NOT TO SAY THAT im just saying that i didn't understand the concept of percabeth within the first few books because it was a little wonky to really really want two twelve year olds to be in a relationship. they're cute when its in the last few books but come on yall. lets not ship them yet. also report any smut you see of them that's not cool or rick riordon approved.

theyre still babies, even if some of the fandom has read all of the books and others didn't.

does this make sense?

xoxo,

rae <3

[absolutebl]

Hello, let me begin by saying that I love your posts and I love your opinions, analysis, and point of view, I think you have a rare mind and I'm glad you're covering BL as I think it's a very complex and dynamic genre in today's industry.

I work as a middle management business consultant, related to management of PR and marketing although not for film industry, but i've had experience in handling products as a brand manager so i imagine the case with GMMTV and other TV productions are smiliar if we can replace 'product' with 'artists' in this case.

I have some questions relating to the branding of First and Khaotung as a CP by GMMTV, for the life of mine I just could not understand the business reasoning behind it for several reasons:

1. They are both versatile actor with good experiences on their belt and so far has chemistry every other actor they played with. it might be a bit of a waste for GMM to lock them both in a pair.

2. At the time it seems Gawin and First was more popular than FK, it should be easier and less risky to market and sail this pair, this pair also have the advantage of being in a more well known series (Not Me).

3. Both First and Khaotung relationship dynamic seems to not fit any existing mould that current BL pairs have (e.g. there's no clearly defined S/U between them), this seems risky and might not be well received by typical BL fans (esp. Thai Fans).

4. GMM has been trying to replicate OffGun formula a lot, all of GMM other CP seems to follow OG formula to an extent, which is not the case at all with FK.

5. All of the series that both acted as a pair in (Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, and OnlyFans), are series that i think contain mature themes and not generally something that caters to the taste of Thai BL fans.

This question has been bugging me for awhile. The funny thing is: I am personally a SomSom, an FK stan :D I love them both very much and I absolutely love them together, but the decision to pair them together just doesn't make sense to me, I don't understand what GMM is trying to do here with both of them.

Sorry it's a bit long and thankyou so much if you decided to answer this :)

Hi! Thank you!

(As usual I did this and then Tumblr ate it. I am so tired of this bullshit, why can't they fist the undo bug in the new editor? OR stop forcing us toe USE the damn thing.)

1. They are both versatile actor with good experiences on their belt and so far has chemistry every other actor they played with. it might be a bit of a waste for GMM to lock them both in a pair.

I don't think they will in the long run, I think they are just co-branding at the moment, probably because of all the sponsorship offers. And because they've been recast a few times as a pair since The Eclipse.

They seem to be having a good time with it.

I could be wrong. I picked K a while back as one of the GMMTV stable who was too versatile for them (and valuable to them because of that), and they'd never co-brand him in a big way (after the failure of Tonhon Chonlatee). Then The Eclipse happened.

But to be frank? From the actor career perspective? If they can co-brand into consistent leading roles... F & K are probubly gonna - it's better money than character work and solo or side couple gigs.

2. At the time it seems Gawin and First was more popular than FK, it should be easier and less risky to market and sail this pair, this pair also have the advantage of being in a more well known series (Not Me).

Gawin doesn't co-brand. Never has. Seems like he never will. He clearly doesn't like shipping culture or anything about it. (Doesn't like reality TV shows or variety or anything like that, either.) Which I get. Oh boy do I. I wouldn't be surprised if it's in his rider that he won't cater to performative ships. I've always suspected this is because he's half American. (And East Coast to boot.) He's... tough.... reads as a little grumpy and reserved. Won't soften his IRL image to cater to the public. It's a very individualistic attitude.

It's certainly clear he's turned down sponsorship gigs (as a co-brand), and if he took one in the future it'd have to have a dump truck of money attached. I was legitimately shocked he took on Be My Favorite.

So far as Not Me is concerned? Now it's too late, that ship has sailed. So to speak.

3. Both First and Khaotung relationship dynamic seems to not fit any existing mould that current BL pairs have (e.g. there's no clearly defined S/U between them), this seems risky and might not be well received by typical BL fans (esp. Thai Fans).

Yep, they are more like Nanon & Ohm. I'm actually pleased that GMMTV is letting them do this and not trying to force seme/uke on the brand.

It's a model set up somewhat by TayNew. I mean GMMTV tried to force that one, but as Tay said, "Just look at him, he's huge."

They always managed a very brotherly casual fun ship.

4. GMM has been trying to replicate OffGun formula a lot, all of GMM other CP seems to follow OG formula to an extent, which is not the case at all with FK.

Yes, because it's the most profitable formula. Especially in country. I would put EarthMix in as their clearest successors.

Parent houses always lack imagination.

Find a money-making formula. Repeat it until the audience gets tired or supersaturated or both. It's how market capitalization works.

To change is to impact the bottom line and that is dangerous. Generally speaking, it takes small upstart companies to truly effect change in this regard.

OffGun is an interesting case because Off was so resistant to the brand at first. He's come around, but it took a while.

5. All of the series that both acted as a pair in (Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, and OnlyFans), are series that i think contain mature themes and not generally something that caters to the taste of Thai BL fans.

Yes, it would be interesting to chart their sponsorship gigs. My guess is it's more global brands or those with an eye to the global market that use them.

I'm thinking it's a lot more like KARD in Kpop (performing better outside of country than in-country). Or the way Ukiss was for Japan. (An expansion intended group tailored to that market).

A country with an active and intentional soft power usually has subdivisions of effectiveness in the ranks of that power's product (in Korea's case Kpop, in Thailand's case BL). Stars that do better overseas - individuals, couples, groups. Ones that do better in specific countries.

A clever product manufacturer looking to contract with one of these branding elements, tracts this (popularity figures and market reach) and picks their representatives accordingly, and in accordance with their expansion interests.

[watermelonsloth]

Boruto Shipping Opinions

I’m gonna put a brief aside here to say two quick things to keep in mind before reading:

I am not going to go into great detail or analysis here because I’m holding off on that until the manga wraps up.

I am caught up with the manga, I am not caught up with the anime. I have watched up until the arc the new team 7 infiltrate a prison, the second chunin exams, and whatever clips/moments I’ve stumbled upon being discussed. I am not an avid fan, I do not know all the ins and outs of character dynamics, and I don’t even keep up with that part of the fandom. I have no horse in this race.

BoruSara

I don’t like this ship, and I don’t know if that’s an unpopular opinion. I’ll try to avoid saying “they have sibling vibes” or “they’re just friends” because, coming from someone who has used that excuse in the past, it is very difficult to explain/defend argument. So much so that now it just comes across as cheap to me.

I will, however, say that I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like NejiTen. It comes across as “he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it anymore obvious?” It feels like it stems from the idea that boys and girls can’t just be friends. If the dynamic was introduced with an edge of romance (like how Naruto and Sakura’s dynamic was introduced with Naruto having a crush on her), maybe it would be a different story. But as of right now, it feels like the fandom reading into something that doesn‘t need to be read into.

KawaSara

I hate to say this, but I’m guessing this ship stemmed from SasuSaku fans reading them as “next gen SasuSaku”. Look, everyone can ship whatever they want or choose to refrain from shipping, but I’m sick of the fandom projecting old ships on new dynamics. I have seen BoruSara compared to SNS, NaruSaku, and SasuSaku (for some reason). I have seen BoruSumi compared to NaruHina. I have seen MitsuSara compared to SasuSaku and SuiKarin. I have seen KawaSara compared to SasuSaku. Every single time I thought to myself, “The manga starts with Boruto asserting that he’s not his dad and this isn’t his dad’s story.” I get that comparisons will naturally arise since it’s a sequel series, but these kids are not carbon copies of their parents and they don’t have the same dynamics their parents did.

Now that my rant is out of the way, I think a hypothetical child between them having black hair with pink highlights would be cute and that’s about it.

MitsuSara

I wish these two had more of a dynamic. Both characters have interactions with Boruto and clear dynamics with him, but they don’t really have much going on with each other. They both have recognizable personalities, but they mellow each other out whenever they interact and it makes them boring (I’m guessing Ikemoto isn’t interested in them together). They also only tend to talk to each other about Boruto (at least in the manga). Say what you want about them, but at least Sasuke and Sakura had a dynamic.

Anyways, funny ha ha, Orochimaru gets an Uchiha in the way they least expected.

MitsuBoru

Gayer than any of the Naruto dynamics and that is saying something. However, I struggle to like the ship because I’m just so confused.

First, why does Boruto have so many lancer/foil/rival characters. Kawaki, Sarada, and Mitsuki all act as lancers. I get that writing doesn’t have to be formulaic, but they aren’t even all lancers to each other, having dynamics that bounce off of each other, they’re just lancers to Boruto. At least for me, it’s already gotten really boring and ends in the three’s dynamics with each other falling flat.

Second, the sun and moon symbolism makes no sense to me as a writing decision. The obvious problem is that it’s redundant; it’s already been used for multiple Naruto dynamics. The less obvious problem is that it contradicts Mitsuki’s manga introduction. Mitsuki was introduced as the middle between Boruto and Sarada’s two extremes, taking up a role similar to Sakura’s in the og team 7. If he’s supposed to be the moon to Boruto’s sun, why is he introduced to us as the earth? The admittedly more minor problem that distracts me is that Orochimaru was the one that Mitsuki down this road. Why? Orochimaru wasn’t redeemed by Naruto and has never shown interest in him or this philosophy before now. My best guess is that they’re fascinated by Naruto’s affect on Sasuke, but that still leaves me with questions.

It makes me think that the writer didn’t have any ideas when they introduced these two.

BoruSumi

I don’t like how the fandom is making another love square, but I doubt there’s anything I can do to stop them.

This ship is boring because Sumire is boring. That one anime arc made her interesting, but it’s referenced and relevant so rarely that she goes back to being boring. I’d like this more if the story let Sumire be morally gray or treated her like a redeemed villain more. As of right now, I think the only leg the ship has to stand on is writing tropes and I do not care.

KawaSumi

This ship feels like the product of the same people who ship SasuHina/SasuIno/SasuKarin/KibaHina out of spite. My last post/reblog went into why this happens but the short of it is that it’s easier to ship something in peace if the biggest “threats” to it are paired together. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a feeling most KawaSumi shippers also ship BoruSara.

KawaHima

Please… just stop. If not for yourself, then for me. I’m already barely coping with how popular NejiHina is. Why have I seen this as much as I have??? This feels like a personal attack on my sanity. They’re siblings.

Other

This is the section for all the ships I have little/no opinions on. I think MitsuCho is too boring for how popular it is, I think ChoSara should be more popular, I’m disturbed by all of the Eida x next gen ships because she looks and acts like an adult (at least how adults are portrayed in Boruto), and I’m surprised Code x Eida isn’t more popular, but I also think that Code has gotten the Kabuto treatment and isn’t very popular in the fandom.

The ships I haven’t mentioned I either have so little fucks to give or so little information on that I have ZERO thoughts about.

[gudvina]

Low key I feel like for some reason the first person pov in this book makes it so much worse.

Like it truly reads like bad fanfic some of the lines that Haymitch says/thinks made me need to walk away for a moment because of how cringe they were. It’s just odd considering the og trilogy is in first person and is great. Like tbosas while not my favorite at least reads like she was trying to be more literary™️ in my opinion and I thought that her choice to do third person for that book was an attempt to make it feel more adult and less YA. I thought she would continue with that vibe for any other books she did but apparently not.

Like when the first sneak peek was released I already had a bad feeling because it just read so awkwardly to me. I hate when people say things like this but it kind of feels like she doesn’t know how to write a teenage boy, he just feels like a caricature. Idk it makes me fearful for if she were ever to do like a finnick or Peeta book.

SC has to stay far away from Finnick or Peeta, oof.

Anyways I don't think she necessarily doesn't know how to write a teenage boy, nor do i think that she had no capability to do better with sotr.

The outcome of Haymitch's whole retcon, in my opinion, is a mix of elements.

First of all, the publishing industry's switch that happened thanks to booktok. The way the book was written and the way the romance was presented feels very in tandem with other YA series where the male character's only thought is the female protagonist, and where the writing is not a strong point (so much that many are saying that SOTR feels ghostwritten). It feels perfectly aligned with a certain marketing trend.

Because of this I am going to go with the fact that either her publisher or SC herself decided to follow the publishing trend, and that's the premise for why we get Haymitch's characterisation completely retconned. Given the formulas of these other books, having an actual character study on Haymitch with all the complexity of his personality and trauma, was not going to be in line with following that formula.

And then we get the romance with LD, which is also completely in line with the trends, so we can come to the same conclusions.

Most fanfictions are given more thought than this book was.

[kellodrawsalot]

so wanted to post a fast review of a series, I did not expect to like, people I followed pretty much called it a trashfire and there were jokes all over social media over the quality of it's story and it's lackluster animation, so I went in with the mindset not too expect too much and well...

it''s pretty good?

wait no wat, it's pretty good, i myself am confused I enjoyed it alot, did I watched the same show as the people who hated it?

don't get me wrong the series has problems, the swearing gets a bit tirdesome and the pacing is all over the place. The show takes a lesson from spiderverse and lego movies by not giving its viewer any room to breath, Every scene is important to one of the major plot threads, episode 4 is a triggering episode that you should read upront on, that i can't comment on. The character desings are a hit and miss and not all the jokes land. But when the show wants to tell it's story, wants you to get to know the characters you can't help but get so invested and wanting to learn more. The different plot threads that it starts are all major good that you want to keep following the story. But what I like most about the show that it's not a cast of a ''nuclear'family or a group of high school teenagers or a group of super heroes. No it's a weird mixed of very troubling (sinners) adults in a found-family situation.

The story is about the Princess of Hell named Charlie who opened a Hotel in the hope she could redeem Sinners so they can go to heaven and avoid slaughter by the angels, that happens once a year, but due to angel Adam (yes that Adam) being a dick, the slaugher will happen again in just six MONTHS.

and that's all i need to tell you, a big theme about this series is Redemption and that it does it nicely well. The interaction between the characters is also majorly fun and let's just say there is a reason the Ost of Hazbin Hotel has been trending on Spotify it's freaking good.

The pacing doesn't bother me too much myself because Hazbin remindds me of a musical/stageplay and I love those.

(the Seramyu musicals are btw really good. give them a watch too)

regardless if you don't like HH that's all fine but I think one of the best things about it' being a hit, (it's one of the top shows on prime in over thirty countries) that in a time where big studios play it safe by having most adult cartoons follow the simpsons formula, try to copy the rick and morty style of storytelling, or in case of Disney and Marvel today, with Bob Iger saying they be focussing on big franchises and sequels for now, trying to shift the blame on original stories on why their movies aren't doing good. (despite them not even promoting said og movies and making the writers play it super SAFE) we have Hazbin Hotel, an animated show for adults that is so Unapologetic, Queer! Doesn't follow any save formula, is such an obvious passion project and is a huge hit! Last time I was this impressed was with Netflix Pluto and Nimona. HH is also a series I would love to see on stage! Hazbin Hotel is not for everyone but I would suggest give it a chance instaed of letting social media decide for you. (which i know you can disgard my post too, but I just wanted to say, I'm glad me and my friends watched this series and just ignored most of the hate, because we all enjoyed it and are playing the songs on repeat lolol)

[doom-nerdo-666]

( Reposting from r/Doom) Perhaps a big reason why anyone would want a campaign with an ARC soldier

One reason could be just exploring a gameplay formula like Eternal's with new ideas for weapons, enemies, stuff since i even wrote a bunch of ideas i think could work if there's an expansion etc.

But another might be because of Doom's premise and how it changed since 2016.

It went from "UAC soldier that has to clean up the mess they started" to now there being stuff about the Sentinels.

It's why i compare Doom to Planet of the Apes in a sense the setting changed a bit more than most people realize but the new stuff is good while D3/Tim Burton's Apes movie are both seen as "technically closer to the OG premise but not as liked".

Doom as a series can work with changes like these because:

It's a setting that wasn't always taken seriously.

The old games are still getting modded to this day and with lots of good stuff.

The new stuff is good.

But it's also said the Sentinels are inspired by medieval stuff in Army of Darkness, when at the same time, that could've lead to Doomguy go back in time to medieval Europe if things were different.

I have some theories on why the Night Sentinel exist.

Could've been for Quake

Specially since Quake always had knights and the Ranger looks like a barbarian viking.

But there's always cases of Doom and Quake overlapping and how one was always viewed as the other "but in 3D".

A response/overcorrection to the cancelled Doom 4

The cancelled Doom 4 would've been about a "resistance" army on Earth fighting demons and from what you see in concept art and footage, it looks a bit "unexciting" for a supposed heavy metal series.

So maybe the idea of tech knights with energy swords was done to make Doom "more badass" because the alternative seemed boring.

When at the same time, they could've always thought of a buff dude out of the UAC simply being cool and make Earth locations take notes from Build Engine games.

It seems like what people expected out of a modern "Hell on Earth" could be seen in fanart and mods, but that leads to another point

Things that could've been part of Doom as a series are instead part of its "fanon"

You could say Doom fans were already "expanding the Doomverse" specially the classic version when looking at some fanart, some attempts at "remasters" and all those Realm667 assets.

People theorize that id themselves take inspiration from mods but put ideas like a fire themed Baron under a new art style and lore.

Not the same as exploring what could be more of the classic art style or formula (otherwise, maybe Romero could've been allowed to share more stuff).

This means The Dark Ages being Sentinel focused means they won't show stuff like Doomguy having a flashback to beating up his superior like it's mentioned in D1's manual: That would require forgetting what you set up for UAC in 2016 and imagine exactly what could suit the aesthetic of D1. Otherwise, look at the D2 skin and compare it to the D2 box art. Even the QC armor based off classic Doom doesn't seem that different, despite using the box art as a ref instead of Adrian's model.

Again, this can be justified with the notion that "Doom's setting is a mess lol" but it also depends on where it comes from, when the reboot games made by people not involved in the originals are the ones focusing on lore and worldbuilding.

Lots of Doom fan content feels like an alt timeline where the series stayed a bit more consistent and certain wishes or ideas are realized.

Even the D64 official release might owe its existence to fan ports, since the lead dev of a popular fan port worked on the official one.

But it's also not like we'll have any of Andrew Hulshult's remixes of classic Doom songs being owned by id.

The versatility of Doom's premise

I always view Doom's premise as a blank canvas where you can add a lot as long as it's "Doomy enough", hence why i think a lore could limit certain opportunities that could be cool.

In general, 2016 and Eternal introduced ideas that could've been done differently in a new game or something.

It's also why it's cool to look at cut content or concept art: As in, these ideas deserve to be revisited and be used in something.

It's also worth noting how Doom went through different looks, leading to questions like "what if Sentinels or Mayks were in other games but different?".

UAC wasn't always "gray base on orange Mars" since you used to have a "terraformed" Phobos with blue carpets and a weird low tech aesthetic.

And Hell had a variety of looks and themes, somehow they weren't really explored later on.

For a series with a seemingly limited setting, the idea of reinterpretating something seems fun and it's even seen in some fan works like fanmade redesigns.

Sometimes, you even wonder what it'd be if the Sentinels didn't exist: Would you make the Slayer like a UAC super soldier program? Would you just have everything be either weird UAC tech or demonic artifacts? Would Marauders be medieval knights from Earth? Because if any of those happened, i can't imagine someone going "what if there was a world of knights with tech and cool mechs?" due to everyone getting used to UAC and Hell in that scenario.

But this is also why i think it's cool if each setting/theme has their version of an object or item: We even see a Sentinel take on the Plasma Rifle, so imagine their take on medikits.

(also why people didn't like Eternal having glowy videogame pickups, when the life pickup could've been some artifact)

I guess people would like an ARC soldier campaign just to balance things out: If we can pilot a mech dragon, we could've piloted a UAC military helicopter.

But you need to make that seem cool and fun.

Speaking of "reinterpretations", i even think of "alternate lores".

What if the Sentinels existed in Earth's medieval ages and were forgotten by time until UAC archeologists discovered their demons?

What if they were descendents of some of Earth's survivors who colonized a planet similar to Earth and suddenly developed better tech and went with a medieval inspired culture?

What if Doomguy was still a UAC guy but the Doomslayer is a transformation/form he has where his UAC tech/armor is turned into Sentinel stuff and he gets more powerfull even with some limits like time?

Maybe these ideas are less cool but seem like examples to what can make Doom interesting.

I always thought different Doom's could coexist: At some point, have a Slayer type game and a different kind of Doom both being made, even if one is a spin-off.

[gunsatthaphan]

Hello, let me begin by saying that I absolutely love your blogs and all your posts!! I am an FK stan also and absolutely love them to bits, but I have a topic about them that I hope you'll be willing to share your opinion on.

I work as a middle management business consultant, related to management of PR and marketing although not for film industry, but i've had experience in handling products as a brand manager so i imagine the case with GMMTV and other TV productions are smiliar if we can replace 'product' with 'artists' in this case.

So relating to the branding of First and Khaotung as a CP by GMMTV, for the life of mine I just could not understand the (business) reasoning behind it for several reasons:

1. They are both versatile actor with good experiences on their belt and so far has chemistry every other actor they played with. it might be a bit of a waste for GMM to lock them both in a pair.

2. At the time it seems Gawin and First was more popular than FK, it should be easier and less risky to market and sail this pair, this pair also have the advantage of being in a more well known series (Not Me).

3. Both First and Khaotung relationship dynamic seems to not fit any existing mould that current BL pairs have (e.g. there's no clearly defined S/U between them), this seems risky and might not be well received by typical BL fans (esp. Thai Fans).

4. GMM has been trying to replicate OffGun formula a lot, all of GMM other CP seems to follow OG formula to an extent, which is not the case at all with FK.

5. All of the series that both acted as a pair in (Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, and OnlyFans), are series that i think contain mature themes and not generally something that caters to the taste of Thai BL fans.

This question has been bugging me for awhile. The funny thing is: as mentioned above I am personally a SomSom, an FK stan :D I love them both very much and I absolutely love them together, but the decision to pair them together just doesn't make sense to me, I don't understand what GMM is trying to do here with both of them.

Sorry it's a bit long and thankyou SO SO MUCH if you decided to answer this :)

hi anon!

first of all thank you for your kind words!! 🥺 I'm glad that you enjoy my content!!

thank you for sharing your thoughts, however I can't say that I understand all of these concerns lol. here are my thoughts:

I would never call anything related to them "a waste" lol it's actually the opposite; pairing them was a very wise decision, especially because they're both highly experienced actors. They're versatile and talented on their own and they bounce very well off each other. And as I mentioned before I hope to see them act separately as well, as being in a fixed pair can limit their opportunities. But to call pairing them a waste is an insult dfkjgdf sorry. .

Not really. DanYok and GawinFirst were very popular at the time but it was kind of nipped in the bud by gmmtv; I still don't know why they never bothered with them but since they never gave them a platform or any sort of promotion, you can't really compare the 2 pairs imo. But if we still look at their general reception then no, they were not more popular than FK are now. I don't know what would have happened if they had fixed them back then but I imagine Gawin would not have been on board lol. He avoids the big spotlight so I don't think they would've gotten anywhere tbh. They were undeniably a hot moment though lol. .

Disagreed. A pairing shouldn't fit any "mould"; if they have good chemistry and work well together then that's all the premise they need. And speaking of which, what is the "mould of current bl pairs" anyway? The S/U dynamic sure isn't one and should not be a factor with any pair to begin with. But since we're on the topic, Gmmtv has never thematized this with any of their couples which I highly appreciate lol. And they don't need to because the Our Skyy lineup is fairly popular as it is. They're pushing the bro-narrative over the T/B-narrative but that's another can of worms lmao. The S/U thing might still be something that some fans care about but there are enough other couples in the industry which make use of that lol. .

What's the "OffGun Formula"? I've never heard of that lol. If this is about the same dynamic again then idk what to tell you. This should not be an issue. .

Nope. The times of bland high school vanilla shows is long gone and the fandom is not the same as it was 3-4 years ago. I've been on board for almost 6 years and more mature plots is something that is greatly appreciated, so shows like Not Me, The Eclipse or Moonlight Chicken and also other non-gmmtv shows got an appropriate amount of popularity because of that, not in spite of it. .

Generally I don't think any pair has to fulfil a purpose or "make sense" - if they work and have a good and healthy dynamic on and off screen then that's all that matters. at least to me. Just because they don't fit a certain stereotype or whatever doesn't mean they're an odd couple. They don't have to comply with anything. So that ideology seems a bit outdated to me.

However - I'm repeating myself again - the fixing should not get in anyone's way. gmm likes to overdo it with the promotion and the events etc. and especially with A-list actors like FK and some others, I fear that the overexposure might have a negative effect on their careers, i.e. typecasting and other issues. Which is why I hope they can find a balance between their couple works and their individual projects. And this goes for the other pairs as well.

xxx

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

sorry I’m nerving out over video games again… bc reading the developer intentions behind the fire emblem games is genuinely so fascinating. they were among the earliest in the strategy RPG genre like they started on the og NES and the reasons behind why they went with the strategy RPG formula are so interesting bc the lead dev at the time mr shouzou kaga had the design philosophy of immersion in mind. like he was trying that in 1990 on an 8 bit console. so like the fundamental core gameplay of fire emblem exists as a way to merge the story and the gameplay as much as possible despite limited technology.

the characters can’t have much personality due to space limitations but the level up system is designed to make units feel unique and get you attached to good units. the idea was that it’d make every players story unique! they'd get attached to certain characters and even if they couldn’t do that from limited dialogue the players would end up projecting personalities onto their favourites based on gameplay and their brief lines. and because the game has permadeath any death would be a genuine tragedy- not only are you attached to that character, you now have to fill their role with a worse unit- and then, you might end up getting attached to them too.

it’s genuinely genius use of limitations honestly. like they got around the inherent difficulty of telling an intricate and personal story on the nes by designing the game specifically to generate an emergent narrative. and the series only iterated on it as it developed! fe4 i often see described more as an interactive storybook than a game, bc the idea was basically for it to be told through the mechanics where the SNES didn’t have space. even more modern games without kaga are about it. even if characters are more defined their arcs and ending depend on player choice. the narrative of the story you get is as much about who fought together in the game maps and who you poured exp into as it is the actual plot bc you will be reading more support convos than seeing cutscenes. and the gameplay is still designed to tell a story! these characters dying cuts their arc short and the hole they leave in the roster is as much a tragedy as ever! even if you’re on casual units who die constantly will fall behind and end up being abandoned it’s not as hard hitting but it’s still there!

[sapphire-weapon]

Hi! Sorry if this counts as shitstirring... But you got me thinking... Do you really think that someone really needs to play the games in order to fully understand the story? Or is watching them and reading up on them enough? Thanks, and sorry!!!

Don't be sorry. This is a valid question that deserves an honest answer.

There's nuance to this. This isn't just a simple "yes or no" question.

Do I think that you need to play the games to understand the story? No, I don't. Resident Evil's story is not difficult (though, you'd never know that, looking at the fandom). It's very easy to watch the games and movies, go "ok I got it", and move on.

Do I think that you need to play the games to be considered an authority on the canon? 100%, absolutely. And I'll tell you why.

We spend a lot of time talking about narrative direction and storytelling devices and the use of tropes and cinematography here on this blog, but the one thing that we really need to keep in mind at all times is that Resident Evil is a game first and a story second. This has been the design philosophy since the series's conception. This is why RE4 OG's story was slapped together in three weeks. This is why RE5 was the way that it was. This is why RE7 is what RE7 turned out to be.

The narrative of Resident Evil is not something that exists separately or divorced from its gameplay. In fact, the opposite is true. RE's story is not only influenced by its gameplay, it actually -- in some cases -- is directly written as a result of its gameplay.

I've talked about the story behind RE4's development before, but.

Was RE6's story borderline incomprehensible, and did it jump approximately sixteen sharks? Yes. Was that the main reason why RE6 failed? Absolutely fucking not. Not even close.

RE6 turned out the way that it did because RE6 was developed and released during a time in which the biggest moneymakers in the AAA game space were brown & bloom multiplayer shooters. Capcom wanted in on that gravy train.

RE5 sought to take the award-winning formula that RE4 developed and add a multiplayer element to it in order to initially chase that trend, and RE5 for a very long time was the highest-selling Resident Evil title ever made.

Capcom looked at that and took it to mean that it was RE5's added multiplayer element that made it so successful. They weren't exactly wrong, either. RE5, for a lot of people, was like a version of RE4 that you could play with your friends.

Wesker was not killed in RE5 because Capcom thought it was an appropriate time narratively to kill him. Wesker's death was a symbolic one -- it was the death of the "old" Resident Evil -- the death of the slow, plodding, single player experience that the entire AAA industry had convinced themselves was no longer viable monetarily and not what players wanted. This was especially true for RE, after the unprecedented success of the more action-focused RE4 changed the entire third person shooter genre forever.

By the time we reach RE6, Capcom is all on on this. Three campaigns, all with co-op, all of which play differently. Chris's story is what Chris's story is in RE6 because Capcom knew that most players were probably going to reach for his campaign first, considering he was the protagonist of the most recent release and, therefore, the most recognizable to players who maybe weren't necessarily super familiar with RE. They specifically wanted Chris's campaign to feel like a traditional third person shooter in order to get new players hooked, because Capcom was convinced that that's what a majority of gamers at the time in general wanted.

Leon's story is what Leon's story is in RE6 because it was designed specifically to cater to people who loved RE4 and would reach for him first over Chris. So, they gave Leon a female partner (Helena in place of Ashley) and a slower, more traditional horror setting (while still being action-oriented), and they tried to kill two birds with one stone by having Ada running around and also being the damsel in distress, so to speak, to replicate the "save the princess" plotline from RE4.

But the biggest issue with all of this was that it turned the design philosophy of the game into "how can we sell this?" over trying to just make a good horror game -- and it showed. Capcom cut a hell of a lot of corners in terms of pacing and level design and enemy design and enemy variety in favor of focusing on the combat system (which was never adequately explained and had its nuances lost on approximately 80% of the playerbase), the netcode, and making the game's story as easy to consume and digest as possible while chasing specific market trends.

RE6 didn't go super hard on Aeon because the writing staff was just so ~dedicated to the ship~. RE6 went hard on Aeon because they wanted Leon to look heroic and save the girl just like he did in RE4 but didn't want to create another Ashley after how universally hated she was. Knowing that is how I say so confidently that Remake is retconning Aeon -- it's because the ship itself was never the point. They used it as a gameplay contrivance that they thought would help sell RE6, and it blew up in their faces. So now they're trying something new.

The actual experience of playing Resident Evil 6 was downright miserable to a vast majority of the fanbase because it was a soulless, hackneyed mess that didn't even have the decency to bother giving itself a spooky atmosphere. It was an uninspired series of long hallways filled with bullet sponge enemies and literally nothing else.

So, when the story was stupid and fan favorites like Leon felt like they got screwed over on top of all of that because the same design philosophy of "make this as mass marketable as possible" bled into the story from the gameplay, that was just the shit icing on the shit cake.

People probably would have been much more forgiving of RE6's story if the game design itself was better. Or, conversely, people would've been much more forgiving of RE6's game design if the story was super compelling.

But RE6 was neither.

And so RE7 was Capcom's way of trying to re-learn how to do pacing, level design, and atmosphere. The gameplay was the most important thing. That's why they didn't even bother using the legacy characters and created Ethan and the Bakers. The legacy characters would've been a distraction. They had to fix things one step at a time: gameplay first, story second.

That's why RE7 is RE7 and why we have only seen Leon in CGI movies and not games since 6 (Remakes not withstanding). RE7 fixed the gameplay, and Vendetta, ID, and DI served to reconfigure and redefine Leon's character, and I'm more than sure that they're going to try to finally blend those things together in RE9.

And if you don't play the fucking games, and if you don't fucking understand how the games industry works, you're not going to have any of that fucking context going into your meta analysis.

That's why braindead motherfuckers in this fandom look at that stupid remark made about how the one director thought that Leon and Ashley holding hands during RE4make's gameplay made them look "too close" and they read way too much into it -- it's because the spoken words of the directors are all they have to go off of, and they don't realize what a bad gameplay decision having Leon and Ashley hold hands would have been.

If you don't play the fucking game, you don't know that the half-second it takes for Leon to switch from his knife to his gun can mean the difference between taking a hit or not -- and so you would have no reason to think of how annoying it would be to add yet another half-second delay to Leon drawing his gun if he had to disengage from Ashley first. If you fuck with the normal gameplay loop with something that only happens when Ashley is with you, it will make the player start to resent Ashley, and that's the opposite of what the devs wanted to do -- which is what the fucking conversation in the interview was about in the first place!

That is far more likely the reason why the handholding was cut. And while that decision was being made, it was probably pointed out that having them hold hands made it look like they were on a date -- and that's absolutely not the tone/atmosphere that this game was going for. That is far more likely what was meant by "too close."

It had nothing to do with ensuring that the players perceived Leon and Ashley's relationship as platonic. It had everything to do with tone and atmosphere and the pacing of the normal gameplay loop. It's just that "*juts a thumb in his direction* This guy thought it made them look too close" was a way fucking easier explanation of what they probably thought was a really fucking unimportant anecdote about a character animation that didn't matter.

But if you don't play the games, you won't know that.

If you don't play the games, Word of God is all you have to go on. That's why people who don't play the games insist on all Word of God being explicit canon. It's because they can't use the games themselves as a baseline -- and that gives them a skewed, fucked up perspective of what Resident Evil is trying to do and be and accomplish.

This kind of shit is constantly in my head when I'm writing my meta and trying to predict where a game's story will go next.

I pull my meta directly from the games, because that is what Resident Evil is. It is a series of games that are trying to be good games first and interesting stories second.

And if you don't understand that, you have no business calling yourself an authority on the canon.

[digitalgate02]

@neorukix tags just got the gist hehe~

Yeah, you see, the whole Kamen Rider AU thingy has influence of those two toku stuff as well! And Digimon, because those characters are from Digimon in an AU mixed with the toku Rider formula.

Still, all of those have some... overlaps imo. Xros Wars' head writer, Sanjo Riku, usually writes for Rider (there might be the reason as for why Taiki's room has a poster possibly mimicking Kamen Rider, and maybe why Shoutmon King version in Hunters has a scarf -- the OG Kamen Riders had scarves! Also Double/W and Skull -- from Double series -- had scarves as well.) Oh and he wrote a Sentai series before too, if i'm not wrong.

And Fresh Precure main writer was also the one of the head writers for 02 -- and if you watched Fresh you will recognize Love and Setsuna being pretty much a yuri version of Daisuke and Ken lol (but they're still different from them, yet their roles as protag and antagonist/group's latecomer got the same vibes imo)

And Frontier is the most toku-esque series so far, since the kids turn into digimon like toku characters turning into their titular series' heroes. And possibly bits of Magical girl stuff too (i mean, the head writer in this series is the same for Wedding Peach, and i'm glad one of my friends showed me this series recently!)

So i'm just using a ton of those influences to build this AU thingy~

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

(i want to work on MORE but i'm busy to draw more stuff for this...)

[faroreswinds]

I got two anons in regards to Zelda.

I'm going to answer them here to maintain spoilers. So spoilers below for Totk.

I'm of two minds about totk's story, personally. Keeping it vague for spoiler reasons, I think the twist with Zelda was a really cool idea, and the final boss was a really grand spectacle that made for a great finale. The new characters, Rauru and Sonia, were welcome additions too, but getting the memories out of order slightly ruins the impact, and I think the scenes in the past should have been playable instead. I love this take on Ganon, but I think his motives should have been explored more.

So, my own thoughts on your specific thoughts.

I personally found the dragon thing.... dumb. It doesn't feel like it belongs in a Zelda game. A friend of mine and I always discuss how much we hated it, haha. But I understand why others like it.

The human side of the final boss was great! The dragon was dumb. But that was because I found the entire dragon concept incredibly dumb.

Rauru and Sonia are.... fine. They aren't really anything special, imo. We don't really get to know them. They are just... nice. That's pretty much their only defining personality trait. I don't hate them or anything, I just don't find them anything special either.

This Ganon is.... meh. He's pretty stupid. He literally leaves Stones out in the open and doesn't take them for some reason. That's dumb villain behavior. His motivation is slightly more clear in the Japanese - He thinks peace makes people weak and he wants people strong. So... that's it, really. I just wish they gave him a Trident and not a samurai sword. Where is my Trident, Nintendo? That's literally his thing, you even had it in the OG teaser trailer! Character-wise, he's no more special than OoT Ganon, except OoT Ganon is actually given screen time to build a rivalry with Link. And was actually a more successful Ganon than this one.

To be frank, I found there to be very little to enjoy from this game's narrative. It's so sloppy, childish (note, I don't mean for a younger audience either, I mean it's like a 9 year old wrote it), and devoid of anything meaningful. The only thing I can recall truly loving was when Dragonroost Island theme kicked in during the Rito boss fight. And that made me tear up a little. And only because of WW, not because of BotW.

To be clear, I enjoyed my time with the game on the whole. But the only reason I plan to replay it is because I want to make a video explaining every microscopic detail as to why this game's story was poorly conceived.

In hindsight, I feel like Botw was to Zelda what FFXV was to Final Fantasy; games that changed the direction of their respective series for better or worse and given Aonuma's whole thing about the previous 3D zeldas being "restrictive", I think we're stuck with the botw/totk formula for a long time.

We are. I'm not exactly.... opposed to the open-world design. I just don't think they figured it out yet.

I know so many people think BotW and Totk are perfected open-world games. To me, a perfect open-world game doesn't look like what these two games gave me.

Here is what I want from the next Zelda game.

A narrative that adapts to the players actions, so the choices we make matter more

A smaller map but at least 8 dungeons. The dungeons should not require an entire sequence to enter, but can be wandered into when discovered. Imagine looking into the lake and seeing a temple! And then imagine swimming into the lake, and entering that temple for a new dungeon. Or, searching the forest and finding an ancient ruins buried deep within the leaves.

The smaller map should have more NPCs. I want real, large cities! Lendyell's, not the pathetic Rito village. I want Goron City to BE a city! Come on, Nintendo, make it happen!

Please do not make Princess Zelda a whiney baby this time, please. Or, in the case of Totk, an uninteresting Mary Sue.

Make horses actually good this time.

Stop forcing me to menu all the damn time.

No building! Lame! Stop it!

Can we make Link emote again, please? It's so embarrassing that the n64 Link has more personality than the latest Zelda game on better hardware.

I have more but this is what is on the top of my list.

Of course, I know I sound like a negative nilly. But I don't really hate the idea of these games like a lot of fans seem to do. I just can't love them yet because there are still too many issues.

I want to love the new format desperately. Totk, while a crappy story, actually gave me glimpses into greatness. I can see how the team tweaked it, tried to find a perfected formula in there. I can see them trying, and that gives me hope!

Like, if you were to give me a choice between Totk and Botw, and I can only play one of these for the rest of my life, I'm going with Totk. It's not a better story, but it's a better game. It doubled down on Botw's weaknesses, but I think that just comes with using BotW as a base. Maybe an entirely new game can finally do away with those weaknesses.

Hopefully, we won't wait 6 years to find out! Hopefully no more than 3? We know that they have already started the planning phase of the new game. And it possible that they started a year ago. Totk was finished over a year ago, and had a year of testing before release. Hopefully, they delegated, and had a small team begin the start of the new game.

Plus, no covid this time to slow them down!

Here's to hoping!

[the-technorats]

it's truly the year/the age of the adaptation and I'm so interested to see the impact it has on the general population. the original rise of middle grade/y.a. heroism and dystopia (starting w harry potter and careening over a cliff with divergent) so obviously became The Formula because of how well it did commercially, and I feel differently about them both bc:

this pjo show is so clearly a labor of love and ik there is a lot of care being put into all of Rick's endeavors these days, from writing/'presenting' authors of different identities to casting a Black annabeth (and standing behind that decision as well as putting in clear effort to give her character a story consistent with that identity.

and while, for tbosas I fully trust Suzanne Collins and believe in the book as an important part of thg story and relevant for readers today, I cannot trust the movie's integrity purely because of what I take the to be he point of the series; thg movies in the past were immediately victims of the exact structures the books tried to critique

anyway idk how media literate the kids are these days so I'm interested to see how this wave of adaptation shapes what media is and will become.

also there's an interesting thought to be had abt how pjo is already adaptation of Greek myth to begin with - it was very very refreshing and surprising to hear Sally Jackson say "who says she was a monster" about Medusa, for example - and I think that says a lot about what this particular series will become. much like the heroes of Olympus was a more diverse adaptation of the pjo series' og intentions without the insult of retcon'ing the characters (cough cough), the pjo tv series is a respectful adaptation of the book series by enriching what was already there and using the difference in media to portray what the books might have missed AND to adapt the characters into more relevant versions of themselves; i.e. "no one thinks I'm smart cause I'm a dumb blonde" annabeth chase is much less plausible in the 2020s than "no one thinks I'm capable because I'm a Black girl" annabeth chase - it's just more relevant overall to its viewerbase, and that's part of what makes a Good adaptation (otherwise, why adapt it at all? no need to fix what ain't broke, right? unfortunately there's no accounting for the profit motive 😔).

anyway, this is all so far but I'm willing and eager to be very openminded about the pjo show, where I'm automatically predisposed to being suspicious of any hunger games book-to-screen adaptations. we'll see where it goes :))

The Percy Jackson renaissance and The Hunger Games renaissance happening in the same year is something so special to me