#before i got into sonic for real i just kind of assumed that they were all early 20s lmao

[rabbithaver]

i hate sonic character age discourse so much

[tgcg]

we do a bit of trolling

CG: OKAY DAVE, I KNOW WE CAME TO A TRUCE ON THE WHOLE FOOD WARS SHTICK, I'M NOT ABOUT TO HURL TWENTY MORE INSULTS AT YOUR EARTH CUISINE, BUT.

CG: BUT WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT.

TG: man

TG: ok look i was kinda preoccupied with the seven minute voice message i left you about the infinite jump glitch in sonic 06 and it turns out i cant measure water and talk at the same time

CG: DON'T SLOSH IT!!! THAT'S DISGUSTING!!! IT LOOKS LIKE BILE!

TG: yeah well its the last pack of mac n sheese and im gonna eat it whatever viscosity it decides to have

TG: i can make this work

TG: is cheese soup a thing

TG: nah theres no way in hell

TG: k so what is your cooking proficiency like what are we dealing with here

CG: OH, I DON'T KNOW. I WOULD SAY I CAN PROBABLY FOLLOW BASIC INSTRUCTIONS, POSSIBLY LIKE THE ONES THAT WERE ON THE BACK OF YOUR SALIVATION-INDUCING SLOPFEST YOU'VE GOT GOING ON HERE.

TG: alright cool i got a pitch

TG: might work might dont

CG: THAT ISN'T SO MUCH INSPIRING CONFIDENCE IN ME AS IT IS TAKING WHAT MORSELS OF FAITH I HAD IN YOU OUT BACK AND THRASHING THEM IN A DARK ALLEYWAY.

TG: alright so im basing my operations on like the core features of water im talking the ten commandments of h2o-logy

TG: as the component responsible for the shlop of my shlock presented before you

TG: it can evaporate right

CG: … YEAH?

TG: ok but cheese doesnt evaporate does it you cant get a cheese mist

CG: OH NO.

TG: cheese doesnt evaporate it just like melts

TG: or dries

TG: so my theory is if i jam this shit in an oven or maybe the microwave

CG: NEITHER OF THOSE WERE IN THE INSTRUCTIONS AND YOU KNOW IT

TG: but the problem is the pasta is already cooked and all up in there so if i microwave it the pastas gonna go soggy and i cant have that

CG: DAVE.

TG: so microwave is out of the picture im assuming oven heat will keep the pasta dry while also evaporatin the water without removing the cheese

TG: that checks out doesnt it

CG: CUT THE BULLSHIT. STOP EMBARRASSING YOURSELF.

CG: YOUR INSISTENCE ON UPSTAGING YOUR OWN STUPIDITY IN FRONT OF ME ISN'T CUTE OR ENDEARING. I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO PULL AND I'M NOT FA--

CG:

CG: WAIT… NO… WOULD-- WOULD THAT…?

TG: real brain wrinkler huh

CG: OH SUCK MY FAT FUCKING SHAME GLOBES

TG: dude you even pointed out the tripwire and you still went ahead and threw yourself over it what kind of troll are you

CG: I DIDN'T FALL FOR SHIT! OBVIOUSLY MY ATTEMPT TO HUMOR YOUR RAPIDLY DETERIORATING SENSE OF "INTELLIGENCE" WENT CLEAN OVER YOUR NUGBONE! YOU'VE PROVEN YOUR POINT, MY FAITH IN YOU IS COMPLETELY MISPLACED.

CG: WOOPS! SILLY ME FOR BELIEVING IN YOU! WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER?

TG: hahahaha oh man

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Someone recently claimed that the new Davies era of doctor who has no more wokism* than the show used to.

Now, maybe I've just changed in the past few decades, but from what I've heard of the 60th anniversary specials it does seem a tad more concentrated. Cherry-picking SPOILERS, sweeties.

- Donna got married offscreen. To what I can only assume is the last black cab driver in London.

- Her kid is trans. Specifically, non-binary, female presenting, says the wiki.** - In the next episode, we learn the Doctor is gay/bi when he thinks Sir Isaac Newton is hot. I'd smugly say this bit has no real relevance, but...the actual scene does carry the episode theme of accidentally changing reality. It's just the queer bit that seems tacked on. Though it does carry forward themes from 10s era. - Sir Zack himself is played by a half-Indian actor. It's not exactly hard to tell. I'm assuming they're running on Bridgerton logic. https://twitter.com/frozenaesthetic/status/1731332492282429950 - This episode is basically just Donna and the Doc exploring a weird location, and running into monsters, who happen to look like them. It would be a bottle episode, except for the large vfx budget. And yet ol' Rusty somehow managed to awkwardly wedge in an  progressive issue. - In the next episode, the villain explains how he's just exploiting the divisions that already exist in human society, including cancel culture. - no wait he's got a point. Jpg - This is ironic, given that Davies and/or his broadcasting house masters are pretty blatantly on the team that a) coined the word,  b) cancels people the most often, and c) defends the idea of Internet lynch mobs*** (***as long as they're left wing. If not, they're *ist "trolls", even if they're just complaining about the latest sacred cow.) Maybe the Davies was criticizing his own team. * Because the Toymaker was kind of racist back in the day (white dude dressed like a stereotypical Chinese dude), Davies made the new version a bit racist "as a callback to his original, problematic depiction back in 1966." - TVtropes, ref. DW Unleashed. On the other hand, the Toymaker also mocks and dresses as several other cultural archetypes. All the ones I've seen were white European ones. He just does this to everyone, apparently. - Toymaker also weaponizes the Spice Girls hit "Spice Up Your Life". No, I will not explain. Though I will note that a line about the "Yellow man in Timbuktu" was apparently drowned out in the episode. Probably for being a tad spicy. - One new UNIT character is a lady in a wheelchair. When the new Tardis - no, I will not explain - has a wheelchair ramp, she happily points it out. Which makes me wonder why the blue box would be so limited, considering it often deals with alien species. - Also, the same actress played a disabled Companion in the Big Finish audio dramas. I'm not sure why it was considered essential to do so in an entirely audio format, but there have been controversies over this sort of thing before (EG Artie on Glee, various racial voice acting controversies). - At this point, casting Ncuti Gatwa as 15 doesn't even register. Not really a blip on my radar. Black Doc? Whatevs. His sonic screwdriver has Rwandan words on it? So? I go to church with lots of Africans. Heck, I'm a black immigrant to ol' Blighty myself, just from the other side of the pond. Ncuti is, chronologically speaking, more British than I am. - Though given that he's Rwandan-Scottish, there may be some debate on the "British" part. - Wikipedia says the actor is pretty left-wing, but the actor seems good so far, so I'm willing to give him a sha-

Oh, come ON!

Maybe the original person speaking was comparing it to the Chibnall “history has always been a whitewash” era, which had a character who was a paper thin Trump satire. A tad ironic, when the whole point of bringing Davies, Tennant, and Tate back is to play on nostalgia.

*Tangent: that word was apparently voted  the most annoying words in English. Which is kind of hilarious if you know that it was originally created to self-describe certain progressives. And the "you can't even define that word!" meme was almost certainly ripped off from the right wing "what is a woman?" Meme. ** This is apparently because she's part Time Lord, through Donna. It seems a tad interesting to me that a few works featuring non binary characters happen to make them enby due to some sort of supernatural (Omniscient Reader) or sci-fi (SW Squadrons) influence which the vast majority of IRL enbies don't have. ...As far as I know.

[gonnachasethestars]

@chaosworthy said: "I...don't even know where t' start with this one." At least Sonic was honest as he stood there in front of the tanuki, uncertain but not bothering to hide his new, but temporary, appearance. Not like he could have really hidden the large fangs, matching claws and marks around his eyes. "If it helps, 's only until the end of the month...?"

"More magic from your world, I'll assume."

It was a strange thing to see. Looked more like some kind of costume, but here he'd been told it was real. Sonic had never lied to him before, although it was in the back of his head that maybe this was some elaborate prank. If it was, how he got those fangs to look so real was beyond this tanuki.

"At least you're still you. That's all I'll ever care about, no matter how your appearance changes."

Although all bets were off if that hedgehog tried to bite him. Hopefully this wouldn't spoil Kounosuke's birthday, it was in less than two weeks. He'd planned to prepare fish cakes, rather than a sweet cake. Something Sonic could enjoy just as much as he did.

"Maybe I should dress up as some kind of old timey villager to match."

[samobservessonic]

Now this is a proper follow-up to the last issue! So much for my assumption that they were giving Knuckles an easy excuse to be able to travel to and from the Floating Island, because Robotnik has found Knuckles using his tech and decides to blow it up. I guess Robotnik was in a bad mood after the events of this issue’s main story lol

Hey kids, did you know that Knuckles can glide? Play S3&K now to see more of the cool stuff Knuckles can do!

Oh neat, we’re getting an explanation for the Carnival Night Zone! It had to be skipped over during the last arc, but I’m glad they’re coming back to give it some dedicated focus

Knuckles uses one of his other skills to dig into the place, while some not-so-mysterious villains in the shadows wrongly assume that he won’t be much of a threat. And given that Knuckles has lived alone on this island his entire life, he doesn’t see much point to a place like this. He doesn’t even realise that’s a coke ad being shoved in his face!

Knuckles’s surprised face here might just be one of the most adorable Knuckles expressions I’ve ever seen!

The fight lasts about as long as you’d expect. I didn’t even skip out any panels on this one

They’ve covered the gliding, the digging and the super strength, so they might as well include the wall-climbing to show the readers the full set of abilities Knuckles has at his disposal. I also love that there’s just a real gun there. This was long before the age of 4Kids censoring

So, we’ve got the return of the Marxio Bros. Who are a mish-mash of references. There isn’t a missing blonde Mario brother from the 90s who looks like kind of a stoner. But it would’ve been funny if there was

On one hand, I’m not the most excited to see these particular supporting villains returning. But on the other hand, it was incredibly cool to see Knuckles tearing through the Carnival Night Zone and that Kitching dedicated time to thinking of a way to use it in the comic. This is exactly both of my nitpicks from this issue’s main story addressed and done better here, to the point where I feel they could’ve run this story as the main story, but I guess that’d be riding a lot on Knuckles’s power to sell issues without Sonic (We’ll get to that - there’s a Knuckles exclusive special later on). Because of this, I’m going to bite back my apprehensions about some villains I’m not interested in getting the spot-light again and look forward to seeing where they’re going with this next time

[number-one-shadisper-shipper]

I really want to see SatBK things that are more like the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Where Sonic creates a whole life in the storybook world and has to come back and live with everything that happened in that world but no longer is in this world.

Give me a Sonic who forgets that he's not a king. He asks someone to get something for him and is startled by a snappish "do it yourself". He tries to intervene in some dispute and is pushed away with an "It's none of your business." And yeah, he never used his position of power frivolously, but maybe he got used to being treated like royalty a little. And it's nice that people are more casual around him now, but it stings when some people have zero respect for him, when his words don't hold the weight they used to.

Give me a Sonic who developed great relationships with his friends' counterparts and now has to remember what kind of dynamic he had with them before everything happened. It's so good to have Tails back, cuz he was never quite able to get that brotherly bond going with his blacksmith friend, but the others... He starts up some friendly teasing with Shadow and is rewarded with a punch in the face. Oh yeah right, they're rivals here, not king and knight, not friends. And all the work he did to get Percival out of her shell will have to be redone for Blaze. Knuckles is never around like Gawain always was, and though he can still count on his unwavering loyalty, he has to earn the right to fight by his side instead of assuming his help. And Amy... the first thing he's greeted to when he returns is her anger for missing their date. A date he's missed by... years. But those years are full of moments with Nimue, moments Amy'll never remember. But he will.

Give me a Sonic who misses his other friends from there as well. Just random people he got to know. Do they have counterparts in the real world? He'll never know. And even Caliburn, who never left his side. He thought he'd be happy to be rid of that silly talking sword, but... sometimes he he'll say something and wait for a snarky comeback that doesn't come.

Give me a Sonic who's lost touch with technology. Who has to be reacquainted with computers and communicators. Who stares in amazement the night after he comes back and for the first time in years can just flick a switch to get light. A Sonic who is a little frustrated going back to a life of dealing with evil robots all the time.

Give me a Sonic who gets a little confused sometimes about which world he's living in. Give me a Sonic who has to live with being the only one who knows Camelot. A Sonic who has to deal with the fact these things, these people that were his whole life weren't "real", that they only exist in words on a page now. A Sonic who reads the stories and is sad that they couldn't capture the sweet charm of Nimue's voice, Percival's soft laugh, Lancelot's gruff nobility, or the bravery in Gawain's eyes on the eve of battle.

Give me a Sonic who has to hold the weight of two worlds and two lifetimes.

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I’m kind of tempted to get an EMF detector and just walk around the neighborhood with it when the outside is deserted because of bad weather, to see what kind of weird shit is happening sonically.

I’ve continually gotten really bad vibes from a nearby street corner… I’ve astral projected there in my sleep past one time (involuntarily) and I saw some black hole of a creature charge after me. I got the distinct feeling it wanted me carnally and carnivorously at the same time. I had to fly as fast as I could back into my body to escape it (it remained on the ground while I flew). I woke up with the after image of my own eyes staring into my soul, behind a white mask I used to own. It wasn’t like looking into a mirror, though; it felt sinister. I could tell I was looking into my own eyes; but there was something off about them. The eyes were completely devoid of any emotion, but extremely intense… almost as if they had a life of their own behind the reflection; or rather, as if I were the reflection in the mirror, and the eyes were the real me. Super fucking freaky.

To add to the bad vibes: There have also been numerous car crashes at that corner since I’ve been alive, at least one resulting in a woman being seriously injured. Many other times there have been near-misses. We could all hear when it happened— screeching tires, honking, cursing, and on especially unlucky days, the deafening bang of two cars ramming into each other at 40 mph on a 25 mph street.

There is also a sewer drain right on that street corner. It may just be a coincidence; but the one time I used an online ouija board, the spirit (assuming online ouija boards aren’t just a programmed gimmick) said they hated me and that they lived in the water. I refreshed the website a few times and it said the same thing. I don’t think this can be considered evidence; but it’s still weird. I’ve seen an entire family of raccoons in that sewer drain before. I have no idea how they got down there.

I also remember numerous experiences from when I was a child playing alone in my room or drawing at the kitchen table when I would be overcome with the feeling that I was being watched. I would usually come to feel so unsafe that I would drop whatever I was doing to sit in the living room or bedroom with my parents. I never told them why; I just went “nope” and moved to an area with people. My room and the kitchen are both on the side of the house that faces that corner. Mind you, I wasn’t doing anything scary like listening to “let’s not meet” stories when this happened. I was just doing normal kid stuff.

I’m by no means afraid of the dark; but I still get that feeling from the basement sometimes. All the basements on our block have flooded several times with water from the sewers during heavy rainfall because someone forgot to flip a switch for the water mains (I don’t know quite how that works). But yeah… basically the basement is connected to the sewers and storm drains… there are two holes in the floor which act as drains (which is where the flood water came from).

I remember one summer day when I was about eight or nine sitting on the can (the bathroom is right next to my room), taking a shit. We have a tiny frosted window above the bath tub; the bath tub is right next to the toilet. I distinctly saw what looked like the fuzzy silhouette of a man with gray hair standing right outside the window (full head and shoulders). He would have had to have been quite tall, or on a step stool, as the window is more than six feet off the ground from the outside. This dude shouts “Hello!” at me and fucking knocks on the window. I, of course, was startled and also mildly pissed at my dad (who is tall, but not quite that tall) for knocking on the window while I was taking a shit. I got out in the living room and asked why he knocked on the window. It wasn’t him. My parents speculated that it could have been our friend Bob who had briefly stopped by the house; but Bob was a short guy, and surely would have more fucking tact than that. Ever since then if I need to use the bathroom, I close the shower curtain.

On top of all this (completely unrelated), I’ve always had horrifying paranormal dreams since I was a kid, despite being raised without any exposure whatsoever to paranormal media. Also, I’ve had recurring dreams of a warped version of my school system, in which the buildings remain the same every time I dream of them. If there is a pool in any dream of mine, no matter how brief; it is ALWAYS haunted by some malevolent spirit… which is very weird because I absolutely love going to water parks. Always have.

Anyway… TLDR: I may have to banish something from that street corner lmfao

[happinessismusic]

You’ve expressed that you’ve had this song for two years. Does that mean you have been in the studio more recently recording new music for the album that’s to come?

Gwen Stefani: Yeah, I have like a whole bunch of songs that I wrote in 2020 all the way up to now. I’ve been writing and going to the studio again. It’s one of those things, I feel like anyone that’s a songwriter can relate to this who is able to write a song about something that feels honest and real and purposeful. And by the way, you can go in and write a song and on paper, the song is everything you think it is and you get excited and then you decide, “I don’t really wanna listen to that” and you don’t know why. When you write a song like “Hollaback Girl,” you know that minute that you’ve just touched something that’s never been touched before and you’re jumping on the couch and you’re having your Tom Cruise moment. Like, “Whoa, this is crazy.”

But other times when you write songs, it’s not special. It’s really been challenging to know sonically what the direction is. When I wrote my last album, which is forever ago, This Is What The Truth Feels Like, which is actually one of my favorite albums, I kind of feel like when I got my team, I felt as if they were my cheerleaders. Any idea I had, they were so supportive and so I could be completely free with myself in the studio. This time around, I feel I’ve gone in with so many different people and I always get, like you said at the beginning, “What are you waiting for?” I always get really insecure and worried about writing a song, and then I’m happy to do it in a four-hour window when the kids are at school. It’s just different. I look back at my life and I go, “Wow, I was so selfish.” I got to be such a true artist in the sense that I got to stay up all night and show up at the studio at one in the morning and then sleep all day. Those things are kind of necessary to write music. That’s probably why it took me so long and why it always takes me a long time. No Doubt doesn’t even have that much music if you really look at how long we’ve been around. There’s not a lot of music compared to a lot of people, sadly. Over the last couple of months, I went in with some people that I adore and had really good chemistry with. I’m just dying to go back in and write with them because every single song you write changes what the record could be. Another one falls off that you’re like, “Oh, I thought that was good, but eh I like this one.” Currently, I’m in that zone.

I have four new ones that I literally can’t stop listening to. And so when that happens, I’m assuming that other people might feel the same way. That’s exciting. But there’s no time. Now I’m going on tour. I know it’s four shows, but it doesn’t matter because just the lead-up to just do it takes as much as it does to go on a 60-date tour. I also really learned in my life to build time to enjoy downtime by watching movies, cooking, hanging out with my husband, gardening, and other things too.

---------

Gwen talks about her songwriting process. I love how she mentioned enjoying downtime by hanging out with Blake and gardening.

More here:

[sarrai]

I'm going to assume in good faith you legitimately do not understand, despite the snark. I've seen this sentiment a few times now, and I want to believe people aren't being intentionally cruel and malicious, just trying to get "clever internet one-liner" points.

The reason people are saying OP is the asshole while saying incest fiction isn't a big deal, is because OUTING people for it IS a big deal, no matter your stance on the fiction itself.

I had a friend in high school who wasn't allowed to read comic books, of any kind. Her parents thought they were meaningless garbage promoting sex and violence or some nonsense, even if it was Sonic the Hedgehog. There's nothing wrong with reading comic books, but I would never have told her parents that she secretly read mine at lunch, because they would have gotten pissed and she would have gotten punished. Again, over nothing that was actually a problem to anyone else.

I really don't think fictional incest matters, because fictional characters cannot be hurt and no one's forming their real life morality from fiction alone (otherwise GoT would have caused a surge of irl incest.) I'm sure you disagree, and honestly?? That doesn't really matter here, either. We don't have to agree on that point.

What does matter is that there's undeniably people in these very comments telling everyone who said "YTA" on a tumblr poll to kill themselves. Do you really think these people will see someone writing incest and not harass them? If OP had dropped that author's handle here, they would have gotten flooded with nasty comments; if they were really unlucky, someone could go so far as to doxx them- it's happened many times before.

OP is painting a target on the author's back by consistently outing them to fans, specifically fans they suspect will be unhappy to hear it. Every extra person from this unintended audience that knows is another person who might react strongly, and that's dangerous. Regardless of whether or not you thinks fictional incest is an ethical problem, surely we can all agree that the safety of a real living person is still a top priority.

AITA for 'outing' someone for writing inc*st?

I (20F) am in a moderately large fandom that got popular during the pandemic. Most of the fic for this fandom is gen and platonic pairings, which is a rarity and fantastic. One of the most popular creators in the fandom puts out a ton of gen fics that I really loved. Unfortunately, I learned after that they write fics on a different account, and not just any fics, but inc*st. I'm not talking about found family. These characters are literal brothers in canon. I can't believe anyone would ship them together, much less this person. I unfollowed them and now, whenever I see anyone talking about how much they love this creator, I inform them about the alt account and their ships. Ignorance may be bliss, but I felt awful when I found out and realized I'd been supporting them for so long and I don't want anyone else to feel that way. But someone replied to one of my comments calling me the asshole, telling me I was outing the creator, and to mind my own business. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[bahamutgames]

SAGE 2023 Postin'

Yay!! SAGE 2023 has started! Last year I didn't make the time to play much of anything despite having a year to do it lmao, and that really bummed me out so I really wanted to get ahead of the curve and go ahead and play some stuff! Idk how much I'll play from this year's showing cause there's a LOT of great stuff! But I'll make however many posts it takes. Here's what I played tonight that I think YOU should check out!!

Dotty Game - by Wootinaboot

A game from a friend of mine! This is a SUPER cute Megaman like where you play as an ADORABLE little bug and blast mushrooms! This demo is really neat cause it's actually a gameboy file that I had to play through emulator! Although, you can just play it in browser on their itch so that's nice too! Controls are tight, sprites are great, music is REALLY nice and I was surprised by how challenging it could get with some of the bosses. There's also a LOT of hidden stuff to find so be sure to play it all the way through! You do NOT want to miss the special surprise let me tell you!

The Wingless Bee - by Ryansil

Another game from a friend and famously, the creator of Pac-Man as you all know. This game I was not expecting at all, it's actually very similar to Frogger! Though it is kind of gloomy and sad. But it's cool and the demo really shows some neat stuff like perspective changes and boss fights. It's simple but I genuinely had an out loud "AHA!" moment when I figured out how to fight the boss. Cool stuff!

Sonic McOrigins Plus - by Difgue

FINALLY, GAMING IS GOOD AGAIN! I have SO MUCH nostalgia for these old Sonic McDonald's toys! I tried to collect all of them but obviously couldn't (I didn't even realize there were SO many!) But I can relive wonderful memories of Shadow Grinding, Shadow vs Omega Hockey, AiAi Banana Catcher, Amy and Rouge Tennis ect ect. I knew there were efforts to archive these types of game & watch styled games but I hadn't really tried any before myself. This feels great and even works great on my dinky phone!

F-ZERO POCKET - by Linky493

This was such a neat one! F-ZERO on Gameboy Color! It has a TON of characters and tracks, I was actually seriously shocked by how much was in here. It's a little difficult to play though but weirdly enough I feel like that's authentic to how a GBC F-ZERO would be. If you're a fan you gotta check it out the novelty of this one alone is so good!

Toree Saturn - by Siactro

Probably the least surprising thing I've ever said by this point: I love Toree! I've played the whole series and I think at this point I've S ranked every stage in the series??? Maybe? It's been a bit since I looked. So of course I had to try Toree Saturn! I hadn't seen gameplay prior to playing this so I figured it was just gonna be another level pack. But to my delight, no! It's actually a Toree Sequel! A brand new game! New models, new moves and mechanics! Now I am BEYOND excited for this game! I still have to play Kiwi 64 but it looks amazing and Siactro hasn't missed once yet. This was a lovely surprise!

Dono's Tale - by Super Item Studios

WOW! WOW WOW WOW! This one absolutely blew me away! I've had my eye on this game for a bit (I'm so sorry I missed the kickstarter, y'all, I WISH I HAD MORE MONEY I'D FUND SO MANY INDIE GAMES!) But I finally got to try it with this demo and just WOW! This game is SO good! Absolutely GORGEOUS artwork that looks so authentically SNES it's amazing. Super cute music and designs, this was an absolute treat! My favorite powers were fire + wings! I wish you had more use for the other powers, though I do assume a full game will have levels soley based around each of Dono's abilities. This game rules!

Bub's Big Blowout - by Miles' Games

DUDE THIS GAME LOOKS REAL!? FAN GAMES JUST STRAIGHT UP LOOK LIKE OFFICIAL GAMES NOWADAYS THIS IS NUTS!! Bub's Big Blowout is a 3D Platformer translation of Bubble Bobble and honestly, it rules! I genuinely think Taito should give them the resources they need to make this a real game cause this is SO high quality and it's just the demo! I don't even think the game is done. This seriously looks and feels amazing! Only issue is I couldn't get my controller to work with it, but if it did I think this would feel almost 100% official

Sonic Battle Rush - by FreeGilio

A 2D Sonic Fighter? Using Sonic Battle Sprites? And Shadow has a Mephiles alt? YES YES YES!! A 2D Sonic Fighting Game is basically one of my dream games, but surprisingly I haven't tried any of the dozen fan attempts at the concept... Until today! This demo only features Sonic and Shadow and 3 stages, but it absolutely RULES! Both characters feel fantastic and unique and have fully fleshed out movesets! I was even able to string together some goofy little combos by myself and overall it felt super satisfying to play. Also there's a ton of modes and even ways to loadout your characters such as having 2 at once or taking turns. So the demo has lots to do! I'll absolutely be keeping up with this game going forward!

---

Today I just played some stuff that caught my eye from the SAGE 2023 trailer but I will try to play some more stuff as the year goes along! So if you have anything you think I'd like or if YOU submitted anything to Sage that you want me to look at just cause you want people to see your game? Why not, send that to me too!

There's so many amazing indie games it's genuinely hard to keep up with all of them. But SAGE is seriously becoming my favorite place to just discover new stuff or finally get to try things I'm excited for! Again I'm bummed it just kinda slipped my mind to try anything from last year but already we're not repeating that mistake. I encourage you to go try some stuff too if you have the time! Or at least just take a look at what's available! Everyone put in a LOT of hard work on these games!

[fstbmp-a]

@anonymous sent: Amy, I think you're being too hard on yourself. Even if your crush on Sonic could be...too much sometimes, you were young! And you never wished him harm, or put your own wants over his like an actual stalker would. And think about it: if you had never fallen for Sonic, maybe you wouldn've never met any of your other friends or discovered what you can really do. You just felt things too much, and I don't think you should berate yourself for loving. Your love is your greatest strength. It's what makes you YOU!

Ah jeez, there was a lot to unpack here, wasn't there? She runs a hand through her quills, huffing a bit as she has to listen to all of this.

Amy can recall a few times where she did - heck, it could be argued her first meeting with Sonic was exactly that: she dropped her entire life to go meet her hero and chased him for years after that. Still.. well, maybe they're not WRONG either. Sure, it took her years, but she's finally managed to ease off now. She does have a tendency to slip into old habits, though...

"I don't know... I think a bit of berating is kind of needed. I never really thought of if he'd ever want that. I just assumed that he'd come around eventually and that's not really.. okay."

She never would've met Knuckles or Tails without Sonic - or Shadow-- really, anyone. Amy stumbled into the friend group chasing after Sonic, though she's made some real connections, yes. She wouldn't change that for the world, the friends she's made along the way.

What she can really do... A frown, flicking her wrist as hammer poofs into her hand. Sure, she was good at this kind of thing but.. hm. She rests it on the floor, gently kicking hammer with foot as it spins in her loose grip. She's helped save the world, yeah, and she found out quickly she could keep a level-head when the going got tough.

Amy helped everyone she could, though when everyone else just does save the day, it was hard to not think her own work paled in comparison... All she does is HELP and everyone else does the heavy lifting.

But.. love's important. Without it, nobody would really grow in a positive way, would they?

She's been silent for awhile, just thinking it over before she manages a smile.

"Right, right... I guess you have some valid points there..."

[thankskenpenders]

Welp, I gotta make a post about this, huh

Thoughts on this:

1. If you've somehow been living under a rock and don't know what NFTs are: first of all, I envy you. Second, here's a two hour video from Dan Olson explaining the problem with NFTs and blockchain stuff in general. I'm assuming many of you have seen this before, but I'm not going to take the time to explain this shit when Dan did it better

2. Penders is absolutely 100% wording things in a way that will piss Sonic fans off and get him more attention on Twitter. "Green Knuckles." "Julie-Su AKA Shade." It's bait. Don't fall for it. Don't engage with him directly. Don't go into his mentions trying to argue copyright law with him. You are not going to win, and you're just giving him what he wants

3. One hundred thousand fucking dollars

4. I have to repeat that. One hundred thousand dollars. EACH. For a digital certificate of authenticity for a set of PNGs of some Penders art. I have to wonder if that price tag is also bait. (It's definitely got people - including me - talking about it.) However, in the insane intersection of the speculative art market and tech libertarians that NFTS exist in, that's honestly not that high of a price tag. Ancient memes like Disaster Girl and Charlie Bit My Finger have been turned into NFTs and sold for as high as $500k and $761k, respectively in the speculative market. (Of course, that's in highly volatile crypto bucks, not real money.) I wouldn't be surprised if Penders figures that, as a piece of Sonic history, he sees his work as genuinely worth that much compared to other things that have been minted as NFTs to earn a quick buck

5. Possibly most perplexing about this: Penders says that he understands peoples' concerns about NFTs and even agrees to some extent, but also that "other matters take precedence." That matter apparently isn't the money, despite appearances, and in fact he claims that his lawyers were involved in the decision making process here. I genuinely have no idea what he's getting at here, or what kind of 5-D chess he could be trying to play

6. The icing on the cake, though, is that even some of the last remaining people who had the guy's back seem to be disappointed in him for this, judging by his Twitter replies. He somehow keeps finding ways to make his public image worse and worse

[atangledfate]

Eggman grabbed the drive though shifted it slightly to the side as i he wasn't sure he cared enough to take it. But perhaps it was worth it, maybe he could use what was on it as blackmail if nothing else. He watched the other blow a hole in the hanger with ease, as it reminded him of Blaze yet pyrokinetic power wasn't uncommon among mobians either so he didn't want to assume. His eyes drifted up to the Massive Wisp and he had a devious grin on his face!

Well what kind of evil genius would he be if he didn't cause a little chaos before he left right?

" Hah--- GUN is hardly a footnote under normal circumstances. But i am here on private business. I lack my armada, and while Metal can dismantle them with ease. Where GUN is, Shadow is close behind... and i'd rather not tempt fate... "

Knowing his limits was important but he did have one plan to sow a little chaos before he left.

" I suppose we part ways here... should i find Clutch i'll be sure and let him know you are looking for him... and yes the Wisps have quite the vendetta against me--- but never look a gift horse in the mouth or so the saying goes. "

================================================

Sonic's eyes went to the shuttle and he grabbed Surge's arm to force the bolt off course---getting zapped himself in the process! Causing him to wince in pain as he stumbled back from surge. They had no proof it was Clutch and worse it could be civilians! if the others were dealing with this up there it could have been there friends! they had no proof it was a threat and he ended up plopping on the platform shuddering from the zap!

" Surge... i know you hate the guy but--- what if that was a bunch of civi's? or ya know our friends, my friends? what ever! just calm down... for five seconds. We don't even know what's going on in there yet outside of Clutch is behind it... "

He sighed as he pulled himself back to standing and shook off the damage from zap. His super speed healing him rapidly thankfully but dang did that hurt!

" Look if it was clutch you can hit me later, but right now lets get o---"

The explosion made him crawl to the edge of the platform and look down at the hole and back up to Surge.

" Blaze is on vacation here right now maybe? But i don't see her... all i see is... "

As the smoke cleared out from the hole Eggman was standing in the Hole waving up to the two! before he yelled at the Wisp! and Sonic instantly had a bad feeling about it as he knew how much the wisps hated Eggman! If Big Mom went on a Rampage it could be real bad and the fact he made a point for mom to see him! made Sonic feel like this was bait, he was baiting her to do something bad!

" Eggman, what is he even--- i got a bad feeling about this..."

=============================================

Once Eggman had been seen by Sonic and the Wisp he opened a Sub-Space Portal in the hanger. He glanced back to the stranger with a mischievous look on his face! he knew both Sonic and especially Surge would bust in here any second! if he was lucky the big Wisp would go crazy trying to get at him and crash the airship into Restoration! and set off all the explosives' in the process!

" Friendly Advice... You should probably leave before the heroes arrive! as for me... i'll see myself out now. Metal, let's we are leaving! "

Eggman and Metal stepped into the portal and Eggman twisted his great Mustashe! his part in this was over, but if he could blow restoration to bits in the process! well, who was he to pass up an opportunity like that!

" Farewell!, may your hunt be fruitful! "

He'd dash out the shuttle a moment later, seeming to have ripped off a server drive from the ship itself. "Didn't think you were the type to run away from GUN. They like to come off as a threat, though I think they're just a joke." He would would then toss the drive at Eggman. "Couldn't find anything useful, though I'm sure you can find out where the navigation was set. Maybe even find some of his other's hiding holes. You drive him out I'm sure it'll make it easier for me to get a hold of him."

He then blasted a hole through the locked hanger door only to see a massive Wisp. "Now that Wisp might actually cause you some trouble if it spots you. After all, I'm sure they hold a grudge after the stunt you pulled with the stupid space amusement park." That was just his guess, though it seemed to be more focused on the airship. "Wouldn't be surprised if Sonic was with the Wisp so have fun with that." He had no reason to be worried since he wasn't on anyone's bad side.

===========================================================

"You can take care of the shuttle. I'm not good with flying those fucking things which is why I prefer to run." Surge had tried to fly a shuttle once, though it took only a few seconds for her to crash it. The tenrec didn't hear the end of that for fucking months though she warned them it wasn't a good idea. The speedster then noticed another shuttle leaving, quickly assuming it was Clutch.

"Clutch," Surge said, fighting every urge in her body to jump of the Wisp and try to find a close enough point to jump on that shuttle. Though there were people on this airship, and at this point she wasn't selfish enough to ignore them. "You aren't getting away without a few fucking scrapes." The tenrec's lighting changed to yellow, having more power before she threw a bolt right at one of the boosters of the shuttle. At the very least it'll slow him down and maybe toss him around a bit.

"I'm going to assume you don't wish for me to try and grab whatever it is you shot at." The Mother Wisp wasn't really sure what any of this was. Only knowing the thing in front of her was an airship from Sonic and Surge talking to her about it. She'd move them close enough to jump onto it before starting to force it away from the base. It was rather light.

Surge looked up seeing a ball of fire blast through a close hanger door. "Found a easy way in. You think that Blaze chick is on this airship?" The tenrec met Blaze only once and they didn't even talk that long. The speedster would be a bit surprised if they were here, though three people moving at the speed of sound could easily get everyone off this ship in an instant.

[make-me-imagine]

Scenario Prompts: 5/29 A; Tony Stark compliments you all the time because he has a crush on you. 

Requested by: @spuffyfan394​​​​

Pairing: Tony Stark x Gen!Neutral Reader

Triggers: None         Words: 1,966

Everything taglist: @criminaly-supernatural​​, @caswinchester2000​​ Marvel Taglist: @aquariuslavenderhoney​, @trashywritestrash​, @groovyfluxie​, @marvelouslyme96​, @supersourlemon13​, @mochamoff​, @simsiddy​

Notes: It’s kind of a mixture of flirting and compliments. Also; I use the song reference to ‘The Fantasticks’ because in Civil War when you see Tony’s mom in his memory, she is singing a song from it.  Also, I’m having a bit of writers block, so I can’t tell if this is really that good. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When you were recruited to join the Avengers you knew it would be both exciting and dangerous, but you had still underestimated how quickly things would get out of hand on the simplest of missions.

“You just had to egg him on didn’t you?!” you yelled as you and Steve ran for cover “We could have easily taken him but noooo, you just had to make him mad.”

“We needed him to reveal his plan, it’s not my fault I had no idea he had a weapon like that!” Steve yelled back just as a huge wave of energy smacked against the back of you, the man firing off the huge sonic weapon he unveiled.

As you grunted in pain, rolling to a stop, Steve grabbed your arm as you stumbled behind a wall, catching your breath and wincing from the pain.

“That didn’t look very fun” you heard a familiar voice through your coms as you looked up, seeing Tony and Rhodey coming in their suits.

“Took you long enough, where had you guys been?” Steve asked.

“Just went out for coffee, you guy’s didn’t want anything did you?” Tony quipped as he and Rhodey began firing at the sonic weapon, successfully stopping it from firing.

As they were doing so, you spotted another man coming out from a nearby building, pointing a weapon at Tony’s back. Quickly reacting, you grabbed Steve’s shield before jumping behind Tony. Tony spun around just as the man fired. He had a smaller sonic weapon that he fired at you. Hitting the shield it launched you back, Tony reached out and grabbed you, supporting you as you held up the shield, that was now reflecting the sonic beam.

Steve, when seeing what happened, quickly reacted by running quickly to the man and taking him out. You let down your arms in relief once he did, your arms feeling heavy from the weight of holding up the shield.

“Nice one newbie” Tony said as his helmet retracted revealing his face and the small present on it.

You sighed as you looked up at him “I’ll take that coffee now.” You joked, making him chuckle.

“Maybe I’ll get you one when we get back.” He said as he placed his hand on your upper back as he turned to Steve who was approaching. Handing back his shield Steve nodded his head at you as Tony spoke “You better be careful Cap, Y/n looked like a natural with that thing, if you’re not careful they’ll steal your job.” He turned as he began to leave “God knows they’d look better in the suit.” he finished with before he began to fly off with Rhodey further into the compound.

You and Steve looked at each other with similar eye rolls before you began to make your way through the compound to find the rest of the men you were after.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You hummed quietly to yourself as you tapped your leg, reading over the file Fury had given you about a possible harmful organization you’d be checking out. Engrossed in your thoughts and the document you didn’t see Tony come in the room.

He leaned against the counter as he watched you for a moment, listening to the song you were humming to yourself. He felt a wave of nostalgia and melancholy as you continued to hum the tune, beginning to mumble quietly to yourself as you sang the lyrics. 

“For I can see it, shining somewhere. Bright light’s somewhere invite me to compare-”

You cut yourself off as you flipped the page of the document you had as you continued to read. 

“My mother loved that show.” Tony finally said, making your head shoot up as you looked at him surprised. 

“Oh, Tony I didn’t hear you come in- Wait, you’re mother?” 

He nodded as he walked towards you “She used to play the piano and sing songs from it all the time.” His thought went back to the last day he saw her and his father.

You smiled lightly at him “My father used to play the songs when he was working.” You replied making him smile. 

“They had similar taste then.” Tony said before taking the file from your hands, “You’ve got a good voice you know.” 

He said simply making you chuckle “You wouldn’t say that if you actually heard me try.”

Tony smiled at you as he handed the file back “I think I would.” He commented before turning away “We’ll be leaving in a few hours, so read up.” 

You watched as he left the room, wondering why he says the things he does. He switched from flirty to nice so often it gave you whiplash. You smiled to yourself as you shook your head, reading over the files once again. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You sighed to yourself as you looked around the crowded room as people drank and laughed. Tony was holding another party and the Avengers were more or less required to show up, at least for a little while. So you did your duty, dressed up nice and made an appearance. Though you had no real intention of staying all night. 

“Nice outfit.” You heard a voice comment from behind. 

Turning you see Tony, wearing a black silk suit and a smile. “You too” you said in reply as he came and stood right next to you, looking into the crowd of people. 

“I didn’t think this was your kind of thing.” 

You shrugged “It can be, sometimes. Doing it right after a mission that involved being shot at and attacked for four hours straight isn’t exactly ideal though.” 

He cocked his head and smiled “Well, I wouldn’t have held it against you if you didn’t show. But I’m glad you did. I got to see you all dressed up.” He looked at you with a flirty smirk. 

You met his eyes for a minute before smiling “Hmm” you hummed out before turning and walking into the crowd, leaving Tony to watch you with a mild look of confusion. 

You hated that Tony’s flirtatious comments were getting to you. Not because it was annoying you, but because he flirted with everyone, which meant that most likely there wasn’t any genuine feelings behind them. And that was why they irritated you, because you wanted there to be something, anything behind his words. You had developed feelings for the rich playboy superhero, and you hated that his feelings could be one-sided. Part of you told you he did have feelings for you, but you couldn’t assume, you wouldn’t. 

These thoughts drifted to the back of your mind as the night went on, distracted by the other Avengers and visitors you met with throughout the night. 

As you watched small groups of people make their way to the dance floor, as the band began to play slower music, you felt a tap on your shoulder. Looking back, your eyes met those of a man named Thomas. A shield agent you had met a few times. Annoying, rude and thinks to highly of himself. 

You put on a fake smile in greeting as he grinned at you “Y/n, I’m glad I finally got to catch you. I was wondering if you might dance with me.” 

As you opened your mouth to speak, wracking your brain for an excuse, you were cut off as someone appeared by your side, somewhat cutting you off from Thomas. 

“Hey there, sorry to interrupt there Tyler, but I’ve already got dibs on this dance.” Tony said as his hands lightly gripped your arms, pushing you towards the dance-floor. 

“Uh, it’s Thomas sir- I”

“Oh, yeah sorry about that Tommy.” He replied quickly as he pulled you into the crowd. 

As he pulled you closer to him and began leading in the dance you shook your head and chuckled “You’ve already got dibs on this dance?” 

Tony shrugged his head “Oh, what you mean you didn’t know? You’re welcome by the way.” He said with a smile. 

You chuckled lightly as you began dancing smoothly to the music, Tony’s hand rested lightly on your waist “I had a question.”

“Shoot” you replied. 

“Did I offend you earlier. You walked off with an air of ‘shut up Tony’.” He asked while meeting your eyes. 

You smiled lightly, you guess now was a better time than any to talk about it “I can only take so much of your empty flirting Tony. You should save it for the people who beg you for your attention.” You said while glancing at a group of people eyeing the two of you, mostly with indignation.

You saw an unusual emotion pass over Tony’s face before he leaned a little closer to you “Who said it’s empty flirting?”

“Isn’t it?” You asked curiously “You flirt with everyone that has a pulse and a pretty face.” 

He scoffed “Oh come on, that’s keeping up appearances.” He said with mild offense before meeting your eyes “None of the flirting or complements I have said to you are empty.” 

You stared at him for a moment, reading him. “Then why do you do it?”

A small smile crossed his face “Isn’t it obvious by now?” 

“Work with me on this one.” You challenged, wanting him to say it. You needed to hear it. 

Your dance slowed to a near stop as his gaze into your eyes grew in intensity. Leaning forward, he brought his lips close to your ear “I flirt with you because I like you, not platonically, not in a shallow on the surface way that everyone expects of me.” He leaned back, meeting your eyes, his face close to yours “I like you. A hell of a lot more than I’ve ever liked anyone else. And honestly, it scares the shit out of me. Because I’ve never felt this way for anyone, and it’s true, I flirt because it’s what I’m good at. I don’t know how to express myself any other way.”

Your heart began to beat heavier in your chest as he spoke, his eyes and voice telling you it wasn’t a joke and that he was telling the truth. You smiled at him, and saw him relax slightly as you did so. “And here I thought you’d never admit it.” you said quietly. 

A smile broke out on his face as he tightened his grip around you, beginning to dance with you again. “Well, believe it or not, I’m not as confident as everyone thinks I am.” 

“That’s alright, I don’t mind. I like that side of you.” You said with a smile. 

Tony stood still suddenly, bringing you to a stop again as you looked at him curiously. Bringing his hand up be brushed his hand across the side of your face for a moment “I’m glad, you’re one of the few who’s seen it, and one of the few who I’d like to know about it, so maybe-”

“Keep it a secret?” you asked with an air of amusement.

“You understand me so well.” He quipped as he stared back into your eyes, his eyes flicking to your lips, an action you did not miss. “What are you doing tomorrow?” he quickly changed the subject. 

“Nothing, it’s my day off.” 

“Good, go out with me.”

“Where?” 

“Haven’t decided yet but it’ll be fun.” 

“Not another party though right?” 

“No, just the two of us.”

“A date then?” You asked with a smile, which he mirrored. 

“Exactly.” 

“Sounds like a somewhat thought out plan to me, I’ll be there.” 

You shared an amused smile as you continued to dance to the music, completely ignoring your surrounding as you finally aired out your feelings for one another. 

xx

I’m bad a endings lol

If you liked this please consider reblogging it to share it with others, fics only go so far on one dashboard.

If you’d like to be added to a taglist (for any fandom or character) let me know~

[vitalpen]

So I’m gonna say words about Arin Hanson and Sonic

Because that’s probably not a good idea, but that’s never stopped me before.

Let me start this off by saying I love Sonic the Hedgehog.  I made an entire 20+ minute video about why I love Sonic the Hedgehog.  I understand that Sonic as an fandom has gotten some pretty needless shit in spades over the years.  Fair enough.

That said:

In the past week, a large number of people in the Sonic fandom have made complete jackasses of themselves.  For context, the port of Sonic Colors might be bad and glitchy, or it might be an emulator, or it might be some of it was an emulator and some of it is real.  I don’t care.

Arin Hanson of Game Grumps stated that he’s excited to play it.

And a large portion of the Sonic fandom lost their god damn minds.

Now you know what I can concede easily?  People who say that they’re frustrated that Arin is spotlighting what is normally a good game because there’s a bad version of it.  I can understand and respect that emotion.  But wow did it go way too far and WOW did it start to bleed into some weird ass fucking takes.

People are trying to say that Arin ruined Sonic’s reputation.  Between Sonic Adventure and the Game Grumps playing Sonic ‘06 in 2011, Sega released Sonic Shuffle, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 4 episodes 1 and 2, Sonic ‘06, Sonic Free Riders, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic and the Black Knight, and Sonic Chronicles.

Every last game I just listed understandably was subjected to mockery and ridicule after their releases, they were bad.  Sonic has been a punching bag for literally 20 years.  Arin Hanson did not ruin Sonic’ reputation.  Sega’s inability to keep any kind of consistent level of quality is what did that.

“He’s just doing it for money/views/clout”.  Game Grumps is his job.  Everything he does is for views/money.  That’s normal and appropriate for his job. And Game Grumps doesn’t do shit for clout.  They have been on youtube for 10 years, they know the way things work.  If they wanted clout, we would be seeing a them play every new release for search optimization every time.  As of the writing of this post, they played Charlie’s Angels yesterday.  Who the fuck looks at that and says “yep, doin it for clout”?

“He’s not genuinely engaging”.  You don’t know that. You have no idea whether or not he is genuinely engaging with the content, you don’t know him.  Tommy Wiseau’s The Room has a cult following such that it got a massively successful docudrama.  People genuinely love that movie.  I genuinely love that movie.  No one thinks it’s good.

You want to see someone not genuinely engaging?  Look up “Two Best Friends Play Ride to Hell: Retribution”.  Then you’ll see what not genuinely engaging looks like.  And that shit is hilarious.

“His criticism is disingenuous”.  It’s not criticism.  It’s a live reaction.  Everyone’s gotten mad at a video game because they kept dying.  You, reading this, you’ve done it.  You just didn’t record it.  Stop trying to assign the same expectations to him that you would a fully thought out review.

At the end of the day, it’s people in the fandom being mad at Arin because he’s finding enjoyment for the same reason that so many of them have become cold and bitter about the franchise.  So they turn him into this boogeyman, a guy who has gone on record saying he loves Sonic as a character even if he hates the games.  They find any reason they can to be mad at him up to assuming that he will not care about epilepsy warnings for some of the more eye searing sections.

Like... shut the fuck up.  Stop pretending that you actually think he’s so cruel that he’ll forgo seizure warnings.

The amount of needless vitriol toward him because he was excited to play a glitchy game is just so shitty and it’s doing absolutely nothing to make Sonic look any better.

It’s just video games man.  It’s not worth this.

[bronyinabottle]

G5 MOVIE THOUGHTS FOLLOWUP - THE ANCIENT EQUESTRIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

SPOILER WARNING: THIS WILL GET INTO SPOILERS FOR THE G5 MOVIE EVEN BEFORE THE BREAK. IT HAS BEEN JUST OVER A WEEK SINCE THE MOVIE PREMIERED. BUT IF YOU STILL HAVEN'T SEEN IT, PLEASE SCROLL PAST THIS.

This is something of a follow-up to my thoughts on the movie. My thoughts on the movie were generally positive. Though much like the movie itself, the positive thoughts were on what it’s doing on it’s own merit as the start of a new generation of pony media. As someone who had followed Generation 4 from all the way in the middle of Season 1 to the ending of Season 9, the connection the G5 movie makes with the previous generation in the opening scenes are enough that it’s necessary to give a perspective from a G4 fan’s point of view. Again, I do want to say that G5 will be within it’s right to not have to answer so many plot things at once and try to stand on it’s own by exploring the characters and this new Equestria first.

That said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the longer none of the questions G4 fans will have are answered. There is a huge elephant in the room with the unanswered questions from G4. And It is Hasbro’s fault in the first place for telling us it’s the same Equestria, There will be fans that are annoying about it from multiple angles, and there will probably be times where people who just want to enjoy G5 on it’s own just outright snap at anyone who wants their answers about what happened in between G4 and G5. Even if the person who asks the question is just genuinely curious and not being demanding there be answers. This is just the kind of thing that all fandoms that have timeskip sequels, especially ones where it overrides a happy ending where discussing with other friends can get dicey.

HAPPY ENDING OVERRIDES AND ALICORNS

Until we get an official answer from the show itself, we can only theorize with each other. Though theorizing about a happy ending override, regardless of how long it’s been and/or how sensible the theory is can start some heated discussions, Cause many were content with the happy ending of the original. While no realistic story ever has a happily ever after, a story within a fantasy land such as MLP’s can be an exception.

Let me give something of a comparison by bringing up another show. Avatar: The Last Airbender is perhaps my favorite show of all-time. And while it’s true I didn’t like the sequel series Korra as much as A:TLA. It wasn’t because of some happy ending override with at least half of the main cast from the previous series deceased. The Avatars themselves are just as human as the other characters in the world. Avatar’s still a fantasy world when all is said and done, but the way the world building is done still made it feel like it it was possible for the world to be in danger again by the time the next Avatar is grown up, most known Avatars had challenges they had to face. The Avatar series blends some form of realism but still manages to provide a fun fantasy world. It’s a case where it’s believable that the main legacy of Aang’s time as the Avatar aside from defeating the Fire Lord where he created Republic City would have it’s own fair share of problems that would be left to his successor to solve. Aang in turn was finishing the war that Roku failed to stop. So while I have my criticisms about Korra, none of those are related to the way the world is after the timeskip. It reasonably makes sense in the context of the Avatar universe.

In contrast, there isn’t much we know about the past of G4 and it’s a much more idealistic setting then in Avatar. Yes, ponies die with what I assume are human-esque lifespans for the exception of the Alicorns. But Friendship is Magic is a setting where the power of friendship is literal magic power that can save the day even when things look bleak. As a result it can get very sappy, but FiM is the kind of show you watch to put a smile on your face rather then go to for a multi-faceted plot. Most episodes of FiM are the kind of thing you see in a lot of other shows. But what brings most of it’s fans back even for the most overdone plots is the characters and their interactions. FiM’s lore is a lot less straight forward, and sometimes may feel not as consistent given there were so many different writers over the long span of time. That said, there is something about the series that sort of ties in heading into G5 and that’s G4’s history, and especially Alicorn lore. We don’t get a lot of either even back in G4, as the most we get is the founding of Equestria was through the Hearth’s Warming Eve story, and the knowledge that Alicorns like Celestia and Luna are at least older then 1000. Which is a huge gap compared to the Avatars that no matter how powerful, have similar mortality to our own. Throughout G4’s time, the debate about Alicorns have raged throughout the whole time even before things got really heated upon Twilight becoming an Alicorn in Magical Mystery Cure. Some went with Celestia and Luna being the only immortal Alicorns while Cadence and Twilight were somehow lesser Alicorns that aren’t immortal but maybe at least still a longer lifespan then their normal pony friends and family. Though as of Season 9, that may be turned on it’s head when in The Last Problem. Twilight eventually grows to Celestia-size as Celestia and Luna even retire to let Twilight succeed them. If Twilight is somehow a lesser Alicorn, why did she grow to Celestia’s size? Why did Celestia and Luna retire in the first place if they knew Twilight will not be as long lived as they are? Perhaps part of the reason G5 has as many questions as it does is because G4 itself created questions it never promised to answer.

That said, the implied length of Celestia and Luna’s rule still presents G5 with a problem that will be asked everywhere. Even if we go with the possibility that most of the Mane 6 have passed from old age, you still have to answer something about Twilight. If Twilight is also dead, how long did she live? Did she at least have an over-1000 year reign as Celestia did? Was perhaps Luster Dawn chosen to be her younger co-ruler if Luster herself ascended at some point? The kind of things that might actually force G5 into a corner when it comes to Alicorns despite the fact G4 never had to, especially now that Sunny may have just become one herself. This is once again, another of the traps Hasbro put the writing team through by having them put it in the same world. G5 thus not only adds questions about what happened in between the Generations, but also now has to inherit what remained unanswered in G4. That is a VERY tall task on a team that will likely just want to do their own little fun pony show. It’ll raise expectations too high, and there will be annoyed fans regardless how they spin it. Which could have all been avoided if they set it up that this was an entirely new world, or made G4 a fictional story (With all the references to it being mainly merchandise for a really meta look at things) in the G5 universe. You’d still have people complaining about it not being as good as G4 probably, but the approach they went with added more gasoline to the fire whenever G4 Vs. G5 debates happen in the MLP fandom. And inter-fandom generation fights are never fun, just ask the Pokemon and the Sonic fandoms how that turns out (Even though there’s no Generation number count for the Sonic franchise. You could say Gen 1 of Sonic was the classic era. Gen 2 was the Sonic Adventure Era. Gen 3 was the “Dark Age” Sonic 2006-Sonic Unleashed era. Gen 4 the Sonic Colors and Generations era. and Gen 5 the current Sonic Forces and Team Sonic Racing era. And then of course there’s also the different TV shows and comic books that also have their own fans that can be at each other’s throats).

There isn’t going to be an easy solution to something that will no doubt have fans on the edge on their seat even if they will be left to hang on that edge for a longtime before G5 starts to give some answers. I think I’ll at least bring up 3 things that will probably be part of the discussions of just what happened between G4 and G5

(More after the break)

1. AND THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE FIRE NATION AN UNKNOWN THREAT ATTACKED

With G4 being considered Ancient Equestria. It’s probably safe to assume this is at least 1,000 years after G4. And 1,000 or more is a really, really, long time. Where anything could of happened, including *GASP* a villain actually winning at some point (Or at least, did some lasting damage even if they were ultimately defeated). Though I think even with that possibility, there has to be a sense that the villain didn’t defeat the Mane 6 while the other members aside from Twilight were still alive. If Twilight was at some point defeated. Perhaps the villain struck when Twilight was most vulnerable. You could also have it that Twilight somehow sacrificed herself to defeat a large threat. She saved Equestria one last time, but at the cost of even her long-lasting alicorn life. With the populace left on their own to continue life without Twilight, but the loss of their longtime leader too much for Equestria. Thus a slow decline happened.

As for who the threat was it’ll probably be a while if we ever know. Perhaps the real Grogar showed up at some point and was truly a harrowing threat to deal with. Or something entirely new. Maybe it wasn’t even a villain, but a catastrophic natural disaster. Whatever it is, if this is the case. We’d have to deal with the sad thought of something being too much for even Twilight to handle

2. TWILIGHT BECAME DEPRESSED/JADED AFTER HER FRIENDS PASSED. POSSIBLY EVIL TOO?

This would basically be the cliche sadfic ending. Where after everyone of the Mane 6 has passed. Twilight just never felt the same afterward. Though I do feel like there is the slight counterpoint that maybe Twilight would still have Celestia and/or Luna (maybe, again we’ve never ever gotten full confirmation of how long Alicorns live. Just assured that it’s more then 1000 years) and she’d most certainly still have a full grown Spike and any of her friends descendants. Death is always a sad reality, but you have to wonder if Twilight would have prepared herself by the time that comes. Twilight would have not gone as far as she did without the rest of the Mane 6. But while I’m sure it would be a tearjerking moment, it’s not like Twilight wouldn’t have other friends she made throughout the generations. Celestia and Luna also must of gone through the same thing living for more then 1000 years, yet they seem pretty fine. So while the subject of “immortality blues” is prime for sadfic material in the fandom. It feels like there’d have to be more nuance then that, if this were the reason the time between G4 and G5 led into each other.

Supposedly, this theory is picking up some form of steam. To the point that a head canon is rolling around is that it was actually Twilight who sealed the magic away in the first place for one reason or another. Essentially making Twilight, in a huge plot twist, a villain in G5 or at the very least someone who took the magic with them into some form of Limbo very similar to Starswirl and the other founders during the Season 7 finale. I… personally don’t know how I’d feel about that. They’d have to be very careful with the execution of such a twist. And I’d want more nuance then simply Twilight getting sad about the deaths of her friends. At the very least, it’d likely eventually get to a point where this villainous incarnation of Twilight is reformed and probably becomes a recurring character from then on. But the writers will have to tread very carefully if this is the direction they take.

3. G5 IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE/TIMELINE. JUST FOR THE MOST PART THE MAJOR EVENTS OF "ANCIENT EQUESTRIA" STILL HAPPENED

Perhaps this last one really gets into a more desperate side to deflect any possibility that the ending of G4 could of deteriorated into what the world becomes at the start of G5. I know there will be plenty that will be too frustrated with the lack of satisfactory answers that they annoy people in the comment sections, getting into situations where sometimes the only answer to those people will be others that just want to watch G5 as a fun show with a “cope”, “read a history book”, or “deal with it”. But honestly, there can be a case here. As I mentioned in my thoughts in the movie. There are visual details on characters and/or lore that while they may seem minor, to the point that even if they do ever answer important questions such as what caused magic to disappear and/or what happened to Alicorns like Twilight. That the staff may ignore completely because they think it’s too small of a detail to bother including. But the most nitpicky fan can and will latch on small excuses into why it can’t be the same.

Let’s begin with the one-sided Cutie Mark. Again, while it’s true that previous generations made this a tradition. And it was only on one side on the G4 toys as well, as the actual reason it was on both sides in the G4 show was because it was easier for the flash animators. That said, it’s still a big pony design inconsistency. Because regardless of it was only to make things easier, it became a staple because of how long G4 lasted. So it was still so weird to see early screenshot and artwork of G5 characters with grown ponies with no mark. When that wasn’t possible in G4, as it turned out it was because the one-sided cutie mark returned. But one side as opposed to both sides is still a significant difference. Similarly, the horns and wingtips being a different color then the coat may also be a significant difference. Of course I know it can be just waved off as art style difference, as the art direction is no longer based on what Faust wanted the ponies to look like. It’s still plausible enough for someone to discredit it as truly in continuity with G4. Cause even for those that are on the side of “More then 1000 years is a long time, anything could of happened” it’s a lot harder to argue against inconsistencies such as cutie marks only being on one side unless they switch gears to the meta explanation of “G4’s double sided cutie mark was not intentional, at least at first”. But from what most people saw in the G4 show, G4 ponies had marks on both sides. And the G5 ponies don’t. It’s again, quite nitpicky. But it’s enough to start a case that at the very least, the ancient past of G4 is not 100% the same G4 we saw in the show.

Speaking of not the same G4 we saw in the show, another possibility is that G5 actually came out of an alternate timeline. Where perhaps the last two seasons did not happen. If perhaps it’s a timeline where major events in the show either ended anywhere between the end of Season 4 or the end of Season 7, then it starts to feel a little more possible. (Supposedly, the tree of harmony in it’s Season 9 form that might counteract it. But then again it had none of the treehouse architecture and was all wood. Which ironically may lead into it leaning more that the G4 show isn’t the same continuity). If the events of the Friendship School nor everything else that leads to the ending we saw in The Last Problem. It’d be a lot more palatable because the pretty much implied world peace ending with non-ponies in the mix included is discounted. There’d still be questions even in this scenario, like did Celestia and Luna still retire in this timeline then. And regardless if they did or not, the show would still be burdened with the question of what happened to the Alicorns. But it’d at least solve the most pressing question with the peace of The Last Problem being squandered. Because perhaps in this timeline, the Mane 6 never went that far. Perhaps it would imply some sort of indirect failure in that case. But this is perhaps a scenario they had a similar foreign policy as Celestia did. Not really hostile to anyone, but not intervening even in ways that could be helpful. Heck, if we go far enough in saying that G5\s G4 (As confusing as that may sound) was different from what we saw in Friendship is Magic, what if there were differences even early on for one reason or another? With how vague the connection is, we only know that the Mane 6 were friends and Twilight still became a princess at some point. From there. potentially a lot of other things may have gone differently other then that.

Again, saying G5 is a completely different universe/timeline is probably always going to sound like a desperate way for people who cannot possibly believe the ending of G4 eventually led to the start of G5. And I’d understand why that’ll annoy people who just want to watch the G5 series on it’s own merits. But it really wouldn’t be entirely the fans to blame for that attitude. G4 lasted a whole decade, many got attached to the characters/world we saw that had about the happiest ending it could possibly be. It should naturally make people unhappy that in a few ways it’s stomping over a happy ending for this fantasy world that many watched to escape from the realities of the real world.

Even with the long time allotted of 1000+ years or more, that’s made complicated by the implied long lives of the Alicorns from G4. Only opening up that can of worms further by seemingly making Sunny an alicorn. There’s a debate on whether this form is permanent, but if it’s NOT permanent. That arguably adds yet another addition to the list of reasons it may fall out of continuity. The only time we had a temporary Alicorn transformation (outside of Animation errors, or dream sequences like Big Mac’s) was when Cozy was an Alicorn after receiving some of the magic from Grogar’s bell. But even in that case, Cozy’s wings were not more like a glowy hologram like Sunny’s wings seem to be. And even if it is permanently on Sunny now, the design for Alicorns is too different. Adding onto the one-sided cutie marks, and different colored wings and horns. So the G5 writers may actually be stuck in a lose/lose situation when it comes to Alicorns after the ending of the movie. I think whether Sunny is permanently an Alicorn or not, they may not elaborate enough about it. And it’ll be among the headaches in the comment section (Though may at least be a reprieve from the political discussions G5 are going to have on occasion I imagine.)

Hasbro chose to try to say this is the same Equestria, and a new show needs conflicts to solve. But from the perspective of some G4 fans… it forces a world they loved, to get torn down into arguably a more divided world then even the Hearth’s Warming tale. Which said tale seems to have been implied to be from before Princess Celestia and Luna were around (Based on the lore of the unicorns being the one to raise the sun and moon) and thus yes. Somehow, if everything that happened in G4 is canon to G5. Then the world peace in The Last Problem in just a thousand years or so become worse then even Celestia’s sole rule.

RESPONDING TO “READ A HISTORY BOOK”

I’ve mentioned before, you can try to point to World History to point why this is a realistic take. But again, we don’t have an ancient civilization from 1000 years ago that we look up to as the pinnacle of peace in the world (Like I said, the Golden age of Ancient Greece and/or Rome still had slavery and brutal wars). That has literally never happened. What was shown in the Last Problem very much looked like it was that for Equestria. I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time, especially in regards to the context that the leaders of Equestria tend to live for at least more then 1000 years to imply things would just go backward like that.

CONCLUSION

The movie on it’s own merits is a good start for the generation, though at the same time. It’s going to have some hard questions that’ll often be no-win situations for the writers. They can choose to ignore the G4 questions, understandably trying to tiptoe around as many cans of worms as possible which would allow them to do whatever the heck they want with G5. Maybe even getting a few stragglers frustrated with no answers to just shrug and continue watching anyway if the show entertains them enough. Or they can certainly try to at least give some answers on the biggest questions (What happened to the magic, and/or what was the fate of G4’s alicorns) but risk having an answer that just adds even more questions.

The movie is a decent start for a new generation if you only view it as a pilot for a new series, but if you view it as a sequel to Friendship is Magic. There are certainly problematic issues with that currently. Maybe the special in Spring, or the eventual Series will cover some of this but it does leave fans waiting a while for answers that they’re not promised to get, or at least not as quickly as they’d like. Remember when I mentioned that I may view some of this similarly to how I was about Starlight Glimmer after her sudden redemption at the end of Season 5? With many questions I wanted to know about Starlight before I could really accept her as a recurring character? (And not really fully coming into terms with her until I expanded on her myself in a story for I Dream of Twilight Sparkle) This may be how I have to view the connection of G4 and G5.

They can go one of two routes: At least try to give as much of a clear explanation as possible. Even if it’s one that doesn’t exactly answer everything, at least giving a good try may help with those who have questions remaining in relation to G4. If instead however, they go the Season 6 Starlight route of just about ignoring all the questions fans have, it’ll make things frustrating for many. At least with Starlight, she wasn’t the major focus in every episode. That said, Season 6’s job was to endear us more to her reformed character. Now with G5’s setup, it may be running well into a corner where they must try to answer what happened in between G4 and G5 or else you end up making a lot of fans lukewarm or worse to your series. Starlight’s reformation and then lack of ability of Season 6 to explain more about Starlight to us was a divisive moment. And G5 involving G4 brings over the same kind of feeling but on a larger scale because now it’s in the very premise of the generation’s plot, it’s less avoidable compared to one character. Because even when it comes to episodes that will not further the plot and it’s just a fun friendly moment between the members of the mane 5, this movie is how they met and thus the not fully explained premise would always be looming over like a large shadow. It probably doesn’t help that they’re basically starting with a reformed Starlight-esque moment when it comes to introducing it’s premise AND on top of that something similar although certainly with at least a lot less backlash then with Alicorn Twilight since it came so soon. Though I do have to think there will be people who think this was way too soon to be ascending Sunny, since at least we got to see Twilight’s journey to Alicornhood (Even if you weren’t a fan of the episode she ascended in). Sunny arguably does earn her Alicornhood through implied years of working to unite the ponies. But it can still feel too soon when you had 2 1/2 seasons worth of episodes before Twilight did, while Sunny did so within one movie.

Someone’s ultimate thoughts on G5 might end up being what they are looking for in this new generation. If they’re looking for just about everything new. The movie provides plenty of that with new characters, new locations, and a more modernized world compared to G4 Equestria (Even if G4 Equestria had it’s own fair share of electronics it looked like, such as video game machines). If you’re in this for the G4 references. Aside from the very beginning of the movie, you’re kind of stuck doing a where’s waldo for most of the movie. And no guarantees you’ll get much more then that later. As I said in the trailer thoughts, the G4 stuff could very much be just Hasbro trying to bake it’s cake and eat it too. With a world that feels like it should be it’s own thing, but they didn’t want to commit entirely to that. So they shoehorn G4 in as the ancient past without giving a proper explanation to how point A (the end of G4) got to point B (the start of G5). It’s only been about a week since the movie premiered, but there is just so much to digest. And for those looking for answers to the G4 elephant in the room, may feel like they get nothing but metaphorical tummy aches for a long time.

I’ll end this off by having a message to both people who already feel like they’ll be fans of G5, as well as people like me who were fans of G4 and have concerns about where G5 may be doing to it’s legacy.

For the G5 fans, as I mentioned in the trailer thoughts. I still hope that it turns out ultimately good. I don’t know where things will go from here but the G5 movie taking in context that it’s basically a really long series premiere, had some genuinely enjoyable moments. At the same time, I hope anyone in the G5 fanbase can try to understand why G4 fans have the concerns that they do. I’ll repeat, G4 lasted a decade and was the absolute peak of MLP’s popularity. There will be a lot of people attached to that world, and understandably upset about the implication that it got torn down into how the world is at the start of G5. If they’re really annoying about it, I can understand why you couldn’t hold the urge to snap at them to “Get over it” just try not to snap at the ones who are just asking curiously. I’m personally not going to spam comment threads with “THIS DOESN’T FIT WITH G4!” or “HASBRO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS PLEASE”, but I would be lying if I were to say I’m not just as curious about what those type of fans want to know too.

And as for G4 fans like me, if G5 ever upsets you in some fashion. It’s ok to stop watching and just stay quiet whenever you find yourself in a conversation about G5 and only participate in G4 matters in the fandom. This is a natural evolution of a fandom’s lifecycle where eventually a direction a franchise is taken to a place some others don’t like. So you’re only left to mainly talk with those who prefer an older generation and/or incarnation. Just because G5 has started and even though Hasbro says it’s the same world as G4. You can still do G4 content by itself and ignore G5. If you still have the inclination to do stuff with G4, do it. Generation 5 is not stopping people from still drawing the G4 characters, or writing more stories about them, or even if you don’t feel you’re that creative. Support artists who are still drawing G4 ponies, and/or rewatch some of your favorite episodes of Friendship is Magic that give you a smile. MLP has lasted since the 80s, and while for the most part to Hasbro it’s to sell toys. Toys, and the shows surrounding them’s purpose is to make the people watching or playing with them smile. From the little girls in the 80s to the much more diverse both gender-wise and age-wise fandom that came out of G4. The cute ponies are supposed to make us happy, and it’s ok to get back into a comfort zone if perhaps a different part of Ponies don’t give you the same feeling or even upset you in some way. Also as a vice versa to my message to G5 fans, try as best you can not to provoke those enjoying G5. If the G5 movie and/or episodes makes them as happy as your favorite G4 episodes/movies you should let them be. Many of us had to deal with that crap just for daring liking a pony show at all early on in the fandom. Try not to add to the toxicity as best you can. G4 is not going to be forgotten, the fact Hasbro decided to try to make it in the same universe actually has the side effect of making sure of that. Cause maybe you have fans that enter the MLP franchise through G5 curious about what happened in the past. And thus, they can be led to watch the previous generation. New G5 fans could potentially also become new G4 fans and friends. In other words, friendship… is still magic!