#bit of a longer post there

[abugidaithink]

what kind of gameplay do you enjoy in more difficult levels more? and do you think certain extremes get overhated for "annoying gameplay" when it could just be.. yk.. hard to play because it's an extreme

for gameplay, i'm not really a fan of memory, or other particularly learny levels. i think Decay is probably the most learny level that i'd be willing to put much time into for now. Acu's gameplay is a good example, since even though it's pretty muscle memory heavy, you can pretty easily tell what to do on a freeze-frame. the Decay 44% spider is the opposite side of things, where it's impossible to read, and also too high-CPS to easily learn. it took me like 400 attempts to pass that part on its own once, and those weren't a very enjoyable 400 attempts.

there's also the element of balancing. imo, the ideal balancing has some parts harder than others spread throughout the level, rather than the beginning or end being harder than the rest. (that's less achievable for shorter levels, but yknow) also, chokepoints should be kept to a minimum!

when it comes to levels being overhated for annoying gameplay, i feel like it's usually a case of a creator making gameplay outside their own comfortable skill range. this is why i'm generally against the idea of playing past top 1s, because it's very hard to maintain good gameplay at a difficulty level that far above what you can play. this can go for any difficulty level though! i would argue this isn't too different from what happened with The Nightmare, and that's practically not even a demon. these levels don't deserve to be despised by any means (and the GD personifications have made it harder to be really upset at levels), but i'd say it's valid to an extent to criticise them for having annoying gameplay.

[humming-fly]

I love how Gerald was trying to keep Shadow from spoiling anything about the future meanwhile literally everything Shadow says and does around Maria is the biggest death flag ever

[blabberoo]

prev | next [ in kofi, but it will be public in a couple of days :D ]

[freshfrenchtoast]

Kageyama's backstory only being revealed near the very end of the series is really interesting from a meta perspective.

For reference, his chapter is 387 out of 402. That's 96% of the way in.

To contrast, other characters like Tsukishima and Yamaguchi's backstories are shown in Chapters 87-88.

Now, we do get the explanation for his "King of the Court" title in Chapter 6, at the start of the series, but we don't see how he got to that point, or why he started playing volleyball in the first place like Tsukishima's and Yamaguchi's stories show.

It creates this situation where, despite being the deuteragonist, the character our protagonist, Hinata, is practically glued to the entire series, we barely know anything about him.

We don't even know he has a sister until that point whereas other characters' siblings like Natsu, Saeko, Akiteru, Alisa have all made appearances way before then. Even Oikawa's sister, though we don't see her, we at least know she exists because of Takeru.

He's both closed off to us (the audience) as well as the other characters in the series, and this results in them finding him rude or disliking his character in general (see: the "Kageyama is abusive" discourse that somehow keeps popping up even now).

Chapter 387 takes place in 2018 and was published in 2020 so it takes him 6 years of in-universe time and 8 years of irl time to really open up.

And the catalyst for all of this is Hinata fulfilling his promise of beating him.

You see, another thing to note is that, whenever Hinata thinks of Kageyama, he's always looking at him from behind.

His internal image of him is someone who's always up ahead, someone he needs to catch up to, meaning Hinata can only see one side of him, he cannot see all of Kageyama until he catches up and passes him.

Which he finally does here.

In this shot Hinata is finally the one who's looking back at Kageyama. At this moment, Hinata (and by extension the audience) can see him for all he is, can see how he was just a lonely boy who's been waiting for someone to meet him where he is, to keep running alongside him and not quit the race.

Someone he doesn't have to go easy on. Someone who would actually tell him to hurry up instead of slow down for a change.

His someone better.

[aalghul]

once again thinking about jason as duke’s robin. he’s ~4 years younger than jason, and that puts him at 8-12 during Jason’s time as robin. that’s prime time to get attached to your local kid vigilante before your own life goes downhill.

and if we try to keep duke’s meeting with bruce in zero year + duke’s age (so he can remember the meeting and hold that conversation with bruce), he has to be around 8. if he starts following batman through the news at that time because of the mess that just happened, the robin he sees is probably jason. I’ve literally connected the dots

[casscainmainly]

The thing about Dick and Cass is not only that Dick resents Cass' closeness to and understanding of Bruce, but that Cass resents Dick's closeness to and understanding of Babs. They both make each other feel insecure in their most fundamental relationships, which is why they fight so often, and why many of their fights feel one-sided. Essentially, they're mutually beefing with each other over different people, but because they'll never admit it neither of them ever know what the other is mad about.

[lucabyte]

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

[lulu-draws-stuff]

How does that sound?

[biblically-accurate-dca]

substitute

[laurrelise]

tragic that even with how lackluster the umbrella academy’s final season was, we never got to see five’s house.

i want to see where the old man lives. how does he decorate? does he live in an apartment or was he able to figure out a cute little home for himself? does he have roommates? did he ever learn how to cook for himself, or does he just eat fluffernutters whenever he’s hungry? does he ever get a mr. pennycrumb of his own? (i know he doesn’t, but a girl can dream) does he ever discover a cafe near his home where a decent cup of coffee can be found?

what coffee maker does he have? where does he buy his coffee grounds? how many coffee mugs does he have? i just KNOW he collects them.

he absolutely goes into little shops downtown and finds one that says some stupid shit like “if my coffee isn’t as black as my soul, i’m not drinking it” and giggles to himself in the corner and then spends way too much money on it because it’s just too good to pass up. he’ll smile to himself on the way home and then put on a pot of coffee to try it out for the first time. he hand-washes his mugs even though they’re all dishwasher safe because he wants to make sure they’re going to be completely untarnished when he wants to use them again. he has an entire cabinet for all of his mugs and one other cabinet for the rest of his glasses and bowls and plates because he doesn’t own a whole lot but he does like mugs. and someone will ask him about his mugs and he’ll properly tell them where he got each and every one, down to exact dates and times because he remembers everything and thinking about when he found his favorite mugs makes him feel less stressed. and whoever asked will not get a single word in and they won’t try to because five is talking about his mugs and he doesn’t get a whole lot of joy from material things but it is the simple things that matter. and five likes the simple things. and five likes his mugs.

[otaku553]

He’s perfectly sane I swear

My submission for @where-does-the-heart-lie‘s DTIYS! Congrats on one year on tumblr!! Your art is always an absolute delight to see :D I hope this does it justice!

[a-s-levynn]

Your reflection, your bitter deception / Setting you free A Series of Small Offerings - IV/6 - day38

[tangledinink]

a healthy, productive conversation between siblings.

✩ the gemini ✩ [ start ] [ prev ] [ next ]

[isbergillustration]

Annual art vs artist recycling of content

[melljam]

lookism art evolution

chapter 57 vs 528

[cubbihue]

Would the Hazel puppet we see in a few of the shows episodes be a kind of very basic changeling? Its obviously made out of way less unwishes than Chimmy but the similarities are too striking to be ignored.

YES! YES IT ISS.

Hazel's puppet is a very basic changeling. So basic, that it's only purpose is to complete one specific set of actions. When those actions are done, it disappears! It's quite literally and physically a sock puppet.

The differences between Hazel's changeling and Timmy's changeling is that their lifespans and construction is different. They serve different purposes.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

More information about changelings that's ultimately just world building ramblings. Lotsa paragraphs.

Hazel's changeling is short lived, low on unwishes, and more specific to the job.

Her changeling is a one-and-done tool. It only has to do one thing. "Distract the Teacher." "Distract the Mother." So it doesn't need a lot of unwishes, it just needs enough to do its job! As a result, it is made of low quality cloth, it can't verbalize, and it doesn't make its own actions.

Hazel's changeling favors Perceptional Magic. This is why Mr. Guzman doesn't recognize that Hazel's changeling isn't Hazel. He can't see that it's made of felt and sticks. It's constantly pooling out perception magic to warp how its being viewed.

For this reason, the changeling doesn't actually need as much connections as Timmy's does. It can exist by itself, or with Hazel, so long as it has just enough Unwishes to keep it alive. Maybe not stable, but, alive.

By contrast, Timmy' changeling is on the opposite end of this spectrum.

Timmy's changeling is a continuous tool. It must persist and adapt and grow. "Go to school" "Get a job" "Find a partner". It needs many unwishes to face many situations and scenarios. So the changeling has a more difficult build.

The magic it favors is different. Timmy's changeling requires Environmental Magic. People see it for how it looks. It has human skin and can speak the human tongue. But what it requires is a suitable environment. Otherwise, people will know it for what it is. Wooden and hollow.

The more developed and high-tech the Changeling is, the less it's recommended for it to see it's real counterpart. The bigger the amount of Unwishes, the more you want it to be stable and calm. Especially when that changeling's job is "Be Human".