#but i think it's just because this thing is super tanky

[front-facing-pokemon]

[medicinemane]

I still wonder about the people who double down on communism... and not even like me when I was younger where I got (not the full extent, but got) that the soviet union and such were awful, but just thought that maybe with less terrible people at the helm it could work (later realizing that these kind of things always have power hungry people rise to the top) Anyway, no I just don't get the "well see, you've admitted your great grandpa owned a chicken, sounds like he deserved to die" people... like the fuck is there even to gain here about being smug while dying on a particularly stupid hill?

[qqueenofhades]

Man, the Russia/Ukraine war has led to a lot of terrible takes from far leftists. I have a mutual from Brazil, a self identified socialist, who is convinced that Ukraine is full of nazis. While they don't support Russia, they questioned why they have to be "pro-Ukraine" or "pro-Russia". They call Ukraine a "nazi hole" but call Russia merely "fascist". Am I wrong in thinking that they've been influenced by Russian propaganda? I know Ukraine does have a nazi/far right problem, but so does the US? And most European countries? idk they strongly hate the US/US government too, and it seems to create some kind of brainrot. at least they don't blindly support China or Russia like tankies do (nor identify with them), but it's still frustrating to take a neutral position on a pretty black and white situation.

I don't want to confront them 1) cause I'm not the type to argue over serious things like this and this may break our long friendship and 2) I'm not super educated on the nazi situation in Ukraine.

Anyway thank you for letting me rant in your inbox.

Yes, Russia has specifically focused its propaganda efforts on Latin America, Africa, and other regions that HAVE suffered from Western/European/American imperialism and are thus predisposed to take the worst view of them/believe that this situation is their fault somehow. This is similar to what the USSR did in newly postcolonial Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, positing themselves as offering the shared hand of communist brotherhood from Western oppressors. Because of more recent events like the invasion of Iraq, which was fully as unjustified as the invasion of Ukraine, Russian propagandists and their eager tankie/leftist foot soldiers have also got a lot of mileage out of "whataboutism." This is likewise an old Soviet propaganda technique designed to deflect any criticism of the actual situation by disingenuously asking "what about this other one!!!"

Likewise, the idea that Ukraine has a "Nazi problem" is itself propaganda. In the last election, far-right/Nazi-identified parties won barely 2% of the vote and AFAIK, no seats at all in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). This is far lower than the nearly half of the USA voting for the far-right/Nazi-sympathetic Republican Party, and as noted, the far right elements in the UK and Europe. The idea that Ukraine is "full of Nazis" (with a Jewish president who just celebrated iftar with the Ukrainian Muslims/Crimean Tatars during Ramadan and instituted observance of Muslim holidays nationwide, very Nazi of him) is a line used by Russian propagandists to "justify" their attack and appeal to national memories of the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and the struggle against the Nazis, which is the central cultural grievance/memory in modern Russia. The Putin regime has referred to anyone they don't like, but especially the Ukrainians, as "Nazis" for a long time now, so it's supposedly their holy duty to kill them/commit ethnic cleansing/forcibly reunite the "fraternal" people of "Little Russia," as Ukraine has been called since the 17th century, with "Great Russia." And yeah, no.

Because the West and Europe has been pretty solidly on Ukraine's side, Russia has therefore cultivated countries like China, India, Brazil, etc, who have all suffered from Western interference and are looking to move into the first rank of global superpowers. This is, as noted, similar to the competing systems of influence built during the Cold War, but it also relies on much deeper Russian grievances that go back to the medieval era. Anybody who knows a thing about actual Russian history would therefore know that every single word it says about the Ukraine situation is a lie, but because that lie is useful for many other countries and fits into their own understanding of themselves, it is easy to repeat and act like it's a so-called superior moral position. This is also why US/American tankies so eagerly lap up Russian propaganda, because it plays into their moral sense of themselves as far better than the rest of the West and "righteously" discovering that the West is responsible for all the evil in the world etc etc. While non-Westerners are just helpless misunderstood puppets with no real agency or ability to make complex choices. This totally makes sense!!!

[grison-in-space]

Hey! Not trying to keep an annoying conversation going but I wanted to say I super appreciate your rebuttal on the ARA stuff, it was a really good clear summary. Particularly glad you brought up the "nothing with us without us" thing because that tendency in ARA circles to treat animal liberation as the Same Thing as liberating marginalised humans, who can speak for them-fucking-selves, is so upsetting and overtly dehumanising and it's really valuable to see that pointed out. It's also so connected to the move towards tankie or fascist rhetoric, because it so strongly relies on a paternalistic view of exploited people as passive recievers of harm and charity. Anyway sorry I'm a bit ill and rambly but I really appreciated the clarity of your takes is what I wanted to say.

No worries, the boundary I wanted to set was more "I'm not interested in repeating that I know full well what ARA ideology is and how that hooks into veganism, and I'm not a captive audience." I'm happy to have conversations, including with people I disagree with; I am not happy to have to repeatedly explain the same thing that has, again, been my consistent experience for nigh on twenty years of interacting with the community. This is not that, so. Thank you for the compliment.

The paternalism is such a huge factor. It reminds me very much of benevolent sexism (as opposed to hostile sexism), and rings all the same alarm bells. It really, really, really reminds me of the way Autism Speaks talks about autistic children and always has.

If animals don't have language (and they largely don't) and if they communicate in ways that might be non-intuituve to a human (and they often do), surely it's incumbent on us as humans to decode the meaning of the signals they are sending in order to understand how to ethically interact with one another. Communication, after all, can happen perfectly well in the absence of language. And yet.

There's also just so little understanding and interest in the reality of what the consequences of "freedom" for animals living in captivity actually are and can be; consider for example Flaco the eagle owl who escaped into NYC, as @why-animals-do-the-thing covered last year. For a species that is notoriously reliant on our social structures and learned skill sets to survive, you'd think we could handle this better. But I see an awful lot of animal rights activists who seem to think that successfully releasing animals into the wild—freeing them from human control—is just a matter of one heartwarming video where the animal steps out of the cage and immediately locks its new job as an independent forager into place. It isn't.

I am also just straight up not convinced that freedom in the sense of being on your own and able to do whatever you want is all that great. I have spent my entire life boldly going where no one has gone before. It kind of sucks, actually. On the other hand, as a neurodivergent person personally I do a lot of structuring my choices with an eye to Past Me pissing off Current Me because I know Future Me will appreciate it. I can devise my own structures to let me successfully do that ... or I can just outsource the enforcing to a third party with opinions, which is something I sometimes need to do badly enough to purchase and train an entire stupid dog about it, because asking other humans to do it is relationally expensive. Sometimes having external structures that keep me from doing dumb things when the impulses get me is good actually.

And I mean, I'm a biologist. I went a little viral here a few years ago for being silly and describing what acacia trees do to try to fight off their greatest enemy: the mighty but terrifying giraffe. I know how plants engage their agency as dramatically and persistently as any animal; they're just sessile, so they do everything without the ability to get up and go. They are, however, no less active or opinionated a participant in the ecological chaos of the world than any other kingdom. To say nothing of fungi! To live is, unless you have chloroplasts, to consume. And even an awful lot of chloroplast-bearing species engage in a little heterotrophy now and again.

So like. Why should I think that eating plants is necessarily any more ethical than eating animals? Why does ARA-driven veganism think that increasingly processed and modified diets that camouflage and hide our connection to our food as part of the natural world that, yes, we also live in? Why do we hide from the complexity and the small grief of life, the shadow of death that has to come for there to be any room to change? One day, I too will die, and something will consume me unless I choose instead to be consumed by fire itself. That's carbon, baby!

[nerdasaurus1200]

Why Cassandra's Moonstone Armor Sucks

*cracks knuckles and dusts off keyboard*

It's time to finally rip this armor to shreds...figuratively because it's indestructible XD

And big shoutout to @whosbex @archivedwoods @th3p0rtalmaker @the-reverse-mermaid @aziraphalesbookkeeper and @majorabbey who all wanted to see this. I thank you all so much for your patience 🥰

Don't get me wrong there are some elements of this that absolutely work. The blue and black is a wonderful color scheme, especially that blue swirl that goes down and around Cass's body. And the spikes on the shoulders, forearms, and calves looks super cool and gives off a more black rock feel and a very intimidating silhouette. But...that's about all it does right.

1- It doesn't fit Cassandra's sense of style at all

In all the outfits we can see Cass wear throughout the show, we can very easily get a sense of exactly what her style is. It’s very clear that she dresses conservatively. And especially in armor she values practicality above all else. Her clothing has to serve its respective purpose. And up until season 3 the only revealing thing she wears is her island outfit and even then that’s pretty modest. And the moonstone armor comes along and completely disregards her established sense of style.

2- It undermines the moonstone's capabilities

We get it very explicitly confirmed that the Moonstone made the Dark Kingdom, and made Cass's tower as well. We see the amount of detail it puts into buildings. Even the rocks, the most simple thing it can make, are magically complex enough to know to seek out the Sundrop. And you're telling me that this thing can't make better armor than that?? Nuh uh, no way. I don't buy it. There’s absolutely no reason for the moonstone to provide a skin tight catsuit with a few spikes when we know its power can be much more sturdy and intimidating.

3- It's Chris Sonneburg's fantasies showing through

Those of you who have been in this fandom know the crush that Chris, the director, has on Cass. She's supposedly based on his college crush or something, and from day one he always wanted Cass to be the villain and plan to betray Rapunzel even as far back as the very beginning of the show. And of course, don't you want to see your crush in something hot? Therefore, I'm certain that the retaining of the catsuit was his idea. Because if you look at the moonstone concept art you can see more and more the visual leaning into a catsuit rather than actual armor

4- It's not at all practical or historically accurate

For reference, THIS is what armor has typically looked like throughout history

And even in works of fantasy you still have some version or variant of armor like this. Throughout the middle ages you can see just how tanky armor used to be. But as you can see, the moonstone armor looks nothing like that. It doesn't at all look like it could realistically defend a person.

Granted Cass's guard uniform is also kinda form fitting like the moonstone armor, but there’s still protective elements of it. The helmet, the breastplate. You could still believe that that is practical armor. Despite it being indestructible, the moonstone….is not at all practical armor. It doesn't look like it belongs in history or even fantasy. It is so obviously modern it’s almost painful.

5- It makes her disappear.

This is actually something that @moltenhair pointed out a while back that I never realized. There's too much black in there. A lot of the time we see Moonssandra at night and because there's so much black on her armor it makes her fade into the background to the point where she looks like a floating head and hand because the blue is all that really catches your eye about the design. Granted one can make the argument that this could have been done on purpose because taking and using the moonstone isn't actually giving Cass the spotlight she thinks it is but...eh...it's a loose argument.

[in-case-of-grace]

TTRPG DEVLOG- GUTGUN & the Importance of Names

I wanted to share something I've had to fix a couple times over GUTGUN's development, how I fixed them, and why I needed to fix them to begin with. Today, I'm gonna talk about the names I chose for a few of the game's various ENEMIES.

Why would these matter? Well, for GUTGUN, I'm trying to translate the feeling of playing a boomer shooter into a TTRPG. One of the keys of that genre is speed. You don't stop to contemplate much, rather, you're spending the majority of your time in gunfights. A lot of a boomer shooter's gameplay is reactive, you're reacting to the situation as it unfolds, instead of standing still and formulating a plan.

How can I make a TTRPG feel fast without the ability to instantly react with moving and shooting as you would with a mouse and keyboard? Well, there's a lot of tricks— and many of those boil down to trimming the fat. Simplifying things wherever possible. Reducing mental load— the amount of Things a player has to think about or keep in their brain at any given time.

You know what can add to a player's mental load, and stop them in their bloody boots during the height of combat? Bad names!

A bad name can confuse or pause a player if it's too long, too strange (in the sense of using odd spelling or being hard to pronounce), or simply too similar to another name in the game.

For example, In E2, one of the ENEMIES I introduce is the GUTHOUND. They're fast, deadly beasts.

In E3, I throw in the GUTMOUND. These are tanky, lumbering things that take any damage meant for adjacent ENEMIES.

Perhaps you already see the problem? These names are only a single letter apart, and players could easily misread them when setting up encounters— leading to troublesome, unbalanced, unfun fights where they're fighting the wrong ENEMIES!

In isolation, their names may sound cool and play into the general motifs of GUTGUN, but it's still confusing. Even if we look at just one of these names— they're too long. What's more, they take up 2 vertical lines of text within the encounter tables (there are 4 columns for ENEMY placement), rather than 1.

Stranger yet is that, whenever I'd playtest, I'd get confused and mentally refer to the GUTHOUND as the "HOUND"— and get a bit lost for a moment when trying to reference their stats, because that's not the name they were under! HOUND is more intuitive!

So, the names were changed.

GUTHOUND > HOUND

GUTMOUND > TUMOR

You'll note that I didn't rename the GUTMOUND to "MOUND" as that'd still cause confusion! I took the opportunity to both shorten and uniqueify its name.

This wasn't the first time I've changed ENEMY names to reduce mental load, either.

Earlier, when I was developing E1, I had two ENEMIES: the GUTTER FAITHFUL, and the GUTTER INITIATE. Early playtesters found it confusing to tell these two apart. Both started with the same word, and the second? Well, "faithful" and "initiate" don't mean super different things, do they?

So I renamed them to the INITIATE and the DISCIPLE, respectively. Both shorter. Both more evocative. Both easier to remember.

That last part is very important for trimming the fat, as when players can more readily remember the names of what they're fighting— they can more easily find and potentially even memorize their stats, which can really speed up gameplay!

The point of all this is to say, hey, think about what you're naming things in your game. If players need to refer to it constantly, or remember what it does— the name should be easy to remember. If it needs to be read quickly, then the name should also be short and sweet!

[siren-nate]

I know it wasn’t the point of your recent Chosen post, but I’m curious what you identified as signs of power-creep 👀

I should clarify, when I said "signs" of power creep, I really mean like, the barest hints that are making me nervous. Episode V does a great job of juxtaposing the earth-shaking attacks of Chosen and Dark to give them a sense of scale, by showing how Second and the Color Gang are constantly blown away by the things these two demigods can do (and on that note, Chosen fans have it REALLY good compared to Color Gang fans when it comes to having your favorite characters meaningfully contribute to fights in the main series. It's like Piccolo fans vs. Yamcha fans). But there's still a few parts that irk me.

Chosen is constantly landing laser eyes on Dark throughout their fight, and Dark is always surviving because he blocks with his arms. Then he puts on the wristbands, and his first big demonstration of how much more powerful they make him is... tanking Chosen's laser eyes with his arms. I get that the difference is "being forced to defend himself" vs. "gliding down the attack to interrupt it with one of his own", but it still just felt weird. Part of it was probably the stylistic choice to change the laser eyes from causing massive explosions in 2 and 3 to actually just cutting and burning things in 5 and 6, which I think IS a good change that makes the laser eyes more distinct from his pyrokinesis, but it also means that they just don't feel like they have much meaningful impact anymore. The last time they did was when he sheared off one of ViraBot's limbs with them.

That's kind of the main thing - a lack of impact with a lot of Chosen's attacks. The Mercs are implied to either be tanky enough to survive his attacks or (in the case of Pivot) have some defensive options, but there's that one moment in particular where Chosen gets fired up and launches all three of the other Mercs off of him with a burst of fire... and that doesn't seem to hurt them at all. If you don't give these superpowers the impact they need on a regular basis to establish how destructive they are, it starts to feel like they're pointless; like he'd basically be doing the exact same thing by just punching and kicking with his super strength.

I saw someone claim that Chosen lost the fight against the Mercs because he's going through a moral crisis and wasn't trying to kill them, and I have to wonder if that person watched the same episode I did - if Chosen wasn't trying to kill the Mercs before he started fleeing, why the hell would he go and grab Second Coming explicitly because he remembers how ungodly powerful she was with her powers awakened? It feels like a poor excuse for Chosen just feeling too underpowered lately.

Sidenote: The Box is not an example of this. The Box is genius, displaying that Victim is so underpowered compared to Alan's other creations that he needs to be buffed ten times over and have his opponent reduced to about 1/10th of their own strength, and Chosen still gets the upper hand a few times because he's A) just that strong and B) far more experienced fighting people his own level than Victim is. Seeing how his pyrokinesis completely renders his clones helpless and incinerates them within seconds did a lot of good work towards re-establishing how dangerous Chosen is, not to mention how his ice-defense trick demonstrates how he's not the dumb brute a lot of the fandom thinks he is.

TL;DR: It's somewhat a symptom of Chosen losing so many fights, which really isn't even that valid of a criticism when we're only two parts in to the sixth installment. What bothers me the most is that he keeps fighting people who can seemingly just shrug off his powers, which makes his powers feel pointless.

[tachiharastanacc]

About Tachi. Do you think he gets those monthly surgeries too or was he exempt because he was in a secret mission

I think he gets them. He says that they’re lighter since he’s a spy, which I think just means that he’s less tanky and physically op bc that’s not a normal human thing.

Having said that, I do think that he has to get them monthly, or at least every few months (ik the popular hc is every 3 months). Especially bc he’s a spy with a super versatile and powerful ability. Not only does he have access to a lot of confidential information, he’s in a position where he’s engaging with people who would enjoy having that information.

It wouldn’t make sense for the person who could betray them the most easily not to have some kind of back up plan. Especially because guns and swords and most weapons are ultimately useless against him.

Also also because he wanted to join the mafia to get close to Yosano, and, even though it’s not at all who he is as a person, there was a risk of him completing that and then deciding he doesn’t have to work for them anymore.

[howlingday]

(can't remember if I sent this one before so sorry if I did) jaune Arc is a proud member of the arc sword lords a combination of a noble family and knight order devoted to mastering the sword. Though he's the odd one out of his family. Instead of relying on twitch reflex and aura and charisma jaune devoted himself to the basics and a strong body with full plate. Between the family's sword style ( the steel net) which focused on the seven strikes and how to block dodge counter and parry them and crane style a martial art all about balance footwork and defence leading to a brutal counter and jaune's own mastery of the disarming and armor sundering. Well the end result is that jaune's basically impossible to touch in combat and every mistake ends in a counter that either takes away your weapon your armor or your life. A style so perfect jaune's armor shines like new because he's never even taken a scratch. But is a tank enough in this world of bloody evolution? Or is the shining knight of remnant due for a greater fall when his skills fail to match up to the power of the soul?

(tldr: jaune's a super tanky build that lacks any magic or aura from a family that are either spell swords or monks what's life like for the black sheep of the arcs?)

"When I was growing up," Jaune said, leaning his head on his partner's, "I was kind of the odd one out."

Pyrrha remained silent as he spoke. The two had grown closer as of late, and though it wasn't the level of intimacy she'd desired from him, it was still nice to be this close to him. In the corner of her eye, she saw Nora and Ren turn the corner, only for the former to guide the latter back the other direction. She'd have to thank her later somehow.

"Dad was the best guy with a sword in town. And all I ever wanted to do was to be him." Jaune gestured with his arm out. "That tree? Split in half. These marble columns? Well, you wouldn't be able to tell from a distance, but he could slice them so finely, you'd have to use your finger to tell the difference." He chuckled. "And then there's Mom, and she was the best with magic. She could make anything happen with spells. The two of them made the perfect daughters." His hand fell to his knee. "And then there's me."

"You're good, too, Jaune." Pyrrha said, resting her hand on his. Neither could tell, because they refused to look each other in their faces, but both could feel heat rushing into their cheeks. "And you've always been good to us, too."

"But not good enough for my family." Jaune said softly. "To them, I was 'Big Jaune,' or 'Jaune the Jock'. Every time I tried to help out with something other than grace, or something smart, or anything that wasn't 'lift big heavy thing,' I was useless."

"But you're not useless, Jaune." Pyrrha found her courage to look him in the face. "You're smarter than you think, and you're more than just the muscle of the team." Pyrrha chuckled. "And to be honest, I thought Nora was more of the muscle anyways."

The two shared the chuckle while Nora giggled next to the quiet, yet smiling Ren.

[penguicorns-are-cool]

some people from older generations act like gen z is gonna come in and save the day and like

first of all, you're already old enough to vote and do all the things you could make an effort too. That's not to say there are no older people making an effort but they're generally not the ones saying gen z will save the day

there are a lot of gen z white supremacists, and neo-nazis, and andrew tate fans, and trumpies, and tankies, and trad-wives, and TERFs. There have been for a while. Like I don't think some of you guys understand how much of an effect the internet pipelines have had on gen z

then, while I understand this misconception, there are not that many of us who are super interested in politics in activism. A lot of us are very exhausted by it all and will not participate nearly as much as you think. Like yes voter rates will probably follow the upward trend because that has been worked into us, but some of y'all are acting like once all the gen z kids are out of high school we're gonna succesfully organize the entire working class and succesfully organize large scale strikes and blackouts that shut down the economy, or that we're gonna somehow take over most of the seats in the government and magically fix all the institutional issues

and like, no, sorry to break it to you but that's not gonna happen

It's definitely gonna help when all of gen z is out of high school and the boomers are not the majority of all voters for the first time in forever, but it's not like the entire world is gonna magically become all rainbows and sparkles and everyone's gonna get super accepting just cause gen z is here to save the day. there will still be all sorts of extremism and discrimination, and a lot of it will be coming from gen z and I know that cause it is happening right now.

It also really sucks for us cause that's a lot of pressure that you've all been putting on us to fix the world and it's a pressure a lot of us have felt since we were quite young and it's really not helping. Like it's nice that you have faith in us but as a high schooler who's trying to get into college and is worrying about transitioning to adulthood and the cost of going to college rn, the pressure to fix the world is not helping at all so please just stop

[milliemuus]

So, I’ve watched Mario and Luigi: Brothership, and it got me thinking: What if the characters in PV got similar stuff to the bros? Like they have their own attacks and counters. I’ll do Millie, Kieran and Pecharunt for this, and only the base attacks and counters.

Millie: In my opinion, she would be the slower character and does not hit that hard but with more hp and defenses, her base attacks are:

Kick: Basically, she does a spin kick, you know those right? I honestly could only do this since I don’t know what to do tbh.

Punch: She punches the opponent.

Avoiding attacks:

Jump: She just jumps to avoid attacks

Block: If an unavoidable attack, she blocks decreasing the damage taken

(I’m sorry, but I can’t think of anything for Millie)

Kieran: For him, he’s Millie’s opposite. Being fast and hits hard but much frailer since, he probably didn’t eat or sleep much after the trip from Kitakami.

Base attacks:

Jump: He does the same thing as the Mario Brothers in base games, he jumps in the air before stomping on the opponent and jumping again to hit them.

Bat: Now, this is a personal funny headcanon of mine, Kieran probably has green wooden baseball bat that is meant to mimicking Ogerpon’s cudgel. And he basically uses this to just swing and hit opponents with, I think’s funny.

Counters:

Jump: the same thing as the Mario brothers

Bat: Same thing except there’s a chance he may hit Millie.

Now for Pecharunt: he’s easily an all rounder with decent stats in everything except defense which is phenomenal.

Base attacks:

Shell Bash: He retreats into his shell before rushing towards the opponent before slamming into them, however, he would also jump in the air and slam back down.

Malignant Chain: it’s in the name, he throws two chains from his shells and hits the opponent (single target) dealing small damage before wrapping themselves and exploding dealing more damage.

Counters:

Shell Bunker: He retreats into his shell to block attacks to decrease the damage taken and absorb their impact so his next attacks become stronger for that turn.

Chain Punch: He uses 2 toxic chains from his shell halves as use them as arms and hands, he uses it to punch attacks to block them.

So, what do you think?

I WAS SO SCARED COZ I THOUGHT U WERE GONNA SPOIL ME BUT THIS WOULD BE AWESOME

SInce Pecharunt and PV work together, they're kinda a one-package deal so i'll shorten it, but I've thought of smth similar before, but thry use their pokemon instead of themselves, if that makes sense?

Like Gooby with her moves, PV can be an exception since he's TECHNICALLY half a pokémon if you think about it..

I do think Millie would be more tanky, and some attacks hit her, esp if PV were to target her...hypothetically. Gooby is more of the attacker, or Moof

Or whomever she sends out

I also did think of a cudgel-like thing, but instead it was like toxic chains wrapped up? I'd have to doodle it out at some point bc it's a vague image in my head...but this came from a Mario Supersluggers AU LMAO

Something PV can do is mix the moves from Pecharunt into his own, esp the closer he gets to power. He has a move where he gets two chains ti descend into the ground (Think of Phantom Force) and appear near hid opponent's feat, wrapping around or hitting them.

I also like to think he uses them for extra jump-boost or extra punch (Think of how the Snaptors use their necks to extend toward the bros)

Stuff like that! You also know how in BIS Bowser had a shell-defense move? I wanna say Kieran has smth like that, but he doesn't obtain that until say...maybe later. Ive genuinely thought of a mario-rpg style au for project venus, because I think it'd be silly.

Also yeah, I haven't decided movesets for Millie.

OH! OME MORE THING! The giants, in BIS! I like to think Milloe and Gooby have a super-move where Millie gets on Gooby, or Kieran gets on Treeplin, stuff like that. (I feel like even in-canon they'd do that) and perform an attack!

Lmk whatcha think!

[hawfstuff]

Who-lahan's your favorite Dulahan?

Short answer, very few aside from my own. Long answer, I'm not a terribly big fan of the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow over shadowing all Dullahans in a pop-cultural sense. I feel like The HH under utilizes the Dullahans more interesting quirks. (no spine whips, no blood throwing, no fear of gold, no name calling, etc) He's fine. Bunch of examples under cut.

First off the classic 1949 Disney Sleepy Hollow

He's a lot of fun but just too simple. No substance other than to be something fast and scary to terrorize Ichabod Crane.

Fun to watch but WHATEVER. 1999 Timmy Burty Sleepy Hollow HH is pretty cool.

like this is fantastic atmosphere, until he finds his head.

Oh cool, a skull.

oh god put it back. This is hideous.

The HH from Fox's Sleepy Hollow is actually pretty excellent.

Making him generally faceless is an improvement.

The shotgun bandolier adds A LOT. I think this is a great Dullahan but it's really hard to find good photos of him online that aren't super underexposed or horribly compressed. I'm also not a terribly big fan of how Dullahans are used in anime, the vibe they give off in anime feels nasty. Celty from Durarara I don't actually mind that much. I think a motorcycle in place of a horse is a good way to adapt the Dullahan to more contemporary settings. But she's like the only GOOD example.

This however is just disappointing.

If I recall correctly this one was used to write a lot of "head gags" around including but not limited to "repeatedly being groped by one of her friends while her head is far away from her body and unable to maintain agency over it"

And I just fucking hate looking at this THING.

Also what's with all the scythes? Dullahans don't fuckin' use those, get that shit outta here. There are more examples but I don't care enough for them to post any more. They're all pretty bad, and they are all harem filler. GROSS. I also wish the Dullahan was used more in games, their depictions are usually pretty cool but it's almost exclusive to Japanese developers. Western game devs are sleeping on the Dullahan and I want to rectify that.

Golden Sun Dullahan is cool but I don't typically think of them as "super tanky armoured dudes", too bulky imo.

Castlevania Curse of Darkness Dullahan has a great outfit, but that sword and shield combo looks worse that the Final Fantasy 14 grapes, awful weapon design. Speaking of FF14

Cool design, but same issue. Far too bulky for my tastes. Dullahan also makes an appearance in SMT

This just kinda sucks. More recently we got one in Dragons Dogma 2

He's alright. And then there's the beloved Horseless Headless Horsemann from TF2.

He's just too goofy, I don't like him. There are also dozens of Headless horsemen in card games, but they all feel like they are just there to pad out the monster menagerie. My biggest issue with Dullahans in games is that they are almost exclusively a throw away boss/miniboss and never get to be a real primary focus of their respective games, despite how cool they are. For these reasons there hasn't ever been a Dullahan in popular culture I've REALLY latched on to. Out of all of these I only really like 1999 Sleepy Hollow HH and Fox's Sleepy Hollow HH, because they are the primary focus of their respective stories but this all keeps coming back to Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" as it's the only REAL substantive piece of fiction that uses the Dullahan in a strong manner, and even then he only shows up for the finale. A lot of this is pretty surface level, I'm sure there are far better depictions of Dullahans out there but none of them have made it back to me.

[herrscherofmagic]

Just a thought, what if the Knight: Moonbeam battlesuit had bird-like wings coming off of the arms, instead of the butterfly(?)-ish wings coming from the back? (featuring a super scuffed set of sketches by me)

I want to do a proper drawing with this idea sometime but I'm too tired to try and work on a proper illustration right now, and I also have several other WIPs that need my attention first x-x

but I wanted to share something so here it is! I think the idea is fairly straightforward so I figured a rough set of sketches would be good enough for a tumblr post lol

I've been thinking about making a fan redesign of Knight: Moonbeam sometime, not because I don't like the original battlesuit (it's one of my favs!!!) but rather because I kinda want to try and make it fit the other Godsbane battlesuits more closely (Shadow Knight, VKE, BKE, AKA). If that were the case, I felt that it'd be cool to redesign KMB as a sort of scout/ranger type of battlesuit.

Like if the Godsbane battlesuits were D&D classes, I feel like SK is the Monk (punchy gal), VKE is a Fighter (swingy sword), BKE is the Paladin (tanky fighter), and AKA would be a Rogue (sneaky? I guess? Rita likes sneaking around right?). So why not make KMB the Ranger of the group?

So I felt it'd be cool if KMB had bird-like wings instead of the typical "shooting-out-the-back" wings that most winged humanoids have in fiction, y'know?

Like KMB's wings aren't just the usual wings that let a Valk fly or whatever, they're special wings optimized for speed, letting the battlesuit user zip around the battlefield at Mach Fast. And it'd kinda pair well with the whole Gungnir Canon and missile barrage thing the battlesuit canonically has!

[ageless-aislynn]

Oooo, you play mass effect, it finally clicked in my head. Who do you romance in Andromeda?

Also, I really did enjoy the game regardless of the amount of hate it got

ZOMG, you must've missed me at my most Andromeda obsessed, lol! I haven't actually been able to play it since last November, when my previous computer gave out and then this one has been super lousy. However, as soon as I can hopefully get my Vegas back on and thus be able to GIF (and vid) again, I'm planning on going back to Andromeda to finally finish the big Ryder twins romance GIF project I had going, lol!

In short, I've romanced every single option available except Scott/Peebee and Scott/Jaal. Scott/Peebee was in progress when I got derailed. But here are some posts I've made about various things, if you'd like to see them!

Sara's romances with Jaal, Reyes, Peebee and Vetra

Scott/Cora and the shocking, unexpected Scott/Harry romance 😂😜

I was working on the Scott/Gil vid here

I've vidded Sara/Reyes, Scott/Cora, Scott/Gil and my final vid ever was about Scott and his dad, Alec

Mass Effect: Andromeda incorrect quotes

Me at the bottom talking about doing an Insanity run and showing my Sara in her Mjolnir-like tanky armor plus the name of my crafted weapons 😂

I absolutely adore this game and I've honestly missed playing it so much! Also, did you know that Kate Kennedy aka Kai from Halo is the voice of one of the Angara?

I romanced Avela as Scott JUST for that fact alone, lol!

Anyway, like I said, I never did get the chance to finish making GIFs for all of my romances and I still hope to finish those last two for Scott. As for which are my favs...

Sara: Reyes. I'm a sucker for that scoundrel, what can I say? 😍😇 But Vetra is a close second. I have to physically restrain myself from flirting with her if I'm planning on romancing somebody else because there's no way I'd hurt my best Turian girl like that! 😱😉

Scott: Gil surprisingly became my favorite "I have to make SURE not to click the flirt options if I'm romancing somebody else" romance. I also, no surprise, loved his romance with Reyes. Cora also was great!

I honestly really enjoyed all of the romance options, except for Keri's (the reporter) and not for any fault of hers but I disliked how she looks kinda uncomfortable with either Ryder flirting with her while she's just trying to do her job. I felt like a real creep, I have to say! 😩Then at the end, after I've annoyed this poor Asari at her workplace this entire time, the "payoff" was we went from a table at the Vortex to Ryder's just suddenly outside of her room? Not even a kiss? 🫤(I legit have headcanoned that Keri never actually let Ryder into her room, just went in herself, closed the door, and left them out in the hall, lol! "That's for continuing to come on to me and never taking the hint while I'm clearly just doing my job, you creep!" 😖😂😉)

If I could've romanced Evfra *points up at his pic above* I totally would have because I'm a sucker for a good "enemies to lovers" trope, lol! And I think Evfra would haaaaate himself for falling for the human Pathfinder. 😍😍😍

I clearly have put a lot of silly thoughts into Andromeda, lol! Anyway, thanks so much for letting me ramble about this! Who did you romance? Have you played as both twins or do you prefer just the one? Default or custom? Do you mod? My computer was coming off the rails at the time so I've only stuck to what's available in-game but I've seen some beautiful Ryder twins and some awesome clothing options with mods. 😉💖💖💖

[vvooper]

ok I'm making another ffvii character pokemon team post because I cannot be stopped. here's barret

a couple of these were more difficult to come up with, but I didn't even have to think about a few of the others. details under the cut

his sprite is a recolor of lt surge. the outfit and sunglasses were made for him. nothing I could do about his arm though

species: coalossal

ability: steam engine

item: heavy-duty boots

moves: flamethrower, power gem, body press, iron defense

a coal pokemon named after corel seemed like an obvious choice, given its coal mining history. heavy-duty boots because we follow workplace health and safety standards in this household.

the rest of the set isn't all that exciting. flamethrower because of... yknow. and body press and iron defense more generally feature because of how tanky barret is

species: octillery

ability: moody

item: assault vest

moves: fire blast, octazooka, flash cannon, charge beam

dyne the octillery features as one of the vaguely gun-shaped pokemon.

I gave him the moody ability because he acts pretty erratically, especially in rebirth. all of his moves are also vaguely gun-shaped. charge beam specifically because he uses electrical mines in his rebirth fight.

species: kangaskhan

ability: scrappy

item: protective pads

moves: fake out, return, low kick, safeguard

barret is such a dad that we have to represent his relationship with marlene with kangaskhan. she gets the protective pads to help keep her safe :)

return because she loves her dad a lot. low kick because she's tiny and low to the ground I guess lmao. and safeguard because again barret just wants to keep her safe

species: avalugg

ability: own tempo

item: rocky helmet

moves: avalanche, take down, stomping tantrum, recover

I mean how could I not?

own tempo ability because terrorists tend to go against the grain a bit. in addition, barret's particular avalanche cell is doing their own thing separately from the rest of avalanche.

avalanche as the first move... again how could I not? take down because we're stickin it to shinra. and stomping tantrum represents barret's temper.

species: magmortar

ability: vital spirit

item: heat rock

moves: fire blast, focus blast, solar beam, sunny day

catastrophe is barret's ultimate limit break. this calls for another vaguely gun-shaped pokemon!

again, barret is rather spirited, so ability is vital spirit.

fire blast and focus blast are explosion-shaped moves. solar beam in particular was chosen because catastrophe really is just kind of a giant laser

species: ting-lu

ability: vessel of ruin

item: assault vest

moves: lash out, earthquake, payback, ruination

I wanted to continue with giving everybody one legendary, mythical, or ultra beast, but I actually had a pretty tough time landing on one for barret. I'm still not super happy with it, but I decided to go with the angle of how barret's actions against shinra are in large part motivated by revenge. the treasures of ruin seemed like decent options for that since they're embodiments of negative emotions. while wo-chien represents grudges, I thought ting-lu was more fitting as a ground-type given barret's previous occupation. I named it angermax after another of barret's limit breaks (and one that, under certain conditions, is actually stronger than catastrophe).

the moves lash out and payback both reflect barret's motivations against shinra. ruination of shinra is of course his ultimate goal.

don't know if anyone will actually be interested enough to follow these, but I'll do one for tifa next. you can find the one I did for cloud here

[sharenadraculea]

Naruto-Characters as Warhammer 40k-factions

After doing something like this with atla-characters, I thought it was fun to do this with Naruto-characters. Again, this is gonna be very silly. Also all 40k factions, not just astartes-legions

Itachi: Night Lords. Renegade that uses copious amounts of terror tactics and there would be a lot more dead if someone else did the job (which doesn‘t justify what they did). Also fan favorites with black eyes, black hair and pale skin. Tough upon further thinking, Harlequin might also work? Very strong, insanly fast, kind of fragile and the terror tactics are more mind fuckery than skining people. Kisame: Carcharodons. Guys with a sharktheme and a lust for blood and I like them a lot. Samehada is allready nearly a chainsword! Sasori: The Mechanicum greatly appreciates your effort in replacing your flesh with machine-bits. Also human-puppets are pretty close to servitors Hidan: Gruesome murder for the sake of gruesome murder and personal entertainment? Sounds like the Drukhari are gonna love him. He even prolongs his life with the suffering of others! Or Slaanesh. Slaanesh would also work just not aesthetically. Kakuzu: Rogue Trader. Near infinite personal freedom and a ton of money? Yeah, he would be up for that (also they are allowed to keep Drukhari around) Konan: I‘m gonna say Sisters of Battle or Sisters of Silence, I can‘t quite remember if she sees Nagato more as a god or just a powerfull guy.

Tobirama: Inquisition. Just look at the guy who invented necromancy to use undead as a never ending tide of bombs and tell me that he wouldn‘t enjoy a little exterminatus from time to time and having waaay too much power over people. Hashirama: I‘m gonna say Exodite Eldar just for the nature-theme. Maybe also avatar of Isha? They are usually nice and have healing stuff, but you still don‘t wanna piss them of Madara: Chaos champion or demon prince, maybe he get‘s a upgrade at some point. Either Khorne or Chaos undivided, because while he does a lot of war and murders a lot of people, he also does some other stuff.

Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura: Space Marine Apothecary. Tanky battle medic. Gaara: Blood Angels. Starts out bloodcrazy and only wanting to fight but he get‘s better and ends up beeing a pretty nice guy. Also both are from deserts. Sasuke: Raven Guard maybe? He‘s suitably emo looking and Raven Guard and Night Lords really dislike each other. Orochimaru: Magos Biologis or Drukhari Homuculi coven. Doing weird, definetly unethical human experimentation as one does. Kabuto: Necrons or maybe something Nurgely? Just a guy commanding legions of the undead. Thousand Sons might also work, a sorcerer controlling empty hulls of what once were people.

Hyuuga-clan: Navigator House, eyerelated superpowers they are super secretive about, a lot of power but isolated from wider society and definetly too much inbreeding Jinchuuriki: Maybe Titans Princeps? Humans capable of controlling giant Battle-things but if they aren‘t carefull, that things mind can take over.

These are just the ones I came up with, if you have more or disagre with one of my classifications, feel free to add your opinion!