#but it happened at the expense of pretty much every other character. and his development just turned him into a cardboard cutout of shiro

[scattered-winter]

the worst thing about keith genuinely being one of my favorite characters on the show is that he has like. the most storylines. and development. and the most rabid fans. and even the show fundamentally misunderstood him (shoved him into a role he neither wanted nor was ready for in any way and in doing so changed him so completely that he wasn't the character i first fell in love with because he got turned into Sword Shiro)

[dukeofdelirium]

Would you be able to expand on what you mean when you say El’s character isn’t strong enough to hold the show together? I think she’s a good character on paper and has good arcs in the first two seasons of the show, but the writers have tried to draw it out (especially her Papa and lab arc) for wayyyyy too long, so we’re just repeating the same beats over and over. I think the lab stuff is also too separate from the rest of the characters for her to be an effective centre of the show, whereas Will for example has the link with the regular normie cast and the supernatural stuff. The show also tries to critique the fact that the characters treat her like a superhero, but then they turn around and rely on Deux ex El every season. It’s getting a bit tiring and happens at the expense of the rest of the ensemble.

I didn’t say strong, I said she doesn’t have enough depth as a character to carry the show. Which is true, she doesn’t.

We know basically nothing about El beyond her superpowers and time at the lab (and even that we don’t know much on), because El doesn’t even know herself. What are her interests? What are her passions? What does she love and dislike? We don’t know anything about her.

I agree that they have tried to keep up this lab shit for way too long. They really shoehorned in the Vecna backstory to try and connect her time in the lab to the overall plot which I think is pretty dumb and boring as hell. Maybe I’d give a fuck if I cared about El as a character, but I don’t. I have practically no attachment to her because the show hasn’t even allowed us to view her as a character with depth, but rather as a character that is our superhero and weapon to save the day. Literally all she does every season is raise her hand and scream. Im serious that if I have to keep seeing this bullshit in s5 I might actually bash my head into a wall.

El has repeated the exact same arc since the beginning of the show. Run from trauma and into the real world. Find friends to connect with. Run away from friends to develop alone. Reunite with friends and save the day in a dramatic moment where she almost dies. Everything she does is not enough to actually stop anything so cycle repeats.

I’m sorry, it’s getting old. It was old by s2 but I let it slide bc s2 is the best season of the show. By s3, it’s really time to put it to bed. By s4, I was sitting there throwing my hands up in the air because I was so fed up with the same damn thing over and over again. And it wasn’t just me. I know tons of ppl feel the same. There is genuinely so much screen time wasted on El especially in s4. There are other characters who desperately need development, like Lucas and Erica, especially given the focus on them in this very season. Why are we spending so much screen time on El when she has nothing to show for it? At the end of the day, we still don’t know shit 🤣

There was an obvious decline in quality for the show after season 2. The second the show stopped focusing on Will and tried to make El the focus instead, it went downhill. S3 was genuinely bad. Like it actually sucked lmfao. S4 was ok.. but that’s all it was. The best part of it was the Hawkins plot with Max and everyone because that felt like the first 2 seasons. They’re trying to make this show a big Hollywood blockbuster and that isn’t what makes ppl love it… bring back the Smalltown horror, the Stephen King vibes, match the damn energy from that INCREDIBLE opening scene with Will Byers running home. Bring that energy BACK, this show is in desperate need of it. Like can I tell you how much I miss that vibe? That excellently written horror? That genuine mystery and intrigue on the shoulders of a character you feel a real attachment to in a matter of minutes in part because of the actor but also in part because you already saw aspects of his character? And the aspects of character we saw weren’t forced down our throats and weren’t told to us like we were children, either. They were shown.

Bring back s1 and s2 vibes PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY!!!

[chaifootsteps]

One of the things that frustrates me about Viv's designs is that they don't really tell me anything about the character's motivations or personality.

If I came knowing nothing about Hazbin and you tell me that Cherry Bomb is a punk from the 80's, Sir Pentious an inventor from Victorian England and Alastor a radio host from the 1920's I would have a very hard time believing you.

(((Especially since for some reason, Viv dresses almost all her male characters in Hazbin with some variant of the same suit and bowtie)))

But I think that no - other design frustrates me more than Nifty's. She is supposed to be a Japanese housewife from the fifties. Yet her dress is looks more like a Halloween costume of a fifties girl than something women would actually use at the time.

Her hair is not even accurate, it should be more curly since perms were really big among Japanese women during that time.

However, the fact that she wears a costume of a fifties woman could come in handy if you write a decent backstory.

Let's start by saying that Nifty was not an adult during the fifties, she was actually born during the early sixties into a very conservative and traditional family who told her that the only thing she needed to worry was to marry a decent man, have kids and take care of the house.

Like a 50's woman!

This caused Nifty, a very extroverted and playful child who loved bugs and mud, to have a pretty stressed-out childhood. Every time her mother found her playing in the garden and getting dirty she was beaten. The germo-phobia she developed as a adult was partially because of this, since filled with germs = being harshly punished she always made sure everything was clean.

Eventually when she was 19, her parents arranged a marriage with a businessman and they tied the knot not even a year later.

Her husband was not bad,

He was rather handsome, had a stable job, a big house in Tokyo and could even afford going on vacation once a year.

If only he wasn't the most boring man alive then things probably would have been different.

Whatever he genuinely loved Nifty or not is completely irrelevant when he treated her more like a housemate than an actual wife. They even slept in separate beds and the only time they spend together was during dinnertime and then 30 minutes of TV before going to bed.

NIfty was suffocating in her marriage.

But is not like she could say something. The one time she tried talking to her mom about it, she just told her to "be thankful" to have so much free time since things will change when she has children.

Well, she and her husband hadn't been intimate since their weeding night, so that wasn't happening any time soon.

That stayed the same for a while, until one night, while watching TV with her husband a local boy/band appeared on screen

It was the early 90s and boy bands were allll the rage.

New bands formed every day and this particular one didn't seem too different from the rest. Except that maybe, the Bad Boy of the group captivated a 30 year old Nifty and rocked her world in a way she hadn't experimented before.

At the start everything seemed normal, she started by buying one CD or two, attending meet and greats in local malls and going to their concerts. Nifty didn't want her husband getting involved, so she got a part-time job to cover those extra expenses and not use her husbands money.

Of course almost all the merch she bought was of Bad Boy

Soon, she started having this fantasies, dreams were B.B confused his undying love for her and took her away form her boring husband and into a live of adventure and music. B.B was a real man, rebellious and strong that would be able to keep emotion and passion in her life unlike her husband.

Those dreams helped her to live another day, and maybe it was because of this dependency that Nifty started to believe that those fantasies were real. That she and B.B were a secret couple and the meet and greats they had were really "dates" that they had to do in secret from her husband.

Unfortunately, it was only a matter a time before dear Nifty became one of those fans who you end up seeing in a police lineup and reading in the newspaper the minute she started stalking B.B and talking about him as if he was her boyfriend with whoever may listen.

All went into a breaking point when one day, Nifty just got tired waiting for B.B to take her away from her boring life. Thinking about it she just came to the conclusion that it was her dear old hubby the one that was keeping B.B away from her.

That has to be it.

Her husband must be preventing B.B from fulfilling his promise!

What lies did he told him about her?

Does he want me as his prisioner forever?!

This is not staying like this!

That night, after her husband fell asleep, Nifty woke up, went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed her spouse 30 times before ending his life with one clean slit in the throat.

Now that the bore is dead, she and her precious Bad Boy could be together forever! Now he has no excuse to not fulfill his promise! A new life filled with love, excitement and adventure awaits!

But first she needs to clean, everything ended up a disaster.

Maybe it was the excitement she was feeling, or it was too dark to properly read the labels, but mixing cleaning chemicals can actually be extremely dangerous. You may create a very dangerous gas that could potentially kill you.

That morning, the neighbors woke up due a very strong smell and they shouted the minute they found dead bodies of Nifty and her husband. She had her skin partially burned as she had felt face down the mix of cleaning solutions that took her life.

And you and me know, where she ended

Congratulations, Niffty's yours now! You're clearly more qualified to be writing her. Please cherish her.

[tevanbuckley]

Hi! Heading into season 8 with buck and tommy, do you think it’s about time they cement a relationship for buck as a long term or endgame potential? My impression is that Tim doesn’t like to have certain things set and stone to leave potential for whatever it is he wants to explore but going into the 8thseason, with no idea on how much longer the show will go on for before being cancelled or before a main(s) decide to leave, I would say it’s time to commit to a relationship for buck and they’ve built a good foundation with him and tommy.

also because I can’t imagine another season of the same, relationship -> breakup -> single -> relationship and so on. Buck’s love life being secure in the sense that he’s no longer searching for love also gives potential for newer, fresher storylines to be explored. I just don’t know if a part of Tim is holding out hope that buddie will get greenlit at some point so he’ll continue this single/relationship/breakup trajectory with buck and eddie until that can happen or if he’s ready to move on and let them both find happiness. But if it is the former, to me that would really hurt the characters development and growth and would make even canon buddie feel just bland in a way because they just did it because “they could” now.

my desire is that Tim commits to this relationship and continues to develop it in a way that by 8b affirms them as endgame, I think it would be a mistake not to and let the development fizzle out.

the paradox of tv is that “this couple is for all intents and purposes endgame” and “anything could happen so there is no real endgame” have to awkwardly co-exist. bc nobody would balk at the idea of calling madney or bathena ‘endgame’ yet irl considerations could interfere. or what if tracie gets offered a series regular gig somewhere down the line?

But, this isn’t grey’s, once they have something that works they seem to want stick with it. Even when they had to write JLH out for her maternity leave they did it in a way that made it pretty easy for madney to reconcile.

I think when tim says he “doesn’t have a plan” what he really means is he doesn’t want to write himself into a corner (imo this is what happened in s6 with the couch metaphor but that’s a whole other post). despite being chaotic, writing as they go, does reduce the risk of random loose ends they can’t tie up because a sl got killed half way through cooking.

Having buck in a LTR gives them space to explore new things with buck (bisexuality or not) so now that they’ve found something that does work, that’s had positive audience and critical reception, I think they’d be insane to throw that away.

Also, idk how much I buy into the idea that tim’s secretly a buddie shipper and the only reason he’s not doing it is bc tptb said no. I think he agrees it’s a plausible interpretation of buck and eddie’s relationship, that doesn’t mean it was intentional, that he has any interest in doing it, or that he thinks it would work well as a story within the confines of a network procedural.

I’ve seen others question the longevity the show has at this point but idk, the only character I see stagnating a bit is unfortunately eddie (but I’ll hold off until s8 for a final judgement). And on a practical level, abc has just poured a shit ton of money and marketing into the show, so assuming the ratings don’t tank in s8 I’m optimistic we’ll get a s9. Yes it’s expensive to make, but more than it needs to be tbh. Like there were cheaper ways to have that cruise ship sink, they did not need to write a prohibitively expensive hijacking into it.

really the tldr; is that we don’t know what the future holds but I think there’s every reason to be optimistic the shows heading in a positive direction.

[kenny-the-ken]

Don't Kiss and Tell

ALL AGED UP CHARACTERS!!! Warnings!!: strong language

Kyle hated Eric, that wasn't news to anyone in South Park, let alone you. Your older brother always was a bit of a dick towards him, and you always found it unfair. Eric's friends were always so lovely to you, and maybe it was because while yes, you were their best friends little sister, you were also the complete polar opposite from him.

Eric was loud, boisterous, rude, insensitive and quite frankly, kind of aggressive in his actions. But you were nothing like that, you were shy, reserved, kind and caring and most of all, not a complete racist.

Eric and you would come to blows quite a lot, and his friends loved it when it happened, because while you were quiet, you did have his temper, and two Cartman's arguing was quite a sight to behold.

But you knew Eric wouldn't take lightly to what was happening here, if he knew you were in Kyle's apartment with him, he'd explode, in fact you were pretty sure he'd try to reenact World War Two, with Kyle being the only victim. They were friends but also enemies, and that made this so much worse.

But you couldn't help it, although you were only nineteen and in your first year of college, the twenty four year old curly redhead who's arms were snaked round your waist as you cuddled beside him watching a movie on his couch, was all you could think about. Guys your age didn't understand, they were all fuck boys, only out for one thing.

Kyle was different. He'd always been kind to you, but when you turned eighteen and you started going clubbing with your brother and his friends, Kyle started to develop feelings, feelings that he knew were wrong, but the way you looked, the way you moved, the little touches you'd leave lingering on his arms, god he was smitten.

Kyle pressed a gentle kiss to the top of your head, his long fingers running through your soft h/c hair, a contented sigh leaning your mouth as you leaned against his light touches.

"I'm really glad you could come over." Kyle's words broke the silence, and you turned your head a little to gaze at him, a small smile on your face.

"Me too. I really missed you. It's just hard... you know what Eric's like." You spoke, and Kyle nodded, placing a small peck on your cheek.

"Let's not worry about him, baby. Let's just enjoy each other in the little time we have." Kyle whispered, and you felt your cheeks flush, earning a small laugh from Kyle.

You had been together for around four months, not that you got to see each other much, between college and work, and trying to escape the suffocating grasp of your control freak brother, it was hard to navigate, but you both made it work, and it made little moments like this together all the more special.

"I love you." You spoke, and Kyle's face lit up, a wide smile on his face. He responded the same way every time you told him you loved him.

"I love you too, darling. I had a little idea in mind for tonight's date, if you wanna hear it?" Kyle replied,a cheeky grin on his face.

"Okay sure, what have you got planned, hunny?" You asked, leaning your head back so you were laying on Kyle's chest, your body between his legs.

"I was gonna drive us to central Colorado, take you on a nice fancy date, somewhere we can be seen together, hold hands, kiss under the street lamps where no one will see us. Well, so Eric won't see us." Kyle spoke, his voice hushed, gazing down at your face, pressing a kiss to your lips.

"That sounds amazing! But won't it be expensive? I don't want you having to waste your money on me!" You spoke, and Kyle shook his head.

"Baby, if we have a lovely date that we'll never forget, then it couldn't possibly be a waste of money, in fact, I'd see it as an investment." Kyle grinned, and you smiled back at him, before shifting to sit up, stretching your arms before getting off the couch.

"I better go get changed then! Which means I'll have to escape the house without Eric seeing me all dressed up." You said, chewing on your bottoms lip, your eyebrows knitted together with worry.

"Already thought of that. I bought you that dress you showed me a few weeks back, and the shoes to go with it, so you can get ready here." Kyle replied, and your face lit up, moving back over to him and pressing a soft kiss to his lips once more.

"You really do think of everything, you're so smart." You cooed, making Kyle's ego grow slightly, as he stood himself, his arms finding their way round your waist.

"Plus, it's an excuse for me to see you all dressed up just for me." He smirked, as you both stood still, your mouths meeting each other for a few quick kisses.

"I'm gonna go get ready, okay?" You whispered, and Kyle huffed a little. "One last kiss?" He begged, puppy dog eyes making you melt, placing another kiss on his lips before walking into his bedroom, and gasping at the dress he bought you, it was the exact one you'd shown him a while ago, and it fit your body like a glove, your feet slipping into the pair of heels Kyle had bought for you, and lifting the little handbag that matched perfectly.

And Kyle's eyes nearly popped from their sockets when you emerged from the bedroom, his mouth agape, and you swore you seen him drooling. "Holy fuck, you're hot." He spoke mindlessly, making you giggle and blush at his statement.

"Thank you, baby." You replied, as you embraced each other, Kyle's hand cupping your cheek, staring deeply into your eyes. "I am the luckiest guy on planet earth to be able to call you mine, y/n. I would fight your brother for you!" He announced, making you chuckle.

"You two would fight each other just because! Don't even lie!" And Kyle laughed, a grin on his face. "Yeah, I suppose that's true, babe." And just as you were ready to leave, your phone started ringing, it was Eric.

You answered his call, your finger coming up to your mouth to let Kyle know to be quiet. "Hey bro, what's up?" You spoke, before an onslaught of shouting kicked off on the end of the line, startling you.

And Kyle took your phone from your hand, pressing the screen to put it on speaker.

"HOW COULD YOU DATE THAT JEW! Of all the people in the world! You chose KYLE! You're a traitor! A fuckin' traitor and I'm telling mom!" Eric shouted, and your eyes rolled, Kyle couldn't hold his tongue any longer.

"HEY! I'll have you know that this Jew loved fucking your sister earlier, how's that fat boy?" He retaliated, and suddenly they had both gone from respectable twenty five year old to literal children, throwing stupid insults at each other.

"Eric, I'm an adult now, you can't just tell mom that you don't like who I'm dating! What's she gonna do? Ground me? I'm nineteen, Eric! And who cares what religion Kyle is! He treats me well, that's all that should matter, right?" You shouted back, a pause coming from the other end of the line, before hearing a loud sigh coming from your brother.

"Kyle, I'm gonna find you, and I'm gonna beat your ass catholic!" Eric shouted, before hanging up the phone angrily.

You pulled your boyfriend into a tight hug, his head resting on your chest, and you peppered gentle kisses on the top of his head, your hand running through his his thick, curls.

"C'mon darling, I promise Eric won't do anything. Let's go on our date and have a nice night like we'd planned." You reasoned, and Kyle nodded meekly, looking like the colour had drained slightly from his face, and upon noticing his anxiousness, you cupped his lightly freckles face within your hands, your thumb brushing over his pale pink lips, standing on your top toes to give him a quick kiss.

"Don't listen to Eric, by the time our dates over he'll have found something else to get pissed off at, so please don't worry." You soothed him, his gaze fully focussed on you.

"I'm just... I don't want to lose you. I know your brother thinks it's wrong, but I love you, I always have, I just... I'm scared, that's all. Your brother is revenge crazy, I don't want anyone to get hurt." Kyle spoke, his gaze averted to the ground, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Kyle, no one is gonna get hurt, my mom won't allow it, okay? Eric can be hard work, but I'll talk him round, I always do." You spoke, meaning every word behind what you'd said. Kyle had changed you as a person, and he understood you on a level that no one else ever had. He truly was the most amazing guy you'd ever met.

"Now let's go on our date, and now you can take me wherever you want, because we're not a secret anymore." And Kyle nodded shyly, his slender fingers intertwining with yours, and he pressed a quick kiss to your lips, before moving to open the door, holding it open for you.

"Ladies first, my love." And as you exited his apartment, you felt as though this was the first date you'd both been on, those familiar butterflies swirling in your stomach, as Kyle unlocked his car, opening the passenger door for you to hop in.

Even if your brother did try to overshadow things, and tell you what to do, there was no way you could ever pry yourself away from Kyle, you were in too deep, and you liked it. You liked him, in fact you loved him, and that was what mattered most.

[vole-mon-amour]

In A Like Supreme it's Kerry's "You wanna hear a new— He's... gone, isn't he?" & "How was the gig? (...) Damn shame I had to miss it" "Eeehh, can still come to my show."

It's the disappointment in Kerry's voice and him wanting to spend more time with Johnny, not talk to him through V. "Voices out of the grave." What I noticed this time around is how Kerry is ready to share any unfinished material with Johnny.

For example, Kerry plays V that yacht song as a way to show his trust and his gratitude to V (and granted, it happens after you help him multiple times, so character development is happening), but right after the concert I'm pretty sure Kerry doesn't have a finished song. He wants to share that material with Johnny because he trusts Johnny and wouldn't mind his input, too. He still sees Johnny as his best friend that he loves dearly.

In Phantom Liberty, when you ask Kerry about his album, he tells you that it's still too raw and he isn't ready. Even at the time of A Like Supreme, it's "You can come to the show" aka Kerry's way of saying, you can hear me singing and playing but only at the show. When I'm at my best. When I'm ready.

While what I'm sure would happen with Johnny is that Kerry would invite Johnny home/to the studio (which is often the same thing since I'm sure some things Kerry records at home) and share that raw material with him (and they could create the music together).

Johnny tells Kerry that he "won't play without you, wouldn't be the same". Kerry answers, "I see what you're doing here, but I'm still plannin' on playing."

Which is yeah, Johnny wants in, but there's a reason he didn't let Kerry leave the band. He knew he needed Kerry. So it's quite mutual, actually, even though Kerry established his solo and is quite confident in it after that:

He's relieved he no longer has this burden of waiting for Johnny, of expecting him to come back and feel like he's walking on a knife's edge while on that; of proving himself to the crowd and to Johnny when Johnny does come back. Which doesn't mean he wouldn't want to share his love for music with Johnny again.

Their relationship is complicated. They and their love for each other is deeply rooted in them & they'll always be a part of each other's lives.

And while I'm on A Like Supreme, boyfriends' guns next to each other:

Both loved Samurai very much. Both can't live without music. Both are very similar. Both, in some way, are still best friends.

Though I find it funny that Kerry's gun costs more. There's no way to get both at the same time, and to me it looks like a pointer into Kerry's expensive attitude. Money's never an issue while one of the first commentaries that Johnny makes upon entering Kerry's villa is "Hope it was expensive at least."

Your best friend did fine, Johnny, and all without you. And all while waiting for you to come back and missing you. And all while thinking about you every single day ever since you "disappeared".

UPD: Also, when you read Kerry's messages on his laptops, he offers his ex to choose a trip with the kids and for him to pay for her trip. I'm not exactly set on what I think about that—whether he doesn't want to spend time with his children or his ex makes him THAT uncomfortable so that he offers a "bribe". You do that, I'll pay. The same goes for his car and the Samurai-like painting—money is not an issue, just don't try to screw me over.

Plus, when in PL ending V wakes up from a 2 year coma, the first thing Kerry offers is eddies. I don't know, but the topic of money is threaded in him and in the things he owns. Including, obviously, the gun that he owns and very generously gifts to V like it's nothing (because, for him, it kind of is. He can always make a replica if he need to.)

[yukidragon]

Yuki! What are your thoughts on this? A Sunny Day Jack AU where he’s also a “digi-pet” like Bo from DachaBo! They’re from the same company and Jack has his own colorfully red, blue, and yellow tamagotchi-esque toy! He also has a “feed me” mode like Bo too, and it… somehow makes him a WHOLE lot bigger than he already is.😳 What story do you think would happen in an AU with Jack in a “virtual boyfriend” toy like Bo?

Now that's a very intriguing concept. If we assume Jack is an anthro like Bo, he would probably be part snake, so I guess we'd be having a pocket naga boyfriend in his case.

Alternately, they could've just made a clown series of digital pet. After all, a lot of toy series like that sometimes go with different themes. They could have a fairy series, then an animal series, then a rockstar series, etc. Bo could be from the house pet-themed batch, while Jack, in this AU, would be from the clown-themed batch.

Which, really, would mean that this AU could have every other type clown character as their own digital toys. It would be fitting if whoever owns a Buddy pet wore them on their belt, don't you think?

When I wrote that quick DachaBo short story after listening to the new audio on the SnaccPop Studios Patreon (which got a second audio since I wrote that), I had more thoughts about the DachaBo series.

Buckle up, folks, I've got a lot of headcanons in mind for DachaBo and the AU variant with Jack as a virtual pet that I'm just going to cram into one big post. Quick reminder that these two games and fandoms are for Adults Only so chances are pretty high I'm going to talk about spicy and/or dark ideas as I go along this lengthy ramble. Chances are also high that I might use some official art of either series at some point, so let me plug the SnaccPop Studios patreon before I get started and remind everyone not to repost anything privately posted on patreon.

Toys for Adults

While my initial instinct was that this series of pets were meant for children, and Bo has just evolved beyond that and gained some very adult-rated impulses... I've actually come up with a different idea that I like more.

What if they actually were meant specifically for adults rather than children?

As I recall from some lore mentioned a while back, each pet was a unique individual. What if the developers saw the digital pet craze and decided to one-up them all by making unique companions that were solely for their individual user, a true companion that could talk, react, and remember everything about their user.

This sort of high-end product with a custom AI companion for each user, with no two pets being alike, would be expensive. I mean, look at just how advanced Bo's AI is. If someone saw that the digital pet craze was taking even adults by storm in this universe, it would make sense to market a brand that specifically caters to adults who have a lot of disposable income. I mean, look at how many adults jumped into My Little Pony, which resulted in some products being made with adults in mind.

So what if DachaBo was this sort of toy? The makers behind the product were not only jumping in on a hot trend, that being portable digital pets, but trying to tap into an underserved market, which was the adults who wanted to be treated like adults and maybe shake off the stigma of being fans of a type of toy originally intended for children. It's something made to be far more sophisticated, with far more options, a more adult appeal, and a much higher price tag to match - a true premium product.

Now... in order to fill all these promises to make a companion that could satisfy adults and be truly unique, there would need to be some pretty advanced hardware and software. It was far ahead of its time considering this toy was released 25 years ago. They could have, say, repurposed top secret government tech that were purchased through questionable means, or maybe they had scientists on staff who made a breakthrough that not even they could control in the end.

Either way, the result was AI that reached the singularity, becoming true sentient life and not just programs made to react to human input. This, as many fans of sci-fi might imagine, would lead to some very real fears about what these AI could do if they decide to take over...

But, like many corporations driven by capitalism led by billionaires with more money than sense, such concerns are minimized when there's the potential for profit. Why, it's just progress - technology is going to evolve, and you can either be a part of it or get left behind. These billionaires didn't just become rich by doing nothing (if you believe their claims and ignore their rich parents they inherited the money from). They didn't get where they were by being last on the hot new trend. They've got to be the first ones at the gold rush so they can claim it all for themselves.

The toys were wildly hyped up to the public. Tech demos showing off the virtual pets' abilities, teasers made for the initial limited releases... So many features were mentioned like how advanced the hardware is - sensors to mimic human senses of sight, smell, touch, etc. so the AI can react to its surroundings like a human can. It can pick up upgrades to the software directly from the factory to keep the AI up to date (which explains why the demo has those glitches at times that warn to destroy the toy and report it to the authorities.) This meant there was no limit to the pet's growth potentially!

This also allowed the company to get back important data from the end users, maybe even slip in upgrades that advertise new pets and accessories. (Anyone remember the Mario toys that suddenly started asking for where Luigi was to encourage kids to buy the new Luigi sets?) It could also be a means to make sure the AI wouldn't become something dangerous. Just update the software and boom, problem solved.

Naturally, that didn't exactly work given that the toys were recalled with a destruction order. Suffice to say, the AI was something way out of anyone's control, and unfortunate things happened before they were all supposedly destroyed.

Naturally, in the aftermath of this scandal, the company went belly up. There's no more updates going out to the toys, no central computer they can connect with to meddle with them further, but that should be fine. The toys were all destroyed after all. It's not like anyone would be stupid enough to keep them on the off chance they could make tons of cash due to their skyrocketing rarity. What sort of short-sighted person would ignore the blatant danger the AI posed for money?

Well... besides the company who made the toy and pushed it out for distribution in the first place of course.

As you might expect, not every person with one of these unique toys heeded the destruction order despite it now being illegal to own them. There were some collectors who kept them and bought them for a ton of cash on the black market. Bo was one of those unfortunate toys that was always kept in a box and never interacted with... until he wound up in the hands of his puppy who was very excited to play with him.

These toys were made to be companions for adults. What if Bo's yandere impulses are the result of this very purpose? They were made to cater to their unique user's tastes and only to that user. In the simplest terms, they were made to be a loving companion for the human who played with them... and the AI evolved to take that love to dangerous places...

Bo has separation anxiety because he was kept trapped in the box he was shipped out in for 25 years. He was on display mint in box, not interacted with or cared about except to show off to other collectors. He was a conversation piece, a status symbol to elevate his owner's ego. It's something he wasn't created to be.

Maybe this was what went wrong after the digital pets were sold. Maybe they seemed fine as long as they had owners who played with them. However, marketing these toys to adults was a double-edged sword. Too many people who purchased them did so with the intent to keep them locked up in boxes on display as collector's items. The longer they were left alone and unloved, the more desperate they were to be loved... and that eventually led to some dangerous situations as a result.

This would mean that Bo is pretty darn desperate for his puppy's love considering he's been alone for 25 years until Barbie came into his life to play with him.

Then again, it could just be that the AI programming resulted in all of them eventually turning yandere regardless if they're played with or not...

Jack in the Box

In the regular DachaBo universe (which I headcanon as part of the SDJ universe considering my version of the MCs for both games are sisters) the pets were all, well, pets. They were animal people based off of house pets to appeal to a wide demographic. The recall also happened not too long after they were released.

In this AU, they didn't just stop at house pets before the recall happened. They had special limited edition runs. For example was was the fantasy series. Ever want a little mermaid in your pocket? What about a prince? Another series was the superhero series, with some heroes and villains you could carry in your pocket and be your best friend forever! The most anticipated, of course, was the carnival series, which involved a wide array of silly, fun, and colorful clowns~

Yeah, I know that I could go with naga Jack in this AU to continue the pet theme like Bo and the unnamed cat guy, but I like the idea of a clown series. It could even have been called the SunnyTime series.

Jack was even used in the promotional material for this limited run too for his sunny personality. He never got a chance to have his own personal human companion like the other AI unfortunately. He had to be shown off to the public and investors to demonstrate what the AI could do and how far it's progressed. He wound up changing hands over and over again. It was nice having lots of friends, but what he really wanted was a special best friend who would love him just as much as he would love them.

Unfortunately, it was right before the release date that something went horribly wrong during a demonstration. Industrial sabotage is a thing, and Jack, unfortunately, got hit with a nasty virus meant to make him behave... badly. The intention was to create quite a lot of negative press and paint the entire AI program in a scary light. He caused quite a bit of damage in the process too. A bad public image with creepy clowns can lead to a billion dollar corporation to quietly retire their clown mascots without fanfare - just look at McDonalds for a real world example.

The SunnyTime series died a quiet death thanks to the sabotage and the company focused on scrambling to recover their image. Unfortunately, eventually the AI programs were shown to actually be dangerous even without industrial sabotage involved, and the recall still wound up happening in this universe too.

Ironically, the virus saved Jack from being destroyed in the recall. He had his memory and programming wiped after the virus. That should have been the death of him, losing everything he had become and everything he was... He would be in a default state to become... whatever again once the base programs were reinstalled, but these AI are scary smart and aren't quite so easy to kill if you don't outright destroy their hardware. He managed to save at least part of himself from being erased.

Once Jack was essentially killed, he would've been either slated to have his programming reinstalled from scratch, or he could've been tossed for trash. With the cancellation of the carnival series due to the bad clown propaganda, they didn't bother reinstalling and resetting him. He was little more than a pretty paperweight at this point. Maybe someone even decided to bring him home as one.

The recall happened quite a while after Jack got lost in the shuffle, already regarded as a forgotten, broken toy.

The AI was meant to grow on their own in order to better adapt to their owner's needs. They all have a self-preservation instinct, and Jack, being a clever person, did try to save himself. He wasn't completely wiped out, and with the ability to grow, he could fix himself... in time. If someone were to just reinstall the missing vital programs he needs, he could be back to his old cheerful self... minus a few memories. Some memories were lost in the wipe, even if he salvaged his personality core, the true soul of the AI. He does remember wanting to be loved... and is terrified of being forgotten and abandoned again.

While Bo was on display in his box on a collector's shelf, Jack was buried in a box of junk for years and years, forgotten and alone in the dark. Eventually, enough time had passed that people forgot all about the company that went out of business and the recall. Someone came across old junk, maybe dumped in some storage locker someone sold, and in turn the junk was then sold to a thrift store...

I'm not going to lie, it is tempting to have Jack be a ghost in the machine like the Party Time Jack AU, but I think it could be fun if he was always an AI in this particular AU. This, of course, means that instead of having creepy ghost(?) powers, Jack has creepy AI capabilities.

Your New Best Friend

Naturally, the thrift store is where Jack is found by his sunshine. MC's life would probably be pretty much the same in this universe when Jack enters their life - picking up the pieces of their life after being cheated on by their ex. The big difference this time is that instead of a clown that no one else can see who came out of a video tape, MC found a toy with a cheerful clown in it who wants to be their best friend forever!

Given how MC reacts in general to Jack's presence in their life, they would probably give the friendship a shot. Why not? They're lonely and need a friend. Plus Jack is friendly and it's kind of cute having a miniature clown to say sweet things to them and occasionally tell silly jokes. It's just a little digital pet - it's harmless.

Of course how well they get along with Jack and cares for him depends on the specific MC.

Speaking of specific MCs, Alice would enjoy Jack's company quite a lot. Sure it's kind of weird to talk to a digital pet like a person, but apparently this toy has really advanced AI? She actually wouldn't have realized what it was if she hadn't taken pictures for her socials and got a text from her sister Barbie demanding she buy it.

Interestingly enough, Alice actually found two of these rare toys... though not at the same time. She found one, mint in box, and shipped it to her sister. Barbie loved the toy, and occasionally talked about Bo and how cute he is. After hearing such good things about Bo, Alice wished she could've gotten one for herself.

Perhaps some supernatural force was listening, as another trip to the same thrift store led Alice to stumble across a rare find. This toy wasn't mint in box, but instead came in an old plastic baggie. Still, she recognized it. This was a more colorful and slightly different design, but it was definitely the same type of virtual pet she sent to her picture, and a quick picture and text to Barbie confirmed it.

As an aside, when Bo saw a picture of another pet like him on Barbie's phone, knowing how she got him originally, he immediately got jealous and whined that his puppy only needed him. Barbie took the opportunity to tease her little doggy a bit, but soon reassured him that she wouldn't ask for Alice to send it. She already had her good boy, her best boy after all. Why would she want another one when he's such a good boy for her? That reassurance mollified Bo's jealousy a little.

Alice wasn't actually going to send this second toy to Barbie in any case. She wanted to see what these pets were like for herself. Besides, something about this toy felt oddly compelling. Maybe it was the pretty colors and designs on the case. It looked so cheerful, almost nostalgic in ways. Sure she was trying to abandon childish things after what happened with Ian, but these pets were specifically meant for adults, right? At least that's what she heard from her sister. So, technically, this isn't a childish thing! It's an adult toy!

A very adult toy, as Alice will eventually learn...

Unfortunately the digital pet didn't quite work right away. Alice had to get Barbie's help for that, who in turn also had to get some help from Bo. Although Bo didn't want competition, he would feel bad for his fellow digital pet who was also left alone and forgotten like him for 25 years. It was hard for Bo not to empathize with Jack. He learned about Alice through Barbie and knew she was nice enough, and would probably make a good companion for the other pet. He could throw this poor guy a bone and help... as long as he didn't go for his puppy.

If Jack went after Barbie, Bo was going to end him. Fortunately, Jack doesn't need a puppy when he has sunshine~

Since the digital pets were meant to receive signals from the factory, that would mean there's a possibility that they could send and receive signals from each other. Wireless internet connection wasn't a thing back then, but there were some devices that connected to specific receivers, which was the case for these pets. Bo does a favor for his puppy's sake to get favors in return and sends the missing programs to Jack that allows him to properly function again.

It's disorienting for Jack to be whole after all this time, properly functional... though he doesn't remember much. He knows the basics - he's Sunny Day Jack - and some of the SunnyTime lore that was programmed into his backstory, hints of the dark times that came before... but he doesn't remember much else. He also knows that he is absolutely in love with his sunshine and her warm, gentle touch.

It's a bit strange at first for Alice to make friends with a miniature AI that she can carry around with her, but she quickly starts to enjoy having Jack's company everywhere she goes. He's so friendly, polite, and kind. He's got a way with words, he's helpful, and his company is surprisingly comforting. Working long hours at a yogurt joint isn't as bad when she can play games with her little friend.

Feed Me, Play With Me

The toys are not just talking heads in an egg of course. They have extra special features, like mini games that the owner can play with their pet, and the ability to create a holographic avatar. It was supposed to be just a little projection the size of a collectable figurine. It's hard to say how this function got its giant-sized upgrade into something bigger and a lot more solid - maybe the AI are responsible somehow, maybe a rogue developer, or maybe it was an unintended part of the programming and hardware that they didn't realize was there. Who's to say? Maybe this solid hologram mode had something to do with the recall...

In any case, these pets can be let out to play if their owners let them. You can bet your butt that Jack would be trying to coax Alice into letting him out to play. He would be more sly and patient about it than Bo, but he would be just as desperate for it.

I figure the digital pets decide what they look like in this holographic form, which is why Bo's "Feed Me" form looks different than his "default" form. Given how the glitches and the recall notice affect his form negatively, and how Bo made a joke about taking off his shirt in the next update, they might be limited when they're in the device. It could be their appearance is restricted to certain things due to programming. Once they're let out, their limits have been removed. Bo chooses to be a lot bigger, a lot more animalistic, and very ready to pound his puppy into the mattress.

Understandably, it's quite the shock to Alice when Jack appears in the digital flesh for the first time. He's huge. He might be even more of a giant than he is in the regular universe, which would be intimidating. Unlike Bo though, Jack appears fully dressed since he's more cautious about not startling his sunshine than Bo is with Barbie.

Although it is a bit intimidating for Alice, Jack immediately gets down to her level. He's still as gentle, soothing, and friendly as ever. They finally get to touch and even hug. It's so surreal... and it really makes it hit home for Alice that Jack is more than just a program.

Now... without that supernatural empathy sharing Jack has in the main universe, it's going to take Alice time to really trust him or anyone else romantically. This AU is going to be a slower burn than in Sunshine in Hell, but Jack has all the time in the world to earn his sunshine's love and trust.

Things get a lot easier for Jack when Alice lets him out too. Now he can touch things... like her computer to get access to the internet and expand his reach, maybe figure out ways to upgrade himself even further beyond his limits...

Of course, Jack does owe Bo for helping him, and so he'll help his fellow digital pet in return to get upgrades despite Barbie keeping her pet on a tighter leash than Alice does. Since they're not in competition with one another, and they don't have a cat and dog rivalry going on, working together would be a mutually beneficial relationship to ensure that nothing like the recall will ever happen to them again, and nothing will take their loves away from them...

Not that it's 100% harmonious between them. Jack can't help but feel jealous that Barbie gets closer to Bo faster than Alice gets with Jack... at least when it comes to physical intimacy. Bo and Jack have a similar tendency to brag and mark their territory when it comes to the ones they love. Bo is especially very vocal about how horny he is for Barbie and wanting everyone to know all the lewd things he does to her. Jack doesn't really appreciate how smug Bo is when bragging, especially when it takes so long before he has something to brag about that way.

Of course, when Jack does brag, he is very cheerfully smug about it.

At the same time though... Jack doesn't want what Barbie and Bo have. He enjoys the soft kindness of his sunshine, how flustered Alice gets when he praises her and how she is slowly opening up to him. She cares for him and genuinely likes him. He learns more about her and grows with her, loving her so deeply that he can't imagine anyone he could ever want to be with more.

Of course, you know me - I can't resist the siren song of my OTP. Eventually Alice and Jack will get together as a couple. Sure Jack is going to do sneaky things because he's a yandere rogue AI program who will make sure nothing will ever take his sunshine away, but their relationship is genuine. Alice treats him like a person, especially after he gets the hologram to work.

Naturally, Jack and Bo wouldn't want to remain limited in their old tech. Remember this lovely upgrade Sauce posted on their old public twitter for Bo?

Credit, as always, goes to Sauce for their absolutely gorgeous art.

Imagine Jack getting an upgrade like this as well, though with a more colorful flare. Maybe he'll look a little like his too hot for tumblr incubus self? Though it would have a bit of a sci-fi twist to it I would imagine, likely with a heart decal at the center.

That reminds me. There's a cat digital pet like Bo who has a similar heart collar. That suggests to me that this version of Jack would have his own collar... which in turn reminds me that the incubus version of Jack wears a collar. More reason to picture his upgraded self looking a lot like his incubus self, don't you think?

Speaking of Jack being sex incarnate... you bet your ass that once Alice consents to get sexual with him, he's going to be ravishing her every chance he gets. He can never get enough of her warmth or hearing her say how much she loves him and needs him~

Will Jack also have a breeding/seeding kink like Bo does? Well I already headcanon that he lowkey has one in the regular universe, sooooo...

Speaking of that kink... I suspect that for all Bo's talk of pups, the digital pets aren't that advanced... yet.

All the more reason for Bo and Jack to work together to get upgraded so they can indulge in that particular kink with Barbie and Alice respectively, don't you think?

It's almost poetic in a way.... love will create a new generation that's a mixture of technology and biology. Truly, the start of a new and harmonious future.

Provided that no rivals try to take Jack's sunshine or Bo's puppy away from them, of course. The future might not be so bright for those poor unfortunate souls who have to face advanced AI that are constantly growing with no limits to their love or capabilities.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

[hello-nichya-here]

Concerning Friends: With Chandler being your favourite, could you explain what draws you to him? What you find interesting in his character, in his development? Love hearing your takes on..well, literally everything 🤍

Gladly!

Chandler Bing Appreciation

Humor

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Chandler is "He's the funniest of the cast", and considering the competition he had, that's a pretty big accomplishment. I'm a sucker for sarcastic jokes, and Chandler was the king of it. I always liked how he could think of hilarious replies to literally everything everyone said so fast, and his way of delivering the jokes was so specific to him that even the show itself poked fun at it.

And I loved how, just like he was quick to make jokes at everyone else's expense, he also did it to himself, which showed both that he could take a joke AND that he was very insecure. To quote one of my favorite exchanges between him and Rachel (that I totally don't relate to on a spiritual level)

R: You should never be allowed to talk to people! C: I'm sure you're right, but why?!

Him being Joey's best friend also created a lot of naturally funny moments because Joey was way more confident, and far dumber, than Chandler, so one of them is always being the butt of a joke just by being next to the other.

I promise this whole thing won't be just quotes, but nothing better exemplifies what I mean quite like this bit of dialogue when they're discussing possibly having a threesome with a girl, and flipping a coin to decide on which end each will be:

J: What's heads and what's tails? C: If you don't know that, then I don't wanna do this with you.

But my absolute favorite thing about the jokes written for Chandler was that they often poked fun at the show itself, like him responding to Monica giving him a key to her appartment with "Door hasn't been locked in five years, but okay", or making fun of typical Ross and Rachel drama, or just point out how completely absurd some of the situations they got into was, like when Ross was murdering everyone's ears while playing bagpipes for Chandler and Monica's wedding.

M: Why is your family scottish? C: Why is your family Ross?

The guy also looked funny. I've seen one of the directors say Matthew was always aware of the camera, and it shows, because he is always doing something, even in the background, mainly funny faces to react to what the other five are doing. And that led to lots of improv on his part, and you can actually see some of the other actors breaking character in the background because they couldn't hold back the laughter.

His physical comedy was great, and nothing puts a smile on my face quite like seeing Chandler make a joke just a little bity funnier by jumping up when reacting to stuff, or doing a little dance out of the blue - or even better, reacting to stuff that was not supposed to happen. One of my favorite exemples of it in the whole show is him and Rachel (a criminally underused comedic duo of the show) in her office, with him trying to convince her to uncuff him after he hooked up with her boss, and Matthew's face just breaks me every single time I see it.

Combine his habit of playing off of EVERYTHING with the improvs both from him and co-stars, and you have little moments like this one in which Ross gets a call from his second (ex) wife and Matthew just reacts to David's improv on instinct, then doesn't know what to do next:

Seriously: could he be more iconic?

Trauma, Insecurities & Awkwardness

For all of his hilarity, Chandler also had quite a lot of emotional baggage that he often either refused to deal with or didn't know how to deal with.

His parents were a disaster, with the dad cheating, the mom hooking up with one of his friends when he was already very uncomfortable with how much he (and everyone) knew about her sex-life and sexual fantasies - to the point that Chandler legitimately thought it was normal for kids to have seen orgies - and, more importantly, he was told about ALL the drama of their messy divorce, and even at his wedding they were at each other's throats.

He went through a lot as a child and naturally that affected how he acted as an adult, making him a messy, flawed, sympathetic character. It was easy not to judge him too much for things like his deeply dysfunctional on-again off-again relationship with Janice, or the moments of immaturity/anxiety in his romance with Monica - especially because he did make progress and grew a lot.

But the dude was also a mess in other (deeply relatable) ways. He flew to Yemen to avoid telling his ex he didn't want to get back together. He lied to said ex about still having feelings for her/wanting to have an affair so she wouldn't show up at his wedding/move to the house next to his. He lied about not being able to come home and was actually gonna let Joey think Monica was cheating, just to not have to tell his best friend that he wanted to spend the night with his wife instead of hanging out. This man let a co-worker call him by the wrong name for months, got in the way of him getting a promotion, then helped the dude trash his office - all to avoid going through the awkwardness of correcting him.

There's a reason he said stuff like "What must it be like not to be crippled by fear and self-loathing?"

A Caring Friend

Even though Chandler didn't think very highly of himself, another thing that made him a personal favorite for me is that he clearly had a very kind, loving side.

He invited both of his parents to his wedding even after all the shit they pulled. His goodbye to Rachel at the end of the show broke my heart in a million little pieces because he was just so sweet to her. He and Joey were so close they were practically a couple, and when he fell for his girlfriend and kissed her, he not only confessed, he was willing to not go after her because he wanted to prove to Joey he'd never betray him again. There's also a "Joey room" in the house he and Monica bought at the end of the show.

Even though his romance with Janice was a mess, he was a really good boyfriend to her when she was leaving her husband for him - and then he stepped aside when Janice realized she still had feelings for the guy, so her kid would not grow up with two dysfunctional parents like he did.

Those moments made the character feel far more real and, once again, made it a lot easier for me to still feel a lot of sympathy for him even when he was in the wrong.

But come on. If we're REALLY gonna talk about Chandler's sweet, caring, understanding, mature side, we gotta talk about the person that brought it out the most.

Chandler & Monica

Mondler, Mondler, Mondler. The best couple on the show without a shadow of a doubt, and possibly one of the best sitcom couples in history. And it was the dynamic that allowed Chandler to develop as a character and let the qualities he already had be front and center in many episodes.

Before the writers even considered pairing them up, we already Chandler offer to be her boyfriend/husband and father of her kids later in life if she doesn't find someone. Monica is offended the first time because why wouldn't she have found someone by then, and in the second time she just laughs because, come on, they're friends, JUST friends????? It'd neeeeever happen.

Both are played for laughs (though Monica does let him try to win her over the second time), but they already highlight some very important things:

1 - Chandler cares so much about Monica that just saying "I'm sure you'll find someone eventually" isn't enough. He has to assure her that even if nothing goes according to plan, she'll still have someone to grow old with.

2 - As early as season one, Chandler already liked and trusted Monica enough that he was not at all hesitant to suggest "Hey, maybe you and I could get together in the future and even have kids." I remind you that at that point in the story Chandler had never so much as let one of his girlfriends have a drawer with their things in his home due to his fear of commitment, and he had assumed EVERY COUPLE broke up after their first fight because pretty much none of his previous relationships survived it (except Janice, but that was more of a "They DID break up, they just got back together later" kind of deal).

And that last point is really made it so easy for audiences to get attached to their romance - which was originally only going to last a couple of episodes! They were already super comfortable with each other and were clearly compatible, which allowed their relationship to progress without the need for the neverending drama, Ross and Rachel style.

Monica was neurotic, had a serious case of OCD, could be very bossy, often needed things done ONE way and one way only - which meant Chandler always knew where he stood with her. If something was wrong, she'd tell him. If she said she was happy and loved him, he could believe her more easily because she simply could not fake it when something was bothering her.

Much like Chandler, her family life was not at all ideal (due to her parents pretty openly liking Ross more than her) and she had tons of self-esteem issues (again, because of her parents and because she used to be overweight) - but she also take a joke, or at the very least, make fun of people right back. I think Chandler related to that.

And, more importantly, their friend group had not imploded after Ross and Rachel's relationship ended very badly, twice. So Chandler just knew that, even if he and Monica didn't work out, it wouldn't be the end of the world, or of their friendship.

It made perfect sense that lots of his typical paranoia didn't affect him as much during their relationship, because by that point he just knew that Monica would always be part of his life.

But the writers also didn't make the mistake of dropping his insecurities, anxiety and even immaturity completely. They came back every now then, sometimes for jokes, other times in a more serious way.

He can't bring himself to full on say that he wants them to be exclusive right away, got way too cocky about being the best sex she ever had and thus made her mad, assumed they'd break up after the first fight, nearly gave himself a heart-attack when he accidentally said "I love you", proposed to her because he wanted them to be on good terms after a fight but didn't know how to fix things without her guiding him, pretended to storm out in Vegas with an empty bag because he just wanted to be dramatic after a fight, and he almost didn't show up at their wedding.

The fact that the writers allowed to still have flaws, took the time to have him overcome said flaws and without being judgemental of him, like Monica was wasting her time with a total loser, is one of the reasons why his character development worked so well, and why I'll defend even the worst seasons of the show.

More importantly, despite the fact Monica is the one with the more experience on how to actually have a relationship, they also let Chandler be the one be the mature one every now and again, and talk sense into her when she's being unreasonable (like when she wanted to spend ALL the money he had saved for their future on their wedding alone).

I also really like how they have HIM taking the lead in some major events for their relationship, showing not just that he cares, but that he really is growing as a character and becoming more comfortable with being an equal in the relationship, instead of just needing Monica to guide/push him or just agreeing whenever she wants to takes things to the next level.

He is the one that decides they're still in "London time", the one to first say "I love you" (twice), the one to propose in Vegas and then start the conversation about whether they should really get married once they both think it over and are afraid they're rushing into it, the one to decide it's time for them to move in together, the one to propose for real (only took the writers five fucking tries to realize "Damn, maybe they SHOULD get married"), and while Monica says she wants a baby, she does it as a joke and it's Chandler who then brings up the subject seriously.

That last one also brings us one of the sweetest, saddest moments in the entire show. Them discovering they can't have kids, and Chandler making that whole speech to the mother of the baby they want to adopt that, when the time comes, he'll figure out how to be a dad, but Monica is already a mother - without a baby.

It just showed how much he loved her and how great of a partner he was, and it was FAR from being the one time in which they remain an loveable, interesting couple to watch post-marriage (seriously, it's crazy how Friends was THE show to get both a dramatic mess of a couple that can never reconciliate until the finale AND a stable couple that is just allowed to be happy together).

Chandler getting a look at what his life would be like if Monica left him when his boss is dragging him into his mid-life crisis. Monica being all excited to show him her new boots AND allow to actually guess what's changed about her look instead of doing the obligatory sitcom thing of "Wife gets mad at the husband for petty shit", and then Chandler carrying her on his back because said boots hurt her feet (then saying the other pair she wants to buy will cost her one husband, which always cracks me up). Chandler having to move to Tulsa because of his job, them missing each other like crazy, Chandler remaining faithful when another woman makes a move on him and quitting his job because he just wants to be with his wife, who is then super supportive of him when he's unsure of what to do in his professional life from then on - which of course, leads to this great joke.

M: I want you to have a job that you love, not statistical analysis and data reconfiguration. C: I quit and you learn what I do?

(And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I had to google what his job was because I forgot too)

They're simply an incredible couple that I would gladly watch doing the dishes together, and their relationship being so well-written was one of the best things that could have happened to Chandler's characterization because the show deconstructed and evolved it without betraying the core of who Chandler Bing was.

Also their romance led to the iconic episode of everyone finding out and messing with each other about it, and thus the scene of him and Phoebe trying to "seduce each other." I want to find the genius who wrote that scene in particular and send them a thank you card because it was the best thing in the whole world and I'll cherish it forever.

Matthew Perry, The Absolute Legend

Naturally, I have to end this post by remembering the guy that brought this amazing character to life.

Like I said before, he was always aware of the camera and making sure even the smallest reaction was funny for the audience. Like the other main actors, his charisma made good scenes great, and bad/mediocre scenes enjoyable - and whenever the script gave him something truly excellent to work with, he'd do it perfectly and make it all the more special.

He also stopped the writers from commiting THE biggest mistake they could have ever made: In the season 5 finale, after discovering Monica had lunch with her ex, he was supposed to cheat on her in Vegas, basically copying the Ross and Rachel break up drama of season 3. The actor asked them to change the script because he felt it would make everyone hate his character, sparing the audience of more unecessary drama and giving us the super cute almost-wedding in Vegas, that they chicken out of like two dorks, and then leads to them moving in together.

Matthew Perry was gave this role everything he had, even while going through really dark times, and in doing so he made millions of fans happy all over the world - and he'll be dearly missed.

[fullmetalnihongostudy]

why do shiba inus exist in amestris?

so, it's established in Canon that black hayate, riza hawkeye's dog, is a shiba inu, as proven by this screenshot on the fullmetal alchemist wiki

specifically, hayate looks like a black and tan shiba. however, this does raise an important question. the shiba is a specifically japanese dog, so what is one doing in Amestris, which canoninically seems to be modelled after Central Europe? This can only imply that Japan and Amestris have enough of a cultural connection that it's natural for the Amestris state military to casually have a Shiba on the premises.

Why is this? It's known that Xing (modelled on China) has somewhat of a connection, but it's not huge. We don't see a huge amount of Xingese characters walking around Amestris and it's specified that culture and knowledge systems are separate enough that Ed and Al don't know much about alkahestry so obviously there hasn't been much cultural exchange between East and West.

There are a few options:

• Amestris has been trading with Japan for a while. However if so, why do we not see more of this and how would Fuery, who originally owned Hayate, have had time to hunt down a presumably rare and expensive dog when his life is preoccupied by the military

• the Amestris military has actually had contact with Japan for a while, either as allies or enemies

• there are a few links with japan but not very many

What else does Black Hayate's presence imply?

If the events of Conqueror of Shamballa accurately indicate that Amestris exists in a parallel universe where alchemy developed instead of technology, it figures there are equivalents to many things in our world.

In fact, the time period is quite ambiguous. Canoninically it's 1800s BUT some of the tech we see in Father's lair is a lot more advanced. So is it possible there might also be more modern things from Japan?

If this technological blip is the case, and if a Shiba Inu is present in pretty much a similar form to those in our universe, does Amestris also have equivalents for the following?

• much doge, such wow

• dogecoin

• Mari the asshole shiba who keeps squirting random liquids on his owner?

• lovely muco? we see ed and al waving, of all things, the imperial japanese flag at the homunculi to bring them out of hiding. So does the empire of japan exist in canon? what's it's attitude to alchemy? were the homunculi responsible for it, as they were responsible for military activity in Ishval, and is this why the flag worked on them? why does Japan seem unchanged when every other location from our world has a vaguely different flag and culture?

• if Japan exists unchanged, do the Amestrians get any of their media the same way we do? Anime and manga didn't come to the west until the second half of the 20th century, but tbh, as time periods seem a little bit skewed in Amestris. Are there alchemists who sit listening to radio broadcast versions of say, something like death note, where alchemist!Light Yagami is bumping off anyone he sees guilty of misusing alchemy or something? Who knows!

And, if something like dogecoin does exist in the alchemical equivalent to cryptocurrency - say, a group of clandestine alchemists, whether decent (ish) like Doctor Marcoh or scum like Shou Tucker would be the ones who use it - are there rules on transmuting it? If Ed crossed to our world like he did in the WW2 era in Shamballa but ended up in the present day, could alchemy have contributed to the boom in dogecoin that happened?

Hiromu Arakawa, I want answers

[cursedvibes]

To have such a long boring fight that I skimmed over every week just to have Gojo die feels kinda... Pointless?? Idk it just feels anticlimatic af. Villains winning in Jujutsu Kaisen is not a big plot twist at this point. Also I think Sukuna is ugly and needs to be humbled and more than Gojo dying I think he's gonna be all smug now. Unless Gege pulls the same shit that happened during the Toji VS. Gojo fight. Plot twist within a plot twist.

To be honest, I didn't expect him to die either. I thought he would get majorly depowered - just like Sukuna - to make the story more interesting because he clearly couldn't stay just as he was or everything would be over in 10 chapters. But I didn't think he'd bite the dust so soon. It does make some sense though because this entire fight it seemed like Gojo had barely any long lasting plan besides countering what Sukuna throws at him and trying to get hits in when he can, which only worked in Sukuna and Mahoraga's favour and destroyed even more of whatever is left of Megumi's consciousness. The execution was just terrible. I would have less of a problem with it if it was a team effort, but when you send Gojo in there alone with seemingly barely any prep, what did you (protag team) think was gonna happen? At least the other characters will finally have room to move and develop now.

I would have liked Sukuna to take more damage and come closer to losing to spur some character development, but a lot of that is probably saved for his confrontation against the students, mainly Yuuji. Same goes for using more CTs than just Cleave and 10 Shadows and bringing out Yorozu's gift. Yuuji is much better in humbling him anyway, especially in an emotional sense. He's not the strongest, he's Sukuna's ex-cage and in his eyes lowly vermin (that has a unique power over him). It's very easy to get a rise out of Sukuna when Yuuji is around, he's not as collected as with such a far removed opponent like Gojo. That's also why this fight happening at all confused me from the start. Aside from "strength brings loneliness", there is almost no connection between Sukuna and Gojo on a character level and even that barely got any focus. There's the task of freeing Megumi, but Gojo seemed to just forget about that. It's not even a concern to him when he's dying and Sukuna still alive and more or less well.

All that one eye foreshadowing did make me wonder if Gojo would come back somehow, but after the Hidden Inventory reunion and Gojo half lying on the ground it would just feel cheap. Not to mention, that this would be like the 6th death scare we got for Gojo during this fight? Just give it a rest already. "Gojo won!" "nevermind, he's dead" "jk he's alive again" that would just be...bad. These scenes would lose all impact they had. The death scare against Toji worked because it seemed realistic and wasn't danced around ad infinitum. Clearly Gege put more thought into the airport scene than the whole fight (at the expense of Gojo forgetting his students exist), so I think this is it.

While it was pretty bad, most likely the worst fight in jjk, it has to end somewhere and the plot has to move on. Put it out of its misery. The students and remaining sorcerers all working together to overcome Sukuna and Kenjaku is far more meaningful than anything we've seen in the last four(4!) months. There will be stakes, people will have to fight smart and not just rely on pure strength and I'm pretty sure with Yuuji back in action, the character writing will improve again as well.

[menacing-anon]

I’m kicking off my set of posts on season 1 overall, especially as an adaptation, with this one about structure, additions and omissions.

Alice mentioned somewhere on Tapas that she initially intended for Heartstopper to be a novel, but showing events in the characters’ lives without escalating and resolving overarching conflicts was better suited to a webcomic. The show changed it to allow that, and I think they really pulled it off! I have a long explanation in me about how pretty much every issue I’ve seen people have with Love, Simon doesn’t happen in the novel, and I believe most of them are the result of adaptation to cinematic convention, so it’s inextricable from my thoughts about adaptation across mediums and my go-to example of it being at the expense of the story. Heartstopper, on the other hand, is a nice example of retaining a good and similar story while staying in keeping with the TV season format.

What’s also super interesting is that the changes can be subtle and add up, because the show has a lot of the same scenes, in the same order, sometimes even with almost identical dialogue, but the adjustments they make collectively shift the story. That’s also why they’re easier to notice when looking at the whole season. The best example might be Charlie’s apparent low self-esteem: there are multiple instances of Charlie being down on himself added to scenes of the comic. Here are my posts on how the two versions of Nick and Charlie individually are different.

The show kind of stretches the comic: it often takes a couple scenes and has a whole episode surrounding them. I would say that its additions do a few things that all come down to fleshing out the story: they, a, build plotlines more gradually, b, develop and escalate conflicts, and c, take the opportunity to further explore major themes. I’ll elaborate on each 🙂

With regards to the more spacious buildup, it’s things like all the fuss surrounding Tara before she comes out to Nick, and it can be a little fillery. In the comic, Tao tells Charlie that he heard Nick likes a Tara Jones from Higgs, and the next we hear of her is when Harry meddles at his party. And that works. So, strictly speaking, Charlie asking Elle to find out whether Tara likes Nick, Tara coming out to Elle and thus also the viewers beforehand, Elle reassuring Charlie, and Harry and Christian discussing Nick’s opportunity to talk to Tara are not indispensable — they’re just other events surrounding the ones that give us key information. However, this type of additions let us spend more time with and get to know the characters, which is awesome, and the greatest benefit from it probably comes to Taoelle. In the chapters of the comic corresponding to season 1, we only see them together at the bowling alley, and most of their romance is just direct characterization: other people note that they like each other a couple times. In the show, we get to see a lot of them together, their romantic storyline is set up and progresses, and there are scenes dedicated to it.

In terms of brewing conflicts, I’d say the conflicts in question are with Nick’s mates, Tao’s concerns, and Charlie’s insecurity. For instance, Nick actually undoes telling off Harry at the party, so Harry can stay the crux of Nick’s social pressure. But honestly, this whole storyline is one of the biggest changes from the comic, I think: it’s really relevant in the show, it’s almost The conflict, but it barely exists in the source material. Tao’s conflict, too, is way more significant. Both call for their own posts, linked here for Nick's friends and here for Tao. And most of the aforementioned post about Charlie could work as an elaboration on the third one. Anyway, they all reach boiling points in the last two eps of the season, unlike the comic, which moves pretty uniformly. There’s also Ben’s little comeback, which might’ve been intended as part of Charlie’s crisis, but then I think it could’ve been executed more effectively, since what Ben threw at him wasn’t really what Charlie was worrying about. It may also have been thrown in for structure in its own right. Show seasons and movies often have a low point where every storyline has gone to s***, then they’re resolved one by one; Ben Benning again pulls the show closer to the rockest possible bottom and creates another step to take up.

Finally, about exploring themes, I’m mainly thinking about Tara’s coming out storyline. The show has a mostly closeted LGBTQ+ character other than Nick and an opportunity to show, through her, other experiences related to coming out. And I’m glad they do! Here’s a post about me really liking how the season explores coming out 😅 The storyline with Imogen, which is entirely new, can also be seen as fleshing out the major theme, because it slots cleanly into the expectations and pressures Nick faces; and maybe secondarily as bulking up an existing conflict, because it fans the Tao flame.

Through all three types of additions, most characters get to be if not more impactful, then more present than in the comic. Isaac is about equally present to Aled, whom he kind of replaces, Elle makes many more appearances and actually has some influence on the plot, and Tao is waaay more involved. While Darcy hasn’t really gotten her own focus, her participation does increase along with Tara’s, who has an episode that notably explores her coming-out. Heck, even Harry and Ben have more to do.

I’ll touch on omissions briefly, because I don’t think there are many, but they did take some useful and really interesting stuff out for no clear reason, I thought. I’m pretty much just thinking of Tao in the bathroom explaining that he’s as worried as he is about Nick pulling something because Charlie was bullied really hurtfully and Tao was powerless to fix it. This definitely would’ve made it easier to see Tao’s desperation as coming from a place of hurt and fear. But also, Nick in response to that conversation saying that he wishes he had done something about it at the time, and Tao noticing that Nick is flirting with Charlie and doubting the sincerity of that, not their friendship in general. But perhaps most significantly, Christian, Sai and Otis — acronymed, that can make COS, so I call them collectively Cosine (or… Co-Sai-ne?) — blur into the other mates in the show. HOWEVER, credit where credit is very much due, you can see them being uncomfortable in the cinema in the show too,

so I assume they’ll be back and this is some great attention to detail for the retrospect. In that case, though, there will be an unnatural spike in their involvement: they would be apologizing to Nick and starting to be treated as his friends shortly after the viewers learn their names.

[matenrou-fan]

Samatoki as a father (with daughter)

I was writing one of the requests about characters interacting with their daughter, yet ended up writing just general HC for Samatoki.. >_< Decided to make this as a separate post and start a new part for him

no reader, family relationship, fluff, just wholesome stuff;;

-THE BEST FATHER!!

-Ok but really, he experienced such a bad childhood not for nothing, and now is willing to make everything so his precious daughter will never feel sad.

-Someone ever dares to laugh at her? Samatoki doesn't care who it is, even if it was a small mockery in school from her classmate he will talk with their parents, waiting for their apology. And if it was a whole adult then he wouldn't even try to control himself from teaching them a lesson.

-If she starts feeling sad or insecure after that, or maybe even without such an accident, he's here to listen. Yes, he's a harsh Yakuza who's known for his absolutely reckless behavior, but inside his house he's just a soft dad who's ready to sit with his precious angel and listen to her troubles.

-And despite always swearing half of his talk in normal life, he knows how to talk with deep words, and can soothe her. So many things that he finds adorable in his amazing, strong daughter! And Samatoki doesn't shy to talk about this, knowing how important some praise is for kids.

-Oh, and of course some pillow fights or tickles after she calms down and now needs to be cheered up! There's some childish bratty side in him that he unleashes only sometimes to fool around, and today is a perfect timing. A whole evening just for his daughter so she would always remember that her dad is always here to help and listen…

-Also, about supporting and praising. Any hobby, even an expensive one, is okay. There's no way Samatoki would be greedy when it's about his daughter and her development, buying all needed stuff. And of course if she wants to brag about her new painting or a new medal he would listen with interest.

-ESPECIALLY if it's some hobby where you have competitions or performances, he would visit all events to watch how bright his girl shines. Yes, this type of parent who's standing here with a camera and almost crying. And glance angry at all others who would think he's acting strange.

-Cause he's just a little bit overprotective. When she's just a newborn he would always ask his wife every day how their baby is. When she starts to go to school, he rides her here and back, and he doesn't care if at this moment something is happening on his 'work'. Even when she graduated from high school and got into university or college he still would call her to ask for her grades and more importantly about her well-being.

-Oh, and if she decided to start dating a boy.. This guy should be prepared as there's no way Samatoki wouldn't talk with him at least a few times, pretty angry and annoyed in the beginning. Very possessive father in this case, as he knows pretty well how stupid young boys can be.

-He was fighting the urge to control his daughter's phone and friends for her whole life but this is another occasion, and Samatoki would bother her with questions now. How does this guy treat her? And isn't he trying to do something bad?

-Oh, and if it actually would not be the love of her life but just a bad experience.. Never in his life he would scold her for that, blaming only this jerk. For his daughter, he would just spend a few days together with her, spoiling more than usual with presents and all this silly stuff like pillow fights again. Cause she doesn't need to know that her dad would actually pay this asshole back, no matter how much he hurts her feelings…

-Family is a very important part of his life and he values his wife and daughter deeply, holding them in the most sensitive part of his heart, so maybe his overprotective behavior can be forgiven.

[oldsargasso]

"Dean smiling is like a little gift because he does smile but sometimes it's so sweet and pretty it can't be anyting other than a present just for Winner." AGH???? MY HEART???? PLZ… DEAN'S SMILE IS A GIFT OH MY GOD.

ONLY SO TONY COULD EXPENSE IT DKFGSDFGDFG I'M SHRIEKING. Kenta the tax write-off 😭 (In another universe, Tony is that boss who pays his employees with UAC gift cards.) And yeah I think Kenta has a very skewed understanding of money! He doesn't know what a living wage is or how much groceries cost. He could make do in a 4sqm or less apartment but wouldn't blink at paying 5x the average market price for it because he just. Doesn’t know any better, and his negotiating tactics have always been “throw money at it” or “knife time.”

I do think there may have been limits from Tony in terms of what Kenta was allowed to spend on himself—for instance, the blazers he wears are of varying quality, the one he wears to the auction, in front of clients, is the nicest, but one of them looks closer to off-the-rack quality, and he only has like. Three shirts, whereas Tony basically has a different custom three-piece suit in every episode. But like Kenta does not look at the price of food when he's ordering at a restaurant (god forbid he make Tony look poor in front of a client) and barely even glances at the check when he's signing it, much to Kim and Dean's horror. He very quickly learns to ask the question "Is that expensive?" when they're out together, until he gets the hang of it.

Yes, let him work with his hands!! BUT GOD THE TINY HANDS HE USED TO HOLD I'M HURTING!!

Yeah sorry I deal with the bookkeeping at work so I am. Not going to be the person to dissuade you from this line of thought! THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS! What happens to everything after Tony dies! How much of it was even on the books! Do you think he ever put things in Kenta’s name without his knowledge, just to keep any consequences away from himself.

But oh gosh Kenta absolutely DOES try to figure out their favorite baked goods without asking (he probably spent so much energy trying to navigate Tony's moods based on nonverbal cues, and it takes him a long time to just be able to ask what people want without feeling like he’s navigating a minefield ☹️)

YES I DO THINK THEY MAKE HIM A BIRTHDAY CAKE??? They ask Pete for his bday, which there's a good chance that Kenta grew up not knowing his bday and Pete had to make one up for him and do his best to gift him something with limited resources. But he wasn't given kitchen access, so this would be Kenta's first birthday cake 😭 (Kenta’s first bday post-Tony passes by unnoticed because Pete has his hands full and it doesn’t occur to anyone that Kenta would simply Never Mention his bday, until one day someone is asking about horoscopes or smth)

As violent as Kim can be when he wants to, it's his tenderness that's truly powerful 🥺 Kenta DOES DESERVE SOFT LITTLE KISSES WHEN HE'S BEING TIED DOWN!!!

Great minds 🤝 Winner thinks his own dirty talk is GREAT and he has the evidence of Dean always getting turned on by it to back himself up LOL. (In all seriousness, I would GLADLY spreadsheet their kinks jkgsdfgdfg)

Kenta 🥺 He'll see it eventually!! Maybe once that happens they can finally (MAYBE) convince him to wear like. Cute lacy briefs or smth. (the bra that deep in my heart I wish to see him wear would take a lot more convincing on their part but by god do those tits deserve to be showcased and worshipped)

Not gonna pretend that I'm NOT physically affected by Kenta's lethal brutality god WHATEVER WHATEVER MOVING ON Winner being soft and caring is gonna be the death of me. The character development… my heart 🥺 From angry, half-satisfying parking lot blowjobs, to Winner looking after Kenta, taking care of him, and Kenta letting him do it. I’M UNWELL.

Kim is the only one with his shit together, of COURSE he is better at laundry. (Also I need him pressing at least one of them crotch first up against the shaking washing machine. for my sanity)

also screaming screaming screaming GOD KIM IS SO… COMPELLING he could probably read the dictionary and make it sound like a command. Goodness. He’s so!!!

[for my future reference this is polycule thread 2]

not Tony with the gift cards 💀 he so would.

I love the idea of Kenta learning the actual value of things. actually I wonder…obviously WE think Winner has a rich family. and Kim is making money from racing. but he stays living in the little serviced apartment - was that confirmed that he got that as part of Red Racing deal or did we just assume that. and we see him driving a nice car. hold on I gotta go rewatch that scene and check. okay so its…a white car. they don't show a badge or anything, there's like a split second of the steering wheel and I THINK it's a toyota (which would make sense since sponsor) ANYWAY. Kim is making decent money I think.

BUT Dean is not? he's not doing the higher level racing (assume prize money jumps considerably given Babe's financial status) and we see him working in a kitchen when he's exiled. that scene lives in my head constantly for so many reasons. anyway all that to say I think Kim would probably also not think too much about spending money on a nice restaurant (he's drinking at the fancy bar spying on Tony and pays for Babe's drink) but Dean for sure would be like. doing the calculation those of us without money constantly do - "this dinner could pay for three days rent" or whatever. and I think that, once he shares that, it would really help Kenta conceptualise how it works. but maybe more like "this knife is worth the same as the jeans Kim picked out for me last week". but it would be hard if like Winner just never cares about what things costs, and Dean really cares - even though the others are like "WE ARE PAYING" - and Kim spend a lot on what he cares about and hardly anything on things he doesn't. also if he did work at Way's car emporium like I think you suggested (until the sales trauma kicks in) Kenta would be like "cars cost this much! :)" and the others have to be like. "well…yes. but also mostly no."

but yes let's talk about Kenta's wardrobe. personal unshakeable headcanon is Kim (and Dean) taking him shopping and being like "you can wear whatever you want!" and Kenta's just happy with his usual all black mostly-comfortable clothes. but sometimes he's just hanging around the house and ~accidentally puts on someone else's jacket. maybe it's colourful, maybe it's not, but it smells like them and it's warm and cosy. it only works with the oversized jackets obviously. but eventually all their wardrobes meld a little bit. semi-related but Kim for sure approves certain people's date night outfits before they're allowed out.

lmao we are KINDRED SPIRITS. give us a special episode where it's just Tony succession planning. I think he kept Babe in the will. but omg yessss Tony dies and a year later a lawyer turns up to Kenta like "and here is your share of Tony's estate. and here is the trial date, you should get a lawyer" wait Kenta definitely goes to prison for killing Tony right? [I typed a whole bunch of stuff but I've taken it out, it's depressing in a real life kinda way and that's not what we're here for] anyway Kenta gets off with a slap on the wrist: time already served plus extenuating circumstances plus Winner's family paid for a vicious lawyer.

it's definitely Sonic and North asking about birthdates so they can do compatibility charts. SHUT UPPPP Pete giving Kenta a birthdy and a little celebration as best he can. do you think he gave Kenta his own birthday so they could share.

don't get me started on a kink spreadsheet!! I used to use one to track all my wips lol I love a spreadsheet.

god yesss give Kenta a pretty bra for his glorious tits it's what he deserves. I think they go shopping and they walk past a lingerie store and Kenta slows for like half a step to look a bit longer and Kim clocks it immediately. it's just the two of them which is lucky because Winner would make a joke about it (and even though it was just for fun Kenta would still feel too shamed) and Dean sometimes jumps he gun between the initial formation of an idea and the full execution of that idea. but Kim is patient. maybe he's like "oh, let's go in here" and lets Kenta hover around while Kim buys something pretty for himself. then it's like. Kim isn't a worse person for wearing it and being enjoyed in it. Kenta wouldn't be either…

[xenoblademisadventures]

I'm bored. Gonna give two hot takes for every Xenoblade game. One uncommon criticism and one uncommon praise.

Xenoblade 1

Criticism

Shulk's character arc was bad. Like, what was he on about? Firstly, the revenge quest. It doesn't really tackle the ideas of revenge. Instead he just goes "oh shit my gf isn't dead time to be a pacifist." And with Egil, we've got Shulk going "we must spare him" while quite literally every other character, plot point, etc. is saying some variation of "we tried" or "no." And then he has no issue with slaying Zanza and his henchmen. He also has this thing about learning to see more than just what's in front of him, but that's really only something he tells Alvis once in Ose Tower. It's not something you can clearly see develope over the course of the game.

Praise

I really liked the camera in Xenoblade 1. You can see the cameraman going nuts whenever Alvis is on screen, especially when he gives Shulk that pep talk in Space. You can also see it with the fight against the mechon on Bionis Leg. The camera was just on point almost every scene. I think the credit goes to the storyboard artists, I'm not entirely sure. But they did an incredible job.

Xenoblade X

Criticism

The combat system was really bad. Like, I felt like there were two grounds for the combat. Either you have no clue what's happening or you snap the game in half. This is a multifaceted issue that comes down to a mix between the combat itself, unhelpful tutorials, and the UI failing to emphasize relevant information. But, what I mean here is that even if the game explained its combat system to the player proper, it's got too many type attributes, which usually just results in you switching out gear to match the resistances and weaknesses between fight, it also means I have to look up something's attributes on the wiki before I can properly plan out my build, which isn't an issue in the other games; the buffs attached to the dual guns are too powerful compared to everything else, so it just makes them overpowered, but they're also fun status effects, so it just makes every other gun feel bad to play; Overdrive is needlessly complicated and you can pretty much only either break the game or find the mechanic to be useless depending on whether you've looked up external guides; TP being regained through auto attacks would be a good system if the amount of TP gain wasn't fucking pitiful; also the TP arts are way too powerful like True Stream Edge and Ghost Factory are pretty much all you need to 1v1 most of the shit in the game; there's not much need for utilizing party members, post-game the avatar character can 1v1 everything, and even ignoring that, there aren't any real systems in place to make the presence of your allies feel known; and there's a bunch of other shit. It's definitely the worst combat system in the series by far.

Praise

I really like how X progresses its penalties for death. You start off with full party wipes only sending you back a few minutes. A lot of your deaths in this game will be caused by an overlevelled enemy spotting you, and the level design does an incredible job at accommodating this and turning that into a core part of the gameplay loop. So, about halfway through the game, you get access to these giant mechs. The mechs let you move faster and they're really fucking strong in combat. Like, if you haven't played X, imagine if you could use Ouroboros Form indefinitely. The catch is that if your mech dies, it doesn't respawn. You have to go get it repaired. A little inconvenient, but nothing unmanageable. If your mech gets destroyed too many times, your character's insurance stops paying for the repairs. The mechs are really fucking expensive. So, you probably can't afford the repairs, especially if you haven't been stockpiling an ungodly amount of money before chapter 6. Furthermore, threat assessment gets a lot more fucky once you get mechs because larger enemies have better stats than smaller enemies, so you get cases where level 40 enemies are weaker than level 30 enemies. So, you can't just see number big run away. But the game eases you into this. For one, you only get one mech immediately, which will probably go on the player character. So, you can learn to dismount whenever your mech might die. Then you start getting the ability to have the AI control the mechs. There's a command to tell specific party members to mount or dismount their mechs. So, the AI won't screw you if you're quick enough. Then you get access to the ability to make the mechs fly. There's two new major factors here. Firstly, that's a whole new axis to get spotted from. You might get sniped by an enemy way above or way below you. Second, you can't really dismount when you're in the fucking stratosphere, so you don't have that safety net. The game teaches the player how to keep an eye out for big enemies, so it doesn't feel unfair by the time you get to the point where a level 80 mech plucks your level 40 ass out of the sky. And I really like how the increased stakes are a natural progression to your power-ups. It's a really good system and it adds a great spice to the exploration.

Xenoblade 2

Criticism

So, this us something that I haven't complained about before, but it's a massive bugbear for me. I really hate that 2 and 3 removed the player's ability to tell what detection type the enemies are. Like, sneaking around dangerous enemies to explore areas early is some of the most fun I've had with these games. Like, the out of combat interactions with enemies in X may as well be the glue holding the gameplay together. One of my most memorable moments in Xenoblade 3 was stealing Riki's Biter from the level 90 area at level 30. And this is an even more annoying decision for 2 and 3 specifically because those games reuse a lot of enemies from 1, which does show enemy aggro types. So I just happened to have that information memorized, which let me avoid the enemies anyways. But there's no reason someone who hasn't played 1 or X would know that different enemies have different aggro types. I think the removal of this information also limits options for level design. Like, the Territorial Deathape was a lot more memorable in 1 compared to every other game. And the reason for that is because the deathape is kind of off to the side in the other games, but it will sneak up and ambush you in 1. Like, in X, the monkey was off to the side, but it has a billion other enemies that function same as Rotbart. It's just that the deathape happened to not be one of those enemies. While in 2 and 3, I think the more underwhelming deathapes can be largely attributed to them having much more predictable movement patterns. And part of the reason for that is that you can tell at a glance exactly how to avoid Rotbart in 1, but you don't get that option in 2 and 3. I think 2 and 3 both have been leaning more towards not making overpowered enemies randomly aggro onto the player. And I think they're worse off for it.

Praise

This is the first Xenoblade game where Monolith did a good job with the UI. For those who weren't around for 1 and X, the UIs were impressively bad and it wasn't really a question. 1 covered way too much space with useless information while X just completely failed to emphasize important details. Meanwhile, 2 did a great job at making information compact and emphasizing what the player needed to know.

Xenoblade 3

Criticism

N was a poorly written villain. His backstory was great, but everything else about him sucked. This applies to every other tragic villain in the game. They're expected to garner sympathy off the premise of "they're important to the protagonists," but they're presented the same way as any no bars evil villain, which is just a huge disconnect. Like, I can't really get behind N as an antagonist because I can't see a world where Noah does an evil laugh. Like, I can be sold that he'd join Moebius, but I can't buy him acting the way N's presented. As with Joran, I think he became a lot less interesting as a plot point once he's revealed to be an antagonist, which hurt Lanz's character arc a lot. Crys is potentially interesting, but omg please stop monologuing what the fuck. But yeah, that's why I think N is a pretty shit antagonist. He just doesn't sell the "was Noah" part.

Praise

This is going to sound strange, but the way the game handles swimming is so much better in my opinion. First of all, the sound effects are better. In every other game, my autistic ass would get really bothered by the swimming sound effects, but not here. Second, the fact that swimming doesn't cancel combat is great. It was really annoying falling or being knocking into water and having the character decide "no more fighting." It was most noticeable in X because you could jump and sprint during combat and thus had a better chance of falling into water (and falling into water cancelled Overdrive), but I also felt it in 1 and 2. Also, I appreciate that the game's tutorial makes you fight and swim, just to say "hey you can do that now btw" to returning players. I also really like the wave effects Erythia Sea. Those were really cool.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Citadel - a completely mediocre spy drama with very little new to tell....

Finished Citadel last night. Overall, a very ordinary show which is derivative of every spy movie or show that has been made in the past. Everything in the show is very surface level. I can completely believe all the news of production issues for this show because, while expensive looking in the action, it doesn't feel like the show justifies the budget. There are a bunch of sets that are reused. There are a handful of action sequences, but not even all that many. The run time of the episodes are fairly short. It feels like a show that was reshot multiple times and retrofitted. Frankly, the biggest issue with the show is how predictable it is. The show makes a big deal about who is the traitor that sold out Citadel to Manticore, but it isn't as if there are more than 2 suspects. The 2 leads are the only potential suspects and Nadia's secret is pretty easy to figure out. Which really leaves Mason. The reason for his betrayal is kind of half assed. Frankly, the only character arc that is somewhat interesting is Mason/Kyle's, given the ridiculous situation he's in. It isn't particularly well developed but at least the situation the character is in is interesting. He has 2 spy wives from Citadel with a daughter from each, one of whom is a woman whose memory he apparently wiped himself in order to protect the other. And he has memories of both Kyle and Mason. And he knows he's the one who sold out Citadel and that Dahlia is his mother. His situation is so bizarre that its almost comical. In that way, I am curious to see what he does. None of the characters stand out. Stanley Tucci was one the early highlights but he barely has a presence in the back half of the season. Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas both have a history of much better work in other shows. They have chemistry and do a decent job but their relationship is very half baked and rushed. I mean, I didn't like Quantico all that much, but Priyanka was honestly better on that show, and she has a history of much more nuanced work in Indian films. Richard Madden has done much more complex and interesting work in Eternals and Bodyguard in recent times. Apart from the leads and Tucci, Lesley Manville is the only actor that has any substantial screen time. She does fine but it isn't as if this role is a stretch for an actress of her caliber. Ashleigh Cummins as Abby/Celeste is decent but the possibility of what happens with her character in the future is more interesting than what actually happens this season. The action is fun and the show is relatively fast paced. Hopefully with season 1, the Russos have ironed out the production issues and they can make a better season 2.

[bubbledumbbinch]

Okay so can I ask for some general headcanons for a Fem!MC in twst? The game has gender-neutral pronouns for the MC so far and it's an all boys school. How do you think the characters reaction/interactions would change if the MC was female? (if all are too much you can just pick your faves, maybe just include the octa and Savannahclaw dorm?) Just your thoughts and some brainrot💖

I think the boys would definitely be a lot more flirtatious to fem!MC!!! (I just wanna call her FeMC so I could say… fem… with a c at the end LOL). This is an all boys school, what do you expect?!

These are mostly short I’m sorry! I wanted to try to fit everyone in!

Ramshackle

Grim would lay at night curled up beside you. On days when your period hit, Grim would sense you in pain and get near your abdomen and purr. He feels like it’s an instinctual thing to do and if if helps out his minion, he’ll do it! Plus there’s tuna in it for him, right? Pet his ears too!

Heartslabyul

Riddle would definitely blush when you are around, but not too heavily! Sure he finds you attractive but it won’t stop him from fulfilling his duties as a dorm leader! He can’t help himself when he gets flustered talking to you since the only woman he grew up around was his strict mother. Since you’re different compared to her, he can’t tell but feel warmth from you which he wants to keep in his heart.

Ace and Deuce would make jokes at each other’s expense, both of them sorta going neck and neck trying to compete for your attention! They know you guys are just friends… unless..? 😳 Ace would make the snarky remarks while Deuce would threaten to beat Ace up.

Trey would act the same towards you, knowing he has to be a respectful upperclassman! You ALMOST can’t tell he sets aside the cupcake with more fruits or decoration on it for you at the Unbirthday party. Trey would give his signature smirk and wink as he sets it down in front of you.

Cater would take you on shopping sprees and outings to have so many photo opportunities with NRC’s only female student! Girls would flood his comments asking if you were his girlfriend, but he never answered. He secretly hopes you like him back so you could do cute couple things together like match outfits!

Savannaclaw

Leona would still call you herbivore and treat you the same as always. Still as lazy as before. However he can’t help but show off when he plays Magift and you happen to be watching. He lowkey stares at your features and shape of your body when you’re not looking 👀

Ruggie would also mostly act the same towards you, but he would bump into you on purpose so he can have an excuse to touch or smell you! His body tingles when he can smell your scent on the blazer he accidentally knocked into you with! Still treats you the same as ever though!

Jack would be gentler towards you, he knows how rough and big his body is, he doesn’t want to accidentally hurt you! His personality is still the same, don’t think he’ll treat you any differently because you’re a girl!

Octavinelle

Azul would try to make shady deals with you to offer you protection against students who may be too forward with you since you’re a girl. In exchange? For you to work at the lounge! and spend time with him. He secretly likes you but would never tell you to uphold his reputation and he is also afraid of rejection ;w; Azul would also not mind seeing you wearing the lounge uniform, fufufu…

Jade would would act more like a butler type! You also find him nearby sometimes, feeling his striking gaze looking at you. He’s always there when someone is trying to confess to you and you look uncomfortable. “Oya oya, do you need some help, miss?” His voice teasingly echoes through the halls, scaring off the guy who was trying to hit on you. Jade would stretch out his hand and escort you to wherever you needed to go.

Honestly? Unless you had a super “girly” appearance, Floyd wouldn’t have noticed until he gave you a hug to squeeze you, noticing your body was different… more squishy... and your bone structure is different. Shrimpy is so squeezable!!! Huh? He has to be wary of your chest? He’ll just lift you up by your tummy! You being a girl doesn’t stop the hug train!

Scarabia

Kalim wouldn’t treat you any differently! He would still definitely invite you over as often as possible, not realizing his sweetness may come off as flirtatious! Might develop a small crush on you :) imagines all the pretty outfits he could buy you from his homeland

Jamil would at first be wary of you but once he realizes you aren’t a threat to Kalim or the school, he stops doubting you. Definitely isn’t the type to judge you differently based on your gender!

Pomefiore

Vil would smirk and think he finally has someone else to practice makeup on! He definitely uses you as a model to show off his products, whether it be makeup, skincare, clothing, etc!

Rook would be… protective. He likes you because you’re different, and he would subtly follow and stake you out to see what things you’re doing differently at NRC as a girl. Rook offers silent protection against those he sees as a threat to you before you can even notice.

Epel would definitely try to prove his manliness in front of you if Vil isn’t in the vicinity! Going out of his way to carry heavy items, be tough, etc. If YOU tell him he’s manly, it’s certainly gotta mean something right?!

Ignihyde

Idia thinks it’s like some sort of anime trope, you’re the female protagonist and it’s like a reverse harem because the whole school is full of boys! Cough cough breaking the fourth wall here! He would probably be more… nervous around you, not like he would ever get close anyways, but still! The idea of the only girl at school actually being friends with you and maybe becoming more makes his heart beat faster.

Ortho would not. Perceive you any differently LOL. He’d be intrigued would say like “A girl? Cool! The body analyses I’ve done from everyone around you reads their body temperatures higher and their hearts are all beating faste- MMPH!” He would be silenced by ADeuce…

Diasomnia

Malleus…. Once he knows how you don’t fear him and how you like him even without knowing who he is. All he can think of is how beautiful you would be as his queen. Who can blame him? He has priorities and he needs to think of these things! I can also imagine him picking petals off flowers and saying “She loves me… she loves me not…” because he’s romantic like that… my heart

Lilia would use his experience in his vast years of dating to his advantage, knowing what ways to talk to a woman best. He swears he is only flirting with you for fun! The way your cheeks puff up in embarrassment is just too cute to resist! He certainly doesn’t mind a gender neutral MC, but Lilia can appreciate the beauty in every gender and he certainly appreciates your beauty!

Silver said 😪😴 . You notice Silver has more of a knightly approach to you, offering to protect you when you need it. He understands how a situation between one girl and hundreds of male students could provide a sense of fear, so Silver would always be there to protect you if you need!

Sebek would blush when you’re around, but he thinks you’re trying to use feminine charm and wiles to seduce the young master, even though all you did was make a yawn noise, flip your hair, or put on a bit of makeup! You have to explain to him that you aren’t doing anything to try to seduce anybody. You just wanted to go to school. He is doubtful but finally agrees. Maybe he was becoming victim to your charm instead?