#but least we have his awesome fans/fan base to play around with this character and give him the lore and spotlight he so deserves 😁

[muttsterion]

A mighty need for Mysterion yep..

Still awaiting his proper return....I know he tech came back in TFBW but I feel....he needs a better return...still awaiting and hoping for an episode/plot around his powers but there could be other plots and episodes too maybe...I would love one where Kenny comes up with his superhero persona in the first place...like his inspirations for Mysterion for his costume...how he put the costumes together and his very first night out in his superhero mode.(ha since his response to Cartman's "I was doing this first" was "Nuh huh." I HC Mystery boi was out and about before bumping into him on that roof. XD)

Or just randomly stick Mysterion somewhere back into the lore...some plot/some episode somewhere. I don't know how...just ha Kenny's already been living in a part of my mind before....and Mysterion just made sure he wasn't going anywhere any time soon. This addicting immortal boi I love and just always want to see more of. XD

[sonicjustbecause]

About Sonic

I never talked extensively about Sonic and what I think about him overall, despite him being my favourite (I see more Shadow as some mystical guy, alive certainly, yet somewhat more like a guide or a protector and Sonic's Shadow, but that's for another time as I talked about him a lot).

There is still this silly battle between Sonic fans on who is your favourite take of the character. The character has been inconsistent, in videogame too, even if we only take game/Japanese media (An example? Adventure Sonic is, at least the way I perceive him, mysterious and whimsical, joyful but slightly grumpy. Unleashed Sonic is calm, balanced, a bit quiet overall. The thing that remains consistent is that he is kind earthed and optimistic. Most of the time.

Even people who tell how Sonic is supposed to be interpret him very differently from each othes adn from the games, the way they make him talk or act in certain situation in their stories is not the same I see in videogames.

For Sonic unleashed I saw the whole cutscenes both in English and in Japanese, so...

Not that this bother me, as I previously said, since is a team who work on Sonic is normal different people have a different perception of the character, is based on our personal experiences. And in next years things will change over and over.

Let's talk about how is shown in various media, not necessarily Japanese since they influence each others (example the chili dogs).

SatAM, AoStH.

Aosth/SatAM Sonic was most likely the most mischievous incarnation of the character, since he apparently took joy to make fun of Eggman but also to the french coyote, Antoine, who is a sort of 'Luigi' in this show. I remember him as being creative, impatient, bold and very self confident, but not evil.

I didn't watch Sonic underground. It was aired in Italy but I don't know when. I can say nothing

OAV Sonic

Adventure Sonic and X Sonic traits start to appear here. This Sonic is aloof, whimsical and grumpy and not as joyful as we are used to see him. but is heart is ih the right place, of course.

Adventure Sonic

If I saw Sonic OVA only in latest years, I can say I played the two Adventure games early in the '00s. This Sonic feels to me as whimsical, elusive, mysterious (especially in Adventure 2, it is perceived as such especially by Shadow "Tell me, who are you?" and Sonic's answer is rather enigmatic, is also there you start to realize you know nothing about Sonic, where he comes from etc... you know the others better), still a bit grumpy yet way more joyful than the one from the OVA, a happy guy I would say.

In particular I loved the expressions in Sonic Adventure. Here come the folded ears you often see in Prime.

X Sonic

The most quiet of all. Elusive, still a bit whimsical and grumpy if you don't take him the right way, but this doesn't mean you lost him. Socially awkward and unaware of this, I think sometimes he is leaning in the Asperger territory sometimes. Joyful, optimistic, gentle, sometimes melodramatic and funny but he can get very serious when needed.

Archie Sonic

Archie Sonic is one I don't like much. He's self centered, most of his monologues tell how awesome he is, how good looking he is, how fast he is, well, 90% about himself and it go moldy soon. And can be a jerk toward his friends sometimes. Unlike other versions, he's never too serious.

Fleetway Sonic.

Unlike other sonic incarnation, Fleetway Sonic is a jerk, a bully, he constantly makes offensive jokes toward his friends, including Tails (in other media he is more protective toward Tails). He seems to care or express nice though only when his friends are not around. Is hard to read those comics. So far the worst Sonic

IDW Sonic

Not completely bad, not completely good. He got some traits from Archie Sonic. IDW Sonic seems to me the less sincere and less carefree of all. Like, Sonic we know is mostly feeling oriented. He can be thoughful when needed, but mostly he does what he feels is right rather than what he thinks is right. IDW Sonic is well known especially for his obsession of giving a second chance (and then a third, a four) to all his opponents. That is a thing Goku does and is fine because is true to himself. But Sonic is not like that. Sonic is not so merciful, he is a kind hearted character but there is still a red line and he tends to be wary toward those who don't deserve his trust, like Eggman. He forgives his enemies. After they show they're wort deserving forgiving, not before, unlike IDW Sonic. IDW Sonic is also cunning and can be manipulative, that's unique to this version. You can see the true sonic only when he is alone. Then he is more like himself, in his monologues about his friends, and how much he worries about them or appreciate them. Also his opinion of himself is not as high as the one we see in Archie comics. He is overall aloof.

Unleashed Sonic

This one is among the most gentle and down to Earth Sonic I've ever seen. He is slightly quiet and never a jerk. Instead he is fully supportive and encouraging toward his new friend Chip who is clumsy, despite being a god.

Frontiers Sonic

Sonic's personality changed again. He is still kind hearted, brave and strong. But compared tho before he is more mature, thoughful and slightly melancholic. He smiles less and I don't see his joyful exictment anymore. He just smiles when happy.

Boom Sonic

Sonic is usually elusive. Not in Sonic Boom. I perceived this incarnation as very playful and carefree, although an attention seeker.

Movie Sonic

Oh... this is one that goes through a character arc. He is shown to be a good hearted, hyperactive and lonely kid. He is very playful and talkative yet not gossipy. He talks alot just to not feel alone and took the bad habit. Once he found a family and some living being to talk with at times however, is shown he is not as sociable as you may assume by the way he lets his tongue run. He doesn't trust so easily people he meets the first time, as is shown with Tails and only later he feels more comfortable to have Tails around and opens up to him.

Prime Sonic

Another that goes into a character arc. Here he got new traits, like clumsiness, low attention span, affectionateness. And old ones like elusiveness. This Sonic is particularly interesting for some of his traits that are hard to spot. He clearly appears to be this impulsive, talkative (yet not gossipy), overconfident kid who trips on his feet and is deemed annoying (I personally don't find him annoying). He loves his friends and is ready to protect them but, before the prism shattering, is shown (and suggested by a conversation between his friends) that he also likes to spend time alone, without people around (here one trait that not many notice). Sonic is aware of his flaws and during his experience in the shatterverse he gets in touch with all of them, either the counterpart of his friends tell him or he realize his mistakes by his own. On the outside he is cheerful, a bit dimwitted sometimes, friendly. But as the serie goes forward, he is more, gloomy and pensive and he fully opens up only to Shadow and only later to the rest of his friends in the shatterspace (including Nine, who first sees through him). In the end of the serie is shown he is more considerate toward his friends and he hold some of his energies back.

What else? This is all what I can think of, I haven't played all the games. I may mention Sonic Cronicles, but there Sonic is the way you want him to be.

To me is hard to choose. As long as is not the one of Archie, IDW or Fleetway, I'm fine with all of them. My favourite might be Adventure Sonic and Prime Sonic.

[three--rings]

So it's time for my "alt-right dudebro gamer" Dragon Age opinions.

(Note: I'm a 45 year old womanesque queer person who mostly plays indie and Japanese games.)

(To further my cred I was super excited to meet and hear Karen and Patrick Weekes talk about this game in development at Havencon a couple years ago...it's a small queer con in Austin.)

Dragon Age is my all-time favorite game series. I adored Inquisition, though DA2 has my favorite characters overall.

My opinions about the gameplay reveal are:

The environments and background graphics and effects look awesome.

The character design still bugs me quite a bit. The faces, ESPECIALLY the female faces look Disney/anime/Overwatchy in structure. The textures looks a lot better in game than in that trailer. I miss my Not Particularly Pretty Female Characters. They have sameface now.

There's something off in the lip syncing. Mouth animations looks weird. I can't define it more than that but I noticed it with multiple characters and it through me out.

Varric's hair annoys me SO MUCH. Someone pointed out he looks like Blackwall and now I CANNOT UNSEE.

The structure of the game/quests/whatever looks fine, this reminds me of all the moments running around Haven at the beginning of Inquisition. Some of my least favorite moments, but yanno.

The combat. I'm very worried about the combat.

I am 45 years old and I have arthritis in my hands from gaming and knitting. I gave up knitting to keep gaming. I cannot play some action games. Like Hades, I tried but simply couldn't continue more than an hour because of the pain. And that's with my hands in good shape these days.

Some action games I can play, but only on easy, and sometimes only if I limit my playtime. This is simply a reality I've had to get used to, but it does kill me sometimes.

Do you know how enjoyable it was to pick up Baldur's Gate 3 and be able to put it on a higher difficulty, to be able to actually struggle through combats and have to use tricks and my brain and try and fail and do it again, all without worrying about my hands? Makes me think I need to replay Origins again.

So I'm concerned. The combat in this game is focused on attack type, dodging, parrying, countering (according to bioware)....all stuff that requires quick and frequent button mashing, which is what I can't do. So I'm looking at a game that I can probably only play on easy and maybe even not then? In my favorite game series.

The question we don't really know is how different it will be from Inquisition, and I find it hard to tell from the footage since we can't see what buttons are being pressed. But I'll say that while I love it, Inquisition was the game that first hurt my hands. It made me aware of the problem and made me have to start limiting my activity.

IDK . I just hate the idea that devs have that turn based games can't do well and are inherently not exciting.

Fucking Solas motherfucking killed Bianca! That was the first time in these reveals I've been 100% reacting as a fan. NOT BIANCA!!!! HE MUST DIE!

Oh I did like the Rook in the gameplay and his face looked good. Again I feel like it's the character design and not the engine that is the problem.

As for the plot, it's interesting that Solas has gone from Main Antagonist to Opening Antagonist and I wonder if he's actually going to transition to an ally later in the game to undo whatever the fuck has gone wrong in this clip.

I do still have some worries about the writing. "She's greatest detective ever and she has a lead on Solas." So do you think that lead is the giant glowing thing in the middle of the city spitting out demons? Did you need a great detective?

And basically nothing I've seen so far has super MOVED me, as someone with serious connections to this world and the characters, other than the fucking Bianca moment. I'm hesitantly curious about some of the new companions. And if the griffon thing had come at a moment other than me going WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS? in the trailer I may have been a lot more excited.

So yeah, call me a hater or whatever. But that trailer reveal CRUSHED me emotionally. I was so depressed the rest of the day Sunday. These are my true reactions to the gameplay footage today. I don't have an agenda, other than I want the game to be good and I want it to do well and my confidence in EA and Bioware is at a very low point.

I've tried to keep a realistic mindset this whole time, but keeping in mind HOW MANY PEOPLE have left Bioware, how few OGs are left, the constant turnover in leads, the game being scrapped and redone like twice from scratch. And the game industry as a whole at this time, I have to be somewhat skeptical in general.

I'm not a skeptic overall, I was both a Cyperpunk 2077 enjoyer (but not apologist) and a Starfield defender and frankly there was a lot less reason to be skeptical of those games before release. So am I going to say "well I've been a Bioware fan since KOTOR 1 released, so I'm gonna hype it up and not point out flaws I see?" No. I'm going to be honest.

I'm not a casual Dragon Age enjoyer. I can't react casually to this stuff.

Will I play the game? Almost definitely, but am I going to wait till the release reviews? Probably.

[that-weird-skeleton-bastard]

Rushing things: Chapter one

(since the vast majority of you voted for it, here's the first + second episodes of my smut/domestic fluff papyton fanfic! the rest of it is on Ao3 if you wanna read ahead ^^)

The 3-part movie saga

A year... It has already been a year since Frisk freed the monsters from the underground.

It has been a year that Frisk has been going left and right (with the help of their friends), signing papers and going to meetings, so that a peace treaty could be put in place.

so that monsters could live with humans in harmony.

Of course, there's still some jackasses around that doesn't like the fact that times are changing, but a surprising amount of humans accepted monsters as their own.

Toriel and Undyne became teachers at the local elementary school, Toriel teaching science and Undyne being the PE coach. Meanwhile Grillby, Muffet, Temmie, and all the other merchants set up shop around the city, being more or less successful. Asgore and Alphys had time to reconnect and hang out. Sans, well, didn't changed much, still getting caught slacking all the time, but at least he's supposed to have a job at Grillby's. And Frisk, despite being the ambassador of monsters, still went to school, and was generally a normal kid.

So, here we are, in a warm beach city, in the middle of March, and a trying-to-be-silent hype was rumbling throughout the city: a three-part movie saga featuring loved human actors and the newest star from the underground, Mettaton, was rumoured to come out in a few weeks. Humans never heard of this man, but according to the few dozen monsters that had seen his movies, he was really good at it. And Papyrus, being his number 1 fan was stoked, having already pre-ordered tickets to all three movies and waiting impatiently for the release.

Well, the actor, meanwhile... WAS SHAKING IN HIS HIGH HEEL BOOTS. OMG, BEING A HUMAN STAR IS SO MUCH MORE STRESSFUL THAN HE HAD THOUGHT! Of course, he still had fun, y'know? He got to travel to wonderful places and meet renowned actors, but it wasn't done in an instant. He thought he was so shiny, but human stars shone 100 times as bright, so he had to fight for his career. And Well... it did pay off, with the whole 3-part saga and all that, but.... The part he was given was humiliating, the plot was based on an overused trope, and in the long run, said plot didn't even make sense anymore. And the "main character" was an asshole, who you were supposed to simply forgive because "TrAgIc BaCkStOrY". In the very few scenes where Mettaton actually showed up, it simply was the worst: because, of course, it happened in a fuCKING STRIP CLUB. THAT'S RIGHT, METTATON'S PART WAS BEING A ✨ROBOT STRIPPER✨ GREAT. AWESOME. AMAZING METTATON'S FIRST BIG ROLE IN A HUMAN MOVIE AND HE ALREADY RUINED HIS WHOLE IMAGE. So, here he was, watching the final cuts of the filming with the other actors before it was sent out to the editor, and he was on the verge of tears. THIS is how humans are gonna remember him: as the actor who played that stupid blocky robot exotic dancer that turns against the MC and gets killed off like nothing just to show how strong the MC was. At least, the good part of all this is that Napstablook worked on the soundtrack, and they fully agree with Mettaton: This whole saga is a trash heap.

He only stayed for filming for a few weeks but it felt like it was years since he last saw Alphys, so, as soon as he wasn't needed anymore, he immediately took the first train back to that little beach city on the western coast, to see his friend.

When Mettaton showed up to her door, Alphys nearly choked on her soda and apologised profusely for not wearing anything other that a loose t-shirt and pink boxers. When MTT came inside the apartment, she was now apologising for the mess, but he didn't mind in the slightest: after spending so much time cooped up in a 5 stars hotel on the other side of the country, Alphys and Undyne's place was a very welcome mess, and he knows she'll never judge him for unwinding.

So he did just that: he took off his heels and made himself comfy on the large couch in the main room. Seeing the robot sigh dramatically as he spread himself on the sofa, Alphys asked: 《- R-rough filming session, buddy? - It's not that, Alphys darling, it's just that I might as well quit the movie-making business right now after THAT FIASCO! - H-HUH? W-what happened?? - Oh I don't wanna bore you with it... (please insist on hearing it Alphy.) - *sigh* Mettaton, can you please tell me what happen- - IT WAS HORRIBLE, HONEY, HORRIBLE ! THAT MOVIE IS GARBAGE, AND I'M NOT EVEN ON THE COVER ART OR EVEN THE TRAILER ! yelled Mettaton while wildly shaking Alphys. - WhOoAAAH METTA CALM DOWN !! Pleaded the reptile as she felt the motion sickness kicking in. I'm sure it's not THAT bad!!》 All it needed was Mettaton showing her the early release version of the first movie (that the producer oh-so-kindly gifted him with a weird flirty wink) for Alphys to look at MTT with pity in her eyes. 《- damn. It IS that bad. - I KNOOOOW!!! He cried out, while dark oily tears were streaming down his midi-pad-shaped face. - I'm s-sorry man, i-i can't do anything about that, I don't have the power to just, delete a movie from existence (because if I did, I already would've done it the moment the main character stole that precious locket without feeling any kind of remorse, and not giving it back, and not having any kind of redemption for it.) - I know. Said Mettaton between two sobs. My career in the human has barely took off, and it's already going down in flames... - Metta, said Alphys, picking her words carefully, that movie may be absolute trash but not only is it your very first movie on the surface but just because you had one bad performance d-doesn't mean you're not gonna have more chances later.》 And she got up to fetch tissues for him.

While she was gone, Mettaton reflected on those words, but they didn't sooth his worries, because he KNOWS he will be disappointing his long-term fans AND painting a very ugly image of monsters for all humans to see.

Half an hour later, the floor was already littered in crumpled oily tissues as MTT was venting to Alphys. Seeing him like this, made Alphys think about the ghost inside the robot. A dissatisfied little ghost who's biggest dream was to be a star. "No, it WILL NOT end like that, Alphys thought to herself, I'll tell that producer to cancel that movie!.. or w-well ask someone to do it... it's so crazy it might just work!.. or it's just straight up crazy and it will end in a disaster- NO stop thinking like that Alphys!" 《-Metta! - hmm?! Yes? Asked MTT slightly startled by the sudden raise of volume. - I'll get that movie cancelled!! I-if you want it to be... - Alphys, darling, I appreciate the gesture but there's no way in hell that you have enough influence to pull this off. - Well, I'll try anyway! M-maybe if I show how bad this movie is to our friends, they would back us up! She added, trying her best to sound confident. - mmm... perhaps... Replied the robot. But I'm still sceptical about this plan, honey. - D-don't worry! I know exactly who to text! Your number 1 fan!》 And Alphys bolted to her room to get her phone.

"Huh, my number 1 fan? MTT said in the back of his mind. And Alphys knows them close enough to have their number? Who could that possibly be??" When Alphys came back, her phone texting app was open to a chat titled "Papyrus"

Papyrus... The name alone didn't mean anything to Mettaton. However, when he saw the profile picture of the person Alphys was texting ("pretty awkwardly and overly apologetic" he thought) it finally clicked: That wacky skeleton he saw a year prior, just before they exited the underground... He was his biggest fan..? Seriously?

《- Hey, Alphys dear, how do you know this guy? - O-oh, he's Undyne best friend. He sometimes comes here. They both like to "cook" together. And by "cook" I mean that they like to destroy ingredients with their fists and almost burn down the apartment complex. - Sounds like my kind of cooking~♡ - why do you think you've never been in the same room as them-

A-anyways, he's still a pretty cool dude, he has a heart of gold under all his goofiness... I actually think you two could be friends. - Yeah yeah yeah right, gimme that phone Alphys, you're taking ages. Stated Mettaton impatiently as he snatched the cute pink phone from her chubby clawed hands.》

Stood fully upright with his new legs, Mettaton was a good few feet taller than Alphys and he fully used that to keep the phone out of her reach as he texted Papyrus himself:

Mettaton here, hello darling, I have a problem with the upcoming movie saga, would you like to help me?

ALPHYS ARE PRANKING ME? =_=

...Well, it's true that in a situation like that, where you're chatting with your friend and all of a second, your favourite celebrity texts you via the same chat, it's understandable to think they're messing with you, but Mettaton was too impatient to care, and instead went into face-time.

Papyrus's reaction to seeing him face to face surely was something: He was whisper-screaming as quiet as he could while wildly shaking and waving the hand he wasn't using to hold his phone. His excitement was barely contained, and, honestly, that was the cutest reaction Mettaton had ever seen.

As soon as Papyrus managed to calm down a bit, the robot started to explain the situation to him. The skeleton was eagerly listening to Mettaton, until his face fell when MTT told him how awful the upcoming saga was. 《- WAIT, IS IT REALLY THAT BAD? - Yes, darling, so if I were you, I'd ask for a refund on my ticket preorder. - BUT I WANTED TO SEE HOW GREAT YOUR NEXT MOVIE WAS GONNA BE... said Papyrus sadly. For some reason, seeing this man sad was unbearable for MTT, so he quickly added - W-well how about, you get a refund, and I'll simply come to see you in person to cheer you up? His face instantly lit up again at the suggestion. -REALLY?? Papyrus said, his voice rising a few octaves. Y-YOU'D DO THAT? FOR ME?? - Of course, honey, I'm very generous! (Meanwhile in his mind, Mettaton was screaming and melting over this cutie before him.) - OK, SO IS TOMORROW AROUND 11:00 AM ALRIGHT? I HAVE TO DROP OFF FRISK TO SCHOOL AT 8:30, BUT AFTER THAT I'M COMPLETELY FREE! AND IF YOU WANT YOU COULD ALSO STICK AROUND FOR LUNCH! Suggested Papyrus without catching his breath. - Oh uhhh... T-that sounds perfect! And, since I don't have anything else to do, I'll gladly stay for lunch! - GREAT! I'LL BE EXPECTING YOU AT 11:00! OH BOY I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN PERSON! SEE YOU, METTATON! - oh, see you too darling!》 And he hung up.

Chapter two:

The first hangout.

Whu- What just happened?

They called Mettaton's biggest fan to tell him to back him up to get the movie saga cancelled... and then... he managed to plan to hang out with a guy he met only once..?

Mettaton had completely forgotten about the plan when talking to Papyrus, and only remembered it when Alphys pointed it out.

Welp, at least they could ask other fans and friends to help them get the movies cancelled, and that's what they did: the two friends spent the rest of the evening calling and texting friends and family to tell them about the issue. Of course it still wasn't nearly enough, and Mettaton was aware of that, but... he had trouble focusing on the task at hand when he had that meeting with that skeleton tomorrow. And then, tomorrow came.

Mettaton woke up to the official poster of the saga literally EVERYWHERE: on billboards, as paper posters glued on the street, as side ads on every websites he checked... it was a nightmare. But thankfully his friends responded to the texts saying that will be backing him up 100%! What a relief- wait.

What time is it? 10:47 AM, motherfucker~ <3 F u c k

Mettaton ran to his wardrobe to take the outfit he prepared, flipped his switch in a hurry and dressed up as quickly as he could (while also trying to not wrinkle the pretty red suit he picked)

Mmm... should he take the prerelease movie CD with him?... Probably... since he still needs to get Papyrus on board with the plan, and showing just how God awful this movie is would be a great way to convince him (in theory).

As soon as he was fully dressed, MTT took the CD case and ran to his car, when it hit him that he didn't know where Papyrus lived, so he had to call Alphys to ask her, which took longer than he wanted because Alphys refused to pick up, so he had to TEXT her, which got an answer much quicker but now Mettaton only had 6 minutes to get there on time. (When I tell you that MTT's car FLEW over the highway-)

At least he wasn't TOO late, only a few minutes but he still got there around the time he was asked to come. After parking his car not too far from the building Papyrus lived in, Mettaton walked toward the front door before noticing that the skeleton was standing there, waiting. When their eyes met, Papyrus's whole face lit up and he ran up to Mettaton.

Before he knew it, the robot was tackled in a tight hug, so earnest and warm, as if they've known each other since childhood, then Papyrus pulled back his head and looked up at Mettaton with his eyes sparkling with excitement, before letting go. That passionate welcome was unexpected (and it wrinkled Mettaton's suit a bit) but he didn't mind, it made his cheeks and chest feel so warm... Why was he here again?.. Oh right, the plan! The plan to ask the director to cancel the movie! MTT was about to bring it up, when Papyrus spoke up: 《- SO, METTATON, DO YOU WANNA COME IN? - Oh yes, we should probably get inside to... do whatever to pass the time I guess... - WELL I PREPARED A LITTLE SOMETHING, I HOPE YOU'LL LIKE IT!》

Papyrus and Sans's apartment was pretty humble, but it had a certain coziness to it, and, unlike Undyne and Alphys's, it was tidy. As soon as they entered, Papyrus dashed to his room, telling Mettaton to make himself at home. So he sat down on the couch and waited for the homeowner to come back, while using that time to fix his suit.

But when Papyrus came back, that nice red suit was clearly overkill, as he was in a comfy bunny onesie, carrying a few fluffy blankets and pillows over his shoulder, and holding dvd cases in his free hand.

....a sleepover??...

This man had the unique opportunity to spend time with his favourite celebrity... and he planed a SLEEPOVER??? IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY??

...Mettaton had to admit to himself that it was a pretty ballsy move, and Papyrus was clearly fully confident doing it, so he had to appreciate his boldness.

Anyway, Papyrus was setting down the blankets and pillows on the couch (that he deployed in bed mode) while his guest was watching, feeling overdressed for this whole charade. However, the skeleton did not appear to mind in the slightest that Mettaton was dressed so formal for such a casual occasion, instead he asked him to choose what movie he wanted to watch while he went in the kitchen to grab some snacks.

The movie selection was... original: "Peekaboo with a fluffy bunny: the movie", "little kitty discovers the world", "Dr funkenstein", "the upside-down river"... Yup, all of these were children's movies.

In the end, Mettaton chose the last one, as it seemed to be the least childish, and as Papyrus came back with multiple bags of chips and a bottle of unnaturally purple soda, he confessed that "THAT MOVIE ALWAYS MAKES ME CRY..."

Curtains were drawn and blinds were closed, the skeleton made himself comfy on the couch, and finally pressed "play" on the remote. Actually, that movie was much more enticing than MTT had first thought, and soon enough, he understood why it made Papyrus cry every time, as he was tearing up himself. During a particularly heartbreaking scene, Mettaton swore he felt the skeleton, who was also crying heavily, getting closer to him and resting his head on his shoulder.

"Oh. Oh my..." He thought, as he felt the heat rising to his cheeks and his mechanical heart pounding in his chest.

At first, Mettaton was unsure about it, but right at that moment, it was... nice. Watching this bittersweet children's movie, gorging on chips and soda, while laying on a comfy couch filled with pillows and blankets... and with such good company too... And the end of the movie came, and the curtains and blinds were opened once more, letting the blinding midday light in. (Now that they could see eachothers faces, both of them had puffy, red eyes and humid cheeks from crying so much.)

Well it was now 13:30, guess Mettaton did stay until lunch.

《- HEY METTATON, DO YOU WANT TO HELP ME COOK? Asked Papyrus while cleaning up the chips packets. - Gladly! Answered the robot, chipper.》

After Papyrus went in his room to change back to his main outfit, the two started cooking spaghetti, the skeleton's self-proclaimed specialty, however it quickly dawned on MTT that he wasn't... that great of a chef. Lots of rookie mistakes that made him cringe inside. Every time the host made a mistake, Mettaton tried his best to gently tell him he was messing up, to Papyrus's surprise.

After an hour of trial and error (and wasted spaghetti, r.i.p) they managed to make the best spaghetti both of them ever made, and, much to Mettaton's shock, the only spaghetti that Papyrus ACTUALLY ATE IN HIS LIFE.

Afterwards, Mettaton realised he stayed for over 3 hours, and didn't even bring up the plan, so, he mentioned it -more awkwardly than he would've wanted- and added that he brought the first movie of the saga.

《- WOWIE,BUT I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO WATCH IT? - W-well it is trash. But would you like to see just HOW TRASH that movie is? Asked Mettaton with a tone of challenge. - ...I'LL GO GET MY ONESIE. responded Papyrus with determined smirk.》

Back on the couch, back his bunny onesie, and this time, Mettaton also being in a onesie (a grey tabby cat one that Papyrus lended him), they started the film... and the skeleton immediately fell asleep once it was clear that Mettaton wouldn't appear in the rest of the movie, and, of course, he fell asleep on the robot himself, who's body temp rose like Jesus on the third day.

It was hard focusing on the movie when this lovable dork was snoozing so cutely in the crook of his armpit.

But Mettaton came to a realisation while watching this movie for the god-knows-what time: Maybe Alphys was right, this movie is pretty bad, and the other two are no better, but they are just that... bad, boring movies. Maybe Mettaton was overreacting...

He looked at his phone, and at all his friends, family and fans who are willing to back him up... And at the trailer ads for the saga on his socials...

Maybe he should just let this movie come out and let people see how bad it is... And before he knew it, he fell asleep as well, holding Papyrus close...

(what even is pacing lmao)

anyway, tell me if you want to see more, or simply if you liked it! seeing nice little things being said about my creations always makes me happy ^^

[supernaturaldrafts]

UGO TV - "Three Questions With Supernatural's Misha Collins"

November 25, 2008

Misha Collins is having a hell of a good time on Supernatural.

The actor plays Castiel, the angel who saved Dean Winchester from you know where, and he’s fast emerged as a fan favorite. And so Collins – an actor whose credits include Charmed, Girl, Interrupted, 24 (as Dennis Hopper’s assassin son), ER, CSI: NY and Over Her Dead Body – will appear in at least another half dozen episodes of Supernatural this season and just might stick around far longer than that. UGO recently caught up with Collins for an exclusive interview. Here’s what he had to say.

UGO: So, your gig on Supernatural started out as a six-episode recurring character arc and now it looks like you’re going to on the show for the foreseeable future. How cool is that?

Collins: It’s totally awesome. It’s kind of like a dream come true, really, because it’s so much better to come into a show like this that’s establish and, in my opinion, really good, than doing a pilot that might shoot six episodes of and you don’t know if it’s going to catch on. It’s so great to come into something that’s established and already has a fan base. It’s a great character. I have got nothing to complain about. I love Vancouver. I’m sort of pinching myself. It’s great.

UGO: How are you enjoying working with Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Robert Wisdom, who plays Uriel to your Castiel?

Collins: I can say in all honestly that this is probably the best television set I have ever worked on, which is amazing because it’s probably also the hardest-working set I’ve ever been on. They are working incredibly long hours and Jared and Jensen are shouldering virtually ever scene. So they work really hard, and they’re not doing season four eye rolls or yawning or spending the entire time off in a corner texting their girlfriends. They’re really there and they do their work, and they have senses of humor. They’re both actually really witty and sarcastic, which makes it so much more fun to work with them. And Robert Wisdom is an awesome guy. We had an incredibly long van ride back from the set one day, where the traffic was just horrible and we were in the van for about two and a half hours. We told each other our life stories and we found out that he had lived in Washington, D.C. and I lived in Washington, D.C. I had interned at the White House and he had interned at the Capitol. We both worked at National Public Radio headquarters in D.C., and we’re both now playing angels. We both practice similar kinds of meditation. So he’s a fascinating guy.

UGO: We couldn’t help but notice that in last week’s episode, Uriel did all the heavy lifting in the fight scenes. When is Castiel going to kick some ass?

Collins: I’m going to make an uneducated prediction and say by the end of this season there will be some ass-kicking. The show is going on a little break, but it should pick up after that. (In last week’s episode) I was a bit disappointed when we choreographed the fight scenes and I thought Castiel got cheated of his warrior qualities, but I’m sure that time will come.

– Ian Spelling, tvblog.ugo.com

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

I’m so bad at putting my thoughts into writing. I’m a very word-vomity person and that doesn’t translate as well into text as it does actual dialogue��� so I’m just gonna try my hardest. I’m sorry if it’s not coherent or if you don’t get why my evidence links to my points at all.

Basically, so I think Marvel just wants to play around with powerful characters. Like once you’ve had smart, strong, courageous characters, you need to get more creative with how to make them stand out, but if you make them mentally disturbed and throw awesome powers on them, it’s a character that’s easily made interesting.

Wanda, for example. we don’t know many of her non-magical skills (aside from cooking), or interests in the mcu, but people love her because she’s edgy, and cool, and a powerful girlboss. And with the reception of Wanda being so positive, obviously they’d be confident to lean into that.

Kang is a majorly popular villain in the comics, and an extremely difficult adversary to face. He’s evil, and powerful, and thus made interesting solely by existing. As of Quantimania, we know little of what motivates him beyond conquest, yet he’s already become popular across movie fans.

And Wanda has been impressively amped up as of recent too, only furthering her popularity.

Billy slots into this nicely as he’s a mostly limitless character in terms of what he can do. There’s been no harsh boundaries put on his abilities (that I’m aware of) and it all seems dependent on who is writing him, though the base layer for him is Wanda’s peak. It’s mentioned through both lore and just outright that Billy is stronger than Wanda, so her best will always be less than his. That’s a nice little blanket to fall back on for writers who don’t want to spend too long setting up powerful characters: find a way to link them to another character, compare their limits with that character, and leave the explanation as to ‘why’ to be explained by their relationship with the character they’re linked to. Also he’s kind of got some mental health issues going on, so that’s a plus.

Wandavision itself, whilst this is looked over, already has Billy with impressive feats, including passive Telepathy across a wide range and mind control of multiple people at once. Neither of these are things we see often across magic users in the mcu (and I believe the closest we have gotten to this is Wanda making the avengers hallucinate in AOU) yet a small child completes these with ease. I would also count clairvoyance as that’s how I personally interpreted the scene where Vision leaves the hex and Billy knows, but as I’m unsure of the canon-status of that, it won’t be included.

MoM also goes out of its way to only introduce more opportunities for Billy to be strong, including amping up Wanda, introducing America, and also the little wall in Wundagore with Wanda carved into it, alongside two children (one of which we can assume to be Billy, at the least). As I mentioned, however strong Wanda is, Billy is stronger, and the little carvings imply a deeper level of importance amongst Wanda’s children. Going as far as to imply importance of characters in a set meant to amplify the importance of another is a pretty conscious choice. And, well, considering Billy/the demiurge making America’s planet in the original backstory for her (has since been retconned but the MCU seems to be sticking to the pre-retcon story) that’s just even more piled on top.

And to bring the multiverse Saga into it: not only is it another grab at trying to be interesting with low effort, but it’s a mostly timeline-related Mess. With Loki being a time travel series and Kang being a time travel villain, it’s a time travel saga above all, despite MoM. And what can the Demiurge (who Billy has the powers of) do if not affect timelines backwards and forwards across all realities?

I am fully aware they’re probably setting up the Young Avengers because they want to keep the Avengers brand running, but with the low effort made for the other heroes (or the flat out ignoring of their existence *coughteddycough*) yet Billy is showing up with connections to EVERYTHING, maybe I’m reaching when I say this but they’re wanting to set him up to be powerful so they have a fun little toy to play with.

Does he deserve more than that? Yes. Does everyone deserve more than that? Of course. But Capitalism is when superheroes are translated badly into movie media or something.

(Not to mention Kang is a Young Avengers villain so… like as much as he is a villain to other people, he has fought the Young Avengers and lost… so.)

I have a lot of thoughts about Marvel’s treatments of their characters in phase 4, and why they leapt into the multiverse saga and characters like Kang and America Chavez, and it all boils down to Billy in the end.

Like I could go into detail, but like… i don’t want to spend time on a post no one will read

[enneamage]

do you think wilbr is going to be the reason the band breaks? i don’t really mean disbanding necessarily but just like not working out lmao

i also kinda wanna know ur thought in lovejoy in general, their dynamic (as little or much we have seen), how they approach their projects and their music in general. bc i used to be a big big fan of wlbrs and everything he did was awesome for me, but as time passed and he started streaming less and stuff i kinda just saw as “meh” and now i listen to lovejoy and it’s like 🧐 “hmm, it’s not as good as i thought”

he mentions a lot of alex turner and julian casablancas as inspirations but idk, in their debut albums they were so good and well thought and idk i’m rambling i’m sorry

Wilbur is the dude I know the most about, and also the one that I relate to the most as the major potential liability, but that also comes from a place of not knowing the others very well. I'm naturally most concerned with him because his flaws come to mind easily but that's just from availability of information. An anon once made a point that he does better under situations where he’s being held to a structure so his flake tendencies might get curbed by circumstance, so it’s in the air.

Ash has done a very good job at making himself known as loveable mime. He’s an interesting one, he seems very creative. He helped dream up Tommy’s faux life bits, which makes more sense in retrospect since Ash’s whole public persona is a bit about him never speaking. Ash might not be the face of lovejoy but when I think about what is exclusive to Lovejoy I think of him, while Wilbur has been all over the place. He's what has me kind of rooting for Lovejoy in spite of my caution around them.  

Mark and joe are total wildcards for me. Squarely out of my depth with them and don't have much info to go off, so they could turn out to be anything. I’m not actively following any of them so if info washes up somewhere I can find it I can take a look, but for now they’re thing one and thing two in my brain.

The genre that Lovejoy plays in isn’t my usual go-to so I can’t be as 'objective' as I would want to be assessing their sound. I know I'm in an echo chamber when it comes to criticism, but just about everyone in this conversation is in at least some form of one (the natural mcyt fandom marbling based on who watches who) so it comes with the territory.

When I talk about them with people irl I have found an unexpected consensus: for a band that took off in the context of minecraft youtube they bang, but if you stand them shoulder to shoulder with their genre peers it doesn't come out as well right now. It's almost not fair to compare them, but you have to if you want to switch from one pool to the other. Already liking the people involved seems to help a lot with how much you like their music, as you've experienced, but taste is always subjective.

Overall they're being flung at the wall at high speeds under the right conditions, a lot of attention and a lot of streams from a lot of people, so it's likely that they're going to stick at least somewhat. The grand decontextualizing machine, Spotify, is sneaking them into other peoples orbits every day. How much is enough will depend on what the intended outcome is.

Is it possible to be too big to fail? Because they're already in the public consciousness there's enough of them to drift around, but predictions in 2023 in general are the thing everyone wants and nobody knows enough to be able to make. Divination is going to skyrocket, mark my words.

Nothing is guaranteed and I think that's the cazy-making thing of watching someone with issues wander off into the sunset, not knowing if or when things will explode and wipe out the happy ever after. It may wind up being adaptive for Wilbur to lean more into the music scene because he wouldn't be the first questionable character that thrived there by a long shot. Ultimately it's out of my depth and I can't tell, because there's something to doubt about both the happy ever after rockstar narrative of main and the straight-up-flop counter-narrative too. I think it makes most sense to aim for the middle and brace for the unexpected, because that seems to be the formula for handling any of these people whose careers were supercharged on the back of something that could never have been predicted to begin with.  

[kaypeace21]

Big brain moment for me: is realizing one of the main reasons Mike dislikes Max is because she's (subconsciously) a constant reminder that he isn't straight.

Dustin and Lucas are immediately into Max . And Mike questions this (since they don’t even know her). Mike"awesome??!you haven't even spoken a  word to her! " Dustin (already crushing): " Hey! I don't have to . I mean LOOK at her." 

*MIKE LOOKING HELLA CONFUSED XD

Troy (the homophobic bully, talking about el): "her head's shaved . She doesn't even LOOK like a girl." 

(Not to mention all the people who also thought she looked like a boy and specifically thought she was Will- aka hopper, benny, and the diner customer).

We also know Dustin is remarking about Max’s physical appearance in that ep1 scene since this videogame-scene  also occurs in s2e1 (the same ep Max is introduced) . This videogame- scene has  lucas and Dustin fight over princess Daphne -and Lucas mentions how “princess daphne” is his. Foreshadowing the ending of  the love triangle between the 2 boys (in relation to Max) .

 What’s interesting is that historically dragon’s lair (was a nototriously difficult game)- and they used princess daphne’s attractiveness to convince straight-boys to continue playing the difficult game and waste their money .This is because, if the player finished the game- they would save and also marry  princess daphne. 

 But what’s interesting is - Dustin plays it, and it’s implied Lucas has played the game the most (and even finished the game to get Daphne). However, we never see Will or Mike play the game or get sucked into Daphne’s ...appeal. In fact (right after this) Mike instead puts his arm around Will and suggests they get the top score in dig dug TOGETHER (and beat madmax’s top score instead). Not to mention in s1 Mike wrote a whole d&d story for Will-inspired by star wars/the events of s1 and replaced  princess Leia with a king (aka Will). The king has a medal ceremony for the heroes since they k*lled the 7 headed monster for him ( Will: ”it was a 7. The demogorgan it got me″). Mike is not into princesses (he literally replaced a women crushed upon by nerdy/star wars fan boys) and replaced her with a king. connecting it even more to his lack of interest in the princess videogame/girls in general (and interest in Will) .

* These little details in ep 1 show how Mike isn’t like Dustin or Lucas. He doesn’t understand Lucas/dustin’s immediate attraction to daphne or Max in ep 1 (based on their feminine looks). Some people may claim he was attracted to El in Nancy’s dress/his grandma’s wig but i think this had more to do with the fact at that time El looked like the blonde popular girl jennifer hayes (who Lucas/Dustin were into). And so the idea of a girl who liked him (who looked like the most popular girl in school- who his friends were into )was appealing to his ego. Lucas (to Mike, referring to el while she is in her wig,dress, and makeup): “you’re just blind. Blind cause a girl isn’t grossed out by you.” Mike  in s1 even later specified he preferred her without the wig/makeup. He says in the wig/dress she’s “pretty” but when El removes all of it she asks “Still pretty?” And he says YEAH! pretty. REALLY pretty.” And sorry his compliment to her at the snowball seemed pretty rehearsed/forced. Just like how he refers to her fem look in s3 as “cool” (like how Hopper says El’s new punk look is “cool”).  In s3 we even have Lucas dress like the karate kid (cause max has a crush on him), nancy dresses based on 'new age' music (jonathan likes), so why does max imply El dresses in baggy male clothes for mike ? Saying about picking clothes " chose stuff that feels like you...not mike." Maybe cause mike prefers her dressing in a more masculine way?

Anyways, back on topic.  s2e1 shows Mike doesn’t understand his friends immediate attraction to Max and Daphne’s feminine appearances and this ties back to Mike’s animosity to Max in the following s2 eps.

 Later mike yells at max "hate you? How can I hate you? i don't even KNOW you!" (Mirroring what Mike said earlier to the smitten Dustin -when Dustin remarked on how he doesn’t really have to know her to think she’s awesome because he found her physically attractive). Mike says this comment to Max- when in canon Mike knew both el and Max for the exact same amount of time -a week . So somewhere in his subconscious he realizes crushing on el (who he ‘doesn't even know’) based on her then "boyish" look /will like appearance (after only knowing her a week) means something. Cause his straight friends (at least initially) are into Max for her more feminine appearance (after also only knowing her for a week) .And Dustin and Lucas were never into the boyish looking El (in s1- like they were with max in s2). So yeah every time Mike sees her - he's reminded that (in canon) he unlike his friends has never crushed on a single girl (except one who resembled a boy/ his male bff). Which (at least subconsciously) agitates him to think about. Max in response to him saying he doesn't hate her. Max: but you don't want me in your party! Mike: correct! Max: why not? Mike: CAUSE YOU’RE ANNOYING!To mike- max's very presence is a constant reminder he's not straight. Her presence makes him at least subconsciously start to think about things- he'd rather not. Like why he was attracted to the boyish looking el (who resembled Will) but not max, princess daphne, or any girl prior?

In s1 we know Mike knows what "gay" , 'fairy', and 'queer' is- all words he heard as insults towards Will . And eventually Mike snaps and attacks Troy for a specific  hom*phobic comment making fun of Will being dead. Where Troy says,  “Will’s in fairy land now. flying around with ALL THE OTHER FAIRIES. All happy and GAY!” . He attacks Troy in the school gym for subconsciously reminding him he’s gay -same place he yells at Max for doing the same thing. EL EVEN attacks both Max and Troy in the gym using her powers! (cough next time Mike saw Troy he literally flew from where Will ‘died’. (aka like ‘all the other fairies’. Troy even told Hopper Mike “flew” . That is another  Mike is gay hint ) . So he probably doesn't even want to fathom the possibility he may be gay or in love with his male best friend (when taught it's something 'bad' by his peers and 80s society as a whole ). Especially when he sees how people already malign Will over such rumors.

So to Mike - Max is the personification of the thing he lacks - the ability to be attracted to girls-the innate ability to be what most deem 'normal'. The ability to be like his friends. And he sadly resents her for this.

Then in s3 max encourages el to dump him ( and says to Mike it's not just a break). And constantly points out how mileven just isn't that great- she yells at Mike about how he doesn't trust el nor respects her ability to make decisions. And tells el that he lied to her. And she also points out to Mike- how el was the one who decided to spy on him (and disrespect his privacy/boundaries). And even worse for Mike's straight facade with El (max gives El a feminine makeover in s3). Something he’s not genuinely attracted to.  

 To Mike(at least subconsciously)- she is a constant reminder that he’s not straight (in s2). And in s3, she points how the flaws of his comp het relationship with el .Which infuriates him .

So when Mike starts to accept his queerness- I suspect their relationship will improve.

Heck The fact MAX & Will also have a lot in common (but he’s only attracted to Will- a boy and not Max) could be another subconscious reminder he’s not straight (Which causes an additional layer of resentment).For max & Will: Both are poor,  their bio dads both abandoned them leaving them with their respective mothers, both like horror films, comics and videogames, both are the youngest of 2 siblings.  And both use bats in anger when emulating their ab*sers ,and both are heavily associated with rainbows (Max literally has a rainbow shirt collection/ Will's rainbow ship and the many other rainbow refs).  Both also yell at Mike about how sh*tty they think the mileven relationship is in s3. Both have posters relating to beach films (Will has jaws /Max has endless summer).Costume designers said his s1's vest was supposed to be in homage to Marty mcfly (from back to the future). They gave Max Marty mcfly's skateboard in s2.And on Halloween she even dresses up as a movie-character who as a child dressed up as a clown on Halloween (Will’s fear/ what triggered him on Halloween) and whose surname is Myers (Byers?)  

I also think Mike was a bit jealous and initially thought Will was into her too. But I think the prior reasons I just discussed was actually the main reason for the animosity.

UPDATE

*this annon pointed out a detail that pretty much just verified my first assumption.To mike- max's very presence is a constant reminder he's not straight-similar to troy doing the same thing (albeit for very diff reasons ). Her presence (and his inability to have a crush on her-like Lucas &Dustin do) makes him at least subconsciously start to think about things- he'd rather not. Like why was he attracted to the boyish looking el (who resembled Will)? And who he barely spoke to, and in his own words he “didn’t even know’ cause he only knew her for a week? But NOT max (who he knew for the same amount of time),and who Lucas/dustin have immediate attraction to/ think is “awesome”  without talking to her (because of their feminine looks) .To Mike - Max is the personification of the thing he lacks - the ability to be attracted to girls-the innate ability to be what most deem 'normal'. The ability to be like his friends

We see this by the use of one word....

Having Max in s2 mention how Mike thought El was “awesome”  . Is just icing on the cake- showing she’s a reminder to Mike he isn’t straight (and his romantic feelings for El aren’t genuine). She literally threw Mike’s words back at him-where Mike was judging his friends for thinking Max was “awesome” because of her looks-not words.When Mike did the same to El.

Lucas even says the ‘no/yes’ line next to Mike’s heart sign (which has a rainbow propelling a heart on it). In s3 (when dating el) he removed this sign.  But symbolically we see it follow him everywhere -via El’s room having a drawing with a rainbow propelling a heart on it- with Mike’s name on it.  Which is shown when he’s kissing El- showing no matter how hard he tries to act straight-he can’t escape his rainbow/ queerness.

In fact,in s3, when Max points out the flaws in m*leven she is wearing  rainbow shirts (illustrating that she -like the rainbow-sign & drawing is a constant reminder to Mike that he’s not straight -which  follows him everywhere). Similar to Troy who (in his rainbow shirt) interrupts Lucas claiming Mike has a crush on El- only to announce Will is gay/ and to only target Mike with such remarks after this .

Not to mention this whole -Max reminding him he’s not straight and can’t like girls in s2-3 just ties in to my theory Mike was projecting when telling Will “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls.”-here. And the whole theory Mike is emulating his parent’s  loveless marriage with El-mentioned it here.

[itlivesproject]

Hi! I only recently downloaded ILW and love it so far. I have a bunch of questions, and hopefully I'm not spamming you guys too much.

First, massive props for making Joss so likeable that I'm actually romancing her in several playthroughs (not all because Amalia is too amazing, and I'm a sucker for a good BFFs to Lovers story. And yes, I'm creating several playthroughs with multiple setups; my main one is the one based on what actually happened when I played ILITW and ILB. Then there's the 'ideal' playthrough where Parker stayed, and neither MC was romancing anyone (I originally romanced Ava) so I can guilt-free set up a romance between ILITW MC and Noah, now another one where it's ILITW MC and Dan, some where MC sacrificed herself, one where Noah actually killed her, some where both the gangs except MCs survived or where everyone other than MC died, and the absolute worst possible setup where everyone who can die, or in Parker's case leave, died. Most are barely started, but you've got me seriously invested in the story, ILW is that good), and making me genuinely enjoy Connor as a character when he bored me in ILITW. Amazing work right there.

Speaking of Joss, I (and I know others in the fandom do so as well) have been wondering, is she on the autism spectrum? That line about her taking some things too literally or something a few chapters ago, I don't remember the exact wording, but it struck me.

So ILB MC vanished, huh. I was hoping we might interact more with that side of the anthology soon, since ILITW has been dominating the story with only one throw-away mention of Tom until then in my main playthrough. Might be Andy romancers had more, but it was Ava for me so idk. I'm definitely excited for whatever you have in store for us in that regard. Does it have anything to do with Annie's sudden reappearance in ILW MC's life 👀?

How many chapters are projected for ILW, by the way? We're at number 9 now, so around halfway, less or more than that?

Also, I keep hearing something about a hiatus, and when exactly does it start, next week? (That would be just my timing, lol. I finally download ILW, and it goes on break immediately after.) Do you have any idea how long it might last, if I may ask?

Basically ILW has really captivated me, you guys are doing amazing, I'm looking forward to all the coming plot twists and branches (which I'm exploring with my different playthroughs as much as I can) and can't wait for whenever the next chapter drops. I probably forgot a bunch of questions I was going to ask, but this ask is already a mile long so I hope I didn't bother all of you too much. Thanks for this project, it really captures the spirit of the IL series in a way I didn't think was possible to replicate. I can tell it was made by real fans, and that's awesome, and for answering these rambling questions!

I love all the different setups you have! 😍😍

So we haven’t explicitly stated if she is on the spectrum but it is an absolutely valid interpretation that I support!

ILW is slated to be a whopping 23 chapters. You can find our progress tracker in our pinned post!

The hiatus will be after chapter 11 airs on July 2, so you have two more chapters before the break 🥲 the length will be a few months at the least but there is no finalized time frame. Basically we just need to finish writing/editing/programming the rest of the chapters so however long that takes 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for sending this in and for all your kind words and support! We value it so so much 🥰 can’t wait to share more of the game with you!

[linawritestwst]

my least favourite twst chapter is definitely ch2, i just feel like leona was done so dirty and a lot of the plot didn’t make sense ;-; i do think it had it’s good parts! like riddle fixing mcs tie (which was really cute…) and the heartslabyul gang going around looking for potential victims, but the major plot points were :/ and leona overvlotting made no sense when ruggie was the one using all the magic, because of that his OB scene was easily the least impactful to me.

i’m also very very critical of chapter 5, but that’s mostly because pomefiore is my favourite dorm. i wasn’t a fan of the idol training camp thing to start with, and reading ch6 makes me even more mad because the pomefiore boys are written a lot better there imo and more justice is given to their dynamic. especially rook and vil. epel was done well in ch5 though, his scenes were awesome.

i’m curious to know what your least favourite chapter is now as well!

(spoiler warning for chapter 5)

OHH about chapter 2, i felt that. i'm not sure, maybe i'm wrong, but i feel like after chapter 1, all other chapters started to feel too similar to original disney movies? like, chapter 1 definitely had that "rebelling against queen of hearts" theme but it still felt like something new to me and something that was based on alice in wonderland but didn't copy every single detail. and i don't think that the lion king's plot works well in twst setting or maybe it COULD have work, but.. NOT LIKE THAT. also, maybe it's just me, but i feel like leona's "overblot motive" was kinda underwhelming and didn't make that much sense? like yeah, i know, he's based on scar, i get it, they had to make him hate his brother or feel inferior to him, but he only mentioned hating malleus in this chapter, so him hating the fact that he's a "younger child" comes out of nowhere? maybe i forgot some stuff, but still, it just feels weird. ALSO YEAH i actually didn't notice that when i read the chapter 2 translation for the first time, but leona overblotting really is strange and it should've been ruggie instead of him. (also i think that ruggie overblotting would be much more interesting? like him getting tired of leona and all would be really cool to see)

and oh, i remember when i started reading ch5 translation, i was like: "why does this feel like ch1 but.. i don't know, high school musical edition" because in the beginning it had pretty much the same theme, like "oh, this dorm leader is strict and nrc boys don't like strict dorm leaders >:( but also we have to sing and dance this time" and now that i'm playing twst en, i'm starting to think that pomefiore is actually my second fave dorm, but like?? i love their dynamic and personalities more in other chapters and stories but not in this one, the one that is supposed to tell us more about them. i liked the theme of vil hating neige because i thought that "characters that are based on snow white and evil queen being popular on social media and having one-sided rivalry that is on vil's side" sounded fun, but.. idk, i didn't like the ending of chapter 5. it just didn't feel right.

[me4ml]

Why don't you like Maribat? Why do you think it's a spite or salt ship?

This is presumably because of my Adrigaminette post or the whole Maribat being on the ship list thing.

Quick disclaimer: if you read/ship/write/like Maribat, cool! This is not an attack. This is me answering why I, personally, do not like it. It’s tagged anti, and salt, so it should be filtered. Please don’t harass me over it.

Another note before we start: a lot of what I’m about to write is based on what I’ve read, fic wise or meta, and I blocked off the Maribat tag and fandom a long time ago. It may have changed over there-I doubt it, and I have zero desire to go and look-but this is based on what I’ve seen and read about.

There are, principally, three reasons I can’t stand Maribat, why I think it’s a spite/salt ship.

1). I don’t like Damian Wayne.

2). I don’t like how Damian and the DCU are written in Maribat.

3). Maribat is a mutated salt fic.

If you want to see my reasons why, the rest is under the read more.

1). I don’t like Damian Wayne.

Damian’s not just my least favorite Robin, ranking behind any of the others who have born the name. He’s my least favorite Batfam sidekick overall.

Part of this is his introduction, where he’s a violent, murderous, arrogant, entitled, snotty little brat of a thug. Lest we forget, one of his first acts is to go out, kill a guy, cut off his head, stuff a grenade into the decapitated head’s mouth, and try to blow up Tim. This is his introduction! There are a number of other occasions, including how he treats Jon, his best friend, and the rest of his siblings.

Another part is that he believes that he deserves to be Robin simply because he’s Bruce’s son, and therefore has the blood right to be Robin, to become Batman, and damn anyone else, who are all pretenders. Doesn’t matter that those characters might have a right to become Robin, or the future Batman, he’s the bio son, he deserves it!

Additionally, Damian feels.....not unnecessary, but repetitive, in his actions/characterization. There are other characters who can perform pretty much the same way for whatever storyline is necessary, without including Damian.

Trained by an abusive family to be the best, as an assassin and warrior? Cassandra.

A killer who breaks the main rule of his mentor, which causes tension and strain in the family? Jason.

Incredibly intelligent and talented? Tim.

Damian isn’t unique in what he does, and while that can make him an interesting character, it can also make the focus on him unnecessary.

As well, so much of Damian’s actions and motivations feels like he gets away with stuff, in-universe, because he’s Bruce’s biological son, and so Bruce gives him too much slack, and out-universe, because the writers let him/the fans will defend him. He gets woobified, or leather pantsed. Which leads to:

2). I don’t like how Damian and the DCU are written for Maribat.

For all his (numerous) faults, when written well, Damian can be an interesting character. For example: How does he deal with being deeply insecure? By putting on a mask of arrogance and overconfidence.

Some more examples: How does Damian act like an actual child, when he’s never had a childhood? How can he be a hero, if he’s been trained to be a killer? Can he ever catch up to his siblings, or will he feel like they’re always better than him?

Damian’s sense of being Batman’s son, of being the heir to the Cowl, slams right up against the idea of the Batfam: that there are people who have just as much of a right to call Batman their father/father figure, people who are just as talented and skilled and capable as Damian himself is, if not more. Watching Damian develop, when he’s written right, is actually enjoyable; mainly because when it’s done right, it shows Damian actually progressing and growing, becoming more of a person, with friends and interests. Most times, seeing Damian with his pets can be adorable, same with when he hangs out with Jon.

Is he still a brat? Still sometimes a bit too much of a Demon, an al-Ghul? Yes, but that’s always going to be part of him, and as long as he’s shown to try and grow, or gets called out on that, it’s less of an issue (There’s a completely different rant to be written about how DC likes to chuck character development or backstory into the trash when it suits them for a new run. Damian gets hit with this, as does Tim, or they get handed the idiot/conflict ball, but not the space for it).

Maribat hurls this all out the window. Damian’s bad traits are all “fixed” offscreen-he’s developed, matured, gotten better, whatever you want to call it. It’s basically a writer’s hand wave to make Damian into the character who will be the lead of the story, perfectly suited for his main role of being Marinette’s boyfriend and utterly devoted to her every whim and will. He’s enchanted by her at first glimpse, and defends her against everyone who hates her, because no one can understand her like he can!

Uh, what? This is not Damian Wayne. Even at his best, he’s no broody boy, pulled from his “dark path” by the love of a gentle girl. He’s a Jerk with a Heart of Gold-emphasis on the Jerk. There’s a reason his nickname usually involves “Demon.” Is Damian trying to get better? Yes. But even then, he’s not the type to immediately fall in love. He takes a while to warm up to people, for them to earn his trust, and Marinette would not be like that?

Let’s say that Robin is in Paris for a case, he runs into Ladybug and Chat, and after they explains what’s going on, Robin gives them a stare over his mask, and goes “TT! What a worthless hero, I would have caught him already.” LB and Chat would probably want to deck him, and that’s before he keeps talking.

Same with if Damian transfers to the class, or they meet on a field trip to Gotham. Damian’s not gonna care about some random French teenagers on a tour, or if he was transferred he’s gonna be trying to figure out why his father sent him to Paris, and be focused on the mission, not making friends.

Of all of the Robins, the ones that would be the most likely to capture Marinette’s interest would be Dick or Tim, not Damian. He would remind her too much of Chloe, as Damian, and as Robin, he would be dismissive of Ladybug’s abilities, which would absolutely piss her, and Chat Noir, off.

In characters that aren’t Damian, no one seems to be written properly over in Maribatland. One huge example is that Marinette is so beloved, so pure, that she can make any character fall in love with her, and reform by her pure goodness, including a fic where the Joker-THE JOKER!-becomes her “Uncle J,” and pranks Lila on her behalf.

Uh-huh. Sure. Completely and totally something that one of the biggest, most sadistic twisted, notorious villains in pop culture would do. Maribat winds up worshipping the ground that Marinette walks on, cause she’s “Teh best evar!”

Which then leads to my third and final point:

3). The whole Maribat concept is a mutated salt fic.

Most of the themes you’ll find in Maribat? You will find in nearly every salt fic.

Maybe my biggest issue with the whole Maribat idea is that it doesn’t feel like a proper crossover, which, at their best, explore how characters from one universe and their rules would interact with characters from another universe, and the rules of that one. Putting ML and DC together is a rich opportunity to play with concepts in both worlds!

And yet, it’s mainly used to bash ML characters who the writers despise, predominantly Adrien, Alya, and Lila, with members of the class thrown in depending on feeling, and potentially even Marinette’s parents! The only “good” ML characters are the ones who are on Marinette’s side, usually Luka, Kagami, a Chloe who for some reason has been redeemed and is now Marinette’s best friend, and whatever members of the class the writer decides to throw in there.

You’ll notice it’s not called “MiracuBat”, or LadyBat and Bat Noir-it’s MariBat. It’s meant as a focus on Marinette, making her-the hero of the Miraculous Ladybug franchise, someone in-story in story who is incredibly smart and talented and the leader of her team, future Guardian-even more awesome.....by beating down everyone else around her.

Marinette is simultaneously treated as an beaten-up, beaten-down walked-on carpet, and the best person to ever exist ever, go who only needs a group of new, different, better people to recognize that and save her from the clutches of those greedy and ungrateful assholes! That doesn’t include the fics where she’s the unknown child of a superhero or supervillain, making her even more special.

It’s Chameleon salt, class salt, with pointy ears and a cape on.

Some specific examples.

Adrien: Adrien is a spineless doormat who prioritizes Lila over Marinette, or an entitled bastard sexual harasser, only fixated on Ladybug, or even both. Sometimes it’ll get worse, as Adrien will threaten or abandon Marinette if she steps off of his “high road,” and Chat will be a budding rapist, stalking or capturing Marinette after he’s learned she’s Ladybug, while ignoring her prior to that. He will, of course, have his ring stripped and handed off to Damian, who is the “true” soul of Destruction and so therefore a “perfect match” to Marinette’s Creation soul. Occasionally it will be Jason, or Tim, or Dick, but the key thing is that it’s not Adrien!

While Damian’s issues are magically fixed, Adrien gets no such courtesy. Adrien has been abused, just like Damian, and while Damian’s abuse is more extensive and extreme, abuse is abuse. If anything, if Damian met Adrien, he would probably see another abused kid, and want to be his friend/have his “adopt stray person!” Instincts go off. I can much more imagine Damian dragging a bewildered Adrien into the Batcave and yelling “Father I’ve found another one for you to adopt!” than I can Damian immediately hating Adrien, or Chat, simply for breathing.

We never see Clark taking Adrien under his wing, or Bruce, or any of the other Batfam; nor any of the other Justice Leaguers. We never see Selina try to fight Bruce over the kid, because he’s cat-themed, and Selina can train him, this one’s hers Bat, get off!

Adrien’s never treated as a kid, or given actual development. A major complaint among salters is that Adrien is treated as perfect and never develops, and in fic, rather than developing him, Adrien either remains static, with his flaws narratively exploded, or is developed negatively. He’s there to be beaten up on and punished by the writers, if not actually physically beaten up by characters in the fic.

Alya: the not-so-good friend, the cheap excuse for a journalist, the awful person who abandons Marinette for Lila and her “connections.” Never mind that Alya was Marinette’s friend from the beginning, or that Marinette’s chosen her multiple times for a Miraculous. One instance of questioning Marinette about Lila, and Alya’s a backstabbing bitch.

Maribat treats Alya as neglectful, bossy, domineering and submissive at the same time to Marinette and Lila respectively, and as a journalist, the worst of the worst. She’s played as a two-bit paparazzo, and once again, the DCU is used to punish her. We don’t see Alya get mentored by Lois or Clark-indeed, if they notice her, it’s with disdain or disappointment. Often, they’re crushing her under their heel, calling her not only a bad journalist, but a bad friend/person. This forgetting, of course, that Alya runs her blog as a hobby so far, she’s only a teenager, and that she’s had Marinette’s back against Chloe and Lila.

The Class: the dupes or allies as needed. Class salt levels depend on what the writer needs. If they’re pro-class, they’re all on Marinette’s side, aside from Alya Adrien and Lila. Chloe, for some ungodly reason, is “redeemed” nigh instantaneously, and often will become Marinette’s best friend, if that isn’t Kagami already. Kagami will drop Adrien like a wet tissue, never trying to reconcile him with the clas, or encourage him to stand up for himself, or if she does, Adrien, of course, will not listen.

If the writer is anti-class, whoo boy. Openly mentally, emotionally, physically abusive to Marinette, the worst gang of people you would ever have the displeasure of meeting, they all need to be in Arkham.

We never see any of the class make friends with the Batfam, the Titans, Young Justice-unless they’re on Marinette’s side, of course. There’s no Alix stopping Selina at the Louvre, for instance, or Max hanging out with Babs. It’s all based on how Marinette is treated as to whether or not the class is portrayed as being worse than the worst of the Rogues Gallery.

Wrapping it all up, Maribat has made me dislike the entire concept of a DC/ML crossover.

Even if someone had written an non-salt, in-character crossover, I don’t know if I would read it, simply because the well has been that poisoned.

[yellow-mapleleaves]

Realistic Personalities in Characters: Alice in Borderland

⚠ Spoilers ⚠

Short Summary

Alice in Borderland  今際の国のアリス  is a Netflix original series about a young boy called Alice (Arisu) and his two friends who happens to find themselves trapped in an abandoned version of Tokyo in which they must take part in many life threatening games to survive.

I wanted to do a review on this series because I noticed that there were some characters that possessed very accurate and realistic behaviours and others that didn’t convey any emotion the entire show. I found it interesting that the mix of very different levels of well-displayed people was able to add to the already amazing plot of the series.

Characters Present:

Alice, Karube, Chota, Usagi, Kuina, Chishiya, Niragi

Alice - Protagonist

The main protagonist of the series is not always the favourite in most tv shows, but from looking at different reviews and people’s comments about Yamazaki’s character Alice, I’ve noticed that he is actually rather popular in his own fictional world. He is honestly probably one of my favourite characters as well, and that’s based on how realistic his behaviours and emotions are conveyed.

Some aspects and scenes of Alice that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Being a normal young boy with no incredibly amazing skills

Not having god-like survival abilities just from being able to play battle-royal videogames well

Having flaws

Having only two close friends rather than a huge friendship group

Not being incredibly attractive and well-groomed

Not having a close relationship with his brother (not all siblings get along)

Having a bad relationship with his father

Having the very human instinct of survival by becoming willing to kill his friends to save his own life out of panic

Reacting badly to watching someone being killed (vomiting, screaming, trauma etc)

Not being incredibly serious all the time; actually having a sense of humour

Showing respect towards Usagi’s privacy

Having a very average style of clothing

Being awkward around people he doesn’t know

Excelling in one area (puzzles) but being quite disadvantaged at the rest

Making mistakes E.g. during the distance game, he doesn’t realize the trick of the game until it ends

Not being able to defend himself physically due to lack of strength

Not moving on after his friends’ deaths immediately like as if it doesn’t happen (it takes him a few days to even develop the energy to get up off the floor)

I would say I personally believe that Alice’s character has a strong and realistic personality, as Yamazaki’s acting and Alice’s reactions to certain experiences creates a sympathetic response from the audience.

____

Karube - Deuteragonist

Let’s be honest, everyone loves a bad boy character. During the short time that Karube was present during the show, I think he conveys both strong and weak personality traits. At some points I think the producers were trying too hard to bring a “tough man” façade to him, when I think he could show more realistic emotions and reactions.

Some aspects and scenes of Karube that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a fiery and defensive personality (although it can more than often come across as immature)

Having a sense of humour even in tough times

Having obvious advantage in strength related survival skills

Not being invincible to fear E.g. running from the tagger during the “Tag” game and not even trying to fight back at first

Dealing with work related issues

Actually having a realistic dream life rather than one that sounds almost impossible

Being flawed but not too flawed

Having a love interest that he is forbidden to love (she is with another man)

Conveying fear through anger when Alice tries to kill him to save himself

Not having the nicest of personalities (not everyone is friendly to everyone)

Not having a overly selfless personality

I think Karube should’ve been included in the series more than he is, because his character is very lovable and many fans of this show obviously show sympathy when he dies. His character has a big, extroverted and blunt personality, and I think it is conveyed very well during the time he is present.

____

Chota - Tertiary

Although Chota is one of the main three characters in the beginning of the series, I honestly never felt that sympathetic for him. His character comes across as rather more annoying than weak to me. I understand that the point of his character is to have a weak and smaller personality to match Karube and Alice’s loud energy, but I think this person is kind of just there. He doesn’t do much, considering he almost loses his leg in the first episode and having to use crutches for the rest of the time he is alive.

Some aspects and scenes of Chota that makes him less realistic:

Being friends with people who obviously have dodgy jobs or no jobs at all when he is a successful technician himself

Doesn’t seem to have much of a life outside work and his friends, what are his hobbies?

Not exactly having much of a purpose in the show

Constantly having his guard up and being anxious or worried

Having too many flaws

Following a very different religion to that of his mother

Generally being incredibly different to Alice and Karube (I believe if their personalities were actually friends in real life, they would have too many arguments).

During the short time on the show that Chota had, it was more the point that his personality felt incredibly unneeded. It didn’t exactly serve a huge purpose in the storyline. As well as, he was hard to sympathize for.

____

Usagi - Love Interest / Deuteragonist

Usagi definitely has my most favourite back story of the series. Although, when researching about her I noticed that she is actually one of the characters that get the least recognition by the viewers, despite being in basically every episode and always being beside Alice. I have mixed emotions about the realism in her character, so I made both a positive and negative list to state both sides.

Some aspects and scenes of Usagi that makes her a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a tragic yet realistic backstory

Using her mountain climbing skills as a huge advantage during physically challenging games

Showing obvious signs of grief for her father, even during the time she was placed in the game

Being insecure of her body

Fighting back against Niragi even when it’s obvious she won’t win

Having good survival instincts from past experiences

Willing to help others out when they need it E.g. during the “Tag” game she went along with Alice’s plan for everyone to work together

Having a obvious more introverted personality

Being too trusting, which ends up getting her hurt

Some aspects and scenes of Usagi that makes her a more unrealistic and poorly convincing personality:

Having too serious of a personality, not seeming to lay back and laugh for even a second

Seeming to have an unrealistic bravery E.g. during the tagger game, she didn’t seemed frightened at all despite that the tagger had a machine gun

Doesn’t react to graphic violent sights that would be traumatizing to humans

Not knowing what “The Beach” was despite being in the game for god knows how long

Overall, I think she is the awesome strong female character that a lot of thriller genres have. Although, I would love if for once a strong yet bad ass character didn’t act so mysterious and quiet all the time. But regardless, she is a good character that shows very human qualities.

____

Kuina - Confidante

Kuina is one of the more popular characters in the show, which I honestly can understand. She has obvious very strong manipulation skills as well as physical strengths like martial arts. Although, I believe her backstory is what truly shapes her as a character and is the reason why the audience develops such an emotional connection with her.

Some aspects and scenes of Kuina that makes her a more convincing a realistic personality:

Having a trusting and good relationship with Chishiya

Having a personality that conveys carelessness

Both social butterfly and keeps to herself

Being a character part of the LGBTQ+ community

Having a realistic backstory

Although having a bad relationship with her Dad, she still respects what he taught her

Having a parent that accepts her rather than just being abandoned, which is what a lot of Transgender characters have been stereotyped as

Being able to defend herself incredibly well

Giving her a human flaw (smoking addiction)

Having a elaborate hairstyle

Showing that she is not mysterious, she just has a lot of walls up

Showing care for people she doesn’t know E.g. warning Alice and Usagi about the militants

I really like Kuina’s character for her strong personality and her ability to build good relationships with the members at the beach paradise. Although she is not featured a lot during season one, the times we have seen her have obviously been enough to make her character very loved by the audience.

____

Chishiya - Confidante

I honestly could not find a more loved character if I tried. This character is such a small part of the show and yet you’d think he was the protagonist. I honestly think anyone would love a sly fox character though, because that’s exactly what he is. Although his personality would probably become annoying if he was a real person, in a genre like this he fits perfectly. So personally, I have mixed emotions about him, because I honestly didn’t get that emotionally attached to him as other audiences may have.

Some aspects and scenes of Chishiya that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a cocky attitude at times

Has a underdog appeal to him

Mimics that of a selfish manipulative personality

Showing obvious signs of high intelligence, yet doesn’t blab it around like it’s a trophy

Gives the audience some entertainment

Having a sassy remark, even when his life is on the line

Going out of his way to do things that only benefit him

Having a personality that everyone loves and hates at the same time

Having that personality in which you can’t tell if he’s a good guy or a bad guy

Having a trademark, his white hoodie

Having a caring relationship towards Kuina

Some aspects and scenes of Chishiya that makes him a more unrealistic and less convincing personality:

Attempting to kill Niragi with no hesitation after knowing him personally for so long (that would be difficult to do even if you hated the person)

Not showing human emotions such as fear, worry or anger

Sometimes his personality came across as too selfish to be realistic

Not showing any signs of fear E.g. when Niragi waved a machine gun in his face, he didn’t even flinch

Sometimes his fancy words became a bit annoying

Everyone trusts him, regardless of how manipulative they know he is

Overall, he is a very entertaining character. In my opinion he’s like the personality that throws a match into gasoline then walks away like he didn’t start it. Although his realism in character isn’t exactly good, he is definitely loved for his good looks and sly actions by the audience.

____

Niragi - Antagonist

As much as I dislike this guy as a person in general, when it comes to creating a interesting and great character, he hit the nail on the head. He has one of the most realistic evil character developments probably in the whole series. His personality is so complicated and psychotic, which is what makes him an amazing antagonist and probably the second most popular character among the audience.

Some aspects and scenes of Niragi that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Has a tragic backstory, making the audience believe that’s why he’s so psychotic

Having the delusional mindset that human nature is violence

Makes the audience feel bad for him, despite being a horrible person

Being a hidden antagonist (didn’t expect him to cause all the trouble in the end)

Showing obvious signs of psychological trauma

Conveys positive (yet destructive) emotions and behaviour, which is always a good break when all the characters are serious 24/7

Hits a breaking point in his emotions and goes on a killing spree

Shows loyalty to Aguni

Being awful to everyone, probably due to the fact that everyone was awful to him when he was younger. It’s a way of revenge

Becoming embarrassed when someone challenges him

Scaring people into submission (tactic for some leaders)

Conveys no care for anyone, honestly just uses everyone for either his own entertainment or his own benefit

Has a trademark, his machine gun and checkered shirt

Being self-aware of how evil he is

As evil and bad as he is, he’s one  of the most endearing antagonists I’ve seen in a while. He is a very psychotic and emotionally wrecked personality to him, as if you know something traumatizing must have occurred in his life for him to be able to murder anyone without batting an eye.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: December 11th, 2020

How old are terri, miranda, lee, shiloh and jeremy? Are they all the same age as the mc?

Step 1: MC is 8 and Shiloh is 7

Step 2: MC and Lee are 13 and Jeremy is 12

Step 3: MC, Lee, and Terri are 18, Miranda is 19 (though she just barely turned that age)

How many different personalities are there for Jamie? Does picking one color of dialogue option mark down the personality or is it the choices and actions themselves?

There’s not really any set amount of personalities. You can mix and match traits in different ways and different levels, it’s really up to you. The colored options just give an idea of the tone of what you’re doing (whether it’s serious or more lighthearted or more emotional, that sort of thing).

Hey! Sorry to bother, but I was just curious. Why does MC and Cove react the way they do in the errands moment? It just sorta seems like they overreacted to being left alone in the farmers market. 

I’m a little confused on what you mean. You can choose not to care or to have a good time, your MC doesn’t have to be upset. There are more choices that lead to upset feelings, but that’s because there’s really only one way to say you’re really okay and multiple ways to feel upset (sad, angry, scared, etc). And if someone is upset, there’s nothing wrong with that. Feeling fine is okay too.

As for Cove, he’s just like that. Cove is a sensitive guy and he is especially bothered by parents pulling stunts without talking to their kid ahead of time. If you wanna annoy Cove, that exact thing they did is one of the fastest ways to do it, ahah. And he’s not gonna let it slide just because it was the MC’s parents doing it to them rather than one of his own parents doing it to him.

so if I were to become a one time patreon pledger, would I still have access to the things from that tier after the month is over (such as 18+ pics or access to a demo/beta)?

If you join Patreon for one month you’ll get everything released that month and have access to all our past posts, and you can save the stuff to your own computer to keep it forever. But you won’t get access to things that come out after your subscription has ended. So if you want to join for a specific piece of content, just make sure you wait until that content has already come out and then subscribe.

Why did Noelani and Pamela decide to adopt within the USA when they had previously adopted abroad?

Because we wanted to highlight more than one type of adoption. Both are valid.

At what age was MC adopted in our life?

Only around a year old, but it’s flexible based on what the player wants for their story.

If Pamela is estranged from her family and Noelani doesn't really talk to her's, where did Lee come from? 

Lee is a backer created character, she wasn’t originally part of the cast. Because our main supporter wanted her to be related to the MC’s family, we gave Pam one sibling she still talks to and that sibling has a daughter, Lee. The game was still in pretty early development way back then when we first mentioned the family situation. It’s just kind of inevitable that during the game making process some things ended up changing, aha.

In the relationship DLC’s for Derek and Baxter will there be options for polyamory to include Cove?

I’m afraid not. The way Our Life: Beginnings & Always works doesn’t support developing a poly relationship well, it’d very quickly build up too many alterations to manage. But we do hope to feature polyamory options in future games.

Will it be possible to confess to Cove (or vice versa) in Step 4, if it hasn't been done already? 

Yeah!

are you going to put the credits song on youtube or spotify? i really like it and want to play it for my friends 🙏🥺 ty 

I’m so glad you like it! We have rights to use the song in our game and for our game to be the only game it’s ever used in, but the rights to sell/upload the song belong to the actual creators of the music. We’re happy to let them decide where they’re comfortable posting the track.

Quick question, do you plan on continuing to use MC we can custom? I liked all your games but being able to customize Our Life's MC was awesome 

I can’t say if every game we ever make from now on will have a super customizable MC, but we are planning other projects with that feature. Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t be the only one.  It’s nice to hear you appreciated the effort to add that.

Can I just express my disappointment that you only get a 'makeout session' in Step 3 if your MC is outgoing? My shy MCs miss out on grabbing the Cove booty... xP

Whether or not you can make out with Cove and how intense it can get depends on how long you’ve been a couple. If your shy MC takes longer to get with Cove, he’ll need more time before he’s ready to do that sort of stuff. And if your confident MC has been with him for years already, then he’s at a point where he can go that far with them. I’m afraid patience is required when it comes to romancing that boy, haha. 

If we played in 1.0 and we updates to 1.1 do we have to start over? Or do save files transfer? I hit the "ignore" not sure if I should have for the game to work properly 

1.0 save files should work with version 1.1. If you’re getting error reports can you send us more details about what the error is saying?

Bug report: At the end of the 'Mall' DLC moment in Step 2, there's a point where Cove says the MC's name, but it's said in his Step 1 voice instead of his Step 2 voice. I don't know if it happens with ALL names, but it happened with my most recent game using the name Devin.

As a follow-up to my earlier bug report about the voiced names (or at least Devin) in the Mall moment, I had the same issue in the Soiree moment as well (with the same name - again, it might just be that one).

Thank you for the report! Can you let me know when you downloaded the DLC files? I think that should be fixed in the most recent version of them.

Dear gb-patch, I'm one of the OL Kickstarter backers (and I had and still have a great time with your updates, it's great to see the project grow and you are great in communicating with your fans 💕).

I want to wait until all steps are complete until I play, I know I'll enjoy it even more if I can experience it all together. Because of that I didn't open the game myself but I just saw your post with the screenshot of the voiced names and noticed that the name that I submitted to you isn't on the list. The name is Mai (or May), will it be available later?

Thank you for supporting us! Mai is one of the names that we’re still working on. It accidentally had a tone missed.

And thank you for all of these asks <3

—————————————————————— We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[ophiexb]

Coming Out

Julie learns a little more about her boys- or how Julie found out Alex was gay. 

-------------------

Julie doesn’t know much about…..any of the guys really, even her knowledge of Luke is pretty limited and was only expanded slightly by the guys' help. She knows his birthday, that he ran away from home after a nasty fight with his mom, and that he wrote all their songs. Besides that she really doesn’t know very much at all about the guys. Google isn’t help only the one article about this tragic death of a great band, their names, and nothing else.

She starts to pick up little bits of information here and there, she learns quickly that they are totally willing to talk and share way to much. She just has to make the effort on her end. Because she’s mostly banned them from the house(though she’s very aware it’s ignored completely while she’s at school.) Which means she has to come to them to learn anything or get any kind of conversation on who they used to be before they died. She starts spending more and more time in the studio, practically all her free time in there now listening to them, talking to them, and creating new music.

She learns Reggie likes country music. A lot. Almost more than rock music and it’s actually pretty funny, she makes it a personal mission to start showing him more of it and catching him up on the last 25 years of country. Reggies absolutely thrilled. She also learns he’s a huge Star Wars fan, though that doesn’t go over as well as the country music. There’s little small personal things she learns, like how his parents fought a lot. She makes mental notes to close doors a little softer and even when irritated with them she keeps her tone light. She learns that hes definitely weird, really weird. But he’s also incredibly sweet, he cares about the guys almost to a fault and loves them with everything he is. He’s a bit of a dork, but a lovable one and she finds his love for her Dad a lot more endearing. To have a true example of a loving father she can’t take that from him.

Luke is a bit harder, he’s totally willing to share a plethora of music, songs, and band related stories with her but outside of that she had to really catch him off guard. His songs exposed a lot of his feelings, it’s easy to pick things up from there. Things about his parents, about their band. Luke loves music, almost to much. He eagerly takes in all the new songs Julie shows him and asks her all kinds of questions about various artists and music related topics. He loves movies, and she loves showing him all the top movies over the last couple years. The cgi really gets him at first and she cracks up over it for far too long when she shows him a movie from this year first. She learned very quickly that starting with older movies and working up was better-he for a little less horrified at what he was warching. She also learns that the band is everything to him, which she knew but she saw the extent of how much they were a family. Luke shows love in gentle touches and concern. She watched the way he checks on the guys and touches their shoulders confirming they're okay. That they're there with him and okay.

It’s Alex she finds impossible, he’s definitely a lot softer spoken than the other two, but he’s far more sarcastic with them than her. She finds him constantly rolling his eyes at Luke, giving snide remarks and making jokes at their expense. Which means the side he shows her isn’t completely who he is. He gets worked up a little more than the other guys two, she’s caught him pacing a few times when she’s gotten off school but he immediately stops as soon as she comes in. He’s still not quite ready to open up to her the same way the others are and she’s not sure how to get him to.

“Alex...is I mean he’s just a little more…” Luke pauses looking for the right words to describe the blonde. Julie had come to him asking how to create the same bond she had with the other two. To learn about him and show him things he was interested in. Not just stuff the other guys like. “He’s just-you’ve gotta wait until he comes to you about things.”

She pouted, crossing her arms a bit. “But he’s got you guys he won’t come to me.” She gestured.

“I can’t really help you Julie….it’s. Alex is just a little more reserved I guess? We’ve known one another since we were like ten….” There was at least something. So him and Luke were friends long before the band.

She starts to pick up small things from Luke mostly about him. That after hed run away from home he wasn’t the only one living at the studio. It wasn’t full time but from the sound of it Alex spent almost all his time here as well. Enough to have bags of old clothes and personal items they’d found cleaning the loft. He didn’t cave to any of he questions about why, or when or how or anything and it was so frustrating.

She hadn’t gone to see them today, having dinner with her brother and Dad, getting caught up in homework and now she wanted to just unwind with a show curled up in her pajamas and catching up on some new episodes. Her thoughts kept drifting to them though, she should of at least checked in. There’s a soft knock and she turned slowly to see it wasn’t her Dad, the ghost hand coming around and she laughed. “Come in.” She said softly expecting Reggie, or Luke. Only it’s Alex that comes in wearing his shorts and soft pink shirt that she’d grown familiar with. She pauses her show sitting up. “Hey what’s up? Are you okay?” She worried mostly because he was alone and she’d never really seen the other alone before.

“Me?” He asks looking around a little nervously before nodding. “Oh yeah-Yeah. Luke and Reggie have been busy all day-and I guess….” He hesitates and she smiles, patting the bed next to her. This is her chance.

“Come on, I’m in the middle of a show. Your welcome to come watch it with me.” She encourages and he moves quickly at the invite coming to sit in the bed with he. He’s got his shoes off and she adjusts slightly to give him space to get comfortable before hitting play. She’d never invited any of the guys in like this and she’s sure he knows it, he’s being careful not to look around her room to much, to be respectful of her space.

“What’s it called.” He asked softly slowly unwinding more and more as the show played. His body relaxing next to hers as he curled around his knees.

“Its called Shadowhunter's.” She explained shifting slowly to sit up better with him. “It’s based off a book series; it’s pretty good. It’s about these people-they’ve got angelic blood and I guess they fight demons...there’s so much more to it than that but you get it.” He hummed falling silent as they just watch it together. He seems pretty interested and she wonders if she should ask if he wants to rewatch the whole show with her. If he’d like that. She’s so focused on thinking about Alex she’s completely stopped paying attention to anything going on in the show now.

“A-are they together?” Alex asked his voice so soft she barely catches it but her brows furrow and she looks at the screen. Catching the two characters and nodding.

“Oh yeah, Magnus and Alec-there together. In the books they get married and adopt kids and stuff it’s really cute.” She pauses because his eyes are so wide. For a moment she worries because he is from the 90s and who knows what his mindset is on all this.

“Married? But-but they can’t.” He protested softly. “I guess it’s a book or a show or-it’s fantasy but-but that’s-“ He’s stumbling and Julie can’t help but cut him off.

“Alex gay people can get married, like in real life. Not only that but they can adopt and everything-they’ve got rights now.... It got passed a few years ago.” She sits up a little better, his tone is off. It doesn’t sound like someone whose disgusted or repulsed and she’s absolutely floored to see tears coming to those blue eyes when she gets a better look at him. “Hey-woah. Woah what’s wrong I’m sorry.” She said quickly and he sits back further away from her a bit rubbing at his eyes and trying to wipe away the tears but they keep coming.

“No-no it’s. It’s not your fault I just. I never thought I’d see it.” He whispered looking away. “I never thought-I mean. It-it’s a lot.” Julie pauses for a moment looking at him and he’s really crying now his hands pressed against his eyes tightly. Her heart breaks and she wishes she could Comfort him in some way, hoping he doesn’t vanish before they can talk. It clicks now and she’s hesitant as she speaks.

“It’s come a long way in 25 years...it’s not perfect. But rights have come far, education. Acceptance. We’ve got a long way to go but it’s in media, actors are openly out...do. Do you want to see more? More stuff like this?” He nods slowly, his hands slowly moving away and she grabs her laptop, they gently lay out together Alex on his stomach alongside her the two of them close as they can be and she shows him anything she can think of. More shows with open characters, different actors who are out, she shows him when the laws passed and various couples that have adopted. He’s not crying anymore but his eyes are dark, red around the edges and he seems so deflated and yet she senses ease. He’s crying still, a slow silent cry that hurts her more than anything.

“I met a boy.” He says softly, there watching another show together, he’s curled around her pillows and she’d tossed a blanket over him. He looks cozy, his eyes still red and rimmed with tears but she smiles at him.

“Yeah? Recently?” She asks encouraging him opening up to her, just opening it up and being himself in general. She was kind of excited to hear about this guy he met to. 

“His names Willie. He’s a ghost like us.” He confirms and once he says his name it’s like he can’t stop. “And he-he makes me feel like I’m alive. He gives me these crazy butterflies and he has the sweetest laugh.” He confides and Julie beams at him.

“He sounds pretty awesome. Is that where you go when your gone all day?” He nods in confirmation a soft shy smile on his face as he tells her about some of the stuff him and Willie get up to. How he’s really helped Alex adjust to being a ghost and become more comfortable with this huge change in his life. Julie listens smiling and laughing along with his stories softly about how they went to museum and screamed, or walking around talking about celebrities and tourists.

“I’m glad you found him Alex…..you deserve to be happy.” She encourages and it seems like her words truly catch the other off guard his eyes wide and surprised and so soft. He melts almost, his cheeks red.

“Thanks Julie…” He said softly.

Alex unravels after their night together, she learns so much about him and she feels a little proud, the warmth all across her chest when she comes into the studio now and is able to talk with all of them. It’s finally happened the last piece falling into place that truly, and completely makes them a family now.

[longitudinalwaveme]

The CW Rogues: My Biggest Gripe With the 2014 Flash Show

In many ways, the CW Flash show is what got me into comics. While I had watched (and loved) Justice League and Justice League Unlimited and read loads of DC guidebooks as a kid, it wasn’t until I saw a clip from the 2014 CW Flash show that I really got invested in the DC Universe. While I had already started watching B:TAS (and loving it), Batman wasn’t what got me into comics. No, that was the Flash...or rather, it was Captain Cold. While watching a clip from the Justice League episode Flash and Substance on YouTube, I saw a link to a clip from “Family of Rogues” (from Season 2 of CW’s Flash). Intrigued by the premise, I found the show on Netflix, watched the entire episode, and was hooked. Not only was the Flash just as nice as he had been on Justice League, but two of his Rogues were siblings, and they actually cared about one another. I wanted to know more, so I looked Captain Cold and the Golden Glider up. My research into Cold and Glider led me to the other Rogues, and soon I became a Flash fan. I watched the show, I re-watched “Flash and Substance”, I read articles about the characters from the comics...and eventually, I started reading the comics themselves. I loved the characters and the lore, and I enjoyed the generally lighthearted tone of the books even into the modern era. Unfortunately, as I learned more about the comics, I grew less and less interested in the 2014 TV show. It made too many alterations to character I liked in the comics...and eventually, I basically stopped watching the show out of frustration. Ironically enough, by getting me into comics, the show alienated me from itself....and a big reason for that was the way it handled the Rogues. Here’s a rundown of the CW Rogues, and why I was frustrated with most of them. 

1. Captain Cold. I actually enjoy Captain Cold on the CW show; he’s recognizable as Len Snart and his sarcasm game is on point. (It doesn’t hurt that Wentworth Miller is really attractive, either). His relationships with Lisa, Mick, and Barry are fantastic, and it’s a relief to have him be treated as a competent threat. That being said...he’s a bit too suave for Captain Cold, isn’t he? Silver Age Cold thought he was suave, but he wasn’t; and modern Captain Cold is middle-aged, grouchy, and very rough around the edges. His smooth, suave nature reminds me more of classic Sam (the original Mirror Master) than Captain Cold. 

2. Heat Wave. Dominic Purcell did a great job with the role he was given, and physically he’s an excellent match for Mick. That being said, CW Mick is very different from the Mick in the classic comics, who was a bit dim-witted and rather gentle and sweet for a supervillain. CW Mick, by contrast, is, as I think @gorogues put it, “Hothead McAngryman”, which wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t seem to have bled back into the comics themselves. Villains with fire powers being hotheads is a bit overdone, so I’m not thrilled to see comic Mick being put into that role. 

3. Golden Glider. Hands down, Lisa is my favorite of the CW Rogues. Despite the fact that her costume and power set are completely different than they were in the comics, they managed to get her personality down pretty well; making her just as dangerous and competent as the boys. Flirtatious, crafty, devious, and yet still at least somewhat sympathetic, the CW version of Lisa Snart takes home the gold for the best adaptation of a Rogue. If only they hadn’t completely forgotten that she existed. 

4. Pied Piper. Note that I have not seen his Season 6 appearance, so I’m just judging this based on his appearances in Seasons 1 and 2. Piper is disappointing; in his first appearance he wasn’t as fun as Silver/Bronze Age Piper or as sympathetic as modern Piper, and I’m not crazy about the idea of him being motivated primarily by revenge on Wells/Thawne, since that wasn’t his motivation in the comics at all. I also don’t remember him being able to puppet or hypnotize people with his music, which is too bad, since that’s his main schtick in the comics. What’s more, if you want to reform a character, don’t do it offscreen via reality warping and then forget about him for four seasons. It sounds like his Season 6 appearance was better, but I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment on it. Also, “the Pied Piper” is kind of a nonindicative name if he doesn’t play a pipe/flute. 

5. Trickster II (Axel Walker). Axel was actually decent in the CW show. I still like comic Axel better, but they got the gist of his character down and even made him a bit sympathetic. In fact, he’s probably in the top three best Rogue adaptations that the CW did. 

6. Trickster I (James Jesse). I love watching Mark Hamill play CW’s Trickster...but man, he is not playing Giovanni Giuseppi on the CW show. He’s playing the Joker with a different name. It’s especially weird since we know from JLU and that one short where Mark Hamill plays himself, the Joker, the Trickster, and Swamp Thing that Hamill can do a non-Joker Trickster and do it well, so my suspicion is that it was just because Trickster was also the Joker in the 1990s Flash show (where he was also played by Mark Hamill). Regardless, murdering random people and threatening to blow up small children during Christmas is not something the Trickster should be doing. 

Although this does prove Mark Hamill could do a live-action Joker. I’d pay money to see that. Mark Hamill is a great Joker. 

7. Weather Wizard. CW Weather Wizard isn’t egregiously bad. He’s not out-of-character like Trickster, and he’s not boring to watch, but at the same time it feels like there’s something missing. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t quote Twain. Maybe it’s because there’s not the sense that he was a loser before he got his powers. Maybe it’s because they changed his origin completely (and also made him older than Clyde for some reason). It could even be because he’s not wearing a green leotard with a huge collar, puffy sleeves, and ridiculous elf boots. Whatever it is, though, he’s just missing that spark that makes me like comic book Wizard so much. 

8. Mirror Master I (Sam Scudder). I don’t know how you make Sam Scudder more boring than New 52/Rebirth did, but somehow the CW version of the character pulled it off. Granted, Cold had already stolen some of Sam’s characterization, so that didn’t help, but they could’ve leaned into his skills as an inventor or his love of showmanship or something. Instead, we got a generic thug with what was basically Evan McCulloch’s power set. Boo! Boo I say! 

9. Top (Roscoe/Rosa Dillon). The Brave and the Bold Top is more interesting than the CW version, and he doesn’t even have spoken lines! That’s how boring this Top is. Also, the gender swap was pretty pointless. I wouldn’t have minded a female Top if she’d been intelligent and creepy and snobbish in the way that Roscoe is, but why even bother changing the gender if the character is going to have such a minor role? They also substantially depowered the CW Top, since Rosa can’t spin at super speed and isn’t telekinetic. A massive missed opportunity. 

10. Mirror Master II (Evan/Eva McCulloch). I can’t comment on how good of a character Eva is, since I haven’t watched any of the episodes with her in them, but I will say I am disappointed that the character does not seem to be Scottish, does not have Evan’s weird sense of humor, and lacks his tooth gap. 

11. Captain Boomerang (George “Digger” Harkness). Not only did he not actually appear on the Flash, but he was also boring and didn’t even seem to have an Australian accent. I was very disappointed with his role in the CW. 

And now for characters who aren’t Rogues: 

-CW Eobard is really good. I have no real complaints about him. 

-CW Grodd is also really good, though I do wish he was from Gorilla City as per the comics rather than a lab experiment. 

-CW Magenta got most of the important character beats down but felt a bit out of place with Barry as the Flash. 

-CW Shade was possibly even more boring than CW Sam, which is saying something. 

-CW Zoom didn’t really feel like Zoom at all. Not only was it weird to see him fighting Barry and not Wally, but he was just a generic serial killer and didn’t have Zolomon’s unique outlook on the world. The loss of his time manipulation powers was likewise disappointing.

-CW Jay is really good. I love him. 

-CW Jesse Quick has very little in common with her comic book counterpart; I like the comic version better but don’t actually mind the CW version all that much.

-CW Wally is decent enough, though I don’t see why they couldn’t have kept him as Iris’ nephew rather than making him her brother. Also, they didn’t use him nearly as much as they should have. 

-CW Barry I generally like a lot; Grant Gustin is a good fit for the character. That being said, I do wish they hadn’t given him the dead mom origin, which was a retcon I am not fond of. 

-CW Iris is quite good (in the first three seasons, at least); she’s intelligent, loyal to Barry, dedicated to her job, and quite independent. The fact that she and Barry were foster siblings in the CW universe is kind of weird, though, since it makes their romance kind of awkward. 

-Joe West is not Ira West (Iris’s father in the comics), but I actually don’t care. Joe West is made of awesome. (I like Ira too, but I like Joe enough that I don’t mind having him replace Ira.)

-The Fiddler on the CW had very little to do with the comic Fiddler. 

-I’ve never been particularly invested in the Thinker (comic or show), but I will say that the CW’s version of the character was very different from his comics counterpart. 

-CW Ragdoll was just as creepy and unsettling as comic book Ragdoll, though he had a very different backstory. 

-I never expected Baby Josh to make it into the CW, let alone as a gender-swapped teenager named Joss who wanted to kill Weather Wizard. It felt like they never knew where to go with her character, though, so it was a wasted opportunity. At least she didn’t die like poor Baby Josh, though. 

-Big Sir in the CW show is a MASSIVE improvement over the comic version. This is probably the only character I will say this about. Though I will say that I kind of wish he’d gotten his stupidly ugly comic book costume even though it would’ve made no sense. 

-Peek-a-Boo is a pretty solid adaptation of her comic book counterpart. 

-Rainbow Raider (Prism) is much better in the comics than on the CW show, where he only existed to be a boring plot device. 

-Linda Park dating Barry was weird, but they actually did a good job with her character before she vanished.

This is not intended as a criticism of anyone who likes the show or its characters; it’s just me musing about my personal problems with it. 

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

(Accidental 150 Follower Special) IOTA’s Top 10 Best (and By That, I Mean Personal Favorite) Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug

Alright, I already covered what I considered to be the worst Miraculous Ladybug episodes in two parts, and now it’s time to talk about the what I consider to be the best Miraculous Ladybug episodes before I talk about... him...

I’m only putting one rule in place for this list. I'm going to try and list episodes with good qualities other than “cool-looking Akuma and awesome fight scenes”, and focus on other details like character moments and story.

Other than that, let’s get started.

These are the Top 10 Best Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (in my personal opinion because your opinion is also valid)

#10: Mr. Pigeon

While Marinette works on sketching a design for a hat for a fashion contest where the winning design will be worn by Adrien (a rare example where the “Marinette does a thing to impress Adrien” plot actually works), a birdwatcher who loves feeding pigeons in the park is told off by the only police officer in Paris, causing him to get akumatized into the titular Mr. Pigeon, who has control over all of the pigeons in the city.

And by God, does this episode have fun with the concept.

In addition to constantly mimicking pigeon cries, Mr. Pigeon's movements are just so entertaining to watch, only aided by the creative ways he controls the flocks of pigeons.

I'm not kidding when at one point, Mr. Pigeon traps Ladybug and Cat Noir in a cage, and threatens to have his pigeons crap on them unless they hand over their Miraculous. Yeah.

This is one of the episodes that really set the standards for how outlandish the Akumas in Miraculous Ladybug could get. It kind of reminds me of an episode of the original Ultraman, where the SSSP has to find a way to move an incredibly heavy monster using increasingly abnormal strategies, like inflating it with air so it'll float like a balloon. It's clear it isn't taking itself too seriously, so the audience shouldn't either.

Admittedly, Cat Noir's feather allergy feels shoehorned in, and is only included to increase conflict, and you would think it would come up when Mayura, a bird-themed supervillain appears in the third season. But then again, that's just a minor nitpick.

It's just a really fun episode, and I wish we could see Ladybug and Cat Noir fight Mr. Pigeon again that isn't used for a cheap gag.

#9: The Puppeteer

After being told by her mom that she can't have a Ladybug doll made by Marinette, young Manon is Akumatized into the Puppeteer. But obviously, you can't have our heroes beating up a five-year-old, so instead, the Puppeteer has the power to exact control over past Akuma victims as long as she has the doll made by Marinette. So Ladybug and Cat Noir have to face off against Lady Wifi, the Evillustrator, and Rogercop, before the Puppeteer gets her hands on the dolls Marinette made of the two heroes and take control of them as well.

It's still kind of funny to think about the fact that of all the Akumas to become a huge threat to Ladybug and Cat Noir, it's a little girl throwing a temper tantrum. And like with “Mr. Pigeon”, the episode has a lot of fun with the concept, best reflected in the voice acting. You can tell that Carrie Keranen is having so much fun this episode with the stuff she says as Lady Wifi.

The fact that someone who was actually a major threat to the heroes with how she was able to easily outsmart them and also came really close to getting their Miraculous is now acting like a little kid using phrases like “super duper sorry” is even more hilarious.

I'm still a little confused as why of all the past villains, it's Evillustrator and Rogercop that get to come back, and I wish they had gotten more to say, but it's still a treat to see Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting four villains at once, especially since this was before “Heroes Day”.

#8: Sapotis

Hawkmoth akumatizes Alya's little sisters into Sapotis (supposedly based off a folktale, but I can't find anything about it online), who have the power to multiply and easily overwhelm Ladybug and Cat Noir, forcing Ladybug to recruit Alya to become a third hero, Rena Rouge.

I've been a little negative about Alya in the past, but this episode gives her some major character growth. One of the biggest problems I had with her character in Season 1 is how often she tried to figure out Ladybug's identity... despite claiming to be a huge superhero fan, who should know why superheroes keep their identities a secret. Thankfully, this episode mostly puts an end to this idea.

The episode opens with Marinette giving Alya some reasons why Ladybug would keep her identity a secret, and it actually plays into the episode.

Putting aside the stupid Rent-A-Miraculous system introduced in this episode, the idea of keeping secrets and how necessary they can be sometimes is reflected after the battle where Alya is hesitant at first to give up her Miraculous, but eventually concedes and keeps her identity a secret from Marinette (who ironically knows, but that's not important).

Even without that, this episode still has a lot of action with the three heroes fighting their way through an army of Sapotis, with plenty of banter during said action. Hell, at one point, Cat Noir says “gotta catch 'em all”. I don't have a joke here, that's just brilliant.

Out of all the introductory hero episodes, this one easily sticks out among most of them.

(Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about Rena Rouge’s character design in a later post.)

#7: Guitar Villain

I said before in an earlier post that Jagged Stone is one of my favorite characters in Miraculous Ladybug, so it's obvious that the episode where he gets akumatized would be on this list.

After a disagreement with his manager about trying to mimic the popular singer XY (who ironically lacks a Y chromosome), Jagged is akumatized into Guitar Villain, a rock star with a pet dragon who forces everyone to listen to his Awesome Solo (yes, he names his attacks too) to dance uncontrollably.

Honestly, there's not much I can really say about this episode. It's Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting a rock star who flies around on a goddamn dragon. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Even the way they defeat him (which I won’t give away) is a fun jab at rock stars.

Admittedly, the episode does border on grouchy old man territory sometimes by complaining about how bad today's music is with the way they portray XY as a whiny and egotistical coward, but after watching “Silencer”, you'll be glad everyone hates him.

Overall, it's a rockingly awesome episode.

#6: The Dark Owl

Mr. Damocles, the principal of Marinette and Adrien's school, is akumatized into the Dark Owl, a corrupted version of his favorite comic book superhero (who would later turn out to be real in the New York special, but I don't want to acknowledge that), who uses his high-tech gadgets to trap Ladybug and Cat Noir, putting them in one of their toughest binds yet.

I'm a huge fan of the Adam West Batman show, so you could probably guess why it's on this list. This episode really feels like an episode of that show with how goofy and over the top everything is. Obviously, this episode has a few Batman references thrown in (even an Incredibles reference at one point), and they're all hilarious.

I just love how complex Dark Owl's traps for Ladybug and Cat Noir are, and the fact that he actually manages to outsmart them at one point. Like seriously, have you ever heard of a death trap that involves drowning someone in whipped cream? That’s totally something you’d see the Joker setting up.

I don't really want to give away the ending (which is why this part is so short), because I think it's a really clever resolution that you should check out for yourself.

#5: Gorizilla

Hawkmoth akumatizes Adrien's bodyguard into Gorizilla, whose sole purpose is to protect Adrien. His motivation? To see if Adrien is actually Cat Noir or not. So Adrien has to avoid this gigantic gorilla's wrath with Marinette, all while trying to catch a movie his late mother was in.

See this? This is Adrienette done right. This is the kind of interaction I like when it comes to romance. Marinette and Adrien spend a few scenes with each other avoiding Adrien's crazy fanbase, and Marinette doesn't stammer half of her words. Even when she interacts with Adrien as Ladybug, she still remains confident, and Adrien trusts her judgment when it looks like he might fall. I don't just want Marinette and Adrien to cuddle with each other or declare their love for each other when they get their memories wiped. I want them to interact like human beings before they actually start a relationship, and this episode is a good example of it.

Adrien also gets some good focus with the way he views his relationship with his parents, as does Gabriel with his relationship with his son. Granted, he's taking a pretty huge gamble trying to kill Adrien to see if he's Cat Noir or not as opposed to just... taking off his ring while he sleeps. Can we at least admit he's trying?

I feel they could have done more with the King Kong homage (guess who I'm talking about?), but I can understand there wasn't enough time to focus on that. It's still an important episode to watch for plot and character growth that will barely be acknowledged in later episodes.

#4: Sandboy

tHe SaNdBoY hAs ChEcKeD iN. nOw NiGhTmArEs CaN bEgIn.

Now that we got that obvious joke out of the way, let's talk about one of the most creative episodes of the show.

Tikki and Plagg, Marinette and Adrien's Kwamis (the magical beings that power their Miraculous) take part in a ritual with the other Kwamis inside Master Fu's Miracle Box to contact Nooroo, Hawkmoth's Kwami, on his birthday and get an idea of where he is. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth chooses to akumatize someone during the ritual, leaving Marinette and Adrien helpless to fight back against Sandboy, an Akuma with the power to make their worst fears come true.

I said before in my worst list when talking about “Ladybug” that there was too much going on for one episode, what with Marinette's expulsion, the attempted Scarletmoth attack, and the fake Ladybug plotlines generally being rushed through. This episode is basically the opposite of that (ironically, they're both the penultimate episodes of their respective seasons).

The Kwami ritual and the Akuma attack are perfectly staged together so one affects the other. Not only do the Kwamis have to risk aborting their ritual to reach Nooroo in order to fight the Akuma, but Marinette and Adrien have to deal without fighting off Sandboy's nightmares on their own. Both plots balance each other out into a well-crafted story.

This is also one of the only episodes in the show where the Akuma of the week isn't the man focus. Here, we don't even see what happens to get the kid akumatized into Sandboy, and instead, Gabriel senses someone with negative emotions and akumatizes the kid offscreen. This works, because it doesn't distract from the main plot too much.

Even Marinette and Adrien's worst fears beautifully contrast each other, with both managing to be unsettling in different ways, even if they both have different tones. While Adrien's worst fear is being imprisoned in his own room (the fear only made worse with Plagg's absence), Marinette's worst fear is... the real star of the episode. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think you all know who I'm talking about.

You can tell the animators had a field day with animating Nightmare Adrien. Just look at the way he moves around and the faces he makes. It manages to be terrifying and hilarious at the same time. Bryce Papenbrook's performance only makes it better, cementing this as the highlight of the episode.

This episode also does a good job at foreshadowing the main plot for Season 3 with Hawkmoth finding out about the other Kwamis and by extension, more Miraculous.

It's got plot, comedy, good action, and Nightmare Adrien, so how can you turn this episode down?

And no, I'm not talking about Nightmare Ladybug, mainly because I'm tired of all the evil doppelgangers from the worst list.

#3: Startrain

Yes, believe it or not, I managed to find a Season 3 episode that wasn't complete garbage, and spoiler alert, this isn't the only one.

Marinette and Adrien's class goes on a field trip to London by taking the train, until the driver is akumatized into Startrain, who wants to escape to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... SPACE! So Ladybug and Cat Noir have to defeat Startrain while also finding a way to bring everyone on the train back home.

I like how this episode plays with the usual Akuma of the week formula. Unlike every other Akuma they've fought, Cat Noir points out that if they beat Startrain, everyone will die, so they have to be more strategic in their approach. They don't even fight Startrain for most of the episode, as they have to make their way to the front of the train to confront the Akuma. The action in this episode is very creative and really takes advantage of zero gravity, only aided by the design of the futuristic train the episode takes place in.

The new hero introduced, Pegasus (AKA Max, another student in Marinette and Adrien's class), is also really cool, being very intelligent and helping out the heroes progress through the train even before he gets the Horse Miraculous. It makes sense that his intelligence would be used rather than just his powers in this situation.

There are even some good character moments too. For once, Master Fu does something smart and loans the Horse Miraculous (which has the power of teleportation) to Marinette so she can still go on the class trip, trusting her and actually letting her have a life. It was also nice to see Alya stick up for Marinette by keeping Lila from interrupting her nap with Adrien.

This episode is basically like a refreshing glass of water to enjoy during the garbage fire that was Season 3.

(I’m going to talk about Pegasus’ character design later on too, don’t worry)

#2: Silencer

Lukanette shippers, ASSEMBLE!

Music producer Bob Roth and his son XY hold a contest for young artists to show off their skills, and Kitty Section, a band composed of several recurring characters, decides to enter, with Marinette helping to design their costumes. But as soon as they submit their video, they find out that XY copied their style, naturally pissing the band off.

Marinette and the lead guitarist of Kitty Section, Luka, confront Bob Roth and XY, who threaten to ruin their careers by claiming that they ripped off XY. Seeing Marinette getting threatened is more than enough for Hawkmoth to akumatize Luka into Silencer, who naturally has the power to silence and mimic the voices of others.

I talked about Luka and his relationship with Marinette in an earlier post (specifically the one where Astruc claimed that the fandom growing to like Luka counted as character development), and I said that this was one of the few good episodes this season because of their interactions. This episode basically made me realize how much Luka cares for Marinette, and the episode gives plenty of time to show the two spending time together and growing closer. It's basically everything “Oni-Chan” should have been about, giving some depth to Luka and not portraying him as a crazy person like they did with Kagami in that episode.

Silencer is also one of the more creatively designed villains this season, and has a really creative approach to achieving his goals. While the ability to steal and imitate someone's voice seems mundane compared to control over the weather, or making nightmares come to life, it's used very effectively. Silencer basically tricks the police into arresting Bob Roth while imitating the mayor's voice, and he threatens to make his life a living hell by using the connections to the voices he's stolen. Even with the hand puppet gesture, it's still unsettling to have Silencer speak in all these voices, and it would make for a really interesting horror movie.

Even Ladybug and Cat Noir's interactions are back to their Season 1 levels of enjoyment. Even though Silencer took her voice, Ladybug just makes so many expressions that do a great job at describing her feelings, which naturally plays off Cat Noir's motormouth tendencies. Whenever Cat Noir jokes about Ladybug's condition, he is rightfully called out on it and is reprimanded in some way, my favorite being when Ladybug uses her yo-yo to hit Cat Noir on the head to shut him up. Even putting aside that, they still work well together this episode and really feel like equals. I also love their silent fist bump when Bob Roth is exposed.

Again, the episode still takes the time to go on about how unoriginal today's musicians are, and how they lack artistic creativity and all that crap. Look, given how ham-fisted the writing in this show can get, are you surprised the commentary isn't subtle?

Even putting aside how much this episode made me appreciate Lukanette, it still has a lot of great moments that aren't even related to the ship itself, which is a real testament to how this show can perfectly balance romance and story when it's done right. Now if only the show could try this much with Adrienette, then people wouldn't hate the main pairing of the show this much.

#1: The Collector

Taking place immediately after the Season 1 finale, Marinette meets Master Fu and discusses the book she found depicting past Miraculous users. Marinette theorizes that since the book was in the Agreste mansion, Gabriel could be Hawkmoth. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, she's right, and in order to draw off suspicion, Gabriel akumatizes himself into the Collector.

This episode has several good writing decisions for both sides, and the choices the characters make feel natural. Gabriel akumatizing himself is such a smart move, and so is what Marinette and Master Fu do with the book at the end. This episode does a great job setting up future plot threads and establishes Master Fu's character and the mystery associated with him.

The Collector is a visually stunning villain, and his powers are really creative, leading to a great fight with Ladybug and Cat Noir, who use a great strategy to outsmart him. I also love how over the top he is in order to make the heroes believe that he's working for Hawkmoth, all with a devious smile on his face.

This was also the episode that really got me into Miraculous Ladybug as a whole. I checked out the first season on a whim after it was mentioned in a Pan Pizza video, but it was during the hiatus between seasons, and I hadn't really started using Tumblr yet, so it mostly stayed off my radar. When Season 2 started however, I really got invested in the story, and the way this episode turned out was a big reason why. I wondered what it would be like when Adrien finds out his own father is Hawkmoth, and how the story would play out after the reveal.

Despite what it led up to, I still consider “The Collector” to be my favorite episode of Miraculous Ladybug.

Well, now that I talked about that, not it's time to talk about what I consider to be the worst episode of Miraculous Ladybug, “Felix”. God help me...